CN107277921B

CN107277921B - Method, device and system for transmitting uplink reference signal

Info

Publication number: CN107277921B
Application number: CN201610218437.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 窦圣跃; 李元杰
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-04-08
Filing date: 2016-04-08
Publication date: 2021-06-01
Anticipated expiration: 2036-04-08
Also published as: CN107277921A; WO2017174020A1

Abstract

The invention discloses a method, equipment and a system for transmitting an uplink reference signal, and belongs to the field of wireless communication. The method comprises the following steps: user Equipment (UE) sends an uplink reference signal to network side equipment; wherein, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in the time domain; the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive. The invention provides the uplink reference signal which can occupy at least one symbol in the time domain, so that the uplink reference signal can be subjected to time division multiplexing on at least one symbol, a large number of UE (user equipment) can be supported to send the uplink reference signal, the method is suitable for the UE in an ECO (echo cancellation) state, and the uplink reference signal occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, occupies less resources and saves the resources.

Description

Method, device and system for transmitting uplink reference signal

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the field of wireless communication, in particular to a method, equipment and a system for transmitting an uplink reference signal.

Background

In a wireless communication system, when a User Equipment (UE) interacts with a network side device, the network side device needs to acquire a location of the UE to determine a distance and a transmission delay time between the UE and the network side device, and further determine a Timing Advance (TA) of the UE, thereby implementing uplink synchronization of each UE. In this process, the UE may implement the above function by sending an uplink signal, that is, the UE may send an uplink reference signal to the network side device, so that the network side device obtains the location of the UE and estimates the TA of the UE according to the received uplink reference signal.

In practical applications, the UE generally needs to transmit the uplink reference signal according to the state of the UE. For example, in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a UE usually sends a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) to a network side device when the UE is in a connected (connected) state, where the SRS is an uplink Reference Signal, and the network side device can perform not only channel estimation but also obtain a UE position and an estimated TA according to the SRS. Alternatively, the UE may send a random access request to the network side device when in a connected state or an Idle (Idle) state, so that the network side device estimates the TA according to the random access request. In The Fifth Generation Mobile Communication Technology (5G) system, The states of The UE can be divided into an Active (Active) state and an ECO-protection-optimization (ECO) state, and The UE accessing to The network side device can be switched between The Active and ECO states. The Active state is basically the same as the connected state in the LTE system, the UE in this state always maintains Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection with the network side device and can support data transmission at any time, and the ECO-state UE also always maintains RRC connection with the network side device but only supports a small amount of data transmission, so that the network side device does not need to frequently monitor and manage a channel between the UE and the network side device and does not need to perform channel estimation. Therefore, when performing uplink reference signal transmission in the 5G system, the Active UE may directly refer to the connected UE to transmit the SRS to the network side device.

However, for the ECO-state UE, there may be a large number of UEs in the ECO state in the 5G system, and the SRS in the current technology only allows transmission on the last symbol of the subframe in which the uplink reference signal is transmitted, so that it is difficult to support a large number of UEs to transmit the uplink reference signal. In addition, since the network side device does not need to perform channel estimation according to the uplink reference signal sent by the ECO-state UE, the uplink reference signal sent by the ECO-state UE cannot directly multiplex the connected SRS, and a method for transmitting the uplink reference signal suitable for the ECO-state UE is needed.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problems in the prior art, embodiments of the present invention provide a method, device, and system for transmitting an uplink reference signal. The technical scheme is as follows:

in a first aspect, a method for transmitting an uplink reference signal is provided, where the method includes:

user Equipment (UE) sends an uplink reference signal to network side equipment;

the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, and uplink symbols in a subframe where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal; the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in a frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

In the embodiment of the present invention, an uplink reference signal occupying at least one symbol in a time domain is provided, and it is ensured that the uplink reference signal can be time-division multiplexed on at least one symbol, so that a large number of UEs can be supported to send the uplink reference signal, which is suitable for UEs in an ECO state.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, uplink symbols in a subframe or a slot where the at least one symbol is located are all used to send an uplink reference signal.

In the embodiment of the invention, the uplink symbols in the subframe or the time slot in which the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal, so that the uplink reference signal can be ensured to be subjected to time division multiplexing on all symbols in one subframe or one time slot, and a large number of users can be supported.

With reference to the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on a first specified symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the state transition request indicates that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state, the first specified symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

In the embodiment of the present invention, N symbols in a subframe in which at least one symbol is located are configured as a first designated symbol, so that the UE may initiate a state transition request to a network side device by sending an uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol, and if the network side device detects the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol, the network side device may switch the UE from a current first state to a second state, thereby implementing state transition of the UE.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, a symbol index of the first designated symbol is configured by the network side device.

In the embodiment of the invention, the network side equipment configures the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE, so that the UE can determine the position of the first designated symbol according to the symbol index, thereby improving the flexibility of configuration.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, a symbol index of the first designated symbol is configured by the network side device through a system broadcast message or a higher layer signaling.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol is sent through a preset contention mechanism.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE may send the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol through a preset contention mechanism, so that the multiple UEs may send the uplink reference signal on the uplink shared resource corresponding to the first designated symbol through contention, without the need for the network side device to configure and schedule the uplink reference signal sent on the first designated symbol.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first state is an ECO-protection-optimized ECO state, and the second state is an activated state.

In this embodiment of the present invention, if the energy saving state is an ECO state, the state transition request may indicate that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from the ECO state to an active state.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE does not occupy a last symbol of a subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

In the embodiment of the invention, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE does not occupy the last symbol of the subframe where the at least one symbol is located, thereby avoiding the collision with Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) sent by other active-state UEs and enhancing the compatibility.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in an eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes:

the UE receives uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side equipment and sends the uplink reference signal according to the uplink reference signal configuration information;

wherein the uplink reference signal configuration information includes at least one of the following information:

the cell where the UE is located sends periodic information of an uplink reference signal

And offset information of a subframe for transmitting an uplink reference signal with respect to a designated subframe

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

And the UE sends the offset information of the symbols of the uplink reference signals relative to the second designated symbols

The UE sends sequence index information (u, v) and cyclic shift information alpha of an uplink reference signal;

the UE sends frequency domain initial position information f of the uplink reference signal on the frequency domain₀And occupied bandwidth information W.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE may determine, by receiving the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device, a time domain position, a frequency domain position, and a code domain position of an uplink reference signal to be sent according to the uplink reference signal configuration information, and send the uplink reference signal at the determined time domain position, frequency domain position, and code domain position, thereby ensuring that a plurality of UEs can respectively send the uplink reference signal to the network side device based on the configuration of the network side device, that is, resources can be shared by using time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, code division multiplexing, and other manners under the scheduling of the network side device.

In a second aspect, a method for transmitting an uplink reference signal is provided, where the method includes:

the method comprises the steps that network side equipment receives an uplink reference signal sent by User Equipment (UE);

wherein, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain; the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in a frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, uplink symbols in a subframe or a slot where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending uplink reference signals.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementations of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes:

the network side equipment detects an uplink reference signal sent by the UE on a first designated symbol, and determines whether to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state according to a detection result, wherein the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is used for indicating that the UE initiates a state switching request, the state switching request indicates that the UE requests the network side equipment to switch the UE from the first state to the second state, the first designated symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a time slot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementations of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes:

and the network side equipment configures the symbol index of the first designated symbol for the UE.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes:

and the network side equipment configures the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE through system broadcast messages or high-level signaling.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementations of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first state is an ECO-protection-optimized ECO state, and the second state is an activated state.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the second aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE does not occupy a last symbol of a subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementations of the second aspect, in a seventh possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes:

sending uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE, wherein the uplink reference signal configuration information comprises at least one of the following information:

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

the UE transmits an uplink reference signalFrequency domain start position information f on frequency domain₀And occupied bandwidth information W.

In a third aspect, a UE is provided, where the UE includes:

the sending module is used for sending the uplink reference signal to the network side equipment;

With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, uplink symbols in a subframe or a slot where the at least one symbol is located are all used to send an uplink reference signal.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on a first specified symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the state transition request indicates that the UE requests a network side device to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state, the first specified symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, a symbol index of the first designated symbol is configured by the network side device.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol is sent through a preset contention mechanism.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first state is an ECO-protection-optimized ECO state, and the second state is an activated state.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the UE transmitting an uplink reference signal does not occupy a last symbol of a subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

With reference to any one of the foregoing possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the UE further includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device;

the sending module is further configured to send the uplink reference signal according to the uplink reference signal configuration information;

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

In a fourth aspect, a network-side device is provided, where the network-side device includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive an uplink reference signal sent by user equipment UE;

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, uplink symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located are all used to send an uplink reference signal.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the network-side device further includes:

a switching module, configured to detect, on a first designated symbol, an uplink reference signal sent by the UE, and determine whether to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state according to a detection result, where the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, the state transition request indicates that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from the first state to the second state, the first designated symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the network-side device further includes:

a configuration module configured to configure a symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first state is an ECO-protection-optimization ECO state, and the second state is an activated state.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE does not occupy the last symbol of a subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the network side device further includes a sending module, configured to send uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE; the uplink reference signal configuration information includes at least one of the following information:

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

In a fifth aspect, a system for transmitting uplink reference signals is provided, where the system includes any of the user equipment UE provided in the third aspect and any of the network side equipment provided in the fourth aspect.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention has the following beneficial effects: by the method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE to the network side equipment can occupy at least one symbol in a time domain, the uplink reference signal can be ensured to be subjected to time division multiplexing on the at least one symbol, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies continuous subcarriers in a frequency domain and can configure the bandwidth, and the uplink reference signal can be further ensured to be subjected to frequency division multiplexing on the whole system bandwidth, so that a large number of UEs can be supported to send the uplink reference signal, the method is suitable for ECO-state UEs, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, occupies less resources and saves resources.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description 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 structural diagram of a transmission system of an uplink reference signal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a 5G system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a UE state transition according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting an uplink reference signal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of another uplink reference signal transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of another uplink reference signal transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a subframe in which an uplink reference signal is located according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a timeslot in which an uplink reference signal is located according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a resource block where an uplink reference signal is located according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a timeslot in which an uplink reference signal is located according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment UE according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a network-side device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment UE according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a network-side device 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 derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a transmission system of an uplink reference signal according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 1, the uplink reference signal transmission system 100 includes: user equipment UE101 and network side equipment 102.

The UE101 is configured to send an uplink reference signal to the network side device 102;

the network side device 102 is configured to receive the uplink reference signal sent by the UE 101.

The uplink reference signal sent by the UE101 occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE101 occupies at least one resource block in a frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

Optionally, the uplink symbols in the subframe or the slot where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending uplink reference signals.

Optionally, the network side device 102 may send uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE 101; the UE101 may send an uplink reference signal to the network-side device 102 based on the uplink reference signal configuration information configured by the network-side device 102.

The transmission system of the uplink reference signal may be an LTE system or a 5G system, and certainly may also be other wireless communication systems, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. The network side device may be an evolved Node B (eNB) or a centralized controller, or may also be other network side devices, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. For example, the network side device may be an eNB in an LTE system, and the network side device may be a centralized controller in a 5G system.

Taking the example that the transmission system of the uplink reference signal is a 5G system, the 5G system may be a "UE-centric" wireless network system, and a Non-cell (Non-cell) network architecture may be introduced into the "UE-centric" wireless network system to form a "UE-centric Non-cell" network system.

That is, referring to fig. 2, the 5G system may deploy a large number of small stations 2011 in a certain area to form a super cell (super cell)201, each small station is a Transmission Point (TP) in the super cell 201, and each small station 2011 is connected to the centralized controller 202. For the UE203 located in the super cell 201, a centralized controller (controller)202 may assign a unique identifier, such as a UE ID (identity), to the UE203, so that the centralized controller 202 may identify the UE203 when the UE203 moves within the super cell 201.

Further, in the "UE-centric Non-cell" network system, in order to ensure that the UE is always on line (always-online) and can perform data transmission at any time, the UE in the system can be divided into two states: active state and ECO state. The Active UE can transmit data at any time, while the ECO UE only supports a small amount of data transmission, and when the UE accesses the super cell, the UE can switch between the two states. For example, referring to fig. 3, when the UE is in an Active state, if no data needs to be transmitted within a preset time period after the UE completes data transmission, the UE will switch from an Active state to an ECO state; and then, when the data packet larger than the preset byte needs to be transmitted, the UE is switched back to the active state from the ECO state. The preset byte may be 20 bytes, 25 bytes, 30 bytes, and the like, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment of the present invention, in order to ensure that the centralized controller 202 can identify the location of the UE203 in real time, the centralized controller 202 may send uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE203, so that the UE203 sends an uplink reference signal to the centralized controller 202 based on the uplink reference signal configuration information configured by the centralized controller 202. The uplink reference signal sent by the UE203 occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE203 occupies at least one resource block in a frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

When receiving the uplink reference signal sent by the UE203, the centralized controller 202 may obtain information such as a location, a TA, and the like of the UE203 according to the uplink reference signal. On one hand, the centralized controller 202 may select an optimal TP set 204 for the UE203 to serve the UE203 according to the obtained location information, and update a TP-UE relationship table; on the other hand, the centralized controller 202 may also adjust the TA of the UE203 according to the acquired TA information.

For example, when the UE203 moves in the super cell 201, the centralized controller 202 may acquire the location of the UE203 according to the uplink reference signal sent by the UE203, and select a new TP set 204 for the UE203 to serve according to the location of the UE203, thereby avoiding real cell switching and achieving continuity of UE services.

Further, the UE203 may also send an SRS to the centralized controller 202 when in the active state, and send an uplink reference signal shown in the embodiment of the present invention to the centralized controller 202 when in the ECO state. Accordingly, the centralized controller 202 may not only obtain the location, TA, and other information of the UE203 according to the SRS transmitted by the UE203 in the active state, but also perform channel estimation, and the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE203 in the ECO state does not need to perform channel estimation.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting an uplink reference signal according to an embodiment of the present invention, where an execution subject of the method is a user equipment UE, and referring to fig. 4, the method includes the following steps:

step 401: and the UE sends the uplink reference signal to the network side equipment.

Wherein, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in the time domain; the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

By the method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the UE can send the uplink reference signal to the network side equipment, wherein the uplink reference signal sent by the UE can occupy at least one symbol in a time domain, the uplink reference signal can be ensured to be subjected to time division multiplexing on the at least one symbol, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies continuous subcarriers and can configure bandwidth in a frequency domain, and further the uplink reference signal can be ensured to be subjected to frequency division multiplexing on the whole system bandwidth, so that a large number of UEs can be supported to send the uplink reference signal, the method is suitable for ECO state UEs, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, occupies less resources and saves resources.

Optionally, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the state transition request indicates that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from the current first state to the second state, the first designated symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

Optionally, the symbol index of the first designated symbol is configured by the network side device.

Specifically, the symbol index of the first specific symbol is configured by the network side device through a system broadcast message or a higher layer signaling, where the system broadcast message may be a System Information Block (SIB) message, a Master Information Block (MIB) message, and the like, and the higher layer signaling may be RRC signaling.

Optionally, the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol is sent through a preset contention mechanism.

Optionally, the first state is an ECO-protection-optimized ECO state and the second state is an activated state.

Optionally, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE does not occupy the last symbol of the subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the cell where the UE is located sends periodic information of the uplink reference signal

The UE sends periodic information of the uplink reference signal

And offset information of the symbol of the UE transmitting the uplink reference signal relative to the second designated symbol

The UE transmits sequence index information (u, v) and cyclic shift information alpha of an uplink reference signal;

the UE sends frequency domain initial position information f of the uplink reference signal on a frequency domain₀And occupied bandwidth information W.

All the above-mentioned optional technical solutions can be combined arbitrarily to form the optional embodiments of the present invention, and are not described herein again.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting an uplink reference signal according to an embodiment of the present invention, where an execution subject of the method is a network side device, and referring to fig. 5, the method includes the following steps:

step 501: the method comprises the steps that network side equipment receives an uplink reference signal sent by User Equipment (UE);

By the method provided by the embodiment of the invention, the network side equipment can receive the uplink reference signal sent by the user equipment UE, wherein the uplink reference signal sent by the UE can occupy at least one symbol in a time domain, the uplink reference signal can be ensured to be subjected to time division multiplexing on the at least one symbol, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies continuous subcarriers and can configure bandwidth in a frequency domain, and further the uplink reference signal can be ensured to be subjected to frequency division multiplexing on the whole system bandwidth, so that a large number of UEs can be supported to send the uplink reference signal, the method is suitable for ECO state UEs, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, occupies less resources and saves resources.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

the network side device detects an uplink reference signal sent by the UE on a first designated symbol, and determines whether to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state according to a detection result, where the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, the state transition request indicates that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from the first state to the second state, the first designated symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

Specifically, the network side device may configure the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE through a system broadcast message or a higher layer signaling, where the system broadcast message may be an SIB message, an MIB message, and the like, and the higher layer signaling may be an RRC signaling.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

The UE sends periodic information of the uplink reference signal

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting an uplink reference signal according to an embodiment of the present invention, where an execution subject of the method is a UE and a network side device, and referring to fig. 6, the method includes the following steps:

step 601: and the network side equipment sends the uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE.

The embodiment of the invention provides an uplink reference signal, wherein the uplink reference signal occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, the uplink reference signal occupies at least one resource block in a frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are continuous.

That is, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE may be sent in units of subframes, and uplink symbols of the subframe where the uplink reference signal is located may be used to send the uplink reference signal, where the subframe may be a subframe defined in an LTE system or a subframe defined in a future 5G system, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. Or, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE may be sent in units of a time slot, and uplink symbols of the time slot in which the uplink reference signal is located may be used to send the uplink reference signal, where the time slot may be a subframe defined in an LTE system or a time slot defined in a future 5G system, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

For convenience of description, all symbols in a subframe or a slot in which the uplink reference signal is located will be described as uplink symbols.

In order to ensure that the UE can send the uplink reference signal on the specified time domain resource and frequency domain resource, the network side device may send uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE to instruct the UE to send the uplink reference signal to the network side device according to the uplink reference signal configuration information.

The uplink reference signal may be a tracking signal (tracking), which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. Wherein the uplink reference signal configuration information includes at least one of the following information:

The UE sends periodic information of the uplink reference signal

The UE transmits sequence index information (u, v) and cyclic shift information alpha of an uplink reference signal; the UE sends frequency domain initial position information f of the uplink reference signal on a frequency domain₀And occupied bandwidth information W.

The uplink reference signal configuration information may be a value of a specific parameter or may also be indication information, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. For example, in the process that the network side device sends the uplink reference information configuration information to the UE, the network side device may directly send the value of the corresponding parameter to the UE, for example, directly send the value of the corresponding parameter to the UE

And the values of the parameters can also be transmitted to the UE, so as to instruct the UE to acquire the values of the corresponding parameters according to the instruction information.

Specifically, the uplink reference signal configuration information may be divided into cell-specific configuration information and UE-specific configuration information, where the cell-specific configuration information is used to indicate a resource in the cell for allowing the uplink reference signal to be transmitted, and the UE-specific configuration information is used to indicate a resource for designating the UE to transmit the uplink reference signal.

In practical application, the network side device may send the cell-specific configuration information to the UE through a system broadcast message, for example, may send the cell-specific configuration information to the UE through an SIB message or an MIB message; the network side device may send the UE-specific configuration information to the UE through a high-level signaling, for example, send the UE-specific configuration information to the UE through an RRC signaling, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

1) The cell-specific configuration information may include period information of uplink reference signal transmission of the cell in which the UE is located

According to

And

that is, the subframe set used for transmitting the uplink reference signal in the cell in which the UE is located may be determined.

For example, if the subframe number

The following formula is satisfied:

or

Wherein the content of the first and second substances,

for the sub-frame number, the number of the sub-frame,

the offset of the subframe used for transmitting the uplink reference signal in the cell in which the UE is located relative to the designated subframe,

and sending the period of the uplink reference signal for the cell where the UE is located. Then the subframe number

The corresponding subframe is a subframe used for transmitting the uplink reference signal in the cell.

In addition, in the process that the network side device sends the cell-specific configuration information to the UE in the cell, the network side device may send the cell-specific configuration information to the UE at the same time

And

for example, the network side device may send to the UE

And

to indicate the Index at the same time

And

the UE may determine from the joint index

And

and further determining a subframe used for sending the uplink reference signal in the cell where the UE is located.

2) The UE-specific configuration information may include period information of the UE transmitting the uplink reference signal

The UE sends sequence index information (u, v) and cyclic shift information alpha of the uplink reference signal, and the UE sends frequency domain initial position information f of the uplink reference signal on a frequency domain₀And occupied bandwidth information W.

Optionally, the UE-specific configuration information may also include period information of uplink reference signal transmission by the cell in which the UE is located

The embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

For example, in one possible implementation, the network side device may send a signal to the UE

Configuring parameters to indicate the period of sending uplink reference signals in the cell in which the UE is located, e.g., if the UE is located

The configuration parameter is 00, which indicates that the period of transmitting the uplink reference signal in the cell where the UE is located is 5 subframe lengths, if the configuration parameter is 00

If the configuration parameter is 01, it indicates that the period for transmitting the uplink reference signal in the cell where the UE is located is 10 subframe lengths, etc. In addition, the network side equipment can also send to the UE

Configuring parameters to indicate the offset of the subframe transmitting the uplink reference signal relative to the designated subframe, for example, the designated subframe is subframe 0 if the designated subframe is

The configuration parameter is 00, which indicates that the offset of the subframe transmitting the uplink reference signal relative to the subframe No. 0 is 0, if the offset is 0

When the configuration parameter is 01, it indicates that the offset of the subframe transmitting the uplink reference signal from subframe No. 0 is 1, and the like. Wherein, the

Configuration parameters and the

The size of the configuration parameter can be 2 bits, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

By the above

And

in the configuration of the present invention, a subframe set may be obtained, and all UEs in the cell may send uplink reference signals on subframes corresponding to the subframe set. For a certain UE in the cell, the network side device further needs to allocate a subframe for sending the uplink reference signal to the UE, that is, select a part of subframes from the subframe set as subframes for sending the uplink reference signal by the UE.

Optionally, the subframe in which the UE transmits the uplink reference signal may be according to a period in which the UE transmits the uplink reference signal

And determining the starting position of the subframe of the UE for sending the uplink reference signal. The UE can determine which subframe to start transmitting the uplink reference signal according to the starting position of the subframe and according to the subframe

It can be determined how many subframes are selected to transmit the uplink reference signal.

A period in which the UE transmits the uplink reference signal

The period of the uplink reference signal transmitted by the cell in which the UE is located is an integer multiple, that is,

wherein t is a positive integer. Period of transmitting uplink reference signal by the UE

The configuration can be made in two ways:

in a first implementation manner, the network side device may send the UE with the request information

Configuring a parameter to indicate a period in which the UE transmits an uplink reference signal, wherein the UE transmits the uplink reference signal

The size of the configuration parameter may be 2-3 bits. For example, when

The length of the subframe is 5, the network side device may send the UE with the subframe length

Configuration parameters, configuration

Is 10 sub-frames long.

In a second implementation manner, the network side device may send a t-configuration parameter to the UE to indicate

Is composed of

T times of. For example, if the t configuration parameter is 00, it indicates that

Is equal to

The UE may transmit an uplink reference signal on each uplink reference signal subframe; if t configuration parameter is 01, it indicates

Is equal to

The UE may select one uplink reference signal subframe every other uplink reference signal subframe to transmit the uplink reference signal.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE may determine the starting position of the subframe where the UE sends the uplink reference signal in the following two ways:

in a first implementation manner, after receiving the UE-specific configuration information on the subframe n, the UE may determine a first subsequent uplink reference signal subframe as a starting position of a subframe where the UE transmits an uplink reference signal, or determine a first uplink reference signal subframe spaced by k subframes from the subframe n as a starting position of a subframe where the UE transmits an uplink reference signal, where k is a positive integer. The rule for determining the starting position of the subframe may be predefined by a network protocol, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present invention.

In a second implementation manner, the UE-specific configuration information may include a starting position of a subframe where the UE transmits an uplink reference signal. For example, the network side device may send a subframe start position configuration parameter to the UE, and if the subframe start position configuration parameter is 00, it indicates that the UE may determine a first uplink reference signal subframe after receiving the UE-specific configuration information as a subframe start position at which the UE sends an uplink reference signal; if the subframe start position configuration parameter is 01, it indicates that the UE may determine the second uplink reference signal subframe after receiving the UE-specific configuration information as the subframe start position where the UE sends the uplink reference signal.

Further, for a subframe in which the uplink reference signal sent by the UE is located, the network side device may also configure a symbol in the subframe, that is, the network side device may configure a symbol in which the UE can send the uplink reference signal. For example, the network side device may configure the UE to send uplink reference signals on all symbols in the subframe, or configure the UE to send uplink reference signals on part of symbols in the subframe, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein the UE may transmit the uplink reference signal by an offset of the UE transmitting the uplink reference signal with respect to the second designated symbol

It is determined that the second designated symbol may be a symbol 0, a symbol 1, and the like in a subframe where the uplink reference signal sent by the UE is located, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. For example, when the second designated symbol is symbol 0, the UE transmits an offset of a symbol of the uplink reference signal with respect to the second designated symbol

And 3, it may be determined that the second UE may transmit an uplink reference signal on symbol 3 of the uplink reference signal subframe.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present invention is described only in that the network side device sends the uplink reference signal configuration information to a specific UE, and in practical application, the network side device may send the uplink reference signal configuration information to all UEs in the cell, so that each UE may send an uplink reference signal according to the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device. Moreover, the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device to different UEs may be the same or different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

For example, since all symbols in the uplink reference signal subframe in the embodiment of the present invention may be used to transmit uplink reference signals, the network side device may transmit different uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE1 and the UE2, respectively, so as to instruct the UE1 and the UE2 to transmit uplink reference signals on different symbols in the same subframe. For example, the network side device may configure the UE1 to transmit uplink reference signals on symbol 0 in the subframe, and configure the UE2 to transmit uplink reference signals on symbol 1 in the subframe. Therefore, the network side equipment can configure different UEs to respectively send the uplink reference signals on different symbols in the same subframe, thereby realizing time division multiplexing on each symbol in the uplink reference signal subframe, and supporting a large number of UEs to send the uplink reference signals.

Further, the network side device may further send the sequence index (u, v) and the cyclic shift α of the uplink reference signal to the UE, so that the UE may generate the uplink reference signal sequence according to the sequence index (u, v) and the cyclic shift α. The configuration and generation process of the uplink reference sequence may refer to the configuration and generation process of the uplink demodulation reference signal sequence in the LTE system, which is not described in detail in the embodiments of the present invention. For example, the uplink reference signal sequence configuration and generation process may refer to section 5.5.3 of standard 3GPP TS 36.211 v13.0.0(2015-12), which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. In addition, the process that the network side device configures the uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE may also refer to section 8.2 of standard 3GPP TS 36.213 v13.0.0(2015-12), which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Further, the network side device may also send, to the UE, a frequency domain starting position of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domainf₀And occupied bandwidth, the UE can start the position f according to the frequency domain₀And determining the frequency domain position of the transmitted uplink reference signal by the occupied bandwidth.

Optionally, the network side device may configure that a bandwidth occupied by the uplink reference signal sent by the UE in a frequency domain is 1 resource block to 3 resource blocks, and each occupied resource block occupies continuous subcarriers. For example, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE may occupy 1 resource block, 2 resource blocks, or 3 resource blocks in the frequency domain, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the UE sends the uplink reference signal according to the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device as an example, but in practical applications, the UE may also directly send the uplink reference signal to the network side device without receiving the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device.

Step 602: and the UE sends the uplink reference signal to the network side equipment based on the uplink reference signal configuration information configured by the network side equipment.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the UE may receive the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device, store the uplink reference signal configuration information, and then send the uplink reference signal to the network side device based on the uplink reference signal configuration information configured by the network side device.

Optionally, the UE may send the uplink reference signal to the network side device when in the ECO state, and send the SRS to the network side device when in the Active state.

When the UE is in the ECO state, the UE and the network side device keep RRC connection, and the network side device may allocate a unique UE ID to the UE, but the UE only supports a small amount of data transmission, that is, the UE only supports transmission of a data packet smaller than a preset byte. The preset byte may be 20 bytes, 25 bytes, 30 bytes, and the like, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. For example, an ECO-state UE may only support transmission of a packet with less than 20 bytes, and when a packet with more than 20 bytes needs to be transmitted, the UE switches from an ECO state to an Active state and transmits the packet.

In addition, the UE in ECO state may further include the following features:

the UE in the ECO state may support uplink grant-free (UL grant-free) transmission, that is, the UE may transmit data on an uplink shared channel resource based on a contention mechanism without a network side device allocating the uplink shared channel resource to the UE; the ECO state UE does not need to detect a control channel; the network side equipment does not need to carry out channel estimation according to the uplink signal sent by the UE; the UE in the ECO state only supports a small amount of connection management, that is, because the UE in the ECO state only supports a small amount of data transmission, the UE can ensure normal data transmission of the UE without frequently monitoring and managing a channel between the UE and the network side device, and therefore, the UE in the ECO state can maintain less signaling interaction with the network side device, and thus, the UE in the ECO state consumes less power than the UE in the Active state; in addition, the ECO-state UE may also periodically send an uplink reference signal to the network side device, so that the network side device tracks the UE.

Optionally, in order to facilitate state transition of the UE, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first specified symbol may be used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the state transition request indicates that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from the current first state to the second state, where the first specified symbol is N symbols in a subframe where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1. The N symbols may be consecutive N symbols in the subframe where the at least one symbol is located, or may also be spaced N symbols, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present invention only focuses on the function of the state transition request, that is, the state transition request indicates that the network side device is requested to switch the UE from the current first state to the second state different from the first state, and specific states of the first state and the second state are not limited. For example, in practical applications, the first state may be an ECO state, and the second state may be an Active state; or, the first state is an Active state, and the second state is an ECO state; or, the first state is a connected state, and the second state is an Idle state; alternatively, the first state is an Idle state, and the second state is a connected state, etc.

Taking the first state as an ECO state and the second state as an Active state as an example, when the UE is in the ECO state, if a data packet larger than a preset byte needs to be transmitted, the UE may also send an uplink reference signal on a first designated symbol of a subframe where the sent uplink reference signal is located, so as to request the network side device to switch the UE from the ECO state to the Active state. In addition, when the UE does not need to perform state transition, the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE will not occupy the first designated symbol of the subframe where the UE is located.

The symbol index of the first designated symbol may be configured by the network side device to indicate which symbol in the subframe the first designated symbol of the UE is located in. Accordingly, before the UE sends the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol, the network side device may configure the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE, and then the UE may determine the symbol corresponding to the symbol index of the first designated symbol as the first designated symbol.

The network side device may configure the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE through high-level signaling, for example, the network side device may configure the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE through RRC signaling; or, the network side device may also configure the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE through a system broadcast message, for example, the network side device may configure the symbol index of the first designated symbol to the UE through an SIB message or an MIB message.

Optionally, the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol may be sent through a preset contention mechanism, that is, when the UE needs to perform state transition, the UE may send the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol through the preset contention mechanism, so that the UE may send the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol without scheduling by a network side device. The preset contention mechanism may be configured in advance by the network side device. In this way, when different UEs send uplink reference signals on the same first designated symbol of the same uplink reference signal subframe to indicate that a state transition request is initiated, different UEs can send uplink reference signals on the first designated symbol based on contention.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is taken as an example to describe that a status switching Request is initiated to the network side device, and in practical applications, the UE may also send other signals besides the uplink reference signal on the first designated symbol, for example, send a spreading sequence similar to a Scheduling Request (SR) on the first designated symbol to indicate that a status switching Request is sent to the network side device, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

Optionally, since the SRS in the current technology is only allowed to be transmitted on the last symbol of the subframe where the UE is located, in order to avoid collision between the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the last symbol of a certain subframe and the SRS sent by other Active UEs on the last symbol of the subframe, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE may not occupy the last symbol of the subframe where the at least one symbol is located. That is, the network side device may configure the last symbol reservation of the uplink reference signal subframe to ensure that all UEs in the cell do not transmit the uplink reference signal on the last symbol of the uplink reference signal subframe.

Accordingly, the first designated symbol may be N symbols excluding the last symbol within the subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

For example, referring to fig. 7, when the UE is in the ECO state, the uplink reference signal may be transmitted within a certain uplink reference signal subframe. Wherein, the uplink reference signal subframe comprises 14 symbols: symbol No. 0-symbol No. 13. Taking the symbol 0 as the first designated symbol as an example, the uplink reference signal sent on the symbol 0 may indicate that a state transition request is initiated to the network side device, and the network side device is requested to switch the UE from the ECO state to the Active state. And, the 13 th symbol of the subframe is reserved, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE does not occupy the 13 th symbol. And the symbol 1 to the symbol 12 can be used for sending uplink reference signal signals, and the UE can determine to send the uplink reference signal signals on all or part of the symbol 1 to the symbol 12 according to the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device. In addition, the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE may occupy 1RB, 2RB, or 3RB in the frequency domain, and subcarriers in the occupied RBs are continuous.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE is sent in units of subframes, and when the uplink reference signal sent by the UE is sent in units of time slots, the time slot may be a first time slot or a second time slot, where the first time slot refers to the first half subframe of the subframe where the uplink reference signal is located, and the second time slot refers to the second half subframe of the subframe where the uplink reference signal is located.

In a first implementation, the UE may transmit the uplink reference signal in units of the second slot in the time domain. That is, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in the time domain, the uplink symbols of the second slot where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, and the subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

In addition, the second time slot in which the uplink reference signal is located may further include a first designated symbol, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request. Wherein, the first designated symbol is N symbols in the second slot, and N is a positive integer. Moreover, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE may also not occupy the last symbol of the second slot, and the first designated symbol is any M symbols except the last symbol in the second slot, where M is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

For example, referring to fig. 8, the second slot in which the UE transmits the uplink reference signal is located in the second half subframe of the subframe in which the uplink reference signal is located, and then the second slot includes 7 symbols: symbol No. 7-symbol No. 13. Taking symbol No. 7 as the first designated symbol as an example, the uplink reference signal sent on symbol No. 7 may indicate that a state transition request is initiated to the network side device, and request the network side device to switch the UE from the ECO state to the Active state. And, the symbol 13 of the subframe is reserved, that is, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE does not occupy the symbol 13. And the 8-12 symbols can be used to send uplink reference signal signals, and the UE can determine to send uplink reference signal signals on all or part of the 8-12 symbols according to the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device. In addition, the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE may occupy 1RB, 2RB, or 3RB in the frequency domain, and subcarriers in the occupied RBs are continuous.

For example, referring to fig. 9, in one RB in which the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE shown in fig. 9 is located, the uplink reference signal occupies consecutive carriers.

In a second implementation, the UE may transmit the uplink reference signal in units of first slots in the time domain. That is, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in the time domain, the uplink symbols of the first slot where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, and the subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

In addition, the first time slot in which the uplink reference signal is located may further include a first designated symbol, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the first designated symbol is N symbols in the second time slot, and N is a positive integer. Different from the first implementation manner, because the symbol of the first time slot does not include the last symbol of the subframe where the symbol is located, the uplink reference signal sent on all symbols of the first time slot does not collide with the SRS sent by other Active UEs, and therefore, in the second implementation manner, the last symbol of the first time slot does not need to be reserved, that is, the uplink reference signal may occupy all symbols in the first time slot. Accordingly, the first designated symbol may be any T symbols in the first slot, where T is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

For example, referring to fig. 10, the first time slot for the UE to transmit the uplink reference signal is located in the first half subframe of the subframe where the uplink reference signal is located, and then the first time slot includes 7 symbols: symbol No. 0-symbol No. 6. Taking the symbol 0 as the first designated symbol as an example, the uplink reference signal sent on the symbol 0 may indicate that a state transition request is initiated to the network side device, and the network side device is requested to switch the UE from the ECO state to the Active state. And the symbol 1 to the symbol 6 can be used for sending uplink reference signal signals, and the UE can determine to send the uplink reference signal signals on all or part of the symbols in the symbol 1 to the symbol 6 according to the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device. In addition, the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE may occupy 1RB, 2RB, or 3RB in the frequency domain, and subcarriers in the occupied RBs are continuous.

Optionally, the uplink reference signal configuration information may further include a unit of an uplink reference signal sent by the UE in a time domain. Wherein the unit includes a subframe or a slot for indicating whether the UE transmits the uplink reference signal in one subframe or one slot. Further, the unit may further include a first slot or a second slot for indicating whether the UE transmits the uplink reference signal in the first slot or the uplink reference signal on the second slot. In practical applications, the network side device may send a unit parameter to the UE, where the unit parameter is used to indicate a unit of the uplink reference signal sent by the UE in a time domain.

Step 603: and the network side equipment acquires the position of the UE and estimates the TA of the UE according to the uplink reference signal sent by the UE.

After receiving the uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the UE, the network side device may obtain the location of the UE according to the uplink reference signal configuration information and estimate the TA of the UE. Further, in the 5G system shown in fig. 2, the UE may also select an optimal TP set for the UE to serve the UE according to the location of the UE, and update a TP-UE relationship table stored in the network side device; alternatively, the UE may also adjust the TA of the UE according to the estimated TA.

Optionally, the network side device may further detect, on the first designated symbol, an uplink reference signal sent by the UE, and determine whether to switch the UE from the current first state to the second state according to a detection result. If the network side device detects the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol, indicating that the UE initiates a state change request to the network side device, the network side device may switch the UE from the current first state to the second state; if the network-side device does not detect the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol, indicating that the UE does not initiate a state transition request, the network-side device may not change the state of the UE, that is, the UE is not switched from the current first state to the second state, and the UE will maintain the current first state.

For example, when the network side device receives an uplink reference signal sent by an ECO-state UE and detects an uplink reference signal on a first designated symbol of a subframe where the uplink reference signal sent by the UE is located, the network side device may switch the UE from the ECO state to an Active state.

In the prior art, a UE may send an SRS to a network side device, so that the network side device may obtain information such as a location of the UE and a TA of the UE according to the SRS, and may perform channel estimation according to the SRS. However, since the network side device needs to perform channel estimation according to the SRS, the SRS needs to occupy at least 4 RBs in the frequency domain, which occupies more resources and wastes resources for the ECO-state UE that does not need to perform channel estimation. Moreover, in the prior art, the SRS occupies a "comb" spectrum in the frequency domain, that is, the SRS sequence is mapped to the frequency domain resource by every other subcarrier, and therefore, under the same bandwidth, the SRS occupies only half of the bandwidth, which results in that the TA accuracy estimated by the network side device according to the SRS is not high. In addition, in the prior art, the SRS only allows transmission on the last symbol of the located subframe, and it is difficult to support a large number of users.

In addition, in the prior art, the UE may also send a Random Access Preamble (Preamble) to the network side device on a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) during a Random Access process, so that the network side device estimates a transmission delay between the UE and the network side device according to the Preamble, thereby adjusting the TA of the UE. However, since there are 64 available Preamble sequences in each cell, the UE may select one of the sequences to transmit on the PRACH resource, so that one PRACH resource can only support 64 UEs to transmit preambles at most, the number of users that can be supported is small, and it is difficult to support a large number of ECO-state UEs. Moreover, the PRACH occupies 6 RBs in the frequency domain and 1-3 subframes in the time domain, and for an ECO-state UE, the occupied resources are also large, which is relatively wasteful of resources.

The uplink reference signal designed in the embodiment of the present invention only needs to occupy at least one resource block in the frequency domain, for example, 1RB to 3RB in the frequency domain, and only needs to occupy one subframe or half of a subframe in the time domain, so that the occupied resources are less, and the resources are saved. Moreover, the subcarriers of the uplink reference signal in the at least one resource block are continuous, so that the uplink reference signal can occupy the whole bandwidth under the same bandwidth, and the TA accuracy estimated by the network side device according to the uplink reference signal is also higher. The subcarrier spacing of every two subcarriers in the at least one resource block may be 15K, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. In addition, the uplink reference signal occupies at least one symbol in the time domain, and the uplink symbols in the subframe where the at least one symbol is located can be used for sending the uplink reference signal, so that time division multiplexing on all the symbols in the subframe where the uplink reference signal is located is realized, the number of supportable UEs is increased, and a large number of UEs can be supported to send the uplink reference signal.

Further, the uplink reference signal is adapted to the ECO-state UE, and the network side device does not need to perform channel estimation according to the uplink reference signal sent by the ECO-state UE. By the uplink reference signal adaptive to the ECO state UE, provided by the embodiment of the invention, the network side equipment can complete the position tracking of the ECO state UE, the TP attribution tracking of the UE and the like under the scene of a UE-centric Non-cell network system, can complete the TA estimation of the ECO state UE, and keeps the uplink synchronization of the UE, thereby realizing the always-on of the UE. Moreover, the ECO-state UE can track the UE only by sending the uplink reference signal to the network side device periodically for a long time, and does not need to send the uplink reference signal to the network side device frequently, so that the UE is more power-saving and has less overhead of air interface resources compared with the prior art.

In summary, the method provided in the embodiment of the present invention provides an uplink reference signal sent by a UE, wherein the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, so that the uplink reference signal can be time division multiplexed on the at least one symbol, and uplink symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal, which ensures that the uplink reference signal can be further time division multiplexed on all uplink symbols in the subframe or the timeslot where the uplink reference signal is located, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies continuous subcarriers in a frequency domain and can configure a bandwidth, so that the uplink reference signal can be frequency division multiplexed in the entire system bandwidth, thereby supporting a large number of UEs to send the uplink reference signal, and being adapted to an ECO-mode UE, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, occupies less resources and saves the resources. In addition, the uplink reference signal also carries a state transition request initiated by the ECO state UE, and the state transition from the ECO state to the Active state of the UE is realized. In addition, by configuring that the uplink reference signal does not occupy the last symbol of the subframe where the at least one symbol is located, collision between the uplink reference signal and the SRS sent by other active state UE is avoided, and compatibility is enhanced.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment UE according to an embodiment of the present invention, and referring to fig. 11, the UE includes:

a sending module 1101, configured to send an uplink reference signal to the network side device;

the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, and uplink symbols in a subframe where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal; the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in the frequency domain, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are consecutive.

The UE provided in the embodiment of the present invention sends the uplink reference signal to the network side device, where the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, so that the uplink reference signal can be time division multiplexed on the at least one symbol, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies a continuous subcarrier and can configure a bandwidth in a frequency domain, so that the uplink reference signal can be frequency division multiplexed on the whole system bandwidth, thereby supporting a large number of UEs to send the uplink reference signal, and being suitable for an ECO-state UE.

Specifically, the symbol index of the first specific symbol is configured by the network side device through a system broadcast message or a higher layer signaling, where the system broadcast message may be an SIB message, an MIB message, and the like, and the higher layer signaling may be an RRC signaling.

Optionally, the UE-transmitted uplink reference signal does not occupy the last symbol of the subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

Optionally, the UE further includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device; the sending module is further configured to send the uplink reference signal according to the uplink reference signal configuration information; wherein the uplink reference signal configuration information includes at least one of the following information:

The UE sends periodic information of the uplink reference signal

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a network-side device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and referring to fig. 12, the network-side device includes:

a receiving module 1201, configured to receive an uplink reference signal sent by a user equipment UE;

The network side device provided by the embodiment of the invention receives the uplink reference signal sent by the user equipment UE, wherein the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, so that the uplink reference signal can be time division multiplexed on the at least one symbol, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies continuous subcarriers and can configure bandwidth in a frequency domain, so that the uplink reference signal can be frequency division multiplexed on the whole system bandwidth, thereby supporting a large number of UEs to send the uplink reference signal, and being suitable for the ECO-state UE.

Optionally, the network side device further includes:

Specifically, the configuration module is configured to configure the UE with the symbol index of the first designated symbol through a system broadcast message, or the configuration module is configured to configure the UE with the symbol index of the first designated symbol through higher layer signaling. The system broadcast message may be an SIB message, an MIB message, or the like, and the higher layer signaling may be RRC signaling.

Optionally, the network side device further includes:

a sending module, configured to send uplink reference signal configuration information to the UE;

The UE sends periodic information of the uplink reference signal

It should be noted that: in the foregoing embodiment, when the UE and the network side device transmit the uplink reference signal, only the division of the functional modules is described as an example, and in practical application, the function allocation may be completed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the functions described above. In addition, the UE and the network side device provided in the foregoing embodiments belong to the same concept as the transmission method embodiment of the uplink reference signal, and the specific implementation process thereof is described in detail in the method embodiment and is not described herein again.

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment UE according to an embodiment of the present invention, referring to fig. 13, the UE includes a communication bus 1301, a memory 1302, a transmitter 1303, a receiver 1304, and a processor 1305, where the memory 1302, the transmitter 1303, the receiver 1304, and the processor 1305 are intercommunicated through the communication bus 1301.

A memory 1302 for storing programs;

the processor 1305 is configured to invoke a program stored in the memory 1302, and implement the method steps performed by the UE in the above embodiments by communicating with a specified network device through the transmitter 1303 and the receiver 1304. Illustratively, the functionality of the transmit module in fig. 11 may be implemented.

The memory 1302 is further configured to store uplink reference signal configuration information sent by the network side device.

The processor 1305 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The instructions may be implemented and controlled by a processor to perform the methods disclosed by the embodiments of the invention. The processor may also be a general-purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components.

The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor, decoder, etc. 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.

In addition, the communication bus 1301 includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus, in addition to a data bus. But for clarity of illustration the various buses are labeled in figure 13 as communication bus 1301.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a UE sends an uplink reference signal to a network side device based on uplink reference signal configuration information configured by the network side device, where the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, and uplink symbols in a subframe where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal, so that the uplink reference signal can be time-division multiplexed on all uplink symbols of a subframe, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies continuous subcarriers and can configure a bandwidth in a frequency domain, so that the uplink reference signal can be frequency-division multiplexed on the whole system bandwidth, thereby supporting a large number of UEs to send the uplink reference signal, and being suitable for an ECO-state UE.

Fig. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a network-side device according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the network-side device may be a base station, a centralized controller, and the like, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 14, the network-side device includes a communication bus 1401, a memory 1402, a transmitter 1403, a receiver 1404, and a processor 1405, wherein the memory 1402, the transmitter 1403, the receiver 1404, and the processor 1405 interwork through the communication bus 1401.

A memory 1402 for storing programs;

a processor 1405, configured to invoke the program stored in the memory 1402, to implement the method steps performed by the network-side device in the above embodiments by communicating with the specified network device through the transmitter 1403 and the receiver 1404. Illustratively, the functionality of the receiving module in fig. 12 may be implemented.

Optionally, the network side device may further include a communication interface, configured to support the network side device to communicate with other network side devices in the communication system, such as a core network node.

The processor 1405 may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The instructions may be implemented and controlled by a processor to perform the methods disclosed by the embodiments of the invention. The processor may also be a general-purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components.

The communication bus 1401 additionally comprises a power bus, a control bus and a status signal bus in addition to a data bus. But for clarity of illustration the various busses are labeled in fig. 14 as communications bus 1401.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a network side device may receive an uplink reference signal sent by a user equipment UE, where the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, and uplink symbols in a subframe where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal, so that the uplink reference signal may be time-division multiplexed on all uplink symbols of one subframe, and the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies continuous subcarriers and may configure a bandwidth in a frequency domain, so that the uplink reference signal may be frequency-division multiplexed on the entire system bandwidth, thereby supporting a large number of UEs to send the uplink reference signal, and being adapted to an ECO-state UE.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps for implementing the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by a program instructing relevant hardware, where the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and the above-mentioned storage medium may be a read-only memory, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, etc.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like that fall within the spirit and principle of the present invention are intended to be included therein.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting uplink reference signals, the method comprising:

user Equipment (UE) sends an uplink reference signal to network side equipment;

the uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one symbol in a time domain, and the uplink symbols in a subframe or a time slot where the at least one symbol is located are all used for sending the uplink reference signal; an uplink reference signal sent by the UE occupies at least one resource block in a frequency domain and can configure bandwidth, and subcarriers in the at least one resource block are continuous;

the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on a first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the state transition request indicates that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state, the first designated symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a time slot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a symbol index of the first designated symbol is configured by the network-side device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first state is an ECO-protect-optimize ECO state and the second state is an active state.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE does not occupy a last symbol of a subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, further comprising:

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

6. A method for transmitting uplink reference signals, the method comprising:

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first state is an ECO-protect-optimize ECO state and the second state is an activated state.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE does not occupy the last symbol of the subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

10. The method according to any of claims 6-9, further comprising:

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

11. A User Equipment (UE), the UE comprising:

the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on a first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the state transition request indicates that the UE requests a network side device to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state, the first designated symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a time slot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

12. The UE of claim 11, wherein a symbol index of the first designated symbol is configured by the network side device.

13. The UE of claim 11, wherein the first state is an ECO-protection-optimized ECO state and the second state is an active state.

14. The UE of claim 11, wherein the UE-transmitted uplink reference signal does not occupy a last symbol of a subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

15. The UE according to any of claims 11-14, wherein the UE further comprises:

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

16. A network side device, wherein the network side device comprises:

a switching module, configured to detect an uplink reference signal sent by the UE on a first designated symbol, and determine whether to switch the UE from a current first state to a second state according to a detection result;

the uplink reference signal sent by the UE on the first designated symbol is used to indicate that the UE initiates a state transition request, where the state transition request indicates that the UE requests the network side device to switch the UE from the first state to the second state, the first designated symbol is N symbols in a subframe or a timeslot where the at least one symbol is located, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

17. The network-side device of claim 16, wherein the network-side device further comprises:

18. The network-side device of claim 16, wherein the first state is an ECO-protection-optimized ECO state, and wherein the second state is an active state.

19. The network side device of claim 16, wherein the uplink reference signal transmitted by the UE does not occupy a last symbol of a subframe in which the at least one symbol is located.

20. The network-side device according to any of claims 16-19, wherein the network-side device further comprises:

The UE sends periodic information of uplink reference signals

21. A transmission system of uplink reference signals, characterized in that the system comprises the UE of any of the above claims 11-15 and the network side device of any of the above claims 16-20.

22. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein at least one program instruction or code is stored, which when loaded and executed by a processor, causes a computer to implement a method of uplink reference signal transmission according to any one of claims 1-10.