CN117042163A

CN117042163A - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN117042163A
Application number: CN202210467300.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 范强; 王珏; 唐小伟
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-04-29
Filing date: 2022-04-29
Publication date: 2023-11-10
Also published as: WO2023207850A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: and triggering a first process when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH. And responding to the first process, and sending first indication information to access network equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the buffer status in the first LCH. The method provided by the application can improve the transmission efficiency of the service and is beneficial to reducing the transmission time delay.

Description

Communication method and communication device

Technical Field

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

Background

In a communication system, a User Equipment (UE) informs a network device (e.g., a base station, etc.) of how much data needs to be transmitted in its uplink buffer through a buffer status report (buffer status reporting, BSR), so that the network device decides how much uplink resources are allocated to the UE. For some services with high delay requirements, such as uplink augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) services, there is a case that a frame delay budget (packet delay budget, PDB) is greater than an arrival period of a data frame, that is, when a new data frame arrives, there may be a case that a data packet of a previous data frame is not yet transmitted in a Logical Channel (LCH) corresponding to a data radio bearer (data radio bearer, DRB) corresponding to the service, and at this time, based on a triggering condition of a Buffer Status Report (BSR) defined currently, it is not guaranteed that the BSR is triggered in time when the new data frame arrives, so that network equipment cannot allocate resources in time for scheduling, reducing transmission efficiency of the service and increasing transmission delay.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can improve the transmission efficiency of service and are beneficial to reducing transmission delay.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a terminal device, the method comprising:

triggering a first process when a first data frame is acquired on a first LCH;

and responding to the first process, and sending first indication information to access network equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the buffer status in the first LCH.

In one possible implementation, the triggering the first procedure is triggering a first buffer status report, BSR.

In one possible implementation, the first BSR is a regular BSR.

In one possible implementation, when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, the first LCH further includes buffered data of a second data frame, where the second data frame is a data frame preceding the first data frame.

It should be noted that, in the related art, when a new data frame arrives, if there is a situation that the data packet of the previous data frame (i.e., the second data frame) has not yet been transmitted in the first LCH, at this time, based on the triggering conditions of the three types of BSRs currently defined, it is not guaranteed that the Regular BSR, the Periodic BSR or the Padding BSR is triggered in time when the new data frame arrives. Based on the scheme of the application, when a new data frame arrives, even if a data packet of a previous data frame (namely, a second data frame) still exists in the first LCH, the terminal equipment can still trigger the first process (namely, the first BSR) in time, so that the access network equipment can be informed to schedule resources in time, and the transmission delay is reduced.

In one possible implementation, when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, the first LCH has no corresponding triggered and non-cancelled BSR.

In this implementation, when a new data frame arrives, the BSR is triggered as long as no BSR is currently triggered and not yet packetized, so that BSRMAC CE reports more timely.

In one possible implementation, the triggering the first procedure when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH includes:

when a first data packet included in the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, a first timer is started;

when the first timer times out, the first process is triggered.

When the first data frame comprises a plurality of data packets, by introducing a timer, the first process is not triggered immediately when the first data packet of the new data frame arrives, but triggered again when the timer is overtime, so that the terminal equipment can report more accurate data quantity.

In one possible implementation, the method further comprises:

and restarting the first timer when the first timer is not overtime and other data packets except the first data packet included in the first data frame are acquired.

Under the implementation manner, when each data packet in the first data frame is acquired, the first timer is restarted once, so that the situation that the arrival time interval of each data packet in the first data frame is too long can be avoided, and when all the data packets included in the first data frame are not received yet, the first process is triggered, and the inaccurate data volume is reported.

In one possible implementation, the triggering the first process when the first timer expires includes:

and triggering the first process when the first timer times out and the first LCH also comprises cache data when the first timer times out.

In this implementation, when the first timer times out and the first LCH further includes the buffered data when the first timer times out, the first procedure is triggered, so that it can be avoided that the data in the first LCH has been transmitted, and the unnecessary first procedure is still triggered. That is, the first procedure is not triggered immediately when the first packet of the new data frame arrives, but triggered again when the timer expires and there is still buffered data in the first LCH, which can also effectively avoid triggering unnecessary BSRs.

Triggering a first process when a first data packet included in the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH;

the method further comprises the steps of:

when a first data packet included in the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, starting a second timer;

triggering a second process when the second timer times out;

and responding to the second process, and sending second indication information to the access network equipment, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the buffer status in the first LCH.

In this implementation manner, when the first data frame includes a plurality of data packets, when the first data packet of the first data frame arrives, the terminal device immediately triggers the first process, so that the first indication information can be timely sent to inform the access network device that a new data frame arrives, but the data amount reported based on the first process trigger is not accurate enough. Therefore, the timer is started simultaneously when the first data packet of the new data frame arrives, and the second process is triggered again after the timer is overtime, so that the terminal equipment can report more accurate size information of the new data frame.

In one possible implementation, the triggering the second procedure is triggering a second BSR.

In one possible implementation, the second indication information includes one or more of the following information:

the size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH, the size information of all data buffered in the first LCH, the size information of data buffered in the first LCH except for the first data frame, the identification information of the first LCH, and the jitter information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information includes one or more of the following information:

In the implementation manner, the access network device can distinguish the size of the newly arrived data frame and the size of the old data frame to be transmitted through the information reported by the terminal device to the access network device, so that the transmission of the old data frame can be completed by timely distributing resources, and the newly arrived data frame is scheduled by reasonably distributing the resources, thereby effectively avoiding overtime of the data frame.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information or the second indication information includes jitter information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH;

the jitter information is a deviation between an arrival time of the first data frame and an expected arrival time of the terminal device, or the jitter information is a deviation between an arrival time of the first data frame and an arrival time of a last data frame of the first data frame.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information or the second indication information is a BSR medium access control layer control element MAC CE.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communications device comprising a module or unit for performing any of the methods of the first aspect.

In a third aspect, the application provides a communications apparatus comprising a processor, a transceiver and a memory, the processor, the transceiver and the memory coupled, the memory having a computer program stored therein; the processor and transceiver are configured to invoke a computer program in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the method according to any of the first aspects.

In one possible design, the communication device may be a chip or a device comprising a chip implementing the method of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communications device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from or transmitting signals from a communications device other than the communications device to the processor, the processor being operable to implement a method as claimed in any one of the first aspects by logic circuitry or executing code instructions.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement a method according to any of the first aspects.

In a sixth aspect, the application provides a computer program product which, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any of the first aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a 5G communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic format diagram of a short-cut BSR MAC CE;

fig. 3 is a format schematic diagram of a long truncated BSR MAC CE;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5a is a schematic diagram of format design of a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 5b is a schematic diagram of a format design of another MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5c is a schematic diagram of another MAC CE format design according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5d is a schematic diagram of another MAC CE format design according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5e is a schematic diagram of a format design of another MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

FIG. 7 is another flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

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

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

In the description of the present application, "/" means "or" unless otherwise indicated, for example, A/B may mean A or B. "and/or" herein is merely an association relationship describing an association object, and means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. Furthermore, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. The terms "first," "second," and the like do not limit the number and order of execution, and the terms "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ.

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

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5th generation,5G) system, sixth generation (6th generation,6G) system, or New Radio (NR), wireless local area network (Wireless Local Area Network, WALN), and future communication systems, etc., without limitation.

The embodiment of the application is illustratively described by taking a 5G communication system as an example. Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a 5G communication system according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, an access network device and terminal devices 1 to 6 constitute a communication system. In the communication system, the terminal devices 1 to 6 may transmit uplink information to the access network device, and the access network device may also transmit downlink information to the terminal devices 1 to 6. In addition, the terminal apparatuses 4 to 6 may also constitute a communication system. In the communication system, the access network device may send downlink information to the terminal device 1, the terminal device 2, the terminal device 5, and so on; the terminal device 5 may also send downlink information to the terminal devices 4, 6. And terminal device 4 and terminal device 6 may also send uplink information to the access network device via terminal device 5.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application is a device with a wireless transceiver function, where the terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal (access terminal), a terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station (mobile station), a remote station (remote station), a remote terminal (remote terminal), a mobile device, a user terminal (user terminal), a wireless network device, a user agent (user agent), or a user equipment. The terminal device may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); but may also be deployed in the air (e.g., on aircraft, balloon, satellite, etc.). The terminal device may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, a smart phone, a handset, a wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication functionality, a computing device or other device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, an unmanned aerial vehicle device or an internet of things, a terminal in the internet of things, a terminal in any form of a fifth generation mobile communication (5G) network and a future network, a relay user device, such as a 5G home gateway (residential gateway, RG), or a terminal in a future evolved public land mobile communication network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc. For example, the terminal device may be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security, a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home, or the like. The embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

The access network device in the embodiment of the present application may be a network device that communicates with a terminal device, where the access network device includes, for example, but not limited to: a new generation base station (generation node B, gNB), evolved node B (eNB), next generation evolved node B (next generation eNB, ng-eNB), wireless backhaul device, radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), node B (node B, NB), base station controller (base station controller, BSC), base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), home base station (home evolved nodeB, heNB) or (home node B, HNB), baseBand unit (BBU), transmission reception point (transmitting and receiving point, TRP), transmission point (transmitting point, TP), mobile switching center, and the like in the 5G communication system are not limited herein. In addition, the access network device may be a base station in a 6G communication system, or an Open base station (Open RAN) or a Cloud base station (Cloud RAN), which is not limited herein.

In order to facilitate understanding of the relevant content of the embodiments of the present application, some of the knowledge needed for the scheme of the present application will be described below. It should be noted that these explanations are for easier understanding of the embodiments of the present application, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection claimed by the present application.

1. Augmented reality (XR)

XR refers to various types of environments that combine reality and virtual generated by computing technology and wearable devices, and interactions between people and machines, including in particular the following exemplary forms: augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

XR is one of the 5G multimedia applications currently being considered with great importance in the industry. The third generation partnership project (the 3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) version 17 (Rel-17) has performed modeling analysis on XR traffic characteristics, which typically generates data frames periodically at a certain frame rate. For easy understanding, the embodiment of the present application is mainly schematically illustrated by taking AR service as an example.

The uplink AR service has the following main service characteristics:

frame rate: the frame rate may be 60fps, i.e., 60 frames of video images are generated per second, one video frame occurs every 16.67ms, the transmission rate is 20Mbps or 45Mbps, etc. The frame rate may also be 120fps, i.e. 120 frames of video images per second, with one video frame occurring approximately every 8.33 ms. Where fps represents the number of transmission frames per second (frames per second), ms represents milliseconds (millisecond), and Mbps represents megabits per second (Million bits per second).

Jitter (jitter): the encoding of the data frame has a certain time delay, which can cause jitter in the time when the data frame arrives at the air interface side. Jitter can generally be considered to follow a truncated gaussian distribution, with a range of truncation approximately [ -4,4] ms.

Frame size fluctuation: the size of the data frame is not fixed and generally follows a truncated gaussian distribution. The mean value may be expressed as mean=r×1e6/F/8, where F is the frame rate and R is the rate of the data stream. Illustratively, take f=60 fps, r=20 Mbps as an example, mean=41.67 Kbytes. Typically the frame size fluctuates between 0.5 x mean and 1.5 x mean. Where Kbytes represent kilobytes.

The frame delay budget (packet delay budget, PDB) is greater than the data frame arrival period: a typical PDB for uplink AR traffic is 30ms, with a frame rate of 60fps for example, and the data frame arrival period is 16.67ms, i.e. the PDB for traffic will be greater than the period of the data frame.

2. Buffer Status Report (BSR)

If there is data in the UE's transmission buffer to be transmitted, the UE needs to send a BSR medium access control layer control unit (medium access control control element, MAC CE) to the base station first, to tell the base station the data information that needs to be transmitted in the UE's current transmission buffer. After receiving the BSR MAC CE sent by the UE, the base station allocates corresponding uplink transmission resources for the UE according to the quantity of data to be sent by the UE and the service type, and informs the UE to send the data on the allocated uplink transmission resources. Wherein, according to the triggering mode of triggering the BSR to report the BSR MAC CE by the UE, the BSR is divided into three types, specifically:

First type, conventional BSR (Regular BSR): and if the UE detects that data arrives in a logic channel with higher priority than the current logic channel, or the UE detects that new data arrives when no data arrives in the buffer, or the Retx_BSR_Timer is overtime and the data is stored in the buffer, triggering the reporting of the Regular BSR.

Second type, periodicity BSR (Periodic BSR): and if the periodic_BSR_Timer is overtime, triggering the report of the Periodic BSR.

Third type, filling BSR (Padding BSR): if the UE has Padding bits (Padding bits) in the uplink transmission resource in addition to carrying uplink data to be transmitted when the MAC PDU needs to be transmitted, the Padding BSR is triggered.

It should be noted that, the UE needs to use uplink transmission resources when sending the BSR MAC CE to the base station, and if there is a BSR MAC CE to report, but there is no uplink transmission resource at this time, a Scheduling Request (SR) is triggered to request the base station to allocate uplink transmission resources for the BSR to be sent. Specifically, the specific process of the UE sending uplink data according to the uplink transmission resource allocated by the base station is as follows:

step 11, the UE transmits an SR to the base station;

step 12, the base station allocates uplink transmission resources for transmitting the BSR;

Step 13, the UE reports the current BSR to the base station according to the uplink transmission resources allocated by the base station in the step 12;

step 14, the base station allocates uplink transmission resources for transmitting uplink data to the UE according to the received BSR;

and step 15, the UE sends the uplink data which needs to be transmitted to the base station according to the uplink transmission resources allocated by the base station.

3、BSR MAC CE

Each Logical Channel (LCH) of the UE may be allocated into one logical channel group (logical channel group, LCG). The maximum number of LCGs that can be configured in NR is 8.

When the UE generates a BSR MAC CE, a specific BSR MAC CE format is shown in fig. 2 and 3 below (specific UE selects various BSR MAC CE formats to report, depending on the triggered BSR type, the number of LCGs to be transmitted with data, the size of available remaining resources, etc., and specific reference may be made to 3gpp TS 38.321 protocol section 5.4.5).

The short BSR or short-cut BSR MAC CE shown in fig. 2 includes a 3-bit LCG ID field and a 5-bit Buffer Size (Buffer Size) field. Wherein the LCG ID indicates the LCG corresponding to the Buffer Size reported later. The long BSR or long-truncated BSR MAC CE shown in fig. 3 includes an 8-bit bitmap (bitmap) and 0 or more Buffer Size fields; for long BSR MAC CE, the ith bit LCG in bitmap _i Representing LCG _i Whether a corresponding Buffer Size field exists; for the long truncated BSR MAC CE, the ith bit LCG in bitmap _i Representing LCG _i Whether data to be transmitted is present or not, in which case the LCG is not necessarily present subsequently _i Corresponding Buffer Size field.

In the communication system, the UE may inform the network device (such as a base station, etc.) of how many uplink data needs to be transmitted in its buffer through the BSR, so that the network device decides how many uplink resources are allocated to the UE. For some services with high delay requirements, for example, AR services, there are cases that the PDB is greater than the arrival period of a data frame, that is, when a new data frame arrives, there may be cases that the data packet of the previous data frame is not yet transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the DRB corresponding to the service, at this time, based on the triggering conditions of the three types of BSRs currently defined, it cannot be guaranteed that any BSR is triggered in time when the new data frame arrives, therefore, the network device cannot allocate resources in time to schedule, reducing the transmission efficiency of the service, and improving the transmission delay.

Based on the above, the application provides a communication method, which can improve the transmission efficiency of the service and is beneficial to reducing the transmission delay.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first data frame and the second data frame are data frames of the same service.

The following describes the communication method and the communication device provided by the application in detail:

referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 4, the communication method includes the following steps S401 to S402:

s401, triggering a first process when the terminal equipment acquires a first data frame on a first LCH.

Wherein triggering the first procedure may be understood as triggering the first BSR. Alternatively, the first BSR may be a regular BSR or the like, without limitation.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first data frame includes at least one data packet. Here, when the terminal device acquires the first data frame on the first LCH, the triggering of the first procedure may be understood as: and triggering a first process when the terminal equipment acquires a first data packet included in the first data frame on the first LCH. Including in particular, but not limited to, any one of the following implementations:

in one implementation manner (1), when the terminal device acquires the first data frame on the first LCH, if the first LCH further includes the buffered data of the second data frame, the terminal device triggers the first BSR. The first data frame and the second data frame are data frames of the same service, and the second data frame is a data frame reaching the first LCH before the first data frame. That is, for the first LCH, when a new data frame (e.g., a first data frame) arrives, if data (a second data frame) is still to be transmitted in the first LCH, the terminal device triggers the first BSR. It should be noted that, the service related to the embodiment of the present application may be an XR service, for example, an AR service, etc., which is not limited herein.

It should be noted that, when a packet of a new data frame (i.e., the first data frame) arrives, a packet of a previous data frame (i.e., the second data frame) still exists in the first LCH, which does not satisfy the condition for triggering the regular BSR defined in the related art. Based on the implementation mode (1), the UE can trigger the reporting of the buffer state of the terminal equipment in time under the condition due to the adjustment of the trigger condition, so that the access network equipment can be informed of timely scheduling the resources.

In another implementation manner (2), when the terminal device acquires the first data frame on the first LCH, if the first LCH has no corresponding triggered and non-cancelled BSR, the terminal device triggers the first BSR.

Illustratively, the "triggered and undeployed BSR" described in embodiments of the present application, one possible understanding: BSR has been triggered but BSRMAC CE has not been generated and sent to the access network device. Based on this, the "no corresponding triggered and undeployed BSR" described in the embodiments of the present application may be understood as: 1. no BSR is triggered; 2. the BSR has been triggered and the triggered BSR has generated and transmitted a BSRMAC CE to the access network device (i.e., has been packetized). Based on the possible understanding above, the triggering conditions defined by implementation (2) herein can be understood as: when a new data frame arrives, the BSR is triggered as long as the BSR is not triggered and not packaged at present, so that the BSRMAC CE reports more timely.

In another implementation manner (3), when the terminal device acquires the first data frame on the first LCH, if the first LCH further includes buffer data of the second data frame, and the first LCH has no corresponding triggered BSR and does not cancel the BSR, the terminal device triggers the first BSR.

The trigger conditions defined in the implementation (3) are the sum of the trigger conditions defined in the above-described implementation (1) and implementation (2), that is, the trigger conditions in the implementations (1) and (2) need to be satisfied at the same time to trigger the first procedure. Based on this, for understanding the respective trigger conditions in the implementation (3), reference may be made to the descriptions in the above implementations (1) and (2), respectively, and a detailed description is omitted here.

Alternatively, the implementation of the above three triggering first procedures (e.g., triggering the first BSR) may be set for a logical channel corresponding to a specific service (e.g., but not limited to XR service), or set for a DRB corresponding to a specific service, where the DRB is associated with at least one logical channel.

S402, the terminal equipment responds to the first process and sends first indication information to the access network equipment.

In some possible implementations, in response to the first procedure, the terminal device sends first indication information to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network equipment receives first indication information from the terminal equipment. The first indication information is used for indicating a cache state in the first LCH.

In a first implementation manner, the first indication information includes size information of all data cached in the first LCH, identification information of the first LCH, and the like. The first indication information may be a BSRMAC CE, for example, a short truncated BSR MAC CE.

In a second implementation, the first indication information includes size information of a first data frame buffered in the first LCH. Optionally, the first indication information may further include one or more of the following information: size information of all data cached in the first LCH, size information of data except the first data frame cached in the first LCH, identification information of the first LCH and jitter information of the first data frame cached in the first LCH. Alternatively, in this second implementation, the first indication information may be a MAC CE, which is different from the BSR MAC CE.

For example, please refer to fig. 5a, fig. 5a is a schematic diagram of format design of a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5a, the first indication information may only include size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH.

For example, please refer to fig. 5b, fig. 5b is a schematic diagram illustrating another format design of a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5b, the first indication information may include size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH and size information of data other than the first data frame buffered in the first LCH.

For example, please refer to fig. 5c, fig. 5c is a schematic diagram illustrating another format design of a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5c, the first indication information may include size information of all data buffered in the first LCH and size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH. The size of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH may be expressed as a ratio, and the size of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH is determined by multiplying the ratio by the size of the total buffered data amount.

For example, please refer to fig. 5d, fig. 5d is a schematic diagram of another format design of a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5d, the first indication information may include size information of all data buffered in the first LCH and size information of data buffered in the first LCH except for the first data frame. Wherein the size of the data other than the first data frame buffered in the first LCH may be expressed as a ratio by which the size of the data other than the first data frame buffered in the first LCH is determined by multiplying the total buffered data size.

For example, please refer to fig. 5e, fig. 5e is a schematic diagram of another format design of a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5e, the first indication information may include size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH, identification information of the first LCH, jitter information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH, and the like.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH, the size information of all the data buffered in the first LCH, or the size information of the data buffered in the first LCH except the first data frame may specifically be a numerical value in terms of Bytes or Kbytes, or may also be an index value of a data size, so that the size of a specific data frame may be determined by using the index value and a mapping table of the data size specifically in terms of Bytes/Kbytes.

Taking the size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH as an example, the size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH may be 7Kbytes, or the size information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH may be an index value 1, where the size of the data amount corresponding to the index value 1 is 7Kbytes.

Note that, the jitter information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH according to the embodiment of the present application may be a deviation between an arrival time of the first data frame and an expected arrival time of the terminal device, or may be a deviation between an arrival time of the first data frame and an arrival time of a previous data frame of the first data frame. The deviation may be represented as a value in units of symbols (symbols), slots (slots), milliseconds (ms), radio frames, or the like, or may be a time index value, so that a specific deviation size may be determined according to a mapping relationship between the time index value and a specific time value.

For example, assuming that the arrival time of the first data frame is slot7 and the expected arrival time of the terminal device is slot8, the jitter information of the first data frame is 1 slot. For another example, assuming that the arrival time of the first data frame is slot7 and the arrival time of the last data frame of the first data frame is slot1, the jitter information of the first data frame is 6 slots.

When a new data frame (for example, a first data frame) arrives in the first LCH by implementing the method in the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment triggers the first process according to different conditions, so that the terminal equipment can timely indicate the arrival of the new data frame to the access network equipment through the first indication information, further inform the access network equipment to timely schedule resources, ensure the efficiency of service transmission and reduce the transmission delay.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is another flow chart of the communication method according to the embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 6, the communication method includes the following steps S601 to S602:

s601, when a terminal device acquires a first data packet included in a first data frame on a first LCH, a first timer is started.

In some possible embodiments, the terminal device may start the first timer when the first data packet included in the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the first data frame includes at least two data packets.

In one implementation manner, when the first data packet included in the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, the first LCH may further include buffered data of the second data frame. The first data frame and the second data frame are data frames of the same service, and the second data frame is a data frame reaching the first LCH before the first data frame. It should be noted that, the service related to the embodiment of the present application may be an XR service, for example, an AR service, etc., which is not limited herein. That is, for the LCH (for example, the first LCH is schematically illustrated), when the first data packet included in the first data frame is acquired, if data (for example, the second data frame is schematically illustrated) still to be transmitted in the first LCH, the terminal device starts the first timer.

It should be noted that, when the first packet for the new data frame (i.e., the first data frame) arrives in the first implementation manner, the understanding that the packet for the previous data frame (i.e., the second data frame) still exists in the first LCH may refer to the description that the packet for the new data frame (i.e., the first data frame) still exists in the first LCH when the packet for the new data frame (i.e., the first data frame) arrives in the implementation manner (1) in step S402 of fig. 4, which is not described herein again. The difference from the implementation (1) in step S402 of fig. 4 is that the first timer needs to be further started in the present application. This is because one data frame (e.g., the first data frame) may include a plurality of data packets whose arrival times have a certain time interval, and if the first procedure is triggered when the first data packet of the first data frame arrives, the amount of data to be reported is not the entire amount of data of the first data frame, but the amount of data of the data packet that has arrived partially in the first data frame, so that the amount of data to be reported is inaccurate, and thus, by starting the first timer and triggering the report when the first timer expires, the accurate amount of data can be reported.

In another implementation two, when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, the first LCH may have no corresponding triggered and non-cancelled BSR. That is, for the first LCH, when the first packet included in the first data frame arrives, if the first LCH does not have a BSR that has been triggered and is not cancelled, the UE starts the first timer.

It should be noted that, when the first packet arrives for the new data frame (i.e., the first data frame), the first LCH does not have a description of the existence of the triggered and non-cancelled BSR, which is not described herein, in detail, when the packet arrives for the new data frame (i.e., the first data frame) in the implementation (2) in step S402 of fig. 4. The difference from the implementation (2) in step S402 of fig. 4 is that the first timer needs to be further started in the present application. It should be noted that, the reason for starting the first timer is referred to the related description of the first implementation manner, and will not be described herein.

In another implementation III, when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, the first LCH may include buffer data of the second data frame, and the first LCH has no corresponding triggered and non-cancelled BSR. That is, for the first LCH, when the first data packet included in the first data frame arrives, if there is data to be transmitted in the first LCH, and there is no BSR that has been triggered and not cancelled in the first LCH, the UE starts the first timer.

It should be noted that, when the first packet included in the first data frame arrives, there is already data to be transmitted in the first LCH, and the current understanding that the first LCH has no triggered BSR and is not cancelled can be seen from the foregoing description of the first LCH that the packet included in the first data frame arrives in the implementation (3) of step S402 of fig. 4, and the current description of the first LCH has no triggered BSR and is not cancelled will not be repeated herein. The difference from the implementation (3) in step S402 of fig. 4 is that the first timer needs to be further started in the present application. It should be noted that, the reason for starting the first timer is referred to the related description of the first implementation manner, and will not be described herein.

Optionally, in some possible embodiments, after the first timer is started, if the first timer does not timeout, another data packet included in the first data frame and other than the first data packet is acquired in the first LCH, the first timer may be restarted. Restarting the first timer is understood to mean reinitializing the first timer or setting the first timer to 0. It should be noted that, when each data packet in the first data frame is acquired, the first timer is restarted once, so that when the arrival time interval of each data packet in the first data frame is too long, the first process is triggered when all the data packets included in the first data frame are not received yet, so that an inaccurate data volume is reported.

S602, when the first timer is overtime, the terminal equipment triggers a first process.

In some possible implementations, the first process is triggered when the first timer expires. Wherein triggering the first procedure may be understood as triggering the first BSR. The first BSR according to the embodiment of the present application may be a conventional regular BSR, etc., which is not limited herein.

S603, the terminal equipment responds to the first process and sends first indication information to the access network equipment.

The specific implementation manner of step S603 may refer to the description of step S402 in the corresponding embodiment of fig. 4, which is not described herein.

In the embodiment of the application, when the first data frame comprises a plurality of data packets, the first process is not triggered immediately when the first data packet of the new data frame arrives by introducing the timer, but is triggered again when the timer is overtime, so that the terminal equipment can report more accurate data quantity. In addition, the first procedure is not triggered immediately when the first data packet of the new data frame arrives, but is triggered again when the timer times out and the first LCH still has the buffered data, so that unnecessary BSR triggering can be avoided effectively.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is another flow chart of the communication method according to the embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 7, the communication method includes the following steps S701 to S702:

s701, when the terminal equipment acquires a first data packet of a first data frame on a first LCH, triggering a first process.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, the first data frame includes a plurality of data packets. The first data frame in the corresponding embodiment of fig. 4 includes one data packet, that is, the first data frame acquired on the first LCH in fig. 4 is equivalent to the first data packet acquired on the first LCH in step S701, so the specific implementation manner of step S701 may refer to the description of step S401 in the corresponding embodiment of fig. 4, and no further description is given here.

S702, the terminal equipment responds to the first process and sends first indication information to the access network equipment.

Here, the specific implementation manner of step S702 may refer to the description of step S402 in the corresponding embodiment of fig. 4, which is not described herein.

S703, when the terminal equipment acquires a first data packet included in the first data frame from the first LCH, starting a second timer.

In some possible embodiments, the terminal device may also start the second timer when the first data packet included in the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH. That is, the terminal device may trigger the first procedure when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, and at the same time, restart a second timer. It should be noted that, for the implementation/understanding of starting the second timer, reference may be made to the implementation/understanding of starting the first timer in step S601 of fig. 6, which is not described herein. That is, after replacing the first timer described in step S601 of fig. 6 with the second timer, it is possible to understand that the second timer is started in step S702.

And S704, when the second timer is overtime, the terminal equipment triggers a second process.

In some possible implementations, the second process is triggered when the second timer expires. Here, triggering the second procedure may be understood as triggering the second BSR. The second BSR may be a regular BSR or the like, which is not limited herein.

And S705, the terminal equipment responds to the second process and sends second indication information to the access network equipment.

In some possible implementations, the terminal device sends the second indication information to the access network device in response to the second procedure. Wherein the second indication information is used for indicating a cache state in the first LCH. Note that, the first indication information is a buffer status in the first LCH corresponding to a time of triggering the first procedure. The second indication information here is a buffer status in the first LCH corresponding to the moment of triggering the second procedure.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the understanding of the second indication information may refer to the description of the first indication information in step S402 in fig. 4, and the description is not repeated here. Wherein, the second indication information and the first indication information are different in that: they generate different information for different cache states respectively, but the structure and function of the information itself are consistent.

In the embodiment of the application, when the first data frame comprises a plurality of data packets, the terminal equipment immediately triggers the first process when the first data packet of the first data frame arrives, so that the first indication information can be timely sent to inform the access network equipment that a new data frame arrives, but the data quantity reported based on the triggering of the first process is not accurate enough. Therefore, the timer is started simultaneously when the first data packet of the new data frame arrives, and the second process is triggered again after the timer is overtime, so that the terminal equipment can report more accurate size information of the new data frame.

The communication device provided by the present application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 8 to 9.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the application. The communication device shown in fig. 8 may be used to perform part or all of the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiments described above with reference to fig. 4-7. The device can be a terminal device, a device in the terminal device, or a device which can be matched with the terminal device for use. The communication device may also be a chip system. The communication device shown in fig. 8 may include a transceiving unit 801 and a processing unit 802. The processing unit 802 is configured to perform data processing. The transceiver unit 801 integrates a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The transceiving unit 801 may also be referred to as a communication unit. Alternatively, the transceiver unit 801 may be split into a receiving unit and a transmitting unit.

The processing unit 802 and the transceiver unit 801 are the same, and will not be described in detail. Wherein:

a processing unit 802, configured to trigger a first procedure when a first data frame is acquired on a first LCH;

a processing unit 802, configured to send, in response to the first procedure, first indication information to an access network device through a transceiver unit 801, where the first indication information is used to indicate a buffer status in the first LCH.

Other possible implementation manners of the communication apparatus may be referred to the description of the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiments corresponding to fig. 4 to fig. 7, which are not repeated herein.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 9, the communication device may be a terminal device described in the embodiment of the present application, and is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in fig. 4 to fig. 7. For convenience of explanation, fig. 9 shows only major components of the terminal device 900. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal device 900 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the whole terminal device 900, executing software programs and processing data of the software programs. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices such as touch screens, display screens, microphones, keyboards, etc. are mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

Taking the terminal device 900 as a mobile phone for example, after the terminal device 900 is turned on, the processor may read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instruction 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 control circuit, and the control circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the terminal device 900, the control circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, which converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 9 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In some embodiments, terminal device 900 can include multiple processors and memory. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc., and embodiments of the present invention are not limited in this respect.

As an alternative implementation, 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 entire terminal device 900, execute a software program, and process the data of the software program. The processor in fig. 9 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. Terminal device 900 may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, terminal device 900 may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and various components of terminal device 900 may be connected 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, the antenna and the control circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as the transceiving unit 910 of the terminal device 900, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as the processing unit 920 of the terminal device 900. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal device 900 includes a transceiving unit 910 and a processing unit 920. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiver unit 910 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiver unit 910 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, i.e., the transceiver unit 910 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.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium, wherein instructions are stored in the computer readable storage medium, and when the computer readable storage medium runs on a processor, the method flow of the embodiment of the method is realized.

The present application also provides a computer program product, which when run on a processor, implements the method flows of the method embodiments described above.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, or as a combination 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.

In the several embodiments provided by the present 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, and for example, the division of the units is merely a logical functional division, and units illustrated 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 over multiple 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.

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 this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. The foregoing computer-readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limited to: the computer readable medium may include random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read only memory, EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (compact disc read-only memory, CD-ROM), universal serial bus flash disk (universal serial bus flash disk), a removable hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media, or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. In addition, 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), or direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

The foregoing is merely a specific implementation of the present application, but the scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art may easily think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the embodiments of the present application, and all changes and substitutions are included in the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, wherein the method is applied to a terminal device, and comprises:

triggering a first process when a first data frame is acquired on a first LCH;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering the first procedure is triggering a first buffer status report, BSR.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first BSR is a regular BSR.

4. A method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH, the first LCH further includes buffered data of a second data frame, where the second data frame is a data frame preceding the first data frame.

5. The method of any of claims 2-4, wherein the first LCH has no corresponding triggered and non-cancelled BSR when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein triggering the first procedure when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH comprises:

when the first timer times out, the first process is triggered.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein said triggering the first procedure when the first timer expires comprises:

9. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein triggering the first procedure when the first data frame is acquired on the first LCH comprises:

the method further comprises the steps of:

triggering a second process when the second timer times out;

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the triggering the second procedure is triggering a second BSR.

11. The method of claim 9 or 10, wherein the second indication information comprises one or more of the following:

12. The method of any of claims 1-11, wherein the first indication information comprises one or more of the following:

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the first indication information or the second indication information comprises jitter information of the first data frame buffered in the first LCH;

14. The method according to claims 11-13, wherein the first indication information or the second indication information is a BSR medium access control layer control element, MAC CE.

15. A communication device comprising means or modules for performing the method of any of claims 1-14.

16. A communication device, comprising:

one or more processors, one or more transceivers, and one or more memories;

wherein the one or more memories are for storing computer programs, the one or more processors and the one or more transceivers are for executing the computer programs stored in the one or more memories to cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1-14.

17. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of any of claims 1-14.

18. A computer program product comprising computer program code for implementing the method of any of claims 1-14 when said computer program code is run on a computer.