CN115696270A

CN115696270A - Communication method and related device

Info

Publication number: CN115696270A
Application number: CN202110826339.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张萌
Original assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Current assignee: Spreadtrum Communications Shanghai Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-21
Filing date: 2021-07-21
Publication date: 2023-02-03
Also published as: WO2023001060A1

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method and a related device, wherein the method is applied to a direct link (SL) scene and comprises the following steps: the first terminal equipment determines the direction of one or more orientations (Listen Before Talk, LBT); and the first terminal equipment performs data transmission with the second terminal equipment in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the direction of the one or more directional LBTs. Through the technical scheme provided by the application, the transmission direction of the directional LBT in SL communication can be determined.

Description

Communication method and related device

Technical Field

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

Background

In the existing protocol, the transmission of the object direct connection communication system or the direct link (SL) communication works on the licensed spectrum of 4G or 5G, the limited spectrum resources will not be enough to support the large increase of the data service, and the SL transmission will be expanded to the unlicensed spectrum in the future. Before using the unlicensed spectrum (unisense), a Listen Before transmit (Listen Before Talk, LBT) transmission strategy is performed, and if it is monitored that a channel is idle, the unlicensed spectrum can be accessed. Prior to R17, LBT schemes over unlicensed spectrum are generally referred to as omni-directional LBT, whereas for directional LBT, the prior art cannot determine the transmission direction of directional LBT in SL communication.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a related device, wherein the communication method can determine the transmission direction of directional LBT in SL communication.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to a terminal device and may also be applied to a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal device, and the following description takes the application to the terminal device as an example. The method can comprise the following steps: the first terminal device determines the direction of one or more directional LBTs; and the first terminal equipment performs data transmission with the second terminal equipment in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

In the scheme provided by the application, the terminal equipment can determine the direction of the directional LBT, and different from the prior art that the terminal equipment can only determine the direction of the omnidirectional LBT but cannot determine the direction of the directional LBT, the terminal equipment can perform SL communication with another terminal equipment in the actual transmission direction corresponding to the directional LBT, so that the communication efficiency and accuracy can be improved.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the first terminal device receives first indication information from a network device, wherein the first indication information is used for determining the direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

In the solution provided in this application, for mode one of SL transmission, the network device may assist the terminal device to determine the direction of directional LBT. Specifically, the method comprises the following steps: the terminal device may directly acquire the directional LBT direction according to indication information from the network device, where the indication information is used to indicate the directional LBT direction. Therefore, the resource occupation of the terminal equipment can be reduced, and the running speed is increased.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining, by the first terminal device, a direction of directional LBT includes: the first terminal equipment receives feedback information from the second terminal equipment, wherein the feedback information comprises a channel quality result, a beam report and a recommended direction; the first terminal device determines a direction of one or more directional LBTs according to one or more of the channel quality result, the beam report, and the recommended direction.

In the scheme provided by the application, for the second SL transmission mode, when two terminal devices need SL transmission in an area without a network, the terminal devices may determine the direction of the directional LBT by themselves without the assistance of the network devices. So that SL communication with another terminal device according to the directional LBT direction can be achieved.

In a possible implementation manner, the first terminal device receives the Feedback information from the second terminal device through a Physical direct link shared Channel (psch)/Physical direct link Feedback Channel (PSFCH).

In a possible implementation manner, the direction of the one or more directional LBTs is a direction of a last successful transmission between the first terminal device and the second terminal device or a direction of a beam of a best quality Reference Signal (RS) in the last beam report.

In the scheme provided by the application, the directional LBT direction is determined as the last successful transmission direction of the two terminal devices, the success rate of the directional LBT can be improved, the directional LBT direction is determined as the direction of the beam of the RS with the best quality in the last beam report, and the efficiency and the accuracy of communication can be improved.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and the first terminal equipment receives second indication information from the network equipment, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the corresponding relation between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction.

In the scheme provided by the application, a corresponding relationship exists between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction, and the network device may configure the corresponding relationship to the terminal device in advance. Therefore, the terminal equipment can obtain the actual transmission direction according to the determined directional LBT and the corresponding relation, and data transmission with another terminal equipment in the actual transmission direction is realized.

In a possible implementation manner, after the first terminal device determines the direction of one or more directional LBTs, the method further includes: the first terminal device sends information of the one or more directions of directional LBT to the second terminal device.

In the solution provided in the present application, after determining the directional LBT direction, the terminal device may send the information of the directional LBT direction to another terminal device, so that another terminal device may listen to the information from the terminal device in the directional LBT directions, thereby implementing data transmission of the two terminal devices.

In a possible implementation manner, the first terminal device sends the Information of the directions of the one or more directional LBTs to the second terminal device through direct link Control Information (SCI), radio Resource Control (RRC) of a PC-5 port, or media Access Control-Control element (MAC-CE) of the PC-5 port.

In a possible implementation manner, the first indication Information is configured by Downlink Control Information (DCI), or configured by a MAC-CE.

In one possible implementation, the second indication information is configured by RRC.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication device.

The beneficial effects can be seen from the description of the first aspect, which is not described herein again. The communication device has the functionality to implement the actions in the method instance of the first aspect described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

The communication device includes:

a determining unit for determining a direction of one or more directional LBTs;

a transmitting unit, configured to perform data transmission with the second terminal device in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

In a possible implementation manner, the transmission unit is further configured to:

receiving first indication information from a network device, the first indication information being used for determining a direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining unit is specifically configured to:

receiving feedback information from the second terminal equipment, wherein the feedback information comprises a channel quality result, a beam report and a recommended direction;

determining a direction of one or more directional LBTs from one or more of the channel quality results, the beam reports, the recommended directions.

In one possible implementation, the feedback information from the second terminal device is received over a PSSCH/PSFCH.

In a possible implementation manner, the direction of the one or more directional LBTs is a direction of a last successful transmission of the first terminal device and the second terminal device or a direction of a beam of a RS with a best quality in the last beam report.

receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate a correspondence between a direction of directional LBT and an actual transmission direction.

after determining the direction of one or more directional LBTs, sending information of the direction of the one or more directional LBTs to the second terminal device.

In a possible implementation, the information of the one or more directions of directional LBT is sent to the second terminal device through a serial communication interface SCI of SL or a RRC of PC-5 port or a media access control element MAC-CE of PC-5 port.

In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information is configured by downlink control information DCI or configured by a media access control element MAC-CE.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a terminal device or a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal device. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory, an input interface for receiving information from a communication apparatus other than the communication apparatus, and an output interface for outputting information to the communication apparatus other than the communication apparatus, wherein the processor calls a computer program stored in the memory to execute the communication method provided by the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions which, when executed, cause the method described in the first aspect and any possible implementation thereof to be performed.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising executable instructions that, when run on a user equipment, cause the method described in the first aspect and any one of its possible implementations to be performed.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor and may further include a memory, and is configured to implement the method in the first aspect and any possible implementation thereof. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below. It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the application, and that for a person skilled in the art, other drawings can be derived from them without inventive effort.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a network architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of another communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

The terminology used in the description of the embodiments section of the present application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments of the present application only and is not intended to be limiting of the present application. The definitions of technical terms that may appear in the embodiments of the present application are given first:

(1) Listen before send mechanism

Listen Before Talk (LBT), also called Listen and avoid, is a channel access mechanism that enables the same spectrum resources to be shared efficiently among wireless local area networks. Because the availability of the Channel in the unlicensed frequency band cannot be guaranteed at any time, LBT requires that the Channel be monitored before data transmission, clear Channel Assessment (CCA) is performed, and data transmission is performed again when the Channel is guaranteed to be idle.

(2) Straight-through link

A Sidelink (SL), which may also be referred to as a sidelink or a side link. Is a new link introduced to support direct communication between devices. Originally introduced in the context of Device-to-Device (D2D) applications, later technologies extended to vehicle-to-outside information exchange (V2X) expanded and enhanced on native protocols. The NR Sidelink is mainly composed of a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a PSCCH, a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH), and a PSFCH. The first three channels already exist in LTE-V2X, and the PSFCH is newly introduced in NR V2X in order to support Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) transmission.

(3) SL transmission mode

There are 2 modes of resource selection for SL data transmission.

Mode one (Mode-1) is to allocate the SL transmission resource by the network device, for example, the network device allocates the SL transmission resource to the terminal in the coverage area of the network. The network device may issue the Control message through a Control Channel, for example, issue the DCI through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

Mode two (Mode-2) is where the terminal autonomously selects the SL transmission resource based on preconfigured information. The terminal provisioning information may be network provisioning information built into the terminal, or in a handset card, or previously registered. For example, the terminal is in a non-network coverage area, and the SL transmission resource can be determined autonomously. If the terminal autonomously selects the resources, SCI control messages can be transmitted through the PSSCH for resource allocation.

In the existing protocol, the transmission of SL communication works on the licensed spectrum of 4G or 5G, the limited spectrum resources will not be enough to support the massive increase of data services, and the SL transmission will be expanded to the unlicensed spectrum in the future. Before using an unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed), LBT transmission policy is performed, and if it is monitored that a channel is idle, the unlicensed spectrum can be accessed. Prior to R17, LBT schemes on unlicensed spectrum are generally referred to as omni-directional LBT, whereas for directional LBT, the prior art cannot determine the transmission direction of directional LBT in SL communication.

The technical problem to be solved by the embodiment of the present application may include: in this embodiment, the terminal device may determine a direction of the directional LBT, so as to implement data transmission with another terminal device in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the direction of the directional LBT.

Based on the above, in order to better understand a communication method and a related apparatus proposed in the present application, a network architecture applied in the embodiments of the present application is described below.

With the development of wireless communication technology, users increasingly demand communication. In order to meet the communication requirements of users, an object-to-object direct communication technology or an SL communication technology is introduced into a wireless communication technology. The object direct connection communication technology or the SL communication technology is different from the traditional wireless cellular network communication technology, and direct communication between terminal devices can be realized. The data packet transmitted by the application object direct connection communication technology or the SL communication technology can be directly transmitted to the second terminal device serving as the receiving end through the SL by the first terminal device serving as the transmitting end without being forwarded by the network device. For convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application are all exemplified by SL communication technology.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a network architecture according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, the network architecture may include a network device 101, a first terminal device 102, and a second terminal device 103. The first terminal device 102 and the network device 101 establish a communication connection through a conventional wireless cellular network communication technology, and can perform communication through an Uplink (Uplink) and a Downlink (Downlink). The first terminal device 102 and the second terminal device 103 establish a communication connection through an SL communication technology, and may perform communication through a direct link. The first terminal device 102 may serve as a transmitting end of SL communication, and the second terminal device 103 may serve as a receiving end of SL communication. The first terminal apparatus 102 and the second terminal apparatus 103 may be fixed in position or may be movable.

The network device 101, which may be an entity for transmitting or receiving a signal, may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, and the network device may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system or a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), a base station (NodeB, NB) in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, an evolved NodeB (eNB, or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a wireless controller in a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) scenario, or a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, and the like, and the present embodiment is not limited thereto. The network device may be a device in a wireless network, such as a Radio Access Network (RAN) node that accesses a terminal to the wireless network. Currently, some examples of RAN nodes are: a base station, a next generation base station gNB, a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a home base station, a baseband unit (BBU), or an Access Point (AP) in a WiFi system. In one network configuration, a network device may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node, or a Distributed Unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

The first terminal device 102 and the second terminal device 103 are entities on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals, such as user equipment, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent or a user equipment. The terminal device may also be a mobile phone (handset), a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a tablet (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation security), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, a smart bracelet, a pedometer, etc.), a terminal device in 5G network or a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future evolution, etc., which are not limited by the embodiments of the present application. The terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held, worn or vehicle-mounted, can be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like), and can be deployed in the air (such as an airplane, a balloon, a satellite and the like).

By way of example and not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable equipment can also be called wearable intelligent equipment, is the general term of equipment that uses wearable technique to carry out intelligent design, develop can dress to daily wearing, such as glasses, gloves, wrist-watch, dress and shoes. The wearable device may be worn directly on the body or may be a portable device integrated into the user's clothing or accessory. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also realizes powerful functions through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable smart device includes full functionality, large size, and can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smart phone, such as: smart watches or smart glasses and the like, and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to be used in cooperation with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart bracelets for physical sign monitoring, smart jewelry and the like. In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal may also be a terminal in an internet of things (IoT) system, the IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and the main technical feature of the present application is to connect an article with a network through a communication technology, so as to implement an intelligent network with interconnected human-computer and interconnected objects. In the embodiment of the present application, the IOT technology may achieve massive connection, deep coverage, and power saving for the terminal through a Narrowband (NB) technology, for example. In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal may further include sensors such as an intelligent printer, a train detector, and a gas station, and the main functions include collecting data (part of the terminal), receiving control information and downlink data of the network device, sending electromagnetic waves, and transmitting uplink data to the network device.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: a global system for mobile communication (GSM) system, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), an LTE system, an LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, an LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications (UMTS) system, an enhanced data rate GSM (enhanced data rate for GSM evolution, EDGE) system, and a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) system. The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to other communication systems, for example, a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) system, an advanced long term evolution (LTE-a) system, a fifth generation mobile communication (the 5th generation,5 g) system, an NR system, a machine to machine (M2M) system, or other communication systems that evolve in the future, and the present application is not limited thereto.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device or the network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on top of the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Memory Management Unit (MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes (processes), such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer comprises applications such as a browser, an address list, word processing software, instant messaging software and the like. Furthermore, the embodiment of the present application does not particularly limit the specific structure of the execution subject of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, as long as the execution subject can communicate with the method provided by the embodiment of the present application by running the program recorded with the code of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, for example, the execution subject of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal or a network device, or a functional module capable of calling the program and executing the program in the terminal or the network device.

It should be noted that, the number and the type of the terminal devices included in the network architecture shown in fig. 1 are merely examples, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, more or fewer terminal devices communicating with the network device may be included, and are not depicted in the figures for simplicity of description. In addition, in the network architecture shown in fig. 1, although the network device and the terminal device are shown, the application scenario may not be limited to include the network device and the terminal device, and may also include a core network node or a device for carrying a virtualized network function, which is obvious to those skilled in the art and is not described herein again.

With reference to the foregoing network architecture, a communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is described below. Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The functions executed by the terminal device in this embodiment may also be executed by a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device, and the functions executed by the network device in this application may also be executed by a module (for example, a chip) in the network device. As shown in fig. 2, the communication method may include the following steps.

Step S201: the first terminal device determines the direction of one or more directional LBTs.

Directional LBT may refer to LBT in a particular direction on SL operating in an unlicensed band. The unlicensed frequency band refers to a frequency band outside the licensed frequency band, for example, a 2.4GHz frequency band, a 5GHz frequency band, a 6GHz frequency band, and the like. When the first terminal device performs SL data transmission with the second terminal device, it is necessary to determine one or more directional LBT directions first, and perform LBT in the directions so as to perform SL data transmission with the second terminal device subsequently.

Step S202: and the first terminal equipment performs data transmission with the second terminal equipment in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the one or more directional LBT directions.

Wherein, there is a corresponding relationship between the direction of directional LBT and the actual transmission direction. For example, please refer to table 1, where table 1 shows a correspondence relationship between a directional LBT direction and an actual transmission direction thereof provided in the embodiment of the present application:

table 1 correspondence of directional LBT direction and its actual transmission direction

As shown in table 1, when the direction of the directional LBT is 0 ° to 60 °, the corresponding actual transmission directions may be 0 ° to 20 °,20 ° to 40 ° and 40 ° to 60 °, and the first terminal device may select one of the directions from 0 ° to 20 °,20 ° to 40 ° and 40 ° to 60 ° to perform data transmission with the second terminal device. The selected direction may be the direction with the best channel quality or the direction from which the first terminal device randomly selects. It should be understood that the correspondence relationship between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction thereof shown in table 1 is only an example, and the correspondence relationship between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction thereof may also be other correspondence relationships, and does not constitute a limitation on the correspondence relationship between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction thereof in the present application. The direction described in the present invention can be implicitly inferred from a reference signal or channel. For example, by indicating an index number of a Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource, the same direction Information or the same spatial parameters as the CSI-RS resource can be used in association with the direction of directional LBT or SL transmission direction. The reference Signal may also be a channel Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), a Synchronization broadcast block (Synchronization Signal/PBCH, SSB), a Tracking Reference Signal (TRS), a direct link SSB (SL SSB), a direct link CSI-RS (SL CSI-RS), or other reference signals.

After the first terminal device determines the one or more directional LBT directions, an actual transmission direction corresponding to the one or more directional LBT directions may be determined according to a correspondence between the directional LBT directions and actual transmission directions thereof, and data transmission may be performed with the second terminal device in the actual transmission direction. Wherein, the actual transmission direction is one or more. The direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction thereof may be dynamically indicated by a high layer signaling or DCI, or the correspondence (association information) between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction thereof may be dynamically indicated by a high layer signaling or DCI.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig. 3 is a communication method in Mode one (Mode-1) for SL transmission. The functions executed by the terminal device in this embodiment may also be executed by a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device, and the functions executed by the network device in this application may also be executed by a module (for example, a chip) in the network device. As shown in fig. 3, the communication method may include the following steps.

Step S301: the network device sends first indication information for determining a direction of one or more directional LBTs to the first terminal device. Accordingly, the first terminal device receives first indication information from the network device for determining a direction of one or more directional LBTs.

Directional LBT may refer to LBT operating in a particular direction on SL in the unlicensed band. The unlicensed frequency band refers to a frequency band outside the licensed frequency band, for example, a 2.4GHz frequency band, a 5GHz frequency band, a 6GHz frequency band, and the like. The first indication information may be information of one or more directions of directional LBT, or may be information of an actual transmission direction used by the first terminal device for data transmission with the second terminal device.

The first indication information may be issued to the first terminal device actively by the network device, or may be sent to the first terminal device by the network device according to request information after the first terminal device sends the request information requesting one or more directions for directional LBT to the network device. Wherein, since there may be multiple beam (beam) directions in the SL Channel Occupancy Time (COT), the first indication information may be used to determine the direction of one or more directional LBTs.

The network device may send the first indication information to the first terminal device through DCI (for SL). The specific first indication information may be indicated by a field (field) through a Transmission-information or Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI-state) (QCL type-D). Wherein, the spatial relationship-info or TCI-state can carry the direction information. It can be understood that the field may be a field that additionally indicates a directional LBT direction information based on the existing DCI indicating the LBT type and other parameters, or may be a field that indicates the directional LBT direction information in combination with the existing LBT type parameters. The RSs included in the TCI-state may include SL RSs (e.g., beam Measurement CSI-RS (CSI-RSforBeam Measurement, CSI-RS for BM), SL TRS, etc.) that may be introduced in the future, and may also include UuRS. Or the network device may also send the first indication information to the first terminal device through the MAC-CE.

Step S302: and the network equipment sends second indication information used for indicating the corresponding relation between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction to the first terminal equipment.

There is a corresponding relationship between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction, and the specific description may refer to the description in step S202, which is not described herein again. It can be understood that step S302 may be executed before step S301, after step S301, or in parallel with step S301, and the present application does not limit the order in which the network device sends the first indication information and sends the second indication information to the first terminal device.

The second indication information may be configured to the first terminal device by the network device through a higher layer signaling in advance, for example, the second indication information may be configured by the RRC.

Step S303: the first terminal device determines the direction of one or more directional LBTs.

After receiving the first indication information for determining the direction of the one or more directional LBTs from the network device, the first terminal device may determine the direction of the one or more directional LBTs according to the first indication information. The manner of determination may satisfy any one of the following:

in a first manner, in a case that the first indication information directly indicates the direction of the one or more directional LBTs, the first terminal device may learn the direction of the one or more directional LBTs according to the received first indication information.

In a second manner, when the first indication information is a correspondence between a direction of directional LBT and an actual transmission direction, which is known in advance by the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the first terminal device may determine, according to the received first indication information and the correspondence between the direction of directional LBT and the actual transmission direction, a direction of LBT corresponding to the actual transmission direction.

Step S304: the first terminal device sends information of the direction of the one or more directional LBTs to the second terminal device. Accordingly, the second terminal device receives information from the first terminal device of one or more directions to LBT.

After the first terminal device determines the direction of the one or more directional LBTs, information of the direction of the one or more directional LBTs may be sent to the second terminal device, so that the second terminal device may listen for the information from the first terminal device in these direction of the one or more directional LBTs. The second terminal device may listen to the information from the first terminal device in the directions of the one or more directional LBTs in real time, or may listen to the information from the first terminal device in the directions of the one or more directional LBTs periodically, and the period time may be 1ms,10ms, and the like.

Wherein, the first terminal device may send the information of the one or more directions of directional LBT to the second terminal device through SCI or RRC of PC-5 port or MAC-CE of PC-5 port.

Step S305: and the first terminal equipment performs data transmission with the second terminal equipment in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

It should be understood that step S305 corresponds to step S202, and the related description in step S305 may refer to the description of step S202, and will not be repeated herein to avoid repetition.

In addition, after the first terminal device determines the direction of one or more directional LBTs, as for the first mode of step S303, the first terminal device performs LBT in the determined direction of one or more directional LBTs, if successful, determines an actual transmission direction according to a correspondence between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction thereof, and sends data to the second terminal device in the actual transmission direction; as for the second mode in step S303, the first terminal device performs LBT in the determined one or more directional LBT directions, and if successful, may send data to the second terminal device in the actual transmission direction indicated by the first indication information.

For a scenario with one first terminal device and a plurality of second terminal devices: one first terminal device and a plurality of second terminal devices communicate simultaneously, and different actual transmission directions (unicast) may be used for each different first terminal device, or data may be transmitted to a plurality of second terminal devices using a combined wide beam (multicast).

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig. 4 is directed to the communication method in Mode two (Mode-2) of SL transmission. The functions executed by the terminal device in this embodiment may also be executed by a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device, and the functions executed by the network device in this application may also be executed by a module (for example, a chip) in the network device. As shown in fig. 4, the communication method may include the following steps.

Step S401: and the second terminal equipment sends feedback information comprising the channel quality result, the beam report and the recommended direction to the first terminal equipment. Accordingly, the first terminal device receives feedback information including channel quality results, beam reports, recommended directions from the second terminal device.

The first terminal device may send request information requesting channel quality results, beam reports, recommended directions, etc. information to the first terminal device before determining one or more directional LBT directions. And after receiving the request information from the first terminal equipment, the second terminal equipment sends feedback information comprising information such as a channel quality result, a beam report and a recommended direction to the first terminal equipment.

The second terminal device may transmit the feedback information to the first terminal device over the psch/PSFCH.

Step S402: the first terminal device determines the direction of one or more directional LBTs.

After the first terminal device receives feedback information including channel quality results, beam reports, recommended directions from the second terminal device, the direction of one or more directional LBTs may be determined from the feedback information. The manner of determination may satisfy any one of the following:

in a first manner, the second terminal device may recommend a data transmission direction, that is, recommend one or more directional LBTs, to the first terminal device, and the first terminal device determines the one or more directional LBTs recommended by the second terminal device as a direction of the target directional LBT.

In a second mode, the first terminal device determines the direction of the one or more directional LBTs as a direction of a last successful transmission between the first terminal device and the second terminal device or a direction of a beam of the RS with the best quality in the last beam report.

In a third mode, the first terminal device may determine according to the priority of different information in the feedback information. For example, the recommended direction has the highest priority, the beam report has the next highest priority, and the channel quality result has the lowest priority, and the recommended direction and the beam report are respectively given corresponding weights to different information, and one or more directional LBT directions are obtained through calculation.

Step S403: the first terminal device sends information of one or more directions of directional LBT to the second terminal device.

It should be understood that step S403 corresponds to step S304, and the related description in step S403 may refer to the description of step S304, and will not be repeated herein to avoid repetition.

Step S404: and the first terminal equipment performs data transmission with the second terminal equipment in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the one or more directional LBT directions.

It should be understood that step S404 corresponds to step S202, and the related description in step S404 may refer to the description of step S202, and will not be repeated herein to avoid repetition.

In addition, the corresponding relationship between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction may be that the network device is configured to the first terminal device in advance, for example, the network device sends second indication information to the first terminal device, where the second indication information is used to indicate the corresponding relationship between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction. It is understood that the first terminal device may know in advance the correspondence between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction in the form of preconfig.

The first terminal device may determine an actual transmission direction according to the determined one or more directional LBT directions and a correspondence between the directional LBT directions and the actual transmission direction, where the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform data transmission in the actual transmission direction.

The method embodiments provided in the embodiments of the present application are described above, and the virtual device embodiments related to the embodiments of the present application are described below.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, where the communication device may be a terminal or a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal. As shown in fig. 5, the apparatus 500 at least includes: a determination unit 501 and a transmission unit 502; wherein:

a determining unit 501 for determining a direction of one or more directional LBTs;

a transmitting unit 502, configured to perform data transmission with the second terminal device in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

In an embodiment, the transmission unit 502 is further configured to:

In an embodiment, the determining unit 501 is specifically configured to:

determining a direction of one or more directional LBTs from one or more of the channel quality results, the beam reports, the recommended direction.

In one embodiment, the feedback information from the second terminal device is received over a PSSCH/PSFCH.

In one embodiment, the direction of the one or more directional LBTs is a direction of a last successful transmission between the first terminal device and the second terminal device or a direction of a beam of a RS with a best quality in the last beam report.

In an embodiment, the transmission unit 502 is further configured to:

In an embodiment, the information of the one or more directions of directional LBT is sent to the second terminal device over a serial communication interface SCI of SL or an RRC of PC-5 or a media access control element MAC-CE of PC-5.

In one embodiment, the first indication information is configured by downlink control information DCI or by a media access control element MAC-CE.

In one embodiment, the second indication information is configured by RRC.

For more detailed description of the determining unit 501 and the transmitting unit 502, reference may be directly made to the related description of the terminal device in the embodiment of the method shown in fig. 2, which is not repeated herein.

Based on the above network architecture, please refer to fig. 6, where fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6, the apparatus 600 may include one or more processors 601, where the processors 601 may also be referred to as processing units and may implement certain control functions. The processor 601 may be a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor, etc. For example, a baseband processor or a central processor. The baseband processor may be configured to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processor may be configured to control a communication device (e.g., a base station, a baseband chip, a terminal chip, a DU or CU, etc.), execute a software program, and process data of the software program.

In an alternative design, the processor 601 may also store instructions and/or data 603, and the instructions and/or data 603 may be executed by the processor, so that the apparatus 600 performs the method described in the above method embodiment.

In an alternative design, the processor 601 may include a transceiver unit to perform receive and transmit functions. The transceiving unit may be, for example, a transceiving circuit, or an interface circuit, or a communication interface. The transceiver circuitry, interface or interface circuitry for implementing the receive and transmit functions may be separate or integrated. The transceiver circuit, the interface circuit or the interface circuit may be used for reading and writing code/data, or the transceiver circuit, the interface circuit or the interface circuit may be used for transmitting or transferring signals.

In yet another possible design, the apparatus 600 may include circuitry that may implement the functionality of transmitting or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments.

Optionally, the apparatus 600 may include one or more memories 602, on which instructions 604 may be stored, and the instructions may be executed on the processor, so that the apparatus 600 performs the methods described in the above method embodiments. Optionally, the memory may further store data. Optionally, instructions and/or data may also be stored in the processor. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or may be integrated together. For example, the correspondence described in the above method embodiments may be stored in a memory or in a processor.

Optionally, the apparatus 600 may further comprise a transceiver 605 and/or an antenna 606. The processor 601, which may be referred to as a processing unit, controls the apparatus 600. The transceiver 605 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver device, a transceiver module, or the like, and is used for implementing a transceiving function.

Optionally, the apparatus 600 in this embodiment of the present application may be used to perform the method described in fig. 2 in this embodiment of the present application.

In one embodiment, the communication apparatus 600 may be a terminal device, or a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal device, when the computer program instructions stored in the memory 602 are executed, the processor 601 is configured to control the determining unit 501 to perform the operations performed in the foregoing embodiments, the transceiver 605 is configured to perform the operations performed by the transmitting unit 502 in the foregoing embodiments, and the transceiver 605 is further configured to transmit information to other communication apparatuses except the communication apparatus. The terminal device or the module in the terminal device may also be configured to execute various methods executed by the terminal device in the embodiment of the method in fig. 2, which is not described again.

The processors and transceivers described herein may be implemented on Integrated Circuits (ICs), analog ICs, radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs), mixed signal ICs, application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), electronic devices, and the like. The processor and transceiver may also be fabricated using various IC process technologies such as Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), P-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS), bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

The apparatus in the description of the above embodiment may be a network device or a terminal device, but the scope of the apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the apparatus may not be limited by fig. 5. The apparatus may be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the apparatus may be:

(1) A stand-alone integrated circuit IC, or chip, or system-on-chip or subsystem;

(2) A set of one or more ICs, which optionally may also include storage components for storing data and/or instructions;

(3) An ASIC, such as a modem (MSM);

(4) A module that may be embedded within other devices;

(5) Receivers, terminals, smart terminals, cellular phones, wireless devices, handsets, mobile units, in-vehicle devices, network devices, cloud devices, artificial intelligence devices, machine devices, home devices, medical devices, industrial devices, and the like;

(6) Others, and so forth.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. For convenience of explanation, fig. 7 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 7, the terminal device 700 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output means. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the whole terminal, executing software programs and processing data of the software programs. The memory is primarily used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by users and outputting data to the users.

When the terminal device is started, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, analyze and execute the instruction of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be sent and then outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit processes the baseband signals to obtain radio frequency signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in an electromagnetic wave mode through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the terminal, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, the radio frequency signal is further converted into a baseband signal and the baseband signal is output to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into the data and processes the data.

For ease of illustration, fig. 7 shows only one memory and processor. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this respect in the embodiment of the present invention.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, the baseband processor is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal, executing the software program, and processing the data of the software program. The processor in fig. 7 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal may include a plurality of baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, a plurality of central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the software program is executed by the processor to realize the baseband processing function.

In one example, an antenna and a control circuit having a transceiving function may be regarded as the transceiving unit 701 of the terminal device 700, and a processor having a processing function may be regarded as the processing unit 702 of the terminal device 700. As shown in fig. 7, the terminal device 700 includes a transceiving unit 701 and a processing unit 702. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Optionally, a device in the transceiver unit 701 for implementing the receiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device in the transceiver unit 701 for implementing the transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 701 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. Optionally, the receiving unit and the sending unit may be integrated into one unit, or may be multiple units independent of each other. The receiving unit and the transmitting unit can be in one geographical position or can be dispersed in a plurality of geographical positions.

In one embodiment, the transceiver unit 701 is configured to perform the operations performed by the transmission unit 502 in the above embodiments, and the processing unit 702 is configured to perform the operations performed by the determination unit 501 in the above embodiments. The terminal device 700 may also be configured to execute various methods executed by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment in fig. 2, which are not described again.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, can implement the flow related to the terminal device in the communication method provided by the foregoing method embodiment.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the computer program, when executed by a processor, can implement the process related to the network device in the communication method provided in the foregoing method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, which when executed on a computer or a processor causes the computer or the processor to perform one or more steps of any one of the above-mentioned communication methods. The respective constituent modules of the above-mentioned apparatuses may be stored in the computer-readable storage medium if they are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, which includes at least one processor and a communication interface, where the communication interface and the at least one processor are interconnected by a line, and the at least one processor is configured to execute a computer program or instructions to perform some or all of the steps of any one of the method embodiments described in the foregoing fig. 2. The chip system may be constituted by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

The embodiment of the present application further discloses a communication system, which includes a terminal device and a network device, and the communication method shown in fig. 2 may be referred to for specific description.

It will be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), a solid-state drive (SSD), a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). The memory is 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 such. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing a storage function for storing program instructions and/or data.

It should also be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and 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, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, the memory (memory module) is integrated in the processor.

It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not imply any order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by their functions 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 provided 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 technical solution. 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 is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity 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 logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of 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: a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and various media capable of storing program codes.

The steps in the method of the embodiment of the application can be sequentially adjusted, combined and deleted according to actual needs.

The modules/units in the device of the embodiment of the application can be combined, divided and deleted according to actual needs.

The above embodiments are only used for illustrating the technical solutions of the present application, and not for limiting the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A communication method is applied to a direct link (SL) scene and comprises the following steps:

the method comprises the steps that the first terminal equipment determines one or more directions of directional listen before send LBT;

and the first terminal equipment performs data transmission with the second terminal equipment in an actual transmission direction corresponding to the direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the first terminal device receives first indication information from a network device, wherein the first indication information is used for determining the direction of the one or more directional LBTs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first terminal device determines a direction of directional LBT, comprising:

the first terminal equipment receives feedback information from the second terminal equipment, wherein the feedback information comprises a channel quality result, a beam report and a recommended direction;

the first terminal device determines a direction of one or more directional LBTs according to one or more of the channel quality result, the beam report, and the recommended direction.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the first terminal device receives the feedback information from the second terminal device over a physical direct link shared channel PSSCH/physical direct link feedback channel PSFCH.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the direction of the one or more directional LBTs is the direction of the last successful transmission from the first terminal device to the second terminal device or the direction of the beam with the best quality Reference Signal (RS) in the last beam report.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, further comprising:

and the first terminal equipment receives second indication information from the network equipment, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the corresponding relation between the direction of the directional LBT and the actual transmission direction.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein after the first terminal device determines the direction of one or more directional LBTs, the method further comprises:

the first terminal device sends information of the direction of the one or more directional LBTs to the second terminal device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first terminal device sends the information of the one or more directions of directional LBT to the second terminal device through direct link control information SCI or radio resource control RRC for PC-5 port or medium access control element MAC-CE for PC-5 port.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first indication information is configured by downlink control information, DCI, or by a medium access control element, MAC-CE.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the second indication information is configured by a Radio Resource Control (RRC).

11. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a determining unit, configured to determine one or more directions of directional listen before talk, LBT;

12. A communication device comprising a processor, a memory, an input interface for receiving information from a communication device other than the communication device, and an output interface for outputting information to the communication device other than the communication device, the stored computer program stored in the memory, when invoked by the processor, causing the method of any of claims 1-10 to be implemented.

13. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or computer instructions are stored which, when executed by a processor, cause the method of any one of claims 1-10 to be implemented.

14. A computer program product comprising executable instructions, characterized in that the computer program product comprises a computer program or computer instructions, which when executed by a processor, causes the method according to any of claims 1-10 to be implemented.

15. A chip system comprising at least one processor, memory and interface circuitry, the memory, the interface circuitry and the at least one processor interconnected by wires, the at least one memory having instructions stored therein; the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the method of any one of claims 1-10 to be implemented.