CN120151869A

CN120151869A - Communication method, device and system

Info

Publication number: CN120151869A
Application number: CN202311703637.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王晓鲁; 罗禾佳; 孔垂丽; 于天航
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-12-12
Filing date: 2023-12-12
Publication date: 2025-06-13
Also published as: WO2025124277A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method, a device and a system, which relate to the field of communication, and the method comprises the steps of receiving first indication information from second network equipment, wherein the first indication information comprises first reference information, the first reference information is used for determining a first direction, the first direction is the direction of a reference beam in a first beam cluster, the beams in the first beam cluster meet a first beam relation, and the first beam relation is used for indicating the position relation among the beams in the first beam cluster; and pointing the reference beams in the first beam cluster to a first direction according to the first reference information. Based on the scheme, the first network device adjusts the directives of all beams in one beam cluster based on the beam relation corresponding to the beam cluster by indicating the directives of the reference beams in the beam cluster, so as to provide a condition for covering a specific area of a service area in the form of a narrow beam based on the beam cluster formed by a small number of beams.

Description

Communication method, device and system

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a communication method, device, and system.

Background

Non-terrestrial network (non-TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS, NTN) communication has the characteristics of large coverage area, flexible networking and the like, and can realize seamless coverage of a global network. The NTN can be used as a complementary technology of a ground network or an independent communication technology to provide global high-speed network access service for users.

The satellite communication system is an important component of NTN, and a satellite base station in the satellite communication system may serve as a network-controlled relay (NCR) node to forward data of a terrestrial base station to a user equipment. Since the NCR node only supports the predefined 64 beam indications, in order to ensure that the satellite station beam signals can cover the designated wave positions, the satellite station needs to cover the ground in a beam omni-directional coverage manner, that is, the 64 beams of the satellite station cover the ground in a wide beam form, and the signal energy of the wide beam is poorly concentrated, so that the signal-to-noise ratio of the access link established based on the beams is low, thereby reducing the service quality of the user equipment.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method, a communication device and a communication system, which enable a first network device to adjust the directives of all beams in one beam cluster based on the beam relation corresponding to the beam cluster by indicating the directives of reference beams in the beam cluster, thereby providing conditions for covering a specific area of a service area in the form of narrow beams based on the beam cluster formed by a small number of beams.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided that includes receiving first indication information from a second network device, the first indication information including first reference information for determining a first direction, the first direction being an orientation of reference beams in a first beam cluster, the beams in the first beam cluster satisfying a first beam relationship for indicating a positional relationship between the beams of the first beam cluster, and directing the reference beams in the first beam cluster to the first direction based on the first reference information.

For example, in the case where the first network device is a satellite station, the second network device may be a gateway station, which may integrate some or all of the functions of the base station, in which case the gateway station may be regarded as a base station.

For example, in the case where the first network device is a satellite station, the second network device may be a satellite station, and may integrate some or all of the functions of the base station, in which case the second network device may be regarded as a base station.

The first network device and the second network device may also be ground base stations, for example.

For example, the first indication information may be downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI), control Element (CE) signaling of media access control (medium access control, MAC), or radio resource control (radioresource control, RRC) signaling.

The reference beam may be, for example, any one of a predetermined or predefined beam in the first beam cluster.

The first beam relation may be information pre-stored in the first network device, or may be pre-configured by the second network device through control signaling.

For example, the beam widths of the respective beams in the first beam cluster indicated by the first beam relation may be the same or different.

Based on the technical scheme, the first network device can adjust the directives of all the beams in one beam cluster based on the beam relation corresponding to the beam cluster by indicating the directives of the reference beams in the beam cluster, so that the beam cluster can purposefully point to a specific area of a service area instead of blindly covering the whole direction of a certain service area, and therefore, based on the beam cluster formed by a small number of beams, the specific area of the service area can be covered in a narrow beam mode, and then the whole direction coverage of the service area can be realized based on the characteristic that the directives of the beam cluster are adjustable. And the communication link constructed based on the narrow beam is beneficial to improving the signal to noise ratio of the communication link between the relay nodes or between the relay nodes and the terminal equipment, thereby improving the service quality of the communication system as a whole.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the first indication information further includes at least one beam identifier, where the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and data is transmitted and received through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

For example, the service target of the first network device, that is, the object of receiving and transmitting data, may be a terminal device, or may be another relay node.

Based on the technical scheme, at least one beam identifier is added in the first indication information to indicate the first network device to send and receive data through part or all of the beams of the first beam cluster after determining the direction of the first beam cluster, so that flexibility of a communication method is improved, unnecessary communication overhead caused by providing data transmission service for an area without terminal devices can be avoided, and energy consumption of the first network device is saved.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first reference information is a reference beam direction, where the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is a longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is a wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

Based on the above technical solution, the direction of the reference beam in the first beam cluster can be indicated by direct or indirect indication. Preconditions are provided for the first network device to adjust the first beam cluster as a whole.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, in a case where the first reference information is a coordinate value, latitude, longitude, or wave position corresponding to the first reference point, the reference beam is aligned to the first reference point.

It should be appreciated that while adjusting the reference beam pointing direction as described above, other beams in the first beam cluster will also follow, so that the first beam cluster always satisfies the first beam relationship described above.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and a mapping relationship exists between the first index number and the first reference information.

Based on the above technical solution, since the first index number is only one index number, compared with the reference beam direction directly indicated or the first reference point position information directly indicated, the occupied data bits are fewer, so that the signaling overhead for transmitting the first indication information can be effectively saved.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first indication information further includes a first beam cluster identifier, where a mapping relationship exists between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

Based on the technical scheme, the configuration forms of the plurality of different beam clusters are defined, so that the scheme can instruct the first network device to dynamically adjust the beam configuration of the beam clusters according to different application scenes, is suitable for the different application scenes, and contributes to increasing the applicability of the scheme.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first beam relationship includes a number of beams in the first beam cluster, a beam width, and a positional relationship between the beams.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first capability information is sent to the second network device, where the first capability information includes at least one of a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously send, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, where the physical feature includes a beam pointing and a beam width.

Based on the technical scheme, the first network device feeds back the first capability information to the second network device, so that parameters such as a beam cluster indicated by the first indication information of the second network device, a transmitting direction corresponding to a certain beam in the beam cluster and the like can be effectively prevented from exceeding the capability range of the first network device, and control failure of the second network device is caused.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, the method including determining first indication information including first reference information for determining a first direction, the first direction being an orientation of reference beams in a first beam cluster, the beams in the first beam cluster satisfying a first beam relationship for indicating a positional relationship between the beams of the first beam cluster, and transmitting the first indication information to a first network device.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first indication information further includes at least one beam identifier, where the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and the first indication information is used to indicate that data is transceived through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first reference information is a reference beam direction, where the reference beam direction is used to indicate a first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is a longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is a wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and a mapping relationship exists between the first index number and the first reference information.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first indication information further includes a first beam cluster identifier, where a mapping relationship exists between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first beam relation includes a number of beams in the first beam cluster, a beam width, and a positional relation between the beams.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, first capability information from a first network device is received, where the first capability information includes at least one of a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously send, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, where the physical feature includes a beam pointing and a beam width, and determining first indication information according to the first capability information, where the first indication information corresponds to the first capability information.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, the apparatus including a receiving unit configured to receive first indication information from a second network device, the first indication information including first reference information for determining a first direction, the first direction being an orientation of reference beams in a first beam cluster, the beams in the first beam cluster satisfying a first beam relationship for indicating a positional relationship between the beams of the first beam cluster, and an operating unit configured to direct the reference beams in the first beam cluster in the first direction according to the first reference information.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first indication information further includes at least one beam identifier, where the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and the operation unit is further used to send and receive data through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first reference information is a reference beam direction, where the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is a longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is a wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, in a case where the first reference information is a coordinate value, latitude, longitude, or wave position corresponding to the first reference point, the operation unit is specifically configured to align the reference beam with the first reference point.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and a mapping relationship exists between the first index number and the first reference information.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first indication information further includes a first beam cluster identifier, where a mapping relationship exists between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first beam relationship includes a number of beams in the first beam cluster, a beam width, and a positional relationship between the beams.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the apparatus further includes a sending unit, configured to send first capability information to the second network device, where the first capability information includes at least one of a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can send simultaneously, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, where the physical feature includes beam pointing and beam width.

In a fourth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, the apparatus including a determining unit configured to determine first indication information, where the first indication information includes first reference information, where the first reference information is used to determine a first direction, where the first direction is an orientation of a reference beam in a first beam cluster, and beams in the first beam cluster satisfy a first beam relationship, where the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams in the first beam cluster, and a transmitting unit configured to transmit the first indication information to a first network device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the first indication information further includes at least one beam identifier, where the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and the first indication information is used to indicate that data is transmitted and received through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the first reference information is a reference beam direction, where the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is a longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is a wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and a mapping relationship exists between the first index number and the first reference information.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the first indication information further includes a first beam cluster identifier, where a mapping relationship exists between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the first beam relation includes a number of beams in the first beam cluster, a beam width, and a positional relation between the beams.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the apparatus further includes a receiving unit configured to receive first capability information from the first network device, where the first capability information includes at least one of a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously send, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, where the physical feature includes a beam pointing and a beam width, and the determining unit is specifically configured to determine, according to the first capability information, first indication information, where the first indication information corresponds to the first capability information.

In a fifth aspect, a network device is provided, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is connected to the memory, wherein the memory is configured to store program code, and the processor is configured to invoke the program code to perform the method in any of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first or second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a network device is provided, comprising a processor, wherein the processor is configured to execute program code to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first or second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a network device is provided, comprising a processor, a memory and a transceiver, wherein the memory is configured to store computer instructions, the transceiver is configured to receive signals from the memory and to send signals to the processor, the signals comprising computer instructions, the processor is configured to execute the computer instructions to perform the method in any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a network device comprising interface circuitry and a processor, the interface circuitry and the processor being interconnected by a line, the interface circuitry being arranged to receive a signal and to send the signal to the processor, the signal comprising computer instructions, the processor being arranged to execute the computer instructions to perform a method according to any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first or second aspects.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a network device comprising interface circuitry and logic circuitry interconnected by wires, the interface circuitry for receiving a signal and for transmitting a signal to the logic circuitry, the signal comprising computer instructions, the logic circuitry for executing the computer instructions to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first or second aspects.

In a tenth aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising a first network device for performing the method in any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first aspect and a second network device for performing the method in any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, a chip system is provided, the chip system being applied to an electronic device, the chip system comprising one or more interface circuits and one or more processors, the interface circuits and the processors being interconnected by wires, the interface circuits being adapted to receive signals from a memory of the electronic device and to send signals to the processors, the signals comprising computer instructions stored in the memory, the electronic device performing the method of any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first or second aspect when the processor executes the computer instructions.

In a twelfth aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided, storing a computer program or instructions for implementing the method in any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first or second aspects.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product, the computer program code or instructions, when executed on a computer, causing the computer to perform the method of any one of the possible implementations of the method designs of the first or second aspects described above.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an NCR node;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a relay solution;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a satellite communication system 300 suitable for use with embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a relay communication system with a satellite station as an NCR node;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a relay communication architecture suitable for use with embodiments of the present application;

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of yet another relay communication architecture suitable for use with embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 8 is a flow chart of a communication method 800 according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a beam pattern according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view illustrating a spatial angle between a first direction and a first plane according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a beam pattern of a beam cluster according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a communication method of multiple relay nodes according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1300 provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1400 provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In order to enlarge the ground coverage of the base station signal, it is generally considered to deploy a plurality of relay nodes on the ground to relay the data sent by the base station, so as to achieve the effect of enlarging the ground coverage of the base station signal. However, the conventional relay node generally has only functions of amplifying and forwarding, and has poor controllability. In order to enhance the functionality of the relay node, a scheme of adopting NCR as the relay node is proposed. And the network side sends corresponding control signaling to the NCR node so as to instruct the NCR node to forward data. Compared with the traditional relay node which can only perform amplifying and forwarding functions, the NCR node allows the network side to control, has stronger space directivity, and is beneficial to improving the service quality of data forwarding.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an NCR node architecture.

Referring to FIG. 1, an NCR node may include two modules, an NCR-mobile terminal (NCR-mobile termination, NCR-MT) and an NCR-repeater (NCR-forwarding, NCR-Fwd). Wherein the NCR-MT establishes a connection with a ground base station, such as a 5G base station (gNB), through a control link (control link), and the NCR-Fwd connects with the ground base station through a backhaul link (backhaul link) for forwarding data from the ground base station and forwarding the data to a User Equipment (UE) through an access link (ACCESS LINK).

Illustratively, the NCR node shown in fig. 1 may be a satellite station in a satellite communication system, and the ground base station shown in fig. 1 may be a gateway (gateway) station that may send control signaling to the satellite station to control the satellite station to adjust beam direction.

At this stage, manufacturers who produce NCR node devices typically provide the relay transmission system with a description of characteristics of access link beams, such as directions of beams transmitted by NCR nodes, beam widths, and beam coverage, before shipping.

In addition, the NCR node can support at most 64 directions of beam for access link communication, and the base station controlling the NCR node can instruct the NCR node to control the beam direction, beam width, etc. of the access link forwarding signal only by indicating the beam index number (beamindex) to the NCR node. It should be understood that the beam index number implies information such as beam direction and beam width. After the NCR node determines the information related to the wave beam, the direction and the wave beam width of the transmitting wave beam are adjusted, and then uplink or downlink data between the base station and the terminal equipment in the server covered by the wave beam are transmitted transparently through a return link and an access link.

But with the terrestrial relay scheme, there are also the following problems.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a relay solution.

Referring to fig. 2, the source base station may directly establish a communication link with the terminal device, and in the case where the source base station is far from the terminal device, a terrestrial relay scheme may be adopted, that is, the source base station and a plurality of relay nodes deployed on the ground establish a communication link from the source base station to the terminal device. In order to further expand the coverage area of the base station, in view of the characteristics of large coverage area, flexible networking and the like of NTN communication, an NTN-based relay scheme is proposed, that is, data forwarding can be performed by using a satellite station as a relay node.

The NTN communication includes networking by using devices such as an unmanned plane, a high-altitude platform, a satellite, and the like, and provides services such as data transmission, voice communication, and the like for the UE. For convenience of description, the present application will be described by taking a satellite as a main device for NTN communication as an example.

In a satellite-based communication system, a satellite base station may act as an NCR node forwarding data from a terrestrial base station to a user equipment. It should be noted that the embodiments of the present application may also be applicable to a terrestrial communication system. I.e. the ground base station may also act as NCR node, forwarding data from other ground base stations to the user equipment. For convenience of description, the embodiment of the application will mainly be described with a satellite communication system as a main application scenario.

Fig. 3 is a schematic architecture diagram of a satellite communication system 300 suitable for use in embodiments of the application.

The technical scheme of the application can be applied to a satellite communication system. Referring to fig. 3, a satellite communication system 300 is generally comprised of three parts, a space segment, a ground segment, and a user segment.

By way of example, satellite communication systems can be classified into three types, a geostationary orbit (geostationary earth orbit, GEO) satellite communication system, also known as a geostationary orbit satellite communication system, a medium earth orbit (medium earth orbit, MEO) satellite communication system, and a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication system, depending on the orbit altitude of the satellites. The GEO satellite orbit has a altitude of 35786km, which has the main advantages of keeping stationary relative to the ground and providing a large coverage area. However, GEO satellite communication also has the obvious defects that the GEO satellite orbit is far away from the earth, free space propagation loss is large, communication link budget is tense, in order to increase transmission or receiving gain, a large-caliber antenna is required to be arranged for the satellite, the GEO communication transmission delay is large, the round trip delay can reach about 500ms, the requirement of low-delay service cannot be met, the GEO orbit resource is relatively tense, the transmission cost is high, and coverage cannot be provided for the earth two-pole region. The orbit height of the MEO satellite is positioned in the range of 2000-356 km, and the method has the advantages that the global coverage can be realized through relatively less satellite numbers, but the orbit height is higher than LEO, and compared with LEO satellite communication transmission delay, the method is still larger. The orbit height of the LEO satellite is 300-2000 km, and the LEO satellite is lower than the MEO orbit height and the GEO orbit height, and has the advantages of smaller data propagation delay, small transmission loss and low transmitting cost. Thus, LEO satellites may be employed to construct the spatial segments shown in fig. 3. Of course, in some specific application scenarios, LEO satellites may be replaced by GEO satellites or MEO satellites, or even a combination of multiple types of satellites.

The ground segment generally includes a satellite measurement and control center 302, a network control center (network control center, NCC) 303, various types of gateway stations 304, also known as gateway stations or ground stations, and the like. Wherein the network control center is also referred to as a system control center (system control center, SCC). The user section is made up of various terminal devices. The terminal devices may be various mobile terminals 306, such as mobile satellite telephones, or various fixed terminals 307, such as communication ground stations, etc. The dashed lines in fig. 3 refer to communication signals between the satellites and the terminals. The solid line refers to the communication signals between the satellite and the equipment of the earth segment. The double arrow lines refer to communication signals between network elements of the ground segment. In satellite communication systems, satellites may also be referred to as satellite stations or satellite base stations. Referring to fig. 3, the satellite base station may directly transmit downlink data to the terminal device. The downlink data can be transmitted to the terminal equipment after channel coding, modulation and mapping. The terminal device may also transmit uplink data to the satellite base station. The uplink data can also be transmitted to the satellite base station after channel coding, modulation and mapping.

The satellite measurement and control center 302 in the ground section has functions of maintaining, monitoring and controlling the orbital position and attitude of the satellite, and managing the ephemeris of the satellite, etc. The network control center 303 has network management functions that handle subscriber registration, identity verification, billing, and other. In some satellite mobile communication systems, the network control center 303 and the satellite measurement and control center 302 are integrated. Gateway station 304 has call processing, switching, and interface with a terrestrial communication network. The ground communication network 305 is an integral part of the ground segment of the satellite network for switching the data packets of the satellite to the core network for transmission to the final terminal equipment. The terrestrial communication network may be a public switched telephone network (public switched telephone network, PSTN), a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) or various other private networks, different terrestrial communication networks requiring gateway stations to have different gateway functions.

In some satellite communication systems, the spatial segments of the satellite communication system may be a multi-layered structure consisting of a management satellite and one or more service satellites. In a multi-layer architecture of a satellite communication system, a space segment may include one or more management satellites and service satellites managed by those management satellites. The satellite or satellite base station referred to in the present application is not limited to a management satellite or a service satellite.

It should be understood that the communication method proposed in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to terrestrial relay. For example, a ground base station connected to the core network is far from the UE or there is an obstacle or other obstruction between the ground base station and the UE, based on which it is difficult to transmit data to the UE or to receive a data signal transmitted from the UE. The communication link from the above-mentioned ground base station to the UE may be established through a plurality of relay base stations on the ground to thereby provide services to the UE.

The above terrestrial base stations, satellite stations, terrestrial relay base stations and terminal devices communicate using, but are not limited to, global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM) systems, code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) systems, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) systems, general packet radio service (GENERAL PACKET radio service, GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications systems (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) systems, 5th generation (5th generation,5G) mobile communication systems such as new air interface (NR) systems, and future communication systems such as 6th generation (6th generation,6G) mobile communication systems, etc.

In some possible scenarios, the above-mentioned terrestrial base stations, terrestrial relay base stations, gateway stations, satellite stations may be collectively referred to as radio access network (radio access network, RAN) nodes, which may also be referred to as access network devices, RAN entities or access nodes, etc.

In other possible scenarios, a plurality of RAN nodes may cooperate to assist the terminal in implementing radio access, where different RAN nodes implement part of the functions of the gateway station and the satellite station, respectively. For example, the RAN node may be a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), a CU-Control Plane (CP), a CU-User Plane (UP), or a Radio Unit (RU), etc. The CUs and DUs may be provided separately or may be included in the same network element, e.g. in a baseband unit (BBU). The CU node and the DU node split the protocol layers of the gNB, the functions of part of the protocol layers are controlled in the CU in a centralized way, and the functions of the rest part or all of the protocol layers are distributed in the DU, so that the CU controls the DU in a centralized way. As one implementation, a CU is deployed with an RRC layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, and a service data adaptation protocol (SERVICE DATA adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer in a protocol stack, and a DU is deployed with a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a medium access control (MEDIA ACCESS control, MAC) layer, and a physical layer (PHYSICAL LAYER, PHY) in a protocol stack. Thus, the CU has the processing capabilities of RRC, PDCP and SDAP. The DU has the processing power of RLC, MAC and PHY. It is to be understood that the above-described segmentation of functions is only one example and does not constitute a limitation on CUs and DUs. The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or unit, such as in a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU), an active antenna processing unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, AAU), or a remote radio head (remote radio head, RRH).

In different systems, CUs (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DUs or RUs may also have different names, but the meaning will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in ORAN systems, a CU may also be referred to as an O-CU (open CU), a DU may also be referred to as an O-DU, a CU-CP may also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, a CU-UP may also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU. For convenience of description, the present application is described by taking CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU and RU as examples. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of software and hardware modules.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the application needs to be accessed into the mobile satellite communication network for mobile communication through the ground section of the satellite communication system. A terminal device may refer to a UE, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user apparatus. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal DIGITAL ASSISTANT, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc. Terminal devices represented by satellite phones and vehicle-mounted satellite communication systems can directly communicate with satellite base stations. Fixed terminals, represented by ground communication stations, need to be relayed by the ground station before they can communicate with satellites. The terminal equipment sets and acquires the communication state through installing the wireless receiving and transmitting antenna, and the communication is completed.

However, in the case of using a satellite station as an NCR node in a relay communication system, there are the following problems.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a relay communication system in which a satellite station is used as an NCR node.

Referring to fig. 4, the system includes 3 NCR nodes, where satellite NCR1 forwards the gateway station data to terrestrial NCR2, terrestrial NCR2 forwards the data to satellite NCR3, and finally satellite NCR3 forwards the data to the UE. However, since the satellite NCR1 and the satellite NCR3 are moving, the satellite NCR1, the terrestrial NCR2 and the satellite NCR3 need to cover the service area by a plurality of beams to ensure the omni-directional coverage of the service area, so as to provide services for the terminal devices in the service area based on the beams, wherein the service area refers to an area where the terminal devices can obtain communication services. However, NCR nodes typically only support a predefined 64 beam indication, and then in order to meet the omnidirectional coverage of the service area, each of the 64 beams needs to use a wide beam, whereas a considerable area range can be covered by the 64 wide beams so that the area range can include the service area. But because the overall signal strength of the wide beams is weaker, the signal-to-noise ratio of the access link established based on the 64 wide beams is lower, and the service quality of the communication system is reduced.

In view of this, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, apparatus, and system, which may perform cluster management control on beams that can be sent by an NCR node, and integrally adjust a transmitting direction of each beam in a beam cluster by indicating a transmitting direction corresponding to a certain beam in the beam cluster, so as to implement fixation of the beam cluster to a service area, so that the beam cluster can cover the corresponding service area in a narrow beam form, thereby improving a signal-to-noise ratio of an access link and improving service quality of a communication system.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a relay communication architecture suitable for use with embodiments of the present application.

Referring to fig. 5, in this architecture, the network device includes a satellite station and a gateway station. The terminal device includes an internet of things terminal, and may also be a terminal with other forms and performances, for example, a mobile phone mobile terminal, an aerial plane, etc., which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. The link between the satellite station and the terminal device may be referred to as a service link (SERVICE LINK) and the link between the satellite station and the gateway station may be referred to as a feeder link (FEEDER LINK).

It should be understood that the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be applied to a multi-satellite relay communication scenario extended based on the relay communication architecture shown in fig. 5.

The operation modes of the satellite station include a transmission mode and a regeneration mode. When the satellite station has a function of a transparent forwarding relay device, the satellite station can work in a transparent transmission mode, namely, the satellite station can realize an amplification-and-forwarding (AF) relay function, the satellite station serving as a relay node receives signals and then directly forwards the received signals to a destination node without decoding or encoding the signals, and when the satellite station has a function of a regenerative forwarding or digital forwarding device, the satellite station has a decoding-and-forwarding (DF) relay function, namely, the satellite station can realize a decoding-forwarding function, the satellite station serving as a relay node receives the signals, decodes the signals, re-encodes decoding results and finally forwards the signals to the destination node. The destination node may be other relay nodes, or may be a terminal device to be served.

It is understood that the AF relay method is simple, can reduce the working pressure of the relay node, but the noise at the relay node can be forwarded to the destination node, and the DF relay method can avoid forwarding the noise at the relay node to the destination node, but the protocol for realizing the method is complex, and meanwhile, the working pressure of the relay node is large. Then, the satellite station with the AF function or the satellite station with the DF function can be correspondingly adopted for different application scenarios. Of course, the satellite station can also have the AF and DF functions at the same time, and the satellite station can correspondingly switch the AF or DF functions under different application scenes. For convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application mainly uses a relay node with an AF function as an example.

In some possible embodiments, when the satellite station operates in the transparent mode, the satellite station has a function of transparent forwarding relay node, and the gateway station has a function of a base station or a part of a base station function, and the gateway station can be regarded as a base station, that is, the base station and the gateway station are deployed in a centralized manner. Of course, the base station may also be disposed separately from the gateway station, and for convenience of description, the transparent transmission mode discussed later is exemplified by a case where the gateway station and the gNB are together or are located close to each other. When the satellite station is operating in the regeneration mode, the satellite station has data processing capabilities, has the function of a base station or is part of the function of a base station, in which case the satellite station can also be regarded as a base station. Furthermore, the base station is connected to the core network.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of yet another relay communication architecture suitable for use with embodiments of the present application.

Referring to fig. 6, the architecture is an Air To Ground (ATG) architecture, in which a network device includes a plurality of ground base stations, and a terminal device includes an air plane, an on-board handheld terminal, and the like. As for the plurality of ground base stations, the ground base station 2, the ground base station 3 and the ground base station 4 are NCR nodes, and are similar to the satellite stations shown in fig. 5, and include the same functions, and the description thereof will not be repeated here. The ground base station 1 is connected to the core network and controls the ground base station 2, the ground base station 3 and the ground base station 4. For example, the ground base station 1 may establish communication links with the ground base station, the ground base station 3, and the ground base station 4, respectively, and transmit control signaling to the corresponding ground base station through the respective links to control the respective ground base stations. Or the ground base station 1 may establish a communication link with only one of the other three ground base stations, for example, the ground base station 2, and a link for relaying communication is established between the three ground base stations, then the ground base station 1 may directly transmit control signaling to the ground base station 2 to control the ground base station 2, in addition, the ground base station may transmit control signaling to the ground base station 2, and then the ground base station 2 forwards the control signaling to the ground base station 3, or forwards the control signaling to the ground base station 4 through the ground base station 3, thereby implementing control of the ground base station 1 to the ground base station 3 and the ground base station 4. The data forwarding function of the plurality of ground base stations serving as NCR nodes is the same as that of the satellite station shown in fig. 5, and a detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application. The network architecture shown in fig. 7 corresponds to the relay communication system shown in fig. 4 described above, i.e., is applied to the star-to-ground forwarding scenario. It should be understood that after the relay communication system architecture is adjusted, the corresponding network architecture also needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Referring to the network architecture 1 shown in fig. 7 (a), data between a base station and a terminal device is transparently forwarded through 3 star-to-ground relay nodes, which are transparent forwarding nodes (network controlled transparent node, NCTN) controlled by the network. If the NCTN node shown in fig. 7 (a) is replaced with a network-controlled regeneration forwarding node (network controlled regenerative node, NCRN), the network architecture is configured to correspond to the network architecture 2 shown in fig. 7 (b).

In network architecture 1 and network architecture 2, NCTN includes NCTN-mobile-termination (NCTN-MT), NCTN-distributed units (NCTN-distributed units, NCTN-DU), and forwarding (forwarding).

The NCTN-MT is connected to a base station host DU or NCTN-DU of a NCTN-MT father node and is used for constructing a control link, transmitting beam direction information corresponding to a control backhaul link, the control link and an access link, and transmitting or receiving information of a data function, routing related information and the like by a control switch.

NCTN-DU is used to provide access to NCTN-MT or NCRN-MT located at the next level, and to construct the lower level control link.

The repeater is used for providing transparent forwarding of uplink or downlink radio frequency signals between the base station host or NCRN and the terminal equipment, wherein the transparent forwarding is also called amplification forwarding.

NCRN may carry routing information through the medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC) layer. Similar to NCTN, NCRN includes NCTN-mobile-terminal (NCRN-mobile-terminal, NCRN-MT), NCRN-distributed unit (NCRN-distributed unit, NCRN-DU).

Wherein NCRN-MT is connected to a base station host DU, a nct-DU or a NCRN-DU of a NCRN-MT parent node for constructing a control link and a wireless backhaul link to provide a digital forwarding function capable of supporting data forwarding of a wireless link control (radio link control, RLC) layer at most.

NCRN-DU is used to provide access to NCTN-MT, NCRN-MT or terminal equipment located at the next level.

In addition, NCTN may be configured in another manner.

Referring to network architecture 3 shown in fig. 7 (c) and network architecture 4 shown in fig. 7 (d), the functions of NCTN in both network architectures are fewer than those of NCTN of network architecture 1 and network architecture 2.

In the network architecture 3 and the network architecture 4, NCTN include NCTN-MT and repeater functions, and the description of these two functional modules may be referred to in the foregoing description, and the description is not repeated here.

For the four network architectures in fig. 7, it is also necessary to implement communication connections between different functional modules through interfaces.

For the network architecture 1 and the network architecture 2, connection between the base station hosts DU and NCTN-MT, between NCTN-DU and NCTN-MT and between the repeater and the terminal equipment can be established through Uu ports, connection between the base station host CU and each NCTN-DU and between the base station host CU and the base station host DU can be established through F1 ports, connection between the base station and the base station host can be established through Xn-C ports, and connection between the base station and the base station host and the core network respectively through NG ports.

For the network architecture 3 and the network architecture 4, connection can be established between the base station hosts DU and NCTN-MT, between NCTN-DU and NCTN-MT and through Uu ports, connection can be established between the base station host CU and the base station host DU through F1 ports, connection can be established between the base station and the base station host through Xn-C ports, and the base station host are respectively connected with a core network through NG ports.

Based on the network architecture and the corresponding deformed and expanded network architecture, the application provides a communication method, which is as follows.

Fig. 8 is a flow chart of a communication method 800 according to an embodiment of the application. The method 800 may be applied to a first network device, which may be NCTN or NCRN in the foregoing embodiments. In addition, the first network device may also include network devices in ORAN systems, such as CU-UP, CU-CP, DU, and RU.

And S810, receiving first indication information from the second network equipment, wherein the first indication information comprises first reference information, the first reference information is used for determining a first direction, the first direction is the direction of reference beams in a first beam cluster, the beams in the first beam cluster meet a first beam relation, and the first beam relation is used for indicating the position relation among the beams in the first beam cluster.

In some possible embodiments, in case the first network device is a satellite station acting as NCR node or NCTN, the second network device may be a gateway station, which may integrate part or all of the functions of the base station, in which case the gateway station may be regarded as a base station. In the case where the gateway station is functionally separated from the base station, i.e. the gateway station and the base station are deployed separately, the first indication information may be determined by the base station and sent to the gateway station, which then forwards the first indication information to the satellite station. For convenience of description, a description will be made below regarding the second network device as a gateway station integrating part or all of the functions of the base station. In addition, the second network device may also include a network device in the ORAN system, for example, the CU-CP of the second network device determines and sends the first indication information.

In some possible embodiments, the first indication information may be RRC signaling, DCI, or MAC CE signaling.

In some possible embodiments, the beam cluster refers to a set of beams formed by a plurality of beams, and after the plurality of beams in the beam cluster are projected onto the target area, the shape of the coverage area formed by the beam cluster in the target area may also be referred to as a beam pattern (pattern), or a beam pattern, a beam legend, etc.

In some possible embodiments, the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams of the first beam cluster, and may also be understood to be an arrangement relationship between beams of the first beam cluster, and may also be understood to be a spatial angle relationship between beams of the first beam cluster, and may also be understood to be a configuration manner of a beam pattern used to indicate the first beam cluster, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a beam pattern according to an embodiment of the present application.

Referring to fig. 9, the first beam cluster may include 7 beams, each corresponding to a coverage area, and the shape of the area where the coverage areas are integrated corresponds to a beam pattern.

The first beam relation used for indicating the position relation between the beams of the first beam cluster corresponds to the beam pattern obtained by projecting the first beam cluster, that is, the geometric parameters of the beam pattern of the first beam cluster can be described through the first beam relation, and the geometric parameters can include the number of the beams in the first beam cluster, the beam width of each beam, the arrangement mode among each beam, and the like.

In addition, the beam pattern corresponding to the beam cluster defined above may also be described by a beam coverage relationship. For example, the positional relationship of each beam in the beam pattern on the ground may be, for example, the size of each beam coverage diameter, the distance between the beam center points, or the angular relationship between the beam center points.

In some possible embodiments, the reference beam may be any one of a pre-agreed or predefined beam in the first beam cluster.

In some possible embodiments, the first beam relation may be information pre-stored in the first network device, or may be pre-configured by the second network device through control signaling, where the control signaling may be RRC signaling, DCI, or MAC CE signaling, or configured based on an operation maintenance management (operation administration AND MAINTENANCE, OAM) protocol function.

In some possible embodiments, the first beam relation may include a beam width of each beam in the first beam cluster, where the beam width may be defined as an angle between two half-power points of the beam.

Illustratively, the beam width may be used to indicate a horizontal beam width, which refers to an angle of two directions in which the radiation power is reduced by 3dB on both sides of the maximum radiation direction of the transmission beam in the horizontal direction, or a vertical beam width, which refers to an angle of two directions in which the radiation power is reduced by 3dB on both sides of the maximum radiation direction of the transmission beam in the vertical direction.

In some possible embodiments, the beam widths of the beams of the first beam cluster may be the same or different.

In some possible embodiments, the first beam relationship may further include a positional relationship between each beam in the first beam cluster, where the positional relationship between each beam may be represented by an angle relationship between the beams, as follows:

taking the first beam cluster as an example, the angular relationship between each beam in the first beam cluster is represented by the beam pointing, or spatial angle, of each beam in the first beam cluster, or the line of sight of the beam (boresight) with the line of sight of the reference beam.

Referring to fig. 9, for the first beam cluster, beam 0 is selected as the reference beam, and then the line of sight of beam 0 is the line of sight of the reference beam, and then the set of information about the spatial angles between the line of sight of the other beams and the line of sight of beam 0 can be used to represent the relationship of the angles between each beam.

Or in the beam pattern corresponding to the first beam cluster, the center point of the coverage area of beam 0 corresponds to the projection of the line of sight on this range plane, because the line of sight of beam 0 is selected as the reference line of sight, and for convenience of description, the center point of the coverage area of beam 0 is also referred to as the reference center point, or the reference line of sight. Based on this, a direction vector formed between the center point of the coverage of each beam and the center point of the coverage of beam 0 in the beam pattern may be used to represent the angle relationship between each beam.

Or in the beam pattern corresponding to the first beam cluster, the central point of the coverage area of each beam is respectively connected with the central point of the coverage area of the beam 0, and 6 direction angles are formed in the plane covered by the beam pattern, so that the 6 direction angles can also be used for representing the included angle relation between each beam.

Based on the above description of the first beam relation, the first beam relation may also display or implicitly include the information of the number of beams in the first beam cluster.

And S820, according to the first reference information, pointing the reference beams in the first beam cluster to a first direction.

It should be understood that since the beams in the first beam cluster satisfy the first beam relation, it means that the beam width and/or the positional relation between the beams corresponding to each beam in the first beam cluster are kept unchanged. In other words, since the beams in the first beam cluster satisfy the first beam relation, when the first network device directs the reference beams in the first beam cluster in the first direction according to the first reference information, other beams in the first beam cluster also follow, so that the beams in the first beam cluster always satisfy the first beam relation.

In some possible embodiments, after receiving the first indication information, the first network device further performs the following operations:

and S831, transmitting and receiving data through all beams in the first beam cluster.

In some possible embodiments, the first indication information sent by the second network device to the first network device may further comprise at least one beam identification, considering that there is not necessarily a terminal device in the coverage area of each beam in the first beam cluster that needs to provide service. Based on this, after the first network device receives the first indication information, the following operations are further performed:

and S832, transmitting and receiving data through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

It should be appreciated that the first beam cluster according to the method 800 can accurately direct a cluster of beams to a specific area within a service area where service is required, avoiding waste of beam coverage, and providing conditions for coverage of the service area by beams in the form of narrow beams, thereby helping to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of a communication link from a first network device to a terminal device. Moreover, on the basis, it is also considered that the terminal devices in the service area are not necessarily scattered in the whole service area, so that the second network device instructs the first network device to pass through part or all of the beams in the first beam cluster after determining the direction of the first beam cluster by adding at least one beam identifier in the first instruction information. In the case that the first indication information includes a plurality of beam identifications of the first beam cluster, the first network device simultaneously provides services for terminal devices distributed in a plurality of service areas through the plurality of beams of the first beam cluster after determining the direction of the first beam cluster, or sequentially provides services for terminal devices distributed in a plurality of service areas in time sequence.

In some possible embodiments, the service target of the first network device may be a terminal device, or may be other relay nodes.

In some possible embodiments, the beam identifier may be a beam number for indicating a certain beam, but the beam number is not exactly identical to beamindex, beamindex mentioned in the foregoing description, and is used to indicate not only a specific one but also a beam direction and a beam width. The beam number used as the beam identifier in the embodiment of the present application may be used to indicate a specific beam. Of course, for the first beam relationship described above, it may be implicitly characterized by beamindex.

In some possible embodiments, the first reference information is a reference beam direction, where the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is a longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is a wave bit corresponding to the first reference point. The first reference point or the reference beam direction may be an earth-based coordinate system, such as earth-centered earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinate system, or a network device itself.

In some possible embodiments, where the first reference information is a coordinate value, latitude and longitude, or a wave position identifier corresponding to the first reference point, S820 may be implemented by aligning the reference beam to the first reference point.

The reference beam also illustratively has a reference point, or aiming point, which corresponds to the beam aiming line described above. The aligning the reference beam with the first reference point may be aligning an aiming point of the reference beam with a position of the first reference point. If, from the perspective of the beam pattern, the reference beam should correspond to a sub-region in the beam pattern, then the aiming point of the reference beam will also be mapped to that sub-region, and the aiming point mapped to the sub-region corresponding to the reference beam may be aligned with the first reference point.

Or still from the view point of the beam pattern corresponding to the beam cluster, the concept of the reference point of the beam pattern may be introduced, where the reference point of the beam pattern may be the center point corresponding to a certain beam in the beam pattern, or the aiming point mentioned in the foregoing embodiment, or any one of the position points agreed or preconfigured in the beam coverage area, for example, the beam may be the beam 0 located in the center position of the beam pattern shown in fig. 9. Based on S820, the first network device needs to align the reference point of the beam pattern of the forwarded signal with the first reference point. It should be appreciated that the definition of "alignment" above does not necessarily coincide the aiming point of the reference beam or the reference point of the beam pattern completely with the first reference point, and that a certain deviation between these two points may be allowed, which deviation may be considered as having been aligned within a preset first deviation range.

For example, the first deviation range may be an interval of (0, 5) m, and then after performing the corresponding operation of aligning the reference beam of the first beam cluster with the first reference point, if the straight line distance between the aiming point of the reference beam and the first reference point is within 5m, or the straight line distance between the beam pattern reference point corresponding to the first beam cluster and the first reference point is within 5m, the reference beam and the first reference point may be considered to be aligned.

In some possible embodiments, where the first reference information is a reference beam direction, S820 described above may be implemented by adjusting the reference beam to point in the reference beam direction.

Illustratively, from the perspective of the beam pattern corresponding to the beam cluster, the direction of the line between the beam pattern reference point and the first network device center point or the first network device antenna panel center point may be referred to as the reference point direction of the beam pattern based on the concept of the introduced beam pattern reference point. Based on S820, the first network device needs to direct the reference point direction of the beam pattern of the repeating signal to the reference beam direction, or the first network device needs to direct the reference point direction of the beam pattern of the repeating signal to the reference beam direction.

Referring to fig. 9, taking the center point of the beam 0 as the reference point of the beam pattern as an example, the direction of the line between the center point of the antenna panel of the first network device or the first network device and the reference point of the beam pattern may be defined as the direction of the reference point of the beam pattern.

It should be understood that the definition of "alignment" does not necessarily coincide the reference point direction of the beam pattern with the reference beam direction, and may allow a certain deviation between the two directions, and the deviation may be considered to be aligned with the reference beam direction in the first indication information within a preset second deviation range.

For example, the second deviation range may be an interval of (0, 10 °), and then after performing the corresponding operation of adjusting the reference beam of the first beam cluster to be directed to the reference beam direction, if the spatial angle between the reference beam direction and the reference beam direction in the first indication information is within 10 ° or the spatial angle between the beam pattern reference point direction corresponding to the first beam cluster and the reference beam direction in the first indication information is within 10 °, the reference beam direction and the reference beam direction may be considered to be aligned.

In addition, while the reference beam pointing direction is adjusted, other beams in the first beam cluster are also follow-up, so that the first beam cluster always satisfies the first beam relationship.

In some possible embodiments, in case the first reference information is a reference beam direction, the reference beam direction may include a spatial angle between the first direction and a first plane, e.g. a plane in which an antenna array for transmitting the first beam cluster is located.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a spatial angle between a first direction and a first plane according to an embodiment of the present application.

In some possible embodiments, referring to fig. 10, taking the beam 2 as the reference beam, a direction vector corresponding to a first direction (hereinafter referred to as a first direction) and a first plane are located in the same coordinate system, where the coordinate system may be the coordinate system shown in fig. 10, and the first plane is a plane in which an x-axis and a y-axis (hereinafter referred to as an x-y axis) of the coordinate system are located, in other words, the first plane corresponds to a plane formed by the x-axis and the y-axis of the coordinate system. Furthermore, the above-described coordinate system may be replaced with a coordinate system using the earth as a reference, such as an ECEF coordinate system. It should be appreciated that even if the first direction and the first plane are located in different coordinate systems, the spatial positions of the first direction and the first plane may be converted into the same coordinate system by means of coordinate conversion.

Based on this, with reference to the coordinate system shown in FIG. 10, the first direction may be indicated based on the way that the first direction may be indicated by the direction angleAnd depression angle alpha, or through direction angleAnd elevation angle beta, wherein the direction angleThe angle α is used to represent the angle between the x-axis and the projection line of the plane in which the x-y axis is located, the angle α is used to represent the angle between the first direction and the z-axis, and the angle β is used to represent the angle between the first direction and the plane in which the x-y axis is located.

Based on the technical scheme, the first direction is directly or indirectly indicated in various modes, so that the flexibility of the scheme is improved.

Similarly, the positional relationship between the respective beams in the above-described first beam relationship can also be represented by the manner shown in fig. 10.

For example, the beam line of sight direction of beam 0 in the first beam cluster may be taken as the z-axis of the coordinate system, while the first plane is located in the plane of the x-y axis of the coordinate system. Then, the beam line of sight direction of each beam may pass through the direction angle respectively corresponding to the beam line of sight of each beamAnd depression angle alpha, or direction angleAnd an elevation angle beta, wherein the depression angle alpha is used for representing an included angle between the beam line of sight and the z-axis, and the elevation angle beta is used for representing an included angle between the beam line of sight and the first plane.

Referring to fig. 10, taking beam 2 as an example, the beam line of sight pointing angle of beam 2 may be determined by elevation angle β, direction angleDescribed by the depression angle alpha, the direction angleTo describe.

In some possible embodiments, taking the scenario shown in fig. 10 as an example, the first beam relationship may be described in the following table 1 or table 2.

TABLE 1

TABLE 2

It should be understood that tables 1 and 2 above are merely descriptions of the first beam relationship in the scenario shown in fig. 10, in which the first beam cluster includes 7 beams, but the example is not limited to the number of beams of the first beam cluster. The number of beams of the first beam cluster may be other numbers, e.g. the number of beams may be adjusted based on different application scenarios.

In some possible embodiments, the second network device may configure the first beam relation to the first network device through RRC signaling, DCI, or MAC CE signaling.

In some possible embodiments, the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and a mapping relationship exists between the first index number and the first reference information. For convenience of description, a mapping relationship between the first index number and the first reference information will be simply referred to as a first mapping relationship.

In some possible embodiments, the first mapping relationship may be directly stored in the first network device before the first network device is put into use, or after the first network device is put into use, the second network device may also configure the first mapping relationship to the first network device through RRC signaling or DCI or MAC CE signaling. It is known that the second network device also stores the first mapping relationship.

After the first network device is configured with the first mapping relationship, the second network device may indicate the transmitting direction of the reference beam in the first beam cluster of the first network device through the first index number included in the first indication information.

In the case that the first reference information includes a coordinate value corresponding to the first reference point, or a longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or a wave position where the first reference point is located, taking the first index number as an example, the above-mentioned first mapping relationship may be represented by the following tables 3 to 5.

TABLE 3 Table 3

First index number	Coordinate values corresponding to the first reference point
		0	[x0,y0,z0]
1	[x1,y1,z1]
		2	[x2,y2,z2]
3	[x3,y3,z3]
		...	...

TABLE 4 Table 4

First index number	Longitude and latitude corresponding to first reference point
		0	[ Longitude (longitude) 0, latitude (latitude) 0]
1	[longitude1,latitude1]
		2	[longitude2,latitude2]
3	[longitude3,latitude3]
		...	...

TABLE 5

First index number	Wave position corresponding to first reference point
		0	Wave position 3, wave position 8
1	Wave position 5
		2	Wave position 11, wave position 20
3	Wave position 12, 25
		...	...

As can be seen from table 5, one beam may cover one or more of the wave positions, for example, in case of a first index number of 0, the reference beam needs to cover the wave position 3 and the wave position 8 of the ground area, and in case of a first index number of 1, the reference beam needs to cover only the wave position 5 of the ground area.

In some possible embodiments, if the first network device adjusts the reference beam direction of the first beam cluster, the reference beam cannot completely cover one or more bits indicated by the first indication information, the first network device or the second network device may first confirm whether the first beam cluster covers the one or more bits, and if the first beam cluster cannot cover the one or more bits, the first network device may actively increase the width of the beam in the first beam cluster, or the second network device controls the first network device to increase the width of the beam in the first beam cluster.

In the case where the first reference information is the reference beam direction, taking the first index number as an example, the above-mentioned first mapping relationship can be represented by the following tables 6 and 7.

TABLE 6

First index number	Reference beam direction [ azimuth, depression ]
		0	[θ0,α0]
1	[θ1,α1]
		2	[θ2,α2]
3	[θ3,α3]
		...	...

TABLE 7

First index number	Reference beam direction [ azimuth, elevation ]
		0	[θ0,β0]
1	[θ1,β1]
		2	[θ2,β2]
3	[θ3,β3]
		...	...

In some possible embodiments, the second network device may indicate the first index number through RRC signaling, DCI, or MAC CE signaling.

In some possible embodiments, the first indication information may further include a first beam cluster identifier, where a mapping relationship exists between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

In some possible embodiments, the mapping relationship between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship may belong to a second mapping relationship, where the second mapping relationship is used to indicate a mapping relationship between different beam cluster identifiers and different beam relationships. For example, the second mapping relationship further includes a mapping relationship between the second beam cluster identifier and a second beam relationship, where the second beam relationship is different from the related parameter of the first beam relationship.

In some possible embodiments, the second mapping relationship may be pre-stored in the first network device before the first network device leaves the factory, or may be pre-configured in the first network device through the second network device after the first network device is put into use.

In some possible embodiments, the second network device may configure the second mapping relationship to the first network device through RRC signaling.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of beam pattern of a beam cluster according to an embodiment of the present application.

Referring to fig. 11, beam pattern of each beam cluster is formed corresponding to a beam cluster identification, which may also be indicated by an index number. The first network device pre-stores or pre-configures the obtained beam patterns in total. Wherein at least one parameter among the number of beams, the beam width, and the positional relationship between the beams among different beam patterns may be different from each other.

Illustratively, the beam pattern0, the beam pattern2, and the beam pattern3 have the same number of beams, but the beam widths of the three beam patterns and the positional relationship between the beams are all different from each other, and the beam pattern3 and the beam pattern1 have the same beam width, but the beam numbers of the two beam patterns and the positional relationship between the beams are different from each other.

It should be appreciated that after the first network device receives the first indication information including the first beam cluster identifier, the first network device determines the first beam cluster according to the first beam cluster identifier and a predefined or preconfigured second mapping relationship.

The above example is described only for the beam pattern having the different configuration shown in fig. 11, and the number of the beam patten is 4 in fig. 11, but the example is not limited to the number of the beam patten and the beam pattern. The beam patten may be other forms than the example of fig. 11, and is not limited to these four forms, and the beam pattern obtained by the first network device is pre-stored or pre-configured is not limited to four forms.

In some possible embodiments, the first beam cluster identifier may also be carried by a single signaling.

In some possible embodiments, the first beam cluster identifier may also correspond to the first reference information. Based on this, the first indication information received by the first network device may include only the first beam cluster identifier, or include the first beam cluster identifier and at least one beam identifier, that is, the indication of the first network device about the first beam cluster direction may be implemented.

It is known that the first network device may be instructed to adjust the configuration of the beam clusters by the beam cluster identifier, for example, the number of beams of the beam clusters, the beam width of each beam, and the arrangement of the beams.

For example, different beam cluster formation forms are suitable for different application scenarios, for example, in a broadcast scenario, the beam width of each beam of the beam cluster is larger, in a scenario with wider terminal equipment distribution, the number of beams included in the beam cluster should be larger, and in a scenario with higher requirement on signal quality in a service area, the beam width of each beam of the beam cluster is smaller.

In some possible embodiments, the first indication information is not randomly determined by the second network device, which may determine the first indication information by:

Determining first demand information, wherein the first demand information is used for indicating the position of a service area and the distribution condition of terminal equipment in the service area;

And acquiring a first beam relation, wherein the first beam relation is used for indicating the position relation among beams of a first beam cluster, and the first beam relation is pre-stored in the local or cloud of the second network equipment.

And determining the first indication information according to the first requirement information and the first beam relation, wherein the first indication information comprises the first reference information or comprises the first reference information and at least one beam identifier.

In the case that the first network device supports multiple beam cluster configurations, the second network device may select a first beam cluster identifier from the multiple beam cluster identifiers, where the first beam cluster identifier corresponds to the first beam relationship. And the first beam cluster identifier is carried in the first indication information.

In some possible embodiments, the first network device may further perform the following operations:

And sending first capability information to the second network device, wherein the first capability information comprises at least one of the maximum number of beams included in the beam cluster of the first network device, the number of array elements included in the antenna array of the first network device, the beam pointing range of the antenna array, the number of beam clusters which can be sent or supported by the first network device, the maximum number of beams which can be simultaneously sent by the first network device, and physical characteristics corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, wherein the physical characteristics comprise beam pointing and beam width.

For example, in the performance parameters, the maximum number of beams included in the beam cluster sent by the first network device may be, for example, 64 or 128, the number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support may be, for example, 4 or 8 or 16, and the maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously send may be, for example, 1 or 2or 4.

Correspondingly, after the second network device receives the first capability information, determining first indication information according to the first capability information, wherein the first indication information is consistent with the first capability information. I.e. the first reference information, the beam identity or the beam cluster identity indicated by the first indication information, should satisfy the first capability information sent by the first network device. For example, the maximum number of beams included in the beam cluster sent by the first network device is 64, and then the number of beams included in the beam cluster corresponding to the beam cluster identifier in the first indication information should be less than or equal to 64.

Based on the technical scheme, the first network device feeds back the first capability information to the second network device, so that parameters such as a beam cluster indicated by the first indication information of the second network device, a transmitting direction corresponding to a certain beam in the beam cluster and the like can be effectively prevented from exceeding the capability range of the first network device, and the control failure of the second network device is caused.

In some possible embodiments, the method 800 described above may also be applied in a transmission scenario of multiple relay nodes.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a communication method of multiple relay nodes according to an embodiment of the present application.

Referring to fig. 12, a gateway station (or base station) transmits first indication information, which may be expressed as [ first reference information+beam 0 identification ], to NCTN 1. Assuming that beam 0 is a reference beam in the first beam cluster in NCTN, the first reference information is used to indicate the reference beam direction 1, and further, the first reference information may also be the position information of NCTN 2. NCTN1 adjusts the pointing direction of the beam 0 according to the first reference information, and the pointing directions of other beams in the beam cluster to which the beam 0 belongs follow. Then NCTN1 sends and receives data over beam 0 according to the beam 0 identification, and this beam 0 covers NCTN the current location. From this, beam 0 of NCTN is the reference beam and is also used for transmitting and receiving data.

The gateway station also transmits to NCTN2 second indication information, which may be represented as second reference information + beam 0 identity. Assuming that beam 0 is a reference beam in the second beam cluster in NCTN, the second reference information is used to indicate the reference beam direction 2, further, the second reference information may also be position information of NCTN3, and the position information of NCTN may be ephemeris information corresponding to NCTN 3. NCTN2 adjusts the pointing direction of the beam 0 according to the second reference information, and the pointing directions of other beams in the beam cluster to which the beam 0 belongs follow. Then NCTN2 sends and receives data over beam 0 according to the beam 0 identification, and this beam 0 covers NCTN the current location. From this, beam 0 of NCTN is the reference beam and is also used for transmitting and receiving data.

The gateway station also transmits to NCTN a third indication information, which may be denoted as third reference information + beam 1 identity. Assuming that the beam 0 is a reference beam in a third beam cluster in NCTN, the third reference information is used to indicate the reference beam direction 3, further, the third reference information may also be location information of an area where the UE is located, the location information of the area may be location information of a ground reference point, and the ground reference point may be any point in the area, or the third reference information may also be location information of the UE. NCTN3 adjusting the pointing direction of the beam 0 according to the third reference information, wherein the pointing directions of other beams in the beam cluster to which the beam 0 belongs follow. Then NCTN sends and receives data through the beam 1 according to the beam 1 identification, and the beam 1 covers the current position of the terminal equipment in the service area. From this, beam 0 of NCTN is a reference beam, and beam 1 of NCTN is a beam for transmitting and receiving data.

The gateway station may transmit the second indication information to NCTN through a link established between NCTN and NCTN2, and the gateway station may transmit the third indication information to NCTN3 through a link established between NCTN and NCTN2 and NCTN2 and NCTN3.

Based on the above operation, a communication link from the gateway station to the terminal device is established, thereby providing the terminal device with a corresponding communication service. The method 800 is compatible with signal beam direction indications between relay nodes, and between a relay node and a terminal, where the relay node may be a terrestrial relay node or a satellite relay node.

In some possible embodiments, the plurality of indication signaling may further include information about a direction of data forwarding (including uplink or downlink, for example), time-frequency domain resource information of forwarding, and a forwarding manner (including transparent forwarding or regenerative forwarding, for example).

For example, the indication information may be in the form of [ reference information (reference beam direction/reference point corresponding position) +at least one beam number ] + [ uplink/downlink ] + [ time-frequency resource of forwarding ] + [ transparent forwarding/regenerative forwarding ]. The downlink direction indicates forward data forwarding, and the data transmission direction is as follows gNB- & gt NCTN- & gt NCTN 2- & gt NCTN 3- & gt UE, and the uplink direction indicates backward data forwarding, and the data transmission direction is as follows UE- & gt NCTN 3- & gt NCTN 2- & gt NCTN 1- & gt gNB, as shown in FIG. 12.

As can be seen from the foregoing embodiments, the indication information may further include a beam cluster index, so that the beam cluster structure or the beam pattern form is indicated, so the indication information may be in the form of [ beam cluster index+reference information (reference beam direction/reference point corresponding position) +at least one beam number ]. If there is a mapping relationship between the beam cluster index and the reference information, or if the beam pattern corresponding to the beam cluster index has the default reference point direction of the beam pattern, the indication information may be simplified to a form of [ beam cluster index+at least one beam number ]. For example, when multiple beam numbers are indicated, the network device may forward the data signal to the coverage area corresponding to the multiple beam numbers at the same time, or forward the data signal to the coverage area corresponding to the multiple beam numbers sequentially.

In some possible embodiments, the indication information may also be used to indicate a plurality of beam cluster indexes, so as to indicate the composition of the plurality of beam clusters or the form of beam pattern, and then the indication information may be in the form of [ the plurality of beam cluster indexes+reference information (reference beam direction/reference point corresponding position) +at least one beam number ]. For example, when multiple beam cluster indices are indicated, the network device may forward the data signal to the coverage areas corresponding to the multiple beam cluster indices simultaneously or forward the data signal to the coverage areas corresponding to the multiple beam cluster indices sequentially.

It should be understood that the forms of the indication information set forth in the above embodiments may be used in combination with each other.

In addition, the above scheme is exemplified by taking the relay node as a transparent forwarding node, and the scheme is also applicable to application scenarios in which the relay node is a regenerative forwarding device (node), a digital forwarding device (node) or a decoding forwarding relay device.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application also provides an apparatus for implementing any one of the above methods, for example, a communication apparatus, which includes a unit (or means) for implementing any one of the above communication methods.

Fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1300 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1300 may be used for the first network device described above, as shown in fig. 13, where the apparatus 1300 includes:

A receiving unit 1310, configured to receive first indication information from a second network device, where the first indication information includes first reference information, where the first reference information is used to determine a first direction, where the first direction is an orientation of a reference beam in a first beam cluster, and beams in the first beam cluster satisfy a first beam relationship, where the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams in the first beam cluster;

An operation unit 1320, configured to direct the reference beams in the first beam cluster to the first direction according to the first reference information.

In some possible embodiments, the first indication information further includes at least one beam identifier, wherein the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and the operation unit 1320 is further used to transmit and receive data through the at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

In some possible embodiments, the first reference information is a reference beam direction, where the reference beam direction is used to indicate a first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is a longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is a wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

In some possible embodiments, the operation unit 1320 is specifically configured to align the reference beam with the first reference point if the first reference information is a coordinate value, longitude and latitude, or wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

In some possible embodiments, the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and a mapping relationship exists between the first index number and the first reference information.

In some possible embodiments, the first indication information further includes a first beam cluster identifier, where a mapping relationship exists between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

In some possible embodiments, the first beam relation includes a number of beams in the first beam cluster, a beam width, and a positional relation between the beams.

In some possible embodiments, the apparatus 1300 further includes a sending unit 1330 configured to send, to the second network device, first capability information including at least one of a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously send, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, where the physical feature includes beam pointing and beam width.

Fig. 14 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1400 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1400 may be used with the second network device described above, as shown in fig. 14, where the apparatus 1400 includes:

a determining unit 1410, configured to determine first indication information, where the first indication information includes first reference information, where the first reference information is used to determine a first direction, where the first direction is an orientation of reference beams in a first beam cluster, and beams in the first beam cluster satisfy a first beam relationship, where the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams in the first beam cluster;

a transmitting unit 1420, configured to transmit the first indication information to the first network device.

In some possible embodiments, the first indication information further includes at least one beam identifier, where the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and the first indication information is used to indicate that data is transmitted and received through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

In some possible embodiments, the apparatus 1400 further comprises:

The receiving unit 1430 is configured to receive first capability information from a first network device, where the first capability information includes at least one of a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously send, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, where the physical feature includes a beam pointing and a beam width, and the determining unit 1410 is specifically configured to determine, according to the first capability information, first indication information, where the first indication information corresponds to the first capability information.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown 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 may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that it is used for a first network device, the method comprising:

receiving first indication information from a second network device, where the first indication information includes first reference information, where the first reference information is used to determine a first direction, where the first direction is a direction of a reference beam in a first beam cluster, where the beams in the first beam cluster satisfy a first beam relationship, and where the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams in the first beam cluster;

According to the first reference information, the reference beam in the first beam cluster is directed to the first direction.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first indication information further comprises at least one beam identifier, wherein the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and the method further comprises:

Data is sent and received via at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2 is characterized in that the first reference information is a reference beam direction, and the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is the longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is the wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein, when the first reference information is a coordinate value, longitude and latitude, or beam position corresponding to the first reference point, directing the reference beam in the first beam cluster to the first direction according to the first reference information comprises:

The reference beam is directed toward the first reference point.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 is characterized in that the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and there is a mapping relationship between the first index number and the first reference information.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the first indication information also includes a first beam cluster identifier, and there is a mapping relationship between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first beam relationship comprises the number of beams in the first beam cluster, the beam width, and the positional relationship between the beams.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Send first capability information to the second network device, where the first capability information includes at least one of the following: the maximum number of beams included in the beam cluster of the first network device, the number of array elements included in the antenna array of the first network device, the beam pointing range of the antenna array, the number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, the maximum number of beams that the first network device can transmit simultaneously, and physical characteristics corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, wherein the physical characteristics include beam pointing and beam width.

9. A communication method, characterized in that it is used for a second network device, the method comprising:

Determine first indication information, where the first indication information includes first reference information, where the first reference information is used to determine a first direction, where the first direction is a direction of a reference beam in a first beam cluster, where the beams in the first beam cluster satisfy a first beam relationship, and where the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams in the first beam cluster;

The first indication information is sent to the first network device.

10. The method according to claim 9 is characterized in that the first indication information also includes at least one beam identifier, and the beam identifier is used to indicate the beam in the first beam cluster, and the first indication information is used to indicate the sending and receiving of data through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10 is characterized in that the first reference information is a reference beam direction, and the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is the longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is the wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 11, characterized in that the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and there is a mapping relationship between the first index number and the first reference information.

13. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that the first indication information further includes a first beam cluster identifier, and there is a mapping relationship between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

14 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein the first beam relationship comprises the number of beams in the first beam cluster, the beam width, and the positional relationship between the beams.

15. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 14, characterized in that the method further comprises:

receiving first capability information from the first network device, the first capability information including at least one of the following: a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously transmit, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in a beam cluster of the first network device, the physical feature including a beam pointing and a beam width, wherein determining the first indication information includes:

The first indication information is determined according to the first capability information, and the first indication information is consistent with the first capability information.

16. A communication device, characterized in that it is used for a first network device, the device comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive first indication information from a second network device, where the first indication information includes first reference information, where the first reference information is used to determine a first direction, where the first direction is a direction of a reference beam in a first beam cluster, where the beams in the first beam cluster satisfy a first beam relationship, and where the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams in the first beam cluster;

An operating unit is configured to point the reference beam in the first beam cluster to the first direction according to the first reference information.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the first indication information further comprises at least one beam identifier, wherein the beam identifier is used to indicate a beam in the first beam cluster, and the operation unit is further used to:

Data is sent and received via at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

18. The device according to claim 16 or 17 is characterized in that the first reference information is a reference beam direction, and the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is the longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is the wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

19. The device according to claim 18, wherein when the first reference information is a coordinate value, longitude and latitude, or wave position corresponding to the first reference point, the operating unit is specifically configured to:

The reference beam is directed toward the first reference point.

20. The device according to any one of claims 16 to 19, characterized in that the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and there is a mapping relationship between the first index number and the first reference information.

21. The device according to any one of claims 16 to 20, characterized in that the first indication information also includes a first beam cluster identifier, and there is a mapping relationship between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

22. The device according to any one of claims 16 to 20, characterized in that the first beam relationship includes the number of beams in the first beam cluster, the beam width, and the positional relationship between the beams.

23. The device according to any one of claims 16 to 22, characterized in that the device further comprises:

A sending unit is used to send first capability information to the second network device, where the first capability information includes at least one of the following: the maximum number of beams included in the beam cluster of the first network device, the number of array elements included in the antenna array of the first network device, the beam pointing range of the antenna array, the number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, the maximum number of beams that the first network device can transmit simultaneously, and physical characteristics corresponding to each beam in the beam cluster of the first network device, wherein the physical characteristics include beam pointing and beam width.

24. A communication device, characterized in that it is used for a second network device, the device comprising:

a determining unit, configured to determine first indication information, where the first indication information includes first reference information, where the first reference information is used to determine a first direction, where the first direction is a direction of a reference beam in a first beam cluster, where the beams in the first beam cluster satisfy a first beam relationship, and where the first beam relationship is used to indicate a positional relationship between beams in the first beam cluster;

A sending unit is used to send the first indication information to the first network device.

25. The device according to claim 24 is characterized in that the first indication information also includes at least one beam identifier, and the beam identifier is used to indicate the beam in the first beam cluster, and the first indication information is used to indicate the sending and receiving of data through at least one beam in the first beam cluster.

26. The device according to claim 24 or 25 is characterized in that the first reference information is a reference beam direction, and the reference beam direction is used to indicate the first direction, or the first reference information is a coordinate value corresponding to a first reference point, or the first reference information is the longitude and latitude corresponding to the first reference point, or the first reference information is the wave position corresponding to the first reference point.

27. The device according to any one of claims 24 to 26 is characterized in that the first reference information in the first indication information is represented by a first index number, and there is a mapping relationship between the first index number and the first reference information.

28. The device according to any one of claims 24 to 27, characterized in that the first indication information also includes a first beam cluster identifier, and there is a mapping relationship between the first beam cluster identifier and the first beam relationship.

29. The device according to any one of claims 24 to 28, characterized in that the first beam relationship includes the number of beams in the first beam cluster, the beam width, and the positional relationship between the beams.

30. The device according to any one of claims 24 to 29, characterized in that the device further comprises:

a receiving unit, configured to receive first capability information from the first network device, where the first capability information includes at least one of the following: a maximum number of beams included in a beam cluster of the first network device, a number of array elements included in an antenna array of the first network device, a beam pointing range of the antenna array, a number of beam clusters that the first network device can send or support, a maximum number of beams that the first network device can simultaneously transmit, and a physical feature corresponding to each beam in a beam cluster of the first network device, where the physical feature includes a beam pointing and a beam width;

The determining unit is specifically configured to determine the first indication information according to the first capability information, wherein the first indication information is consistent with the first capability information.

31. A communication device, comprising:

Memory, for storing computer instructions;

A processor, configured to execute computer instructions stored in the memory, so that the apparatus performs the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.

32. A chip, comprising a processor, wherein the processor is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.

33. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, a device executes the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 15.

34. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product comprises a computer program or instructions, and when the computer program or instructions are executed by a computer, a device executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.