CN115278899A

CN115278899A - Communication method and device for low-orbit Internet of things constellation and electronic equipment

Info

Publication number: CN115278899A
Application number: CN202210871993.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 谢涛
Original assignee: Beijing Commsat Technology Development Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Commsat Technology Development Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-19
Filing date: 2022-07-19
Publication date: 2022-11-01

Abstract

The embodiment of the disclosure discloses a communication method, a device, an electronic device and a storage medium for a low-orbit IOT constellation, wherein the method comprises the following steps: configuring a plurality of random access channel resources for a ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-earth orbit satellite; the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on the path loss at the time period; and sending the resource configuration information of the plurality of random access channel resources to the ground terminal so that the ground terminal randomly selects to use one of the plurality of random access channel resources. The technical scheme can ensure that the ground terminal can randomly select any one of the channels to transmit data, thereby solving the problem of data collision caused by the fact that a plurality of ground terminals collectively select the time with smaller path loss to transmit data in the prior art.

Description

Communication method and device for low-orbit Internet of things constellation and electronic equipment

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of satellite communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus for a low-earth-orbit internet of things constellation, and an electronic device.

Background

The rapid development of digital mobile communication brings new information services to the production and life of the human society, in which terrestrial cellular network technology is the main access type of mobile communication at present and is evolving along a speed of one generation every decade. For example, in about 2020, 5 th generation mobile networks (5G) have first started deployment in some developed countries and regions, bringing users up to 10GBps communication speed.

However, in some less developed countries and regions, mobile communication services are still not effectively reachable in the short term. This is mainly due to the fact that the level of local communication network infrastructure is relatively backward, for example, in the vast african regions, hundreds of millions of people still have no access to internet services. The use of aerial platforms to provide wireless access services has been a long-standing method to circumvent the need to build heavy ground communication infrastructure, such as the High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) or satellite systems to provide wireless communication services. In attempts to stratospheric aircraft, balloon systems such as google or soft silver are still not currently in practical operation for a variety of reasons. Methods for providing wireless communications directly to the ground using satellite systems have been relatively mature for a long time.

Based on the type of satellite Orbit, a more sophisticated satellite communication system utilizes Geostationary Orbit (GEO), which is capable of remaining Geostationary and providing wireless access services at an altitude of around 3600 km above the equatorial Orbit. However, due to the limitation of the orbit, the system capacity of the communication system is limited, and the service area cannot be covered to a high-dimensional region. Therefore, the idea of providing global satellite communication coverage by constellations using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites has been proposed in the last century and has raised a wave of construction heat worldwide. Satellite constellation projects such as Globalstar, iridium, etc., all attempt to transmit and commercialize satellites. However, the first attempt ended up with failure due to prohibitive cost and limited digital signal processing techniques.

In recent years, with the development of commercial aerospace technology, emission costs have been greatly reduced. And the cost and the computational power of the digital signal processing technology are greatly improved. Therefore, a communication satellite constellation plan based on medium and low earth orbit satellites is proposed again. Although the medium and low orbit satellites cannot be kept relatively still with the earth, the global coverage can be theoretically achieved by means of constellations. And since the capacity of a wireless communication system is determined by the frequency reuse factor, LEOs closer to the earth's surface can provide more communication capacity than GEO.

Although building a global-coverage, high-capacity communication system using LEO constellations can quickly provide wireless access capability to the less developed earth. However, establishing a wireless link between a high-speed mobile satellite and a terrestrial terminal also faces many technical challenges, which are not present in conventional terrestrial cellular networks and are therefore also less well studied in the existing literature. For example, in a low earth orbit satellite communication system, the orbit of the low earth orbit satellite is relatively fixed, and thus the path loss of a ground terminal during the visible window of the low earth orbit satellite will go through a process from large to small and then from small to large. Therefore, an easier communication method is created, that is, the ground terminal transmits its own small packet to the low earth orbit satellite at the time when the path loss is the smallest. However, if all the terrestrial terminals in one area use their own packets at the time when the path loss is minimum, this means that a large amount of collisions occur in channel resources, and the transmission efficiency is greatly reduced. Therefore, in the low-earth satellite communication, how to solve the data collision among a plurality of ground terminals in the same area and how to improve the data transmission efficiency are one of the main technical problems to be solved currently.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the disclosure provides a communication method and device for a low-orbit IoT constellation and electronic equipment.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method for a low-orbit constellation, including:

configuring a plurality of random access channel resources for a ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-earth orbit satellite, wherein the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on the path loss at the time period;

and sending the resource configuration information of the plurality of random access channel resources to the ground terminal so that the ground terminal randomly selects and uses one of the plurality of random access channel resources.

Further, the plurality of random access channel resources are obtained by dividing in the following manner:

and dividing the channel in the visible period of the current low-orbit satellite from two dimensions of time and frequency.

Further, the configuring multiple random access channel resources for the ground terminals in the coverage area of the current low-earth orbit satellite includes:

dividing a plurality of different time periods based on the elevation angle size of the current low-orbit satellite relative to the ground terminal at different moments;

and configuring different random access channel resources in different time periods based on the average path loss when the ground terminal transmits data to the current low-earth orbit satellite in different time periods, so that the ground terminal selects and uses the corresponding random access channel resources from the corresponding time period.

Further, the method further comprises:

transmitting region division information to the ground terminal within the current low-earth-orbit satellite coverage area so that the ground terminal determines a selectable time period based on the region division information.

Further, the method further comprises:

receiving reported information of the ground terminal, wherein the reported information comprises path loss obtained by the ground terminal through continuous measurement by sending data to the low-orbit satellite;

and determining time period division information of the ground terminal based on the reported information, so that the ground terminal can select the selectable time period based on the time period division information.

Further, the random access channel resources in different time periods are different in time and/or frequency; the random access channel resources within the same time period differ in time and/or frequency.

Further, the power gap consumed when the ground terminal uses different random access channel resources to transmit data of the same size is within a preset range.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method for low-orbit internet of things constellation, which is applied to a ground terminal, and includes:

receiving resource configuration information of a ground terminal from a low earth orbit satellite, wherein the resource configuration information comprises a plurality of random access channel resources which can be used by the ground terminal, the frequency spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the frequency spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on the path loss at the time period;

randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to transmit data based on the resource configuration information.

Further, the random access channel resources located in different time periods are configured based on a power ratio consumed by the ground terminal when transmitting data of the same size to the low-orbit satellite in the corresponding time period.

Further, the method further comprises:

receiving the region division information sent by the low earth orbit satellite;

determining time interval division information corresponding to the ground terminal based on the region division information and the position of the ground terminal;

randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to transmit data based on the resource configuration information, comprising:

randomly selecting to transmit data using one of the plurality of random access channel resources based on the time period division information and the resource configuration information.

Further, the method further comprises:

continuously measuring path loss when transmitting data to the low earth orbit satellite;

determining time interval division information of the ground terminal based on the path loss;

reporting the time interval division information to the low earth orbit satellite;

Further, randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to transmit data based on the resource configuration information comprises:

randomly selecting one channel resource with larger frequency spectrum resource from the plurality of random access channel resources based on the resource configuration information;

copying data to be transmitted by beta₂After the duplication, the copied data to be sent are sent to the low earth orbit satellite by using the selected channel resource; wherein said beta₂Related to the ratio of spectrum resources between different random access channel resources.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication apparatus for low-orbit internet-of-things constellation, including:

the first configuration module is configured to configure a plurality of random access channel resources for the ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-earth orbit satellite, wherein the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on the path loss at the time period;

a first sending module, configured to send resource configuration information of the multiple random access channel resources to the ground terminal, so that the ground terminal randomly selects to use one of the multiple random access channel resources.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication apparatus for low-orbit constellation, including:

a second receiving module, configured to receive resource configuration information of a ground terminal from a low-earth orbit satellite, where the resource configuration information includes a plurality of random access channel resources that can be used by the ground terminal, where spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on a path loss at the time period;

a selection module configured to randomly select one of the plurality of random access channel resources to transmit data based on the resource configuration information.

The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a memory configured to store one or more computer instructions that enable the apparatus to perform the corresponding method, and a processor configured to execute the computer instructions stored in the memory. The apparatus may also include a communication interface for the apparatus to communicate with other devices or a communication network.

In a fifth aspect, the disclosed embodiments provide an electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory, wherein the processor executes the computer program to implement the method of any of the above aspects.

In a sixth aspect, the disclosed embodiments provide a computer-readable storage medium for storing computer instructions for use by any of the above apparatuses, the computer instructions, when executed by a processor, being configured to implement the method of any of the above aspects.

In a seventh aspect, the disclosed embodiments provide a computer program product comprising computer instructions, which when executed by a processor, are configured to implement the method of any one of the above aspects.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the disclosure can have the following beneficial effects:

in the communication method for the low-orbit internet of things constellation, aiming at the process that a ground terminal randomly accesses and sends uplink data, a visual cycle is divided from time and/or frequency in advance to obtain a plurality of random access channel resources, and resource configuration information of the plurality of random access channel resources is sent to the ground terminal in the area covered by a low-orbit satellite; after receiving the resource configuration information, the ground terminal may select one or more of the multiple random access channel resources for data transmission; because a plurality of random access channel resources divided by the low earth orbit satellite are different in time and/or frequency, and the power consumed when the ground terminal selects any one channel resource to transmit the data with the same size is close, the ground terminal can randomly select any one or more channels to transmit the data, thereby solving the problem that the data collision occurs because a plurality of ground terminals intensively select the time with smaller path loss to transmit the data in the prior art.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure.

Drawings

Other features, objects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description of non-limiting embodiments when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

fig. 1 shows a communication flow diagram for transmitting small data packets using 2-step random access in a 5G NR system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the variation of the maximum supportable data rate over the entire viewable window as disclosed in the prior art;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a flow chart of collision when a ground terminal selects a time with the maximum elevation angle to transmit a small data packet in a low-earth satellite communication system;

fig. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a communication method for a low-rail constellation of things according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a low earth orbit satellite constellation suitable for use with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a single low earth orbit satellite providing wireless access services to ground terminals to which embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable;

fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating channel resource division and data transmission effects in two time periods according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between three ground terminals transmitting pilots and resources according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 9 shows a flow diagram of a communication method for low-rail constellation of the internet of things according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device suitable for implementing a communication method for a low-orbit constellation of things according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily implement them. Also, for the sake of clarity, parts not relevant to the description of the exemplary embodiments are omitted in the drawings.

In the present disclosure, it is to be understood that terms such as "including" or "having," etc., are intended to indicate the presence of the disclosed features, numerals, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof in the specification, and do not preclude the possibility that one or more other features, numerals, steps, actions, components, parts, or combinations thereof are present or added.

It should be further noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present disclosure may be combined with each other without conflict. The present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings in conjunction with embodiments.

An important ground terminal of the low-earth satellite constellation service is a ground terminal of the internet of things, and the ground terminal of the type has the characteristics of low cost, low power consumption, small data volume and the like. Internet of things ground terminals are considered as an important application scenario of low earth orbit satellite communication, because monitoring devices in a large number of remote areas cannot utilize a ground cellular system to realize data return.

In the prior art, many related technical researches on ground terminals of the internet of things exist, and the characteristics of the ground terminals mainly include the following aspects:

1. narrow-band: the use of a narrower frequency band can reduce the manufacturing cost of the device and also reduce the power consumption when the device is operating.

2. Small data packet: by designing the special channel for the small data packet, the ground terminal of the Internet of things can better adapt to the transmission of the small data packet.

3. Mass access: the communication system of the internet of things also supports simultaneous access of massive ground terminals, so that a large number of related channel designs, transmission methods, waveform and multiple access technologies and the like are developed in a targeted manner.

In the 5G NR system defined by 3GPP, a 2-Step random access (2 Step random access) procedure is used to support small packet transmission. Fig. 1 shows a communication flow diagram for transmitting small data packets using 2-step random access in a 5GNR system. As shown in fig. 1, in step a, after a terminal (User Equipment, UE) sends a contention-based random access pilot to a next generation base station (gNB), the gNB directly sends a corresponding data packet for collision resolution to the UE through step B. The flow greatly shortens the traditional 4-Step random access flow (4 Step random access), so that the transmission delay and the power consumption overhead of the ground terminal of the internet of things can be greatly improved. The effective gain is further improved in low-orbit satellite communication, and because the low-orbit satellite is far away from the ground terminal, the one-way transmission delay of the signal is between milliseconds. Therefore, the 2-step random access method can save more time delay and power consumption in the low orbit satellite system than the 4-step random access method.

However, in the low-earth satellite communication system, the orbit of the low-earth satellite is relatively fixed, so the path loss of an internet of things terminal during the visual window of the low-earth satellite will go through a process from large to small and then from small to large. This phenomenon has been revealed by a great deal of research, and fig. 2 shows the maximum supported rate P disclosed in the prior art_TxSchematic of changes during the entire visual window. When the elevation angle lambda of the low-orbit satellite relative to the ground terminal reaches the maximum, the path loss between the low-orbit satellite and the ground terminal is the minimum, and the time is the time when the theoretical data rate between the low-orbit satellite and the ground terminal is the highest. Because the orbit of the low-earth orbit satellite has predictability, in an easier mode, the ground terminals of the internet of things all select the moment with the maximum elevation angle to send small data packets of the ground terminals of the internet of things. If the terminals of the internet of things in one area all use a 2-step random access method to send own data at the moment, it means that a random access channel will generate a large amount of collisions, and the transmission efficiency is greatly reduced.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating the collision when the ground terminal selects the time with the maximum elevation angle to transmit the small data packet in the low earth orbit satellite communication system. As shown in fig. 3, at time T1, since the elevation angles between the three ground terminals and the low-earth satellite are small, the path loss is large, and a large power overhead is required for transmitting uplink data. Therefore, all three ground terminals remain silent at time T1, and a corresponding Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) Channel is idle. And at the time of T2, the elevation angle between the ground terminal and the low-orbit satellite reaches the maximum, the path loss is minimum at the moment, and the three ground terminals all select the time of T2 to transmit uplink data so as to transmit equivalent data with the minimum power. Thus, the PRACH channel at time T2 will be occupied by three pilot signals and corresponding data signals. Although the ground terminal randomly selects the corresponding random access pilot channel resource and data channel resource, the collision probability is still greatly improved in the channel at the time of T2. Although the transmission failure caused by collision means retransmission of signals, each terrestrial terminal selects an optimal transmission opportunity, and as a result, all the terminals consume more energy and suffer longer delay, the phenomenon is caused by the predictability of the channel quality of the low-earth satellite, which does not exist in the traditional terrestrial cellular system, and therefore the problem is not solved in the past research. In the case where the number of one terminal is small, the above problem may not be serious. For an application scenario with a large amount of access requirements, a communication method for a low-earth-orbit satellite communication system is urgently needed to solve the problems of data collision among large amounts of ground terminals and longer time delay caused by data retransmission.

If one terrestrial terminal is forced to transmit uplink data at a time with a large path loss, for example, terrestrial terminal #1 is instructed through signaling to transmit random access pilot and data at time T1, then terrestrial terminal #1 will consume more energy. This means that the battery of terminal #1 will be drained faster than terrestrial terminals #2 and #3, and therefore this is not a fair strategy from a power perspective. Particularly, for the internet of things ground terminal, the design principle is to make all the internet of things ground terminals have the same battery life as much as possible.

For this reason, the present inventors have found that the ground terminal can transmit data of the same size with lower power consumption by performing spreading or repeated transmission in the time or frequency direction. The present disclosure therefore proposes a communication method for a low-orbit constellation of things, the method comprising: configuring a plurality of random access channel resources for a ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-orbit satellite; the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are set based on the path loss at the time intervals; and sending the resource configuration information of the plurality of random access channel resources to the ground terminal so that the ground terminal randomly selects and uses one of the plurality of random access channel resources. By the method, the low earth orbit satellite can configure channel resources aiming at the ground terminals in the covered area, the configured channel resources are divided into a plurality of different channel resources from two dimensions of time and frequency by a satellite visual window, and then the ground terminals randomly select one or more of the channel resources to carry out channel access, and the plurality of random access channel resources are divided on the principle that the power consumed by the ground terminals when the ground terminals use different channel resources to send data with the same size is close to each other, so that the power consumed by the ground terminals to select any one channel resource to access the channel has small difference after receiving the resource configuration information of the low earth orbit satellite, the situation that the ground terminals in the same area select one or more of the channel resources in a centralized manner cannot be caused, the problem of data collision among the ground terminals in the low earth orbit satellite communication is solved, and the data transmission efficiency is further improved.

The details of the embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments.

Fig. 4 illustrates a flow chart of a communication method for low-rail constellation of the internet of things according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 3, the communication method for low-orbit constellation includes the following steps:

in step S401, configuring a plurality of random access channel resources for a ground terminal in an area covered by a current low-earth satellite; the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are set based on the path loss at the time intervals;

in step S402, the resource configuration information of the multiple random access channel resources is sent to the ground terminal, so that the ground terminal randomly selects one of the multiple random access channel resources for use.

In this embodiment, the current low-earth satellite is any one low-earth satellite in the low-earth satellite communication system, and the ground terminal is one or more ground terminals in an area covered by a beam of the current low-earth satellite.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a low earth orbit satellite constellation to which the embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable. As shown in fig. 5, the low orbit satellite constellation employs a simple Walker Polar constellation. The constellation includes a plurality of orbits, each orbit having a plurality of low orbit satellites orbiting thereon, the orbits meeting near north and south locations. The low earth orbit satellite provides wireless access services to ground terminals within an area of the ground via a communication link. In which a single low earth satellite remains mobile relative to the ground and therefore the area covered by it changes over time.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a single low earth orbit satellite providing wireless access service to a ground terminal to which an embodiment of the present disclosure is applicable. As shown in fig. 6, the ground terminal and the low-orbit satellite communicate bidirectionally through the service link, and the low-orbit satellite and the ground gateway station communicate bidirectionally through the feeder link. In addition, the ground gateway station also provides remote measurement and control services of the low-orbit satellite, communicates and controls a satellite-borne computer of the low-orbit satellite, and realizes the services of satellite operation such as temperature management, attitude adjustment, positioning and the like. The carrier frequency of a communication link between the low-earth satellite and the gateway station and between the low-earth satellite and the ground terminal can be wireless signals of KA, KU and V wave bands, and the low-earth satellite transmits and receives the wireless signals to the ground through beam forming realized by the phased array antenna array.

In some embodiments, the ground terminal may be any type of terminal. In other embodiments, the ground terminal may be a low cost, low power, low data, relatively fixed location device with respect to the ground, and such multiple ground terminals may require approximately the same power consumption over the same time frame. For example, the ground terminal may be an internet of things ground terminal.

In some embodiments, the internet of things ground terminal is based on a 2-step random access method when transmitting uplink data to the low-orbit satellite through the channel resource. The 2-step random access method may be referred to the description of fig. 1 above, and is not described herein again.

In some embodiments, the communication method for the low-earth constellation proposed by the embodiment of the present disclosure is applied to a low-earth satellite, the current low-earth satellite may be a satellite currently running the communication method for the low-earth constellation proposed by the embodiment of the present disclosure, and the visible period of the current low-earth satellite may be understood as a channel period during which the current low-earth satellite communicates with a ground terminal in a coverage area of the current low-earth satellite on a PRACH channel in a low-earth satellite communication system. It will be appreciated that the visibility period may be different at different times, since the low earth orbit satellites remain mobile relative to the ground. As shown in fig. 2, in the prior art, during the visible period of the current low-orbit satellite, the ground terminals in the coverage area of the current low-orbit satellite select to transmit uplink data to the current low-orbit satellite at the time when the current low-orbit satellite operates to the maximum elevation angle based on the minimum path loss, however, if the ground terminals in the coverage area of the current low-orbit satellite all select the maximum elevation angle to transmit uplink data to the current low-orbit satellite in the minimum path loss manner, the uplink bits of a plurality of ground terminals arrive at the current low-orbit satellite in the same time period, which results in data collision, the low-orbit satellite cannot correctly analyze the uplink data of each ground terminal, and further, data retransmission, data loss and the like are required, and finally, the data transmission efficiency is low. However, if some ground terminals are forced to transmit uplink data at a time point with a large path loss by configuration, this will result in that some ground terminals need to consume more power to transmit data, and if the ground terminals are similar networking ground terminals, this will result in that the battery of some internet of things ground terminals will be drained faster than other internet of things ground terminals, which is contrary to the design principle of the internet of things device.

Therefore, in the low-orbit satellite, the PRACH channel in the visible period is divided from two dimensions of time and/or frequency to obtain a plurality of random access channel resources, and resource configuration information is generated based on the division result, and the resource configuration information may be issued by the low-orbit satellite to a ground terminal in a covered area, so that the ground terminal may randomly select one or more of the plurality of random access channel resources for data communication, for example, may send a random access pilot and uplink data. It should be noted that the plurality of random access channel resources may not be contiguous in time and frequency.

In some embodiments, the time and/or frequency of the multiple random access channel resources may be different, and the spectrum resources of the multiple random access channel resources are set based on the path loss of the time period in which the multiple random access channel resources are located, for example, for a channel resource corresponding to a time period with a large path loss, a wider frequency band or a longer time may be allocated, so that when the ground terminal selects the channel resource for data transmission, the ground terminal transmits the random access pilot and the uplink data in a spread spectrum or repeated transmission manner, and for a channel resource corresponding to a time period with a small path loss, a narrower frequency band or a shorter time may be allocated, so that the ground terminal transmits the random access pilot and the uplink data without spreading or repeated transmission when the ground terminal selects the channel resource.

In some embodiments, the low earth orbit satellite remains mobile relative to the ground, and the ground terminals within the coverage area of the low earth orbit satellite beams have different elevation angles from the low earth orbit satellite at different times, and thus have different average path losses for transmitting data to the low earth orbit satellite at different times. Based on this, the low earth orbit satellite can allocate different channel resources in different time periods, and the spectrum resources of the different channel resources are set based on the path loss of the time period in which the spectrum resources are located. It can be understood that the spectrum resource of the channel resource is set based on the path loss of the time period in which the channel resource is located, and the purpose is to achieve that when any one of the channel resources is randomly selected by any one of the ground terminals in the coverage area of the low-orbit satellite beam to transmit data of the same size, the consumed path losses are close.

In some embodiments, the setting of the spectrum resources of the channel resources may be set based on the following conditions: the power difference consumed when the same ground terminal or different ground terminals select different random access channels to transmit data packets with the same data volume is within a preset range, and the preset range can be set to be smaller, so that the power consumed when each ground terminal randomly selects one random access channel to transmit data with the same size is similar.

Suppose that a time interval T is selected before and after the maximum elevation angle of the low-orbit satellite_d1The period is taken as the first resource period of the ground terminal, and the average path loss in the period is denoted as PL_Optimum. At this time, if one ground terminal sends uplink data, the corresponding uplink transmitting power is recorded as PT_OptimumAt T_d1Selecting another time interval T from other time intervals_d2The average path loss in this period is denoted as PL₂And are each and every

At this time, if the same data packet is to be sent, the uplink transmission power required by the ground terminal is:

PT₂＝β₂PT_Optimum

that is, the ground terminal requires more power. The spread spectrum transmission theory shows that under coherent demodulation, if a signal uses a spreading factor N at the transmitting end, N times of processing gain will be obtained at the receiving end, which means that the power overhead can be reduced by using more resources. Suppose a low earth orbit satellite is in time period T_d2Internally allocated channel resource R_d2Comparative optimum T_d1Channel resource R allocated in time period_d1Satisfies the following conditions:

it may be achieved that the terrestrial terminal consumes the same power for transmitting the same data in both time periods.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the multiple random access channel resources are obtained by dividing in the following manner:

and dividing the channel in the visual period of the current low-orbit satellite from two dimensions of time and frequency.

In this alternative implementation, the entire channel resources in the current low-orbit satellite visibility period may be divided from two dimensions of time and frequency, so that the time or frequency of different channel resources in the divided multiple random access channel resources is different.

In some embodiments, the current low earth orbit satellite may also divide the visible cycle into a plurality of different time periods, with channel resources between different time periods differing in both frequency and/or time dimensions, and channel resources within the same time period may be the same or different in frequency and/or time.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, step S401, that is, the step of configuring multiple random access channel resources for the ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-earth satellite, further includes the following steps:

dividing a plurality of different time periods based on the size of the elevation angle of the current low-orbit satellite relative to the ground terminal at different moments;

and configuring different random access channel resources in different time periods based on the average path loss when the ground terminal sends data to the current low-orbit satellite in different time periods so that the ground terminal can select and use the corresponding random access channel resources from the corresponding time periods.

In this optional implementation manner, the current low-orbit satellite may divide multiple different time periods based on the size of the elevation angle between the current low-orbit satellite and the ground terminal, and the ground terminal sends average path loss of data to the low-orbit satellite in the multiple different time periods, and different channel resources are configured in the different time periods, so that the power consumed when the ground terminal randomly selects one channel resource to send the same data amount in the corresponding time period is close to each other, for example, the power difference is within a preset range.

It should be noted that the channel resources in different time periods are different in time and/or frequency, and the channel resources in the same time period may be the same in time and frequency, or may be different in time and frequency; whether the channel resources are in the same time period or in different time periods, the principle to be followed is that the power consumed by different terrestrial terminals or the same terrestrial terminal to transmit the same data amount by using any one channel resource is close.

Fig. 7 illustrates a diagram of channel resource division and data transmission effects in two time periods according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 7, assume β₂=2, i.e. in period T_d2The power consumed in transmitting the same amount of data using the same size of channel resources is a period T _d12 times of the total weight of the powder. Thus, in the period T_d2The allocated spectrum resources may be in a time period T_d1Inner 2 times. Ground terminal #1 at configured T_d2And T_d1Randomly selects T from PRACH resources in the block_d1Using a 2-step random access method to send uplink data; ground terminal #2 at configured T_d2And T_d1Randomly selects T from PRACH resource in inner_d2The second resource in (2) transmits uplink data by using a 2-step random access method; ground terminal #3 at configured T_d2And T_d1Randomly selects T from PRACH resources in the block_d2The first resource in (1) transmits uplink data by using a 2-step random access method; at this time, the three ground terminals use the close uplink power to transmit the random access pilot and the uplink data, and avoid the occurrence of collision in the same resource.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the method further includes the following steps:

In this optional implementation manner, the area division information includes a plurality of sub-areas into which the area covered by the beam of the current low-earth satellite is divided, and time period division information corresponding to the ground terminal in each sub-area. Because the current low-orbit satellite moves relative to the ground, the elevation angles between the current low-orbit satellite and the same ground terminal are different at different moments, so that different time periods can be divided for the ground terminals in different sub-areas, and different channel resources are configured in different time periods. The ground terminal can determine the sub-region based on the position information of the ground terminal, and randomly select the channel resources in the corresponding time period according to the time period division information and the resource configuration information in the sub-region. In this manner, the ground terminal may have positioning capabilities, i.e., be able to determine its own location information.

Assuming that the orbit of a low earth orbit satellite is 500km and the elevation angle relative to a ground terminal is 30 to 60 degrees, the distance difference between the two is about 30 meters, and the path loss is about 4dB difference between the highest position and the lowest position according to the free space fading model. Therefore, dividing the whole visual cycle into equal 3 parts, and setting β =2 at both ends except the center segment can satisfy that the ground terminal can transmit the data packets of the same size with closer power consumption by using the configured uplink resource at any time.

receiving the reported information of the ground terminal; the reported information comprises resource configuration information obtained by calculating through continuously measuring the path loss of data sent to the low earth orbit satellite by the ground terminal;

step S401, namely, a step of configuring multiple random access channel resources for the ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-earth orbit satellite, further includes the following steps:

and configuring a plurality of random access channel resources for the ground terminal based on the reported information.

In this optional implementation, if the ground terminal does not have a positioning capability, for example, the ground terminal of the internet of things does not have a positioning capability due to the consideration of the manufacturing cost, the time period cannot be divided by the location-based method in the previous embodiment, and at this time, the ground terminal may automatically calculate a plurality of transmission resources according to the method for continuously measuring the path loss, and report the transmission resources to the low-earth satellite through signaling. Because the relative mobility of the internet of things equipment is small, one resource can be periodically and randomly selected from the plurality of selected resources to send uplink data after one report.

After continuously measuring the path loss when the ground terminal sends data to the low-orbit satellite at different moments, the ground terminal can divide the visual cycle of the low-orbit satellite into different time periods according to the path loss, and then report the time period division information divided into the different time periods to the low-orbit satellite. In some embodiments, the different time periods may be divided based on the principle that the path loss difference at each time in the same time period is within a certain range.

In the above example, assuming that the orbit of a low-orbit satellite is 500km, the ground terminal measures the path loss of the low-orbit satellite within the whole visible period of the low-orbit satellite by about 4dB between the highest position and the lowest position. Therefore, the entire visible period can be divided into 3 equal parts, and β =2 is set at both ends except for the center segment, so that the ground terminal can transmit the data packets of the same size with relatively close power consumption by using the configured uplink resources at any time. The ground terminal reports the resource allocation information to the low earth orbit satellite, so that the low earth orbit satellite can allocate a plurality of random access channel resources for the ground terminal based on the resource allocation information, and the ground terminal can randomly select any one of the plurality of random access channel resources allocated by the low earth orbit satellite to send random uplink pilot frequency and uplink data.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the random access channel resources in different time periods are different in time and/or frequency; the random access channel resources within the same time period are different in time and/or frequency.

In this alternative implementation, after the time period is divided, a plurality of random access channel resources may be configured in the same time period, and the frequency bandwidth and/or the time length of each channel resource may be the same or different, while the frequency bandwidth and/or the time length of the channel resources configured in different time periods may be different, and the ratio of the frequency bandwidths of different time periods is related to the ratio of the power consumed for transmitting the same amount of data in the two time periods mentioned above.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between three ground terminals transmitting pilots and resources according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 8, the ground terminal is in a time period T_d2The corresponding channel resource is obtained by copying the random access pilot frequency (or uplink data) by beta₂And sending the data in a multiplied mode. Wherein, the ground terminal #1 duplicates the pilot frequency 1 selected randomly twice and transmits the duplicated pilot frequency on the corresponding channel resource; the ground terminal #2 duplicates the pilot 10 selected at random twice and transmits it on the corresponding channel resource; ground terminal #3 transmits pilot 20 selected at random on the corresponding channel resource.

In some embodiments, if the ratio of the power consumed for transmitting the same amount of data in two time periods is not an integer, the ratio may be obtained by rounding up, and the random access pilot multiplied by the ratio is copied and then transmitted on the corresponding channel resource.

Fig. 9 illustrates a flow diagram of a communication method for a low-rail constellation of things according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 9, the communication method for low-orbit constellation includes the following steps:

in step S901, resource allocation information of a current ground terminal is received from a low-earth satellite; the resource configuration information comprises a plurality of random access channel resources which can be used by the ground terminal, wherein the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are set based on the path loss at the time intervals;

in step S902, one of the plurality of random access channel resources is randomly selected to be used for transmitting data based on the resource configuration information.

In this embodiment, the ground terminal may be any ground terminal that needs to communicate with a low earth orbit satellite, where the low earth orbit satellite is one of the low earth orbit satellites in the low earth orbit satellite communication system, and the ground terminal is currently covered by a beam of the low earth orbit satellite.

In some embodiments, the ground terminal may be any type of terminal. In other embodiments, the ground terminal may be a low cost, low power, low data, relatively fixed location device with respect to the ground, and such multiple ground terminals may require approximately the same power consumption over the same time frame. For example, the terrestrial terminal may be an internet of things terrestrial terminal.

In some embodiments, the internet of things ground terminal is based on a 2-step random access method when transmitting uplink data to the low earth orbit satellite through the channel resource. The 2-step random access method may be referred to the description of fig. 1 above, and is not described herein again.

In some embodiments, the communication method for the low-earth-orbit constellation of the present disclosure is applied to a ground terminal, and the current ground terminal may be a ground terminal currently running the communication method for the low-earth-orbit constellation of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 2, in the prior art, during the visible period of the low-earth orbit satellite, the ground terminals in the coverage area of the low-earth orbit satellite select to transmit the uplink data to the low-earth orbit satellite at the time when the low-earth orbit satellite operates to the maximum elevation angle based on the minimum path loss, however, if the ground terminals in the coverage area of the low-earth orbit satellite all select the maximum elevation angle to transmit the uplink data to the low-earth orbit satellite in the minimum path loss manner, the uplink bits of a plurality of ground terminals reach the low-earth orbit satellite in the same time period, which results in data collision, the low-earth orbit satellite cannot correctly analyze the uplink data of each ground terminal, and further needs data retransmission, data loss, and the like, and finally results in low data transmission efficiency. However, if some ground terminals are forced to transmit uplink data at a time point with a large path loss by configuration, this will result in that some ground terminals need to consume more power to transmit data, and if the ground terminals are similar networking ground terminals, this will result in that the battery of some internet of things ground terminals will be drained faster than other internet of things ground terminals, which is contrary to the design principle of the internet of things device.

Therefore, in the low orbit satellite, the PRACH channel in the visible period is divided from two dimensions of time and/or frequency to obtain a plurality of random access channel resources, and resource configuration information is generated based on the division result, where the resource configuration information may be issued by the low orbit satellite to a ground terminal in a covered area, and after receiving the resource configuration information, the ground terminal randomly selects one or more of the random access channel resources to send a random access pilot or uplink data to the low orbit satellite. It should be noted that the plurality of random access channel resources may not be contiguous in time and frequency.

In some embodiments, the low earth orbit satellite remains mobile relative to the ground, and the elevation angle of the earth terminals within the area covered by the low earth orbit satellite beam differs from that of the low earth orbit satellite at different times, and thus the average path loss of the earth terminals transmitting data to the low earth orbit satellite at different times. Based on the above, the low earth orbit satellite can allocate different channel resources to the ground terminal in different time periods, and the spectrum resources of the different channel resources are set based on the path loss of the time period in which the different channel resources are located. It can be understood that the spectrum resources of the channel resources are set based on the path loss of the time period in which the channel resources are located, and the purpose is to achieve that when any one of the channel resources is randomly selected by any one of the ground terminals in the coverage area of the low-earth satellite beam to transmit data of the same size, the consumed path losses are close.

PT₂＝β₂PT_Optimum

that is, the ground terminal requires more power. The spread spectrum transmission theory shows that under coherent demodulation, if a signal uses a spreading factor N at the transmitting end, N times of processing gain will be obtained at the receiving end, which means that the power overhead can be reduced by using more resources. Suppose a low-orbit satellite is in time period T_d2Internally allocated channel resource R_d2Comparative optimum T_d1Channel resource R allocated in time period_d1Satisfies the following conditions:

it can be achieved that the ground terminal consumes the same power to transmit the same data in both time periods.

In the communication method for the low-orbit internet of things constellation, aiming at the process that a ground terminal randomly accesses and sends uplink data, a low-orbit satellite divides a visual period from time and/or frequency in advance to obtain a plurality of random access channel resources, and sends resource configuration information of the plurality of random access channel resources to the ground terminal in the coverage area of the low-orbit satellite; after receiving the resource configuration information, the ground terminal may select one or more of the multiple random access channel resources for data transmission; because a plurality of random access channel resources divided by the low earth orbit satellite are different in time and/or frequency, and the power consumed when the ground terminal selects any one channel resource to transmit the data with the same size is close, the ground terminal can randomly select any one or more channels to transmit the data, thereby solving the problem that the data collision occurs because a plurality of ground terminals intensively select the time with smaller path loss to transmit the data in the prior art.

In this alternative implementation, the entire channel resources in the current low-earth orbit satellite visibility period may be divided from two dimensions of time and frequency, so that the time or frequency of different channel resources is different in the divided multiple random access channel resources.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the random access channel resources located in different time periods are configured based on a power ratio consumed by the ground terminal when transmitting data of the same size to the low earth orbit satellite in corresponding time periods.

In this alternative implementation, as described above, the elevation angle with the ground terminal at different times is different in magnitude due to the movement of the low-orbit satellite relative to the ground. The terrestrial terminals may consume different amounts of power at different times to transmit the same amount of data to the low earth orbit satellite. In order to make the power consumed by the same terminal transmitting the same amount of data to the low-earth satellite at different times or different terminals located at different positions at the same time be close, the low-earth satellite divides the visible period into different time periods and configures different channel resources in the different time periods, and the configuration of the channel resources can be based on the ratio of the power consumed by the ground terminals transmitting the same amount of data in the different time periods. For example, the power consumed by the first time period is 2 times that consumed by the second time period, the channel resource configured in the first time period is 2 times that configured in the second time period in time or frequency. If the ratio of powers is not an integer, the ratio of powers may be rounded up.

the step S902 of randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to use for transmitting data based on the resource configuration information further includes the following steps:

randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to transmit data based on the time period division information and the resource configuration information.

In this optional implementation manner, the area division information includes a plurality of sub-areas into which the area covered by the beam of the current low-earth satellite is divided, and time period division information corresponding to the ground terminal in each sub-area. Because the current low-orbit satellite moves relative to the ground, the elevation angles between the current low-orbit satellite and the same ground terminal are different at different moments, so that different time periods can be divided for the ground terminals in different sub-areas, and different channel resources are configured in different time periods. The ground terminal can determine the sub-region based on the position information of the ground terminal, and randomly select channel resources in the corresponding time period according to the time period division information and the resource configuration information in the sub-region. In this way, the ground terminal may have a positioning capability, i.e., may be able to determine its own location information.

Assuming that the orbit of a low earth orbit satellite is 500km and the elevation angle relative to a ground terminal is 30 to 60 degrees, the distance difference between the two is about 30 meters, and the path loss is about 4dB difference between the highest position and the lowest position according to the free space fading model. Therefore, dividing the whole visible period into equal 3 parts, and setting β =2 at both ends except the center segment can satisfy that the ground terminal can transmit the data packets of the same size with relatively close power consumption by using the configured uplink resources at any time.

transmitting area division information to the ground terminal within the current low-earth-orbit satellite coverage area so that the ground terminal determines a selectable time period based on the area division information.

In this optional implementation, because the current low-orbit satellite moves relative to the ground, the elevation angles between the current low-orbit satellite and the same ground terminal are different at different times, so that different time periods can be divided for the ground terminals in different areas, and different channel resources are configured at different time periods. And the ground terminal can determine the area and the channel resources in the corresponding time period selected for the configuration information in the area based on the position information of the ground terminal. In this way, the ground terminal may have a positioning capability, i.e., may be able to determine its own location information.

determining time-interval division information of the ground terminal based on the path loss;

reporting the time interval division information to the low-orbit satellite;

the step S902, namely the step of randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to use for transmitting data based on the resource configuration information, further comprises the steps of:

In this optional implementation manner, if the ground terminal does not have a positioning capability, for example, the ground terminal of the internet of things does not have a positioning capability due to the consideration of the manufacturing cost, the time period cannot be divided by the location-based method in the previous embodiment, and at this time, the ground terminal may calculate a plurality of transmission resources by itself according to the method of continuously measuring the path loss, and report the transmission resources to the low earth orbit satellite through signaling. Because the relative mobility of the internet of things equipment is small, one resource can be periodically and randomly selected from the selected multiple resources to send uplink data after one-time reporting.

In the above example, assuming that the orbit of a low-orbit satellite is 500km, the ground terminal measures the path loss of the low-orbit satellite within the whole visible period of the low-orbit satellite by about 4dB between the highest position and the lowest position. Therefore, the whole visual cycle can be divided into equal 3 parts, and the setting of β =2 at the two ends except the center segment can satisfy the requirement that the ground terminal can transmit the data packets of the same size with closer power consumption by using the configured uplink resources at any time. The ground terminal reports the resource allocation information to the low earth orbit satellite, so that the low earth orbit satellite can allocate a plurality of random access channel resources for the ground terminal based on the resource allocation information, and the ground terminal can randomly select any one of the plurality of random access channel resources allocated by the low earth orbit satellite to send random uplink pilot frequency and uplink data.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, randomly selecting one of the multiple random access channel resources to use for transmitting data based on the resource configuration information includes:

copying data to be transmitted by beta₂After the copying, sending the copied data to be sent to the low-earth orbit satellite by using the selected channel resource; wherein said beta is₂Related to the ratio of spectrum resources between different random access channel resources.

In this optional embodiment, when the low-earth satellite configures the channel resource, the low-earth satellite configures the channel resource based on power consumed when the ground terminal sends data of the same size to the low-earth satellite in different time periods, and the ratio of the spectrum resource size of the configured different channel resource to the power corresponding to the time period in which the channel resource is located is related. For example, the size of the spectrum resource of the channel resource in two time periods is proportional to the ratio of the power.

After the ground terminal selects the channel resources in the corresponding time period, in order to achieve a better transmission effect, the data to be transmitted may be copied to β when the frequency spectrum resources are large₂After multiplying, the transmission is carried out, the beta₂May be related to the ratio of spectrum resources (or the ratio of powers corresponding to the time period in which the channel resources are located) between different channel resources, e.g., the beta₂The ratio of the spectrum resources between different channel resources (or the ratio of the powers corresponding to the time periods of the channel resources) may be obtained, and if the ratio of the spectrum resources between different channel resources (or the ratio of the powers corresponding to the time periods of the channel resources) is not an integer, the integer is rounded up to obtain β₂。

The following are embodiments of the disclosed apparatus that may be used to perform embodiments of the disclosed methods.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the communication apparatus for low-orbit constellation of things may be implemented as part or all of an electronic device through software, hardware or a combination of the two. The communication device for low-orbit constellation includes:

a first configuration module configured to configure a plurality of random access channel resources for ground terminals within a coverage area of a current low-earth orbit satellite; the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time intervals are set based on the path loss at the time intervals;

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the first configuration module includes:

a partitioning submodule configured to partition a plurality of different time periods based on an elevation angle size of the current low-earth satellite with respect to the ground terminal at different time instants;

and the first sending submodule is configured to configure different random access channel resources in different time periods based on the average path loss when the ground terminal sends data to the current low-earth orbit satellite in the different time periods, so that the ground terminal selects to use the corresponding random access channel resources from the corresponding time period.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the apparatus further includes:

a second transmitting module configured to transmit area division information to the ground terminal within the current low-earth satellite coverage area so that the ground terminal determines the selectable time period based on the area division information.

the first receiving module is configured to receive the report information of the ground terminal; the reported information comprises path loss obtained by the ground terminal through continuous measurement by sending data to the low-orbit satellite;

a first determining module configured to determine time-division information of the ground terminal based on the reported information, so that the ground terminal can select a selectable time period based on the time-division information.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the power gap consumed when the ground terminal uses different random access channel resources to transmit data of the same size is within a preset range.

The communication device for the low-rail constellation in this embodiment corresponds to the communication method for the low-rail constellation in the embodiment and the related embodiment shown in fig. 4, and specific details may refer to the above description of the embodiment and the related embodiment shown in fig. 4, and are not described again here.

a second receiving module configured to receive resource configuration information of the ground terminal from the low-earth satellite; the resource configuration information comprises a plurality of random access channel resources which can be used by the ground terminal, wherein the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on the path loss at the time period;

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the random access channel resources located in different time periods are configured based on a power ratio consumed by the terrestrial terminal when transmitting data of the same size to the low earth orbit satellite in the corresponding time period.

a third receiving module configured to receive the region division information transmitted by the low earth orbit satellite;

a second determining module configured to determine time-interval division information corresponding to the ground terminal based on the region division information and the position of the ground terminal;

the selection module comprises:

a first selection submodule configured to randomly select to transmit data using one of the plurality of random access channel resources based on the time period division information and the resource configuration information.

a measurement module configured to continuously measure a path loss when transmitting data to the low earth orbit satellite;

a third determination module configured to determine time division information for the ground terminal based on the path loss;

a reporting module configured to report the time interval division information to the low earth orbit satellite;

the selection module comprises:

a second selection submodule configured to randomly select one of the plurality of random access channel resources to transmit data based on the time period division information and the resource configuration information.

In another optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the random access channel resources in different time periods are different in time and/or frequency; the random access channel resources within the same time period differ in time and/or frequency.

In an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the selecting module includes:

a third selecting submodule configured to randomly select one channel resource with larger spectrum resource from the plurality of random access channel resources based on the resource configuration information;

a second transmission submodule configured to copy data to be transmitted by beta₂After the duplication, the copied data to be sent are sent to the low earth orbit satellite by using the selected channel resource; wherein said beta₂Related to the ratio of spectrum resources between different random access channel resources.

The communication device for the low-rail constellation with internet of things in this embodiment corresponds to the communication method for the low-rail constellation with internet of things in the embodiment and related embodiments shown in fig. 9, and specific details may refer to the description of the embodiment and related embodiments shown in fig. 9, and are not described herein again.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device suitable for implementing a communication method for a low-orbit constellation of things according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 10, the electronic device 1000 comprises a processing unit 1001, which may be implemented as a CPU, GPU, FPGA, NPU, or the like processing unit. The processing unit 1001 may execute various processes in the embodiment of any one of the methods described above of the present disclosure according to a program stored in a Read Only Memory (ROM) 1002 or a program loaded from a storage section 1008 into a Random Access Memory (RAM) 1003. In the RAM1003, various programs and data necessary for the operation of the electronic apparatus 1000 are also stored. The processing unit 1001, the ROM1002, and the RAM1003 are connected to each other by a bus 1004. An input/output (I/O) interface 1005 is also connected to bus 1004.

The following components are connected to the I/O interface 1005: an input section 1006 including a keyboard, a mouse, and the like; an output section 1007 including a display such as a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), and the like, and a speaker; a storage portion 1008 including a hard disk and the like; and a communication portion 1009 including a network interface card such as a LAN card, a modem, or the like. The communication section 1009 performs communication processing via a network such as the internet. A drive 1010 is also connected to the I/O interface 1005 as necessary. A removable medium 1011 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like is mounted on the drive 1010 as necessary, so that a computer program read out therefrom is mounted into the storage section 1008 as necessary.

In particular, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, any of the methods described above with reference to embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented as a computer software program. For example, embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer program product comprising a computer program tangibly embodied on a machine-readable medium, the computer program comprising program code for performing any of the methods of the embodiments of the present disclosure. In such embodiments, the computer program may be downloaded and installed from a network through the communication section 1009 and/or installed from the removable medium 1011.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems which perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The units or modules described in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by software or hardware. The units or modules described may also be provided in a processor, and the names of the units or modules do not in some cases constitute a limitation of the units or modules themselves.

As another aspect, the present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which may be the computer-readable storage medium included in the apparatus in the above embodiment; or it may be a separate computer readable storage medium not incorporated into the device. The computer readable storage medium stores one or more programs for use by one or more processors in performing the methods described in the present disclosure.

The foregoing description is only exemplary of the preferred embodiments of the disclosure and is illustrative of the principles of the technology employed. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the scope of the invention in the present disclosure is not limited to the specific combination of the above-mentioned features, but also encompasses other embodiments in which any combination of the above-mentioned features or their equivalents is possible without departing from the inventive concept. For example, the above features and the technical features disclosed in the present disclosure (but not limited to) having similar functions are replaced with each other to form the technical solution.

Claims

1. A method of communication for a low-rail constellation of things, comprising:

configuring a plurality of random access channel resources for a ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-earth orbit satellite, wherein the frequency spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the frequency spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on the path loss at the time periods;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of random access channel resources are partitioned as follows:

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein configuring a plurality of random access channel resources for the ground terminals in the coverage area of the current low-earth satellite comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

and determining time interval division information of the ground terminal based on the reported information so that the ground terminal can select the selectable time interval based on the time interval division information.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-2, 4-5, wherein the random access channel resources in different time periods are different in time and/or frequency; the random access channel resources within the same time period differ in time and/or frequency.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the difference in power consumed by the terrestrial terminals transmitting data of the same size using different random access channel resources is within a predetermined range.

8. A communication method for low-orbit IoT constellation is applied to a ground terminal, and is characterized by comprising the following steps:

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of random access channel resources are partitioned as follows:

10. The method of claim 8 or 9, wherein the random access channel resources located in different time periods are configured based on a ratio of power consumed by the terrestrial terminal when transmitting data of the same size to the low earth orbit satellite in the corresponding time period.

11. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the method further comprises:

12. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the method further comprises:

randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to transmit data based on the resource configuration information, including:

13. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the random access channel resources in different time periods differ in time and/or frequency; the random access channel resources within the same time period differ in time and/or frequency.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein randomly selecting one of the plurality of random access channel resources to use for transmitting data based on the resource configuration information comprises:

copying data to be transmitted by beta₂After multiplying, the copied data to be sent is sent to the low-earth orbit satellite by using the selected channel resource, wherein the beta is₂Related to the ratio of spectrum resources between different random access channel resources.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the difference between power consumed by the terrestrial terminals for transmitting data of the same size using different random access channel resources is within a predetermined range.

16. A communications apparatus for a low-rail constellation of things, comprising:

the first configuration module is configured to configure a plurality of random access channel resources for the ground terminal in the coverage area of the current low-orbit satellite, wherein the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are different, and the spectrum resources of the random access channel resources at different time periods are set based on the path loss of the time period;

17. A communications apparatus for a low-rail constellation of things, comprising:

18. An electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory, wherein the processor executes the computer program to implement the method of any of claims 1-15.

19. A computer readable storage medium having computer instructions stored thereon, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any of claims 1-15.

20. A computer program product comprising computer instructions, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by a processor, implement the method of any one of claims 1-15.