CN115190592A

CN115190592A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115190592A
Application number: CN202110385390.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李强; 薛祎凡; 薛丽霞
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-04-01
Filing date: 2021-04-09
Publication date: 2022-10-14

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and device, which can improve the flexibility of resource allocation in the random access process. The method can be applied to the terminal, and comprises the following steps: acquiring configuration information; the configuration information is used for indicating resource sets, and the resource sets comprise a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first resource set can be used for the terminals of the first capability type to send the lead codes, and the resources in the second resource set can be used for the terminals of the second capability type to send the lead codes; at least part of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least part of the resources of the second set of resources; selecting a target resource from the resource set, and sending a lead code through the target resource; then, receiving a random access response; when at least part of the shared resources comprise target resources, first random access information is sent; the first random access information may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal, and the capability type of the terminal includes the first capability type or the second capability type.

Description

Communication method and device

The present application claims priority from the chinese patent application entitled "a random access method" filed by the national intellectual property office at 2021, 04/01, application number 202110365109.5, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

In some scenarios, in order to be able to acquire a communication service, a terminal needs to establish a communication connection with a base station (e.g., a gNB). In some schemes, the communication connection between the terminal and the base station may be established through Random Access (RA). For example, the terminal may establish a communication connection with the base station through random access in a scenario of initial power-on, disconnection, cell handover, or the like.

Referring to fig. 1, steps of a terminal performing random access are shown: first, a terminal sends a random access sequence (random access preamble), also called message 1 (msg 1), to a base station, for indicating that the terminal has an access request. After receiving the preamble from the terminal, the base station sends a Random Access Response (RAR), which is also called a message 2 (msg 2), to the terminal. In msg2, the base station instructs the terminal to send message 3 (message 3, msg 3) to help the base station identify the terminal. After receiving the msg2 from the base station, the terminal sends msg3 to the base station according to the scheduling indication of the msg 2. The msg3 may also carry Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection establishment request (connection request), and the msg3 may also carry information of the terminal, such as Identification (ID) information of the device. After receiving msg3 from the terminal, the base station can determine the identity of the access terminal according to the information carried by msg3, and sends a message 4 (message 4, msg 4) to the terminal, thereby completing the establishment of connection and completing the random access process.

Compared to the above terminal (which may be referred to as a normal terminal), in some scenarios, in consideration of factors such as power consumption and maintenance cost, some terminals, such as a wearable device, a smart watch, and the like, may have lower communication capability. Such a low communication capable terminal may be referred to as a reduced capability terminal. In a scenario where a reduced capability terminal and a common terminal coexist, in order to facilitate a better scheduling manner for different types of terminals, it is necessary for the terminals to report their respective capability types (reduced capability or common capability).

The terminal capability reporting and the random access process are usually combined together, and the prior art fails to flexibly optimize the configuration of the random access resources in the process.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and device, which can improve the flexibility of resource allocation in the random access process.

In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme is as follows:

in a first aspect, a method of communication is provided. The communication method may be performed by the terminal or a component capable of implementing the terminal function, such as a system-on-chip of the terminal. Taking a terminal as an example, the method comprises the following steps: the terminal acquires configuration information; the configuration information is used for indicating resource sets, and the resource sets comprise a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first resource set can be used for the first capability type terminal to send the random access preamble, and the resources in the second resource set can be used for the second capability type terminal to send the random access preamble; at least part of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least part of the resources of the second set of resources. The capability type of the terminal includes a first capability type or a second capability type.

Then, the terminal selects a target resource from the resource set and transmits a preamble through the target resource. Next, the terminal receives a random access response.

In some cases, when at least a part of the shared resources include target resources, meaning that the target resources used by the terminal are included not only in the resource pool of the self capability type but also in the resource pool of the non-self capability type, then the base station cannot confirm the capability type of the terminal according to the target resources. In this case, the terminal may send the first random access information, and indicate the capability type of the terminal through the first random access information, so that the network device can know the capability type of the terminal accordingly.

In the above communication method, on the one hand, there is a resource at least partially shared between the resource configured for the first capability type terminal and the resource configured for the second capability type terminal, that is, the resources of the two terminals are not completely isolated. Through configuration, two terminal resources can be completely shared, the two terminal resources are partially shared, one terminal resource comprises the other terminal resource, and the like. Thus, the flexibility of resource configuration can be increased. Therefore, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can provide a more flexible resource configuration mode for the terminal. On the other hand, for a part of terminals, that is, terminals whose target resources are not included in the shared resources, the network device can know the capability types of the part of terminals through the target resources used by the preamble, that is, the network device can identify the capability types of the terminals as soon as possible, and therefore, the terminals can be scheduled as soon as possible according to the capability types, so as to improve the communication performance of the terminals as soon as possible. Therefore, the scheme can take the communication performance and the flexibility of resource configuration into consideration as much as possible.

In addition, for a part of terminals, that is, terminals whose target resources are not included in the shared resources, the target resources used by the preamble can make the network device know the capability types of the part of terminals. For another part of terminals, namely terminals with target resources included in shared resources, the network device can know the capability types of the part of terminals through the first random access information. That is, the way in which the network device learns the terminal capability type may be different for different terminals. The mode that the terminal reports the capability type to the network equipment is more flexible.

In one possible design, when at least a portion of the shared resources do not include the target resource, second random access information is sent, the second random access information being different from the first random access information.

When the target resource is not included in at least part of the shared resources, meaning that the target resource used by the terminal is only included in the resource pool corresponding to the own capability type, then the network device may confirm the capability type of the terminal according to the target resource from the preamble of the terminal. Optionally, in this case, the terminal may send the second random access information without carrying the capability type information.

In one possible design, the first set of resources includes a first set of random access opportunities, ROs, the first set of ROs including at least one first RO; the second set of resources comprises a second set of ROs, the second set of ROs comprising at least one second RO; the first RO is an RO available for a terminal of the first capability type to transmit a preamble, and the second RO is an RO available for a terminal of the second capability type to transmit a preamble;

and/or the first set of resources comprises a first set of preambles comprising at least one first preamble, the first preamble being a preamble usable by terminals of the first capability type; the second set of resources comprises a second set of preambles comprising at least one second preamble, the second preamble being a preamble usable by terminals of a second capability type;

at least part of the resources of the first set of resources and at least part of the resources of the second set of resources are shared, comprising: at least a portion of the ROs in the first set of ROs are shared with at least a portion of the ROs in the second set of ROs, and/or at least a portion of the preambles in the first set of preambles are shared with at least a portion of the preambles in the second set of preambles.

Therefore, the resource configuration mode provides flexibility of configuration, and the network equipment can flexibly select the PRACH resources to be completely separated, or partially overlapped or completely overlapped and the like.

In one possible design, the target resource includes a target RO and a target preamble;

at least a portion of the resources shared include target resources, including: at least a portion of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs comprise target ROs and at least a portion of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles comprise target preambles.

In one possible design, the shared at least a portion of the resources do not include the target resource, including: at least a portion of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs do not include the target RO, and/or at least a portion of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles do not include the target preamble.

In one possible design, the configuration information may also be used to indicate at least part of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs, or at least part of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles, or at least part of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of preambles and at least part of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles.

In one possible design, the first random access information includes information indicating a capability type of the terminal. That means, the first random access information may explicitly carry capability type information of the terminal.

In one possible design, sending the first random access information includes: transmitting first random access information on a first time-frequency resource; the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain.

In one possible design, sending the first random access information includes: sending first random access information on a second time-frequency resource; the second time-frequency resource is contiguous in time domain.

This means that the first random access information may implicitly carry the capability type information of the terminal, i.e. different terminal capability types are distinguished by different time-frequency resources. Therefore, the signaling overhead in reporting the capability type can be reduced.

In one possible design, the method further includes: and retransmitting the first random access information.

If the network device does not receive the first random access information or does not successfully parse, etc., then the network device may schedule the first random access information for retransmission. Optionally, the base station may determine a scheduling policy of the retransmitted first random access information according to the capability type of the terminal. The scheduling policy includes whether to hop frequency, frequency domain resources, etc. For example, if the network device determines that the terminal is a reduced capability terminal through symbol energy detection, when scheduling to retransmit the first random access information, it may choose not to perform frequency hopping, or perform frequency hopping within a range of a bandwidth supported by the reduced capability terminal.

In one possible design, the random access response includes information of a scheduling policy; the scheduling policy comprises any one or combination of policies: whether frequency hopping is carried out or not, frequency domain resources, time domain resources, modulation coding strategies and transmission power control strategies.

In one possible design, sending the first random access information includes:

and sending the first random access information according to the scheduling strategy indicated by the random access response.

In one possible design, when the shared at least part of the resources includes a target resource, the scheduling policy does not indicate any one or combination of: and frequency hopping, wherein the frequency hopping range exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the frequency domain resource exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the modulation coding strategy exceeds a threshold, and the transmission power control exceeds the threshold.

Taking a network device as a base station, a first capability type terminal as a common terminal, and a second capability type terminal as a reduced capability terminal as an example, the base station indicates to the reduced capability terminal to send a message 2 (carrying a random access response) to the reduced capability terminal at a reduced communication rate (a rate not exceeding a threshold), may indicate to the reduced capability terminal not to perform frequency hopping of the message 3 (carrying random access information), or indicate to perform frequency hopping of the message 3 within a supported bandwidth of the reduced capability terminal, indicate to the terminal frequency domain resources for the message 3 within the supported bandwidth, indicate to the terminal a modulation coding strategy of the message 3 not exceeding the threshold, and indicate to the terminal transmission power control of the message 3 not exceeding the threshold.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method applied to a network device or a component (such as a chip) capable of implementing functions of the network device, the method including: sending configuration information; the configuration information is used for indicating resource sets, and the resource sets comprise a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first resource set can be used for the terminals of the first capability type to send the lead codes, and the resources in the second resource set can be used for the terminals of the second capability type to send the lead codes; at least part of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least part of the resources of the second set of resources; receiving a preamble through a target resource in a resource set; and sending a random access response; receiving first random access information when at least part of shared resources comprise target resources; the first random access information may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal, and the capability type of the terminal includes the first capability type or the second capability type.

In one possible design, when at least a portion of the shared resources do not include the target resource, receiving second random access information; the second random access information is different from the first random access information.

In one possible design, the first random access information includes information indicating a capability type of the terminal.

In one possible design, receiving first random access information includes: receiving first random access information on a first time-frequency resource; the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain.

In one possible design, receiving first random access information includes: receiving first random access information on a second time-frequency resource; the second time frequency resource is continuous in time domain.

In one possible design, the method further includes: and receiving the retransmitted first random access information.

In one possible design, the random access response includes information of a scheduling policy; the scheduling policy includes any one or combination of policies: whether frequency hopping is carried out or not, frequency domain resources, time domain resources, modulation coding strategies and transmission power control strategies.

In one possible design, receiving first random access information includes: and receiving the first random access information according to the scheduling strategy.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, applied to a terminal or a component (such as a chip) capable of implementing a terminal function, the apparatus including:

a processing unit for acquiring configuration information; the configuration information is used for indicating resource sets, and the resource sets comprise a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first resource set can be used for the terminal of the first capability type to send the lead code, and the resources in the second resource set can be used for the terminal of the second capability type to send the lead code; at least part of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least part of the resources of the second set of resources; selecting a target resource from the resource set;

a transceiving unit for transmitting a preamble through a target resource; receiving a random access response;

the receiving and sending unit is further used for sending first random access information when at least part of the shared resources comprise target resources; the first random access information may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal, and the capability type of the terminal may include the first capability type or the second capability type.

In one possible design, when at least part of the shared resources do not include the target resource, sending second random access information; the second random access information is different from the first random access information.

at least a portion of the resources shared include target resources, including: at least a portion of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs comprise target ROs and at least a portion of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles comprise target preambles

At least a portion of the resources shared, excluding the target resource, include: the target RO is not included in at least a portion of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second RO, and/or the target preamble is not included in at least a portion of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles.

In one possible design, the configuration information may also be used to indicate at least part of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs, or at least part of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles, or at least part of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of preambles and at least part of the preambles shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of preambles.

In one possible design, a transceiver unit configured to transmit first random access information includes: transmitting first random access information on a first time-frequency resource; the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain.

In one possible design, a transceiver unit is configured to transmit first random access information, and includes: sending first random access information on a second time-frequency resource; the second time frequency resource is continuous in time domain.

In one possible design, the transceiver unit is further configured to retransmit the first random access information.

In one possible design, a transceiver unit configured to transmit first random access information includes:

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, applicable to a network device or a component (such as a chip) capable of implementing a function of the network device, including:

a transceiving unit for transmitting configuration information; the configuration information is used for indicating resource sets, and the resource sets comprise a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first resource set can be used for the terminal of the first capability type to send the lead code, and the resources in the second resource set can be used for the terminal of the second capability type to send the lead code; at least part of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least part of the resources of the second set of resources;

the receiving and sending unit is also used for receiving the lead code through the target resource in the resource set;

the receiving and sending unit is also used for sending a random access response;

the receiving and sending unit is further used for receiving first random access information when at least part of shared resources comprise target resources; the first random access information may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal, and the capability type of the terminal includes the first capability type or the second capability type.

In one possible design, the first set of resources includes a first set of random access opportunities, ROs, the first set of ROs including at least one first RO; the second set of resources comprises a second set of ROs, the second set of ROs comprising at least one second RO; the first RO is an RO which is used by a terminal of a first capability type to send a preamble and is available, and the second RO is an RO which is used by a terminal of a second capability type to send a preamble;

In one possible design, a transceiver unit configured to receive first random access information includes: receiving first random access information on a first time-frequency resource; the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain.

In one possible design, a transceiver unit configured to receive first random access information includes: receiving first random access information on a second time-frequency resource; the second time frequency resource is continuous in time domain.

In one possible design, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive the retransmitted first random access information.

In one possible design, a transceiver unit configured to receive first random access information includes:

and receiving the first random access information according to the scheduling strategy.

In one possible design, where the target resource comprises at least a portion of the resources that are shared, the scheduling policy does not indicate any one or combination of: and frequency hopping, wherein the frequency hopping range exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the frequency domain resource exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the modulation coding strategy exceeds a threshold, and the transmission power control exceeds the threshold.

In a fifth aspect, a communications apparatus is provided. The communication device is used for realizing the various communication methods. The communication apparatus includes corresponding modules, units, or means (means) for implementing the above communication method, and the modules, units, or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

In a sixth aspect, a communications apparatus is provided. The communication device includes: a processor and a memory; the memory is configured to store computer instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the communication apparatus to perform the communication method of any one of the first and second aspects.

In a seventh aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, including: a processor. The processor is coupled with the memory, and is configured to read and execute instructions in the memory, so as to cause the communication apparatus to perform the communication method of any one of the first aspect and the second aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a chip system is provided, where the chip system includes a processor and an input/output port, the processor is configured to implement the processing function related to the communication method in any one of the first aspect and the second aspect, and the input/output port is configured to implement the transceiving function related to the communication method in any one of the first aspect and the second aspect.

In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data related to implementing the functions of the communication method of any one of the first and second aspects.

The chip system may be constituted by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a ninth aspect, a communication system is provided. The system comprises one or more terminal devices and a network device.

In a tenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer readable storage medium having stored therein computer instructions; the computer instructions, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the communication method of any of the first and second aspects described above.

In an eleventh aspect, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product comprises a computer program or instructions which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the communication method of any of the first and second aspects as described above.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a random access procedure provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a random access opportunity provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a diagram of a random access preamble provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of frequency hopping/non-frequency hopping provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5-1 is a schematic diagram of an operating mechanism of a capability reduction terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5-2 is a schematic diagram of an operating mechanism of a generic terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a random access opportunity and resource allocation of a preamble according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10-14 are schematic diagrams of resource allocation of a random access opportunity and a preamble provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15-18 are schematic diagrams illustrating resource indication of a preamble provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For the sake of clarity and conciseness in the following description of the various embodiments, a brief introduction to related art terms to which embodiments of the present application refer is first given:

1. messages in random access procedure

1.1msg1

msg1 may carry a preamble, typically transmitted in a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). As a possible implementation, the base station may specify some resources for the PRACH, where the time-frequency resource for transmitting the preamble is referred to as a random access opportunity (RACH occasion, RO), which may also be referred to as a PRACH transmission opportunity. The name of the resource used for sending the preamble is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 2, the resource shown by the white square represents the RO, i.e. the time-frequency resource used for sending the preamble, and the black part can be used for sending other data and control signaling, for example, for sending other signaling in the random access procedure.

The resources for transmitting the preamble further include code domain resources of the preamble. The code domain resource, or preamble format, can be understood as a specific preamble sequence. Each preamble has its own ID, and preambles with different IDs, often different in sequence, are orthogonal to each other. Thus, if two terminals transmit different preambles within the same RO, the base station can recognize the different preambles.

As a possible implementation, within one RO, the code domain resources or preamble format available for sending the preamble may be protocol-specified. Or, the code domain resource that the terminal can use to send the preamble may be configured by the base station.

For example, as shown in fig. 3, the base station may configure 64 preamble sequences, and when the terminal performs random access, one preamble sequence is randomly selected (for example, preamble32 is selected) from the 64 preamble sequences configured by the base station. And, the terminal selects one RO (for example, selects RO 3) among the ROs 1-RO8 shown in fig. 2. Thereafter, the terminal may transmit preamble32 on the selected RO (RO 3).

In the case that the base station configures RO and preamble code domain resources to the terminal, as a possible implementation manner, before the random access procedure, the terminal may monitor (monitor) a broadcast message from the base station, for example, a System Information Block (SIB) and a Master Information Block (MIB) from the base station, so as to know available RO and preamble sequences.

Generally, since the process of random access is initiated by terminals in a cell at random, there is a possibility that there is a collision between terminals. For example, at a certain time, two different terminals both need to perform random access, and if both select the same RO and the same preamble sequence, the preambles sent by them collide, and the base station cannot identify the access requests of both. In this case, contention access is usually caused, and it can be confirmed in a subsequent step of random access which terminal successfully contends and which terminal fails to contend. If the ROs selected by the two terminals are different (preamble sequences are the same or different) or the preamble sequences are different (ROs are the same or different), no collision will usually occur, and the base station can recognize the access requests of the two terminals, which will not result in contention access.

1.2msg2

After receiving the preamble sent by the terminal, the base station will send a random access response (carried in msg 2) to the terminal to schedule the terminal to send msg3. The partial information carried by msg2 is shown in table 1.

TABLE 1

Here, a Timing Advance Command (TAC) is transmission Timing adjustment information for the terminal.

A Temporary (temporal) cell radio network Temporary identifier (C-RNTI) is used to indicate a Temporary ID for a UE for subsequent communication use by the terminal.

An Uplink (UL) grant (grant) is used to schedule a terminal to transmit msg3. Part of indication information of the UL grant in the random access response is shown in table 2 below.

TABLE 2

The frequency hopping identification is used for indicating whether the msg3 sent by the terminal adopts frequency hopping.

The PUSCH frequency domain resource allocation is used to indicate the frequency domain location and bandwidth used by msg3, such as but not limited to subcarriers, etc.

The PUSCH time domain resource allocation is used to indicate the time domain location used by msg3 such as, but not limited to, a slot, a symbol, etc.

The modulation coding strategy is used for indicating the modulation coding strategy used by msg3, including but not limited to modulation coding rate and the like.

The TPC command of the PUSCH is used to indicate the transmit power adjustment used by msg3.

The CSI request is used to instruct the terminal to feed back CSI.

It should be noted that, after the base station schedules the terminal to transmit msg3, if the base station does not receive msg3, or receives msg3 but fails to analyze, etc., the base station schedules the terminal to perform msg3 retransmission. The base station schedules the msg3 retransmission, and the terminal is scheduled to retransmit the msg3 through Downlink Control Information (DCI) instead of using the random access response.

1.3msg3

After the msg1 is sent, the terminal monitors (monitor) a downlink channel within a certain time to detect whether a random access response exists. After receiving the random access response addressed to itself, the terminal transmits msg3 according to the indication information such as shown in table 2 in the random access response.

Illustratively, the terminal determines whether to employ frequency hopping when transmitting msg3 according to a "frequency hopping flag" field (or field) shown in table 2.

Frequency hopping refers to, for example, if a transmitted signal occupies different frequencies, such as carrier frequency hopping for transmitting the signal, and further, if the transmitted signal uses different frequencies in different time domains. A certain diversity gain can be obtained by using frequency hopping.

For example, as shown in fig. 4, msg3 occupies 14 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in time. If the field value of the "frequency hopping flag" shown in table 2 is "0", indicating that the non-frequency hopping scheme shown in (2) of fig. 4 is employed, 14 OFDM symbols are all transmitted at the same frequency domain position. If the field value of the "frequency hopping flag" shown in table 2 is "1", which indicates that the frequency hopping scheme shown in (1) in fig. 4 is used, the 14 OFDM symbols may be transmitted at different frequency domain positions, for example, the first 7 OFDM symbols and the last 7 OFDM symbols use different frequency domain positions.

For another example, the terminal determines the msg3 transmission policy according to other indication information such as time-frequency position and MCS shown in table 2 in the random access response.

2. Reduced capability UE and random access procedure thereof

In order to meet different application requirements, in some application scenarios of the wireless cellular communication system, a terminal with high capability is not required in consideration of cost, power consumption and other factors. That is, compared with the high communication capability of the conventional terminal (or ordinary terminal, normal terminal), the communication capability of some terminals can be designed to be lower. For example, wearable devices, children's telephone watches, smart well covers, smart water meters, etc. may have a much lower demand for communication capabilities than high-end smart phones.

The low-capability device may be referred to as a reduced capability UE (reduced capability UE) or a reduced capability terminal.

Based on considerations such as power consumption cost and complexity, the design specification of the reduced capability terminal may be generally reduced, such as reducing the supportable communication bandwidth and reducing the number of supportable antennas. For example, in a communication frequency band lower than 6GHz, a normal 5G handset needs to support a 100MHz bandwidth and 4 receiving antennas, while a reduced-capability terminal may only need to support a 20MHz bandwidth and 1 receiving antenna.

For random access, reduced capability terminals face several problems:

1. due to the reduction of the communication capability, the communication reliability of the reduced capability terminal is often inferior to that of the general terminal. For example, if the normal terminal has 4 receiving antennas and the reduced-capability terminal has only 1 receiving antenna, the signal receiving quality of the reduced-capability terminal will be correspondingly reduced.

2. Due to the reduction of the supported bandwidth, the reduced capability terminal has a problem in supporting mechanisms such as frequency hopping. For example, in some scenarios, the base station indicates, in the random access response, the reduced-capability terminal to transmit msg3 in a frequency hopping manner, and a frequency hopping range exceeds a supported bandwidth range of the reduced-capability terminal, the reduced-capability terminal first transmits a part of OFDM symbols, and before transmitting the rest of OFDM symbols, specifies that the operating frequency needs to be adjusted to a specified frequency domain bandwidth position, and then transmits the rest of OFDM symbols from the specified frequency domain bandwidth position. The adjustment of the operating frequency usually requires a certain time, during which the OFDM symbol cannot be transmitted. For this reason, a certain switching time is required, and no signal is transmitted during the switching time.

For example, as shown in fig. 5-1, it is assumed that the supported bandwidth of the reduced capability terminal is 20MHz, and the supported bandwidth of the general terminal is 100MHz. After the terminal sends 7 symbols, since a certain time is required for adjusting the operating frequency, data cannot be transmitted in this time, for example, the 8 th OFDM symbol and the 9 th OFDM symbol (or the 8 th OFDM symbol and the 9 th OFDM symbol cannot carry signals) cannot be transmitted because the operating frequency is adjusted. After the operating frequency is adjusted to the designated frequency domain location, the terminal may transmit the 10 th to 14 th symbols at the designated frequency domain location. It can be seen that, due to the need of adjusting the operating frequency, the signal may be delayed from being transmitted, forming a transmission Gap (Gap), and causing a part of the signal to be unable to be transmitted.

Whereas for a general terminal, gap is not generally formed due to its wide supporting bandwidth range as shown in fig. 5-2.

As analyzed above, the reduced capability terminal often faces some problems due to low communication performance. In some schemes, the base station can identify the type of the terminal in the random access process in consideration of different characteristics of the reduced capability terminal and a common terminal, and then the base station can distinguish different types of terminals in the subsequent steps of the random access. For example, if the base station knows that its communication object is a reduced capability terminal, the reliability of communication can be improved by reducing the information transmission rate and the like. For another example, if the base station knows that the communication object is the reduced capability terminal, the base station may instruct the reduced capability terminal not to perform frequency hopping, thereby avoiding the problem of adjusting the operating frequency in the frequency hopping of the reduced capability terminal.

3. Scheme one for identifying terminal type in random access process

In the first scheme, the base station may identify the type of the terminal according to msg1 from the terminal. Specifically, PRACH resources isolated from each other are configured for the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal. Therefore, the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal use different resources to send the preamble, and the base station can distinguish the type of the terminal by receiving the resource of the preamble.

For example, as shown in fig. 6, the base station may notify the terminal through a system message (SIB and/or MIB), where RO 1-4 is an RO allocated for a normal terminal to transmit a preamble, and RO5-8 is an RO allocated for a reduced capability terminal. In this way, the reduced capability terminal will select an RO of ROs 5-8 for sending the preamble when initiating the random access. Correspondingly, the base station receives the preamble, and if the preamble is received through any RO in the RO5-8, it can be determined that the terminal currently initiating the random access is the capacity-reduced terminal.

As shown in fig. 6, the base station may notify the terminal through the system message, where preambles 1 to 32 are preambles available for the normal terminal, and preambles 33 to 64 are preambles available for the reduced capability terminal. Thus, when initiating random access, the terminal with reduced capability randomly selects one preamble from the preambles 33-64 and sends the preamble. The base station can judge the type of the terminal according to the sequence range of the received preamble.

After the base station distinguishes the types of the terminals, in the subsequent step of random access, different types of terminals can be treated differently. For example, if it is determined that the communication destination is a reduced capability terminal, the base station may avoid the problem of insufficient bandwidth supported by the terminal without using frequency hopping when scheduling msg3.

The first solution has the problem that the resources of the PRACH are divided into completely separate parts, and the resource allocation is not flexible enough.

In addition, the resources of the capacity-reducing terminal and the common terminal are completely isolated, so that the resources which can be used by the capacity-reducing terminal or the common terminal are limited. When the proportion of the terminals with different capability types in the actual network is not matched with the proportion of resource division, the collision probability of preamble transmission is improved. For example, suppose that the base station divides the resources of the PRACH into two parts, 1, and at some time, in the Preamble actually sent, the proportion between the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal is 4.

4. Scheme two for identifying terminal type in random access process

In the second scheme, the base station identifies the terminal type according to msg3 from the terminal. Specifically, in msg3, terminal class information is carried. The terminal type includes a general terminal or a reduced capability terminal. Therefore, when the base station receives the msg3, the type of the terminal can be judged, and the terminal can be distinguished and treated in the subsequent processing of random access.

Although the second scheme avoids the problem of inflexible resource allocation in the first scheme, the base station cannot distinguish the terminal types in the scheduling of msg2 and msg3 for the two types of terminals.

If the base station schedules msg2 and msg3 of different types of terminals according to the mode of scheduling msg2 and msg3 of common terminals, the reduced-capability terminals face some problems. For example, the base station transmits msg2 at a higher information transmission rate, and the reception of the terminal with reduced capability is failed due to the limited reception capability. For another example, the base station may instruct the terminal to transmit msg3 in a frequency hopping manner, and the terminal with reduced capability can only implement a frequency hopping process through adjustment of the operating frequency, but because adjustment of the operating frequency requires time, part of data in the time cannot be transmitted.

Conversely, if the base station schedules all terminals according to the scheduling manner of the reduced-capability terminals, the overall efficiency of the network may be affected. For example, a lower transmission rate is used for all terminals, and no frequency hopping is performed, so that although the reduced-capability terminals can access normally, for the ordinary terminals, the lower transmission rate means that the efficiency is reduced, and the frequency diversity gain cannot be obtained without performing the frequency hopping.

As can be seen, in the first and second solutions, when a reduced capability terminal and a normal terminal coexist, both the communication performance and the flexibility of resource allocation cannot be taken into account.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. The method is applicable to various wireless cellular communication systems, such as third generation (3) ^rd generation, 3G) mobile communication system, fourth generation (4) ^th generation, 4G) mobile communication system, fifth generation (5) ^th generation, 5G) mobile communication system or future mobile communication system. For example, the New Radio (NR) system is applied to 5G.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a communication system to which the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is applicable, where the communication system may include a network device 100 and one or more terminal devices 200 (only 1 is shown in fig. 2) connected to the network device 100. Data transmission can be carried out between the network equipment and the terminal equipment.

The network device 100 may be a device capable of communicating with the terminal device 200. For example, the network device 100 may be a base station, which may be an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in LTE, or may also be a base station in NR, or a relay station or an access point, or a base station in a future network, and the like, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Herein, the base station in the NR may also be referred to as a Transmission Reception Point (TRP) or a gNB. In this embodiment of the present application, the network device may be a network device sold independently, such as a base station, or may be a chip in the network device that implements a corresponding function. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a network device is taken as an example of a network device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

The terminal device 200 in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as a terminal, and may be a device having a wireless transceiving function, and the terminal may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). The terminal device may be a User Equipment (UE). Wherein the UE comprises a handheld device, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, or a computing device with wireless communication capabilities. Illustratively, the UE may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, or a computer with wireless transceiving function. The terminal device may also be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and so on. In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device may be a terminal for independent sale, or may be a chip in the terminal. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, a device for implementing a function of a terminal is taken as an example of a terminal device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

In this embodiment of the application, the network device 100 or the terminal device 200 in fig. 7 may be implemented by one device, or may be one functional module in one device, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the application. It is understood that the above functions may be network elements in a hardware device, or software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform), or a system-on-chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

For example, the apparatus for implementing the functions of the terminal device or the apparatus for implementing the functions of the network device provided in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by the apparatus 300 in fig. 8. Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a hardware structure of an apparatus 300 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The apparatus 300 includes at least one processor 301, configured to implement the functions of the terminal device or the network device provided in the embodiments of the present application. Also included in the apparatus 300 is a bus 302 and at least one communication interface 304. The apparatus 300 may also include a memory 303.

In the embodiment of the present application, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general purpose processor, a Network Processor (NP), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or any combination thereof. The processor may also be any other means having a processing function, such as a circuit, a device, or a software module.

Bus 302 may be used to transfer information between the above-mentioned components.

A communication interface 304 for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as ethernet, radio Access Network (RAN), wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), etc. The communication interface 304 may be an interface, a circuit, a transceiver, or other device capable of implementing communication, and is not limited in this application. The communication interface 304 may be coupled to the processor 301. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be an electrical, mechanical or other form for information interaction between the devices, units or modules.

In the embodiments of the present application, the memory may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that may store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that may store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to these. The memory may be stand alone or may be coupled to the processor, such as by bus 302. The memory may also be integral to the processor.

The memory 303 is used for storing program instructions, and can be controlled by the processor 301 to execute, so as to implement the communication method provided by the following embodiments of the present application. The processor 301 is configured to call and execute the instructions stored in the memory 303, so as to implement the communication method provided by the following embodiments of the present application.

Alternatively, the computer instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as program codes, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the memory 303 may be included in the processor 301.

In particular implementations, processor 301 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in fig. 3, as one embodiment.

In particular implementations, apparatus 300 may include, for one embodiment, a plurality of processors, such as processor 301 and processor 307 in fig. 3. Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores that process data (e.g., computer program instructions).

In one implementation, the apparatus 300 may further include an output device 305 and an input device 306, as an example. An output device 305 is coupled to the processor 301 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 305 may be a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a Light Emitting Diode (LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, a projector (projector), or the like. The input device 306 is coupled to the processor 301 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 306 may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, a sensing device, or the like.

The apparatus 300 may be a general-purpose device or a special-purpose device. In a particular implementation, the apparatus 300 may be a device having a similar structure as in FIG. 3. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the type of the apparatus 300.

This application is intended to present various aspects, embodiments or features around a system that may include a number of devices, components, modules, and the like. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. Furthermore, a combination of these schemes may also be used.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary", "for example", etc. are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the word using examples is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.

In the embodiments of the present application, "information", "signal", "message", "channel", "signaling" may be used in combination, and it should be noted that the intended meaning is consistent when the difference is not emphasized. "of", "corresponding", "canceling" and "corresponding" may sometimes be used in combination, and it should be noted that the intended meaning is consistent when differences are not emphasized.

In the examples of the present application, the subscripts are sometimes as W ₁ It may be mistaken for a non-subscripted form such as W1, whose intended meaning is consistent when the distinction is not emphasized.

The network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiment of the present application are for more clearly illustrating the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and do not form a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, and as a person of ordinary skill in the art knows that along with the evolution of the network architecture and the appearance of a new service scenario, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

In the embodiment of the present application, a part of scenarios will be described by taking a scenario in the communication system shown in fig. 1 as an example. It should be noted that the solution in the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to other mobile communication systems, and the corresponding names may also be replaced with names of corresponding functions in other mobile communication systems.

For the sake of understanding, the communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application is specifically described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in fig. 9, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

s101, the terminal acquires configuration information.

Wherein the configuration information is used to indicate the set of resources. The resource set is a PRACH resource set. The resource set comprises a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first resource set may be used for the first capability type terminal to send a random access preamble (preamble, which may be referred to as preamble for short herein), and the resources in the second resource set may be used for the second capability type terminal to send the random access preamble; at least a portion of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least a portion of the resources of the second set of resources. The first capability type terminal may be the above-mentioned normal terminal and the second capability type terminal may be the above-mentioned reduced capability terminal. The resources in the set of resources include time-frequency domain resources and/or code domain resources. The time-frequency domain resources include ROs and the code domain resources include preamble sequences.

As a possible implementation, the terminal obtains the configuration information from the network device. Network devices include, but are not limited to, base stations. Taking the network device as the base station as an example, the base station carries the configuration information through a broadcast message (MIB and/or SIB). The terminal listens to the broadcast message in order to obtain the configuration information. Alternatively, the configuration information may be represented by a bitmap in the following embodiments, or by a start field, a length field, or the like in the following embodiments. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation of the configuration information. The bitmap and the start point, length field, etc. will be explained in detail in the following embodiments.

As another possible implementation, part of the configuration information may be predefined by a protocol. For example, the protocol predefines a preamble sequence in the configuration information.

Or, the terminal may also have other ways of acquiring the configuration information, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

The configuration information may be used to indicate a PRACH resource set, where the PRACH resource set includes PRACH resources of a general terminal and PRACH resources of a reduced capability terminal.

It is noted that the PRACH resources for the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal are configured separately, that is, the configuration is performed independently. The PRACH resources of the normal terminal and the PRACH resources of the reduced-capability terminal may be completely separated (there is no overlapping or shared resources), or partially overlapped (also called partially shared), or completely overlapped (completely shared), or the PRACH resources of one capability type terminal include the PRACH resources of another capability type terminal. Therefore, the resource configuration mode provides flexibility of configuration, and the network equipment can flexibly select PRACH resources to be completely separated, or partially overlapped or completely overlapped and the like.

Optionally, the configuration information may also be used to indicate PRACH resources shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal.

It should be noted that in this embodiment, the xx message "is used to indicate yy" to indicate that the xx message may indicate yy, and the xx message is not dedicated to indicate yy. The description is not repeated herein.

A first set of resources available for normal terminals and a second set of resources available for reduced capability terminals are specifically introduced below.

The first set of resources comprises a first set of ROs, the first set of ROs comprising at least one first RO; the second set of resources comprises a second set of ROs, the second set of ROs comprising at least one second RO; the first RO is an RO which is available for the first capability type terminal to send the random access preamble, and the second RO is an RO which is available for the second capability type terminal to send the random access preamble; the first RO set and the second RO set are configured separately.

And/or the first set of resources comprises a first set of preambles comprising at least one first preamble, the first preamble being a random access preamble available to the first capability type terminal; the second set of resources comprises a second set of preambles comprising at least one second preamble, the second preamble being a random access preamble usable by the second capability type terminal; the first preamble set and the second preamble set are configured separately.

That is, there are at least the following configurations for the PRACH resource set:

1. the first set of resources includes a first set of ROs and the second set of resources includes a second set of ROs. Wherein at least some of the ROs in the first set of ROs are shared with at least some of the ROs in the second set of ROs.

For example, taking a network device as a base station as an example, for a time-frequency domain resource RO in PRACH resources, the base station may indicate configuration information to a terminal through a system message. Optionally, the configuration information may also indicate ROs that belong to the shared portion (i.e., RO1-RO 4), and/or indicate ROs that do not belong to the shared portion. For example, as shown in (1) in fig. 10, the base station may indicate the time-frequency domain locations of RO1 to RO8 configured for the normal terminal. The RO1 to RO8 comprise two parts, wherein, RO1 to RO4 are RO only allowed to be used by the normal terminal, and RO5 to RO8 are RO shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal, namely RO can be used by both the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal.

Optionally, the network device may determine the configuration information according to a network condition. As a possible design, the network device determines the configuration information according to the actual online terminal ratio, the resource tension degree, and the like.

For example, at some time, in a terminal that actually sends a preamble, the ratio of a normal terminal to a reduced capability terminal is 4.

Similarly, the base station may indicate the time-frequency domain positions of the ROs 5-RO12 configured for the reduced capability terminal in the configuration information for the reduced capability terminal in the system message. The RO usable by the reduced capability terminal includes two parts, wherein, RO9-RO12 are RO only allowed to be used by the reduced capability terminal, and RO5-RO8 are RO shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal. Optionally, the configuration information may also indicate ROs that do not belong to shared use (i.e., RO9-RO 12), and/or indicate ROs that belong to shared use (i.e., RO5-RO 8).

For the code domain resource in the PRACH resource, the common terminal and the capability reduction terminal share a preamble sequence. Thus, the base station cannot distinguish different types of terminals according to the received preamble only. As shown in (2) in fig. 10, the normal terminal and the terminal with reduced capability share preambles 1 to 64, that is, the normal terminal may use any preamble in preambles 1 to 64, and the terminal with reduced capability may also use any preamble in preambles 1 to 64. Optionally, preamble1-64 may be configured for the terminal by a network device (such as a base station), or may be predefined by a protocol. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific implementation manner of the terminal for acquiring the preamble code domain resource.

In summary, for a normal terminal, the first set of resources available for the normal terminal to send a random access preamble includes RO1-RO8 (i.e., the first set of ROs includes 8 first ROs) shown in (1) of fig. 10, and code domain resources preamble1-64 (the first preamble set) shared with a reduced capability terminal shown in (2) of fig. 10. For the reduced capability terminal, the second set of resources available for the reduced capability terminal to send the random access preamble includes RO5-RO12 (second RO set) shown in (1) of fig. 10, and preamble1-64 (second preamble set) shared with the normal terminal shown in (2) of fig. 10.

It can be seen that the first preamble set (preambles 1-64) is the same as the second preamble set (preambles 1-64). At least a portion of the first set of ROs (RO 1-RO 8) is shared with at least a portion of the second set of ROs (RO 5-RO 12), and at least one different RO exists in the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs. Specifically, as shown in fig. 10, at least part of the resources shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal include: at least a portion of the ROs (i.e., RO5-RO 8) shared by RO1-RO8 (i.e., the first set of ROs) and RO5-RO12 (the second set of ROs), and preambles 1-64 shared by the first preamble set (preambles 1-64) and the second preamble set (preambles 1-64).

2. The first set of resources includes a first set of preambles and the second set of resources includes a second set of preambles. Wherein at least some of the preambles in the first set of preambles are shared with at least some of the preambles in the second set of preambles.

For the code domain resource preamble in the PRACH resource, exemplarily, taking a network device as a base station as an example, referring to (2) in fig. 11, the base station indicates, in configuration information for a common terminal in a system message, preambles 1 to 48 that the common terminal can use. The preamble1-48 includes two parts, where the preamble1-16 is a preamble sequence only allowed to be used by the common terminal, the preamble17-48 is a preamble sequence shared by the common terminal and the terminal with reduced capability, and both the common terminal and the terminal with reduced capability can use any preamble sequence in the preamble17-48.

Optionally, the configuration information may also indicate preamble sequences that do not belong to the shared part (i.e., preambles 1-16), and/or indicate shared preamble sequences (i.e., preambles 17-48).

Similarly, the base station indicates the preamble17-64 which can be used by the reduced capability terminal in the configuration information of the system message for the reduced capability terminal. The preamble17-64 comprises two parts, wherein the preamble49-64 is a preamble sequence only allowed to be used by the terminal with reduced capability, and the preamble17-48 is a preamble sequence shared by the common terminal and the terminal with reduced capability. Optionally, the configuration information may also indicate preamble sequences that do not belong to the shared part (i.e., preambles 49-64), and/or indicate shared preamble sequences (i.e., preambles 17-48).

For the time-frequency domain resource RO in the PRACH resource, the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal share the RO. For example, as shown in (1) of fig. 11, the normal terminal shares RO1 to RO8 with the reduced capability terminal.

In summary, for a normal terminal, the first set of resources available for the normal terminal to send a random access preamble includes time-frequency domain resources RO1 to RO8 (first set of ROs) shown in (1) in fig. 11 shared with a reduced capability terminal, and code domain resources preamble1 to 48 (first preamble set) shown in (2) in fig. 11. For the reduced capability terminal, the second set of resources available for the reduced capability terminal to send the random access preamble includes RO1-RO8 (second set of ROs) shared with the normal terminal shown in (1) in fig. 11, and code domain resources preamble17-64 (second set of preambles) shown in (2) in fig. 11.

Accordingly, as shown in fig. 11, at least part of the resources shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal include: at least part of the preambles (i.e. preambles 17-48) shared by the first preamble set (preambles 1-48) and the second preamble set (preambles 17-64), and RO1-RO8 shared by the first RO set (RO 1-RO 8) and the second RO set (RO 1-RO 8).

3. The first set of resources includes a first set of ROs and a first set of preambles, and the second set of resources includes a second set of ROs and a second set of preambles. Wherein at least part of the ROs in the first set of ROs is shared with at least part of the ROs in the second set of ROs, and/or at least part of the preambles in the first set of preambles is shared with at least part of the preambles in the second set of preambles.

In some embodiments, the normal terminal shares only part of the RO with the reduced capability terminal. In other words, the RO usable by the normal terminal and the RO usable by the reduced capability terminal no longer completely overlap. This is in contrast to the set of available ROs in fig. 11, which do not distinguish between normal terminals and reduced capability terminals.

For the code domain resource preamble in the PRACH resource, as shown in (2) in fig. 12, the normal terminal may use preambles 1 to 48. The preamble1-48 comprises two parts, wherein the preamble1-16 is a preamble sequence only allowed to be used by the common terminal, and the preamble17-48 is a preamble sequence shared by the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal. The reduced capability terminal may use preamble17-64. The preamble17-64 comprises two parts, wherein the preamble49-64 is a preamble sequence only allowed to be used by the terminal with reduced capability, and the preamble17-48 is a preamble sequence shared by the common terminal and the terminal with reduced capability.

For a time-frequency domain resource RO among PRACH resources, as shown in (1) in fig. 12, a general terminal may use RO1-RO8. The RO1-RO8 includes two parts, wherein, RO1-RO4 is the RO only allowed to be used by the common terminal, and RO5-RO8 is the RO shared by the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal. The reduced capability terminal may use RO5-RO12. The RO5-RO12 comprises two parts, wherein the RO9-RO12 is the RO only allowed to be used by the terminal with reduced capability, and the RO5-RO8 is the RO shared by the normal terminal and the terminal with reduced capability.

The configuration information may indicate a preamble usable by the normal terminal and/or indicate a preamble usable by the reduced capability terminal, and the configuration information may also indicate an RO and/or a preamble shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal.

In summary, as shown in fig. 12, for a normal terminal, the first set of resources available for the normal terminal to send a random access preamble includes time-frequency domain resources RO1 to RO8 (i.e., the first set of ROs) shown in (1) of fig. 12, and code domain resources preamble1 to 48 (the first set of preambles) shown in (2) of fig. 12. For the terminal with reduced capability, the second set of resources available for the terminal with reduced capability to send the random access preamble includes RO5-RO12 (i.e., the second set of ROs) shown in (1) of fig. 12, and code domain resources preamble17-64 (the second set of preambles) shown in (2) of fig. 12.

Accordingly, as shown in fig. 12, at least part of the resources shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal include: at least part of the preambles (i.e. preambles 17-48) shared by the first preamble set (preambles 1-48) and the second preamble set (preambles 17-64), and part of the ROs (RO 5-RO 8) shared by the first RO set (RO 1-RO 8) and the second RO set (RO 5-RO 12). It should be noted that the RO resources are divided from the time-frequency domain, and the preamble resources are divided from the code domain.

In other embodiments, there is no overlap between the preamble sequence usable by the normal terminal and the preamble sequence usable by the reduced capability terminal, which is different from the case that the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal share a partial preamble sequence in fig. 12,

for example, for a code domain resource preamble in PRACH resources, as shown in (2) in fig. 13, a normal terminal may use preambles 1 to 32. The reduced capability terminal may use preamble33-64. It can be seen that there is no shared preamble sequence between the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal.

For the time-frequency domain resource RO in the PRACH resource, as shown in (1) in fig. 13, the normal terminal shares RO5-RO8 with the reduced capability terminal. Specific RO assignment description can refer to the related description in fig. 10 (1) or fig. 12 (1).

In summary, as shown in fig. 13, for a normal terminal, the first set of resources available for the normal terminal to send a random access preamble includes time-frequency domain resources RO1 to RO8 (first set of ROs) shown in (1) of fig. 13 and code domain resources preamble1 to 32 shown in (2) of fig. 13. For the reduced capability terminal, the second set of resources available for the reduced capability terminal to send the random access preamble includes RO5-RO12 (second set of ROs) shown in (1) of fig. 13, and code domain resource preambles 33-64 shown in (2) of fig. 13.

Correspondingly, as shown in fig. 13, at least part of the resources shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal specifically refer to: a portion of the RO (RO 5-RO 8) shared by the first set of RO (RO 1-RO 8) and the second set of RO (RO 5-RO 12).

In other embodiments, there is no overlap between the RO usable by the normal terminal and the RO usable by the reduced capability terminal, unlike the case where the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal share part of the RO in fig. 12.

For example, for the code domain resource preamble in the PRACH resource, as shown in (2) in fig. 14, the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal may share part of the code domain resource preambles 17-48. Specific code domain resource configurations of the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal can be referred to the related description of (2) in fig. 12.

For the time-frequency domain resource RO in the PRACH resource, as shown in (1) in fig. 14, there is no shared RO between the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal.

In summary, as shown in fig. 14, for a normal terminal, the first set of resources available for the normal terminal to send a random access preamble includes time-frequency domain resources RO1 to RO4 (no shared RO exists with the reduced capability terminal) shown in (1) of fig. 14, and code domain resources preamble1 to 48 (first preamble set) shown in (2) of fig. 14. For the terminal with reduced capability, the second set of resources available for the terminal with reduced capability to send the random access preamble includes RO5-RO8 shown in (1) in fig. 14 and code domain resources preamble17-64 (second preamble set) shown in (2) in fig. 14.

Accordingly, as shown in fig. 14, at least part of the resources shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal refer to: the first preamble set (preambles 1-48) shares at least part of the preambles (i.e., preambles 17-48) with the second preamble set (preambles 17-64).

Optionally, in this embodiment, there is a part that is at least partially not shared between the first resource set and the second resource set. In other words, the first set of resources is not exactly identical to the second set of resources.

The resources shared by the normal terminals and the reduced capability terminals may be referred to as shared resources. The shared resource includes a shared RO and/or a shared preamble sequence.

S102, the terminal selects a target resource from the resource set and sends a lead code to the network equipment through the target resource.

Accordingly, the network device receives the preamble from the terminal.

The target resource comprises a target RO and a target preamble, and the terminal selects the target RO and the target preamble from the resource set and sends the target preamble on the target RO.

As a possible implementation manner, the terminal selects the time-frequency domain resource and/or the code domain resource for transmitting the preamble according to the capability type of the terminal.

For example, taking a network device as a base station as an example, a resource set configured by the base station for a terminal through a broadcast message is shown in fig. 10, and the terminal acquires configuration information corresponding to its capability type by monitoring and reading corresponding fields in the broadcast message. Then, the terminal selects a preamble sequence in the preambles 1-64 according to the configuration information (e.g., selects preamble8 (target preamble)). If the terminal is a reduced capability terminal, the terminal selects an RO for transmitting a preamble among the ROs 1-RO8, and if the terminal is a normal terminal, selects an RO (target RO) for transmitting a preamble among the ROs 5-RO12. After the terminal completes the resource selection, the selected preamble8 may be sent to the network device on the selected RO.

For another example, as shown in fig. 11, the terminal selects an RO for transmitting a preamble among the ROs 1-RO8. And, if the terminal is a reduced capability terminal, the terminal selects a preamble sequence (for example, selects preamble 33) in preambles 17-64. Thereafter, the terminal may send a preamble33 to the network device on the selected RO.

As a possible implementation manner, the terminal sends a message 1 to the network device, where the message 1 carries a preamble.

S103, the network equipment sends a random access response to the terminal.

Accordingly, the terminal receives a random access response from the network device.

As a possible implementation manner, the network device sends a message 2 to the terminal, where the message 2 carries the random access response.

Optionally, the random access response includes information of a scheduling policy; the scheduling policy comprises any one or combination of policies: whether frequency hopping is carried out or not, frequency domain resources, time domain resources, a modulation coding strategy and a transmission power control strategy. Illustratively, the random access response includes information of the scheduling policy shown in table 2.

In some cases, after receiving the preamble from the terminal, the network device may determine that the terminal is a normal terminal or a reduced capability terminal according to a target resource used by the terminal to send the preamble. As a possible design, if the target resource used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is not in the shared resource, the base station can determine the type of the terminal according to the target resource used by the terminal to transmit the preamble.

Optionally, the target resource used by the terminal to send the preamble is not in the shared resource, which may be that the RO used by the terminal to send the preamble is not in the shared RO, and/or that the preamble sequence used by the terminal to send the preamble is not in the shared preamble sequence. Specifically, it may be that the preamble sequence used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is not in the shared preamble sequence, and the RO used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is in the shared RO. Alternatively, it may be that the RO used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is not in the shared RO, and the preamble sequence used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is in the shared preamble sequence. Or, the preamble sequence used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is not in the shared preamble sequence, and the RO used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is not in the shared RO. In short, the preamble sequence used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is not in the shared preamble sequence, or the RO used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is not in the shared RO.

For example, taking a network device as a base station as an example, assuming that the configured resource set is as shown in fig. 10, if the base station receives a preamble from a terminal through RO3 (not belonging to shared RO5-RO 8), the base station may determine that the terminal initiating the random access is a normal terminal, and if the base station receives a preamble from a terminal through RO10 (not belonging to shared RO5-RO 8), the base station may confirm that the terminal initiating the random access is a reduced capability terminal.

For another example, assuming that the configured resource set is as shown in fig. 11, if the base station receives the preamble from the terminal that is preamble15 (not belonging to shared preambles 17-48), the base station may determine that the terminal initiating the random access is an ordinary terminal, and if the preamble received by the base station is preamble55 (not belonging to preambles 17-48), the base station may determine that the terminal initiating the random access is a reduced capability terminal.

For another example, assuming that the configured resource set is as shown in fig. 12, if the base station receives that the preamble from the terminal through the RO6 is preamble15 (not belonging to shared preambles 17-48), the base station may determine that the terminal initiating the random access is an ordinary terminal. For another example, if the base station receives that the preamble from the terminal through the RO1 is preamble17 (belongs to shared preamble 17-48), the base station may determine that the terminal initiating the random access is a normal terminal. For another example, if the base station receives that the preamble from the terminal through the RO1 is preamble15 (not belonging to shared preambles 17-48), the base station may determine that the terminal initiating the random access is a normal terminal.

For example, assuming that the configured resource set is as shown in fig. 13, if the base station receives preamble17 from the terminal (there is no shared preamble sequence), the base station can confirm that the terminal initiating the random access is a normal terminal no matter which RO the base station receives the preamble17.

For example, assuming that the configured resource set is as shown in fig. 14, if the base station receives a preamble from the terminal through RO1 (there is no shared RO), the base station can confirm that the terminal initiating the random access is a normal terminal regardless of which preamble the base station receives through RO 1.

In this case, for the terminal whose capability type can be distinguished by the message 1, the base station may adopt different scheduling strategies for the terminals with different capability types in the subsequent steps of the message 2, the message 3 and the random access.

As a possible design, for a reduced capability terminal, the scheduling policy issued by the base station to the reduced capability terminal does not indicate any one or combination of multiple items as follows: and frequency hopping, wherein the frequency hopping range exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the frequency domain resource exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the modulation coding strategy exceeds a threshold, and the transmission power control exceeds the threshold. In other words, the base station indicates to the reduced capability terminal to send message 2 to the reduced capability terminal at a reduced communication rate (a rate not exceeding the threshold), may indicate to the reduced capability terminal not to perform frequency hopping of message 3, or may indicate to perform frequency hopping of message 3 within a supported bandwidth of the reduced capability terminal, indicate to the terminal frequency domain resources for message 3 within the supported bandwidth, indicate to the terminal a modulation and coding strategy for message 3 not exceeding the threshold, and indicate to the terminal transmission power control for message 3 not exceeding the threshold.

Similarly, for a normal terminal, the message 2 is sent to the normal terminal at a normal communication rate, and the normal terminal may be instructed to schedule the message 3 in a frequency hopping or non-frequency hopping manner.

In other cases, the network device cannot determine that the terminal is a normal terminal or a reduced capability terminal according to the target resource used by the terminal to send the preamble. As a possible design, if the target resource of the terminal for sending the preamble is in the shared resource, or the terminal sends the preamble using the shared resource, the base station cannot determine the type of the terminal according to the target resource of the terminal for sending the preamble.

Optionally, the target resource of the terminal sending the preamble is in the shared resource, which means that the RO of the terminal sending the preamble is in the shared RO, and the preamble sequence of the terminal sending the preamble is in the shared preamble sequence.

For example, assuming that the configured resource sets are as shown in fig. 10, if the base station receives a preamble from the terminal through the RO6 (in the shared RO), the base station cannot confirm the capability type of the terminal initiating the random access.

For another example, as shown in fig. 11, all ROs that the terminal may send the preamble belong to shared ROs, and then when the terminal sends any preamble among the preambles 17-48 (belonging to the shared preamble), the base station may not confirm the capability type of the terminal.

For another example, assuming that the configured resource set is as shown in fig. 12, if the base station receives the preamble17 from the terminal through the RO6, the base station cannot confirm the capability type of the terminal initiating the random access.

In this case, for a terminal whose capability type cannot be distinguished through the message 1, the base station may schedule the part of terminals initiating the random access by using a scheduling policy of the reduced-capability terminal until the capability type of the part of terminals is known. Optionally, the base station sends a scheduling policy to the part of the terminals, where the scheduling policy does not indicate any one or a combination of multiple items as follows: and frequency hopping, wherein the frequency hopping range exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the frequency domain resource exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the modulation coding strategy exceeds a threshold, and the transmission power control exceeds the threshold. Illustratively, the base station sends message 2 to this part of the terminals using a lower transmission rate. As another example, the base station does not use the frequency hopping method when scheduling message 3 of the part of terminals, or indicates that the frequency hopping position is within the supported bandwidth of the reduced capability terminal.

Or, for a terminal that cannot distinguish the capability type through the message 1, for example, a terminal that uses the shared resource to send the preamble, the base station may regard the part of terminals as normal terminals and schedule the part of terminals by using a scheduling policy of the normal terminals. For example, message 2 is sent to the part of terminals at a normal communication rate, and it may be indicated to the part of terminals that message 3 is scheduled in a frequency hopping or non-frequency hopping manner.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, the base station has a higher degree of freedom, and for a terminal whose capability type cannot be distinguished by the message 1, the base station may regard the terminal as a normal terminal or a reduced capability terminal.

In the embodiment of the application, after the terminal receives the random access response from the network device, the message 3 may be sent according to the scheduling of the random access response, and the message 3 carries the random access information. Wherein, the random access information carried in the message 3 may be different under different conditions. As a possible design, when the at least part of the shared resources includes the target resource (or the target resource includes at least part of the shared resources), the terminal performs step S104 to transmit the first random access information, and when the at least part of the shared resources does not include the target resource (or the target resource includes at least part of the shared resources), the terminal performs step S105 (not shown in fig. 9) to transmit the second random access information. Steps S104 and S105 are described below, respectively.

S104, when at least part of the shared resources comprise target resources, the terminal sends first random access information.

Accordingly, the network device receives the first random access information from the terminal.

The first random access information may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal, where the capability type of the terminal includes a first capability type or a second capability type. That is, the first random access information may be used to indicate that the terminal is a normal terminal or a reduced capability terminal.

At least part of the shared resources comprise target resources, namely the shared resources of the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal comprise the target resources. This means that both the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal may use the shared resource (RO and/or preamble sequence) to transmit the preamble, and the base station cannot exactly determine the capability type of the terminal according to the target resource used by the message 1. In this case, the terminal needs to send first random access information that can be used to indicate the capability type of the terminal, so as to assist the network device in determining the capability type of the terminal.

For example, assuming that the resource set is as shown in fig. 10, a terminal sending a preamble on any RO of RO5-RO8 will report its capability type, e.g., via message 3 or other message. In this way, the base station can distinguish the capability type of the terminal accordingly.

As a possible design, the terminal sends a message 3 to the network device, where the message 3 carries the first random access information.

As a possible design, the terminal sends the message 3 to the network device, and the following steps may be implemented: and the terminal sends the first random access information according to the scheduling strategy indicated by the random access response. For example, the scheduling policy indicated by the random access response is shown in table 2, and the scheduling policy includes, but is not limited to: frequency hopping identification, PUSCH frequency domain resource allocation, and the like. The terminal sends message 3 according to a scheduling policy such as that shown in table 2.

In some embodiments, the first random access information may explicitly carry capability type information of the terminal, or the first random access information includes information that may be used to indicate a terminal type. For example, the first random access information carries a capability type field, and a field value of the field may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal.

In other embodiments, the first random access information may implicitly carry capability type information of the terminal.

As mentioned above, because the supported bandwidth of the reduced capability terminal is limited, its frequency hopping tends to form (or more likely to form) Gap, while ordinary terminal frequency hopping does not form or forms Gap with lower probability, based on which the base station can determine whether the terminal is an ordinary terminal or a reduced capability terminal according to whether the random access information of the message 3 forms Gap. Specifically, for the terminal with reduced capability, the sending the first random access information may be: the terminal sends first random access information on a first time-frequency resource; the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain. For a normal terminal, the sending of the first random access information may be: the terminal sends first random access information on a second time-frequency resource; the second time frequency resource is continuous in time domain.

Exemplarily, in the case of transmitting the message 3 (carrying the first random access information) by using a frequency hopping manner, the terminal transmits the first random access information on the first time-frequency resource as shown by the black block in fig. 5-1, wherein the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain to form Gap because the operating frequency needs to be adjusted and the 8 th and 9 th OFDM symbols shown in fig. 5-1 cannot be transmitted. In this way, the base station can determine the capability type of the terminal initiating the random access by detecting the energy intensity of the symbol. For example, the base station may detect the strength of the 8 th and 9 th symbols to determine the capability type of the terminal. If there is signal transmission on these two symbols, it is indicated as a normal terminal, and if there is no signal transmission on the 8 th and 9 th symbols, it is indicated as a reduced capability terminal.

Further exemplarily, the terminal sends the first random access information on the second time-frequency resource as shown by the black box in fig. 5-2, wherein, since the normal terminal does not need to adjust the operating frequency, the OFDM symbol is normally sent, and the second time-frequency resource is continuous in the time domain, and no Gap is formed.

Besides implicitly indicating the capability type according to Gap, there may be other manners of implicitly indicating the capability type, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

For example, the base station indicates different scheduling policies for terminals of different capability types. Subsequently, the base station accesses the first random access information according to the scheduling strategy. For example, the first random access information is received through frequency domain resources and time domain resources shown in table 2.

And, optionally, after receiving the message 3 from the terminal, the base station may determine the capability type of the terminal according to the scheduling policy (e.g. specific time-frequency resource) of the message 3.

Illustratively, if the base station does not receive message 3 or does not successfully parse, etc., the base station may schedule message 3 (carrying the first random access information) for retransmission. Optionally, the base station may determine the scheduling policy of the retransmitted message 3 according to the capability type of the terminal. The scheduling policy includes whether to hop frequency, frequency domain resources, etc. For example, if the base station determines that the terminal is a reduced capability terminal through symbol energy detection, when scheduling retransmission message 3, it may choose not to perform frequency hopping, or perform frequency hopping within a bandwidth supported by the reduced capability terminal.

S105, when at least part of the shared resources do not comprise the target resources, the second random access information is sent.

The second random access information is different from the first random access information. The second random access information does not carry capability type information of the terminal. Or, the second random access information may not indicate a capability type of the terminal.

As a possible design, the terminal sends message 3, and message 3 carries the second random access information.

Optionally, at least a part of the shared resources do not include the target resource, and may be the shared ROs that do not include the RO that sent the preamble. For example, as shown in fig. 10, assuming that the RO of the preamble sent by the terminal is RO3 (not belonging to the shared RO5-RO 8), the base station may determine the capability type of the terminal according to the RO3 of the preamble sent by the terminal, and the terminal does not need to report the capability type through the random access information of the message 3.

Optionally, at least a part of the shared resources do not include the target resource, and may be that the preamble sequence for transmitting the preamble is not included in the shared preamble sequence. For example, as shown in fig. 11, the preamble sequence of the preamble transmitted by the terminal is preamble2 (not belonging to shared preambles 17-48).

Optionally, at least a part of the shared resources do not include the target resource, and may be that the RO that transmitted the preamble is not included in the shared RO, and/or that the preamble sequence that transmitted the preamble is not included in the shared preamble sequence. For example, as shown in fig. 12, the terminal transmits preamble17 on RO 3. For another example, the terminal sends preamble2 on RO 5. For another example, the terminal sends preamble2 on RO 3.

Optionally, at least part of the shared resources do not include the target resource, and may be that the preamble sequence for transmitting the preamble is not included in the shared preamble sequence. For example, as shown in fig. 13, it is assumed that the preamble sequence of the preamble transmitted by the terminal is preamble2, and preamble2 is not in the shared preamble sequence (i.e., preambles 17-48).

Optionally, at least a part of the shared resources do not include the target resource, and may be that the RO that transmitted the preamble is not included in the shared RO. For example, as shown in fig. 14, it is assumed that the RO used by the terminal to transmit the preamble is RO1, and RO1 is not included in the shared RO.

It can be understood that the target resource for sending the preamble is not included in at least part of the shared resources, and the base station may distinguish the capability type of the terminal according to the target resource for sending the preamble, so that the terminal does not need to report its capability type through the second random access information of the message 3.

According to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the application, for a part of terminals, the network equipment can identify the capability types of the part of terminals as soon as possible according to the target resource for sending the lead code, so that scheduling can be performed as soon as possible according to the capability types. For another part of terminals, the network equipment can identify the capability types of the part of terminals according to the first random access information from the terminals and schedule the terminals according to the capability types. In the scheme, resources of a common terminal and a capacity reducing terminal do not need to be isolated, which means that the resources can be reused, the resource configuration mode is more flexible, and the resource utilization rate is higher.

As follows, the configuration of the code domain resource preamble sequence is explained in detail. There are various configurations of preamble sequences, and the embodiments of the present application list the following

modes

1 and 2 only by way of example, but do not limit the configurations.

Mode 1, adopting bitmap (bit map) mode to configure preamble sequence

A bitmap, which may also be referred to as a bit sequence, may include one or more bits. Wherein, each bit in the bitmap represents the sequence number (or index, identifier, etc.) of one or more preambles.

Wherein the bitmap comprises a bitmap which can be used to indicate preamble sequence allocation of the terminal. For example, preamble resource allocation of a reduced capability terminal may be indicated, and/or preamble allocation of a general terminal may be indicated. Optionally, a bit value of 1 indicates that the preamble corresponding to the bit is allocated to the reduced capability terminal, and a bit value of 0 indicates that the corresponding preamble is not distributed to the reduced capability terminal. Or, a bit value of 0 indicates that the preamble corresponding to the bit is allocated to the reduced capability terminal, and a bit value of 1 indicates that the corresponding preamble is not distributed to the reduced capability terminal.

Optionally, the bitmap further includes a bitmap which can be used to indicate shared resources of the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal. In the type of bitmap, bit 1 may indicate that the preamble corresponding to the bit is a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the common terminal, and bit 0 may indicate that the preamble corresponding to the bit is not a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the common terminal. Or, bit 0 may indicate that the preamble corresponding to the bit is a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the common terminal, and bit 1 may indicate that the preamble corresponding to the bit is not a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the common terminal.

For example, as shown in fig. 15, it is assumed that preamble code domain resources usable by the normal terminal are p1-p20, preamble code domain resources usable by the reduced capability terminal are p9-p24, and the reduced capability terminal shares part of the resources of the normal terminal (i.e., p9-p20 share).

<xnotran> , preamble , 64 [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0, …,0,0] 15 preamble . </xnotran> Wherein, the 1 st bit of the sequence corresponds to the code domain resource p1, the 2 nd bit corresponds to p2, and so on. Bit 1 indicates that the corresponding preamble is distributed to the reduced capability terminal, and bit 0 indicates that the corresponding preamble is not distributed to the reduced capability terminal. The bit sequence indicates that preamble code domain resources usable by the reduced capability terminal are p9-p24.

It is understood that in order to reduce signaling, one bit may be used to represent a plurality of preamble numbers, for example, the 1 st bit corresponds to p1-2, the 2 nd bit corresponds to p3-4, the 3 rd bit corresponds to p5-6, and so on.

A bit sequence may also be used to represent a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal.

<xnotran> , 64 [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0, …,0,0,0,0] 15 preamble. </xnotran> The 1 st bit of the sequence corresponds to p1, the 2 nd bit to p2, and so on. The bit '1' represents that the corresponding preamble is a preamble shared by the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal, and the bit '0' represents that the corresponding preamble does not belong to the preamble shared by the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal. The sequence indicates that p9-p20 is a preamble shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal.

Alternatively, the reduced signaling may be used to indicate a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal. For example, as also shown in fig. 15, the preambles allocated to the reduced capability terminal are 16, where the first 12 preambles are the preambles shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal. <xnotran> , 16 [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0] preamble , preamble. </xnotran> The 1 st bit of the sequence corresponds to the 1 st preamble (i.e. p 9) allocated to the reduced capability terminal, the 2 nd bit corresponds to the 2 nd preamble (i.e. p 10) allocated to the reduced capability terminal, and so on. Bit '1' represents that the corresponding preamble is a preamble shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal, and bit '0' represents that the corresponding preamble does not belong to the shared preamble.

In other embodiments, the preambles may also be divided into a plurality of groups (groups). Alternatively, different sets of preambles may be used for different purposes. For example, the preamble in groupA is used for contention-based random access, and the preamble in groupB is used for non-contention-based random access.

Optionally, for each group of preambles, the preamble resource allocation and/or shared preamble may be represented by a bitmap, respectively.

For example, as shown in fig. 16, the number of preambles available for random access by a common terminal is N =20, and these preambles are divided into two

groups

1A and 1B, where preambles 1-12 belong to group 1A, and the number of preambles included in group 1A is N1=12.preamble 13-20 belongs to group 1B, and group 1B contains 8 preambles.

As also shown in fig. 16, the preambles available for random access by the reduced capability terminal are also divided into two groups, 2A and 2B, where the preamble code domain resources of group2A are p5-p12 and p21-p24. <xnotran> , 64 [0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0, …,0,0,0] group2A preamble. </xnotran> Wherein the 1 st bit in the sequence corresponds to p1, the 2 nd bit corresponds to p2, and so on. Bit '1' represents that the corresponding preamble is allocated to group2A, and bit '0' represents that the corresponding preamble is not allocated to group 2A.

<xnotran> , group2A , p5-p12 , , 64 [0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0, …,0,0,0] preamble. </xnotran> <xnotran> , , 12 [1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0] group2A , preamble. </xnotran> The 1 st bit of the 12-bit bitmap corresponds to the 1 st preamble (i.e., p 5) in group2A, the 2 nd bit corresponds to the 2 nd preamble (i.e., p 6) in group2A, and so on. Bit '1' represents that the corresponding preamble is a preamble shared by the common terminal and the reduced capability terminal, and bit '0' represents that the corresponding preamble does not belong to the shared preamble.

<xnotran> , group2B preamble p17-p20 p25-p28, 64 [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0, …,0,0,0] group2B preamble. </xnotran> <xnotran> group2B , p17-p20 preamble, 64 [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0, …,0,0,0] preamble. </xnotran> Or, in order to save signaling, a bitmap [1, 0] with a length of 8 may be used to indicate a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal in group 2B.

Mode 2, indicating preamble configuration by adopting start and length indication (start and length indication) mode

Start (i.e. the starting point or starting position of the allocated preamble resource), length (length), i.e. the length of the allocated preamble resource. The preamble resource allocated to the terminal with reduced capability may be indicated by indicating the starting position and the length of the preamble resource, and/or the preamble resource allocated to the normal terminal.

For example, as shown in fig. 17, it is assumed that preamble resources usable for configuring the normal terminal are p1-p20, and preamble resources usable for configuring the reduced capability terminal are p9-p24, which are shared on p9-p 20. Then, preamble resource allocation for the reduced capability terminal can be represented by start =9,length = 16. Where start =9 indicates that the starting position of its preamble resource is p9, and the length of allocation is 16, which means that 16 consecutive preambles starting from p9 are allocated to the reduced capability terminal.

Optionally, the preamble resource shared by the normal terminal and the reduced capability terminal may be indicated by indicating the starting location and the length of the preamble resource. For example, as also shown in fig. 17, preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal may be represented by start =9,length =12. Meaning that consecutive 12 preambles starting from p9 are preambles shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal.

In other embodiments, the preambles may be divided into multiple groups. Then, for each group, the preamble resource allocation and shared preamble can be represented in a manner of starting point plus length respectively.

For example, as shown in fig. 18, the number of preambles available for random access of a common terminal is N =20, and is divided into two groups, 1A and 1B, where preambles 1-12 belong to group 1A, the number of preambles included in group 1A is N1=12, preambles 13-20 belong to group 1B, and the number of preambles included in group 1B is 8.

Preambles of the reduced capability terminal, which can be used for random access, are also divided into two groups, 2A and 2B, and usable { starting position: 5, length: 8}, { starting position: 21, length: 4, i.e. starting from preamble5, 8 consecutive preambles are assigned to group2A, and starting from preamble21, 4 consecutive preambles are assigned to group 2A.

It should be noted that, because the preamble resource in group2A is divided into two parts, two groups of { starting position + length } are needed to characterize the resource allocation of group 2A. That is, the resources of the preambles in the same group may be allocated to multiple intervals, the preamble numbers in each interval may be consecutive, and the base station may respectively indicate the positions of the intervals.

Further, a { starting position: 5, length: 8 to indicate the preamble, i.e., p5-p12, shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal.

Similarly, a { starting position: 17, length: 4}, { starting position: 25, length: 4, i.e. 4 consecutive preambles starting from preamble17 and 4 consecutive preambles starting from preamble25 are allocated to group 2B. Further, a { starting position: 17, length: 4 to indicate a preamble shared by the reduced capability terminal and the normal terminal.

In other embodiments, the starting location (or length) may be default (e.g., predefined by a protocol), in which case only the length (or starting location) need be indicated to confirm the assigned preamble. E.g. specifying that the starting position is p1, then simply indicating the length, e.g. 16, can confirm that the allocated resources are p1-16. In this way, signaling overhead may be reduced.

In other embodiments, the start point and length may be mapped to a value, such as by joint coding. Then, only the mapped value needs to be indicated (for example, the value is carried by a broadcast message), and the allocated preamble can be confirmed. Signaling overhead can be reduced. For example, V =10 × S + L, where S is the starting point, L is the length, and V is the jointly encoded value. The formula used for joint coding is not limited to V =10 × s + l here, but may be others, and this is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

The foregoing mainly illustrates a preamble resource allocation manner for a reduced capability terminal, and the manner of allocating the preamble resource of an ordinary terminal may refer to the manner of allocating the preamble resource of the reduced capability terminal.

In other embodiments, the network device may further obtain capability information reported by the terminal, and acquire the capability type of the terminal according to the capability information. The capability information includes, but is not limited to, information of bandwidths supported by the terminal, antenna configurations, and the like. For example, the capability information reported by the terminal is only that the supported bandwidth is 20MHz, and 1 receiving antenna is configured. Then, the base station determines that the terminal is a reduced capability terminal according to the capability information. Therefore, when the terminal initiates random access, the terminal can be scheduled as early as possible according to the capability type of the terminal, so as to improve the communication performance of the terminal.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present application, multiple pieces of information and the like may be carried in multiple pieces of messages, or may be carried in one message. For example, RO set information and preamble set information may be carried in a broadcast message. The plurality of broadcast messages can also respectively carry information such as an RO set, a preamble set and the like.

In the case of dividing each functional module according to each function, fig. 19 shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the communication device 19 according to the above embodiment, which can implement the function of the above terminal (for example, it can be a terminal or a chip). Or the apparatus may implement the functions of a network device (e.g., may be a network device or chip, etc.). The communication device 19 includes a processing unit 1901 and a transceiver 1902.

Taking the communication apparatus 19 as a terminal device as an example, the processing unit 1901 is configured to execute S101 (for example, to control the transceiver 1902 to receive the configuration information) and S102 in fig. 9, and/or is configured to execute other steps in the foregoing method embodiments. The transceiver 1902 is configured to support the terminal device to execute S103 and S104 (or S105) in fig. 9.

Taking the communication device 19 as a network device as an example, the processing unit 1901 is configured to determine the configuration information and/or is configured to perform other steps in the above method embodiment. The transceiver 1902 is configured to support the network device to perform S103 and S104 (or S105) in fig. 9.

Optionally, the communication device 19 may further include a storage unit 1903 for storing data, programs, and the like.

All relevant contents of the steps related to the method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device. The communication device is used for realizing the various communication methods. The communication apparatus includes corresponding modules, units, or means (means) for implementing the above communication method, and the modules, units, or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

The embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and an input/output port, the processor is configured to implement a processing function related to a communication method in the foregoing method embodiment, and the input/output port is configured to implement a transceiving function related to the communication method in the foregoing method embodiment.

In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data related to implementing any of the communication methods described above.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication system. The system comprises the one or more terminal devices and one or more network devices.

An embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, including: the computer readable storage medium having stored therein computer instructions; the computer instructions, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the communication method of the above-described method embodiments.

The present application provides a computer program product containing instructions, including a computer program or instructions, which when run on a computer causes the computer to execute the communication method described in the above method embodiments.

It should be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the processor may also be other general purpose processors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It will also be appreciated that the memory in the embodiments of the subject application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. Illustratively, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of Random Access Memory (RAM) are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct bus RAM (DR RAM).

The above embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware (e.g., circuitry), firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, the above-described embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product comprises one or more computer instructions or computer programs. The procedures or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are produced in whole or in part when the computer instructions or the computer program are loaded or executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another 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 wire (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, data center, etc., that contains one or more collections of available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium. The semiconductor medium may be a solid state disk.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one type of logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one position, or may be distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, applied to a terminal, the method comprising:

acquiring configuration information; the configuration information is used for indicating resource sets, and the resource sets comprise a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first set of resources are available for the terminals of the first capability type to send the preamble, and the resources in the second set of resources are available for the terminals of the second capability type to send the preamble; at least a portion of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least a portion of the resources of the second set of resources;

selecting a target resource from the resource set, and sending a preamble through the target resource;

receiving a random access response;

when the shared at least partial resource comprises the target resource, sending first random access information; the first random access information may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal, where the capability type of the terminal includes the first capability type or the second capability type.

2. The communication method according to claim 1,

the first set of resources comprises a first set of random access opportunities, ROs, the first set of ROs comprising at least one first RO; the second set of resources comprises a second set of ROs, the second set of ROs comprising at least one second RO; the first RO is an RO which is usable for a terminal of a first capability type to transmit a preamble, and the second RO is an RO which is usable for a terminal of a second capability type to transmit a preamble;

and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

the first set of resources comprises a first set of preambles comprising at least one first preamble, the first preamble being a preamble usable by terminals of a first capability type; the second set of resources comprises a second set of preambles comprising at least one second preamble, the second preamble being a preamble usable by terminals of a second capability type;

at least a portion of the resources of the first set of resources and at least a portion of the resources of the second set of resources are shared, including: at least a portion of the ROs in the first set of ROs are shared with at least a portion of the ROs in the second set of ROs, and/or at least a portion of the preambles in the first set of preambles are shared with at least a portion of the preambles in the second set of preambles.

3. The communication method according to claim 2, wherein the target resource comprises a target RO and a target preamble;

the shared at least partial resource comprises the target resource, including: the at least part of the ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs comprises the target RO, and the at least part of the preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles comprises the target preamble.

4. A communication method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the configuration information is further used to indicate the at least part of ROs shared by the first and second sets of ROs, or the at least part of preambles shared by the first and second sets of preambles, or the at least part of ROs shared by the first and second sets of ROs and the at least part of preambles shared by the first and second sets of preambles.

5. A method of communicating according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the first random access information comprises information indicating a type of capability of the terminal.

6. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein transmitting the first random access information comprises: transmitting the first random access information on a first time-frequency resource; the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain.

7. The communication method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein transmitting the first random access information comprises: sending the first random access information on a second time-frequency resource; the second time frequency resource is continuous in time domain.

8. A communication method according to any one of claims 1-7, wherein the method further comprises: and retransmitting the first random access information.

9. The communication method according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the random access response includes information of a scheduling policy; the scheduling policy comprises any one or combination of policies: whether frequency hopping is carried out or not, frequency domain resources, time domain resources, modulation coding strategies and transmission power control strategies.

10. The communication method according to claim 9, wherein the sending the first random access information comprises:

and sending first random access information according to the scheduling strategy indicated by the random access response.

11. A method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein when the shared at least part of the resources comprises the target resource, the scheduling policy does not indicate any one or combination of: and frequency hopping, wherein the frequency hopping range exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the frequency domain resource exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the modulation coding strategy exceeds a threshold, and the transmission power control exceeds the threshold.

12. A communication method applied to a network device, the method comprising:

sending configuration information; the configuration information is used for indicating resource sets, and the resource sets comprise a first resource set and/or a second resource set; the resources in the first resource set can be used for the terminal of the first capability type to send the preamble, and the resources in the second resource set can be used for the terminal of the second capability type to send the preamble; at least a portion of the resources of the first set of resources are shared with at least a portion of the resources of the second set of resources;

receiving a preamble over a target resource in the set of resources;

sending a random access response;

receiving first random access information when the shared at least partial resource comprises the target resource; the first random access information may be used to indicate a capability type of the terminal, where the capability type of the terminal includes the first capability type or the second capability type.

13. The communication method according to claim 12,

and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

the first set of resources comprises a first set of preambles comprising at least one first preamble that is a preamble usable by terminals of a first capability type; the second set of resources comprises a second set of preambles comprising at least one second preamble, the second preamble being a preamble usable by terminals of a second capability type;

14. The communication method according to claim 13, wherein the target resource comprises a target RO and a target preamble;

15. The communications method of claim 13 or 14, wherein the configuration information is further used to indicate the at least part of ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of ROs, or the at least part of preambles shared by the first set of preambles and the second set of preambles, or the at least part of ROs shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of preambles and the at least part of preambles shared by the first set of ROs and the second set of preambles.

16. A method of communicating according to any of claims 12-15, wherein the first random access information comprises information indicating a type of capability of the terminal.

17. The communication method according to any of claims 12-15, wherein receiving the first random access information comprises: receiving the first random access information on a first time-frequency resource; the first time-frequency resource is discontinuous in the time domain.

18. A communication method according to any one of claims 12-15, wherein receiving first random access information comprises: receiving the first random access information on a second time-frequency resource; the second time-frequency resource is continuous in time domain.

19. A method of communicating according to any one of claims 12-18, further comprising: and receiving the retransmitted first random access information.

20. A method of communicating according to any of claims 12-19, wherein the random access response includes information of a scheduling policy; the scheduling policy comprises any one or combination of policies: whether frequency hopping is carried out or not, frequency domain resources, time domain resources, modulation coding strategies and transmission power control strategies.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the receiving the first random access information comprises:

22. A method according to claim 20 or 21, wherein when the shared at least part of the resources comprises the target resource, the scheduling policy does not indicate any one or combination of: and frequency hopping, wherein the frequency hopping range exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the frequency domain resource exceeds the terminal supported bandwidth, the modulation coding strategy exceeds a threshold, and the transmission power control exceeds the threshold.

23. A terminal device, comprising: one or more processors and one or more memories;

the one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors for storing computer program code comprising computer instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the terminal device to perform the method of any of claims 1-11.

24. A network device, comprising: one or more processors and one or more memories;

the one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors for storing computer program code, the computer program code comprising computer instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the network device to perform the method of any of claims 12-22.

25. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 11 or the method of any one of claims 12 to 22 when invoked by the computer.

26. A computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer to, when run on the computer, perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 11 or perform the method of any one of claims 12 to 22.

27. A chip coupled to a memory for reading and executing program instructions stored in the memory to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 11 or to implement the method of any one of claims 12 to 22.