CN111586846B

CN111586846B - Method for transmitting configuration number status indication and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN111586846B
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: 2024-02-20
Anticipated expiration: 2039-02-15
Also published as: WO2020164601A1; CN111586846A

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 network equipment, wherein the configuration information comprises one or more configurations of transmission configuration indication (TCI-state) combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; receiving 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; and receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) sent by the network equipment, and determining an activated TCI-state combination according to the value of a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) field in the DCI, wherein one or more TCI-states are included in the activated TCI-state combination. The method enables the network device to indicate a plurality of TCI-states to the terminal device, thereby realizing multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

Description

Method for transmitting configuration number status indication and communication device

Technical Field

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

Background

In order to meet the transmission requirements of the mobile communication system for large capacity and high speed, a fifth generation mobile communication system (5th generation,5G) introduces a high frequency band of more than 6GHz for communication so as to utilize the transmission characteristics of large bandwidth and high speed; a major problem with high frequency communications is that the signal energy drops sharply with transmission distance, resulting in a short signal transmission distance. To overcome this problem, high frequency communication adopts an analog beam technique, weighting processing is performed by a large-scale antenna array, and signal energy is concentrated in a small range to form a signal (called an analog beam, abbreviated as a beam) similar to a light beam, thereby increasing a transmission distance.

The network device may generate different beams pointing in different directions of transmission. 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 the transmission beam adopted by the network device, so that the terminal device can receive the data transmitted by the network device by using a receiving beam corresponding to the transmission beam. In the 3gpp r15 protocol, the network device indicates to the terminal device the information about the transmit beam employed by the network device through a TCI (Transmission Configuration Index, transmission configuration number) field in the downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI). Specifically, based on the value of the TCI field, the terminal device may determine a TCI state (TCI-state) employed for data transmission. According to the TCI-state, the terminal device may determine the reception beam information corresponding to the transmission beam used for data transmission, so as to receive the data sent by the network device by using the corresponding reception beam.

In addition, in some scenarios of low frequency communications, the TCI-state needs to be indicated as well. For example, a plurality of transmission/reception points (transmission and reception point, TRP) are used to sequentially transmit data to the same terminal device. Different TRPs transmit data by using different TCI-states, and the TRP transmitting the data can be determined by the TCI-state terminal device.

Currently, the 3GPP R15 protocol supports an indication of a single TCI-state, which may support single beam transmission or single TRP transmission. When multi-beam transmission or multi-TRP transmission is adopted, the network device is required to indicate a plurality of TCI-states to the terminal device, and the current TCI-state indication method of the 3gpp r15 protocol cannot be supported.

Disclosure of Invention

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

For example: the TCI-state indication method comprises the following steps: the network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information comprises one or more configurations of transmission configuration indication (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 of TCI-state combinations; the network equipment sends a transmission configuration indication TCI to the terminal equipment; correspondingly, the terminal equipment determines a 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 demodulation reference signal DMRS port, DMRS port group, or code division multiplexing CDM group of DMRS ports may be determined.

In the above scheme, the configuration information may be issued through a radio resource Control (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 comprises the following steps:

receiving configuration information sent by network equipment, 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 network equipment, 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 active 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, wherein in practical application, the configuration is possible to be carried out once, the activation and indication are carried out for a plurality of times in a subsequent period of time, the activation is also possible to be carried out once, and the indication is carried out for a plurality of times in a subsequent period of time; in addition, it is also possible that no configuration step is required, only activation and indication; or the step of activating is not needed, and only configuration and indication are needed; therefore, there are various situations in practical use.

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

The scheme is combined, wherein: one bit (e.g., the first bit) in the MAC-CE is used to indicate that the MAC-CE enabled object is a TCI-state combination; the MAC-CE may be the MAC-CE as the activation command or may be a separate MAC-CE; 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; 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 correspondence is TCI-state or TCI-state combination, and after the terminal device receives the MAC-CE or RRC, the terminal device may confirm whether the received MAC-CE is used to activate TCI-state combination according to the field or bit; the RRC can be the RRC bearing the configuration information, can be a separate RRC, and the MAC-CE can be the MAC-CE used for activating the TCI-state combination, and can be a separate MAC-CE; the indication mode is display.

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

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

If one or more conditions can be met, the object activated by the MAC-CE is considered to be a TCI-state combination, each condition can be arbitrarily combined, and the indication mode is implicit.

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

In combination with the above scheme, the method further comprises: determining, according to one or more TCI-states included in the one activated TCI-state combination, a TCI-state corresponding to each demodulation reference signal DMRS port, DMRS port group, or code division multiplexing CDM group of the DMRS port, 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 combination according to the index of the TCI-state combination; and determining TCI-states corresponding to the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or CDM groups of the DMRS ports according to the indexes of the TCI-states.

The scheme is combined, wherein:

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

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;

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

In combination with the above scheme, among all values of the TCI field, one part of the values corresponds to the TCI-state combination, and the other part of the values corresponds to the TCI-state.

In each of the above schemes, TCI-state combinations are employed, each of which may include one or more TCI-states. The network device may indicate multiple TCI-states by indicating a TCI-state combination to implement TCI-state indication for multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

The apparatus corresponding to each of the above methods is described below.

A communication device may be a terminal device or a network device in each of 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 each method. The functions 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 communication module, may include a transmitting module and/or a receiving module; the device is used for realizing the receiving and transmitting functions of signals; optionally, the apparatus further comprises a processing module for implementing processing functions other than signal transmission; the transceiver module may be, for example, at least one of a transceiver, a receiver, and a transmitter, and 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 storage module is used to store computer programs or instructions. The processing module is connected to the storage module, and the processing module may execute a program or an instruction stored in the storage module, or originate from another program or an instruction, so as to cause the apparatus to execute the method according to any one of the above aspects.

The processor referred to in any of the foregoing may be a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits configured to control the execution of the programs in the communication methods of the foregoing aspects.

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

In another aspect, a computer program product is provided containing instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the methods of the above aspects.

In another aspect, a communication system is provided, which comprises the above network device and a 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 including a processor for communicating with an external device or an internal device, and a communication interface for implementing the methods of the above aspects.

Optionally, the chip may further comprise a memory in which a computer program or instructions are stored, the processor being configured to execute the computer program or instructions stored in the memory, or being derived from other programs or instructions. The program or instructions, when executed, provide for implementing the methods of the various aspects described above.

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

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system according to 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 diagram of a MAC CE structure for activating 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 diagram of a MAC CE structure for activating TCI-state combinations 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 TCI-state and TCI-state combinations 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 apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

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

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

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in 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 solutions in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiments of the present application are applicable to beam-based multicarrier communication systems, such as: global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM), code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) systems, general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication systems, fifth generation (5th generation,5G) communication systems or New Radio (NR) and the like, as well as future sixth generation communication systems.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 suitable for use in 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 transmitting antenna for transmitting signals and at least one receiving antenna for receiving signals. In addition, each communication device may additionally include a transmitter chain and a receiver chain, each of which may include 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. Thus, communication between the network device and the terminal device may be via multiple antenna technology.

It should be understood that the network device in the wireless communication system may be any device having a wireless transceiving function. The apparatus includes, but is not limited to: an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (Radio Network Controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (Base Station Controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS), a Home base station (Home evolved NodeB, or a Home Node B, HNB, for example), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (Wireless Fidelity, WIFI) system, a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission Point (transmission Point, TP), or a transmission receiving Point (transmission and reception Point, TRP), etc., may also be 5G, e.g., NR, a gNodeB (gNB, base station) in a system, or a transmission Point (TRP or TP), one or a group of antenna panels (including multiple antenna panels) of a base station in a 5G system, or may also be a network Node constituting a gNB or a transmission Point, such as a BaseBand Unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), etc.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a Centralized Unit (CU) and DUs. The gNB may also include a Radio Unit (RU). The CU implements part of the functions of the gNB, the DU implements part of the functions of the gNB, for example, the CU implements functions of a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), a packet data convergence layer protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, and the DU implements functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC), a medium access control (media access control, MAC), and a Physical (PHY) layer. Since the information of the RRC layer may eventually become information of the PHY layer or be converted from the information of the PHY layer, under this architecture, higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or by the du+cu. It is understood that the network device may be a CU node, or a DU node, or a device comprising a CU node and a DU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in an access network (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 appreciated that the terminal device in the wireless communication system may also be referred to as a 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 (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), or the like. The embodiments of the present application are not limited to application scenarios.

In order to facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, several terms referred to in the present application are first briefly described below.

1. Beam (beam)

A major problem with high frequency communications is that the signal energy drops sharply with transmission distance, resulting in a short signal transmission distance. To overcome this problem, high frequency communication adopts an analog beam technique, weighting processing is performed by a large-scale antenna array, and signal energy is concentrated in a small range to form a signal (called an analog beam, abbreviated as a beam) similar to a light beam, thereby increasing a transmission distance.

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 beam forming technique or other means of technique. 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, and sounding signals, etc. One or more antenna ports forming a beam may be considered as a set of antenna ports.

The beams include a transmit beam and a receive beam. The transmitting beam may refer to the distribution of signal intensities formed in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted through the antenna, and the receiving beam may refer to the distribution of the antenna array for reinforcing or weakening the reception of the wireless signal in different directions in space.

In the current NR protocol, beam information may be indicated by an antenna port quasi co-location (QCL) relationship. Specifically, the indication information (for example, downlink control information (downlink control information, abbreviated DCI)) may indicate that one resource (or antenna port) has a quasi co-location relationship with another resource (or antenna port), so as to indicate that beams corresponding to the two resources (or antenna ports) have the same spatial characteristics, and the same receiving beam may be used for receiving. The beam may be specifically represented in the protocol by an identification of various signals, such as a resource index of a channel state information reference signal (channel state information reference signal, abbreviated CSI-RS), an index of a synchronization signal broadcast channel block (synchronous signal/physical broadcast channel block, which may be abbreviated SS/PBCH block, or abbreviated SSB), a resource index of a sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal, abbreviated SRS), and a resource index of a tracking reference signal (tracking reference signal, abbreviated TRS).

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

Since the DMRS port/port group, the resource index of TCI, TRP, SRI, CSI-RS, the index of SS/PBCH block, the resource index of SRS, and the resource index of TRS may all represent beams, the DMRS port/port group and TCI hereinafter may also be replaced with beams, the resource index of TRP, SRI, CSI-RS, the index of SS/PBCH block, the resource index of SRS, or the resource index of TRS, and this replacement does not change the essence of the method provided in the embodiments of the present application.

2. Quasi co-location (QCL): or quasi-parity. QCL relationships are used to represent one or more identical or similar communication characteristics between multiple resources, and the same or similar communication configuration may be employed for multiple resources having a co-located relationship. For example, if two antenna ports have a QCL relationship, the channel large scale characteristics of one port transmitting one symbol can be inferred from the channel large scale characteristics of the other port transmitting 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 that antenna port, or the two antenna ports have the same parameters, or the difference in parameters between the two antenna ports is less than a certain threshold. Wherein the parameters may include one or more of the following: delay spread (delay spread), doppler spread (Doppler spread), doppler shift (Doppler shift), average delay (average delay), average gain, spatial reception parameters (spatial Rx parameters). Wherein the spatial reception parameters may include one or more of: angle of arrival (AOA), average AOA, AOA spread, angle of departure (angle of departure, AOD), average angle of departure (AOD), AOD spread, 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: the CSI-RS resource identity, or SRS resource identity, or SSB resource identity, or resource identity of a preamble sequence transmitted on a physical random access channel (Physical Random Access Channel, PRACH), or resource identity of a demodulation reference signal (demodulation reference signal, DMRS) is used to indicate 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 shift, doppler spread, average delay, delay spread;

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

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

type D (type D): the parameters are received spatially.

The QCL referred to in the embodiments of the present application is a QCL of type D. Hereinafter, QCL may be understood as QCL of type D, i.e., QCL defined based on spatial reception parameters, abbreviated as spatial QCL, unless otherwise specified.

When the QCL relationship refers to the QCL relationship of type D, it may be considered as airspace QCL (spatial QCL). When the antenna ports satisfy the spatial QCL relationship, the QCL relationship between the ports of the downlink signal and the ports of the downlink signal, or between the ports of the uplink signal and the ports of the uplink signal, may be that the two signals have the same AOA or AOD, which is used to represent that they have the same receive beam or transmit beam. For example, for the QCL relationship between the ports of the downlink signal and the uplink signal or between the ports of the uplink signal and the downlink signal, the AOA and the AOD of the two signals may have a correspondence relationship, or the AOD and the AOA of the two signals may have a correspondence relationship, that is, the beam reciprocity may be utilized to determine the uplink transmission beam according to the downlink reception beam, or determine the downlink reception beam according to the uplink transmission beam.

From the transmitting end, if two antenna ports are said to be spatial QCL, it may be meant that the corresponding beam directions of the two antenna ports are spatially identical. From the receiving end, if 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.

The signals transmitted on the ports having the spatial QCL relationship may also have corresponding beams including 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).

The signals transmitted on ports having spatial QCL relationships can also be understood as signals received or transmitted using the same spatial filter (spatial filter). The spatial filter may be at least one of: precoding, weight of antenna port, phase deflection of antenna port, amplitude gain of antenna port.

The 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 downstream BPL, the same upstream BPL, the upstream BPL corresponding to the downstream BPL, and the downstream BPL corresponding to the upstream BPL.

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

3, QCL indication and QCL hypothesis

QCL introduction has shown that if two antenna ports have quasi co-ordinates, the large scale characteristics of a channel carrying one symbol from one port can be deduced from the large scale characteristics of a channel carrying one symbol from the other port. Thus 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 over which the two ports transmit one symbol are consistent. For example, the channel large scale characteristics of one port transmitting one symbol are known, and the channel large scale characteristics of another port transmitting one symbol may use the same assumption.

4. Transmission configuration indication (transmission configuration indicator, TCI) state (state): may be used to indicate the QCL relationship between the two reference signals. Each TCI state may include an index (servicellindex) of a serving cell, a bandwidth part (BWP) Identifier (ID), and a reference signal resource identifier, where the reference signal resource identifier may be at least one of the following, for example: 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 id), or SSB Index (SSB-Index).

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

The chinese translation is as follows: the transmission configuration is indicated, including QCL relation between the ports of the downlink signal [ port ] and PDSCH DMRS ports in one reference signal set.

The TCI may be used to indicate QCL information of a physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, abbreviated PDCCH)/physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, abbreviated PDSCH), and specifically may be used to indicate to which reference signal the DMRS of the PDCCH/PDSCH meets the QCL relationship, and then the terminal may receive the PDCCH/PDSCH using spatial parameters (e.g., receiving beams) that are the same as or similar to the spatial parameters of the reference signal.

The TCI may specifically indicate, through a reference signal index, which reference signal the DMRS of the PDCCH/PDSCH satisfies the QCL relationship.

In the 3gpp r15 protocol, the network device indicates to the terminal device, through the TCI field in the DCI, information about the transmission beam employed by the network device. For example, when the TCI field is 3 bits in size, 8 different values (code points in the protocol) may be specifically represented, and each value corresponds to an index of TCI-state, where the TCI-state index may uniquely identify a TCI-state. The TCI-state includes several parameters from which the information about the transmit 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, which indicates which bwp (Bandwidth part) of which cell the TCI-state applies to, respectively, so that different cells or different bwp of the same cell can configure different QCL-Info. The QCL-Info also includes a reference signal (reference signal) for indicating the resource (the resource or beam used for data transmission) using the TCI state and which reference signal resource forms the QCL (quasi co-location) relationship. In the R15 protocol, the term "beam" is not generally used directly, and the beam is generally replaced by other terms. For example, in both data transmission and channel measurement, beams correspond to reference signal resources, one for each reference signal resource. Therefore, the reference signal resource and the QCL relation are referred to herein, and the essential meaning is that the QCL relation is formed by which beam. QCL relation means that two reference signal resources (or two antenna ports, the antenna ports and the reference signal resources also being in one-to-one correspondence) have some same spatial parameters. The specific spatial parameters are the same depending on the Type of the QCL-Info, i.e. another field QCL-Type of the QCL-Info. qcl-Type can have four values { typeA, typeB, typeC, typeD }. Taking typeD as an example, typeD indicates that two reference signal resources have the same spatial reception parameter (Spatial Rx parameter) information, i.e., two beams have the same reception beam. At most only one of the two QCL-Info's included in the TCI-state can be TypeD.

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

S101, TCI-State configuration

The network device configures a plurality of TCI-states, e.g., 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, from which the terminal device can determine the receive beam. For example: when one TCI-state includes only one QCL-Info of typeD and the QCL-Info includes only one reference signal, one TCI-state can be considered to correspond to one reception beam.

S102, TCI-state activation

After the network device configures a plurality of TCI-states for the terminal device, a part of the TCI-states is activated by a MAC-CE (Medium Access Control-Control Element, medium access Control-Control unit). 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. I.e. which 8 TCI-states the 8 values represented by the TCI word of the DCI correspond to, is determined by MAC CE signaling. The MAC CE structure for activating TCI-state is shown in fig. 3. Wherein the fields T0 to T (N-2) x8+7 correspond to the respective TCI-states of the indexes of the first step configuration being 0 to (N-2) x8+7, respectively, and each field has a size of 1bit and may have a value of 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, and 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 be activated. Each MAC CE may theoretically have 8 active fields with a value of 1, with the remainder all being 0. The 8 TCI-states corresponding to the 1-valued fields are 8 TCI-states corresponding to 8 values of the TCI field in the DCI. For example, the minimum value 000 of the TCI field corresponds to the lowest indexed TCI-state activated in the MAC CE, and so on. There are many types of MAC-CEs, and there are many other uses of MAC-CEs other than those for TCI-state activation. The present application relates only to MAC-CE for TCI-state/TCI-state combination activation. Thus, unless otherwise indicated, all MAC-CEs described herein refer to such MAC-CEs.

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 the DMRS port of the PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel, downlink shared physical channel) has a QCL relationship with, so as to use 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 the TCI-state corresponding to 000, and according to the TCI-state, the terminal device can further determine the information of the reception beam corresponding to the data transmission beam. For example: the Reference Signal included in the QCL-Info of type typeD in the TCI-state is a CSI-RS (Channel State Information-Reference Signal) of index #1, which indicates that the reception beam corresponding to the data transmission beam is the same as the reception beam corresponding to the CSI-RS of index # 1. The reception beam corresponding to CSI-RS with index #1 may be determined through a beam measurement procedure, which 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 that the corresponding receiving beam is adopted to receive the data issued by the network device.

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

In summary, the TCI-state indication method in R15 is only applicable to the scenario of single beam/single TRP transmission, because the TCI field in DCI can only determine one TCI-state, and multiple TCI-states need to be indicated for multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission.

In the above TCI-state indicating method, the network device can only indicate one TCI-state to the terminal device. When the network device transmits data to the terminal device 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 received beam information corresponding to the multiple transmit 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 8 TCI states activated correspond one-to-one to the values of the 8 TCI fields in the DCI. The mechanism can be applied to achieve association of a single TCI field value with multiple TCI states, with only minor modifications to the RRC configuration. Specifically, in addition to TCI states, the network device needs to configure a series of TCI state combinations. Each TCI state combination contains one or two TCI states. Then, 8 of them are activated by one MAC-CE. The 8 TCI state combinations that are activated correspond one-to-one to the values of the 8 TCI fields in the DCI. The format of the MAC CE used is the same as that of the MAC CE used to activate the TCI-state. The terminal device needs to determine whether the MAC CE is used to activate the TCI state or the TCI state set (TCI state combination), specifically, the indication may be performed through RRC signaling, or some implicit indication information, such as whether the TCI state set is configured. This mechanism requires only modification of the RRC configuration and no enhancement of MAC and DCI.

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

S201: configuring TCI-state combinations

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

Note that, in this step, besides configuring the TCI-state combination, the network device may also configure the TCI-state, and the configuration method is the same as that described in S101, and will not be 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 format similar to that used to activate the TCI-state in S102. The MAC-CE includes a plurality of 1-bit active fields Si, which can specifically take on values of 0 and 1. Note that Si is for example only and does not limit the naming of the fields. A value of 1 indicates that the corresponding TCI-state combination (TCI-state combination with index i) is activated, and a value of 0 indicates that it is not activated. 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 that are in one-to-one correspondence with 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 fields in the DCI in a value-to-large order in an index-to-large order, or the M TCI-state combinations may be in one-to-one correspondence with the respective values of the TCI fields in the DCI in a value-to-large order in an index-to-small order. For example, the lowest indexed TCI-state of the M TCI-states corresponds to the minimum value 000 of the TCI field, the second lowest indexed TCI-state of the M TCI-states corresponds to the second smallest value 001 of the TCI field, and so on. For example, m=8, the 8 TCI-state combinations activated in the mac CE are { S0, S1, S4, S6, S7, S9, S11, S13} according to the index from small to large, and these 8 TCI-states are sequentially in one-to-one correspondence with the 8 values {000,001,010,011,100,101,110,111} of the TCI field, and when the value of the TCI field in the DCI is 011, the TCI-state combination activated with S6 (i.e., TCI-state with index 6) is indicated. Of course, the activated M TCI-state combinations may also be in one-to-one correspondence with the M values of the TCI field in order of the values from the large to the small in the order of the indexes from the small to the large, or the M TCI-state combinations may also be in one-to-one correspondence with the M values of the TCI field in order of the values from the small to the large in the order of the indexes from the large to the small. For example, the lowest indexed TCI-state of the M TCI-states corresponds to the maximum value 111 of the TCI field, the second lowest indexed TCI-state of the M TCI-states corresponds to the second largest value 110 of the TCI field, and so on. Other corresponding means may 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 maximum activated TCI-state combinations is not limited in the application, and may be 8, or may be other values, and only the bit number of the TCI field needs to be increased.

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

display indication

1, indicated by one of the fields in the MAC-CE format described above, e.g. by the first field R. R is a reserved field, 1 bit in size. The use of this field is not yet defined by R15 and can therefore be used 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 the TCI-state and 1 indicates that the MAC-CE is used to activate the TCI-state combination. Or, conversely, 0 indicates that the MAC-CE is used to activate the TCI-state combination and 1 indicates that the MAC-CE is used to activate the 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, which is not limited in this application.

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

Implicit indication

1, by a transmission mode parameter. When the network device transmits data to the terminal device by adopting the multi-beam/multi-TRP, the indication information is sent to the terminal device, and the indication information is used for indicating the network device to transmit data to the terminal device 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 it by the default network device is used for activating the TCI-state combination, otherwise, the MAC-CE sent to it by the default network device by the terminal device is used for activating the TCI-state.

2, determining by measuring the configuration of packet reporting in the configuration information. I.e. by the value of groupBasedBeamReporting in the last measurement configuration information received by the terminal device from the network device. 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 beam packet reporting.

3, judging whether the TCI-state combination is configured or not through RRC signaling. If the network device configures the TCI-state combination to the terminal device, the terminal device defaults the MAC-CE sent to it by the network device to activate the TCI-state combination, otherwise the terminal device defaults the MAC-CE sent to it by the network device to activate the TCI-state.

4, a combination of the above three implicit indication modes may also be adopted, when one or more of the above three modes implicitly indicates 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, and otherwise, considers that the MAC-CE is used for activating the TCI-state. For example, when the value of groupBasedBeamReporting is configured as enabled and the network device configures a TCI-state combination to the terminal device (i.e., both modes 2, 3 described above are satisfied), the terminal device defaults the MAC-CE to which the network device sends to activate the TCI-state combination, otherwise the terminal device defaults the MAC-CE to which the network device sends to activate the TCI-state; of course, the above-mentioned conditions 1 and 2 may be used in combination, the conditions 2 and 3 may be used in combination, the conditions 1 and 3 may be used in combination, or the conditions 1, 2 and 3 may be used in combination.

S203: indicating TCI-state combinations

When the network device transmits data to the terminal device using multi-beam/multi-TRP, it indicates a plurality of TCI-states to the terminal device through the TCI field in the 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/TRP and transmits corresponding DCI to the terminal device. The terminal equipment determines TCI-state combinations corresponding to two sending beams/TRP adopted by the network equipment according to TCI fields in DCI, and determines TCI-state corresponding to the two beams/TRP respectively according to the two TCI-states included in the TCI combinations, so that multi-beam/TRP transmission is realized. Multiple beams or multiple TRPs for transmitting data are in one-to-one correspondence with multiple TCI-states in a TCI-state combination. During data transmission, the network device does not directly indicate the beam or TRP of the data transmission to the terminal device, but indicates the DMRS port, DMRS port group or code division multiplexing (code division multiplexing, CDM) group of DMRS ports corresponding to each beam/TRP. Therefore, the beam/TRP-TCI-state correspondence is essentially the DMRS port/DMRS port group/CDM group of DMRS ports-TCI-state correspondence. Each TCI-state combination may be in one-to-one correspondence with each DMRS port/DMRS port group/CDM group of DMRS ports in order of index from small to large, or each TCI-state combination may be in one-to-one correspondence with each DMRS port/DMRS port group/CDM group of DMRS ports in order of index from large to small, e.g., the TCI-state with the smallest index corresponds to the DMRS port/DMRS port group/CDM group of DMRS port with the smallest index, the TCI-state with the second smallest index corresponds to the DMRS port/DMRS port group/CDM group of DMRS port with the second smallest index, and so on; of course, each TCI-state combination may be in one-to-one correspondence with each DMRS port/DMRS port group/CDM group of DMRS ports in order of index from small to large, or each TCI-state combination may be in one-to-one correspondence with each DMRS port/DMRS port group/CDM group of DMRS ports in order of index from small to large. Other rules are possible and are not exemplified here.

By the TCI-state indication method in the above embodiment, when the network device uses multiple beams/multiple TRP to transmit data, the network device can indicate the TCI-state information of each transmission beam/TRP used by the network device to the terminal device, so as to implement multiple beams/multiple TRP transmission.

In a practical scenario, as a terminal device moves, its channel environment changes, resulting in a change in the transmission mechanism employed by the network device, i.e., switching between single beam/multi-TRP transmission and multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission. When a network device is to switch transmission modes, for example from multi-beam transmission to single-beam transmission, the TCI-state information it indicates to the terminal device is changed from a TCI-state combination to a single TCI-state. This requires that the indicated M values of the TCI field in the DCI have both corresponding TCI-states and corresponding TCI-state combinations. For example, 4 of the 8 values of the TCI field correspond to indices of TCI-states and 4 correspond to indices of TCI-state combinations. In the above embodiment, the problem may be solved by configuring some TCI combinations to include only a single TCI-state, but that is just one solution, and this embodiment further discloses a TCI-state indication method to solve the problem, as shown in fig. 6, where the method includes:

S301: configuration of TCI-state and TCI-state combinations

The network device sends RRC configuration information to the terminal, the configuration information including a configuration of the TCI-state and TCI-state combination. The configuration of TCI is similar to S101, and reference is made to the description of S101; the configuration of the TCI-state combination S201 is similar, refer to the description of 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 activate one or more TCI-states and one or more TCI-state combinations simultaneously for beam information indicating single beam/single TRP transmission and multi-beam/multi TRP transmission, respectively. The network device may employ two MAC-CEs to activate TCI-state and TCI-state combination respectively, and the activation manner and the content of the MAC-CE refer to the content of S102 and S202 respectively.

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

The 1, mac-CE includes two bitmaps, i.e., two parts of bits, for activating the TCI-state and TCI-state combinations, respectively. For example, as shown in fig. 7, the first bitmap, i.e., each bit field Ti of the first partial bit, is used to indicate the TCI-state with index i is activated/deactivated. 1 indicates active, 0 indicates inactive, or conversely 1 indicates inactive, and 0 indicates active. The second bitmap, the respective bit field Si of the second partial bit, is used to indicate the TCI-state combination with index i activated/deactivated. 1 indicates active, 0 indicates inactive, or conversely 1 indicates inactive, and 0 indicates active. The positional relationship of the two bitmaps may be that the bitmaps for TCI-state activation are before, that for TCI-state combined activation are after, or that the bitmaps for TCI-state combined activation are before, that for TCI-state activation are after. Which positional relationship is specifically adopted may be indicated by RRC or MAC-CE, for example, RRC in S301 or MAC-CE in S302, may be indicated by RRC or MAC-CE alone, or may be specified by protocol default.

The 2, mac-CE includes a bitmap (i.e., part of bits) and one or more index fields. The bitmap is used to activate the TCI-state, and the one or more index fields represent the index of the activated one or more TCI-state combinations. Alternatively, bitmap is used to activate TCI-state combinations, and one or more index fields represent an index of the activated one or more TCI-states. The positional relationship of bitmap and index field in MAC-CE may be: bitmap is in front, each index field is in back; or bitmap followed by each index field. Other relationships are possible, such as bitmap between index fields. The specific location relationship adopted can be indicated by RRC signaling or MAC-CE, and the indication manner is similar to the case of 1, and may 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 manner is similar to the case of 1, and will not be repeated.

The mac-CE includes a plurality of index fields, wherein a partial index field(s) is (are) used to represent an index of the activated TCI-state(s) and the remaining partial index field(s) is (are) used to represent an index of the activated TCI-state(s) combination. The fields for the index representing the TCI-state and the fields for the index representing 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 vice versa, the first m indices are the indices of the TCI-state combination and the last n indices are the indices of the TCI-state. Other rules may also be employed, such as the number of index fields corresponding to TCI-states being the same as and arranged across the number of index fields corresponding to TCI-state combinations. The specific arrangement rule adopted can be indicated by RRC signaling or MAC-CE, the indication mode is similar to the case of 1, and the default protocol may be provided. The values of m and n may be indicated by RRC signaling or MAC-CE, or may be specified by protocol defaults; the indication manner is similar to the case of 1, and will not be repeated.

S303: indicating TCI-state and TCI-state combination

The network device may activate one or more TCI-states and one or more TCI-state combinations, via step S302. The manner in which these TCI-state and TCI-state combinations correspond to the respective values of the TCI field in the DCI may be any one of the following:

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

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

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

The above-mentioned indication examples are not limited to the above-mentioned manner, but other corresponding manners may be adopted, for example: the middle x values correspond to x TCI-states and the remaining values correspond to respective TCI-state combinations, or vice versa.

The following will describe in detail the first way, and in a similar way. Assuming x=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 manner in which each TCI-state corresponds to the corresponding TCI field value, and the manner in which each TCI-state combination corresponds to the corresponding TCI field value are similar to the manner in which each TCI-state corresponds to each TCI field value in S203.

The specific value of x and the specific mode adopted by the method can be configured by the network equipment through RRC signaling or MAC-CE or DCI, can be the RRC signaling or MAC-CE or DCI in the steps, can be independent RRC signaling or MAC-CE or DCI, and can be specified by default by a protocol, wherein the indication mode is similar to the condition in the step 1.

Whichever specific correspondence is employed, the correspondence may be validated when certain conditions are met. For example, the terminal device determines, according to a protocol default specification or indication information of the network device, to use a first TCI field of the above 4 corresponding manners as a corresponding manner combined with each TCI-state and TCI-state. However, if the network device does not configure the TCI-state combination to the terminal device, then the respective values of the TCI field still all correspond to the TCI-state, but not to the TCI-state combination. The first correspondence is only really enabled when the network device configures the TCI-state combination to the terminal device. I.e., the condition that the TCI-state combination is configured is satisfied. The above conditions are just one example, and the display indication or the implicit indication mentioned in the above embodiments may be used; the specific conditions to be used are not limited in this application.

Alternatively, in another embodiment, whichever specific correspondence is employed, the correspondence is always effective. For example, according to the default protocol or the indication information of the network device, the terminal device determines that the first one of the above 4 corresponding modes is adopted as the corresponding mode of combining the TCI field with each TCI-state and TCI-state, and then the corresponding mode is directly effective, and no condition needs to be met.

Other corresponding modes than the mode 4 can be adopted, and the application is not limited. In other corresponding modes, the protocol default rule or the network device indicates through RRC signaling or MAC-CE or DCI, where the signaling may multiplex the signaling or messages mentioned in the above steps, or may be separate signaling or messages. In other corresponding manners, the manner may be always effective, or may be effective when a certain condition is met, and reference may be made to the conditions of implicit indication and display indication mentioned above, which is not limited in this application.

In the above embodiments of the method, the steps of configuring, activating and indicating are included, and in practical application, the configuration may be performed once, and there may be multiple activations and indications in a subsequent period of time, and there may also be multiple indications in a subsequent period of time; in addition, it is also possible that no configuration step is required, only activation and indication; or the step of activating is not needed, and only configuration and indication are needed; therefore, there are various situations in practical use.

In the above embodiments, the TCI indicates that the activated TCI-state or the TCI-state combination is one, and in other examples, the activated TCI-state combination may be plural.

In each of the above schemes, TCI-state combinations are employed, each of which may include one or more TCI-states. The network device may indicate multiple TCI-states by indicating a TCI-state combination, thereby implementing TCI-state indication for multi-beam/multi-TRP transmission; further, flexibility of indication is enhanced.

Based on the method of the above embodiment, a communication device provided in 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.

The communication unit 610 is configured to perform the operations (receiving and/or transmitting) of receiving and transmitting signals in the above-described method embodiment, that is, implement a communication function.

The processing unit 620 is configured to perform other operations in the foregoing method embodiment except signal transceiving (receiving and/or transmitting), for example: the activated TCI-state or TCI-state combination is determined.

Optionally, the communication unit 610, also referred to as a transceiver unit (or module), may include a receiving unit (module) and/or a transmitting unit (module) for performing the steps of receiving and transmitting by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment, respectively. Optionally, the communication device 600 may further comprise a storage unit for storing instructions to be executed by the communication unit 610 and/or the processing unit 620.

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

a receiving module; the method comprises the steps of receiving configuration information sent by network equipment, wherein the configuration information comprises one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI-state) combinations, and each TCI-state combination comprises one or more TCI-states; receiving 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; receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) sent by network equipment;

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

The processing module is further configured to:

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

In the measurement configuration information received by the terminal equipment, if the value of reporting the parameter beam packet to the groupBasedBeamReporting is enabled, determining that the object activated by the MAC-CE is a TCI-state combination; or (b)

And if the terminal equipment receives the 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 demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port, the DMRS port group or the Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) group of the DMRS port according to one or more TCI-states included in the 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 the TCI field in the DCI;

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

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

The above-mentioned reference method embodiments enumerate part of the functions of each module of the terminal device, and other functions may refer to the related descriptions of the method embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

The communication device 600 may be a terminal device or a chip in the terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal device, 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 device to execute the method. When the communication device is a chip in a terminal device, 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, so that the communication device performs the operations performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment, where the storage unit may be a storage unit (for example, a register, a cache, etc.) in the chip, or may be a storage unit (for example, a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.) in the terminal device that is located outside the chip. It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, when the steps executed by the communication apparatus 600 and the corresponding advantageous effects are referred to the description related to the terminal device in the above method embodiment, the details are not repeated here for brevity.

It should be appreciated that the communication unit 610 may be implemented by a transceiver and the processing unit 620 may be implemented by a processor. The memory 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 may be referred to the descriptions in the foregoing corresponding methods. In order to avoid repetition, a description thereof is omitted.

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 the signal transceiving operation in the above method embodiment, that is, implement a communication function.

The communication unit 820 is configured to perform operations other than signal transceiving in the above-described method embodiment.

Alternatively, 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) for performing the steps of receiving and transmitting by the network device in the foregoing method embodiment, respectively. Optionally, the communication device 800 may further include a storage unit for storing instructions to be 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 device to execute the method. When the apparatus is a chip within a network device, the processing unit may be a processor and the communication unit may be an input/output interface, pins or circuitry, etc.; the processing unit executes the instructions stored in the storage unit, so that the communication device performs the operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiments, where the storage unit may be a storage unit (e.g., a register, a cache, etc.) in the chip, or may be a storage unit (e.g., a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.) located outside the chip in the communication device.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, when the steps executed by the communication apparatus 800 and the corresponding advantageous effects are referred to the related description of the network device in the above method embodiment, the details are not repeated here for brevity.

It is to be appreciated that communication unit 820 may be implemented by a transceiver and processing unit 810 may be implemented by a processor. The memory unit may be implemented by a memory. As shown in fig. 11, 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 embodiment, and similar descriptions may refer to descriptions in the foregoing corresponding methods. In order to avoid repetition, a description thereof is omitted.

The network device in the above embodiments of the apparatus corresponds to the terminal device and the network device or the terminal device in the embodiments of the method, and the corresponding steps are executed by corresponding modules or units. For example, the steps of the communication unit (or transceiver unit, transceiver) method performing the transmitting and/or receiving steps in the method embodiments (or performed by the transmitting unit, the receiving unit, respectively), other steps than transmitting and receiving may be performed by a processing unit (processor). Reference may be made to corresponding method embodiments for the function of a specific unit. The transmitting unit and the receiving unit can form a transmitting unit, the transmitter and the receiver can form a transceiver, and the transmitting function and the receiving function 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 are possible in practical implementation.

The communication apparatus of each embodiment may 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 exist separately outside the processor.

It should be appreciated that the processing unit mentioned in the above embodiments may be one chip. For example, the processing unit may be a Field programmable gate array (Field-Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), an application specific integrated Chip (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), a System on Chip (SoC), a central processing unit (Central Processor Unit, CPU), a network processor (Network Processor, NP), a digital signal processing circuit (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), a microcontroller (Micro Controller Unit, MCU), a programmable controller (Programmable Logic Device, PLD) or other integrated Chip, or the like. When the communication device is a network device or a chip in a terminal device, the function received by the communication unit (transceiver) is the meaning of acquisition or input, and the function transmitted is the meaning of output. For example:

And a receiving module: the method comprises the steps of obtaining configuration information sent by network equipment, 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; 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 provided in the present application. For convenience of explanation, fig. 12 shows only major components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 12, the terminal device 1000 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The terminal device 1000 may be applied in a system as shown in fig. 1, and performs the functions of the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment.

The processor is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, controlling the whole terminal device, executing the software program, processing the data of the software program, for example, for controlling the terminal device to execute the actions described in the above method embodiments. The memory is mainly used 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 together with the antenna, which may also be called a transceiver, is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is started, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data is required to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits 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 a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

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 storage device, etc., and embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor, which is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, and a central processor, which is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal device, executing a software program, and processing the data of the software program. The processor in fig. 12 integrates the functions of a baseband processor and a central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may be separate processors, interconnected by bus technology, etc. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, and that the terminal device may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and that the various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or 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, which is executed by the processor to realize the baseband processing function.

By way of example, in the embodiment of fig. 12, an antenna and a control circuit having a transceiving function can be regarded as a transceiving unit 1001 of the terminal device 1000, and a processor having a processing function can be regarded as a 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. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver unit 1001 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiver unit 1001 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver 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 transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc.

The terminal device 1000 shown in fig. 12 is capable of implementing various procedures related to the terminal device in the method embodiment. The operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the terminal device 1000 are respectively for implementing the respective flows in the above-described method embodiments. Reference is specifically made to the description of the above method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are omitted here as appropriate to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application, for example, may be 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 to perform the functions of the network device in the above-described method embodiment.

The network may be applied in a communication system as shown in fig. 1, performing the functions of the network device in the above-described method embodiment. The network device 1100 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio frequency unit (remote radio unit, RRU) 1110 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (also referred to as Digital Units (DUs)) 1120. In addition, the RRU function may also be implemented by the 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 receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals into baseband signals, for example, for transmitting the indication information in the above method embodiments. The RRU 1110 and BBU 1120 can be physically located together or physically separate, 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 configured to perform baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and so on. For example, the BBU (processing unit) 1120 may be configured to control the network device to perform the operation procedures described in the above method embodiments with respect to the network device.

In one embodiment, the BBU 1120 may be configured by one or more single boards, where the multiple single boards may support a single access indicated radio access network (such as an NR network), or may support radio access networks of different access schemes (such as an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 1120 further comprises a memory 1121 and a processor 1122, wherein the memory 1121 is adapted for storing the necessary instructions and data. The processor 1122 is used to control the base station to perform the necessary actions, for example, to control the network device to perform the operational flows described above with respect to the network device in the method embodiments. The memory 1121 and processor 1122 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits. It should be appreciated that the network device 1100 shown in fig. 13 is capable of implementing various processes involving the network device in a method embodiment. The operations and/or functions of the respective modules in the network device 1100 are respectively configured to implement the respective flows in the above-described method embodiments. Reference is specifically made to the description of the above method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are omitted here as appropriate to avoid redundancy.

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

In implementation, each step in the method provided in the present embodiment may be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor or an instruction in a software form. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in a hardware processor for execution, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor for execution.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be implemented by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in software form. The processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated crcuit, ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components. The processor in the embodiments of the present application may implement or execute 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 embodiments of the application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile 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. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus 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 application also provides a communication system which comprises the sending end equipment and the receiving end equipment. For example, the transmitting 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 present application also provides a computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer or processor, implements the method of any of the above embodiments.

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

The embodiment of the application also provides a system chip, which comprises: 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, pins or circuitry, etc. The processing unit may execute computer instructions to cause a chip within the communication device to perform any of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application described above.

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

It should also be understood that references to "save" in embodiments of the present application may refer to saving in one or more memories. The one or more memories may be provided separately or may be integrated in an encoder or decoder, processor, or communication device. The one or more memories may also be provided separately in part, and integrated in the decoder, processor, or communication device. The type of memory may be any form of storage medium, and this application is not limited in this regard.

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

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

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). 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 plural.

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 various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for indicating a transmission configuration indication state, comprising:

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

receiving a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by network equipment, wherein one 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;

receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) sent by network equipment, and determining an activated TCI-state combination or an activated TCI-state according to a value of a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) field in the DCI; the one activated TCI-state combination comprises a plurality of TCI-states, and one part of values in all the TCI fields correspond to the TCI-state combination, and the other part of values correspond to the TCI-state.

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

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

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

One field in the configuration information or the received radio resource control 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, characterized in that at least one of the following is employed to determine that the MAC-CE activated object is a TCI-state combination:

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

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

5. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, further comprising: and determining the TCI-state corresponding to each demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port, the DMRS port group or the Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) group of the DMRS port according to one or more TCI-states included in the activated TCI-state combination.

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

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein:

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

the TCI-state is in one-to-one correspondence with the DMRS ports, the DMRS port groups or CDM groups of the DMRS ports in the order from the index to the index; or (b)

The TCI-state is in one-to-one correspondence with 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.

8. A communication device, comprising:

and a receiving module: the configuration information comprises one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state combinations, one or more transmission configuration indication state TCI-state, and each TCI-state combination comprises a plurality of TCI-states; receiving a media access control unit (MAC-CE) sent by network equipment, wherein one 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; receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) sent by network equipment;

the processing module is used for: determining an active TCI-state combination or an active TCI-state according to the value of the transmission configuration indication TCI field in the DCI; the one activated TCI-state combination comprises a plurality of TCI-states, and one part of values in all the TCI fields correspond to the TCI-state combination, and the other part of values correspond to the TCI-state.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein each TCI-state combination includes an index of the TCI-state combination and an index of one or more TCI-states included in the TCI-state combination.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 or 9, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

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

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 8 or 9, wherein 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:

determining that the MAC-CE enabled object is a TCI-state combination if the communication device is configured with a TCI-state combination;

in the measurement configuration information received by the communication device, if the value of reporting the parameter beam packet to the groupBasedBeamReporting is enabled, determining that the object activated by the MAC-CE is a TCI-state combination; or (b)

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

12. The apparatus of any of claims 8-11, wherein the processing module is further configured to: and determining the TCI-state corresponding to each demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port, the DMRS port group or the Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) group of the DMRS port according to one or more TCI-states included in the activated TCI-state combination.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processing module is further configured to:

14. The apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein:

15. A communication device, the device 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 of claims 1 to 7.

16. 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 7.

17. A chip comprising a processor for communicating with an external device or an internal device and a communication interface for implementing the method of any of claims 1 to 7.