CN108632837B

CN108632837B - Beam communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN108632837B
Application number: CN201710179702.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 骆亚铭; 陈翔; 招溢利
Original assignee: Huizhou TCL Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huizhou TCL Mobile Communication Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-03-23
Filing date: 2017-03-23
Publication date: 2022-01-21
Anticipated expiration: 2037-03-23
Also published as: WO2018171044A1; CN108632837A

Abstract

The invention discloses a beam communication method, which comprises the following steps: the base station/user equipment communicates with the other party by using the beam; judging whether the wave beam is abnormal or not; and if the beam is abnormal, the standby beam is used for communication. The invention also discloses a beam communication device. By the mode, the anti-blocking and transmission performance can be considered, and high-performance low-delay anti-blocking beam communication is realized.

Description

Beam communication method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a beam communication method and apparatus.

Background

New air interface (NR) systems are envisaged to operate over a frequency range of up to 100GHz, which is considered an important technique for capacity improvement. However, this faces the challenges of fragile wireless links and high penetration loss. In order to solve these problems, beamforming is adopted as a basic technique. Therefore, the beam plays an indispensable role in the NR system.

However, the beam may be sensitive to blockage due to high penetration losses through the object and poor diffraction at the edges of the object at high frequencies. Depending on the speed of the User Equipment (UE) and the motion of the object causing the blockage, the blockage may occur gradually or suddenly. In some cases, burst blocking causes the beam performance to degrade too quickly to perform beam switching in a timely manner. As the burst blockage continues, the link for control and data signals between the base station and the UE will be lost. Thereby a beam link failure occurs. The normal random access procedure to resolve such beam link failure is very time consuming resulting in large delays. Therefore, directly re-initiating random access without any prevention or recovery operations against congestion would seriously impact system performance. Multi-beam transmission, on the other hand, can increase robustness against jams. However, multi-beam transmissions that are always on will occupy more spatial resources (beams) and will sacrifice transmission performance due to power splitting.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention mainly solves the technical problem of providing a beam communication method and a beam communication device, which can solve the problem that the anti-blocking performance and the transmission performance cannot be considered at the same time in the prior art.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a first aspect of the present invention provides a beam communication method, including: communicating with a user equipment using a beam; judging whether the wave beam is abnormal or not; and if the beam is abnormal, the standby beam is used for communicating with the user equipment.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a second aspect of the present invention provides a beam communication method, including: communicating with a base station using a beam; judging whether the wave beam is abnormal or not; and if the beam is abnormal, the standby beam is used for communicating with the base station.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a third aspect of the present invention provides a beam communication apparatus, which includes a processor and a communication circuit, wherein the processor is connected to the communication circuit; the processor is used for executing the instructions to realize the methods provided by the first aspect and the second aspect of the invention.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a fourth aspect of the present invention provides a beam communication apparatus, which stores instructions that, when executed, implement the methods provided by the first and second aspects of the present invention.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a fifth aspect of the present invention provides a beam communication apparatus, comprising: a first communication module for communicating with a user equipment using a beam; the judging module is used for judging whether the wave beam is abnormal or not; and the second communication module is used for communicating with the user equipment by using the standby beam when the beam is abnormal.

In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problem, a sixth aspect of the present invention provides a beam communication apparatus comprising: a first communication module for communicating with a base station using a beam; the judging module is used for judging whether the wave beam is abnormal or not; and the second communication module is used for communicating with the base station by using the standby beam when the beam is abnormal.

The invention has the beneficial effects that: and judging whether the beam communicated with the user equipment/the base station is abnormal or not, and if the beam is abnormal, using the standby beam for communication, wherein the abnormal beam comprises beam blockage. Under the condition that the burst wave beam is blocked and the blockage continues, compared with the condition that the random access is directly reinitiated in the prior art, the standby wave beam is used for communication, so that the wave beam link failure and the subsequent random access process caused by the continuous use of the abnormal wave beam can be avoided, and the delay is shortened; compared with multi-beam transmission in the prior art, the spare beam is used only when the beam is abnormal, so that the occupation of space domain resources can be effectively reduced, and the transmission performance can be improved; therefore, the anti-blocking and transmission performance can be considered, and the anti-blocking wave beam communication with high performance and low delay is realized.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a first embodiment of a beam communication method according to the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flow chart of a third embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a fourth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a fifth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a sixth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a seventh embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an eighth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a determining process when a default beam carrying a downlink control channel is abnormal according to an eighth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a determining process when a default beam carrying an uplink channel is abnormal according to an eighth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a determining process when a default beam carrying a physical downlink shared channel according to an eighth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is abnormal;

fig. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a ninth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a tenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an eleventh embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a twelfth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 16 is a flowchart illustrating a thirteenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a fourteenth embodiment of a beam communication method according to the present invention;

fig. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a fifteenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a sixteenth embodiment of a beam communication method according to the present invention;

fig. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a seventeenth embodiment of a beam communication method according to the present invention;

fig. 21 is a flowchart illustrating an eighteenth embodiment of a beam communication method according to the present invention;

fig. 22 is a flowchart illustrating a nineteenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention;

fig. 23 is a schematic structural diagram of a first embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 24 is a schematic structural diagram of a second embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of a third embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 26 is a schematic structural diagram of a fourth embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 27 is a schematic structural view of a fifth embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 28 is a schematic structural diagram of a sixth embodiment of the beam communication apparatus according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

As shown in fig. 1, the main implementation of the beam communication method of the present invention is a base station. The base station is connected with the core network and performs wireless communication with the user equipment to provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographic area. The base station may be a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, or a home base station (femtocell). In some embodiments, a base station may also be referred to as a radio base station, access point, node B, evolved node B (eNodeB, eNB), gNB, or other suitable terminology. As shown in fig. 1, the present embodiment includes:

s11: the beam is used for communication with the user equipment.

The initially used beam is a default beam, and the default beam comprises at least one uplink default beam and at least one downlink default beam. The uplink default beam is used for the user equipment to send data and control signaling to the base station in the default state, and the downlink default beam is used for the base station to send data and control signaling to the user equipment in the default state. The base station may transmit downlink signals/channels to the user equipment using the downlink default beam and/or receive uplink signals/channels transmitted by the user equipment using the uplink default beam.

The uplink/downlink data and the control signaling may be carried by the same uplink/downlink default beam, or may be carried by different uplink/downlink default beams, respectively. Generally, the number of uplink/downlink default beams is greater than one, and signals/channels carried by different beams are different.

The narrower the coverage, the more likely the beams will be blocked. In one embodiment, uplink/downlink data and control signaling are respectively carried by different uplink/downlink default beams, and the coverage area of the beam for carrying the control signaling is larger than that of the beam for carrying the data, so as to reduce the possibility of transmission errors of the control signaling.

S12: and judging whether the beam is abnormal or not.

The trigger condition for determining the beam abnormality may include: and the frequency of the continuous communication errors is larger than or equal to a first threshold, the duration of the continuous communication errors is larger than or equal to a second threshold, and at least one of beam abnormal messages reported by the user equipment is received. In addition, the trigger condition for determining the beam is abnormal may include that the beam performance is lower than a preset value and/or a beam link failure occurs.

The continuous occurrence of communication errors herein does not mean that communication errors continue to progress in the time domain without being terminated, but means that no communication error has occurred between any two adjacent communication errors.

The beams in which the abnormality occurs may include one or more uplink/downlink default beams. If the number of the uplink/downlink default beams is greater than one, the base station may respectively perform the determination for each uplink/downlink default beam, or may perform the determination for at least two uplink/downlink default beams, for example, all uplink/downlink default beams, as a whole.

The Channel carried by the abnormal beam may include at least one of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), a Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH), a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), and a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

If the beam is abnormal, jumping to S13; and if the beam is not abnormal, continuing to use the default beam for subsequent communication.

S13: the backup beam is used to communicate with the user equipment.

The backup beam may be used to replace a portion of the default beams (including at least the beam in which the anomaly occurred) or all of the default beams, and the backup beam is different from the default beam that was replaced. The backup beam can be used normally or its performance is better than the replaced default beam.

If the number of the uplink/downlink default beams is greater than one and the candidate beams (i.e., beams to which switching can be performed) of different uplink/downlink default beams are different, it can be further determined which uplink/downlink default beams are abnormal and only the abnormal beams are replaced, thereby reducing resource consumption caused by switching.

The base station and/or the user equipment need to switch from the replaced default beam to the backup beam, which may be performed independently or under assistance/instruction of the other party.

Through the implementation of the embodiment, the standby beam is used for communication under the condition that the beam communicated with the user equipment is judged to be abnormal, and when the burst beam is blocked and the blockage continues, compared with the direct random access reinitiation in the prior art, the standby beam is used for communication, so that the beam link failure and the subsequent random access process caused by the continuous use of the abnormal beam can be avoided, and the delay is shortened; compared with multi-beam transmission in the prior art, the standby beam is used only when the beam is abnormal, so that the occupation of space resources can be effectively reduced and the transmission performance can be improved; therefore, the anti-blocking and transmission performance can be considered, and the anti-blocking wave beam communication with high performance and low delay is realized.

As shown in fig. 2, the second embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is based on the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, and determines whether a beam abnormality occurs according to whether a beam abnormality message is received and the number and/or duration of continuous occurrence of communication errors. This embodiment is a further extension of the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, and therefore the same contents as those in the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention are not described herein again. The embodiment comprises the following steps:

s111: the downlink signal/channel is transmitted to the user equipment using the first beam.

The downlink signals/channels may be used for transmitting downlink data and/or control signaling. The first beam belongs to a downlink default beam.

Generally, a Downlink signal/channel includes a PDCCH, and a base station uses the PDCCH to transmit Downlink Control Information (DCI) to perform dynamic scheduling and/or semi-static scheduling to allocate radio resources to a user equipment, and the user equipment normally responds to the Downlink signal/channel and transmits an uplink signal/channel to the base station using the allocated radio resources, where the uplink signal/channel may be used to carry uplink data or Control signaling.

S112: and judging whether the beam abnormal message reported by the user equipment is received.

If the beam abnormal message is received, jumping to S115; otherwise, the process jumps to S113.

S113: it is determined whether a communication error has occurred.

The communication error includes that the uplink signal/channel transmitted by the user equipment responding to the downlink signal/channel is not received in a preset time period, and/or the negative acknowledgement message transmitted by the user equipment responding to the downlink signal/channel is received in a preset time period.

The predetermined period refers to a time corresponding to the allocated radio resource. If the allocated wireless resources are used for uplink transmission, the preset time period is the time period occupied by the wireless resources allocated by the base station on the time domain; if the allocated wireless resource is used for downlink data, the predetermined time period is after the time period occupied by the wireless resource allocated to the base station in the time domain, and the two are separated by a specified time length.

If the communication error occurs, jumping to S114; otherwise, continuing to use the default beam for subsequent communication with the user equipment, and initializing the counting value when the counting value is used for calculating the number of continuous communication errors.

S114: it is determined whether the number of consecutive occurrences of communication errors is greater than or equal to a first threshold and/or the duration of consecutive occurrences of communication errors is greater than or equal to a second threshold.

If the types of the communication errors are more than one, for example, the uplink signal/channel is not received and the negative acknowledgement message is received, the base station may distinguish different types of communication errors when calculating the number/duration, that is, the number/duration of different types of communication errors is calculated respectively, or may not distinguish.

The base station judges that the user equipment may also find the communication error when the communication error occurs, and both may start to count the number of times of continuous occurrence of the communication error and compare the number with the corresponding threshold. In an embodiment, the first threshold used by the base station for comparison may be greater than the threshold used by the user equipment, so that the user equipment may confirm the beam abnormality in advance and report the beam abnormality message, thereby shortening the time required for the determination process.

The base station may initialize a timer to start timing when a communication error occurs for the first time, stop timing and reset the timer to an initial value if no communication error occurs in a subsequent process, continue timing if a communication error occurs, and calculate a difference between a current value and the initial value of the timer to calculate a duration. The base station may calculate the duration by calculating the difference between the time of the last occurrence and the time of the first occurrence of the communication errors occurring in succession.

If the number of times is greater than or equal to the first threshold and/or the duration is greater than or equal to the second threshold, jumping to S115; otherwise, jumping to S111 to continue to retransmit the downlink signal/channel using the first beam to repeat the above process.

S115: and judging that the beam is abnormal.

It jumps to step S116.

S116: and transmitting downlink signals/channels to the user equipment by using the spare beam, and/or receiving uplink signals/channels transmitted by the user equipment by using the spare beam.

As shown in fig. 3, a third embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is to determine whether a beam abnormality occurs according to whether a beam abnormality message is received and the number and/or duration of continuous occurrence of communication errors based on the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention. The difference between this embodiment and the second embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is that it is determined whether a communication error occurs and then it is determined whether a beam anomaly message is received, and the same parts are not described herein again. The embodiment comprises the following steps:

s121: the downlink signal/channel is transmitted to the user equipment using the first beam.

S122: it is determined whether a communication error has occurred.

If the communication error occurs, jumping to S123; otherwise, the process jumps to S124, and the count value is initialized when the count value is used to calculate the number of times of continuous occurrence of communication errors.

S123: it is determined whether the number of consecutive occurrences of communication errors is greater than or equal to a first threshold and/or the duration of consecutive occurrences of communication errors is greater than or equal to a second threshold.

If the number of times is greater than or equal to the first threshold and/or the duration is greater than or equal to the second threshold, jumping to S125; otherwise, the process jumps to S121 to continue to retransmit the downlink signal/channel using the first beam to repeat the above process.

S124: and judging whether the beam abnormal message reported by the user equipment is received.

If the beam abnormal message is received, jumping to S125; otherwise, continuing to use the default beam for subsequent communication with the user equipment.

S125: and judging that the beam is abnormal.

S126: and transmitting downlink signals/channels to the user equipment by using the spare beam, and/or receiving uplink signals/channels transmitted by the user equipment by using the spare beam.

In the second and third embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention, the determination of whether a beam abnormality message is received and the determination of whether an error occurs are two independent processes, and in some embodiments, the base station may perform both determinations simultaneously. For example, the ue sends the beam anomaly message while feeding back the uplink signal/channel, and the base station may try to receive the uplink signal/channel fed back by the ue in a predetermined time period, and directly perform two determinations simultaneously according to the receiving result (whether the uplink signal/channel is successfully received, and the content of the received uplink signal/channel).

As shown in fig. 4, a fourth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is to determine whether a beam is abnormal according to the number and/or duration of communication errors occurring continuously based on the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention. The difference between this embodiment and the second embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is that the determination of whether a beam anomaly message is received is omitted, and the same parts are not described herein again. The embodiment comprises the following steps:

s131: the downlink signal/channel is transmitted to the user equipment using the first beam.

S132: it is determined whether a communication error has occurred.

If the communication error occurs, jumping to S133; otherwise, the process jumps to S134, and the count value is initialized when the count value is used to calculate the number of times of continuous occurrence of communication errors.

S133: it is determined whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is greater than or equal to a second threshold and/or whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is greater than or equal to a second threshold.

If the number of times is greater than or equal to the first threshold and/or the duration is greater than or equal to the second threshold, jumping to S134; otherwise, the process jumps to S131 to continue to retransmit the downlink signal/channel using the first beam to repeat the above process.

S134: and judging that the beam is abnormal.

Jumping to S135.

S135: and transmitting downlink signals/channels to the user equipment by using the spare beam, and/or receiving uplink signals/channels transmitted by the user equipment by using the spare beam.

As shown in fig. 5, a fifth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is a beam communication method of the second, third, and fourth embodiments, wherein determining whether the number of consecutive communication errors is greater than or equal to the first threshold value includes:

s1110: the count value is decremented by one.

The initial value of the count value is a first threshold value. The base station initializes a count value before the first predetermined period. If a communication error has occurred and no communication error has occurred in a subsequent process, the base station initializes the count value, i.e., resets the count value to an initial value. Of course, the base station may initialize the count value each time it determines that no communication error has occurred.

S1120: it is determined whether the count value is less than or equal to 0.

Skipping to S1130 if the count value is less than or equal to 0; otherwise, continuing to execute the subsequent steps, and jumping to the step of retransmitting the downlink signal/channel to continue the loop process.

S1130: the number of determinations is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

The process continues. The initial value and the target value of the count value in this embodiment are only illustrative, and may be set as needed in the practical application process as long as the initial value is greater than the target value, and the difference between the two values is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

As shown in fig. 6, a sixth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is a beam communication method, based on the second, third and fourth embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention, wherein the determining whether the number of consecutive communication errors is greater than or equal to the first threshold value includes:

s1210: the count value is incremented by one.

The initial value of the count value is 0. The base station initializes a count value before the first predetermined period. If a communication error has occurred and no communication error occurs in the subsequent process, the base station initializes the count value, and of course, the base station may initialize the count value each time it determines that no communication error occurs.

S1220: it is determined whether the count value is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

Jumping to S1230 if the count value is greater than or equal to the first threshold value; otherwise, continuing to execute the subsequent steps, and jumping to the step of retransmitting the downlink signal/channel to continue the loop process.

S1230: the number of determinations is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

The process continues. The initial value and the target value of the count value in this embodiment are only illustrative, and may be set as needed in the practical application process as long as the initial value is smaller than the target value, and the difference between the two values is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

As shown in fig. 7, the seventh embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is based on the first embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention, and after S12, further includes:

s14: and if the beam is abnormal, sending a beam switching instruction to the user equipment.

The beam switching instruction may be used to inform the user equipment to switch from the uplink default beam to the backup beam to transmit the uplink signal/channel. The user equipment may determine the backup beam according to the beam switching instruction. The beam switching instruction comprises information of a switching type and/or a spare beam, wherein the switching type is used for indicating signals/channels carried by the abnormal beams. The beam used to carry the beam switching instructions may be a default beam or a backup beam. The sequence of the step and the step S13 is not limited, for example, the base station may send the beam switching instruction to the user equipment using the backup beam. This embodiment may be combined with any of the above embodiments.

In other embodiments, the user equipment may also switch to the backup beam without the indication of the base station to reduce signaling overhead and reduce latency, e.g., the user equipment may directly use the backup beam to send a beam anomaly message to the base station.

As shown in fig. 8, the eighth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is based on the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, and further includes, after S12 and before S13:

s15: and judging the signal/channel carried by the abnormal beam according to at least one of the triggering condition for judging whether the beam is abnormal, the communication error, the abnormal type in the received beam abnormal message and the type of the communication error.

In this embodiment, the number of uplink default beams and/or the number of downlink default beams is greater than one, and signals/channels carried by different default beams are different. The base station can judge the abnormal signal/channel, thereby confirming the abnormal beam, and facilitating the selection of the standby beam in the subsequent process. This embodiment may be combined with any of the above embodiments. In other embodiments, this step may be performed simultaneously with step 12, that is, determining the beam abnormality and confirming which beam the abnormality occurs.

Generally, after the initial access process is completed, the communication between the base station and the user equipment mainly includes that the base station requires the user equipment to perform uplink transmission (uplink data and/or control signaling), the base station sends downlink data to the user equipment, and the user equipment directly performs uplink transmission without uplink authorization, and the used channels mainly include PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH and PUSCH.

Under the condition that transmission is not wrong, the step that the base station requires the user equipment to carry out uplink transmission comprises the following steps: the base station transmits DCI to the user equipment by using the PDCCH, wherein the DCI is used for indicating the user equipment to upload data and/or control signaling, and comprises allocated wireless resources, a modulation mode, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) ID and the like. And the user equipment receives the PDCCH, decodes the DCI and uploads uplink data and/or control signaling by using the PUCCH and/or the PUSCH according to the DCI. The uplink data is carried by the PUSCH, and the uplink control signaling may be carried by the PUCCH or the PUSCH.

Under the condition that transmission is not wrong, the step of sending downlink data to the user equipment by the base station comprises the following steps: the base station uses the PDCCH to send DCI to the user equipment, and the DCI is used for indicating the user equipment to receive downlink data, including allocated radio resources, modulation modes, HARQ IDs and the like. The user equipment attempts to receive the PDSCH according to the DCI after receiving the PDCCH and decoding the DCI, and sends corresponding ACKnowledgement (ACK) or Negative ACKnowledgement (NACK) to the base station according to whether the PUCCH/PUSCH is successfully used for receiving the PDSCH after the specified duration.

When the transmission is not wrong, the user equipment directly performs uplink transmission under the condition of no uplink permission, and the method comprises the following steps: the user equipment sends an uplink control signaling to the base station by using a PUCCH, and the base station sends corresponding DCI to the user equipment by using the PDCCH after receiving the uplink control signaling, for example, the uplink control signaling is an uplink Scheduling Request (SR), and the DCI includes PUSCH resources allocated to the user equipment.

The following describes, by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, a specific determination process when a downlink control channel (including PDCCH and PHICH), a PDSCH, and an uplink channel (including PUCCH and PUSCH) are respectively carried by different default beams and a certain default beam is abnormal. In the following example, the communication error of the base station includes only that the uplink signal/channel transmitted by the user equipment is not received for a predetermined period of time, and the beam used for communication belongs to the default beam except for what is specifically indicated.

As shown in fig. 9, DCI is used to indicate uplink transmission and a beam carrying a downlink control channel is abnormal.

S151: the base station transmits the PDCCH to the user equipment and the user equipment fails in reception.

Due to the blockage of the beam carrying the PDCCH, the user equipment cannot receive the PDCCH, so that uplink transmission cannot be carried out according to the DCI in the PDCCH.

S152: the base station initializes a count value to a first threshold.

The first threshold is an integer greater than 1. The precedence relationship between this step and S151 is only illustrative, and may actually be performed before or at the same time as step S151.

S153: and the base station cannot receive corresponding uplink data and/or control signaling at a preset time.

Reception failure means that a communication error has occurred.

S154: the base station decrements the count value by one.

S155: and the base station sends PDCCH and PHICH carrying NACK to the user equipment, and the user equipment fails to receive.

S156: the base station cannot receive corresponding uplink data and/or control signaling.

S157: the base station decrements the count value by one.

S158: the base station determines whether the count value is equal to 0.

If so, go to step S159, otherwise go to step S155 to repeat the above steps.

S159: and the base station judges that beam abnormity occurs.

If the DCI is used to indicate downlink data and a beam carrying a downlink control channel is abnormal, the difference from fig. 9 is that a PDSCH is sent after each PDCCH is sent, and the base station does not send a PHICH carrying NACK when the PDCCH is retransmitted, and the specific process is not described herein again.

It can be seen that the user equipment can only know that the beam carrying the downlink control channel is abnormal when receiving the downlink control channel carried by the backup beam, and if the user equipment always uses only the default beam to receive the downlink control channel, the user equipment cannot receive the PDCCH even if the base station determines that the beam is switched to the backup beam due to the abnormal beam. Furthermore, the user equipment may also need to directly receive beam switching instructions carried by the backup beam. Of course the beam switching instructions may be carried by the PDCCH. Therefore, during the communication process, the ue needs to monitor the default beam for carrying the PDCCH/beam switching instruction and the candidate beam corresponding to the default beam to attempt to receive the PDCCH/beam switching instruction.

If the ue directly performs uplink transmission without uplink grant and the beam carrying the uplink channel is abnormal, the specific determination process is similar to that in fig. 9, except that the PUCCH is used as the channel exchanged and used between the base station and the ue. In addition, since it may not be possible to determine when the base station feeds back when the above transmission is directly made, the predetermined period of time used in the ue's determination process is significantly longer than that of the base station. Similarly, during the communication process, the base station needs to simultaneously listen to the default beam (e.g. the second beam) for carrying the PUCCH/beam exception message and its corresponding candidate beam to attempt to receive the PUCCH/beam exception message.

As shown in fig. 10, DCI is used to indicate uplink transmission and a beam carrying an uplink channel is abnormal.

S161: the base station sends the PDCCH to the user equipment and the user equipment successfully receives the PDCCH.

S162: the user equipment decodes the DCI.

S163: and the user equipment transmits uplink data and/or control signaling to the base station by using the PUSCH according to the DCI, and the base station fails to receive the uplink data and/or the control signaling.

Due to the blockage of the beam carrying the uplink channel, the base station cannot receive corresponding uplink data and/or control signaling, and the base station finds out a communication error.

S164: the base station decrements the first count value by one.

The first count value is an initial first threshold value before the step is executed.

S165: and the base station sends PDCCH and PHICH carrying NACK to the user equipment, and the user equipment successfully receives the NACK.

The user equipment receives the PDCCH and the PHICH carrying the NACK, finds out a communication error, wherein the PHICH carrying the NACK is used for indicating PUSCH transmission failure, and the PDCCH can also carry a control signaling used for indicating uplink transmission to be carried out again.

S166: the user equipment subtracts the second count value and decodes the DCI.

The second counting value is an initial preset threshold value before the step is executed for the first time. The first threshold is greater than a predetermined threshold, and the difference between the first threshold and the predetermined threshold is greater than 1.

S167: and the user equipment retransmits the uplink data and/or the control signaling by using the PUSCH, and the base station fails to receive the uplink data and/or the control signaling.

S168: the user equipment determines whether the second count value is equal to 0.

If so, go to step S171, otherwise go to step S165 to repeat the above steps.

S169: the base station decrements the first count value by one.

S170: the base station determines whether the first count value is equal to 0.

If not, the process goes to step S165 to repeat the above steps. Since the initial value of the first count value is greater than the initial value of the second count value and the difference between the two values is greater than 1, the user equipment has determined that an abnormality occurs before the first count value reaches 0.

S171: the user equipment judges that the beam is abnormal.

S172: the user equipment transmits the beam abnormality message using the backup beam.

The beam abnormality message may include information of an abnormality type and/or a spare beam, where the abnormality type is used to indicate a signal/channel carried by a beam in which an abnormality occurs. The user equipment can also transmit uplink data by using the standby beam at the same time.

The sequence of S167 and S168 is only illustrated in the figure, and actually both can be performed simultaneously or S168 is earlier than S167. When S167 is earlier than S168, the sequence between S168 and S169 and S170 is not limited.

Both the base station and the user equipment in the figure count the number of continuous communication errors, and the actual base station may not count the number of continuous communication errors but count the duration of the continuous communication errors. At this time, if it is desired to ensure that the base station receives the reported beam abnormality message before the duration reaches the second threshold, the second threshold should be greater than the theoretical maximum time for the user equipment to determine that the number of consecutive communication errors reaches the preset threshold.

If the DCI is used to indicate downlink data and the beam carrying the uplink channel is abnormal, the difference from fig. 10 is that the PDSCH is transmitted after each PDCCH transmission, and the uplink channel successfully received by the base station using the backup beam may be the PUCCH or the PUSCH. If the DCI is used to indicate uplink control signaling transmission, the ue selects to use the PUCCH to send the uplink control signaling and the beam carrying the uplink channel is abnormal, the difference from fig. 10 is that the base station does not send the PHICH carrying NACK, at this time, the base station may send the control signaling for indicating to perform uplink transmission again, and the uplink channel successfully received by the base station using the backup beam may be the PUCCH or the PUSCH after determining that the beam is abnormal.

As can be seen from fig. 9 and 10, for the base station, the occurrence of the communication error may be caused by the beam blockage for carrying the downlink control channel or the uplink channel. If the initial value of the first count value minus the initial value of the second count value is less than or equal to 1, it may occur that the beam abnormality message is received after the base station determines that the beam is abnormal according to the consecutive number of communication errors. In this case, when the base station determines that the beam is abnormal based on the number of consecutive times of the communication error, it is not possible to confirm which of the beams for carrying the downlink control channel and the uplink channel is blocked.

Since the user equipment needs to use the backup beam to send the beam abnormality message when the beam of the uplink channel is abnormal, in order to avoid missing the beam abnormality message, the base station determines whether the beam abnormality message reported by the user equipment is received or the beam used by the user equipment due to communication error includes the second beam and the candidate beam corresponding to the second beam after retransmitting the downlink signal/channel, that is, the base station should use the second beam and the candidate beam corresponding to the second beam to monitor the uplink signal/channel in the process after the base station finds the communication error for the first time. The second beam is an uplink default beam, which in this example comprises a default beam for carrying an uplink channel. Of course, the base station may also always simultaneously listen to the default beam for carrying the uplink signal/channel and at least one candidate beam thereof.

When the PUSCH and the PUCCH are carried by different beams, for the base station, if the DCI is for uplink data transmission, the uplink channel carried by the beam that may be blocked is the PUSCH, and if the DCI is for downlink data or uplink control signaling transmission, the uplink channel carried by the beam that may be blocked is the PUSCH or the PUCCH.

As shown in fig. 11, the DCI is used to indicate downlink data and a beam carrying the PDSCH is abnormal.

S181: the base station sends the PDCCH to the user equipment and the user equipment successfully receives the PDCCH.

S182: the user equipment decodes the DCI.

S183: the base station transmits the PDSCH to the user equipment and the user equipment fails in reception.

Due to the blockage of the beam carrying the PDSCH, the user equipment cannot receive the corresponding downlink data according to the DCI, and the user equipment finds a communication error.

S184: the user equipment decrements the second count value by one.

The second counting value is an initial preset threshold value before the step is executed for the first time.

S185: the user equipment determines whether the second count value is equal to 0.

If so, go to step S188, otherwise go to step S186.

S186: the user equipment sends a NACK to the base station using PUCCH/PUSCH and the base station reception is successful.

S187: the base station detects NACK.

NACK indicates that the ue has failed to receive the downlink data, and the base station needs to retransmit the downlink data, and then jumps to step S181 to perform the above steps in a loop. In some embodiments, the base station may omit the corresponding PDCCH transmission before retransmitting the downlink data.

S188: the user equipment judges that the beam is abnormal.

S189: the user equipment sends the beam abnormal message to the base station, and the base station receives the beam abnormal message successfully.

The beam abnormality message may include information of an abnormality type and/or a spare beam, where the abnormality type is used to indicate that a signal/channel carried by a beam in which an abnormality occurs is a PDSCH, and the spare beam may replace a default beam carrying the PDSCH.

With reference to the three examples shown in fig. 9-11, it can be seen that when the limiting conditions in these examples are satisfied (including that both the base station and the user equipment use numerical values to calculate the number of communication errors, the initial value of the first count value of the base station minus the initial value of the second count value of the user equipment is greater than one, and the communication error at the base station side only includes uplink signals/channels and the like which are not received and sent by the user equipment), the base station may determine the signals/channels carried by the abnormal beam according to the triggering condition for determining that the beam is abnormal and whether the communication error occurs. The trigger condition is that the beam with the continuous communication error indicating the occurrence of the abnormality carries the downlink control channel (refer to fig. 9 and the related description thereof), the trigger condition is that the beam with the continuous communication error indicating the occurrence of the abnormality carries the uplink channel (refer to fig. 10 and the related description thereof), and the trigger condition is that the beam with the continuous communication error indicating the occurrence of the abnormality carries the PDSCH (refer to fig. 11 and the related description thereof). Of course, the base station may also determine the beam with the abnormality according to the beam abnormality message, for example, determine the channel with the abnormality according to the abnormality type therein, so as to determine the beam with the abnormality.

If there is more than one beam with anomalies, the base station/user equipment may not be able to find out all anomalous beams directly, but rather step-by-step find out anomalous beams through a "decision-switch" loop. Generally, an abnormal beam that can be determined by itself without assistance from the other party is preferentially found. For example, the beam carrying the downlink control channel and the PDSCH is abnormal, and the base station cannot receive any uplink signal/channel and can determine that the beam carrying the downlink control channel is abnormal; the beam carrying the PDSCH can be determined to be abnormal only after the downlink control channel is transmitted using the spare beam.

If the limiting condition changes, the judgment criterion of the base station/the user equipment on the type of the signal/channel carried by the abnormal wave beam also changes correspondingly, and can be deduced according to the specific limiting condition. In one example, changing the difference between the initial value of the first count value of the base station and the initial value of the second count value of the user equipment from greater than one to less than or equal to one in the limiting conditions of the above example means that it is possible that the beam abnormality message is received after the base station determines that the beam abnormality occurs according to the consecutive number of times of occurrence of the communication error. That is, the triggering condition is that the channel carried by the beam, which may indicate the occurrence of the abnormality due to the continuous communication error, is the downlink control channel and/or the uplink channel. In another example, the communication error at the base station side further includes receiving NACK, and the triggering condition is that the continuous received NACK communication error indicates that the channel carried by the beam with the abnormality is PDSCH.

As shown in fig. 12, the ninth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is based on the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, and further includes, after S12 and before S13:

s16: a backup beam is selected based on information of the candidate beam pool.

The base station selects at least one candidate beam as a spare beam according to the information of the candidate beam pool, so that the spare beam belongs to the candidate beam pool. The selected backup beam may be used to replace the uplink default beam and/or the downlink default beam. The selected backup beam may be removed from the pool of candidate beams or marked as unavailable. If no candidate beam is available, the base station/user equipment cannot switch to the candidate beam, possibly resulting in a beam link failure.

The candidate beam pool includes at least one uplink candidate beam and at least one downlink candidate beam, and each default beam may correspond to at least one candidate beam. The uplink/downlink candidate beams corresponding to different uplink/downlink default beams may be the same or different.

If uplink/downlink data and control signaling are carried by different uplink/downlink default beams, the number of candidate beams corresponding to the default beam for carrying the control signaling may be greater than the number of candidate beams for carrying the data, so as to prevent a beam link failure from occurring in transmission of the control signaling.

If the number of candidate beams corresponding to one default beam is greater than one, the time-frequency resources occupied by different candidate beams can be the same, thereby reducing the overhead of the base station/user equipment.

In the case that the beam is abnormal, compared with re-performing the beam training to determine the backup beam, the embodiment of selecting the backup beam from the candidate beam pool can omit the beam training process, thereby effectively shortening the delay and reducing the signaling overhead. This embodiment may be combined with any of the above embodiments.

When this embodiment is combined with the eighth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, in order to reduce resource consumption, the base station may select a candidate beam only for the default beam in which the abnormality occurs.

In one embodiment of the invention, the candidate beam pool comprises at least one candidate beam for each channel, the candidate beam for each channel belonging to a different transceiving node from its default beam or having a correlation smaller than or equal to a preset threshold, wherein the channel may comprise one or more physical channels. The transceiving node may be a cu (central unit)/DU (distributed unit) architecture or a DU, a Transmission Point (TP), a transceiving point (TRP), or a Radio Remote Head (RRH) in other similar architectures.

The correlation is used to evaluate the degree of correlation between two beams, and generally, the higher the coverage overlapping rate of the two beams, the stronger the correlation between the two beams due to mutual interference. In case the default beam between the base station and the user equipment is blocked, it is more likely that the beam from the same transceiving node as the default beam or a beam with high correlation (i.e. correlation greater than a preset threshold) is also blocked or has poor beam performance. Having a default beam that is different from its candidate beam for the different transceiving nodes or having low correlation (i.e., correlation less than or equal to a predetermined threshold) may reduce the likelihood of switching to a blocked or poor performing backup beam, thereby improving system performance.

As shown in fig. 13, a tenth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is a beam communication method ninth embodiment of the present invention, where S16 further includes:

s17: information of the candidate beam pool is transmitted to the user equipment.

The user equipment can automatically select the standby beam from the candidate beam pool when the uplink default beam needs to be switched, and compared with the switching under the instruction of the base station, the standby beam has higher initiative and shorter delay and can be suitable for the occasions where the beams carrying the PUCCH and the PUSCH are abnormal at the same time.

The performance of this step may be periodic or aperiodic, and the aperiodic triggering condition may include a change in the candidate beam pool, for example, where the candidate beam is selected as a backup beam, and the candidate beam pool is reconstructed.

The precedence relationship between the execution of this step and other steps before S16 in the above embodiments is not limited. The performance of this step may be periodic or aperiodic, and the aperiodic triggering condition may include a change in the candidate beam pool and/or the base station beginning to communicate with the user equipment.

As shown in fig. 14, the eleventh embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is based on the ninth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention, and before S16, the method further includes:

s191: the base station transmits a plurality of training beams to the user equipment.

S192: the user equipment measures the training beam to obtain a measurement result.

The measurement result includes performance indexes of each training beam, such as Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), and the like.

S193: the user equipment sends the measurement result to the base station.

S194: and the base station determines a candidate beam pool according to the measurement result.

The base station may select a designated number of training beams with the best beam performance from all the training beams as candidate beams to join the candidate beam pool according to the beam performance index in the measurement result.

In one embodiment, the training beams are divided into at least two groups, the training beams in each group belong to the same transceiver node or have a correlation greater than or equal to a preset threshold, and the training beams in the same group are blocked at the same time with a high probability. At this time, the base station may select, according to the beam performance index in the measurement result, a beam training set whose beam performance index is greater than or equal to the third threshold from all the training beam sets as a spare beam training set, and then select, from the spare beam training set, a designated number of training beams with the best beam performance as candidate beams to be added to the candidate beam pool, or respectively select, from each training beam set, a designated number of training beams with the best beam performance in the measurement result as candidate beams to be added to the candidate beam pool.

The present embodiment proposes a process of constructing a candidate beam pool for a user equipment. This process may be performed periodically or non-periodically, and the non-periodic trigger condition may include a change in the radio environment (e.g., a distance/speed at which the user equipment moves is greater than a threshold value, a change in the switching state of the transceiving node, beam adjustment of the transceiving node, weather change, etc.) and/or the base station starting to communicate with the user equipment.

The process of constructing the candidate beam pool in this embodiment may also be used to select the default beam, and at this time, the base station may first select a part of the (generally best performing) candidate beams as the default beam after receiving the measurement result, and then confirm the candidate beam pool from the remaining training beams.

As shown in fig. 15, the main implementation body of the beam communication method according to the twelfth embodiment of the present invention is a user equipment. The user equipment may be fixed or mobile and may be a cellular phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, etc. The embodiment comprises the following steps:

s21: the beams are used to communicate with the base station.

The initially used beam is a default beam, and the default beam comprises at least one uplink default beam and at least one downlink default beam. The uplink default beam is used for the user equipment to send data and control signaling to the base station in the default state, and the downlink default beam is used for the base station to send data and control signaling to the user equipment in the default state. The user equipment may transmit uplink signals/channels to the base station using the uplink default beam and/or receive downlink signals/channels transmitted by the base station using the downlink default beam.

S22: and judging whether the beam is abnormal or not.

The trigger condition for determining the beam abnormality may include: the number of the continuous communication errors is larger than or equal to a first preset threshold, the duration of the continuous communication errors is larger than or equal to a second preset threshold, and at least one of beam switching instructions sent by the base station is received. In addition, the trigger condition for determining the beam is abnormal may further include that the beam performance is lower than a preset value and/or a beam link failure occurs.

The beams in which the abnormality occurs may include one or more uplink/downlink default beams. If the number of the uplink/downlink default beams is greater than one, the ue may respectively determine for each uplink/downlink default beam, or may determine at least two uplink/downlink default beams, for example, all uplink/downlink default beams, as a whole.

The channel carried by the abnormal beam may include at least one of PDCCH, PHICH, PDSCH, PUCCH and PUSCH.

If the beam is abnormal, jumping to S23; and if the beam is not abnormal, continuing to use the default beam for subsequent communication.

S23: and if the beam is abnormal, the standby beam is used for communicating with the base station.

Through the implementation of the embodiment, the standby beam is used for communication under the condition that the beam communicated with the base station is judged to be abnormal, and when the burst beam is blocked and the blockage continues, compared with the direct random access reinitiation in the prior art, the standby beam is used for communication, so that the beam link failure and the subsequent random access process caused by the continuous use of the abnormal beam can be avoided, and the delay is shortened; compared with multi-beam transmission in the prior art, the standby beam is used only when the beam is abnormal, so that the occupation of space resources can be effectively reduced and the transmission performance can be improved; therefore, the anti-blocking and transmission performance can be considered, and the anti-blocking wave beam communication with high performance and low delay is realized.

As shown in fig. 16, a thirteenth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is a beam communication method twelfth embodiment of the present invention, which determines whether a beam is abnormal according to the number and/or duration of communication errors occurring continuously. This embodiment is a further extension of the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, and therefore the same contents as those in the first embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention are not described herein again. The embodiment comprises the following steps:

s211: and receiving the downlink signal/channel transmitted by the base station by using the first beam.

S212: it is determined whether a communication error has occurred.

The communication error may include receiving a negative acknowledgement message indicating that the uplink transmission (e.g., PUSCH) failed, receiving a retransmitted downlink signal/channel, receiving control signaling (which may be carried by the PDCCH) indicating that the uplink transmission (including uplink data and/or control signaling) is resumed, where a beam carrying the PUCCH/PUSCH may be blocked, which is described in detail with reference to fig. 10 and related description. The communication error may also include that the downlink signal/channel transmitted by the base station is not received in a predetermined period, in this case, it may be that the user equipment directly performs uplink transmission without uplink grant and a beam carrying the PUCCH/PUSCH is blocked.

The downlink signal/channel that has been successfully transmitted includes a PDCCH, and the communication error may include that downlink data corresponding to DCI carried by the PDCCH is not received, which is described with reference to fig. 11 and related descriptions.

If the communication error occurs, jumping to S213; otherwise, continuing to use the default beam for subsequent communication with the base station, and initializing the count value if the count value is used for calculating the number of continuous communication errors.

S213: and judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is larger than or equal to a first preset threshold value and/or whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is larger than or equal to a second preset threshold value.

If the communication error is not of one type, the user equipment may distinguish different types of communication errors when calculating the number of times/duration, that is, the number of times/duration of the different types of communication errors are calculated respectively, or may not distinguish.

The user equipment may use the count value to calculate the number of times of continuous occurrence of communication errors, and specific contents refer to the fifth and sixth embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention, which are not described herein again.

The ue may initialize a timer to start timing when a communication error occurs for the first time, stop timing and reset the timer to an initial value if no communication error occurs in a subsequent process, continue timing if a communication error occurs, and calculate a difference between a current value and the initial value of the timer to calculate a duration. The user equipment may also calculate the duration by calculating the difference between the time of the last occurrence and the time of the first occurrence of the consecutively occurring communication errors.

If the number of times is greater than or equal to a first preset threshold and/or the duration is greater than or equal to a second preset threshold, jumping to S214; otherwise, it jumps to S211 to repeat the above process. A corresponding operation may be performed according to the type of the communication error before jumping to S211.

If the communication error comprises receiving a negative acknowledgement message for indicating uplink transmission failure, receiving a retransmitted downlink signal/channel, receiving a control signaling for indicating uplink transmission to be performed again, and not receiving at least one of the downlink signals/channels transmitted by the base station for a predetermined period of time, which means that the PUCCH/PUSCH may be blocked, the corresponding operation may comprise retransmitting the uplink signal/channel; if the communication error includes that downlink data corresponding to the downlink control information is not received, which means that there may be blocking of the PDSCH, the corresponding operation may include sending a negative acknowledgement message to the base station.

S214: and judging that the beam is abnormal.

It jumps to step S215.

S215: and transmitting uplink signals/channels to the base station by using the spare beam, and/or receiving downlink signals/channels transmitted by the base station by using the spare beam.

As shown in fig. 17, a fourteenth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is a beam communication method twelfth embodiment of the present invention, which determines whether a beam abnormality occurs according to whether a beam abnormality message is received and the number and/or duration of continuous occurrence of communication errors. The difference between this embodiment and the thirteenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is that whether a beam switching command is received is added, and the same parts are not described herein again. The embodiment comprises the following steps:

s221: and receiving the downlink signal/channel transmitted by the base station by using the first beam.

S222: and judging whether the downlink signal/channel carries a beam switching instruction or not.

And if the downlink signal/channel carries the beam switching instruction, jumping to S225, otherwise, jumping to S223.

S223: it is determined whether a communication error has occurred.

If the communication error occurs, jumping to S224; otherwise, continuing to use the default beam for subsequent communication with the base station, and initializing the count value if the count value is used for calculating the number of continuous communication errors.

S224: and judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is larger than or equal to a first preset threshold value and/or whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is larger than or equal to a second preset threshold value.

If the times are greater than or equal to a first preset threshold and/or the duration is greater than or equal to a second preset threshold, jumping to S225; otherwise, it jumps to S221 to repeat the above process. Before jumping to S221, a corresponding operation may be performed according to the type of the communication error.

S225: and judging that the beam is abnormal.

It jumps to step S226.

S226: and transmitting uplink signals/channels to the base station by using the spare beam, and/or receiving downlink signals/channels transmitted by the base station by using the spare beam.

As shown in fig. 18, a fifteenth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is to determine whether a beam abnormality occurs according to whether a beam abnormality message is received and the number and/or duration of continuous occurrence of communication errors, based on the twelfth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention. The difference between this embodiment and the fourteenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is to determine whether a communication error occurs and then determine whether a beam anomaly message is received, and the same parts are not described herein again. The embodiment comprises the following steps:

s231: and receiving the downlink signal/channel transmitted by the base station by using the first beam.

S232: it is determined whether a communication error has occurred.

If the communication error occurs, jumping to S233; otherwise, the process goes to S234, and the count value may be initialized if the count value is used to calculate the number of times the communication error continuously occurs.

S233: and judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is larger than or equal to a first preset threshold value and/or whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is larger than or equal to a second preset threshold value.

If the times are greater than or equal to a first preset threshold and/or the duration is greater than or equal to a second preset threshold, jumping to S235; otherwise, it jumps to S231 to repeat the above process. A corresponding operation may be performed according to the type of the communication error before jumping to S231.

S234: and judging whether the downlink signal/channel carries a beam switching instruction or not.

And if the downlink signal/channel bears the beam switching instruction, skipping to S235, otherwise, continuing to use the default beam to perform subsequent communication with the base station.

S235: and judging that the beam is abnormal.

It jumps to step S236.

S236: and transmitting uplink signals/channels to the base station by using the spare beam, and/or receiving downlink signals/channels transmitted by the base station by using the spare beam.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention, the determination of whether a beam abnormality message is received and the determination of whether an error occurs are two independent processes, and in some embodiments, the user equipment may perform both determinations simultaneously.

As shown in fig. 19, the sixteenth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is the beam communication method according to the twelfth embodiment of the present invention, further including, after S22 and before S23:

s24: and judging the signal/channel carried by the abnormal wave beam according to the type of the communication error or the received wave beam switching instruction.

In this embodiment, the number of uplink default beams and/or the number of downlink default beams is greater than one, and signals/channels carried by different default beams are different. The user equipment can judge the abnormal signal/channel, thereby confirming the abnormal beam, and facilitating the selection of the standby beam in the subsequent process. This embodiment may be combined with any of the above embodiments. In other embodiments, this step may be performed simultaneously with step 22, that is, determining the beam abnormality and confirming which beam the abnormality occurs.

Still referring to fig. 9-11 and the related descriptions, for example, when the limiting conditions in these examples are met (including that both the base station and the user equipment use numerical values to calculate the number of communication errors, the initial value of the first count value of the base station minus the initial value of the second count value of the user equipment is greater than one, the communication error at the base station side only includes uplink signals/channels not received from the user equipment, and the like), the user equipment may determine the signal/channel carried by the abnormal beam according to the type of the communication error. The communication error includes receiving a negative acknowledgement message indicating that uplink transmission (PUSCH) has failed, receiving a retransmitted downlink signal/channel, receiving a control signaling (refer to fig. 10 and the related description thereof) indicating that uplink transmission is to be performed again (including uplink data and/or control signaling), and receiving no downlink signal/channel sent by the base station in a predetermined period (the user equipment directly performs uplink transmission without uplink grant) indicating that an abnormal beam carries an uplink channel last time, and the user equipment may determine which uplink channel is carried by the abnormal beam according to a channel used when performing uplink transmission. The communication error includes that the downlink data corresponding to the DCI is not received, which indicates that the beam with the abnormality carries the PDSCH (refer to fig. 11 and the related description thereof). If the user equipment receives the beam switching instruction, the beam with the abnormality can be judged according to the beam switching instruction, for example, the channel with the abnormality is confirmed according to the abnormality type in the beam, so that the beam with the abnormality is determined.

As shown in fig. 20, the seventeenth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is the beam communication method twelfth embodiment of the present invention, further comprising, after S22:

s25: and if the beam is abnormal, transmitting a beam abnormal message to the base station.

The beam anomaly message is used to assist the base station to switch from the downlink default beam to the backup beam to transmit downlink signals/channels. The beam abnormity information comprises an abnormity type and/or information of a spare beam, and the abnormity type is used for indicating a signal/channel carried by the abnormal beam. The beam used to carry the beam anomaly message may be a default beam or a backup beam. The sequence of the step and the step S23 is not limited, for example, the user equipment may send the beam abnormality message to the base station using the backup beam and send the uplink signal/channel at the same time. This embodiment may be combined with any of the above embodiments.

As shown in fig. 21, the eighteenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention is based on the twelfth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, and further includes, after S22 and before S23:

s26: a backup beam is selected based on information of the candidate beam pool.

The user equipment selects at least one candidate beam as a spare beam according to the information of the candidate beam pool, so that the spare beam belongs to the candidate beam pool. The selected backup beam may be used to replace the uplink default beam and/or the downlink default beam. The selected backup beam may be removed from the pool of candidate beams or marked as unavailable. If no candidate beam is available, the base station/user equipment cannot switch to the candidate beam, possibly resulting in a beam link failure.

When this embodiment is combined with the sixteenth embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, in order to reduce resource consumption, the ue may select a candidate beam only for the default beam in which the abnormality occurs.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the candidate beam pool comprises at least one candidate beam for each channel, and the candidate beam for each channel and its default beam belong to different transceiving nodes or have a correlation less than or equal to a preset threshold, so as to reduce the possibility of switching to a blocked or poor-performance backup beam, thereby improving the system performance. The channel may include one or more physical channels.

As shown in fig. 22, a nineteenth embodiment of the beam communication method according to the present invention is the beam communication method according to the seventeenth embodiment of the present invention, wherein S26 further includes:

s27: information of a pool of candidate beams from a base station is received.

The user equipment can automatically select the standby beam from the candidate beam pool when the uplink default beam needs to be switched, and compared with the switching under the instruction of the base station, the standby beam has higher initiative and shorter delay and can be suitable for the occasion that the beam carrying the PUCCH and the PUSCH is abnormal at the same time.

The precedence relationship between the execution of this step and other steps before S26 in the above embodiments is not limited. The performance of this step may be periodic or aperiodic, and the aperiodic triggering condition may include a change in the candidate beam pool and/or the base station beginning to communicate with the user equipment.

Before this step, the base station may construct a candidate beam pool for the ue, and specific contents may refer to the eleventh embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, which is not described herein again.

As shown in fig. 23, the beam communication apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes: processor 110 and communication circuit 120, communication circuit 120 is connected to processor 110.

The communication circuit 120 is used for transmitting and receiving data, and is an interface for the beam communication apparatus to communicate with other communication devices.

The processor 110 controls the operation of the beam communication apparatus, and the processor 110 may also be referred to as a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The processor 110 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. The processor 110 may also be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The processor 110 is configured to execute instructions to implement the method provided by any one of the first to eleventh embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention and any non-conflicting combination.

The beam communication device in this embodiment may be a base station, or may be a separate component, such as a baseband board, that may be integrated into the base station.

As shown in fig. 24, the beam communication apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention includes: processor 210 and communication circuit 220, communication circuit 220 is connected to processor 210.

The communication circuit 220 is used for transmitting and receiving data, and is an interface for the beam communication apparatus to communicate with other communication devices.

The processor 210 controls the operation of the beam communication apparatus, and the processor 110 may also be referred to as a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The processor 110 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capabilities. The processor 110 may also be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

Processor 210 is operative to execute instructions to implement the methods provided by any of the twelfth to nineteenth embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention and any non-conflicting combinations.

The beam communication apparatus in this embodiment may be a user equipment, or may be a separate component, such as a baseband chip, which may be integrated in the user equipment.

As shown in fig. 25, the third embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention includes a memory 310, and the memory 310 stores instructions that, when executed, implement the method provided by any one of the first to eleventh embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention and any non-conflicting combination.

The Memory 310 may include a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Flash Memory (Flash Memory), a hard disk, an optical disk, and the like.

As shown in fig. 26, the fourth embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention includes a memory 410, and the memory 310 stores instructions that, when executed, implement the method provided by any one of the twelfth to nineteenth embodiments of the beam communication method of the present invention and any non-conflicting combinations.

The Memory 410 may include a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Flash Memory (Flash Memory), a hard disk, an optical disk, and the like.

As shown in fig. 27, a fifth embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention includes:

a first communication module 51 for communicating with the user equipment using the beam.

And the judging module 52 is configured to judge whether the beam is abnormal.

And a second communication module 53, configured to communicate with the user equipment using the backup beam when the beam is abnormal.

As shown in fig. 28, the sixth embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention includes:

a first communication module 61, configured to communicate with a base station using a beam.

And a judging module 62, configured to judge whether the beam is abnormal.

And a second communication module 63, configured to use the backup beam to communicate with the base station when the beam is abnormal.

The functions and possible extensions of each part in each embodiment of the beam communication apparatus of the present invention may specifically refer to the description in the corresponding embodiment of the beam communication method of the present invention, and are not repeated here.

In the embodiments provided in the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules or units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above description is only an embodiment of the present invention, and not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and all modifications of equivalent structures and equivalent processes performed by the present specification and drawings, or directly or indirectly applied to other related technical fields, are included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of beam communication, comprising:

communicating with a user equipment using a beam; the communication comprises the steps of sending downlink signals/channels to user equipment by using a first beam, and/or receiving uplink signals/channels sent by the user equipment by using a second beam, wherein the number of downlink beams included in the first beam is more than one, and the number of uplink beams included in the second beam is more than one;

judging whether the beam is abnormal or not and judging a signal/channel carried by the abnormal beam;

if the beam is abnormal, using a standby beam to communicate with the user equipment; wherein, compared with the switched first beam or the switched second beam, only the downlink beam or the uplink beam corresponding to the signal/channel carried by the beam with the abnormality is switched;

wherein the beam anomaly comprises:

the frequency of continuous communication errors is larger than or equal to a first threshold, the duration of the continuous communication errors is larger than or equal to a second threshold, and at least one of beam abnormal messages reported by the user equipment is received; wherein the first threshold is greater than a threshold of a number of consecutive occurrences of the communication error by which the user equipment determines whether the beam is abnormal.

2. The method of claim 1,

the judging whether the beam is abnormal comprises the following steps:

judging whether a beam abnormal message reported by the user equipment is received or not;

if the beam abnormal message reported by the user equipment is received, judging that the beam is abnormal, and if the beam abnormal message reported by the user equipment is not received, judging whether a communication error occurs;

if the communication error occurs, judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to the first threshold value and/or the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to the second threshold value;

if the number of times is greater than or equal to the first threshold value and/or the duration is greater than or equal to the second threshold value, determining that the beam is abnormal, otherwise, continuing to use the first beam to resend the downlink signal/channel, and repeating the process.

3. The method of claim 1,

the judging whether the beam is abnormal comprises the following steps:

judging whether a communication error occurs;

if the communication error does not occur, judging whether a beam abnormal message reported by the user equipment is received, and if the beam abnormal message is received, judging that the beam is abnormal;

if the communication error occurs, judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to the first threshold value and/or the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to the second threshold value, if the frequency is larger than or equal to the first threshold value and/or the duration is larger than or equal to the second threshold value, judging that the beam is abnormal, otherwise, continuously using the first beam to resend the downlink signal/channel, and then repeating the process.

4. The method of claim 1,

the judging whether the beam is abnormal comprises the following steps:

judging whether a communication error occurs;

5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4,

the determining whether the number of consecutive occurrences of the communication error is greater than or equal to the first threshold value includes:

adding one to a count value, wherein the initial value of the count value is 0, and the count value is the initial value when the communication error does not occur;

judging whether the count value is greater than or equal to the first threshold value;

and if the count value is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, determining that the times are greater than or equal to the first threshold value.

6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4,

subtracting a count value by one, an initial value of the count value being the first threshold value, and the count value being the initial value when the communication error does not occur;

judging whether the count value is less than or equal to 0;

if the count value is less than or equal to 0, it is determined that the number of times is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

the communication error comprises that the uplink signal/channel sent by the user equipment is not received in a preset time period, and/or a negative acknowledgement message sent by the user equipment in response to the downlink signal/channel is received.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

and judging whether the beam abnormal message reported by the user equipment is received and/or the monitored beam comprises the second beam and the candidate beam corresponding to the second beam when the communication error occurs.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

the channels carried by the abnormal beams comprise at least one of a physical downlink control channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicator channel, a physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel and a physical uplink shared channel.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

the communicating with the user equipment using the backup beam comprises:

and sending downlink signals/channels to the user equipment by using the spare beam, and/or receiving uplink signals/channels sent by the user equipment by using the spare beam.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

after the determining whether the beam is abnormal, the method further includes:

and if the beam is abnormal, sending a beam switching instruction to the user equipment, wherein the beam switching instruction comprises a switching type and/or the information of the standby beam, and the switching type is used for indicating a signal/channel carried by the abnormal beam.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,

the communicating with the user equipment using the backup beam further comprises:

selecting the backup beam according to information of a candidate beam pool, the backup beam belonging to the candidate beam pool.

13. The method of claim 12,

the pool of candidate beams includes at least one candidate beam for each channel.

14. The method of claim 13,

the candidate beams of each channel belong to different transceiving nodes with their default beams or the correlation is less than or equal to a preset threshold.

15. The method of claim 12,

said selecting said backup beam based on information of a candidate beam pool further comprises:

transmitting information of the candidate beam pool to the user equipment.

16. The method of claim 12,

transmitting a plurality of training beams to the user equipment, so that the user equipment measures the training beams to obtain a measurement result;

receiving a measurement result from the user equipment;

determining the candidate beam pool according to the measurement result.

17. The method of claim 16,

the training beams are divided into at least two groups, the training beams in each group belong to the same transceiving node or the correlation is greater than or equal to a preset threshold value;

said determining the backup beam pool based on the measurement comprises:

selecting a beam training set of which the beam performance is greater than or equal to a third threshold value in the measurement results from all the training beam sets as a spare beam training set, and selecting a specified number of training beams with the best beam performance from the spare beam training set as candidate beams to be added into the candidate beam pool; or

Selecting a specified number of training beams with the best beam performance in the measurement result from all the training beams as candidate beams to be added into the candidate beam pool; or

And respectively selecting the specified number of training beams with the best beam performance in the measurement results from each training beam group as candidate beams to be added into the candidate beam pool.

18. A method of beam communication, comprising:

communicating with a base station using a beam; the communication comprises receiving downlink signals/channels transmitted by the base station by using a first beam, and/or transmitting uplink signals/channels to the base station by using a second beam, wherein the number of downlink beams included in the first beam is more than one, and the number of uplink beams included in the second beam is more than one;

if the wave beam is abnormal, using a standby wave beam to communicate with the base station; wherein, compared with the switched first beam or the switched second beam, only the downlink beam or the uplink beam corresponding to the signal/channel carried by the beam with the abnormality is switched;

wherein the beam anomaly comprises:

the frequency of continuous occurrence of communication errors is greater than or equal to a first preset threshold, the duration of the continuous occurrence of communication errors is greater than or equal to a second preset threshold, and at least one of beam switching instructions sent by the base station is received; wherein the first preset threshold is smaller than a threshold of the number of consecutive occurrences of the communication error, which is used by the base station to determine whether the beam is abnormal.

19. The method of claim 18,

the judging whether the beam is abnormal comprises the following steps:

judging whether the communication error occurs or not;

if the communication error occurs, judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to the first preset threshold value and/or whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to the second preset threshold value;

and if the times are greater than or equal to the first preset threshold and/or the duration is greater than or equal to the second preset threshold, determining that the beam is abnormal.

20. The method of claim 18,

the judging whether the beam is abnormal comprises the following steps:

judging whether the downlink signal/channel carries the beam switching instruction or not;

if the downlink signal/channel bears the beam switching instruction, judging that the beam is abnormal, otherwise, judging whether the communication error occurs;

21. The method of claim 18,

the judging whether the beam is abnormal comprises the following steps:

judging whether the communication error occurs or not;

if the communication error does not occur, judging whether the downlink signal/channel bears the beam switching instruction, and if the downlink signal/channel bears the beam switching instruction, judging that the beam is abnormal; if the communication error occurs, judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to a first preset threshold value and/or the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is larger than or equal to a second preset threshold value, and if the frequency is larger than or equal to the first preset threshold value and/or the duration is larger than or equal to the second preset threshold value, judging that the beam is abnormal.

22. The method of any one of claims 19-21,

the judging whether the number of times of the continuous occurrence of the communication errors is greater than or equal to the first preset threshold value comprises:

judging whether the count value is greater than or equal to the first preset threshold value;

and if the count value is greater than or equal to the first preset threshold, judging that the times are greater than or equal to the first preset threshold.

23. The method of any one of claims 19-21,

subtracting a count value by one, wherein the initial value of the count value is the first preset threshold value, and the count value is the initial value when the communication error does not occur;

judging whether the count value is less than or equal to 0;

and if the count value is less than or equal to 0, judging that the times are greater than or equal to the first preset threshold value.

24. The method of any one of claims 18-21,

the communication error includes at least one of receiving a negative acknowledgement message for indicating uplink transmission failure, receiving the retransmitted downlink signal/channel, receiving a control signaling for indicating uplink transmission again, not receiving the downlink signal/channel sent by the base station in a preset time period, and not receiving downlink data corresponding to downlink control information carried by the downlink signal/channel.

25. The method of claim 24,

the communication error includes receiving a negative acknowledgement message for indicating an uplink transmission failure, receiving the retransmitted downlink signal/channel, receiving a control signaling for indicating to perform uplink transmission again, and after at least one of the downlink signal/channel sent by the base station is not received in a predetermined period, further including determining whether the number of times of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is greater than or equal to the first preset threshold and/or whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is greater than or equal to the second preset threshold;

and if the times are less than the first preset threshold value and/or the duration is less than the second preset threshold value, retransmitting the uplink signal/channel.

26. The method of claim 24,

the communication error includes that downlink data corresponding to the downlink control information is not received, and the step of judging whether the frequency of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is greater than or equal to the first preset threshold value and/or whether the duration of the continuous occurrence of the communication error is greater than or equal to the second preset threshold value further includes;

and if the times are less than the first preset threshold value and/or the duration is less than the second preset threshold value, sending a negative response message to the base station.

27. The method of claim 26,

and sending a beam abnormity message to the base station, wherein the beam abnormity message comprises an abnormity type and/or information of the spare beam, the abnormity type is used for indicating that a channel carried by the abnormal beam is a physical downlink shared channel, and the spare beam is used for replacing a default beam carrying the physical downlink shared channel.

28. The method of any one of claims 18-21,

the channel carried by the abnormal beam comprises at least one of a physical downlink control channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat indicator channel, a physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel and a physical uplink shared channel.

29. The method of any one of claims 18-21,

the communicating with the base station using backup beams comprises:

and transmitting an uplink signal/channel to the base station by using the spare beam, and/or receiving a downlink signal/channel transmitted by the base station by using the spare beam.

30. The method of any one of claims 18-21,

and if the beam is abnormal, sending a beam abnormal message to the base station, wherein the beam abnormal message comprises an abnormal type and/or the information of the standby beam, and the abnormal type is used for indicating a signal/channel carried by the abnormal beam.

31. The method of any one of claims 18-21,

the communicating with the base station using the backup beam further comprises:

32. The method of claim 31,

receiving information of the pool of candidate beams from the base station.

33. The method of claim 32,

34. The method of claim 33,

35. The method of claim 32,

the receiving the candidate beam pool from the base station further comprises:

measuring a plurality of training beams from the base station to obtain measurement results;

and sending the measurement result to the base station so that the base station determines the candidate beam pool according to the measurement result.

36. A beam communication apparatus comprising a processor and a communication circuit, the processor being connected to the communication circuit;

the processor is configured to execute instructions to implement the method of any of claims 1-17, 18-35.

37. A beam communication apparatus having stored instructions that, when executed, implement the method of any of claims 1-17, 18-35.

38. A beam communication apparatus, comprising:

a first communication module for communicating with a user equipment using a beam; the communication comprises the steps of sending downlink signals/channels to user equipment by using a first beam, and/or receiving uplink signals/channels sent by the user equipment by using a second beam, wherein the number of downlink beams included in the first beam is more than one, and the number of uplink beams included in the second beam is more than one;

the judging module is used for judging whether the beam is abnormal or not and judging a signal/channel carried by the abnormal beam;

the second communication module is used for communicating with the user equipment by using a standby beam when the beam is abnormal; wherein, compared with the switched first beam or the switched second beam, only the downlink beam or the uplink beam corresponding to the signal/channel carried by the beam with the abnormality is switched;

wherein the beam anomaly comprises:

39. A beam communication apparatus, comprising:

a first communication module for communicating with a base station using a beam; the communication comprises receiving downlink signals/channels transmitted by the base station by using a first beam, and/or transmitting uplink signals/channels to the base station by using a second beam, wherein the number of downlink beams included in the first beam is more than one, and the number of uplink beams included in the second beam is more than one;

the second communication module is used for communicating with the base station by using a standby beam when the beam is abnormal; wherein, compared with the switched first beam or the switched second beam, only the downlink beam or the uplink beam corresponding to the signal/channel carried by the beam with the abnormality is switched;

wherein the beam anomaly comprises: