CN112106417B

CN112106417B - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN112106417B
Application number: CN201880092811.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 唐珣; 张戬; 柴丽; 王宏
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-04-28
Filing date: 2018-04-28
Publication date: 2023-03-24
Anticipated expiration: 2038-04-28
Also published as: CN112106417A; WO2019205169A1

Abstract

A communication method and device are used for improving the spectrum efficiency when virtual cell communication is adopted. The method comprises the following steps: receiving configuration information from a first network device, wherein the configuration information is used for indicating a data area in a virtual cell resource, the data area is occupied by m network devices together, and the m network devices comprise the first network device and one or more second network devices; and receiving downlink data information carried by beams of one or more network devices in the m network devices in the data area.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a communication method and device.

Background

The cellular communication system is designed primarily for terrestrial terminals, and when the terminal is higher than the base station, the problems of increased interference and frequent handover will occur. Taking the terminal as an unmanned aerial vehicle as an example, when the flying height of the unmanned aerial vehicle is higher than the base station, the unmanned aerial vehicle accesses the cellular network to communicate, which may cause the following problems. On one hand, since the radiation direction of the base station signal is mainly towards the ground, although there may be reflection or scattering of the ground signal to cause part of the signal to spread into the air, or there may also be some side lobes radiated into the air by the base station antenna, generally speaking, the signal strength received by the drone is low. On the other hand, when unmanned aerial vehicle was in high altitude flight, because shelter from the thing and become fewly, the signal that unmanned aerial vehicle sent can be received by more basic stations, and unmanned aerial vehicle can receive the signal of more basic stations, leads to the interference in ascending direction and the descending direction all to increase. As shown in fig. 1, when a drone in high air communicates with a serving base station, a signal transmitted by the drone may be received by the serving base station, an interfering base station 1 and an interfering base station 2, and signals transmitted by the serving base station, the interfering base station 1 and the interfering base station 2 may also be received by the drone. On the other hand, because the sidelobe coverage of aerial radiation of base station antenna is less, so unmanned aerial vehicle's small-range removal all can lead to switching, and in addition, except that horizontal migration moves, unmanned aerial vehicle's altitude variation also can lead to switching. As shown in fig. 2, horizontal movement of the drone (from position 1 to position 3) will result in a handover from cell 1 to cell 2, and vertical movement of the drone (from position 1 to position 2) will result in a handover from cell 2 to cell 3. In conclusion, when the height of the unmanned aerial vehicle is higher than the base station, not only the quality of the downlink signal received by the unmanned aerial vehicle is deteriorated, but also the aerial flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle can cause more switching, and the communication performance of the unmanned aerial vehicle is deteriorated.

In order to solve the problems of increased interference and frequent switching when the terminal is higher than the base station, a scheme provides that a plurality of base stations cooperate with one another, and the plurality of base stations cooperate with one another to allocate the same time-frequency resource to the same terminal for jointly transmitting downlink data and jointly receiving uplink data. The plurality of cells of the plurality of base stations constitute a virtual cell, and the terminal switches between the virtual cells. The method reduces the interference of uplink and downlink to a certain extent and reduces the switching frequency of the terminal to a certain extent. However, one terminal occupies time-frequency resources of a plurality of base stations, which reduces the spectrum efficiency.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for improving the spectrum efficiency when virtual cell communication is adopted.

The embodiment of the application provides the following specific technical scheme:

in a first aspect, a communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal, and the method is mainly implemented by: receiving configuration information from a first network device, where the configuration information is used to indicate a data region in a virtual cell resource, where the data region is occupied by m network devices together, and the m network devices include the first network device and one or more second network devices, and receiving downlink data information in the data region according to the configuration information, where the downlink data information is information carried by beams of one or more network devices of the m network devices. In this way, by receiving downlink data information carried by one or more network devices through the beam in the data area, different terminals can receive the beam sent by different network devices, and terminals in different directions can perform space division multiplexing, so that the utilization rate of virtual cell resources is improved, and the spectrum efficiency and the system capacity are further improved.

In one possible design, the configuration information is also used to indicate a control region in the virtual cell resource, and the control region may be divided, but is not limited to, in the following two ways.

First, the control area includes m dedicated control areas, where the m dedicated control areas correspond to the m network devices one to one, different dedicated control areas correspond to different network devices, and one network device occupies one dedicated control area, where the dedicated control area is used to carry downlink control information of the corresponding network device.

Optionally, in this manner, the configuration information includes the number of the dedicated control areas, or includes the size or the position of the resource occupied by each dedicated control area in the m dedicated control areas, so as to facilitate the terminal to correctly receive the downlink control information.

Optionally, the m dedicated control areas may be divided in an equal division manner or in an unequal division manner, when the m dedicated control areas are divided in the equal division manner, the terminal may receive the number of the dedicated control areas, and when the m dedicated control areas are divided in the unequal division manner, the terminal may receive the size or the position of the resource occupied by each dedicated control area.

Optionally, the configuration information may be carried by a dedicated physical channel, a handover command, another RRC message, or a media access layer control element MAC CE, or the number of dedicated control areas, or the size or the location of the resource occupied by each dedicated control area may be carried in the dedicated physical channel, the handover command, another RRC message, or the media access layer control element MAC CE, and the terminal obtains the partition information of the dedicated control areas by receiving one of the pieces of information.

Optionally, in this way, the method may further include the steps of: and detecting downlink control information in the special control area according to the number of the received special control areas or the size or the position of the resource occupied by each special control area, and demodulating the downlink data information according to the detected downlink control information.

And the second method comprises the following steps: the control region is a common control region, the common control region is configured to carry a beam carrying downlink control information of any one of the m network devices (that is, the common control region is common to the m network devices), the configuration information is further configured to indicate a pilot resource region in a virtual cell resource, the configuration information further includes a size or a position of a resource occupied by the pilot resource region and allocation information of the pilot resource, the allocation information of the pilot resource is used to detect a pilot signal in the pilot resource region, the pilot resource region is used to carry a beam-related pilot signal, for example, a demodulation reference symbol, and the beam-related pilot signal is used to perform channel estimation on the beam carrying the downlink control information, and may be used for control channel demodulation and data channel demodulation. In this application, any one of the m network devices may be understood as one or more network devices of the m network devices.

Of course, the size or location of the occupied resource of the pilot resource region and the allocation information of the pilot resource may also be indicated by other information, for example, broadcast message or system message, dedicated physical channel, over-handover command, other RRC message or MAC CE, and the terminal acquires the information of the pilot resource by receiving other information. Or, the configuration information indicates the size or the position of the resource occupied by the pilot resource region and the allocation information of the pilot resource, and the configuration information may be carried by these messages.

Optionally, the allocation information of the pilot resource includes a port number of the pilot signal, or a port number of the pilot signal.

In one possible design, the method may further include the steps of: and detecting the pilot frequency signal in the pilot frequency resource area, performing blind detection on a downlink control channel in the public control area according to a channel estimation result of the pilot frequency signal, acquiring downlink control information according to a blind detection result, and demodulating the downlink data information according to the downlink control information.

In one possible design, the configuration information may be received from the first network device by: receiving a system message or a broadcast message from the first network device, wherein the system message or the broadcast message carries the configuration information; or, receiving a dedicated physical channel message from the first network device, where the dedicated physical channel message carries the configuration information; or, receiving an RRC configuration message from the first network device, where the RRC configuration message carries the configuration information; or receiving a switching command from the first network device, wherein the switching command carries the configuration information; or receiving other RRC messages or MAC CEs from the first network device, where the other RRC messages or MAC CEs carry the configuration information.

In one possible design, location information may be further received from the first network device, where the location information is used to indicate a location of a network device for uplink data reception in the m network devices, and a beam pointing to the network device for uplink data reception is generated according to the location of the network device for uplink data reception and a location of the network device for uplink data reception. Therefore, through acquiring the position of each network device in the virtual cell, the beam pointing to the corresponding network device can be generated in an auxiliary manner, different terminals send the beam carrying uplink data to different base stations, no obvious interference is generated in the uplink direction, the transmission of the uplink data and the downlink data by using the beam is facilitated when virtual cell communication is adopted, and the frequency spectrum efficiency is improved.

The location information may include location coordinates of a network device for uplink data reception among the m network devices, and/or an index number of the network device for uplink data reception, where the index number is used to distinguish different network devices of the m network devices.

In one possible design, receiving a system message or a broadcast message from the first network device, where the system message or the broadcast message carries the location information; or, receiving a dedicated physical channel message from the first network device, where the dedicated physical channel message carries the location information; or, receiving a semi-static configuration message from the first network device, where the semi-static configuration message carries the location information; or receiving uplink scheduling UL-Grant information from the first network device, where the scheduling information carries the location information.

In one possible design, a first notification message may be further received from the first network device, a correspondence between a pilot resource and a first redundancy version is determined according to the first notification message, and the terminal obtains downlink data sent on multiple beams corresponding to the pilot resource and performs HARQ combining on the downlink data sent by the multiple beams according to the correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version. The same data is transmitted through a plurality of wave beams, which is beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

Optionally, the pilot resource is a port number, and the terminal receives a correspondence between the port number sent by the first network device and the redundancy version.

In one possible design, an RRC message sent from the first network device, where the RRC message carries a correspondence between the pilot resource and a first redundancy version number; or receiving a downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message from the first network device, where the downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message carries a corresponding relationship between the pilot resource and a first redundancy version number; or receiving downlink control information DCI from the first network device, where the DCI information carries a corresponding relationship between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version number, or receiving downlink control information DCI from the first network device, where the DCI information carries a pilot port number, or receiving downlink control information DCI from the first network device, where the DCI information carries the number of pilot ports.

In one possible design, the data of partial ports can be selected to be combined, so that the processing capability of the terminal can be focused on high-quality signals, and the reliability and the quality of data transmission can be improved.

In one possible design, a second notification message is further received from the first network device, and according to the second notification message, the corresponding relationship between the index number of the network device for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version is determined; and sending the data of the corresponding redundancy version to the network equipment for receiving the uplink data according to the corresponding relation between the index number of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version. And the method is also beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the method is favorable for shortening the time for repeated transmission, thereby shortening the data transmission delay.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal, and the method is mainly implemented by: receiving location information from the first network device, where the location information is used to indicate a location of a network device for uplink data reception among the m network devices, and generating a beam pointing to the network device for uplink data reception according to the location of the network device for uplink data reception and a location of the network device itself. Therefore, by acquiring the position of each network device in the virtual cell, the method can assist in generating the beam pointing to the corresponding network device, and different terminals send the beam carrying uplink data to different base stations, so that no obvious interference is generated in the uplink direction, thereby being beneficial to performing uplink and downlink data transmission by using the beam when virtual cell communication is adopted, and improving the spectrum efficiency.

In one possible design, a first notification message may be further received from the first network device, a correspondence between a pilot resource and a first redundancy version is determined according to the first notification message, and the terminal obtains downlink data sent on multiple beams corresponding to the pilot resource and performs HARQ combining on the downlink data sent by the multiple beams according to the correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version. The same data is transmitted through a plurality of beams, which is beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

Optionally, the pilot resource is a port number, and the terminal receives a correspondence between the port number and the redundancy version sent by the first network device.

In one possible design, a second notification message is further received from the first network device, and according to the second notification message, the corresponding relationship between the index number of the network device for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version is determined; and sending the data of the corresponding redundancy version to the network equipment for receiving the uplink data according to the corresponding relation between the index number of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version. And the method is also beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

In one possible design, configuration information is received from a first network device, where the configuration information is used to indicate a data region in a virtual cell resource, where the data region is occupied by m network devices, and the m network devices include the first network device and one or more second network devices, and downlink data information is received in the data region according to the configuration information, where the downlink data information is information carried by a beam of one or more network devices of the m network devices. In this way, by receiving downlink data information carried by one or more network devices through the beam in the data area, different terminals can receive the beam sent by different network devices, and terminals in different directions can perform space division multiplexing, so that the utilization rate of virtual cell resources is improved, and the spectrum efficiency and the system capacity are further improved.

And the second method comprises the following steps: the control region is a common control region, the common control region is configured to carry a beam of any one of the m network devices, the configuration information is further configured to indicate a pilot resource region in a virtual cell resource, the configuration information further includes size or position of a resource occupied by the pilot resource region and allocation information of the pilot resource, the allocation information of the pilot resource is configured to detect a pilot signal in the pilot resource region, the pilot resource region is configured to carry a beam-related pilot signal, for example, a demodulation reference symbol, and the beam-related pilot signal is configured to perform channel estimation on the beam carrying the downlink control information, and may be used for control channel demodulation and data channel demodulation.

In one possible design, the method may further include the steps of: and detecting the pilot frequency signal in the pilot frequency resource region, performing blind detection on a downlink control channel in the common control region according to a channel estimation result of the pilot frequency signal, acquiring downlink control information according to a blind detection result, and demodulating the downlink data information according to the downlink control information.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal, and the method is mainly implemented by: receiving a first notification message from the first network device, determining a corresponding relationship between a pilot resource and a first redundancy version according to the first notification message, and the terminal acquiring downlink data sent on a plurality of beams corresponding to the pilot resource and performing HARQ combining on the downlink data sent by the plurality of beams according to the corresponding relationship between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version. The same data is transmitted through a plurality of wave beams, which is beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

In one possible design, an RRC message sent from the first network device, where the RRC message carries a correspondence between the pilot resource and a first redundancy version number; or receiving a downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message from the first network device, where the downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message carries a corresponding relationship between the pilot resource and a first redundancy version number; or receiving downlink control information DCI from the first network device, where the DCI information carries a correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version number, or receiving downlink control information DCI from the first network device, where the DCI information carries a pilot port number, or receiving downlink control information DCI from the first network device, where the DCI information carries the number of pilot ports.

In one possible design, data of partial ports can be selected and combined, so that the processing capability of the terminal can be focused on high-quality signals, and the reliability and the quality of data transmission can be improved.

In one possible design, location information may be further received from the first network device, where the location information is used to indicate a location of a network device for uplink data reception in the m network devices, and a beam pointing to the network device for uplink data reception is generated according to the location of the network device for uplink data reception and a location of the network device for uplink data reception. Therefore, by acquiring the position of each network device in the virtual cell, the method can assist in generating the beam pointing to the corresponding network device, and different terminals send the beam carrying uplink data to different base stations, so that no obvious interference is generated in the uplink direction, thereby being beneficial to performing uplink and downlink data transmission by using the beam when virtual cell communication is adopted, and improving the spectrum efficiency.

In one possible design, the configuration information is further used to indicate a control region in the virtual cell resource, and the control region may be divided, but is not limited to, in the following two ways.

Optionally, in this manner, the configuration information includes the number of the dedicated control areas, or includes the size or position of the resource occupied by each of the m dedicated control areas, so as to facilitate the terminal to correctly receive the downlink control information.

And the second method comprises the following steps: the control region is a common control region, the common control region is configured to carry a beam carrying downlink control information of any network device among the m network devices, the configuration information is further configured to indicate a pilot resource region in a virtual cell resource, the configuration information further includes a size or a position of a resource occupied by the pilot resource region and allocation information of the pilot resource, the allocation information of the pilot resource is used to detect a pilot signal in the pilot resource region, the pilot resource region is used to carry a beam-related pilot signal, for example, a demodulation reference symbol, and the beam-related pilot signal is used to perform channel estimation on the beam carrying the downlink control information, and may be used for control channel demodulation and data channel demodulation.

In one possible design, the configuration information may be received from the first network device by: receiving a system message or a broadcast message from the first network device, wherein the system message or the broadcast message carries the configuration information; or, receiving a dedicated physical channel message from the first network device, where the dedicated physical channel message carries the configuration information; or, receiving an RRC configuration message from the first network device, where the RRC configuration message carries the configuration information; or receiving a switching command from the first network device, wherein the switching command carries the configuration information; or receiving other RRC message or MAC CE from the first network device, where the other RRC message or MAC CE carries the configuration information.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a first network device, and the method is mainly implemented by: sending configuration information to a terminal, where the configuration information is used to indicate a data area in a virtual cell resource, where the data area is occupied by m network devices together, where the m network devices include the first network device and one or more second network devices, and the data area is used for one or more network devices in the m network devices to send a beam carrying downlink data information; and sending the beam carrying the downlink data information in the data area. Therefore, the data area is shared by the plurality of network equipment in a beam communication mode, different terminals can receive beams sent by different network equipment, and terminals in different directions can perform space division multiplexing, so that the utilization rate of virtual cell resources is improved, and the spectrum efficiency and the system capacity are further improved.

Optionally, the configuration information may be carried by a dedicated physical channel, a handover command, another RRC message, or a media access layer control element MAC CE, or the number of dedicated control regions, or the size or the location of the resource occupied by each dedicated control region may be carried by the dedicated physical channel, the handover command, the other RRC message, or the media access layer control element MAC CE, and one of these pieces of information is sent to indicate these pieces of division information of the dedicated control regions to the terminal.

Of course, the size or location of the occupied resource of the pilot resource region and the allocation information of the pilot resource may also be indicated by other information, for example, a broadcast message or a system message, a dedicated physical channel, an over-handover command, other RRC message or MAC CE, which indicates the information of the pilot resource to the terminal by transmitting other information. Or, the configuration information indicates the size or position of the resource occupied by the pilot resource region and the allocation information of the pilot resource, and the configuration information is carried by the messages.

In one possible design, the configuration information may be sent to the terminal by sending one of the following messages: system messages or broadcast messages, dedicated physical channel messages, RRC configuration messages, handover commands, or other RRC messages or MAC CEs. The configuration information is carried in either message.

In one possible design, location information indicating a location of a network device for uplink data reception among the m network devices may be further sent to the terminal. Therefore, the positions of the network devices in the virtual cell are indicated to the terminal, the terminal can be assisted to generate the wave beams pointing to the corresponding network devices, different terminals transmit uplink data to different base stations by adopting the wave beams, obvious interference cannot be generated in the uplink direction, the wave beams are used for transmitting the uplink data and the downlink data when the virtual cell is adopted for communication, and the frequency spectrum efficiency is improved.

In one possible design, the location information may be indicated to the terminal by sending any one of the following messages to the terminal: system messages or broadcast messages, dedicated physical channel messages, semi-static configuration messages, and uplink scheduling UL-Grant information.

In one possible design, a first notification message may also be sent to the terminal, where the first notification message carries a correspondence between a pilot resource and a first redundancy version, and one or more network devices of the m network devices send downlink data in multiple beams corresponding to the pilot resource, where the correspondence is used for the terminal to perform HARQ combining on the downlink data on the multiple beams. The same data is transmitted through a plurality of wave beams, which is beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

In one possible design, the correspondence is carried in any of the following messages sent to the terminal: the method comprises the steps of RRC information, downlink semi-static scheduling configuration information and downlink control information DCI, wherein the DCI information carries the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resources and the first redundancy version number, or the DCI information carries the pilot frequency port number, or the DCI information carries the number of the pilot frequency ports.

In one possible design, a second notification message may also be sent to the terminal, where the second notification message carries a correspondence between an index number of a network device for receiving uplink data and a second redundancy version, and the correspondence between the index number of the network device for receiving uplink data and the second redundancy version is used to perform HARQ combining on uplink data of multiple redundancy versions received by the network device corresponding to the index number. And the method is also beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted on one time-frequency resource through a plurality of wave beams, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the realization of high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the method is favorable for shortening the time for repeated transmission, thereby shortening the data transmission delay.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a first network device, and the method is mainly implemented by: and sending position information to a terminal, wherein the position information is used for indicating the position of the network equipment used for receiving the uplink data in the m network equipment, and generating a beam pointing to the network equipment used for receiving the uplink data according to the position of the network equipment used for receiving the uplink data and the position of the network equipment. Therefore, the positions of the network devices in the virtual cell are indicated to the terminal, the terminal can be assisted to generate the wave beams pointing to the corresponding network devices, different terminals transmit uplink data to different base stations by adopting the wave beams, obvious interference cannot be generated in the uplink direction, the wave beams are used for transmitting the uplink data and the downlink data when the virtual cell is adopted for communication, and the frequency spectrum efficiency is improved.

In one possible design, a first notification message may also be sent to the terminal, where the first notification message carries a correspondence between a pilot resource and a first redundancy version, and one or more network devices of the m network devices send downlink data in multiple beams corresponding to the pilot resource, where the correspondence is used for the terminal to perform HARQ combining on the downlink data on the multiple beams. The same data is transmitted through a plurality of wave beams, which is beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted on one time-frequency resource through a plurality of wave beams, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the realization of high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

In one possible design, a second notification message may also be sent to the terminal, where the second notification message carries a correspondence between an index number of a network device for receiving uplink data and a second redundancy version, and the correspondence between the index number of the network device for receiving uplink data and the second redundancy version is used to perform HARQ combining on uplink data of multiple redundancy versions received by the network device corresponding to the index number. And the method is also beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

In one possible design, configuration information may also be sent to the terminal, where the configuration information is used to indicate a data area in the virtual cell resource, where the data area is occupied by m network devices together, where the m network devices include the first network device and one or more second network devices, and the data area is used for one or more network devices in the m network devices to send a beam carrying downlink data information; and sending the beam carrying the downlink data information in the data area. Therefore, the data area is shared by the plurality of network devices in a beam communication mode, different terminals can receive beams sent by different network devices, and terminals in different directions can perform space division multiplexing, so that the utilization rate of virtual cell resources is improved, and the spectrum efficiency and the system capacity are further improved.

First, the control area includes m dedicated control areas, the m dedicated control areas correspond to the m network devices one to one, different dedicated control areas correspond to different network devices, and one network device occupies one dedicated control area, where the dedicated control area is used to carry downlink control information of the corresponding network device.

In one possible design, the configuration information may be sent to the terminal by sending one of the following messages: system or broadcast messages, dedicated physical channel messages, RRC configuration messages, handover commands, or other RRC messages or MACCEs. The configuration information is carried in either message.

In a sixth aspect, a communication method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a first network device, and the method is mainly implemented by: and sending a first notification message to the terminal, wherein the first notification message carries a corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version, one or more network devices in the m network devices send downlink data in a plurality of beams corresponding to the pilot frequency resource, and the corresponding relation is used for the terminal to perform HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) combination on the downlink data on the plurality of beams. The same data is transmitted through a plurality of wave beams, which is beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of wave beams on one time-frequency resource, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

In one possible design, a second notification message may be further sent to the terminal, where the second notification message carries a correspondence between an index number of the network device for receiving uplink data and the second redundancy version, and the correspondence between the index number of the network device for receiving uplink data and the second redundancy version is used to perform HARQ combining on uplink data of multiple redundancy versions received by the network device corresponding to the index number. And the method is also beneficial to meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. When the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted on one time-frequency resource through a plurality of wave beams, the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the realization of high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened.

In one possible design, location information may be further sent to the terminal, where the location information is used to indicate a location of a network device used for uplink data reception in the m network devices, and a beam pointing to the network device used for uplink data reception is generated according to the location of the network device used for uplink data reception and the location of the network device. Therefore, the positions of the network devices in the virtual cell are indicated to the terminal, the terminal can be assisted to generate the wave beams pointing to the corresponding network devices, different terminals transmit uplink data to different base stations by adopting the wave beams, obvious interference cannot be generated in the uplink direction, the wave beams are used for transmitting the uplink data and the downlink data when the virtual cell is adopted for communication, and the frequency spectrum efficiency is improved.

In one possible design, the location information may be indicated to the terminal by sending the terminal any of the following messages: system messages or broadcast messages, dedicated physical channel messages, semi-static configuration messages, and uplink scheduling UL-Grant information.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a communication device having functionality to implement terminal behavior in any one of the first, second, third, possible designs of the first, second, and third aspects described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

In one possible design, the device may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a memory storing a set of programs and a processor executing the programs stored in the memory, and when the programs are executed, the apparatus may perform the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, any of the possible designs of the first aspect, any of the possible designs of the second aspect, and any of the possible designs of the third aspect.

In one possible design, the apparatus further includes a transceiver for communicating between the apparatus and a network device.

In one possible design, the device is a terminal.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a communications apparatus having functionality to implement the network device behaviour in any one of the fourth, fifth, sixth, possible designs of the fourth, fifth and sixth aspects described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

In one possible design, the device may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a memory storing a set of programs and a processor for executing the programs stored in the memory, and when the programs are executed, the apparatus may perform the method described in any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, the fourth aspect, any one of the possible designs of the fifth aspect, and any one of the possible designs of the sixth aspect.

In one possible design, the apparatus further includes a transceiver for communicating between the apparatus and the terminal.

In one possible design, the device is a base station.

A ninth aspect provides a chip connected to a memory or comprising a memory for reading and executing a software program stored in said memory to implement a method as described in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, any of the possible designs of the first aspect, any of the possible designs of the second aspect, and any of the possible designs of the third aspect.

A tenth aspect provides a chip, which is connected to a memory or which comprises a memory, for reading and executing a software program stored in said memory for implementing the method as described in any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect and the sixth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes the apparatus of the seventh and eighth aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium storing a computer program comprising instructions for performing the aspects described above and any possible method in design of aspects.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in the aspects and any possible design of aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of interference of an unmanned aerial vehicle in the prior art;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of switching of an unmanned aerial vehicle in the prior art;

fig. 3a is a schematic structural diagram of an access network in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3b is a second schematic structural diagram of an access network in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5a and fig. 5b are schematic diagrams illustrating two virtual cell resource partitioning manners in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a manner in which a base station in a virtual cell communicates using beams in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a protocol stack for a retransmission technique in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8a is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8b is a second flowchart of the communication method in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8c is a third schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a second schematic structural diagram of a communication device in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a third schematic structural diagram of a communication device in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a fourth schematic structural diagram of a communication device in the embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for improving the spectrum efficiency when virtual cell communication is adopted. The method and the device are based on the same or similar conception, so the implementation of the device and the method can be mutually referred, and repeated details are not repeated.

For convenience of understanding, the basic concepts of some terms used in this application will be first introduced.

1) A terminal, also referred to as User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc., is a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user. For example, the terminal includes a handheld device, a vehicle-mounted device, and the like having a wireless connection function. Currently, the terminal may be: mobile phone (mobile phone), tablet computer, notebook computer, palmtop computer, mobile Internet Device (MID), wearable device (e.g., smart watch, smart bracelet, pedometer, etc.), vehicle-mounted device (e.g., automobile, bicycle, electric vehicle, airplane, ship, train, high-speed rail, etc.), virtual Reality (VR) device, augmented Reality (AR) device, wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), smart home device (e.g., refrigerator, television, air conditioner, electric meter, etc.), smart robot, workshop device, wireless terminal in self drive (self drive), wireless terminal in remote surgery (remote medical supply), wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), wireless terminal in smart city (smart city) or wireless terminal in smart grid (smart city), wireless terminal in smart airplane, unmanned plane, etc., such as a flying robot, unmanned plane, etc. The application provides a possible application scenario that the height of the terminal meets a preset condition or the terminal is in a preset flight state, and the height can be the height of the terminal relative to the ground, the altitude or the height in other forms.

2) AN Access Network (AN) device is a device for accessing a terminal to a wireless network in a communication system applied in the present application. AN device is a node in a radio access network, which may also be referred to as a base station, and may also be referred to as a Radio Access Network (RAN) node (or device). A base station is a device deployed in a radio access network to provide a terminal with a wireless communication function.

For convenience of description, the AN apparatus is described by referring to a base station as AN example in this application. The base stations may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, access points, and the like. The method can be applied to systems of different radio access technologies, such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, or a fifth generation (5th generation, 5g) communication system. Possible deployment forms of the base station include: a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) separate scenarios; and single site scenarios. The single station includes a gbb/NR-NB, a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (Wifi) access point (access point, AP), etc. In the 5G communication system, a single site is gNB/NR-NB. The baseband unit (BBU) function in 5G is reconfigured into two functional entities, CU and DU. The CU equipment mainly comprises a non-real-time wireless high-level protocol stack function, and also supports partial core network function sinking and edge application service deployment, and the DU equipment mainly processes a physical layer function and a layer 2 function with real-time requirements. Specifically, the CU supports Radio Resource Control (RRC), packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and other protocols. The DU mainly supports a Radio Link Control (RLC), a Medium Access Control (MAC) and a physical layer (PHY) protocol. The DU is generally deployed in a distributed manner, and in general, more than one DU is connected to one CU. The gNB has the functions of a CU and a DU, and is generally deployed as a single-site modality. The division of the above functions is only an example, and what functions are implemented in the CU and what functions are implemented in the DU by the fifth generation (5 g) communication system or the future communication system are yet to be determined. Fig. 3a and 3b show two possible applicable access network architecture diagrams when the embodiment of the present application is applied to a 5G communication system. As shown in fig. 3a, in a 5G communication system, AN apparatus is a gNB, and one or more TRPs may exist under one gNB. As shown in fig. 3b, in a 5G communication system, there may be a CU-DU separation scenario. In the CU-DU separation scenario, the CU is the S1 access point on the access network side. The transmission flow of the downlink data is as follows: after receiving the downlink data sent by the core network, the CU distributes the downlink data to the DU, and the DU sends the received downlink data to the terminal. The transmission flow of the uplink data is as follows: the terminal sends the uplink data to the DU, the DU sends the received uplink data to the CU, and the CU sends the received uplink data to the core network after receiving the uplink data sent by the DU.

The base station may be another network device having a base station function, and particularly, may be a terminal serving as a base station function in D2D communication.

3) The virtual cell refers to a combination of cells with the same frequency in a plurality of existing cellular networks, and may also be referred to as a cell set, a cell combination, a cell cluster, a dedicated cell based on service, a reserved cell, an embedded cell, a sub-cell, and an air cell. The coverage area of the virtual cell is the union of the coverage areas of a plurality of same-frequency cells forming the virtual cell. The resources constituting the virtual cell can be briefly described as virtual cell resources, and the virtual cell resources include part or all of the resources reserved from the multiple co-frequency cells. In the application, a plurality of base stations cooperate with each other to allocate the same time-frequency resource to one or more terminals, the coverage area of a virtual cell is the sum of the coverage areas of the cells of the plurality of base stations cooperating with each other, and the same time-frequency resource is the virtual cell resource. The cell identifier of the virtual cell is used for the terminal to distinguish different virtual cells, and can also be used for distinguishing the virtual cell from a common cell. A normal cell refers to a cell in an existing cellular network.

4) A beam is a signal with strong directivity transmitted by a terminal or a base station using a beam domain communication method. The beam domain communication means that signals on different arrays of a linear array or an area array antenna are weighted, and beams are formed by utilizing an interference principle, so that the signals are enhanced in a specified direction and weakened in other directions, and thus terminals or stations in different directions can be subjected to space division multiplexing, and the system capacity is improved.

5) "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. Plural means two or more. The terms "first," "second," and the like, are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance, nor order. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

The basic idea of the present application is that multiple base stations cooperate to allocate the same time-frequency resource to multiple terminals, and the multiple base stations may jointly transmit data to one or more terminals occupying the virtual cell resource or jointly receive data transmitted by one or more terminals. Or, each base station in the multiple base stations independently performs scheduling and beam forming, a cell serving the terminal in the virtual cell sends a beam to the terminal, and other base stations/cells participating in cooperation can serve different terminals by using the same time-frequency resource. In this way, spectrum efficiency can be improved when virtual cell communication is employed.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a fourth generation (4 th generation, 4G) communication system, a fifth generation (5 th generation, 5G) communication system or various future communication systems.

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

Fig. 4 shows an architecture of a possible communication system to which the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applied, and referring to fig. 4, the communication system includes: at least one terminal 401 and at least one base station 402. The cells of at least one base station 402 constitute a virtual cell. In fig. 4, 3 terminals and 3 base stations are shown, 3 terminals being denoted 401-1, 401-2, 401-3, respectively, and 3 base stations being denoted 402-1, 402-2, 402-3, respectively. The term interpretation of the terminal 401 and the base station 402 may refer to the description of the above-described 1) point and 2) point. One of the base stations 402-1, 402-2, and 402-3 may be a management node, and the terminals 401-1, 401-2, and 401-3 are configured to receive a configuration message from the management node and perform data transmission with the base stations 402-1, 402-2, and 402-3. The management node determines the virtual cell resource, for example, may negotiate with the other two base stations to determine that the same transmission resource is shared as the virtual cell resource. The base stations 402-1, 402-2, and 402-3 may multiplex the virtual cell resources through beam communication.

Based on the architecture of the communication system shown in fig. 4, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below.

Example one

The following describes the way of dividing each channel region in the virtual cell resource.

The time domain resource dimension of the virtual cell resource is that the virtual cell occupies one or more unit time domain resources in the time domain, where the unit time domain resource refers to the most basic transmission unit divided according to the time domain resource granularity, and may refer to one frame, one subframe, one slot, one mini slot, or one symbol, and the like. The frequency domain resource dimension of the virtual cell resource is the total length occupied by the virtual cell in the frequency domain, and is a part of resources in the system bandwidth, for example, it may be a Resource Block (RB) range, or several bandwidth parts (BWPs), or several carriers, or a Resource Element (RE) range.

The division of the channel region in the virtual cell resource may include, but is not limited to, the following two ways. The following two ways are introduced based on unit time domain resources, that is, the unit time domain resources occupying the time domain resources for the virtual cell based on the time domain dimension and the total frequency domain resources occupied by the virtual cell based on the frequency domain dimension are introduced, and the following division ways can be referred to for the channel division mode in the virtual cell resources.

The first method is as follows: the virtual cell resources include a data region and a control region. Wherein the control area may comprise a plurality of dedicated control areas.

Assuming that m base stations cooperate cooperatively, that is, the number of base stations included in the virtual cell is m, where m is an integer greater than 1, the number of dedicated control areas is m. Each of the m base stations occupies a separate dedicated control area. As shown in fig. 5a, the m dedicated control areas are represented by dedicated control area 1 to dedicated control area m. The frequency domain resources occupied by the dedicated control region may be the same or different. The dedicated control area can be used for corresponding base stations to send downlink control information, the data area is used for being occupied by m base stations together, and downlink data information can be sent by adopting a beam multiplexing mode. For example, m =3, the dedicated control area 1 may be used for the base station 1 to transmit downlink control information, the dedicated control area 2 may be used for the base station 2 to transmit downlink control information, the dedicated control area 3 may be used for the base station 3 to transmit downlink control information, and the base station 1, the base station 2, and the base station 3 may commonly use the data area to transmit downlink data based on a beam multiplexing manner. In the present application, the term "shared" is used to mean shared or shared.

The second method comprises the following steps: as shown in fig. 5b, the virtual cell resources include a data region and a control region, and may further include a pilot resource region. The control area is a common control area, the common control area is used for being occupied by m base stations together, the m base stations can transmit downlink control information in a beam multiplexing mode, the data area is used for being occupied by the m base stations together, and the m base stations can transmit downlink data information in the beam multiplexing mode. The pilot resource region is used for co-occupation by m base stations, and may be used to transmit beam-related pilot signals, for example, demodulation reference symbols (DMRSs), which are used for control channel demodulation and data channel demodulation, and of course, the reference signals used for control channel demodulation and data channel demodulation may be the same or different. The channel distribution in fig. 5b is only an example.

When receiving downlink data, the terminal needs to know the size or position of the control region first to correctly receive and demodulate the downlink data in the data region, and a notification method of the control region in the virtual cell resource is described below.

The resource location of the virtual cell resource may be specified in a protocol, or may be determined by negotiation of multiple base stations included in the virtual cell, for example, a control node in the multiple base stations initiates the negotiation, and negotiates with other nodes to determine that part or all of resources of one or more base stations are used as the virtual cell resource. The control nodes in the base stations can send resource configuration information of the virtual cell to one or more served terminals, the resource location of the virtual cell resource is notified to the terminal through the resource configuration information, and the terminal obtains the resource location of the virtual cell resource according to the resource configuration information. Further, the base station may also notify the terminal of the division of the control region, and this aspect is described below with emphasis. In the following description, a base station may be a control node in a plurality of base stations, and a terminal may be any one of a plurality of terminals serving a virtual cell.

In an implementation manner, the size of the resource occupied by the control region and the data region in the time domain may be specified according to a protocol, or may be notified to the terminal by the base station. For example, in LTE, the control region of each subframe typically occupies 1-3 symbols, while the data region occupies the remaining symbols in the subframe.

1. If the channel division mode of the virtual cell resources is the first mode, the control region includes m dedicated control regions. If m adopts an equal division mode, the frequency domain resources occupied by each special control area are the same in size, the base station can inform the number of the special control areas of the terminal, and after the terminal receives the number of the special control areas sent by the base station, the size and the position of the frequency domain resources occupied by each special control area can be determined according to the position of the virtual cell resources. If an unequal partitioning manner is adopted, the frequency domain resources occupied by each dedicated control region may be different in size, and the base station may notify the terminal of the size of the resource occupied by each dedicated control region, for example, notify the number of RBs occupied by each dedicated control region, the terminal may receive the size of the resource occupied by each dedicated control region notified by the base station, and may determine the size and the position of the frequency domain resource of each dedicated control region according to the position of the virtual cell resource and the size of the resource occupied by each dedicated control region. For example, assuming that m =3, the unit time domain resource in the virtual cell resource is one subframe, the control region occupies the first 3 symbols in the subframe, and the data region occupies other symbols in the subframe. The virtual cell resources occupy 24 RBs in the frequency domain dimension, the 24 RBs are divided into 3 groups, and each dedicated control region occupies 8 RBs. Of course, the 3 dedicated control regions may occupy 24 RBs which are not equally divided. When the equal division mode is adopted, the base station may notify the terminal of the number 3 of the dedicated control regions, and the terminal determines that each dedicated control region occupies 8 RBs according to the position of the virtual cell resource. When the unequal division is employed, the base station may notify the terminal of the number of RBs occupied by each dedicated control region.

The notification manner may be, but is not limited to, the following manner.

(1) If the dividing mode of equal division is adopted, the frequency domain resources occupied by each special control area are the same in size, and the number of the special control areas can be notified through system messages. For example, in LTE, system messages are divided into a Master Information Block (MIB) and a system information block. The base station may be indicated by the MIB, e.g. by a free bit (bit) in the MIB. For example, 3 idle bits in the MIB are used to indicate the number of dedicated control areas. The number of control regions that can be characterized by 3 bits ranges from [0,7] or [1,8], and the maximum number of control regions that can be characterized is 8. For example, 000 is 1 for m, 2 for m, and 3 for m 010. For example, if the total number of RBs occupied by the virtual resource is 20, the number of dedicated control regions indicated by bits in the mib is 4, and the number of RBs per dedicated control region is 20/4=5. Similarly, in 5G, the number of dedicated control regions may also be notified in a system message in a synchronization signal block (SS-block), and specific details may refer to the above description and are not described again. Whether to use the partition method of the equal partition may be notified by the base station or may be defined by a protocol.

(2) The number of dedicated control regions or the size of the resources occupied by each dedicated control region may also be indicated by a dedicated physical channel. In a specific method for indicating the number of dedicated control regions by the base station through the dedicated physical channel, reference may be made to a method for indicating the number of control region symbols by a Physical Control Format Indication Channel (PCFICH) in LTE in the prior art. The base station notifies the terminal of the number of the dedicated control regions or the size of the resource occupied by each dedicated control region through a PCFICH channel, and may specifically be indicated by transmission Control Format Indicator (CFI), for example, the CFI may be set to CFI =1, 2, 3, 4.

(3) The number of dedicated control regions or the size of resources occupied by each dedicated control region may also be indicated by a handover command. Specifically, the terminal may be switched from a common cell to a virtual cell, or may be switched between different virtual cells. In the process of handover, the terminal receives a handover command sent by the source base station, may indicate the number of dedicated control regions or the size of resources occupied by each dedicated control region in the handover command, and may also indicate the frequency domain resource location and/or the number of unit frequency domain resources of each dedicated control region in the handover command, for example, indicate the RB location and/or the number of RBs. As in the example of point (1), the total number of RBs occupied by the virtual cell resource is 20, and the dedicated control region 1, the dedicated control region 2, the dedicated control region 3, and the dedicated control region 4 may be instructed to occupy RBs 15 to RB20, 21 to RB25, 26 to RB30, and 31 to RB35 in the handover command. If the terminal enters a new virtual cell by switching from a common cell or an original virtual cell, the frequency domain resource of each dedicated control area can be configured by a switching command, and the frequency domain resources occupied by each dedicated control area can be the same or different in size. If the difference is smaller, the frequency domain resource location occupied by each dedicated control region is indicated in the handover command, e.g. the RB location is indicated.

(4) The number of dedicated control regions or the size of resources occupied by each dedicated control region may also be indicated by other RRC messages or a media access control element (MAC CE).

2. If the channel division mode of the virtual cell resource is the second mode, that is, the control region is a common control region, each base station can send a beam carrying downlink control information in the common control region without other base stations coordinating the resource position. In this case, the terminal does not know the resource location of the downlink control channel, and needs to perform blind detection on the downlink control channel. The base station needs to inform the terminal of the allocation information of the pilot resource, for example, the allocation information of the pilot resource may be a port number of a pilot signal used for control channel demodulation, or the number of ports of the pilot signal.

The base station may notify the terminal of the reference signal dedicated to the beam in the allocation information of the pilot resource, and the terminal detects the reference signal dedicated to the beam according to the allocation information of the pilot resource, obtains a channel estimation result, performs blind detection on a downlink control channel using the channel estimation result, determines whether corresponding downlink control information (e.g., an uplink scheduling instruction, a downlink data transmission instruction, etc.) exists, and transmits or receives data according to the downlink control information when determining that the downlink control information exists. In another possible implementation manner, the terminal detects multiple pilot signals in the pilot resource region, obtains information of energy or power of multiple beams, compares the energy or power of each beam with a set threshold, if the energy or power of a certain beam exceeds the set threshold, it indicates that the terminal is in the coverage area of the beam, the terminal performs blind detection of a downlink control channel in the common control region using a channel estimation result of the pilot signal corresponding to the beam, determines whether corresponding downlink control information exists, and performs data transmission or reception according to the downlink control information when the downlink control information is determined to exist. The set threshold may be specified in the protocol or carried in the allocation information of the pilot resources.

Specifically, the allocation information of the pilot resource notified to the terminal by the base station includes a port number or a port number used by the pilot signal, and the port number or the port number used by the pilot signal may be briefly described as a port number of the pilot signal or a port number of the pilot signal. For example, the pilot signal is DMRS, and the base station notifies the terminal of the DMRS port number or the DMRS port number. And the terminal detects the special reference signal of the wave beam according to the number of the received pilot signal ports or the number of the pilot signal ports. The notification method may be, but is not limited to, the following method.

a. Notified by a broadcast message or a system message. For example, in LTE, the base station may indicate the pilot signal port number or the number of pilot signal ports through the MIB. For example, this may be indicated by a free bit (bit) in the MIB. For example, 2 idle bits in the MIB are used to indicate the number of pilot signal ports. The number of pilot signal ports that can be characterized by 2 bits ranges from [0,3] or [1,4], and the maximum number of pilot signal ports that can be characterized is 4. For example, 00 indicates that the number of pilot signal ports is 1, 01 indicates that the number of pilot signal ports is 2, 10 indicates that the number of pilot signal ports is 3, and 11 indicates that the number of pilot signal ports is 4. Similarly, in 5G, the base station may also inform the pilot signal port number or the number of pilot signal ports in a system message in the SS-block. For details, reference may be made to the above description notified by the MIB, which is not described again.

b. Indicated by a dedicated physical channel. The specific method for indicating the number of the pilot signal ports or the number of the pilot signal ports by the base station through the dedicated physical channel may refer to a method for indicating the number of control region symbols by the PCFICH channel in the LTE in the prior art. The base station notifies the terminal of the pilot signal port number or the pilot signal port number through the PCFICH channel, and may specifically be indicated by transmission Control Format Indicator (CFI), for example, the CFI may take a value of CFI =1, 2, 3, 4.

c. Indicated by the handover command. Specifically, the terminal may be switched from a common cell into a virtual cell, or may be switched between different virtual cells. In the process of handover, the terminal receives a handover command sent by the source base station, and the source base station may indicate a port number of a pilot signal or the number of ports of the pilot signal in the handover command.

d. Indicated by other RRC messages or MAC CE.

So far, the partition method of each channel region in the virtual cell resource and the notification method of the configuration information under each partition method are introduced.

When the channel division is performed on the virtual cell resources in the manner, each base station occupies its own dedicated control area to send downlink control information. The virtual cell comprises a plurality of base stations which jointly occupy a data area to send a wave beam carrying downlink data information, and the terminal detects the downlink control information according to the number of the received special control areas sent by the base stations or the size/position of resources occupied by each special control area and demodulates the downlink data information.

When two pairs of virtual cell resources are divided by adopting a mode, a plurality of base stations in the virtual cells jointly occupy a common control area to send beams carrying downlink control information, and jointly occupy a data area to send beams carrying downlink data information, a terminal detects a reference signal special for the beams according to the number of received pilot signal ports or the number of pilot signal ports sent by the base stations, performs blind detection on a downlink control channel according to a channel estimation result of the reference signal, obtains the downlink control information according to the blind detection result, and demodulates the downlink data according to the downlink control information.

For example, as shown in fig. 6, it is assumed that the virtual cell includes base station 1, base station 2, and base station 3, and the terminal served by the virtual cell includes terminal a and terminal b. One of the

base stations

1, 2 and 3 is a control node, for example, the base station 1 is a control node. The base station 1 allocates virtual cell resources to the terminal a and the terminal b, and notifies the number of a plurality of dedicated control areas, or the size/position of resources occupied by each dedicated control area, or the number of pilot signal ports to the terminal a and the terminal b. The base station 2 transmits a beam a to the terminal a in the data area of the virtual cell resource, the base station 3 transmits a beam b to the terminal b in the control area of the virtual cell resource, and the directions of the beam a and the beam b are different, so that the beam a transmitted by the base station 2 to the terminal a does not generate interference to the terminal b, and the beam b transmitted by the base station 3 to the terminal b does not generate interference to the terminal a in the downlink direction. Fig. 6 is only an exemplary illustration, and in practical applications, the virtual cell resources may be multiplexed by beams by any number of base stations. Similarly, data transmission in the uplink direction may also be accomplished via beams.

By the method provided by the embodiment, the plurality of base stations can transmit downlink data or receive uplink data to the plurality of terminals in a beam communication manner on the same virtual cell resource, and due to the strong directivity of the beams, different base stations generate beams in different directions, so that the signal-to-noise ratio of a link is improved, no obvious interference is generated in the downlink direction, the utilization rate of the virtual cell resource can be better improved, and the spectrum efficiency when the virtual cell communication is adopted can be improved to a certain extent. The data area is shared by a plurality of network devices in a beam communication mode, different terminals can receive beams sent by different network devices, and terminals in different directions can perform space division multiplexing, so that the utilization rate of virtual cell resources is improved, and the spectrum efficiency and the system capacity are further improved.

Example two

In the beam communication mode, at least one of the transmitting end and the receiving end needs to have the capability of supporting the beam forming technology. In the downlink communication process, the base station transmits downlink control information or downlink data information by using a beam, and a terminal receiving downlink data may or may not have the capability of supporting the beamforming technology. In uplink communication, the terminal may also transmit uplink data to the base station using a beam. Before transmitting uplink data, the terminal informs the base station of the terminal capability, wherein the terminal capability includes whether the terminal has the capability of generating beams or not and/or the number of beams which can be generated simultaneously by the terminal. The base station receives the capability information of the terminal reported by the terminal, determines whether the terminal can transmit uplink data by adopting the beam according to the capability information of the terminal, and/or determines the number of beams generated by the terminal at the same time.

If the base station determines that the terminal can have the capability of generating the beam, the base station can send the position information of the base station to the terminal, and the terminal generates the beam pointing to the base station according to the received position information of the base station and the position of the terminal. The location information of the base station may be location information generated by any positioning system, and includes the following information: longitude, latitude, ground clearance, or altitude. The base station may transmit the location information of the base station through a broadcast message or a dedicated message.

In this way, the terminal can generate a beam directed to the base station based on the received position information of the base station transmitted by the base station, and the base station can assist the terminal in generating a beam directed to the base station by transmitting the position information of the base station to the terminal.

The second embodiment can independently form the scheme requiring protection, and can also be combined with the second embodiment to form the scheme requiring protection. When combined with the embodiment, the base station that sends the location information of the base station may be a control node in a plurality of base stations to which the virtual cell belongs, and the control node sends the locations of the plurality of base stations to which the virtual cell belongs, specifically, may send the locations through a broadcast message or a dedicated message. For scheduling-based uplink transmission, the base station may also carry the locations of the multiple base stations in a semi-static configuration message or in an uplink scheduling (UL-Grant). Optionally, the broadcast message, or the dedicated message, or the semi-static configuration message, or the UL-Grant carries a correspondence between the index number of the base station and the position coordinate, where the index number of the base station may be an internal number of the base station in the virtual cell, for example, the number of base stations to which the virtual cell belongs is 3, and the index number of the base station may be 1, 2, or 3. And the plurality of terminals served by the virtual cell determine the position coordinates of the plurality of base stations according to the position information sent by the control node. Specifically, the terminal determines the position of the base station to receive the uplink data according to the position coordinates corresponding to the index number of the base station, and generates a beam pointing to the base station according to the position of the base station and the position of the terminal. Specifically, which base station or base stations are selected in the virtual cell to perform uplink data reception belongs to the base station implementation, and for example, the best base station may be selected according to the uplink signal quality to perform uplink data reception of the terminal.

Therefore, the base station indicates the position of each base station in the virtual cell to the terminal, the terminal can be assisted to generate the beam pointing to the corresponding base station, different terminals transmit uplink data to different base stations by adopting the beam, no obvious interference is generated in the uplink direction, the beam is used for uplink and downlink data transmission when virtual cell communication is adopted, and the frequency spectrum efficiency is improved.

EXAMPLE III

A scheme for performing repeated transmission (duplicate) using a beam when virtual cell communication is employed will be described below. In the downlink direction, multiple beams can be selected to transmit the same data, which is beneficial to meeting the requirement of low-delay and high-reliability transmission.

The multiple base stations to which the virtual cell belongs may have ideal backhaul (i.e., ideal backhaul) communication capability therebetween, and the communication delay between the multiple base stations with ideal backhaul is zero or close to zero, which can be ignored, so that the multiple base stations can jointly transmit and receive data to and from the terminal. For example, there may be ideal backhaul between multiple base stations that complete an X2 connection over optical fiber. A typical scenario of the ideal backhaul is a baseband resource sharing scenario of multiple base stations, that is, a baseband pool (i.e., BBU-pool) scenario. When a plurality of base stations have ideal backhaul communication capability, it can be seen that the plurality of base stations share one Medium Access Control (MAC) entity. The MAC entity is used for scheduling a plurality of base station joint transmission beams of the virtual cell. As shown in fig. 7, two beams are sent through two bearers as an example, bearer 1 and bearer 2 have independent PDCP entities and independent RLC entities, bearer 1 and bearer 2 share one MAC entity, the MAC entity schedules multiple base stations through scheduling virtual cells to jointly send beam 1 and beam 2, the base stations sending beam 1 and beam 2 may be the same base station or different base stations, and beam 1 and beam 2 carry the same downlink data.

A plurality of base stations to which the virtual cell belongs jointly transmit downlink Data to the terminal, and an MAC Protocol Data Unit (PDU) is generated in the MAC entity, where the MAC PDU may also be referred to as a Transport Block (TB). Because a plurality of base stations share one MAC entity, for any MAC PDU, the MAC entity can select a plurality of beams to repeatedly transmit, the plurality of beams can be generated by one or more of the plurality of base stations, the same TB is transmitted through the plurality of beams, and the terminal similar to an unmanned aerial vehicle can receive a flight control command during flight, thereby being beneficial to realizing low-delay and high-reliability transmission.

When the MAC entity transmits the same TB using multiple beams, the terminal needs to combine TBs received by multiple beams, so that data can be correctly acquired. The following describes an implementation procedure for transmitting the same TB through multiple beams.

Multiple beams are adopted to repeatedly transmit the same TB, data carried by the multiple beams which are repeatedly transmitted have different redundancy versions, and the terminal needs to know the redundancy version number of the data carried on each beam to correctly combine the data. The beam and the pilot resource have a corresponding relationship, and the pilot resource is taken as a port number for example to be introduced below. The wave beams and the port numbers have a corresponding relation, the base station needs to inform the redundant version number corresponding to the port number of the terminal, and the terminal can obtain the redundant version number of the data carried on each wave beam through the corresponding relation between the port numbers and the redundant version numbers. The method for the base station to notify the corresponding relationship between the port number and the redundancy version number may include the following methods, that is, the method for the terminal to obtain the corresponding relationship between the port number and the redundancy version number may include the following methods. In the following description, the base station that notifies the terminal may be a control node among a plurality of base stations to which the virtual cell belongs.

Mode 1, static notification. The base station sends a notification message, such as an RRC message, to the terminal, where the notification message carries a correspondence between a port number and a redundancy version number.

Mode 2, dynamic notification. And the base station indicates the corresponding relation between the port number and the redundancy version number in the downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message.

Mode 3, dynamic notification. The base station indicates the corresponding relation between the port number and the redundancy version number in a downlink allocation (DL assignment) message of downlink dynamic scheduling. For example, the correspondence between the port number and the redundancy version number is carried in Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating downlink scheduling.

The following description will be made specifically for the above-described modes 1 to 3.

The base station informs the terminal of the corresponding relation between the port number and the redundancy version, and the terminal acquires the corresponding relation between the port number and the redundancy version according to the notification of the base station. For example, in LTE, there may be 4 different redundancy versions when HARQ retransmission is employed, and the redundancy version numbers are 0, 2, 3, and 1 in the order of use. The base station informs the terminal that the port numbers to be detected are 7, 8, 9 and 10, and the redundancy versions corresponding to each port are 0, 2, 3 and 1 respectively.

Specifically, the base station may further notify the terminal of the port number of the pilot signal or the number of the pilot signal ports that the terminal needs to detect, and the corresponding relationship between the port number and the redundancy version number. For example, the pilot signal is DMRS, and the base station notifies the terminal of the DMRS port number or the DMRS port number. In the downlink communication process, a terminal acquires a port number of a pilot signal or the number of the ports of the pilot signal according to a received notification message, detects a reference signal corresponding to the port number, acquires a channel estimation result, performs downlink control channel blind detection by using the channel estimation result, judges whether corresponding downlink control information exists, receives downlink data according to the downlink control information when the downlink control information exists, acquires downlink data carried by a beam corresponding to the port number, determines a redundancy version number corresponding to the data carried on each beam according to the corresponding relationship between the port number and the redundancy version number, combines the acquired downlink data on a plurality of beams according to the corresponding redundancy version numbers (for example, performs HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) combination), and then performs channel decoding to acquire final TB data.

Optionally, the terminal may further select a partial port number from the port numbers indicated by the base station, combine downlink data on a beam of the partial port number according to the corresponding redundancy version number, and perform a subsequent channel decoding process. Specifically, the terminal selects which port numbers can be selected in the following manner: the terminal detects a reference signal corresponding to the port number, judges whether the energy or power of the reference signal exceeds a threshold value, and has the port number or beam corresponding to the reference signal exceeding the threshold value. The threshold value may be specified in a protocol or carried in a notification message sent by the base station.

Optionally, the base station does not carry the port number of the pilot signal or the number of the port of the pilot signal that needs to be detected by the terminal in the notification message, but carries the corresponding relationship between the port number and the redundancy version number. After receiving the notification message, the terminal detects the multiple ports or beams, selects the ports with energy or power exceeding a set threshold, acquires the channel estimation result of the reference signals of the port numbers, and demodulates the data to acquire the downlink data carried on the beams of the port numbers. The terminal determines the redundancy version number corresponding to the downlink data carried on the beams according to the corresponding relationship between the port number and the redundancy version, combines the obtained downlink data on the beams according to the corresponding redundancy version number, and performs the subsequent channel decoding process.

Optionally, the terminal may also detect all ports, demodulate data of all channel estimation results, select demodulated data corresponding to a part of the ports to combine, specifically select which part, and may select according to the port number or port number carried in the notification message of the base station, or according to the above manner selected according to the energy or power.

In addition to the above-described modes 1 to 3, mode 4 or mode 5 can also be employed.

Mode 4, dynamic notification. And the base station indicates the port number in the downlink DCI of the downlink dynamic scheduling. The terminal acquires the sequence of the redundancy versions corresponding to the ports according to the protocol description or the instruction of the control node in the base stations of the virtual cell, and acquires the port numbers of the repeatedly transmitted beams according to the configuration message of the control node, for example, the control node configures the port numbers of the repeatedly transmitted beams to be 7, 8, 9 and 10 through the RRC message, and the terminal determines the redundancy versions corresponding to the port numbers instructed by the base stations according to the sequence of the redundancy versions. Specifically, the terminal selects a corresponding number of redundancy versions in sequence according to the port number notified by the base station. For example, the sequence of redundancy versions corresponding to the port number indicated by the protocol description or the control node is 0, 2, 3, and 1, and the port numbers indicated by the base station in the downlink DCI are 8 and 10, the terminal may determine that the redundancy version corresponding to the port number 8 is 0 and the redundancy version corresponding to the port number 10 is 2.

Mode 5, dynamic notification. And the base station indicates the port number in the downlink DCI of the downlink dynamic scheduling. The terminal acquires the sequence of the redundancy versions corresponding to the ports according to the protocol description or the instruction of the control node in the base stations of the virtual cell, and acquires the port numbers of the repeatedly transmitted beams according to the configuration message of the control node, for example, the control node configures the port numbers of the repeatedly transmitted beams to be 7, 8, 9 and 10 through the RRC message, and the terminal determines the redundancy versions corresponding to the port number indicated by the base station according to the sequence of the redundancy versions. Specifically, the terminal selects a corresponding number of redundancy versions in sequence according to the number of ports notified by the base station. For example, the sequence of redundancy versions corresponding to the port numbers indicated by the protocol description or the control node is 0, 2, 3, and 1, and the number of ports indicated by the base station in the downlink DCI is 3, the terminal may determine that the redundancy version numbers of the repeatedly transmitted multiple beams carrying data are 0, 2, and 3, respectively.

The other processing procedures of the base station and the terminal in the modes 4 and 5 are the same as the modes 1 to 3 except that the modes indicating the correspondence between the port numbers and the redundancy versions are different, for example, the procedures of detecting beams and combining the redundancy versions on a plurality of beams.

The third embodiment can independently form the scheme which needs to be protected in the present application, and can be combined with the third embodiment to form the scheme which needs to be protected in the present application. When the embodiment is combined, when the virtual cell communication is adopted, a plurality of redundancy versions of one TB can be transmitted through a plurality of beams on one time-frequency resource, so that the probability of successfully detecting the TB is improved, and the realization of high reliability of data transmission is facilitated. Furthermore, compared with the traditional repeated transmission technology, the time for repeated transmission is shortened, and the data transmission delay is shortened. The data of partial ports are selectively selected by the terminal for combination, so that the processing capability of the terminal can be focused on high-quality signals, and the reliability and the quality of data transmission can be improved.

Similarly, if the terminal also supports the beamforming technology and has the beamforming capability, the terminal may also use the beam to perform repeated transmission in the uplink direction. And the method is also favorable for meeting the requirements of low-delay and high-reliability transmission. Specifically, the control node in the multiple base stations to which the virtual cell belongs notifies the terminal of the index number of the uplink data receiving base station, and may also notify the corresponding relationship between the index number of the uplink data receiving base station and the redundancy version number, where the uplink data receiving base station is one or more of the multiple base stations, and the index number of the uplink data receiving base station may be briefly described as the base station index number. And the terminal generates different redundancy versions according to the received base station index number and the corresponding redundancy version, and sends wave beams bearing the corresponding redundancy version to the base station corresponding to the base station index number, wherein each wave beam bears the same TB. And the MAC entity acquires the redundancy version number of the uplink data carried on each beam according to the corresponding relation between the base station index number and the redundancy version number, and further combines a plurality of redundancy versions and demodulates the data. The manner in which the base station notifies the terminal of the correspondence between the base station index number and the redundancy version number may refer to the description of the above-described manner 1 to manner 5, where the difference is that the downlink manner is the correspondence between the port number and the redundancy version number, and the uplink direction is the correspondence between the base station index number and the redundancy version number. The uplink notification mode may refer to the downlink notification mode, and is not described herein again.

Any two or three of the first embodiment, the second embodiment and the third embodiment can be combined to form the scheme to be protected in the application.

Based on the above description, it is assumed that the virtual cell includes m network devices (network devices, i.e., the base stations described above), including the first network device and the at least one second network device.

As shown in fig. 8a, a flow of a communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be roughly described as follows. The flow is based on the description of the embodiments above.

S801a, the first network device sends configuration information to the terminal, and the terminal receives the configuration information sent by the first network device.

Specifically, the configuration information may be transmitted through a dedicated physical channel, a handover command, other RRC message, or a medium access control element MAC CE, or may be transmitted through other RRC message or MAC CE.

The configuration information is used for indicating a data area in the virtual cell resource, and the data area is occupied by m network devices together. The data area is used for one or more network devices in the m network devices to send beams carrying downlink data information. The division and use of the control area can be referred to the above description.

S802a, one or more network devices of the m network devices send a beam carrying downlink data information, and the terminal receives, in the data area, the downlink data information carried by the beam of one or more network devices of the m network devices.

As shown in fig. 8b, a flow of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be roughly described as follows. The flow is based on the description of the embodiments above.

S801b, the first network equipment sends the position information to the terminal, and the terminal receives the position information sent by the first network equipment.

The location information is used to indicate a location of a network device for receiving uplink data in the m network devices, and may include location coordinates of the network device for receiving uplink data in the m network devices and/or an index number of the network device for receiving uplink data, where the index number is used to distinguish different network devices of the m network devices.

And S802b, the terminal generates a beam pointing to the network equipment for receiving the uplink data according to the position of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the position of the terminal.

As shown in fig. 8c, a flow of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be roughly described as follows. The flow is based on the description of the embodiments above.

S801c, the first network device sends a first notification message to the terminal, and the terminal receives the first notification message from the first network device.

The first notification message is used for indicating the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version.

S802c, one or more network devices of the m network devices transmit downlink data in multiple beams corresponding to the pilot resource.

S803c, the terminal obtains downlink data sent on multiple beams corresponding to the pilot resource, and performs HARQ combining on the downlink data sent on the multiple beams according to the correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version.

Optionally, the first network device further sends a second notification message to the terminal, and the terminal receives the second notification message sent by the first network device. The second notification message is used to indicate: and the corresponding relation between the index number of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version. And the terminal sends a beam for bearing the uplink data to the network equipment for receiving the uplink data according to the corresponding relation, one or more network equipment in the m network equipment receives the beam for bearing the uplink data, and performs HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) combination on the uplink data of the multiple redundancy versions received by the network equipment corresponding to the index number.

Similarly, the methods shown in fig. 8a, 8b and 8c can be formed independently, or any two of them can be combined to form a solution, which falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Based on the same inventive concept as the method embodiment described above, as shown in fig. 9, the present application further provides a communication apparatus 900, where the communication apparatus 900 is configured to perform the operations performed by the terminal in the method embodiment described above. The communication apparatus 900 comprises a receiving unit 901, a processing unit 902 and a transmitting unit 903.

A receiving unit 901, configured to receive configuration information sent by a first network device, where the configuration information is used to indicate a data area in a virtual cell resource, the data area is occupied by m network devices together, and the m network devices include the first network device and one or more second network devices.

The receiving unit 901 is further configured to receive, in the data area, downlink data information carried by beams of one or more network devices in the m network devices.

Optionally, the configuration information is further used to indicate a control region in the virtual cell resource, where the control region includes m dedicated control regions, the m dedicated control regions are in one-to-one correspondence with the m network devices, and the dedicated control regions are used to carry downlink control information of the corresponding network devices;

the configuration information includes the number of the dedicated control areas, or the configuration information includes the size or the position of the resource occupied by each of the m dedicated control areas.

Optionally, the communication apparatus 900 further includes a processing unit 902, configured to detect downlink control information in the dedicated control area; and demodulating the downlink data information according to the detected downlink control information.

Optionally, the configuration information is further configured to indicate a control region and a pilot resource region in the virtual cell resource, where the control region is a common control region, and the common control region is used to carry a beam of any network device of the m network devices, where the beam carries downlink control information;

the configuration information includes the size or position of the resource occupied by the pilot resource region and the allocation information of the pilot resource, the allocation information of the pilot resource is used for detecting the pilot signal in the pilot resource region, and the pilot signal is used for performing channel estimation on the beam carrying the downlink control information.

Optionally, the processing unit 902 is further configured to detect a pilot signal in the pilot resource region according to the configuration information, perform blind detection on a downlink control channel in the common control region according to a channel estimation result of the pilot signal, obtain downlink control information according to a result of the blind detection, and demodulate downlink data information according to the downlink control information.

Optionally, the receiving unit 901 is configured to receive a system message or a broadcast message sent by the first network device, where the system message or the broadcast message carries configuration information; or receiving a dedicated physical channel message sent by the first network device, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries configuration information; or receiving an RRC configuration message sent by the first network equipment, wherein the RRC configuration message carries configuration information; or receiving a handover command sent by the first network device, where the handover command carries the configuration information.

Optionally, the receiving unit 901 is configured to receive location information sent by the first network device, where the location information is used to indicate a location of a network device used for receiving uplink data in the m network devices, and the location information includes location coordinates of the network device used for receiving uplink data in the m network devices and an index number of the network device used for receiving uplink data, where the index number is used to distinguish different network devices of the m network devices;

a processing unit 902, configured to generate a beam pointing to a network device for uplink data reception according to a location of the network device for uplink data reception and a location of the network device.

Optionally, the receiving unit 901 is configured to receive a system message or a broadcast message sent by the first network device, where the system message or the broadcast message carries the location information; or receiving a dedicated physical channel message sent by the first network device, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries the position information; or receiving a semi-static configuration message sent by the first network equipment, wherein the semi-static configuration message carries position information; or receiving uplink scheduling information sent by the first network device, where the scheduling information carries location information.

Optionally, the receiving unit 901 is further configured to receive a first notification message from the first network device, and determine a corresponding relationship between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version according to the first notification message; acquiring downlink data carried on a plurality of wave beams corresponding to the pilot frequency resource, and carrying out hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) combination on the downlink data carried by the plurality of wave beams according to the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version.

Optionally, the receiving unit 901 is configured to receive an RRC message sent by the first network device, where the RRC message carries a corresponding relationship between a pilot resource and a first redundancy version number; or receiving a downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message sent by the first network device, wherein the downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message carries a corresponding relationship between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version number; or receiving downlink control information DCI sent by the first network device, where the DCI information carries a correspondence between a pilot resource and a first redundancy version number, or the DCI information carries a pilot port number, or the DCI information carries the number of pilot ports.

Optionally, the receiving unit 901 is configured to receive a second notification message from the first network device; the processing unit 902 is further configured to determine, according to the second notification message, a corresponding relationship between the index number of the network device for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version.

The communication apparatus 900 further includes a sending unit 903, configured to send data of a corresponding redundancy version to the network device for receiving uplink data according to a corresponding relationship between the index number of the network device for receiving uplink data and the second redundancy version.

Based on the same inventive concept as the method embodiment, as shown in fig. 10, the present application further provides a communication apparatus 1000, where the communication apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the operations performed by the network device (or the base station) in the method embodiment. The communication apparatus 1000 includes a transmitting unit 1001 and a processing unit 1002. Wherein, the processing unit 1002 is used for generating configuration information;

a sending unit 1001, configured to send configuration information to a terminal, where the configuration information is used to indicate a data area in a virtual cell resource, where the data area is occupied by m network devices, where the m network devices include the first network device and one or more second network devices, and the data area is used for one or more network devices in the m network devices to send a beam carrying downlink data information;

the transmitting unit 1001 is further configured to transmit a beam carrying downlink data information in a data region of the virtual cell resource.

Optionally, the configuration information is further used to indicate a control region in the virtual cell resource, where the control region includes m dedicated control regions, the m dedicated control regions are in one-to-one correspondence with the m network devices, and the dedicated control regions are used for the corresponding network devices to send downlink control information; the configuration information includes the number of the dedicated control areas, or the configuration information includes the size or the position of the resource occupied by each dedicated control area in the m dedicated control areas.

Optionally, the configuration information is further configured to indicate a control region and a pilot resource region in a virtual cell resource, where the control region is a common control region, and the common control region is used to carry a beam of any network device of the m network devices, where the beam carries downlink control information;

the configuration information includes the size or position of the resource occupied by the pilot resource region and the allocation information of the pilot resource, the allocation information of the pilot resource is used for detecting the pilot signal in the pilot resource region, and the pilot signal is used for performing channel estimation on the beam carrying the downlink control information;

the sending unit 1001 is further configured to send, to the terminal, the size or the position of the resource occupied by the pilot resource region and the allocation information of the pilot resource.

Optionally, the sending unit 1001 is configured to send a system message or a broadcast message to the terminal, where the system message or the broadcast message carries the configuration information; or, sending a dedicated physical channel message to the terminal, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries configuration information; or, sending an RRC configuration message to the terminal, wherein the RRC configuration message carries configuration information; or sending a switching command to the terminal, wherein the switching command carries the configuration information.

Optionally, the sending unit 1001 is configured to send location information to the terminal, where the location information is used to indicate a location of a network device used for receiving uplink data in the m network devices.

Optionally, the sending unit 1001 is configured to send a system message or a broadcast message to the terminal, where the system message or the broadcast message carries the location information; or, sending a dedicated physical channel message to the terminal, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries the position information; or sending a semi-static configuration message to the terminal, wherein the semi-static configuration message carries position information; or sending uplink scheduling information to the terminal, wherein the scheduling information carries position information.

Optionally, the sending unit 1001 is further configured to send a first notification message to the terminal, where the first notification message carries a correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version; the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version is used for the terminal to perform hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ combination on the downlink data on the plurality of wave beams corresponding to the pilot frequency resource.

Optionally, the sending unit 1001 is configured to send an RRC message to the terminal, where the RRC message carries a correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version number; or, sending a downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message to the terminal, wherein the downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message carries a corresponding relationship between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version number; or, downlink control information DCI is sent to the terminal, where the DCI information carries a correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version number, or the DCI information carries a pilot port number, or the DCI information carries the number of pilot ports.

Optionally, the sending unit 1001 is further configured to send a second notification message to the terminal, where the second notification message carries a corresponding relationship between the index number of the network device for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version, and the corresponding relationship between the index number of the network device for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version is used to perform HARQ combining on the uplink data of multiple redundancy versions received by the network device corresponding to the index number.

Based on the same inventive concept as the above communication method, as shown in fig. 11, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 1100, where the communication apparatus 1100 is configured to implement operations performed by a terminal in the communication method provided by the above embodiment, and the communication apparatus 1100 includes: a transceiver 1101, a processor 1102, a memory 1103. The transceiver 1101 is optional. The processor 1102 is configured to invoke a set of programs, which when executed, cause the processor 1102 to perform the operations performed by the terminal in one of the communication methods provided by the above-described embodiments. The memory 1103 is used to store programs executed by the processor 1102. The functional modules in fig. 9, the receiving unit 901 and the transmitting unit 903, may be implemented by a transceiver 1101, and the processing unit 902 may be implemented by a processor 1102. The functional module transmitting unit 1001 in fig. 10 may be implemented by the transceiver 1101, and the processing unit 1002 may be implemented by the processor 1102.

The processor 1102 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP.

The processor 1102 may further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a General Array Logic (GAL), or any combination thereof.

The memory 1103 may include a volatile memory (volatile memory), such as a random-access memory (RAM); the memory 1103 may also include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as a flash memory (flash memory), a hard disk (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD); the memory 1103 may also comprise a combination of memories of the kind described above.

Based on the same inventive concept as the above communication method, as shown in fig. 12, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 1200, where the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement operations performed by a network device (or a base station) in the communication method provided by the above embodiment, and the communication apparatus 1200 includes: a transceiver 1201, a processor 1202, a memory 1203. The transceiver 1201 is optional. The processor 1202 is configured to invoke a set of programs, which when executed, cause the processor 1202 to perform operations performed by the terminal in one of the communication methods provided by the above-described embodiments. The memory 1203 is used for storing programs executed by the processor 1202. The functional module transmission unit 1001 in fig. 10 may be implemented by the transceiver 1201, and the processing unit 1002 may be implemented by the processor 1202.

The processor 1202 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP.

The processor 1202 may further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a General Array Logic (GAL), or any combination thereof.

The memory 1203 may include volatile memory (volatile memory), such as random-access memory (RAM); the memory 1203 may also include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as a flash memory (flash memory), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD); the memory 1203 may also include a combination of the above types of memories.

In the communication method provided in the above embodiments of the present application, some or all of the operations and functions performed by the terminal and the base station (network device) described above may be implemented by a chip or an integrated circuit.

In order to implement the functions of the apparatus described in fig. 9, fig. 10, or fig. 11, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, which includes a processor, and is configured to support the apparatus to implement the functions related to the terminal and the base station (network device) in the communication method provided in the foregoing embodiment. In one possible design, the chip is connected to or includes a memory for storing the necessary program instructions and data for the device.

The embodiment of the application provides a computer storage medium, which stores a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises instructions for executing the communication method provided by the embodiment.

The present application provides a computer program product containing instructions, which when run on a computer, causes the computer to execute the communication method provided by the above embodiments.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While the preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the application.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments of the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to encompass such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

receiving configuration information from a first network device, wherein the configuration information is used for indicating a data area in a virtual cell resource, the data area is occupied by m network devices together, and the m network devices comprise the first network device and one or more second network devices;

receiving downlink data information carried by beams of one or more network devices of the m network devices in the data area;

the configuration information is further used to indicate a control region in the virtual cell resource, where the control region includes m dedicated control regions, the m dedicated control regions are in one-to-one correspondence with the m network devices, and the dedicated control regions are used to carry downlink control information of the corresponding network devices;

the configuration information includes the number of the dedicated control areas, or the configuration information includes the size or the position of the resource occupied by each dedicated control area in the m dedicated control areas.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

detecting downlink control information in the dedicated control area;

and demodulating the downlink data information according to the detected downlink control information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information is further used for indicating a control region and a pilot resource region in virtual cell resources, the control region being a common control region for carrying beams carrying downlink control information for one or more of the m network devices;

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the allocation information of the pilot resource includes a port number of the pilot signal, or a port number of the pilot signal.

5. The method of claim 3 or 4, further comprising:

detecting the pilot signal in the pilot resource region;

blind detection of a downlink control channel is carried out in the public control area according to the channel estimation result of the pilot signal;

and acquiring downlink control information according to the blind detection result, and demodulating the downlink data information according to the downlink control information.

6. The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein receiving configuration information from the first network device comprises:

receiving a system message or a broadcast message from the first network device, wherein the system message or the broadcast message carries the configuration information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving a dedicated physical channel message from the first network device, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries the configuration information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving an RRC configuration message from the first network device, the RRC configuration message carrying the configuration information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and receiving a switching command from the first network equipment, wherein the switching command carries the configuration information.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:

receiving location information from the first network device, the location information indicating a location of a network device for uplink data reception among the m network devices;

and generating a beam pointing to the network equipment for receiving the uplink data according to the position of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the position of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the receiving location information from the first network device comprises:

receiving a system message or a broadcast message from the first network device, wherein the system message or the broadcast message carries the position information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving a dedicated physical channel message from the first network device, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries the location information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving a semi-static configuration message from the first network device, wherein the semi-static configuration message carries the position information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and receiving uplink scheduling information from the first network equipment, wherein the scheduling information carries the position information.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4 or 8, further comprising:

receiving a first notification message from the first network device;

determining a corresponding relation between a pilot frequency resource and a first redundancy version according to the first notification message;

acquiring downlink data carried on a plurality of wave beams corresponding to the pilot frequency resource, and carrying out hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) combination on the downlink data carried by the plurality of wave beams according to the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the receiving a first notification message from the first network device comprises:

receiving an RRC message from the first network device, wherein the RRC message carries a corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and a first redundancy version number; alternatively, the first and second liquid crystal display panels may be,

receiving a downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message from the first network device, wherein the downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message carries a corresponding relationship between the pilot frequency resource and a first redundancy version number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) from the first network device, where the DCI carries a correspondence between the pilot resource and the first redundancy version number, or the DCI carries a pilot port number, or the DCI carries the number of pilot ports.

11. The method of any one of claims 1-4, 8, or 10, further comprising:

receiving a second notification message from the first network device;

determining a corresponding relation between the index number of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data in the m network equipment and a second redundancy version according to the second notification message;

and sending the data of the corresponding redundancy version to the network equipment for receiving the uplink data according to the corresponding relation between the index number of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version.

12. A method of communication, comprising:

sending configuration information to a terminal, where the configuration information is used to indicate a data area in a virtual cell resource, the data area is occupied by m network devices together, the m network devices include a first network device and one or more second network devices, and the data area is used for one or more network devices in the m network devices to send a beam carrying downlink data information;

sending the beam carrying the downlink data information in the data area;

the configuration information is further used for indicating a control region in the virtual cell resource, where the control region includes m dedicated control regions, the m dedicated control regions are in one-to-one correspondence with the m network devices, and the dedicated control regions are used for the corresponding network devices to send downlink control information;

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the configuration information is further used for indicating a control region and a pilot resource region in virtual cell resources, the control region being a common control region for carrying beams carrying downlink control information for one or more of the m network devices;

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the allocation information of the pilot resource includes a port number of the pilot signal, or a port number of the pilot signal.

15. The method according to any of claims 12 to 14, wherein said sending configuration information to the terminal comprises:

sending a system message or a broadcast message to the terminal, wherein the system message or the broadcast message carries the configuration information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

sending a dedicated physical channel message to the terminal, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries the configuration information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

sending an RRC configuration message to the terminal, wherein the RRC configuration message carries the configuration information; alternatively, the first and second liquid crystal display panels may be,

and sending a switching command to the terminal, wherein the switching command carries the configuration information.

16. The method of any one of claims 12 to 14, further comprising:

and sending position information to the terminal, wherein the position information is used for indicating the position of the network equipment used for receiving the uplink data in the m network equipment.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the sending location information to the terminal comprises:

sending a system message or a broadcast message to the terminal, wherein the system message or the broadcast message carries the position information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

sending a dedicated physical channel message to the terminal, wherein the dedicated physical channel message carries the position information; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

sending a semi-static configuration message to the terminal, wherein the semi-static configuration message carries the position information; alternatively, the first and second liquid crystal display panels may be,

and sending uplink scheduling information to the terminal, wherein the scheduling information carries the position information.

18. The method of any one of claims 12 to 14, further comprising:

sending a first notification message to the terminal, wherein the first notification message is used for indicating the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version;

the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version is used for carrying out hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ combination on the downlink data on the plurality of wave beams corresponding to the pilot frequency resource.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said sending a first notification message to the terminal comprises:

sending an RRC message to the terminal, wherein the RRC message carries the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and the first redundancy version number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

sending a downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message to the terminal, wherein the downlink semi-persistent scheduling configuration message carries a corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resource and a first redundancy version number; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and sending Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal, wherein the DCI carries the corresponding relation between the pilot frequency resources and the first redundancy version number, or the DCI carries the number of pilot frequency ports, or the DCI carries the number of the pilot frequency ports.

20. The method of any one of claims 12-14, 17, or 19, further comprising:

and sending a second notification message to the terminal, wherein the second notification message is used for indicating the corresponding relationship between the index number of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version, and the corresponding relationship between the index number of the network equipment for receiving the uplink data and the second redundancy version is used for performing HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) combination on the uplink data of the plurality of redundancy versions received by the network equipment corresponding to the index number.

21. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor, coupled to the memory, for invoking a program in the memory and executing the program to implement the method of any of claims 1-11.

22. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-11.

23. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor, coupled to the memory, for invoking a program in the memory and executing the program to implement the method of any one of claims 12-20.

24. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 12-20.