CN116017376A

CN116017376A - Communication method, communication device and communication system

Info

Publication number: CN116017376A
Application number: CN202111228213.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李翔宇; 彭文杰; 蔡涛
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-10-21
Filing date: 2021-10-21
Publication date: 2023-04-25
Also published as: WO2023066061A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method, a communication device and a communication system. Wherein the method comprises the following steps: receiving indication information from a network device, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether a first timer is started, the first timer is used for monitoring Downlink Control Information (DCI) from the network device, and the DCI is used for indicating a Side Link (SL) retransmission resource; and determining to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information. Through the technical scheme provided by the application, the power consumption can be saved.

Description

Communication method, communication device and communication system

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method, a communication device, and a communication system.

Background

A User Equipment (UE) and a UE may communicate with each other using a Sidelink (SL), UE1 may be a transmit UE (TX UE), and UE2 may be a receive UE (RX UE). While the UE1 is operating in mode1 (mode 1), in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected state, SL resources (used to transmit SL transmissions) may be acquired from the base station, and in particular, the base station may schedule the SL resources to the UE1 through DCI or configure a SL configuration grant (configured grant) to the UE1 through an RRC message. When the UE1 is in RRC connected state, the UE1 may be configured with Discontinuous Reception (DRX) by the base station, that is, the UE1 listens for Downlink Control Information (DCI) in a specified activation time, and does not need to listen for DCI in the deactivation time, so as to power-saving the receiver.

However, when the RRC-connected UE1 is operating in the mode 1 state, SL transmission by the UE1 may affect its Uu DRX. For example, when the SL needs to retransmit, UE1 is required to monitor the SL grant of the DCI schedule, thereby affecting the listening time of the DCI. Therefore, for the influence of SL transmission on Uu DRX, a SL-specific retransmission scheduling timer (SL-specific DRX-Retransmission Timer) is introduced, and UE1 automatically starts the SL-specific retransmission scheduling timer, and when the SL-specific retransmission scheduling timer is running, UE1 is in an active time, and can monitor DCI to obtain corresponding SL transmission resources. How to reduce the terminal energy consumption for the UE1 to automatically start the SL dedicated retransmission scheduling timer becomes a problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method, a communication device and a communication system, which can save power consumption.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to a terminal device, and may also be applied to a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal device, and is described below by taking application to the terminal device as an example. The method may include: receiving indication information from network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether a first timer is started or not, the first timer is used for monitoring DCI from the network equipment, and the DCI is used for indicating SL retransmission resources; and determining to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information.

In mode 1 of side-link communication, a terminal device in RRC connected state may listen for SL retransmission resources from a network device when a SL specific retransmission timer (e.g., SL-specificdrx-Retransmission Timer) is started. In the scheme provided by the application, the terminal equipment can determine to start or not start the SL special retransmission timer through the indication information from the network equipment, so that the terminal equipment can be prevented from continuously and automatically starting the SL special retransmission timer under the condition of receiving the SL retransmission resource from the network equipment for the last time, and the energy consumption can be saved.

In one possible implementation, the indication information has a correspondence with SL processes.

In the scheme provided by the application, the indication information is sent to the terminal device by the network device, and the granularity of the indication information may be a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process. The first timer is a timer associated with the side-uplink procedure, i.e., the first timer is used to listen for DCI from the network device, which may indicate the side-uplink retransmission resources. In addition, the terminal equipment side can maintain the corresponding relation between the Uu HARQ process and the SL process, and the association between the indication information and the SL process is realized through the corresponding relation. Further, the terminal device may determine whether the first timer corresponding to the SL process is started or not according to the received indication information and the correspondence between the Uu HARQ process and the SL process.

The first timer may be maintained according to a per-SL process, and an indication message may correspond to a SL process, for indicating whether the first timer corresponding to the SL process is started or not. Alternatively, the HARQ entity of the SL may have a plurality of parallel SL processes, and one indication information may correspond to the plurality of SL processes, for indicating whether the first timer corresponding to the plurality of SL processes is started or not started. Alternatively, the indication information corresponding to each SL process may be the same or different.

The granularity of the indication information may be per Uu hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process, and it may be understood that one indication information corresponds to one Uu HARQ process and the indication information corresponding to different Uu HARQ processes may be different. For example, the first Uu HARQ process corresponds to the first indication information, and the second Uu HARQ process corresponds to the second indication information. The first timers may be maintained per SL process, and it is understood that one first timer may correspond to one SL process and the first timers corresponding to different SL processes may be different. For example, a first SL process corresponds to the first timer 1, a second SL process corresponds to the first timer 2, and so on.

In one possible implementation manner, the indication information includes a first threshold and/or a second threshold, where the first threshold is a number of times of sending DCI for SL retransmission scheduling, and the second threshold is a number of times of starting the first timer.

In the scheme provided by the application, the network device can indirectly instruct the terminal device whether to start the SL dedicated retransmission timer through the instruction information, for example, the instruction information includes at least one of the number of times of transmission of DCI for SL retransmission scheduling and the number of times of starting of the SL dedicated retransmission timer, and after receiving the instruction information, the terminal device determines to start or not start the SL dedicated retransmission timer according to at least one of the number of times of transmission of DCI for SL retransmission scheduling and the number of times of starting of the SL dedicated retransmission timer in the instruction information.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information includes: and determining to start the first timer when the number of times of receiving DCI for indicating SL retransmission resources is smaller than the first threshold and/or the number of times of starting the first timer is smaller than the second threshold.

In the scheme provided by the application, after receiving the indication information, the terminal equipment determines to start or not start the SL dedicated retransmission timer according to at least one of the number of times of sending the DCI of the SL retransmission schedule and the number of times of starting the SL dedicated retransmission timer in the indication information. For example, when the number of times of DCI for indicating SL retransmission resources received by the terminal device is smaller than the number of times of transmission of DCI for SL retransmission scheduling indicated by the network device, the SL dedicated retransmission timer is started. It can be appreciated that when the terminal device receives a DCI indicating a SL retransmission resource, the SL dedicated retransmission timer is started when the DCI indicating the SL retransmission resource is not the last DCI scheduled for the SL retransmission. For another example, in the case where the number of times the terminal device has started the SL dedicated retransmission timer is smaller than the number of times the SL dedicated retransmission timer indicated by the network device is started, the SL dedicated retransmission timer is started. For another example, the first timer is started in case that the number of times the DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource is received by the terminal device is less than the first threshold and the number of times the terminal device has started the first timer is less than the second threshold. In this way, after receiving the last DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource and/or starting the SL dedicated retransmission timer for the last time, the terminal equipment does not start the first timer any more, so that the power consumption waste can be reduced, and the energy consumption can be saved.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information includes: and starting the first timer under the condition that the indication information indicates to start the first timer.

In the scheme provided by the application, the network device can directly indicate whether the terminal device starts the SL dedicated retransmission timer through the indication information, for example, the indication information indicates to start the SL dedicated retransmission timer, and the terminal device starts the SL dedicated retransmission timer after receiving the indication information.

In one possible implementation, the starting the first timer includes: and starting the first timer in an L-th time unit after the first resource is finished, wherein L is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

In the solution provided in the present application, the time for the terminal device to start the SL dedicated retransmission timer may be the first symbol or slot after the end of the Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) resource at the end of DCI scheduling.

In one possible implementation, the starting the first timer includes: starting a second timer, wherein the second timer is used for timing the SL special hybrid automatic repeat request round trip time; and starting the first timer in an M-th time unit after the second timer is overtime, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

In the scheme provided in the present application, it is assumed that when considering support of the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer (SL-specific HARQ RTT timer), the terminal device may start the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer before starting the SL dedicated retransmission timer, and then start the SL dedicated retransmission timer after the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer expires.

In one possible implementation, the starting the second timer includes: and starting the second timer in an Nth time unit after the second resource is ended, wherein the length of the second timer is smaller than or equal to the time difference between the first resource ending time and the second resource ending time, and N is an integer larger than or equal to 1.

In the scheme provided in the present application, assuming that the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer is supported, the time for the terminal device to start the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer may be the first symbol or slot after the end of the time domain resource carrying DCI, and it may be understood that the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer is started by the first symbol or slot after the end of the time domain resource carrying DCI, specifically, the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer may be started by the first symbol or slot after the end of the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) resource indicated by the DCI. The length of the timer may be equal to the time difference between the end time of the last PSSCH resource indicated by the DCI and the end time of the PDCCH resource indicated by the DCI, so that after the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer times out, the SL dedicated retransmission timer may be started in the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of the DCI schedule.

In one possible implementation, the starting the second timer includes: and starting the second timer in an X-th time unit after the first resource is finished, wherein the length of the second timer is 0, and X is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

In the scheme provided in the present application, it is assumed that a SL dedicated harq round trip timer is supported, where the time for starting the SL dedicated harq round trip timer may be the first symbol or slot after the PSSCH resource of DCI scheduling ends, and the length of the timer is 0, so that after the SL dedicated harq round trip timer times out, the SL dedicated retransmission timer may be started in the first symbol or slot after the last PSSCH resource of DCI scheduling ends.

In one possible implementation, the indication information is carried in an RRC reconfiguration message, a medium access control element (MAC CE), or DCI.

In the scheme provided by the application, the network device indirectly indicates whether the terminal device starts the SL dedicated retransmission timer through the indication information, which may be static or semi-static, for example, the indication information may be carried in an RRC reconfiguration message or a MAC CE. The network device directly indicates, through the indication information, whether the terminal device starts the SL dedicated retransmission timer, and may be dynamically indicated, for example, the indication information may be carried in DCI, for example, indicated by using 1 bit or several bits.

In one possible implementation, the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated Logical Channel ID (LCID).

In the scheme provided by the application, the MAC CE can be identified through the special logic channel identification, so that the terminal equipment can acquire the indication information from the identified MAC CE, and then the SL special retransmission timer is determined to be started or started according to the indication information, thereby avoiding that the terminal equipment continues to automatically start the SL special retransmission timer under the condition of receiving the SL retransmission schedule from the network equipment for the last time, and further saving energy consumption.

In one possible implementation, the time unit is any one of a frame, a subframe, a slot, a minislot, or a symbol.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be applied to a network device, and may also be applied to a module (e.g., a chip) in the network device, and is described below by taking application to the network device as an example. The method may include: determining indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether a first timer is started or not, the first timer is used for monitoring DCI by terminal equipment, and the DCI is used for indicating SL retransmission resources; and sending the indication information to the terminal equipment.

In the scheme provided by the application, the network equipment can determine and send the indication information for indicating whether to start the SL special retransmission timer to the terminal equipment, so that the terminal equipment determines to start or not to start the SL special retransmission timer according to the indication information, and the situation that the terminal equipment continuously and automatically starts the SL special retransmission timer under the condition of receiving the SL retransmission resource from the network equipment for the last time can be avoided, thereby saving energy consumption.

It should be understood that the implementation body of the second aspect may be a network device, where specific content of the second aspect corresponds to content of the first aspect, and corresponding features and achieved beneficial effects of the second aspect may refer to descriptions of the first aspect, and detailed descriptions are omitted herein as appropriate to avoid repetition.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and determining to start or not start a third timer according to the indication information, wherein the third timer corresponds to the first timer.

In the scheme provided by the application, after the network device sends the indication information to the terminal device, the third timer corresponding to the first timer can be started or not started according to the indication information. The third timer corresponds to the first timer, and it can be understood that the first timer and the third timer are turned on and off at the same time, when the network device turns on the third timer, the network device sends the SL retransmission resource to the terminal device, and when the terminal device turns on the first timer, the terminal device monitors the SL retransmission resource from the network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining to start or not start the third timer according to the indication information includes: and determining to start the third timer in the case that the number of times of the sent DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource is smaller than the first threshold value and/or the number of times of starting the third timer is smaller than the second threshold value.

In the solution provided in the present application, after determining the indication information, the network device may determine to start or not to start the third timer according to at least one of the number of times of transmission of the DCI for SL retransmission scheduling and the number of times of starting the SL dedicated retransmission timer in the indication information. For example, if the network device determines that the number of times of DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource transmitted to the terminal device is smaller than the first threshold, the third timer is started. It can be appreciated that when the network device transmits a DCI for indicating SL retransmission resources, the third timer is started when the DCI for indicating SL retransmission resources is not the last DCI scheduled for SL retransmission. For another example, the third timer is started in case the number of times the network device has started the third timer is smaller than the second threshold. For another example, the third timer is started in a case where the number of times the network device has transmitted DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource is less than the first threshold and the number of times the network device has started the third timer is less than the second threshold. In this way, after the network device sends the DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource for the last time and/or the third timer is started for the last time, the third timer is not started any more, so that the power consumption waste of the network device can be reduced, and the energy consumption can be saved.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining to start or not start the third timer according to the indication information includes: and starting the third timer in the case that the indication information indicates that the first timer is started.

In the scheme provided by the application, the network device can directly indicate whether the terminal device starts the first timer through the indication information, for example, the indication information indicates to start the first timer, and the terminal device starts the first timer after receiving the indication information. Correspondingly, the network device starts a third timer.

In one possible implementation, the starting the third timer includes: and starting the third timer in an L-th time unit after the first resource is finished, wherein L is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

In the solution provided in the present application, the time at which the network device starts the third timer may be the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of DCI scheduling.

In one possible implementation, the starting the third timer includes: starting a second timer, wherein the second timer is used for timing the SL special hybrid automatic repeat request round trip time; and starting the third timer in an M-th time unit after the second timer is overtime, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

In the solution provided in the present application, it is assumed that when considering supporting the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer (SL-specific HARQ RTT timer), the network device may start the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer before starting the third timer, and then start the third timer after the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer expires.

In the scheme provided in the present application, assuming that the SL-specific hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer is supported, the time for the network device to start the SL-specific hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer may be the first symbol or slot after the end of the time domain resource carrying DCI, and it may be understood that the SL-specific hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer may be started by the first symbol or slot after the end of the time domain resource carrying DCI, specifically, the first symbol or slot after the end of the PDCCH resource indicated by the DCI. The length of the timer may be equal to the time difference between the end time of the last PSSCH resource indicated by the DCI and the end time of the PDCCH resource indicated by the DCI, so that after the SL-specific hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer expires, a third timer may be started in the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource scheduled by the DCI.

In the scheme provided in the present application, it is assumed that a SL dedicated harq round trip timer is supported, and the time for starting the SL dedicated harq round trip timer may be the first symbol or slot after the end of the PSSCH resource of DCI scheduling, and the length of the timer is 0, so that after the SL dedicated harq round trip timer times out, the third timer may be started in the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of DCI scheduling.

In one possible implementation, the indication information is carried in an RRC reconfiguration message, MAC CE or DCI.

In one possible implementation, the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated LCID.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device.

The advantages may be seen from the description of the first aspect, which is not repeated here. The communication device has the functionality to implement the actions in the method example of the first aspect described above. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible implementation, the communication device includes:

a receiving unit, configured to receive indication information from a network device, where the indication information is used to indicate whether to start a first timer, where the first timer is used to monitor DCI from the network device, and the DCI is used to indicate SL retransmission resources;

and the determining unit is used for determining to start or not to start the first timer according to the indication information.

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

And determining to start the first timer when the number of times of receiving DCI for indicating SL retransmission resources is smaller than the first threshold and/or the number of times of starting the first timer is smaller than the second threshold.

and starting the first timer in an L-th time unit after the first resource is finished, wherein L is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

starting a second timer, wherein the second timer is used for timing the SL special hybrid automatic repeat request round trip time;

and starting the first timer in an M-th time unit after the second timer is overtime, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

and starting the second timer in an Nth time unit after the second resource is ended, wherein the length of the second timer is smaller than or equal to the time difference between the first resource ending time and the second resource ending time, and N is an integer larger than or equal to 1.

And starting the second timer in an X-th time unit after the first resource is finished, wherein the length of the second timer is 0, and X is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

In one possible implementation, the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated LCID.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device.

The advantages may be seen from the description of the second aspect, which is not repeated here. The communication device has the functionality to implement the behavior in the method example of the second aspect described above. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible implementation, the communication device includes:

a determining unit, configured to determine indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate whether to start a first timer, where the first timer is used for a terminal device to monitor DCI, and the DCI is used to indicate SL retransmission resources;

And the sending unit is used for sending the indication information to the terminal equipment.

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

and determining to start or not start a third timer according to the indication information, wherein the third timer corresponds to the first timer.

and determining to start the third timer in the case that the number of times of the sent DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource is smaller than the first threshold value and/or the number of times of starting the third timer is smaller than the second threshold value.

and starting the third timer in an L-th time unit after the first resource is finished, wherein L is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

and starting the third timer in an M-th time unit after the second timer is overtime, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

In one possible implementation, the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated LCID.

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

In a sixth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a network device, or may be a module (e.g., a chip) in a network device. The apparatus may comprise a processor, a memory, an input interface for receiving information from a communication device other than the communication device, and an output interface for outputting information to a communication device other than the communication device, the processor invoking a computer program stored in the memory to perform the communication method provided by the second aspect or any embodiment of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication system comprising at least one terminal and at least one network device for performing any of the methods of the first or second aspects described above when at least one of the aforementioned terminal devices and at least one of the aforementioned network devices are operating in the communication system as well.

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

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

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a chip system comprising a processor and possibly a memory for implementing the method of the first aspect and any one of the possible implementations thereof and the second aspect and any one of the possible implementations thereof. The chip system may be formed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are required to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below.

Fig. 1 is an application scenario schematic diagram of direct communication between user equipments provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of side-link communication provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a timer start provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another timer start provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of still another timer start provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a 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;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of still another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

(1) Side link (Sidelink)

In a wireless communication system, data communication may be performed between UEs through a network, or communication may be performed directly between UEs without using a network device. Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic application scenario diagram of direct communication between user equipments according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the interface between UEs is referred to as Proximity-based traffic (PC 5) interface, similar to Uu interface between UEs and base stations. The link between UEs is called a sidelink, and one typical application scenario for sidelink communication is the internet of vehicles (V2X). In the internet of vehicles, each vehicle is one UE, and data transmission can be directly carried out between the UE and the UE through a side uplink without passing through a network, so that communication time delay can be effectively reduced.

Unicast, multicast, and broadcast communications are supported on the side links.

There are two ways for the UE to acquire the side uplink resources (for the transmit UE, TX UE), referred to as mode1 and mode2, respectively. In mode1, the UE acquires SL resources from the base station, and specifically, the base station may schedule the SL resources to the UE through DCI or configure SL configuration grant (configured grant) to the UE through RRC message. In Mode2, the UE may receive the SL resource pool configuration from the base station, or obtain the SL resource pool configuration from the pre-configuration, and then select SL resources in the SL resource pool to transmit. Specifically, the selection may be randomly selected, or selected based on the result of listening (sensing) or partial listening (partial sensing).

The UE operating in mode1 is in an RRC CONNECTED state (rrc_connected), and the UE operating in mode2 may be in an RRC CONNECTED state, an RRC inactive state, an RRC idle state, an out of coverage (OOC) state. Whether the RRC-connected UE is operating in mode1 or mode2 depends on the base station configuration.

A SL HARQ entity maintains a set of parallel SL processes (SL processes), each supporting a Transport Block (TB), each SL process being associated with a HARQ buffer.

(2) Discontinuous Reception (DRX)

DRX refers to monitoring DCI in a specified activation time (active time), and not monitoring DCI in an inactive time, and turning off a receiver to achieve the effect of saving power.

(3) Time cell

It should be understood that, in the present application, the time unit may be one or more radio frames, one or more subframes, one or more time slots, one or more minislots (minislots), one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, etc. defined in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) or a fifth generation mobile communication new air interface (the 5th generation newradio,5G NR) system, or may be a time window formed by a plurality of frames or subframes, for example, a System Information (SI) window.

The time domain resources used by the network device and the terminal device for wireless communication may be divided into a plurality of time units. In the embodiment of the present application, the length of the first time unit is not limited. For example, 1 time unit may be one or more subframes; alternatively, one or more time slots are also possible; alternatively, one or more symbols may be used. In the embodiment of the present application, the symbol is also referred to as a time domain symbol, and may be an OFDM symbol, or may be a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbol, where SC-FDMA is also referred to as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonalfrequencydivisionmultiplexing withtransformprecoding, OFDM with TP) with transform precoding.

In the embodiment of the present application, a time sequence relationship exists between a plurality of time units in a time domain, and the time lengths corresponding to any two time units may be the same or different.

(4) Resource(s)

Resources refer to communication resources used in a communication system to transmit signaling or data. The resources may include time domain resources, frequency domain resources, code domain resources, and the like. In the embodiment of the present application, the resource may be illustrated by taking a time domain resource as an example.

It is to be understood that the above definitions of the various technical terms are provided by way of example only. For example, as technology continues to evolve, the scope of the above definition may also change, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited.

The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail and clarity with reference to the drawings attached hereto.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of side-link communication according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, UE1 and UE2 perform side-link communication, where UE1 is a TX UE and UE2 is an RX UE. The UE1 may be in an In Coverage (IC) state or an OOC state, and when the UE1 is in an RRC connected state, the UE1 may acquire SL resources (for SL transmission) from the base station, and this is referred to as a mode1 resource allocation mode, specifically, the base station may schedule the SL resources to the UE through DCI, or configure an SL configuration grant (configured grant) to the UE through an RRC message. When the UE1 is operating in mode2 (may be in RRC connected state, RRC inactive state, RRC idle state, OOC state), the UE may receive the SL resource pool configuration from the base station, or obtain the SL resource pool configuration from the pre-configuration, and then select SL resources in the SL resource pool to transmit. Specifically, the selection may be randomly selected, or selected based on the result of listening (sensing) or partial listening (partial sensing).

When the UE1 is in the RRC connection state, the UE1 can be configured with DRX by the base station, the UE1 monitors DCI in a specified activation time (active time), does not monitor DCI in a non-activation time, and the receiver is closed to achieve the effect of saving electricity. In particular, when the RRC-connected UE1 is operating in mode1, the SL transmission performed by the UE1 may affect its Uu DRX (e.g., when the SL needs to be retransmitted, the UE1 needs to monitor the SL grant scheduled by the DCI, thereby affecting the DCI monitoring time). Therefore, a SL-specific retransmission waiting Timer HARQ RTT Timer (SL-specific DRX-HARQ-RTT-Timer) and a SL-specific retransmission scheduling Timer (SL-specific DRX-Retransmission Timer) are introduced into Uu DRX. When the SL-specific drx-retransmission timer is running, the UE1 is in active time (active time), and can monitor DCI to acquire corresponding SL transmission scheduling.

The unicast and multicast communication of the SL support the SLHARQ feedback, which is fed back on a Physical Side Feedback Channel (PSFCH) resource, and also support enabled or disabled, specifically, in a second Stage (SCI) side uplink control information (si), an indication information is used to indicate whether the HARQ feedback of the current transmission is enabled or disabled (disabled), or activated or deactivated, or supported or unsupported, or turned on or turned off, and so on. In addition, for UE1 in mode1 (TX UE), when UE1 is configured with SL-PUCCH-config, UE1 further feeds back to the base station whether the SL transmission is Acknowledgement (ACK) or non-acknowledgement (NACK), so as to assist in SL transmission scheduling of subsequent base stations.

Specifically, when SL-PUCCH-config is configured, SL HARQ feedback is enabled (it is not allowed to configure SL-PUCCH-config without PSFCH configured; but even if PSFCH is configured, SL transmission is HARQ enabled or disabled depending on the result of SL Logical Channel Priority (LCP) by the TX UE), the SL-PUCCH-config carried HARQ feedback to the gNB and the SL HARQ feedback sent by UE2 to UE1 are the same; when SL-PUCCH-config is configured, the HARQ feedback carried on SL-PUCCH-config depends on UE1 implementation (e.g., UE1 also wants to continue SL retransmission, UE1 feeds back NACK to the gNB; if UE1 does not want to continue SL retransmission, UE1 feeds back ACK to the base station).

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a timer start according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, for the effect of SL transmission on Uu DRX, when SL-PUCCH-config is configured, UE1 in mode 1 will support SL-specific DRX-HARQ-RTT-Timer and SL-specific DRX-Retransmission Timer. Specifically, when the SL-PUCCH-config is configured and a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) is transmitted, the UE1 starts the SL-specific drx-HARQ-RTT-Timer of the corresponding SL process in the first slot after the PUCCH carries the SL HARQ feedback result; when SL-PUCCH-config is configured but PUCCH is not transmitted due to Uplink (UL) and SL priority issues, UE1 starts SL-specific drx-HARQ-RTT-Timer for the corresponding SL procedure in the first slot or symbol after the end of the PUCCH resource.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating another timer start according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, for the case where the SL-PUCCH-config is not configured, it is assumed that the SL-specific drx-HARQ-RTT-Timer is not supported but the SL-specific drx-Retransmission Timer is supported, and the SL-specific drx-Retransmission Timer starts at the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of the DCI scheduling.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a further timer start according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, considering the case that the SL transmission is not configured by the UE1, if the SL-specific drx-HARQ-RTT-Timer is not supported but the SL-specific drx-Retransmission Timer is supported, there is a case that the SL transmission by the UE1 has been successfully transmitted, for example, when the SL-specific drx-config is configured and the SL HARQ enabled, the UE1 has received an ACK from the UE2, and if the UE1 continues to start the SL-specific drx-Retransmission Timer (for example, the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of the DCI schedule continues to start), the HARQ buffer of the SL process on the UE1 side is already emptied and the SL retransmission is not performed for the UE2 when the UE1 receives the SL retransmission schedule of the DCI, and the UE1 may continue to automatically start the SL-specific drx-Retransmission Timer, which may result in an increase in power consumption.

The technical problems to be solved by the embodiments of the present application may include: the terminal device can determine to start or not start the SL dedicated retransmission timer through the indication information from the network device, so that the terminal device can be prevented from continuously and automatically starting the SL dedicated retransmission timer under the condition that the SL dedicated retransmission schedule from the network device is received for the last time, and energy consumption can be saved.

Based on the foregoing, in order to better understand a communication method proposed in the present application, a network architecture to which an embodiment of the present application is applied is described below.

As shown in fig. 2, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to a scenario of side-link communication, including a network device 201, a first terminal device 202, and a second terminal device 203. The first terminal device 202 is a data transmitting end of the side-link communication, operates in mode 1, and is configured with Uu DRX. The second terminal device 203 is a data receiving end of the side-link communication, and may be in an RRC connection state, an RRC inactive state, an RRC idle state, or an OOC state. The communication between the first terminal device 202 and the second terminal device 203 may be a unicast communication or a multicast communication.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to communication between a Remote terminal (Remote UE) and a Relay terminal (Relay UE) in a terminal-to-Network Relay (UE-to-Network Relay) scenario, may also be applied to communication between a Source terminal (Source UE) and a Relay terminal (Relay UE) in a terminal-to-terminal Relay (UE-to-UE Relay) scenario, and may also be applied to communication between a Relay terminal (Relay UE) and a target terminal (target UE), and the embodiment of the present application describes a scenario applied to side-link communication as an example, where an application scenario is not limited.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communication, GSM) system, code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD) system, general mobile communications (universal mobile telecommunications system, UMTS) system, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (enhanced data rate for GSM evolution, EDGE) system, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) system. The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may also be applied to other communication systems, such as a public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) system, an advanced long term evolution (LTE-a) system, a 5G system, an NR system, a machine-to-machine communication (machine to machine, M2M) system, or other communication systems that evolve in the future, which are not limited in this application.

A terminal device in the embodiments of the present application is an entity on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals, such as a user device, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal device may also be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal in a 5G network or a terminal in a future-evolving public land mobile communication network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc., as the embodiments of the present application are not limited.

By way of example, and not limitation, in embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. The wearable device can also be called as a wearable intelligent device, and is a generic name for intelligently designing daily wear by applying wearable technology and developing wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes and the like. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also can realize a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable intelligent device includes full functionality, large size, and may not rely on the smart phone to implement complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and focus on only certain types of application functions, and need to be used in combination with other devices, such as smart phones, for example, various smart bracelets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring.

In addition, in the embodiment of the application, the terminal device may also be a terminal in an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) system, and the IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and the main technical characteristic of the terminal device is that the article is connected with a network through a communication technology, so that man-machine interconnection and an intelligent network for interconnecting the articles are realized. In the embodiment of the application, the IoT technology can achieve mass connection, deep coverage and terminal power saving through, for example, a Narrowband (NB) technology.

The network device in this embodiment of the present application is an entity for transmitting or receiving signals, may be a device for communicating with a terminal, may be a base station (base transceiver station, BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM) or code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA), may be a base station (NodeB, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) system, may be an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, may also be a wireless controller in a cloud wireless access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario, or may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a 5G network, or a network device in a PLMN network for future evolution, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

The network device in the embodiments of the present application may be a device in a wireless network, such as a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) node that accesses a terminal to the wireless network. Currently, some examples of RAN nodes are: a base station, a next generation base station gNB, a transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a home base station, a baseband unit (BBU), or an Access Point (AP) in a WiFi system, etc. In one network architecture, the network devices may include Centralized Unit (CU) nodes, or Distributed Unit (DU) nodes, or RAN devices including CU nodes and DU nodes.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device or the network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running above the hardware layer, and an application layer running above the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a memory management unit (memory management unit, MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processes through processes (processes), such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer comprises applications such as a browser, an address book, word processing software, instant messaging software and the like. Further, the embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited to the specific structure of the execution body of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, as long as the communication can be performed by the method provided in the embodiment of the present application by running the program recorded with the code of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, and for example, the execution body of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module in the terminal device or the network device that can call the program and execute the program.

Furthermore, various aspects or features of the present application may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein encompasses a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, or magnetic tape, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact Disk (CD), digital versatile disk (digital versatile disc, DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), cards, sticks, key drives, etc.). Additionally, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

It should be noted that the number and types of terminal devices included in the network architecture shown in fig. 2 are merely examples, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, more or fewer first terminal devices may be included in communication with the network device, e.g., more or fewer second terminal devices may be included in communication with the first terminal device. For simplicity of description, it is not depicted in the drawings one by one. In addition, in the network architecture shown in fig. 2, although network devices and terminals are shown, the application scenario may not be limited to include network devices and terminals, for example, may also include a core network node or a device for carrying virtualized network functions, which will be obvious to those skilled in the art, and will not be described in detail herein.

In combination with the above network architecture, a communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is described below. Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device in this embodiment may be the first terminal device in the network architecture shown in fig. 2, and the functions performed by the terminal device in this embodiment may also be performed by a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal device, and the functions performed by the network device in this application may also be performed by a module (e.g., a chip) in the network device. As shown in fig. 6, the communication method may include steps S601 to S604, wherein steps S601 and S604 are optional steps.

Step S601: the network device determines indication information indicating whether to start the first timer.

Wherein, the first timer may be used for the terminal device to monitor DCI from the network device, and the DCI may be used to indicate the side uplink retransmission resource.

The first timer may be used for the terminal device to monitor DCI from the network device, and it may be understood that when the first timer is started, the terminal device is in an activation time (active time), may monitor DCI from the network device, and when the first timer is closed, does not monitor DCI from the network device, so as to achieve the purpose of saving power. When the terminal device works in the mode 1, in an RRC connection state, side link transmission resources can be obtained from the network device through DCI, the side link transmission resources are used for transmitting side link transmission, specifically, the network device can schedule the side link transmission resources for the terminal device through the DCI, or can configure side link authorization for the terminal device through an RRC message. When the terminal equipment needs to monitor DCI from the network equipment when the first timer is started, the DCI can indicate the side-link retransmission resource, and the terminal equipment performs the side-link retransmission according to the side-link retransmission resource after acquiring the side-link retransmission resource.

The DCI is used to indicate the side-link retransmission resource, which may be understood as information including the side-link retransmission resource in the DCI, or may be understood as indicating information of the side-link retransmission resource carried by the DCI, for example, indicating information of the side-link retransmission resource carried by 1 bit or several bits. For example, assuming that the network device pre-configures the corresponding relationship between the index and the side uplink retransmission resource for the terminal device in advance, the indication information carrying the side uplink retransmission resource in the DCI is the index "1", and after the terminal device receives the DCI, the corresponding side uplink retransmission resource may be determined according to the index "1". The side-link retransmission resource can be understood as a time domain resource, a frequency domain resource, a code domain resource, and the like of the side-link performed by the terminal device.

In the present embodiment, the first timer may be a side-uplink dedicated retransmission timer (SL-specialticdrx-Retransmission Timer). The indication information may have a correspondence with the SL process. It will be appreciated that the indication information is sent by the network device to the terminal device, and the granularity of the indication information may be per UuHARQ process. The first timer is a timer associated with the side-uplink procedure, i.e., the first timer is used to listen for DCI from the network device, which may indicate the side-uplink retransmission resources. In addition, the terminal equipment side can maintain the corresponding relation between the Uu HARQ process and the SL process, and the association between the indication information and the SL process is realized through the corresponding relation. Further, the terminal device may determine whether the first timer corresponding to the SL process is started or not according to the received indication information and the correspondence between the Uu HARQ process and the SL process.

Alternatively, the SL HARQ entity of the side link has a plurality of parallel side uplink processes (SL processes), and the first timer may be maintained per side uplink process (per SL process). Alternatively, the granularity of the indication information may be per UuHARQ process. In one possible implementation, an indication information may correspond to a SL process, and is used to indicate whether the first timer corresponding to the SL process is started or not started. In another possible implementation manner, the HARQ entity of the SL has a plurality of parallel SL processes, and one indication information may correspond to the plurality of SL processes and is used to indicate whether the first timer corresponding to the plurality of SL processes is started or not started. Alternatively, the indication information corresponding to each SL process may be the same or different.

It should be noted that, in the following description, the indication information indicates whether the first timer is started, which is understood that since there are multiple DCIs in the interactive communication between the network device and the terminal device, for example, some DCIs related to SL scheduling, and some DCIs related to Uu scheduling. Further, a plurality of HARQ processes may be related to SL scheduling, so in this embodiment of the present application, the network device may schedule the SL retransmission resource through DCI corresponding to a specific UuHARQ process, where the specific UuHARQ process corresponds to a specific SL process, and the specific SL process corresponds to a specific first timer. Alternatively, the relationship of each Uu HARQ process and SL process having a correspondence relationship may be identified by an Identifier (ID). For example, the ID of Uu HARQ process is identified as "1", and the ID of its corresponding SL process is identified as "1". For another example, the Uu HARQ process ID is identified as "1", and the corresponding SL process ID is identified as "2" or "3" or other numerical value. The correspondence between the indication information and the SL process is described in detail herein, and will not be described in detail later. It can be appreciated that Uu HARQ processes in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as HARQ processes.

Step S602: the network device transmits indication information for indicating whether to start the first timer to the terminal device.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives indication information from the network device, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether to start the first timer.

The network device sends, to the terminal device, indication information for indicating whether to start the first timer, which may satisfy any one of the following manners:

mode one: the network device may indirectly indicate to the terminal device whether to start the first timer via the indication information. Specifically, the indication information may include a first threshold and/or a second threshold, where the first threshold may be a number of times of transmission of DCI for side uplink retransmission scheduling, and the second threshold may be a number of times of starting of the first timer. The first threshold and the second threshold may be preconfigured by the network device, and the indication information may be indicated to the terminal device by the network device in a static or semi-static manner, that is, the indication information including the first threshold and/or the second threshold may be carried in an RRC reconfiguration message, may be carried in a MAC CE, or may be carried in other configuration information. The special logic channel identifier can identify the MAC CE, so that the terminal equipment knows that the MAC CE is the MAC CE for bearing the indication information, and the indication information can be obtained from the MAC CE. After receiving at least one of the number of times of transmission of DCI for side-uplink retransmission scheduling and the number of times of starting the first timer, the terminal device may determine to start or not to start the first timer.

Optionally, the indication information may include a third threshold value and/or a fourth threshold value. Wherein the third threshold may be a number of transmissions of DCI for side-uplink scheduling including DCI of a first scheduling side-uplink new transmission. The fourth threshold may be the number of starts of the first timer +1. The first threshold and the second threshold may be pre-configured by the network device. After receiving at least one of the third threshold value and the fourth threshold value, the terminal device may determine to start or not start the first timer.

An indication may also correspond to a side-uplink process. For example, an indication may indicate a first threshold and/or a second threshold corresponding to a UuHARQ process, and further according to a mapping relationship between the UuHARQ process and a side uplink process (SL process), an indication may ultimately indicate a first threshold and/or a second threshold corresponding to the SL process. One indication may correspond to a plurality of side-uplink processes. For example, one indication information may indicate a first threshold and/or a second threshold corresponding to each of the plurality of UuHARQ processes, and further according to a mapping relationship between the UuHARQ processes and a side uplink process (SL process), one indication information may ultimately indicate a first threshold and/or a second threshold corresponding to each of the plurality of SL processes.

Mode two: the network device may directly indicate to the terminal device whether to start the first timer via the indication information. Specifically, the indication information is used for indicating that the first timer is started or not started. In one possible embodiment, the indication information is "1", which may be used to indicate that the first timer is started; the indication information is "0" and may be used to indicate that the first timer is not started. The indication information may be dynamically indicated to the terminal device by the network device, i.e. the indication information may be carried in DCI, e.g. 1 bit or several bits are carried in DCI. After receiving the DCI, the terminal device may determine to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information.

One indication may correspond to one side uplink process. For example, an indication may indicate whether a first timer corresponding to a SL process is started. One indication information may also correspond to a plurality of side-uplink processes. For example, one indication information may indicate whether a first timer corresponding to each of a plurality of SL processes is started.

Step S603: the terminal equipment determines to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information.

After receiving the indication information from the network device, the terminal device may determine to start or not to start the first timer according to the indication information.

For mode one in step S602: after receiving the indication information, the terminal equipment determines to start or not to start the first timer according to at least one of the sending times of the DCI of the side-link retransmission scheduling and the starting times of the side-link special retransmission timer in the indication information. For example, in case that the number of times of DCI received by the terminal device for indicating the side uplink retransmission resource is smaller than a first threshold, the first timer is started. It may be appreciated that when the terminal device receives one DCI, it determines that the first timer is started when the second DCI is not the last DCI scheduled for a side-uplink retransmission. For another example, the first timer is started in case the number of times the terminal device has started the first timer is smaller than the second threshold. For another example, the first timer is started in a case where the number of times the DCI for indicating the side uplink retransmission resource is received by the terminal device is less than the first threshold and the number of times the terminal device has started the first timer is less than the second threshold. In this way, after receiving the last DCI for indicating the SL retransmission resource and/or starting the timer for the last time, the terminal device does not start the first timer any more, so that power consumption waste can be reduced, and energy consumption can be saved.

For mode two in step S602: after receiving the indication information, the terminal device executes corresponding operation according to the information of starting or not starting the first timer in the indication information, namely starting or not starting the first timer.

In combination with the first and second modes, determining, for the terminal device, a case of starting the first timer:

in one possible implementation, the terminal device may directly start the first timer. The time of starting the first timer may be an L-th time unit after the end of the first resource, where L is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The first resource may refer to a time domain resource, a frequency domain resource, or a code domain resource of a last PSSCH resource of DCI scheduling, etc. In one embodiment, the first resource may be the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of the DCI schedule.

In another possible implementation, considering that the second timer is supported, the terminal device may start the second timer first and start the first timer after the second timer expires. Wherein the second timer may be a side-uplink dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip timer (SL-specific HARQ RTT timer), the second timer being for timing the SL dedicated hybrid automatic repeat request round trip time. The time for the terminal device to start the second timer may be an nth time unit after the second resource ends, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and the second resource may be a time domain resource carrying DCI. It may be appreciated that the second timer may be started in the first symbol or slot after the time domain resource carrying the DCI ends, and in particular, the second timer may be started in the first symbol or slot after the PDCCH resource indicated by the DCI ends. Wherein the length of the second timer is less than or equal to the time difference between the end time of the first resource and the end time of the second resource. In one embodiment, the length of the second timer is equal to the time difference between the end time of the last PSSCH resource indicated by the DCI and the end time of the PDCCH resource indicated by the DCI, so that after the second timer times out, the first timer may be started in the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of DCI scheduling. Alternatively, the time at which the terminal device starts the second timer may be an xth time unit after the end of the first resource, where the length of the second timer is 0. The time for starting the first timer may be an mth time unit after the second timer times out to start the first timer, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. In one embodiment, the time for starting the second timer may be the first symbol or slot after the end of the PSSCH resource of the DCI schedule, and the length of the second timer is 0, so that after the second timer times out, the first timer may be started on the first symbol or slot after the end of the last PSSCH resource of the DCI schedule.

Optionally, in combination with the first and second modes, it is determined, for the terminal device, that the first timer is not started: when the terminal device determines that the DCI for indicating the side-link retransmission resource received at the time is the DCI scheduled for the side-link retransmission last time according to the indication information, or the terminal device determines that the first timer is not started according to the indication information, the terminal device may empty a HARQ buffer (HARQ buffer) of a corresponding side-link process (SL process) after the end of the last PSSCH resource indicated by the DCI.

Step S604: the network device determines to start or not to start a third timer corresponding to the first timer according to the indication information.

The network device may determine to start or not start the third timer according to the indication information, or may determine to start or not start the third timer according to the indication information after the network device determines the indication information, or may determine to start or not start the third timer according to the indication information after the network device sends the indication information to the terminal device, or may also send the indication information to the terminal device and determine to start or not start the third timer according to the indication information at the same time.

The third timer is a timer corresponding to the first timer. It will be appreciated that the first timer and the third timer are turned on and off at the same time, and when the third timer is turned on by the network device, the network device sends the SL retransmission resource to the terminal device, and when the first timer is turned on by the terminal device, the terminal device listens to the SL retransmission resource from the network device.

The third timer corresponds to the first timer, and the specific description that the network device determines to start or not start the third timer according to the indication information may refer to the detailed description that the terminal device determines to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information in step S603, so that repetition is avoided, and details are not repeated here. The third timer is a timer corresponding to the first timer, and may be SL-specialticdrx-Retransmission Timer. The indication information may have a correspondence with the SL process. It will be appreciated that the indication information is sent by the network device to the terminal device, and the granularity of the indication information may be per UuHARQ process. The third timer is a timer associated with the Uu HARQ process, i.e. the third timer is for the network device to send DCI which may indicate the side uplink retransmission resources.

Similarly, in the case that the network device determines to start the third timer, a detailed description of a possible implementation manner of starting the third timer and a time of starting the third timer may refer to the above description of step S603, where the terminal device determines to start the first timer, which is not repeated herein.

For the first mode in the above step S603: aligning DCI times aiming at side-link retransmission scheduling through network equipment and terminal equipment, so that when DCI aiming at side-link retransmission scheduling is not carried out last time, the network equipment and the terminal equipment start corresponding timers (SL-specificldrx-Retransmission Timer), namely the network equipment starts a third timer, and the terminal equipment starts a first timer; when the DCI is retransmitted and scheduled for the side uplink for the last time, a timer is not started, so that the power consumption waste of network equipment and terminal equipment can be reduced.

For mode two in step S603 described above: whether the terminal equipment starts a first timer or not is dynamically indicated by the network equipment, and the network equipment and the terminal equipment do not start the timer for the last DCI aiming at the side uplink retransmission scheduling, so that the power consumption waste is reduced.

It should be noted that, the time unit described in the above embodiment may be any one of a frame, a subframe, a slot, a micro slot or a symbol, and may also be other time units, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the type of the time unit.

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

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application, where the device may be a terminal device or a module (e.g., a chip) in the terminal device. As shown in fig. 7, the apparatus 700 includes at least: a receiving unit 701 and a determining unit 702; wherein:

a receiving unit 701, configured to receive indication information from a network device, where the indication information is used to indicate whether to start a first timer, where the first timer is used to monitor DCI from the network device, and the DCI is used to indicate SL retransmission resources;

a determining unit 702, configured to determine to start or not to start the first timer according to the indication information.

In one embodiment, the indication information has a correspondence with SL processes.

In one embodiment, the indication information includes a first threshold and/or a second threshold, where the first threshold is a number of transmissions of DCI for SL retransmission scheduling, and the second threshold is a number of starts of the first timer.

In one embodiment, the determining unit 702 is specifically configured to:

In one embodiment, the indication information is carried in an RRC reconfiguration message, MAC CE or DCI.

In one embodiment, the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated LCID.

In one embodiment, the time unit is any one of a frame, a subframe, a slot, a minislot, or a symbol.

For more detailed descriptions of the receiving unit 701 and the determining unit 702, reference may be directly made to the related descriptions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6, which is not repeated herein.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus may be a network device or may be a module (e.g., a chip) in a network device. As shown in fig. 8, the apparatus 800 includes at least: a determination unit 801 and a transmission unit 802; wherein:

a determining unit 801, configured to determine indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate whether to start a first timer, where the first timer is used for a terminal device to monitor DCI, and the DCI is used to indicate SL retransmission resources;

A sending unit 802, configured to send the indication information to a terminal device.

In an embodiment, the determining unit 801 is further configured to:

In one embodiment, the determining unit 801 is specifically configured to:

In one embodiment, the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated LCID.

For more detailed description of the determining unit 801 and the transmitting unit 802, reference may be directly made to the description related to the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 6, which is not repeated herein.

Based on the above network architecture, please refer to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the apparatus 900 may include one or more processors 901, where the processors 901 may also be referred to as processing units and may implement certain control functions. The processor 901 may be a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor, etc. For example, a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor may be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processor may be used to control communication devices (e.g., base stations, baseband chips, terminals, terminal chips, DUs or CUs, etc.), execute software programs, and process data of the software programs.

In an alternative design, the processor 901 may also have instructions and/or data 903 stored therein, where the instructions and/or data 903 may be executed by the processor, so that the apparatus 900 performs the method described in the method embodiments above.

In another alternative design, a transceiver unit for implementing the receive and transmit functions may be included in processor 901. For example, the transceiver unit may be a transceiver circuit, or an interface circuit, or a communication interface. The transceiver circuitry, interface or interface circuitry for implementing the receive and transmit functions may be separate or may be integrated. The transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit may be used for reading and writing codes/data, or the transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit may be used for transmitting or transferring signals.

In yet another possible design, apparatus 900 may include circuitry to implement the functions of transmitting or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments.

Optionally, the apparatus 900 may include one or more memories 902, on which instructions 904 may be stored, which may be executed on the processor, to cause the apparatus 900 to perform the methods described in the method embodiments above. Optionally, the memory may further store data. In the alternative, the processor may store instructions and/or data. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or may be integrated. For example, the correspondence described in the above method embodiments may be stored in a memory or in a processor.

Optionally, the apparatus 900 may further comprise a transceiver 905 and/or an antenna 906. The processor 901 may be referred to as a processing unit for controlling the apparatus 900. The transceiver 905 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver device, a transceiver module, or the like, for implementing a transceiver function.

Alternatively, the apparatus 900 in the embodiments of the present application may be used to perform the method described in fig. 6 in the embodiments of the present application.

In an embodiment, the communication apparatus 900 may be a terminal device, or may be a module (e.g. a chip) in the terminal device, where the processor 901 is configured to control the determining unit 702 to perform the operations performed in the above embodiment when the computer program instructions stored in the memory 902 are executed, and the transceiver 905 is configured to perform the operations performed by the receiving unit 701 in the above embodiment, and the transceiver 905 is further configured to send information to other communication apparatuses other than the communication apparatus. The above terminal device or the module in the terminal device may also be used to execute the various methods executed by the terminal device in the above embodiment of the method of fig. 6, which are not described herein.

In one embodiment, the communication apparatus 900 may be a network device, or may be a module (e.g., a chip) in the network device, where the processor 901 is configured to control the determining unit 801 to perform the operations performed in the foregoing embodiment, and the transceiver 905 is configured to receive information from another communication apparatus other than the communication apparatus, and the transceiver 905 is further configured to perform the operations performed by the transmitting unit 802 in the foregoing embodiment when the computer program instructions stored in the memory 902 are executed. The above network device or the modules in the network device may also be used to execute the various methods executed by the network device in the above embodiment of the method of fig. 6, which are not described herein.

The processors and transceivers described herein may be implemented on integrated circuits (integrated circuit, ICs), analog ICs, radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs), mixed signal ICs, application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASICs), printed circuit boards (printed circuit board, PCBs), electronic devices, and the like. The processor and transceiver may also be fabricated using a variety of IC process technologies such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (complementary metal oxide semiconductor, CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), P-type metal oxide semiconductor (positive channel metal oxide semiconductor, PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (Bipolar Junction Transistor, BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

The apparatus described in the above embodiment may be a network device or a terminal, but the scope of the apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the apparatus may not be limited by fig. 9. The apparatus may be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the device may be:

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

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

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

(4) Modules that may be embedded within other devices;

(5) Receivers, terminals, smart terminals, cellular telephones, wireless devices, handsets, mobile units, vehicle devices, network devices, cloud devices, artificial intelligence devices, machine devices, home devices, medical devices, industrial devices, etc.;

(6) Others, and so on.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. For convenience of explanation, fig. 10 shows only major components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device 1000 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, controlling the whole terminal, executing the software program and processing the data of the software program. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting a baseband signal and a radio frequency signal and processing the radio frequency signal. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

When the terminal is started, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, analyze and execute the instructions of the software program and process the data of the software program. When data is required to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit processes the baseband signal to obtain a radio frequency signal and transmits the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the terminal, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, the radio frequency signal is further converted into a baseband signal, and the baseband signal is output to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

For ease of illustration, fig. 10 shows only one memory and processor. In an actual terminal, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc., and embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor, which is mainly used to process the communication protocol and the communication data, and a central processor, which is mainly used to control the whole terminal, execute a software program, and process the data of the software program. The processor in fig. 10 integrates the functions of a baseband processor and a central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may be separate processors, interconnected by bus technology, etc. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a terminal may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, and that a terminal may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, with various components of the terminal being connectable via various buses. The baseband processor may also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, which is executed by the processor to realize the baseband processing function.

In one example, an antenna and a control circuit having a transmitting/receiving function can be regarded as a transmitting/receiving unit 1001 of the terminal 1000, and a processor having a processing function can be regarded as a processing unit 1002 of the terminal 1000. As shown in fig. 10, terminal 1000 includes a transceiver unit 1001 and a processing unit 1002. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver unit 1001 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiver unit 1001 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 1001 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc. Alternatively, the receiving unit and the transmitting unit may be integrated together, or may be a plurality of independent units. The receiving unit and the transmitting unit may be located in one geographical location or may be distributed among a plurality of geographical locations.

In one embodiment, the processing unit 1002 is configured to perform the operation performed by the determining unit 702 in the above embodiment, and the transceiver unit 1001 is configured to perform the operation performed by the receiving unit 701 in the above embodiment. The terminal 1000 may also be configured to execute various methods executed by the terminal device in the embodiment of the method of fig. 6, which are not described herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, where the program, when executed by a processor, can implement a procedure related to a terminal in the communication method provided in the above method embodiment.

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

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

The embodiment of the application further provides a chip system, which comprises at least one processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface and the at least one processor are interconnected through a line, and the at least one processor is used for running a computer program or instructions to execute part or all of the steps including any one of the steps described in the embodiment of the method corresponding to fig. 6. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

The embodiment of the application also discloses a communication system, which comprises a terminal and network equipment, and the specific description can refer to the communication method shown in fig. 6.

It should be understood that the memories mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be volatile memories or nonvolatile memories, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memories. The nonvolatile memory may be a hard disk (HDD), a Solid State Drive (SSD), a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to such. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of implementing a memory function for storing program instructions and/or data.

It should also be appreciated that the processors referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be central processing units (central processing unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

Note that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, the memory (storage module) is 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.

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

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

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

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

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the technology or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, etc.

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

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

The above embodiments are merely for illustrating the technical solution of the present application, and not for limiting the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical scheme described in the foregoing embodiments can be modified or some technical features thereof can be replaced by equivalents; such modifications and substitutions do not depart from the spirit of the corresponding technical solutions from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

receiving indication information from network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether a first timer is started or not, the first timer is used for monitoring Downlink Control Information (DCI) from the network equipment, and the DCI is used for indicating a side downlink (SL) retransmission resource;

and determining to start or not start the first timer according to the indication information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication information corresponds to a SL process.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the indication information comprises a first threshold value and/or a second threshold value, the first threshold value being a number of transmissions of DCI for SL retransmission scheduling, the second threshold value being a number of starts of the first timer.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein said determining whether to start or not start the first timer based on said indication information comprises:

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the starting the first timer comprises:

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the starting the first timer comprises:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the starting the second timer comprises:

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the starting the second timer comprises:

9. The method according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the indication information is carried in a radio resource control, RRC, reconfiguration message, medium access control element, MAC CE, or DCI.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated logical channel identification LCID.

11. The method according to any of claims 5-8, wherein the time unit is any one of a frame, a subframe, a slot, a minislot or a symbol.

12. A method of communication, comprising:

determining indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating whether a first timer is started or not, the first timer is used for monitoring Downlink Control Information (DCI) by a terminal device, and the DCI is used for indicating a side downlink SL retransmission resource;

and sending the indication information to the terminal equipment.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the indication information corresponds to a SL process.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the indication information comprises a first threshold value and/or a second threshold value, the first threshold value being a number of transmissions of DCI for SL retransmission scheduling, the second threshold value being a number of starts of the first timer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining to start or not start the third timer based on the indication information comprises:

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the starting the third timer comprises:

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the starting the third timer comprises:

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the starting the second timer comprises:

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the starting the second timer comprises:

21. The method according to any of claims 12-20, wherein the indication information is carried in a radio resource control, RRC, reconfiguration message, medium access control element, MAC CE, or DCI.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the MAC CE is identified by a dedicated logical channel identification LCID.

23. The method according to any of claims 17-20, wherein the time unit is any one of a frame, a subframe, a slot, a minislot or a symbol.

24. A communication device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 1-11.

25. A communication device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 12-23.

26. A communication device comprising a processor, a memory, an input interface for receiving information from other communication devices than the communication device, and an output interface for outputting information to other communication devices than the communication device, when a stored computer program stored in the memory is called up by the processor, causing the method of any one of claims 1-11 to be implemented; or a method as claimed in any one of claims 12-23.

27. A computer readable storage medium, wherein the computer readable storage medium has stored therein a computer program or computer instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause

The method of any one of claims 1-11 being implemented; or alternatively

The method of any of claims 12-23 being implemented.

28. A computer program product comprising program instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1-11; or alternatively

A method as claimed in any one of claims 12 to 23.

29. A system on a chip comprising at least one processor, a memory, and an interface circuit, wherein the memory, the interface circuit, and the at least one processor are interconnected by a line, and wherein the at least one memory has instructions stored therein; the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the method of any one of claims 1-11 to be implemented; or alternatively

The method of any of claims 12-23 being implemented.

30. A communication system comprising the apparatus of claim 26.