CN111328149B

CN111328149B - Scheduling method, corresponding node, UE and computer readable medium

Info

Publication number: CN111328149B
Application number: CN201811539081.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汪巍崴; 许丽香; 王弘; 李迎阳; 王轶; 麻晓宁
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-12-14
Filing date: 2018-12-14
Publication date: 2024-04-16
Anticipated expiration: 2038-12-14
Also published as: CN111328149A

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method and a first node for scheduling. The method comprises the following steps: receiving second scheduling related information reported by at least one second node and first scheduling related information reported by at least one User Equipment (UE) connected with the at least one second node; generating scheduling information for scheduling the connected UE by the at least one second node; and transmitting the generated scheduling information to the at least one second node and/or the connected UE. Corresponding second nodes, third nodes, and computer readable media are also provided.

Description

Scheduling method, corresponding node, UE and computer readable medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and more particularly, to a scheduling method in a wireless communication system, and a corresponding central scheduling node, distributed Unit (DU) node, central unit user plane (CU-UP) node, user Equipment (UE), and computer readable medium.

Background

Different network elements in a communication system can be classified into different categories according to tasks to be undertaken, such as UEs, access nodes, core Network (CN) functional entities, etc., wherein an access node can be composed of a Central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), 1 CU can be connected with a plurality of DUs in a wired manner, wherein a CU can be composed of a CU control plane (CU-CP) and a CU user plane (CU-UP). The CU-CP and the CU-UP are connected in a wired mode, and an E1 interface protocol is used; the CU-CP and the DU are connected by a wire and use an F1-C interface protocol; and the F1-U interface protocol is used between CU-UP and DU.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture of an existing communication system, taking a 5G communication system as an example.

As shown in fig. 1, the access node gNB includes a gNB-CU and a gNB-DU, although only 1 gNB-DU is schematically shown in fig. 1 as being wired to the gNB-CU, in an actual system architecture, there may be multiple gNB-DUs wired to the gNB-CU. The gNB-CU includes a gNB-CU control plane (gNB-CU-CP) and a gNB-CU user plane (gNB-CU-UP). As mentioned above, the gNB-CU-CP and the gNB-CU-UP are connected by wire and use E1 interface protocol; the gNB-CU-CP and the gNB-DU are connected in a wired way and F1-C interface protocol is used; F1-U interface protocol is used between gNB-CU-UP and gNB-DU. The UE is connected to the gNB through a radio interface (Uu interface), and transmits and receives Control Plane (CP) and User Plane (UP) data.

In existing mechanisms, scheduling of radio resources is done by DUs (e.g., gNB-DUs). When the UE needs to be connected with a plurality of DUs at the same time, each DU can only schedule its own radio resource, so that it cannot achieve optimal resource utilization, and the quality of service and user experience of the UE are affected.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides a scheme for centralized scheduling of radio resources, where a centralized scheduling node performs centralized scheduling on radio resources, so that an optimal scheduling mode for a UE may be selected during scheduling, thereby improving service quality of the UE and further improving user experience.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method for scheduling performed at a first node is provided. The method comprises the following steps: receiving second scheduling related information reported by at least one second node and first scheduling related information reported by at least one User Equipment (UE) connected with the at least one second node; generating scheduling information for scheduling the connected UE by the at least one second node; and transmitting the generated scheduling information to the at least one second node and/or the connected UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first scheduling related information reported by the UE includes at least one of:

an ACK/NACK for downlink data of the UE is transmitted to a second node connected with the UE;

channel quality related information for a downlink to the UE for a second node connected to the UE;

an uplink Buffer Status Report (BSR) indicating a buffer status of uplink data transmitted by the UE on the UE side.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second scheduling related information reported by the second node includes at least one of:

ACK/NACK for uplink data transmitted to the second node for the UE connected to the second node;

channel quality related information for an uplink of a UE connected to the second node;

And the downlink BSR indicating the buffer status of the downlink data of the connected UE at the second node side.

In an exemplary embodiment, the scheduling information includes at least one of:

the second node and/or the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits the time-frequency resource position of the data;

the second node and/or the time-frequency resource range where the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits data;

the second node and/or the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits data by adopting a modulation coding mode;

the second node and/or the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits the precoding mechanism adopted by the data;

the second node and/or the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits the identification information of the cell where the data is located;

the second node and/or the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits the identification information of the cell group where the data is located;

receiving or transmitting identification information of a second node used for data;

the second node and/or UE connected with the second node receives indication information of an antenna;

and the second node and/or the UE connected with the second node send the indication information of the antenna.

In an exemplary embodiment, before receiving the second scheduling related information reported by the at least one second node and the first scheduling related information reported by the at least one user equipment UE connected to the at least one second node, the method further includes: transmitting first configuration information to a second node, the first configuration information including at least one of:

configuration information for a second node group, configuration information for a cell group, configuration information for a reference signal, and configuration information for a wireless connection between a first node and a second node,

wherein the configuration information of the second group of nodes comprises at least one of:

the identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of a second node group to which the second node belongs,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

first indication information for indicating the second node to join a second node group, wherein the first indication information also indicates identification information of the second node group to be joined,

second indication information indicating that the second node leaves a second node group, wherein the second indication information also indicates identification information of the second node group to leave,

First identification information of a group to which a cell of the second node belongs, wherein the first identification information further comprises identification information of the cell,

second identification information of a user served by a cell of the second node, wherein the second identification information further comprises identification information of the cell;

the configuration information of the cell group includes at least one of:

identification information of the cell group.

Identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the reference signal includes at least one of:

an indication of the time-frequency resource location of the reference signal is sent to the second node,

an indication of a reference signal precoding mechanism is sent to the second node,

an indication of an antenna used by the second node to transmit the reference signal;

the configuration information of the wireless connection between the first node and the second node comprises at least one of the following:

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first node receives the first scheduling-related information through the first connection and receives the second scheduling-related information through a second connection with a second node, and transmitting the generated scheduling information includes:

and sending the generated scheduling information to the UE and the second node through the first connection and the second connection respectively.

In an exemplary embodiment, the forwarding of the first scheduling related information to the first node by the second node, and the transmitting of the generated scheduling information comprises:

and transmitting the generated scheduling information to the second node through a second connection between the first node and the second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving third scheduling related information reported by at least one third node; generating second configuration information related to at least one third node according to the received third scheduling related information; and transmitting the second configuration information to the at least one third node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the third scheduling related information reported by the third node includes at least one of the following:

data volume information of the data of the UE cached by the third node;

Information carried by a user to which the data of the UE cached by the third node belongs;

and the information of the user to which the data of the UE cached by the third node belongs.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second configuration information includes at least one of:

the third node receives the identification information of the second node for the purpose of sending data;

the third node receives the address information of the second node for the purpose of sending data;

the identification information of the UE to which the data sent by the third node belong;

the identification information of the bearer of the UE to which the data sent by the third node belong;

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first connection employs a wireless connection, the second connection employs at least one of a wired connection and a wireless connection, a third connection between the second node and the UE employs a wireless connection, and a fourth connection between the first node and the third node employs a wired connection.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second connection uses the F1-C interface protocol.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first connection, the second connection, and the third connection, which employ wireless connections, use the same frequency band, or different frequency bands.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed at a second node for scheduling. The method comprises the following steps: reporting second scheduling related information to the first node; scheduling information for scheduling the UE connected to the second node is received from the first node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: before reporting the second scheduling related information to the first node, receiving first configuration information related to the second node from the first node, the first configuration information including at least one of:

The identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

the configuration information of the cell group includes at least one of:

the identification information of the cell group,

identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the reference signal includes at least one of:

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of the MAC layer.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving first scheduling related information reported by connected UE; and forwarding the first scheduling related information to the first node through a second connection between the first node and the second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: forwarding the received scheduling information to the UE, or generating scheduling information for the connected UE according to the received scheduling information, and transmitting the generated scheduling information to the connected UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, in a case where the scheduling information includes a time-frequency resource range where the second node and/or a UE connected to the second node receives or transmits data, the method further includes: determining scheduling information of the second node for scheduling the connected UE from the time-frequency resource range; and transmitting the determined scheduling information to the UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving, from a third node, data transmitted by the third node according to second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information includes at least one of:

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed at a third node for scheduling. The method comprises the following steps:

Reporting third scheduling related information to the first node, wherein the third scheduling related information comprises at least one of the following items:

data volume information of the data of the UE cached by the third node;

information carried by a user to which data of the UE cached by the third node belongs;

information of a user to which data of the UE cached by the third node belongs;

receiving second configuration information from the first node relating to the third node; and

and sending data to a second node according to the second configuration information.

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the fourth connection between the first node and the third node is a wired connection.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a method performed at a UE for scheduling is provided. The method comprises the following steps: reporting first scheduling related information to a first node; and receiving scheduling information from a first node and scheduling the UE by a second node connected to the first node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first scheduling related information includes at least one of:

an ACK/NACK for downlink data of the UE is transmitted to the second node;

channel quality related information for a downlink of the second node to the UE;

and an uplink BSR indicating the buffer status of the uplink data sent by the UE to the second node at the UE side.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second scheduling related information includes at least one of:

ACK/NACK for uplink data sent to the second node by the UE;

channel quality related information for an uplink of the UE to the second node;

a downlink BSR indicating a buffer status of downlink data of the UE at the second node side;

In an exemplary embodiment, reporting the first scheduling related information to the first node includes: and sending the first scheduling related information to be reported to the first node to the second node so as to forward the first scheduling related information to the first node through a second connection between the second node and the first node by the second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, receiving the scheduling information includes: and receiving the scheduling information sent by the first node from the second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, in a case where the scheduling information includes a time-frequency resource range where the second node and/or a UE connected to the second node receives or transmits data, the method further includes: and receiving scheduling information which is determined by the second node from the time-frequency resource range and used for scheduling the UE connected with the second node from the second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first connection is a wireless connection, the second connection is at least one of a wired connection and a wireless connection, and a third connection between the second node and the UE is a wireless connection.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a first node is provided. The first node includes: a processor; and a memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second node. The second node includes: a processor; and a memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform a method according to the second aspect of the present disclosure.

According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a third node is provided. The third node includes: a processor; and a memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method according to the third aspect of the present disclosure.

According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, a UE is provided. The UE includes: a processor; and a memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform a method according to the fourth aspect of the present disclosure.

According to a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method according to the first, second, third or fourth aspect of the present disclosure.

According to the technical scheme, the wireless resources are scheduled in a centralized way through the first node, so that the optimal scheduling mode for the UE can be selected when the second node performs scheduling for the UE, the service quality of the UE is improved, and the user experience is improved. In addition, when the second connection between the first node and the second node adopts wireless connection, transmission delay can be reduced and transmission speed can be improved compared with wired connection.

Drawings

Fig. 1 schematically shows a system architecture diagram of an existing communication system;

fig. 2 schematically illustrates a system architecture diagram of a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a flow chart of a method for scheduling performed at a central scheduling node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 schematically shows a flowchart of a method for scheduling performed at a DU node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for scheduling performed at a CU-UP node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method for scheduling performed at a UE according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 schematically illustrates a signal flow diagram for scheduling in a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 schematically shows a signal flow diagram for scheduling in a communication system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 schematically shows a signal flow diagram for configuring a DU node in a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 schematically shows a signal flow diagram for configuring a DU node in a communication system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a hub dispatch node in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 12 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a DU node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a CU-UP node in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; and

fig. 14 schematically shows a block diagram of a structure of a UE according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In order to better understand the technical solutions of the present disclosure, the following description will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In some of the flows described in the specification and claims of this disclosure and in the foregoing figures, a number of operations are included that occur in a particular order, but it should be understood that the operations may be performed in other than the order in which they occur or in parallel, that the order of operations such as 701, 702, 703, etc. is merely for distinguishing between the various operations, and that the order of execution does not itself represent any order of execution. In addition, the flows may include more or fewer operations, and the operations may be performed sequentially or in parallel. It should be noted that, the descriptions of "first" and "second" herein are used to distinguish different messages, devices, modules, etc., and do not represent a sequence, and are not limited to the "first" and the "second" being different types.

The following description of the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in this disclosure, all other embodiments that a person of ordinary skill in the art would obtain without making any inventive effort are within the scope of the disclosure.

In the following description, 5G will be described as an example of a communication system, but it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the technical solution of the present disclosure is not limited to a 5G communication system, but may be applied to any suitable communication system.

The basic idea of the present disclosure is that:

a node (described herein as a "first node"), e.g., a so-called control plane-centric scheduling (CP-CS) node, is established in a communication system that may be responsible for centralized scheduling of radio resources of a connected DU node (described herein as a "second node", e.g., a gNB-DU) in addition to having the full functionality of the gNB-CU-CP node. The first node may generate scheduling information from received information, which may be from a group including, but not limited to, different UEs, different CU-UP nodes (described herein as "third nodes", e.g., gNB-CU-UP), different DU nodes, and CNs.

The first node also needs to increase support for wireless connection capabilities if the first node needs to establish wireless connections with other nodes. The first node may now be provided with a complete radio protocol stack including, but not limited to, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocol layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) protocol layer, a MAC protocol layer, a Physical (PHY) protocol layer.

If the second node needs to establish wireless connection with other nodes, the second node also needs to add functions of a wireless terminal, and a wireless protocol stack of the wireless terminal can be an incomplete wireless protocol stack, including but not limited to a MAC protocol layer and a PHY protocol layer; but may also be a complete radio protocol stack including, but not limited to, RRC protocol layer, PDCP protocol layer, RLC protocol layer, MAC protocol layer, PHY protocol layer.

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates a system architecture diagram of a 5G communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. In the system architecture shown in fig. 2, a CP-CS node as an example of a first node may be connected with a UE, which connection is described herein as a "first connection", which may or may not be present in different embodiments, and is thus shown in dashed lines; the CP-CS node is connected with a gNB-DU node as an example of a second node, which connection is described herein as a "second connection"; the gNB-DU node is connected with the UE, which connection is described herein as a "third connection"; the gNB-CU-UP node, as an example of a third node, is connected to the CP-CS node, which connection is described herein as a "fourth connection". It should be noted that although fig. 2 shows only one UE, one gNB-DU node, and one gNB-CU-UP node, this is merely illustrative and not limiting. In an actual system architecture, one CP-CS may be connected with multiple UEs, multiple gNB-DU nodes, and multiple gNB-CU-UP nodes.

A method for scheduling performed at a first node (e.g., CP-CS node) side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to fig. 3.

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method 300 for scheduling performed at a first node side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 3, the method 300 includes steps S301, S303, and S305.

In step S301, a first node receives second scheduling related information reported by at least one second node (e.g., a gNB-DU) and first scheduling related information reported by at least one UE connected to the at least one second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first scheduling related information reported by the UE may include at least one of:

channel quality related information, such as channel quality indication information (CQI), for a downlink to the UE for a second node connected to the UE;

and an uplink BSR indicating the buffer status of the uplink data sent by the UE at the UE side.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second scheduling related information reported by the second node may include at least one of:

ACK/NACK for uplink data transmitted to the second node by the UE connected to the second node:

channel quality related information, such as CQI, for an uplink of a UE connected to the second node;

In step S303, the first node generates scheduling information for scheduling the connected UE by a second node of the at least one second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the scheduling information may be generated at least according to the first scheduling related information reported by the at least one UE and the second scheduling related information reported by the at least one second node.

The scheduling information may include at least one of:

In another embodiment, in step S301, the first node may further receive third scheduling related information reported by at least one third node (e.g., gNB-CU-UP). In an exemplary embodiment, the first node may generate scheduling information for the second node to schedule the connected UE at least according to the first scheduling related information, the second scheduling related information, and the third scheduling related information.

In yet another embodiment, the first node may also receive information from other network nodes in step S301. In an exemplary embodiment, the first node may generate scheduling information for scheduling the connected UE by the second node at least according to the first scheduling related information, the second scheduling related information, the third scheduling related information, and information from other network nodes.

In step S305, the first node transmits the generated scheduling information to the second node and/or the connected UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, step S301 may include: the first node receives the first scheduling related information reported by the UE through the first connection, and receives the second scheduling related information reported by the second node through the second connection with the second node, and step S305 may include: the first node transmits the generated scheduling information to the UE and the second node through the first connection and the second connection, respectively.

In another exemplary embodiment, step S301 may include: receiving first scheduling related information forwarded by at least one second node from at least one UE connected to the at least one second node; and step S305 may include: the first node transmits the generated scheduling information to the second node through a second connection with the second node. Further, the second node may forward the received scheduling information to the connected UE, or the second node may generate scheduling information for the UE connected to the second node according to the received scheduling information and transmit the scheduling information to the UE connected to the second node.

In the above two exemplary embodiments, the scheduling information may include at least one of:

In this case, the method 300 may further include: generating configuration information (described herein as "second configuration information") related to a third node according to the received third scheduling related information; and sending the second configuration information to the third node.

Optionally, the third scheduling related information reported by the third node includes at least one of the following:

data volume information of the data of the UE cached by the third node;

In an exemplary embodiment, the configuration information includes at least one of:

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

In still another exemplary embodiment, step S301 may include: the first node receives first scheduling related information forwarded by at least one second node from at least one UE connected to the at least one second node. In this exemplary embodiment, the scheduling information generated in step S303 may include at least: the second node and/or the time-frequency resource range where the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits data;

Step S305 may include: the first node transmits the generated scheduling information to the second node through a second connection with the second node.

In the case that the scheduling information includes a time-frequency resource range in which data is received or transmitted, the second node may determine scheduling information for scheduling the UE connected to the second node from the time-frequency resource range; and then transmits the determined scheduling information to the UE.

Here, the first connection may be a wireless connection, the second connection may be a wired connection, or a wireless connection, or a portion of data of the second connection may be transmitted using a wired connection and a portion of data may be transmitted using a wireless connection, the third connection between the second node and the UE may be a wireless connection, and the fourth connection between the first node and the third node may be a wired connection.

In an exemplary embodiment, the second connection employing at least one of a wired connection and a wireless connection may use the F1-C interface protocol (see TS 38.473), but may use any other suitable interface protocol, and the disclosure is not intended to be limited in this regard.

In an exemplary embodiment, the first, second, and third connections employing wireless connections may use the same frequency band, may use different frequency bands, and may use existing Uu interface protocols, or may use any other suitable interface protocol, and the disclosure is not intended to be limited in this regard.

In an exemplary embodiment, before step S301, the method 300 may further include the steps of:

the first node establishes a second connection with the second node; as mentioned above, the second connection may be a wired connection or a wireless connection;

Next, the first node sends configuration information (described herein as "first configuration information") related to the second node.

The first configuration information may include at least one of:

configuration information for the second group of nodes,

the configuration information of the cell group,

the configuration information of the reference signal is used,

configuration information of wireless connection between the first node and the second node.

The configuration information of the second node group may include at least one of:

the identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

the configuration information of the cell group may include at least one of:

the identification information of the cell group,

identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the reference signal may include at least one of:

in the case that the second connection is a wireless connection, the configuration information about the second node may include, in addition to at least one of the items listed above:

configuration information of a wireless connection between a first node and a second node, comprising at least one of:

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of the MAC layer.

A method for scheduling performed on the second node (e.g., a gNB-DU node) side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 4.

Fig. 4 schematically shows a flowchart of a method 400 for scheduling performed at a second node side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 4, the method 400 includes steps S401 and S403.

In step S401, the second node reports second scheduling related information to the first node.

In step S403, the second node receives scheduling information for scheduling a UE to which the second node is connected from the first node.

The scheduling information includes at least one of:

In an exemplary embodiment, the method 400 further comprises: receiving first scheduling related information reported by connected UE; and transmitting the first scheduling related information to the first node through a second connection between the first node and the second node. After step S403, the method 400 further comprises: the second node transmits scheduling information received from the first node to the UE or transmits scheduling information generated according to the scheduling information received from the first node.

In this exemplary embodiment, the scheduling information may include at least one of:

In this case, the method 400 may further include: receiving, from a third node, data transmitted by the third node according to second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information includes at least one of:

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

In another exemplary embodiment, in the case where the first connection between the UE and the first node is not established and the scheduling information includes a time-frequency resource range in which to receive or transmit data, the method 400 further includes: the second node can determine the scheduling information of the second node for scheduling the connected UE from the time-frequency resource range; and transmitting the determined scheduling information to the UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, before step S401, the method 400 may further include the steps of:

the second node establishes a second connection with the first node; as mentioned above, the second connection may be a wired connection or a wireless connection;

next, the second node receives first configuration information related to the second node from the first node.

The first configuration information may include at least one of:

Configuration information for the second group of nodes,

the configuration information of the cell group,

the configuration information of the reference signal is used,

the identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

the configuration information of the cell group may include at least one of:

The identification information of the cell group,

identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of the MAC layer.

A method for scheduling performed at a third node (e.g., a gNB-CU-UP node) side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 5.

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates a flowchart of a method 500 for scheduling performed at a third node side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 5, the method 500 includes steps S501, S503, and S505.

In step S501, the third node reports third scheduling related information to the first node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the third scheduling related information includes at least one of:

data volume information of the data of the UE cached by the third node;

As previously described, in an exemplary embodiment, the third scheduling related information may be used by the first node to generate the above-described scheduling information.

In step S503, the third node receives second configuration information about the third node from the first node.

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

A method for scheduling performed at the UE side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to fig. 6.

Fig. 6 schematically shows a flowchart of a method 600 for scheduling performed at the UE side according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 6, the method 600 includes steps S601 and S603.

In step S601, the UE reports first scheduling related information to the first node.

channel quality related information, such as CQI, for a downlink to the UE for a second node connected to the UE;

In step S603, the UE receives scheduling information from a first node and the UE is scheduled by a second node connected to the first node.

As mentioned above, the scheduling information may be generated at least according to the first scheduling related information reported by the at least one UE and the second scheduling related information reported by the at least one second node.

The scheduling information may include at least one of:

In an exemplary embodiment, step S601 includes: the UE reports first scheduling related information to a first node through a first connection; step S603 includes: the UE receives, over a first connection, scheduling information from a first node and scheduled by a second node connected to the first node.

In an exemplary embodiment, step S601 includes: the UE sends the first scheduling related information to a second node so that the second node sends the first scheduling related information to the first node through a second connection between the second node and the first node; step S603 includes: and receiving the scheduling information sent by the first node from the second node.

In the above exemplary embodiment, the scheduling information may include at least one of:

In another exemplary embodiment, in a case where the scheduling information includes a time-frequency resource range where the second node and/or the UE connected to the second node receives or transmits data, the method 600 further includes: and receiving scheduling information which is determined by the second node from the time-frequency resource range and used for scheduling the UE connected with the second node from the second node.

The technical solutions according to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described above from the respective nodes and UEs' perspective. In order to make the technical solution according to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure easier to understand, a method for scheduling according to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in a signaling manner interacted between each node and UE in conjunction with fig. 7 to 10.

Fig. 7 schematically illustrates a signal flow diagram for scheduling in a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in which a CP-CS node as an example of a first node generates scheduling information according to scheduling related information reported by respective nodes and UEs and transmits the scheduling information to a UE and a gNB-DU node as an example of a second node, and further the UE and the gNB-DU node may transmit and receive data according to the scheduling information.

In this example, the first connection established by the UE and the CP-CS node is a wireless connection, a part of the second connection between the CP-CS node and the gNB-DU node is a wireless connection, a part of the second connection is a wired connection, and the third connection established by the UE and the gNB-DU node is a wireless connection. It should be understood that the connection used above is illustrative only and not limiting.

In this example, RRC signaling is communicated between the UE and the CP-CS node. The signaling is downlink, and can be transmitted by a wireless first connection, or can be transmitted to the gNB-DU node by the CP-CS node through a wireless or wired second connection, and then the gNB-DU node is forwarded to the UE through a wireless third connection. The transmission path of the signaling uplink is opposite to the downlink.

As shown in fig. 7, in process 701, the gNB-DU node may report second scheduling related information to the CP-CS node through a wireless second connection, and may be specifically referred to in the corresponding descriptions in the foregoing methods 300 and 400.

In process 702, the UE reports first scheduling related information to the CP-CS node over the wireless first connection, see in particular the corresponding descriptions in methods 300 and 600 described above.

In process 703, the gNB-CU-UP node sends third scheduling related information to the CP-CS node, see for details the corresponding description in methods 300 and 500 above.

It should be noted that the order of the processes 701, 702, 703 may be reversed or may be performed simultaneously.

As previously described, the CP-CS node may generate scheduling information based on information from different UEs, different gNB-DU nodes, different gNB-CU-UP nodes, and other network nodes.

In process 704, the CP-CS node may send scheduling information to the gNB-DU node over the wireless second connection, see in particular the corresponding descriptions in methods 300, 400 and 600 described above.

In process 705, the CP-CS node may send scheduling information to the UE over the wireless first connection, see in particular the corresponding description in methods 300 and 600 described above.

In process 706, the CP-CS node may send second configuration information regarding the gNB-CU-UP node to the gNB-CU-UP node, see in particular the corresponding descriptions in methods 300, 400, and 500 previously described. The gNB-CU-UP node may or may not send feedback on the configuration information.

It should be noted that the order of the processes 704, 705, 706, 707 may be reversed or may be performed simultaneously.

In process 707, the gNB-CU-UP node may send downlink data to the gNB-DU node according to the configuration of the CP-CS node.

When the scheduling information is downlink scheduling information:

In process 708, the gNB-DU node may schedule radio resources between the gNB-DU node and the UE to transmit downlink data according to the scheduling information, and the UE may receive data from the gNB-DU node according to the scheduling information.

When the scheduling information is uplink scheduling information:

in process 709, the UE may schedule radio resources between the gNB-DU node and the UE to transmit uplink data according to the scheduling information, and the gNB-DU node receives data from the UE according to the scheduling information.

In process 710, the gNB-DU node may forward uplink data to the gNB-CU-UP node.

Fig. 8 schematically illustrates a signal flow diagram for scheduling in a communication system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in which a CP-CS node as an example of a first node generates scheduling information according to respective nodes and scheduling related information reported by the UE and transmits the scheduling information to the UE and a gNB-DU node as an example of a second node, the gNB-DU node transmits the scheduling information to the UE, or the gNB-DU node generates scheduling information for the UE according to received scheduling information from the CP-CS node and transmits the scheduling information to the UE, and the UE and the gNB-DU node transmit and receive data according to the scheduling information.

In this example, no connection is established between the UE and the CP-CS node, a second connection between the CP-CS node and the gNB-DU node may be a wired connection, a wireless connection may be a wireless connection, or both a wireless connection and a wired connection, and a third connection between the UE and the gNB-DU node is a wireless connection. This example is to implement a centralized scheduling method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure through an improvement of transmitted signaling over existing connection schemes.

As shown in fig. 8, in process 801, the UE may report first scheduling related information to the gNB-DU node through a third connection, which may be described in detail in the foregoing methods 300, 400, and 600.

In process 802, the gNB-DU node reports the second scheduling related information to the CP-CS node through the wired connection, and forwards the first scheduling related information, and the corresponding description in the foregoing methods 300, 400 and 600 can be seen for a specific point.

The CP-CS node may generate scheduling information based on information from different UEs, different gNB-DU nodes, and other network nodes.

In process 803, the CP-CS node may send scheduling information to the gNB-DU node, see in particular the corresponding description in methods 300 and 400 described above.

In the process 804, after receiving the configuration information, the gNB-DU node may determine how to schedule the data of the UE within the resource range. The gNB-DU indicates scheduling information to the UE over a third connection that is wireless. The scheduling information may be the same as or different from the scheduling information sent by the CP-CS to the gNB-DU, see in particular the corresponding descriptions in methods 300, 400 and 600 above.

In process 805, the gNB-DU node may transmit or receive data according to the scheduling information sent by the gNB-DU node to the UE, and the UE may receive or transmit data according to the scheduling information sent by the gNB-DU node to the UE.

Fig. 9 schematically illustrates a signal flow diagram for configuring a DU node in a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein a CP-CS node may transmit configuration information to a gNB-DU node through a wired second connection, and the gNB-DU node may transmit feedback information to the CP-CS node through the wired second connection.

As shown in fig. 9, a wired connection needs to be established in advance between the CP-CS and the gNB-DU.

In process 901, the CP-CS node sends configuration information to the gNB-DU node via a wired connection, see in particular the corresponding descriptions in methods 300 and 400 above.

In process 902, a gNB-DU node sends feedback information to a CP-CS node over a wired connection.

Fig. 10 schematically illustrates a signal flow diagram for configuring a DU node in a communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein a CP-CS node may transmit configuration information to a gNB-DU node through a wireless second connection, and the gNB-DU node may transmit feedback information to the CP-CS node through the wireless second connection.

As shown in fig. 10, a wireless connection needs to be established in advance between the CP-CS and the gNB-DU.

In process 1001, the CP-CS node sends configuration information to the gNB-DU node over the wireless connection, see in particular the corresponding description in methods 300 and 400 described above.

In process 1002, a gNB-DU node transmits feedback information to a CP-CS node over a wireless connection.

Fig. 11 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a central scheduling node (described herein as a "first node") according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

The first node 1100 may be used to perform the method 300 as previously described with reference to fig. 3.

As shown in fig. 11, a first node 1100 comprises a processing unit or processor 1101, which processor 1101 may be a single unit or a combination of units for performing the different steps of the method; memory 1102, having stored therein computer executable instructions that, when executed by processor 1101, cause first node 1100 to perform method 300. For brevity, only the schematic structure of the first node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described herein, and details that have been detailed in the method 300 as previously described with reference to fig. 3 will be omitted.

The instructions, when executed by the processor 1101, cause the first node 1100 to:

receiving second scheduling related information reported by at least one second node and first scheduling related information reported by at least one UE connected with the at least one second node;

Generating scheduling information for scheduling the connected UE by the at least one second node; and

and transmitting the generated scheduling information to the at least one second node and/or the connected UE.

As described above, the first scheduling related information reported by the UE includes at least one of the following:

channel quality related information (e.g., CQI) for a downlink to the UE for a second node connected to the UE;

channel quality related information (e.g., CQI) for an uplink from a UE connected to the second node;

In an exemplary embodiment, the instructions, when executed by the processor 1101, further cause the first node 1100 to: before receiving second scheduling related information reported by at least one second node and first scheduling related information reported by at least one User Equipment (UE) connected with the at least one second node, sending first configuration information to the second node, wherein the first configuration information comprises at least one of the following items:

wherein the configuration information of the second node group includes at least one of:

the identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

the configuration information of the cell group includes at least one of:

The identification information of the cell group,

identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the reference signal includes at least one of:

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of the MAC layer.

In an exemplary embodiment, the instructions, when executed by the processor 1101, further cause the first node 1100 to: receiving third scheduling related information reported by at least one third node; generating second configuration information related to at least one third node according to the received third scheduling related information; and transmitting the second configuration information to the at least one third node.

data volume information of the data of the UE cached by the third node;

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

Fig. 12 schematically shows a block diagram of a DU node (described herein as a "second node") according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

The second node 1200 may be used to perform the method 400 as previously described with reference to fig. 4.

As shown in fig. 12, the first node 1200 comprises a processing unit or processor 1201, which processor 1201 may be a single unit or a combination of units for performing the different steps of the method; memory 1202, having stored therein computer executable instructions that, when executed by processor 1201, cause first node 1200 to perform method 400. For brevity, only the schematic structure of the second node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described herein, and details that have been detailed in the method 400 as previously described with reference to fig. 4 will be omitted.

The instructions, when executed by the processor 1201, cause the second node 1200 to:

reporting second scheduling related information to the first node;

and receiving scheduling information from the first node for scheduling the UE to which the second node is connected.

The identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

the configuration information of the cell group includes at least one of:

identification information of the cell group.

Identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the reference signal includes at least one of:

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of the MAC layer.

In an exemplary embodiment, the instructions, when executed by the processor 1201, further cause the second node 1200 to: receiving first scheduling related information reported by connected UE; and forwarding the first scheduling related information to the first node through a second connection between the first node and the second node.

In an exemplary embodiment, the instructions, when executed by the processor 1201, further cause the second node 1200 to: forwarding the received scheduling information to the UE, or generating scheduling information for the connected UE according to the received scheduling information, and transmitting the generated scheduling information to the connected UE.

In an exemplary embodiment, the instructions, when executed by the processor 1201, further cause the second node 1200 to: receiving, from a third node, data transmitted by the third node according to second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information includes at least one of:

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

Fig. 13 schematically illustrates a block diagram of a CU-UP node (described herein as a "third node") according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Third node 1300 may be used to perform method 500 as previously described with reference to fig. 5.

As shown in fig. 13, a third node 1300 includes a processing unit or processor 1301, which processor 1301 may be a single unit or a combination of units for performing the different steps of the method; memory 1302, having stored therein computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processor 1301, cause third node 1300 to perform method 500. For brevity, only the schematic structure of the second node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is described herein, and details that have been detailed in the method 500 as previously described with reference to fig. 5 are omitted.

The instructions, when executed by processor 1301, cause third node 1300 to:

data volume information of the data of the UE cached by the third node;

information of a user to which data of the UE cached by the third node belongs;

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

The UE 1400 may be used to perform the method 600 as previously described with reference to fig. 6.

As shown in fig. 14, the UE 1400 includes a processing unit or processor 1401, which processor 1401 may be a single unit or a combination of units for performing the different steps of the method. Memory 1402 having stored therein computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processor 1301, cause UE 1400 to perform method 600. For brevity, only the schematic structure of the second node according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described herein, and details that have been detailed in the method 600 as previously described with reference to fig. 6 will be omitted.

The instructions, when executed by the processor 1401, cause the UE 1400 to:

reporting first scheduling related information to a first node; and receiving scheduling information from a first node and scheduling the UE by a second node connected to the first node.

an ACK/NACK for downlink data of the UE is transmitted to the second node;

channel quality related information, such as CQI, for the downlink of the second node to the UE;

ACK/NACK for uplink data sent to the second node by the UE;

channel quality related information, such as CQI, for the uplink of the UE to the second node;

The program running on the apparatus according to the present invention may be a program for causing a computer to realize the functions of the embodiments of the present invention by controlling a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The program or information processed by the program may be temporarily stored in a volatile store such as a random access memory RAM, a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), a nonvolatile store such as a flash memory, or other memory system.

A program for realizing the functions of the embodiments of the present invention may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. The corresponding functions can be realized by causing a computer system to read programs recorded on the recording medium and execute the programs. The term "computer system" as used herein may be a computer system embedded in the device and may include an operating system or hardware (e.g., peripheral devices). The "computer-readable recording medium" may be a semiconductor recording medium, an optical recording medium, a magnetic recording medium, a recording medium in which a program is stored dynamically at a short time, or any other recording medium readable by a computer.

The various features or functional modules of the apparatus used in the embodiments described above may be implemented or performed by circuitry (e.g., single-chip or multi-chip integrated circuits). Circuits designed to perform the functions described herein may include a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The circuit may be a digital circuit or an analog circuit. Where new integrated circuit technologies are presented as an alternative to existing integrated circuits due to advances in semiconductor technology, one or more embodiments of the present invention may also be implemented using these new integrated circuit technologies.

As above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the specific structure is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the present invention also includes any design modification without departing from the gist of the present invention. In addition, various modifications can be made to the present invention within the scope of the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in the different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. Further, the components having the same effects described in the above embodiments may be replaced with each other.

The foregoing description is only of the preferred embodiments of the present application and is presented as a description of the principles of the technology being utilized. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the scope of the invention referred to in this application is not limited to the specific combinations of features described above, but it is intended to cover other embodiments in which any combination of features described above or equivalents thereof is possible without departing from the spirit of the invention. Such as the above-described features and technical features having similar functions (but not limited to) disclosed in the present application are replaced with each other.

Claims

1. A method for scheduling performed at a first node, wherein the first node is a control plane-centric scheduling, CP-CS, node, the method comprising:

Receiving second scheduling related information reported by at least one second node and first scheduling related information reported by at least one User Equipment (UE) connected with the at least one second node, wherein the at least one second node is a Distributed Unit (DU) and is configured to send downlink data to and/or receive uplink data from the connected UE, and the first node is connected with the at least one second node and at least one third node serving as a central unit (CU-UP);

generating scheduling information of the at least one second node for scheduling the connected UE, wherein the scheduling information comprises downlink scheduling information for scheduling radio resources between the at least one second node and the connected UE to transmit downlink data and/or uplink scheduling information for scheduling radio resources between the at least one second node and the connected UE to transmit uplink data; and

2. The method of claim 1, wherein

The first scheduling related information reported by the UE includes at least one of the following:

an uplink Buffer Status Report (BSR) indicating a buffer status of uplink data sent by the UE at the UE side;

the second scheduling related information reported by the second node comprises at least one of the following:

a downlink BSR indicating a buffer status of downlink data of the connected UE at the second node side;

the scheduling information includes at least one of:

The second node and/or the UE connected with the second node receives or transmits the identification information of the cell and the district where the data are located;

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein prior to receiving the second scheduling related information reported by the at least one second node and the first scheduling related information reported by the at least one user equipment, UE, connected to the at least one second node, the method further comprises: transmitting first configuration information to at least one second node, the first configuration information comprising at least one of:

The identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

the configuration information of the cell group includes at least one of:

the identification information of the cell group,

identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the reference signal includes at least one of:

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of a medium access control MAC layer.

4. The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

receiving third scheduling related information reported by at least one third node;

generating second configuration information related to at least one third node according to the received third scheduling related information; and

and sending the second configuration information to the at least one third node.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein

The third scheduling related information reported by the third node comprises at least one of the following:

data volume information of the data of the UE cached by the third node;

information of a user to which the data of the UE cached by the third node belongs;

The second configuration information includes at least one of:

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

6. A method for scheduling performed at a second node, wherein the second node is a distributed unit, DU, the method comprising:

reporting second scheduling related information to a first node, wherein the first node is a control plane-center scheduling (CP-CS) node, and the second node is connected with the first node and a third node serving as a center unit (CU-UP); and

and receiving scheduling information for scheduling User Equipment (UE) connected with the second node from the first node, wherein the second node is configured to send downlink data to the connected UE and/or receive uplink data from the connected UE, and the scheduling information comprises downlink scheduling information for scheduling wireless resources between the second node and the connected UE to transmit downlink data and/or uplink scheduling information for scheduling wireless resources between the second node and the connected UE to transmit uplink data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein

the scheduling information includes at least one of:

8. The method of claim 6 or 7, further comprising: before reporting the second scheduling related information to the first node, receiving first configuration information from the first node, the first configuration information comprising at least one of:

the identification information of the second node itself,

identification information of UEs served by the second node,

the configuration information of the cell group includes at least one of:

the identification information of the cell group,

identification information of the users served by the cell group,

the identification information of the cells added to the cell group,

identification information of cells removed from the cell group;

the configuration information of the reference signal includes at least one of:

the configuration information of the downlink synchronization signal,

the configuration information of the uplink synchronization signal,

a system message for use in the access,

the physical layer configuration information is used to determine,

configuration information of a medium access control MAC layer.

9. The method of claim 6 or 7, further comprising:

receiving first scheduling related information reported by connected UE; and

and forwarding the first scheduling related information to the first node through a second connection between the first node and the second node.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

forwarding the received scheduling information to the UE, or

Generating scheduling information for the connected UE according to the received scheduling information, and transmitting the generated scheduling information to the connected UE.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein in case the scheduling information comprises a time-frequency resource range in which the second node and/or a UE connected to the second node receives or transmits data, the method further comprises:

determining scheduling information of the second node for scheduling the connected UE from the time-frequency resource range; and

and transmitting the determined scheduling information to the UE.

12. The method of claim 6 or 7, further comprising:

receiving, from a third node, data transmitted by the third node according to second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information includes at least one of:

and indicating information of the data amount sent by the third node.

13. A first node, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 5.

14. A second node, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 6 to 12.

15. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any of claims 1 to 12.