CN117835433A

CN117835433A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN117835433A
Application number: CN202211205056.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 邝奕如; 徐海博; 才宇
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-09-29
Filing date: 2022-09-29
Publication date: 2024-04-05
Also published as: WO2024067186A1

Abstract

The application relates to a communication method and device. The first terminal device receives first configuration information from the access network device, which includes an association relationship between the side uplink carrier and the SR configuration. If the sidelink CSI report of the first sidelink carrier is triggered and there is no sidelink resource on the first sidelink carrier for transmitting the first sidelink MAC CE, the first terminal device transmits a first SR to the access network device requesting the sidelink resource. The first side-link MAC CE is configured to indicate a side-link CSI report for the first side-link carrier, and the first SR corresponds to an SR configuration associated with the first side-link carrier, or to a pre-configured SR configuration. The first terminal equipment can apply for the side link resource on the side link carrier through the SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the side link carrier, thereby realizing that the first terminal equipment can apply for the side link resource under a plurality of side link carriers.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

The Sidelink (SL) standard was originally developed for vehicle-to-evaluation (V2X) applications, but the industry is increasingly interested in expanding the applicability of SL to commercial use cases. For commercial SL applications, two key requirements are determined: 1. increasing the SL data rate; 2. a new carrier frequency for SL is supported.

An incentive to increase SL data rates is to be able to share sensor information (e.g., video, etc.) between vehicles with high driving automation. One way to increase the side SL data rate is currently considered to enable a User Equipment (UE) to support SL carrier aggregation (carrier aggregation, CA) whereby higher data rates can be achieved, but no discussion is currently made about how the mechanism between UEs communicates over multiple SL carriers.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for providing a mechanism for communication among UE through a plurality of SL carriers.

In a first aspect, a first communication method is provided, which may be performed by a terminal device, or by another device comprising the functionality of the terminal device, or by a chip system (or chip) or other functional module, which is capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device, the chip system or functional module being provided in the terminal device, for example. The terminal device is for example a first terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: receiving first configuration information from an access network device, the first configuration information comprising an association between a side uplink carrier and a scheduling request (scheduling request, SR) configuration; if a side channel state information (channel state information, CSI) report (reporting) of a first side link carrier is triggered and there are no side link resources on the first side link carrier for transmitting a first side link MAC CE for indicating a side link CSI report of the first side link carrier, transmitting a first SR to the access network device, the first SR being for requesting side link resources. The first SR corresponds to an SR configuration associated with the first side link carrier, for example, the first configuration information configures an association relationship between the first side link carrier and the first SR configuration, and the first SR may correspond to the first SR configuration; or, the first SR corresponds to a preconfigured SR configuration.

In this embodiment of the present application, when a sidelink CSI report of a first sidelink carrier is triggered, for a first terminal device configured with a sidelink resource allocation mode 1 (mode 1), if there is no available sidelink resource, the first terminal device may apply for the sidelink resource to an access network device through SR, and the sidelink resource allocation mode 1 (mode 1) allocates a resource allocation mode of SL resource to the UE for the access network device. And the SR configuration may be associated with the side-link carrier, so when the first terminal device applies for the side-link resource, the first terminal device can apply for the side-link resource on the side-link carrier through the SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the corresponding side-link carrier, so that the access network device can allocate the resource on the appropriate side-link carrier for the first terminal device, thereby realizing that the first terminal device can realize the application of the side-link resource under the condition of multiple side-link carriers. And if the first terminal device sends the side-link MAC CE to the second terminal device on the side-link resource of the first side-link carrier, it can be indicated that the side-link CSI report included in the side-link MAC CE is the side-link CSI report of the first side-link carrier, so that the second terminal device can clearly receive what side-link carrier side-link CSI report is, without confusing the side-link CSI reports of different side-link carriers. In this way, no additional indication information is needed to be added in the side-link MAC CE to indicate the side-link carrier corresponding to the side-link CSI report, so that signaling overhead can be saved.

In an alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving information from the access network device indicating a first side-link resource, the first side-link resource being a resource on the first side-link carrier; and sending the first side link MAC CE to a second terminal device through the first side link resource. After the first terminal device sends the first SR to the access network device, the access network device can determine that the first SR is used for requesting SL resources on the first SL carrier (or is used for requesting SL resources on a plurality of SL carriers including the first SL carrier) according to the SR configuration corresponding to the first SR, and then the access network device can allocate the SL resources on the first SL carrier (or allocate the SL resources on the plurality of SL carriers including the first SL carrier) to the first terminal device, so that the first terminal device can obtain the SL resources allocated by the access network device.

In an alternative embodiment, the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of the side uplink carriers configured by the first terminal device; or, the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of side uplink carriers that can be used by the first terminal device to send side uplink CSI reports; or, the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of the side uplink carrier of the first terminal device with the CSI acquisition function enabled. The first terminal device may be configured with one or more SL carriers, and the first configuration information may configure an association relationship between SR configuration and all or part of the SL carriers. For example, among SL carriers configured by the first terminal apparatus, some SL carriers may be configured to be able to transmit SL CSI reports in the future, although they are temporarily unavailable for transmitting SL CSI reports. The association relations between the SL carriers and the SR configuration are uniformly configured through the first configuration information, and the association relations can be directly applied when the SL carriers can be used for sending the SL CSI report without additional configuration. Or, in the SL carriers configured by the first terminal device, some SL carriers may be used to send the SL CSI report (or the CSI acquisition function is enabled), the first configuration information may configure an association relationship between all or part of the SL carriers and the SR configuration, and for the SL carriers that cannot be used to send the SL CSI report, it may not be necessary to configure an association relationship between the SL carriers and the SR configuration, which is beneficial to saving the overhead of the first configuration information.

In an alternative embodiment, the first configuration information further includes the preconfigured SR configuration for requesting side uplink resources on a side uplink carrier of an unassociated SR configuration. There may be some SL carriers, and the first configuration information does not configure an association relationship between the SL carriers and the SR configuration. The first configuration information may optionally include, in addition to at least one set of associations, a pre-configured SR configuration that may be applicable to SL carriers for which no SR configuration is associated. Through the pre-configured SR configuration, the number of association relations can be reduced, and each SL carrier of the first UE can be enabled to obtain SL resource allocation.

In an alternative embodiment, the first side link carrier has no side link resource for transmitting the first side link MAC CE, including: there are no side-link resources on the first side-link carrier for sending the first side-link MAC CE plus a sub-header of the first side-link MAC CE, and the side-link resources are side-link resources for a new transmission.

In an alternative embodiment, the association between the side uplink carrier and the SR configuration comprises an association between the side uplink carrier and an SR configuration identity, the SR configuration identity indicating the SR configuration. The first configuration information can configure the association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration by configuring the association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration identifier, without including a specific SR configuration in the first configuration information (for example, the specific SR configuration may be predefined by a protocol, or both the access network device and the first terminal device may store the SR configuration in advance), which can reduce the overhead of the first configuration information.

In an alternative embodiment, the first side-link MAC CE is a side-link CSI report MAC CE. The first SL MAC CE is configured to include (or indicate) the SL CSI report, and may be a SL CSI report MAC CE, or may be another SL MAC CE.

In a second aspect, a second communication method is provided, which may be performed by an access network device, or by another device comprising the functions of the access network device, or by a system-on-chip (or chip) or other functional module capable of implementing the functions of the access network device, the system-on-chip or functional module being for example provided in the access network device. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting first configuration information to first terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration information comprises an association relationship between a side uplink carrier and SR configuration; and receiving a first SR from the first terminal equipment, wherein the first SR is used for requesting side-link resources, and the first SR corresponds to the SR configuration associated with the first side-link carrier or the first SR corresponds to the pre-configured SR configuration.

In an alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: and sending information for indicating a first side link resource to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first side link resource is a resource on the first side link carrier.

In an alternative embodiment, the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of the side uplink carriers configured by the first terminal device; or, the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of side uplink carriers that can be used by the first terminal device to send side uplink CSI reports; or, the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of the side uplink carrier of the first terminal device with the CSI acquisition function enabled.

In an alternative embodiment, the first configuration information further includes the preconfigured SR configuration for requesting side uplink resources on a side uplink carrier of an unassociated SR configuration.

In an alternative embodiment, the association between the side uplink carrier and the SR configuration comprises an association between the side uplink carrier and an SR configuration identity, the SR configuration identity indicating the SR configuration.

In an alternative embodiment, the first side-link MAC CE is a side-link CSI report MAC CE.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the second aspect or various alternative embodiments, reference may be made to the description of the technical effects of the first aspect or corresponding embodiments.

In a third aspect, a third communication method is provided, which may be performed by a terminal device, or by another device comprising the functionality of the terminal device, or by a chip system (or chip) or other functional module capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device, the chip system or functional module being for example provided in the terminal device. The terminal device is for example a first terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: and transmitting a side-link MAC CE to the second terminal equipment, wherein the side-link MAC CE is used for indicating the side-link CSI report of the first side-link carrier, the side-link MAC CE comprises N bits, the N bits are used for indicating the first side-link carrier, or the N bits are not used for indicating any side-link carrier, and N is a positive integer. In the embodiment of the present application, in the case of multiple SL carriers, the transmission of the SL CSI report may not consider the carrier constraint condition, for example, one SL MAC CE may indicate the SL CSI report of multiple SL carriers, thereby saving the transmission overhead. In addition, the N bits included in the SL MAC CE may further indicate a SL carrier corresponding to the information indicated by the SL MAC CE, so that the second terminal device can determine the carrier corresponding to the information indicated by the SL MAC CE, thereby improving the accuracy of information transmission.

In an alternative embodiment, if the first terminal device has more than one side-link carrier configured with side-link CSI reference signals, the N bits are used to indicate the first side-link carrier, or if the first terminal device has only one side-link carrier configured with side-link CSI reference signals, the N bits are not used to indicate any side-link carrier; or, if the first terminal device has more than one side-link carrier enabled with the CSI acquisition function, the N bits are used to indicate the first side-link carrier, or if the first terminal device has only one side-link carrier enabled with the CSI acquisition function, the N bits are not used to indicate any side-link carrier; or, if the first terminal device is configured with more than one side-link carrier, the N bits are used to indicate the first side-link carrier, or, if the first terminal device is configured with one side-link carrier, the N bits are not used to indicate any side-link carrier. The N bits included in the SL MAC CE may have different meanings, for example, may indicate the SL carrier to which the SL MAC CE corresponds, or may be reserved bits (where N bits are not used to indicate any side-uplink carrier when still reserved bits). What meaning the N bits take can be determined in the above manner, for example, the first terminal device and the second terminal device can be determined in the same manner, so that understanding of the N bits by the first terminal device and the second terminal device can be consistent. And N bits may have different meanings, which also makes the implementation of the SL MAC CE more flexible.

In an alternative embodiment, the sidelink MAC CE is a sidelink CSI reporting MAC CE.

In a fourth aspect, a fourth communication method is provided, which may be performed by a terminal device, or by another device comprising the functionality of the terminal device, or by a chip system (or chip) or other functional module capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device, the chip system or functional module being for example provided in the terminal device. The terminal device is for example a first terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting a first side link MAC CE on a first side link resource of a first side link carrier, the first side link MAC CE being for indicating a side link CSI report of the first side link carrier, if a side link CSI report of the first side link carrier is triggered; cancelling the triggered side-uplink CSI report of the first side-link carrier. Through the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, a manner of maintaining the SL CSI reporting state by the UE is provided, for example, the first terminal equipment can respectively maintain the SL CSI reporting state for different SL carriers, so that the SL CSI reporting states of the different SL carriers cannot be mutually influenced, and the transmission efficiency and the accuracy are improved.

In an alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: the sidelink CSI reports for other sidelink carriers, which have also been triggered, are not cancelled. If the SL CSI report of the other SL carriers in addition to the first SL carrier is triggered, the first terminal device may cancel the triggered SL CSI report of the first SL carrier after the first SL MAC CE is transmitted, but does not cancel the triggered SL CSI report of the other SL carriers, so that the transmission of the SL CSI report of the other SL carriers is not affected.

In an alternative embodiment, after transmitting the first side link MAC CE on the first side link resource of the first side link carrier, the method further comprises: and canceling the triggered SR of the first side link carrier, or canceling the triggered SR corresponding to the side link CSI report of the first side link carrier, or canceling the triggered SR corresponding to the first side link MAC CE. For example, the first terminal device may maintain SRs, or SR states, for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports for different SL carriers; or different SL MAC CEs), respectively. After the first SL MAC CE is sent, the first terminal device may cancel the SR of the triggered first SL carrier, in addition to the SL CSI report of the triggered first SL carrier. Alternatively, the first terminal device may not cancel the SR of the other side uplink carrier, where the SR of the other side uplink carrier is also triggered, that is, the first UE may keep the SR of the other SL carrier unchanged, so as not to affect the transmission procedure of the other SL carrier.

Alternatively, the first UE may uniformly maintain one SR, and after the first SL CSI MAC CE transmission is completed, if no SL CSI report of other SL carriers than the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier is triggered, or if the first SL MAC CE indicates the SL CSI reports of all the triggered SL carriers, the first terminal device may cancel the triggered SR. Alternatively, after the first SL CSI MAC CE is transmitted, if the SL CSI reports of other SL carriers than the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier are triggered, or if the first SL MAC CE indicates the SL CSI report of the triggered part of the SL carriers, the first terminal device may not cancel the triggered SR, so that the SL CSI reports of the respective SL carriers are normally transmitted.

In an alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving an SCI for scheduling a side-uplink CSI report for the first side-link carrier; triggering a side-uplink CSI report for the first side-uplink carrier. For example, the second terminal device may send the SCI to the first terminal device to schedule the SL CSI report for the first SL carrier. After the first terminal device receives the SCI, the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier may be triggered.

In a fifth aspect, a fifth communication method is provided, which may be performed by a terminal device, or by another device comprising the functionality of the terminal device, or by a chip system (or chip) or other functional module, which is capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device, the chip system or functional module being provided in the terminal device, for example. The terminal device is for example a first terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps of triggering a side-link CSI report, and then transmitting a side-link MAC CE on a first side-link resource, wherein the side-link MAC CE is used for indicating the side-link CSI report of at least one side-link carrier; and if the side-link MAC CE indicates the side-link CSI reports of all side-link carriers to be transmitted, canceling the triggered side-link CSI reports. The first terminal equipment can uniformly maintain one SL CSI report, so that the number of the SL CSI reports maintained by the first terminal equipment can be reduced, and the implementation of the first terminal equipment is simplified.

In an alternative embodiment, after transmitting the side-link MAC CE on the first side-link resource, the method further comprises: if the sidelink MAC CE indicates a sidelink CSI report for all the triggered sidelink carriers, the triggered SR is cancelled. The first terminal equipment can uniformly maintain one SR, so that the number of the SRs maintained by the first terminal equipment can be reduced, and the implementation of the first terminal equipment is simplified.

In an alternative embodiment, after transmitting the side-link MAC CE on the first side-link resource, the method further comprises: if the sidelink MAC CE indicates a sidelink CSI report of a triggered part of the sidelink carrier, the triggered sidelink CSI report is not canceled, and a triggered SR is not canceled. Because the first terminal device maintains one CSI report and one SR in a unified manner, if there are more SL CSI reports of the SL carriers that are not transmitted or are not transmitted, the first terminal device may not cancel the triggered SL CSI report or the triggered SR, thereby ensuring that the SL CSI reports of the respective SL carriers can be transmitted.

In a sixth aspect, a sixth communication method is provided, which may be performed by a terminal device, or by another device comprising the functionality of the terminal device, or by a chip system (or chip) or other functional module, which is capable of implementing the functionality of the terminal device, the chip system or functional module being provided in the terminal device, for example. The terminal device is for example a first terminal device. The method comprises the following steps: determining a sidelink CSI report of a part of sidelink carriers from the sidelink CSI reports of all the sidelink carriers to be transmitted if the sidelink resources used for transmitting the sidelink MAC CEs cannot bear the sidelink CSI reports of all the sidelink carriers; and transmitting the side-link MAC CE to a second terminal device, wherein the side-link MAC CE is used for indicating the side-link CSI report of the partial side-link carrier. In this embodiment of the present application, if the SL resource cannot carry the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers to be transmitted, the first UE may determine the SL CSI report of a portion of the SL carriers in a plurality of manners, so that the SL CSI report of the portion of the SL carriers can be transmitted, so as to reduce a transmission delay of the SL CSI report.

In an alternative embodiment, the side-downlink CSI report of the partial side-link carrier satisfies one or more of the following conditions: the priority of the partial side link carriers is higher than or equal to the priority of the rest side link carriers except the partial side link carriers in the all side link carriers; or, the channel quality variation corresponding to the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier is greater than or equal to the channel quality variation corresponding to the side link CSI report of the remaining side link carrier except the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier in the side link CSI reports of all side link carriers, wherein the channel quality variation corresponding to the side link CSI report of one side link carrier is determined according to the current side link CSI report and the last side link CSI report of the side link carrier; or, the channel quality corresponding to the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier is better than or equal to the channel quality of the side link CSI report of the remaining side link carriers except the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier in the side link CSI reports of all the side link carriers; or, the index of the channel quality information corresponding to the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier is greater than or equal to the index of the channel quality information corresponding to the side link CSI report of the remaining side link carriers except the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier in the side link CSI reports of all the side link carriers; or, the remaining effective duration of the reporting delay corresponding to the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier is smaller than or equal to the remaining effective duration of the reporting delay corresponding to the side link CSI report of the remaining side link carrier except the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier in the side link CSI reports of all the side link carriers; or, the trigger time of the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier is earlier than or equal to the trigger time of the side link CSI report of the remaining side link carriers except the side link CSI report of the partial side link carrier in the side link CSI reports of all the side link carriers; or, the partial side uplink carrier includes a main side uplink carrier of the first terminal device; or, the partial side-link carrier is randomly selected from the all side-link carriers. The embodiments of the present application provide various manners for selecting the partial SL CSI report, and any two or more of the foregoing various manners may also be combined for application, so that the method is flexible.

In an alternative embodiment, the sidelink resources for transmitting the sidelink MAC CE cannot carry sidelink CSI reports for all sidelink carriers to be transmitted, comprising: the sidelink resources cannot carry the sidelink MAC CEs of all sidelink carriers to be transmitted plus the sub-header of the sidelink MAC CE.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication apparatus may be the first terminal device of any one of the first to sixth aspects. The communication device has the function of the first terminal device. The communication means are for example a first terminal device, or a larger device comprising the first terminal device, or a functional module in the first terminal device, such as a baseband device or a system on chip, etc. In an alternative implementation, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another alternative implementation, the communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module) and a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module). The transceiver unit can realize a transmission function and a reception function, and may be referred to as a transmission unit (sometimes referred to as a transmission module) when the transceiver unit realizes the transmission function, and may be referred to as a reception unit (sometimes referred to as a reception module) when the transceiver unit realizes the reception function. The transmitting unit and the receiving unit may be the same functional module, which is called a transceiver unit, and which can implement a transmitting function and a receiving function; alternatively, the transmitting unit and the receiving unit may be different functional modules, and the transmitting and receiving unit is a generic term for these functional modules.

In an alternative embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is configured to receive first configuration information from an access network device, where the first configuration information includes an association relationship between a side uplink carrier and an SR configuration; the processing unit is configured to determine that a side-link CSI report for a first side-link carrier is triggered, and that there are no side-link resources on the first side-link carrier for transmitting a first side-link MAC CE; the transceiver unit (or the transmitting unit) is configured to send a first SR to the access network device, where the first SR is used to request a side-link resource, where the first side-link MAC CE is used to indicate a side-link CSI report of the first side-link carrier, and the first SR corresponds to an SR configuration associated with the first side-link carrier, or the first SR corresponds to a preconfigured SR configuration.

In an alternative embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the transmitting unit) is configured to transmit, to the second terminal device, a side-link MAC CE, where the side-link MAC CE is configured to indicate a side-link CSI report of the first side-link carrier, and the side-link MAC CE includes N bits, where the N bits are used to indicate the first side-link carrier, or where the N bits are not used to indicate any side-link carrier, and where N is a positive integer.

In an alternative embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the transmitting unit) is configured to send a first side link MAC CE on a first side link resource of a first side link carrier, where the first side link MAC CE is configured to indicate a side link CSI report of the first side link carrier; the processing unit is configured to cancel the triggered side uplink CSI report of the first side uplink carrier.

In an alternative embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the transmitting unit) is configured to transmit, on a first side-link resource, a side-link MAC CE for indicating a side-link CSI report of at least one side-link carrier when the side-link CSI report is triggered; the processing unit is configured to cancel the triggered sidelink CSI report if the sidelink MAC CE indicates a sidelink CSI report of all sidelink carriers to be transmitted.

In an alternative embodiment, the processing unit is configured to determine, if a sidelink resource used for transmitting a sidelink MAC CE cannot carry a sidelink CSI report of all sidelink carriers to be transmitted, a sidelink CSI report of a part of the sidelink carriers from the sidelink CSI reports of all the sidelink carriers; the transceiver unit (or the transmitting unit) is configured to transmit, to a second terminal device, the sidelink MAC CE, where the sidelink MAC CE is used to indicate a sidelink CSI report of the partial sidelink carrier.

In an alternative embodiment, the communication device further comprises a storage unit (sometimes also referred to as a storage module), the processing unit being configured to be coupled to the storage unit and execute a program or instructions in the storage unit, to enable the communication device to perform the functions of the first terminal device according to any one of the first to sixth aspects.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication means may be an access network device according to any of the first to sixth aspects above. The communication device has the function of the access network equipment. The communication means are for example access network devices, or larger devices comprising access network devices, or functional modules in access network devices, such as baseband means or chip systems etc. In an alternative implementation, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another alternative implementation, the communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module) and a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module). Reference may be made to the description of the seventh aspect for implementation of the transceiver unit.

In an alternative embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is configured to send first configuration information to a first terminal device, where the first configuration information includes an association relationship between a side uplink carrier and a scheduling request SR configuration; the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is configured to receive a first SR from the first terminal device, where the first SR is used for requesting a side uplink resource, and the first SR corresponds to an SR configuration associated with a first side uplink carrier, or the first SR corresponds to a preconfigured SR configuration.

In an alternative embodiment, the communication apparatus further comprises a storage unit (sometimes also referred to as a storage module), the processing unit being configured to be coupled to the storage unit and execute a program or instructions in the storage unit, to enable the communication apparatus to perform the functions of the access network device according to any one of the first to sixth aspects.

A ninth aspect provides a communication system comprising a first terminal device for performing the method performed by the first terminal device according to any of the first to sixth aspects, and an access network device for performing the method performed by the access network device according to any of the first to sixth aspects.

In a tenth aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided for storing a computer program or instructions which, when executed, cause a method performed by a first terminal device or an access network device in the above aspects to be carried out.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the method of the above aspects to be carried out.

In a twelfth aspect, a system on a chip is provided, including a processor and an interface, where the processor is configured to invoke and execute instructions from the interface to cause the system on a chip to implement the methods of the above aspects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture applied in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a first communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

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

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

fig. 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams of two implementations of SL MAC CE provided in embodiments of the present application;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a fourth communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of a fifth communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic view of yet another apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application more apparent, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the embodiments of the present application, the number of nouns, unless otherwise indicated, means "a singular noun or a plural noun", i.e. "one or more". "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. For example, A/B, means: a or B. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, represents: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

The ordinal terms such as "first," "second," and the like in the embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing a plurality of objects, and are not used to define a size, a content, an order, a timing, a priority, or an importance level of the plurality of objects. In addition, the numbers of the steps in the embodiments described in the present application are only for distinguishing different steps, and are not used for limiting the sequence of the steps. For example, S201 may occur before S202, or may occur after S202, or may also occur concurrently with S202.

In the following, some terms or concepts in the embodiments of the present application are explained for easy understanding by those skilled in the art.

In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device is a device with a wireless transceiver function, and may be a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device (for example, a mobile phone), a wearable device, an on-board device, or a wireless apparatus (for example, a communication module, a modem, or a chip system) built in the above device. The terminal device is used for connecting people, objects, machines and the like, and can be widely used in various scenes, including but not limited to the following scenes: cellular communication, device-to-device (D2D), V2X, machine-to-machine/machine-like communication (M2M/MTC), internet of things (internet of things, ioT), virtual Reality (VR), augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), industrial control (industrial control), unmanned driving (self driving), remote medical (remote medical), smart grid (smart grid), smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart traffic, smart city (smart city), end devices for scenes such as unmanned aerial vehicle, robot, etc. The terminal device may sometimes be referred to as a UE, a terminal, an access station, a UE station, a remote station, a wireless communication device, or a user equipment, among others. For convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, a UE is taken as an example to illustrate a terminal device.

The network device in the embodiment of the application comprises an access network device and/or a core network device, for example. The access network equipment is equipment with a wireless receiving and transmitting function and is used for communicating with the terminal equipment. The access network devices include, but are not limited to, base stations (base transceiver stations (base transceiver station, BTS), node B, eNodeB/eNB, or gNodeB/gNB), transceiver points (transmission reception point, TRP), base stations for subsequent evolution of the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP), access nodes in wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wi-Fi) systems, wireless relay nodes, wireless backhaul nodes, and the like. The base station may be: macro base station, micro base station, pico base station, small station, relay station, etc. Multiple base stations may support networks of the same access technology or may support networks of different access technologies. A base station may comprise one or more co-sited or non-co-sited transmission reception points. The access network device may also be a radio controller, a Centralized Unit (CU), and/or a Distributed Unit (DU) in the context of a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN). The access network device may also be a server or the like. For example, the network device in the vehicle-to-everything (vehicle to everything, V2X) technology may be a Road Side Unit (RSU). The following describes an access network device using a base station as an example. The base station may communicate with the terminal device or may communicate with the terminal device through the relay station. A terminal device may communicate with multiple base stations in different access technologies. The core network device is used for realizing the functions of mobile management, data processing, session management, policy and charging, etc. The names of devices implementing the core network function in the systems of different access technologies may be different, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this. Taking the fifth generation (the 5th generation,5G) mobile communication system as an example, the core network device includes: access and mobility management functions (access and mobility management function, AMF), session management functions (session management function, SMF), policy control functions (policy control function, PCF) or user plane functions (user plane function, UPF), etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device, or may be a device capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the device may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device is exemplified by the network device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is described.

SL CA, i.e. on SL, the UEs may communicate over more than one SL carrier. For example, a UE may send a broadcast or multicast message using more than one SL carrier, or the UE may unicast with another UE using more than one SL carrier. Different data may be transmitted on different SL carriers, enabling an increase in the data rate on the SL. The data rate refers to a data transmission rate, and may also be simply referred to as a data rate.

The technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application may be applied to a fourth generation mobile communication technology (the 4th generation,4G) system, for example, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, or may be applied to a 5G system, for example, an NR system, or may also be applied to a next generation mobile communication system or other similar communication systems, for example, a sixth generation mobile communication technology (the 6th generation,4G) system, or the like, which is not specifically limited. The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to a device-to-device (D2D) scene, such as an NR-D2D scene and the like, or can be applied to a vehicle-to-everything (vehicle to everything, V2X) scene, such as an NR-V2X scene and the like. For example, the method can be applied to the Internet of vehicles, such as V2X and the like, or can be applied to the fields of intelligent driving, auxiliary driving, intelligent network vehicle connection and the like.

Referring to fig. 1, a communication network architecture suitable for embodiments of the present application is shown. Fig. 1 includes a first UE and a second UE between which may communicate over multiple SL carriers. Wherein the first UE may send a SL CSI report for the SL carrier to the second UE, before which the second UE may send an indication to the first UE to instruct the first UE to send the SL CSI report for the SL carrier. In addition, fig. 1 further includes an access network device, where, for a first UE configured with a side uplink resource allocation mode 1 (mode 1), if there is no SL resource available for the first UE to send a SL CSI report to a second UE, the first UE may apply for the SL resource to the access network device, and the side uplink resource allocation mode 1 (mode 1) allocates the resource allocation mode of the SL resource to the UE for the access network device. Wherein, fig. 1 does not show the communication situation between the second UE and the access network device, and the second UE and the access network device may communicate, for example, the second UE is also in the coverage area of the access network device; alternatively, the second UE may not be able to communicate with the access network device, e.g. the second UE is out of coverage of the access network device.

Data of different SL carriers may be mapped to different Logical Channels (LCHs) to be transmitted through the different SL carriers. Whereas for control signaling on SL, e.g. SL medium access control elements (sidelink medium access control control element, SL MAC CE), how to transmit in a multi-SL carrier scenario, the embodiments of the present application provide the following two ways.

1. Transmission mode one.

The transmission SL MAC CE needs to take into account SL carrier constraints. In the transmission scheme, the SL MAC CE carries information about which SL carrier the SL MAC CE carries, and the SL MAC CE is transmitted on the SL carrier. For example, the MAC CE for including SL CSI reports is SL-CSI reporting MAC CE (i.e., sidelink CSI Reporting MAC CE). If one SL-CSI reporting MAC CE includes (or indicates) a SL CSI report for SL carrier X, then the SL-CSI reporting MAC CE may be transmitted on SL carrier X, which is one of one or more SL carriers between UEs. For the receiving UE, if a SL-CSI-reporting MAC CE is received on SL carrier X, it may be determined that the SL-CSI report that the SL-CSI reporting MAC CE includes (or indicates) is the SL CSI report of SL carrier X. If there are multiple SL carriers for which SL CSI reports are to be sent, they may be sent separately by multiple SL-CSI reporting MAC CE, where one SL-CSI reporting MAC CE may include (or indicate) the SL CSI report of one SL carrier.

2. And a transmission mode II.

The transmitting SL MAC CE does not take into account SL carrier constraints. In transmission mode two, the SL MAC CE may transmit on any SL carrier. Optionally, the SL MAC CE may include SL carrier information to indicate which SL carrier or carriers the SL MAC CE carries. For example, SL-CSI reporting MAC CE may include (or indicate) a SL CSI report for SL carrier X, which SL-CSI reporting MAC CE may be transmitted on any SL carrier, and SL-CSI reporting MAC CE may include SL carrier information (e.g., including an index (index) for the SL carrier, or a bitmap (bitmap) including bits that correspond one-to-one to the SL carriers between the transmitting UE and the receiving UE, with the value of the bits included by the bitmap indicating the corresponding SL carrier) to indicate that SL-CSI reporting MAC CE carries the SL CSI report for SL carrier X, which is one of one or more SL carriers between the UEs. If there are multiple SL carriers for SL CSI reporting to be transmitted, the multiple SL carriers for SL CSI reporting may be included by one SL-CSI reporting MAC CE.

In order to better describe the embodiments of the present application, the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings corresponding to the embodiments of the present application, the steps indicated by the dotted lines are optional steps unless specifically described later. The methods provided by the embodiments of the present application may be applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 1, for example, the first UE involved in the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application may be the first UE in fig. 1, the second UE involved in the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application may be the second UE in fig. 1, and the access network device involved in the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application may be the access network device in fig. 1.

First, a first communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application is described, and please refer to fig. 2, which is a flowchart of the method. The first communication method may be applied to the transmission mode one of the SL MAC CE as described above.

S201, the access network equipment sends first configuration information to the first UE. Accordingly, the first UE receives first configuration information from the access network device. For example, the first configuration information is included in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) reconfiguration message or the first configuration information is an RRC reconfiguration message.

The first configuration information may include an association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration. The SR configuration included (or indicated) by the first configuration information may be associated with the SL MAC CE, e.g., SL resources requested according to the SR corresponding to the SR configuration may be used to transmit the SL MAC CE; alternatively, the SR configuration included (or indicated) by the first configuration information may be associated with the SL CSI report, for example, SL resources requested according to the SR corresponding to the SR configuration may be used to transmit the SL CSI report, and the SL CSI report may be transmitted through the SL MAC CE. For example, the SL MAC CE for sending the SL CSI report may be SL-CSI reporting MAC CE.

For example, the first configuration information may include at least one set of association relationships, where a set of association relationships is an association relationship between at least one SL carrier and one SR configuration, and SL carriers corresponding to different sets of association relationships are different.

Optionally, each of the at least one set of associations may include an association between one SL carrier and one SR configuration. If the first UE sends an SR corresponding to the SR configuration included in the set of association relationships to the access network device, the access network device can determine the SL carrier to which the SR uniquely corresponds, so that the access network device can schedule SL resources on the SL carrier for the first UE without having to schedule SL resources on too many SL carriers, thereby reducing the situation of SL resource waste.

Alternatively, each of the at least one set of associations may include an association between a plurality of SL carriers and one SR configuration, and the number of SL carriers included in different sets of associations may be the same or different. In this case, a plurality of SL carriers may correspond to one SR configuration, whereby the SR configuration can be saved.

Alternatively, the at least one set of associations includes a set of associations a and a set of associations B, where the association a may include an association between one SL carrier and one SR configuration, and the association B may include an association between a plurality of SL carriers and one SR configuration. That is, the implementation of at least one set of associations is flexible.

One SR configuration may indicate a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource of the SR, and optionally, the SR configuration may also indicate one or more of a duration of the SR prohibit timer and a maximum number of SR transmissions, that is, the first UE may determine and transmit the SR in the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource of the corresponding SR according to one SR configuration, where the time domain resource and/or the frequency domain resource of the corresponding SR are different in different SR configurations. In the embodiment of the present application, an association relationship is established between an SL carrier and an SR configuration, if a first UE needs to request, from an access network device, an SL resource on a certain SL carrier, the first UE may use the SR configuration corresponding to the SL carrier to send an SR to the access network device, and after receiving the SR, the access network device may allocate the SL resource on the corresponding SL carrier to the first UE.

Wherein, the set of association relations is an association relation between at least one SL carrier and one SR configuration, if the number of the at least one SL carrier is greater than or equal to 2, if the first UE sends the SR corresponding to the SR configuration to the access network device, the access network device may allocate SL resources on each of the at least one SL carrier to the first UE, that is, the access network device may allocate multiple SL resources to the first UE. At this time, the UE may send the SL CSI report on only one of the SL carriers, and the SL resources on the other SL carriers allocated by the access network device may be ignored. But this way SR configuration can be saved and the first UE can be guaranteed to be able to obtain SL resources for sending the SL CSI report. Moreover, this approach also saves SL resources to some extent compared to the case where the access network device allocates SL resources on all SL carriers of the first UE.

Optionally, the first configuration information includes an association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration, and one way is that the first configuration information includes an association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration identifier, or another way is that the first configuration information includes an association relationship between the SL carrier index and the SR configuration identifier. Wherein one SL carrier corresponds to one SL carrier index, and one SL carrier index indicates one SL carrier. One SR configuration corresponds to one SR configuration identity, one SR configuration identity indicating one SR configuration. For example, please refer to table 1, which is an example of multiple sets of association relationships.

TABLE 1

Table 1 includes 4 sets of associations, where SL carrier 1 and SL carrier 2 each correspond to SR configuration a, which is considered a set of associations, the remaining 3 behavioural 3 sets of associations. The at least one set of association relations configured by the first configuration information may include one or more sets of association relations in table 1, or may not include association relations in table 1, for example.

Alternatively, the first configuration information includes an association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration, and in another manner, the first configuration information may include an SL carrier index. For example, the SR configuration is known to the first UE, and the first UE and the access network device also know the arrangement sequence of the plurality of SR configurations, so that the sequence of the SL carrier indexes in the first configuration information corresponds to the sequence of the SR configurations one by one, which is equivalent to implicitly indicating the association relationship between the SL carrier indexes and the SR configuration identifiers according to the sequence of the SL carrier indexes. For example, the order of SR configuration is SR configuration a, SR configuration b, SR configuration c, SR configuration d, and the order of SL carrier indexes included in the first configuration information is SL index 1, SL index 3, SL index 2, and SL index 4, then the first UE can make sure that SL carrier 1 is associated with SR configuration a, SL carrier 2 is associated with SR configuration c, SL carrier 3 is associated with SR configuration b, and SL carrier 4 is associated with SR configuration d. Alternatively, for another example, the first configuration information includes an SR configuration, and the SR configuration information includes an SL carrier index indicating an SL carrier associated with the SR configuration. For example, if the SR configuration a includes the SL index 1, the SR configuration b includes the SL index 3, the SR configuration c includes the SL index 2, and the SR configuration d includes the SL index 4, the first UE can determine that the SL carrier 1 is associated with the SR configuration a, the SL carrier 2 is associated with the SR configuration c, the SL carrier 3 is associated with the SR configuration b, and the SL carrier 4 is associated with the SR configuration d.

Or, the first configuration information includes an association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration, and in another way, the first configuration information may include SR configuration identifiers, where the order of the SR configuration identifiers in the first configuration information corresponds to the order of the SL carrier indexes one by one, which is equivalent to implicitly indicating the association relationship between the SL carrier indexes and the SR configuration identifiers according to the order of the SR configuration identifiers. The SL carrier index is e.g. pre-negotiated for the first UE and the access network device or may be a default order, e.g. a small to large or a large to small order of values of the index. For example, the order of the SL carrier indexes is SL carrier index 1, SL carrier index 2, SL carrier index 3, and SL carrier index 4, and the order of the SR configuration identifiers included in the first configuration information is SR configuration a, SR configuration c, SR configuration b, and SR configuration d, then the first UE can explicitly determine that SL carrier 1 is associated with SR configuration a, SL carrier 2 is associated with SR configuration c, SL carrier 3 is associated with SR configuration b, and SL carrier 4 is associated with SR configuration d. Alternatively, for another example, the first configuration information includes a SL configuration, and the SR configuration information includes a SL carrier configuration, which indicates an SR configuration associated with the SL carrier configuration. For example, if SL carrier configuration 1 of SL carrier 1 includes SR configuration identifier a, SL carrier configuration 2 of SL carrier 2 includes SR configuration identifier c, SL carrier configuration 3 of SL carrier 3 includes SR configuration identifier b, and SL carrier configuration 4 of SL carrier 4 includes SR configuration identifier d, then the first UE may determine that SL carrier 1 is associated with SR configuration a, SL carrier 2 is associated with SR configuration c, SL carrier 3 is associated with SR configuration b, and SL carrier 4 is associated with SR configuration d.

The first configuration information may include (or indicate) at least one SL carrier (e.g., the first configuration information may include an SL carrier index), and optionally, the SL carrier included in the first configuration information may be all SL carriers configured by the first UE or a portion of the SL carriers configured by the first UE. For example, the access network device or the second UE may pre-configure the SL carrier for the first UE, and the first configuration information may include all or part of the SL carrier therein. If the SL carrier is configured for the first UE by the access network device, the information for configuring the SL carrier for the first UE and the first configuration information may optionally be the same piece of information, or the two pieces of information may be included in the same message, for example, in the same RRC reconfiguration message; alternatively, the information for configuring the SL carrier for the first UE and the first configuration information may be different information, or the two information may be included in different messages.

Alternatively, the SL carriers included in the first configuration information may be all SL carriers that the first UE can use to transmit the SL CSI report, or may be part of the SL carriers that the first UE can use to transmit the SL CSI report. The first UE may be configured to transmit the SL CSI report on the SL carrier, or may be configured to transmit the SL CSI report on the SL carrier. The first configuration information configures an association relationship between the SL carrier and the SR configuration, and SL resources of the SR request corresponding to the SR configuration are available for transmitting the SL CSI report, so that the SL carrier included in the first configuration information may be a SL carrier that can be used for transmitting the SL CSI report, so that the first configuration information can be validated.

Alternatively, the SL carriers included in the first configuration information may be all SL carriers in which the first UE is enabled with a CSI acquisition (CSI-acquisition) function, or some SL carriers in which the first UE is enabled with the CSI acquisition function. If one SL carrier is enabled for CSI acquisition, this indicates that the SL carrier is available for transmitting SL CSI reports, whereas if one SL carrier is not enabled for CSI acquisition, this indicates that the SL carrier is not available for transmitting SL CSI reports. The SL carriers on which the first UE is enabled with the CSI acquisition function may be all or part of the SL carriers on which the first UE is configured.

For example, the access network device may send second configuration information to the first UE, which may indicate which SL carriers have CSI acquisition functionality enabled. For example, the second configuration information may include an index of the SL carrier that enables the CSI acquisition function; alternatively, the second configuration information may include indexes of all SL carriers configured by the first UE, and for the SL carriers in which the CSI acquisition function is enabled, the second configuration information may further include indication information corresponding to the SL carrier indexes of the SL carriers, the indication information indicating that the CSI acquisition function is enabled, and the first UE may determine that the SL carriers corresponding to the SL carrier indexes are enabled according to which of the SL carrier indexes have the corresponding indication information; alternatively, the second configuration information may include a bitmap, where bits included in the bitmap correspond to all SL carriers configured by the first UE one to one, and if a value of one bit is "1", it indicates that the SL carrier corresponding to the bit is enabled for the CSI acquisition function, and if a value of one bit is "0", it indicates that the SL carrier corresponding to the bit is not enabled for the CSI acquisition function; alternatively, the second configuration information may include SL carrier configuration information, where each SL carrier configuration information corresponding to the SL carrier includes indication information about whether the CSI acquisition function is enabled, and the first UE may determine which SL carriers are enabled for the CSI acquisition function according to the SL configuration information corresponding to the SL carrier. For example, the second configuration information may be included in an RRC reconfiguration message, or the second configuration information may be an RRC reconfiguration message. Alternatively, the second configuration information may be the same piece of configuration information as the first configuration information, or may be included in the same message, for example, in the same RRC reconfiguration message; alternatively, the first configuration information and the second configuration information may be different configuration information, or may be included in different messages.

There may be some SL carriers, and the first configuration information does not configure an association relationship between the SL carriers and the SR configuration. The first configuration information may optionally include, in addition to at least one set of associations, a preconfigured SR configuration, which may also be referred to as a default (default) SR configuration or a common (common) SR configuration, etc., without limitation on the name. Alternatively, the pre-configured SR configuration may be predefined by the protocol, and the first configuration information may not necessarily include the pre-configured SR configuration. The preconfigured SR configuration may be applicable to SL carriers for which no SR configuration is associated. For example, the first UE is configured with SL carriers 1-4, where all of SL carriers 1-3 may be used to transmit SL CSI reports. For example, the first configuration information configures the association relationship between the SL carrier 1 and the SR configuration a and the association relationship between the SL carrier 2 and the SR configuration b, but for the SL carrier 3, the first configuration information does not configure the association relationship between the SL carrier 3 and the SR configuration, and then the SL carrier 3 may be considered to be associated with the pre-configured SR configuration. Wherein the preconfigured SR configuration may be configured by the access network device, e.g. the first configuration information may comprise the preconfigured SR configuration; alternatively, the pre-configured SR configuration may be predefined by the protocol and need not be configured by the access network device. If the first UE shall apply for the SL resource on the SL carrier 3 to the access network device, the first UE may send an SR corresponding to the preconfigured SR configuration to the access network device, and the access network device may allocate the SL resource on the SL carrier 3 to the first UE according to the SR. Through the pre-configured SR configuration, the number of association relations can be reduced, and each SL carrier of the first UE can be enabled to obtain SL resource allocation.

S202, if the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier is triggered and there is no SL resource for transmitting the first SL MAC CE on the first SL carrier, the first UE transmits the first SR to the access network device. Accordingly, the access network device receives a first SR from the first UE. Wherein the first SL MAC CE may include a SL CSI report for the first SL carrier. Alternatively, the first SL MAC CE is, for example, SL-CSI reporting MAC CE. The first SR may be used to request SL resources.

In various embodiments of the present application, there is no SL resource on a SL carrier for transmitting a SL MAC CE, which is understood that there is no SL resource on the SL carrier for transmitting the SL MAC CE plus a sub-header (subheader) of the SL MAC CE, and the SL resource is a SL resource for a new transmission; or it is understood that there are no SL resources on the SL carrier for transmitting the SL MAC CE plus the sub-header of the SL MAC CE for the new transmission. For example, there is no SL resource on the first SL carrier for transmitting the first SL MAC CE, which is understood to be no SL resource on the first SL carrier for transmitting the first SL MAC CE plus the sub-header of the first SL MAC CE, and the SL resource is the SL resource for the new transmission; or it is understood that there are no SL resources on the first SL carrier for transmitting the first SL MAC CE plus the sub-header of the first SL MAC CE for the new transmission.

Alternatively, the first UE may maintain SL CSI reports, or state, for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports for different SL carriers; or different SL MAC CEs), respectively. If the other UE (e.g., the second UE) sends sidelink control information (sidelink control information, SCI) to the first UE, the SCI is used to trigger a SL CSI report for a certain SL carrier, or the SCL is used to instruct the first UE to send a SL CSI report for a certain SL carrier, the first UE may consider that a SL CSI report (SL CSI reporting) for the SL carrier is triggered, or may set the SL CSI reporting status for the SL carrier to a triggered state. After triggering the SL CSI report for one SL carrier, the first UE may send the SL CSI report for that SL carrier on that SL carrier, i.e. send the SL MAC CE comprising the SL CSI report. After the CSI report of the SL carrier is sent, the first UE may cancel the triggered SL CSI report of the SL carrier, or may set the SL CSI report status of the SL carrier to a cancel trigger status.

After the SL CSI report for one SL carrier is triggered, if there are SL resources available for transmitting a SL MAC CE (the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) the SL CSI report for the SL carrier) (e.g., there are SL resources on the SL carrier that can be used for transmitting the SL MAC CE), the first UE may transmit the SL MAC CE using the SL resources; alternatively, after the SL CSI report for one SL carrier is triggered, the first UE may trigger the SR if there are no SL resources available for transmitting the SL MAC CE (e.g., there are no SL resources on the SL carrier that can be used for transmitting the SL MAC CE). For example, the first UE may maintain SRs, or SR states, for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports for different SL carriers; or different SL MAC CEs), respectively. If the first UE wants to request SL resources on a certain SL carrier, an SR corresponding to the SL carrier may be triggered, or an SR state corresponding to the SL carrier may be set to a triggered state. Alternatively, if the first UE is to request to transmit a SL resource of a SL CSI report (or a SL MAC CE including a SL CSI report) of a certain SL carrier, an SR corresponding to the SL CSI report of the SL carrier may be triggered, or an SR state corresponding to the SL CSI report (or a SL MAC CE including a SL CSI report) of the SL carrier may be set to the triggered state. After the SL CSI report of the SL carrier is sent, the first UE may cancel the triggered SL CSI report of the SL carrier, and in addition, the first UE may cancel the triggered SR of the SL carrier, or set the SR state of the SL carrier to the cancel trigger state, or the first UE may cancel the SR corresponding to the triggered SL CSI report (or the SL MAC CE including the SLCSI report) of the SL carrier, or set the SR state corresponding to the SL CSI report (or the SL MAC CE including the SL CSI report) of the SL carrier to the cancel trigger state.

Alternatively, the first UE may uniformly maintain one SR, or maintain one SR state, which may correspond to all SL carriers configured by the first UE, all carriers for which the first UE is enabled with the CSI acquisition function, or all carriers for which the first UE is capable of transmitting the SL CSI report. If the first UE is to request SL resources on any one or more of the SL carriers, the first UE may either keep the SR triggered if the SR has been triggered (or the SR state has been set to the triggered state), or may trigger the SR if the SR has not been triggered (or the SR state has not been set to the triggered state, or the SR state is the de-triggered state), or set the SR state to the triggered state. After all SL CSI reports of all SL carriers to be transmitted are transmitted, the first UE may cancel the triggered SR, or set the SR state to a cancel trigger state, in addition to canceling the CSI report of the corresponding carrier. If the SL CSI report of the SL carrier to be transmitted is not yet transmitted, the first UE keeps the SR triggered.

As can be seen from the foregoing description, when the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier is triggered, if there is no SL resource on the first SL carrier for transmitting the first SLMAC CE, the first UE may trigger the SR corresponding to the first SL carrier (or the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier; or the first SL MAC CE), or trigger the SR. After triggering the corresponding SR, the first UE may send the first SR to the access network device.

For example, if the first configuration information configures an association relationship between the first SL carrier and the SR configuration, the first SR may be an SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the first SL carrier, and the access network device may determine, according to the first SR, that the first UE is to request the SL resource on the first SL carrier. Or the first configuration information configures an association relationship between the at least one SL carrier and the SR configuration, the first SL carrier is one of the at least one SL carrier, and the first SR may be an SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the at least one SL carrier, and the access network device may determine, according to the first SR, that the first UE is to request the SL resource on the at least one SL carrier. Or, if the association relationship between the first SL carrier and any SR configuration is not configured by the first configuration information, the first SR may be an SR corresponding to a pre-configured SR configuration, and the access network device may determine, according to the first SL, that the first UE is to request the SL resource on the SL carrier that is not associated with the SR configuration, where the first SL carrier is, for example, one of the SL carriers that is not associated with the SR configuration.

Optionally, the method of the embodiment of the present application may further include S203 and S204.

S203, the access network equipment sends information for indicating the first SL resource to the first UE. Accordingly, the first UE receives the information from the access network device. The first SL resource is, for example, an SL resource on the first SL carrier.

For example, if the first SR is an SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the first SL carrier, the access network device can determine, according to the first SR, that the first UE is to request the SL resource on the first SL carrier, so that the access network device can allocate the first SL resource to the first UE.

Alternatively, the first SR is an SR corresponding to an SR configuration associated with at least one SL carrier, and the access network device can determine, according to the first SR, that the first UE is to request SL resources on the at least one SL carrier, so the access network device can allocate at least one SL resource to the first UE, where the at least one SL resource corresponds to the at least one SL carrier one-to-one, e.g. the at least one SL carrier includes SL carrier 1 and SL carrier 2, and the access network device can allocate the SL resource on SL carrier 1 to the UE and the SL resource on SL carrier 2. In this case, the access network device may send information indicating the at least one SL resource, e.g. one of the at least one SL resource, to the first UE, e.g. the SL resource on the first SL carrier.

Or the first SR is an SR corresponding to a preconfigured SR configuration, and the access network device can determine, according to the first SL, that the first UE is to request SL resources on the SL carrier that have no association with the SR configuration. For example, there is at least one SL carrier that has no association with the SR configuration, and the first SL carrier is one of the at least one SL carrier. The access network device may allocate at least one SL resource to the first UE, the at least one SL resource being in one-to-one correspondence with the at least one SL carrier, e.g. the at least one SL carrier comprises SL carrier 3 and SL carrier 4, the access network device may allocate the SL resource on SL carrier 3 to the UE and the SL resource on SL carrier 4. In this case, the access network device may send information indicating the at least one SL resource, e.g. one of the at least one SL resource, to the first UE, e.g. the SL resource on the first SL carrier.

S204, the first UE sends the first SL MAC CE to the second UE through the first SL resource. Accordingly, the second UE receives the first SL MAC CE from the first UE over the first SL resource.

If the access network device only allocates the first SL resource for the first UE, the first UE may send the first SL MAC CE to the second UE through the first SL resource. Alternatively, if the access network device allocates at least one SL resource to the first UE, the first SL resource being one of the SL resources, the first UE may send the first SL MAC CE to the second UE using the first SL resource, and the first UE may ignore other SL resources allocated by the access network device. For the second UE, if the first SL MAC CE is received on the first SL resource, the second UE is able to determine that the SL CSI report that the first SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) is the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier because the first SL resource is the SL resource on the first SL carrier.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the association relationship between the SR configuration and the SL carrier configuration may be configured, so when the first UE applies for a SL resource on a certain SL carrier, the first UE may apply for the resource on the SL carrier through the SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the SL carrier, so that the access network device may allocate the first UE with the appropriate SL resource on the SL carrier, thereby all the SL CSI reports on each SL carrier may be sent, which may reduce the waste of the SL resource and also reduce the transmission delay of the SL CSI report. Moreover, if the first UE transmits the SL MAC CE to the second UE on the SL resource of the first SL carrier, it can be indicated that the SL CSI report included in the SL MAC CE is the SL CSI report of the first SL, so that the second UE can clearly receive what SL CSI report of the SL carrier is, without confusing the SL CSI reports of different SL carriers. In this way, no additional indication information is needed to be added in the SL MAC CE to indicate the SL carrier corresponding to the SL CSI report, so that signaling overhead can be saved.

Next, a second communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is described, and please refer to fig. 3, which is a flowchart of the method. The second communication method may be applied to the transmission mode one of the SL MAC CE as described above.

S301, a SL CSI report (SL CSI reporting) of the first SL carrier is triggered, and the first UE sends the first SL MAC CE to the second UE on a first SL resource of the first SL carrier. Accordingly, the second UE receives the first SL MAC CE from the first UE on the first SL resource. The first SL MAC CE may include (or indicate) a SL CSI report for the first SL carrier, optionally, the first SL MAC CE may be, for example, SL-CSI reporting MAC CE.

The first UE may maintain SL CSI reports, or state, for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports for different SL carriers; or different SL MAC CEs), respectively. If the other UE (e.g., the second UE) sends an SCI to the first UE, the SCI being used to trigger the SL CSI report of a certain SL carrier, or the SCL being used to instruct the first UE to send the SL CSI report of a certain SL carrier, the first UE may consider that the SL CSI report of the SL carrier is triggered, or may set the SL CSI reporting status of the SL carrier to the triggered status. For example, the second UE sends an SCI to the first UE, which is used to trigger the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier, the first UE may consider that the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier is triggered. After triggering the SL CSI report for one SL carrier, the first UE may send the SL CSI report for that SL carrier on that SL carrier.

After the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier is triggered, if there is an SL resource that can be used to transmit the first SL MAC CE (e.g., there is an SL resource on the first SL carrier that can be used to transmit the first SL MAC CE), the first UE may transmit the first SL MAC CE using the SL resource, e.g., the SL resource is the first SL resource.

Alternatively, after the SL CSI report for the first SL carrier is triggered, the first UE may trigger the SR if there are no SL resources available for transmitting the first SL MAC CE (e.g., there are no SL resources on the first SL carrier that can be used for transmitting the first SL MAC CE). For example, the first UE may maintain SRs, or SR states, for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports for different SL carriers; or different SL MAC CEs), respectively. If the first UE wants to request SL resources on a certain SL carrier, an SR corresponding to the SL carrier may be triggered, or an SR state corresponding to the SL carrier may be set to a triggered state. For example, the first UE may trigger an SR corresponding to the first SL carrier if it wants to request the SL resource on the first SL carrier, or set the SR state corresponding to the first SL carrier to the triggered state. Alternatively, for example, the first UE may trigger an SR corresponding to the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier if it wants to request to transmit the SL resource of the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier, or set the SR state corresponding to the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier to the triggered state. For another example, the first UE may uniformly maintain one SR, or maintain one SR state, which may correspond to all SL carriers configured by the first UE, all carriers for which the first UE is enabled with the CSI acquisition function, or all carriers for which the first UE is capable of transmitting the SL CSI report. If the first UE is to request SL resources on any one or more of the SL carriers, the first UE may maintain the triggered state of the SR if the SR has been triggered (or the SR state has been set to the triggered state), or may trigger the SR if the SR is not triggered (or the SR state has not been set to the triggered state), or set the SR state to the triggered state.

The first UE may send an SR to the access network device after an SR of the first UE (an SR common to the respective SL carriers of the first UE) is triggered or after an SR of the first SL carrier of the first UE is triggered. For example, the first UE may send, to the access network device, an SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the first SL carrier; or, at least one SL carrier is associated with the same SR configuration, and the first UE may send, to the access network device, an SR corresponding to the SR configuration associated with the at least one SL carrier if the first SL carrier is one of the at least one SL carrier; or, if the first SL carrier is not associated with the SR configuration, the first UE may send an SR corresponding to the pre-configured SR configuration to the access network device. After the access network device receives the SR from the first UE, the first UE may be allocated with the SL resource on the SL carrier associated with the SR configuration corresponding to the SR. For example, the SR configuration is uniquely associated with the first SL carrier, then the access network device may allocate SL resources on the first SL carrier for the first UE, e.g., allocate the first SL resources; alternatively, the SR configuration is associated with at least one SL carrier, and the access network device may allocate at least one SL resource to the first UE, the at least one SL resource belonging to the at least one SL carrier, and the first SL resource being a SL resource belonging to the first SL carrier among the at least one SL resource. For this part, reference is made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

After the first UE obtains the first SL resource, the first SL MAC CE may be transmitted to the second UE using the first SL resource.

S302, the first UE cancels the triggered SL CSI report of the first SL carrier.

After the first SL MAC CE is transmitted, the first UE may cancel the triggered SL CSI report of the first SL carrier, or may set the SL CSI report state of the first SL carrier to the cancel trigger state. Alternatively, the first UE may keep the SL CSI report of the other SL carrier unchanged, or alternatively, keep the SL CSI report status of the other SL carrier unchanged. For example, if the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier is triggered in addition to the SL CSI report of the other SL carriers, the first UE may cancel the SL CSI report of the triggered first SL carrier after the first SL MAC CE is transmitted, but not cancel the SL CSI report of the other SL carriers, so that the transmission of the SL CSI report of the other SL carriers is not affected.

Alternatively, if the first UE maintains SRs for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports of different SL carriers; or different SL MAC CEs), respectively, after the first SL MAC CE transmits, the first UE may cancel the SR of the triggered first SL carrier in addition to the SL CSI report of the triggered first SL carrier, or set the SR state of the SL carrier to a cancel trigger state. In addition, the first UE may keep the SR of the other SL carriers unchanged, or alternatively, keep the SR states of the other SL carriers unchanged. For example, if the SR of the first SL carrier is triggered in addition to the SR of the other SL carriers, the first UE may cancel the SR of the triggered first SL carrier after the transmission of the first SL MAC CE is completed, but does not cancel the SRs of the other SL carriers triggered, so that the transmission of the SRs of the other SL carriers is not affected. Alternatively, for example, if, in addition to the SR corresponding to the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier, the SR corresponding to the SL CSI report of the other SL carrier is triggered, after the first SL MAC CE is transmitted, the first UE may cancel the SR corresponding to the SL CSI report of the triggered first SL carrier, but not cancel the SR corresponding to the SL CSI report of the other SL carrier, so that transmission of the SR corresponding to the SL CSI report of the other SL carrier is not affected.

Or if the first UE uniformly maintains one SR, after all the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers to be transmitted are transmitted, the first UE may cancel the triggered SR or set the SR state to a cancel trigger state in addition to canceling the CSI report of the corresponding carrier. If the SL CSI report of the SL carrier to be transmitted is not yet transmitted, the first UE keeps the SR triggered. For example, after the first SL MAC CE is transmitted, the first UE may cancel the triggered SR if no SL CSI reports of other SL carriers than the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier are triggered, or else the first UE does not cancel the triggered SR if the SL CSI reports of other SL carriers than the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier are triggered. For another example, the first UE may cancel the triggered SR after the first SL MAC CE has been sent if the first SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) the SL CSI reports for all of the triggered SL carriers, otherwise, the first UE does not cancel the triggered SR after the first SL MAC CE has been sent if the first SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) the SL CSI reports for some of the triggered SL carriers and the SL CSI reports for the remaining SL carriers are not sent.

By means of the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, a mode of maintaining the SL CSI report state and the SR state by the UE is provided, and even under the scene of multiple SL carriers, the UE can correctly maintain the SL CSI report state and the SR state, so that transmission among different SL carriers cannot interfere with each other, and the transmission efficiency and the accuracy are improved.

The third communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described below, and please refer to fig. 4, which is a flowchart of the method. The third communication method may be applied to the second transmission mode of the SL MAC CE as described above.

S401, the first UE transmits a SL MAC CE to the second UE. Accordingly, the second UE receives the SL MAC CE from the first UE.

The SL MAC CE may include (or indicate) information of the first SL carrier, e.g., the information of the first SL carrier is a SL CSI report of the first SL carrier, or may be other information of the first carrier. Taking the information of the first SL carrier as an example of the SL CSI report of the first SL carrier, optionally, the SL MAC CE is, for example, SL-CSI reporting MAC CE.

In transmission mode two, the SL MAC CE is transmitted without regard to the SL carrier constraints, and therefore can be transmitted on any SL carrier. In this embodiment of the present application, the SL MAC CE may include N bits, where N is a positive integer.

Depending on the situation, there may be different implementations of the N bits. For example, in one implementation of the N bits, the N bits may indicate a SL carrier corresponding to the information included in the SL MAC CE, for example, the value of the N bits may indicate an index of the SL carrier corresponding to the information included in the SL MAC CE. In this embodiment of the present application, the format of the SL MAC CE may not be changed, for example, an existing SL MAC CE includes 8 bits, where 3 bits are reserved (reserved) bits, and then N may be less than or equal to 3, which is equivalent to indicating, by using reserved bits in the SL MAC CE, a SL carrier corresponding to information included in the SL MAC CE. Alternatively, the format of the SL MAC CE may be changed, for example, new bits may be added to an existing SL MAC CE, and then N bits may include reserved bits and/or new bits, where N may be less than or equal to 3 or greater than 3. Because the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) the information of the first SL carrier, the N bits may indicate the first SL carrier such that the second UE can determine from the N bits that the SL MAC CE includes the information of the first SL carrier. For example, referring to fig. 5B, fig. 5B exemplifies n=3, and the 3 bits are originally reserved bits in the SL MAC CE, which corresponds to the format of the SL MAC CE shown in fig. 5B being unchanged from the format of the existing SL MAC CE shown in fig. 5A, and only redefining the meaning of the original reserved bits. In fig. 5B, the value of 3 bits is "001", i.e., the 3 bits indicate that the SL carrier index is "1", indicating that the SL MAC CE includes information of SL carrier 1.

As another example, another implementation of the N bits is that the N bits are reserved bits, where the N bits do not indicate any SL carriers. In this case, N may be equal to 3, i.e., the format of the SL MAC CE may not have to be changed. For example, referring to fig. 5A, fig. 5A illustrates n=3 as an example of an implementation manner of the SLMAC CE, and the 3 bits are reserved bits in the SL MAC CE, which corresponds to the format of the SL MAC CE shown in fig. 5A being the format of the existing SL MAC CE, and the meaning of the original reserved bits is not changed.

Exactly which implementation the N bits take, the first UE may be determined according to the corresponding conditions.

As an alternative embodiment, if the first UE has more than one SL carrier configured with the SL CSI reference signal, the first UE may send the SL CSI report of multiple SL carriers through one SL MAC CE, so the N bits may indicate the SL carrier corresponding to the information that the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates), for example, the first SL carrier. Alternatively, if the first UE has only one SL carrier configured with the SL CSI reference signal, the first UE may only transmit the SL CSI report of the SL carrier through one SL MAC CE, so the SL MAC CE may not necessarily indicate the SL carrier to which the SL CSI report corresponds, and the N bits may not indicate any SL carrier but be reserved bits. For example, the access network device may send third configuration information to the first UE, which may configure SL CSI reference signals for the respective SL carriers of the first UE. The SL carrier configured with the SL CSI reference signal may be all of the SL carriers configured by the first UE or a portion of the SL carriers configured by the first UE. For example, the SL carrier configured with the SL CSI reference signal may be a SL carrier in which the first UE is enabled with the CSI acquisition function, or a SL carrier in which the first UE can be used to transmit the SL CSI report. For example, the third configuration information may be included in an RRC reconfiguration message, or the third configuration information may be an RRC reconfiguration message. Alternatively, the third configuration information may be the same configuration information as the second configuration information described in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, for example, if the second configuration information enables the CSI acquisition function for a certain SL carrier, the second configuration information may configure the SL CSI reference signal for the SL carrier together.

Wherein, a SL CSI reference signal configured for one SL carrier may be used to obtain a SL CSI report for that SL carrier. For example, if one SL carrier of the first UE is configured with a SL CSI reference signal, other UEs may send the SL reference signal to the first UE on the SL carrier according to the configuration, and the first UE may measure the SL reference signal and may obtain the SL CSI report of the SL carrier. Optionally, the SL reference signals include, for example, side-uplink synchronization signals and physical broadcast channel (physical broadcast channel, PBCH) blocks (sidelink synchronization signal and PBCH block, S-SSB), or other SL reference signals.

As another alternative embodiment, if the first UE has more than one SL carrier enabled for the CSI acquisition function, the first UE may send SL CSI reports for multiple SL carriers through one SL MAC CE, so the N bits may indicate the SL carrier to which the information that the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) corresponds, e.g., indicates the first SL carrier. Alternatively, if the first UE has only one SL carrier enabled for the CSI acquisition function, the first UE may only transmit the SL CSI report for that SL carrier through one SL MAC CE, so that the SL MAC CE may not necessarily indicate the SL carrier to which the SL CSI report corresponds, and the N bits may not indicate any SL carrier but be reserved bits. Regarding the relevant content of SL enabled CSI acquisition functionality, reference may be made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

As yet another alternative embodiment, if the first UE is configured with more than one SL carrier, the first UE may send SL CSI reports for multiple SL carriers through one SLMAC CE, so the N bits may indicate the SL carrier to which the information that the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) corresponds, e.g., indicates the first SL carrier. Alternatively, if the first UE is configured with only one SL carrier, the first UE may transmit only the SL CSI report of the SL carrier through one SL MAC CE, and thus the SL MAC CE may not necessarily indicate the SL carrier to which the SL CSI report corresponds, and the N bits may not indicate any SL carrier but be reserved bits.

Alternatively, the first UE may determine the implementation of the N bits in other manners, which is not specifically limited. For the second UE, the implementation manner of N bits may also be determined in the same manner as the first UE, so that the first UE and the second UE understand the N bits consistently, so as to achieve the effect of correct transmission.

In the embodiment of the present application, in the case of multiple SL carriers, the transmission of the SL CSI report may not consider the carrier constraint condition, for example, one SL MAC CE may indicate the SL CSI report of multiple SL carriers, thereby saving the transmission overhead. In addition, the N bits included in the SL MAC CE may further indicate a SL carrier corresponding to the information indicated by the SL MAC CE, so that the second UE may determine the carrier corresponding to the information indicated by the SL MAC CE, thereby improving the accuracy of information transmission.

Referring to fig. 6, a flowchart of a fourth communication method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The fourth communication method may be applied to the second transmission mode of the SL MAC CE as described above.

S601, SL CSI reporting is triggered, and the first UE sends a SL MAC CE to the second UE on the first SL resource. Accordingly, the second UE receives the SL MAC CE from the first UE on the first SL resource. The SL MAC CE may include (or indicate) a SL CSI report for at least one SL carrier, optionally, for example, SL-CSI reporting MAC CE. The first SL resource is, for example, an SL resource on a first SL carrier, which may or may not be one of the at least one SL carrier.

Since the transmission of the SL CSI report may not take into account the carrier constraint condition in the second transmission mode, the first UE may also uniformly maintain one SL CSI report, or maintain one SL CSI report state, which may correspond to all SL carriers configured by the first UE, all carriers for which the first UE is enabled with the CSI acquisition function, or all carriers for which the first UE is capable of transmitting the SL CSI report. For example, the other UE (e.g., the second UE) sends an SCI to the first UE, the SCI being used to trigger a SL CSI report for at least one SL carrier, or the SCI being used to instruct the first UE to send a SL CSI report for at least one SL carrier, then if the SL CSI report is not triggered (or the SL CSI report status is not set to a triggered state, or the SL CSI report status is a cancel triggered state), the first UE may trigger the SL CSI report, or the SL CSI report status may be set to a triggered state; alternatively, if the SL CSI report has been triggered, or the SL CSI report state is in a triggered state, the first UE may keep the SL CSI report state unchanged. Upon triggering the SL CSI report, or upon determining that the SL CSI report is triggered, the first UE may transmit the SL CSI report for at least one SL carrier.

Alternatively, the first UE may maintain SL CSI reports, or state, for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports for different SL carriers; or different SLMAC CEs), respectively. In this case, S601 may be replaced with: a SL CSI report for at least one SL carrier is triggered, and the first UE transmits a SL MAC CE to the second UE on the first SL resource. Accordingly, the second UE receives the SL MAC CE from the first UE on the first SL resource. For example, if the other UE (e.g., the second UE) sends an SCI to the first UE, the SCI being used to trigger a SL CSI report for a certain SL carrier, or the SCL being used to instruct the first UE to send a SL CSI report for a certain SL carrier, the first UE may trigger a SL CSI report for the SL carrier, or may set the SL CSI reporting status for the SL carrier to the triggered status. For example, the second UE has transmitted an SCI for scheduling SL CSI reports of at least one SL carrier to the first UE, the first UE may trigger the SL CSI reports of the at least one SL carrier, i.e. the first UE may trigger the at least one SL CSI report. Upon triggering the SL CSI report for the at least one SL carrier, the first UE may send the SL CSI report for the at least one SL carrier.

After the SL CSI report of the unified maintenance or the SL CSI report of at least one SL carrier is triggered, if there is a SL resource that can be used to transmit all the SL MAC CEs (e.g., there is a SL resource on any SL carrier that can be used to transmit all the SL MAC CEs), the first UE may transmit all the SL MAC CEs using the SL resource, e.g., the SL resource is the first SL resource. It should be noted that if SL CSI reporting of a plurality of SL carriers is triggered, if only SL resources that can be used to transmit a part of the SL MAC CEs therein (e.g., if there are SL resources on any of the SL carriers that can be used to transmit a part of the SL MAC CEs therein), the first UE may transmit the part of the SL MAC CEs using the SL resources, e.g., the SL resources are the first SL resources.

Alternatively, after the uniformly maintained SL CSI report or the SL CSI report of at least one SL carrier is triggered, the first UE may trigger the SR if there are no SL resources available for transmitting all of the SL MAC CEs (e.g., no SL resources available for transmitting all of the SL MAC CEs on any of the SL carriers), e.g., no SL resources or existing SL resources can only be used for transmitting a portion of the SL MAC CEs. For example, the first UE may uniformly maintain one SR, or maintain one SR state, which may correspond to all SL carriers configured by the first UE, all carriers for which the first UE is enabled with the CSI acquisition function, or all carriers for which the first UE is capable of transmitting the SL CSI report. If the first UE is to request SL resources on any one or more of the SL carriers, the first UE may either keep the SR triggered if the SR has been triggered (or the SR state has been set to the triggered state), or may trigger the SR if the SR has not been triggered (or the SR state has not been set to the triggered state, or the SR state is the de-triggered state), or set the SR state to the triggered state.

After triggering the SR, the first UE may send the SR to the access network device. After the access network device receives the SR, the first UE may be allocated SL resources, e.g., the first SL resources are allocated. After the first UE obtains the first SL resource, the first SL resource may be used to transmit the SL MAC CE to the second UE.

Alternatively, the SL MAC CE may comprise N bits, which for example indicate at least one SL carrier, or may also be reserved bits. For the implementation of the N bits, and what implementation may be used in what circumstances, reference is made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 4.

S602, if the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) SL CSI reports of all SL carriers to be transmitted, the first UE cancels the triggered SL CSI report.

For example, if the first UE uniformly maintains one SL CSI report, the first UE may cancel the SL CSI report triggered if the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) all the SL CSI reports of the SL carriers to be transmitted, or may set the SL CSI report status to a cancel triggered state if no SL CSI report of the SL carriers is to be transmitted after the SL MAC CE is transmitted. Alternatively, if the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) a SL CSI report of a portion of the SL carriers to be transmitted, the first UE may not cancel the SL CSI report triggered or set the SL CSI report state to the cancel trigger state and may maintain the SL CSI report as the trigger state if there are more SL CSI reports of the remaining SL carriers to be transmitted after the SL MAC CE is transmitted.

Alternatively, the first UE may also maintain SL CSI reports for different SL carriers (or SL CSI reports of different SL carriers; or different SL MAC CEs), respectively, and S602 may be replaced by: the first UE cancels the SL CSI report of the triggered at least one SL carrier. That is, after the SL MAC CE is transmitted, the first UE may cancel the SL CSI report of the at least one SL carrier that is triggered, or may set the SL CSI report status of the at least one SL carrier to the cancel trigger status. Alternatively, the first UE may keep the SL CSI report of the other SL carrier unchanged, or alternatively, keep the SL CSI report status of the other SL carrier unchanged. For example, if the SL CSI report of at least one SL carrier is triggered in addition to the SL CSI report of other SL carriers, after the SL MAC CE is transmitted, the first UE may cancel the SL CSI report of the triggered at least one SL carrier, but not the SL CSI report of the triggered other SL carriers, so that the transmission of the SL CSI report of the other SL carriers is not affected.

Alternatively, if the first UE also triggers an SR (e.g., according to the description of S601, the first UE may obtain the first SL resource by triggering the SR), if the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) all the SL CSI reports of the SL carriers to be transmitted, the first UE may cancel the SR that is triggered (or may set the SR state to the cancel trigger state) if no SL CSI report of the SL carriers is to be transmitted after the SL MAC CE is transmitted. Alternatively, if the SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) the SL CSI report of the part of the SL carriers to be transmitted, the first UE may not cancel the SR triggered or set the SR state to the cancel trigger state and may maintain the SR to the trigger state if there are more SL CSI reports of the remaining SL carriers to be transmitted after the SL MAC CE is transmitted.

By means of the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, a mode of maintaining the SL CSI report state and the SR state by the UE is provided, and even under the scene of multiple SL carriers, the UE can correctly maintain the SL CSI report state and the SR state, so that transmission among different SL carriers cannot interfere with each other, and the transmission efficiency and the accuracy are improved. And because the transmission of the SL CSI report can be carried out without considering carrier constraint conditions, the UE can uniformly maintain one SL CSI report and one SR, the number of states maintained by the UE can be reduced, and the realization of the UE is simplified.

Next, a fifth communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is described, and please refer to fig. 7, which is a flowchart of the method. The fifth communication method may also be applied to the second transmission mode of the SL MAC CE as described above.

S701, if SL resources for transmitting the SL MAC CE cannot carry the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers to be transmitted, the first UE determines the SL CSI report of a part of the SL carriers from the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers. Alternatively, the SL MAC CE is, for example, SL-CSI reporting MAC CE.

For example, the number of all SL carriers corresponding to the SL CSI reports to be sent is K, and the number of the partial SL carriers determined by the first UE is F, that is, the SL resources for sending the SL MAC CE cannot carry the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers to be sent, and the first UE determines the SL CSI reports of the F SL carriers from the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers. Wherein K is a positive integer, and F is a positive integer less than or equal to K.

Alternatively, the SL MAC CE may comprise N bits, which for example indicate the partial SL carrier, or may be reserved bits as well. For the implementation of the N bits, and what implementation may be used in what circumstances, reference is made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 4.

If the SL resource cannot carry the SL CSI report of all the SL carriers to be transmitted, the SL MAC CE indicates that the SL MAC CE cannot carry the SL CSI report of all the SL carriers to be transmitted; or, indicate that the SL resource cannot carry the SL MAC CE and the sub-header of the MAC CE, and the SL resource is used for new transmission, wherein the SL MAC CE includes SL CSI reports of all SL carriers; or, the SL resource cannot carry the corresponding MAC CE and the sub-header of the corresponding MAC CE of the SL CSI report of all the SL carriers, and the SL resource is used for new transmission. In this case, the first UE may determine a SL CSI report of a part of the SL carriers from the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers, and the SL MAC CE may carry the SL CSI report of the part of the SL carriers, so that the SL resource can carry the SL MAC CE, or so that the SL resource can carry the SL MAC CE and the sub-header of the SL MAC CE. For example, after the SL MAC CE carries SL CSI reports for F SL carriers, the SL resource can send the SL MAC CE; however, if the SL MAC CE carries more SL CSI reports for any of the SL carriers (i.e., the SL MAC CE carries the SL CSI reports for f+1 of the SL carriers), the SL resource cannot transmit the SL MAC CE, or the SL resource cannot transmit the SL MAC CE and the sub-header of the SL MAC CE. Alternatively, the first UE may determine the SL CSI report of a part of the SL carriers from the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers, where the SL resources may carry MAC CEs corresponding to the SL CSI report of the part of the SL carriers, or where the SL resources may carry MAC CEs corresponding to the SL CSI report of the part of the SL carriers and sub-headers of the corresponding SL MAC CEs. For example, after the SL resource carries the corresponding MAC CE of the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers, the SL resource can send the F SL MAC CEs, or the SL can send the F SL MAC CEs and the corresponding sub-header of the SL MAC CE; however, if the SL resource further carries more SL CSI reports of any one of the SL carriers (i.e., the SL MAC CE carries the SL CSI report of f+1 of the SL carriers) the SL resource cannot transmit the f+1 of the SL MAC CEs, or the SL resource cannot transmit the f+1 of the SL MAC CEs and the corresponding sub-header of the SL MAC CE.

For SL CSI reports of the remaining SL carriers (e.g., SL CSI reports of K-F SL carriers), the first UE may request SL resources from the access network device for transmission, and for the procedures of triggering SR by the first UE, requesting SL resources, etc., reference may be made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 6. In addition, for the content such as the format of the SL MAC CE, reference is made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 4.

The first UE determines the SL CSI report of the partial SL carriers from the SL CSI reports of all the SL carriers in any one of the following manners a to H or in any combination of a plurality of manners a to H. These several ways are described below.

Mode a, priority selection mode.

For example, the access network device or the second UE may pre-configure (or reconfigure) the priority of the one or more SL carriers to the first UE or configure (or reconfigure) the priority of the one or more SL CSI reports. The SL carriers configured with priority, for example, all carriers configured for the first UE, all SL carriers capable of transmitting SL CSI reports for the first UE, all carriers capable of transmitting SL-CSI reporting MAC CE for the first UE, or a part of carriers for which the first UE is enabled with CSI acquisition functions. For example, when the access network device or the second UE initially configures the SL carrier for the first UE, the priority may be configured for the corresponding SL carrier; or, when the access network device or the second device configures the adding SL carrier for the first UE, a priority may be configured for the adding SL carrier; alternatively, when the access network device or the second device configures the modified or released SL carrier for the first UE, the priority may be reconfigured for the unmodified or unreleased SL carrier.

In the priority selection manner, the first UE may select to preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of the higher priority SL carrier or preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of the higher priority SL carrier. For example, if the priority of the F SL carriers is higher than or equal to the priority of the remaining SL carriers except for the F SL carriers in the K SL carriers, the access network device may determine that the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers is sent this time. Or, the priority of the SL CSI reports of the F SL carriers is higher than or equal to the priority of the SL CSI reports of the remaining SL carriers except for the SL CSI reports of the F SL carriers, and the access network device may determine that the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers is sent this time.

Alternatively, if priorities of SL CSI reports of a plurality of SL carriers are the same, or priorities of a plurality of SL carriers are the same, the first UE may adopt any one or more of modes B to H if it is to select a preferentially transmitted SL CSI report from among the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers. Alternatively, the SL CSI report of which SL carrier or carriers to send preferentially may be implemented by the UE randomly selecting.

Mode B, channel quality variation selection mode.

The channel quality variation of a SL carrier may be determined according to the SL CSI report currently to be transmitted by the SL carrier and the last SL CSI report of the SL carrier. Alternatively, the channel quality is measured by channel quality information (channel quality information, CQI), and the SL CSI report for one SL carrier may indicate the CQI for that SL carrier. Then, the channel quality variation of one SL carrier may be determined according to the CQI indicated by the SL CSI report currently to be transmitted by the SL carrier and the CQI indicated by the SL CSI report last time by the SL carrier, for example, the channel quality variation of one SL carrier may be equal to the difference between the CQI indicated by the SL CSI report currently to be transmitted by the SL carrier and the CQI indicated by the SL CSI report last time by the SL carrier. Alternatively, the difference between the two CQIs may be determined according to the indices of the two CQIs, for example, the difference between the two CQIs may be the difference between the indices of the two CQIs. The larger the difference, the larger the channel quality variation.

In the channel quality variation selection method, the first UE may select to preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of the SL carrier having the large channel quality variation. For example, the last CQI index for SL carrier 1 is 5, the current CQI index is 1, and the difference between these two indexes is 4; the last CQI index for SL carrier 2 is 10, the current CQI index is 12, and the difference between these two indexes is 2, then the first UE may preferentially send the SL CSI report for SL carrier 1. For example, the amount of channel quality change corresponding to the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers is greater than or equal to the amount of channel quality change corresponding to the SL CSI report of the remaining SL carriers other than the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers among the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers.

Alternatively, if the amounts of channel quality variation corresponding to SL CSI reports of a plurality of SL carriers are the same, the first UE may adopt any one or more of modes a to H other than mode B if it is to select a preferentially transmitted SL CSI report from among the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers. Alternatively, the SL CSI report of which SL carrier or carriers to send preferentially may be implemented by the UE randomly selecting.

Mode C, channel quality selection mode.

The channel quality of a SL carrier may be determined based on the SL CSI report currently to be transmitted by the SL carrier. Alternatively, the channel quality is measured by CQI, and the SL CSI report for one SL carrier may indicate the CQI for that SL carrier. Then, the channel quality of one SL carrier may be determined according to the CQI indicated by the SL CSI report currently to be transmitted by the SL carrier, e.g. the index of the CQI may reflect the channel quality of the SL carrier. For example, the larger the index of CQI for one SL carrier, the better the channel quality for that SL carrier.

In the channel quality selection mode, the first UE may select to preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of the SL carrier with good channel quality. For example, if the current CQI index of SL carrier 1 is 11 and the current CQI index of SL carrier 2 is 2, the first UE may preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of SL carrier 1. For example, the channel quality corresponding to the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers is greater than or equal to the channel quality corresponding to the SL CSI report of the remaining SL carriers other than the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers among the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers; alternatively, the channel quality of the F SL carriers is greater than or equal to the channel quality of the remaining SL carriers other than the F SL carriers of the K SL carriers.

Alternatively, if the channel quality corresponding to the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers is the same, the first UE may adopt any one or more modes other than mode C and mode D in modes a to H if the preferentially transmitted SL CSI report is to be selected from the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers. Alternatively, the SL CSI report of which SL carrier or carriers to send preferentially may be implemented by the UE randomly selecting.

Mode D, channel quality information index selection mode.

The channel quality information is measured, for example, by CQI, then the channel quality information index may be a CQI index. For example, the larger the index of CQI for one SL carrier, the better the channel quality for that SL carrier, so the channel quality can be determined by the CQI index.

In the channel quality information index selection manner, the first UE may select to preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of the SL carrier with the larger channel quality information index. For example, if the current CQI index of SL carrier 1 is 11 and the current CQI index of SL carrier 2 is 2, the first UE may preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of SL carrier 1. For example, the channel quality information index corresponding to the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers is greater than or equal to the channel quality information index corresponding to the SL CSI report of the remaining SL carriers other than the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers among the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers.

Alternatively, if the index of channel quality information corresponding to the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers is the same, the first UE may adopt any one or more modes other than mode C and mode D among mode a to mode H if the preferentially transmitted SL CSI report is to be selected from the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers. Alternatively, the SL CSI report of which SL carrier or carriers to send preferentially may be implemented by the UE randomly selecting.

And E, determining a mode of the residual effective duration.

The SL CSI report of one SL carrier generally has a certain feedback duration, or an effective duration, and if the first UE sends the SL CSI report in the effective duration, or the second UE receives the SL CSI report in the effective duration, the SL CSI report is effective; otherwise, if the first UE does not send the SL CSI report for the valid period, or the second UE does not receive the SL CSI report for the valid period, the SL CSI report is invalid, i.e., the first UE does not send the invalid SL CSI report any more, or the second UE receives the SL CSI report any more later, the second UE may also act as invalid information. Therefore, the SL CSI report of one SL carrier should reach the second UE within the corresponding effective duration to reduce the information transmission delay and also reduce the proportion of invalid information. In this embodiment of the present application, the SL CSI report of one SL carrier may correspond to a remaining effective duration, where the remaining effective duration is, for example, a remaining duration in the effective durations corresponding to the SL CSI report of the SL carrier, and a starting time of the remaining duration is a time when the first UE selects the SL CSI report of the SL carrier from the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers.

Alternatively, the validity period may be controlled by a timer, e.g. a side-downlink channel state information reporting timer (sl-CSI-reporting timer). For example, when the first UE receives an SCI for scheduling a SL CSI report of one SL carrier from the second UE, the second UE may start the SL-CSI-reporting timer, and in addition, when the first UE transmits the SCI, or after the SCI is transmitted, the first UE may start the SL-CSI-reporting timer, so that the first UE and the second UE may control the SL CSI report of the SL carrier according to an effective duration of synchronization. Then, the remaining effective duration of the SL CSI report of one SL carrier is, for example, a remaining duration of the SL-CSI-reporting timer corresponding to the SL carrier (or the SL-CSI-reporting timer corresponding to the SL CSI report of the SL carrier), and the starting time of the remaining duration is a time when the first UE selects the SL CSI report of the SL carrier from the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers.

In the remaining effective duration selection manner, the first UE may select to preferentially send the SL CSI report of the SL carrier with the smaller remaining effective duration. For example, if the remaining duration of the SL-CSI-ReportTimer corresponding to SL carrier 1 is 10 slots (slot), and the remaining duration of the SL-CSI-ReportTimer corresponding to SL carrier 2 is 50 slots, the first UE may preferentially send the SL CSI report of SL carrier 1. For example, the remaining effective duration corresponding to the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers is smaller than or equal to the remaining effective duration corresponding to the SL CSI report of the SL carriers other than the SL CSI report of the F SL carriers among the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers.

Alternatively, if there are a plurality of SL carriers for which the SL CSI reports correspond with the same remaining effective time difference, the first UE may adopt any one or more manners other than the manner E from the manner a to the manner H if the preferentially transmitted SL CSI report is to be selected from the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers. Alternatively, the SL CSI report of which SL carrier or carriers to send preferentially may be implemented by the UE randomly selecting.

Mode F, trigger time selection mode.

The trigger time of the SL CSI report for one SL carrier, e.g., the time when the first UE receives the SCI from the second UE, which can schedule the SL CSI report for that SL carrier; alternatively, the trigger time of the SL CSI report of one SL carrier is, for example, a time when the first UE internally triggers the SL CSI report of the SL carrier (or sets the SL CSI report of the SL carrier to a trigger state).

In the trigger time selection manner, the first UE may select to preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of the SL carrier with the earlier trigger time. For example, if the trigger time corresponding to the SL CSI report of the SL carrier 1 is T1, the trigger time corresponding to the SL CSI report of the SL carrier 2 is T2, and T2 is earlier than T1, the first UE may preferentially transmit the SL CSI report of the SL carrier 2. For example, the trigger time of SL CSI reporting for F SL carriers is earlier than or equal to the trigger time of SL CSI reporting for the remaining SL carriers other than the SL CSI reporting for F SL carriers in the SL CSI reporting for K SL carriers.

Alternatively, if the trigger times of the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers are the same, for example, the trigger times of the plurality of SL CSI reports are triggered by one SCI, the first UE may adopt any one or more modes other than mode F among modes a to H if the preferentially transmitted SL CSI report is to be selected from the SL CSI reports of the plurality of SL carriers. Alternatively, the SL CSI report of which SL carrier or carriers to send preferentially may be implemented by the UE randomly selecting.

Mode G, primary SL carrier selection mode.

For example, the first UE is configured with a plurality of SL carriers, and one primary (primary) SL carrier may be included in the plurality of SL carriers, and the remaining SL carriers are secondary (secondary) SL carriers. The first UE may choose to send the SL CSI report for the primary SL carrier preferentially. For example, the F SL carriers may include a primary SL carrier of the first UE.

In addition, the first UE may have one or more secondary SL carriers, and if the first UE is to select a preferentially transmitted SL CSI report from among the SL CSI reports of the one or more secondary SL carriers, any one or more of modes a to H other than mode G may be adopted. Alternatively, the SL CSI report of which secondary SL carrier or carriers to send preferentially may be implemented by the UE randomly selecting.

Mode H, random selection mode.

The first UE may randomly select SL CSI reports of F SL carriers from among the SL CSI reports of K SL carriers.

S702, the first UE sends the SL MAC CE to the second UE. Accordingly, the second UE receives the SL MAC CE from the first UE. The SL MAC CE includes (or indicates) SL CSI reports for the F SL carriers.

In this embodiment of the present application, if the SL resources cannot carry the SL CSI reports of the K SL carriers, the first UE may determine the SL CSI reports of the F SL carriers in multiple manners, so that the SL CSI reports of the F SL carriers may be sent to reduce the transmission delay of the SL CSI reports, and the SL CSI reports of the F SL carriers are relatively more important, which is more beneficial for the receiving UE to adjust the scheduling parameters according to the received SL CSI reports, thereby optimizing the transmission performance. And the selection modes of the first UE are various and flexible.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 800 may be the first terminal device or the circuitry of the first terminal device according to any of the embodiments shown in fig. 2, 3, 4, 6 or 7, for implementing the method corresponding to the first terminal device in the above method embodiments. Alternatively, the communication apparatus 800 may be a circuit system of an access network device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, for implementing a method corresponding to the access network device in the above method embodiment. Specific functions can be seen from the description of the method embodiments described above. One type of circuitry is, for example, a chip system.

The communication device 800 includes at least one processor 801. The processor 801 may be used for internal processing of the device to implement certain control processing functions. Optionally, the processor 801 comprises instructions. Alternatively, the processor 801 may store data. Alternatively, the different processors may be separate devices, may be located in different physical locations, and may be located on different integrated circuits. Alternatively, the different processors may be integrated in one or more processors, e.g., integrated on one or more integrated circuits.

Optionally, the communication device 800 includes one or more memories 803 to store instructions. Optionally, the memory 803 may also store data therein. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or may be integrated.

Optionally, the communication device 800 includes a communication line 802, and at least one communication interface 804. Among them, since the memory 803, the communication line 802, and the communication interface 804 are all selectable items, they are all indicated by broken lines in fig. 8.

Optionally, the communication device 800 may also include a transceiver and/or an antenna. Wherein the transceiver may be used to transmit information to or receive information from other devices. The transceiver may be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, an input-output interface, etc. for implementing the transceiver function of the communication device 800 via an antenna. Optionally, the transceiver comprises a transmitter (transmitter) and a receiver (receiver). Illustratively, a transmitter may be used to generate a radio frequency (radio frequency) signal from the baseband signal, and a receiver may be used to convert the radio frequency signal to the baseband signal.

The processor 801 may include a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of programs in accordance with aspects of the present application.

Communication line 802 may include a pathway to transfer information between the aforementioned components.

Communication interface 804, using any transceiver-like device for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as ethernet, radio access network (radio access network, RAN), wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN), wired access network, etc.

The memory 803 may be, but is not limited to, a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (compact disc read-only memory) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory 803 may be stand alone and coupled to the processor 801 via a communication line 802. Alternatively, the memory 803 may be integrated with the processor 801.

The memory 803 is used for storing computer-executable instructions for executing the embodiments of the present application, and is controlled by the processor 801 for execution. The processor 801 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 803, thereby implementing steps performed by the first terminal device according to any of the embodiments shown in fig. 2, 3, 4, 6 or 7, or implementing steps performed by the access network device according to the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

Alternatively, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may be referred to as application program codes, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In a particular implementation, the processor 801 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 of FIG. 8, as an embodiment.

In a particular implementation, as one embodiment, the communication device 800 may include multiple processors, such as the processor 801 and the processor 805 in fig. 8. Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or may be a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

When the apparatus shown in fig. 8 is a chip, for example a chip of a transmitting device, or a chip of a first receiving device, or a chip of a second receiving device, the chip comprises a processor 801 (which may also comprise a processor 805), a communication line 802 and a communication interface 804, optionally comprising a memory 803. In particular, the communication interface 804 may be an input interface, a pin, or a circuit, etc. The memory 803 may be a register, a cache, or the like. The processor 801 and the processor 805 may be a general purpose CPU, microprocessor, ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of programs in the communication methods of any of the embodiments described above.

The embodiment of the application may divide the functional modules of the apparatus according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation. For example, in the case of dividing the respective functional modules by the respective functions, fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus, and the apparatus 900 may be the first terminal device or the access network device, or a chip in the first terminal device or a chip in the access network device, which are involved in the respective method embodiments. The apparatus 900 comprises a transmitting unit 901, a processing unit 902 and a receiving unit 903.

It should be understood that the apparatus 900 may be used to implement the steps performed by the first terminal device or the access network device in the communication method of the embodiments of the present application, and relevant features may refer to any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 6, or fig. 7, which are not described herein.

Alternatively, the functions/implementation procedures of the transmitting unit 901, the receiving unit 903, and the processing unit 902 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the processor 801 in fig. 8 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 803. Alternatively, the functions/implementation procedures of the processing unit 902 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the processor 801 in fig. 8 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 803, and the functions/implementation procedures of the transmitting unit 901 and the receiving unit 903 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the communication interface 804 in fig. 8.

Alternatively, when the apparatus 900 is a chip or a circuit, the functions/implementation procedures of the transmitting unit 901 and the receiving unit 903 may also be implemented by pins or circuits, or the like.

The present application also provides a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program or instructions which, when executed, implement a method performed by a first terminal device or an access network device in the foregoing method embodiments. Thus, the functions described in the above embodiments may be implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or contributing part or 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. The storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, etc.

The present application also provides a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method performed by the first terminal device or the access network device in any of the method embodiments described above.

The embodiment of the application also provides a processing device, which comprises a processor and an interface; the processor is configured to perform a method performed by the first terminal device or the access network device according to any of the method embodiments described above.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, produces a flow or function in accordance with embodiments of the present application, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

The various illustrative logical blocks and circuits described in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (field-programmable gate array, FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the general purpose processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software element executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software elements may be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. In an example, a storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC, which may reside in a terminal device. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in different components in a terminal device.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The matters in the various embodiments of the present application may be referenced to each other in terms and/or descriptions consistent with each other and to each other in the absence of specific illustrations and logic conflicts between, the technical features of the different embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments based on the inherent logic relationships.

It will be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the first terminal device or the access network device may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application, these steps or operations are merely examples, and in the embodiments of the present application, other operations or variations of various operations may also be performed. Furthermore, the various steps may be performed in a different order presented in accordance with embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all of the operations in the embodiments of the present application may be performed.

Claims

1. A communication method, applied to a first terminal device, the method comprising:

receiving first configuration information from access network equipment, wherein the first configuration information comprises an association relation between a side uplink carrier and Scheduling Request (SR) configuration;

and if the side link Channel State Information (CSI) report of the first side link carrier is triggered and the side link resource used for sending the first side link medium access control element (MAC CE) is not available on the first side link carrier, sending a first SR to the access network equipment, wherein the first SR is used for requesting the side link resource, the first side link MAC CE is used for indicating the side link CSI report of the first side link carrier, and the first SR corresponds to the SR configuration associated with the first side link carrier or the first SR corresponds to the pre-configured SR configuration.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving information from the access network device indicating a first side-link resource, the first side-link resource being a resource on the first side-link carrier;

and sending the first side link MAC CE to a second terminal device through the first side link resource.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that,

the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of the side uplink carriers configured by the first terminal device; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the side uplink carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of side uplink carriers that the first terminal device can use to send side uplink CSI reports; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the side-link carrier included in the first configuration information is all or part of the side-link carrier of the first terminal device that has the CSI acquisition function enabled.

4. A method according to any of claims 1-3, characterized in that the first configuration information further comprises the preconfigured SR configuration for requesting side-link resources on side-link carriers not associated with SR configuration.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the first side uplink carrier has no side uplink resources for transmitting a first side uplink MAC CE, comprising:

there are no side-link resources on the first side-link carrier for sending the first side-link MAC CE plus a sub-header of the first side-link MAC CE, and the side-link resources are side-link resources for a new transmission.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein the association between the side-uplink carrier and an SR configuration comprises an association between the side-uplink carrier and an SR configuration identity, the SR configuration identity indicating the SR configuration.

7. The method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the first side-link MAC CE is a side-link CSI-reporting MAC CE.

8. A method of communication, for application to an access network device, the method comprising:

transmitting first configuration information to first terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration information comprises an association relationship between a side uplink carrier and Scheduling Request (SR) configuration;

and receiving a first SR from the first terminal equipment, wherein the first SR is used for requesting side-link resources, and the first SR corresponds to the SR configuration associated with the first side-link carrier or the first SR corresponds to the pre-configured SR configuration.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

and sending information for indicating a first side link resource to the first terminal equipment, wherein the first side link resource is a resource on the first side link carrier.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of determining the position of the substrate comprises,

11. The method of claim 9 or 10, wherein the first configuration information further comprises the preconfigured SR configuration requesting side uplink resources on a side uplink carrier for which no SR configuration is associated.

12. The method according to any of claims 8-11, wherein the association between the side-uplink carrier and SR configuration comprises an association between the side-uplink carrier and an SR configuration identity, the SR configuration identity indicating the SR configuration.

13. The method according to any of claims 8-12, wherein the first side-link MAC CE is a side-link CSI-reporting MAC CE.

14. A communication method, applied to a first terminal device, the method comprising:

and transmitting a side-link MAC CE to the second terminal equipment, wherein the side-link MAC CE is used for indicating the side-link CSI report of the first side-link carrier, the side-link MAC CE comprises N bits, the N bits are used for indicating the first side-link carrier, or the N bits are not used for indicating any side-link carrier, and N is a positive integer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of providing the first information comprises,

the N bits are used to indicate the first side-link carrier if the first terminal device has more than one side-link carrier configured with side-link CSI reference signals, or are not used to indicate any side-link carrier if the first terminal device has only one side-link carrier configured with side-link CSI reference signals; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

the N bits are used to indicate the first side-link carrier if the first terminal device has more than one side-link carrier enabled for CSI acquisition, or are not used to indicate any side-link carrier if the first terminal device has only one side-link carrier enabled for CSI acquisition; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The N bits are used to indicate the first side-link carrier if the first terminal device is configured with more than one side-link carrier, or are not used to indicate any side-link carrier if the first terminal device is configured with one side-link carrier.

16. The method of claim 14 or 15, wherein the sidelink MAC CE is a sidelink CSI reporting MAC CE.

17. A communication device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory being coupled to the processor for performing the method of any one of claims 1-7, or for performing the method of any one of claims 8-13, or for performing the method of any one of claims 14-16.

18. A computer readable storage medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 7 or to perform the method of any one of claims 8 to 13 or to perform the method of any one of claims 14 to 16.

19. A chip system, the chip system comprising:

a processor and an interface from which the processor invokes and executes instructions which when executed by the processor implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 7, or implement the method of any one of claims 8 to 13, or implement the method of any one of claims 14 to 16.

20. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product comprises a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method of any one of claims 1 to 7 or causes the computer to carry out the method of any one of claims 8 to 13 or causes the computer to carry out the method of any one of claims 14 to 16.