CN111436134B

CN111436134B - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN111436134B
Application number: CN201910028830.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 谢信乾; 郭志恒; 费永强; 毕文平
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-01-11
Filing date: 2019-01-11
Publication date: 2024-04-26
Anticipated expiration: 2039-01-11
Also published as: WO2020143739A1; CN111436134A

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device. In the method, a terminal device receives first information from a first network device. The first information is used for indicating at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes, wherein the subframes are uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device. Further, the terminal device determines, according to the first information, that at least one symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe on the first carrier is not used to transmit the first uplink signal to the first network device. The application can increase the opportunity of the second network device to send the uplink signal when the symbols are overlapped with the uplink time slot used for sending the uplink signal by the second network device in time by indicating the partial symbols on the uplink subframes configured by the first network device to the terminal device working in the MR-DC.

Description

Communication method and communication device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to a communication technology, in particular to a communication method and a communication device.

Background

In long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems, a terminal device supports simultaneous access to two network devices, in a manner known as dual connectivity (Dual Connectivity, DC). One of the network devices is a primary network device and the other network device is a secondary network device. In order to cope with the future explosive mobile data traffic growth, equipment connection of mass mobile communication, various new services and application scenes which are continuously emerging, a fifth generation (the fifth generation, 5G) communication system is generated. Among other things, the 5G communication technique may also be referred to as a New Radio (NR) technique. In the early stages of NR system deployment, there may be a case where an NR system and an LTE system coexist. Therefore, when the terminal equipment is located in the coverage area of the network equipment of the NR system and the coverage area of the network equipment of the LTE system at the same time, the terminal equipment can adopt a DC mode to connect the network equipment of the LTE system and the network equipment of the NR system at the same time, so that the improvement of the data transmission bandwidth is realized. The above-described dual connectivity approach to network devices accessing two identical radio access technologies may be referred to as multiple radio access technology dual connectivity (multi-RAT dual connectivity, MR-DC).

Currently, a typical deployment mode is that an NR system is deployed on an unpaired frequency band around 3.5GHz and uses TDD mode for communication, and an LTE system is deployed on a paired frequency band around 1.8GHz and uses FDD mode for communication. In this deployment scenario, the terminal equipment in MR-DC operates in FDD mode in LTE system and in TDD mode in NR system. In order to avoid the influence of cross modulation on the performance of the terminal device, for a terminal device operating in MR-DC, the uplink signal is transmitted on only one frequency point at the same time. I.e. when the terminal device transmits an uplink signal on the NR system, the terminal device does not transmit an uplink signal on the LTE system and vice versa.

When an uplink subframe of the LTE system and a subframe of the NR system have overlapping uplink time periods, a terminal device operating under MR-DC can only transmit an uplink signal of LTE and cannot transmit an uplink signal of NR on the overlapping uplink time periods, so that the opportunity that the terminal device can transmit the uplink signal on the NR side is reduced, which may cause a problem of performance degradation of the NR system.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for improving the performance of an NR system working in an MR-DC scene.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, where the method may be applied to a terminal device, or may be applied to a chip in the terminal device. The method is described below by taking an example of application to a terminal device, where the terminal device may receive first information from a first network device, where the first information is used to indicate at least one subframe among a plurality of subframes, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes on a first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device; and determining that at least one symbol is not used for sending a first uplink signal to the first network device according to the first information, wherein the at least one symbol is one or more symbols in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier.

It may be appreciated that the above-mentioned "the terminal device may determine that at least one symbol is not used to transmit the first uplink signal to the first network device" may be replaced by: the terminal equipment determines a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier according to the first information; or may also be replaced with: the terminal device determines, according to the first information, a symbol in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier, where the symbol is used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device, and a symbol not used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device, or may alternatively determine, by the terminal device, that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame according to the first information.

In the above method, the first network device (e.g. LTE network device) indicates, by sending the first information to the terminal device, which uplink subframes on the first carrier configured by the first network device are part of symbols on the uplink subframes, which are not used to send uplink signals to the first network device, so that when the symbols that are not used to send uplink signals to the first network device and uplink slots of the second carrier used to send uplink signals (e.g. SRS) by the second network device (e.g. NR network device) overlap in time, the terminal device can send uplink signals on the second carrier at the overlapping time, and compared with the scheme that SRS cannot send SRS at the overlapping times in the prior art, the opportunity that the terminal device sends uplink signals (e.g. SRS) to the second network device is increased, so that the terminal device accessing the first network device and the second network device can have more uplink resources for sending SRS to the second network device. Due to the increase of the sending opportunities of the SRS, the second network equipment can acquire the channel state more accurately, so that the performance of downlink transmission of the second network equipment can be improved.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, where the method may be applied to a terminal device, or may be applied to a chip in the terminal device. The method is described below by taking an example of application to a terminal device, where the terminal device may receive second information from a second network device, where the second information is used to indicate at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and indicate at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot to send a second uplink signal to the second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots on a second carrier configured by the second network device for the terminal device, and the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device; then, according to the second information, the terminal device may determine that at least one symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier is not used for sending a first uplink signal to the first network device, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes in the first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and at least one symbol in the first subframe overlaps in time with at least one symbol in a first slot in the at least one slot.

It may be appreciated that the above-mentioned "the terminal device may determine, according to the second information, that at least one symbol in the first subframe in at least one subframe in the plurality of subframes on the first carrier is not used to send the first uplink signal to the first network device" may be replaced by: the terminal equipment determines a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier according to the second information; or alternatively to: the terminal equipment determines a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on the first carrier according to the second information, and a symbol not used for sending the first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment; or alternatively to: and the terminal equipment determines that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame according to the second information.

It will be appreciated that the terminal device may send the second uplink signal to the second network device on one or more symbols, where the one or more symbols are symbols in the at least one symbol in one or more slots of the plurality of slots.

In the above method, the second network device (for example, the NR network device) indicates, by sending the second information to the terminal device, which uplink timeslots symbols on the second carrier configured by the second network device are used to send the uplink signal of the NR, so that the terminal device can determine that, in uplink subframes on the first carrier configured by the first network device (for example, the LTE network device) for the terminal device, at least one symbol of the uplink subframes overlapping with the uplink timeslots is not used to send the uplink signal to the first network device any more, so that when the symbols that are not used to send the uplink signal to the first network device any more and the uplink timeslots of the second carrier used by the second network device to send the uplink signal (for example, the SRS) overlap in time, the terminal device can send the uplink signal on the second carrier at the overlapping time, and compared with the scheme in the prior art that the terminal device cannot send the SRS at the overlapping time, the terminal device can send the uplink signal (for example, the SRS) to the first network device is increased, and the first network device and the second network device can send the SRS to more resources to the second network device. Due to the increase of the sending opportunities of the SRS, the second network equipment can acquire the channel state more accurately, so that the performance of downlink transmission of the second network equipment can be improved.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, where the method may be applied to a first network device, and may also be applied to a chip in the first network device. The method is described below as applied to a first network device, in which the first network device may determine that at least one symbol of each of at least one of a plurality of subframes on a first carrier is not used by a terminal device to transmit a first uplink signal to the first network device. Or the first network device determines that the first information is used for determining that at least one symbol of each subframe in the at least one subframe does not send a first uplink signal to the first network device. Or the first network device may determine that at least one of the plurality of subframes on the first carrier is a short frame.

The network device may then send first information to the terminal device, where the first information indicates the at least one subframe of a plurality of subframes, the plurality of subframes being uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, the first carrier being a carrier corresponding to the first network device.

The advantages of the method provided in the third aspect may be referred to as the advantages of the first aspect, and are not described herein.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, where the method may be applied to a second network device, and may also be applied to a chip in the second network device. The method will be described below taking an example of application to a second network device, where the second network device may send second information to a terminal device, where the second information indicates at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and indicates at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot to send a second uplink signal to the second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots in which the second network device configures a second carrier for the terminal device, the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device, and the second information is used to determine that at least one symbol of each subframe in at least one subframe on a first carrier does not send a first uplink signal to the first network device, or the second information is used to determine that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame; wherein the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe overlaps in time with at least one symbol of each of the at least one slot.

It will be appreciated that the second network device may receive the second uplink signal from the terminal device on one or more symbols, where the one or more symbols are symbols of the at least one symbol in one or more slots of the plurality of slots.

The advantages of the method provided in the fourth aspect may be seen in the advantages of the second aspect, and are not described in detail herein.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a chip applied to the terminal device, including: a transceiver and a processor. Wherein,

A transceiver, configured to receive first information from a first network device, where the first information is used to indicate at least one subframe of a plurality of subframes, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes on a first carrier configured by the first network device for a terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device;

and a processor, configured to determine, according to the first information, that at least one symbol is not used to send a first uplink signal to the first network device, where the at least one symbol is one or more symbols in a first subframe of the at least one subframe on the first carrier.

It will be appreciated that the above-described actions by the processor may be replaced with: and the processor is used for determining a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier according to the first information. Or may be replaced with: and the processor is used for determining a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier according to the first information, and a symbol not used for sending the first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment. Or may be replaced with: and the processor is used for determining that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame according to the first information.

The advantages of the communication device provided in the fifth aspect may be seen in the advantages provided in the first aspect, and the detailed description is omitted herein.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a chip applied to the terminal device, including: a transceiver and a processor. Wherein,

A transceiver configured to receive second information from a second network device, where the second information is configured to indicate at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and indicate at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot to transmit a second uplink signal to the second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots on a second carrier configured by the second network device for the terminal device, and the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device;

and the processor is configured to determine, according to the second information, that at least one symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier is not used to send a first uplink signal to a first network device, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes in the first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and at least one symbol in the first subframe overlaps in time with at least one symbol in a first slot in the at least one slot.

It will be appreciated that the above-described actions by the processor may be replaced with: and the processor is used for determining a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier according to the second information. Or may be replaced with: and the processor is used for determining a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in at least one subframe in the plurality of subframes on the first carrier according to the second information, and a symbol not used for sending the first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment. Or may be replaced with: and the processor is used for determining that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame according to the second information.

It will be appreciated that the transceiver may also be configured to transmit the second uplink signal to the second network device on one or more symbols, where the one or more symbols are symbols of the at least one symbol in one or more slots of the plurality of slots.

The beneficial effects of the communication device provided in the sixth aspect may be referred to the beneficial effects of the second aspect, and are not described herein.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be a first network device or a chip applied to the first network device, including: a processor and a transceiver. Wherein,

A processor configured to determine that at least one symbol of each of at least one of a plurality of subframes on a first carrier is not used for a terminal device to transmit a first uplink signal to a first network device; or a processor configured to determine that the first information is used to determine that at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe does not transmit a first uplink signal to the first network device. Or a processor configured to determine that at least one of the plurality of subframes on the first carrier is a short frame.

And a transceiver configured to send first information to the terminal device, where the first information indicates the at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes, the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by a first network device for the terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device.

The beneficial effects of the communication device provided in the seventh aspect may be referred to the beneficial effects of the first aspect, and are not described herein.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, which may be a second network device or a chip applied to the second network device, including: a transceiver. Wherein,

A transceiver configured to send second information to a terminal device, where the second information is used to indicate at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and indicate at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot to send a second uplink signal to a second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots in which the second network device configures a second carrier for the terminal device, the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device, the second information is used to determine that at least one symbol of each subframe of at least one subframe on a first carrier does not send a first uplink signal to the first network device, or the second information is used to determine that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame; wherein the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe overlaps in time with at least one symbol of each of the at least one slot.

It will be appreciated that the above network device may further comprise a transceiver, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive the second uplink signal from the terminal device on one or more symbols, where the one or more symbols are symbols of the at least one symbol in one or more slots of the plurality of slots.

The beneficial effects of the communication device provided in the eighth aspect can be seen in the beneficial effects of the second aspect, and are not described herein.

In one possible design, in the above aspects, the first information includes at least one of the following information: indication information of a subframe number of the at least one subframe, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one subframe is located. In this way, the first network device can flexibly indicate which uplink subframes the first network device configures for partial symbols on, and is no longer used to send uplink signals to the first network device.

In one possible design, in the above aspects, the second information includes at least one of the following information: indication information of a time slot number of the at least one time slot, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one time slot is located. In this way, the second network device can flexibly indicate which uplink subframes configured by the first network device for the terminal device are part of the symbols on the uplink subframes, and is no longer used for transmitting uplink signals to the first network device.

In one possible design, in the above aspects, the plurality of subframes may be uplink subframes indicated in a reference TDD configuration sent by the first network device to the terminal device. By the method, the symbols used for sending the uplink signals in the uplink subframes which are pre-configured to the terminal equipment by the first network equipment through the existing protocol and used for sending the uplink signals to the first network equipment can be adjusted.

In one possible design, in the above aspects, at least one symbol in the first subframe is a last N symbols in the first subframe, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Illustratively, the N takes a value of 1 or 2. In this way, if the period overlapping with the at least one symbol time in the first subframe of the at least one subframe on the first carrier is used to transmit the SRS of NR, when the value of N may be 1 or 2, it is possible to ensure that there are enough resources for the terminal device to transmit the SRS signal to the NR network device and at the same time, as many resources for the terminal device to transmit the uplink signal to the LTE network device as possible.

In one possible design, in the above aspects, the second uplink signal may be, for example, a sounding reference signal SRS. By the method, the opportunity of sending the SRS by the second network equipment can be increased, and the performance of downlink transmission can be improved.

It may be appreciated that in the above aspects, the first network device and the second network device are network devices that are accessed by the terminal device at the same time, where the first network device and the second network device may support the same radio access technology, or may be network devices that support different radio access technologies, for example, the first network device is a network device in an LTE system, and the second network device is a network device in an NR system.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, including: a processor, a memory, a transceiver; the transceiver is coupled to the processor, and the processor controls the transceiving actions of the transceiver;

Wherein the memory is for storing computer executable program code, the program code comprising instructions; the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the communication device to perform the communication method as provided by the first aspect or each possible design of the first aspect.

In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus including: a processor, a memory, a transceiver; the transceiver is coupled to the processor, and the processor controls the transceiving actions of the transceiver;

Wherein the memory is for storing computer executable program code, the program code comprising instructions; the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the communication device to perform the communication method as provided by the second aspect or each of the possible designs of the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus including: a processor, a memory, a transceiver; the transceiver is coupled to the processor, and the processor controls the transceiving actions of the transceiver;

wherein the memory is for storing computer executable program code, the program code comprising instructions; the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the communication apparatus to perform the communication method as provided by the third aspect or each possible design of the third aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus including: a processor, a memory, a transceiver; the transceiver is coupled to the processor, and the processor controls the transceiving actions of the transceiver;

Wherein the memory is for storing computer executable program code, the program code comprising instructions; the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the communication device to perform the communication method as provided by the fourth aspect or each possible design of the fourth aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising means, modules or circuits for performing the method provided by the above first aspect or each possible design of the first aspect. The communication device may be a terminal device or may be a module applied to the terminal device, for example, may be a chip applied to the terminal device.

In a fourteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communications device comprising means, modules or circuits for performing the method provided by the above second aspect or each possible design of the second aspect. The communication device may be a terminal device or may be a module applied to the terminal device, for example, may be a chip applied to the terminal device.

In a fifteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communications apparatus comprising means, modules or circuits for performing the method provided by the above or each possible design of the third aspect. The communication means may be the first network device or may be a module applied to the first network device, for example, may be a chip applied to the first network device.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising means, modules or circuits for performing the method provided by the above fourth or each possible design of the fourth aspect. The communication means may be the second network device or may be a module applied to the second network device, for example, may be a chip applied to the second network device.

In a seventeenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device (e.g. a chip) having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by the communication device, implements a method as provided by the first aspect or each of the possible designs of the first aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device (e.g. a chip) having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by the communication device, implements a method as provided by the second aspect or each possible design of the second aspect.

In a nineteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communications device (e.g. a chip) having a computer program stored thereon, which when executed by the communications device implements a method as provided by the or each possible design of the third aspect.

In a twentieth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communications device (e.g. a chip) having a computer program stored thereon, which when executed by the communications device implements the method as provided by the fourth aspect or each of the possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In a twenty-first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or of the various possible designs of the first aspect described above.

In a twenty-second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or the various possible designs of the second aspect described above.

In a twenty-third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the third aspect or of the various possible designs of the third aspect described above.

In a twenty-fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the fourth aspect or the various possible designs of the fourth aspect described above.

In a twenty-fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or of the various possible designs of the first aspect described above.

In a twenty-sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein that, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or the various possible designs of the second aspect described above.

In a twenty-seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the third aspect or the various possible designs of the third aspect described above.

In a twenty-eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the fourth aspect or the various possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In a twenty-ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication system, including a communication device in the various possible designs of the seventh aspect or the seventh aspect described above, or a communication device in the various possible designs of the eighth aspect or the eighth aspect described above.

According to the communication method and the communication device provided by the embodiment of the application, the partial symbols on the uplink subframes on the first carrier configured by the first network equipment for the terminal equipment are indicated to the terminal equipment working in the MR-DC, and are not used for sending uplink signals to the first network equipment. When the symbols no longer used for transmitting uplink signals to the first network device overlap in time with uplink time slots of a second carrier used by a second network device (for example, NR network device) to transmit uplink signals (for example, SRS), the terminal device is enabled to transmit uplink signals on the second carrier at the overlapping time, and compared with the scheme that SRS cannot transmit SRS at the overlapping time in the prior art, the opportunity of the terminal device to transmit uplink signals (for example, SRS) to the second network device is increased, so that the terminal device accessing the first network device and the second network device simultaneously can have more uplink resources for transmitting SRS to the second network device. Due to the increase of the sending opportunities of the SRS, the second network equipment can acquire the channel state more accurately, so that the performance of downlink transmission of the second network equipment can be improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a time domain resource according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3A is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3B is a schematic diagram of a second scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3C is a schematic diagram of a third scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3D is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another time domain resource according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the mobile communication system may include a core network device 110, a radio access network device 120, and at least one terminal device (e.g., terminal device 130 and terminal device 140 in fig. 1). The terminal device is connected to the radio access network device 120 in a wireless manner, and the radio access network device 120 is connected to the core network device 110 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network device 110 and the radio access network device 120 may be separate physical devices, or the functions of the core network device 110 and the logic functions of the radio access network device 120 may be integrated on the same physical device, or the functions of a part of the core network device 110 and the functions of a part of the radio access network device 120 may be integrated on one physical device. The terminal device may be fixed in position or may be movable. Fig. 1 is only a schematic diagram, and other network devices may be further included in the mobile communication system, for example, a wireless relay device, a wireless backhaul device, etc., which are not shown in fig. 1. The number of core network devices 110, radio access network devices 120, and terminal devices included in the mobile communication system is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

The radio access network device 120 is an access device that a terminal device accesses to the mobile communication system in a wireless manner, and may be a base station NodeB, an evolved base station eNodeB, a 5G mobile communication system, a network side in a new-generation wireless (NR) communication system, a network side in a future mobile communication system, an access node in a WiFi system, or the like, and the specific technology and the specific device configuration adopted by the radio access network device 120 are not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the radio access network device 120 is simply referred to as a network device, and if not specifically described, in the embodiment of the present application, the network devices refer to the radio access network device 120. In addition, in embodiments of the present application, the terms 5G and NR may be equivalent.

The Terminal device may also be referred to as a Terminal, a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc. The terminal device may be a mobile phone, a tablet (pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned (SELF DRIVING), a wireless terminal in teleoperation (remote medical surgery), a wireless terminal in smart grid (SMART GRID), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (SMART CITY), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), etc.

The radio access network device 120 and terminal devices may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; the device can be deployed on the water surface; but also on aerial planes, balloons and satellites. The application scenarios of the radio access network device 120 and the terminal device are not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to downlink data transmission, uplink data transmission and device-to-device (D2D) data transmission. For downlink data transmission, the transmitting device is a radio access network device 120, and the corresponding receiving device is a terminal device. For uplink data transmission, the transmitting device is a terminal device and the corresponding receiving device is a radio access network device 120. For D2D data transmission, the transmitting device is a terminal device, and the corresponding receiving device is also a terminal device. The embodiment of the application does not limit the transmission direction of the data.

Communication between the radio access network device 120 and the terminal device and between the terminal device and the terminal device may be performed through a licensed spectrum (licensed spectrum), may be performed through an unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed spectrum), or may be performed through both the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum. The radio access network device 120 and the terminal device may communicate with each other through a frequency spectrum of 6 gigahertz (GHz) or less, through a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more, or simultaneously communicate using a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or less and a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the spectrum resources used between the radio access network device 120 and the terminal device.

Taking an LTE mobile communication system (abbreviated as LTE system) and an NR mobile communication system (abbreviated as NR system) as an example, in the early stage of NR system deployment, there may be a case where the NR system and the LTE system coexist. Therefore, when the terminal equipment is located in the coverage area of the network equipment of the NR system and the coverage area of the network equipment of the LTE system at the same time, the terminal equipment can adopt a DC mode and be connected with the network equipment of the LTE system (called as the LTE network equipment for short) and the network equipment of the NR system (called as the NR network equipment for short) at the same time so as to achieve the improvement of the data transmission bandwidth.

Since LTE is also referred to as evolved universal terrestrial radio access (evolved universal terrestrial radio access, E-UTRA), this manner of access in which terminal devices connect LTE network devices and NR network devices simultaneously is referred to as evolved universal terrestrial radio access and new air interface dual connectivity (E-UTRA NR dual connectivity, EN-DC). Under EN-DC, the LTE system is a main network, the LTE network equipment is a main network equipment, the NR system is an auxiliary network, and the NR network equipment is an auxiliary network equipment. With the evolution of the system, a new air interface and an evolved universal terrestrial radio access dual connection (NR E-UTRA dual connectivity, NE-DC) can be supported in the future. Under NE-DC, the NR system is a main network, the NR network equipment is a main network equipment, the LTE system is an auxiliary network, and the LTE network equipment is an auxiliary network equipment. Since both end devices under EN-DC and end devices under NE-DC access network devices of two different radio access technologies, these DCs may also be collectively referred to as Multi-radio access technology dual connectivity (Multi-RAT dual connectivity, MR-DC).

The mobile communication system may operate in a frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) mode or a time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD) mode. For a mobile communication system operating in TDD mode, it generally only includes one operating frequency band (i.e. unpaired frequency band), that is, a network device and a terminal device in the mobile communication system use one carrier, and implement uplink communication and downlink communication in a time division manner. For a mobile communication system using unpaired frequency bands, in an area covered by the same network device, the whole working frequency band is only used for downlink communication or uplink communication in a certain period of time, and uplink communication and downlink communication cannot be simultaneously performed. For a mobile communication system operating in FDD mode, it generally includes two operating frequency bands (i.e., paired frequency bands), where one operating frequency band is used for downlink communication from a network device to a terminal device, and the other operating frequency band is used for uplink communication from a terminal device to a network device, i.e., the network device and the terminal device in the mobile communication system use one carrier to implement uplink communication, and use the other carrier to implement downlink communication.

Currently, a typical deployment mode is that an NR system is deployed on an unpaired frequency band around 3.5GHz and uses TDD mode for communication, and an LTE system is deployed on a paired frequency band around 1.8GHz and uses FDD mode for communication. In this deployment scenario, the terminal equipment in MR-DC operates in FDD mode in LTE system and in TDD mode in NR system. That is, the LTE network device and the terminal device use the LTE uplink carrier for uplink communication, the LTE network device and the terminal device use the LTE downlink carrier for downlink communication, and the NR network device and the terminal device use the NR carrier for communication.

However, for a terminal device operating in MR-DC, when the terminal device simultaneously transmits an uplink signal to the NR network device and transmits an uplink signal to the LTE network device, the performance of the terminal device receiving a downlink signal transmitted by the LTE network device at a frequency point around 1.8GHz may be seriously affected due to a problem of cross modulation between the 3.5GHz signal and the 1.8GHz signal. Therefore, in order to avoid the influence of cross modulation on the performance of the terminal device, for a terminal device operating in MR-DC, the uplink signal can only be transmitted on one frequency point at the same time. That is, when the terminal device uses the NR carrier to transmit the uplink signal on the NR system, the terminal device cannot use the LTE uplink carrier to transmit the uplink signal on the LTE system, and when the terminal device uses the LTE uplink carrier to transmit the uplink signal on the LTE system, the terminal device cannot use the NR carrier to transmit the uplink signal on the NR system.

In the prior art, in order to enable a terminal device to send an uplink signal only on one of the systems, an LTE network device configures a reference TDD configuration that is the same as that in the case of "time division duplex (time division duplexing, TDD) -frequency division duplex (frequency division duplexing, FDD) carrier aggregation and TDD carrier being a primary carrier" to a terminal device operating under MR-DC, where the reference TDD configuration may be as shown in table 1 below. In this way, the LTE network device may configure any one of the 7 configurations shown in table 1 for the terminal device, so that the terminal device may transmit an uplink signal on a part of the subframes using the LTE uplink carrier. However, the partial subframes are only to illustrate that the terminal device can send uplink signals in the subframes, but whether the terminal device specifically sends uplink signals in the subframes should be further determined in combination with scheduling of the LTE network device. It will be appreciated that the above-described subframes for transmitting uplink signals may also be referred to as uplink subframes.

TABLE 1

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For example, when the terminal device is configured with reference to uplink-downlink configuration 0, the terminal device may transmit uplink signals on subframes 2, 3, 4, 7,8, and 9 using the LTE uplink carrier, and may not transmit any uplink signals on subframes 0, 1, 5, and 6 (i.e., subframes labeled "-" in table 1). The uplink signal may be any of the following signals: physical-layer uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical-layer uplink SHARED CHANNEL (PUSCH), physical-layer random ACCESS CHANNEL (PRACH), sounding REFERENCE SIGNAL (SRS), and the like.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the LTE network device may further configure the terminal device with an offset value, where the value range of the offset value may be, for example, 0 to 9, and the offset value is used to adjust the number of subframes that can be used by the terminal device. For example, when the terminal device is configured with reference to the uplink-downlink configuration 1 and the offset value is 2, the terminal device may use the LTE uplink carrier to send uplink signals on subframes 4, 5, 9, and 0, instead of uplink subframes 2, 3, 7, and 8 corresponding to the reference uplink-downlink configuration 1.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a time domain resource according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, a part of uplink subframes configured by the LTE network device for the terminal device and a part of subframes configured by the NR network device for the terminal device have uplink time periods that overlap in time, i.e., uplink time periods where x in fig. 2 is located. In the uplink time period, the terminal equipment is allowed to use the LTE uplink carrier to send an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network equipment, and the terminal equipment is also allowed to use the NR carrier to send an uplink signal of NR to the NR network equipment. Currently, for this situation, the terminal device can only transmit the uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device using the LTE uplink carrier in the overlapping uplink time period, and cannot transmit the uplink signal of NR to the NR network device using the NR carrier, so that the opportunity that the terminal device can transmit the uplink signal on the NR side is reduced.

Referring to fig. 2, it is assumed that subframe 1 is an uplink subframe configured by an LTE network device for a terminal device, and that a NR network device is configured by the terminal device with a downlink time slot and an uplink time slot on subframe 1. On the uplink time slot, the terminal device is allowed to transmit a Sounding REFERENCE SIGNAL (SRS) to the NR network device using the NR carrier, so that the NR network device determines the precoding of the downlink transmission using the SRS transmitted by the terminal device. In this scenario, the terminal device only uses the LTE uplink carrier, and transmits the LTE uplink signal to the LTE network device in subframe 1, and does not use the NR carrier, and transmits the NR SRS signal on the uplink slot configured by the NR network device in this subframe 1, so that the opportunity that the terminal device can transmit the SRS on the NR side is reduced, which may cause a problem of performance degradation of the NR system.

In view of the above, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which indicates to a terminal device operating in MR-DC, which uplink subframes configured by a first network device are part of symbols not used for transmitting uplink signals to the first network device, and when the symbols overlap in time with uplink slots used by a second network device for transmitting uplink signals, the opportunity for the second network device to transmit uplink signals can be increased.

It can be understood that the method provided by the embodiment of the application can be suitable for any terminal device to access the DC scene of the first network device and the second network device at the same time. Wherein the first network device and the second network device may support the same or different radio access technologies.

The following application embodiments take the first network device as an LTE network device and the second network device as an NR network device as examples to describe and explain the communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application. Fig. 3A is a schematic diagram of a first scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 3B is a schematic diagram of a second scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, fig. 3C is a schematic diagram of a third scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, and fig. 3D is a schematic diagram of a fourth scenario of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. In this scenario, the LTE network device and the NR network device may be deployed on the same site, as shown in fig. 3A and 3B; or the LTE network device and the NR network device may be deployed on different sites as shown in fig. 3C and 3D. It will be appreciated that when the LTE network device and the NR network device are deployed on the same site, the LTE network device and the NR network device may share the same set of hardware devices, or different hardware devices may be used, which is not limited.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments. The following embodiments may be combined with each other, and some embodiments may not be repeated for the same or similar concepts or processes.

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the method includes:

s101, the LTE network device determines that at least one symbol of each of at least one subframe of the plurality of subframes on the first carrier is not used for the terminal device to send the first uplink signal to the first network device.

Alternatively, the LTE network device determines that the first information is used to determine that at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe does not transmit a first uplink signal to the first network device.

The plurality of subframes may be adjacent subframes, for example, subframes 0 to 5, or discontinuous subframes, for example, subframes 0, 2,3, or subframes 0, 2, 5, etc. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the manner in which the LTE network device configures the plurality of subframes for the terminal device, for example, the plurality of subframes may be uplink subframes indicated in the reference TDD configuration sent by the network device to the terminal device. For a description of the reference TDD configuration, reference may be made to the foregoing corresponding contents of table 1. Then, in this implementation, before S101, the LTE network device may further send a reference TDD configuration to the terminal device, where the reference TDD configuration may configure the terminal device to use the first carrier to send uplink signals to the LTE network device on which subframes. Accordingly, the terminal device may receive the reference TDD configuration. For how the LTE network device sends the reference TDD configuration to the terminal device, reference may be made to an implementation manner in the prior art, which is not described in detail.

At least one subframe in the plurality of subframes may be a subframe selected by the LTE network device from the plurality of subframes through a preset policy. The at least one subframe may also be a subframe of an uplink time period, which is selected by the LTE network device and overlaps with a time slot configured on the NR side, according to a time slot configured on the NR network device for the terminal device and the plurality of subframes configured on the LTE network device for the terminal device. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the determination manner of at least one subframe among the plurality of subframes.

The first information is used for indicating at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes, wherein the subframes are uplink subframes on a first carrier configured by the LTE network device for the terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the LTE network device. The first carrier may be, for example, a carrier between the LTE network device and the terminal device for transmitting an uplink signal, for example, the LTE uplink carrier described above.

S102, the LTE network equipment sends first information to the terminal equipment.

Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first information.

Alternatively, the first information may be carried in first signaling, where the first signaling may be higher layer signaling or physical layer signaling. Alternatively, the first signaling is used to indicate at least one subframe of the plurality of subframes. The higher layer signaling may be, for example, radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) signaling or MAC signaling. When the first signaling is physical layer signaling, the first signaling may be a physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) carrying downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) including one or more information fields for indicating at least one of the plurality of subframes.

And S103, the terminal equipment determines that at least one symbol is not used for sending a first uplink signal to the first network equipment according to the first information.

Wherein the at least one symbol is one or more symbols in a first subframe of the at least one subframe on the first carrier.

Alternatively, this step S103 may be replaced with: and the terminal equipment determines a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier according to the first information. Or this step S103 may be replaced with: and the terminal equipment determines a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier according to the first information, and a symbol not used for sending the first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment.

In this embodiment, after receiving the first information sent by the LTE network device, the terminal device may determine, according to at least one subframe indicated by the first information, that at least one symbol in a first subframe in the at least one subframe is not used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device, and the remaining symbols except for the at least one symbol may be used to send the first uplink signal (i.e., an uplink signal of LTE) to the LTE network device. That is, through the first information, a part of the symbols of the first subframe may be configured to be used to transmit an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device, and a part of the symbols may not be configured to transmit the uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device. The uplink signal of LTE here may be, for example: PUCCH, PUSCH, PRACH, SRS, etc.

In this scenario, the uplink signal of LTE transmitted by the terminal device using a portion of the symbols of the first subframe may also be referred to as a short format uplink signal, i.e., an uplink signal with a small number of occupied symbols. Or a subframe in which the above partial symbol is used to transmit an uplink signal may be referred to as a short frame. Alternatively, the step S103 may be replaced by: and the terminal equipment determines that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame according to the first information. Wherein a short frame means that a part of symbols of each of the at least one subframe cannot be used for transmitting an uplink signal, i.e., symbols capable of transmitting the uplink signal are reduced. Accordingly, the step S101 may be replaced by: the first network device determines that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame.

The first subframe may be any one of the at least one subframe. In this case, the first subframe may be a certain subframe, and the plurality of subframes are processed according to the first subframe. In this embodiment, the terminal device may determine that a part of symbols of each of the at least one subframe cannot be used to transmit the uplink signal, where the first subframe is any one of the at least one subframe, and other subframes of the at least one subframe are all processed according to the first subframe. However, in the LTE system, no matter how the terminal device performs the determined action, on the carrier configured for the terminal device, the terminal device cannot transmit an uplink signal on a portion of symbols of each of at least one of the subframes indicated by the first information.

It is understood that at least one symbol in the first subframe may be the last N symbols in the first subframe or the first N symbols in the first subframe, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

The position of at least one symbol in the first subframe may be preset, or may be determined by the terminal device according to the position of the first subframe overlapping in time with an uplink time slot of an uplink signal (for example, SRS) used for transmitting NR on the NR side. For example, if the last 2 symbols of the first subframe overlap in time with an uplink slot on the NR side for transmitting an uplink signal of NR (e.g. SRS), the terminal device may determine that the last 2 symbols of the first subframe are not used for transmitting an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device, and the first 12 symbols of the first subframe are used for transmitting an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device. Or the terminal device may determine that the last 3 symbols of the first subframe are not used to transmit uplink signals of LTE to the LTE network device, and the first 9 symbols of the first subframe are used to transmit uplink signals of LTE to the LTE network device. That is, the period in which at least one symbol in the first subframe is located includes a period in which an uplink time slot for transmitting an uplink signal to the NR side is located.

In this way, at the moment when the terminal device subsequently arrives at the first subframe, the terminal device may send an uplink signal of LTE on a symbol other than at least one symbol of the first subframe, and send the second uplink signal, such as SRS, on one or more symbols of an uplink slot that overlaps in time with the first subframe.

It is understood that, when the uplink signal of the NR is SRS, the value of N may be 1 or 2, for example. In this way, it is ensured that the terminal device has enough resources to transmit the SRS signal to the NR network device, and as many resources as possible to transmit the uplink signal to the LTE network device.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another time domain resource according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, it is assumed that subframe 1 is an uplink subframe configured by the LTE network device for the terminal device, and the NR network device is configured by the terminal device with a downlink time slot and an uplink time slot on subframe 1. On the uplink time slot, the terminal device is allowed to transmit SRS to the NR network device using the NR carrier. The uplink time slot overlaps in time with the last 2 symbols of subframe 1.

In this embodiment, if the LTE network device indicates the subframe 1 through the first information, the terminal device may determine, according to the subframe 1, that the first 12 symbols of the subframe 1 may be used to transmit the uplink signal of LTE, and the second 2 symbols are not used to transmit the uplink signal of LTE. The terminal device may send an uplink signal of LTE on the first 12 symbols of the subframe 1 and send an SRS of NR on the second 2 symbols of the subframe 1 at the moment of reaching the subframe 1, so that the NR network device determines the precoding of downlink transmission by using the SRS sent by the terminal device, so that the NR network device can obtain the channel state more accurately, and thus the performance of downlink transmission of the NR network device can be improved.

The embodiment of the present application is not limited to the manner in which the first information indicates at least one subframe of the plurality of subframes, for example, the first information may include at least one of the following information: indication information of a subframe number of the at least one subframe, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one subframe is located.

The indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe may indicate at least one of: a start subframe number of the at least one subframe, a subframe period of the at least one subframe. If the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe only indicates the start subframe number of the at least one subframe, the subframe period of the at least one subframe may be preset in the terminal device. If the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe only indicates the subframe period of the at least one subframe, the starting subframe number of the at least one subframe may be preset in the terminal device.

Taking the example that the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe indicates the start subframe number of the at least one subframe and the subframe period of the at least one subframe, the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe may include a value of the start subframe number of the at least one subframe and a value of the subframe period of the at least one subframe. Or the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe may include an index number, where the index number has a corresponding relationship with the starting subframe number of the at least one subframe and the subframe period of the at least one subframe, and the corresponding relationship may be preset in the terminal device, or may be sent by the LTE network device to the terminal device through other information, so that the terminal device determines the starting subframe number of the at least one subframe and the subframe period of the at least one subframe according to an index carried by the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe and the corresponding relationship.

The indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located may indicate at least one of the following: the method comprises the steps of starting frame number of a radio frame where at least one subframe is located and frame period of the radio frame where at least one subframe is located. If the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located only indicates the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located, the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located may be preset in the terminal device. If the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe only indicates the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located, the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located may be preset in the terminal device.

Taking the example that the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located indicates the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located and the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located, the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located may include a value of the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located and a value of the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located. Or the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located may include an index number, where the index number has a correspondence with the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located and the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located, where the correspondence may be preset in the terminal device, or may be sent by the LTE network device to the terminal device through other information, so that the terminal device determines, according to the index carried by the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located and the correspondence, the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located and the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located.

Illustratively, assume that one frame in LTE has a time of 10ms, numbered 0 through 1023, and loops back and forth. One frame includes 10 subframes numbered from 0 to 9. The indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located in the first information indicates that the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located is 2, and the frame period 10 of the radio frame where the at least one subframe is located, and the indication information of the subframe number of the at least one subframe indicates the start subframe number 1 of the at least one subframe and the subframe period 5 of the at least one subframe.

At least one subframe indicated by the first information is subframe 1 and subframe 6 of the frames numbered 2, 12, 22, etc. That is, at least one symbol in subframe 1 and subframe 6 in frames numbered 2, 12, 22, etc. is not used to transmit an uplink signal of LTE.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, the LTE network equipment indicates the partial symbols on the uplink subframes on the first carrier configured by the LTE network equipment for the terminal equipment by sending the first information to the terminal equipment, and the partial symbols are not used for sending uplink signals to the LTE network equipment, so that when the symbols which are not used for sending the uplink signals to the LTE network equipment and the uplink time slots of the second carrier used for sending the uplink signals (for example SRS) by the NR network equipment are overlapped in time, the terminal equipment can send the uplink signals on the second carrier in the overlapped time, and compared with the scheme that the SRS cannot send the SRS in the overlapped time in the prior art, the opportunity of sending the uplink signals (for example SRS) to the NR network equipment by the terminal equipment is increased, and the terminal equipment which is simultaneously connected with the LTE network equipment and the NR network equipment can have more uplink resources for sending the SRS to the NR network equipment. Due to the increase of the sending opportunities of the SRS, the NR network equipment can acquire the channel state more accurately, so that the performance of downlink transmission of the NR network equipment can be improved.

The foregoing embodiments describe how to increase the opportunity for the NR side to transmit uplink signals (e.g., SRS) through the behavior of the LTE network device. The following embodiments relate to how to increase the opportunity for an NR side to transmit an uplink signal (e.g., SRS) through the behavior of an NR network device, specifically:

fig. 6 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the method includes:

s201, second information of the NR network device to the terminal device.

Accordingly, the terminal device receives the second information.

The second information is used for indicating at least one time slot in a plurality of time slots and at least one symbol indicating each time slot in the at least one time slot to send a second uplink signal (i.e. an uplink signal of NR) to a second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots in a second carrier configured by the second network device for the terminal device, and the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device. The second carrier may be, for example, a carrier between the NR network device and the terminal device for transmitting an uplink signal. The uplink signal of NR here may be PUCCH, PUSCH, PRACH, SRS or the like.

Optionally, when the uplink signal of the NR is SRS, the second information may be SRS configuration information in the existing NR system, or the second information may be a piece of information newly added in the NR system. When the second information is a piece of information newly added in the NR system, the second information may be carried in a second signaling, where the second signaling may be a higher layer signaling or a physical layer signaling. Or, the second signaling is configured to indicate at least one symbol of at least one of the plurality of timeslots to be used for transmitting a second uplink signal to the second network device. The higher layer signaling referred to herein may be, for example, RRC signaling or MAC signaling. When the second signaling is physical layer signaling, the second signaling may be a PDCCH carrying DCI including one or more information fields for indicating at least one symbol of at least one of a plurality of slots for transmitting a second uplink signal to the second network device.

Alternatively, the plurality of time slots may be uplink time slots, and the time slots may be time slots in different subframes, where subframes where the plurality of time slots are located may be adjacent, for example, subframe 0 to subframe 5, or may be non-adjacent, for example, subframe 0, subframe 2, subframe 3, or subframe 0, subframe 2, subframe 5, or the like. At least one time slot of the plurality of time slots may be a time slot selected by the NR network device from the plurality of time slots through a preset policy. The at least one time slot may also be a time slot of an uplink time period, which is selected by the NR network device and has overlap with an uplink subframe configured on the LTE side, according to an uplink subframe configured on the LTE network device for the terminal device and the plurality of time slots configured on the NR network device for the terminal device. The embodiment of the application does not limit the determination mode of at least one time slot in the plurality of time slots.

S202, the terminal equipment determines that at least one symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier is not used for sending a first uplink signal to the first network equipment according to the second information.

Alternatively, this step S202 may be replaced with: and the terminal equipment determines a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier according to the second information. Or the step S202 may be replaced with: and the terminal equipment determines a symbol used for sending the first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment in a first subframe in at least one subframe in the plurality of subframes on the first carrier according to the second information, and a symbol not used for sending the first uplink signal to the LTE network equipment. Or the step S202 may be replaced with: and the terminal equipment determines that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame according to the second information. Here, the short frame means that a part of symbols of each of the at least one subframe cannot be used to transmit an uplink signal, and thus, symbols capable of transmitting the uplink signal are reduced, and thus, the short frame is called.

The plurality of subframes are uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and at least one symbol in the first subframe overlaps with at least one symbol in a first time slot in the at least one time slot in time.

In this embodiment, after receiving the second information sent by the NR network device, the terminal device may determine, according to at least one time slot indicated by the second information and used for sending an uplink signal of NR, which subframes (i.e. first subframes) of subframes configured by the LTE network device for sending an uplink signal of LTE are in an uplink time period overlapping in time with each other, so as to determine that at least one symbol in the first subframe is not used for sending the first uplink signal to the LTE network device, and the other symbols except for the at least one symbol may be used for sending the first uplink signal (i.e. uplink signal of LTE) to the LTE network device. It is understood that the remaining symbols other than the at least one symbol do not overlap in time with the time slot for transmitting the uplink signal of NR indicated by the second information.

In this case, the first subframe may be a certain subframe, and the plurality of subframes are processed according to the first subframe. In this embodiment, the terminal device may determine that a part of symbols of each of the at least one subframe cannot be used to transmit the uplink signal, where the first subframe is any one of the at least one subframe, and other subframes of the at least one subframe are all processed according to the first subframe. However, in the LTE system, no matter how the terminal device performs the determined action, on the carrier configured for the terminal device, the terminal device cannot transmit an uplink signal on a portion of symbols of each of at least one of the subframes indicated by the first information.

The at least one symbol in the first subframe may be the last N symbols in the first subframe or the first N symbols in the first subframe, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1. It is understood that, when the uplink signal of the NR is SRS, the value of N may be 1 or 2, for example. In this way, it is ensured that the terminal device has enough resources to transmit the SRS signal to the NR network device, and as many resources as possible to transmit the uplink signal to the LTE network device.

The position of at least one symbol in the first subframe may be preset, or may be determined by the terminal device according to the position of the first subframe overlapping in time with an uplink time slot of an uplink signal (for example, SRS) used for transmitting NR on the NR side. For example, if the last 2 symbols of the first subframe overlap in time with an uplink slot on the NR side for transmitting an uplink signal of NR (e.g. SRS), the terminal device may determine that the last 2 symbols of the first subframe are not used for transmitting an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device, and the first 12 symbols of the first subframe are used for transmitting an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device. Or the terminal device may determine that the last 3 symbols of the first subframe are not used to transmit uplink signals of LTE to the LTE network device, and the first 9 symbols of the first subframe are used to transmit uplink signals of LTE to the LTE network device. That is, the period in which at least one symbol in the first subframe is located includes a period in which an uplink time slot for transmitting an uplink signal is located with NR.

That is, through the second information, a part of the symbols of the first subframe may be configured to be used for transmitting an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device, and a part of the symbols are not used for transmitting the uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device. The uplink signal of LTE here may be, for example: PUCCH, PUSCH, PRACH, SRS, etc. In this scenario, the uplink signal of LTE transmitted by the terminal device using a portion of the symbols of the first subframe may also be referred to as a short format uplink signal, i.e., an uplink signal with a small number of occupied symbols. In this way, at the moment when the terminal device subsequently arrives at the first subframe, if the LTE network device schedules the terminal device to send an uplink signal of LTE to the LTE network device in the first subframe, and the NR network device schedules the terminal device to send an uplink signal of NR on an uplink time slot overlapping in time with the first subframe. The terminal device may transmit an uplink signal of LTE on a symbol other than the at least one symbol of the first subframe and transmit an uplink signal of NR on an uplink slot overlapping in time with the first subframe.

That is, the terminal device may transmit the second uplink signal (e.g., SRS) to the second network device on one or more symbols. The one or more symbols are symbols of the at least one symbol in one or more of the plurality of slots. Accordingly, the second network device may receive the second uplink signal from the terminal device on the one or more symbols, where the one or more symbols are symbols in the at least one symbol in one or more slots of the plurality of slots.

With continued reference to the example of fig. 5, if the NR network device indicates, through the second information, that the uplink slot in subframe 1 is used to transmit the SRS of the NR, the terminal device may determine, according to the uplink slot in subframe 1 indicated by the second information, that the first 12 symbols of subframe 1 may be used to transmit the uplink signal of the LTE, and the last 2 symbols are not used to transmit the uplink signal of the LTE.

The terminal device may send an uplink signal of LTE on the first 12 symbols of the subframe 1 and send an SRS of NR on the second 2 symbols of the subframe 1 at the moment of reaching the subframe 1, so that the NR network device determines the precoding of downlink transmission by using the SRS sent by the terminal device, thereby ensuring the downlink transmission performance of the NR network device and the terminal device.

The embodiment of the present application is not limited to the manner in which the second information indicates at least one symbol of at least one of the plurality of timeslots to be used for transmitting the second uplink signal to the second network device, for example, the second information may include at least one of the following information: indication information of a time slot number of the at least one time slot, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one time slot is located.

The indication information of the slot number of the at least one slot may indicate at least one of: a starting time slot number of the at least one time slot, a time slot period of the at least one time slot. If the indication information of the slot number of the at least one slot indicates only the starting slot number of the at least one slot, the slot period of the at least one slot may be preset in the terminal device. If the indication information of the slot number of the at least one slot indicates only the slot cycle of the at least one slot, the starting slot number of the at least one slot may be preset in the terminal device.

Taking the example that the indication information of the time slot number of the at least one time slot indicates the starting time slot number of the at least one time slot and the time slot period of the at least one time slot, the indication information of the time slot number of the at least one time slot may include the value of the starting time slot number of the at least one time slot and the value of the time slot period of the at least one time slot. Or the indication information of the time slot number of the at least one time slot may include an index number, where the index number has a corresponding relationship with the starting time slot number of the at least one time slot and the time slot period of the at least one time slot, and the corresponding relationship may be preset in the terminal device, or may be sent by the LTE network device to the terminal device through other information, so that the terminal device determines the starting time slot number of the at least one time slot and the time slot period of the at least one time slot according to an index carried by the indication information of the time slot number of the at least one time slot and the corresponding relationship.

The indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located may indicate at least one of the following: the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located, and the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located. If the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located only indicates the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located, the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located may be preset in the terminal device. If the indication information of the time slot number of the at least one time slot only indicates the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located, the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located may be preset in the terminal device.

Taking the example that the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located indicates the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located and the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located, the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located may include a value of the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located and a value of the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located. Or the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located may include an index number, where the index number has a correspondence with the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located and the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located, where the correspondence may be preset in the terminal device, or may be sent by the LTE network device to the terminal device through other information, so that the terminal device determines, according to the index carried by the indication information of the frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located and the correspondence, the start frame number of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located and the frame period of the radio frame where the at least one time slot is located.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, the NR network equipment indicates which uplink time slots on the second carrier configured by the NR network equipment are used for transmitting the uplink signal of NR by sending the second information to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment can determine that at least one symbol of the uplink subframes which are overlapped with the uplink time slots in the uplink subframes configured by the LTE network equipment is not used for transmitting the uplink signal to the LTE network equipment any more, and therefore, when the symbols which are not used for transmitting the uplink signal to the LTE network equipment any more are overlapped with the uplink time slots of the second carrier used for transmitting the uplink signal (for example, SRS) by the NR network equipment in time, the terminal equipment can transmit the uplink signal on the second carrier in the overlapped time, compared with the scheme that the SRS cannot transmit the uplink signal to the NR network equipment in the overlapped time in the prior art, the opportunity that the terminal equipment transmits the uplink signal to the NR network equipment is increased, and the terminal equipment which is accessed with the LTE network equipment can transmit more uplink signals (for example, SRS to the NR network equipment can transmit the uplink signal to the NR network equipment. Due to the increase of the sending opportunities of the SRS, the NR network equipment can acquire the channel state more accurately, so that the performance of downlink transmission of the NR network equipment can be improved.

It can be appreciated that the above embodiments all use subframes on the LTE system side and timeslots on the NR side to explain how to improve the opportunity of the NR side to send uplink signals in the MR-DC scenario. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, when implementing the above method, other granularity time units may be implemented, for example, mini-slots, symbols, etc., which will not be described herein.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device according to the present embodiment may be the aforementioned terminal device, or may be a chip applied to the terminal device. The communication device may be configured to perform the actions of the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment. As shown in fig. 7, the communication apparatus may include: a transceiver module 11 and a processing module 12.

Wherein,

A transceiver module 11, configured to receive first information from a first network device, where the first information is used to indicate at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes on a first carrier configured by the first network device for a terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device;

A processing module 12, configured to determine, according to the first information, that at least one symbol is not used to send a first uplink signal to the first network device, where the at least one symbol is one or more symbols in a first subframe of the at least one subframe on the first carrier.

Alternatively, the above-described actions of the processing module 12 may be replaced with: and the processing module 12 is configured to determine, according to the first information, a symbol in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier, where the symbol is used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device. Or the above-described actions of the processing module 12 may be replaced with: a processing module 12, configured to determine, according to the first information, a symbol in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier, where the symbol is used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device, and a symbol not used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device. Or the above-described actions of the processing module 12 may be replaced with: a processing module 12, configured to determine, according to the first information, that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame.

Optionally, the first information includes at least one of the following information: indication information of a subframe number of the at least one subframe, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one subframe is located.

Optionally, the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes indicated in a reference TDD configuration sent by the first network device to the terminal device.

Optionally, at least one symbol in the first subframe is the last N symbols in the first subframe, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1. For example, the value of N is 1 or 2. It can be appreciated that when a time period overlapping with at least one symbol time in a first subframe of the at least one subframe on the first carrier is used to transmit an SRS of NR, the value of N may be, for example, 1 or 2. In this way, it is ensured that the terminal device has enough resources to transmit the SRS signal to the NR network device, and as many resources as possible to transmit the uplink signal to the LTE network device.

Optionally, the first network device is a network device in an LTE system, and the second network device is a network device in an NR system.

The communication device provided by the embodiment of the present application may perform the actions of the terminal device in the above embodiment of the method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and are not described herein again.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device according to the present embodiment may be the aforementioned terminal device, or may be a chip applied to the terminal device. The communication device may be configured to perform the actions of the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment. As shown in fig. 8, the communication apparatus may include: a transceiver module 21 and a processing module 22.

Wherein,

A transceiver module 21, configured to receive second information from a second network device, where the second information is used to indicate at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and indicate at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot to send a second uplink signal to the second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots on a second carrier configured by the second network device for the terminal device, and the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device;

The processing module 22 is configured to determine, according to the second information, that at least one symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier is not used to send a first uplink signal to a first network device, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and at least one symbol in the first subframe overlaps in time with at least one symbol in a first slot in the at least one slot.

Alternatively, the above-described actions of the processing module 22 may be replaced with: and the processing module 22 is configured to determine, according to the second information, a symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe in the plurality of subframes on the first carrier, where the symbol is used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device. Or the above-described actions of the processing module 22 may be replaced with: a processing module 22, configured to determine, according to the second information, a symbol in a first subframe of at least one subframe of the plurality of subframes on the first carrier, where the symbol is used to send a first uplink signal to the LTE network device, and a symbol not used to send the first uplink signal to the LTE network device. Or the above-described actions of the processing module 22 may be replaced with: a processing module 12, configured to determine, according to the second information, that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame.

It will be appreciated that the transceiver module 21 may be further configured to send the second uplink signal to the second network device on one or more symbols, where the one or more symbols are symbols in the at least one symbol in one or more slots of the plurality of slots.

Optionally, the second information includes at least one of the following information: indication information of a time slot number of the at least one time slot, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one time slot is located.

Optionally, the second uplink signal is a sounding reference signal SRS.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus according to the present embodiment may be the first network device described above, or may be a chip applied to the first network device. The communication means may be adapted to perform the actions of the first network device in the above-described method embodiments. As shown in fig. 9, the communication apparatus may include: a processing module 31 and a transceiver module 32. Wherein,

A processing module 31, configured to determine that at least one symbol of each of at least one subframe of the plurality of subframes on the first carrier is not used for the terminal device to send the first uplink signal to the first network device; or a processing module 31, configured to determine that the first information is used to determine that at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe does not send a first uplink signal to the first network device; or a processing module 31, configured to determine that at least one subframe of the plurality of subframes on the first carrier is a short frame.

And a transceiver module 32, configured to send first information to the terminal device, where the first information indicates the at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by a first network device for the terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device.

Optionally, at least one symbol of each subframe in the at least one subframe is a last N symbols of each subframe in the at least one subframe, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1. For example, the value of N is 1 or 2. It can be appreciated that when a time period overlapping with at least one symbol time in a first subframe of the at least one subframe on the first carrier is used to transmit an SRS of NR, the value of N may be, for example, 1 or 2. In this way, it is ensured that the terminal device has enough resources to transmit the SRS signal to the NR network device, and as many resources as possible to transmit the uplink signal to the LTE network device.

The communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application may perform the actions of the first network device in the embodiment of the method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar and are not described herein again.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus according to the present embodiment may be the aforementioned second network device, or may be a chip applied to the second network device. The communication means may be adapted to perform the actions of the second network device in the above-described method embodiments. As shown in fig. 10, the communication apparatus may include: a transceiver module 41. Wherein,

A transceiver module 41, configured to send second information to a terminal device, where the second information is used to indicate at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and indicate at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot to send a second uplink signal to a second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots in which the second network device configures a second carrier for the terminal device, the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device, and the second information is used to determine that at least one symbol of each subframe in at least one subframe on a first carrier does not send a first uplink signal to the first network device, or the second information is used to determine that the at least one subframe on the first carrier is a short frame; wherein the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe overlaps in time with at least one symbol of each of the at least one slot.

It will be appreciated that the above network device may further comprise a transceiver module 42, where the transceiver module 42 is configured to receive the second uplink signal from the terminal device on one or more symbols, where the one or more symbols are symbols in the at least one symbol in one or more slots of the plurality of slots.

Optionally, the second uplink signal is a sounding reference signal SRS.

The communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application may perform the actions of the second network device in the embodiment of the method, and its implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and are not described herein again.

It should be noted that the above transceiver module may be actually implemented as a transceiver, or include a transmitter and a receiver. And the processing module can be realized in the form of software calling through the processing element; or in hardware. For example, the processing module may be a processing element that is set up separately, may be implemented in a chip of the above-mentioned apparatus, or may be stored in a memory of the above-mentioned apparatus in the form of program codes, and the functions of the above-mentioned processing module may be called and executed by a processing element of the above-mentioned apparatus. In addition, all or part of the modules can be integrated together or can be independently implemented. The processing element described herein may be an integrated circuit having signal processing capabilities. In implementation, each step of the above method or each module above may be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element or an instruction in a software form.

For example, the modules above may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the methods above, such as: one or more Application SPECIFIC INTEGRATED Circuits (ASICs), or one or more microprocessors (DIGITAL SIGNAL processors, DSPs), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGAs), etc. For another example, when a module above is implemented in the form of processing element scheduler code, the processing element may be a general purpose processor, such as a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU) or other processor that may invoke the program code. For another example, the modules may be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 11, the communication apparatus may include: a processor 51 (e.g., CPU), a memory 52, a transceiver 53; the transceiver 53 is coupled to the processor 51, and the processor 51 controls the transceiver 53 to transmit and receive; the memory 52 may comprise a random-access memory (RAM) or may further comprise a non-volatile memory (NVM), such as at least one magnetic disk memory, in which various instructions may be stored in the memory 52 for performing various processing functions and implementing method steps of the present application. Optionally, the communication device according to the present application may further include: a power supply 54, a communication bus 55 and a communication port 56. The transceiver 53 may be integrated into the transceiver of the communication device or may be a separate transceiver antenna on the communication device. The communication bus 55 is used to enable communication connections between the elements. The communication port 56 is used to enable connection communication between the communication device and other peripheral devices.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 52 is configured to store computer executable program codes, and the program codes include instructions; when the processor 51 executes the instructions, the instructions cause the processor 51 of the communication device to execute the processing actions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment, and cause the transceiver 53 to execute the transceiving actions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment, so that the implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and are not repeated herein.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 12, the communication apparatus may include: a processor 61 (e.g., CPU), a memory 62, a transceiver 63; the transceiver 63 is coupled to the processor 61, and the processor 61 controls the transceiver 63 to transmit and receive; the memory 62 may comprise a random-access memory (RAM) or may further comprise a non-volatile memory (NVM), such as at least one disk memory, in which various instructions may be stored in the memory 62 for performing various processing functions and implementing method steps of the present application. Optionally, the communication device according to the present application may further include: a power supply 64, a communication bus 65 and a communication port 66. The transceiver 63 may be integrated into the transceiver of the communication device or may be a separate transceiver antenna on the communication device. The communication bus 65 is used to enable communication connections between the elements. The communication port 66 is used to enable connection communication between the communication device and other peripheral devices.

In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 62 is configured to store computer executable program codes, and the program codes include instructions; when the processor 61 executes the instructions, the instructions cause the processor 61 of the communication apparatus to execute the processing actions of the first network device in the above method embodiment, and cause the transceiver 63 to execute the transceiving actions of the first network device in the above method embodiment, so that the implementation principle and technical effects are similar, and are not repeated herein.

Or when the processor 61 executes the instruction, the instruction causes the processor 61 of the communication apparatus to execute the processing action of the second network device in the above method embodiment, and causes the transceiver 63 to execute the transceiving action of the second network device in the above method embodiment, which is similar to the implementation principle and technical effect, and will not be repeated herein.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions in accordance with embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means from one website, computer, server, or data center. Computer readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer or data storage devices, such as servers, data centers, etc., that contain an integration of one or more available media. Usable media may be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tape), optical media (e.g., DVD), or semiconductor media (e.g., solid state disk Solid STATE DISK (SSD)), among others.

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

It will be appreciated that the various numerical numbers referred to in the embodiments of the present application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the sequence number of each process does not mean that the execution sequence of each process should be determined by the function and the internal logic, and should not limit the implementation process of the embodiment of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of communication, the method comprising:

Receiving first information from a first network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes, the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes on a first carrier configured by the first network device for a terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and the first network device is an LTE network device;

And determining a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the first network device in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier according to the first information, and a symbol not used for sending the first uplink signal to the first network device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises at least one of:

Indication information of a subframe number of the at least one subframe, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one subframe is located.

3. The method according to any of claims 1-2, wherein the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes indicated in a reference TDD configuration sent by the first network device to the terminal device.

4. The method according to any of claims 1-2, wherein at least one symbol in the first subframe is a last N symbols in the first subframe, the N being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

5. A method of communication, the method comprising:

Receiving second information from a second network device, wherein the second information is used for indicating at least one time slot in a plurality of time slots and at least one symbol indicating each time slot in the at least one time slot to send a second uplink signal to the second network device, the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots on a second carrier configured by the second network device for a terminal device, the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device, and the second network device is an NR network device;

And determining, according to the second information, a symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier, where the first subframe is an uplink subframe in a first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and the symbol not used for transmitting the first uplink signal to the first network device overlaps in time with at least one symbol in a first time slot in the at least one time slot, and the first network device is an LTE network device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second information comprises at least one of:

indication information of a time slot number of the at least one time slot, and indication information of a frame number of a radio frame where the at least one time slot is located.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the second uplink signal is a sounding reference signal, SRS.

8. A method of communication, the method comprising:

determining a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to first network equipment in a first subframe in at least one subframe on a first carrier, and not used for sending the symbol of the first uplink signal to the first network equipment, wherein the first network equipment is LTE network equipment;

And sending first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information indicates the at least one subframe in the plurality of subframes, the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by a first network device for the terminal device, and the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first information comprises at least one of:

10. The method according to any of claims 8-9, wherein the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes indicated in a reference TDD configuration sent by the first network device to the terminal device.

11. The method according to any of claims 8-9, wherein at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe is a last N symbols of each of the at least one subframe, the N being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

12. A method of communication, the method comprising:

Transmitting second information to a terminal device, the second information indicating at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and at least one symbol indicating each time slot of the at least one time slot for transmitting a second uplink signal to a second network device, wherein the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots in which the second network device configures a second carrier for the terminal device, the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device, the second information is used for determining a symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe of a plurality of subframes on a first carrier for transmitting a first uplink signal to the first network device, and a symbol not used for transmitting the first uplink signal to the first network device, wherein the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, the symbol not used for transmitting the first uplink signal to the first network device overlaps in time with at least one symbol of each time slot in the at least one time slot, the first network device is an NR network device, and the first network device is a NR network device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second information comprises at least one of:

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the second uplink signal is a sounding reference signal, SRS.

15. A communication device, comprising:

A transceiver, configured to receive first information from a first network device, where the first information is used to indicate at least one subframe of a plurality of subframes, where the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes on a first carrier configured by the first network device for a terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and the first network device is an LTE network device;

and the processor is used for determining a symbol used for sending a first uplink signal to the first network equipment in a first subframe in the at least one subframe on the first carrier according to the first information, and a symbol not used for sending the first uplink signal to the first network equipment.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first information comprises at least one of:

17. The apparatus according to any of claims 15-16, wherein the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes indicated in a reference TDD configuration sent by the first network device to the terminal device.

18. The apparatus according to any of claims 15-16, wherein at least one symbol in the first subframe is a last N symbols in the first subframe, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

19. A communication device, the device comprising:

A transceiver configured to receive second information from a second network device, where the second information is configured to indicate at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and indicate at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot to transmit a second uplink signal to the second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots on a second carrier configured by the second network device for a terminal device, the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device, and the second network device is an NR network device;

And the processor is configured to determine, according to the second information, a symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe in a plurality of subframes on a first carrier, where the first subframe is an uplink subframe in a first carrier configured by the first network device for the terminal device, the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, and the symbol not used for transmitting the first uplink signal to the first network device overlaps in time with at least one symbol in a first slot in the at least one slot, and the first network device is an LTE network device.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the second information comprises at least one of:

21. The apparatus of claim 19 or 20, wherein the second uplink signal is a sounding reference signal, SRS.

22. A communication device, the device comprising:

A processor, configured to determine a symbol in a first subframe in at least one subframe on a first carrier, where the symbol is used to send a first uplink signal to a first network device, and a symbol not used to send the first uplink signal to the first network device, where the first network device is an LTE network device;

And a transceiver configured to send first information to a terminal device, where the first information indicates the at least one subframe of a plurality of subframes, the plurality of subframes being uplink subframes in a first carrier configured by a first network device for the terminal device, and the first carrier being a carrier corresponding to the first network device.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the first information comprises at least one of:

24. The apparatus according to any of claims 22-23, wherein the plurality of subframes are uplink subframes indicated in a reference TDD configuration sent by the first network device to the terminal device.

25. The apparatus of any of claims 22-23, wherein at least one symbol of each of the at least one subframe is a last N symbols of each of the at least one subframe, the N being an integer greater than or equal to 1.

26. A communication device, the device comprising:

A transceiver configured to send second information to a terminal device, where the second information is used to indicate at least one time slot of a plurality of time slots and at least one symbol of each time slot of the at least one time slot is used to send a second uplink signal to a second network device, where the plurality of time slots are uplink time slots in which the second network device configures a second carrier for the terminal device, the second carrier is a carrier corresponding to the second network device, the second information is used to determine that a symbol of a first uplink signal is sent to the first network device in a first subframe of at least one subframe of a plurality of subframes on a first carrier, and a symbol not used to send the first uplink signal is sent to the first network device, where the first carrier is a carrier corresponding to the first network device, the symbol not used to send the first uplink signal to the first network device overlaps in time with at least one symbol of each time slot in the at least one time slot, and the first carrier is an NR network device, and the first network device is an LTE network device.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the second information comprises at least one of:

28. The apparatus of claim 26 or 27, wherein the second uplink signal is a sounding reference signal, SRS.

29. A communication device having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by the communication device, implements the communication method according to any of claims 1 to 14.

30. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed, implement the method of any of claims 1 to 14.