CN106921932B

CN106921932B - Method and apparatus for information transmission and auxiliary information transmission in wireless communication system

Info

Publication number: CN106921932B
Application number: CN201511003415.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘勇; 李栋
Original assignee: Alcatel Lucent SAS
Current assignee: Alcatel Lucent SAS
Priority date: 2015-12-28
Filing date: 2015-12-28
Publication date: 2020-05-08
Anticipated expiration: 2035-12-28
Also published as: WO2017115127A1; TW201728217A; CN106921932A

Abstract

The invention provides a method and a device for information transmission and auxiliary information transmission in a wireless communication system. The method for transmitting information in the relay equipment of the wireless communication system comprises the following steps: determining whether to transmit the relay related information according to the transmission probability; and when the transmission is determined, transmitting the relay related information. Compared with the prior art, the invention aims at the relay equipment in the wireless communication system, and determines whether the relay related information needs to be sent according to the sending probability, so that compared with the prior art, the invention can improve the efficiency of the relay equipment on the aspects of energy saving and resource utilization while ensuring the effectiveness of the relay function.

Description

Method and apparatus for information transmission and auxiliary information transmission in wireless communication system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system, and a method and an apparatus for assisting a relay device in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system.

Background

Relay (Relay) technology is one of the key technologies of Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-a). The wireless relay can provide a flexible and rapid network deployment means, and the coverage and capacity of the network are improved.

In The latest third Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) Release13 protocol, important characteristics of mobile user equipment relaying to The network are determined. In a mobile cellular network, the relay device may be fixed or mobile. Mobile relay is also one type of relay device. Mobile relays have characteristics both in the base station and in the user terminal. The mobile relay continuously receives the information to be relayed sent by the base station and then sends the information to the terminal. Therefore, the energy saving and resource consumption of mobile relay are important considerations. The invention provides a method for transmitting relay information, which can improve the efficiency of relay in the aspects of energy conservation and resource consumption.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a method and a device for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system and a method and a device for assisting the relay device in information transmission in a base station of the wireless communication system.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system, wherein the method comprises:

-determining whether to transmit relay related information based on the transmission probability;

-transmitting the relay related information when determining to transmit.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for assisting a relay device in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system is provided, wherein the method comprises:

-determining a transmission probability;

-sending a message containing the transmission probability to one or more relay devices.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system, wherein the apparatus comprises:

-means for determining whether to transmit relay related information based on the transmission probability;

-means for transmitting said relay related information when determining to transmit.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for assisting a relay device in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system is provided, wherein the apparatus comprises:

-means for determining a transmission probability;

-means for transmitting a message containing said transmission probability to one or more relay devices.

Compared with the prior art, the invention aims at the relay equipment in the wireless communication system, and determines whether the relay related information needs to be sent according to the sending probability, so that compared with the prior art, the invention can improve the efficiency of the relay equipment on the aspects of energy saving and resource utilization while ensuring the effectiveness of the relay function.

Drawings

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings, wherein like elements are represented by like reference numerals, which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not intended to be limiting of the present invention, and wherein:

figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a wireless cellular network using relaying technology;

fig. 2 illustrates a method for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system according to an aspect of the present invention.

Fig. 3 illustrates a method for assisting relay devices in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system according to another aspect of the invention.

Fig. 4 illustrates an apparatus for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system according to another aspect of the present invention.

Fig. 5 illustrates an apparatus for assisting relay devices in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system according to another aspect of the invention.

It should be noted that these drawings are intended to illustrate the general nature of the methods, structures, and/or materials utilized in certain exemplary embodiments, and to supplement the written description provided below. The drawings are not necessarily to scale and may not accurately reflect the precise structural or performance characteristics of any given embodiment, and should not be construed as defining or limiting the scope of the values or attributes encompassed by example embodiments. The use of similar or identical reference numbers in various figures is intended to indicate the presence of similar or identical elements or features.

Detailed Description

While the exemplary embodiments are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, certain embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit example embodiments to the specific forms disclosed, but on the contrary, example embodiments are to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the description of the various figures.

Before discussing exemplary embodiments in more detail, it should be noted that some exemplary embodiments are described as processes or methods depicted as flowcharts. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel, concurrently, or simultaneously. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. The process may be terminated when its operations are completed, but may have additional steps not included in the figure. The processes may correspond to methods, functions, procedures, subroutines, and the like.

The term "wireless device" or "device" as used herein may be considered synonymous with and sometimes hereinafter referred to as: a client, user equipment, mobile station, mobile user, mobile terminal, subscriber, user, remote station, access terminal, receiver, mobile unit, etc., and may describe a remote user of wireless resources in a wireless communication network.

Similarly, the term "base station" as used herein may be considered synonymous with, and sometimes referred to hereinafter as: a node B, an evolved node B, an eNodeB, a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), an RNC, etc., and may describe a transceiver that communicates with and provides radio resources to a mobile in a wireless communication network that may span multiple technology generations. The base stations discussed herein may have all of the functionality associated with conventional well-known base stations, except for the ability to implement the methods discussed herein.

The methods discussed below, some of which are illustrated by flow diagrams, may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine or computer readable medium such as a storage medium. The processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks.

Specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely representative and are provided for purposes of describing example embodiments of the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element may be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element may be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly coupled" to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements (e.g., "between" versus "directly between", "adjacent" versus "directly adjacent to", etc.) should be interpreted in a similar manner.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions/acts noted may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two figures shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the figures may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which example embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Portions of the exemplary embodiments and corresponding detailed description are presented in terms of software, or algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representations are the ones by which those of ordinary skill in the art effectively convey the substance of their work to others of ordinary skill in the art. An algorithm, as the term is used here, and as it is used generally, is conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of optical, electrical, or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

In the following description, the illustrative embodiments will be described with reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations (e.g., in the form of flowcharts) that can be implemented as program modules or functional processes including routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types and that can be implemented using existing hardware at existing network elements. Such existing hardware may include one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) computers, and the like.

It should be recognized that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise, or as is apparent from the discussion, terms such as "processing," "computing," "determining," or "displaying" or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical, electronic quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

It should also be noted that the software implemented aspects of the exemplary embodiments are typically encoded on some form of program storage medium or implemented over some type of transmission medium. The program storage medium may be a magnetic (e.g., floppy disk or hard drive) or optical (e.g., compact disk read only memory or "CD ROM") storage medium, and may be a read only or random access storage medium. Similarly, the transmission medium may be twisted wire pairs, coaxial cable, optical fiber, or some other suitable transmission medium known to the art. The exemplary embodiments are not limited by these aspects of any given implementation.

The processor and memory may operate together to perform device functions. For example, the memory may store code segments relating to the functionality of the device. The code segments may in turn be executed by a processor. In addition, the memory may store processing variables and constants for use by the processor.

The present invention is described in further detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a wireless cellular network using relaying technology. The relay technology in the wireless cellular network is to transmit wireless signals once or many times by adding some relay devices on the basis of the original base station service. These newly added relay devices and base stations are connected by wireless communication. Downlink data sent to user equipment first reaches the relay equipment through the base station, and then the relay equipment sends the downlink data to a terminal user; and the reverse is true for uplink data. After the relay device is used, the area coverage area can be enlarged, and higher system capacity and larger network coverage are brought to the cell. In the schematic diagram of fig. 1, the user equipment-2 and the relay equipment-1, the relay equipment-2 are in the coverage of the base station, and the user equipment-a, the user equipment-b, the user equipment-c, the user equipment-d, the user equipment-e are out of the coverage of the base station. It is assumed that the base station needs to broadcast important messages to as many terminals as possible, including both in-coverage user equipment and out-of-coverage user equipment. The base station broadcasts the important message in its coverage area, so that the user equipment-1, the user equipment-2 and the relay equipment-1 and the relay equipment-2 can receive the important message. The base station then arranges for relay devices-1 and-2, which are suitable as extended coverage, to broadcast messages to out-of-coverage user devices-a, user devices-b, user devices-c, user devices-d, user devices-e.

The relay device is a device with relay capability, and the relay capability is the capability of receiving downlink data sent by the base station and then forwarding the downlink data to the terminal user, or receiving uplink data of the terminal user and then forwarding the uplink data to the base station. The relay device may be a relay node deployed in a relatively fixed scene such as a computer room, an office or a home, or may be other similar terminal devices such as a vehicle-mounted mobile terminal with relay capability, a data card or a mobile phone of a mobile user.

It should be noted that the description of the base station, the relay device, the relay node, and the mobile terminal herein is only an example, and other existing or future base stations, relay devices, relay nodes, and mobile terminals may be applicable to the present invention, and are included in the scope of the present invention and are included by reference.

Fig. 2 illustrates a method for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of an aspect of the present invention. The method according to the present embodiment includes step S21 and step S22.

The method of the embodiment is implemented by a relay device. The relay device in the present invention refers to a device having relay capability. The relay device comprises at least any one of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

The terminal device with relay capability refers to a terminal device integrated with a relay function. The terminal equipment can be a mobile phone of a mobile user, and can also be other similar equipment such as a data card, a vehicle-mounted terminal and the like. The terminal equipment with the relay capability can realize the relay function and also has the function of a common terminal. Any terminal with relay capability is a potential relay device in the network. A relay node device with relay capability is deployed in a computer room, an office, a home, or the like, and is mainly responsible for data relay between a base station and a terminal in a wireless communication network in which one or more relay node devices may be included.

It should be noted that the relay device is only an example, and other existing or future relay devices may be applicable to the present invention, and should be included in the scope of the present invention and included by reference.

Steps S21 and S22 performed by the relay apparatus will be explained below.

In step S21, the relay apparatus determines whether to transmit relay-related information according to the transmission probability.

The transmission probability is a probability that the relay device transmits the relay-related information. In the present invention, the transmission probability of the relay device may be determined in advance in the relay device, or may be determined autonomously by the relay device, or may be acquired from the base station. In a preferred embodiment, the relay device obtains the transmission probability from the base station. First, the relay device receives a message containing a transmission probability transmitted by the base station. For example, the base station may broadcast the information of the transmission probability along with the cell network configuration parameters at the same time as the cell network configuration parameters are broadcast. For another example, the base station may customize a message containing the transmission probability information separately and then broadcast the message to all relay devices in the cell. The relay device may receive the messages broadcast by the base station, including the message containing the transmission probability. Then, the relay device determines the transmission probability according to the message containing the transmission probability. For example, the relay device decodes the message containing the transmission probability, and obtains the information of the transmission probability therein, so as to determine the transmission probability followed by transmitting the relay-related information.

Specifically, in step S21, the relay apparatus may generate an output result representing an indication of the transmission relay-related information according to a probability model, a probability generation function, or the like, wherein the generation probability of the output result representing the transmission relay-related information corresponds to the transmission probability. For example, the relay device may use a random value generating function that outputs a range of values between [0,1 ]. Assuming that the transmission probability is 0.3, if the output value of the random value generation function is less than or equal to 0.3, the relay equipment determines that relay related information needs to be transmitted; if the output value of the random value generation function is greater than 0.3, the relay device determines that relay-related information does not need to be transmitted. It should be noted that, the above examples are only for better illustrating the technical solution of the present invention, and are not limiting to the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner for determining whether to transmit the relay related information according to the transmission probability should be included in the scope of the present invention.

In the present invention, the relay-related information is any information related to the relay function. In one embodiment, the relay related information comprises at least any one of:

-a broadcast message to be relayed received from a base station;

-autonomously sent relay related messages.

The broadcast message to be relayed and transmitted received from the base station is relay related information which needs the relay device to relay and transmit. The broadcast message sent by the base station needs to be sent to as many terminal devices as possible, and after receiving the broadcast message sent by the base station, the relay device sends the broadcast message to the terminal devices outside the coverage range of the nearby base station, so as to increase the cell coverage. Since the terminal devices covered by the signals transmitted by a plurality of relay devices located at close distances are the same, it is not necessary to perform relay transmission by all the relay devices. Therefore, after receiving the broadcast message to be relayed and transmitted from the base station, the relay device can determine whether to transmit the broadcast message according to the transmission probability. According to the mode, the relay equipment which does not need to send the broadcast message saves energy consumption required by sending while ensuring the effectiveness of the relay function, and reduces interference to other equipment during sending.

The relay-related message autonomously transmitted by the relay device refers to a message autonomously generated by the relay device in order to complete relay transmission. For example, when a terminal device out of the coverage of the base station can connect to the base station through the relay device in order to find the relay device, the terminal device sends a relay request message to each nearby relay device. After each relay device near the terminal user receives the relay request message, the relay device can be confirmed to be the relay device of the terminal device by replying a relay request response message to the terminal device. In the case where there are a plurality of relay apparatuses, it is not necessary to activate all the relay apparatuses as relays for the terminal apparatus. Therefore, after receiving the relay request message of the terminal user, the relay device can decide whether to transmit the relay request response message according to the transmission probability. The relay device that does not send the relay request response message will not perform subsequent relay transmission as the relay device of the terminal device. According to the method, the relay function is ensured to be effective, meanwhile, the energy consumption required by the transmission is saved, and the interference to other equipment during the transmission is also reduced.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned relay related information is only an example, and other existing or future relay related information, such as being applicable to the present invention, should also be included in the scope of the present invention, and is included herein by reference.

In step S22, the relay apparatus transmits the relay-related information when determining the transmission. Specifically, when the relay device determines that the relay related information needs to be transmitted according to the transmission probability in the above-described manner in step S21, the relay device transmits the relay related information that needs to be transmitted.

In one embodiment, step S22 includes step S221 (not shown in the figures): determining relay transmission resources; and step S222 (not shown in the drawings): transmitting the relay related information using the relay transmission resource when the transmission is determined. In the present invention, the relay transmission resource refers to a time-frequency resource used when the relay device transmits the relay related information. The relay transmission resource used by the relay equipment is a time-frequency resource which is allocated to the relay equipment by the base station.

In step S221, the relay apparatus determines a relay transmission resource. In one embodiment, the relay transmission resource may be preset. In a preferred embodiment, the relay device may receive a message sent by the base station containing information related to one or more relay transmission resources.

The relay device may synchronize with the base station by detecting a synchronization signal transmitted by the base station. All relay devices may be synchronized with each other if their timing and frequency estimates are sufficiently accurate. Therefore, when the relay equipment sends the same message, the same time-frequency resource can be used for relay information sending, and the mutual interference is small. Therefore, the base station only needs to allocate the same relay transmission resource to all the relay devices. In this case, the information on the transmission resource allocated to the relay device by the base station includes information on one relay transmission resource, for example, time and frequency information of the relay transmission resource.

If the timing estimation or frequency estimation of the relay devices is not accurate enough, the relay devices may interfere with each other if they use the same time-frequency resources to transmit the relay information. In this case, the base station may allocate a resource pool containing a plurality of relay transmission resources to the relay device. Therefore, each relay device can autonomously select the relay transmission resource from the resource pool allocated by the base station, thereby reducing the conflict of the relay devices using the same relay transmission resource and reducing the interference among the relay devices. In this case, the information on the transmission resources allocated to the relay device by the base station includes information on a plurality of relay transmission resources, for example, time and frequency information of each relay transmission resource.

After the relay equipment receives the message which is sent by the base station and contains the one or more relay sending resource related information, the relay equipment determines the relay sending resource used by the relay equipment for sending the relay sending resource related information according to the message which contains the one or more relay sending resource related information. Specifically, after receiving a message including one or more pieces of relay transmission resource-related information, the relay device decodes the message to obtain the information related to the relay transmission resource in the message, such as time and frequency information of the relay transmission resource. If the message only contains the relevant information of one relay sending resource, the relay equipment can determine to use the sending resource for sending the relay relevant information; if the message contains the related information of the plurality of relay transmission resources, the relay device may select one relay transmission resource from the message for transmitting the relay related information.

Next, in step S222, the relay device transmits the relay related information using the relay transmission resource when determining the transmission. Specifically, when the relay device determines the relay transmission resource in the above manner in step S221, the relay device transmits the relay related information to be transmitted on the relay transmission resource.

In the related art, all relay devices transmit relay-related information each time. Under the condition that the number of relay devices at the edge of a cell is large, the utilization rate of sending resources and energy consumption is not high in a mode that all relay devices send relay related information. In the invention, the relay equipment determines whether to send the relay related information according to the sending probability, thereby reducing the power consumption and the used resources of the relay equipment while ensuring the effectiveness of the relay function, and improving the efficiency of the relay equipment. When the relay equipment does not transmit the relay related information, the interference possibly caused to other users during transmission is also reduced.

Fig. 3 illustrates a method for assisting a relay device in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of an aspect of the present invention. The method according to the present embodiment comprises steps S31, S32.

The method of the embodiment is mainly implemented by a base station.

A base station in the present invention may be considered synonymous with and may be referred to as: a node B, an evolved node B, an eNodeB, a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), an RNC, etc., and may describe a transceiver that communicates with and provides radio resources to a mobile in a wireless communication network that may span multiple technology generations. It should be noted that the description of the base station is merely exemplary, and other existing or future base stations, which may be suitable for the present invention, are also included in the scope of the present invention and are also included herein by reference.

The relay device in the present invention refers to a device having relay capability. The relay device comprises at least any one of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

In step S31, the base station determines a transmission probability. The transmission probability is a probability that the relay device transmits the relay-related information. Specifically, the method for the base station to determine the transmission probability may have various algorithms. For example, the base station may estimate the efficiency of the relay device based on the retransmission rate of the end user transmitting data through the relay device, thereby determining the transmission probability; the base station can determine the transmission probability according to the number of all relay devices in the cell; or the base station determines the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices at the cell edge.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the step S31 further includes the steps of: the base station determines the density of the relay equipment; and then the base station determines the transmission probability according to the density of the relay equipment.

First, the base station determines the density of the relay devices. The method by which the base station determines the density of relay devices may have a variety of algorithms. For example, the base station may represent the density of the relay devices by the number of relay devices at the cell edge, and when the number of relay devices is large, the density of the relay devices is large, and when the number of relay devices is small, the density of the relay devices is small. For another example, the base station may adjust the density of the relay devices according to the number of existing relay devices in the cell and the number of all end users in the cell. For example, a default reference value of the number of existing relay devices and the number of all end users in a cell, and a default value of the relay device density corresponding to the default reference value are set. As the number of relay devices increases or decreases, the value of the density of relay devices is increased or decreased accordingly: as the number of all end users in a cell increases or decreases, the value of the density of relay devices decreases or increases accordingly. For another example, the base station may estimate the size of the cell based on the size of the base station transmit power and the number of users in the cell, and then adjust the density of the relay devices together based on the number of relay devices. For example, first, a reference default value of the base station transmission power, the number of users in the cell and the number of relay devices is set, and a default value of the relay device density corresponding to the reference default value is set. When the number of the relay devices is increased or decreased, the density of the relay devices is correspondingly increased or decreased; when the number of users in the cell increases or decreases, the density of the relay equipment is correspondingly decreased or increased; as the base station transmit power increases or decreases, the density of relay devices decreases or increases accordingly. It should be noted that, the above example of determining the density of the relay device by the base station is only to better illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and is not to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of determining the density of the relay device by the base station should be included in the scope of the present invention. Then, the base station determines the transmission probability according to the density of the relay device. There are various algorithms for the base station to determine the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices. For example, there are two thresholds a and b in the base station that set default values, a < b. If the density of the relay device is greater than or equal to the threshold b, the transmission probability is 1/3, if the density of the relay device is less than or equal to the threshold a, the transmission probability is 1, and if the density of the relay device is greater than the threshold a and less than the threshold b, the transmission probability is 2/3. It should be noted that, the above example of determining the transmission probability by the base station is only to better illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and is not to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of determining the transmission probability by the base station should be included in the scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment, the method for assisting the relay device in information transmission in the base station of the wireless communication system further includes the following steps: the base station determines one or more relay transmission resources; and the base station sends a message containing the one or more relay sending resource related information to one or more relay devices. In this embodiment, the relay transmission resource refers to a time-frequency resource used when the relay device transmits the relay related information.

First, the base station determines one or more relay transmission resources used by the relay device.

The relay device may synchronize with the base station by detecting a synchronization signal transmitted by the base station. All relay devices may be synchronized with each other if their timing and frequency estimates are sufficiently accurate. Therefore, when the relay equipment sends the same message, the same time-frequency resource can be used for relay information sending, and the mutual interference is small. Therefore, the base station only needs to allocate the same relay transmission resource to all the relay devices. In this case, the base station determines one relay transmission resource to use for the relay device.

If the timing estimation or frequency estimation of the relay devices is not accurate enough, the relay devices may interfere with each other if they use the same time-frequency resources to transmit the relay information. In this case, the base station may allocate a resource pool containing a plurality of relay transmission resources to the relay device. Therefore, each relay device can autonomously select the relay transmission resource from the resource pool allocated by the base station, thereby reducing the conflict of the relay devices using the same relay transmission resource and reducing the interference among the relay devices. In this case, the base station determines a plurality of relay transmission resources for use by the relay device.

Then, the base station sends a message containing the one or more relay transmission resource-related information to one or more relay devices, wherein the relay transmission resource-related information is, for example, time and frequency information of the relay transmission resource. Specifically, the base station may form a message including information related to one or more relay transmission resources, where the message may be a message that forms one relay transmission resource alone, or may combine information related to one or more relay transmission resources in other existing messages. The base station then transmits the message to one or more relay devices in the cell.

In a preferred embodiment, in step S31, the base station may determine the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices and one or more relay transmission resources. The method for determining the transmission probability by the base station according to the density of the relay equipment and one or more relay transmission resources comprises a plurality of modes. For example, the base station may first determine the median m of the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices: there are two thresholds a and b in the base station that set default values, a < b. If the density of the relay device is greater than or equal to the threshold b, m is 1/3, if the density of the relay device is less than or equal to the threshold a, m is 1, and if the density of the relay device is greater than the threshold a and less than the threshold b, m is 2/3. Then the base station determines the transmission probability according to the information of the relay transmission resource: assuming that the number of relay sending resources is n, if n is smaller than a preset threshold x, the sending probability is m x (1-k%), wherein k is a preset adjusting parameter; if n is larger than a preset threshold y, the sending probability is m (1+ k%), wherein k is a preset adjusting parameter; if n is greater than or equal to x, less than or equal to y, and x < y, the transmission probability is m. It should be noted that, the above example of determining the transmission probability by the base station is only to better illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and is not to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of determining the transmission probability by the base station should be included in the scope of the present invention.

The density of relay devices within a cell is constantly changing, since there may be many mobile relay devices, e.g. mobile terminal devices with relay capabilities. In one embodiment, the base station may re-determine the transmission probability when the density of relay devices changes. For example, the base station may set a threshold for the change of the density of the relay device, and when the size of the change of the density of the relay device exceeds a preset threshold, the base station determines the transmission probability again. For another example, the base station may set an update cycle of the transmission probability, and the base station may determine the transmission probability again in accordance with the latest density of the relay devices in each cycle.

After the base station determines the transmission probability in step S31 according to the method described above, the base station transmits a message including the transmission probability to one or more relay devices in step S32. For example, the base station may broadcast the cell network configuration parameter and broadcast the information of the transmission probability along with the cell network configuration parameter, and transmit a message containing the transmission probability to one or more relay devices by broadcasting. For another example, the base station may also customize a message containing the transmission probability information separately and then transmit the message to one or more relay devices in the cell in the signaling of the common channel. It should be noted that, the foregoing examples are only for better illustrating the technical solutions of the present invention, and are not limiting to the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of sending the message including the sending probability to one or more relay devices by the base station should be included in the scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment, the method for assisting the relay device in information transmission in the base station of the wireless communication system further includes the step of the base station transmitting the broadcast message to be relayed to the one or more relay devices. The broadcast message sent by the base station needs to be sent to as many terminal devices as possible, and after receiving the broadcast message sent by the base station, the relay device sends the broadcast message to the terminal devices outside the coverage range of the nearby base station, so as to increase the cell coverage. Since the terminal devices covered by the signals transmitted by a plurality of relay devices located at close distances are the same, it is not necessary to perform relay transmission by all the relay devices. Therefore, after receiving the broadcast message to be relayed and transmitted from the base station, the relay device can determine whether to transmit the broadcast message according to the transmission probability. According to the mode, the relay equipment which does not need to send the broadcast message saves energy consumption required by sending while ensuring the effectiveness of the relay function, and reduces interference to other equipment during sending.

In the prior art, all relay devices transmit relay-related information. Under the condition that the number of relay devices at the edge of a cell is large, the utilization rate of sending resources and energy consumption is not high in a mode that all relay devices send relay related information. The base station according to the embodiment of the invention can determine the transmission probability of the relay equipment for transmitting the relay related information, and then transmit the message containing the transmission probability to the relay equipment. The relay equipment can send the relay related information according to the sending probability, and the energy-saving efficiency of the relay equipment for sending the relay related information is improved and the utilization rate of secondary sending resources in the relay equipment is improved while the effectiveness of the relay function is ensured.

Fig. 4 illustrates an apparatus for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of another aspect of the present invention. The apparatus according to the present embodiment comprises: means for determining whether to transmit relay-related information, hereinafter referred to as first determining means 41, based on the transmission probability; and means for transmitting the relay-related information when transmission is determined, hereinafter referred to as first transmitting means 42.

The apparatus of the present embodiment is implemented in a relay device. The relay device in the present invention refers to a device having relay capability. The relay device comprises at least any one of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

The first determining means 41 and the first transmitting means 42 included in the means for transmitting information in the relay apparatus will be described below.

The transmission probability is a probability that the relay device transmits the relay-related information. In the present invention, the transmission probability of the relay device may be determined in advance in the relay device, or may be determined autonomously by the relay device, or may be acquired from the base station. In a preferred embodiment, the relay device obtains the transmission probability from the base station. The means for transmitting information in the relay device further comprises means for receiving a message containing the transmission probability transmitted by the base station, hereinafter referred to as first receiving means 43, and means for determining the transmission probability based on said message containing the transmission probability, hereinafter referred to as second determining means 44. First, the first receiving device 43 receives a message including a transmission probability transmitted by the base station. For example, the base station may broadcast the information of the transmission probability along with the cell network configuration parameters at the same time as the cell network configuration parameters are broadcast. For another example, the base station may customize a message containing the transmission probability information separately and then broadcast the message to all relay devices in the cell. The first receiving means 43 can receive these messages broadcasted by the base station, including the messages containing the transmission probability. Then, the second determining means 44 determines the sending probability from the message containing the sending probability. For example, the second determining device 44 decodes the message containing the transmission probability, and obtains the information of the transmission probability therein, so as to determine the transmission probability followed by transmitting the relay related information.

The relay device first determining means 41 is means for determining whether to transmit the relay related information according to the transmission probability. Specifically, the first determining means 41 may generate an output result representing an indication of transmission of the relay related information according to a probability model, a probability generating function, or the like, wherein the generating probability representing the output result of transmission of the relay related information corresponds to the transmission probability. For example, the first determining means 41 may use a random value generating function whose output value ranges between 0, 1. Assuming that the transmission probability is 0.3, if the output value of the random value generation function is less than or equal to 0.3, the first determining device 41 determines that relay related information needs to be transmitted; the first determining means 41 determines that the relay-related information does not need to be transmitted if the output value of the random value generating function is greater than 0.3. It should be noted that the above examples are only for better illustrating the technical solutions of the present invention, and not for limiting the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of the apparatus for determining whether to transmit the relay related information according to the transmission probability should be included in the scope of the present invention.

-a broadcast message to be relayed received from a base station;

-autonomously sent relay related messages.

The first transmission means 42 is means for transmitting the relay-related information when transmission is determined. Specifically, when the first determining device 41 determines that the relay related information needs to be transmitted according to the transmission probability in the manner described above, the first transmitting device 42 transmits the relay related information that needs to be transmitted.

In one embodiment, the first sending means 42 includes means for determining a relay sending resource, hereinafter referred to as third determining means 421 (not shown in the drawings); and means for transmitting the relay related information using the relay transmission resource when the transmission is determined, hereinafter referred to as second transmitting means 422 (not shown in the drawings). In the present invention, the relay transmission resource refers to a time-frequency resource used when the relay device transmits the relay related information. The relay transmission resource used by the relay equipment is a time-frequency resource which is allocated to the relay equipment by the base station.

First, the third determining means 421 determines the relay transmission resource. In one embodiment, the third determining means 421 may determine the relay transmission resource in advance. In a preferred embodiment, the third determining means 421 includes means for receiving a message containing one or more relay transmission resource related information sent by a base station, hereinafter referred to as resource related information receiving means 4211 (not shown), and means for determining a relay transmission resource according to the message containing one or more relay transmission resource related information, hereinafter referred to as resource determining means 4212 (not shown).

Specifically, the resource-related information receiving apparatus 4211 decodes a message including one or more pieces of relay transmission resource-related information after receiving the message, and acquires information related to the relay transmission resource in the message, for example, time and frequency information of the relay transmission resource. If the message only contains the information related to one relay transmission resource, the fourth determining device 4212 may determine to use the transmission resource for transmitting the relay related information; if the message includes information related to a plurality of relay transmission resources, resource determining apparatus 4212 may select one relay transmission resource from the message for transmitting the relay related information.

Next, when the first determining means 41 determines transmission, the second transmitting means 422 transmits the relay related information using the relay transmission resource. Specifically, after the third determining means 421 determines the relay transmission resource in the manner described above, the second transmitting means 422 transmits the relay related information that needs to be transmitted on the relay transmission resource.

In the related art, all relay devices transmit relay-related information each time. Under the condition that the number of relay devices at the edge of a cell is large, the utilization rate of sending resources and energy consumption is not high in a mode that all relay devices send relay related information. In the invention, the relay equipment determines whether to send the relay related information according to the sending probability, thereby reducing the power consumption and the used resources of the relay equipment while ensuring the effectiveness of the relay function, and improving the efficiency of the relay equipment. The relay device also reduces interference that may be caused to other users during transmission when not transmitting relay related information.

Fig. 5 illustrates an apparatus for assisting a relay device in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of another aspect of the present invention. The arrangement according to the present embodiment comprises means for determining a transmission probability, hereinafter referred to as fourth determining means 51, and means for transmitting a message containing said transmission probability, hereinafter referred to as third transmitting means 52, to one or more relay devices.

The apparatus of the present embodiment is mainly implemented in a base station.

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

It should be noted that the base station and the relay device are only examples, and other existing or future base stations and relay devices may be applicable to the present invention, and are included in the scope of the present invention and are included by reference.

First, the fourth determination means 51 determines the transmission probability. The transmission probability is a probability that the relay device transmits the relay-related information. Specifically, the method of determining the transmission probability by the fourth determining means 51 may have various algorithms. For example, the fourth determining means 51 may estimate the efficiency of the relay device according to the retransmission rate of the end user transmitting data through the relay device, thereby determining the transmission probability; the fourth determining means 51 may determine the transmission probability according to the number of all relay devices in the cell; or the fourth determining means 51 may determine the transmission probability according to the density of relay devices at the cell edge.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fourth determining means 51 further comprises the following means: means for determining the density of relay devices, hereinafter referred to as fifth determining means 511; and means for determining a transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices, hereinafter referred to as sixth determining means 512.

First, the fifth determining means 511 determines the density of the relay devices. The method of determining the density of the relay devices by the fifth determining means 511 may have various algorithms. For example, the fifth determining means 511 may represent the density of the relay devices by the number of the relay devices at the cell edge, and when the number of the relay devices is large, the density of the relay devices is large, and when the number of the relay devices is small, the density of the relay devices is small. For another example, the fifth determining device 511 may adjust the density of the relay devices according to the number of existing relay devices in the cell and the number of all terminal users in the cell. For example, the fifth determining device 511 first sets a default reference value for the number of existing relay devices and the number of all end users in the cell, and a default value for the relay device density corresponding to the default reference value. When the number of relay devices increases or decreases, the fifth determining means 511 increases or decreases the value of the density of the relay devices accordingly: when the number of all end users in the cell increases or decreases, the fifth determining means 511 decreases or increases the value of the density of the relay devices accordingly. For another example, the fifth determining device 511 may estimate the size of the cell according to the size of the transmission power of the base station and the number of users in the cell, and then adjust the density of the relay devices together according to the number of the relay devices. For example, the fifth determining device 511 first sets a reference default value of the base station transmission power, the number of users in the cell and the number of relay devices, and a default value of the relay device density corresponding to the reference default value. When the number of relay devices increases or decreases, the fifth determining means 511 increases or decreases the density of the relay devices accordingly; when the number of users in the cell increases or decreases, the fifth determining means 511 decreases or increases the density of the relay devices accordingly; the fifth determining means 511 decreases or increases the density of the relay devices when the base station transmission power increases or decreases accordingly. It should be noted that the above examples for determining the density of the relay device are only for better illustrating the technical solution of the present invention, and are not limiting to the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of the apparatus for determining the density of the relay device should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Next, the sixth determining means 512 determines the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices. The algorithm of the sixth determining means 512 for determining the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices may be various. For example, there are two thresholds a and b in the sixth determining means 512 that set default values, a < b. If the density of the relay device is greater than or equal to the threshold b, the sixth determining device 512 determines that the transmission probability is 1/3, if the density of the relay device is less than or equal to the threshold a, the sixth determining device 512 determines that the transmission probability is 1, and if the density of the relay device is greater than the threshold a and less than the threshold b, the sixth determining device 512 determines that the transmission probability is 2/3. It should be noted that, the above examples for determining the transmission probability are only used to better illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and are not meant to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of the apparatus for determining the transmission probability should be included in the scope of the present invention.

In an embodiment, the apparatus for assisting a relay device in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system further includes: means for determining one or more relay transmission resources, hereinafter referred to as seventh determining means 53 (not shown); and means for transmitting a message containing the one or more relay transmission resource related information to one or more relay devices, hereinafter referred to as fourth transmitting means 54 (not shown). In this embodiment, the relay transmission resource refers to a time-frequency resource used when the relay device transmits the relay related information.

First, the seventh determining means 53 determines one or more relay transmission resources used by the relay device.

The relay device may synchronize with the base station by detecting a synchronization signal transmitted by the base station. All relay devices may be synchronized with each other if their timing and frequency estimates are sufficiently accurate. Therefore, when the relay equipment sends the same message, the same time-frequency resource can be used for relay information sending, and the mutual interference is small. The seventh determining means 53 only needs to allocate the same relay transmission resource to all relay devices. In this case, the seventh determining means 53 determines one relay transmission resource to be used by the relay device.

If the timing estimation or frequency estimation of the relay devices is not accurate enough, the relay devices may interfere with each other if they use the same time-frequency resources to transmit the relay information. In this case, the seventh determining means 53 may allocate a resource pool containing a plurality of relay transmission resources to the relay device. In this way, each relay device can select the relay transmission resource from the resource pool allocated by the master-slave seventh determining device 53, thereby reducing the conflict of the relay devices using the same relay transmission resource and reducing the interference between the relay devices. In this case, the seventh determining means 53 determines a plurality of relay transmission resources to be used by the relay device.

The fourth transmitting device 54 then transmits a message containing the one or more relay transmission resource-related information to one or more relay devices, wherein the relay transmission resource-related information is, for example, time and frequency information of the relay transmission resource. Specifically, the fourth transmitting device 54 may form a message including information related to one or more relay transmission resources, and may form a single relay transmission resource, or may combine information related to one or more relay transmission resources in another existing message. The fourth transmitting means 54 then transmits the message to one or more relay devices in the cell.

In a preferred embodiment, the sixth determining means 512 includes means for determining a transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices and one or more relay transmission resources, hereinafter referred to as eighth determining means 5121 (not shown). The eighth determining means 5121 includes various ways to determine the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices and one or more relay transmission resources. For example, the eighth determining means 5121 may first determine the intermediate value m of the transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices: there are two thresholds a and b in the base station that set default values, a < b. If the density of the relay device is greater than or equal to the threshold b, m is 1/3, if the density of the relay device is less than or equal to the threshold a, m is 1, and if the density of the relay device is greater than the threshold a and less than the threshold b, m is 2/3. Then, the eighth determining means 5121 determines the transmission probability according to the information of the relay transmission resource: assuming that the number of relay sending resources is n, if n is smaller than a preset threshold x, the sending probability is m x (1-k%), wherein k is a preset adjusting parameter; if n is larger than a preset threshold y, the sending probability is m (1+ k%), wherein k is a preset adjusting parameter; if n is greater than or equal to x, less than or equal to y, and x < y, the transmission probability is m. It should be noted that, the above examples for determining the transmission probability are only used to better illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and are not meant to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of the apparatus for determining the transmission probability should be included in the scope of the present invention.

The density of relay devices within a cell is constantly changing, since there may be many mobile relay devices, e.g. mobile terminal devices with relay capabilities. In one embodiment, the fourth determining means 51 includes means for re-determining the transmission probability when the density of the relay devices changes, hereinafter referred to as re-determining means 513 (not shown). The re-determination means 513 may re-determine the transmission probability when the density of the relay devices changes. For example, the re-determining means 513 may set a threshold for the change of the density of the relay devices, and when the size of the change of the density of the relay devices exceeds a preset threshold, the re-determining means 513 re-determines the transmission probability. For another example, the re-determination device 513 may set an update cycle of the transmission probability, and the re-determination device 513 may re-determine the transmission probability in accordance with the density of the latest relay device in each cycle.

After the fourth determining means 51 has determined the transmission probability according to the method described above, the third transmitting means 52 transmits a message containing the transmission probability to one or more relay devices. For example, the third transmitting means 52 may broadcast the cell network configuration parameter and broadcast the information of the transmission probability along with the cell network configuration parameter, and transmit the message containing the transmission probability to one or more relay devices by means of broadcasting. For another example, the third transmitting device 52 may also individually customize a message containing the transmission probability information, and then transmit the message to one or more relay devices in the cell in the signaling of the common channel. It should be noted that the foregoing examples are only for better illustrating the technical solutions of the present invention, and are not limiting to the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that any implementation manner of the apparatus for sending the message including the sending probability to one or more relay devices should be included in the scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment, the above apparatus for assisting the relay device in information transmission in the base station of the wireless communication system further includes means for transmitting a broadcast message to be relayed and transmitted to the one or more relay devices, hereinafter referred to as broadcast transmitting means 55 (not shown). The broadcast message transmitted by the broadcast transmitting device 55 needs to be transmitted to as many terminal devices as possible, and after receiving the broadcast message transmitted by the broadcast transmitting device 55, the relay device transmits the broadcast message to the terminal devices outside the coverage of the nearby base station, so as to increase the cell coverage. Since the terminal devices covered by the signals transmitted by a plurality of relay devices located at close distances are the same, it is not necessary to perform relay transmission by all the relay devices. Therefore, after receiving the broadcast message to be relayed and transmitted by the broadcast transmission device 55, the relay device can decide whether to transmit the broadcast message according to the transmission probability. According to the mode, the relay equipment which does not need to send the broadcast message saves energy consumption required by sending while ensuring the effectiveness of the relay function, and reduces interference to other equipment during sending.

It should be noted that the present invention can be implemented in software and/or a combination of software and hardware, and that the various means of the invention can be implemented using Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) or any other similar hardware devices. In one embodiment, the software program of the present invention may be executed by a processor to implement the steps or functions described above. Also, the software programs (including associated data structures) of the present invention can be stored in a computer readable recording medium, such as RAM memory, magnetic or optical drive or diskette and the like. Further, some of the steps or functions of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, for example, as circuitry that cooperates with the processor to perform various steps or functions.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments, and that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Any reference sign in a claim should not be construed as limiting the claim concerned. Furthermore, it is obvious that the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the singular does not exclude the plural. A plurality of units or means recited in the system claims may also be implemented by one unit or means in software or hardware. The terms first, second, etc. are used to denote names, but not any particular order.

While exemplary embodiments have been particularly shown and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims. The protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below. These and other aspects of the various embodiments are specified in the following numbered clauses:

1. a method for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system, wherein the method comprises:

-transmitting the relay related information when determining to transmit.

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

-receiving a message sent by the base station containing a transmission probability;

-determining a transmission probability from said message containing a transmission probability.

3. The method according to clause 1 or 2, wherein the step of transmitting the relay-related information when the transmission is determined comprises:

-determining relay transmission resources;

-transmitting the relay related information using the relay transmission resource when determining to transmit.

4. The method of clause 3, wherein the step of determining relay transmission resources comprises:

-receiving a message sent by a base station containing information on one or more relay transmission resources;

-determining relay transmission resources based on said message comprising one or more relay transmission resource related information.

5. The method of any of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the relay related information comprises at least any one of:

-a broadcast message to be relayed received from a base station;

-autonomously sent relay related messages.

6. The method of any of clauses 1 to 5, wherein the relay device comprises at least any one of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

7. A method for assisting relay devices in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system, wherein the method comprises:

-determining a transmission probability;

8. The method of clause 7, wherein the step of determining the transmission probability comprises:

-determining a density of relay devices;

-determining a transmission probability based on the density of the relay devices.

9. The method of clause 7 or 8, wherein the method further comprises:

-determining one or more relay transmission resources;

-sending a message to the one or more relay devices containing the one or more relay transmission resource related information.

10. The method of clause 9, wherein the determining a transmission probability according to the density of the relay devices comprises:

-determining a transmission probability based on the density of relay devices and the one or more relay transmission resources.

11. The method of clause 8 or 10, wherein the method further comprises:

-re-determining the transmission probability when the density of relay devices changes.

12. The method of any of clauses 7 to 11, wherein the method further comprises:

-sending the broadcast message to be relayed to the one or more relay devices.

13. The method of any of clauses 7 to 12, wherein the relay device comprises at least any one of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

14. An apparatus for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system, wherein the apparatus comprises:

15. The apparatus of clause 14, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

-means for receiving a message sent by the base station containing the transmission probability;

-means for determining a transmission probability from said message containing a transmission probability.

16. The apparatus of clause 14 or 15, wherein the means for transmitting the relay related information when determining to transmit comprises:

-means for determining relay transmission resources;

-means for transmitting said relay related information using said relay transmission resources when determining to transmit.

17. The apparatus of clause 16, wherein the means for determining relay transmission resources comprises:

-means for receiving a message sent by a base station containing one or more relay transmission resource related information;

-means for determining relay transmission resources based on said message comprising one or more relay transmission resource related information.

18. The apparatus of any of clauses 14 to 17, wherein the relay related information comprises at least any one of:

-a broadcast message to be relayed received from a base station;

-autonomously sent relay related messages.

19. The apparatus of any of clauses 14 to 18, wherein the relay device comprises at least any one of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

20. An apparatus for assisting relay devices in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system, wherein the apparatus comprises:

-means for determining a transmission probability;

21. The apparatus of clause 20, wherein the means for determining a transmission probability comprises:

-means for determining a density of relay devices;

-means for determining a transmission probability based on the density of the relay devices.

22. The apparatus of clause 20 or 21, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

-means for determining one or more relay transmission resources;

-means for sending a message to the one or more relay devices containing the one or more relay transmission resource related information.

23. The apparatus of clause 22, wherein the means for determining a transmission probability based on the density of relay devices comprises:

-means for determining a transmission probability based on the density of relay devices and the one or more relay transmission resources.

24. The apparatus of clause 21 or 23, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

-means for re-determining the transmission probability when the density of relay devices changes.

25. The apparatus of any of clauses 20 to 24, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

-means for transmitting to the one or more relay devices a broadcast message to be relayed.

26. The apparatus of any of clauses 20 to 25, wherein the relay device comprises at least any one of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

Claims

-determining whether to transmit relay related information according to a transmission probability, wherein the transmission probability is determined according to a density of relay devices;

-transmitting the relay related information when determining to transmit.

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

3. A method for assisting relay devices in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system, wherein the method comprises:

-determining a transmission probability;

-sending a message containing the transmission probability to one or more relay devices;

wherein the step of determining the transmission probability comprises:

-determining a density of relay devices;

4. An apparatus for information transmission in a relay device of a wireless communication system, wherein the apparatus comprises:

-means for determining whether to transmit relay related information based on a transmission probability, wherein the transmission probability is determined based on a density of relay devices;

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the means for transmitting the relay-related information when determining to transmit comprises:

-means for determining relay transmission resources;

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the means for determining relay transmission resources comprises:

8. The apparatus according to any of claims 4 to 7, wherein the relay related information comprises at least any of:

-a broadcast message to be relayed received from a base station;

-autonomously sent relay related messages.

9. The apparatus of any of claims 4 to 7, wherein the relay device comprises at least any of:

-a terminal device with relay capability;

-a relay node device with relay capability.

10. An apparatus for assisting relay devices in information transmission in a base station of a wireless communication system, wherein the apparatus comprises:

-means for determining a transmission probability;

-means for transmitting a message containing the transmission probability to one or more relay devices;

wherein the means for determining a transmission probability comprises:

-means for determining a density of relay devices;

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

-means for determining one or more relay transmission resources;

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for determining a transmission probability based on the density of relay devices comprises:

13. The apparatus of claim 10 or 12, wherein the apparatus further comprises: