CN115706931A

CN115706931A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115706931A
Application number: CN202110903773.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张海森; 李秉肇; 许斌; 陈磊
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-06
Filing date: 2021-08-06
Publication date: 2023-02-17
Also published as: WO2023011350A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can adopt a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode to transmit data in time, so that the data transmission efficiency is improved. The method is applicable to a terminal device configured with a first discontinuous reception mode, and comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from the network equipment, if a first condition is met, an activation state timer in a first discontinuous receiving mode is started according to the first indication information, and data from the network equipment are received in a first transmission mode. The first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is carried out by adopting a first transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is a point-to-multipoint PTM transmission mode or a point-to-point PTP transmission mode. The first condition includes that the terminal device is in an inactive state in a first discontinuous reception mode, and the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode (DRX) corresponding to the first transmission mode.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

The multicast transmission technology refers to a technology in which a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) or a multicast/Multicast Broadcast Service (MBS) service is simultaneously transmitted to a plurality of terminal devices through a network device. The MBMS service and MBS service are mainly services for multiple terminal devices, such as live broadcast, timed program broadcast, and the like. When multicast transmission is performed between the network device and the terminal device, two transmission modes, namely, a point-to-point (PTP) transmission mode and a point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission mode, may be used.

In order to save power consumption of the terminal device, the multicast transmission technology introduces a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) transmission mode, and a DRX cycle includes an active period and a dormant period. For the PTP transmission mode, the DRX transmission mode enables the terminal device to periodically monitor a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) in an active period, descramble a Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC) of the PDCCH with a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), receive service data scheduled by the PDCCH after the descrambling is successful, and do not need to monitor the PDCCH in a sleep period, thereby saving power consumption of the terminal device. Similarly, for the PTM transmission mode, the DRX transmission mode may enable the network device and the plurality of terminal devices to periodically monitor the PDCCH in the active period, descramble the CRC with a group radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI), receive service data scheduled by the PDCCH after success, and monitor the PDCCH without the G-RNTI in the dormant period.

However, for a DRX transmission mode corresponding to a PTP transmission scheme of a multicast transmission technique, the active period and the dormant period are specific to each terminal device, and for a DRX transmission mode corresponding to a PTM transmission scheme, the active period and the dormant period are the same for a multicast session, that is, common to a plurality of terminal devices. Therefore, due to the limitations of the active period and the dormant period set in the DRX transmission mode, when the terminal device is in the dormant period of the DRX transmission mode, the PTM transmission mode or PTP transmission mode cannot be used in time to transmit the service, and it is necessary to wait for entering the active period to transmit the service. Therefore, how to transmit the service in the PTM transmission scheme or PTP transmission scheme in time becomes a problem to be solved urgently in the multicast transmission in which the DRX transmission mode is enabled.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can adopt a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode to carry out data transmission in time.

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 is applicable to a terminal device configured with a first discontinuous reception mode, and comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from the network equipment, if a first condition is met, an activation state timer in a first discontinuous receiving mode is started according to the first indication information, and data from the network equipment are received in a first transmission mode. The first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is carried out by adopting a first transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is a point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission mode or a point-to-point (PTP) transmission mode. The first condition includes that the terminal device is in an inactive state (i.e. a sleep period) in a first discontinuous reception mode, which is a discontinuous reception mode DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode.

Based on the communication method provided by the first aspect, when the terminal device configured with the first discontinuous reception mode is in an inactive state in the first discontinuous reception mode, the terminal device starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information, so as to receive data from the network device in the first transmission mode. The first discontinuous reception mode is a DRX corresponding to a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode. Therefore, the terminal equipment configured with DRX can adopt a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode to carry out data transmission in time according to the first indication information.

In one possible design, the active-state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode may be started immediately. In this way, the terminal device can enter the active state of the DRX transmission mode as soon as possible to receive data, thereby reducing the data transmission delay.

In a possible design, the activation status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode may be started after waiting for the first time period K1 and/or the second time period K2. That is, if the first condition is satisfied, starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information may include: and if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a first time T1 according to the first indication information. The first time T1 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1, and T0 is the time when the terminal device receives the first indication information. Or if the first condition is satisfied, starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information, where the starting may include: and if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a second time T2 according to the first indication information. And the second time T2 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1+ K2, and T0 is the time when the terminal equipment receives the first indication information.

The method takes the processing time of the terminal equipment into consideration, the activation state timer can be started at a more proper time, the time is reserved for reading the first indication information, the activation state timer can be prevented from being started without reading the first indication information, and the time for starting the activation state timers of different terminal equipment can be aligned.

Optionally, the first time period K1 and/or the second time period K2 may be predefined by a protocol, and values of the first time period K1 may be different for different terminal devices, and similarly, the second time period K2 may also be different.

In one possible design, the first indication information may include one or more of the following: a group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, a first time period K1, and a second time period K2, a Temporary Mobile Group Identity (TMGI), a service Identity (service ID), a session Identity (session ID), and a multicast radio bearer Identity (MRB ID).

In a possible design, the first indication information is used to indicate that data transmission is performed by using a first transmission method, and may include: the first indication information is used for indicating switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, or the first indication information is used for indicating the first transmission mode to enter an activated state. The second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

That is, the first indication information may indicate switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme, or the first indication information may indicate switching from the PTP transmission scheme to the PTM transmission scheme, so that the transmission scheme may be selected in time. Alternatively, the first indication information may indicate that the PTM transmission method is activated or enabled; alternatively, the first indication information may indicate that the PTM transmission method is set from a deactivated state to an activated state. Therefore, the data transmission can be carried out by selecting the transmission mode in time.

In a possible design, the receiving, by the terminal device, the first indication information from the network device may include: the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting a second transmission mode. In this way, the first indication information indicating that the second transmission mode is switched to the first transmission mode or the first indication information indicating that the first transmission mode enters the activated state may be received by the second transmission mode.

In one possible design, the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, and the receiving, by the terminal device, the first indication information from the network device may include: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from the network equipment in a first transmission mode.

Thus, if the second transmission mode is currently adopted, the terminal device may receive the indication information for switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode through the first transmission mode. Specifically, when the second transmission mode is adopted, DRX of the first transmission mode may be in an active state, and signaling (e.g., first indication information) may be transmitted through the first transmission mode, but data or traffic may not be received through the first transmission mode.

In a possible design, if the first condition is satisfied, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information includes: and if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the configured first discontinuous reception mode. That is, the active state timer is started when the first condition is satisfied to wait for the configured DRX of the first transmission mode to enter the active state.

In a possible design, the communication method provided in the first aspect may further include: and if the first condition is met, receiving data from the network equipment through a second transmission mode, wherein the second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode. Therefore, before the first discontinuous reception mode enters the activated state, the second transmission mode can be adopted to receive the data from the network equipment, and packet loss can be avoided.

In a second aspect, a method of communication is provided. The communication method comprises the following steps: the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment, if a first condition is met, an activation state timer in a first discontinuous receiving mode is started, and data are sent to the terminal equipment in a first transmission mode. The first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is carried out by adopting a first transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is a point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission mode or a point-to-point (PTP) transmission mode. The first condition comprises that the terminal equipment is in an inactive state in a first discontinuous reception mode, and the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode DRX corresponding to a first transmission mode. The first time period or the second time period may be a time reserved for starting the active state timer, so that data can be correctly received and power consumption can be saved.

In one possible design, the first indication information may include one or more of the following: the group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, the cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, the first time period K1, the second time period K2, the temporary mobile group identifier TMGI, the service identifier, the session identifier and the multicast radio bearer identifier MRB ID.

In a possible design, the sending, by the network device, the first indication information to the terminal device may include: and the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment by adopting a second transmission mode.

In a possible design, the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, and the sending, by the network device, the first indication information to the terminal device may include: the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment in a first transmission mode.

In a possible design, the first indication information includes a first time period K1, and the starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied may include: if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a first time T1. The first time T1 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1, and T0 is the time when the terminal device receives the first indication information.

In a possible design, the first indication information includes a first time period K1 and a second time period K2, and the starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied includes: and if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a second time T2. And the second time T2 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1+ K2, and T0 is the time when the terminal equipment receives the first indication information.

In a possible design, if the first condition is satisfied, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode includes: and if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first discontinuous reception mode.

In a possible design, the communication method provided in the second aspect may further include: and if the first condition is met, sending data to the terminal equipment through a second transmission mode, wherein the second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

In addition, for technical effects of the communication method according to the second aspect, reference may be made to technical effects of the communication method according to any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and details are not repeated here.

In a third aspect, a communications apparatus is provided. The communication device is adapted to a communication device configured with a first discontinuous reception mode, the communication device comprising: a receiving and sending module and a processing module. The receiving and sending module is used for receiving first indication information from the network equipment. And the processing module is used for starting the activated state timer in the first discontinuous receiving mode according to the first indication information if the first condition is met. The receiving and sending module is further used for receiving data from the network equipment in a first transmission mode. The first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is carried out by adopting a first transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is a point-to-multipoint PTM transmission mode or a point-to-point PTP transmission mode. The first condition includes that the communication device is in an inactive state in a first discontinuous reception mode, which is a discontinuous reception mode DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to receive the first indication information from the network device by using a second transmission method.

In a possible design, the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, and the transceiver module is further configured to receive the first indication information from the network device in the first transmission mode.

In a possible design manner, the first indication information includes a first time period K1, and the processing module is further configured to start an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a first time T1 according to the first indication information if a first condition is satisfied. The first time T1 is greater than or equal to T0+ K1, and T0 is the time when the communication device receives the first indication information.

In a possible design manner, the first indication information includes a first time period K1 and a second time period K2, and the processing module is further configured to meet the first condition, and start the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information at the second time T2. The second time T2 is greater than or equal to T0+ K1+ K2, and T0 is the time when the communication device receives the first indication information.

In a possible design, the processing module is further configured to start an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the configured first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied.

Optionally, the processing module is further configured to start an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information and the configured first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to receive data from the network device through a second transmission mode if the first condition is met, where the second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

It should be noted that the transceiver module according to the third aspect may include a receiving module and a transmitting module. The receiving module is used for receiving data and/or signaling from the network equipment; the sending module is used for sending data and/or signaling to the network equipment. The specific implementation manner of the transceiver module is not specifically limited in the present application.

Optionally, the communication device according to the third aspect may further include a storage module, which stores the program or the instructions. The program or instructions, when executed by the processing module, cause the communication apparatus of the third aspect to perform the method of the first aspect.

It should be noted that the communication apparatus described in the third aspect may be a terminal device, or may be a chip (system) or other component or assembly that can be installed in the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

In addition, for technical effects of the communication apparatus according to the third aspect, reference may be made to technical effects of the communication method according to any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and details are not repeated here.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device includes: a receiving and sending module and a processing module. The receiving and sending module is used for sending the first indication information to the terminal equipment. And the processing module is used for starting the activated state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is met. And the transceiver module is also used for sending data to the terminal equipment by adopting a first transmission mode. The first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is carried out by adopting a first transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is a point-to-multipoint PTM transmission mode or a point-to-point PTP transmission mode. The first condition includes that the terminal device is in an inactive state in a first discontinuous reception mode, and the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode (DRX) corresponding to the first transmission mode.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send the first indication information to the terminal device by using a second transmission mode.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send the first indication information to the terminal device by using a first transmission mode.

In a possible design, the first indication information includes a first time period K1, and the processing module is further configured to start an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a first time T1 if a first condition is met. The first time T1 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1, and T0 is the time when the terminal device receives the first indication information.

In a possible design manner, the first indication information includes a first time period K1 and a second time period K2, and the processing module is further configured to start the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a second time T2 if the first condition is met. And the second time T2 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1+ K2, and the time T0 is the time when the terminal equipment receives the first indication information.

In a possible design, the processing module is further configured to start an active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied.

In a possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send data to the terminal device through a second transmission mode if the first condition is met, where the second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

It should be noted that the transceiver module described in the fourth aspect may include a receiving module and a transmitting module. The receiving module is used for receiving data and/or signaling from the terminal equipment; the sending module is used for sending data and/or signaling to the terminal equipment. The specific implementation manner of the transceiver module is not specifically limited in the present application.

Optionally, the communication device of the fourth aspect may further include a storage module storing the program or the instructions. The program or instructions, when executed by the processing module, enable the communication device of the fourth aspect to perform the method of the second aspect.

It should be noted that the communication apparatus according to the fourth aspect may be a network device, or may be a chip (system) or other component or assembly that can be installed in the network device, which is not limited in this application.

In addition, for technical effects of the communication apparatus according to the fourth aspect, reference may be made to technical effects of the communication method according to any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, and details are not repeated here.

In a fifth aspect, a communications apparatus is provided. The communication device includes: a processor. The processor is configured to perform the communication method according to any one of the possible implementation manners of the first aspect to the second aspect.

In one possible design, the communication device of the fifth aspect may further include a memory. The processor is coupled to a memory for storing the computer program.

The processor may be adapted to execute a computer program stored in the memory to cause the communication method as described in any of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the second aspect to be performed.

In one possible design, the communication device of the fifth aspect may further include a transceiver. The transceiver may be a transmit-receive circuit or an input/output port. The transceiver may be used for the communication device to communicate with other devices.

It should be noted that the input port may be configured to implement the receiving function according to the first aspect to the second aspect, and the output port may be configured to implement the transmitting function according to the first aspect to the second aspect.

In this application, the communication apparatus according to the fifth aspect may be a terminal device, a network device, or a chip system disposed inside the terminal device or the network device.

Moreover, for technical effects of the communication apparatus according to the fifth aspect, reference may be made to technical effects of the communication method according to any implementation manner of the first aspect to the second aspect, and details are not repeated here.

In a sixth aspect, a communication system is provided. The communication system comprises a communication device according to the second aspect and a communication device according to the third aspect.

Alternatively, the communication system comprises a communication device according to the third aspect for implementing the method according to the first aspect and a communication device according to the fourth aspect for implementing the method according to the second aspect. Illustratively, the communication system may include a network device and one or more terminal devices.

In a seventh aspect, a chip system is provided that includes logic circuitry and input/output ports. Wherein the logic circuit is configured to implement the processing functions according to the first aspect to the second aspect, and the input/output port is configured to implement the transceiving functions according to the first aspect to the second aspect. In particular, the input port may be used to implement the receiving functions referred to in the first to second aspects, and the output port may be used to implement the transmitting functions referred to in the first to second aspects.

In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data implementing the functions referred to in the first to second aspects.

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

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium comprising: computer programs or instructions; the computer program or the instructions, when run on a computer, cause the communication method of any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the second aspect to be performed.

A ninth aspect provides a computer program product comprising a computer program or instructions for causing the communication method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to the second aspect to be performed when the computer program or instructions are run on a computer.

Drawings

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

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a protocol architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a DRX cycle according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 a-4 d are diagrams of alternative DRX cycles provided by embodiments 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 according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7a is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7b is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a transmission mode switching according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a start of an active state timer according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a start active state timer;

fig. 11 is a schematic application diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a flowchart illustrating another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a diagram illustrating a union of DRX cycles according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

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

The technical solution of the embodiments of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, such as a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, a wired network, a vehicle-to-any object (V2X) communication system, a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a multicast/multicast single frequency network (MBSFN) vehicle networking communication system, a 4th generation (WiMAX) mobile communication system, such as a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a global interconnection access (worldwide interoperability for access, microwave access, a 6th generation (microwave access, wireless communication), a fourth generation (NR) communication system, a fifth generation (NR) communication system, and the like.

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 "exemplarily", "for example", etc. are used for indicating as examples, illustrations or explanations. 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 term using examples is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.

In the embodiment of the present invention, "information", "signal", "message", "channel", "signaling" may be used in combination, and it should be noted that the meaning to be expressed is consistent when the difference is not emphasized. "of", "corresponding", and "corresponding" may sometimes be used in combination, it being noted that the intended meaning is consistent when no distinction is made.

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 solutions in the embodiments 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 convenience of understanding the embodiments of the present application, a communication system applicable to the embodiments of the present application will be first described in detail by taking the communication system shown in fig. 1 as an example. Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system to which the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applied.

As shown in fig. 1, the communication system includes a terminal device and a network device. The number of the terminal devices may be one or more.

The terminal device is a terminal device which is accessed to the communication system and has a wireless transceiving function, or a chip system which can be arranged on the terminal device. The terminal equipment may also be referred to as User Equipment (UE), user equipment, access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile Station (MS), remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal unit, terminal station, terminal equipment, wireless communication device, user agent, or user equipment.

For example, the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), a mobile phone (mobile phone), a wireless data card, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a computer, a laptop computer (laptop computer), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, an internet of things (IoT) terminal device, a wireless terminal in an industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in a self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in a remote medical (remote medical) device, a wireless terminal in a smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in a transportation security (smart game), a wireless terminal in a smart game console (smart game), a wireless terminal with a wireless function in a city, a television (smart box), a wireless speaker in a home, a smart phone box (RSU), and the like. An access terminal may be a cellular telephone (cellular phone), a cordless telephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a handheld device (handset) having wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a wearable device, or the like.

For another example, the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be an express terminal in smart logistics (for example, a device capable of monitoring the position of a cargo vehicle, a device capable of monitoring the temperature and humidity of cargo, and the like), a wireless terminal in smart agriculture (for example, a wearable device capable of collecting data related to livestock and poultry, and the like), a wireless terminal in smart building (for example, a smart elevator, a fire monitoring device, a smart meter, and the like), a wireless terminal in smart medical treatment (for example, a wearable device capable of monitoring the physiological state of human or animals), a wireless terminal in smart transportation (for example, a smart bus, a smart vehicle, a shared bicycle, a charging pile monitoring device, a smart traffic light, a train detector, a gas station, and other sensors, and a smart monitoring and smart parking device, and the like), and a wireless terminal in smart retail (for example, an automatic vending machine, a self-service machine, an unmanned convenience store, and the like). For another example, the terminal device of the present application may be an on-board module, an on-board component, an on-board chip, or an on-board unit that is built in the vehicle as one or more components or units, and the vehicle may implement the method provided by the present application by using the built-in on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip, or on-board unit.

The network device is a device located on the network side of the communication system and having a wireless transceiving function, or a chip system that can be installed in the device.

The network devices include, but are not limited to: an Access Point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, such as a home gateway, a router, a server, a switch, a bridge, etc., an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a transmission point (BTS and retransmission point, TRP or transmission point, etc.), and may also be 5G, such as a gbb in an NR system, or a TRP, a transmission point (TP or TP), a group of antennas or antennas in a Wi-Fi system, such as a group of antennas or antennas, a group of antennas, a radio network panel (rs), or a group of antennas, a radio network panel (RSU), or a roadside panel (RSU), and/or a radio network controller (BSC) in a Wi-Fi system.

It should be noted that the communication method provided in this embodiment of the present application may be applicable to any two nodes shown in fig. 1, and for specific implementation, reference may be made to the following method embodiment, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that the solutions in the embodiments of the present application may also be applied to other communication systems, and the corresponding names may also be replaced with names of corresponding functions in other communication systems.

It should be appreciated that fig. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram of an example for ease of understanding only, and that other network devices, and/or other terminal devices, not shown in fig. 1, may also be included in the communication system.

In order to make the embodiments of the present application clearer, a part of contents and concepts related to the embodiments of the present application are collectively described below.

1. PTM transmission mode and PTP transmission mode

The PTM transmission scheme is a technique for establishing a dedicated bearer for the MBS service and simultaneously transmitting the MBS service to a plurality of terminal devices through a common transmission channel or a group scheduling manner in a multicast manner, and may support an Unacknowledged Mode (UM) of Radio Link Control (RLC).

The PTP transmission mode is to establish a bearer dedicated to the terminal device, send the bearer to the terminal device in a unicast manner, and support an RLC Acknowledged Mode (AM) or an UM mode.

When a large number of terminal devices need to receive a certain MBS service, sending the service in a unicast mode requires establishing dedicated bearers for the large number of terminal devices, consuming resources. If the service is sent to the terminal equipment in a multicast mode, all the terminal equipment interested in the service can receive the MBS through the special MBS bearer by establishing the special MBS bearer, so that the air interface resources can be saved, the frequency spectrum utilization rate is improved, and the transmission efficiency is improved.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a protocol architecture provided in the embodiment of the present application.

With reference to fig. 2 (a) and fig. 2 (b), when a network device performs multicast transmission, a data packet in a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity is transmitted to a Media Access Control (MAC) entity through an RLC entity, and then the data packet is sent through a physical layer, and a plurality of terminal devices receive the data packet. If the PTM transmission mode is adopted, the terminal equipment can monitor G-RNTI, and the data packet is sent to the terminal equipment through a PTM path or a PTM branch or a PTM leg (leg) or an entity for PTM transmission. If a PTP transmission mode is adopted, the terminal device may monitor the C-RNTI, and the data packet is sent to the terminal device through a PTP path or a PTP branch or a PTP leg (leg) or an entity for PTP transmission. Transmission paths where paths, branches, legs, or entities are schematic depictions of corresponding transmission means, and this application is not intended to be limiting.

As shown in fig. 2 (a) and fig. 2 (b), the network device includes a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). Alternatively, the CU and the DU in the embodiment of the present application may be understood as a division of the radio access network device from a logical function perspective. The CU and the DU may be physically separated or disposed together, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the application. CUs and DUs may be partitioned according to protocol layers of the wireless network. Illustratively, the PDCP entity is located in the CU, and the RLC entity and the MAC entity are located in the DU. The CU and the DU communicate with each other via a logical interface (e.g., F1 interface). Or the network device may not distinguish between CUs and DUs. It is understood that the division of the CU and the DU processing functions according to the protocol layer is only an example, and may also be performed in other manners, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that the protocol architecture of the network device in fig. 2 (a) and fig. 2 (b) is not limited.

In fig. 2 (a), the terminal device configures split MRB (split-MRB), taking terminal device 1 as an example, a PDCP entity of terminal device 1 connects an RLC1 entity and an RLC2 entity, where the RLC1 entity may correspond to a PTP path and the RLC2 entity may correspond to a PTM path. For terminal device 1, the ptp path may include a PDCP entity of network device, an RLC1 entity of network device, an MAC entity of terminal device 1, an RLC1 entity of terminal device 1, a PDCP entity of terminal device 1. The PTM path may include a PDCP entity of the network device, an RLC2 entity of the network device, an MAC entity of the terminal device, an RLC2 entity of the terminal device, a PDCP entity of the terminal device.

For terminal device 2, the ptp path may include a PDCP entity of network device, an RLC3 entity of network device, an MAC entity of terminal device 2, an RLC2 entity of terminal device 2, a PDCP entity of terminal device 2. The PTM path may include a PDCP entity of the network device, an RLC2 entity of the network device, an MAC entity of the terminal device 2, an RLC1 entity of the terminal device 2, a PDCP entity of the terminal device.

In fig. 2 (b), the terminal device configures only a PTM path MRB (MRB with PTM leg only) that is available for receiving multicast data. The PTM path may include a PDCP entity of the network device, an RLC2 entity of the network device, an MAC entity of the terminal device, an RLC entity of the terminal device, a PDCP entity of the terminal device.

2、DRX

For example, DRX introduced by the multicast transmission technology may also be referred to as MBS-specific DRX (MBS-specific DRX), and the embodiments of the present application take DRX as an example for explanation.

When the terminal device is configured with the discontinuous reception mode, the terminal device may periodically enter a sleep mode at some time, and wake up from the sleep mode when monitoring the PDCCH slot is needed instead of monitoring the PDCCH slot, so as to save power consumption of the terminal device.

DRX in this application may refer to DRX used when the terminal device is in a connected state (the terminal device has completed an initial access procedure), i.e., connected DRX (C-DRX).

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a DRX cycle according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 3, a discontinuous reception mode cycle (DRX cycle) includes an active period and a DRX sleep period (Opportunity for DRX).

The active period may be a time period during which the terminal device monitors the PDCCH. For example, when the terminal device is in an awake period (On Duration), in an awake state, the terminal device is in an active period and continuously monitors a downlink PDCCH slot during the active period.

When the terminal device is in the DRX sleep period, the terminal device is in a sleep state (also referred to as an inactive state) and does not monitor the PDCCH slot during the sleep state, so that power consumption of the terminal device can be saved.

Fig. 4 a-4 d are diagrams of other DRX cycles provided by embodiments of the present application.

As shown in fig. 4a, the active period may include an awake period, and may further include a time included in a DRX Inactivity Timer (DRX Inactivity Timer) and/or a time included in a Retransmission Timer (Retransmission Timer). That is, when an awake state timer (OndurationTimer), a DRX inactivity timer (DRX-inactivity timer), and/or a DRX retransmission timer (DRX-retransmission timer) are running, the terminal device monitors a PDCCH slot for an active period.

Illustratively, the awake state timer represents the duration of time that the terminal device is in the awake state during the DRX cycle.

When the terminal equipment is in a DRX activation state, when the terminal equipment carries out uplink or downlink initial data transmission scheduling, the terminal equipment starts or restarts a DRX-inactivity timer, so that the terminal equipment is still in an activation period after the onduration timer is overtime until the DRX-inactivity timer is overtime.

When the terminal device is in the DRX active state, the terminal device may start or restart a DRX-retransmission timer when the terminal device does not successfully receive the downlink data.

As shown in fig. 4b, if the drx-inactivity timer is running, the terminal device continues to monitor the downlink PDCCH time slot until the drx-inactivity timer times out even if the originally configured onduration timer has timed out.

Illustratively, the DRX retransmission Timer (DRX-retransmission Timer) specifies that a PDCCH for HARQ retransmission is monitored for DRX retransmission time Timer duration after a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round-trip time (RTT) Timer (Timer) expires.

Hybrid automatic repeat request round trip delay Timer (HARQ RTT Timer): indicating the time length that the terminal device needs to wait before receiving the downlink retransmission data. If a (transport block, TB) decoding of a certain dl HARQ process fails, the terminal device may assume that there is a retransmission at least after "HARQ RTT", and thus the terminal device does not need to monitor the PDCCH when the HARQ RTT timer is running.

As shown in fig. 4c, if the terminal device fails to decode the DCI of the first transmission data, a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) is fed back to the network device, and the HARQ RTT Timer is started. When the HARQ RTT Timer expires and the data received by the corresponding HARQ process is not decoded successfully, the terminal device may start a drx-retransmission Timer for the HARQ process. The drx-retransmission timer may indicate the maximum time the terminal waits for a retransmission. When the drx-retransmission timer is running, the terminal may monitor the PDCCH for HARQ retransmission.

The method adapts to different requirements of terminal equipment for sending data, introduces two scenes of a short DRX period and a long DRX period, and supports the terminal equipment to configure different DRX strategies according to different quality of service class identifiers (QCIs).

In conjunction with fig. 4d, the terminal device may configure the long DRX cycle and the short DRX cycle, and default to apply the long DRX cycle, if DRX-inactivity timer is triggered, it indicates that there is data to be transmitted, and then there may be continuous data transmission. Therefore, after the DRX-inactivity timer is overtime, the DRX-inactivity timer enters a short DRX cycle, which is shorter than the sleep period of the long DRX cycle, and can perform data transmission faster, so as to achieve a better service delay effect. After the terminal equipment enters a short period, the drxShortCycleTimer is started. When the drxShortCycleTimer times out, that is, the PDCCH is not received in a plurality of subframes lasting within a plurality of short periods, the long period is entered at this time, so as to further save the power consumption of the terminal device.

3. HARQ technique

The HARQ technology is a method for guaranteeing reliability of data transmission.

For example, an automatic retransmission request (ARQ) technique refers to that a data receiving end detects whether a received data packet is erroneous after receiving data, and if there is no error, the receiving end sends a positive Acknowledgement (ACK) to the data sending end. After receiving the ACK, the data sending end will then send the next data packet. If the data packet is received by the data transmitting end, the data receiving end sends a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) to the data transmitting end, and the data transmitting end retransmits the same data after receiving the NACK.

However, some packets, although not decoded correctly, contain useful information, and if the packet is discarded, the useful information is lost. Thus, by using HARQ with soft combining (HARQ with soft combining), the received error data packet is stored in a HARQ buffer (buffer) and combined with the subsequently received retransmission data packet, so as to obtain a more reliable data packet than decoding alone (the "soft combining" process). And then decoding the combined data packet, and repeating the process of requesting retransmission and then carrying out soft combination if the combined data packet still fails.

Each transmitted data occupies one HARQ process (process) number when performing HARQ, so that there may be multiple parallel HARQ processes simultaneously, and each process has its own process number: when one HARQ process is waiting for acknowledgement information, the data transmitting end may continue to transmit new data using another HARQ process. Each HARQ process typically processes only one TB (transport block) in a Transmission Time Interval (TTI), such as a slot, or a subframe. Each HARQ process needs to have an independent HARQ buffer at the data receiving end in order to perform soft combining on the received data.

The following explains the concept related to HARQ.

The HARQ process number (HARQ process number) may be referred to as HARQ process identification (HARQ process ID), uniquely specifying one HARQ process.

A New Data Indicator (NDI), each HARQ process may hold an NDI value, which may use 1 bit to indicate whether scheduled data is initially transmitted or retransmitted. If the NDI value of the same HARQ process changes (NDI toggles (toggle)) compared with the previous value, it indicates that the current transmission is the initial transmission of a new TB, otherwise, the NDI value does not change (NDI toggles (not toggle)) compared with the previous value, it indicates that the current transmission is the retransmission of the same TB.

The Redundancy Version (RV) may be used to indicate the redundancy version used by the current transmission, and may range from 0 to 3.

The communication device provided by the embodiment of the present application will be specifically described below with reference to fig. 5 to 6.

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

The communication apparatus 500 may be a terminal device or a network device, and may also be a chip or other component with corresponding functions applied in the terminal device or the network device. As shown in fig. 5, the communications apparatus 500 can include a processor 501. Optionally, the communication device 500 may also include one or more of a memory 502 and a transceiver 503. Where the processor 501 may be coupled to one or more of the memory 502 and the transceiver 503, such as via a communication bus, the processor 501 may also be used alone.

The following describes each component of the communication apparatus 500 in detail with reference to fig. 5:

the processor 501 is a control center of the communication apparatus 500, and may be a single processor or a collective term for a plurality of processing elements. For example, processor 501 is one or more Central Processing Units (CPUs), may be an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present application, such as: one or more microprocessors (DSPs), or one or more Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).

The memory 502 is used to store computer programs and may also store data.

Among other things, the processor 501 may perform various functions of the communication device 500 by executing computer programs stored in the memory 502 and invoking data stored in the memory 502.

In particular implementations, processor 501 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 shown in FIG. 5, for example, as an embodiment.

In particular implementations, communication device 500 may also include multiple processors, such as processor 501 and processor 504 shown in fig. 5, for example, as an example. Each of these processors may be a single-core processor (single-CPU) or a multi-core processor (multi-CPU). A processor herein may refer to one or more communication devices, circuitry, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

Alternatively, memory 502 may be, but is not limited to, a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage communication device that may store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic storage communication device that may store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only ROM (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disc storage medium or other magnetic storage communication device, 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. The memory 502 may be integrated with the processor 501 or may be independent and coupled to the processor 501 through an input/output port (not shown in fig. 5) of the communication device 500, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Illustratively, the input port may be used to implement a receiving function performed by the terminal device or the network device in any of the method embodiments described below, and the output port may be used to implement a transmitting function performed by the terminal device or the network device in any of the method embodiments described below.

The memory 502 can be used for storing computer programs (or codes) for executing the present application, and is controlled by the processor 501 for execution. For the above specific implementation, reference may be made to the following method embodiments, which are not described herein again.

Optionally, a transceiver 503 for communication with other communication devices. For example, when the communication apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the transceiver 503 may be used for communication with a network device. For another example, when the communication device 500 is a network device, the transceiver 503 may be used for communication with a terminal device. In addition, the transceiver 503 may include a receiver and a transmitter (not separately shown in fig. 5). Wherein the receiver is configured to implement a receive function and the transmitter is configured to implement a transmit function. The transceiver 503 may be integrated with the processor 501, or may exist independently, and is coupled to the processor 501 through an input/output port (not shown in fig. 5) of the communication device 500, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that the structure of the communication device 500 shown in fig. 5 does not constitute a limitation of the communication device, and an actual communication device may include more or less components than those shown, or combine some components, or arrange different components.

The actions of the terminal device in the method embodiments described below in this application may be executed by the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 shown in fig. 5 calling a computer program stored in the memory 502 to instruct the terminal device to execute.

The actions of the network device in the method embodiments described below in this application can be executed by the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 shown in fig. 5 calling the computer program stored in the memory 502 to instruct the network device to execute, which is not limited in this embodiment.

It should be noted that all relevant contents of each step related to the following method embodiments may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. For ease of illustration, fig. 6 shows only the main components of the communication device.

The communication device 600 includes a transceiver module 601 and a processing module 602. The communication device 600 may be a terminal device or a network device in the foregoing method embodiments. The transceiver module 601, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is configured to implement a transceiving function performed by a terminal device or a network device in any of the method embodiments described below.

It should be noted that the transceiver module 601 may include a receiving module and a transmitting module (not shown in fig. 6). The receiving module is used for receiving data and/or signaling from other equipment; the sending module is used for sending data and/or signaling to other equipment. The specific implementation manner of the transceiver module is not specifically limited in the present application. The transceiver module may be constituted by a transceiver circuit, a transceiver or a communication interface.

The processing module 602 may be configured to implement the processing function performed by the terminal device or the network device in any method embodiment described below. The processing module 602 may be a processor.

In the present embodiment, the communication apparatus 600 is presented in a form of dividing each functional module in an integrated manner. A "module" herein may refer to a particular ASIC, a circuit, a processor and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other device that provides the functionality described herein. In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the communication device 600 may take the form of the communication device 500 shown in FIG. 5.

For example, the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 shown in fig. 5 may cause the communication method in the method embodiments described below to be performed by calling a computer program stored in the memory 502.

Specifically, the functions/implementation procedures of the transceiver module 601 and the processing module 602 in fig. 6 can be implemented by the processor 501 in the communication device 500 shown in fig. 5 calling a computer program stored in the memory 502. Alternatively, the function/implementation process of the processing module 602 in fig. 6 may be implemented by the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 shown in fig. 5 calling a computer program stored in the memory 502, and the function/implementation process of the transceiver module 601 in fig. 6 may be implemented by the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 shown in fig. 5.

Since the communication apparatus 600 provided in this embodiment can perform the following communication method, the following method embodiments can be referred to for technical effects, which are not described herein again.

It should be noted that one or more of the above modules can be implemented in software, hardware or a combination of both. When any of the above modules is implemented in software, the software is in the form of computer program instructions and stored in a memory, which can be used by a processor to execute the program instructions and implement the above method procedures. The processor may be built in a SoC (system on chip) or ASIC, or may be a separate semiconductor chip. The processor may further include necessary hardware accelerators such as field programmable gate arrays (fpgas), programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), or logic circuits implementing dedicated logic operations in addition to the core for executing software instructions to perform the operations or processes.

When the above modules are implemented in hardware, the hardware may be any one or any combination of a CPU, a microprocessor, a DSP chip, a Micro Controller Unit (MCU), an artificial intelligence processor, an ASIC, an SoC, an FPGA, a PLD, a dedicated digital circuit, a hardware accelerator, or a non-integrated discrete device, which can run necessary software or is independent of software to perform the method flow described below.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application in conjunction with fig. 7 a-14 will be described in detail below.

Exemplarily, fig. 7a is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication method may be applied to communication between the network device and the terminal device shown in fig. 1. The communication method provided in fig. 7a is suitable for a terminal device configured with a first discontinuous reception mode, where the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode corresponding to a first transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode.

Optionally, the terminal device may be further configured with a second discontinuous reception mode, where the second discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode corresponding to a second transmission mode, and the second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode, and the second transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

As shown in fig. 7a, the communication method includes the steps of:

s701a, the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information from the network device.

It is understood that the network device described herein may be an access network device.

Exemplarily, the first indication information is used for indicating that the data transmission is performed by using the first transmission mode.

In connection with fig. 2, a CU and/or DU of a network device may send first indication information to a terminal device.

Optionally, the first indication information may be transmitted by one or more of: radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, PDCP control (control) Packet Data Unit (PDU), RLC control PDU, medium access control element (MAC CE), and Downlink Control Information (DCI). Illustratively, when the first indication information is transmitted through RRC signaling and/or PDCP signaling, the first indication information may be transmitted by a CU of the network device or transmitted by the CU through a DU. The first indication information may be transmitted by a DU of the network device when the first indication information is transmitted through RLC signaling (e.g., RLC control PDU), MAC layer signaling (e.g., MAC CE), or physical layer signaling (e.g., DCI). The first indication information may be transmitted by the CU and the DU of the network device when the first indication information is transmitted through at least one of RRC signaling and/or PDCP signaling, and at least one of RLC signaling (e.g., RLC control PDU), MAC layer signaling (e.g., MAC CE), or physical layer signaling (e.g., DCI).

Illustratively, the first transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode.

That is, the first indication information may indicate that the PTM transmission method is used for data transmission or indicate that the PTP transmission method is used for data transmission. Therefore, even if the discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the sleep period, the data transmission can be carried out by adopting the first transmission mode in time according to the first indication information.

In some embodiments, the first time period K1 and the second time period K2 are time periods set for starting an active state timer in a first discontinuous reception mode, and the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the first transmission mode. That is, the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode may be started immediately or after waiting for the first period K1 and/or the second period K2.

Optionally, the first time period K1 or the second time period K2 may be a time reserved for starting the active state timer, so as to correctly receive data and save power consumption.

For example, in the first time period K1, the terminal device may interpret the first indication information, cannot receive data, and may waste power consumption if the timer is started.

For example, for the second time period K2, due to the difference in the capabilities of the terminal devices, some terminal devices interpret the first indication information relatively slowly, some terminal devices interpret the first indication information relatively quickly, and the second time period K2 may be added for the terminal devices interpreting relatively slowly. Therefore, the terminal equipment which reads the first indication information slowly can be prevented from entering the activation period when reading the first indication information, and the activation period is ended and the data receiving time is missed after reading the first indication information if the activation period is short.

It should be noted that the first time period K1 and/or the second time period K2 may be predefined by a protocol, and values of the first time period K1 may be different for different terminal devices, and similarly, the second time period K2 may also be different.

In some embodiments, the first indication may include one or more of: the system comprises a group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, a first time period K1, a second time period K2, a temporary mobile group identifier TMGI, a service identifier service ID, a session identifier session ID and a multicast radio bearer identifier MRB ID.

Optionally, the first indication information may be transmitted through one or more signaling of RRC signaling, PDCP control PDU, T0 control PDU, MAC CE, and DCI.

Illustratively, the first indication information indicating that the data transmission is performed by the first transmission method and the first indication information including the G-RNTI, the C-RNTI, the K1, and/or the K2, the TMGI, the service identifier, the session identifier, and/or the MRB ID may be sent by one signaling or multiple signaling.

For example, the first indication information indicating that the data transmission is performed by the first transmission method and the first indication information including the G-RNTI, the C-RNTI, the K1, the K2, the TMGI, the service identity, the session identity, and/or the MRB ID may be transmitted through the MAC CE. Or, the first indication information indicating that the data transmission is performed by the first transmission method is sent by the MAC CE, and the first indication information including the G-RNTI, the C-RNTI, the K1, the K2, the TMGI, the service identifier, the session identifier, and/or the MRB ID is sent by the RRC.

Optionally, the first indication information may include a mapping of one or more of: the base station comprises a group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, a first time period K1, a second time period K2, a TMGI, a service identifier, a session identifier and an MRB ID.

For example, the MAC CE is mapped to the G-RNTI, and if the first indication information is MAC CE1, the first indication information is mapped to G-RNTI1.

Illustratively, if the first indication information includes the G-RNTI, the temporary mobile group identity TMGI, the service identity service ID, the session identity session ID, and/or the multicast radio bearer identity MRB ID, the first indication information may indicate that the data transmission is performed by using the PTM transmission method.

For example, if the first indication information includes the C-RNTI, the first indication information may indicate that the data transmission is performed by using a PTP transmission method.

In some embodiments, the first indication information is used to indicate that data transmission is performed by using a first transmission method, and may include: the first indication information is used for indicating switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode.

Optionally, the second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

Exemplarily, if the first transmission mode is a PTP transmission mode, the second transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode; or, if the first transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode, the second transmission mode is a PTP transmission mode.

That is, the first indication information may indicate switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme, or the first indication information may indicate switching from the PTP transmission scheme to the PTM transmission scheme, so that the transmission scheme may be selected in time.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a transmission mode switching according to an embodiment of the present application.

With reference to fig. 8, for a terminal device, the DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme and the DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission scheme are independent of each other, the DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme is at each (per) G-RNTI level, and the network device and the plurality of terminal devices jointly maintain the DRX corresponding to one set of PTM transmission schemes. In fig. 8, DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme of terminal device 1 is the same as DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme of terminal device 2.

The DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode is independent for each terminal device, and the DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission modes of different terminal devices may be different. In fig. 8, the active period of DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission scheme of the terminal apparatus 1 and the active period of DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission scheme of the terminal apparatus 2 are different from each other.

In one implementation, the method for switching the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode specifically includes: and when the DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission mode and the DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode are both in the active period, the network equipment sends a switching instruction to the terminal equipment and switches from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode. However, it is necessary to wait for the timing when both DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme and DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission scheme are in the active period, which results in a low data transmission rate. If the MBS service transmitted by the PTM transmission method cannot meet the quality of service (QoS) requirement, the PTM transmission method needs to be switched to the PTP transmission method, and cannot be switched in time, so that the waiting time may cause a service jam.

With reference to fig. 8, for the mode of switching the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, the first indication information in the embodiment of the present application may enable the terminal device to directly switch from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and does not need to wait for the time when the DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode is in the active period, so as to improve the data transmission rate and not cause traffic congestion. The method is also applicable to switching the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode, and is not described again.

In some embodiments, the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application may further include: the network device determines first indication information.

Illustratively, the network device sends the MBS service to the terminal device through the PTM transmission method, and if the MBS service transmitted between the network device and the terminal device through the PTM transmission method cannot meet a quality of service (QoS) requirement, the network device may determine to switch from the PTM transmission method to the PTP transmission method to transmit the relevant service for the terminal device.

Illustratively, the network device sends the MBS service to the terminal device through a PTP transmission mode, and if a large number of other terminal devices need to receive the service, the network device may determine to switch from the PTP transmission mode to a PTM transmission mode, so as to save air interface resources. It should be noted that, the foregoing is only an example provided in the present application, and a scenario in which the network device determines to switch from the second transmission method to the first transmission method is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In other embodiments, the first indication information is used to indicate that data transmission is performed by using the first transmission method, and may include: the first indication information is used for indicating that the first transmission mode enters an activated state.

It should be noted that the first transmission mode being in the active state refers to activating or enabling the first transmission mode, starting to use the first transmission mode, and the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the active period differently. The active period of DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode indicates that DRX is in an awake state (such as the active period shown in fig. 3), which may implicitly indicate that the first transmission mode is activated or enabled to receive data at any time.

The first transmission mode is in a deactivated state, namely the first transmission mode is not activated or enabled, and the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is different from the dormant period. The DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode in the dormant period indicates that the first transmission mode has been activated or enabled, and the DRX is in the dormant state (such as the dormant period shown in fig. 3), so that power consumption can be saved.

Illustratively, the first indication information may indicate that the PTM transmission means is activated or enabled; alternatively, the first indication information may indicate that the PTM transmission method is set from a deactivated state to an activated state. Therefore, the data transmission can be carried out by selecting the transmission mode in time.

Optionally, the network device may determine the first indication information according to whether there is data to be transmitted.

Exemplarily, the network device and the terminal device currently use a PTP transmission mode but do not use a PTM transmission mode, and if some MBS services need to be transmitted through the PTM transmission mode, the first indication information indicates that the PTM transmission mode enters an active state.

In a possible design, the S701a may include: and the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment by adopting a second transmission mode. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting a second transmission mode.

Take the first indication information for indicating the switch from the second transmission method to the first transmission method as an example. The network device and the terminal device are using a second transmission mode, and the network device can transmit the first indication information through the second transmission mode.

Example 1, the example in which the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme is taken. The network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment through a PTM transmission mode, wherein the first indication information can comprise C-RNTI and/or G-RNTI, or the first indication information can not comprise C-RNTI and G-RNTI. The first indication information may include one or more G-RNTIs and one or more C-RNTIs.

Of course, the first indication information may include a G-RNTI, a C-RNTI, a first time period K1, a second time period K2, a temporary mobile group identity TMGI, a service identity, a session identity, and/or a multicast radio bearer identity MRB ID. The first time period K1, and/or the second time period K2 are not described herein. The G-RNTI, the TMGI, the service identifier, the session identifier, and the MRB ID may correspond to services with different granularities, and the G-RNTI is taken as an example in the embodiment of the present application for illustration.

Specifically, the first indication information includes the C-RNTI, which may indicate that the terminal device corresponding to the C-RNTI is switched from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and the C-RNTI and the terminal device are in one-to-one correspondence. The first indication information comprises G-RNTI and can indicate which MBS transmission mode is switched from PTM transmission mode to PTP transmission mode, and different multicast services correspond to different G-RNTI.

For example, when the first indication information includes the C-RNTI and does not include the G-RNTI, the switching of all services transmitted by the terminal device corresponding to the C-RNTI in the PTM transmission manner to the PTP transmission manner may be instructed.

Referring to fig. 2, terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 both currently use a PTM transmission mode G-RNTI service and a G-RNT2 service (not shown in fig. 2), and if the first indication information includes C-RNTI1 and does not include G-RNTI, may indicate to switch the transmission mode of the G-RNTI service and the G-RNT2 service of terminal device 1 from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode. And the terminal equipment 1 receives the first indication information, stops receiving the G-RNTI service and the G-RNT2 service which are transmitted by the PTM transmission mode, and starts monitoring the C-RNTI1.

For another example, when the first indication information includes the G-RNTI and does not include the C-RNTI, the switching of the service corresponding to the G-RNTI of all the terminal devices corresponding to the G-RNTI from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode may be instructed.

Referring to fig. 2, terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 both currently use a PTM transmission mode G-RNTI service and a G-RNT2 service, and if the first indication information includes G-RNTI1 and does not include C-RNTI, may indicate to switch the transmission mode of the G-RNTI1 service of terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and not switch the transmission mode of the G-RNTI2 service. And the terminal equipment 1 and the terminal equipment 2 receive the first indication information, stop receiving the G-RNTI1 service transmitted by the PTM transmission mode, continue receiving the G-RNTI2 service by the PTM transmission mode and start monitoring the C-RNTI1.

For another example, when the first indication information includes the C-RNTI and the G-RNTI, the switching of the service corresponding to the G-RNTI of the terminal device corresponding to the C-RNTI from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode may be instructed.

Referring to fig. 2, terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 both currently use a PTM transmission mode G-RNTI service and a G-RNT2 service, and if the first indication information includes C-RNTI1 and G-RNTI1, the terminal device 1 may instruct to switch the transmission mode of the G-RNTI1 service from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and not switch the transmission mode of the G-RNTI2 service of terminal device 1 and the G-RNTI service and the G-RNT2 service of terminal device 2. The terminal device 1 receives the first indication information, stops receiving the G-RNTI1 service transmitted by the PTM transmission mode, can continue to receive the G-RNTI2 service by the PTM transmission mode, and starts monitoring the C-RNTI1.

For another example, when the first indication information does not include C-RNTI and G-RNTI, the service corresponding to all G-RNTIs of the terminal device corresponding to all C-RNTIs may be switched from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode by default.

Referring to fig. 2, terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 both currently use a PTM transmission mode G-RNTI service and a G-RNT2 service, and if the first indication information does not include C-RNTI and G-RNTI, may indicate to switch the transmission mode of the G-RNTI1 service and the G-RNT2 service of terminal device 1 and terminal device 2 from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode. And the terminal equipment 1 and the terminal equipment 2 receive the first indication information, stop receiving all services transmitted by the PTM transmission mode and start monitoring the C-RNTI1.

It should be noted that the method provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to a case where the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode, and similar to example 1, the specific implementation manner may refer to example 1, and details are not described here again.

Take the example that the first indication information is used to indicate that the first transmission mode enters the active state. The network device and the terminal device are using the second transmission mode, and the network device can transmit the indication information indicating that the first transmission mode enters the activated state through the second transmission mode.

Example 2, take the second transmission mode as a PTP transmission mode, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the PTM transmission mode enters the active state. The network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment in a PTP transmission mode, wherein the first indication information can comprise C-RNTI and/or G-RNTI, or the first indication information can not comprise the C-RNTI and the G-RNTI. The first indication information may include one or more G-RNTIs and one or more C-RNTIs. Of course, the first indication information may include a G-RNTI, a C-RNTI, a first time period K1, a second time period K2, a temporary mobile group identity TMGI, a service identity, a session identity, and/or a multicast radio bearer identity MRB ID. The first time period K1, and/or the second time period K2 are not described herein.

Specifically, the first indication information includes the C-RNTI, and may indicate that the PTM transmission mode of the terminal device corresponding to the C-RNTI is activated. The first indication information comprises G-RNTI, and can indicate to activate the PTM transmission mode of the MBS service corresponding to the G-RNTI and transmit the MBS service corresponding to the G-RNTI through the PTM transmission mode.

For example, when the first indication information includes the C-RNTI and does not include the G-RNTI, the PTM transmission mode of the terminal device corresponding to the C-RNTI may be instructed to be activated, and all services that are desired to be transmitted by the PTM transmission mode are transmitted.

With reference to fig. 2, if the first indication information includes C-RNTI1 and does not include G-RNTI, the PTM transmission mode of the terminal device 1 may be indicated to be activated, and a service corresponding to G-RNTI is transmitted through the PTM transmission mode. And the terminal equipment 1 receives the first indication information and monitors the C-RNTI1.

For another example, when the first indication information includes G-RNTI and does not include C-RNTI, the service corresponding to G-RNTI may be indicated to be transmitted by a PTM transmission method, and specifically, which PTM transmission method of the terminal device is activated may be determined by the network device sending the first indication information.

Referring to fig. 2, if the network device sends the first indication information including the G-RNTI1 but not including the C-RNTI to the terminal device 1 through the PTP transmission mode (e.g., through the PTP-path 1 corresponding to the terminal device 1), the network device may indicate to activate the PTM transmission mode of the terminal device 1 and transmit the service through the PTM transmission mode. And the terminal equipment 1 receives the first indication information and monitors the C-RNTI1. Of course, the first indication information may also include G-RNTI other than G-RNTI1 so as to transmit a plurality of services by PTM transmission.

That is, to which terminal device the network device sends the first indication information, which terminal device activates the PTM transmission scheme may be defaulted. Which terminal device needs to activate the PTM transmission manner may be known by the C-RNTI included in the first indication information, or may be the terminal device that receives the first indication information by default.

For another example, the first indication information may include C-RNTI and G-RNTI, and may indicate that the PTM transmission method of the terminal device corresponding to the C-RNTI is activated, and the service corresponding to the G-RNTI is transmitted by using the PTM transmission method.

With reference to fig. 2, if the network device sends the first indication information including G-RNTI1 and C-RNTI2 to the terminal device 1 through the PTP transmission mode, the network device may instruct to activate the PTM transmission mode of the terminal device 1, and transmit the service corresponding to G-RNTI2 through the PTM transmission mode. And the terminal equipment 1 receives the first indication information and monitors the C-RNTI2. Of course, the first indication information may further include a G-RNTI other than G-RNTI2, so as to transmit a plurality of services through PTM transmission.

For another example, the first indication information may not include C-RNTI and G-RNTI, and the PTM transmission method of the terminal device that receives the first indication information may be activated by default, and all services that are desired to be transmitted by the PTM transmission method may be transmitted by using the PTM transmission method.

Referring to fig. 2, the network device sends first indication information to the terminal device 1 through the PTP-path 1 corresponding to the terminal device 1, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the PTM transmission mode enters the active state, and may indicate that the PTM transmission mode of the terminal device 1 is activated, so as to transmit a service through PTM. The terminal equipment receives the first indication information and receives all services which want to be transmitted by the PTM transmission mode through the PTM transmission mode.

Take the example that the first indication information is used to indicate that the first transmission mode enters the deactivated state. The network device and the terminal device are using the first transmission mode, and the network device can transmit the indication information indicating that the first transmission mode enters the activation state through the second transmission mode.

In another possible design manner, when the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, the step S701a may include: the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment in a first transmission mode. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting a first transmission mode.

For example, if the second transmission mode is currently used and the indication is to be switched from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, the network device may send the indication information through the first transmission mode.

That is, when the second transmission mode is adopted, the first transmission mode may be in an active state, and signaling (for example, the first indication information) may be transmitted through the first transmission mode, but data or traffic may not be received through the first transmission mode.

Take the first indication information for indicating switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme as an example. The network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device in a PTP transmission manner, and the specific implementation manner may refer to example 1 described above, which is not described herein again.

Take the first indication information for indicating the switching from the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode as an example. The network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device by PTM transmission, and the specific implementation manner may refer to example 1 above.

Optionally, when the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, the network device sends the first indication information by using which transmission mode of the first transmission mode and the second transmission mode is used, where the first indication information is related to a state where the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is located.

For example, if DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in an active period, the network device may send the first indication information by using any one of the first transmission mode and the second transmission mode.

For example, the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme. If the DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode is in the active period, the network device may send the first indication information by using a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode.

For example, if the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the sleep period, the network device may send the first indication information by using the second transmission mode.

For example, the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme. If the DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode is in the dormant period, and the terminal device is in the sleep state at this time and cannot receive the first indication information, the network device may send the first indication information by using a PTM transmission mode.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to receive the first indication information from the network device. Optionally, the transceiver 503 is further configured to perform any one or more possible transceiving functions related to the terminal device in S701a, and the processor 501 is configured to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the terminal device in S701 a.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, the transceiver module 601 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to receive the first indication information from the network device. Optionally, the processing module 602 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions related to the terminal device in S701a, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions related to the terminal device in S701 a.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a network device, the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 may be used to transmit the first indication information to the terminal device. Optionally, the processor 501 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the network device in S701a, and the transceiver 503 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved in the network device in S701 a.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a network device, the transceiver module 601 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to transmit the first indication information to the terminal device. Optionally, the processing module 602 may be configured to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the network device in S701a, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more possible transceiver functions related to the network device in S701 a.

S702a, when the network device meets a first condition, the network device starts an active status timer in a first discontinuous reception mode.

Illustratively, the first condition includes that the terminal device is in an inactive state in a first discontinuous reception mode, and the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the first transmission mode.

Referring to fig. 3, the first condition includes that the discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme or the PTP transmission scheme is in the sleep period.

Therefore, when the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode of the terminal equipment is in the dormant period, the activation state timer under the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is started so that the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the wake-up state, and therefore the data transmission can be carried out by using the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode in time.

Alternatively, the active-state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode may be an awake-state timer (On duration timer), a DRX inactive-state timer (DRX-inactivity timer), or an MBS-DRX awake-state timer (MBS-DRX-On duration timer), and the DRX is in an awake state while the On duration timer, the DRX-inactivity timer, or the MBS-DRX-On duration timer is running.

That is, the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode may use an existing timer (e.g., an On duration timer, DRX-inactivity timer) or a newly added timer (e.g., MBS-DRX-On duration timer), which is not limited in this application, and the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode may be set in the active period.

With reference to fig. 2, a CU of a network device may send first indication information to a DU of the network device, which indicates that the DU of the network device starts an active status timer in a first discontinuous reception mode when a first condition is satisfied.

For example, the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the second transmission method to the first transmission method. The network device transmits the service 1 by using the second transmission mode at present, when the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in a sleep state, the active state timer under the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is started, so that the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in an awakening state, the service 1 is transmitted by using the first transmission mode, and the service 1 is transmitted by using the second transmission mode in a pause mode, so that the used transmission mode can be selected in time.

It should be noted that, when the first drx mode is in the active period, the timer is already running, the active status timer in the first drx mode may not be started any more, and the switching between transmission modes may be successfully completed or the transmission mode may be successfully activated.

Optionally, the network device may start the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode immediately when the first condition is satisfied, or may wait for a period of time to start the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode.

In a possible design, the S702a may include: if the first condition is met, the network device starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a first time T1.

Optionally, the first time T1 is greater than or equal to T0+ K1, and T0 is a time when the terminal device receives the first indication information.

Specifically, the time may be measured in milliseconds, subframes, or time slots.

It is to be understood that T0 may also be a time of a received DCI for scheduling the first indication information, and the application is not limited in particular.

Optionally, the first indication information includes a first time period K1. K1 may also be preset in the protocol.

Illustratively, if the first indication information is sent through RRC signaling, PDCP control PDU, T0 control PDU, MAC CE, and/or DCI, T0 may be a time when the terminal device receives the RRC signaling, PDCP control PDU, T0 control PDU, MAC CE, and/or DCI.

Take the first indication information for indicating the switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme as an example. With reference to fig. 9, it is assumed that the DRX of the PTP transmission mode is in the sleep period, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device through the PTM transmission mode, and the terminal device receives the first indication information at time T0, the network device starts an awake state timer of the DRX of the PTP transmission mode at time T0+ K1 (taking the example that the active state timer is the awake state timer), so as to switch from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and may perform data transmission by using the PTP transmission mode, thereby implementing flexible selection of the transmission mode.

Take the first indication information for indicating the switching from the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode as an example. With reference to fig. 10, it is assumed that DRX of a PTM transmission mode is in a dormant period, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device through a PTP transmission mode, and the terminal device receives the first indication information at time T0, the network device starts an awake state timer of the DRX of the PTP transmission mode at time T0+ K1 (taking the example that the active state timer is the awake state timer), so as to switch from the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode, perform data transmission by using the PTM transmission mode, and implement flexible selection of the transmission mode.

Take the first indication information for indicating the PTM transmission method to enter the active state as an example. With reference to fig. 10, assuming that the DRX of the PTM transmission scheme is in the dormant period, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device through the PTP transmission scheme, and the terminal device receives the first indication information at time T0, the network device starts an awake state timer of the DRX of the PTM transmission scheme at time T0+ K1 (taking the example that the active state timer is the awake state timer), so that the PTM transmission scheme is activated and performs an active period, and data transmission can be performed by using the PTM transmission scheme, thereby achieving flexible selection of the transmission scheme.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 9, after starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode, when the terminal device performs uplink or downlink initial data transmission scheduling, the network device may start or restart a drx-inactivity timer.

Optionally, if the decoding fails, data retransmission may be performed, the HARQ RTT Timer is started, and then the drx-retransmission Timer is started.

In another possible design, the first indication information includes a first time period K1 and a second time period K2, and S702a may include: if the first condition is met, the network device starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a second time T2.

Optionally, the second time T2 is greater than or equal to T0+ K1+ K2, and T0 is a time when the terminal device receives the first indication information.

Take the first indication information for indicating switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme as an example. With reference to fig. 9, it is assumed that the DRX of the PTP transmission mode is in the sleep period, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device through the PTM transmission mode, and the terminal device receives the first indication information at time T0, the network device starts an awake state timer of the DRX of the PTP transmission mode at time T0+ K1+ K2 (taking the example that the active state timer is the awake state timer), so as to switch from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and may perform data transmission by using the PTP transmission mode, thereby implementing flexible selection of the transmission mode.

As for the specific implementation manner that when the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode and the first indication information is used to indicate that the PTM transmission mode enters the active state, if the first condition is satisfied, the network device starts the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at the second time T2, refer to fig. 10, and if the first condition is satisfied, the network device starts the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at the first time T1, which is not described herein again.

In another possible design, the first indication information includes the second time period K2, and S702a may include: if the first condition is met, the network device starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a third time T3.

Optionally, the third time T3 is greater than or equal to T0+ K2, where T0 is a time when the terminal device receives the first indication information. The specific implementation manner is similar to the above-mentioned activation state timer started in the first discontinuous reception mode at the first time or the second time, and details are not described here again.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, values of the first time period K1 and the second time period K2 are not limited.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a network device, the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to start the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode when the first condition is satisfied. Optionally, the processor 501 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the network device in S702a, and the transceiver 503 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved in the network device in S702a.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a network device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to start an active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode when the first condition is satisfied. Optionally. The processing module 602 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved by the network device in S702a, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions involved by the network device in S702a.

And S703a, when the terminal equipment meets the first condition, starting an activation state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information.

For a specific implementation of the first condition and the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode, reference may be made to the above S702a, which is not described herein again.

Illustratively, the terminal device may start an active state timer in the DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode according to the first indication information when the DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode is in the sleep period, so as to perform data transmission by using the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode, thereby implementing flexible selection of the active transmission mode.

In a possible design manner, the first indication information includes a first time period K1, and the step S703a may include: if the first condition is met, the terminal equipment starts an activated state timer in a first discontinuous receiving mode according to the first indication information at a first time T1.

Take the first indication information for indicating the switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme as an example. With reference to fig. 9, it is assumed that the DRX of the PTP transmission mode is in the sleep period, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device through the PTM transmission mode, and the terminal device receives the first indication information at time T0, and then the terminal device starts an awake state timer of the DRX of the PTP transmission mode at time T0+ K1 (taking the example that the active state timer is the awake state timer), so as to switch from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and may receive data in the PTP transmission mode, thereby implementing flexible selection of the transmission mode.

As for the specific implementation manner that when the first indication information is used to indicate switching from the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode and the first indication information is used to indicate that the PTM transmission mode enters the active state, if the first condition is satisfied, the terminal device starts the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at the second time T2, refer to fig. 10, and if the first condition is satisfied, the network device starts the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at the first time T1, which is not described herein again.

In another possible design, the first indication information includes a first time period K1 and a second time period K2, and the step S703a may include: and if the first condition is met, the terminal equipment starts an activated state timer in the first discontinuous receiving mode at the second time T2 according to the first indication information.

Take the first indication information for indicating switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme as an example. With reference to fig. 9, it is assumed that the DRX of the PTP transmission mode is in the sleep period, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device through the PTM transmission mode, and the terminal device receives the first indication information at time T0, and then the terminal device starts an awake state timer of the DRX of the PTP transmission mode at time T0+ K1+ K2 (taking the example that the active state timer is the awake state timer), so as to switch from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, and the terminal device may receive data in the PTP transmission mode, thereby implementing flexible selection of the transmission mode.

In another possible design, the first indication information includes a second time period K2, and S703a may include: if the first condition is met, the terminal device starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a third time T3.

Alternatively, the terminal device may interpret the first indication information for the first period K1.

Or, alternatively, the terminal device may interpret the first indication information at the first time period K1 and the second time period K2.

It should be noted that the numbers S702a and S703a of the steps do not limit the sequence of the network device starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode and the sequence of the terminal device starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode, and the two steps are executed simultaneously.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to start the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information when the first condition is satisfied. Optionally, the processor 501 may also be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the terminal device in S703a. The transceiver 503 is also used to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved by the terminal device in S703a,

when the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to start the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information when the first condition is satisfied. Optionally, the processing module 602 may be further configured to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the terminal device in S703a, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more possible transceiver functions related to the terminal device in S703a.

S704a, the network device sends data to the terminal device in the first transmission mode. Accordingly, the terminal device receives data from the network device in a first transmission mode.

If the starting is the activation state timer of DRX of the PTM transmission mode, the network equipment sends data to the terminal equipment by adopting the PTM transmission mode, and the terminal equipment receives the data from the network equipment by adopting the PTM transmission mode. If the activated timer is the activation state of the DRX in the PTP transmission mode, the network equipment sends data to the terminal equipment in the PTP transmission mode, and the terminal equipment receives the data from the network equipment in the PTP transmission mode.

Referring to fig. 11, the first indication information indicates switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme. The network equipment sequentially sends data packets 1 to 9 to the terminal equipment 1 and the terminal equipment 2 in a PTM transmission mode, after the data packet 3 is transmitted, the network equipment determines that the transmission mode of the network equipment 1 is switched from the PTM transmission mode to a PTP transmission mode, first indication information is sent to the terminal equipment 1, the network equipment and the terminal equipment 1 start an activation state timer under DRX of the PTP transmission mode of the terminal equipment 1, and the network equipment continues to send the data packets 4 to 9 to the terminal equipment 1 through the PTP transmission mode. The network device does not send the first indication information to the terminal device 2, and the terminal device 2 always receives data in a PTM transmission mode.

A solid line corresponding to PTP of the terminal apparatus 1 shown in fig. 11 indicates a DRX diagram obtained by an active state timer in DRX that starts a PTP transmission scheme of the terminal apparatus 1, and a dotted line corresponding to PTP of the terminal apparatus 1 shown in fig. 11 indicates a DRX cycle diagram that does not adopt the method provided in the present application. As shown in fig. 11, in the present application, by starting the active state timer in DRX of the PTP transmission method of the terminal device 1, data can be transmitted in the PTP transmission method at time t1, and the data packets 4 to 9 can be successfully transmitted, so that switching can be performed in time without packet loss. In one embodiment, the DRX of the PTP needs to be switched when entering the active period, and the DRX needs to be switched at time t2 and performs data transmission by a PTP transmission method, and only the data packets 8 to 9 can be successfully transmitted, and because the DRX is still in the sleep period from time t1 to time t2, the DRX cannot receive the data packets 4 to 7, resulting in data packet loss. Or the data packets 4 to 9 can be transmitted only at the time t2, thereby increasing the data transmission delay.

Similarly, for switching from the PTP transmission mode to the PTM transmission mode, the method provided by the present application can also ensure timely switching without packet loss, and details are not repeated here.

The method provided by the application can be used for quickly activating and deactivating the first transmission mode, the quick activation can avoid packet loss caused by the fact that the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in a dormant state, and the deactivation can save power consumption when no data needs to be transmitted.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to receive data from a network device by using the first transmission mode. Optionally, the transceiver 503 is further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved by the terminal device in S704a, and the processor 501 is configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved by the terminal device in S704 a.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, the transceiver module 601 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to receive data from a network device in a first transmission manner. Optionally, the processing module 602 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved by the terminal device in S704a, and the transceiver module 601 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions involved by the terminal device in S704 a.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a network device, the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 may be used to transmit data to a terminal device by using a first transmission mode. Optionally, the processor 501 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the network device in S704a, and the transceiver 503 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved in the network device in S704 a.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a network device, the transceiver module 601 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to transmit data to a terminal device by using a first transmission mode. Optionally, the processing module 602 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the network device in S704a, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions involved in the network device in S704 a.

Based on the communication method shown in fig. 7a, when the terminal device configured with the first discontinuous reception mode is in an inactive state in the first discontinuous reception mode, the terminal device starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information, so as to receive data from the network device in the first transmission mode. The first discontinuous reception mode is a DRX corresponding to a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode. Therefore, the terminal equipment configured with DRX can adopt a PTM transmission mode or a PTP transmission mode to carry out data transmission in time according to the first indication information.

Exemplarily, fig. 7b is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication method may be applied to communication between the network device and the terminal device shown in fig. 1. Unlike the first indication information in fig. 7a for indicating that the data transmission is performed by using the first transmission method, in the method shown in fig. 7b, the first indication information is used for indicating that the data transmission is not performed by using the first transmission method. Similar to fig. 7a, the communication method provided in fig. 7b is applicable to a terminal device configured with a first discontinuous reception mode, and optionally, the terminal device may also be configured with a second discontinuous reception mode.

As shown in fig. 7b, the communication method includes the steps of:

s701b, the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information from the network device.

Exemplarily, the first indication information is used for indicating that the first transmission mode is not adopted for data transmission.

Optionally, the first indication information may be transmitted by one or more of: RRC signaling, PDCP control PDU, RLC control PDU, MAC CE, and DCI. S701a may be referred to for specific implementation, and details are not repeated here.

In some embodiments, the first indication may include one or more of: the system comprises a group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, a first time period K1, a second time period K2, a temporary mobile group identifier TMGI, a service identifier service ID, a session identifier session ID and a multicast radio bearer identifier MRB ID. For a specific implementation, reference may be made to S701a, which is not described herein again.

In some embodiments, the first indication information is used to indicate that data transmission is not performed in the first transmission mode, and may include: the first indication information may be used to indicate that the first transmission mode enters a deactivated state.

Illustratively, the network device and the terminal device currently adopt a PTM transmission mode, the PTM transmission mode is in an activated state, and if no service needs to be transmitted temporarily, the first indication information indicates that the PTM transmission mode enters a deactivated state. When data transmission is required to be carried out through the PTM transmission mode, the first indication information can be used for indicating the PTM transmission mode to enter an activated state, and therefore the data transmission can be carried out by using the transmission mode in time.

In a possible design manner, the step S701a may include: the network equipment adopts a first transmission mode and sends first indication information to the terminal equipment. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting a first transmission mode.

Example 3, the first transmission mode is a PTM transmission mode, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the PTM transmission mode enters a deactivated state. The network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment through a PTM transmission mode, wherein the first indication information can comprise C-RNTI and/or G-RNTI, or the first indication information can not comprise the C-RNTI and the G-RNTI. The first indication information may include one or more G-RNTIs and one or more C-RNTIs. Of course, the first indication information may include a G-RNTI, a C-RNTI, a first time period K1, a second time period K2, a temporary mobile group identity TMGI, a service identity, a session identity, and/or a multicast radio bearer identity MRB ID. The first time period K1 and/or the second time period K2 are not described here.

Specifically, the first indication information includes the C-RNTI, and may indicate to deactivate a PTM transmission mode of the terminal device corresponding to the C-RNTI. The first indication information comprises G-RNTI, and can indicate to deactivate the PTM transmission mode of the MBS service corresponding to the G-RNTI and suspend the transmission of the MBS service corresponding to the G-RNTI through the PTM transmission mode. The specific implementation manner is similar to that of example 2 in S701a, and specifically, with reference to example 2 in S701a, the main difference is that activation in example 2 in S701a may be replaced by deactivation, MBS service corresponding to G-RNTI transmitted by PTM transmission is replaced by MBS service corresponding to G-RNTI transmitted by PTM transmission, and the like.

It should be noted that, the main difference between the communication method shown in fig. 7b and the communication method shown in fig. 7a is that the first indication information is used to indicate that the first transmission method is not used for data transmission, the first indication information may be used to indicate that the first transmission method enters a deactivated state, and the implementation manner of other contents may refer to the implementation manner of S701a, which is not described herein again.

S702b, when the network device satisfies the second condition, the network device suspends the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode.

Illustratively, the second condition includes that the terminal device is in an active state in a first discontinuous reception mode, and the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the first transmission mode.

Referring to fig. 3, the second condition includes that the discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme or the PTP transmission scheme is in the active period. In this way, when the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode of the terminal device is in the active period, the active state timer under the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is suspended, so that the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the dormant state, and the data transmission is flexibly controlled not to use the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode.

In a possible design, the first indication information may be used to indicate that the first transmission mode enters a deactivated state, and the network device suspends the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode when the second condition is met, and the method may include: if the second condition is met, the network device suspends the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at the first time T1. Or if the second condition is met, the network device suspends the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a second time T2. Or if the second condition is met, the network device suspends the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a third time T3. The specific implementation manner refers to the implementation manner corresponding to the activation state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode when the network device in S702a meets the first condition, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, for a specific implementation of the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode, reference may be made to the above S702a, which is not described herein again.

And S703b, when the terminal equipment meets the second condition, suspending the activated state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information.

Exemplarily, the second condition includes that the terminal device is in an active state in a first discontinuous reception mode, where the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the first transmission mode.

Referring to fig. 3, the second condition includes that the discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the PTM transmission scheme or the PTP transmission scheme is in the active period. In this way, when the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode of the terminal device is in the active period, the active state timer under the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is suspended according to the first indication information, so that the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the dormant state, and the data transmission is flexibly controlled not to use the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode.

In a possible design, the first indication information may be used to indicate that the first transmission mode enters a deactivated state, and when the second condition is met, the suspending, by the terminal device, the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information may include: if the second condition is met, the terminal equipment suspends the activated state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at the first time T1 according to the first indication information. Or if the second condition is met, the terminal device suspends the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at the second time T2 according to the first indication information. Or if the second condition is met, the terminal device suspends the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a third time T3 according to the first indication information. The specific implementation manner refers to the implementation manner corresponding to the activation status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode that is started according to the first indication information when the terminal device in S702a meets the first condition, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that, the numbers S702b and S703b of the steps do not limit the sequence of the network device suspending the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode and the sequence of the terminal device suspending the active status timer in the first discontinuous reception mode, and these two steps are executed simultaneously.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions related to the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 7b, and the processor 501 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions related to the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 7 b.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, the transceiver module 601 in the communication apparatus 600 can be configured to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 7b, and the transceiver module 601 can also be configured to perform any one or more possible transceiver functions related to the terminal device in the communication method shown in fig. 7 b.

When the communications apparatus 500 is a network device, the processor 501 in the communications apparatus 500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved by the network device in the communications method shown in fig. 7b, and the transceiver 503 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved by the network device in the communications method shown in fig. 7 b.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a network device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the network device in the communication method shown in fig. 7b, and the transceiver module 601 may also be configured to perform any one or more possible transceiver functions related to the network device in the communication method shown in fig. 7 b.

Based on the communication method shown in fig. 7b, when the discontinuous reception mode corresponding to the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode is in the active period, the active state timer under the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is suspended, so that the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the dormant state, so as to flexibly control that the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode is not used for data transmission, and when no data needs to be transmitted, the power consumption of the terminal device can be saved.

It should be noted that some steps or information in the communication methods shown in fig. 7a and 7b may also be applicable to a terminal device and an application scenario where the DRX corresponding to the first transmission scheme and the DRX corresponding to the second transmission scheme are not configured.

For example, the network device in S701a or S701b sends the first indication information to the terminal device. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information from the network device.

For another example, the network device described in S701a transmits the first instruction information to the terminal device by using the second transmission scheme. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting a second transmission mode. The specific implementation manner refers to S701a in fig. 7a, and details are not described here.

For another example, the network device described in S701a or S701b transmits the first instruction information to the terminal device by using the first transmission method. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting a first transmission mode. For a specific implementation, reference is made to the above S701a or S701b, which is not described herein again.

For another example, the first indication information may be applicable to a terminal device and an application scenario in which the DRX corresponding to the first transmission scheme and the DRX corresponding to the second transmission scheme are not configured. The first indication information refers to the explanation related to the first indication information in the communication method shown in fig. 7a or fig. 7 b.

Illustratively, the first indication information may include one or more of: a group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, a TMGI, a service identifier, a session identifier, and an MRB ID.

Illustratively, the first indication information is used to indicate that data transmission is performed by using the first transmission method, and may include: the first indication information is used for indicating switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, or the first indication information is used for indicating the first transmission mode to enter an activated state. Are not repeated herein.

The following describes the HARQ mechanism when deactivating the PTM transmission scheme or switching from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme. In the communication method provided in the following description of the present application, the terminal device may be configured with DRX corresponding to the first transmission scheme and/or DRX corresponding to the second transmission scheme, or may not be configured with DRX corresponding to the first transmission scheme and DRX corresponding to the second transmission scheme.

The network equipment configures split-MRB (public PDCP entity connecting PTP RLC entity and PTM RLC entity) or MRB with PTM leg only for the terminal equipment to receive multicast data.

When the network device transmits the multicast service through the PTM transmission method, the receiving conditions of all the terminal devices that receive the multicast service through the PTM transmission method need to be considered, and the network device needs to receive HARQ feedback (ACK or NACK) from a plurality of terminal devices, that is, the plurality of terminal devices feed back the receiving conditions of the multicast service.

Specifically, the HARQ feedback method includes: ACK or NACK feedback, and NACK-only feedback.

For ACK or NACK feedback, different terminal devices independently perform feedback (for example, through feedback resources configured by the terminal devices, respectively), and if a data packet is correctly received, ACK is fed back, and if an incorrect data packet is received, NACK is fed back. And the network equipment judges the receiving condition of each terminal equipment according to the feedback of each terminal equipment so as to judge whether to retransmit.

For the case of only feeding back NACK, the network device may configure the same feedback resource for multiple terminal devices, and the terminal device does not feed back if receiving the data packet correctly, and feeds back NACK if receiving the data packet incorrectly, and sends NACK on the same resource if multiple terminal devices receive the data packet incorrectly. The network device receives the NACK and retransmits the NACK without distinguishing which terminal device did not receive the data packet correctly.

When the PTM transmission mode of a certain terminal device is deactivated or the transmission mode of the terminal device is switched from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, the terminal device needs to stop feeding back the data packet that was not successfully received through the PTM transmission mode. For example, if the network device receives NACK feedback from the terminal device, the network device retransmits the data packet in a PTM transmission manner, so that other terminal devices may correctly receive the data packet at the initial transmission, but receive the data packet again at the retransmission, which causes resource waste and affects the data transmission rate.

Therefore, the behavior of the terminal device when the PTM transmission scheme is deactivated or the PTM transmission scheme is switched to the PTP transmission scheme needs to be formulated, for example, the terminal device does not perform HARQ feedback any more, which can be specifically divided into two schemes, and refer to fig. 12 and fig. 13 respectively.

Exemplarily, fig. 12 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication method may be applied to communication between the network device and the terminal device shown in fig. 1. The communication method provided in fig. 12 is applicable to a terminal device configured with DRX and also applicable to a terminal device not configured with DRX.

As shown in fig. 12, the communication method includes the steps of:

and S1201, the network equipment sends second indication information to the terminal equipment. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the second indication information from the network device.

Specifically, the second indication information is used to indicate that the second transmission mode enters a deactivated state, or the second indication information is used to indicate that the second transmission mode is switched to the first transmission mode.

In some embodiments, the second indication information may include one or more of: the group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, the cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, the first time period K1, the second time period K2, the temporary mobile group identifier TMGI, the service identifier, the session identifier and the multicast radio bearer identifier MRB ID.

In some embodiments, the first time period K1 and the second time period K2 may also be preset in the protocol.

For a specific implementation manner of the second indication information, reference may be made to a corresponding implementation manner in the first indication information in S701a or S701b, which is not described in detail herein.

For a specific implementation of S1201, reference may be made to S701a or S701b, which is not described herein again.

S1202, the terminal device does not send HARQ feedback information to the network device.

Optionally, the HARQ feedback information includes ACK or NACK.

Further, when the third condition is satisfied, the terminal device does not send HARQ feedback information to the network device. Illustratively, the third condition includes that the HARQ feedback information is feedback information of an ongoing or previously ongoing HARQ process of the second transmission scheme.

Thus, if the HARQ feedback information is the feedback information of the ongoing or previous HARQ process of the second transmission scheme, the terminal device does not feed back ACK or NACK, which can avoid waste of resources and power consumption and improve the data transmission rate.

It may be understood that, instead of sending the HARQ feedback information to the network device, sending the HARQ feedback information to the network device may be stopped. The HARQ feedback information here is feedback information for data transmitted in a deactivated transmission scheme, or the HARQ feedback information here is feedback information for data transmitted in a transmission scheme before the switching transmission scheme (i.e., a source transmission scheme).

S1203, the network device ignores HARQ feedback information from the terminal device.

Further, when the fourth condition is satisfied, the ignoring, by the network device, HARQ feedback information from the terminal device may include: the HARQ feedback information for the terminal device is not received, or any operation is received but not performed on the HARQ feedback information, e.g. no data packet is retransmitted.

Optionally, the fourth condition includes the terminal device being a first terminal device.

Illustratively, the first terminal device is a terminal device which has received the second indication information from the network device and does not activate the second transmission mode.

Therefore, the network device judges whether the HARQ feedback information comes from the terminal device with the deactivated second transmission mode or the terminal device with the switched first transmission mode from the second transmission mode, if so, the HARQ feedback information is ignored, the waste of resources and power consumption can be avoided, and the data transmission rate is improved.

S1202 and S1203 may be used independently or in combination.

S1204, the terminal device sends HARQ feedback information, or PDCP status report, or RLC feedback to the network device. Accordingly, the network device receives HARQ feedback information, or PDCP status report, or RLC feedback from the terminal device.

Further, the S1204 may include: the terminal device may send HARQ feedback information to the network device through the second transmission mode. Accordingly, the network device may receive the HARQ feedback information from the terminal device through the second transmission scheme.

Optionally, the HARQ feedback information may be sent when the terminal device does not deactivate the second transmission mode or does not switch to the second transmission mode. The terminal equipment receives the first indication information and needs to switch every several time slots.

Optionally, the PDCP status report may indicate that the PDCP data packet was not received correctly.

Further, the S1204 may include: the terminal device may send the PDCP status report to the network device via the second transmission mode or the first transmission mode. Accordingly, the network device may receive the PDCP status report from the terminal device in the second transmission mode, or in the first transmission mode.

Alternatively, the RLC feedback may indicate that the RLC data packet was not received correctly.

Further, the step S1204 may include: the terminal device may send the RLC feedback to the network device through the second transmission mode or the first transmission mode. Accordingly, the network device may receive RLC feedback from the terminal device through the second transmission mode or the first transmission mode.

And S1205, the network equipment transmits the retransmission data to the terminal equipment through the first transmission mode. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the retransmission data from the network device through the first transmission mode.

Further, when the fourth condition is satisfied, the network device may send a retransmission to the terminal device through the first transmission mode (targeted). Illustratively, the fifth condition includes the terminal device being the first terminal device and the HARQ feedback information being NACK.

Therefore, the network device judges whether the HARQ feedback information comes from the terminal device with the deactivated second transmission mode or the terminal device switched from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, and whether the HARQ feedback information is NACK, if so, the network device retransmits data to the terminal device through the first transmission mode, so that the data can be prevented from being sent to other terminal devices which may not feed back NACK, the waste of resources and power consumption can be avoided, and the data transmission rate is improved.

S1204-S1205 may be a parallel scheme with S1202 or S1203, and may be used independently.

S1206, the terminal device stops the HARQ process corresponding to the second transmission scheme.

Therefore, the terminal equipment stops all HARQ processes corresponding to the second transmission mode, NACK or ACK can not be fed back, waste of resources and power consumption can be avoided, and the data transmission rate is improved.

S1206 and S1204 to S1205, S1202, or S1203 may be configured in parallel, and may be used independently.

S1207, the terminal device cleans/refreshes all HARQ buffers (flush all HARQ buffers associated with the second transmission mode) associated with the second transmission mode.

The terminal equipment clears the corresponding HARQ cache, and can prevent the data transmission from being abnormal.

Specifically, if the terminal device does not clean the corresponding HARQ buffer, after the second transmission scheme is activated, the new data indication NDI sent by the network device may be the same as the previous NDI (for example, the NDI of the data of the HARQ process of the second transmission scheme that is currently performed when the second indication information is received), or the NDI is the same (not flipped), and the Code Block Group Flushing Information (CBGFI) is 1. If the NDIs are the same or the NDIs are the same and the CBGFI is 1, the terminal device regards the new data packet and the cached data packet as a retransmission packet of the same TB, and performs soft combining processing on the new data packet and the cached data packet, which may cause an exception.

In addition, the terminal device may also be considered as a way for the terminal device not to send ACK or NACK feedback to the network device to clear/flush the HARQ buffer, because there is no data packet in the buffer, and there is no need to feed back the data packet in the buffer.

S1207 and S1206, S1204-S1205, S1202, or S1203 may be in parallel, and may be used independently.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions related to the terminal device in S1201-S1207, and the processor 501 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions related to the terminal device in S1201-S1207.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions related to the terminal device in S1201-S1207, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions related to the terminal device in S1201-S1207.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a network device, the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved by the network device in S1201-S1207, and the transceiver 503 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved by the network device in S1201-S1207.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a network device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the network devices in S1201-S1207, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions involved in the network devices in S1201-S1207.

Exemplarily, fig. 13 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication method may be applied to communication between the network device and the terminal device shown in fig. 1. The communication method provided in fig. 13 is applicable to terminal devices configured with DRX and also applicable to terminal devices not configured with DRX.

As shown in fig. 13, the communication method includes the steps of:

and S1301, the network equipment sends first data to the terminal equipment through a first transmission mode. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first data from the network equipment through the first transmission mode.

Further, the network device sends the first data to the terminal device through the first transmission mode under the sixth condition. Illustratively, the sixth condition includes switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode.

Illustratively, the terminal device is receiving data packet 1 and data packet 2 by the second transmission mode, and the network device sends data packet 3 to the terminal device by the first transmission mode.

S1302, the terminal device obtains second indication information according to the first data.

For a specific implementation of the second indication information, reference may be made to the above S1201, and details are not described here.

Optionally, the terminal device may instruct the network device to switch from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode by default according to the received data or the path (or transmission mode) of the received data. Optionally, the terminal device may implicitly obtain the network device to instruct the network device to deactivate the second transmission mode according to the received data or the path (or transmission mode) of the received data.

For example, referring to fig. 2 (a), the terminal device may determine, according to a Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) included in a header of the received MAC packet and corresponding to the first path, that the network device instructs the network device to deactivate the second transmission mode or switch from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, where the LCID is in one-to-one correspondence with the RLC entity of the terminal device.

For example, LCID1 corresponds to RLC1 of terminal device 1, and LCID2 corresponds to RLC2 of terminal device 1.

Take the example of switching from PTM transmission mode to PTP transmission mode. With reference to fig. 2 (a), the terminal device may determine whether an entity receiving the data packet is an RLC entity corresponding to the PTP path, and if so, determine that the network device instructs the network device to deactivate the PTM transmission method or switch from the PTM transmission method to the PTP transmission method. For example, if the RLC1 entity (corresponding to the PTP path) of the terminal device 1 receives the data packet, it is determined that the network device instructs it to deactivate the PTM transmission scheme or switch from the PTM transmission scheme to the PTP transmission scheme.

After obtaining the information that the network device instructs the network device to deactivate the second transmission mode or switch from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, the terminal device may execute S1303, S1304, S1305-S1306, S1307, or S1308.

For specific implementation manners of S1303, S1304, S1305-S1306, S1307, and S1308, reference may be made to S1202-S1207, respectively, and details are not described here.

The main difference between the method shown in fig. 13 and that shown in fig. 12 is that the network device in fig. 12 sends the second indication information to the terminal device, and the terminal device in fig. 13 obtains the second indication information according to the first data.

Further, for the methods shown in fig. 13 and fig. 12, taking fig. 13 as an example, S1303, S1304, S1305-S1306, S1307, and S1308 are only executed on the HARQ process corresponding to the data packet (for example, data packet 1 and data packet 2) received on the second path, that is, only executed on the HARQ process corresponding to the data packet before the data packet (for example, data packet 3) is received on the first path, and the HARQ process of the subsequent data packet received on the second path is not affected because the terminal device may switch to the second transmission mode.

Taking the example of switching from the PTM transmission mode to the PTP transmission mode, the terminal device continues to receive the data packet 4 and the data packet 5 on the PTM path, before receiving the data packet 6 in the PTP transmission mode, the terminal device needs to feed back the data packet 4 and the data packet 5, and after receiving the data packet 6 in the PTP transmission mode, needs to stop feeding back the data packet (including successful and unsuccessful) received in the PTP transmission mode before the data packet 6.

When the communications apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the transceiver 503 in the communications apparatus 500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved by the terminal device in S1301-S1308, and the processor 501 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved by the terminal device in S1301-S1308.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions related to the terminal device in S1301-S1308, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions related to the terminal device in S1301-S1308.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a network device, the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the network devices in S1301-S1308, and the transceiver 503 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions involved in the network devices in S1301-S1308.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a network device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions involved in the network devices in S1301-S1308, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiver functions involved in the network devices in S1301-S1308.

The following

schemes

1 and 2 illustrate the behavior of the terminal device in the configuration authorization, which is described before the technical scheme is described.

Configuration authorization (configured grant)

In addition to DCI-based dynamic grant scheduling, 4G and 5G systems also support unlicensed scheduling or so-called configuration grant, and once a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) or Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) resource is configured and activated through RRC signaling, a PUSCH or a PDSCH may be transmitted without DCI scheduling. A configuration grant configuration (ConfiguredGrantConfig) cell may be used to configure an unlicensed Uplink (UL) transmission type. The uplink grant may be configured by RRC (type 1) or may be provided by PDCCH (configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI)) type 2.

Specifically, a grant Type1 (configured grant Type 1) is configured, and upon contention based transmission, the terminal device may transmit a PUSCH (autonomously selected resource) on the configured grant resource or receive a PDSCH once the RRC configuration is in effect.

Configuring a grant Type2 (configured grant Type 2), after RRC configures a configuration grant and DCI scrambled by CS-RNTI is activated, the terminal device may transmit PUSCH or receive PDSCH on the corresponding configured grant resource.

In the scheme 1, after the terminal device receives the second indication information from the network device, the following steps 1a to 1c may be performed.

For a specific implementation manner of the second indication information, reference may be made to the foregoing S1201, and details are not described herein again.

Scheme 1 may be used in combination with the communication method described above with reference to fig. 12, or scheme 1 may be used alone.

Step 1a, the terminal equipment does not descramble DCI by using G-RNTI or C-RNTI and does not monitor PDCCH.

Step 1b, the terminal device clears all configured downlink configurations/grants (clear and configured downlink assignments) corresponding to the RLC entity of the second transmission mode, so as to ensure that the data transmitted by the second transmission mode is normally received.

For example, taking the PTM transmission as an example of the second transmission method, other terminal devices that normally receive data (i.e. terminal devices that do not receive the second indication information) may update or delete the downlink configuration information, and if the downlink configuration information (which may be semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) authorization) is not cleared, the terminal device that receives the second indication information still receives data on the originally authorized downlink channel after subsequent activation, which will not be consistent with the behavior of other terminal devices, and cannot normally receive data transmitted by the PTM transmission method.

Step 1c, the terminal device reconfigures the downlink configuration information when the second transmission mode enters the deactivation state or is switched from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode.

Therefore, the data transmitted by the first transmission mode can be normally received.

It should be noted that, steps 1a to 1c may be combined, the order of execution is not limited, and may also be used alone.

In scheme 2, after the network device sends the first data to the terminal device through the first transmission mode, the network device may perform the following steps 2a to 2c.

Scheme 2 may be used in combination with the communication method described above with reference to fig. 13, or scheme 2 may be used alone.

And step 2a, the network equipment does not descramble the DCI by using the G-RNTI or the C-RNTI and does not monitor the PDCCH. And step 2b, the network device clears the downlink configuration/authorization (clear and configured downlink assignment) of all configurations corresponding to the RLC entity of the second transmission mode, so as to ensure that data transmission is normally performed through the second transmission mode.

For a specific implementation manner of step 2b, reference may be made to step 1b described above, which is not described herein again.

And 2c, when the terminal equipment enters the deactivation state of the second transmission mode or switches from the PTP transmission mode to the PM transmission mode, indicating the authorized time-frequency resources to the terminal equipment again so as to ensure that the data transmission is normally carried out through the PTM transmission mode.

Optionally, the time-frequency resource for configuring the grant may be re-indicated through RRC signaling, MAC CE, or DCI.

It should be noted that, steps 2a to 2c may be combined, and the order of execution is not limited, and may also be used alone.

The embodiment of the present application further provides the following scheme 3 to scheme 4 to switch from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode.

And 3, step 3a, the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment through the second transmission mode, and continues to send data to each terminal equipment according to the second transmission mode. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment.

Illustratively, the first indication information indicates switching from the second transmission mode to the first transmission mode.

Optionally, the first indication information may further indicate that an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode is started when the standby configuration of the first discontinuous reception mode is to enter the active state. That is to say, if the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the dormant period when the terminal device receives the first indication information, the terminal device starts the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode when waiting for the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode to enter the active period.

Or, optionally, the first indication information may further indicate that, when the first condition is satisfied, the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode is started according to the first indication information. The implementation is similar to S703a described above.

In some embodiments, the network device may configure the terminal device to, after receiving the first indication information, adopt a first manner (that is, the terminal device starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode when the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in an active state), or a second manner (that is, when a first condition is met, the terminal device starts the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information).

And 3b, if the first condition is met, the terminal equipment starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the configured first discontinuous reception mode. If the first condition is met, the network equipment starts an activation state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first discontinuous reception mode.

That is, if the first condition is satisfied, the terminal device may start the active state timer when waiting for the configured DRX of the first transmission scheme to enter the active state.

Similar to the terminal device side, if the first condition is satisfied, the network device may start the active state timer when waiting for the configured DRX of the first transmission mode to enter the active state.

Or, in step 3c, the terminal device starts the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information when the first condition is satisfied. And when the first condition is met, the network equipment starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous receiving mode.

Step 3c and step 3b may be in a side-by-side relationship.

Scheme 3 may be used in conjunction with the method described above and shown in figure 7 a.

In some embodiments, in step S703a, when the terminal device meets the first condition, starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information includes: and if the first condition is met, the terminal equipment starts an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the configured first discontinuous reception mode.

That is, if the first condition is satisfied, the terminal device does not immediately start the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode, and may start the active state timer when waiting for the configured DRX of the first transmission scheme to enter the active state.

In some embodiments, in the step S702a, when the network device satisfies the first condition, starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode may include: if the first condition is met, the network equipment starts an activation state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first discontinuous reception mode.

Similar to the terminal device side, if the first condition is satisfied, the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode is not immediately started, and the network device may start the active state timer when waiting for the configured DRX of the first transmission mode to enter the active state.

And 3c, the network equipment sends data to the terminal equipment through a second transmission mode, and the terminal equipment receives the data from the network equipment.

Step 3c applies to the method and scheme 3 shown in figure 7 a.

In a possible design, the method shown in fig. 7a may further include: and if the first condition is met, the network equipment sends data to the terminal equipment through the second transmission mode, and the terminal equipment receives the data from the network equipment.

Thus, if the first condition is satisfied, the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode is not started immediately, and the terminal device may receive the data from the network device in the second transmission mode before the first discontinuous reception mode enters the active state, so as to avoid packet loss.

The implementation of the first transmission method and the second transmission method can be referred to the above description of fig. 7a, and will not be described herein again.

And 4, the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment through the second transmission mode, the first indication information indicates that the second transmission mode is switched to the first transmission mode, and the terminal equipment stops receiving data through the second transmission mode. And the network equipment caches the corresponding data packet until the DRX corresponding to the first transmission mode is in the active period, and sends the cached data packet to the terminal equipment through the first transmission mode.

Take the example of switching from PTM transmission mode to PTP transmission mode. And the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment when DRX of the PTM transmission mode is in an active period, the first indication information indicates that the second transmission mode is switched to the first transmission mode, and the terminal equipment stops receiving data through the PTM transmission mode. And the network equipment caches the corresponding data packet until DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode is in an active period, and sends the cached data packet to the terminal equipment through the PTP transmission mode.

For the scheme 4, the network device needs to buffer data, and if the DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode is in sleep with a long DRX cycle, the network device needs to buffer a large amount of data, and the receiving data of the terminal device is inconsistent with the receiving progress of other terminal devices. In the communication method shown in fig. 7a in this embodiment of the present application, data does not need to be cached, a DRX corresponding to a PTP transmission mode of a terminal device may immediately enter an active period, and it may be ensured that a data receiving progress of the terminal device performing handover is consistent with that of other terminal devices.

The examples of the present application provide the following schemes 5 to 6.

And in the scheme 5, if the seventh condition is met, the network equipment monitors the G-RNTI and the C-RNTI, and the terminal equipment monitors the G-RNTI and the C-RNTI.

Optionally, the seventh condition includes that the current time is in a third time period, where the third time period is a union of an active period of DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission method and an active period of DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission method.

That is, the terminal device determines whether the seventh condition is satisfied, and if so, listens to the G-RNTI and the C-RNTI. Similarly, the network device determines whether a seventh condition is met, and if so, listens to the G-RNTI and the C-RNTI.

As shown in fig. 14, the network device and the terminal device monitor G-RNTI and C-RNTI in a union of the active period of DRX corresponding to the PTM transmission mode and the active period of DRX corresponding to the PTP transmission mode, so that data (which may be service or signaling) can be monitored in time, and delay can be reduced.

The communication method shown in scheme 5 may be used in combination with the communication method shown in fig. 7a, or may be used alone. When the first indication information is used in combination, the first indication information can be sent to the terminal equipment in time, the terminal equipment can immediately perform follow-up actions without waiting, time delay can be further reduced, and data transmission rate can be improved.

The scheme 6 aims at the improvement of the DRX in unicast and multicast scenes, the configuration information of the DRX is sent to the terminal equipment through RRC reconfiguration information, and after the RRC reconfiguration is finished, the information of the RRC reconfiguration finished needs to wait for the On duration timer starting time of the DRX to be sent to the network equipment, so that the time delay is increased.

In case of meeting the seventh condition, the terminal device starts the active state timer of DRX. If the seventh condition is met, the network device starts an active state timer for DRX. And the terminal equipment sends a message of RRC reconfiguration completion to the network equipment.

Optionally, the seventh condition comprises RRC reconfiguration complete and DRX in inactive state.

In a possible design, if the seventh condition is satisfied, the starting, by the terminal device, the active state timer for DRX may include: if the seventh condition is satisfied, the terminal device starts an active state timer of DRX at a fourth time T4. Or, if the seventh condition is satisfied, the terminal device starts the active state timer of DRX at the fifth time T5. The specific implementation manner may refer to S703a described above.

Optionally, the fourth time T4 is greater than or equal to T10+ K1, and T10 is a time when the terminal device receives the configuration information of DRX.

Optionally, the fifth time T5 is greater than or equal to T10+ K1+ K2.

In a possible design, if the seventh condition is satisfied, the starting, by the network device, the active state timer for DRX may include: if the seventh condition is satisfied, the network device starts an active state timer of DRX at a fourth time T4. Or, if the seventh condition is satisfied, the network device starts the active state timer of DRX at a fifth time T5. The specific implementation manner may refer to S702a described above.

In scheme 6, when the terminal device meets the seventh condition, the active state timer of DRX is started, so that the RRC reconfiguration complete message can be directly sent after receiving the RRC reconfiguration message, and the RRC reconfiguration complete message does not need to be sent after waiting for the active period of DRX, which can reduce the time delay.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a terminal device, the transceiver 503 in the communication apparatus 500 can be used to perform any one or more possible transceiving functions related to the terminal device in schemes 1 to 6, and the processor 501 can be used to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the terminal device in schemes 1 to 6.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a terminal device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the terminal device in schemes 1 to 6, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more possible transceiver functions related to the terminal device in schemes 1 to 6.

When the communication apparatus 500 is a network device, the processor 501 in the communication apparatus 500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible processing functions related to the network devices in schemes 1 to 6, and the transceiver 503 may be configured to perform any one or more of the possible transceiving functions related to the network devices in schemes 1 to 6.

When the communication apparatus 600 is a network device, the processing module 602 in the communication apparatus 600 may be configured to perform any one or more possible processing functions related to the network device in solutions 1 to 6, and the transceiver module 601 may be further configured to perform any one or more possible transceiver functions related to the network device in solutions 1 to 6.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication system. The communication system includes: terminal equipment and network equipment. The terminal device is configured to execute the actions of the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, and specific execution methods and processes may refer to the foregoing method embodiment, which is not described herein again.

The network device is configured to execute the actions of the network device in the foregoing method embodiment, and specific execution methods and processes may refer to the foregoing method embodiment, which is not described herein again.

The embodiment of the application provides a chip system, which comprises a logic circuit and an input/output port. The logic circuit may be configured to implement the processing function related to the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application, and the input/output port may be configured to implement the transceiving function related to the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application.

For example, the input port may be configured to implement a receiving function related to the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application, and the output port may be configured to implement a sending function related to the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application.

Illustratively, the processor in the communication device 500 may be configured to perform, for example but not limited to, baseband related processing, and the transceiver in the communication device 500 may be configured to perform, for example but not limited to, radio frequency transceiving. The above devices may be respectively disposed on separate chips, or at least a part or all of the devices may be disposed on the same chip. For example, the processor may be further divided into an analog baseband processor and a digital baseband processor. The analog baseband processor and the transceiver can be integrated on the same chip, and the digital baseband processor can be arranged on a separate chip. With the development of integrated circuit technology, more and more devices can be integrated on the same chip, for example, a digital baseband processor can be integrated on the same chip with various application processors (such as, but not limited to, a graphics processor, a multimedia processor, etc.). Such a chip may be referred to as a system on chip (soc). Whether each device is separately located on a different chip or integrated on one or more chips often depends on the specific needs of the product design. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation form of the above device.

In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data for implementing the functions involved in the communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application.

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

Embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium, which includes a computer program or instructions, when the computer program or instructions runs on a computer, the communication method provided by embodiments of the present application is executed.

An embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, including: computer program or instructions, which when run on a computer, cause the communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application to be performed.

It should be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, and the processor may also be other general purpose processors, DSPs, application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays 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 can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only ROM, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an EEPROM, or a flash memory. Volatile memory may be random access memory, which acts as external cache memory. By way of example but not limitation, many forms of random access memory are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus 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 according to the embodiments of the present application are wholly or partially generated 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 in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by 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 the term "and/or" herein is merely one type of association relationship that describes an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B may mean: a exists singly, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists singly, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. In addition, the "/" in this document generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship, but may also indicate an "and/or" relationship, which may be understood with particular reference to the former and latter text.

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple.

It should be 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 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 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 may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if they are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as separate products. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present application may be essentially or partially 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 methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a 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 think 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, adapted to a terminal device configured with a first discontinuous reception mode, comprising:

the terminal equipment receives first indication information from network equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is carried out by adopting a first transmission mode, wherein the first transmission mode is a point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission mode or a point-to-point (PTP) transmission mode;

if the first condition is met, starting an activation state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information; the first condition comprises that the terminal equipment is in an inactive state in the first discontinuous reception mode, wherein the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode (DRX) corresponding to the first transmission mode;

and receiving data from the network equipment by adopting the first transmission mode.

2. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein the first indication information includes one or more of: the group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, the cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, the first time period K1, the second time period K2, the temporary mobile group identifier TMGI, the service identifier, the session identifier and the multicast radio bearer identifier MRB ID.

3. The communication method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is performed by using the first transmission mode, and comprises: the first indication information is used for indicating switching from a second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, or the first indication information is used for indicating the first transmission mode to enter an activated state; wherein the second transmission mode is the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

4. The communication method according to claim 3, wherein the terminal device receives the first indication information from the network device, and the method comprises:

and the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting the second transmission mode.

5. The communication method according to claim 3, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating switching from a second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, and the receiving, by the terminal device, the first indication information from a network device includes:

and the terminal equipment receives the first indication information from the network equipment by adopting the first transmission mode.

6. The communication method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first indication information includes the first time period K1, and if a first condition is satisfied, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information includes:

if the first condition is met, starting an activated state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a first time T1 according to the first indication information; and the first time T1 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1, and T0 is the time when the terminal equipment receives the first indication information.

7. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first indication information includes the first time period K1 and the second time period K2, and if a first condition is satisfied, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information includes:

if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a second time T2 according to the first indication information; and the second time T2 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1+ K2, and T0 is the time when the terminal equipment receives the first indication information.

8. The communication method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first indication information if a first condition is satisfied comprises:

and if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the configured first discontinuous reception mode.

9. A method of communication according to any of claims 6-8, wherein the method comprises:

if the first condition is met, receiving data from the network equipment through a second transmission mode; wherein the second transmission mode is the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

10. A method of communication, comprising:

the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal equipment; the first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is carried out by adopting a first transmission mode, wherein the first transmission mode is a point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission mode or a point-to-point (PTP) transmission mode;

if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in a first discontinuous reception mode; the terminal equipment is in an inactive state in the first discontinuous reception mode, wherein the first condition comprises that the terminal equipment is in the inactive state, and the first discontinuous reception mode is a discontinuous reception mode (DRX) corresponding to the first transmission mode;

and sending data to the terminal equipment by adopting the first transmission mode.

11. The communication method according to claim 10, wherein the first indication information includes one or more of: the group radio network temporary identifier G-RNTI, the cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI, the first time period K1, the second time period K2, the temporary mobile group identifier TMGI, the service identifier, the session identifier and the multicast radio bearer identifier MRB ID.

12. The communication method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that data transmission is performed by using a first transmission method, and the method includes: the first indication information is used for indicating switching from a second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, or the first indication information is used for indicating the first transmission mode to enter an activated state; wherein the second transmission mode is the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

13. The communication method according to claim 12, wherein the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device, and the first indication information comprises:

and the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment by adopting the second transmission mode.

14. The communication method according to claim 12, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating switching from a second transmission mode to the first transmission mode, and the network device sends the first indication information to a terminal device, and the method includes:

and the network equipment sends the first indication information to the terminal equipment by adopting the first transmission mode.

15. The communication method according to any of claims 10 to 14, wherein the first indication information includes the first time period K1, and the starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied includes:

if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in a first discontinuous reception mode at a first time T1; and the first time T1 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1, and T0 is the time when the terminal equipment receives the first indication information.

16. The communication method according to any of claims 10 to 14, wherein the first indication information includes the first time period K1 and the second time period K2, and the starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied includes:

if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode at a second time T2; and the second time T2 is greater than or equal to the time T0+ K1+ K2, and T0 is the time when the terminal device receives the first indication information.

17. The communication method according to any of claims 10 to 14, wherein the starting the active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode if the first condition is satisfied comprises:

and if the first condition is met, starting an active state timer in the first discontinuous reception mode according to the first discontinuous reception mode.

18. A method of communicating according to any one of claims 15-17, wherein the method comprises:

if the first condition is met, sending data to the terminal equipment through a second transmission mode; wherein the second transmission mode is the PTM transmission mode or the PTP transmission mode, and the first transmission mode is different from the second transmission mode.

19. A communication apparatus, characterized in that it comprises means or modules for performing the method according to any of claims 1 to 9.

20. A communication apparatus, characterized in that the communication apparatus comprises means or modules for performing the method according to any of claims 10 to 18.

21. A communication apparatus, characterized in that the communication apparatus comprises: a processor; the processor configured to perform the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

22. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium comprises a computer program or instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the communication method according to any one of claims 1-18 to be performed.

23. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising: computer program or instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the communication method according to any one of claims 1-18 to be performed.