CN108809585B

CN108809585B - Information transmission method and device

Info

Publication number: CN108809585B
Application number: CN201710313782.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 黄煌; 颜矛; 向高
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-05-05
Filing date: 2017-05-05
Publication date: 2024-03-29
Anticipated expiration: 2037-05-05
Also published as: WO2018202017A1; CN108809585A

Abstract

The embodiment of the application discloses an information transmission method and device, which relate to the technical field of communication and are used for adapting to the development of New Radio (NR). The method may include: transmitting configuration information and uplink authorization of a reference signal to a terminal, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is transmitted in a random access process; and receiving the beam indication information sent by the terminal through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink authorization.

Description

Information transmission method and device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to an information transmission method and apparatus.

Background

The development of mobile services places increasing demands on the data rate and efficiency of wireless communications. In 5G and future wireless communication systems, beamforming techniques are used to limit the energy of the transmitted signal to a certain beam direction, thereby increasing the efficiency of signal and reception. The beam forming technology can effectively enlarge the transmission range of wireless signals and reduce signal interference, thereby achieving higher communication efficiency and obtaining higher network capacity. However, in a communication network employing the beamforming technique, it is necessary to match (beam align) a transmission beam and a reception beam so that the reception beam obtains a better signal quality from the transmission beam, otherwise, a higher communication efficiency cannot be achieved or even communication cannot be performed. In general, the matching of the transmit and receive beams may be achieved by beam scanning. However, when the number of transmit and receive beams is relatively large, beam scanning can take a significant amount of time and resources. Therefore, in a communication network using multiple beams, a relatively wide beam can be adopted to perform initial downlink synchronization and uplink synchronization, thereby reducing the number of beams to be scanned and reducing resource waste. However, the gain due to the wide beam is relatively low, which results in low communication efficiency. In order to achieve higher data communication efficiency, a beam with higher gain needs to be used, and then the beam width needs to be reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides an information transmission method and device to adapt to the development of an NR system.

In a first aspect, the present application provides an information transmission method and apparatus.

In one possible design, the information transmission method may include: and sending configuration information and uplink authorization of the reference signal to the terminal, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in a random access process. And then, receiving the beam indication information sent by the terminal through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant. In this way, the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in the random access process, so that the terminal can start to execute the process of determining the beam indication information in the random access process. The method may be performed by a base station.

In one possible design, the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in system information or message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure.

In one possible design, the uplink grant is sent in message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure; alternatively, the uplink grant is sent after message 4 in the random access procedure. The time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant may be a time-frequency resource in the message 3, or a time-frequency resource in the feedback message of the message 4, or a time-frequency resource in other messages in the prior art, and may also be other time-frequency resources.

In one possible design, the method may further include: and receiving first request information sent by the terminal, wherein the first request information is used for requesting configuration information of the reference signal. The first request information may be carried in a message in the prior art, for example, in message 3 of the random access procedure, which is not limited to this.

In one possible design, the method may further include: the reference signal is transmitted in message 2 or message 4 of the random access procedure, or after message 4 is transmitted. Optionally, a plurality of reference signals are transmitted through a plurality of beams, wherein one or more reference signals are transmitted through each beam, and time domain and/or frequency domain resources can be multiplexed between reference signals transmitted by different beams. In this case, the beam indicated by the beam indication information may be one of the plurality of beams, for example, one beam whose channel quality satisfies a preset condition.

Correspondingly, the application also provides an information transmission device which can realize the information transmission method of the first aspect. For example, the apparatus may be a base station, which may implement the above method by software, hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform the corresponding functions in the method of the first aspect described above. The memory is used to couple with the processor, which holds the necessary programs (instructions) and data for the device. The apparatus may further comprise a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements. The communication interface may be a transceiver.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include: a transmitting unit and a receiving unit; the sending unit is used for sending configuration information and uplink authorization of the reference signal to the terminal, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in a random access process. The receiving unit is used for receiving the beam indication information sent by the terminal through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink authorization.

In a second aspect, the present application provides another information transmission method and apparatus.

In one possible design, the information transmission method may include: and receiving configuration information and uplink authorization of a reference signal sent by the base station, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a random access process. And then, transmitting beam indication information to the base station through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant. The advantageous effects thereof are referred to above. The execution subject of the method may be a terminal.

In one possible design, the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in system information or message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure. Of course, the present application is not limited thereto.

In one possible design, the uplink grant is received in message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure; or the uplink grant is received after message 4 in the random access procedure. Of course, the present application is not limited thereto.

In one possible design, the method may further include: sending first request information to a base station; wherein the first request information is used for requesting configuration information of the reference signal. The first request information may be carried in the message 3 or other messages in the prior art, which is not limited thereto.

In one possible design, the method may further include: and receiving the reference signal according to the configuration information of the reference signal. Optionally, according to the configuration information of the reference signal, receiving the reference signal sent by the base station in a message 4 in the random access process; or, according to the configuration information of the reference signal, after receiving the message 4 in the random access process, receiving the reference signal sent by the base station.

Correspondingly, the application also provides an information transmission device which can realize the information transmission method of the second aspect. For example, the apparatus may be a base station, which may implement the above method by software, hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform the corresponding functions in the method of the second aspect described above. The memory is used to couple with the processor, which holds the necessary programs (instructions) and data for the device. The apparatus may further comprise a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements. The communication interface may be a transceiver.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include: a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit may be configured to receive configuration information and uplink grant of a reference signal sent by the base station, where the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a random access process. The transmitting unit may be configured to transmit the beam indication information to the base station through a time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant.

In a third aspect, the present application provides another information transmission method and apparatus.

In one possible design, the method may include: and sending configuration information of the reference signal to the terminal, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in a random access process so as to instruct the terminal to send the reference signal according to the configuration information of the reference signal. Then, the reference signal transmitted by the terminal is received, and beam indication information is transmitted to the terminal according to the reference signal. The advantageous effects thereof are referred to above. The method may be performed by a base station.

In one possible design, the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in message 2 or message 4 in the system information or random access procedure. Of course, the present application is not limited thereto.

In one possible design, the method may further include: and receiving second request information sent by the terminal, wherein the second request information is used for requesting to acquire beam indication information. Then, beam indication information is determined according to the second request information and the reference signal. The second request information may be carried in the message 3 in the random access procedure, or in other messages in the prior art, which is not limited to this.

Correspondingly, the application also provides an information transmission device which can realize the information transmission method of the third aspect. For example, the apparatus may be a terminal, which may implement the above method by software, hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform the corresponding functions in the method of the third aspect described above. The memory is used to couple with the processor, which holds the necessary programs (instructions) and data for the device. The apparatus may further comprise a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements. The communication interface may be a transceiver.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include: a transmitting unit and a receiving unit. The sending unit may be configured to send configuration information of the reference signal to the terminal, where the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in a random access process, so as to instruct the terminal to send the reference signal according to the configuration information of the reference signal. The receiving unit may be configured to receive a reference signal sent by the terminal, and send beam indication information to the terminal according to the reference signal.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides another information transmission method and apparatus.

In one possible design, the method may include: receiving configuration information of a reference signal sent by a base station, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a random access process; transmitting a reference signal to a base station according to configuration information of the reference signal; and receiving the beam indication information sent by the base station. The advantageous effects thereof are referred to above. The execution subject of the method may be a terminal.

In one possible design, the configuration information of the reference signal is received in system information or message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure, but is not limited thereto.

In one possible design, the method may further include: and sending second request information to the base station, wherein the second request information is used for requesting to acquire the beam indication information. The second request information may be carried in the message 3 in the random access procedure, or in other messages in the prior art, which is not limited to this.

Correspondingly, the application also provides an information transmission device which can realize the information transmission method of the fourth aspect. For example, the apparatus may be a terminal, which may implement the above method by software, hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to support the apparatus to perform the corresponding functions of the method of the fourth aspect described above. The memory is used to couple with the processor, which holds the necessary programs (instructions) and data for the device. The apparatus may further comprise a communication interface for supporting communication between the apparatus and other network elements. The communication interface may be a transceiver.

In one possible design, the apparatus may include: a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit may be configured to receive configuration information of a reference signal sent by the base station, where the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a random access procedure. The transmitting unit may be configured to transmit the reference signal to the base station according to configuration information of the reference signal. The receiving unit may further be configured to: and receiving the beam indication information sent by the base station.

In one possible design, sending the reference signal to the base station according to the configuration information of the reference signal may include: transmitting a reference signal to a base station through a plurality of beams according to the configuration information of the reference signal; wherein one or more reference signals are transmitted over each beam, and time and/or frequency domain resources may be multiplexed between reference signals transmitted over different beams. In this case, the beam indicated by the beam indication information may be one of the plurality of beams, for example, one beam whose channel quality satisfies a preset condition.

Based on any of the possible designs provided in any of the aspects above, the beam indication information comprises at least one of: index of a beam, index of a port to which the beam corresponds, index of a reference signal to which the beam corresponds, and the like.

Based on any of the possible designs provided in any of the aspects above, the reference signal comprises any of: CSI-RS, DMRS, etc., may also be reference signals designed to implement the technical solutions provided in the present application.

The present application also provides a computer storage medium having stored thereon a computer program (instructions) which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of the above aspects.

The present application also provides a computer program product which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of the above aspects.

It should be appreciated that any of the apparatuses or computer storage media or computer program products provided above are used to perform the corresponding methods provided above, and thus, the advantages achieved by the methods are referred to as advantages in the corresponding methods, and are not described herein.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture to which the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is applicable;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a wide beam and a narrow beam associated with the wide beam according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is an interaction schematic diagram of a random access method in an LTE system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is an interaction schematic diagram of a random access method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic process diagram of a random access method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a process schematic diagram of another random access method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is an interaction schematic diagram of an information transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is an interaction schematic diagram of another information transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 9 is a process schematic diagram of another random access method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is an interaction schematic diagram of another information transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is an interaction schematic diagram of another information transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a process schematic diagram of another random access method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is an interaction schematic diagram of another information transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is an interaction schematic diagram of another information transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of an information transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of another information transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme provided by the application can be applied to various communication systems using multi-beam technology, for example, the multi-beam technology, a 5G communication system, a future evolution system or a plurality of communication fusion systems are adopted on the basis of the existing communication system. Various application scenarios may be included, such as machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M), D2M, macro-micro communication, enhanced mobile internet (enhance mobile broadband, eMBB), ultra-high reliability and ultra-low latency communication (ul lc), and mass internet of things communication (massive machine type communication, mctc). These scenarios may include, but are not limited to: a communication scenario between terminals, a communication scenario between base stations and terminals, etc. The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can also be applied to the scenes such as the communication between terminals in a 5G communication system or the communication between base stations.

Fig. 1 presents a schematic view of a communication system that may comprise at least one base station 100 (only 1 is shown) and one or more terminals 200 connected to the base station 100.

The base station 100 may be a device capable of communicating with the terminal 200. The base station 100 may be a relay station or an access point, etc. The base station 100 may be a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communication, GSM) or code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) network, an NB (NodeB) in wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA), or an eNB or eNodeB (evolutional NodeB) in LTE. The base station 100 may also be a radio controller in the context of a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN). The base station 100 may also be a network device in a 5G network or a network device in a future evolution network; but also a wearable device or a vehicle-mounted device, etc.

The terminal 200 may be a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a UE terminal, a wireless communication device, a UE agent, a UE apparatus, or the like. An access terminal may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal in a future 5G network or a terminal in a future evolved PLMN network, etc.

Beams (beams) and Beam Pairs (BPLs) are introduced into a communication system. A beam is a communication resource. The beams may comprise wide beams, or narrow beams, or other types of beams. The technique of forming the beam may be a beamforming technique or other technical means. The beamforming technique may specifically be a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, a hybrid beamforming technique. Different beams may be considered different resources. The same information or different information may be transmitted through different beams. Alternatively, a plurality of beams having the same or similar communication characteristics may be regarded as one beam. One beam may correspond to one or more antenna ports for transmitting data channels, control channels, and sounding signals, etc. For example, a transmit beam may refer to a distribution of signal strengths formed in spatially different directions after a signal is transmitted through an antenna. A receive beam may refer to a signal strength distribution of a wireless signal received from an antenna in spatially diverse directions. It is understood that one or more antenna ports forming a beam may also be considered as a set of antenna ports. The beam pairs are built on the concept of beams. One beam pair typically includes one transmit beam of the transmitting end device and one receive beam of the receiving end device.

In a communication system, for example, an NR system, a transmitting-end device and a receiving-end device can each generate a plurality of beams. Advanced beam alignment is required to select one beam pair with better channel quality before transmitting data. Beam alignment may include downstream beam alignment and upstream beam alignment.

For example, the downstream beam alignment process may include: the base station transmits one or more reference signals to the terminal through each transmitting beam, wherein resource multiplexing (such as time domain and/or frequency domain resource multiplexing through time division, frequency division, code division or a combination thereof) can be performed between the reference signals transmitted through different transmitting beams; the terminal receives a reference signal transmitted by each transmitting beam of the base station through each receiving beam of the plurality of receiving beams, then estimates the channel quality from each transmitting beam of the base station to each receiving beam of the terminal according to the received plurality of reference signals, determines a beam pair with the channel quality meeting a preset condition, and feeds back information (which may also be called beam indication information) indicating the transmitting beam in the beam pair to the base station. Subsequently, the base station may transmit a control channel, a data channel, or a probe signal, etc. using a transmit beam in the beam pair, and the terminal may receive a control channel, a data channel, or a probe signal, etc. transmitted by the base station using a receive beam in the beam pair.

For example, suppose a base station can generate 3 transmit beams, labeled beams 1, 2, 3, respectively; the terminal may generate 2 receive beams, labeled beams a, b, respectively. Then the base station transmits reference signals 1, 2, 3 via beams 1, 2, 3, respectively; the terminal receives the reference signals 1, 2, 3 through the beam a and receives the reference signals 1, 2, 3 through the beam b, then determines the channel quality of the beam pairs transmitting the reference signals (specifically, the beam pair formed by the beam 1 and the beam a, the beam pair formed by the beam 2 and the beam a, the beam pair formed by the beam 3 and the beam a, the beam pair formed by the beam 1 and the beam b, the beam pair formed by the beam 2 and the beam b, and the beam pair formed by the beam 3 and the beam b) according to the received reference signals, and determines one beam pair meeting the preset condition, and if the determined beam pair is the beam pair formed by the beam 3 and the beam a, the information indicating the beam 3 can be fed back to the base station.

For example, the process of upstream beam alignment may include: the terminal sends one or more reference signals to the base station through each transmitting beam, wherein resource multiplexing (such as time domain and/or frequency domain resource multiplexing through time division, frequency division, code division or a combination thereof) can be performed between the reference signals sent through different transmitting beams; the base station receives the reference signals sent by each transmitting beam of the terminal through each receiving beam of the plurality of receiving beams, estimates the channel quality from each transmitting beam of the terminal to each receiving beam of the base station according to the received plurality of reference signals, and determines a beam pair with the channel quality meeting the preset condition. Subsequently, the terminal may transmit a control channel, a data channel, or a probe signal, etc. using a transmit beam in the beam pair, and the base station may receive the control channel, the data channel, or the probe signal, etc. transmitted by the terminal using a receive beam in the beam pair.

The beam pair determined in the downstream beam alignment process and the beam pair determined in the upstream beam alignment process may be the same beam pair or may be different beam pairs.

The following explains some of the terms referred to in this application to facilitate understanding:

the first beam pair refers to the beam pair determined during the coarse downgoing beam adjustment process (i.e., the preliminary downgoing beam alignment process). The base station may transmit a downlink synchronization signal block to the terminal via a transmit beam in the first beam pair. The downlink synchronous signal block is used for downlink initial time and frequency synchronization.

The second beam pair refers to the beam pair determined during the coarse uplink beam adjustment process (i.e., the primary uplink beam alignment process).

The third beam pair refers to a beam pair with a channel instruction determined in the course of coarse adjustment of the downlink beam being better than that of the first beam pair, and the base station can send the downlink synchronous signal block to the terminal through the transmitting beam in the third beam pair.

The target beam pair refers to a beam pair determined in a downlink/uplink beam refinement procedure (i.e., a downlink/uplink preliminary refinement procedure).

A beam associated with a beam, i.e., a narrow beam associated with a wide beam, refers to a plurality of narrow beams having substantially the same direction and coverage as the wide beam. Wherein "wide beam" herein is relative to "narrow beam" herein. The present application is not limited in the scope of the meaning of "substantially identical" and it is understood by those skilled in the art that the present application is not limited to the above-described examples. As an example, as shown in fig. 2, a schematic diagram of a plurality of narrow beams related to a wide beam is provided in the present application, where the narrow beams include a narrow beam 1 and a narrow beam 2.

The present application relates to "beams associated with a transmit beam in a first beam pair", "beams associated with a receive beam in a first beam pair", etc. Wherein the number of beams associated with the transmit beam in the first beam pair and the number of beams associated with the receive beam in the first beam pair may or may not be equal.

Reference signal: may be a reference signal in the prior art, such as, but not limited to, a channel state information reference signal (channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS) or a demodulation reference signal (demodulation reference signal, DMRS), etc. And can also be a reference signal designed for realizing the technical scheme provided by the application.

Configuration information of the reference signal may include, but is not limited to: information indicating the time-frequency resource position of the reference signal, the density of the time-frequency resource, the port information corresponding to the reference signal, the multiplexing mode of the reference signal, and the like.

The beam indication information may include, but is not limited to, at least one of: an index of a beam, an index of an antenna port to which the beam corresponds, an index of a reference signal to which the beam corresponds, a time index (synchronization signal block time index) of a downlink synchronization signal block, and the like. For example, the beam indication information may be a CSI-RS port number or a DMRS port number corresponding to the beam. The index of the beam, the index of the antenna port and the index of the reference signal are not limited, and may be, for example, a relative index or an absolute index. Alternatively, if the multiple reference signals are time-division multiplexed, the index of the reference signal may be the time index of the transmitted reference signal; if the multiple reference signals are frequency division multiplexed, the index of the reference signal may be a frequency index of the transmission reference signal, or the like.

The term "plurality" herein refers to two or more.

The terms "first," "second," and the like herein are merely used for distinguishing between different objects and not for limiting the order thereof. For example, the first symbol group and the second symbol group are merely for distinguishing different symbol groups, and the order of the different symbol groups is not limited.

The term "and/or" is herein merely an association relationship describing an associated object, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.

After introducing the concept of beam, beam alignment can be achieved using a random access procedure.

The following describes a random access procedure using an LTE system as an example with reference to fig. 3.

S101: the base station transmits system information (system information), e.g., system information block 2 (system information block-2, sib 2), to the terminal.

S102: the terminal receives the system information sent by the base station, acquires the parameter configuration information of the random access preamble according to the system information, then generates the random access preamble according to the parameter configuration information, and sends the random access preamble to the base station.

The random access preamble is used to carry a preamble sequence, which may be used to identify a terminal or the like. A plurality of preamble formats are defined in LTE, and the time lengths of different preamble formats may be different. Information indicating a preamble format employed by the terminal may be carried in the system information.

S103: the base station receives the random access preamble transmitted by the terminal, detects the received random access preamble, and if a preamble sequence is detected and the time delay of a channel for transmitting the preamble sequence is estimated, transmits a random access response (i.e., message 2) to the terminal.

The random access response may carry an index of the preamble sequence, a time advance (time advance), uplink grant (uplink grant) information, and the like. The uplink grant information may be used to instruct the terminal to send the time-frequency resource of message 3.

After transmitting one random access preamble, the terminal needs to wait for a random access response (random access response, RAR) transmitted by the base station. In the LTE system, a random access response time window may be carried in system information, where the random access response time window refers to a period of time after the terminal transmits a random access preamble in an attempt to receive a random access response. If the terminal receives the random access response in the random access response time window, sending a message 3 on a time-frequency resource appointed by the random access response; if the terminal does not receive the random access response in the random access response time window, the random access process fails. The terminal may re-initiate the random access procedure.

S104: the terminal receives the random access response sent by the base station, and sends a message 3 on a time-frequency resource designated by the uplink authorization information of the random access response.

S105: the base station receives the random access response sent by the terminal and sends a message 4 to the terminal, and the terminal receives the message 4 sent by the base station.

So far, the random access process is ended. Wherein message 3 and message 4 may be used to prevent collisions.

Fig. 4 shows a downstream beam alignment procedure using a random access procedure. The specific random access procedure may be combined with the random access procedure in fig. 3.

S201: the base station transmits system information to the terminal via the transmit beam in the first beam pair.

S202: the terminal receives the system information sent by the base station through the receiving wave beam in the first wave beam pair, acquires the parameter configuration information of the random access preamble according to the system information, and then generates the random access preamble according to the parameter configuration information.

S203: the terminal transmits the random access preamble to the base station via the transmit beam in the second beam pair.

S204: the base station receives the random access preamble transmitted by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair and transmits the message 2 to the base station through the transmitting beam in the first beam pair.

In connection with the random access procedure and its associated description shown in fig. 4, it can be appreciated that: in the random access procedure, uplink beam alignment is achieved by switching beam pairs. The first beam pair is the beam pair determined during the downlink beam alignment procedure and the second beam pair is the beam pair used for a successful random access procedure. The second beam pair may be considered to be the beam pair determined during the upstream beam alignment process. In some cases, S203 may be performed multiple times by switching beam pairs, for example, in case of a random access failure.

S205: the terminal sends a message 3 to the base station on the time-frequency resource specified by the message 2 via the transmission beam in the second beam pair.

S206: the base station receives the message 3 sent by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair; and sends a message 4 to the terminal via the transmit beam in the first beam pair. The terminal receives message 4 via the receive beam in the first beam pair.

The implementation of the method interaction diagram shown in fig. 4 may be as shown in fig. 5. In fig. 5, the base station may generate beams 1, 2, 3 and the terminal may generate beams a, b. For convenience of description, the first beam pair and the second beam pair are beam pairs of beam 2 and beam a.

The embodiment of the application provides an information transmission method and device, and the technical scheme can enable a terminal to start executing a process of determining beam indication information in a random access process by sending configuration information of a reference signal in the random access process.

In one embodiment of the present application, the concepts of coarse and fine beam tuning are introduced. Specifically, the beam alignment (including the upstream beam alignment and the downstream beam alignment) involved in the technical scheme shown in fig. 4 may be referred to as "coarse beam adjustment", and the beam alignment process involved in the technical scheme provided below may be referred to as "fine beam adjustment". In this case, the beam indication information fed back in the technical solution provided in the present application may be indication information of a transmitting beam in a beam pair obtained by beam refinement. The basic principle of this embodiment is: and the wide beam pair obtained through the coarse beam adjustment starts to perform a random access process, and the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in the random access process so as to start to perform the fine beam adjustment. In this way, the time required for beam alignment can be saved as much as possible on the basis of obtaining the beam performance gain.

In some embodiments, the transmitting end device and the receiving end device may perform multiple beam refinement. The transmitting end device (including the base station or the terminal) may be provided with at least two sets of beam forming devices/modules to generate at least two types of beams, each type of beam may include at least two beams, and the width of each type of beam is different. For example, the at least two beams include: a first type of beam and a second type of beam, the first type of beam having a greater width than the second type of beam, in which case the first type of beam may be referred to as a wide beam and the second type of beam may be referred to as a narrow beam. It will be appreciated that it is assumed that at least two beams further comprise: and the third type of beam, wherein the width of the third type of beam is smaller than that of the second type of beam, and the second type of beam is a wide beam relative to the third type of beam.

In the following, the method provided in the present application is described by taking as an example a downlink beam fine alignment procedure, in which a base station may generate at least two types of beams. Alternatively, the terminal may generate at least two types of beams.

It should be noted that, in the following, a message (for example, system information, message 2, message 3, message 4, etc.) in the random access procedure of the LTE system is taken as an example, so that signaling overhead can be saved. In other implementations of the present application, any information (including configuration information of a reference signal, indication information of a transmission beam in a target beam pair, uplink grant (ul grant), etc.) is carried in which message, which is not limited by the present application.

In the following specific examples (fig. 6, 9, 12), the following scenario is described: the base station may generate a wide beam: beams 1, 2, 3, narrow beam: beams 21, 22, 23, the terminal may generate beams a, b. For convenience of description, the first beam pair and the second beam pair are the same, and the beam pair is formed by the beam 2 and the beam a, and the target beam pair is formed by the beam 22 and the beam a.

Different scenes are distinguished by sending the reference signal at the following time, so as to illustrate the downlink beam fine alignment method provided by the application:

scene 1: the base station transmits a reference signal in message 2. The reference signal carried in the message 2 may be a reference signal of the LTE system message 2 itself, or may be a reference signal designed to implement the technical solution provided in the present application. The reference signals transmitted over different beams may multiplex the same time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources, e.g., the multiplexing may include, but is not limited to, at least one of: time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, code division multiplexing. In this scenario, a schematic diagram of the random access procedure may be shown in fig. 6.

In one embodiment of the present application, the base station transmits the configuration information of the reference signal and the reference signal in message 2. The terminal feeds back in message 3 the indication information of the transmit beam in the target beam pair. As shown in fig. 7, the method may include the following steps S301 to S307:

s301 to S303: reference may be made to the relevant description of sections S201 to S203, although the application is not limited thereto.

S304: the base station receives the random access preamble transmitted by the terminal through the reception beam in the second beam pair and transmits a message 2 to the base station through the plurality of beams associated with the transmission beam in the first beam pair, respectively. One or more messages 2 can be sent through each beam, and the messages 2 carry configuration information of reference signals and the reference signals.

The configuration information of the reference signal carried in the message 2 can be carried on the time-frequency resource where the data of the message 2 is located; or, the configuration information of the reference signal is carried in the downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) corresponding to the message 2. Of course, the present application is not limited thereto.

S305: the terminal receives a message 2 sent by the base station through a plurality of beams related to the transmitting beam in the first beam pair according to the configuration information of the reference signal through the receiving beam in the first beam pair (or each beam in a plurality of beams related to the receiving beam in the first beam pair); then, a target beam pair is determined from the reference signals in the plurality of messages 2.

The specific implementation of this step may refer to the downstream beam alignment procedure provided above, and will not be described here.

S306: and the terminal sends a message 3 to the base station on the time-frequency resource appointed by the message 2 through the transmitting beam in the second beam pair, wherein the message 3 carries the indication information of the transmitting beam in the target beam pair.

In one implementation, the method may further include: the base station sends an uplink grant to the terminal, the terminal receives the uplink grant, and sends indication information of the transmitting beam in the target beam pair on the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant. The time-frequency resource may be a part of the time-frequency resource occupied by the message 3, or may be another resource, which is not limited in this application.

S307: the base station receives the message 3 sent by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair; and sends a message 4 to the terminal via the transmit beam in the first beam pair (or the transmit beam in the target beam pair). The terminal receives message 4 via the receive beam in the target beam pair.

Since the base station has already known the transmit beam in the target beam pair in S306, in S307, the message 4 can be sent to the terminal through the transmit beam, so that the transmit beam in the target beam pair has a higher antenna gain, i.e. a higher gain when transmitting and receiving signals, and thus a higher signal reception quality and a higher signal transmission efficiency, due to the narrower transmit beam in the target beam pair than the transmit beam in the first beam pair.

In one embodiment of the present application, the base station transmits configuration information of the reference signal in system information and transmits the reference signal in message 2. The terminal feeds back in message 3 the indication information of the transmit beam in the target beam pair.

Fig. 8 is an interaction schematic diagram of an information transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application. The method shown in fig. 8 may include the following steps S401 to S407:

S401: and the base station transmits system information to the terminal through a transmitting beam in the first beam pair, wherein the system information carries configuration information of the reference signal.

S402 to S403: reference may be made to the relevant description of sections S202 to S203, although the application is not limited thereto.

S404: the base station receives the random access preamble sent by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair and generates a message 2 according to the configuration information of the reference signal; and respectively transmitting a message 2 to the terminal through a plurality of beams related to the transmitting beam in the first beam pair, wherein one or more messages 2 can be transmitted through each beam, and the messages 2 carry reference signals.

S405 to S407: reference may be made to the relevant description of sections S305 to S307, although the present application is not limited thereto.

Scene 2: the base station transmits a reference signal in message 4. The reference signal carried in the message 4 may be a reference signal of the LTE system message 4 itself, or may be a reference signal designed to implement the technical solution provided in the present application. The reference signals transmitted over different beams may multiplex the same time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources, e.g., the multiplexing may include, but is not limited to, at least one of: time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, code division multiplexing. In this scenario, a schematic diagram of the random access procedure may be shown in fig. 9.

In one embodiment of the present application, the base station transmits configuration information of the reference signal in message 2 and transmits the reference signal in message 4. After message 4, the terminal feeds back the indication information of the transmission beam in the target beam pair. As shown in fig. 10, the method may include the following steps S501 to S508:

s501 to S503: reference may be made to the relevant description of sections S201 to S203, although the application is not limited thereto.

S504: the base station receives the random access preamble sent by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair, and sends a message 2 to the base station through the transmitting beam in the first beam pair, wherein the message 2 carries the configuration information of the reference signal.

S505: reference may be made to the relevant description of section S205, although the application is not limited thereto.

S506: the base station receives the message 3 sent by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair; and transmitting a message 4 to the terminal over a plurality of beams associated with the transmit beam in the first beam pair; wherein one or more messages 4 may be sent over each beam, the messages 4 carrying reference signals.

S507: the terminal receives the message 4 sent by the base station through the plurality of beams related to the transmitting beam in the first beam pair according to the configuration information of the reference signal through the receiving beam in the first beam pair (or one or more beams related to the receiving beam in the first beam pair); then, the target beam pair is determined from the reference signals in the plurality of messages 4.

S508: the terminal sends feedback information of the message 4 through the transmitting beam in the second beam pair; the feedback information of the message 4 includes indication information of the transmitting beam in the target beam pair. The indication information of the transmit beam in the target beam pair may not be carried in the feedback information of message 4. Of course, the present application is not limited thereto.

In one embodiment of the present application, it may include: s401 to S404, and S505 to S508. In this case, the base station transmits the configuration information of the test signal in the system information.

In one embodiment of the present application, the base station transmits the configuration information of the reference signal and the reference signal in message 4. After message 4, the terminal feeds back the indication information of the transmission beam in the target beam pair. As shown in fig. 11, the method may include the following steps S601 to S609:

s601 to S605: reference may be made to the relevant description of sections S201 to S205, although the application is not limited thereto.

S606: the base station receives the message 3 sent by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair; and transmitting a message 4 to the terminal over a plurality of beams associated with the transmit beam in the first beam pair; wherein, one or more messages 4 can be sent through each beam, and the messages 4 carry configuration information of reference signals and the reference signals.

The configuration information of the reference signal carried in the message 4 can be carried on the time-frequency resource where the data of the message 4 is located; or, the configuration information of the reference signal is carried in the DCI corresponding to the message 4. Of course, the present application is not limited thereto.

S607 to S608: reference may be made to the relevant description of sections S507 to S508, although the present application is not limited thereto.

Scene 3: the base station transmits a reference signal after message 4. The reference signal may be a reference signal in the prior art, or may be a reference signal designed to implement the technical solution provided in the present application. In this scenario, a schematic diagram of the random access procedure may be shown in fig. 12.

In one embodiment of the present application, the base station transmits configuration information of the reference signal in message 4 and transmits the reference signal after message 4. After message 4, the terminal feeds back the indication information of the transmission beam in the target beam pair. As shown in fig. 13, the method may include the following steps S701 to S709:

s701 to S705: reference may be made to the relevant description of sections S201 to S205, although the application is not limited thereto.

S706: the base station receives the message 3 sent by the terminal through the receiving beam in the second beam pair; and transmitting a message 4 to the terminal via the transmit beam in the first beam pair; wherein, the message 4 carries configuration information of the reference signal. The terminal receives the message 4 sent by the base station via the receive beam in the first beam pair.

S707: the base station transmits a reference signal to the terminal through a plurality of beams related to the transmitting beam in the first beam pair; wherein one or more reference signals may be transmitted through each beam.

S708: the terminal receives the reference signals sent by the base station through a plurality of beams related to the transmitting beams in the first beam pair according to the configuration information of the reference signals through the receiving beams in the first beam pair (or one or more beams related to the receiving beams in the first beam pair); then, a target beam pair is determined from the plurality of reference signals.

S709: reference may be made to the relevant description of section S508, although the application is not limited thereto.

Optionally, the configuration information of the reference signal sent by the base station in the message 4 may be replaced by the configuration information of the reference signal sent by the base station in the message 2, or the configuration information of the reference signal sent by the base station in the system information, and the specific implementation process may refer to the relevant steps in the above embodiment, which is not described herein.

In various embodiments of scenario 3, the terminal may adjust the terminal receive beam according to the reference signal.

Based on any of the embodiments provided above, the method may further comprise: the terminal transmits request information for requesting configuration information of the reference signal to the base station. Alternatively, the request information may be carried in message 3, although the present application is not limited thereto. In the embodiment of the application, the condition that the terminal sends the request information to the base station is not limited. For example, when there is data to be transmitted, the terminal transmits request information to the base station, so that the base station transmits configuration information of a reference signal to the terminal according to the indication information, and allocates time-frequency resources for feeding back information indicating a transmission beam in the target beam pair.

Based on any of the embodiments provided above, the method may further comprise: and the base station transmits uplink authorization to the terminal, wherein the uplink authorization is used for indicating the terminal to feed back the indication information of the transmitting beam in the target beam pair. The uplink grant may be carried in message 2 or message 4, which is not limited to this. The message may be a message transmitted in the random access procedure or a message transmitted after the random access procedure.

In one embodiment of the present application, the uplink grant may be transmitted before the message 3, for example, the uplink grant is carried in the message 2, and the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant may be a resource in the message 3. This embodiment can be applied to the embodiment shown in fig. 7 or 8, but the present application is not limited thereto.

In one embodiment of the present application, the uplink grant may be transmitted before the feedback information of the message 4, for example, the uplink grant is carried in the message 2 or the message 4, and the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant may be a resource in the feedback information of the message 4. This embodiment can be applied to the embodiment shown in fig. 10 or 11, although the present application is not limited thereto.

In an embodiment of the present application, the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant may not be a resource in a certain message in the random access procedure, for example, after the message 4 is sent in the random access procedure, the uplink grant may be sent to the terminal. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in this case, the terminal feeds back the indication information of the transmit beam in the target beam pair on the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant.

In one embodiment of the present application, the message 3 carries indication information, where the indication information indicates that the base station sends an uplink grant to the terminal in the message 4, and the terminal feeds back, on a time-frequency resource specified by the uplink grant included in the message 4, information of a transmission beam in the target beam pair.

In one embodiment of the present application, the terminal carries indication information in message 3, which indicates that the base station transmits reference signals and/or reference signal configuration information in message 4.

It will be appreciated that the first beam pair determined after the preliminary alignment of the downlink beam is performed between the base station and the terminal is the one with the better downlink channel quality, but that there may be other beam pairs with better channel quality than the first beam pair. One of the beam pairs, of which the channel quality is better than that of the first beam pair, is hereinafter referred to as a "third beam pair".

Based on this, in one embodiment of the present application, the method may further include: and the terminal sends indication information to the base station, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the third beam pair. The indication information may be explicit indication information or implicit indication information. The indication information may be carried in a message of the prior art, e.g. message 3. Of course, the present application is not limited thereto. For example, the third beam pair may be indicated by information such as a time index of a downlink synchronization signal block transmitted on the third beam pair, or an index of a transmit beam in the third beam pair. In this case, beam refinement may be achieved based on the third beam pair, i.e. the base station transmits reference signals to the terminal via a plurality of beams related to the transmit beam in the third beam pair, wherein each beam transmits one or more reference signals, which may be carried in message 2 or message 4, although the application is not limited thereto. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that when the features of this embodiment are applied to any of the embodiments provided above, some of the terms may need to be modified accordingly and will not be repeated here. In this embodiment, it can be understood that: and (3) starting to execute a random access process through one beam pair (namely a first beam pair) preliminarily determined by the downlink beam preliminary alignment process, continuing to execute the downlink beam preliminary alignment while executing the random access process, and then feeding back information of a transmitting beam in the beam pair under the condition that a terminal determines the beam pair with better channel quality, so that beam fine alignment is performed based on the beam pair. In this way, the beam gain can be improved while saving the execution time of the random access procedure.

In any of the above embodiments, subsequently, the base station may send a data channel, a control channel, a probe signal, etc. to the terminal through a transmit beam in the target beam pair, and the terminal may receive the send data channel, the control channel, the probe signal, etc. sent by the base station through a receive beam in the target beam pair, thereby improving the beam performance gain.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the features of the different embodiments above may be rearranged to obtain a new embodiment without further elaboration here.

The above embodiments describe how to perform the downlink beam fine alignment process, and how to perform the uplink beam fine alignment process is described below. During the uplink beam fine alignment, the terminal may generate at least two types of beams. Alternatively, the base station may generate at least two types of beams.

As shown in fig. 14, the method may include the following steps S801 to S804:

s801: the base station transmits configuration information of the reference signal to the terminal through a transmitting beam in the first beam pair, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal may be transmitted in system information or message 2 or message 4.

The specific implementation process of S801 may refer to the above, and will not be described herein.

S802: the terminal receives configuration information of reference signals sent by the base station through a receiving beam in a first beam pair, and sends the reference signals to the base station through a plurality of beams related to a transmitting beam in a second beam pair according to the configuration information of the reference signals, wherein one or more reference signals are sent to the base station through each beam, and time domain and/or frequency domain resources can be multiplexed among the reference signals sent through different beams.

Alternatively, step S802 may be performed after the terminal receives the message 4 in the random access procedure, which is of course not limited thereto.

S803: the base station receives the reference signals transmitted by each beam of the terminal associated with the transmit beam of the second beam pair via the receive beam of the second beam pair (or one or more beams associated with the receive beam of the second beam pair), and determines a target beam pair based on the received reference signals.

S804: the base station transmits indication information of the transmission beam in the target beam pair to the terminal through the transmission beam in the first beam pair (or the transmission beam in the target beam pair). And the terminal receives the information of the transmitting beam in the target beam pair sent by the base station through the receiving beam in the first beam pair.

In this embodiment, subsequently, the terminal may send a data channel, a control channel, a probe signal, and the like to the base station through a transmit beam in the target beam pair, and the base station may receive the send data channel, the control channel, the probe signal, and the like sent by the terminal through a receive beam in the target beam pair, thereby improving the beam performance gain.

The above description has been presented mainly from the point of interaction between the network elements. It is understood that each network element, e.g. a base station or a terminal. To achieve the above functions, it includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules that perform the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the elements and algorithm steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the application may divide the functional modules of the base station or the terminal according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation. The following description will take the case of dividing each functional module into corresponding functions as an example:

the embodiment of the invention also provides an information transmission device. The information transmission device may be a base station. Fig. 15 shows a simplified schematic of a base station architecture. The base station includes 1501 and 1502 portions. The 1501 part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals; section 1502 is mainly used for baseband processing, control of the base station, etc. Portion 1501 may be generally referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or transceiver, etc. Section 1502 is typically a control center of the base station, which may be generally referred to as a processing unit, for controlling the base station to perform the steps performed with respect to the base station in any of the figures 7, 8, 10, 11, 13 or 14 described above. See for details the description of the relevant parts above.

The transceiver unit of section 1501, which may also be referred to as a transceiver, or transceiver, etc., includes an antenna and a radio frequency unit, where the radio frequency unit is primarily used for radio frequency processing. Alternatively, a device for realizing a receiving function in the 1501 portion may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for realizing a transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, i.e., the 1501 portion includes the receiving unit and the transmitting unit. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

Section 1502 may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories, the processors configured to read and execute programs in the memories to implement baseband processing functions and control of the base station. If there are multiple boards, the boards can be interconnected to increase processing power. As an alternative implementation manner, the multiple boards may share one or more processors, or the multiple boards may share one or more memories, or the multiple boards may share one or more processors at the same time.

For example, in one implementation, the sending unit may be configured to: and sending configuration information and uplink authorization of the reference signal to the terminal, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in a random access process. The receiving unit may be configured to: and receiving the beam indication information sent by the terminal through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink authorization.

In another implementation manner, the sending unit may be configured to send configuration information of the reference signal to the terminal, where the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in a random access procedure, so as to instruct the terminal to send the reference signal according to the configuration information of the reference signal. The receiving unit may be configured to receive a reference signal sent by a terminal, and send beam indication information to the terminal according to the reference signal.

Optionally, the configuration information of the reference signal is sent in system information or message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure.

Optionally, the uplink grant is sent in message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure; alternatively, the uplink grant is sent after message 4 in the random access procedure.

Optionally, the receiving unit may be further configured to: and receiving first request information sent by the terminal, wherein the first request information is used for requesting configuration information of the reference signal. The first request information may be carried in message 3 of the random access procedure.

Optionally, the sending unit may be further configured to: the reference signal is transmitted in message 2 or message 4 of the random access procedure, or after message 4 is transmitted.

Optionally, the sending unit may be further configured to: a plurality of reference signals are transmitted through a plurality of beams, wherein each beam transmits one or more reference signals, and the beam indicated by the beam indication information is one of the plurality of beams.

The embodiment of the invention also provides an information transmission device which can be a terminal. The terminal may be adapted to perform the steps performed by the terminal in any of the figures 7, 8, 10, 11, 13 or 14. Fig. 16 shows a simplified schematic of the structure of a terminal. For easy understanding and convenient illustration, in fig. 16, the terminal uses a mobile phone as an example. As shown in fig. 2, the terminal includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting a baseband signal and a radio frequency signal and processing the radio frequency signal. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminals may not have an input/output device.

When data need to be sent, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be sent and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor is shown in fig. 16. In an actual end product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc. The memory may be provided separately from the processor or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited by the embodiments of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit with the transceiver function may be regarded as a transceiver unit of the terminal, and the processor with the processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal. As shown in fig. 16, the terminal includes a transceiver unit 1601 and a processing unit 1602. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. The processing unit may also be called a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, etc. Alternatively, a device for realizing the receiving function in the transceiver unit 1601 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for realizing the transmitting function in the transceiver unit 1601 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 1601 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or the like. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or receiving circuit, among others. The transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

For example, in one implementation, the receiving unit may be configured to receive configuration information and uplink grant of a reference signal sent by a base station, where the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a random access procedure. The transmitting unit may be configured to: and transmitting beam indication information to the base station through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant. In another implementation manner, the receiving unit may be configured to receive configuration information of a reference signal sent by a base station, where the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a random access procedure. The transmitting unit may be configured to transmit the reference signal to the base station according to configuration information of the reference signal. The receiving unit may also be configured to receive beam indication information sent by the base station.

Optionally, the configuration information of the reference signal is received in system information or message 2 or message 4 in the random access procedure.

Optionally, the sending unit may be further configured to: sending first request information to a base station; wherein the first request information is used for requesting configuration information of the reference signal. The first request information may be carried in message 3.

Optionally, the receiving unit may be further configured to: and receiving the reference signal according to the configuration information of the reference signal. Optionally, receiving the reference signal in the message 4 in the random access process according to the configuration information of the reference signal; or, according to the configuration information of the reference signal, after receiving the message 4 in the random access process, receiving the reference signal sent by the base station.

Optionally, the receiving unit 1502 may be further configured to: and sending second request information to the base station, wherein the second request information is used for requesting to acquire the beam indication information. The second request information may be carried in the message 3 in the random access procedure, or in other messages in the prior art, which is not limited to this.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device including one or more servers, data centers, etc. that can be integrated with the medium. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

Although the present application has been described herein in connection with various embodiments, other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed application, from a review of the figures, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Although the present application has been described in connection with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents that fall within the scope of the present application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present application without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims and the equivalents thereof, the present application is intended to cover such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. An information transmission method, comprising:

transmitting configuration information and uplink authorization of a reference signal to a terminal, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is transmitted in a message 2 or a message 4 in a random access process; the reference signal comprises a downlink reference signal;

transmitting a plurality of the reference signals through a plurality of beams;

receiving beam indication information sent by the terminal through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink authorization; the beam indication information comprises indication information of transmitting beams in a target beam pair, and the width of the transmitting beams in the target beam pair is smaller than that of the transmitting beams in the beam pair for transmitting the system information; the target beam pairs are used to transmit data channels, control channels, and probe signals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the position of the substrate comprises,

the uplink authorization is sent in message 2 or message 4 in the random access process;

alternatively, the uplink grant is sent after message 4 in the random access procedure.

3. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, further comprising:

and receiving a message 3 sent by the terminal in the random access process, wherein the message 3 carries first request information for requesting configuration information of the reference signal.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

transmitting the reference signal in message 4 in the random access procedure;

alternatively, after sending message 4, the reference signal is sent.

5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein,

one or more of the reference signals are transmitted through each beam, and the beam indicated by the beam indication information is one of the plurality of beams.

6. An information transmission method, comprising:

receiving configuration information and uplink authorization of a reference signal sent by a base station, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a message 2 or a message 4 in a random access process; the reference signal comprises a downlink reference signal;

receiving the reference signal sent by the base station;

transmitting beam indication information to the base station through the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant; the beam indication information comprises indication information of transmitting beams in a target beam pair, and the width of the transmitting beams in the target beam pair is smaller than that of the transmitting beams in the beam pair for transmitting the system information; the target beam pairs are used to transmit data channels, control channels, and probe signals.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of providing the first layer comprises,

the uplink authorization is received in a message 2 or a message 4 in the random access process;

alternatively, the uplink grant is received after message 4 in the random access procedure.

8. A method according to any of claims 6 to 7, characterized in that before receiving configuration information of reference signals transmitted by a base station, the method comprises:

in a message 3 in the random access process, first request information is sent to the base station; the first request information is used for requesting configuration information of the reference signal.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 7, further comprising:

receiving the reference signal sent by the base station in a message 4 in the random access process according to the configuration information of the reference signal;

or, according to the configuration information of the reference signal, after receiving the message 4, receiving the reference signal sent by the base station.

10. An information transmission method, comprising:

transmitting configuration information of a reference signal to a terminal, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is transmitted in a message 2 or a message 4 in a random access process; the reference signal comprises an uplink reference signal;

Receiving the reference signal sent by the terminal;

according to the reference signal, beam indication information is sent to the terminal; the beam indication information comprises indication information of transmitting beams in a target beam pair, and the width of the transmitting beams in the target beam pair is smaller than that of the transmitting beams in the beam pair for transmitting the system information; the target beam pairs are used to transmit data channels, control channels, and probe signals.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a message 3 sent by the terminal in the random access process, wherein the message 3 carries second request information for requesting to acquire beam indication information;

and determining the beam indication information according to the second request information and the reference signal.

12. An information transmission method, comprising:

receiving configuration information of a reference signal sent by a base station, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal is received in a message 2 or a message 4 in a random access process; the reference signal comprises an uplink reference signal;

transmitting a reference signal to the base station through a plurality of beams according to the configuration information of the reference signal;

Receiving beam indication information sent by the base station; the beam indication information comprises indication information of transmitting beams in a target beam pair, and the width of the transmitting beams in the target beam pair is smaller than that of the transmitting beams in the beam pair for transmitting the system information; the target beam pairs are used to transmit data channels, control channels, and probe signals.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

and in the message 3 in the random access process, sending second request information to the base station, wherein the second request information is used for requesting to acquire beam indication information.

14. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 13, wherein,

one or more reference signals are transmitted through each beam, and the beam indicated by the beam indication information is one of the plurality of beams.

15. The method according to any of claims 12 to 13, wherein the beam indication information comprises at least one of the following information: index of the beam, index of the port to which the beam corresponds, index of the reference signal to which the beam corresponds.

16. The method according to any of claims 12 to 13, wherein the reference signal comprises any of: channel state information reference signal CSI-RS, demodulation reference signal DMRS.

17. An information transmission apparatus for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 16.

18. A computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which program, when being executed by a processor, causes a method according to any one of claims 1 to 16 to be performed.