EP-4738971-A1 - COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

EP4738971A1EP 4738971 A1EP4738971 A1EP 4738971A1EP-4738971-A1

Abstract

This application provides a communication method and apparatus, and belongs to the field of communication technologies, to enable an eRedCap terminal device and a RedCap terminal device to share a random access resource set of the RedCap terminal device. In the method, when there is no random access resource set applicable to a feature of a current random access procedure, a first-type terminal device may determine a random access resource set based on a feature of a second-type terminal device. In other words, the first-type terminal device may serve as or fall back to the second-type terminal device, and then perform a random access resource set selection process. In this way, the eRedCap terminal device and the RedCap terminal device can share the random access resource set of the RedCap terminal device, thereby improving random access resource utilization, and implementing flexible selection of a random access resource set.

Inventors

LI, Jiaojiao
SHI, Yulong
LI, Chenwan
QIANG, LI

Assignees

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260506
Application Date: 20240805

Claims (20)

A communication method, applied to a terminal device or an apparatus in the terminal device, comprising: when a third condition is met, selecting a fourth random access resource set, wherein the third condition is that a feature of a first-type terminal device is applicable to a current random access procedure, and a first resource and the fourth random access resource set are provided, wherein the first resource is a contention-free random access resource, and the fourth random access resource set is a random access resource set associated with only the feature of the first-type terminal device; and when the third condition is not met and a fourth condition is met, selecting a fifth random access resource set, wherein that the third condition is not met and the fourth condition is met means that the feature of the first-type terminal device is applicable to the current random access procedure, the fourth random access resource set is not provided, and the first resource and the fifth random access resource set are provided, wherein the fifth random access resource set is a random access resource set associated with only a feature of a second-type terminal device.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: receiving at least one of the first resource, the fourth random access resource set, and the fifth random access resource set.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the method further comprises: when the third condition is not met and the fourth condition is not met, selecting a random access resource set that is not associated with any feature, wherein the fourth condition is that the feature of the first-type terminal device is applicable to the current random access procedure, and the first resource and the fifth random access resource set are provided.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first-type terminal device is an enhanced reduced capability terminal device eRedCap UE, and the second terminal device is a reduced capability terminal device RedCap UE.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the method further comprises: when a contention-based random access procedure is performed, selecting a random access resource from a selected random access resource set, and sending a preamble on the selected random access resource.
A communication method, applied to a terminal device or an apparatus in the terminal device, comprising: when there is no random access resource set applicable to a feature of a current random access procedure, if the terminal device is a first-type terminal device, determining, by the terminal device, a first random access resource set based on a feature of a second-type terminal device, wherein the first-type terminal device is a terminal device whose capability is reduced relative to that of the second-type terminal device; and performing, by the terminal device, the random access procedure by using the first random access resource set.
The method according to claim 6, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the terminal device, first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that the first-type terminal device is allowed to determine the first random access resource set based on the feature of the second-type terminal device.
The method according to claim 7, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the terminal device, second indication information, wherein the second indication information indicates that the first-type terminal device is allowed to use a second random access resource set, and the first random access resource set is one of the second random access resource set that is allowed to be used by the first-type terminal device.
The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the method further comprises: when there is no random access resource set applicable to the feature of the current random access procedure, if the terminal device is not the first-type terminal device, selecting, by the terminal device, a random access resource set that has no associated feature, to perform the random access procedure.
The method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the method further comprises: determining, by the terminal device based on an indication associated with a random access resource set and the feature of the current random access procedure, whether the random access resource set is applicable to the current random access procedure, wherein the indication associated with the random access resource set represents a feature associated with the random access resource set.
The method according to any one of claims 6 to 10, wherein the first-type terminal device is an enhanced reduced capability eRedCap terminal device, and the second-type terminal is a reduced capability RedCap terminal device.
The method according to any one of claims 6 to 11, wherein the feature comprises at least one of the following: a RedCap terminal device, small data transmission, radio access network slicing, a coverage enhancement feature, or a RedCap terminal device.
A communication method, applied to a terminal device or an apparatus in the terminal device, comprising: when there is no random access resource set applicable to a feature of a current random access procedure, if the terminal device is a first-type terminal device and there is a third random access resource set, selecting, by the terminal device, the third random access resource set, wherein the third random access resource set is associated with only an indication of a second-type terminal, and the first-type terminal device is a terminal device whose terminal device capability is reduced relative to that of the second-type terminal device; and performing, by the terminal device, the random access procedure by using the third random access resource set.
The method according to claim 13, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the terminal device, third indication information, wherein the third indication information indicates that the first-type terminal is allowed to use the third random access resource set.
The method according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the method further comprises: when there is no random access resource set applicable to the feature of the current random access procedure and a first condition is met, selecting, by the terminal device, a random access resource set that has no associated feature, to perform the random access procedure, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of the following: the terminal device is not the first-type terminal device; or there is no random access resource set configured with only the indication of the second-type terminal.
The method according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the method further comprises: determining, by the terminal device based on an indication associated with a random access resource set and the feature of the current random access procedure, whether the random access resource set is applicable to the current random access procedure, wherein the indication associated with the random access resource set represents a feature associated with the random access resource set.
The method according to any one of claims 13 to 16, wherein the indication of the second-type terminal represents that a non-second-type terminal device cannot use the random access resource set in a random access procedure.
The method according to any one of claims 13 to 17, wherein the first-type terminal device is an enhanced reduced capability eRedCap terminal device, and the second-type terminal is a reduced capability RedCap terminal device.
The method according to any one of claims 13 to 18, wherein the feature comprises at least one of the following: a RedCap terminal device, small data transmission, radio access network slicing, a coverage enhancement feature, or an eRedCap terminal device.
A communication apparatus, wherein the apparatus comprises a processing module, and the processing module is configured to: when a third condition is met, select a fourth random access resource set, wherein the third condition is that a feature of a first-type terminal device is applicable to a current random access procedure, and a first resource and the fourth random access resource set are provided, wherein the first resource is a contention-free random access resource, and the fourth random access resource set is a random access resource set associated with only the feature of the first-type terminal device; and when the third condition is not met and a fourth condition is met, select a fifth random access resource set, wherein that the third condition is not met and the fourth condition is met means that the feature of the first-type terminal device is applicable to the current random access procedure, the fourth random access resource set is not provided, and the first resource and the fifth random access resource set are provided, wherein the fifth random access resource set is a random access resource set associated with only a feature of a second-type terminal device.

Description

This application claims priorities to Chinese Patent Application No. 202311011308.1, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on August 10, 2023 and entitled "COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS", and to Chinese Patent Application No. 202311294466.2, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on September 28, 2023 and entitled "COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS", both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. TECHNICAL FIELD This application relates to the communication field, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus. BACKGROUND In the 3rd generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP) release 18 (release 18, R18), an enhanced reduced capability (enhanced reduced capability, eRedCap) terminal device is introduced. Compared with a reduced capability (reduced capability, RedCap) terminal device in R17, for the eRedCap terminal device, a baseband bandwidth is further reduced. However, when there is no random access resource set that can be used for a feature of the eRedCap terminal device in a current random access procedure, how to enable the eRedCap terminal device and the RedCap terminal device to share a random access resource set of the RedCap terminal device is a problem that needs to be urgently resolved. SUMMARY Embodiments of this application provide a communication method and apparatus, to enable an eRedCap terminal device and a RedCap terminal device to share a random access resource set of the RedCap terminal device. To achieve the foregoing objective, this application uses the following technical solutions. According to a first aspect, a communication method is provided. The method may be performed by a terminal device, may be performed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, or may be performed by a logical module or software that can implement all or some functions of the terminal device. The method includes: When there is no random access resource set applicable to a feature of a current random access procedure, if the terminal device is a first-type terminal device, the terminal device determines a first random access resource set based on a feature of a second-type terminal device, and performs the random access procedure by using the first random access resource set. The first-type terminal device is a terminal device whose capability is reduced relative to that of the second-type terminal device. It can be learned from the method according to the first aspect that, when there is no random access resource set applicable to the feature of the current random access procedure, the first-type terminal device may determine a random access resource set based on the feature of the second-type terminal device. In other words, the first-type terminal device may serve as or fall back to the second-type terminal device, and then perform a random access resource set selection process. Therefore, an eRedCap terminal device and a RedCap terminal device can share a random access resource set of the RedCap terminal device, so that a network device can identify the eRedCap UE based on at least a feature of the RedCap UE while improving random access resource utilization. This can increase an access success rate of the eRedCap UE while implementing flexible selection of the random access resource set. In a possible design solution, the method according to the first aspect may further include: The terminal device receives first indication information. The first indication information indicates that the first-type terminal device is allowed to determine the first random access resource set based on the feature of the second-type terminal device. This can enhance control of the network device over a random access resource set used by the first-type terminal device, improve flexibility of configuring a random access resource by the network device, and avoid a subsequent case in which the network device cannot identify the first-type terminal device in advance. In a possible design solution, the method according to the first aspect may further include: The terminal device receives second indication information. The second indication information indicates that the first-type terminal device is allowed to use a second random access resource set, the second random access resource set is related to the second-type terminal, and the first random access resource set is one of the second random access resource set that is allowed to be used by the first-type terminal device. In other words, the first-type terminal device can use a random access resource set, for example, the second random access resource set, only when the random access resource set is related to the second-type terminal and the network device indicates that the first-type terminal device can use the random access resource set. This can further enhance control of the network device over the random access resource set u