CN111586846A

CN111586846A - Method and communication device for transmitting configuration number state indication

Info

Publication number: CN111586846A
Application number: CN201910117512.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 樊波; 管鹏
Original assignee: Chengdu Huawei Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Chengdu Huawei Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-02-15
Filing date: 2019-02-15
Publication date: 2020-08-25
Anticipated expiration: 2039-02-15
Also published as: WO2020164601A1; CN111586846B

Abstract

The application provides an indication method of a transmission configuration indication state, which is characterized by comprising the following steps: receiving configuration information sent by a network device, wherein the configuration information comprises configuration of one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; receiving a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by a network device, wherein the MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state combinations; receiving downlink control information DCI sent by network equipment, and determining an activated TCI-state combination according to a value of a transmission configuration indication TCI field in the DCI, wherein the activated TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states. The method enables the network equipment to indicate a plurality of TCI-states to the terminal equipment, thereby realizing multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

Description

Method and communication device for transmitting configuration number state indication

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly, to a method and a communication apparatus for transmitting a status indication of a configuration number.

Background

In order to meet the transmission requirements of a mobile communication system for large capacity and high speed, a fifth generation mobile communication system (5 generation, 5G) introduces a high-frequency band greater than 6GHz for communication so as to utilize the transmission characteristics of large bandwidth and high speed; one of the main problems of high frequency communication is that signal energy drops sharply with transmission distance, resulting in short signal transmission distance. In order to overcome the problem, the high-frequency communication adopts an analog beam technology, the weighting processing is carried out through a large-scale antenna array, the signal energy is concentrated in a smaller range, and a signal (called an analog beam, called a beam for short) similar to a light beam is formed, so that the transmission distance is increased.

The network device may generate different beams pointing in different transmission directions. In downlink data transmission, when a network device transmits data to a terminal device by using a specific beam, the terminal device needs to be informed of information of a transmission beam used by the network device, so that the terminal device can receive the data transmitted by the network device by using a reception beam corresponding to the transmission beam. In the 3GPP R15 protocol, a network device indicates, to a terminal device, information related to a Transmission beam used by the network device through a TCI (Transmission Configuration Index) field in Downlink Control Information (DCI). Specifically, based on the value of the TCI field, the terminal device may determine a TCI state (TCI-state) to be used for data transmission. According to the TCI-state, the terminal device may determine the receiving beam information corresponding to the transmitting beam used for data transmission, so as to receive the data sent by the network device using the corresponding receiving beam.

In addition, in some scenarios of low frequency communication, it is also necessary to indicate the TCI-state. For example, a plurality of Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs) are used to sequentially transmit data to the same terminal device. Different TRPs adopt different TCI-states to transmit data, and the TRP for transmitting the data can be determined by the TCI-state terminal equipment.

Currently, the 3GPP R15 protocol supports a single TCI-state indication, which may support single beam transmission or single TRP transmission. When multi-beam transmission or multi-TRP transmission is adopted, the network equipment is required to indicate a plurality of TCI-states to the terminal equipment, and the current TCI-state indication method of the 3GPPR15 protocol cannot support.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a TCI-state indication method and a communication device, so that a network device can indicate a plurality of TCI-states to a terminal device, and multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission is realized.

For example: the indication method of the TCI-state comprises the following steps: the network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information comprises configuration of one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; the network equipment sends an activation command to the terminal equipment, and the activation command is used for activating part or all TCI-state combinations; the network equipment sends a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment determines the corresponding activated TCI combination according to the received TCI value, and can further determine each TCI-state in the activated TCI combination; further, TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group or code division multiplexing CDM group of the DMRS ports can be determined.

In the foregoing scheme, the configuration information may be issued through a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, the activation command may be a MAC-CE (Medium Access Control-Control Element), and the TCI may be issued through DCI.

For example: from the perspective of the terminal device, the method for indicating the transmission configuration indication state includes:

receiving configuration information sent by a network device, wherein the configuration information comprises one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; receiving a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by a network device, wherein the MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state combinations; receiving downlink control information DCI sent by network equipment, and determining an activated TCI-state combination according to a value of a transmission configuration indication TCI field in the DCI; one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination.

In another example, multiple active TCI-state combinations may also be determined based on the value of the TCI field.

The scheme comprises the steps of configuration, activation and indication, and in practical application, the configuration can be carried out once, the activation and indication can be carried out for multiple times within a subsequent period of time, or the activation can be carried out once, and the indication can be carried out for multiple times within a subsequent period of time; in addition, it is also possible that no configuration steps are required, only activation and indication are required; or no activation step is required, only configuration and indication are required; therefore, there are many cases in practical use.

In combination with the above scheme, each TCI-state combination comprises an index of the TCI-state combination, and an index of one or more TCI-states that the TCI-state combination comprises; that is, each TCI-state combination has its own index, and each TCI-state in a TCI-state combination also has its own index.

In combination with the above, wherein: one bit (e.g., the first bit) in the MAC-CE is used to indicate that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination; the MAC-CE can be a MAC-CE as an activation command or a separate MAC-CE; or a field in the configuration information or the received RRC message is used for indicating that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination; the RRC message may be an RRC message carrying configuration information or may be a separate RRC message.

That is, there is a field or bit in the MAC-CE or RRC to indicate whether the activated MAC-CE corresponds to a TCI-state or a TCI-state combination, and after receiving the MAC-CE or RRC, the terminal device may determine whether the received MAC-CE is used to activate the TCI-state combination according to the field or bit; the RRC can be the RRC carrying the configuration information or the RRC alone, and the MAC-CE can be the MAC-CE combined with the TCI-state for activation or the MAC-CE alone; the indication mode is display.

In combination with the above scheme, at least one of the following is adopted to determine that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination:

if the terminal equipment is configured with a TCI-state combination, determining that the MAC-CE activated object is the TCI-state combination; in the measurement configuration information received by the terminal equipment, if the value of the groupbasedbeamdreporting reported by the parameter beam grouping is enable, determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination; or if the terminal equipment receives multi-beam transmission or multi-TRP transmission indication information, determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination.

If one or more of the above conditions can be satisfied, the object activated by the MAC-CE is considered to be a TCI-state combination, and the above indication mode is implicit.

In combination with the above scheme, when it is determined that the object activated by the MAC-CE is a TCI-state combination, an index of one or more TCI-state combinations activated is determined according to the MAC-CE.

With the above scheme in mind, the method further comprises: determining a TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group, or code division multiplexing CDM group of DMRS ports according to one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination, which may specifically include:

determining an index of a TCI-state combination according to a value of a TCI field in the DCI; determining the index of each TCI-state contained in the TCI-state according to the index of the TCI-state combination; and determining the TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group or CDM group of the DMRS port according to the index of each TCI-state.

In combination with the above, wherein:

the TCI-state corresponds to the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or the CDM groups of the DMRS ports from small to large or from large to small one by one according to indexes; the TCI-state corresponds to the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or the CDM groups of the DMRS ports one by one according to the sequence of the indexes from small to large; or the TCI-state corresponds to the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or the CDM groups of the DMRS ports in the order from the large index to the small index one by one.

In combination with the above scheme, the configuration information may further include one or more TCI-states; for example, an index of the one or more TCI-states;

with the above scheme, a part of bits of the MAC-CE are used to activate part or all of the TCI-state combinations, and another part of bits are used to activate part or all of the TCI-states; or, one MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state combination, and the other MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state;

in combination with the above scheme, a part of the values of the TCI field corresponds to a TCI-state combination, and another part of the values corresponds to a TCI-state.

In each of the above schemes, a TCI-state combination is used, and each TCI-state combination may include one or more TCI-states. The network device can indicate a plurality of TCI-states by indicating a TCI-state combination, thereby realizing TCI-state indication of multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

Apparatuses corresponding to the above-described respective methods are described below.

The communication device may be a terminal device or a network device in the above methods, or may be a chip or a functional module in the terminal device or the network device. The device has the function of realizing the terminal equipment or the network equipment in the methods. The function can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes: the transceiver module, or called a communication module, may include a transmitting module and/or a receiving module; the receiving and transmitting function of the signal is realized; optionally, the apparatus further comprises a processing module for implementing processing functions other than signal transmission; the transceiver module may be at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, for example, and the transceiver module may include a radio frequency circuit or an antenna. The processing module may be a processor. Optionally, the apparatus further comprises a storage module, which may be a memory, for example. When included, the memory module is used to store computer programs or instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module can execute the programs or instructions stored in the storage module or can be derived from other programs or instructions to enable the device to execute the method of any one of the aspects.

The processor mentioned in any of the above may be a general-purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of programs of the communication methods in the above aspects.

In another aspect, a computer storage medium is provided, in which a computer program is stored, which, when executed by a computer or a processor, implements the method of the above aspects.

In another aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the above aspects.

In another aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes the above network device and terminal device.

In another aspect, a processor is provided for coupling with a memory for performing the methods of the above aspects.

In another aspect, a chip is provided, the chip comprising a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface is used for communicating with an external device or an internal device, and the processor is used for implementing the method of the above aspects.

Optionally, the chip may further comprise a memory having stored therein a computer program or instructions, the processor being configured to execute the computer program or instructions stored in the memory, or derived from other programs or instructions. When the program or instructions are executed, the processor is configured to implement the methods of the various aspects described above.

Alternatively, the chip may be integrated on a terminal device or a network device.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system of an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of a TCI-state indication method in the R15 protocol.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a MAC CE for activating a TCI-state according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a TCI-state indication method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a MAC CE for activating a TCI-state combination according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a TCI-state indication method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a MAC CE structure for activating a TCI-state and a TCI-state combination according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiment of the application is suitable for a multi-carrier communication system based on wave beams, for example: global system for mobile communications (GSM) systems, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) systems, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution) systems, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunications system, UMTS), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication systems, fifth generation (5G) communication systems or New Radio (NR), and the like, as well as future generation communication systems.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 suitable for use with embodiments of the present application. As shown, the communication system 100 may include at least one network device, such as the network device 110 shown in fig. 1; the communication system 100 may also include at least one terminal device, such as the terminal device 120 shown in fig. 1. Network device 110 and terminal device 120 may communicate via a wireless link.

Each communication device, such as network device 110 or terminal device 120 in fig. 1, may be configured with multiple antennas. The plurality of antennas may include at least one transmit antenna for transmitting signals and at least one receive antenna for receiving signals. Each communication device additionally includes a transmitter chain and a receiver chain, each of which can comprise a plurality of components associated with signal transmission and reception (e.g., processors, modulators, multiplexers, demodulators, demultiplexers, antennas, etc.), as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art. Therefore, the network equipment and the terminal equipment can communicate through the multi-antenna technology.

It should be understood that the network device in the wireless communication system may be any device having a wireless transceiving function. Such devices include, but are not limited to: evolved Node B (eNB), Radio Network Controller (RNC), Node B (NB), Base Station Controller (BSC), Base Transceiver Station (BTS), Home Base Station (e.g., Home evolved Node B, or Home Node B, HNB), BaseBand Unit (BBU), Access Point (AP) in wireless fidelity (WIFI) system, wireless relay Node, wireless backhaul Node, Transmission Point (TP), or transmission and reception Point (TRP, TP), etc., and may also be 5G, e.g., NR, nodeb (gbb, Base Station) in the system, or transmission Point (TRP or TP), where one or a group of Base stations in the 5G system may include multiple antennas, or may also be a network panel or a network panel, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), etc.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and a DU. The gNB may also include a Radio Unit (RU). A CU implements part of the function of a gNB, and a DU implements part of the function of the gNB, for example, the CU implements the function of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, and the DU implements the function of a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Media Access Control (MAC) layer and a Physical (PHY) layer. Since the information of the RRC layer eventually becomes or is converted from the information of the PHY layer, the higher layer signaling, such as the RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or the DU + CU under this architecture. It is to be understood that the network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a device including a CU node and a DU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in a Radio Access Network (RAN), or may be divided into network devices in a Core Network (CN), which is not limited in this application.

It should also be understood that terminal equipment in the wireless communication system may also be referred to as User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in telemedicine (remote), 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), and the like. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a brief description of several terms referred to in the present application will be given below.

1. Beam (beam)

One of the main problems of high frequency communication is that signal energy drops sharply with transmission distance, resulting in short signal transmission distance. In order to overcome the problem, the high-frequency communication adopts an analog beam technology, the weighting processing is carried out through a large-scale antenna array, the signal energy is concentrated in a smaller range, and a signal (called an analog beam, called a beam for short) similar to a light beam is formed, so that the transmission distance is increased.

A beam is a communication resource. The beam may be a wide beam, or a narrow beam, or other type of beam. The technique of forming the beam may be a beamforming technique or other technical means. The beamforming technique may be embodied as a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technique. Different beams may be considered different resources. The same information or different information may be transmitted through different beams. Alternatively, a plurality of beams having the same or similar communication characteristics may be regarded as one beam. A beam may be formed by one or more antenna ports for transmitting data channels, control channels, sounding signals, and the like. The one or more antenna ports forming one beam may be regarded as one set of antenna ports.

The beams include a transmit beam and a receive beam. The transmit beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength formed in different spatial directions after the signal is transmitted by the antenna, and the receive beam may refer to the distribution of the antenna array to reinforce or weaken the reception of the wireless signal in different spatial directions.

In the current NR protocol, beam information can be indicated by a quasi co-location (QCL) relationship of antenna ports. Specifically, it may be indicated in the indication information (e.g., Downlink Control Information (DCI)), that one resource (or antenna port) and another resource (or antenna port) have a quasi-co-location relationship, so as to indicate that beams corresponding to the two resources (or antenna ports) have the same spatial characteristic, and the two resources (or antenna ports) may be received by using the same receiving beam. The beam may be specifically represented by various signal identifiers in the protocol, for example, a resource index of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), an index of a synchronization signal broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block, or SSB), a resource index of a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), and a resource index of a Tracking Reference Signal (TRS).

In addition, in general, one beam corresponds to one demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port/port group or one transmission configuration number (TCI) or one TRP or one sounding reference Signal Resource Indicator (SRI) (for uplink data transmission), and thus, different beams may also be represented by different DMRS port/port groups or TCIs or TRPs or SRIs.

Since the DMRS port/port group, the TCI, the TRP, the SRI, the resource index of the CSI-RS, the index of the SS/PBCH block, the resource index of the SRS, and the resource index of the TRS may all represent a beam, the DMRS port/port group and the TCI in the following may also be replaced by a beam, a TRP, an SRI, a resource index of the CSI-RS, an index of the SS/PBCH block, a resource index of the SRS, or a resource index of the TRS, and the replacement does not change the essence of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application.

2. Quasi-co-location (QCL): or quasi-parity. The QCL relationship is used to indicate that the plurality of resources have one or more same or similar communication characteristics, and the same or similar communication configuration may be adopted for the plurality of resources having the same bit relationship. For example, if two antenna ports have a QCL relationship, the large scale characteristics of the channel that one port transmits one symbol may be inferred from the large scale characteristics of the channel that the other port transmits one symbol. The reference signals corresponding to the antenna ports having the QCL relationship have the same parameters, or the parameters of one antenna port may be used to determine the parameters of another antenna port having the QCL relationship with the antenna port, or two antenna ports have the same parameters, or the parameter difference between the two antenna ports is smaller than a certain threshold. Wherein the parameters may include one or more of: delay spread (delay spread), Doppler spread (Doppler spread), Doppler shift (Doppler shift), average delay (average delay), average gain, spatial Rx parameters. Wherein the spatial reception parameters may include one or more of: angle of arrival (AOA), average AOA, AOA extension, angle of departure (AOD), average angle of departure (AOD), AOD extension, receive antenna spatial correlation parameter, transmit beam, receive beam, and resource identification.

The angle may be a decomposition value of different dimensions, or a combination of decomposition values of different dimensions. The antenna ports are antenna ports with different antenna port numbers, and/or antenna ports with the same antenna port number for transmitting or receiving information in different time and/or frequency and/or code domain resources, and/or antenna ports with different antenna port numbers for transmitting or receiving information in different time and/or frequency and/or code domain resources. The resource identification may include: CSI-RS resource identifier, or SRS resource identifier, or SSB resource identifier, or resource identifier of a preamble sequence transmitted on a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), or resource identifier of a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), for indicating a beam on a resource.

In the NR protocol, QCL relationships can be classified into the following four types based on different parameters:

type a (type a): doppler frequency shift, Doppler spread, average time delay and time delay spread;

type b (type b): doppler shift, doppler spread;

type c (type c): doppler shift, average delay; and

type d (type d): the space receives the parameters.

The QCL referred to in the embodiments of the present application is a QCL of type D. Hereinafter, without being particularly specified, a QCL may be understood as a QCL of type D, i.e. a QCL defined based on spatial reception parameters, referred to as spatial QCL for short.

When a QCL relationship refers to a QCL relationship of type D, it may be considered a spatial QCL (spatial QCL). When the antenna port satisfies the spatial domain QCL relationship, the QCL relationship between the port of the downlink signal and the port of the downlink signal, or between the port of the uplink signal and the port of the uplink signal, may be that the two signals have the same AOA or AOD for indicating that the two signals have the same receive beam or transmit beam. For another example, for QCL relationship between downlink signals and uplink signals or between ports of uplink signals and downlink signals, AOAs and AODs of two signals may have a corresponding relationship, or AODs and AOAs of two signals have a corresponding relationship, that is, an uplink transmit beam may be determined according to a downlink receive beam or a downlink receive beam may be determined according to an uplink transmit beam by using beam reciprocity.

From the transmitting end, if it is said that two antenna ports are spatial QCL, it may be said that the corresponding beam directions of the two antenna ports are spatially consistent. From the perspective of the receiving end, if it is said that the two antenna ports are spatial QCL, it may mean that the receiving end can receive signals transmitted by the two antenna ports in the same beam direction.

Signals transmitted on ports having spatial QCL relationships may also have corresponding beams comprising at least one of: the same receive beam, the same transmit beam, a transmit beam corresponding to the receive beam (corresponding to a reciprocal scene), a receive beam corresponding to the transmit beam (corresponding to a reciprocal scene).

A signal transmitted on a port having a spatial QCL relationship may also be understood as a signal received or transmitted using the same spatial filter. The spatial filter may be at least one of: precoding, weight of antenna port, phase deflection of antenna port, and amplitude gain of antenna port.

Signals transmitted on ports having spatial QCL relationships may also be understood as having corresponding Beam Pair Links (BPLs) including at least one of: the same downlink BPL, the same uplink BPL, the uplink BPL corresponding to the downlink BPL, and the downlink BPL corresponding to the uplink BPL.

Accordingly, the spatial reception parameter (i.e., QCL of type D) may be understood as a parameter for indicating direction information of a reception beam.

3, QCL indication and QCL assumptions

QCL introduction it has been shown that if two antenna ports have quasi co-location, the channel large scale characteristic of one port carrying a symbol can be deduced from the channel large scale characteristic of the other port carrying a symbol. Therefore, when the base station indicates that there is a QCL relationship between two ports, the terminal should assume that the large scale characteristics of the channels through which the two ports transmit one symbol are consistent. For example, the channel large scale characteristic of one port carrying one symbol is known, and the channel large scale characteristic of another port carrying one symbol may use the same assumption.

4. Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state (state): may be used to indicate the QCL relationship between the two reference signals. An index (servececellindex) of a serving cell, a bandwidth part (BWP) Identifier (ID), and a reference signal resource identifier (rs ID) may be included in each TCI state, where the rs ID may be at least one of the following: non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS reference signal resource identification (NZP-CSI-RS-resource id), non-zero power CSI-RS reference signal resource set identification (NZP-CSI-RS-resource eSetId), or SSB Index (SSB-Index).

The definition of TCI in 3GPP is: indicating a transmission configuration of chips QCL-relationships between the DL RSs in one RS set and the PDSCHDMRS ports.

The Chinese translation is as follows: indicating the transmission configuration including QCL relationship between ports of PDSCH DMRS and ports of downstream signals [ ports ] in one set of reference signals.

The TCI may be used to indicate QCL information of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH for short) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH for short), and specifically may be used to indicate which reference signal the DMRS of the PDCCH/PDSCH satisfies a QCL relationship with, so that the terminal may receive the PDCCH/PDSCH by using a spatial parameter (e.g., a receive beam) that is the same as or close to a spatial parameter of the reference signal.

The TCI may specifically indicate which reference signal the DMRS of the PDCCH/PDSCH satisfies the QCL relationship with by reference signal index.

In the 3GPP R15 protocol, a network device indicates, to a terminal device, information about a transmission beam employed by the network device through a TCI field in DCI. For example, when the TCI field size is 3 bits, 8 different values (code point in the protocol) may be specifically represented, each value corresponds to an index of a TCI-state, and the TCI-state index may uniquely identify one TCI-state. The TCI-state includes several parameters by which information about the transmission beam can be determined. The TCI-state is configured to each terminal device by the network device, and the structure of the TCI-state is as follows:

each TCI-state includes its own index TCI-StateId, two QCL-Info. Each QCL-Info includes a cell field and bwp-Id indicating to which bwp (Bandwidth part) of which cell the TCI-state applies, respectively, so that different QCL-Info can be configured for different cells or different bwp of the same cell. The QCL-Info further includes a referrence signal for indicating the resource (the resource or beam used for data transmission) using the TCI state and which reference signal resource form a QCL (quasi-co-location). In the R15 protocol, the term "beam" is not generally used directly, and beams are generally replaced by other terms. For example, in data transmission and channel measurement, beams are mapped to reference signal resources, and one beam corresponds to one reference signal resource. Therefore, the reference signal resource is said to form a QCL relationship, and substantially refers to which beam forms a QCL relationship. QCL relationships refer to two reference signal resources (or two antenna ports, which are also in one-to-one correspondence with reference signal resources) having some identical spatial parameters. The specific spatial parameters are the same depends on the Type of QCL-Info, i.e. another field QCL-Type of QCL-Info. qcl-Type can have four values { Type A, Type B, Type C, Type D }. Taking typeD as an example, typeD indicates that two reference signal resources have the same Spatial Rx parameter (Spatial Rx parameter) information, i.e., two beams have the same receive beam. At most only one of the two QCL-Info's included in the TCI-state is TypeD.

In the following, a high frequency communication scenario is taken as an example to specifically illustrate how a network device indicates TCI-state to a terminal device based on R15 protocol, including configuration, activation and indication of TCI-state, and referring to fig. 2, the method includes.

S101, TCI-state configuration

The network device configures a plurality of TCI-states, for example, 64, 128, etc., to the terminal device through RRC (Radio resource control) signaling, and the configuration content includes an index of each TCI-state, etc.

For example, in a high frequency scenario, the TCI-states each include a QCL-Info of type typeD, and the terminal device may determine a receiving beam according to the QCL-Info. For example: when a TCI-state includes only one type of QCL-Info, and the QCL-Info includes only one reference signal, it can be considered that one TCI-state corresponds to one receive beam.

S102, TCI-state activation

After configuring a plurality of TCI-states for the terminal device, the network device activates some of the TCI-states through a Medium access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE). For example, 8 of them are activated, and these 8 TCI states are in one-to-one correspondence with 8 values of the TCI field (3 bits) in the DCI. That is, which 8 TCI-states correspond to the 8 values indicated by the TCI word of the DCI, respectively, is determined by MAC CE signaling. The MAC CE structure for activating TCI-state is shown in FIG. 3. The fields T0 to T (N-2) x8+7 correspond to TCI-states with indexes of 0 to (N-2) x8+7 respectively configured in the first step, each field has a size of 1bit, and the value can be 0 or 1. A value of 1 indicates that the TCI-state is activated, a value of 0 indicates that the TCI-state is not activated, or vice versa. The value of N is related to the size of the MAC CE, which is variable and related to the number of TCI-states to activate. Each MAC CE theoretically may have 8 activation fields with a value of 1, and the rest are all 0. The TCI-state corresponding to the 8 fields with value 1 is the 8 TCI-states corresponding to the 8 values of the TCI field in the DCI. For example, a minimum value of 000 for the TCI field corresponds to the TCI-state with the smallest index activated in the MAC CE, and so on. There are many types of MAC-CEs, and there are many other MAC-CEs for other purposes than MAC-CE for TCI-state activation. The present application relates only to MAC-CEs for TCI-state/TCI-state combined activation. Therefore, unless otherwise specified, the MAC-CE as used herein refers to such MAC-CE.

S103, TCI-state indication

The network device indicates a specific TCI-state through a TCI field in the DCI, and based on the TCI-state, the terminal device may determine which reference signal and a DMRS port of a PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) have a QCL relationship, thereby using a corresponding receiving mechanism. Taking high frequency communication as an example, the value of the TCI field in the DCI sent by the network device to the terminal device is 000, which indicates that the TCI-state adopted for data transmission is 000 corresponding to the TCI-state, and the terminal device may further determine information of the receiving beam corresponding to the data transmitting beam according to the TCI-state. For example: the referrence Signal contained in the QCL-Info with type of typeD in the TCI-State is a CSI-RS (Channel State Information-Reference Signal) with index #1, and indicates that the receiving beam corresponding to the data transmitting beam is the same as the receiving beam corresponding to the CSI-RS with index # 1. The receiving beam corresponding to the CSI-RS with index #1 may be determined through a beam measurement procedure and is known to the terminal device. Therefore, through the specific value of the TCI field, the terminal device can determine the receiving beam corresponding to the data transmitting beam, so as to receive the data transmitted by the network device by using the corresponding receiving beam.

By the method, the network equipment can indicate the information of the receiving beam corresponding to the data transmitting beam to the terminal equipment. However, the above method is limited to single beam/single TRP (Transmitter Receiver Point) transmission. When the network device transmits data to the terminal device using multiple beams or multiple TRPs, it needs to indicate multiple TCI-states to the terminal device. However, the method adopting the aforementioned R15 protocol can only realize the indication of a single TCI-state, and thus cannot realize multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

In summary, the TCI-state indication method in R15 is only applicable to single beam/single TRP transmission scenarios, because the TCI field in DCI can only determine one TCI-state, and multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission needs to indicate multiple TCI-states.

In the above TCI-state indication method, the network device can only indicate one TCI-state to the terminal device. When the network device transmits data to the terminal device by using multiple beams or multiple TRPs, the network device needs to indicate multiple TCI-states to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can determine the receiving beam information corresponding to multiple transmitting beams.

In the R15 protocol, a network device may configure a series of TCI states, and then activate 8 of them with one MAC-CE. The activated 8 TCI states correspond to the values of the 8 TCI fields in the DCI one-to-one. The mechanism can be applied to realize the association of a single TCI field value and a plurality of TCI states, and can be realized only by slightly modifying RRC configuration. Specifically, besides the TCI state, the network device needs to configure a series of combinations of TCI states. Each TCI state combination contains one or two TCI states. Then, 8 of them are activated by one MAC-CE. The activated 8 TCI state combinations correspond one-to-one to the values of the 8 TCI fields in the DCI. The MAC-CE used is the same format as the MAC CE used to activate the TCI-state. The terminal device needs to determine whether the MAC CE is used for activating a TCI state or a TCI state set (TCIstate combination), and may specifically indicate through RRC signaling, or some implicit indication information, such as whether the TCIstate set is configured. The mechanism only needs to modify the RRC configuration and does not need to enhance MAC and DCI.

In order to realize multi-beam transmission/multi-TRP transmission, the application proposes a TCI-state indication method, refer to FIG. 4

S201: configuring TCI-state combinations

The network device sends RRC configuration information to the terminal, the configuration information including configuration of one or more TCI-state combinations. Each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states, and thus the configuration information for each TCI-state combination comprises an index for that TCI-state combination and an index for the respective TCI-state that the TCI-state combination comprises. When the TCI-state combination includes a single TCI-state, the TCI-state combination may be used to indicate the TCI-state of a single beam/single TRP transmission. When the TCI-state combination includes a plurality of TCI-states, the TCI-state combination may be used to indicate a plurality of TCI-states for multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

Note that, in this step, in addition to configuring the TCI-state combination, the network device may also configure the TCI-state, and this configuration method is the same as that described in S101 and is not described again.

S202: activating TCI-state combinations

The network device sends MAC-CE signaling to the terminal device for activating part or all of the TCI-state combinations. As shown in fig. 5, the TCI-state combination may be activated using MAC-CE signaling in a similar format as used in S102 for activating the TCI-state. The MAC-CE includes a plurality of 1-bit activation fields Si, which may specifically take values of 0 and 1. Note that Si is only for example and does not limit the naming of the fields. A value of 1 indicates activation of the corresponding TCI-state combination (the TCI-state combination with index i), and a value of 0 indicates deactivation. Or conversely, a value of 1 indicates that the corresponding TCI-state combination is not activated, and a value of 0 indicates activation. The MAC CE may activate M TCI-state combinations, which correspond one-to-one to the respective values of the TCI field in the DCI. The M TCI-state combinations may be in one-to-one correspondence with the respective values of the TCI field in the DCI in the order from small to large according to the order from small to large of the index, or the M TCI-state combinations may be in one-to-one correspondence with the respective values of the TCI field in the DCI in the order from large to small according to the order from large to small of the index. For example, the smallest indexed TCI-state of the M TCI-states corresponds to the smallest value 000 of the TCI field, the second smallest TCI-state of the M TCI-states corresponds to the second smallest value 001 of the TCI field, and so on. For example, when M is 8, the activated 8 TCI-state combinations in the MAC CE are respectively { S0, S1, S4, S6, S7, S9, S11, S13} from small to large according to the index, and the 8 TCI-states sequentially correspond to 8 values {000,001,010,011,100,101,110,111} of the TCI field one-to-one, and when the value of the TCI field in the DCI is 011, the activated TCI-state combination (i.e., the TCI-state with the index of 6) in S6 is indicated. Of course, the activated M TCI-state combinations may be in one-to-one correspondence with the M values of the TCI field in the order from the smaller index to the larger index, or the M TCI-state combinations may be in one-to-one correspondence with the M values of the TCI field in the order from the larger index to the smaller index. For example, the smallest indexed one of the M TCI-states corresponds to the largest value 111 of the TCI field, the second smallest indexed one of the M TCI-states corresponds to the second largest value 110 of the TCI field, and so on. Other corresponding methods may also be used, and the present application is not limited thereto. In the existing protocol, the MAC-CE activates 8 TCI-states at most, and the value of the TCI field (3 bits) is also 8. The number of the TCI-state combinations that are activated maximally is not limited in this application, and may be 8, or may be other values, and only the number of bits of the TCI field needs to be increased.

Since the MAC-CE formats of the active TCI-state and TCI-state combinations are similar, when the terminal device receives a MAC-CE, it cannot determine whether the MAC-CE is used for activating a TCI-state or a TCI-state combination, that is, whether any of the active fields corresponds to a TCI-state or a TCI-state combination. Therefore, the network device needs to indicate the type of the MAC CE, i.e., whether the MAC CE is used to activate the TCI-state or the TCI-state combination, to the terminal device. The present application provides the following various methods:

display indication

1, indicated by a field in the MAC-CE format described above, e.g. indicated by the first field R. R is a reserved field, with a size of 1 bit. Currently R15 does not yet define the use of this field, so this field can be employed to indicate the type of MAC-CE. The value of the R field may be 0 or 1. 0 indicates that the MAC-CE is used to activate TCI-state, and 1 indicates that the MAC-CE is used to activate TCI-state combination. Or conversely, 0 indicates that the MAC-CE is used to activate a TCI-state combination, and 1 indicates that the MAC-CE is used to activate a TCI-state. The MAC-CE may be the MAC-CE in S202 or may be a separate MAC-CE. Of course, other fields or bits of the MAC-CE may be used for indication, and the present application is not limited thereto.

And 2, configuring through RRC signaling. The network device directly indicates the type of the MAC CE sent to the terminal device by the network device to the terminal device through one field of RRC signaling. For example, a 1-bit field indicates whether the MAC CE sent by the network device to the terminal device is used for activating the TCI-state or the TCI-state combination, for example, a 1-bit value may be 0 or 1, where 0 indicates that the MAC-CE is used for activating the TCI-state and 1 indicates that the MAC-CE is used for activating the TCI-state combination, and vice versa. The RRC may be the RRC in S201 or may be a separate RRC.

Implicit indication

1, determined by the transmission mode parameter. When the network equipment transmits data to the terminal equipment by adopting the multi-beam/multi-TRP, the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment, and the indication information is used for indicating the network equipment to transmit the data to the terminal equipment by adopting the multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission mode. The indication information may be transmitted through RRC or MAC-CE or DCI. If the terminal device receives the indication information, the MAC-CE sent to the terminal device by default is used for activating the TCI-state combination, otherwise, the MAC-CE sent to the terminal device by default is used for activating the TCI-state.

And 2, judging by measuring the configuration reported by the packet in the configuration information. Namely, the value of groupBasedBeamReporting in the measurement configuration information received by the terminal device from the network device last time is used for judging. Specifically, if the value of the parameter groupBasedBeamReporting is configured to be enabled, the MAC-CE sent to it by the default network device is used to activate the TCI-state combination, otherwise, the MAC-CE sent to it by the default network device is used to activate the TCI-state, and groupBasedBeamReporting is used for beam packet reporting.

And 3, judging whether a TCI-state combination is configured through RRC signaling. If the network device configures the TCI-state combination to the terminal device, the terminal device defaults that the MAC-CE sent to the terminal device by the network device is used for activating the TCI-state combination, otherwise, the MAC-CE sent to the terminal device by the network device defaults that the MAC-CE is used for activating the TCI-state.

4, a combination of the above three implicit indication manners may also be adopted, when one or more of the above three manners implicitly indicate that the MAC-CE is used for activating the TCI-state combination, the terminal device considers that the MAC-CE sent to it by the network device is used for activating the TCI-state combination, otherwise, the terminal device considers that the MAC-CE is used for activating the TCI-state combination. For example, when the value of groupBasedBeamReporting is configured to enabled and the network device configures the TCI-state combination to the terminal device (i.e., both of the above-described

manners

2 and 3 are satisfied), the MAC-CE sent to it by the terminal device by default is used for activating the TCI-state combination, otherwise the MAC-CE sent to it by the terminal device by default is used for activating the TCI-state; of course, the

above modes

1 and 2 can be used as a combination of conditions, 2 and 3 can be used as a combination of conditions, or the

modes

1, 2 and 3 can be satisfied simultaneously.

S203: indicating TCI-state combinations

When the network device transmits data to the terminal device by using multi-beam/multi-TRP, the network device indicates a plurality of TCI-states to the terminal device through a TCI field in DCI. The indication manner is similar to the indication manner in 103, for example, the network device transmits data to the terminal device through two beams/TRPs, and transmits corresponding DCI to the terminal device. And the terminal equipment determines a TCI-state combination corresponding to the two sending beams/TRP adopted by the network equipment according to the TCI field in the DCI, and determines the TCI-state corresponding to each of the two beams/TRP according to the two TCI-states included in the TCI combination, thereby realizing multi-beam/TRP transmission. The plurality of beams or the plurality of TRPs for transmitting data are in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of TCI-states in the TCI-state combination. During data transmission, the network device does not directly indicate the beams or TRPs for data transmission to the terminal device, but indicates the DMRS ports, DMRS port groups, or Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) groups corresponding to the beams/TRPs. Therefore, the correspondence between the beams/TRPs and the TCI-state is substantially the correspondence between the DMRS ports/DMRS port groups/CDM groups of DMRS ports and the TCI-state. Each TCI-state combination may correspond to a CDM group of each DMRS port/DMRS port group/DMRS port in an order from small to large, or each TCI-state combination may correspond to a CDM group of each DMRS port/DMRS port group/DMRS port in an order from large to small, for example, a TCI-state with the smallest index corresponds to a CDM group of a DMRS port/DMRS port group/DMRS port with the smallest index, a TCI-state with the second smallest index corresponds to a DMRS group of a DMRS port/DMRS port group/DMRS port with the second smallest index, and so on; of course, each TCI-state combination may correspond to the CDM group of each DMRS port/DMRS port group/DMRS port in an order from small to large in accordance with the order from large to small in the order from the index, or each TCI-state combination may correspond to the CDM group of each DMRS port/DMRS port group/DMRS port in an order from large to small in the order from large to large in the order from the index. Other rules may be followed and are not illustrated here.

By the TCI-state indication method of the above embodiment, when the network device uses multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission data, the network device may indicate the TCI-state information of each transmission beam/TRP used by the network device to the terminal device, thereby implementing multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

In a practical scenario, as the terminal device moves, its channel environment changes, which causes the transmission mechanism adopted by the network device to also change, i.e. switch between single beam/multiple TRP transmission and multi-beam/multiple TRP transmission. When the network device is to switch transmission modes, e.g., from multi-beam transmission to single-beam transmission, the TCI-state information it indicates to the terminal device may change from a combination of TCI-states to a single TCI-state. This requires that the indicated M values of the TCI field in the DCI have both a corresponding TCI-state and a corresponding TCI-state combination. For example, 4 of the 8 values of the TCI field correspond to the index of the TCI-state, and 4 correspond to the index of the TCI-state combination. In the above embodiment, some combinations of TCIs configured to include only a single TCI-state, but that is only one of the solutions, and this embodiment also discloses a TCI-state indication method to solve the above problem, as shown in fig. 6, the method includes:

s301: configuring TCI-state and TCI-state combinations

The network equipment sends RRC configuration information to the terminal, and the configuration information comprises TCI-state and TCI-state combination configuration. The configuration of the TCI is similar to S101, and the description of S101 can be referred to; the configuration of the TCI-state combination S201 is similar, as described with reference to S201; that is, this step includes the contents of S101 and S201.

S302: activating TCI-state and TCI-state combinations

The network device needs to simultaneously activate one or more TCI-states and one or more TCI-state combinations for indicating beam information for single beam/single TRP transmission and multi-beam/multi TRP transmission, respectively. The network device may use two MAC-CEs to activate TCI-state and TCI-state combination respectively, and the activation mode and the MAC-CE content refer to the contents of S102 and S202, respectively.

Alternatively, only one MAC-CE may be used to activate TCI-state and TCI-state combinations. Specifically, the following format of MAC-CE can be employed to activate TCI-state and TCI-state combinations.

1, the MAC-CE comprises two bitmaps, i.e. two partial bits, for activating the TCI-state and TCI-state combinations, respectively. For example, as shown in fig. 7, the first bitmap, i.e. the respective bit field Ti of the first part of bits, is used to indicate the TCI-state with the activation/deactivation index i. A 1 indicates active and a 0 indicates inactive, or conversely a 1 indicates inactive and a 0 indicates active. The second bitmap, i.e. the respective bit field Si of the second part of bits, is used to indicate the TCI-state combination with an activation/deactivation index i. A 1 indicates active and a 0 indicates inactive, or conversely a 1 indicates inactive and a 0 indicates active. The position relationship of the two bitmaps may be that the bitmaps for TCI-state activation are in front and the bitmaps for TCI-state combined activation are behind, or that the bitmaps for TCI-state combined activation are in front and the bitmaps for TCI-state activation are behind. Which location relationship is specifically adopted may be indicated by RRC or MAC-CE, for example, RRC in S301 or MAC-CE in S302, or may be indicated by RRC or MAC-CE alone, or may be specified by protocol default.

2, the MAC-CE includes a bitmap (i.e., partial bits) and one or more index fields. The bitmap is used to activate the TCI-state and the index field or fields indicate the index of the activated TCI-state combination or combinations. Alternatively, bitmaps are used to activate TCI-state combinations, and one or more index fields indicate the index of the activated TCI-state or states. The positional relationship between the bitmap and the index field in the MAC-CE may be: bitmap is in front and index fields are in back; or bitmap after, index fields before. Other relationships are possible, such as bitmaps between index fields. The specific location relationship may be indicated by RRC signaling or MAC-CE, and the indication manner is similar to that in the above 1, and may also be defined by default. The number of index fields contained in the MAC-CE may be indicated by RRC signaling or MAC-CE, or may be specified by protocol default. The indication method is similar to that in the above 1, and is not described again.

The MAC-CE includes a plurality of index fields, wherein a part of the index field(s) is used to indicate an index of the activated TCI-state(s), and the remaining part of the index field(s) is used to indicate an index of the activated TCI-state(s). The respective fields for the index indicating the TCI-state and the respective fields for the index indicating the TCI-state combination may be arranged according to a specific rule. For example, the first m index fields represent the index of the TCI-state, and the last n index fields represent the index of the TCI-state combination. Or conversely, the first m indexes are indexes of the TCI-state combination, and the last n indexes are indexes of the TCI-state. Other rules may be used, such as the same number of index fields for the TCI-state and the cross-arrangement of index fields for the TCI-state combination. Specifically, which permutation rule is adopted can be indicated through RRC signaling or MAC-CE, the indication manner is similar to that in the above 1, and there may be a protocol default specification. The values of m and n may be indicated by RRC signaling or MAC-CE, or may be specified by protocol defaults; the indication method is similar to that in the above 1, and is not described again.

S303: indicating TCI-state and TCI-state combinations

Through step S302, the network device may activate one or more TCI-states and one or more combinations of TCI-states. These TCI-state and TCI-state combinations may correspond to the respective values of the TCI field in the DCI in any of the following ways:

of all the values of the TCI field, the lowest x values correspond to x TCI-states, and the remaining values correspond to respective TCI-state combinations.

Of all the values of the TCI field, the lowest x values correspond to x TCI-state combinations, and the remaining values correspond to the respective TCI-states.

Of all the values of the TCI field, the highest x values correspond to x TCI-states, and the remaining values correspond to respective TCI-state combinations.

Of all the values of the TCI field, the highest x values correspond to x TCI-state combinations, and the remaining values correspond to the respective TCI-states.

The above-mentioned indication examples are not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and other corresponding embodiments may also be adopted, for example: the middle x values correspond to x TCI-states, and the rest values correspond to the combination of the TCI-states, or vice versa.

The first mode is taken as an example to describe in detail, and other modes are similar. Assuming that x is 2, the size of the TCI field is 3 bits, for a total of 8 values. The lowest x-2 values (i.e., 000 and 001) correspond to x-2 TCI-states, leaving 6 values (010 to 111) corresponding to 6 TCI-state combinations. The corresponding mode of each TCI-state and the corresponding TCI field value, the corresponding mode of each TCI-state combination and the corresponding TCI field value are similar to the corresponding mode of each TCI-state and each TCI field value in S203.

The specific value of x and the above-mentioned method may be configured by the network device through RRC signaling, MAC-CE or DCI, may be RRC signaling, MAC-CE or DCI in each step, or may be RRC signaling, MAC-CE or DCI alone, and the indication method is similar to the case in the above-mentioned 1, or may be specified by a protocol default.

Regardless of the specific mapping scheme, the mapping scheme may be effective when certain conditions are satisfied. For example, the terminal device determines to adopt the first TCI field of the 4 corresponding manners as a corresponding manner combined with each TCI-state and TCI-state according to a protocol default specification or indication information of the network device. However, if the network device does not configure the TCI-state combination to the terminal device, all the values of the TCI field correspond to the TCI-state instead of the TCI-state combination. The first correspondence is actually enabled only when the network device configures the TCI-state combination to the terminal device. I.e., the condition "TCI-state combination configured" is satisfied. The above condition is only an example, and both the display indication and the implicit indication mentioned in the above embodiments may be used; the application is not limited to specific conditions.

Alternatively, in another embodiment, the correspondence is always in effect regardless of the particular correspondence used. For example, the terminal device determines to adopt the first one of the 4 corresponding manners as the corresponding manner of the combination of the TCI field and each TCI-state and TCI-state according to the protocol default specification or the network device indication information, and then the corresponding manner is directly effective without satisfying any condition.

In addition to the above-mentioned method 4, other corresponding methods can be adopted, and the present application is not limited. In other corresponding manners, the signaling may be specified by a protocol default or indicated by the network device through RRC signaling, MAC-CE, or DCI, and the signaling may be multiplexing the signaling or the message mentioned in each step or may be a separate signaling or a message. When other corresponding manners are adopted, the manner may be always effective, or may be effective only when a certain condition is satisfied, and the above-mentioned conditions of implicit indication and display indication may be referred to, and the present application is not limited.

In practical application, the configuration may be performed once, and multiple activations and indications may be performed within a subsequent period of time, or the activation may be performed once, and multiple indications may be performed within a subsequent period of time; in addition, it is also possible that no configuration steps are required, only activation and indication are required; or no activation step is required, only configuration and indication are required; therefore, there are many cases in practical use.

In the above schemes, there is one activated TCI-state or a combination of TCI-states indicated by the TCI, and in other examples, there may be a plurality of activated TCI-states.

In each of the above schemes, a TCI-state combination is used, and each TCI-state combination may include one or more TCI-states. The network equipment can indicate a plurality of TCI-states by indicating a TCI-state combination, thereby realizing the TCI-state indication of multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission; further, the flexibility of indication is enhanced.

Based on the method of the above embodiment, the communication apparatus provided by the present application will be described below.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in the present application, where the communication device 600 includes: a communication unit 610 and a processing unit 620.

A communication unit 610, configured to perform transceiving operations (receiving and/or transmitting) on signals in the foregoing method embodiments, that is, implement a communication function.

A processing unit 620, configured to perform other operations besides signal transceiving (receiving and/or transmitting) in the foregoing method embodiments, for example: an active TCI-state or TCI-state combination is determined.

Optionally, the communication unit 610 is also referred to as a transceiver unit (or module), and may include a receiving unit (module) and/or a transmitting unit (module), which are respectively configured to perform the steps of receiving and transmitting by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments. Optionally, the communication device 600 may further include a storage unit for storing instructions executed by the communication unit 610 and/or the processing unit 620.

For example: when the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, it includes:

a receiving module; the network equipment comprises a configuration module, a transmission configuration module and a control module, wherein the configuration module is used for receiving configuration information sent by the network equipment, and the configuration information comprises one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; receiving a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by a network device, wherein the MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state combinations; receiving downlink control information DCI sent by network equipment;

a processing module: for determining an active TCI-state combination according to a value of a transmission configuration indication TCI field in the DCI; one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination.

The processing module is further configured to:

determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination according to a first bit in the MAC-CE; or determining the MAC-CE activated object as a TCI-state combination according to the configuration information or a field in the received RRC message;

the processing module is further configured to determine that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination according to one or more of:

if the terminal equipment is configured with a TCI-state combination, determining that the MAC-CE activated object is the TCI-state combination;

in the measurement configuration information received by the terminal equipment, if the value of the groupbasedbeamdreporting reported by the parameter beam grouping is enable, determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination; or

And if the terminal equipment receives multi-beam transmission or multi-TRP transmission indication information, determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination.

The processing module is further configured to: and determining the TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group or code division multiplexing CDM group of the DMRS ports according to one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination.

The processing module is further configured to:

determining an index of an activated TCI-state combination according to the value of a TCI field in the DCI;

determining an index of each TCI-state contained in the one activated TCI-state combination according to the index of the TCI-state combination;

and determining the TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group or CDM group of the DMRS ports according to the index of each TCI-state contained in the activated TCI-state combination.

The above reference method embodiment lists some functions of each module of the terminal device, and other functions may refer to the description related to the method embodiment, which is not described herein again.

Communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, and may be a chip in the terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal equipment, the processing unit may be a processor and the communication unit may be a transceiver. The communication device may further comprise a storage unit, which may be a memory. The storage unit is used for storing instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit so as to enable the communication equipment to execute the method. When the communication device is a chip within a terminal equipment, the processing unit may be a processor, and the communication unit may be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit, or the like; the processing unit executes the instructions stored in the storage unit (e.g., register, cache, etc.), or the storage unit (e.g., read only memory, random access memory, etc.) in the terminal device, so as to make the communication apparatus perform the operations performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments. It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, when the steps performed by the communication apparatus 600 and the corresponding beneficial effects can refer to the related description of the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, for brevity, no further description is provided herein.

It is to be understood that the communication unit 610 may be implemented by a transceiver and the processing unit 620 may be implemented by a processor. The storage unit may be implemented by a memory. As shown in fig. 9, the communication device 700 may include a processor 710, a memory 720, and a transceiver 730.

The communication apparatus 600 shown in fig. 8 or the communication apparatus 700 shown in fig. 9 can implement the steps performed by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, and similar descriptions can refer to the descriptions in the foregoing corresponding methods. To avoid repetition, further description is omitted here.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 800 provided in the present application, where the communication device 800 includes a processing unit 810 and a communication unit 820.

The processing unit 810 is configured to perform transceiving operations of signals in the foregoing method embodiments, that is, implement a communication function.

A communication unit 820, configured to perform other operations besides signal transceiving in the above method embodiments.

Optionally, the communication unit 820 may be referred to as a transceiver unit (or module), and includes a receiving unit (module) and/or a transmitting unit (module), which are respectively configured to perform the steps of receiving and transmitting by the network device in the foregoing method embodiments. Optionally, the communication device 800 may further include a storage unit for storing instructions executed by the communication unit 820 and the processing unit 810.

The communication apparatus 800 is a network device in the method embodiment, and may also be a chip in the network device. When the apparatus is a network device, the processing unit may be a processor and the communication unit may be a transceiver. The apparatus may further comprise a storage unit, which may be a memory. The storage unit is used for storing instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored by the storage unit so as to enable the communication equipment to execute the method. When the apparatus is a chip within a network device, the processing unit may be a processor, the communication unit may be an input/output interface, a pin or a circuit, etc.; the processing unit executes instructions stored in a storage unit (e.g., a register, a cache, etc.) inside the chip or a storage unit (e.g., a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.) outside the chip, so as to cause the communication device to perform the operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, when the steps executed by the communication apparatus 800 and the corresponding advantages are described in the foregoing method embodiments, the description thereof is omitted here for brevity.

It is to be understood that the communication unit 820 may be implemented by a transceiver and the processing unit 810 may be implemented by a processor. The storage unit may be implemented by a memory. As shown in fig. 11, the communication device 900 may include a processor 910, a memory 920, and a transceiver 930.

The communication apparatus 800 shown in fig. 10 or the communication apparatus 900 shown in fig. 11 can implement the steps performed by the network device in the foregoing method embodiments, and similar descriptions can refer to the descriptions in the foregoing corresponding methods. To avoid repetition, further description is omitted here.

The network device in each of the above device embodiments corresponds to the terminal device or the terminal device in the terminal device and method embodiments, and the corresponding module or unit executes the corresponding steps. For example, the method of the communication unit (or transceiver unit, transceiver) performs the steps of transmitting and/or receiving in the method embodiment (or performed by the transmitting unit, the receiving unit, respectively), and the steps other than transmitting and receiving may be performed by the processing unit (processor). The functions of the specific elements may be referred to in the respective method embodiments. The sending unit and the receiving unit can form a transceiving unit, and the transmitter and the receiver can form a transceiver, so that transceiving functions in the method embodiment are realized together; the processor may be one or more.

It should be understood that the above division of the units is only a functional division, and other division methods may be possible in actual implementation.

The communication apparatus in each of the above embodiments may also be a chip or a functional unit in a terminal device or a network device, and the processing unit may be implemented by hardware or software. When implemented in hardware, the processing unit may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processing unit may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory unit, which may be integrated in the processor or may be located separately from the processor.

It should be understood that the processing unit mentioned in the above embodiments may be a chip. For example, the processing Unit may be a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an application-specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a System on Chip (SoC), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a Digital Signal processing Circuit (DSP), a Microcontroller (MCU), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), other Integrated chips, or the like. When the communication device is a chip in a network device or a terminal device, the function received by the communication unit (transceiver) is the acquisition or input meaning, and the function transmitted is the output meaning. For example:

a receiving module: the configuration information comprises one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; acquiring a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by network equipment, wherein the MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state combinations; acquiring downlink control information DCI sent by network equipment;

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 1000 according to the present application. For convenience of explanation, fig. 12 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 12, the terminal apparatus 1000 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The terminal device 1000 can be applied to a system as shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

The processor is mainly configured to process the communication protocol and the communication data, control the entire terminal device, execute a software program, process data of the software program, and control the terminal device to perform the actions described in the above method embodiments. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The control circuit and the antenna together, which may also be called a transceiver, are mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is turned on, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instruction of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit after performing baseband processing on the data to be sent, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 12 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, where the baseband processor is mainly used to process a communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used to control the whole terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program. The processor in fig. 12 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include a plurality of baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, the terminal device may include a plurality of central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

For example, in the embodiment of fig. 12, the antenna and the control circuit with transceiving functions can be regarded as the transceiving unit 1001 of the terminal device 1000, and the processor with processing functions can be regarded as the processing unit 1002 of the terminal device 1000. As shown in fig. 12, the terminal device 1000 includes a transceiving unit 1001 and a processing unit 1002. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiving unit 1001 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiving unit 1001 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiving unit 1001 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc.

Terminal device 1000 shown in fig. 12 is capable of implementing various processes involving the terminal device in the method embodiments. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the terminal device 1000 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the above method embodiments. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the above method embodiments, and the detailed description is appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application, which may be, for example, a schematic structural diagram of a network device. As shown in fig. 13, the network device 1100 may be applied to the system shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the network device in the above method embodiments.

The network can be applied to a communication system as shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the network device in the above method embodiment. The network device 1100 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 1110 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (which may also be referred to as Digital Units (DUs)) 1120. In addition, the function of the RRU may also be implemented by an AAU (active antenna unit).

The RRU 1110 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuitry, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 1111 and a radio frequency unit 1112. The RRU 1110 is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending indication information in the above method embodiments. The RRU 1110 and the BBU 1120 may be physically disposed together or may be physically disposed separately, i.e., distributed base stations.

The BBU 1120 is a control center of the base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and is mainly used for performing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing unit) 1120 can be used to control a network device to execute the operation flow of the above method embodiment with respect to the network device.

In an embodiment, the BBU 1120 may be formed by one or more boards, and a plurality of boards may jointly support a radio access network (e.g., an NR network) with a single access indication, or may respectively support radio access networks with different access schemes (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 1120 also includes a memory 1121 and a processor 1122, the memory 1121 being used to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 1122 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the network device to execute the operation procedure related to the network device in the above-described method embodiment. The memory 1121 and processor 1122 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and processor may be provided separately on each board. Multiple boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits. It should be understood that the network device 1100 shown in fig. 13 is capable of implementing various processes involving network devices in method embodiments. The operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the network device 1100 are respectively configured to implement the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the above method embodiments, and the detailed description is appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

It should be noted that the communication unit in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a transceiver unit or a transceiver module.

In implementation, the steps of the method provided by this embodiment may be implemented by hardware integrated logic circuits in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware components. The processor in the embodiments of the present application may implement or perform the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will be appreciated that the memory or storage units in the embodiments of the application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which includes a sending end device and a receiving end device. For example, the sending end device is the network device in the above embodiment, and the receiving end device is the terminal device in the above embodiment; or, the sending end device is the terminal device in the above embodiment, and the receiving end device is the network device in the above embodiment.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable medium, on which a computer program is stored, and the computer program, when executed by a computer or a processor, implements the method in any of the above embodiments.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product, which when executed by a computer or a processor implements the method in any of the above embodiments.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a system chip, where the system chip includes: a processing unit and a communication unit. The processing unit may be, for example, a processor. The communication unit may be, for example, an input/output interface, a pin or a circuit, etc. The processing unit can execute computer instructions to cause a chip in the communication device to execute any one of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the computer instructions are stored in a storage unit.

It should also be understood that references to "storing" in embodiments of the present application may refer to storing in one or more memories. The one or more memories may be provided separately or integrated in the encoder or decoder, the processor, or the communication device. The one or more memories may also be provided separately, with a portion of the one or more memories being integrated into the decoder, the processor, or the communication device. The type of memory may be any form of storage medium and is not intended to be limiting of the present application.

It should also be understood that the "protocol" in the embodiment of the present application may refer to a standard protocol in the communication field, and may include, for example, an LTE protocol, an NR protocol, and a related protocol applied in a future communication system, which is not limited in the present application.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized 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 loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions according to the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that includes one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple.

It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for indicating a status of a transmission configuration indicator, comprising:

receiving configuration information sent by a network device, wherein the configuration information comprises one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states;

receiving a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by a network device, wherein the MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state combinations;

receiving downlink control information DCI sent by network equipment, and determining an activated TCI-state combination according to a value of a transmission configuration indication TCI field in the DCI; one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each TCI-state combination comprises an index of one TCI-state combination and an index of one or more TCI-states that the TCI-state combination comprises.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein:

the first bit in the MAC-CE is used for indicating that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination; or

A field in the configuration information or the received RRC message is used to indicate that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one of the following is used to determine that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination:

And if the terminal equipment receives the indication information of multi-beam transmission or multi-transmission receiving point TRP transmission, determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination.

5. The method of any one of claims 1-4, further comprising: and determining the TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group or code division multiplexing CDM group of the DMRS ports according to one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining the TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group, or code division multiplexing, CDM, group of DMRS ports based on one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination comprises:

7. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the TCI-state corresponds to the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or the CDM groups of the DMRS ports from small to large or from large to small one by one according to indexes;

the TCI-state corresponds to the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or the CDM groups of the DMRS ports one by one according to the sequence of the indexes from small to large; or

The TCI-state corresponds to the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or the CDM groups of the DMRS ports in the order of the indexes from large to small one by one.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein the configuration information further comprises one or more transport configuration indication states, TCI-state;

a part of bits of the MAC-CE are used for activating part or all of TCI-state combinations, and the other part of bits are used for activating part or all of TCI-states;

among all values of the TCI field, a part of values correspond to TCI-state combinations, and the other part of values correspond to TCI-states.

9. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a receiving module: the network equipment comprises a configuration module, a transmission configuration module and a control module, wherein the configuration module is used for receiving configuration information sent by the network equipment, and the configuration information comprises one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; receiving a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by a network device, wherein the MAC-CE is used for activating part or all of TCI-state combinations; receiving downlink control information DCI sent by network equipment;

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination according to a first bit in the MAC-CE; or

And determining that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination according to the configuration information or a field in the received Radio Resource Control (RRC) message.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processing module is further configured to determine that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination based on one or more of:

12. The apparatus of any of claims 9-11, wherein the processing module is further configured to: and determining the TCI-state corresponding to each DMRS port, DMRS port group or code division multiplexing CDM group of the DMRS ports according to one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination.

13. The apparatus of any of claims 9-12, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

14. A communications apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a memory for storing a computer program;

a processor for invoking and executing a computer program stored in said memory to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 8.

15. A computer storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program which, when executed by a computer, implements the method of any one of claims 1 to 8.