CN107113821B

CN107113821B - Method and device for transmitting uplink data

Info

Publication number: CN107113821B
Application number: CN201580072307.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 常俊仁; 毕皓
Original assignee: Shandong Huanghai Data Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Guangdong Gaohang Intellectual Property Operation Co ltd; Shandong Huanghai Data Technology Co.,Ltd.
Priority date: 2015-09-24
Filing date: 2015-09-24
Publication date: 2020-12-18
Anticipated expiration: 2035-09-24
Also published as: CN107113821A; WO2017049558A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to a method and a device for transmitting uplink data, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the user equipment acquires resource allocation information sent by the first base station; when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and has sent a BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity of the ue allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer of the ue. The method and the device for transmitting the uplink data can avoid resource waste and influence on the transmission quality of other services caused by resource occupation of split bearer, ensure the fairness of different services and improve the resource use efficiency.

Description

Method and device for transmitting uplink data

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for uplink data transmission.

Background

In order to support higher data rates and to support the ability of the user equipment UE to simultaneously aggregate component carriers of different base stations (e.g., macro and small base stations), the third Generation partnership Project (3 GPP) introduced Dual Connectivity (DC) technology.

The main idea of the DC technique is to aggregate carriers of different base stations connected via a non-ideal backhaul link (backhaul) to increase the data transmission rate.

In dual connectivity, one UE will be connected to two evolved Node bs (enbs), one is a Master eNB (MeNB), and the other is a Secondary eNB (SeNB), where the MeNB and the SeNB are connected via non-ideal backhaul.

Currently, the protocol stacks of MeNB and SeNB in dual connectivity mode, as determined by 3GPP, are shown in fig. 1: for a data Radio Bearer (Dada Radio Bearer, abbreviated as "DRB") 1, the DRB 1 is only transmitted to the user equipment UE through the MeNB. For DRB2, one part is sent to the UE through MeNB, and the other part is sent to SeNB first through X2 interface and then sent to the UE by SeNB. Specifically, the MeNB sends a part of Data packets of the DRB2 to the SeNB in the form of Data packets of a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Protocol Data Unit (PDU), and then sends the Data packets to the UE through the SeNB. Further, in LTE Release 13, to improve the uplink data transmission rate, for uplink transmission of DRB2, the UE may send partial PDCP data packets to the MeNB, and simultaneously send partial PDCP data packets to the SeNB. Since the data of the DRB2 is split into two parts and transmitted by different enbs, the DRB2 is called split bearer (split bearer).

The MAC entity delivers indication information to the PDCP layer as long as the UL grant information is obtained, so that the PDCP layer can transmit data. When receiving an uplink grant (UL grant), the PDCP entity determines how PDCP data is transmitted based on a data amount and a threshold of the PDCP.

Since the logical channel priority of the split bearer is higher than the logical channel priority of other bearers, when the UE receives the UL grant information, it indicates data transmission to the PDCP layer, and the split bearer is transmitted preferentially, but actually, the UL grant may be the UL grant scheduled by the MeNB based on other bearers reported by the UE. Therefore, in this case, the UL grant for data transmission by other bearers is preempted by the split bearer, so that the quality of service of other bearers is not guaranteed.

In addition, the split bearer may have reported a buffer status report to the SeNB before, and when the UE obtains UL grant information from the SeNB, PDCP data of the split bearer has been transmitted from the MeNB, so that the UL grant allocated by the SeNB causes resource waste due to insufficient data packets of the split bearer.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a method and a device for transmitting uplink data, which can improve the system performance.

In a first aspect, a method for uplink data transmission is provided, where the method includes: the method comprises the steps that user equipment obtains resource allocation information sent by a first base station; when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the ue has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity of the ue allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or, the first MAC entity of the user equipment transmits data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment, the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer transmits data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission resource allocated to the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission opportunity allocated to the split bearer by the first MAC entity.

With reference to the first aspect, in an implementation manner of the first aspect, the method is used for a user equipment in a dual connectivity system, where the user equipment includes a first MAC entity and a second MAC entity, and the first MAC entity and the second MAC entity are respectively used for communicating with a first base station and a second base station in the dual connectivity system.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity of the ue sends data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue, where the data transmission indication information includes: when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value and the ue has sent a second BSR to the first base station, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, where the second BSR includes data buffer status information of the split bearer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity is a MAC entity that transmits data of the split bearer, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the ue does not send the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, the first MAC entity does not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or does not send the data transmission indication information of the split bearer to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the ue does not send the first BSR including the data buffering status information of the split bearer to the first base station, the first MAC entity does not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer, and/or the first MAC entity of the ue does not send the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the not allocating, by the first MAC entity, transmission resources for the split bearer, and/or not sending, to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment, data transmission indication information of the split bearer includes: the first MAC entity allocates resources to a second bearer according to resource allocation information, and/or sends data transmission indication information of the second bearer to the PDCP layer, where the second bearer is a bearer other than the split bearer, and the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the second bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission resources allocated to the second bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates a transmission opportunity allocated to the second bearer by the first MAC entity.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the sending, by the first MAC entity, data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment includes: the first MAC entity transmits the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through a radio link control, RLC, layer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the allocating, by the first MAC entity, transmission resources for the split bearer includes: when the transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, the first MAC entity determines to resume the transmission of the split bearer and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the allocating, by the first MAC entity, transmission resources for the split bearer includes: the first MAC entity restarts the accumulation of the state variable Bj of the logical channel of the split bearer and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the first base station is a master base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the preset value is sent by the master base station to the user equipment.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the resource allocation information is uplink grant UL grant information.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the acquiring, by the ue, resource allocation information sent by the first base station includes: the user equipment acquires the resource allocation information through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) channel.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the allocating, by the first MAC entity, transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sending, by the first MAC entity of the user equipment, data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment includes: in the logic channel priority LCP process, the first MAC entity distributes transmission resources for the split bearing; the first MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the transmission resource allocated to the split bearer.

With reference to the first aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the first aspect, in another implementation manner of the first aspect, the transmission resource allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a physical resource amount allocated for the split bearer, and the transmission opportunity allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a data amount capable of being transmitted and allocated for the split bearer.

In a second aspect, a method for uplink data transmission is provided, where the method includes: the method comprises the steps that user equipment obtains resource allocation information sent by a first base station; when the ue determines that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and a first MAC entity of the ue is not a configured MAC entity that transmits the data of the split bearer when the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value, or when the ue determines that the first MAC entity does not send a buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, the first MAC entity does not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information of the split bearer to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue.

With reference to the second aspect, in an implementation manner of the second aspect, the method is used for a user equipment in a dual connectivity system, where the user equipment includes a first MAC entity and a second MAC entity, and the first MAC entity and the second MAC entity are respectively used for communicating with a first base station and a second base station in the dual connectivity system.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity of the ue does not send the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, the ue does not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or does not send the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, when the ue determines that the data size of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the ue has sent the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the ue determines that the data size of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity of the ue allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or, the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment, the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer transmits data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission resource allocated to the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission opportunity allocated to the split bearer by the first MAC entity.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity is a MAC entity that transmits data of the split bearer, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the not allocating, by the first MAC entity, transmission resources for the split bearer, and/or not sending, to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment, data transmission indication information of the split bearer includes: the first MAC entity allocates resources to a second bearer according to resource allocation information, and/or sends data transmission indication information of the second bearer to the PDCP layer, where the second bearer is a bearer other than the split bearer, and the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the second bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission resources allocated to the second bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates a transmission opportunity allocated to the second bearer by the first MAC entity.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the second bearer is a non-split bearer, and the first MAC entity allocates resources to the second bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sends data transmission indication information of the second bearer to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the second bearer is another split bearer, and when the ue determines that the data volume of the second bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the ue has sent a buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the second bearer to the first base station, or when the ue determines that the data volume of the second bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates resources for the second bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sends data transmission indication information of the second bearer to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the allocating, by the first MAC entity, no transmission resource for the split bearer includes: when the value of the state variable Bj of the logical channel of the split bearer is greater than zero, the first MAC entity does not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the allocating, by the first MAC entity, no transmission resource for the split bearer includes: the first MAC entity determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: when the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the ue has sent the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity determines to resume transmission of the split bearer to the first base station and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the allocating, by the user equipment, transmission resources for the split bearer does not include: the first MAC entity sets a state variable Bj of the logical channel of the split bearer to zero and/or stops accumulation of the state variable Bj.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: when the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the ue has sent the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity restarts the accumulation of the status variable Bj and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the first base station is a master base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the preset value is sent by the master base station to the user equipment.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the resource allocation information is uplink grant UL grant information.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, the transmission resource allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a physical resource amount allocated for the split bearer, and the transmission opportunity allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a data amount capable of being transmitted and allocated for the split bearer.

With reference to the second aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the second aspect, in another implementation manner of the second aspect, any one of the first aspect and the implementation manner of the first aspect is further included.

In a third aspect, a user equipment for uplink data transmission is provided, where the user equipment includes: the device comprises an acquisition module, a processing module and a sending module, wherein the acquisition module is used for: acquiring resource allocation information sent by a first base station; the processing module is used for: when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the sending module has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or, the first MAC entity transmits data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment through the transmission module, the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer transmits data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission resource allocated to the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission opportunity allocated to the split bearer by the first MAC entity.

With reference to the third aspect, in an implementation manner of the third aspect, the user equipment is located in a dual connectivity system, and the user equipment includes a first MAC entity and a second MAC entity, where the first MAC entity and the second MAC entity are respectively used for communicating with a first base station and a second base station in the dual connectivity system.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value and the ue has sent a second BSR to the first base station, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer through the processing module according to the resource allocation information, and/or sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the sending module, where the second BSR includes data buffer status information of the split bearer.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity is the MAC entity transmitting the data of the split bearer, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer through the processing module according to the resource allocation information, and/or sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the sending module.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the sending module does not send the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer and/or no data transmission indication information of the split bearer is sent to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the sending module does not send the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer, and/or the first MAC entity of the ue does not send the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the sending module is specifically configured to: the data transmission indication information is transmitted to the PDCP layer through a radio link control RLC layer.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: and when the transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, determining to recover the transmission of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: restarting the accumulation of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the first base station is a master base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the preset value is sent by the master base station to the user equipment.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the resource allocation information is uplink grant UL grant information.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the obtaining module is specifically configured to: and acquiring the resource allocation information through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: in the LCP process of the logic channel priority, the first MAC entity distributes transmission resources for the split bearer through the processing module; the first MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the sending module according to the transmission resource allocated to the split bearer.

With reference to the third aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the third aspect, in another implementation manner of the third aspect, the transmission resource allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a physical resource amount allocated for the split bearer, and the transmission opportunity allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a data amount capable of being transmitted and allocated for the split bearer.

In a fourth aspect, a user equipment for uplink data transmission is provided, where the user equipment includes: an obtaining module, configured to obtain resource allocation information sent by the first base station; a processing module, configured to not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or not send data transmission indication information of the split bearer to a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of the ue, when it is determined that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and a first MAC entity of the ue is not a configured MAC entity that transmits the data of the split bearer when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value, or the first MAC entity does not send a Buffer Status Report (BSR) including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in an implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the ue is located in a dual connectivity system, and the ue includes a first MAC entity and a second MAC entity, where the first MAC entity and the second MAC entity are respectively used for communicating with a first base station and a second base station in the dual connectivity system.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer is not transmitted to the first base station, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer and/or the data transmission indication information is not transmitted to the PDCP layer.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the user equipment may further include a sending module, and the processing module is specifically configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to the preset value and the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer has been sent to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information through the processing module, and/or the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue through a sending module, where the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends the data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission resources allocated to the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates a transmission opportunity allocated to the split bearer by the first MAC entity.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity is the MAC entity transmitting the data of the split bearer, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer through the processing module according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity transmits the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the transmitting module.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: and when the value of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer is greater than zero, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the processing module is specifically configured to: determining that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the processing module is further configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity determines to resume transmission of the split bearer to the first base station through the processing module and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first MAC entity sets the state variable Bj of the split bearer to zero and/or stops accumulation of the state variable Bj through the processing module.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the processing module is further configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity restarts the accumulation of the status variable Bj through the processing module and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first base station is a primary base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the preset value is sent by the master base station to the user equipment.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the resource allocation information is uplink grant UL grant information.

With reference to the fourth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the transmission resource allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer is represented as a physical resource amount allocated to the split bearer, and the transmission opportunity allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer is represented as a data amount capable of being transmitted and allocated to the split bearer.

In a fifth aspect, a user equipment for uplink data transmission is provided, where the user equipment includes a memory, a processor, and a transceiver, the memory is used for storing instructions or programs or program codes, and the processor is used for executing the instructions or programs or program codes stored in the memory to control the transceiver to transmit signals to control the user equipment to perform the method for uplink data transmission in any one of the first aspect, the second aspect, and various implementations of the first aspect and the second aspect. As possible implementations, the following list illustrates:

in one implementation, the transceiver is configured to: acquiring resource allocation information sent by the first base station; the processor is configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to a preset value and the transceiver has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be greater than the preset value, allocating transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sending data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment through the transceiver, wherein the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the split bearer to a first MAC entity of the user equipment, or the data transmission indication information indicates that the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates that the first MAC entity allocates transmission opportunities for the split bearer.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in an implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value and the transceiver has sent a second BSR to the first base station, allocating transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sending the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the transceiver, where the second BSR includes data buffer status information of the split bearer.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: and when the transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, determining to recover the transmission of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: restarting the accumulation of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the first base station is a master base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the preset value is sent by the master base station to the user equipment.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the resource allocation information is uplink grant UL grant information.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in another implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: in the logic channel priority LCP process, allocating transmission resources for the split bearer; and sending the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the transceiver according to the transmission resources allocated to the split bearer.

With reference to the fifth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner, in another implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the transmission resource allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a physical resource amount allocated for the split bearer, and the transmission opportunity allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer represents a data amount capable of being transmitted and allocated for the split bearer.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a user equipment for uplink data transmission, the user equipment comprising a memory, a processor and a transceiver, the memory being configured to store instructions or programs or program codes, and the processor being configured to execute the instructions or programs or program codes stored in the memory to control the transceiver to transmit signals to control the user equipment to perform the method for uplink data transmission in any one of the first aspect, the second aspect and various implementations thereof. As possible implementations, the following list illustrates:

in one implementation, the transceiver is configured to: acquiring resource allocation information sent by the first base station; the processor is configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity of the ue is not the configured MAC entity that transmits the data of the split bearer when the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value, or when it is determined that the transceiver does not send a buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, it is determined not to allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or not to send data transmission indication information of the split bearer to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in an implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: and when the value of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer is greater than zero, determining that no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the foregoing implementations of the sixth aspect, in another implementation of the sixth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: determining that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the foregoing implementations of the sixth aspect, in another implementation of the sixth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to the preset value and the transceiver has sent the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be greater than the preset value, it is determined to resume transmission of the split bearer to the first base station and transmission resources are allocated for the split bearer.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the foregoing implementations of the sixth aspect, in another implementation of the sixth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: setting the state variable Bj of the logic channel carried by the split to zero, and/or stopping the accumulation of the state variable Bj.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the foregoing implementations of the sixth aspect, in another implementation of the sixth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to the preset value and the transceiver has sent the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be greater than the preset value, the accumulation of the state variables Bj is restarted, and transmission resources are allocated to the split bearer.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in another implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the first base station is a master base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in another implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the preset value is sent by the master base station to the user equipment.

With reference to the sixth aspect and the foregoing implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in another implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the resource allocation information is uplink grant UL grant information.

In a seventh aspect, a processing apparatus is provided, where the processing apparatus is applied to a user equipment. The processing means may be one or more processors or chips in the user equipment. In other possible cases, the processing device may also be the user equipment itself. The processing device is configured to control a user equipment, or the user equipment is configured to execute the method for uplink data transmission in any one of the first aspect, the second aspect, and various implementations thereof.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run by a computing unit, a processing unit or a processor of a user equipment, causes the user equipment to perform the method of uplink data transmission of any of the first aspect, the second aspect, and its various implementations as described above.

In a ninth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a program, where the program enables a user equipment to execute the method for uplink data transmission in any one of the first aspect, the second aspect, and various implementations thereof.

In a tenth aspect, a program is provided for causing a user equipment to perform the method for uplink data transmission in any one of the first aspect, the second aspect, and various implementations thereof.

Based on the above technical solution, in the method and apparatus for uplink data transmission according to the embodiments of the present invention, after receiving resource allocation information sent by a base station, an MAC entity determines that resources are allocated to a split bearer only when the data amount of the split bearer is greater than a preset value, or the data amount of the split bearer is smaller than the preset value and a buffer status report including buffer status information of the split bearer is sent to the base station, and sends data transmission indication information to a PDCP layer, so that the PDCP layer transmits data of the split bearer, thereby avoiding resource waste and influence on transmission quality of other services due to resource preemption by the split bearer, ensuring fairness of different services, and thus improving resource utilization efficiency.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments of the present invention will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow diagram of a dual connectivity system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a method of uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method of dual uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is another schematic flow chart of a method of uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is still another schematic flow chart of a method for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is still another schematic flow chart of a method for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a user equipment for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is another schematic block diagram of a user equipment for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is still another schematic block diagram of a user equipment for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 10 is still another schematic block diagram of a user equipment for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be obtained by a person skilled in the art without any inventive step based on the embodiments of the present invention, shall fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

In dual-connectivity DC technology, one UE configures two Cell Groups (CG), or carrier groups (CC groups): one is a Master Cell Group (MCG), and the other is a Secondary Cell Group (SCG).

The MCG refers to a Cell group associated with the MeNB, and is composed of a Primary Cell (PCell) and zero or more Secondary cells (scells).

The SCG is a Cell group associated with the SeNB, and is composed of a Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) and zero or more Secondary cells (scells).

The PCell refers to a cell in which a UE establishes Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection, and the primary cell provides security-related parameters and is configured with Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources. The PSCell refers to a secondary cell in which PUCCH resources are allocated in a secondary cell group. The SCell within the MCG and SCG is not configured with PUCCH resources except for PCell and PSCell. The PUCCH Channel is mainly used to transmit hybrid automatic repeat Request acknowledgement Information (HARQ-ACK), Channel State Information (CSI), Scheduling Request (SR), and other Information.

For a user equipment UE, there may be multiple services simultaneously, or multiple DRBs need to transmit, and then the UE needs to multiplex and transmit data of multiple DRBs according to uplink resources (sometimes referred to as uplink grant) allocated by a base station at a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. In LTE, each DRB corresponds to a logical channel and configures a logical channel priority. In LTE, a process of multiplexing and transmitting data of a plurality of DRBs is referred to as a Logical Channel Priority (LCP) process.

Specifically, in the conventional LCP procedure, the RRC layer controls MAC scheduling by controlling several parameters, which are logical channel priority, Priority Bit Rate (PBR) and Duration parameter (BSD). For each logical channel, the UE should maintain a state variable Bj. When the relevant logical channel is established, Bj should be initialized to 0, and then PBR is increased every Transmission Time Interval (TTI), i.e. accumulation is performed based on PBR × TTI, i.e. adding one PBR every TTI.

PBR is the PBR of the corresponding logical channel j. However, the value of Bj never exceeds the size of the token bucket, which is PBR BSD. And if the value of Bj is greater than the token bucket of logical channel j, the value of Bj should be set to PBR BSD. The PBR can be set to infinity, and when a certain logical channel is set to infinity, this service can be guaranteed under the condition of resource shortage, and other services cannot be served.

The token bucket algorithm achieves rate limitation by limiting the capacity of the token bucket and the adding speed of the token, achieves the effect of resource allocation multiplexing, and meanwhile, can be widely applied to control burst for the appointed data transmission rate.

When a new transmission is performed, the UE performs the following logical channel priority processing procedure, i.e. the UE should allocate resources for the logical channel according to the following steps:

1. and allocating resources for all the logical channels with the token number not being empty according to a descending logical channel manner. The size of the allocated resource is determined based on the size of the number of tokens in the token bucket;

2. subtracting the size of the MAC SDUs allocated with the resources in the step 1 from the number of tokens in the bucket, and updating the value of Bj, wherein the value of Bj may be negative;

3. if there are resources left after the data of each logical channel gets service, then get service in turn in the order of logical channel priority (not considering the value of Bj) until all UL grant is used up or until the data of that logical channel is multiplexed. Logical channels with the same logical channel priority are equally served.

Fig. 2 is a diagram of MAC multiplexing, and as shown in fig. 2, firstly, after the transmission of DRB 1 reaches its Bj, the data of the next DRB2 needs to be multiplexed continuously. Then, after the data of DRB2 also reaches Bj, the multiplexing of the data of DRB 3 is continued, and after the multiplexing of the data of DRB 3, if there is a certain remaining uplink transmission resource, a second round of multiplexing can be performed. In the second round of multiplexing, multiplexing is performed from high to low in the order of priority of DRB without being limited by Bj. As shown in fig. 2, after multiplexing the data of logical channel 1, all the effective resources are used.

Further, for the split bearer, sometimes the split bearer may only perform uplink data transmission through one eNB, and sometimes, when the data amount of the DRB is large, the split bearer may perform uplink data transmission through two enbs at the same time. When the split bearer only carries out data transmission through one eNB, the LCP procedure described in fig. 2 above can be reused completely, and the transmission rate PBR required to be guaranteed by the DRB is also guaranteed by one eNB.

When the split bearer simultaneously performs uplink transmission through two enbs (assuming that the split bearer is DRB2), the split bearer needs to configure independent logical channels in the two enbs, one logical channel is for the MeNB, and the other logical channel is for the SeNB. The preferred guaranteed rate PBR of the split bearer is then guaranteed by the union of the two enbs. Therefore, for two logical channels of the split bearer, the network configures partial PBR for the bearer, for example, one is PBR1 is the rate that the MeNB side should guarantee, PBR2 is the rate that the SeNB side should guarantee, and then PBR1+ PBR2 ═ PBR, or the network may also configure PBR1 and PBR2, so that the sum of PBR1 and PBR2 is greater than the original PBR, which may provide QoS for the service.

Further, in order to assist the network to schedule uplink resources for the UE, the UE needs to send a Buffer Status Report (BSR) to the SeNB serving as the MeNB, so that the eNB determines how many uplink transmission resources to schedule according to the Buffer Status information in the BSR reported by the UE. The RRC may control the reporting of the BSR by configuring two timers, namely, periodic BSR-Timer and retx BSR-Timer. In addition, optionally, for each logical channel, the eNB may allocate it to one logical channel group, i.e., lcg (logical channel group). Here, the LCG is introduced mainly for the purpose of reducing signaling overhead. Because, if one BSR is reported for each logical channel, a large amount of signaling overhead is incurred.

For BSR reporting of split bearers, the current principle is that if the PDCP data volume of a split bearer is higher than a certain threshold, the UE triggers reporting of BSRs to two enbs, namely MeNB and SeNB, respectively. Otherwise, if the PDCP data volume is smaller than the threshold value, the UE only reports the BSR to one eNB.

In the embodiment of the present invention, two MCG bearers are assumed, which are MCG Bearer1 and MCG Bearer2, and a split Bearer is further provided, where the logical channel priority of the MCG Bearer1 is assumed to be the highest, and the logical channel priority of the split Bearer is higher than the logical channel priority of the MCG Bearer 2. According to the prior art, the UE indicates to the PDCP layer when obtaining uplink resource (UL grant) information, so that data transmission of the MCG bearer2 may be affected by transmission of the split bearer.

For example, at some point, the UE reports BSR to the MeNB based on the buffer status of MCG bearer1 and MCG bearer 2. When reporting the BSR, since the data volume of the split bearer is smaller than the threshold, the split bearer does not need to be allocated to the MeNB according to the pre-configuration, and therefore the BSR of the split bearer is not reported to the MeNB.

However, when the UE indicates to get UL grant information from the MeNB to the PDCP, since the logical channel priority of the split bearer is higher than the priority of the MCG bearer2, the data of the split bearer will be transmitted preferentially, and the data of the MCG bearer2 will not be transmitted. And actually the UL grant is the UL grant scheduled by the MeNB based on BSRs of MCG bearer1 and MCG bearer2 reported by the UE. Therefore, in this case, the UL grant for data transmission by MCG bearer2 is preempted by the split bearer. Thereby making the service QoS of the MCG bearer2 not guaranteed. Meanwhile, the BSR may be reported to the SeNB before the split bearer is reported, and when the SCG MAC obtains the UL grant from the SeNB, the PDCP data of the split bearer is already transmitted from the MeNB, so that the UL grant allocated by the SeNB is not enough to cause resource waste. Therefore, the embodiment of the invention provides a method and a device for transmitting uplink data in a dual-connection system.

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, fig. 3 shows a schematic flowchart of a method 100 for uplink data transmission according to the embodiment of the present invention, where the method 100 may be performed by a MAC entity in a user equipment UE, and the method may be used in a dual connectivity system, where the dual connectivity system includes two base stations, a first base station and a second base station, the first MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the first base station, and the second MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the second base station. As shown in fig. 3, the method 100 includes:

s110, the ue obtains resource allocation information sent by the first base station;

s120, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the ue has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value,

the first MAC entity of the user equipment allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of the user equipment,

the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission resources allocated to the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission opportunities allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer.

Specifically, a first MAC entity of a ue obtains resource allocation information sent by a first base station, and when the ue determines that a data amount of a split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a first BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information sent by the first base station, and/or the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to a PDCP layer of the ue, where the data transmission indication information is used to indicate the PDCP layer to send data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission resources allocated to the split bearer.

Therefore, in the uplink data transmission method of the embodiment of the present invention, after the MAC entity receives the resource allocation information sent by the corresponding base station, when the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, or the data volume of the split bearer is less than the preset value and a buffer status report including the buffer status information of the split bearer is already sent to the base station, the MAC entity allocates resources to the split bearer, and sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, so that the PDCP layer transmits the data of the split bearer, thereby avoiding resource waste and influence on the transmission quality of other services due to resource preemption by the split bearer, ensuring fairness of different services, and thus improving resource utilization efficiency.

It should be understood that in a dual connectivity system, one User Equipment (UE) may configure two cell groups: master Cell Group (MCG) and Secondary Cell Group (SCG). MCG refers to one cell group associated with the master base station MeNB and SCG refers to one cell group associated with the secondary base station SeNB. In the embodiment of the present invention, the first base station may be a primary base station, and the second base station may be a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station, and the second base station is a main base station. When the first base station is a main base station and the second base station is a secondary base station, the first MAC entity is an MCG MAC entity corresponding to the main base station or a main cell group in the UE, and the second MAC entity is an SCG MAC entity corresponding to the secondary base station or an auxiliary cell group in the UE; and when the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station, the second MAC entity is an MCG MAC entity corresponding to the main base station or the main cell group in the UE, and the first MAC entity is an SCG MAC entity corresponding to the secondary base station or the auxiliary cell group in the UE. Therefore, the first base station in the embodiment of the present invention may be a primary base station or a secondary base station, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

In S110, the first MAC entity obtains resource allocation information sent by the first base station, and optionally, the resource allocation information may be obtained through a PDCCH, where the resource allocation information includes resources allocated to the user equipment. Specifically, the MCG MAC entity corresponding to the master base station receives the resource allocation information sent by the master base station, or the SCG MAC entity corresponding to the secondary base station receives the resource allocation information sent by the secondary base station, or both the MCG MAC entity and the SCG MAC entity receive the resource allocation information sent by the corresponding base stations, which is not limited in the present invention.

In S120, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sends data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue, where the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends the data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or indicates the transmission resources allocated to the split bearer.

In the embodiment of the present invention, according to the prior art, the BSR may be reported by an MAC entity, the BSR may include two formats, namely, a short BSR (short BSR) and a long BSR (long BSR), and the UE may be triggered to send the BSR by various conditions, which is not limited in the present invention. For example, for triggering the UE to send the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer, the UE may be triggered to send the BSR when the BSR is empty and there is new data of the split bearer to send. Specifically, when there is no uplink data of the split bearer on all Logical channels of all Logical Channel groups (LCGs for short), if there is uplink data of the split bearer in any Logical information of any one LCG at this time, the UE may be triggered to send the BSR. For the BSR first sent by such a UE. This BSR may be referred to as a "Regular BSR".

In the embodiment of the present invention, the preset value may be set according to actual conditions. After the preset value can be determined by the main base station, the preset value is sent to the user equipment, and the user equipment stores the preset value; optionally, the preset value may also be preconfigured in the user equipment, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

Optionally, as an embodiment, when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value, if the first MAC entity has sent a BSR to the first base station that sends resource allocation information, where the BSR includes data buffer status information of the split bearer, and the data buffer status information may include the data amount of the split bearer or is referred to as a BS value, the first MAC entity may allocate resources to the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and then send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, where the data transmission indication information indicates the PDCP layer to send the data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity; or the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the resource allocation information, wherein the data transmission indication information indicates the resources allocated to the split bearer. After receiving the data transmission indication information, the PDCP layer sends the split bearer data to the first MAC entity according to the data transmission indication information, so that the first MAC entity sends the split bearer data to the first base station.

Optionally, as an embodiment, when the amount of data of the split bearer is greater than a preset value, the first MAC entity may allocate resources to the split bearer according to resource allocation information sent by the first base station, and/or the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, where the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates resources allocated to the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, when the amount of data of the split bearer is greater than a preset value, because the first MAC entity sends the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, and the second MAC entity also sends the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, the first MAC entity receives resource allocation information sent by the first base station, and may allocate resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information after the first MAC entity has sent the BSR to the first base station, and/or the first MAC entity sends data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, where the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends the data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates that the resources allocated to the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value, if the first MAC entity has not sent a BSR including data buffer information of the split bearer to the first base station that sends the resource allocation information, the first MAC entity does not allocate resources for the split bearer, and does not send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the first MAC entity determines to send the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, the data transmission indication information including the data volume information may be sent for the data volume of the split bearer that needs to be transmitted and is determined in the corresponding step in the LCP performed by the UE; or after the LCP is executed, the data amount of the total transferable split bearer may be determined, and the data transfer indication information including the total data amount information is sent, which is not limited by the present invention.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the first MAC entity determines not to allocate resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, and may also consider that the transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state. Until the first MAC entity receives transmission resources for transmitting the split bearer, for example, after the first MAC entity reports a BSR including buffer status information of the split bearer and receives resource allocation information sent by the first base station, the first MAC entity determines that transmission of the split bearer can be resumed, and may allocate resources for the split bearer, and/or may send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first MAC entity determines not to allocate resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, and the first MAC entity may also set a state variable Bj of a logical channel of the split bearer to zero and/or stop accumulating. Until the first MAC entity receives transmission resources for transmitting the split bearer, for example, after the first MAC entity reports a BSR including buffer status information of the split bearer and receives resource allocation information sent by the first base station, the first MAC entity determines that transmission of the split bearer can be resumed, and may allocate resources for the split bearer, and/or may send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, optionally, the MAC entity may send the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and the RLC layer sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the PDCP layer sends the split-bearer data according to the data transmission indication information sent by the MAC entity, optionally, the PDCP layer may also send the split-bearer data to the MAC entity through the RLC layer. Specifically, the PDCP layer sends data to the RLC layer, which forwards the data to the MAC entity.

The following describes a method for uplink data transmission in a dual connectivity system according to an embodiment of the present invention, by taking a specific embodiment as an example.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic flow chart of a method for uplink data transmission in a dual connectivity system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment, for a scenario of a dual connectivity system, a user equipment UE is connected to two base stations, a main base station MeNB corresponds to an MCG MAC entity in the UE, and a secondary base station SeNB corresponds to an SCG MAC entity in the UE, as shown in fig. 4:

in the embodiment of the present invention, for the case that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value, the split bearer only needs to be transmitted to one base station, and if it is determined that the split bearer is transmitted to the MeNB, S201 to S206 may be performed; s207 to S212 may be performed if it is determined that the split bearer is transmitted to the SeNB. Optionally, the preset value may be sent by the MeNB to the user equipment in advance.

In S201, when the data amount of the split bearer configured by the network is less than or equal to the preset value, and it is determined that the data amount is reported to the MeNB, the UE may send a BSR to the MeNB through the MCG MAC entity, where the BSR may include buffer status information of the split bearer, and the buffer status information may be the data amount of the split bearer, which may be referred to as a BS value for short.

In S202, the UE may detect the PDCCH channel transmitted by the MeNB, and receive resource allocation information (UL grant information) transmitted by the MeNB by the MCG MAC entity. The resource allocation information includes the resource allocated by the MeNB to the UE for data transmission.

In S203, the MAC entity in the UE determines whether a BSR including the buffer status information value of the split bearer has been sent to the MeNB, so as to determine whether to allocate transmission resources to the split bearer in the subsequent LCP process, and determine whether to report data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

Specifically, since the UE has sent the BSR including the BS value to the MeNB in S201, the MCG MAC entity of the UE may proceed to S205 after acquiring the UL grant information sent by the MeNB. Conversely, if the BSR including the buffer status information of the split bearer is not sent in S201, S204 is performed.

In S204, since the MCG MAC entity receives the resource splitting information sent by the MeNB, but does not send the BSR including the buffer status information of the split bearer before, the MCG MAC entity does not allocate a transport sum to the split bearer in the subsequent LCP process, and the MCG MAC entity does not report the data transmission indication information to the PDCP entity.

In S205, since the UE has sent the BSR including the BS value to the MeNB, the MCG MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer in the subsequent LCP process, and then after determining the transmission resources that can be allocated for the split bearer, the MCG MAC entity reports data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, optionally, the transmission indication information is used to indicate the PDCP layer to send the data of the split bearer to the MCG MAC entity or indicate the transmission resources of the split bearer. Further, the data transmission indication information may specifically indicate how much data the PDCP layer should deliver to the lower layer.

Specifically, the MCG MAC entity may send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the data amount of the split bearer that can be uploaded determined in the corresponding step in each step of performing the LCP procedure. Or, after all the steps of the LCP procedure are performed, sending data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the total data volume of the split bearer that can be uploaded.

Optionally, the MCG MAC entity may send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the RLC layer, and similarly, the PDCP layer may also send data of the split bearer to the MCG MAC entity through the RLC layer.

In S206, after the MCG MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, the received data of the split bearer is multiplexed in the MAC layer and then transmitted to the MeNB.

Likewise, for transmitting the split bearer to the SeNB:

in S207, when the data amount of the split bearer configured by the network is less than or equal to the preset value, and it is determined that the data amount is reported to the SeNB, the UE sends a BSR to the SeNB through the SCG MAC entity, where the BSR may include buffer status information of the split bearer, and the buffer status information may be the data amount of the split bearer, which may be referred to as a BS value for short.

In S208, the UE may detect the PDCCH channel transmitted by the SeNB, and receive resource allocation information (UL grant information) transmitted by the SeNB by the SCG MAC entity. The resource allocation information includes the resource allocated by the SeNB to the UE for data transmission.

In S209, the MAC entity in the UE determines whether a BSR including the buffer status information value of the split bearer has been sent to the SeNB, so as to determine whether to allocate transmission resources to the split bearer in the subsequent LCP process, and determine whether to report data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

Specifically, since the UE has sent the BSR including the BS value to the SeNB in S207, the SCG MAC entity of the UE may proceed to S211 after acquiring the UL grant information sent by the SeNB. Conversely, if the BSR including the buffer status information of the split bearer is not sent in S207, S210 is performed.

In S210, since the SCG MAC entity receives the resource splitting information sent by the SeNB, but does not send the BSR including the buffer status information of the split bearer before, the SCG MAC entity does not allocate a transport sum to the split bearer in the subsequent LCP process, and the SCG MAC entity does not report the data transmission indication information to the PDCP entity.

In S211, since the UE has sent the BSR including the BS value to the SeNB, the SCG MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer in the subsequent LCP process, and then after determining the transmission resources that can be allocated for the split bearer, the SCG MAC entity reports data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, optionally, the transmission indication information is used to indicate the PDCP layer to send the data of the split bearer to the SCG MAC entity or indicate the transmission resources of the split bearer. Further, the data transmission indication information may specifically indicate how much data the PDCP layer should deliver to the lower layer.

Specifically, the SCG MAC entity may be configured to send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the data amount of the split bearer that can be uploaded, determined in the corresponding step, in each step of performing the LCP procedure. Or, after all the steps of the LCP procedure are performed, sending data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the total data volume of the split bearer that can be uploaded.

Optionally, the SCG MAC entity may send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the RLC layer, and similarly, the PDCP layer may also send data of the split bearer to the SCG MAC entity through the RLC layer.

In S212, after the SCG MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, the received data of the split bearer is multiplexed in the MAC layer and then transmitted to the SeNB.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of uplink data transmission in a dual connectivity system according to still another embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment, for a scenario of a dual connectivity system, a user equipment UE is connected to two base stations, a main base station MeNB corresponds to an MCG MAC entity in the UE, and a secondary base station SeNB corresponds to an SCG MAC entity in the UE, as shown in fig. 5:

in the embodiment of the present invention, for the case that the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the split bearer needs to be transmitted to two base stations:

in S301, when determining that the data amount of the split bearer configured by the network is greater than a preset value, the UE needs to transmit the split bearer to the MeNB and the SeNB.

In S302, the UE sends a BSR to the MeNB through the MCG MAC entity, where the BSR may include buffer status information of the split bearer, and the buffer status information may be a data volume of the split bearer, which may be referred to as a BS value for short.

In S303, the UE may send a BSR to the SeNB through the SCG MAC entity, where the BSR may include buffer status information of the split bearer, and the buffer status information may be a data volume of the split bearer, which may be referred to as a BS value for short.

In S304, the UE may detect the PDCCH channel transmitted by the MeNB, and receive resource allocation information (UL grant information) transmitted by the MeNB by the MCG MAC entity. The resource allocation information includes the resource allocated by the MeNB to the UE for data transmission.

In S305, the UE may detect the PDCCH channel transmitted by the SeNB, and receive resource allocation information (UL grant information) transmitted by the SeNB by the SCG MAC entity. The resource allocation information includes the resource allocated by the MeNB to the UE for data transmission.

In S306, since the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the UE determines that the MAC entity has sent the BSR including the buffer status information value of the split bearer to the MeNB and the SeNB, the MCG MAC entity and the SCG MAC entity execute their respective LCP procedures, and determines the transmission resource that can be allocated to the split bearer according to the execution condition of the LCP, and then the MCG MAC entity and the SCG MAC entity send the indication information of data transmission to the PDCP layer according to the resource that can be allocated to the split bearer, where the data transmission indication information is used to indicate the PDCP layer to send the data of the split bearer to the MCG MAC entity and the SCG MAC entity or indicate the transmission resource of the split bearer. Further, the data transmission indication information may specifically indicate how much data the PDCP layer should deliver to the lower layer.

Specifically, the MCG MAC entity and the SCG MAC entity respectively perform the LCP procedure, and may determine the amount of data of the split bearer that can be transmitted according to the transmission resource that can be allocated to the split bearer in each step of the LCP procedure when the step is performed, and then transmit data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer. Or, after the MCG MAC entity and the SCG MAC entity perform all the steps of the corresponding LCP procedure, determining the data amount of the split bearer that can be sent according to the total resources that can be allocated to the split bearer, and then sending the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

In S307, the UE transmits the data of the split bearer to the MeNB according to the UL grant information.

In S308, the UE transmits the data of the split bearer to the SeNB according to the UL grant information.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, since the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the UE may directly perform S304 and S308 after determining that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, without determining whether the BSR including the buffer status information of the split bearer is sent to the MeNB and the SeNB again.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic flow chart of a method 400 for uplink data transmission according to still another embodiment of the present invention, where the method 400 may be performed by a user equipment UE, and the method may be used in a dual connectivity system, where the dual connectivity system includes two base stations, a first base station and a second base station, a first MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the first base station, and a second MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the second base station. As shown in fig. 6, the method 400 includes:

s410, the user equipment acquires the resource allocation information sent by the first base station;

s420, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity of the ue is not the configured MAC entity that transmits the data of the split bearer when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value, or the ue determines that the first MAC entity does not send a buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, the first MAC entity does not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information of the split bearer to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue.

Therefore, in the method for uplink data transmission according to the embodiment of the present invention, after the MAC entity of the user equipment receives the resource allocation information sent by the corresponding base station, if the MAC entity does not send a buffer status report including the split bearer buffer status information to the base station, or if the amount of the split bearer data is smaller than the preset value and the MAC entity is not a pre-configured MAC entity that performs split bearer transmission, resources are not allocated for the split bearer, and data transmission indication information of the split bearer is not sent to the PDCP layer, so that resource waste and influence on transmission quality of other services due to resource preemption by the split bearer can be avoided, fairness of different services is ensured, and resource utilization efficiency can be improved.

In S410, the first MAC entity obtains resource allocation information sent by the first base station, and optionally, the resource allocation information may be obtained through a PDCCH, where the resource allocation information includes resources allocated to the user equipment. Specifically, the MCG MAC entity corresponding to the master base station receives the resource allocation information sent by the master base station, or the SCG MAC entity corresponding to the secondary base station receives the resource allocation information sent by the secondary base station, or both the MCG MAC entity and the SCG MAC entity receive the resource allocation information sent by the corresponding base stations, which is not limited in the present invention.

In S420, when it is determined that the first MAC entity does not send the first buffer status report BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity is not the MAC entity transmitting the data of the split bearer, the first MAC entity does not allocate resources for the split bearer and/or does not send the data transmission indication information of the split bearer to the packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue. Optionally, when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the ue does not send a buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, the first MAC entity also does not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information of the split bearer to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue.

In this embodiment of the present invention, after the first MAC entity determines not to allocate resources to the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information of the split bearer to the packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment, the first MAC entity may allocate the received resources to a second bearer, where the second bearer is a bearer other than the split bearer.

Optionally, the second bearer may be a non-split bearer, and the first MAC entity may allocate resources to the second bearer according to the received resource allocation information.

Optionally, the second bearer may also be another split bearer, where the other split bearer refers to another split bearer except the split bearer that has been determined that the resource cannot be allocated. The first MAC entity needs to determine again whether resources can be allocated for the second bearer. When the second bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a BSR including a data buffer status report of the second bearer to the first base station, or when the second bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity may allocate resources for the second bearer, otherwise, the resources may still not be allocated for the second bearer.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, the preset value may be set according to an actual situation. After the preset value can be determined by the main base station, the preset value is sent to the user equipment, and the user equipment stores the preset value; optionally, the preset value may also be preconfigured in the user equipment, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

In this embodiment of the present invention, if the first MAC entity determines not to allocate resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, it may be determined that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state. Determining to resume transmission of the split bearer until the first MAC entity can allocate resources for the split bearer and/or can send data transmission indication information to a PDCP layer. Alternatively, the suspended state of the split bearer may be implemented within the user equipment in one of the following ways.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the first MAC entity of the ue first determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, and then indicates that the split bearer is in the suspended state to a Radio Resource Control (Radio Resource Control, abbreviated as "RRC") entity of the ue.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the RRC entity of the user equipment first determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, and then sends an indication that the split bearer is in the suspended state to the first MAC entity of the user equipment, so that the first MAC entity determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in the suspended state.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the PDCP entity of the user equipment first determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, and then sends the split bearer in the suspended state to the first MAC entity of the user equipment, so that the first MAC entity determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in the suspended state.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the PDCP entity of the user equipment first determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, then sends the split bearer in the suspended state to the RRC entity of the user equipment, and then the RRC entity sends an indication that the split bearer is in the suspended state to the first MAC entity, so that the first MAC entity determines that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in the suspended state.

In the embodiment of the present invention, when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity may determine to resume transmission of the split bearer and allocate resources to the split bearer. Optionally, the transmission of the split bearer may be recovered first, and then resources may be allocated to the split bearer; resources may also be allocated for the split bearer and the transmission of the split bearer may be resumed, but the invention is not limited thereto.

In this embodiment of the present invention, if the first MAC entity determines not to allocate resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, the first MAC entity may set a state variable Bj of a logical channel of the split bearer to zero, and stop accumulating. The accumulation of the state variable Bj is restarted until the first MAC entity can allocate resources for the split bearer and/or can send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

Optionally, if the first MAC entity determines not to allocate resources for the split bearer and/or does not send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, at this time, the state variable Bj of the logical channel of the split bearer may be greater than zero or may be less than zero, that is, regardless of whether the state variable Bj of the logical channel of the split bearer is greater than zero or less than zero, when the first MAC entity does not send the first buffer status report BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity is not a MAC entity that transmits data of the split bearer, it may determine not to allocate resources for the split bearer and/or not send data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

Specifically, when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity may restart the accumulation of the status variable Bj and allocate resources for the split bearer. Optionally, the accumulation of the state variable Bj may be restarted first, and then resources are allocated to the split bearer; it is also possible to allocate resources for the split bearer and restart the accumulation of the state variable Bj, but the invention is not limited thereto.

The method for uplink data transmission according to the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail above with reference to fig. 2 to 6, and the user equipment for uplink data transmission according to the embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 7 and 8.

Fig. 7 shows a user equipment 500 for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the user equipment may be located in a dual connectivity system, where the dual connectivity system includes two base stations, a first base station and a second base station, a first MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the first base station, and a second MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the second base station. As shown in fig. 8, the user equipment 500 includes: an acquisition module 510, a processing module 520 and a sending module 530,

the obtaining module 510 is configured to: acquiring resource allocation information sent by the first base station;

the processing module 520 is configured to: when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the sending module has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or, the first MAC entity transmits data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment through the transmission module 530, the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer transmits data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission resource allocated to the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates the transmission opportunity allocated to the split bearer by the first MAC entity.

Therefore, after receiving the resource allocation information sent by the corresponding base station, the user equipment for uplink data transmission according to the embodiment of the present invention does not allocate resources for the split bearer and does not send the data transmission indication information of the split bearer to the PDCP layer if the MAC entity of the user equipment does not send a buffer status report including the split bearer buffer status information to the base station or if the amount of the split bearer data is smaller than the preset value and the MAC entity is not the MAC entity that is configured in advance to perform split bearer transmission, so that resource waste and influence on the transmission quality of other services due to resource preemption by the split bearer can be avoided, and fairness of different services can be ensured, thereby improving resource utilization efficiency.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the ue is located in a dual connectivity system, and the ue includes a first MAC entity and a second MAC entity, where the first MAC entity and the second MAC entity are respectively used for communicating with a first base station and a second base station in the dual connectivity system.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 520 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value and the ue has sent a second BSR to the first base station, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer through the processing module 520 according to the resource allocation information, and/or sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the sending module, where the second BSR includes data buffer status information of the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 520 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity is the MAC entity transmitting the data of the split bearer, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer through the processing module 520 according to the resource allocation information, and/or the sending module sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 520 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the sending module does not send the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer and/or no data transmission indication information of the split bearer is sent to the PDCP layer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 520 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the sending module does not send the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer, and/or the first MAC entity of the ue does not send the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the sending module 530 is specifically configured to: the data transmission indication information is transmitted to the PDCP layer through a radio link control RLC layer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 520 is specifically configured to: and when the transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, determining to recover the transmission of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 520 is specifically configured to: restarting the accumulation of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the first base station is a primary base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the preset value is sent by the master base station to the user equipment.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the resource allocation information is uplink grant UL grant information.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the obtaining module 510 is specifically configured to: and acquiring the resource allocation information through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 520 is specifically configured to: in the logical channel priority LCP procedure, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer through the processing module 520; the sending module 530 sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the transmission resource allocated to the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, a transmission resource allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer indicates an amount of physical resources allocated for the split bearer, and a transmission opportunity allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer indicates an amount of data capable of being transmitted and allocated for the split bearer.

It should be understood that the user equipment 500 for uplink data transmission according to the embodiment of the present invention may correspond to the method 100 in the embodiment of the present invention, and the above and other operations and/or functions of each module in the user equipment 500 are respectively for implementing corresponding flows of each method in fig. 3, and are not described herein again for brevity.

Therefore, after receiving the resource allocation information sent by the corresponding base station, the user equipment for uplink data transmission in the embodiment of the present invention does not allocate resources for the split bearer and does not send the data transmission indication information of the split bearer to the PDCP layer if the MAC entity does not send a buffer status report including the split bearer buffer status information to the base station or if the amount of data of the split bearer is smaller than the preset value and the MAC entity is not a pre-configured MAC entity that performs split bearer transmission, so that resource waste and influence on the transmission quality of other services due to resource preemption by the split bearer can be avoided, and fairness of different services can be ensured, thereby improving resource utilization efficiency.

Fig. 8 shows a user equipment 600 for uplink data transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the user equipment 600 may be located in a dual connectivity system, where the dual connectivity system includes two base stations, a first base station and a second base station, a first MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the first base station, and a second MAC entity of the user equipment corresponds to the second base station. As shown in fig. 8, the user equipment includes:

an obtaining module 610, configured to obtain resource allocation information sent by the first base station;

a processing module 620, configured to not allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or not send data transmission indication information of the split bearer to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment when it is determined that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity of the user equipment is not the configured MAC entity that transmits the data of the split bearer when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value, or the first MAC entity does not send a buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer is not transmitted to the first base station, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer and/or the data transmission indication information is not transmitted to the PDCP layer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the user equipment may further include a sending module, and the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer has been sent to the first base station, or when it is determined that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer through the processing module 620 according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity of the ue sends data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue through a sending module, where the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission resources allocated to the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates a transmission opportunity allocated to the split bearer by the first MAC entity.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to the preset value and the first MAC entity is the MAC entity transmitting the data of the split bearer, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources to the split bearer through the processing module 620 according to the resource allocation information, and/or the first MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: and when the value of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer is greater than zero, no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: determining that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity determines to resume transmission of the split bearer to the first base station through the processing module 620 and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: setting the state variable Bj of the logic channel carried by the split to zero, and/or stopping the accumulation of the state variable Bj.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processing module 620 is specifically configured to: when the data amount of the split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value and the first MAC entity has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity restarts the accumulation of the status variable Bj through the processing module 620 and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the first base station is a master base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or the first base station is a secondary base station and the second base station is a main base station.

It should be understood that the user equipment 600 for uplink data transmission according to the embodiment of the present invention may correspond to the method 200 in the embodiment of the present invention, and the above and other operations and/or functions of each module in the user equipment 600 are respectively for implementing corresponding flows of each method in fig. 6, and are not described herein again for brevity.

As shown in fig. 9, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a user equipment 800 for uplink data transmission, where the user equipment 800 includes a processor 810, a memory 820, a transceiver 830, and a bus system 840. The processor 810, the memory 820 and the transceiver 830 are connected by a bus system 840, the memory 820 is used for storing instructions, and the processor 810 is used for executing the instructions stored in the memory 820 to control the transceiver 830 to transmit and receive signals. Wherein the transceiver 830 is configured to: acquiring resource allocation information sent by the first base station; the processor 810 is configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to a preset value and the transceiver has sent a first buffer status report BSR including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be greater than the preset value, allocating transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sending data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the user equipment through the transceiver, wherein the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the split bearer to a first MAC entity of the user equipment, or the data transmission indication information indicates that the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates that the first MAC entity allocates transmission opportunities for the split bearer.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the processor 810 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the processor 810 may also be other general-purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory 820 may include both read-only memory and random access memory, and provides instructions and data to the processor 810. A portion of the memory 820 may also include non-volatile random access memory. For example, memory 820 may also store device type information.

The bus system 840 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, the various buses are designated as the bus system 840 in the figure.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 810. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 820, and the processor 810 reads the information in the memory 820 and combines the hardware to complete the steps of the above method. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 810 is specifically configured to: when it is determined that the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value and the transceiver has sent a second BSR to the first base station, allocating transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and/or sending the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the transceiver, where the second BSR includes data buffer status information of the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 810 is specifically configured to: and when the transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, determining to recover the transmission of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 810 is specifically configured to: restarting the accumulation of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer, and allocating transmission resources for the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 810 is specifically configured to: in the logic channel priority LCP process, allocating transmission resources for the split bearer; and sending the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer through the transceiver according to the transmission resources allocated to the split bearer.

It should be understood that the user equipment 800 according to the embodiment of the present invention may correspond to the user equipment 600 in the embodiment of the present invention, and may correspond to a corresponding main body in executing the method 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention, and the above and other operations and/or functions of each module in the user equipment 800 are respectively for implementing corresponding flows of each method in fig. 2, and are not described herein again for brevity.

As shown in fig. 10, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a user equipment 900 for uplink data transmission, where the user equipment 900 includes a processor 910, a memory 920, a transceiver 930, and a bus system 940. The processor 910 and the memory 920 are connected via a bus system 940, the memory 920 is used for storing instructions, and the processor 910 is used for executing the instructions stored in the memory 920 to control the transceiver 930 to transmit and receive signals. Wherein the transceiver 930 is configured to: acquiring resource allocation information sent by the first base station; the processor 910 is configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to the preset value and the transceiver does not send the Buffer Status Report (BSR) comprising the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, determining not to allocate transmission resources for the split bearer and/or not sending the data transmission indication information of the split bearer to the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of the user equipment.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the processor 910 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the processor 910 may also be other general-purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory 920 may include a read-only memory and a random access memory, and provides instructions and data to the processor 910. A portion of the memory 920 may also include non-volatile random access memory. For example, the memory 920 may also store device type information.

The bus system 940 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to the data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are identified in the figure as the bus system 940.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware or instructions in the form of software in the processor 910. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 920, and the processor 910 reads the information in the memory 920 and performs the steps of the above method in combination with the hardware thereof. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 910 is further configured to: and when the value of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer is greater than zero, determining that no transmission resource is allocated to the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 910 is further configured to: determining that transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 910 is further configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to the preset value and the transceiver has sent the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be greater than the preset value, it is determined to resume transmission of the split bearer to the first base station and transmission resources are allocated for the split bearer.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 910 is further configured to: setting the state variable Bj of the logic channel carried by the split to zero, and/or stopping the accumulation of the state variable Bj.

Optionally, as an embodiment, the processor 910 is further configured to: when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be less than or equal to the preset value and the transceiver has sent the BSR including the data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station, or when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be greater than the preset value, the accumulation of the state variables Bj is restarted, and transmission resources are allocated to the split bearer.

It should be understood that the user equipment 900 according to the embodiment of the present invention may correspond to the user equipment 600 in the embodiment of the present invention, and may correspond to a corresponding main body in executing the method 400 according to the embodiment of the present invention, and the above and other operations and/or functions of each module in the user equipment 900 are respectively for implementing corresponding flows of each method in fig. 5, and are not described herein again for brevity.

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

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

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for uplink data transmission, the method being applied to a user equipment in a dual connectivity system, the user equipment including a first MAC entity and a second MAC entity, the first MAC entity and the second MAC entity being respectively configured to communicate with a first base station and a second base station in the dual connectivity system, the method comprising:

the first MAC entity of the user equipment acquires resource allocation information sent by the first base station;

when the user equipment determines that the data amount of a split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value, and if and only if the user equipment has transmitted a first Buffer Status Report (BSR) including data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station,

the first MAC entity of the user equipment allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information and sends data transmission indication information to a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of the user equipment,

wherein the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends the data of the split bearer to the first MAC entity, or the data transmission indication information indicates that the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates that the first MAC entity allocates transmission opportunities for the split bearer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the user equipment determines that the data volume of the split bearer is greater than a preset value, the first MAC entity of the user equipment allocates the transmission resource for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer of the user equipment.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein when the ue determines that the data amount of the split bearer is greater than the preset value, the first MAC entity of the ue allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information and sends data transmission indication information to a packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue, including:

when the user equipment determines that the data volume of the split bearer is greater than the preset value and the first MAC entity of the user equipment has sent a second BSR to the first base station, the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information and sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer, where the second BSR includes data buffer status information of the split bearer.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the first MAC entity allocates transmission resources for the split bearer, comprising:

when the transmission of the split bearer to the first base station is in a suspended state, the first MAC entity determines to resume the transmission of the split bearer and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the user equipment allocates transmission resources for the split bearer, comprising:

and the first MAC entity restarts the accumulation of the state variable Bj of the logic channel of the split bearer and allocates transmission resources for the split bearer.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,

the first base station is a main base station, and the second base station is a secondary base station; or

The first base station is a secondary base station, and the second base station is a main base station.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the preset value is sent by the master base station to the UE.

8. The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the resource allocation information is uplink grant (UL) information.

9. The method as claimed in any one of claims 1-3, wherein the allocating, by the first MAC entity of the ue, transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information and sending data transmission indication information to the packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer of the ue comprises:

in the logic channel priority LCP process, the first MAC entity distributes transmission resources for the split bearing;

and the first MAC entity sends the data transmission indication information to the PDCP layer according to the transmission resources distributed to the split bearer.

10. A user equipment for uplink data transmission, the user equipment comprising a memory, a processor and a transceiver,

the memory is configured to store instructions for use in,

the transceiver is to: acquiring resource allocation information sent by a first base station;

the processor is configured to: when it is determined that the amount of data of a split bearer is less than or equal to a preset value, and if and only if the transceiver has transmitted a first buffer status report, BSR, comprising data buffer status information of the split bearer to the first base station,

allocating transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and sending data transmission indication information to a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer of the user equipment through the transceiver,

wherein the data transmission indication information indicates that the PDCP layer sends data of the split bearer to a first MAC entity of the ue, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission resources allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer, or the data transmission indication information indicates transmission opportunities allocated by the first MAC entity for the split bearer.

11. The user equipment of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to:

and when the data volume of the split bearer is determined to be larger than the preset value, allocating transmission resources for the split bearer according to the resource allocation information, and sending data transmission indication information to a PDCP layer of the user equipment through the transceiver.

12. A communications apparatus, comprising at least one processor coupled with at least one memory, the at least one processor configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the at least one memory, the method as claimed in any one of claims 1-9 being performed.

13. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the method of any one of claims 1-9 to be performed.