CN109428636B

CN109428636B - Beam indication and reporting method, network equipment and terminal

Info

Publication number: CN109428636B
Application number: CN201710720140.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 金黄平; 韩玮; 毕晓艳; 张闽
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-08-21
Filing date: 2017-08-21
Publication date: 2021-10-15
Anticipated expiration: 2037-08-21
Also published as: CN109428636A; WO2019037694A1

Abstract

The application provides a beam indicating and reporting method, a network device and a terminal, wherein the method comprises the following steps: generating indication information, wherein for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam attribute of the transmission layer corresponding to each beam in a beam set, wherein the beam attribute is one of a plurality of beam attributes, and the plurality of beam attributes at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; and sending the indication information. According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, when the precoding vector is constructed in a beam combination mode, whether the beam can be used as a reference beam or a non-reference beam is indicated. The selection range of the reference beam which has a large influence on the spatial direction of the precoding vector can be limited, so that the direction of data transmission pointed by the precoding vector obtained in a beam combination mode is limited and/or adjusted, and the purpose of reducing interference is achieved.

Description

Beam indication and reporting method, network equipment and terminal

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method for indicating and reporting a beam, a network device, and a terminal.

Background

Massive multiple input and multiple output (Massive MIMO) is one of the 5G key technologies acknowledged in the industry, and significant improvement of spectral efficiency is achieved by using Massive antennas. The accuracy of Channel State Information (CSI) that can be acquired by the base station determines the performance of Massive MIMO to a great extent. In a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system or a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system in which channel reciprocity is not well satisfied, a codebook is generally used to quantize CSI. Therefore, codebook design is a key issue for Massive MIMO.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) to prevent inter-cell interference, codebook subset restriction (CBSR/CSR) signaling is defined. The basic principle is as follows: the network configures corresponding parameters through Radio Resource Control (RRC) to limit the range of a precoding matrix that can be used by the terminal, thereby reducing the interference of data beams sent by the base station to the terminal to other cells as much as possible.

The method for constructing a precoding matrix in a New Radio (NR) technology is different from the LTE standard, and specifically, the NR constructs a precoding vector using a beam combining (beam combining) technology, which is greatly different from a method adopted in the LTE standard in which an appropriate matrix is directly selected from a codebook as a precoding matrix (this method may also be referred to as beam selection), so that a codebook subset restriction scheme adopted in the LTE standard for reducing interference cannot be applied to the beam combining technology adopted in the NR.

It follows that there is a need to design a codebook subset restriction scheme that is applicable to NR.

Disclosure of Invention

As described above, for the problem that the LTE codebook subset restriction scheme cannot be applied to NR, the embodiments of the present application provide a beam indication method and a corresponding beam reporting method, including:

the network device generates indication information, wherein for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam attribute of each beam in a beam set corresponding to the transmission layer, wherein the beam attribute is one of a plurality of beam attributes, and the plurality of beam attributes at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; and the network equipment sends the indication information to the terminal. After receiving the indication information sent by the network device, the terminal determines, for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, a beam attribute of each beam in the beam set corresponding to the transmission layer according to the indication information. The beam attribute restricts whether the beam can be used as a candidate beam, and further restricts whether the beam can be used as a candidate reference beam and a candidate non-reference beam in different transmission layers when the beam is used as a candidate beam, so that when a precoding vector is constructed by a beam combination method, the beam is used as a component vector, a reference beam or a non-reference beam of a precoding vector corresponding to a transmission layer. Therefore, the selection range of the reference beam which has a large influence on the spatial direction of the precoding vector can be limited, so that the direction of data transmission pointed by the precoding vector obtained in a beam combination mode is limited and/or adjusted, the purpose of reducing interference is achieved, and the interference of the superposed beam direction to other cells can be avoided.

In one implementation, the indication information is used to indicate beam properties of each beam in the beam set corresponding to different transmission layers; in this case, the indication information may indicate beam properties of one beam corresponding to different transport layers.

In another implementation manner, the indication information indicates beam attributes of different beams of different transmission layers respectively; the beam properties of different beams of the same transmission layer are different; in this case, separate indication information is required to indicate the beam properties of each of the beams corresponding to different transmission layers.

In yet another implementation, the indication information is used to indicate beam attributes of different beams of different transmission layers; the beam properties of all beams under the same transmission layer are the same, in which case, the indication information is required to indicate whether different transmission layers can be used as candidate beams, and if the transmission layer can be used as a candidate beam, the beam properties of each beam in the transmission layer are further indicated.

Wherein the indication information includes a plurality of pieces of sub-information, each piece of sub-information corresponds to one beam in the beam set, and the sub-information is used for indicating one of the following:

for a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate reference beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate reference beam;

for a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate non-reference beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate reference beam;

for a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate non-reference beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate non-reference beam;

for a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a non-candidate beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a non-candidate beam;

wherein the first transport layer is stronger than the second transport layer.

The first transmission layer is stronger than the second transmission layer, and the singular value corresponding to the first transmission layer is more than that corresponding to the second transmission layer; or the energy of the main path of the first transmission layer is stronger than that of the second transmission layer.

The indication information is transmitted by Radio Resource Control (RRC).

After the terminal receives the indication information, for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, after determining the beam attribute of each beam in the beam set corresponding to the transmission layer according to the indication information, then determining whether to report the beam, and the position and the superposition coefficient of the reported beam according to the beam attribute of each beam under each transmission layer.

Specifically, the determining whether to report the beam, and the position and the superposition coefficient of the reported beam according to the beam attribute of each beam under each transmission layer includes:

when the beam attribute is a non-candidate beam, reporting is not carried out;

when the beam attribute is a candidate non-reference beam, reporting the position and the broadband amplitude of the beam, wherein the broadband amplitude is less than 1;

and when the beam attribute is the candidate reference beam, reporting the position of the beam.

On the other hand, embodiments of the present application provide a network device, which may be a base station or a control node.

Such network-side devices may include systems and devices that are improvements to peer devices in conventional wireless telecommunications systems. Such advanced or next generation equipment may be included in an evolved wireless communication standard, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE).

The network device includes:

a processor configured to generate indication information, wherein for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam property of the transmission layer corresponding to each beam in a beam set, and the beam property is one of a plurality of beam properties, and the plurality of beam properties at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam;

and the transceiver is used for transmitting the indication information generated by the processor.

On the other hand, the embodiment of the present application provides a base station, and the base station has a function of implementing the base station behavior in the above method. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

In one possible design, the base station includes a processor and a transceiver in its structure, and the processor is configured to support the base station to perform the corresponding functions in the above method. The transceiver is used for supporting communication between the base station and the UE, sending information or signaling related in the method to the UE, and receiving information or instructions sent by the base station. The base station may also include a memory, coupled to the processor, that retains program instructions and data necessary for the base station.

In another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal, where the terminal has a function of implementing a terminal behavior in the above method design. The functions may be implemented by hardware, and the structure of the terminal includes a transceiver and a processor.

A transceiver configured to receive indication information from a network device, wherein for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam property of the transmission layer corresponding to each beam in a beam set, and the beam property is one of a plurality of beam properties, and the plurality of beam properties at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam;

a processor, configured to determine, for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, a beam attribute of each beam of the beam set corresponding to the transmission layer according to the indication information.

The terminal can also be realized by executing corresponding software through hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. The modules may be software and/or hardware.

In yet another aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a control node, which may include a controller/processor, a memory, and a communication unit. The controller/processor may be configured to coordinate resource management and configuration among a plurality of base stations and may be configured to perform the methods described in the above embodiments. The memory may be used for storing program codes and data of the control node. The communication unit is configured to support the control node to communicate with the base station, for example, to send information of the allocated resource to the base station.

In still another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, where the communication system includes the base station and the terminal described in the above aspect. Optionally, the method may further include the control node in the foregoing embodiment.

In yet another aspect, the present application provides a computer storage medium for storing computer software instructions for the base station, which includes a program designed to perform the above aspects.

In another aspect, the present application provides a computer storage medium for storing computer software instructions for the terminal, which includes a program designed to execute the above aspects.

Drawings

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

Fig. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a wireless communication network according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a beam indicating and reporting method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

First, the relevant techniques and terms referred to herein are explained for the convenience of the reader:

1) ideal precoding vectors, component vectors, base codebooks

In a specific implementation process, the ideal precoding vector may be obtained by a plurality of methods, and the ideal precoding vectors obtained by different methods may be different. For example, the ideal precoding vector may be obtained by performing Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) on the channel matrix. Specifically, the channel matrix may be decomposed into a product of a left unitary matrix, a diagonal matrix, and a right unitary matrix by performing Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) on the channel matrix. In a specific implementation process, a conjugate transpose matrix of the right unitary matrix can be used as an ideal precoding matrix, and a column vector of the ideal precoding matrix can be used as an ideal precoding vector. The ideal precoding matrix obtained by singular value decomposition may be obtained by, for example, but not limited to, eigenvalue decomposition of a correlation matrix of a channel matrix. In the specific implementation process, the specific value of the ideal precoding vector and the acquisition method thereof can be determined according to the overall requirements of the system design. The technical details of the ideal precoding vector have already been clearly described in the prior art, and thus are not described herein again. In addition, the channel matrix may be obtained by using a reference signal, and the form of the channel matrix may be various, and the values of different forms of the channel matrix may be different. The technical details of the channel matrix are already clearly described in the prior art and therefore will not be described herein.

After obtaining the above-mentioned ideal precoding vector, the ideal precoding vector can be approximately expressed in the form of a weighted sum of a plurality of component vectors, that is:

where P represents an ideal precoding vector, b_iRepresenting the component vector i, a_iRepresenting the superposition coefficients of the component vector i. In a specific implementation process, the number m of component vectors (m is a positive integer) may be set according to specific needs (for example, but not limited to, needs of accuracy), for example, the number of component vectors may be a preset number.

The base codebook is a set of candidate vectors. The base codebook may be generally represented in the form of a matrix, and therefore, the base codebook may also be referred to as a base codebook matrix, and the candidate vectors are column vectors of the base codebook matrix. The base codebook matrices mentioned herein may be interchanged with the base codebook matrices if not specifically stated or if not inconsistent with their actual role or inherent logic in the relevant description.

The base codebook matrix includes a plurality of column vectors, some of which may be selected as component vectors. There are many methods for selecting the component vector, and an appropriate method may be selected according to specific needs. For example, the component vectors may be determined from the plurality of column vectors according to the proximity of the column vectors of the base codebook matrix to the ideal precoding vector, wherein the column vectors with the highest proximity to the ideal precoding vector may be selected as the component vectors. In a specific implementation, the above proximity may be embodied as, for example, but not limited to, an inner product or euclidean distance between a column vector of the base codebook matrix and an ideal precoding vector. Taking the inner product as an example, when determining the component vectors, a plurality of column vectors whose inner products with the ideal precoding vector (for example, if the inner products are complex numbers, the magnitudes of the inner products) are the largest may be taken as the component vectors, and when a plurality of base codebook matrices exist, the plurality of column vectors may belong to different base codebooks. In addition, the inner product of each component vector and the ideal precoding vector can be further used as the superposition coefficient of the component vector.

In a specific implementation, when the superposition coefficient is selected from a specific superposition coefficient set, the above-mentioned component vector and the superposition coefficient thereof may also be determined in a traversal manner. For example, if the number of the component vectors is 4, 4 candidate vectors may be selected from the base codebook matrix as the component vectors, and 4 superposition coefficients may be selected from the superposition coefficient set as the superposition coefficients of the selected 4 component vectors, so as to construct a quasi-ideal precoding vector, and the quasi-ideal precoding vector is compared with the channel matrix to determine whether the quasi-ideal precoding vector may be used as the ideal precoding vector. For example, the channel matrix may be precoded by the quasi-ideal precoding vector, and the channel capacity of the precoded channel matrix is calculated, and when the channel capacity is higher than a preset threshold, the quasi-ideal precoding vector is determined as an ideal precoding vector, the candidate vector is determined as a component vector, and the superposition coefficient is determined as a superposition coefficient of the component vectors. Furthermore, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the above-mentioned component vectors and superposition coefficients can also be directly obtained by the channel matrix without first obtaining an ideal precoding vector. The embodiment of the present invention does not limit how to determine the component vectors and the superposition coefficients.

After the component vectors and the superposition coefficients are obtained, the component vectors are weighted and combined through the superposition coefficients, and a precoding vector can be obtained to simulate an ideal precoding vector. The transmitting terminal equipment can directly use the precoding vector for precoding the signal to be transmitted, can also perform other processing on the precoding vector, and precodes the signal to be transmitted through the processed precoding vector. In a specific implementation procedure, the other processing may be to reconstruct a precoding vector, for example, to perform orthogonalization processing on precoding vectors of multiple users to be scheduled simultaneously. The foregoing has been clearly described in the prior art and will not be described in detail herein.

For convenience of description, in the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present invention, the column vectors included in the base codebook matrix may be referred to as beams (beams), in which case, the above-mentioned method for performing weighted combination on the component vectors by using the superposition coefficients to obtain the precoding vectors may be referred to as beam combination (beam combination), and the above-mentioned component vectors may also be referred to as component beams. The related art regarding beam combining has been described in detail in the prior art, and thus is not described in detail herein. Meanwhile, among the component vectors of the precoding vector, a component vector closest to the precoding vector may be referred to as a reference beam, and the other component vectors may be referred to as non-reference beams. In a specific implementation process, there are many methods for determining the reference beam and the non-reference beam, and the reference beam and the non-reference beam determined by different methods may be different. The base codebook and the base codebook matrix may be referred to as a base beam set. In a specific implementation process, a beam may be selected from the base beam set as a component vector, or a beam may be selected from a subset of the base beam set as a component vector.

Each precoding vector may precode a data stream, which may also be referred to as a Layer (Layer), a data Layer, or a transport Layer, and Layer x may be represented using Layer-x or Layer-x in embodiments of the present application. The relevant content of the relevant layers has already been clearly described in the prior art and is therefore not described in detail here. In a specific implementation process, multiple transmission layers may be precoded through multiple precoding vectors at the same time, so as to implement multi-stream (or multi-layer) transmission, thereby improving channel transmission efficiency. Generally, the transmission quality of these transmission layers tends to be different. For example, when an ideal precoding vector is obtained by singular value decomposition, the transmission quality of a transmission layer precoded by an ideal precoding vector corresponding to a larger singular value tends to be higher than the transmission quality of a transmission layer precoded by an ideal precoding vector corresponding to a smaller singular value.

In data transmission, a precoding vector can often be used to characterize the spatial direction of data transmission, which depends to a large extent on the direction of the reference beam of the precoding vector. In order to avoid causing interference to other data transmissions, e.g. data transmissions between a neighbouring base station and a terminal served by the neighbouring base station, it may be attempted to set the direction of the precoding vector to deviate from the direction of the other data transmissions. For convenience of description, the direction of the above-described other data transmission may be referred to as a limiting direction. In a specific implementation, the limiting direction may be simulated by one or more beams in the basic beam set or the subset thereof, and for convenience of description, the one or more beams may be referred to as limiting beams, meaning beams that are limited for use. In order to avoid the above-mentioned restricted direction, a specific beam may be selected from beams other than the above-mentioned restricted beam as a reference beam to be precoded as a vector, and in this case, a reference beam that largely determines the direction of the precoding vector will not be a restricted beam, and as a result, the precoding vector will deviate from the above-mentioned restricted direction to some extent. In selecting a beam, a selection may be made from the beams contained in the base set of beams or a subset thereof. In other words, when setting the reference beam of the precoding vector, the above-described limiting beam is to be avoided.

In this way, when the precoding vector is constructed by a beam combination method, beam attributes can be set for beams in the basic beam set or the subset thereof, so as to indicate whether the beam can be used as a component vector, a reference beam or a non-reference beam of the precoding vector corresponding to a transmission layer. For example, the set beam properties may be selected from a plurality of beam properties, which may include at least: the non-candidate beam, the candidate reference beam and the candidate non-reference beam, wherein, corresponding to a transmission layer, if the beam attribute of a beam is a non-candidate beam, the beam cannot be used as the component vector of the precoding vector, so that the beam can be a limited beam; if the beam attribute of a beam is a candidate reference beam, the beam may be used as a reference beam of the precoding vector, and further, the beam may also be used as a non-reference beam of the precoding vector; if the beam attribute of a beam is a non-reference beam, the beam can be a non-reference beam of the precoding vector and cannot be a reference beam.

It should be noted that, in a specific implementation process, it is also possible to set the beam property of a beam based on other reasons, so as to determine whether the beam can be used as a component vector of a precoding vector, a reference beam or a non-reference beam, for example, and is not limited only by the purpose of avoiding interference as described above.

3) A plurality of, and/or a first, a second

The term "plurality" in this application means two or more. The term "and/or" in the present application is only one kind of association relationship describing the associated object, and means that there may be three kinds of relationships, for example, a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship. The terms "first" and "second" in the present application are used to distinguish different objects, and do not limit the order of the different objects.

Generally speaking, in the communication process, a terminal determines a channel matrix according to a reference signal transmitted by a network device, determines a precoding vector based on the channel matrix and a base codebook, and feeds back related information of the obtained precoding vector to the network device. The network equipment acquires the precoding vector, precodes data to be transmitted according to the precoding vector, and transmits the precoded data to the terminal. In order to minimize interference to other cells caused by data beams transmitted by the network device to the terminal, the network device may configure corresponding parameters through, for example but not limited to, Radio Resource Control (RRC), so as to limit the range of beams that can be used by the terminal.

Two basic codebook types are currently defined in New Radio (NR), one is a beam selection (beam selection) codebook, and the other is a beam combination (beam combination) codebook. The Beam selection codebook can adopt a CBSR method similar to a Class A codebook in LTE, and signaling bits are directly used for indexing parameters i1/Layer/i2 of the codebook. However, for the beam combination codebook, the CBSR codebook thereof cannot be restricted like class a, because the direction of the final precoding matrix is the result of the superposition of a plurality of beams, and the direction of the final precoding matrix cannot be represented by restricting the direction of a single beam, so the technical problem solved by the present application is how to restrict the range of beams that can be used by the terminal, thereby restricting the range of precoding vectors used by the terminal.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application provide a beam indicating method and device, which are helpful to achieve the following beneficial effects: when the precoding vector is constructed by a beam combination method, beam attributes can be set for beams in the basic beam set or the subset thereof, so as to indicate whether the beam can be used as a transmission layer corresponding to a reference beam or a non-reference beam. Therefore, the selection range of the reference beam which has a large influence on the spatial direction of the precoding vector can be limited, so that the direction of data transmission pointed by the precoding vector obtained by the beam combination mode is limited and/or adjusted, and the purpose of reducing interference is achieved.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a wireless communication network 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless communication network 100 includes base stations 102-106 and terminal devices 108-122, wherein the base stations 102-106 can communicate with each other via backhaul (backhaul) links (shown as straight lines between the base stations 102-106), and the backhaul links can be wired backhaul links (e.g., optical fiber, copper cable) or wireless backhaul links (e.g., microwave). The terminal devices 108-122 can communicate with the corresponding base stations 102-106 via wireless links (as indicated by the broken lines between the base stations 102-106 and the terminal devices 108-122).

The base stations 102-106 are used for providing wireless access services for the terminal devices 108-122. Specifically, each base station corresponds to a service coverage area (which may also be referred to as a cell, as shown by the oval areas in fig. 1), and a terminal device entering the service coverage area can communicate with the base station through a wireless signal to receive a wireless access service provided by the base station. The service coverage areas of the base stations may overlap, and terminal devices in the overlapping areas can receive wireless signals from a plurality of base stations, so that the base stations can cooperate with each other to provide services for the terminal devices. For example, multiple base stations may use a Coordinated multipoint (CoMP) technology to provide services for terminal devices in the overlapping area. For example, as shown in fig. 1, there is an overlap between service coverage areas of base station 102 and base station 104, and terminal device 112 is located in the overlap area, so that terminal device 112 can receive wireless signals from base station 102 and base station 104, and base station 102 and base station 104 can cooperate with each other to provide service for terminal device 112. For another example, as shown in fig. 1, the service coverage areas of base station 102, base station 104, and base station 106 have a common overlapping area, and terminal device 120 is located in the overlapping area, so that terminal device 120 can receive wireless signals from base stations 102, 104, and 106, and base stations 102, 104, and 106 can cooperate with each other to provide service for terminal device 120.

Depending on the wireless communication technology used, the base station may also be referred to as a node B (nodeb), an evolved node B (eNodeB), an Access Point (AP), and the like. In addition, the base station may be divided into a Macro base station for providing a Macro cell (Macro cell), a micro base station for providing a micro cell (pico cell), a Femto base station for providing a Femto cell (Femto cell), and the like according to the size of the service coverage area provided. As wireless communication technology continues to evolve, future base stations may also take on other names.

The terminal devices 108-122 may be various wireless communication devices with wireless communication functions, such as, but not limited to, a mobile cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a wireless data card, a wireless Modem (Modem), or a wearable device such as a smart watch. With the advent of Internet of Things (IOT), more and more devices that did not have communication capabilities before, such as but not limited to, home appliances, vehicles, tool devices, service devices, and service facilities, began to obtain wireless communication capabilities by configuring wireless communication units so that they could access a wireless communication network and receive remote control. Such a device has a wireless communication function due to the arrangement of the wireless communication unit, and thus also belongs to the category of wireless communication devices. Furthermore, the terminal devices 108-122 may also be referred to as mobile stations, mobile devices, mobile terminals, wireless terminals, handheld devices, clients, and the like.

The base stations 102 to 106 and the terminal devices 108 to 122 may be configured with Multiple antennas to support MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology. Further, the base stations 102 to 106 and the terminal devices 108 to 122 may support both Single-User MIMO (SU-MIMO) technology and Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO), where the MU-MIMO may be implemented based on Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) technology. Due to the configuration of Multiple antennas, base stations 102-106 and terminal devices 108-122 may also flexibly support Single Input Single Output (SISO), Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO), and Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) technologies to implement various Diversity (such as, but not limited to, Transmit Diversity and Receive Diversity) and Multiplexing technologies, where the Diversity technologies may include, but not limited to, Transmit Diversity (TD) technology and Receive Diversity (RD) technology, and the Multiplexing technology may be Spatial Multiplexing (Spatial Multiplexing) technology. Moreover, the various techniques described above may also include various implementations, for example, the Transmit Diversity techniques may include Space-Time Transmit Diversity (STTD), Space-Frequency Transmit Diversity (SFTD), Time-Switched Transmit Diversity (TSTD), Frequency-Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD), Orthogonal Transmit Diversity (OTD), Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD), and the like, as well as Diversity schemes obtained by deriving, evolving, and combining the Diversity schemes. For example, the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard currently adopts Space Time Block Coding (STBC), Space Frequency Block Coding (SFBC), CDD and other transmission diversity methods.

In addition, the base stations 102-106 and the terminal devices 108-122 may communicate using various wireless communication technologies, such as, but not limited to, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) technology, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), Orthogonal frequency Division Multiple Access (Orthogonal FDMA, OFDMA) technology, Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) technology, Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) technology, and evolution and derivation of these technologies. The above-mentioned wireless communication Technology is adopted as a Radio Access Technology (RAT) by many wireless communication standards, so as to construct various wireless communication systems (or networks) widely known today, including but not limited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), CDMA2000, Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), WiFi defined by 802.11 series standards, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-a), and Evolution systems of these wireless communication systems. The technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to the various wireless communication technologies and wireless communication systems described above, unless otherwise specified. Furthermore, the terms "system" and "network" may be used interchangeably.

It should be noted that the wireless communication network 100 shown in fig. 1 is only for example and is not used to limit the technical solution of the present application. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that in particular implementations, the wireless communication network 100 may also include other devices, such as, but not limited to, a Base Station Controller (BSC), and the number of Base stations and terminal devices may also be configured according to particular needs.

Herein, the network devices can be the base stations 102-106 shown in FIG. 1, and the terminals can be the terminal devices 108-122 shown in FIG. 1. Embodiments of the present application provide a beam indication method and a beam receiving method, and corresponding network devices and terminals, and a detailed description is provided below for a technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 is an interaction diagram of an indication method and a method for determining a precoding vector according to an embodiment of the present application. The method illustrated in fig. 2 may include the following steps S101 to S104:

step 101: the network device generates indication information, wherein for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam attribute of each beam in a beam set corresponding to the transmission layer, wherein the beam attribute is one of a plurality of beam attributes, and the plurality of beam attributes at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; wherein the set of beams is a base set of beams or a subset of a base set of beams.

In particular implementations, the beam properties of the partial beams may not need to be indicated, in which case the beam properties of the beams may be determined in a manner predefined in the standard.

In a specific implementation process, the beam set may be a base beam set or a subset of the base beam set. In addition, the at least one transport layer may be all transport layers supported by the communication system, for example, all transport layers supported by the network device, or all transport layers supported by the terminal, or may be a part of all transport layers. Specifically, the at least one transmission layer may be all transmission layers supported by the network device when performing data transmission in the form of beam combination, or all transmission layers supported by the terminal when performing data transmission in the form of beam combination.

In a specific implementation process, various beam attributes of a beam may be as shown in the following table 1:

TABLE 1

Indicating information	Beam properties
		1	Beam Property 1
2	Beam Property 2
		…	…
K	Beam property K

The beam properties here include at least: beam property 1: the candidate reference beam, i.e., the beam, is not limited, and may be used and may be the reference beam. Beam property 2: the candidate non-reference beam, i.e., the beam, is not limited and may be used but not as a reference beam. Beam property 3: non-candidate beams, i.e., the beam is restricted and not available, are avoided from causing interference.

The indication information is used for indicating: indicating a beam property for each beam in the set of beams corresponding to a different transport layer; that is, one indication information may indicate beam properties of one beam corresponding to different transport layers.

The indication information is further used for respectively indicating beam attributes of different beams of different transmission layers; the beam properties of different beams of the same transmission layer are different; that is, for the beam properties of each beam corresponding to different transport layers, one indication information is used for indication separately.

The indication information is further used for indicating the beam properties of different beams of different transmission layers in a grading way; that is, first, whether a beam in a certain transmission layer is a candidate beam is indicated, if the beam of the transmission layer is not limited, a beam attribute of each beam corresponding to the transmission layer is further indicated, and if the transmission layer is limited, it is only required to indicate that the transmission layer is the limited transmission layer, that is, the beam attribute of each beam corresponding to the transmission layer is a non-candidate beam, and at this time, the beam attribute of each beam in the transmission layer is not required to be further indicated.

In one implementation, the indication information may include a plurality of pieces of sub-information, each piece of sub-information corresponding to one beam in the beam set, the sub-information indicating beam properties of the beam in each transmission layer in the at least one transmission layer. For example, the specific meaning of a sub-message can be expressed as { beam attribute of transmission layer 1, beam attribute of transmission layer 2 … beam attribute of transmission layer x }. Taking 2 transmission layers as an example, in the specific implementation process, the specific meaning of the sub information can be expressed as follows:

table 2:

sub information	Layer-1	Layer-2
			1	Beam Property 1	Beam Property 1
2	Beam Property 1	Beam Property 2
			…	…	…
K2	Beam Property 1	Beam property K2
			K2+1	Beam Property 2	Beam Property 1
K2+2	Beam Property 2	Beam Property 2
			…	…	…
2K2	Beam Property 2	Beam property K2
			…	…	…
(K1-1)*(K2)+1	Beam property K1	Beam Property 1
			(K1-1)*(K2)+2	Beam property K1	Beam Property 2
…	…	…
			(K1-1)*(K2)+K2	Beam property K1	Beam property K2

For example, when the information index of the sub information is 1, the specific meaning of the sub information is that the beam attribute of the beam corresponding to the sub information in the Layer-1 is beam attribute 1, and the beam attribute in the Layer-2 is beam attribute 1. In the actual data transmission process, the sub information and/or the indication information may be an index of the above specific meaning or a quantized representation of the above specific meaning.

When the beam information adopts the above implementation scheme, as a first specific implementation scheme of the embodiment of the present invention, when the number of transmission layers is 2, specific values of the sub information may be as follows in table 3:

TABLE 3

In the first specific implementation scheme, the first transmission layer is stronger than the second transmission layer, for example, the transmission quality of the first transmission layer is higher than that of the second transmission layer, or the transmission energy of the first transmission layer is stronger than that of the second transmission layer. In other words, in the first specific implementation scheme, the specific meaning of the sub information can be expressed as:

for a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate reference beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate reference beam; or

For a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate non-reference beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate reference beam; or

For a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate non-reference beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate non-reference beam; or

wherein the first transport layer is stronger than the second transport layer.

It is understood that in the above implementation, there are four values of the sub information, so that two bits can be used to indicate the sub information.

When the beam information adopts the above implementation scheme, as a second specific implementation scheme of the embodiment of the present invention, when the number of transmission layers is 2, specific values of the sub information may be as follows in table 4:

TABLE 4

Sub information	Layer-1	Layer-2
			First value	Candidate reference beams	Candidate reference beams
Second value of	Candidate reference beams	Candidate non-reference beams
			The third value	Candidate non-reference beams	Candidate reference beams
The fourth value	Candidate non-reference beams	Candidate non-reference beams
			Value of the fifth kind	Non-candidate beams	Non-candidate beams

Wherein, in the second specific implementation scheme, the first transmission layer is stronger than the second transmission layer, and the specific meaning thereof can be as described in the foregoing. In other words, in the second specific implementation scheme, the specific meaning of the sub information can be expressed as:

For a first transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate reference beam, and for a second transmission layer, the beam attribute of the beam is a candidate non-reference beam; or

wherein the first transport layer is stronger than the second transport layer. In a specific implementation process, the first transmission layer is stronger than the second transmission layer, and may be better in transmission quality than the second transmission layer.

It will be appreciated that in the above implementation, the sub information takes five values, and therefore three bits may be used to indicate the sub information.

In fact, if the first transmission layer is stronger than the second transmission layer, a beam is used as a reference beam in the first transmission layer, and the probability of being a non-reference beam in the second transmission layer is very small, i.e. the probability of the second kind of value is very small.

In a specific implementation process, when a plurality of bits are used to indicate specific values of the sub-information, the bits may be further divided into a plurality of groups, and each group of bits corresponds to one transmission layer and is used to indicate beam properties of the beam in the transmission layer. For example, when the number of transmission layers is 2, if two bits are used to indicate four values of the sub information, one bit may be used to indicate the beam property of the beam in one transmission layer, and another bit may be used to indicate the beam property of the beam in another transmission layer, for example, table 5:

TABLE 5

Sub information	Layer-1	Layer-2
			00	Beam Property 1	Beam Property 1
01	Beam Property 1	Beam Property 2
			10	Beam Property 2	Beam Property 1
11	Beam Property 2	Beam Property 2

Wherein the former bit corresponds to a transport Layer-1 and the latter bit corresponds to a transport Layer-2 among 2bits of the sub information, a beam property 1 is indicated using 0 and a beam property 2 is indicated using 1.

On the other hand, it is also possible to represent the beam properties of the beam in each transmission layer by the overall values of the bits without further distinguishing which bits are used for which transmission layer. For example, when the number of transmission layers is 2, if two bits are used to indicate four values of the sub information, the correspondence between the specific bit value of the sub information and the beam property of each beam may be as shown in table 6 below:

TABLE 6

Sub information	Layer-1	Layer-2
			00	Beam Property 1	Beam Property 2
01	Beam Property 1	Beam Property 1
			10	Beam Property 2	Beam Property 2
11	Beam Property 2	Beam Property 1

In addition, for each transmission layer, the indication information may further include specific information for indicating whether the beams in the beam set are all applicable to the transmission layer, that is, for each transmission layer, whether at least one beam exists in the beam set, and the beam attribute of the at least one beam is a non-candidate beam with respect to the transmission layer. When the beams in the beam set are all applicable to the transmission layer, the at least one beam does not exist; the at least one beam is present when the beams in the set of beams are not all applicable to the transmission layer. It should be understood that the specific information may be indicated by a bit, for example, for each transmission layer, when the value of the bit is 0, it indicates that all beams in the beam set are applicable to the transmission layer, and when the value of the bit is 1, it indicates that at least one beam in the beam set is not applicable to the transmission layer.

In one implementation, the indication information may be implemented in a form of a CBSR/CSR (codebook subset restriction) signaling, where the CBSR signaling is used to restrict a Pre-coding matrix indicator (PMI) and a transport layer indicator (RI) of a linear superposition codebook, and the PMI restriction information includes each beam attribute. Step 102, the network equipment sends out the generated indication information;

the indication information may be sent in a semi-static manner, for example, by higher layer signaling, such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling or other notification signaling; to further save the indication overhead, the indication information may be in the form of an index number, which may represent the beam limitation information of each beam in each transmission layer. The indication information may be a plurality of information, and if the indication information shown in the above tables 2 to 5 is a plurality of information, the plurality of information may or may not be transmitted simultaneously.

103, the terminal receives indication information from the network equipment;

and step 104, for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, the terminal determines the beam attribute of each beam in the beam set corresponding to the transmission layer according to the indication information.

Specifically, the terminal determines whether the beam of the beam set is a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam or a candidate non-reference beam according to the indication of the indication information, and determines whether to report the beam, and the position and the superposition coefficient of the reported beam according to the beam attribute of each beam under each transmission layer.

And step 105, the terminal reports the candidate beams to the network equipment.

Specifically, when the beam attribute is a non-candidate beam, reporting is not performed; when the beam attribute is a candidate non-reference beam, reporting the position and the broadband amplitude of the beam, wherein the broadband amplitude is less than 1; and when the beam attribute is the candidate reference beam, reporting the position of the beam.

The embodiment of the application provides a beam indicating method and device, which are beneficial to realizing the following beneficial effects: when the precoding vector is constructed by a beam combination method, beam attributes may be set for beams in the basic beam set or a subset thereof, so as to indicate whether the beam may be a component vector, a reference beam, or a non-reference beam of the precoding vector corresponding to a transmission layer. Therefore, the selection range of the reference beam which has a large influence on the spatial direction of the precoding vector can be limited, so that the direction of data transmission pointed by the precoding vector obtained by the beam combination mode is limited and/or adjusted, and the purpose of reducing interference is achieved.

Specific implementation procedures of the present application will be exemplified below.

Example one

The present embodiment is described by taking three kinds of beam attributes, the number of transmission layers is 2, and the transmission layers and the beam attributes thereof are jointly indicated by multiple pieces of sub information as an example, that is, K is 3, Layer is 2, and Layer-x is jointly indicated with beam.

As shown in table 7, this indication method requires an overhead of 3 bits.

TABLE 7

In this indication manner, 000 indicates that the beam attribute corresponding to the transmission Layer 1(Layer-1) is beam attribute 1, and the beam attribute corresponding to the transmission Layer 2(Layer-2) is also beam attribute 1, that is, the beam corresponds to the reference beam available in both Layer-1 and Layer-2, and can be used as the reference beam, that is, the candidate reference beam. The candidate reference beam may be referred to as a leading beam in this embodiment, and the following full text may be referred to as the leading beam for short. It is indicated by 001 that the beam attribute of a certain beam corresponding to the transmission Layer 1(Layer-1) is beam attribute 1, and the beam attribute corresponding to the transmission Layer 2(Layer-2) is beam attribute 2, that is, the beam corresponding to Layer-1 may be used as a leading beam, but corresponds to a beam available in Layer-2 but not as a reference beam, that is, a candidate non-reference beam, which may be referred to as a non-leading beam in the embodiment of the present application, and may be referred to as a non-leading beam in the following text for short. The beam property corresponding to the transmission Layer 1(Layer-1) is represented by 010 as beam property 2, and the beam property corresponding to the transmission Layer 2(Layer-2) is represented by beam property 1, i.e. the beam corresponds to the beam available in Layer-1 but not possible as leading beam, but corresponds to the beam available in Layer-2 and possible as leading beam. It is denoted by 011 that the beam property corresponding to transport Layer 1(Layer-1) is beam property 2 and the beam property corresponding to transport Layer 2(Layer-2) is beam property 2, i.e., the beam corresponds to available but not possible as leading beam in Layer-1 and Layer-2. The beam attribute of a certain beam corresponding to the transport Layer 1(Layer-1) is denoted by 100 as beam attribute 3, and the beam attribute corresponding to the transport Layer 2(Layer-2) is denoted by 3, i.e. the beam corresponding to neither Layer-1 nor Layer-2 is available and is a non-candidate beam. In other words, the beams correspond to Layer-1 and Layer-2, which are restricted to use, and the directions of the beams are often the directions of other data transmissions, and need to be avoided in order to avoid causing interference to the beams.

It should be understood that the above indication information is represented by binary, which is only an example, and in other implementation manners, the indication information may also be represented by other forms of indication information, and the network device and the terminal only need to specify the beam attribute or the attribute combination correspondingly represented by the indication information or the sequence number. When the network device indicates a certain beam to the terminal, which corresponds to the beam attributes of the transmission layer 1 and the transmission layer 2, only the indication information needs to be sent.

Taking into account the high energy of the main path, a beam is available at Layer-1 and can be used as a reference beam, and the probability that a beam is available at Layer-2 but cannot be used as a reference beam is very small, so that, except for this probability, table 7 is further optimized to obtain table 8.

TABLE 8

As shown in table 7, there are four possible beam attributes of a certain beam corresponding to Layer-1 and Layer-2, so that binary 00,01,10, and 11 can be used to represent the possible beam attributes, and only 2bits of indication overhead is needed, and compared with the indication information shown in table 6, the indication information shown in table 7 saves 1 bit.

Example two

In the present embodiment, the beam attribute has three attributes, the number of transmission layers is 2, and the attribute of the beam in each transmission Layer is indicated by the indication information, that is, K is 3, Layer is 2, and each Layer is independently indicated by a plurality of pieces of sub information. As shown in table 9, in this indication manner, it is indicated that a certain beam requires 2bits of overhead corresponding to three attributes of Layer-1, and 2bits of overhead is required for three attributes corresponding to Layer-2, and a total overhead of 4bits is required.

TABLE 9

Sub information	Layer-1
		000	Beam Property 1
001	Beam Property 2
		010	Beam Property 3
011	-
		Indicating information	Layer-2
100	Beam Property 1
		101	Beam Property 2
110	Beam Property 3
		111	-

In this indication method, first, 1bit is used to indicate whether the indication information corresponds to Layer-1 or Layer-2, for example, 0 is used to indicate that the indication information indicates that a certain beam corresponds to Layer-1, and 1 is used to indicate that the indication information indicates that a certain beam corresponds to Layer-2; further, a certain beam is denoted by 00, the beam property corresponding to Layer-1 is beam property 1, and the beam property corresponding to Layer-2 is also beam property 1, i.e., a candidate reference beam. Therefore, 000 means that the beam property indicating that a certain beam corresponds to Layer-1 is beam property 1; 100 means that the beam property of a certain beam corresponding to Layer-2 is beam property 1. The beam properties of the other beams corresponding to Layer-1 and Layer-2 are analogized in this way, which requires an indication overhead of 3 bits.

EXAMPLE III

The present embodiment is described by taking an example that the beam attribute has three attributes, the number of transmission layers is 2, and the transmission layers and the beam attribute are indicated by indicating information rank, that is, K is 3, Layer is 2, and Layer-x indicates Layer rank by rank with beam. Specifically, as shown in table 10, 00 indicates that all beams corresponding to two layers (Layer-1 and Layer-2) are not limited, i.e. the beam properties are beam properties 1: available and can be used as leading beam; no limitation is imposed on Layer-1 and no limitation is imposed on Layer-2 as represented by 01; no limitation is imposed on Layer-2 and no limitation is imposed on Layer-1 as indicated by 10; the restriction on all beams in Layer-1 and Layer-2 is denoted by 11;

for a restricted Layer, it is not necessary to further indicate that a certain beam corresponds to the beam property of the transmission Layer, that is, the beam properties of all beams corresponding to the transmission Layer are all property 3: a non-candidate beam. For an unrestricted Layer, it is further indicated that a certain beam corresponds to the beam properties of the transport Layer. Specifically, as shown in table 11, three beam attributes of beam are indicated by 2bits, and the meaning of the beam attribute is as described in the foregoing embodiment, which is not described herein again.

Watch 10

TABLE 11

Sub information	Beam properties
		00	Beam Property 1
01	Beam Property 2
		10	Beam Property 3
11	-

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can indicate the beam attribute of the beam by indicating the restriction condition of a certain transmission layer firstly and then further indicating the beam attribute of the beam, for example, both the two layers are not restricted and are the case of attribute 1, only 00 is needed for indication, and compared with a mode that the beam attribute of each beam of each transmission layer is independently indicated, the indication overhead is further saved.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary logical structure of a network device 600 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the network device 600 includes a generating unit 601 and a transmitting unit 602. The generating unit 601 may be configured to execute S101 in fig. 2, and generate indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate, for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, a beam attribute of each beam in a beam set corresponding to the transmission layer, where the beam attribute is one of a plurality of beam attributes, and the plurality of beam attributes at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; the generating unit 601 is further configured to perform other steps described in the present application. The sending unit 602 may be configured to execute S102 in fig. 2, that is, configured to send the indication information to the terminal, or configured to perform other steps described in this application.

The network device 600 is configured to perform the corresponding method, and the related technical content has been clearly described above, so that the description is not repeated here.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary logical structure of a terminal 700 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the terminal 700 includes a receiving unit 701 and a processing unit 702. The receiving unit 701 may be configured to perform S103 in fig. 2, that is, receive indication information from a network device; the receiving unit 701 is also used for performing other steps described in the present application. The processing unit 702 may be configured to perform S104 in fig. 2, that is, for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, determine, according to the indication information, a beam attribute of each beam in the beam set corresponding to the transmission layer, determine whether each beam under each transmission layer may serve as a candidate reference beam or a candidate non-reference beam, and report the candidate beam to a network device, where the processing unit 702 is further configured to perform other steps described in this application.

The terminal 700 is configured to perform the corresponding method, and the related technical content has been clearly described above, so that the detailed description is omitted here.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary hardware configuration of a communication device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 800 may be the network device described above or the terminal described above. As shown in fig. 5, the communication device 800 includes a processor 802, a transceiver 804, a plurality of antennas 806, a memory 808, an I/O (Input/Output) interface 810, and a bus 812. The transceiver 804 further includes a transmitter 8042 and a receiver 8044, and the memory 808 is further used to store instructions 8082 and data 8084. Further, the processor 802, the transceiver 804, the memory 808, and the I/O interface 810 are communicatively coupled to each other via a bus 812, and the plurality of antennas 806 are coupled to the transceiver 804.

The Processor 802 may be a general-purpose Processor, such as, but not limited to, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or a special-purpose Processor, such as, but not limited to, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and the like. Further, the processor 802 may be a combination of multiple processors.

When the communication device 800 is a network device, the processor 802 is configured to generate indication information

Wherein, for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam attribute of each beam in a beam set corresponding to the transmission layer, where the beam attribute is one of a plurality of beam attributes, and the plurality of beam attributes at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; which is then transmitted to the terminal via the transceiver 804.

When the communication device 800 is a terminal, the transceiver 804 receives indication information from a network device, and for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, the processor 802 determines, according to the indication information, a beam attribute of each beam in the beam set corresponding to the transmission layer, determines whether each beam under each transmission layer can be a candidate reference beam or a candidate non-reference beam, and reports the candidate beam to the network device through the transceiver 804;

the transceiver 804 includes a transmitter 8042 and a receiver 8044, wherein the transmitter 8042 is configured to transmit signals via at least one of the plurality of antennas 806. The receiver 8044 is configured to receive signals via at least one of the plurality of antennas 806.

The Memory 808 may be various types of storage media, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable PROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), flash Memory, optical Memory, and registers. The memory 808 is specifically configured to store instructions 8082 and data 8084, and the processor 802 may perform the above-described steps and/or operations by reading and executing the instructions 8082 stored in the memory 808, and the data 8084 may be required in the course of performing the above-described operations and/or steps.

I/O interface 810 is used to receive instructions and/or data from peripheral devices and to output instructions and/or data to peripheral devices.

In one embodiment of the present application, the processor 802 may be configured to execute, for example, S201 in the method shown in fig. 2. The processor 802 may be a processor specially designed to perform the above steps and/or operations, or may be a processor that performs the above steps and/or operations by reading and executing the instructions 8082 stored in the memory 808, and the processor 802 may need the data 8084 in the course of performing the above steps and/or operations. The transmitter 8042 is specifically configured to be performed by at least one antenna of the plurality of antennas 806, for example, S202 in the method shown in fig. 2.

In another embodiment of the present application, the processor 802 may be configured to perform, for example, S204 in the method shown in fig. 2. The processor 802 may be a processor specially designed to perform the above steps and/or operations, or may be a processor that performs the above steps and/or operations by reading and executing the instructions 8082 stored in the memory 808, and the processor 802 may need the data 8084 in the course of performing the above steps and/or operations. The receiver 8044 is specifically configured to be performed by at least one antenna of the plurality of antennas 806, such as S203 in the method shown in fig. 2.

It should be noted that in particular implementations, the communication device 800 may also include other hardware components, which are not listed here.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps of the above method may be performed by hardware associated with program instructions, and the program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium such as ROM, RAM, optical disk, etc.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a storage medium, which may include the memory 808.

Since the information transmission apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application can be used to execute the information transmission method, the technical effect obtained by the information transmission apparatus can refer to the method embodiment described above, and the details of the embodiment of the present application are not repeated herein.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, 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. The procedures or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are all or partially generated upon loading and execution of computer program instructions on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or can comprise one or more data storage devices, such as a server, a data center, etc., that can be integrated with the medium. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

While the present application has been described 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 drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the word "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 conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be evident that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and figures are merely exemplary of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are intended to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents within the scope of the present application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

1. A method for beam indication, comprising:

generating indication information, wherein for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam attribute of the transmission layer corresponding to each beam in a beam set, wherein the beam attribute is one of a plurality of beam attributes, and the plurality of beam attributes at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; if the beam attribute of a beam is a non-candidate beam for a transmission layer, the beam cannot be used as a component vector of a precoding vector for precoding the transmission layer;

and sending the indication information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of beams is a base set of beams or a subset of a base set of beams.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication information indicates:

indicating a beam property for each beam in the set of beams corresponding to a different transport layer;

or respectively indicate beam properties of different beams of different transmission layers; the beam properties of different beams of the same transmission layer are different;

or rank indicates the beam properties of different beams of different transport layers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication information comprises a plurality of pieces of sub-information, each piece of sub-information corresponding to one beam from the beam set, the sub-information indicating one of:

wherein the first transport layer is stronger than the second transport layer.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the indication information is sent by RRC signaling.

6. A network device, comprising:

a processor configured to generate indication information, wherein for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam property of the transmission layer corresponding to each beam in a beam set, and the beam property is one of a plurality of beam properties, and the plurality of beam properties at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; if the beam attribute of a beam is a non-candidate beam for a transmission layer, the beam cannot be used as a component vector of a precoding vector for precoding the transmission layer;

7. The network device of claim 6, wherein the set of beams is a base set of beams or a subset of a base set of beams.

8. The network device of claim 7, wherein the indication information indicates that:

9. The network device of claim 6, wherein the indication information comprises a plurality of pieces of sub-information, each piece of sub-information corresponding to one beam from the set of beams, the sub-information indicating one of:

wherein the first transport layer is stronger than the second transport layer.

10. The network device of any of claims 6-9, wherein the indication information is sent via RRC signaling.

11. A method for reporting a beam, comprising:

receiving indication information, wherein for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam attribute of the transmission layer corresponding to each beam in a beam set, wherein the beam attribute is one of a plurality of beam attributes, and the plurality of beam attributes at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; if the beam attribute of a beam is a non-candidate beam for a transmission layer, the beam cannot be used as a component vector of a precoding vector for precoding the transmission layer;

for each transmission layer in at least one transmission layer, determining the beam property of each beam in the beam set corresponding to the transmission layer according to the indication information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein for each transmission layer among the at least one transmission layer, after determining the beam property corresponding to the transmission layer for each beam in the set of beams according to the indication information, comprising:

and determining whether to report the beam, the position of the reported beam and the superposition coefficient according to the beam attribute of each beam under each transmission layer.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining whether to report beams, and the positions and stacking coefficients of the reported beams according to the beam properties of each beam at each transport layer comprises:

when the beam attribute is a non-candidate beam, reporting is not carried out;

14. A terminal, comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive indication information from a network device, wherein for each transmission layer of at least one transmission layer, the indication information is used to indicate a beam property of the transmission layer corresponding to each beam in a beam set, and the beam property is one of a plurality of beam properties, and the plurality of beam properties at least include: a non-candidate beam, a candidate reference beam, and a candidate non-reference beam; if the beam attribute of a beam is a non-candidate beam for a transmission layer, the beam cannot be used as a component vector of a precoding vector for precoding the transmission layer;

15. The terminal of claim 14, wherein for each transmission layer of the at least one transmission layer, after determining the beam property corresponding to the transmission layer for each beam of the beam set according to the indication information, comprising:

16. The terminal of claim 15, wherein the determining whether to report beams, and the positions and superposition coefficients of the reported beams according to the beam properties of each beam at each transport layer comprises:

when the beam attribute is a non-candidate beam, reporting is not carried out;