WO-2026092726-A1 - WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD AND RELATED APPARATUSES

WO2026092726A1WO 2026092726 A1WO2026092726 A1WO 2026092726A1WO-2026092726-A1

Abstract

A wireless communication method and related apparatuses are provided. The method by a user equipment includes receiving at least one of a narrowband (NB) primary synchronization signal (NPSS), a NB secondary synchronization signal (NSSS), a NB physical broadcast channel (NPBCH) for downlink synchronization, and a specific system information block (SIB) for the NB for essential system information in one or more sets of downlink subframes, each set of which comprises a set of consecutive subframes, in an internet-of-things (IoT) non-terrestrial network (NTN) time-division duplex (TDD) mode. This realizes NTN NB-IoT services.

Inventors

LIN, HAO

Assignees

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251103
Priority Date: 20241104

Claims (20)

A wireless communication method, performed by a user equipment (UE) in a network, comprising: receiving at least one of a narrowband (NB) primary synchronization signal (NPSS) , a NB secondary synchronization signal (NSSS) , a NB physical broadcast channel (NPBCH) for downlink synchronization, and a specific system information block (SIB) for the NB for essential system information in one or more sets of downlink subframes, each set of which comprises a set of consecutive subframes, in an internet-of-things (IoT) non-terrestrial network (NTN) time-division duplex (TDD) mode.
The method of claim 1, wherein each set of downlink subframes is within an Iridium downlink slot.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein there are 7 consecutive subframes in one set of downlink subframes.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein there are 8 consecutive subframes in one set of downlink subframes.
The method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the at least one of the NPSS, the NSSS, the NPBCH, and the specific SIB for the NB is defined based on a legacy NB-IoT frame structure, and each set of downlink subframes covers the at least one of the NPSS, the NSSS, the NPBCH, and the specific SIB for the NB.
The method of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein a period of the sets of downlink subframes is 90 ms or multiple of 90 ms.
The method of any of claims 1 to 6, further comprising: detecting the NPSS, wherein the NPSS is transmitted in each set of downlink subframes periodically.
The method of claim 7, further comprising: detecting the NSSS after the NPSS is detected, wherein essential signals, channels or blocks in each set of downlink subframes forms a downlink subframe pattern, and the NSSS is monitored at a unique NSSS location with respect to a location of the NPSS in the set of downlink subframes.
The method of claim 7, further comprising: detecting the NSSS after the NPSS is detected, wherein the NSSS is monitored at at least two possible NSSS locations with respect to a location of the NPSS in the set of downlink subframes.
The method of claim 8 or 9, further comprising: receiving the NPBCH in a subframe next to the NSSS.
The method of any of claims 1 to 6, further comprising: deriving a downlink subframe pattern, which is formed by essential signals, channels or blocks in each set of downlink subframes, according to a detected NPSS or NSSS, wherein an association exists between downlink subframe pattern and a sequence of the NPSS or the NSSS.
The method of any of claims 1 to 11, wherein a hyper system frame number (SFN) contains a number of radio frames that occupies a length of time which is multiple of a period of the sets of downlink subframes, and the downlink subframes in different hyper SFN have a same relative location.
The method of any of claims 1 to 12, further comprising: receiving the specific SIB for the NB, wherein a transmission time interval (TTI) for the specific SIB is defined to be equal to m*n*Period, where the parameter Period is a period of the sets of downlink subframes, m is an integer number which indicates a number of subframes that are needed to carry overall payload of the specific SIB, and n is an integer number which indicates a frequency for the UE to receive a subframe of the specific SIB within n*Period.
The method of claim 13, wherein the specific SIB for the NB comprises system information block 1 (SIB1) -NB.
The method of any of claims 1 to 14, further comprising: determining a system information (SI) window, wherein the SI window is determined according to a SI window start, a SI window length and a SI window period; and receiving another system information block different from the specific SIB for the NB according to the SI window.
The method of claim 15, wherein the SI window start is aligned with a start of the set of downlink subframes, the SI window length is a multiple of a period of the sets of downlink subframes, and the SI window period is also a multiple of the period of the sets of downlink subframes.
The method of claim 15 or 16, wherein the SI window start is determined based on a legacy NB-IoT SI window start subframe number plus an offset, which indicates a subframe offset between a radio frame boundary and a boundary of the set of downlink frames.
The method of any of claims 1 to 17, wherein the specific SIB for the NB provides a configuration of the downlink subframes, and the configuration of the downlink subframes comprises at least one of a number of the downlink subframes in a set, a period of a plurality of groups of the sets of downlink subframes, a number of the sets of downlink subframes, and locations of the sets of downlink subframes.
The method of claim 18, wherein a number of consecutive downlink subframes in different sets of downlink subframes is same.
The method of claim 18, wherein a number of consecutive downlink subframes in different sets of downlink subframes is different.

Description

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD AND RELATED APPARATUSES TECHNICAL FIELD The present application relates to wireless communication technologies, and more particularly, to a wireless communication method and related apparatuses. BACKGROUND ART In cellular wireless communication systems developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) , user equipment (UE) is connected by a wireless link to a radio access network (RAN) . The RAN includes a set of base stations (BSs) which provide wireless links to UEs located in cells covered by the base station and an interface to a core network (CN) which provides overall network control. The RAN and CN each conduct respective functions in relation to the overall network. The so-called 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, namely, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunication System Territorial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) has been developed for a mobile access network where one or more macro-cells are supported by a base station known as an eNodeB or eNB (evolved NodeB) . Evolved from LTE, the so-called 5G or new radio (NR) systems where one or more cells are supported by a base station known as a gNB. Envisioned to succeed the current 5G networks, the 6G cellular system is the forthcoming generation of wireless communication technology. In the related arts, narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) has been standardized by the 3GPP to provide wide-area, low-power, and low-cost connectivity for massive Internet of Things (IoT) devices. To extend the coverage of NB-IoT beyond terrestrial networks, the 3GPP has further introduced the concept of non-terrestrial networks (NTN) , in which satellites, for example, are used to relay communication between the user equipments and the core network. An Iridium satellite communication system, as an example of the NTN-based systems, provides low Earth orbit (LEO) mobile-satellite service (MSS) for duplex communication between satellites and ground terminals. To enable the deployment of a NB-IoT NTN system, the NB-IoT NTN system may have to be designed to coexist with the existing Iridium satellite service. The design of synchronization signal reception, system information acquisition, and narrowband physical random access channel (NPRACH) transmission for the narrowband IoT needs to be adapted to the existing Iridium satellite service. Accordingly, efficient coexistence between the NB-IoT NTN system and the Iridium satellite system are of significant importance. SUMMARY An object of the present application is to propose a wireless communication method and related apparatuses, which can realize NTN NB-IoT services, coexist with the existing NTN-based system, enhance communication performance, and/or provide high reliability. In a first aspect of the present application, provided is a wireless communication method, performed by a user equipment (UE) in a network, comprising receiving at least one of a narrowband (NB) primary synchronization signal (NPSS) , a NB secondary synchronization signal (NSSS) , a NB physical broadcast channel (NPBCH) for downlink synchronization, and a specific system information block (SIB) for the NB for essential system information in one or more sets of downlink subframes, each set of which comprises a set of consecutive subframes, in an internet-of-things (IoT) non-terrestrial network (NTN) time-division duplex (TDD) mode. In a second aspect of the present application, provided is a wireless communication method, performed by a network node in a network, comprising sending to a user equipment (UE) at least one of a narrowband (NB) primary synchronization signal (NPSS) , a NB secondary synchronization signal (NSSS) , a NB physical broadcast channel (NPBCH) for downlink synchronization, and a specific system information block (SIB) for the NB for essential system information in one or more sets of downlink subframes, each set of which comprises a set of consecutive subframes, in an internet-of-things (IoT) non-terrestrial network (NTN) time-division duplex (TDD) mode. In a third aspect of the present application, provided is a user equipment (UE) in a network, comprising a receiving module, configured to receive at least one of a narrowband (NB) primary synchronization signal (NPSS) , a NB secondary synchronization signal (NSSS) , a NB physical broadcast channel (NPBCH) for downlink synchronization, and a specific system information block (SIB) for the NB for essential system information in one or more sets of downlink subframes, each set of which comprises a set of consecutive subframes, in an internet-of-things (IoT) non-terrestrial network (NTN) time-division duplex (TDD) mode. In a fourth aspect of the present application, provided is a network node in a network, comprising a sending module, configured to send to a user equipment (UE) at least one of a narrowband (NB) primary synchronization signal (NPSS) , a NB secondary synchronization signal (NSSS) , a NB physical broadcast channel (NPBCH) for do