CN115769650A

CN115769650A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115769650A
Application number: CN202180044319.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘航; 王键
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-06-29
Filing date: 2021-06-29
Publication date: 2023-03-07
Also published as: WO2023272469A1

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method and a communication device, which can improve the efficiency of scheduling transmission resources for slave nodes by a master node under the condition that one master node is connected with a plurality of slave nodes. The method comprises the following steps: a second node (slave node) receiving first information from a first node (master node), the first information indicating transmission characteristics of second information, the second information including configuration information for a first transmission resource of the second node; the second node receives second information based on the first information; the second node performs data transmission with the first node on the first transmission resource. Therefore, the master node can carry the configuration information of the transmission resources corresponding to the plurality of slave nodes in the second information and simultaneously send the second information to the plurality of slave nodes in a multicast mode, so that the resource scheduling efficiency is improved, in addition, the influence on the service transmission of the slave nodes can be reduced or even avoided, and the service quality is improved.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

The short-distance communication technology plays an important role in daily life of people, and has short-distance communication requirements in the fields of intelligent terminals, intelligent homes, intelligent manufacturing, intelligent automobiles and the like. In a system based on short-range communication technology networking, one device serves as a master node (the device can also be called as a master device), other devices serve as slave nodes (the device can also be called as slave devices), and the master node can manage the slave nodes and has resource scheduling capability.

Therefore, when one master node connects to multiple slave nodes, how to effectively schedule resources for the slave nodes is an urgent problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and device, which are used for improving resource scheduling efficiency.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which may be performed by a slave node. Taking an example where the first node is a master node, the second node is a slave node, and the method is performed by the second node, the method comprises: the second node receives first information from the first node, wherein the first information is used for indicating the transmission characteristics of second information, and the second information comprises configuration information of first transmission resources for the second node; the second node receives second information based on the first information; the second node performs data transmission with the first node on the first transmission resource. The transmission characteristics include, but are not limited to, one or more of a start time, a period, a modulation scheme, a coding scheme, a code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.

In the embodiment of the present application, a slave node (i.e., a second node) receives first information from a master node (i.e., a first node), and then receives second information from the first node based on transmission characteristics indicated by the first information, so as to obtain transmission resources scheduled by the first node for the slave node. Therefore, the flexibility of the master node for scheduling the resources for the slave nodes can be improved, and the efficiency of resource scheduling is further improved. For example, the master node may carry configuration information of transmission resources corresponding to a plurality of slave nodes in the second information, and send the second information to the plurality of slave nodes simultaneously in a multicast manner, so that it is not necessary to schedule transmission resources for each slave node separately, and thus resource scheduling efficiency may be improved; when all available transmission resources in the system are occupied by a plurality of slave nodes, the master node can simultaneously adjust the transmission resources of the plurality of slave nodes in a multicast mode, thereby effectively reducing or even avoiding the influence on the service transmission of the slave nodes and improving the service quality.

In a possible implementation manner, the second node further determines the first transmission resource according to the second information.

In a possible implementation manner, the first node sends the first information to the second node in a unicast manner. For example, the first information includes an identification of the second node.

Therefore, only the second node can receive the first information, and the reliability of transmission can be improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the first node sends the second information in a multicast manner. For example, the second information comprises an identification of a multicast group in which the second node is located.

Therefore, the first node can schedule transmission resources for one or more nodes in the multicast group where the second node is located in a multicast mode, and then the resource scheduling efficiency is improved.

In a possible implementation manner, when the second node performs data transmission with the first node on the first transmission resource, data interaction between the second node and the first node may be performed periodically, for example, using a transmission event as a basic event unit. Correspondingly, the second information may also be used to indicate at least one of an interval of a transmission event corresponding to the first transmission resource, a number of transmission sub-events, a transmission direction of the transmission event or the transmission sub-event, and a time length occupied in a time domain.

Therefore, the second node can perform periodic data interaction with the first node based on the second information, and the reliability of data transmission is improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the second information further includes configuration information of a second transmission resource, the second transmission resource corresponds to a third node, and the third node and the second node belong to the same multicast group.

Therefore, the effect that the first node simultaneously schedules the transmission resources for the second node and the fourth node can be achieved, and the resource scheduling efficiency can be improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the second node determines that the trigger condition is satisfied, and sends first indication information to the first node, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the trigger condition is satisfied, so that the first node switches a resource scheduling manner for the second node, for example, from multicast to unicast.

Therefore, the first node can dynamically adjust the resource scheduling mode aiming at the second node, and the efficiency and the reliability of resource scheduling are further improved.

In one possible implementation, the trigger condition includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following:

the distance between the first node and the second node is greater than or equal to a first distance threshold;

the communication quality of the first node and the second node is less than or equal to a first communication quality threshold;

the quantity of the second information which is not continuously received by the second node from the first node reaches a first quantity threshold value; or, the second node does not receive the second information from the first node within the first time period; or, within the second time length, the quantity of the second information received by the second node from the first node is less than the second quantity threshold.

Therefore, the triggering condition can have various implementation modes, and the flexibility of the scheme can be improved.

In a possible implementation manner, the second node further receives third configuration information from the first node, where the third configuration information includes one or more of the first distance threshold, the first channel quality threshold, the first quantity threshold, and the second quantity threshold.

In this way, the first node may configure the trigger condition for the second node, which may further improve the reliability of the scheme.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided that may be performed by a master node. Taking an example where the first node is a master node, the second node is a slave node, and the method is performed by the first node, the method comprises: the first node sends first information to the second node, wherein the first information is used for indicating the transmission characteristics of the second information; the first node sends second information to the second node, wherein the second information comprises configuration information of a first transmission resource for the second node; the first node transmits data with the second node on the first transmission resource. The transmission characteristics include, but are not limited to, one or more of a start time, a period, a modulation scheme, a coding scheme, a code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.

In a possible implementation, the first node further determines the first transmission resource.

In a possible implementation manner, the first node may send the first information to the second node in a unicast manner, where the first information includes an identifier of the second node.

In a possible implementation manner, the first node may send the second information to the second node in a multicast manner, where the second information includes an identifier of a multicast group in which the second node is located.

In a possible implementation manner, the first node may further receive first indication information from the second node, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the trigger condition is satisfied.

In a possible implementation manner, the first node may further send third configuration information to the second node, where the third configuration information includes one or more of the first distance threshold, the first channel quality threshold, the first quantity threshold, and the second quantity threshold.

The beneficial effects of any implementation manner in the second aspect may refer to the beneficial effects of the corresponding implementation manner in the first aspect, and are not described herein again.

In a third aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a chip or an integrated circuit on the second node, or the second node itself, which is not limited in this application. The apparatus comprises means for performing the method of the first aspect described above or any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The receiving and sending unit is configured to receive first information from a first node, where the first information is used to indicate transmission characteristics of second information, and the second information includes configuration information of a first transmission resource used for a second node; receiving second information based on the first information; a processing unit for determining a first transmission resource based on the second information; the receiving and sending unit is also used for carrying out data transmission with the first node on the first transmission resource; the transmission characteristics include one or more of a starting time, a period, a modulation mode, a coding mode, a code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a chip or an integrated circuit on the first node, or the first node itself, and the application is not limited thereto. The apparatus comprises means for performing the method of the second aspect described above or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect.

Illustratively, the apparatus may include a transceiver unit and a processing unit; the receiving and sending unit is used for sending first information to the second node, and the first information is used for indicating the transmission characteristics of the second information; sending second information to the second node, the second information comprising configuration information for a first transmission resource of the second node; a processing unit for determining a first transmission resource; the receiving and sending unit is also used for carrying out data transmission with the second node on the first transmission resource; the transmission characteristics include one or more of a starting time, a period, a modulation mode, a coding mode, a code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.

In a fifth aspect, a communications apparatus is provided that includes at least one processor and an interface circuit; the interface circuit is used for receiving the code instruction and transmitting the code instruction to the processor; the at least one processor executes code instructions to perform a method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect or the second aspect.

In a possible implementation form, the communication device may be a chip, which is coupled to a memory and configured to read and execute program instructions stored in the memory to implement the method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementation forms of the second aspect or the second aspect.

A sixth aspect provides a computer readable storage medium for storing instructions that, when executed, cause a method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect to be implemented.

In a seventh aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions stored therein, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method as described in the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect or the second aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes a first node and a second node, where the first node is configured to perform the method according to the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, and the second node is configured to perform the method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a terminal is provided, which includes the apparatus of the third or fourth aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram of a network architecture of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present application is applicable;

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

fig. 3 is a flowchart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of two consecutive transmission events;

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

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

Detailed Description

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

And, unless stated to the contrary, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing a plurality of objects, and do not limit the sequence, timing, priority, or importance of the plurality of objects. For example, the first priority criterion and the second priority criterion are only used for distinguishing different criteria, and do not indicate the difference of the content, priority, importance degree, and the like of the two criteria.

Furthermore, the terms "comprising" and "having" in the description of the embodiments and claims of the present application and the drawings are not intended to be exclusive. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or modules is not limited to only those steps or modules listed, but may include other steps or modules not listed.

Embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, a diagram of a network architecture of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present application is applicable is shown. The communication system includes a plurality of nodes.

In the embodiment of the present application, the roles (or attributes or features) of the nodes include a master node and a slave node, where the master node is, for example, a first node, and the slave nodes may have one or more nodes, such as a second node, a third node, and a fourth node. It should be understood that the number of slave nodes in fig. 1 is three, but actually not limited thereto.

In the embodiment of the present application, the master node and the slave node are two types of nodes logically and functionally distinguished. Wherein, the master node can manage the slave nodes and has the resource scheduling capability. The master node may schedule transmission resources (transmission resources in this document include time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources, which are referred to as time-frequency resources for short) for the slave nodes, and the slave nodes listen to the scheduling of the master node, and may use the transmission resources scheduled by the master node for communication.

The master node and the slave nodes may be networked for communication based on short-range communication techniques, including, for example and without limitation: bluetooth (Bluetooth), wireless local area network (Wi-Fi), infrared data transfer (IrDA), universal short-range communication technology, short-range communication technology that may exist in the future, and the like.

In a specific implementation, the slave node may be a terminal device or a network device, and the present application is not limited thereto. The master node may be a terminal device or a network device, and the application is not limited thereto. For example, when the master node and the slave node communicate based on bluetooth, both the master node and the slave node may be terminal devices, specifically, for example: the master node is a smartphone and the slave node is an earpiece. For example, when the master node and the slave node communicate based on Wi-Fi, the master node may be a network device, and the slave node may be a terminal device, specifically, for example: the master node is an Access Point (AP) and the slave nodes Are Stations (STAs). It should be understood that the above is only an example and not a limitation, and in practical applications, the master node and the slave node may have other specific implementations.

It should be noted that, for the same device, when it communicates with different devices, its role may change. For example, when the smart phone communicates with the earphone, the smart phone is a master node, and the earphone is a slave node; however, when the smart phone accesses a higher priority device, such as a Cockpit Domain Controller (CDC), the smart phone needs to listen to the schedule of the CDC, and the CDC is a master node and the smart phone is a slave node.

In the communication system shown in fig. 1, when scheduling transmission resources for the slave nodes, the master node may schedule transmission resources for each slave node separately in a Unicast (Unicast) manner, where different slave nodes occupy different time domain resources. For example, the master node and the plurality of slave nodes are based on classical bluetooth (or traditional bluetooth or standard bluetooth) transmissions, where classical bluetooth is a time division mode, so different slave nodes need to interact with the same master node in a time division manner. When the master node needs to adjust the transmission resources of multiple slave nodes, the master node needs to schedule the transmission resources for different slave nodes in sequence (for example, schedule the transmission resources for the second node, then schedule the transmission resources for the third node, and then schedule the transmission resources for the fourth node), so that the resource scheduling efficiency is low and the resource overhead is large.

In addition, if all available transmission resources in the system are occupied by a plurality of slave nodes, the transmission resources of any two slave nodes are adjusted, and the traffic transmission of the slave nodes is influenced. Illustratively, in the system shown in fig. 1, all available transmission resources are occupied by three slave nodes, where a second node occupies a first part of resources to transmit a first service, a third node occupies a second part of resources to transmit a second service, a fourth node occupies a third part of resources to transmit a third service, and when the first node needs to adjust the resources occupied by the second node and the third node, at least the traffic of the second node or the third node needs to be suspended. For example: the first node suspends the first service of the second node, and a first part of resources are vacated; then the first node schedules the first part of the vacated resources to a third node; then the third node switches the transmission resource of the second service from the second part of resource to the first part of resource, and vacates the second part of resource; the first node then schedules the second portion of resources to the second node, after which the second node can continue to transmit the first service on the second portion of resources.

In view of this, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication scheme, where when a master node connects to multiple slave nodes, the master node may schedule resources for the multiple slave nodes simultaneously in a Multicast (Multicast) manner, so as to improve resource scheduling efficiency, save resource overhead, and ensure continuity of service transmission. This scheme is described in more detail below in conjunction with fig. 2.

Referring to fig. 2, a flowchart of a communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown, and the method is applied to the scenario shown in fig. 1, and is not limited to this in practical application. The method comprises the following steps:

s201, the first node sends first information to the second node; accordingly, the second node receives the first information from the first node.

Wherein the first node is a master node. Correspondingly, the second node, the third node and the fourth node are all slave nodes. For the introduction of the master node and the slave nodes, reference is made to the above description and no further description is provided here.

In an embodiment of the application, the first information is used to indicate a transmission characteristic of the second information. The first node may send the first information to the second node in a unicast manner. Here, unicast refers to communication between a sender and a receiver, and information sent by the sender is specifically directed to the receiver, and here refers to communication between the first node and the second node.

In one possible implementation, the first information may carry an identification of the destination node (i.e., the recipient, i.e., the second node).

In another possible implementation manner, the first information may carry an identifier agreed in advance by the two transmitting and receiving ends, which is used to indicate a link between the two transmitting and receiving ends, for example, the master node (first node) configures an access address 01 to identify a communication link between the first node and the second node (slave node); the master node (first node) configures the access address 02 to identify a communication link between the first node and a third node (slave node), and in this case, it is also possible to distinguish between unicast communication between the first node and the second node and unicast communication between the first node and the third node by carrying different access addresses in the first information. The protocol that is agreed in advance by the transceiving ends may be determined by negotiation between the transceiving ends (i.e., the master node and the slave node), or configured by the master node for the slave node.

Optionally, the first node may carry the first information in the connection request sent to the second node. In a specific implementation, the first node may send the first information when the first node establishes the initial connection with the second node, or the first node may send the first information when the first node performs connection reconfiguration with the second node (for example, reconfigures a connection resource after a transmission service changes), or the first information may be carried in other control signaling, which is not limited in this application.

S202, the first node sends second information; accordingly, the second node receives the second information based on the first information.

In an embodiment of the application, the second information comprises configuration information for the first transmission resources of the second node. The second node may send the second information in a multicast manner. The multicast is also called multicast, and refers to communication between a sender and multiple receivers, and information sent by the sender explicitly points to the multiple receivers, which means communication in a multicast group where a first node and a second node are located.

Generally, the second information may carry an identifier of a multicast group in which the second node is located, so that only nodes (including the second node) in the multicast group may receive the second information. In a possible implementation manner, the second information may carry an access address as an identifier of the multicast group. It should be noted that in some possible implementations, there may be only one node in the multicast group.

In one possible design, the transmission characteristic of the second information indicated by the first information is used for the second node to receive the second information. The transmission characteristics of the second information may include one or more of time domain position information, frequency domain position information, coding information, and the like of the second information. Correspondingly, the second node receives the second information multicast by the first node according to one or more items of time domain position information, frequency domain position information, coding information and the like of the second information.

The frequency domain position information, the coding information, and the time domain position information of the second information are described in detail below.

1. Frequency domain position information of the second information:

in a specific implementation, the frequency domain position information of the second information may be one or more of a frequency band, a center frequency, a frequency offset, and the like of a carrier carrying the second information.

Optionally, the first information may not carry frequency domain location information of the second information, for example, a protocol rule or a fixed operating frequency band that is agreed by the master node and the slave node, so that overhead may be saved. For example, the first node and the second node are based on bluetooth transmission, and bluetooth works in the universal Industrial, scientific, medical (ISM) frequency band of 2.4 GHz.

2. Encoding information of the second information:

in a specific implementation, the Coding information of the second information may be one or more of a Modulation Scheme (Modulation Scheme), a Coding Scheme (Coding Scheme), a code Rate (Coding Rate), available Channel mapping information (Channel Map), frequency hopping increment information, and the like of the second information.

1) And a modulation mode:

modulation is a process by which a signal generated by a source is converted into a form suitable for wireless transmission. Common modulation schemes are classified into analog modulation and digital modulation. The analog modulation includes Amplitude Modulation (AM), frequency Modulation (FM), phase Modulation (PM), and the like. Digital modulation has Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), frequency Shift Keying (FSK), phase Shift Keying (PSK), differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK), and the like. For digital modulation, the modulation scheme defines how many bits of information a single radio resource element or radio resource unit can carry. For example, common digital modulation schemes include: binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16 QAM) including 16 symbols, QAM including 256 symbols (256 QAM), QAM including 1024 symbols (1024 QAM), and the like. If the bit information carried by a single radio resource element or radio resource unit is small, it is called low modulation mode. If a single radio resource element or radio resource unit carries more bit information, it is called as a high modulation mode.

In one possible implementation, gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) encoding may be employed.

2) And the coding mode:

generally, in order to ensure the reliability of information transmission in the physical layer, it is necessary to perform physical layer coding on information to be transmitted. Common encoding methods include polarization encoding (Polar encoding), low-density Parity-check (LDPC encoding), reed-solomon (Reed-solomon) encoding, and the like. Considering that different coding modes have complexity and different anti-interference characteristics, different coding modes can be adopted in different scenes.

In one possible implementation, 0 may be used to indicate Polar coding, and 1 identifies LDPC coding.

Of course, for convenience of implementation, a fixed coding scheme, for example, polar coding scheme, may also be used.

3) Code rate:

for the same coding, the same code rate may be used, and different code rates may also be used, which is not limited in this application.

In one possible implementation: the code rate defines the ratio of the number of coded input bits to the number of output bits. For example, if the code rate is 1/3 coding, and the input data bits are m bits, and the output bits are n bits after channel coding, m/n =1/3. It can be understood that the lower the coding rate, the more redundant bits are added in the coding process to combat the channel interference, and therefore, the more total data bits need to be transmitted.

In one possible implementation, a code rate of 1/3 can be identified by 0, and a code rate of 5/6 can be identified by 1.

It can be understood that the modulation scheme, the coding scheme, and the code rate together determine how much useful bit information can be transmitted by a single radio resource element or radio resource unit.

In another possible implementation manner, an index manner may be used to correspond to the modulation manner and the coding rate. For example, one index corresponds to a combination of one modulation scheme and coding rate, and different indexes correspond to different combinations of modulation scheme and coding rate. For example, the 00 ID modulation mode is BPSK, and the coding rate is 1/3;01 mark that the modulation mode is BPSK and the coding rate is 5/6;10, marking that the modulation mode is QPSK and the coding code rate is 1/3;11, marking the modulation mode as QPSK and the coding code rate as 5/6.

4) Available channel mapping information indicating at which carrier frequencies or channels are available for use.

In practical applications, channels may be divided into available channels and unavailable channels. For example, a channel with poor channel conditions, a busy channel, or a severe channel interference may be considered as an unavailable channel. Depending on the implementation and the scenario.

In one possible implementation, the available channel mapping information also indicates which carrier frequencies or channels are not available for use.

In one possible implementation, the available channel mapping information may be indicated by a bit table, e.g., for 0-39 channels, each bit corresponds to one channel, 1 identifies that a channel is available, and 0 identifies that a channel is not available.

5) Frequency hopping increment information:

Frequency-Hopping (FHSS) refers to a method of spreading a Spectrum by Frequency-shift keying with a pseudo-random code sequence to make a carrier Frequency hop continuously. The different carrier frequencies are also referred to as channels.

For example, there is typically a mapping table indicating that different carrier frequencies are named as different numbered channels.

For example, in bluetooth low energy, 40 channels (channel numbers 0 to 39) are divided into broadcast channels and data channels, 37 are data channels, and 3 are broadcast channels. The lowest center frequency of the 40 channels is 2402MHz, and the highest is 2480MHz. The first channel has a frequency of 2402MHz, followed by 20MHz for each subsequent channel.

The hopping increment information is used to indicate the interval size of the frequency hopping. I.e., the frequency or channel spacing of two adjacent hops in a frequency hop. In a frequency hopping system, different channel spacing may be used for the tuning. For example, the channel spacing may be a random number between 5-16.

In one possible implementation, the sequence of frequency hopping may be determined by computing available channel mapping information, frequency hopping increment information, and the like.

Optionally, the first information may not carry a modulation mode, a coding mode, a code rate, available channel mapping information, frequency hopping increment information, and the like of the second information, for example, a protocol rule or a fixed modulation mode, a coding mode, a code rate, available channel mapping information, frequency hopping increment information, and the like, which are agreed by the master node and the slave node, so that overhead may be saved.

3. Time domain position information of the second information:

in particular implementations, the second information may be periodically transmitted information. For example, the second information is a multicast signaling that is periodically sent, and a name of the multicast signaling is, for example, a management frame, or a Control frame (C frame for short), or other names, which is not limited in this application. Accordingly, the time domain position information of the second information may include one or more of a period of the second information, a start time of the second information, and the like.

Period of the second information: the second information appears repeatedly at preset time intervals, wherein the time elapsed after one time of repetition (namely, the preset time intervals) is the period of the second information. For ease of distinction, the period of the second information may be referred to herein as a first period.

Start time of the second information: the starting position of the time domain resource corresponding to the second information is the time when the transmission of the second information is started.

Alternatively, the start time of the second information may be an Offset (Offset), and the first node may indicate the start time of the second information by the Offset. For example, in one implementation, the offset is used to indicate a time interval from a starting point of a current frame (e.g., the first information) to a starting point of multicast signaling, where the unit of the time interval may be a slot; alternatively, in another implementation, the offset is used to indicate a time interval between an end point of a current frame (e.g., the first information) and a start point of multicast signaling, where the unit of the time interval may be a slot, a frame, or another unit of time (e.g., milliseconds); alternatively, in another implementation, the offset is used to indicate the time interval between the start/end of the broadcast frame to the start of the multicast signaling, where the unit of the time interval may be a slot, a frame, or other unit of time (e.g., milliseconds). Wherein the broadcast frame is receivable by all slave nodes. It is to be understood that, since the multicast signaling may be sent periodically, the offset may point to the time domain location information of the first multicast signaling.

In one possible design, data interaction between the transceiving nodes (i.e., the node receiving data and the node sending data, which are mainly referred to as the master node and the slave node in this document) may be performed periodically, that is, the master node and the slave node perform data interaction repeatedly at fixed time intervals. For the sake of convenience of distinction, the period of master node and slave node interaction is referred to herein as a second period.

The interaction of the master node and the slave node may adopt a transmission event as a basic transmission unit. The data interaction between the master node and the slave node in a second period is referred to as a transmission event. The time interval between two consecutive transmission events (which may be the duration of a second period, or the time interval between the start times of two consecutive transmission events, or the time interval between the end times of two consecutive transmission events, etc.) may be referred to as the interval of transmission events (referred to as "transmission event interval" for short).

In each transmission event interval (which may be every second period), the master node transmits data at least once to the slave node and the slave node transmits data at least once to the master node. In each transmission event interval (which may be each second period), the master node sends data to the slave node, and the slave node sends data to the master node, which may not be in sequence.

Further, the master node sends data to the slave node once and the slave node sends data to the master node once, or the slave node sends data to the master node once and the master node sends data to the slave node once, which may be referred to as a transmission sub-event.

One transmission event may include one or more transmission sub-events. In other words, in a transmission event interval (i.e., a second period), the master node may perform multiple data interactions with the slave node, or may perform only one data interaction with the slave node, which is not limited in this application.

Further optionally, within a transmission event interval (which may be a second period), if there are multiple transmission sub-events, the multiple transmission sub-events may also occur at fixed time intervals. The time interval between two consecutive transmission sub-events (which may be the time interval between the start time of two consecutive transmission sub-events, or the time interval between the end time of two consecutive transmission sub-events, etc.) may be referred to as a transmission sub-event interval.

For example, referring to fig. 4, which is a schematic diagram of two consecutive transmission events, the period of interaction between the master node and the slave node (i.e., the second period, i.e., the transmission event interval) is Δ T, and a transmission event occurs between the master node and the slave node every second period (e.g., the time period from T0 to T1 or the time period from T1 to T2). Furthermore, each transmission event specifically comprises two transmission sub-events, and each transmission sub-event comprises a process of sending data from the primary master node to the slave node and a process of sending data from the primary slave node to the master node; within each transmission event interval, the transmission sub-event interval is Δ t.

It should be understood that, in fig. 4, each transmission event includes two transmission sub-events, and each transmission sub-event is an example where the master node sends data first, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

In each transmission event or sub-event, the master node does not necessarily have to transmit data first, and the slave node may transmit data first. In each transmission event or sub-event, the sequence of the data transmission by the master node and the data transmission by the slave node may be specifically based on the configuration of the transmission resource or the agreement of the protocol.

In the embodiment of the present application, a plurality of transmission events or transmission sub-events may be sent using a frequency hopping mode, that is, the plurality of transmission events or transmission sub-events may be transmitted using different channels, respectively. Correspondingly, the second information may also be used to indicate at least one of an interval of a transmission event corresponding to the first transmission resource, a number of transmission sub-events, a transmission direction of the transmission event or the transmission sub-event, and a time length occupied in a time domain.

For the definition of the interval of the transmission event, reference is made to the above description. The number of transmission sub-events may be the number of transmission sub-events occurring in one transmission event interval (i.e., the number of transmission sub-events included in one transmission event). The direction of the transmission event may be a transmission event interval, and the data is transmitted in the direction, for example, the master node or the slave node transmits the data first. The direction of the transmission sub-event may be a transmission sub-event interval, and the sending direction of the data, for example, the master node or the slave node sends the data first. The time length occupied in the time domain may be a time length occupied in the time domain by one transmission event (which may be a duration of the second period, or a length of the transmission event interval), a time length occupied in the time domain by one transmission sub-event (which may be a length of the transmission sub-event interval), and the like.

In a possible implementation, the master node may only configure the number of transmission sub-events, and the time resource occupied by the transmission sub-events may be uncertain during the actual data transmission process. For example, the number of transmission sub-events in each transmission event is 1, the master node transmits data to the slave node, and after the slave node receives the data transmitted by the master node, the slave node starts to transmit data to the master node after an Inter Frame Space (Inter Frame Space) time (which can be used for the slave node to perform transmission/reception conversion) elapses. Wherein, the maximum time length occupied by a single transmission sub-event in the time domain may be agreed by the protocol.

In another possible implementation manner, the master node may configure the number of the transmission sub-events, and configure time resources occupied by the master node and the slave node in the single transmission sub-event in the time domain, respectively.

Optionally, the master node and the slave node alternate sending data during each transmission event.

It should be understood that a transmission event may also be referred to herein as a Connection event; a transmission sub-event may also be referred to as a Connection sub-event (Connection sub-event).

In a specific implementation, the second information may further include configuration information of transmission resources for other nodes in addition to configuration information of the first transmission resource for the second node. For example, the second information further includes configuration information of a second transmission resource, where the second transmission resource corresponds to a third node, and the third node and the second node belong to the same multicast group.

For convenience of distinction, the configuration information of the first transmission resource for the second node is referred to herein as first configuration information, and the configuration information of the second transmission resource for the third node is referred to herein as second configuration information. It should be understood that two nodes (the second node and the third node) are included in the multicast group as an example, and the present invention is not limited thereto. There may be one or more than two nodes included in the multicast group.

In one possible design, the configuration information of the transmission resources of different slave nodes in the second information is located in different fields of the second information, e.g. the first configuration information is located in a first field in the second information and the second configuration information is located in a second field in the second information.

In a specific implementation, when the multicast group includes a plurality of slave nodes, the second information may carry configuration information of transmission resources corresponding to all the slave nodes in the plurality of slave nodes, or may only carry configuration information of transmission resources corresponding to some slave nodes in the plurality of slave nodes, which is not limited in this application. For example, the multicast group includes a second node and a third node, the protocol provides that a first field in the second information is used to carry first configuration information of a first transmission resource for the second node, and a second field is used to carry second configuration information of a second transmission resource for the third node, and when the first node only needs to schedule resources for the second node, the second field may be set to null (i.e., the second field is not included) or the value of the second field may be set to 0.

In a specific implementation, when the multicast group includes a plurality of slave nodes, the second information may carry indication information for indicating the slave node corresponding to the current resource configuration. For example, the resource configuration is indicated to carry only configuration information of transmission resources corresponding to part of the slave nodes in the plurality of slave nodes. For example, the multicast group includes a second node and a third node, and the second information may carry indication information for indicating that the current resource configuration corresponds to the second node.

In a specific implementation, when a plurality of slave nodes are included in the multicast group, S201 may be performed once for each slave node. For example: the first node sends first information (the carried destination identification is the identification of the second node) to the second node, and the first node sends third information (the carried destination identification is the identification of the third node) to the third node, wherein the third information is used for indicating the transmission characteristics of the second information. After the first node performs S201 once for each slave node, the first node sends the second information in a multicast manner, and each slave node (e.g., the second node and the second node) in the multicast group receives the second information, and each obtains the transmission resource allocated to it by the first node according to the second information.

In a specific implementation, a plurality of slave nodes connected to the same master node may all be divided into one multicast group, or may be divided into a plurality of different multicast groups, which is not limited in this application. For example, the multicast group in which the slave node is located may be determined according to a distance from the slave node to the master node, specifically, for example: the master node divides the slave nodes with the distance from the master node less than or equal to a first distance value into a first multicast group, divides the slave nodes with the distance from the master node greater than the first distance value and less than or equal to a second distance value into a second multicast group, and divides the slave nodes with the distance from the master node greater than the second distance value into a third multicast group. Alternatively, the transmission characteristics of the second information sent by the master node for different multicast groups may be different. For example, a code rate of the second information sent by the master node to the first multicast group may be higher than a code rate of the second information sent by the master node to the second multicast group, and a code rate of the second information sent by the master node to the second multicast group may be higher than a code rate of the second information sent by the master node to the third multicast group. Thus, the reliability of communication and the communication resource overhead can be further considered.

S203, the first node and the second node transmit data on the first transmission resource.

In one implementation, a master node (a first node) may send first information to each slave node (including a second node) in a multicast group in a unicast manner, indicating a transmission characteristic of second information sent by a subsequent master node in a multicast manner; the master node sends the second information in a multicast mode, meanwhile, the transmission resources are scheduled for a plurality of slave nodes in the multicast group, each slave node in the multicast group receives the second information based on the previously received first information, and then the transmission resources scheduled for the master node are obtained according to the second information. Therefore, the effect that the master node simultaneously schedules transmission resources for a plurality of slave nodes can be achieved, and the resource scheduling efficiency can be improved; and when all available transmission resources in the system are occupied by a plurality of slave nodes, the master node can simultaneously adjust the transmission resources of the plurality of slave nodes in a multicast mode, thereby effectively reducing or even avoiding the influence on the service transmission of the slave nodes and improving the service quality.

In consideration of the fact that in practical applications, when a multicast group includes a plurality of slave nodes, the master node needs to take care of the slave nodes with poor communication quality (or channel conditions), so that the second information can adopt a lower modulation mode and a lower coding rate, so as to ensure that the slave nodes with poor communication quality can also accurately receive the second information. However, the lower the coding rate, the longer the generated codeword and the larger the amount of information to be transmitted, resulting in a large overhead of system resources. In view of this, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication scheme, where for a slave node with good communication quality, the master node may schedule transmission resources for the slave node in a multicast manner (i.e., the scheme shown in fig. 2), and for a slave node with poor communication quality, the master node may schedule transmission resources for the slave node in a unicast manner. This scheme is described in more detail below in conjunction with fig. 3.

Referring to fig. 3, a flowchart of another communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown, and the method is applied to the scenario shown in fig. 1, and is certainly not limited thereto in practical applications. The method comprises the following steps:

s301, a first node (master node) acquires the communication quality of each slave node in a plurality of slave nodes (such as a second node, a third node and a fourth node); the first node determines a resource scheduling mode of each slave node according to the communication quality of the slave node, wherein the resource scheduling mode comprises a multicast mode and a unicast mode.

It is understood that step S301 is an optional step.

In one possible implementation, the quality of communication of the slave node may be obtained by the master node or the slave node performing signal measurement. For example, the master node broadcasts measurement signals; each slave node receives and measures the measurement signal broadcasted by the master node, generates a corresponding measurement result and feeds the measurement result back to the master node; then, the master node determines whether the resource scheduling mode of the slave node is a multicast mode or a unicast mode according to the measurement result fed back by each slave node. Or, for example, each slave node transmits a measurement signal; the master node receives and measures the measurement signal sent by each slave node to generate a corresponding measurement result; then, the master node determines whether the resource scheduling mode of the slave node is a multicast mode or a unicast mode according to the measurement result corresponding to each slave node.

Alternatively, the measurement result may include signal reception power, signal reception strength, and the like. The master node may compare the measurement result corresponding to each slave node with a set threshold, and further determine a resource scheduling manner of each slave node. For example, for a slave node with the signal receiving power less than or equal to the first power value and/or the signal receiving strength less than or equal to the first strength value, the master node determines that the resource scheduling mode is a unicast mode; and for the slave nodes with the signal receiving power being larger than or equal to a second power value and/or the signal receiving strength being larger than or equal to a second strength value, the master node determines that the resource scheduling mode is a multicast mode, wherein the first power value is smaller than or equal to the second power value, and the first strength value is smaller than or equal to the second strength value.

In one possible implementation, instead of the master node transmitting a broadcast measurement signal exclusively, the signal transmitted by the master node to the slave node may be used for signal measurement.

In one possible implementation, the communication Quality may include a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), a Reference Signal Receiving Quality (RSRQ), a Received Signal Strength (RSSI), or a Signal to noise ratio (SNR), among other indicators.

RSRP: is the average of the received signal power over all resource elements/resource elements carrying the reference signal within a certain symbol. Optionally, the value of RSRP represents the power value of each subcarrier.

RSSI: the node probes the total received power across all resource elements/resource elements of one or more symbols within the bandwidth.

RSRQ: the RSRP and the RSSI are obtained through certain operation, and the effect of combining signal strength and interference can be reflected.

SNR: refers to the ratio between the useful signal level and the electromagnetic noise level measured under specified conditions.

In another possible implementation manner, the slave node may determine whether the communication quality of the slave node is good or bad according to the distance between the slave node and the master node. In general, the farther the slave node is from the master node, the greater the fading of the signal, and therefore the poorer the communication quality. There are various ways for the master node to obtain the distance from the slave node, and the present application is not limited thereto. For example, the slave node reports its own position information to the master node, and the master node calculates the distance from the slave node to the master node according to the own position information and the position information of the slave node; or for example, the master node configures the time for the slave node to transmit the positioning signal, the slave node transmits the positioning signal at a predetermined time according to the configuration of the master node, the master node receives the positioning signal transmitted by the slave node, and the master node calculates the distance from the slave node to the master node according to the time difference between the reception time of the positioning signal and the transmission time of the positioning signal.

Optionally, the master node may compare the distance corresponding to each slave node with a set threshold, and further determine a resource scheduling manner of each slave node. For example, for a slave node with a distance less than or equal to a first distance value, the master node determines that the resource scheduling mode is a multicast mode; and for the slave nodes with the distance larger than or equal to the second distance value, the master node determines that the resource scheduling mode is a unicast mode, wherein the first distance value is smaller than or equal to the second distance value.

For convenience of description, the resource scheduling manner of the second node and the third node is a multicast manner, and the resource scheduling manner of the fourth node is a unicast manner.

S302A, the first node schedules transmission resources for the second node and the third node by adopting a multicast mode.

Exemplarily, a first node sends first information to a second node in a unicast manner, the second node receives the first information, the first node sends third information to a third node in the unicast manner, and the third node receives the third information, where the first information carries an identifier of the second node, the third information carries an identifier of the third node, the first information is used to indicate transmission characteristics of the second information, and the third information is used to indicate transmission characteristics of the second information; after sending the first information and the third information, the first node sends second information in a multicast mode, wherein the second information comprises an identifier of a first multicast group, the first multicast group comprises a second node and a third node, and the second information comprises first configuration information of a first transmission resource for the second node and second configuration information of a second transmission resource for the third node; the second node detects the second information according to the first information, obtains the first configuration information of the first transmission resource of the second node according to the second information, and the third node detects the second information according to the third information, and obtains the second configuration information of the second transmission resource of the third node according to the second information. After that, the second node can perform data transmission with the first node on the first transmission resource, and the second node can perform data transmission with the first node on the second transmission resource.

The specific implementation of this step can be referred to the description of the relevant embodiments of S201 to S203, and is not described herein again.

S302B, the first node schedules the transmission resource for the fourth node in a unicast mode.

Specifically, the first node sends fourth information to the fourth node in a unicast manner, where the fourth information carries an identifier of the destination node (i.e., the fourth node), and also carries a third transmission resource scheduled by the first node for the fourth node. Correspondingly, the fourth node determines that the fourth information is the information sent to the fourth node according to the identifier carried in the fourth information, receives the fourth information, and then obtains a third transmission resource scheduled by the first node for the fourth node according to the fourth information. And after the fourth node obtains the third transmission resource, the fourth node and the first node perform data transmission on the third transmission resource.

Taking the example that the first node and the fourth node are based on bluetooth transmission, the first node may carry the fourth information in the bluetooth connection request sent to the fourth node. In a specific implementation, the first node may send the fourth information when the first node establishes the initial bluetooth connection with the fourth node, or the first node may send the fourth information when the first node establishes the bluetooth reconnection with the fourth node (for example, the connection is reconfigured after the transmission service changes), which is not limited in this application.

Based on the above, the master node (first node) in the embodiment of the present application may schedule transmission resources for different slave nodes in different resource scheduling manners, so that resource scheduling is more flexible and efficient, and reliability of communication is further improved.

In view of the fact that in practical applications, a master node and/or a slave node may move and the communication quality between the master node and the slave node may change, the embodiments of the present application further provide a communication scheme for flexibly adjusting the resource scheduling manner of the slave node.

The method for multicast switching unicast is described by taking a second node as an example:

after S202, in the process of data transmission between the second node and the first node on the first transmission resource, if the second node determines that the first trigger condition is satisfied, the second node sends first indication information to the first node, where the first indication information is used to indicate that the first trigger condition is satisfied.

Optionally, after receiving the first indication information, the first node switches the resource scheduling mode of the second node from a multicast mode to a unicast mode.

In a possible implementation manner, when determining that a first trigger condition is satisfied, a second node sends a first request message (the first request message is first indication information, or the first request message carries the first indication information) to a first node, and requests to switch a resource scheduling manner of the second node from a multicast manner to a unicast manner; the first node responds to the first request message, switches the resource scheduling mode of the second node from a multicast mode to a unicast mode, determines to adopt the unicast mode to schedule the resource for the second node when the resource is scheduled for the second node next time, and sends a first response message to the second node, wherein the first response message is used for indicating that the first node switches the resource scheduling mode of the second node from the multicast mode to the unicast mode; after receiving the first response message returned by the first node, the second node determines that the scheduling mode of the second node is switched from the multicast mode to the unicast mode according to the first response message, and can receive the unicast message sent to the second node by the first node instead of receiving the multicast message sent by the first node, and perform data transmission based on the transmission resource configured in the unicast message and the first node.

In another possible implementation manner, when determining that the first trigger condition is satisfied, the second node sends a first request message (the first request message is first indication information, or the first request message carries the first indication information) to the first node, and requests to switch the resource scheduling mode of the second node from a multicast mode to a unicast mode; the first node responds to the first request message, switches the resource scheduling mode of the second node from a multicast mode to a unicast mode, determines to schedule the resource for the second node in the unicast mode when the resource is scheduled for the second node next time, but does not return a response message; after the second node determines that the first trigger condition is met or after the first request message is sent to the first node, the default scheduling mode of the second node is switched from the multicast mode to the unicast mode, the multicast message sent by the first node can not be received any more, but the unicast message sent by the first node to the second node is received, and data transmission is performed based on the transmission resource configured in the unicast message and the first node.

In a specific implementation, the first trigger condition includes, but is not limited to, the following three, for example:

1) The distance between the first node and the second node is greater than or equal to a first distance threshold;

2) The communication quality of the first node and the second node is less than or equal to a first communication quality threshold;

for example, the communication quality includes, but is not limited to, signal received power, signal received strength.

3) The quantity of the second information which is not continuously received by the second node from the first node reaches a first quantity threshold value M1; or, the second node does not receive the second information from the first node within the first time period T1; or, within the second time length T2, the amount of the second information received by the second node from the first node is less than the second number threshold M2.

Wherein M1 and M2 are positive integers. T1 and T2 may be the same or different.

Illustratively, the second information is multicast signaling sent periodically, and the period duration is T0. If the second node does not receive the second information in each period of the M1 continuous periods, namely the quantity of the second information which is not continuously received by the second node from the first node reaches M1, the second node sends first indication information; or if the second node does not receive the second information from the first node in T1, wherein T1 is more than or equal to T0, the second node sends the first indication information; or if the quantity of the second information received by the second node from the first node is less than M2 within T2, wherein T2 is more than or equal to T0, the second node sends the first indication information.

In a specific implementation, the first trigger condition may be configured by the first node to the second node, or agreed by a protocol, or agreed by the first node and the second node, which is not limited in this application.

For example, the first node may send third configuration information to the second node, where the third configuration information may include one or more of a first distance threshold, a first channel quality threshold, a first quantity threshold, a second quantity threshold; and the second node receives the third configuration information and configures the first trigger condition according to the third configuration information. The third configuration information may be carried in the first information and/or the second information, or carried in other information, or the first node sends the third configuration information to the second node separately, which is not limited in this application.

(II) taking a fourth node as an example, a unicast multicast switching method is introduced:

after S302B, in a process of data transmission between the fourth node and the first node on the third transmission resource, if the fourth node determines that the second trigger condition is satisfied, sending second indication information to the first node, where the second indication information is used to indicate that the second trigger condition is satisfied;

optionally, after receiving the second indication information, the first node switches the resource scheduling mode of the fourth node from the unicast mode to the multicast mode.

In a possible implementation manner, when determining that the second trigger condition is satisfied, the fourth node sends a second request message (the second request message is second indication information, or the second request message carries the second indication information) to the first node, and requests to switch the resource scheduling mode of the fourth node from the unicast mode to the multicast mode; the first node responds to the second request message, switches the resource scheduling mode of the fourth node from the unicast mode to the multicast mode, determines to adopt the multicast mode to schedule the resource for the fourth node when the resource is scheduled for the fourth node next time, and sends a second response message to the fourth node, wherein the second response message is used for indicating that the first node switches the resource scheduling mode of the fourth node from the unicast mode to the multicast mode; after receiving the second response message returned by the first node, the fourth node confirms that the scheduling mode of the fourth node is switched from the unicast mode to the multicast mode according to the second response message, and can receive the multicast message sent by the first node instead of the unicast message sent by the first node, and perform data transmission based on the transmission resource configured in the multicast message and the first node.

In another possible implementation manner, when determining that the second trigger condition is satisfied, the fourth node sends a second request message (the second request message is second indication information, or the second request message carries the second indication information) to the first node, and requests to switch the resource scheduling mode of the fourth node from the unicast mode to the multicast mode; the first node responds to the second request message, the resource scheduling mode of the fourth node is switched from a unicast mode to a multicast mode, the resource scheduling mode of the fourth node is determined to be adopted for scheduling the resource for the fourth node in the next resource scheduling of the fourth node, but no response message is returned; after determining that the second trigger condition is satisfied or after sending the second request message to the first node, the fourth node switches the default scheduling mode from the unicast mode to the multicast mode, may not receive the unicast message sent by the first node any more, but receive the multicast message sent by the first node, and performs data transmission based on the transmission resource configured in the multicast message and the first node.

In a specific implementation, the second trigger condition includes, but is not limited to, the following three, for example:

1) The distance between the first node and the fourth node is less than or equal to a second distance threshold;

wherein the second distance threshold is less than or equal to the first distance threshold.

2) The communication quality of the first node and the fourth node is greater than or equal to a second communication quality threshold;

wherein the second communication quality threshold is greater than or equal to the first communication quality threshold.

3) The quantity of the second information continuously received by the fourth node from the first node reaches a third quantity threshold value M3; or, within a third time period T3, the fourth node receives the second information from the first node; or, within the fourth time length T4, the number of second information received by the fourth node from the first node is greater than or equal to the fourth number threshold M4.

Wherein M3 and M4 are positive integers. T3 and T4 may be the same or different; t3 and T1 may be the same or different; t4 and T2 may be the same or different; m3 and M1 may be the same or different; m4 and M2 may be the same or different.

It should be appreciated that although the second information is not sent for the fourth node (i.e. the second information does not carry configuration information for the transmission resources of the fourth node), it may also be able to receive the second information when the communication quality of the fourth node becomes good. The fourth node may send the second indication information to the first node when receiving the second information.

Illustratively, the second information is multicast signaling sent periodically, and the period duration is T0. If the fourth node receives the second information in each period of the M3 continuous periods, namely the quantity of the second information continuously received by the fourth node from the first node reaches M3, the fourth node sends second indication information; or if the fourth node receives the second information from the first node in T3, wherein T3 is more than or equal to T0, the fourth node sends second indication information; or if the quantity of the second information received by the fourth node from the first node in T4 is greater than or equal to M4, wherein T4 is greater than or equal to T0, the fourth node sends the second indication information.

In a specific implementation, the second trigger condition may be configured by the first node to the fourth node, or agreed by a protocol, or agreed by the first node and the fourth node, which is not limited in this application.

For example, the first node may send fourth configuration information to the fourth node, where the fourth configuration information may include one or more of a second distance threshold, a second channel quality threshold, a third quantity threshold, and a fourth quantity threshold; and the fourth node receives the fourth configuration information and configures a second trigger condition according to the fourth configuration information. The fourth configuration information may be carried in the fourth information, or carried in other information, or the first node sends the fourth configuration information to the fourth node separately, which is not limited in this application.

In a specific implementation, the first node may configure the first trigger condition and the second trigger condition for the same slave node at a time, for example, the third configuration information may further carry one or more of a second distance threshold, a second channel quality threshold, a third quantity threshold, and a fourth quantity threshold, and the fourth configuration information may further carry one or more of a first distance threshold, a first channel quality threshold, a first quantity threshold, and a second quantity threshold.

Based on the above, the master node in the embodiment of the present application may switch the resource scheduling manner of the slave node based on the mobility or communication quality of the master node/the slave node, so that the resource scheduling is more flexible and efficient, and the reliability of communication is further improved.

It is to be understood that the various embodiments described above may be combined with each other to achieve different technical effects.

Based on the same technical concept, embodiments of the present application further provide a communication apparatus, which may include modules or units or means (means) for performing any method step in the foregoing method embodiments, where the functions or units or means may be implemented by software or hardware, and may also be implemented by hardware to execute corresponding software.

For example, referring to fig. 5, the apparatus may include a transceiver 501 and a processing unit 502, where the transceiver 501 is configured to communicate with other nodes except for the node where the apparatus is located, and the processing unit 502 may implement the method performed by any node in the foregoing method embodiments by controlling the transceiver 501.

For example, when the apparatus is located at a second node, the transceiving unit 501 is configured to receive first information from the first node, where the first information is used to indicate transmission characteristics of second information, and the second information includes configuration information of a first transmission resource for the second node; receiving second information based on the first information; a processing unit 502 for determining a first transmission resource based on the second information; a transceiving unit 501, configured to perform data transmission with a first node on a first transmission resource; the transmission characteristics include one or more items of starting time, period, modulation mode, coding mode, code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.

For example, when the apparatus is located at a first node, the transceiving unit 501 is configured to send first information to a second node, where the first information is used to indicate a transmission characteristic of second information; sending second information to the second node, the second information comprising configuration information for a first transmission resource of the second node; a processing unit 502 for determining a first transmission resource; a transceiving unit 501, configured to perform data transmission with a second node on a first transmission resource; the transmission characteristics include one or more of a starting time, a period, a modulation mode, a coding mode, a code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.

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

In practice, the apparatus described above may be used in a variety of product forms, several of which are described below.

Referring to fig. 6, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus, which includes a transceiver 601 and a processor 602, where the processor 602 is coupled to the transceiver 601, and the processor 602 and the transceiver 601 cooperate to perform the method performed by any node in the foregoing method embodiments.

Referring to fig. 7, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus, including a processor 701 and a memory 702; the memory 702 is used to store computer-executable instructions; the processor 701 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 702 to cause the communication device to perform the method performed by any node in the above-described method embodiments.

Referring to fig. 8, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus, which includes at least one processor 801 and an interface circuit 802; an interface circuit 802 for receiving code instructions and transmitting to the at least one processor 801; the at least one processor 801 executes code instructions to perform the method performed by any node of the method embodiments described above. It should be understood that fig. 8 illustrates only one processor 801 and is not limited thereto in practice.

In one possible implementation, the communication device may be a chip. Optionally, the chip may be coupled to a memory, and configured to read and execute program instructions stored in the memory, so as to implement the method executed by any node in the foregoing method embodiments. It should be understood that the processors mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by hardware or may be implemented by software. When implemented in hardware, the processor may be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, or the like. When implemented in software, the processor may be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

The Processor may be, for example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), other general purpose Processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, discrete Gate or transistor logic, 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 be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), double Data rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DR RAM).

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

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

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store instructions, and when the instructions are executed, the method performed by any node in the foregoing method embodiments is implemented.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product including instructions stored therein, which when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by any node in the above method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program, which when run on a computer, causes the method performed by any node in the above method embodiments to be performed.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a terminal, where the terminal may execute the method executed by any node in the foregoing method embodiments.

Wherein the terminal may be any terminal supporting short-range communication. Examples of some terminals are, for example: the Smart Mobile phone, the tablet computer, the notebook computer, the palmtop computer, the Mobile Internet Device (MID), the Smart Point Of Sale (POS), the wearable Device (such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes and shoes), the Virtual Reality (VR) Device, the Augmented Reality (AR) Device, the wireless terminal in Industrial Control (Industrial Control), the wireless terminal in Self Driving (Self Driving), the wireless terminal in Remote Surgery (Remote Medical Surgery), the wireless terminal in Smart Grid (Smart Grid), the wireless terminal in Transportation Safety (Transportation Safety), the wireless terminal in Smart City (City), the wireless terminal in Smart Home (Home), the Internet Of Things (Internet Of Things ) terminal, various Smart meters (IoT), smart water meters, smart electricity meters, smart meter, smart lte-Smart DSA, and access-Integrated equipment with Smart Home (iak).

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, or may be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

A method of communication, comprising:

receiving first information from a first node, the first information indicating transmission characteristics of second information, the second information including configuration information for a first transmission resource of a second node;

receiving the second information based on the first information;

transmitting data with the first node on the first transmission resource;

the transmission characteristics include one or more items of starting time, period, modulation mode, coding mode, code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises an identification of the second node.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second information comprises an identification of a multicast group in which the second node is located.
The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the second information is further used to indicate at least one of an interval of transmission events, a number of transmission sub-events, a transmission direction of a transmission event or a transmission sub-event, and a time duration occupied in a time domain corresponding to the first transmission resource.
The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the second information further comprises configuration information of a second transmission resource, the second transmission resource corresponds to a third node, and the third node and the second node belong to the same multicast group.
The method according to any one of claims 1-5, further comprising:

and determining that a trigger condition is met, and sending first indication information to the first node, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the trigger condition is met.
The method of claim 6, wherein the trigger condition comprises one or more of:

the distance between the first node and the second node is greater than or equal to a first distance threshold;

the communication quality of the first node and the second node is less than or equal to a first communication quality threshold;

the number of second information which is not continuously received by the second node from the first node reaches a first number threshold value; or, the second node does not receive the second information from the first node within the first time period; or, within a second time length, the number of the second information received by the second node from the first node is less than a second number threshold.
The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving third configuration information from the first node, the third configuration information comprising one or more of the first distance threshold, the first channel quality threshold, the first quantity threshold, the second quantity threshold.
A method of communication, comprising:

sending first information to a second node, wherein the first information is used for indicating the transmission characteristics of second information;

sending the second information to the second node, the second information including configuration information for a first transmission resource of the second node;

transmitting data with the second node on the first transmission resource;

the transmission characteristics include one or more items of starting time, period, modulation mode, coding mode, code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.
The method of claim 9, wherein sending the first information to the second node comprises:

and sending the first information to the second node in a unicast mode, wherein the first information comprises the identifier of the second node.
The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein sending the second information to the second node comprises:

and sending the second information to the second node in a multicast mode, wherein the second information comprises the identifier of the multicast group where the second node is located.
The method according to any of claims 9-11, wherein the second information is further used to indicate at least one of an interval of transmission events, a number of transmission sub-events, a transmission direction of a transmission event or a transmission sub-event, and a time duration occupied in a time domain corresponding to the first transmission resource.
The method according to any of claims 9-12, wherein the second information further comprises configuration information of a second transmission resource, the second transmission resource corresponds to a third node, and the third node and the second node belong to the same multicast group.
The method according to any one of claims 9-13, further comprising:

receiving first indication information from the second node, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that a trigger condition is met.
The method of claim 14, wherein the trigger condition comprises one or more of:

the distance between the first node and the second node is greater than or equal to a first distance threshold;

the communication quality of the first node and the second node is less than or equal to a first communication quality threshold;

the number of second information which is not continuously received by the second node from the first node reaches a first number threshold value; or, the second node does not receive the second information from the first node within the first time period; or, within a second time length, the number of the second information received by the second node from the first node is less than a second number threshold.
The method of claim 15, further comprising:

sending third configuration information to the second node, the third configuration information including one or more of the first distance threshold, the first channel quality threshold, the first quantity threshold, and the second quantity threshold.
A communications apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to receive first information from a first node, where the first information is used to indicate transmission characteristics of second information, and the second information includes configuration information of a first transmission resource for a second node; receiving the second information based on the first information;

a processing unit configured to determine the first transmission resource based on the second information;

the transceiver unit is further configured to perform data transmission with the first node on the first transmission resource;

the transmission characteristics include one or more items of starting time, period, modulation mode, coding mode, code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.
The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first information comprises an identification of the second node.
The apparatus according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the second information comprises an identification of a multicast group in which the second node is located.
The apparatus according to any of claims 17-19, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

and when a trigger condition is met, sending first indication information to the first node, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that the trigger condition is met.
A communications apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver unit, configured to send first information to a second node, where the first information is used to indicate a transmission characteristic of second information; sending the second information to the second node, the second information including configuration information for a first transmission resource of the second node;

a processing unit for determining the first transmission resource;

the transceiver unit is further configured to perform data transmission with the second node on the first transmission resource;

the transmission characteristics include one or more items of starting time, period, modulation mode, coding mode, code rate, available channel mapping information, or frequency hopping increment information.
The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the transceiver unit, when sending the first information to the second node, is specifically configured to:

and sending the first information to the second node in a unicast mode, wherein the first information comprises the identifier of the second node.
The apparatus according to claim 21 or 22, wherein the transceiver unit, when sending the second information to the second node, is specifically configured to:

and sending the second information to the second node in a multicast mode, wherein the second information comprises the identifier of the multicast group in which the second node is positioned.
The apparatus according to any of claims 21-23, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

and receiving first indication information from the second node, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating that a trigger condition is met.
The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the trigger condition comprises one or more of:

the distance between the first node and the second node is greater than or equal to a first distance threshold;

the communication quality of the first node and the second node is less than or equal to a first communication quality threshold;

the number of second information which is not continuously received by the second node from the first node reaches a first number threshold value; or, within a first time period, the second node does not receive the second information from the first node; or, within a second time length, the number of the second information received by the second node from the first node is less than a second number threshold.
A communication device comprising at least one processor and interface circuitry; the interface circuitry to transmit code instructions to the at least one processor; the at least one processor executes the code instructions to perform the method of any of claims 1-8 or 9-16.
A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the readable storage medium is configured to store instructions that, when executed, cause the method of any of claims 1-8 or 9-16 to be implemented.
A computer program product comprising instructions stored thereon, which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-8 or 9-16.
A communication system comprising a first node for performing the method of any of claims 9-16 and a second node for performing the method of any of claims 1-8.
A terminal, characterized in that the terminal comprises an arrangement according to any of claims 17-20 or 21-25.