CN118101140A

CN118101140A - Reference signal transmission method and device

Info

Publication number: CN118101140A
Application number: CN202211506686.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐军; 袁一凌; 王潇涵; 金黄平; 韩玮
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-11-28
Filing date: 2022-11-28
Publication date: 2024-05-28
Also published as: WO2024114418A1

Abstract

The application discloses a reference signal transmission method and a reference signal transmission device, relates to the field of wireless communication, and can effectively increase orthogonal ports of reference signals. The method comprises the following steps: first information, second information and third information are received from the network device, and a reference signal is transmitted to the network device on M first time-frequency resources. The first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of first time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks relative to reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resources are located, and the size of each of the M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information.

Description

Reference signal transmission method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for transmitting a reference signal.

Background

In a communication system, a terminal may transmit a Sounding REFERENCE SIGNAL (SRS) to a network device. After receiving the SRS, the network device may determine a precoding matrix applied to uplink transmission according to the SRS, and instruct the precoding matrix to the terminal, so that the terminal uses the precoding matrix to transmit a Physical Uplink SHARED CHANNEL (PUSCH).

In the PUSCH transmission process, in order to utilize the spatial degree of freedom brought by the multiple input multiple output (multiple input multiple output, MIMO) technology, a receiver with good performance may be used for data demodulation. And the performance of the receiver depends largely on the accuracy of the equivalent channel (i.e., the product of the channel matrix and the precoding matrix) estimation. Therefore, in order to improve transmission performance, the terminal needs to transmit demodulation reference signals (demodulation REFERENCE SIGNAL, DMRS) to the network device in addition to the PUSCH to the network device, and the DMRS adopts the same precoding matrix as the PUSCH to ensure that the DMRS and the PUSCH experience the same equivalent channel. In this way, after the network device receives the DMRS and the PUSCH, equivalent channel estimation can be performed according to the DMRS, so as to demodulate the data carried in the PUSCH.

In the prior art, the system supports 12 orthogonal DMRS ports at maximum. With the increase of the number of terminals, the 12 DMRS ports may not meet the requirement of the communication system on the channel estimation quality. Therefore, schemes such as increasing the time domain unit occupied by the DMRS, increasing the frequency division multiplexing degree, or increasing the code division multiplexing degree are proposed to increase the orthogonal DMRS ports. However, adding the time domain unit occupied by the DMRS greatly increases the DMRS resource overhead, and increasing the frequency division multiplexing degree or increasing the code division multiplexing degree can reduce the channel estimation accuracy, and these schemes can affect the performance of PUSCH. How to more effectively increase the orthogonal DMRS ports is a problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a transmission method and a transmission device of a reference signal, which can not only increase the orthogonal port of the reference signal, but also reduce the resource expense of the reference signal, ensure the channel estimation precision and further improve the performance of a PUSCH.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the present application adopts the following technical scheme:

In a first aspect, a method for transmitting a reference signal is provided, which may be performed by a terminal; or may be performed by a module applied in a terminal, such as a chip, a system-on-chip or a circuit; or may be implemented by logic modules or software that may implement all or part of the terminal functions, which are not limited. For convenience of description, an example will be described below as being executed by the terminal.

The method comprises the following steps: receiving first information, second information and third information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of first time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks relative to reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resources are located, and the size of each of the M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information; the reference signal is transmitted to the network device on M first time-frequency resources.

Based on the method provided in the first aspect, the terminal may send the reference signal on the M first time-frequency resources according to the indication of the network device, so that after the network device receives the reference signal, the network device may observe channel state information of the M first time-frequency resources according to the reference signal, and infer more channel state information on the time-frequency resources according to statistical information (such as a space-frequency statistics base) and observation results on the M first time-frequency resources, such as infer channel state information on all subcarriers on a time-frequency resource block where the M first time-frequency resources are located or channel state information of a full band of the network device. On one hand, because the channel has sparsity in an angle-time delay domain, the full-band channel can be sparsely represented by a plurality of space-frequency statistical substrates and corresponding coefficients, and the full-band channel can be recovered as long as the plurality of statistical substrates and the coefficients are known. Typically, the statistical base may be obtained from historical SRS channel estimates. Therefore, for any terminal accessing to the network device, the network device can obtain channel observations on a plurality of subcarriers, such as channel observations on M first time-frequency resources, and then estimate more channel state information on the time-frequency resources based on the observations and the statistical base, thereby reducing the resource overhead of the reference signal. On the other hand, compared with the traditional DMRS scheme, in the method, the time-frequency resources occupied by the terminal are fewer, and more terminals can be supported to send data and reference signals under the same bandwidth, so that the performance of the PUSCH is improved. Thus, the method provided in the first aspect can more effectively increase DMRS ports.

In one possible implementation, the M time-frequency resource blocks are M time-frequency resource blocks in N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion, N is a positive integer, and M is less than or equal to N. In other words, the M time-frequency resource blocks are part or all of the N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion BWP.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may send the reference signal on M time-frequency resource blocks in the N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion, so that the network device may obtain channel state information on all subcarriers on the M time-frequency resource blocks. It will be appreciated that if N is equal to M, the network device may obtain full band channel state information.

In one possible implementation, the M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks used for transmitting PUSCH.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may send the reference signal along with the PUSCH transmission, so that the network device may obtain channel state information on all subcarriers on the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: first indication information is received from the network device, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine M time-frequency resource blocks according to the first indication information, thereby determining M first time-frequency resources.

In one possible implementation, the first information includes a bit value indicating a number of time-domain units occupied by the reference signal.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal according to the one bit value.

In one possible implementation, the second information includes a plurality of bit values for indicating a number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine, according to the plurality of bit values, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, the third information includesA bit value; wherein Q represents the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks,/>Represent an upward rounding function, the/>A bit value is used to indicate the frequency domain offset.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal can according to the followingThe individual bit values determine the frequency domain offset.

In one possible implementation manner, in a case that the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals scheduled in a period of time of the network device to transmit the reference signal is the same, or the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals accessing the network device to transmit the reference signal is the same, the third information includesA bit value; wherein Q represents the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks,/>Represents an upward rounding function, L represents the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams, P represents the number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal,/>A bit value is used to indicate the frequency domain offset.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal can according to the followingThe frequency domain offset is determined.

In one possible implementation, the third information comprises a bit map; the bit length of the bit map is the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, and the bit map is used for indicating the frequency domain offset.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine the frequency domain offset according to the bit map.

In one possible implementation, the third information includes M sharesA bit value; wherein Q represents the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, one of the M shares/>The bit values represent a frequency domain offset corresponding to a first one of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal can be based on M sharesThe bit values determine a frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource.

In a possible implementation manner, in a case that the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals scheduled in a period of time of the network device to transmit the reference signal is the same, or the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals accessing the network device to transmit the reference signal is the same, the third information includes M partsA bit value; wherein Q represents the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, L represents the number of antenna ports or data stream numbers, P represents the number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, and one of M parts/>The bit values represent a frequency domain offset corresponding to a first one of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, the third information comprises an M-bit bitmap; the bit length of the bit map is the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, and one bit map in M sets corresponds to the frequency domain offset corresponding to one first time-frequency resource in the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine the frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource according to the M bit maps.

In one possible implementation, the first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of second time-frequency resources, the plurality of second time-frequency resources being discontinuous in the frequency domain, the method further comprising: fourth indication information is received from the network device, the fourth indication information being used to indicate a number of frequency domain units comprised by each of the plurality of second time-frequency resources.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine the time-frequency resource occupied by each second time-frequency resource in combination with the third information.

In one possible implementation, any two of the N time-frequency resource blocks include the same number of time-frequency units.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the operation of the network device and the terminal can be simplified.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: second indication information indicating the number of time-frequency resource blocks included in the BWP is received from the network device.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal can determine the time-frequency resource occupied by each time-frequency resource block according to the number and the working bandwidth of the terminal.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: third indication information is received from the network device, the third indication information being used to indicate frequency domain resource information of reference time-frequency resources on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine, according to the third indication information, a frequency domain resource occupied by a reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, and further determine, by combining a frequency domain offset indicated by the third information and the number of frequency domain units indicated by the second information, a time-frequency resource occupied by the first time-frequency resource.

In one possible implementation, the third indication information includes an index of frequency domain resources occupied by the reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks on the time-frequency resource block where it is located.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate the frequency domain resource information of the reference time-frequency resource through an index of the frequency domain resource occupied by the reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks on the time-frequency resource block where the reference time-frequency resource is located.

In one possible implementation, the frequency domain offset is associated with a Transmission Time Interval (TTI) TIME INTERVAL.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal can determine the frequency domain resources occupied by the transmitted reference signals at different transmission time intervals according to the association relationship.

In one possible implementation, in a case that the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is the same, the second information includes a first field, where the first field is used to indicate the number of frequency domain units occupied by any one of the M time-frequency resource blocks; in the case that the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is not identical, the second information includes M second fields, and each of the M second fields is used to indicate the number of frequency domain units occupied by each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine the number of frequency domain units occupied by each of the M time-frequency resource blocks through the first field or the second field.

In one possible implementation, in a case that the frequency domain offset of the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is the same, the third information includes a third field for indicating the frequency domain offset; in the case that the frequency domain offset of the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is not identical, the third information includes M fourth fields, each of the M fourth fields being used to indicate the frequency domain offset on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine the frequency domain offset on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks through the third field or the fourth field.

In one possible implementation, the reference signal occupies a number of time domain units of 1 or 2.

In one possible implementation, the starting time domain resource location of each of the M first time frequency resources is predefined by the protocol.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine, according to a protocol, a starting time domain resource position of each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources, and further determine, in combination with the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, a time domain resource occupied by each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: fifth indication information is received from the network device, the fifth indication information being used to indicate a starting time domain resource location of each of the M first time frequency resources.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal may determine, according to the fifth indication information, a starting time domain resource position of each of the M first time-frequency resources, and further determine, in combination with the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, a time domain resource occupied by each of the M first time-frequency resources.

In one possible implementation, the first time-frequency resource includes a number of frequency domain units of 1, 2, 4 or 8.

In one possible implementation, each of the N time-frequency resource blocks includes at least one resource block.

In one possible implementation, any one of the first information, the second information, or the third information is carried in a radio resource control message or downlink control information.

In one possible implementation, the reference signal is a DMRS.

Based on the possible implementation manners, the network device may send the first information, the second information and the third information through a radio resource control message and/or downlink control information.

In a second aspect, a method for transmitting a reference signal is provided, which may be performed by a network device; or may be performed by a module applied in a network device, such as a chip, a system-on-chip, or a circuit; or may be implemented by logic modules or software that may implement all or part of the functionality of the network device, as not limited thereto. For ease of description, the following description will be given by taking as an example the execution by the access network device.

The method comprises the following steps: transmitting first information, second information and third information to a terminal, wherein the first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, and the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of first time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks relative to reference time-frequency resources on a time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resources are located, and the size of each of the M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information; the reference signal from the terminal is received on M first time-frequency resources.

Based on the method provided in the second aspect, the network device may observe channel state information of M first time-frequency resources according to the received reference signal, and infer more channel state information on the time-frequency resources according to statistical information (such as a space-frequency statistical base) and observation results on the M first time-frequency resources, for example, infer channel state information on all subcarriers on a time-frequency resource block where the M first time-frequency resources are located, or channel state information of a full band of the network device, etc. On one hand, because the channel has sparsity in an angle-time delay domain, the full-band channel can be sparsely represented by a plurality of space-frequency statistical substrates and corresponding coefficients, and the full-band channel can be recovered as long as the plurality of statistical substrates and the coefficients are known. Typically, the statistical base may be obtained from historical SRS channel estimates. Therefore, for any terminal accessing to the network device, the network device can obtain channel observations on a plurality of subcarriers, such as channel observations on M first time-frequency resources, and then estimate more channel state information on the time-frequency resources based on the observations and the statistical base, thereby reducing the resource overhead of the reference signal. On the other hand, compared with the traditional DMRS scheme, in the method, the time-frequency resources occupied by the terminal are fewer, and more terminals can be supported to send data and reference signals under the same bandwidth, so that the performance of the PUSCH is improved. Thus, the method provided by the second aspect can more effectively increase DMRS ports.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may receive the reference signal on M time-frequency resource blocks in the N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion, and obtain channel state information on all subcarriers on the M time-frequency resource blocks. It will be appreciated that if N is equal to M, the network device may obtain full band channel state information.

In one possible implementation, the M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks for receiving PUSCH.

Based on the possible implementation manners, the network device may send the reference signal with the terminal when sending the data, and obtain channel state information on all subcarriers on the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and sending first indication information to the terminal, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate, to the terminal, an identifier of each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, so that the terminal may determine the M time-frequency resource blocks, and further determine the M first time-frequency resources.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal through the one bit value.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate, through the plurality of bit values, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may pass throughThe bit values indicate the frequency domain offset.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may pass throughIndicating the frequency domain offset.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate the frequency domain offset through the bit map.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may pass through M sharesThe bit values indicate a frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate the frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource through the M bit bitmaps.

In one possible implementation, the first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of second time-frequency resources, the plurality of second time-frequency resources being discontinuous in the frequency domain, the method further comprising: and sending fourth indication information to the terminal, wherein the fourth indication information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units included in each second time-frequency resource in the plurality of second time-frequency resources.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and sending second indication information to the terminal, wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the number of time-frequency resource blocks included by the BWP.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate the value of N to the terminal, so that the terminal may determine, according to the value of N and the operating bandwidth of the terminal, the occupied time-frequency resource of each time-frequency resource block.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and sending third indication information to the terminal, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating frequency domain resource information of reference time-frequency resources on each time-frequency resource block in the M time-frequency resource blocks.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate to the terminal the frequency domain resource information of the reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, so that the terminal may determine the frequency domain resource occupied by the reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, and further determine the time-frequency resource occupied by the first time-frequency resource by combining the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information and the number of frequency domain units indicated by the second information.

In one possible implementation, the frequency domain offset is associated with a TTI.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the terminal can determine the frequency domain resources occupied by the transmitted reference signals at different transmission time intervals according to the association relation.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate, to the terminal, the number of frequency domain units occupied by each of the M time-frequency resource blocks through the first field or the second field.

Based on the possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate the frequency domain offset on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks to the terminal through the third field or the fourth field.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the network device may determine, according to a protocol, a starting time domain resource position of each of the M first time-frequency resources, and further determine, in combination with the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, a time domain resource occupied by each of the M first time-frequency resources.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and transmitting fifth indicating information to the terminal, wherein the fifth indicating information is used for indicating the starting time domain resource position of each first time frequency resource in the M first time frequency resources.

Based on the above possible implementation manner, the network device may indicate the starting time domain resource position of each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources to the terminal, so that the terminal may determine the starting time domain resource position of each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources according to the indication, and further determine the time domain resource occupied by each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources in combination with the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal.

In one possible implementation, the reference signal is a DMRS.

In a third aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the above method. The communication device may be a terminal in the first aspect, or a device including the terminal, or a module in the terminal in the first aspect, such as a chip, a system on a chip or a circuit, or a logic module or a software implementation capable of implementing part or all of the functions of the terminal; or the communication means may be, or comprise, a network device according to the second aspect, or be a module, such as a chip, a system-on-chip or a circuit, according to the second aspect, or be a logic module or a software implementation that is capable of implementing part or all of the functions of the network device. The communication device comprises corresponding modules, units or means (means) for implementing the above method, where the modules, units or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions described above.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the communication device may include a transceiver module. The transceiver module, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is configured to implement the transmitting and/or receiving functions of any of the above aspects and any possible implementation thereof. The transceiver module may be formed by a transceiver circuit, transceiver or communication interface.

With reference to the third aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the transceiver module includes a transmitting module and a receiving module, which are respectively configured to implement the transmitting and receiving functions in any one of the foregoing aspects and any possible implementation manner thereof.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a processor; the processor is configured to couple to the memory and to execute the method according to any of the above aspects in response to the instructions after reading the instructions in the memory. The communication device may be a terminal in the first aspect, or a device including the terminal, or a module in the terminal in the first aspect, such as a chip, a system on a chip or a circuit, or a logic module or a software implementation capable of implementing part or all of the functions of the terminal; or the communication means may be, or comprise, a network device according to the second aspect, or be a module, such as a chip, a system-on-chip or a circuit, according to the second aspect, or be a logic module or a software implementation that is capable of implementing part or all of the functions of the network device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the communication device further includes a memory, where the memory is used to store necessary program instructions and data.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the communication device is a chip or a chip system. Alternatively, when the communication device is a chip system, the communication device may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a processor and interface circuit; interface circuit for receiving computer program or instruction and transmitting to processor; the processor is configured to execute the computer program or instructions to cause the communication device to perform the method as described in any of the above aspects. The communication device may be a terminal in the first aspect, or a device including the terminal, or a module in the terminal in the first aspect, such as a chip, a system on a chip or a circuit, or a logic module or a software implementation capable of implementing part or all of the functions of the terminal; or the communication means may be, or comprise, a network device according to the second aspect, or be a module, such as a chip, a system-on-chip or a circuit, according to the second aspect, or be a logic module or a software implementation that is capable of implementing part or all of the functions of the network device.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in one possible implementation manner, the communication device is a chip or a chip system. Alternatively, when the communication device is a chip system, the communication device may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of the above aspects.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of the above aspects.

In an eighth aspect, a communication system is provided, the communication system comprising a terminal for performing the method according to the first aspect, and a network device for performing the method according to the second aspect.

A ninth aspect provides a method of reference signal transmission, the method being executable by a terminal/network device; or may be implemented by a module applied to the terminal/network device, for example, a chip, a system on a chip, or a circuit, or may be implemented by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the terminal/network device, which is not limited thereto. The method is presented here by way of example as being performed by the network device and the terminal. The communication method comprises the following steps: the network equipment sends first information, second information and third information to the terminal; the terminal receives the first information, the second information and the third information from the network device; the terminal sends reference signals to the network equipment on M first time-frequency resources; the network device receives the reference signal from the terminal on the M first time-frequency resources. The first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, and the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of a first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks relative to a reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located; the size of each of the M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information.

In one possible implementation, the M time-frequency resource blocks are M time-frequency resource blocks in N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion, N is a positive integer, and M is less than or equal to N.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the network equipment sends first indication information to the terminal, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the M time-frequency resource blocks; the terminal receives the first indication information from the network device.

In one possible implementation, the first information includes a bit value.

In one possible implementation, the second information includes a plurality of bit values.

In one possible implementation, the first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of second time-frequency resources, the plurality of second time-frequency resources being discontinuous in the frequency domain, the method further comprising: the network equipment sends fourth indication information to the terminal; the terminal receives the fourth indication information from the network device, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the number of frequency domain units included in each of the plurality of second time-frequency resources.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the network equipment sends second indication information to the terminal; the terminal receives the second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate the number of time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth part.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the network device sends third indication information to the terminal, wherein the third indication information is used for indicating frequency domain resource information of reference time-frequency resources on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks; the terminal receives the third indication information from the network device.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the network equipment sends fifth indication information to the terminal; the terminal receives fifth indication information from the network device, where the fifth indication information is used to indicate a starting time domain resource location of each first time frequency resource of the M first time frequency resources.

In one possible implementation, the reference signal is a DMRS.

The technical effects caused by any possible implementation manner of the third aspect to the ninth aspect may be referred to the technical effects caused by any one of the first aspect to the second aspect or any one of the different possible implementation manners of the first aspect to the second aspect, which are not repeated herein.

It will be appreciated that the above aspects may be combined without contradiction between the aspects.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a time-frequency resource;

fig. 2A is a schematic diagram of Type 1DMRS time-frequency resource mapping;

Fig. 2B is a schematic diagram of Type 2DMRS time-frequency resource mapping;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a communication system architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 4 is a schematic hardware structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of a reference signal transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6A is a schematic diagram of an operation bandwidth of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6B is a schematic diagram two of an operating bandwidth of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6C is a schematic diagram III of an operation bandwidth of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an operating bandwidth of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

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

Detailed Description

Before describing the embodiments of the present application, related technical terms related to the embodiments of the present application will be explained. It should be understood that the description is intended to make the embodiments of the application easier to understand and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the embodiments of the application.

1. Resource Block (RB)

In the radio resource, the smallest resource granularity in the time domain may be one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbol (symbol), which may be simply referred to as a symbol. In the frequency domain, the smallest resource granularity may be one subcarrier. One OFDM symbol and one subcarrier may constitute one Resource Element (RE), and one slot and 12 subcarriers consecutive in the frequency domain may constitute one RB. Where a slot may include a plurality of consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain, for example, a slot includes 12 consecutive OFDM symbols or 14 consecutive OFDM symbols, etc.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a time-frequency resource. In fig. 1, when the physical layer performs resource mapping, REs are used as basic units, RBs are frequency domain basic scheduling units allocated for a data channel, and one RB includes 12 subcarriers continuous in the frequency domain and 14 OFDM symbols continuous in the time domain.

It is to be appreciated that fig. 1 is merely a schematic diagram of RBs, and that in particular applications, RBs may include more or fewer subcarriers than shown in fig. 1, without limitation.

In addition, embodiments of the present application do not limit the frequency spacing (i.e., subcarrier spacing) between adjacent subcarriers. For example, in an embodiment of the present application, the subcarrier spacing may be 15KHz, 30KHz,60KHz,120KHz, 240KHz, or the like. Wherein different subcarrier spacings may correspond to different OFDM symbol lengths.

2. Space layer

For spatially multiplexed MIMO systems, multiple parallel data streams may be transmitted simultaneously on the same time-frequency resource, each of which is referred to as a spatial layer or transport layer or spatial stream or transport stream or stream.

3. Orthogonal cover (orthogonal cover code, OCC)

Any two sequences are orthogonal sets of sequences. OCC is employed in one code division multiplexing (code division multiplexing, CDM) group (group) to ensure orthogonality of ports, thereby reducing interference of reference signals (REFERENCE SIGNAL, RS) transmitted between ports. Illustratively, taking a CDM group that occupies 4 REs as an example, the CDM group provides 4 orthogonal ports, which guarantee orthogonality of ports through 4 OCCs. For example, the OCC of the first port is [1, 1], the OCC of the second port is [1, -1, -1], the OCC of the third port is [1, -1, -1], and the OCC of the fourth port is [1, -1,1].

4. Antenna port

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna port may be understood as a transmitting antenna identified by the receiving end, or a transmitting antenna that may be spatially differentiated. An antenna port may be defined in terms of a reference signal associated with the antenna port. An antenna port may be a physical antenna on the transmitting end device or a weighted combination of multiple physical antennas on the transmitting end device. In the embodiment of the present application, one antenna port corresponds to one reference signal without specific description.

The antenna port is used for carrying at least one of a specific physical channel and a physical signal. Taking a DMRS port as an example, the DMRS port is an antenna port carrying DMRS. The channels corresponding to the paths that the signals are transmitted over in space may be considered to be identical or correlated, whether or not the signals are transmitted over the same or different physical antennas. That is, the signals transmitted at the same antenna port may be considered to have the same or related channels at the time of demodulation at the receiving end. In other words, an antenna port defines a channel on a certain symbol. If the antenna ports of two symbols are identical, the channel on one symbol can be inferred by the channel on the other symbol.

In the embodiment of the application, the port number is taken as an example to identify the antenna port. The port number may also have other names, such as port index, port identification, etc., and embodiments of the present application are not specifically limited.

5、DMRS

The DMRS may be used to estimate an equivalent channel, e.g., the PUSCH may be estimated using the DMRS for coherent demodulation of uplink data. Wherein, PUSCH is used for bearing uplink data, DMRS is accompanied with PUSCH and transmitted. Typically the DMRS is located in the first few symbols of the slot occupied by PUSCH. To ensure the quality of the channel estimation, the different DMRS ports are typically orthogonal ports. DMRS corresponding to different DMRS ports are orthogonal in the frequency domain, time-frequency domain or code domain.

Because the DMRS occupy a certain time-frequency resource, in order to reduce the overhead of the DMRS as much as possible and reduce the interference between the DMRS time-frequency resources corresponding to different DMRS ports, the DMRS is often mapped to a preset time-frequency resource in a mode of frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing or code division multiplexing. Illustratively, the fifth generation (5th generation,5G) system supports 2 DMRS resource mapping types. For Type 1 (Type 1), DMRS can support a maximum of 8 orthogonal DMRS ports; for Type 2 (Type 2), a DMRS can support a maximum of 12 orthogonal DMRS ports. For one DMRS port, in order to perform channel estimation on different time-frequency resources, to ensure channel estimation quality, DMRS needs to be sent on multiple time-frequency resources. The DMRS may occupy at least one OFDM symbol in the time domain, and the bandwidth occupied in the frequency domain is the same as the scheduling bandwidth of the data signal. The following describes a pattern of DMRS resource mapping types in 1 RB, taking an example that DMRS occupies 2 OFDM symbols in the time domain.

Fig. 2A is a schematic diagram of a Type 1DMRS time-frequency resource mapping. In fig. 2A, the DMRS occupies 2 OFDM symbols, and a maximum of 8 DMRS ports are supported. The 8 DMRS ports may be divided into 2 CDM groups. Wherein CDM group 0 includes port (port) 0, port 1, port 4, and port 5; CDM group 1 contains port 2, port 3, port 6, and port 7.CDM group 0 and CDM group 1 are frequency division multiplexing, and the DMRS corresponding to four DMRS ports contained in one CMD group is distinguished by OCC.

Fig. 2B is a schematic diagram of a Type 2DMRS time-frequency resource mapping. In fig. 2B, the DMRS occupies 2 OFDM symbols, and a maximum of 12 DMRS ports are supported. The 12 DMRS ports may be divided into 3 CDM groups. Wherein CDM group 0 comprises port 0, port 1, port 6, and port 7; CDM group 1 includes port 2, port 3, port8, and port 9; CDM group2 contains port 4, port 5, port 10, and port 11.CDM group 0 to CDM group2 are frequency division multiplexing, and DMRS corresponding to four DMRS ports included in one CMD group are distinguished by OCC.

In the prior art, the system supports 12 orthogonal DMRS ports at maximum. With the increase of the number of terminals, the 12 DMRS ports may not meet the requirement of the communication system on the channel estimation quality. Therefore, schemes such as increasing the time domain unit occupied by the DMRS, increasing the frequency division multiplexing degree, or increasing the code division multiplexing degree are proposed to increase the orthogonal DMRS ports. However, adding time domain elements occupied by DMRS greatly increases DMRS resource overhead; increasing the frequency division multiplexing degree increases the number of CDM groups, but the frequency domain resources used for transmitting the DMRS by each DMRS port in the CDM groups are reduced, so that the observation points of the channel are reduced, and the channel estimation precision is reduced; increasing the degree of code division multiplexing does not increase the number of CDM groups, but increases the number of DMRS ports in each CDM group, and at the same time, increases the length of OCC to ensure orthogonality between all DMRS ports in each CDM group. For example, in the existing single symbol Type 1DMRS, one CDM group has 2 DMRS ports, and the length of OCC is 2. If the code division multiplexing degree is increased, one CDM group has 4 DMRS ports, and the length of OCC is 4. Channel estimation is typically assumed to be the same on consecutive L subcarriers in the frequency domain resources used by each DMRS port within each CDM group to transmit a DMRS, where L is equal to the length of the OCC. Therefore, increasing the OCC length in code division multiplexing requires the assumption that the channels of more consecutive subcarriers are identical. However, in practice, the channels on different subcarriers are often unequal due to the frequency domain selectivity of the channels, the more distant the channels are, the greater the difference. Therefore, increasing the degree of code division multiplexing may result in a decrease in channel estimation accuracy. Therefore, the existing method of adding DMRS ports by adding time domain units, increasing the frequency domain multiplexing degree or the code division multiplexing degree affects the PUSCH performance.

In order to solve the above problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for transmitting a reference signal. In the method, the network device instructs the terminal to transmit a reference signal on a small number of time-frequency resources on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. In this way, the network device can observe the channel state information of the time-frequency resources transmitting the reference signal, and infer more channel state information on the time-frequency resources according to the statistical information (such as the space-frequency statistical base) and the observation result on the time-frequency resources transmitting the reference signal, such as infer the channel state information on all subcarriers of the M time-frequency resource blocks or the channel state information of the whole band of the network device. On one hand, because the channel has sparsity in an angle-time delay domain, the full-band channel can be sparsely represented by a plurality of space-frequency statistical substrates and corresponding coefficients, and the full-band channel can be recovered as long as the plurality of statistical substrates and the coefficients are known. Typically, the statistical base may be obtained from historical SRS channel estimates. Therefore, for any terminal accessing to the network device, the network device can obtain channel observations on a plurality of subcarriers, such as channel observations on time-frequency resources for transmitting the reference signals, and then based on the observations and the statistical base, can estimate more channel state information on the time-frequency resources, thereby obviously reducing the resource cost of the reference signals. On the other hand, compared with the traditional DMRS scheme, in the method, the time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal sent by one terminal are fewer, and more terminals can be supported to send data and the reference signal under the same bandwidth, so that the performance of the PUSCH is improved. Therefore, the method provided by the embodiment of the application can more effectively increase the DMRS ports. The above method will be described in the following embodiment shown in fig. 5, and will not be described herein.

The reference signal transmission method provided by the embodiment of the application can be used for various communication systems. For example, the communication system may be, without limitation, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a 5G communication system, a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wiFi) system, a third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) related communication system, a future evolution communication system (e.g., sixth generation (6th generation,6G) communication system, etc.), or a system incorporating multiple systems, etc. Wherein 5G may also be referred to as New Radio (NR). The method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described below by taking the communication system 30 shown in fig. 3 as an example. Fig. 3 is only a schematic diagram, and does not limit the applicable scenario of the technical solution provided by the present application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 30 according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 3, communication system 30 may include one or more network devices 301 (only 1 shown) and one or more terminals (e.g., terminal 302-terminal 304) that may communicate with network devices 301.

In fig. 3, a network device may provide a wireless access service for a terminal. Specifically, each network device corresponds to a service coverage area, and terminals entering the area can communicate with the network device through an air interface (AIR INTERFACE) to receive wireless access services provided by the network device. Alternatively, the service coverage area may comprise one or more cells. The terminal and the network device can communicate through an air interface link. Among them, the air interface link can be divided into Uplink (UL) and Downlink (DL) according to the direction of data transmitted thereon. Uplink data transmitted from the terminal to the network device may be transmitted on UL, and downlink data transmitted from the network device to the terminal may be transmitted on DL. For example: in fig. 3, the terminal 303 is located in the coverage area of the network device 301, the network device 301 may send downlink data to the terminal 303 through DL, and the terminal 303 may send uplink data to the network device 301 through UL.

The network device in the embodiment of the application includes: the network device 301 may be any device having a wireless transceiving function. Including but not limited to: an evolved base station (NodeB or eNB or e-NodeB, evolutional Node B) in LTE, an evolved base station (next generation eNB, ng-eNB) in next generation LTE, a base station (gNodeB or gNB) or transceiver point (transmission receiving point/transmission reception point, TRP) in NR, a base station for 3GPP subsequent evolution, an access node in Wi-Fi system, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, etc. The base station may be: macro base station, micro base station, pico base station, small station, relay station, or balloon station, etc. Multiple base stations may support networks of the same technology as mentioned above, or may support networks of different technologies as mentioned above. A base station may contain one or more co-sited or non-co-sited TRPs. The network device may also be a wireless controller in the context of a cloud wireless access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN). The network device may also be a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU), and/or a Distributed Unit (DU). The network device may also be a server, a wearable device, a machine communication device, or an in-vehicle device, etc. The following description will take a network device as an example of a base station. The plurality of network devices may be the same type of base station or different types of base stations. The base station may communicate with the terminal or may communicate with the terminal through a relay station. The terminal may communicate with a plurality of base stations of different technologies, for example, the terminal may communicate with a base station supporting an LTE network, may communicate with a base station supporting a 5G network, and may support dual connectivity with the base station of the LTE network and the base station of the 5G network. In the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device; or may be a device, such as a system-on-a-chip, capable of supporting the network device to perform this function, which may be installed in or used in conjunction with the network device. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices. In the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device is taken as an example of the network device, and the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described.

The terminal in the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps: terminal 302, terminal 303, or terminal 304 is a device having a wireless transceiving function. The terminal can be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); but may also be deployed in the air (e.g., on aircraft, balloon, satellite, etc.). A terminal may also be referred to as a terminal device, which may be a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE includes a handheld device, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, or a computing device with wireless communication capabilities. The UE may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, or a computer with a wireless transceiver function, for example. The terminal device may also be a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in smart city (SMART CITY), or a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal may be the terminal; or may be a device, such as a chip system, capable of supporting the terminal to perform the function, which may be installed in the terminal or used in cooperation with the terminal. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices. In the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal is taken as an example of the terminal, and the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described.

By way of example, and not limitation, in the present application, the terminal may be a wearable device. The wearable device can also be called as a wearable intelligent device, and is a generic name for intelligently designing daily wear by applying wearable technology and developing wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothes, shoes and the like. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. For example, the wearable device is not just a hardware device, but a device that realizes a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. Generalized wearable smart devices include devices that are fully functional, large in size, and may not rely on smartphones to achieve complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., as well as devices that need to be used with other devices, such as smartphones, such as smart bracelets, smart jewelry, etc., that perform physical sign monitoring, focusing only on certain types of application functions.

In the application, the terminal can be a terminal in an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) system, the IoT is an important component of the development of future information technology, and the main technical characteristics are that the object is connected with the network through a communication technology, so that the man-machine interconnection and the intelligent network of the internet of things are realized. The terminal in the present application may be a terminal in Machine Type Communication (MTC). The terminal of the present application may be an in-vehicle module, an in-vehicle part, an in-vehicle chip, or an in-vehicle unit built in a vehicle as one or more parts or units, and the vehicle may implement the method of the present application by the in-vehicle module, the in-vehicle part, the in-vehicle chip, or the in-vehicle unit built in. Therefore, the embodiment of the application can be applied to the Internet of vehicles, such as the vehicle external connection (vehicle to everything, V2X), the workshop communication long-term evolution technology (long term evolution vehicle, LTE-V), the vehicle-to-vehicle (vehicle to vehicle, V2V) and the like.

The communication system 30 shown in fig. 3 is for example only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in the specific implementation, the communication system 30 may also include other devices, and the number of network devices and terminals may be determined according to specific needs, without limitation.

Alternatively, each network element or device (e.g., the network device 301, the terminal 302, the terminal 303, or the terminal 304) in fig. 3 may also be referred to as a communication apparatus, which may be a general device or a special device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the relevant functions of each network element or device (such as the network device 301, the terminal 302, the terminal 303, or the terminal 304) in fig. 3 according to the embodiment of the present application may be implemented by one device, or may be implemented by a plurality of devices together, or may be implemented by one or more functional modules in one device, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application. It will be appreciated that the functions described above may be either network elements in a hardware device, or software functions running on dedicated hardware, or a combination of hardware and software, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform).

In a specific implementation, each network element or device shown in fig. 3 (e.g., network device 301, terminal 302, terminal 303, terminal 304, etc.) may adopt the constituent structure shown in fig. 4, or include the components shown in fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a hardware configuration of a communication device applicable to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 40 comprises at least one processor 401 and at least one communication interface 404 for implementing the method provided by the embodiment of the application. The communication device 40 may also include a communication line 402 and a memory 403.

The processor 401 may be a general purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), microprocessor, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present application.

Communication line 402 may include a pathway to transfer information between the aforementioned components, such as a bus.

A communication interface 404 for communicating with other devices or communication networks. The communication interface 404 may be any transceiver-like device such as an ethernet interface, a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) interface, a wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN) interface, a transceiver, a pin, a bus, or transceiver circuitry, etc.

The memory 403 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, 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, a compact disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. The memory may be self-contained and coupled to the processor 401 via communication line 402. Memory 403 may also be integrated with processor 401. The memory provided by embodiments of the present application may generally have non-volatility.

The memory 403 is used for storing computer-executable instructions related to executing the scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application, and is controlled by the processor 401 to execute the program. The processor 401 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 403, thereby implementing the method provided by the embodiment of the present application. Alternatively, in the embodiment of the present application, the processor 401 may also perform processing related functions in a method provided in the embodiment of the present application, where the communication interface 404 is responsible for communicating with other devices or communication networks, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited in detail.

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

The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical, or other forms for information interaction between the devices, units, or modules.

As one example, processor 401 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in fig. 4.

As one example, communication device 40 may include multiple processors, such as processor 401 and processor 407 in fig. 4. 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).

As an embodiment, the communication apparatus 40 may further comprise an output device 405 and/or an input device 406. An output device 405 is coupled to the processor 401 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 405 may be a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) CRYSTAL DISPLAY, a Light Emitting Diode (LED) display device, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, or a projector (projector), or the like. The input device 406 is coupled to the processor 401 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 406 may be a mouse, keyboard, touch screen device, or sensing device, among others.

It will be appreciated that the constituent structures shown in fig. 4 do not constitute limitations of the communication device, and that the communication device may include more or less components than those shown in fig. 4, or may combine some components, or may be arranged in different components.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Each network element in the following embodiments may be provided with the components shown in fig. 4, which are not described in detail.

It is to be understood that in embodiments of the present application, "transmission" may be understood as transmitting and/or receiving, depending on the particular context. "transfer" may be a noun or a verb. Where the subject of execution of an action is de-emphasized, transmission and/or reception is often replaced by "transmission". For example, the phrase "transmitting PUSCH" may be understood as "transmitting PUSCH" from the perspective of the terminal, and "receiving PUSCH" from the perspective of the base station. In addition, it should be noted that "transmitting PUSCH" may be understood by those skilled in the art as "transmitting information carried in PUSCH".

It should be understood that the names of messages between network elements or the names of parameters in messages in the following embodiments of the present application are merely an example, and other names may be used in specific implementations, which are not limited in particular by the embodiments of the present application.

It will be appreciated that in embodiments of the present application, "/" may indicate that the associated objects are an "or" relationship, e.g., A/B may represent A or B; "and/or" may be used to describe that there are three relationships associated with an object, e.g., a and/or B, which may represent: there are three cases, a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. Furthermore, expressions similar to "at least one of A, B and C" or "at least one of A, B or C" are generally used to denote any one of the following: a alone; b alone; c alone; both A and B are present; both A and C are present; b and C are present simultaneously; a, B and C are present simultaneously. The above is an alternative entry for the item exemplified by A, B and C together with the three elements, the meaning of which can be obtained according to the rules described above when there are more elements in the expression.

In order to facilitate description of the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. may be used to distinguish between technical features that are the same or similar in function. The terms "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily denote any order of quantity or order of execution, nor do the terms "first," "second," and the like. In embodiments of the application, the words "exemplary" or "such as" are used to mean examples, illustrations, or descriptions, and any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "such as" should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. The use of the word "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete fashion to facilitate understanding.

It is appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, various embodiments are not necessarily referring to the same embodiments throughout the specification. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence number of each process does not mean that the execution sequence of each process should be determined by the function and the internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

It is to be understood that, in the present application, the terms "if" and "if" are used to indicate that the corresponding process is performed under some objective condition, and the time is not limited, and the judgment is not necessarily required when the process is performed, and no other limitation is meant.

It is understood that in the present application, "for indication" may include direct indication and indirect indication, and may also include explicit indication and implicit indication. When describing that certain indication information is used for indicating A, the indication information may be included to directly indicate A or indirectly indicate A, and does not represent that the indication information is necessarily carried with A. The information indicated by a certain information (such as the first information, the second information, the third information and the like described below) is called to-be-indicated information, and in a specific implementation process, various ways of indicating to-be-indicated information exist, for example, but not limited to, the to-be-indicated information may be directly indicated, such as the to-be-indicated information itself or an index of the to-be-indicated information, and the like. The information to be indicated can also be indicated indirectly by indicating other information, wherein the other information and the information to be indicated have an association relation. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of the specific information may also be achieved by means of a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol-specified) arrangement sequence of the respective information, thereby reducing the indication overhead to some extent.

It can be appreciated that some optional features of the embodiments of the present application may be implemented independently in some scenarios, independent of other features, such as the scheme on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems, achieve corresponding effects, or may be combined with other features according to requirements in some scenarios. Accordingly, the device provided in the embodiment of the present application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which will not be described herein.

It will be appreciated that the same steps or technical features having the same function in the embodiments of the present application may be referred to and referred to in different embodiments.

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

As shown in fig. 5, a network device and a terminal are taken as an execution body of the interactive schematic to illustrate the method according to the embodiment of the present application, but the present application is not limited to the execution body of the interactive schematic. For example, the network device in fig. 5 may also be a chip, a system-on-a-chip, or a processor that supports the network device to implement the method, or may be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device; the terminal in fig. 5 may also be a chip, a system-on-chip, or a processor supporting the terminal to implement the method, or may be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the terminal. The reference signal transmission method may include the steps of:

S501: the network device transmits the first information, the second information and the third information to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the first information, the second information, and the third information from the network device.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device may be the network device 301 in the communication system 30 shown in fig. 3, and the terminal may be the terminal 302, the terminal 303, or the terminal 304 in the communication system 30 shown in fig. 3.

The first information, the second information, and the third information are described below:

1. First information

In the embodiment of the present application, the first information is used to indicate the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal.

The reference signal may be any reference signal capable of performing channel estimation. For example, the reference signal is DMRS. Alternatively, the DMRS may or may not be subjected to precoding matrix processing, i.e.: the reference signal is a DMRS processed by a precoding matrix or a DMRS not processed by a precoding matrix (non precoded DMRS, NP DMRS). It can be appreciated that if the reference signal is an NP DMRS, the equivalent channel corresponding to the NP DMRS can be obtained according to the product of the channel estimated by the NP DMRS and the precoding matrix indicated by the transmit precoding matrix indicator (TRANSMITTED PRECODING MATRIX INDICATOR, TPMI). It should be understood that the reference signal may also be an SRS, and the present application is described by taking DMRS as an example, but is not limited thereto.

The time domain unit is a time domain resource with a certain time length, for example, the time domain unit is an OFDM symbol, a mini-slot (mini-slot), a slot, or the like. Optionally, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1 or 2. For example, the reference signal occupies 1 OFDM symbol or 2 OFDM symbols. It should be appreciated that in a specific application, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal may be greater than 2, without limitation.

One possible design, the first information includes a number of time-domain units occupied by the reference signal, or the first information includes an index (index) indicating the number of time-domain units occupied by the reference signal. In the embodiment of the application, the index can be replaced by a mark, a label or a serial number.

In another possible design, the first information includes a bit value, for example, when the bit value is 0, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1, and when the bit value is 1, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 2; or when the bit value is 0, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 2, and when the bit value is 0, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1. It should be appreciated that the first information may include two or more bit values when the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is greater than 2.

2. Second information

In the embodiment of the present application, the second information is used to indicate the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. For example, the second information includes the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, or the second information includes an index of the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. Wherein, the time domain length occupied by each time-frequency resource block can be one time slot, and each time-frequency resource block comprises at least one RB.

In the embodiment of the present application, the frequency domain unit is a frequency domain resource with a certain bandwidth, for example, the frequency domain unit is a frequency domain unit such as a subcarrier, a frequency band or a subband.

One possible design is that the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1,2, 4 or 8, etc. For example, the reference signal occupies 1 subcarrier, 2 subcarriers, 4 subcarriers, 8 subcarriers, or the like on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. It should be appreciated that in a specific application, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks may be greater than 8, without limitation.

In another possible design, the second information includes a plurality of bit values.

For example, the second information includes 2 bit values, where the 2 bit values are 00, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1, and where the 2 bit values are 01, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 2; when the 2 bits are 10, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 4, and when the 2 bits are 11, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 8.

For another example, the second information includes 4 bit values, where the 4 bit values are 0001, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1, and where the 4 bit values are 0010, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 2; when the 4 bit value is 0100, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 4, and when the 4 bit value is 1000, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 8.

It should be appreciated that the second information may include more than four bit values when the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is greater than 8.

It is understood that the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on different time-frequency resource blocks in the M time-frequency resource blocks may be the same or different. The embodiment of the application takes the same number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on different time-frequency resource blocks in M time-frequency resource blocks as an example for explanation.

It can be appreciated that if the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on different time-frequency resource blocks in the M time-frequency resource blocks is the same, the second information indicates the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on any one time-frequency resource block. For example, the second information includes a first field for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by any one of the M time-frequency resource blocks. If the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is not exactly the same, the second information indicates the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. For example, the second information includes M second fields, each of which is used to indicate the number of frequency domain units occupied by each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, respectively.

In the embodiment of the present application, the M time-frequency resource blocks are included in N time-frequency resource blocks included in a working bandwidth (e.g., a bandwidth part (BWP) allocated by the network device to the terminal) after the terminal accesses the network device. It is understood that M and N are positive integers, M being less than or equal to N. Namely: the M time-frequency resource blocks are part or all of N time-frequency resource blocks included in the BWP. For example, the BWP of the terminal includes 10 time-frequency resource blocks (i.e., n=10), and the network device schedules the terminal to transmit PUSCH and associated DMRS (i.e., m=2) on 2 of the time-frequency resource blocks.

It may be appreciated that any two of the N time-frequency resource blocks include the same number of frequency domain units, or each of the N time-frequency resource blocks includes a different number of frequency domain units. The embodiment of the application is explained by taking the case that the number of the frequency domain units included in any two time-frequency resource blocks in the N time-frequency resource blocks is the same as the number of the frequency domain units included in any two time-frequency resource blocks as an example, and the unified explanation is made herein, and the description is omitted.

One possible implementation, the number of time-frequency resource blocks (i.e. the value of N) comprised by the BWP is predefined by the protocol or indicated by the network device. In this way, the terminal may determine, according to the number of time-frequency resource blocks included in the BWP and the operating bandwidth of the terminal, the occupied time-frequency resource of each of the N time-frequency resource blocks.

The network device sends the second indication information to the terminal, and the terminal receives the second indication information. Wherein the second indication information is used for indicating the number of time-frequency resource blocks included in the BWP. For example, the second indication information includes the number of time-frequency resource blocks included in BWP or N.

It can be understood that the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal and the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal in any one time-frequency resource block are related to the number of antenna ports used by the terminal for transmitting the reference signal or the uplink transmission layer number of the terminal.

One possible design is that the product of the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal and the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal in any one time-frequency resource block is equal to the number of antenna ports used by the terminal to transmit the reference signal or the uplink transmission layer number of the terminal. Or, the number of REs occupied by the reference signal on any one time-frequency resource block is equal to the number of antenna ports used for transmitting the reference signal by the terminal or the uplink transmission layer number of the terminal.

As an example, if the number of antenna ports used by the terminal to transmit the reference signal is 4, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1, and the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 4, that is, the reference signal occupies 4 REs; or if the number of antenna ports used by the terminal for transmitting the reference signal is 4, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 2, and similarly, the reference signal occupies 4 REs.

Optionally, the network device further sends first indication information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the first indication information. The first indication information is used for indicating M time-frequency resource blocks. For example, the first indication information includes an index of each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. In this way, the terminal can determine the time-frequency resource occupied by each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. Or the terminal determines M time-frequency resource blocks according to the scheduling information sent by the network equipment previously.

3. Third information

In the embodiment of the present application, the third information is used to indicate a frequency domain offset of the first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks relative to the reference time-frequency resource. Wherein the reference time-frequency resource and the first time-frequency resource are located on the same time-frequency resource block. The frequency domain offset in the embodiments of the present application may be a positive integer, 0, or a negative integer.

Wherein the first time-frequency resource is used for transmitting/bearing the reference signal. Each of the M time-frequency resource blocks includes a first time-frequency resource for transmitting/carrying a reference signal. Therefore, the number of the first time-frequency resources is M, and the M first time-frequency resources are located on the M time-frequency resource blocks respectively. The size of the first time-frequency resource is determined by the first information and the second information. For example, the number of time domain units occupied by the first time-frequency resource is equal to the number of time domain units indicated by the first information, and the number of frequency domain units occupied by the first time-frequency resource is equal to the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located. Each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources corresponds to a frequency domain offset, and the frequency domain offset corresponding to any one first time-frequency resource is the frequency domain offset of the first time-frequency resource relative to the reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located.

In one possible implementation, the frequency domain offsets corresponding to the first time-frequency resources in the M time-frequency resource blocks are the same, and the third information is used to indicate the frequency domain offset corresponding to any one of the first time-frequency resources.

In one example, the third information may include one or more bit values. For example, the third information includes a bit value, and when the bit value is 0, it indicates that the frequency domain offset is 0; when the bit value is1, it indicates that the frequency domain offset is 1. For another example, the third information includes two bit values, and when the bit value is 00, it indicates that the frequency domain offset is 0; when the bit value is 01, the frequency domain offset is1, and when the bit value is 10, the frequency domain offset is 2; when the bit value is 11, it indicates that the frequency domain offset is 3; and so on.

In another example, the third information includesA bit value; wherein Q represents the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks,/>Representing a round-up function. When the/>When the lowest (LEAST SIGNIFICANT) bit in the bits takes a value of 0, the frequency domain offset is 0; when the lowest bit value is 1, the frequency domain offset is 1; when the/>When the lowest two bits in the bits are 10, the frequency domain offset is 2; when the lowest two-bit value is 11, the frequency domain offset is 3; and so on.

It can be understood that if the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals scheduled by the network device for a period of time for transmitting the reference signal are the same, or the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals accessing the network device for transmitting the reference signal are the same, the third information includesA bit value; where L represents the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams, and P represents the number of time-domain units occupied by the reference signal. When the/>When the lowest (LEAST SIGNIFICANT) bit in the bits takes a value of 0, the frequency domain offset is 0; when the lowest bit value is 1, the frequency domain offset is represented as L; when the/>When the lowest two bits in the bits are 10, the frequency domain offset is 2L; when the lowest two-bit value is 11, the frequency domain offset is 3L; and so on.

In yet another example, the third information comprises a bit map (bitmap) of length Q; where Q is the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. When the lowest bit value of the bit map is 1, the frequency domain offset is 0; when the last low bit of the bit map is 1, the frequency domain offset is 1; when the last low bit of the bit map is 1, the frequency domain offset is 2; and so on.

The reference time-frequency resource is any 1 block of time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located. For example, the reference time-frequency resource is any 1 RE on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located.

Alternatively, the network device may indicate to the terminal frequency domain resource information referencing the time-frequency resource. The network device also sends third indication information to the terminal, and the terminal receives the third indication information. The third indication information is used for indicating frequency domain resource information of reference time-frequency resources on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, that is, indicating which frequency domain resource or resources the reference time-frequency resources on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks occupy on the time-frequency resource block where the reference time-frequency resources are located. For example, the third indication information includes an index of frequency domain resources occupied by the reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks on the time-frequency resource block where it is located. In this way, the terminal can determine the frequency domain resource occupied by the reference time-frequency resource according to the third indication information, and further determine the time-frequency resource occupied by the first time-frequency resource by combining the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information and the number of the frequency domain units indicated by the second information. It should be understood that if the network device does not send the third indication information to the terminal, it indicates that the reference time-frequency resource is the time-frequency resource containing the frequency domain unit with the smallest index in the time-frequency resource block where the reference time-frequency resource is located, or the reference time-frequency resource is the time-frequency resource containing the frequency domain unit with the largest index in the time-frequency resource block where the reference time-frequency resource is located.

It is understood that the relative locations of the reference time-frequency resources on different time-frequency resource blocks may be the same or different. Specifically, the offset of the reference time-frequency resource on the first time-frequency resource block relative to the starting time-frequency resource on the first time-frequency resource block is the same as or different from the offset of the reference time-frequency resource on the second time-frequency resource block relative to the starting time-frequency resource on the second time-frequency resource block.

Wherein the first time-frequency resource block and the second time-frequency resource block are any two time-frequency resource blocks in M time-frequency resource blocks. The initial time-frequency resource on the first time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the minimum index and a time domain unit with the minimum index on the first time-frequency resource block; the starting time-frequency resource on the second time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the smallest index and a time domain unit with the smallest index on the second time-frequency resource block. Or the initial time-frequency resource on the first time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the largest index and a time domain unit with the smallest index on the first time-frequency resource block; the starting time-frequency resource on the second time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the largest index and a time domain unit with the smallest index on the second time-frequency resource block. Or the initial time-frequency resource on the first time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the maximum index and a time domain unit with the maximum index on the first time-frequency resource block; the starting time-frequency resource on the second time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the largest index and a time domain unit with the largest index on the second time-frequency resource block. Or the initial time-frequency resource on the first time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the minimum index and a time domain unit with the maximum index on the first time-frequency resource block; the starting time-frequency resource on the second time-frequency resource block comprises a time-frequency resource consisting of a frequency domain unit with the smallest index and a time domain unit with the largest index on the second time-frequency resource block.

For example, taking the example that the BWP of the terminal includes 10 time-frequency resource blocks, if M is equal to 2, the terminal transmits reference signals to the network device on time-frequency resource 1 and time-frequency resource 2. Wherein time frequency resource 1 and time frequency resource 2 are located on different time frequency resource blocks of the 10 time frequency resource blocks. The number of time domain units occupied by the time-frequency resource 1 is the same as the number of time domain units occupied by the time-frequency resource 2, for example, both are 1 OFDM symbol or 2 OFDM symbols. The number of frequency domain units included in the time-frequency resource 1 is the same as the number of frequency domain units included in the time-frequency resource 2, and is, for example, 2 subcarriers. The offset of time-frequency resource 1 relative to the reference time-frequency resource 1 on the time-frequency resource block where it is located and the offset of time-frequency resource 2 relative to the reference time-frequency resource 2 on the time-frequency resource block where it is located may be the same or different. The offset of the reference time-frequency resource 1 relative to the initial time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block where the time-frequency resource 1 is located may be the same as or different from the offset of the reference time-frequency resource 2 relative to the initial time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block where the time-frequency resource 2 is located.

It may be appreciated that if the frequency domain offsets corresponding to the M first time-frequency resources are the same, that is, the frequency domain offsets of the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks are the same, the third information includes a third field, where the third field is used to indicate the frequency domain offset. The frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource in the M time-frequency resource blocks is not identical, that is, the frequency domain offsets corresponding to at least two first time-frequency resources in the M first time-frequency resources are not identical or the frequency domain offset of the reference signal on each time-frequency resource block in the M time-frequency resource blocks is not identical, the third information includes M fourth fields, and each fourth field in the M fourth fields is used for indicating the frequency domain offset on each time-frequency resource block in the M time-frequency resource blocks respectively.

In this case, in one example, the third information may include M shares of one or more bit values, corresponding to the third information example described above. Wherein one or more bit values in the M shares represent a frequency domain offset corresponding to a first one of the M time-frequency resource blocks. In another example, the third information includes M sharesA bit value; where Q represents the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. Wherein one of M partsThe bit values represent a frequency domain offset corresponding to a first one of the M time-frequency resource blocks. It can be understood that if the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals scheduled by the network device for a period of time for transmitting the reference signal are the same, or the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the plurality of terminals accessing the network device for transmitting the reference signal are the same, the third information includes M parts/>A bit value; wherein L represents the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams, P represents the number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, and one of M parts/>The bit values represent a frequency domain offset corresponding to a first one of the M time-frequency resource blocks. In yet another example, the third information includes an M-bit bitmap (bitmap); wherein the bit length of the bit map is the number of frequency domain units contained in each of the M time-frequency resource blocks. Wherein one bit in the M shares maps a frequency domain offset corresponding to one first time-frequency resource in the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In the embodiment of the present application, any one of the M first time-frequency resources may include a time-frequency resource that is continuous in the frequency domain, or include a time-frequency resource that is discontinuous in the frequency domain. If the first time-frequency resource includes a time-frequency resource that is continuous in the frequency domain, one first time-frequency resource corresponds to one frequency domain offset. If the first time-frequency resource includes a time-frequency resource discontinuous in the frequency domain, one first time-frequency resource corresponds to a plurality of frequency domain offsets. The details are set forth below.

For the case where the first time-frequency resource comprises a time-frequency resource that is contiguous in the frequency domain:

The frequency domain offset corresponding to the first time-frequency resource is the frequency domain offset of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the first time-frequency resource relative to the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the reference time-frequency resource, or the frequency domain offset of the frequency domain unit with the largest index of the reference time-frequency resource relative to the frequency domain unit with the largest index of the first time-frequency resource, or the frequency domain offset of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the first time-frequency resource relative to the frequency domain unit with the largest index of the reference time-frequency resource.

For example, taking the frequency domain offset corresponding to the first time-frequency resource as an example, the frequency domain offset of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the first time-frequency resource is compared with the frequency domain offset of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the reference time-frequency resource, the frequency domain offset corresponding to the first time-frequency resource is the difference between the index of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the first time-frequency resource and the index of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the reference time-frequency resource. For example, if the minimum index value of the frequency domain unit included in the reference time-frequency resource is 0 and the minimum index value of the frequency domain unit included in the first time-frequency resource is 5, the frequency domain offset corresponding to the first time-frequency resource is 5. If one frequency domain unit corresponds to one subcarrier, the frequency domain offset is 5 subcarriers.

For the case where the first time-frequency resource comprises a time-frequency resource that is discontinuous in the frequency domain:

In this case, one first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of second time-frequency resources that are non-adjacent in the frequency domain, that is, a frequency domain unit having the smallest index of one second time-frequency resource and a frequency domain unit having the largest index of another second time-frequency resource are non-adjacent. The frequency domain offset corresponding to the first time-frequency resource includes a frequency domain offset of each of the plurality of second time-frequency resources relative to the reference time-frequency resource. That is, the first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of second time-frequency resources discontinuous in the frequency domain, and the frequency domain offset corresponding to the first time-frequency resource includes a frequency domain offset of each second time-frequency resource with respect to the reference time-frequency resource.

The frequency domain offset of any one of the second time-frequency resources with respect to the reference time-frequency resource may be understood as a frequency domain offset of a frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the second time-frequency resources with respect to a frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the reference time-frequency resources, or a frequency domain offset of a frequency domain unit with the largest index of the second time-frequency resources with respect to a frequency domain unit with the largest index of the reference time-frequency resources, or a frequency domain offset of a frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the second time-frequency resources with respect to a frequency domain unit with the largest index of the reference time-frequency resources, or a frequency domain offset of a frequency domain unit with the largest index of the second time-frequency resources with respect to a frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the reference time-frequency resources.

Optionally, in case the first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of second time-frequency resources, the network device further sends fourth indication information to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives fourth indication information. The fourth indication information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units included in each of the plurality of second time-frequency resources. In this way, the terminal may determine a time-frequency resource occupied by each of the plurality of second time-frequency resources. It may be understood that if the first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of second time-frequency resources, but the network device does not send the fourth indication information to the terminal, it indicates that the number of frequency domain units included in each of the plurality of second time-frequency resources is the same.

For example, taking the first time-frequency resource including two second time-frequency resources, namely time-frequency resource 1 and time-frequency resource 2, respectively, where the index of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located is 0, the frequency domain offset of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the time-frequency resource 1 relative to the frequency domain unit with the smallest index in the reference time-frequency resource is 2, the frequency domain offset of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the time-frequency resource 2 relative to the frequency domain unit with the smallest index in the reference time-frequency resource is 8, the number of the frequency domain units included in the first time-frequency resource is 8 as an example, if the network device does not send the fourth indication information, the terminal may determine that the index of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the time-frequency resource 1 is 2, and the number of occupied frequency domain units with the smallest index of the time-frequency resource 2 is 4, and the number of occupied frequency domain units is 4. If the network device sends the fourth indication information and the fourth indication information indicates that the number of frequency domain units included in the time-frequency resource 1 is 2 and the number of frequency domain units included in the time-frequency resource 2 is 6, the terminal may determine that the index of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the time-frequency resource 1 is 2 and the number of occupied frequency domain units is 2, the index of the frequency domain unit with the smallest index of the time-frequency resource 2 is 8 and the number of occupied frequency domain units is 6.

S502: the terminal transmits a reference signal to the network device on M first time-frequency resources. Accordingly, the network device receives reference signals from the terminal on M first time-frequency resources.

In this step, the terminal transmits a reference signal according to the first information, the second information, and the third information. It may be understood that the terminal determines, according to the first information, the number of time-domain units occupied by the reference signal, determines, according to the second information, the number of frequency-domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks, determines, according to the third information, the frequency-domain offset of the first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks with respect to the reference time-frequency resource, and determines, according to the first information, the second information, and the third information, each of the M first time-frequency resources.

It will be appreciated that in one possible implementation, the starting time domain resource location of each of the M first time frequency resources is predefined by the protocol. For example, the first OFDM symbol or the third OFDM symbol in the slot is the starting symbol of the first time-frequency resource. Thus, the terminal receives the first information from the network device, and can determine the time domain resource occupied by each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources. In this case, the starting time domain resource position of each of the M first time frequency resources is the same.

In another possible implementation, the starting time domain resource location of each of the M first time frequency resources is indicated to the terminal by the network device. For example, the network device transmits fifth indication information to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the fifth indication information. The fifth indication information is used for indicating a starting time domain resource position of each first time frequency resource in the M first time frequency resources, namely an index of a time domain unit with the minimum index in each first time frequency resource in the M first time frequency resources.

One possible design is that the starting time domain resource location of each of the M first time frequency resources is the same. In this case, the fifth indication information indicates a starting time domain resource position of any one of the M first time frequency resources. For example, the fifth indication information includes an index of a time domain unit having the smallest index in any one of the first time-frequency resources. In this way, the terminal may determine, according to the fifth indication information and the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the first information, a time domain resource occupied by each first time-frequency resource in the M first time-frequency resources.

In the embodiment of the present application, information sent by the network device to the terminal, for example: one or more of the first information, the second information, the third information, the first indication information, the second indication information, the third indication information, the fourth indication information or the fifth indication information may be carried in one message and sent to the terminal, or may be carried in a different message and sent to the terminal, without limitation.

Optionally, the message for carrying the above information is a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message and/or downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI). For example, the network device transmits an RRC message to the terminal, the RRC message including first information, second information, third information, first indication information, second indication information, third indication information, fourth indication information, and fifth indication information. For another example, the network device transmits DCI including first information, second information, third information, first indication information, second indication information, third indication information, fourth indication information, and fifth indication information to the terminal. For another example, the network device sends an RRC message and DCI, respectively, to the terminal, wherein the RRC message includes first information, second information, and third information, and the DCI includes first indication information, second indication information, third indication information, fourth indication information, and fifth indication information. It should be understood that any one of the first information, the second information, the third information, the first indication information, the second indication information, the third indication information, the fourth indication information, and the fifth indication information may be carried in an RRC message or DCI.

It will be appreciated that the actions of the network device or terminal in S501-S502 described above may be performed by the processor 401 in the communication apparatus 40 shown in fig. 4 invoking application code stored in the memory 403, which is not limited in any way by the embodiment of the present application.

Based on the method shown in fig. 5, the network device may indicate to the terminal the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal in each time-frequency resource block, and the frequency domain offset corresponding to the first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal in each time-frequency resource block, so that the terminal may send the reference signal to the network device on M first time-frequency resources according to the indication of the network device. In this way, after the network device receives the reference signal, it can observe the channel state information of the M first time-frequency resources according to the reference signal, and infer the channel state information of other time-frequency resources in the full band (e.g. the working bandwidth of the terminal) according to the statistical information and the observation results of the M first time-frequency resources. On one hand, because the channel has sparsity in an angle-time delay domain, the full-band channel can be sparsely represented by a plurality of space-frequency statistical substrates and corresponding coefficients, and the full-band channel can be recovered as long as the plurality of statistical substrates and the coefficients are known. Typically, the statistical base may be obtained from historical SRS channel estimates. Therefore, for any terminal accessing to the network device, the network device can obtain channel observations on a plurality of subcarriers, such as channel observations on M first time-frequency resources, and then estimate more channel state information on time-frequency resources based on the observations and the statistical base, thereby significantly reducing the resource overhead of the reference signal. On the other hand, compared to the conventional DMRS scheme, in the method shown in fig. 5, the reference signal transmitted by any one terminal occupies less time-frequency resources than the conventional DMRS. In this way, the method shown in fig. 5 can support more terminals to send data and reference signals under the same bandwidth, so as to improve the performance of PUSCH. Therefore, the method provided by the embodiment of the application can more effectively increase the DMRS ports.

Optionally, in one possible scenario (hereinafter referred to as scenario 1) of the method shown in fig. 5, M time-frequency resource blocks are related to scheduling data (e.g. PUSCH), for example, M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks scheduled by a network device for sending PUSCH, where M is less than or equal to N. In other words, in scenario 1, for any one terminal, the operating bandwidth of the terminal may be divided into N time-frequency resource blocks according to the granularity of the scheduling subband, where the M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks scheduled to the terminal by the network device in the N time-frequency resource blocks. It can be understood that in case 1, the reference signal and PUSCH are transmitted with the same subcarrier, i.e., the OFDM symbol carrying the reference signal and the OFDM symbol carrying the PUSCH are located in the same slot, but the OFDM symbol carrying the reference signal and the OFDM symbol carrying the PUSCH are different. For example, the reference signal is carried on OFDM symbol 2 and OFDM symbol 3 in subcarrier 1 and slot 1, the PUSCH is carried on symbols other than OFDM symbol 2 and OFDM symbol 3 in subcarrier 1 and slot 1, or the PUSCH is carried on OFDM symbols 4 to 6 in subcarrier 1 and slot 1.

In one possible implementation, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal may be determined according to the number of terminals scheduled at one time by the network device. The number of terminals scheduled at a time may be understood as the number of terminals scheduled by the network device in a period of time. It can be appreciated that the more the number of terminals scheduled at a time, the more the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, and the fewer the number of terminals scheduled at a time, the fewer the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal. For example, if the number of terminals scheduled at a time is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the reference signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols, so that more orthogonal resources can be allocated to more terminals; if the number of the terminals scheduled at one time is smaller than the first threshold, the reference signal occupies 1 OFDM symbol, so that the complexity of terminal implementation is reduced.

Optionally, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is further determined according to the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each terminal to transmit the reference signal in the terminals scheduled by the network device at a time. Under the condition that the number of terminals scheduled at one time is fixed, the number of terminals with more antenna ports (or data stream numbers) is larger, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signals is larger, so that more orthogonal resources can be allocated to more terminals, the number of terminals with more antenna ports (or data stream numbers) is smaller, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signals is smaller, and the complexity of terminal implementation is reduced.

Taking 50 terminals as an example, if the number of antenna ports for transmitting reference signals of 40 terminals in the 50 terminals is 4 and the number of antenna ports for transmitting reference signals of 10 terminals is 2, the reference signals occupy 2 OFDM symbols; if the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signal of 15 terminals among the 50 terminals is 4 and the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signal of 35 terminals is 2, the reference signal occupies 1 OFDM symbol.

The following describes patterns (patterns) in which the operating bandwidth of the terminal may exist, taking the case that the reference signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols and the reference signal occupies 1 OFDM symbol, respectively. The pattern of the working bandwidth of the terminal may reflect the time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal sent by the terminal on the working bandwidth.

For example, if the network device schedules the terminals 1 to k to transmit data, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to k are the same, the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signals by the terminals 1 to k is 4, and the reference signals occupy 2 OFDM symbols, then the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to k may be as shown in fig. 6A. Wherein k is an integer greater than 1. In fig. 6A, the operating bandwidths of terminals 1 to k include W REs in the frequency domain, and the W REs are equally divided into N time-frequency resource blocks according to granularity of a scheduling subband (e.g., the scheduling subband includes 4 RBs), each time-frequency resource block including 4 RBs. If the time-frequency resource block 1 is a resource block scheduled by the network device to the terminal 1 to the terminal k for data transmission, and the reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block 1 is the first RE on the time-frequency resource block 1 (i.e. the RE with the largest index on the time-frequency resource block 1), then for the terminal 1, the number of time-domain units occupied by the first information indication reference signal is 2, the number of frequency-domain units occupied by the second information indication reference signal on the time-frequency resource block 1 is 2, and the frequency-domain offset indicated by the third information is 0, so that the terminal 1 sends the reference signal on the time-frequency resource 601. For terminal 2, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates the reference signal is 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information on the time-frequency resource block 1 is 2, and the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information is 2, so that terminal 2 transmits the reference signal on the time-frequency resource 602. For terminal 3, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the reference signal occupies 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information occupies 2 on time-frequency resource block 1, the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information indicates 4, so that terminal 3 transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 603, and so on, for terminal k, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the reference signal occupies 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information occupies 2 on time-frequency resource block 1, and the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information indicates 2 x (k-1), so that terminal k transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 604. The time-frequency resource 605 may be used to transmit the PUSCH of terminal 1 to terminal k. In addition, the time-frequency resource blocks 2 to N may also be used for transmitting PUSCH of the terminals 1 to k.

It can be appreciated that for fig. 6A, on time-frequency resource block 1,4 consecutive REs form one CDM group to transmit the reference signal. Wherein, 4 consecutive REs refer to 4 REs in the case of considering both the frequency domain and the time domain, that is, the 4 REs occupy 2 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 2 consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. For example, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 601 constitute CDM group1, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 602 constitute CDM group2, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 603 constitute CDM group 3, and so on, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 604 constitute CDM group k. The 4 consecutive REs may adopt a Time Domain (TD) -occ2+ Frequency Domain (FD) -OCC2 to form one OCC4 for implementing orthogonality, and frequency division multiplexing (frequency division multiplexing, FDM) is adopted between different terminals for implementing orthogonality, so as to improve channel estimation quality.

It can be appreciated that if time-frequency resource block 2 is also a resource block scheduled by the network device to terminal 1, and for terminal 1, the pattern of time-frequency resource block 2 is the same as the pattern of time-frequency resource block 1 (i.e. the frequency domain offset of the time-frequency resource of terminal 1 transmitting the reference signal on time-frequency resource block 2 relative to the starting time-frequency resource of time-frequency resource block 2 is the same as the offset of the time-frequency resource of terminal 1 transmitting the reference signal on time-frequency resource block 1 relative to the starting time-frequency resource of time-frequency resource block 1, and the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal of terminal 1 transmitted on time-frequency resource block 2 is the same as the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal of terminal 1 transmitted on time-frequency resource block 1), then terminal 1 transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource block 2 in the same pattern as that of time-frequency resource block 1, e.g. terminal 1 transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 606. If the time-frequency resource block 2 is also a resource block scheduled to the terminal 1 by the network device, but for the terminal 1, the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 2 is different from the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 1, and the network device may indicate to the terminal 1, for example, the third information indicates, in addition to the frequency-domain offset of the first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal on the time-frequency resource block 1 relative to the reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block 1, the frequency-domain offset of the first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal on the time-frequency resource block 2 relative to the reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block 2. Accordingly, the terminal 1 determines the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 2 according to the indication of the network device.

Similarly, if time-frequency resource block 2 is also a resource block that the network device schedules to terminals 2 to k, and for terminals 2 to k, the pattern of time-frequency resource block 2 is the same as the pattern of time-frequency resource block 1, then terminals 2 to k transmit reference signals on time-frequency resource block 2 in the same pattern as time-frequency resource block 1, e.g., terminal 2 transmits reference signals on time-frequency resource 607, terminal 3 transmits reference signals on time-frequency resource 608, and so on, terminal k transmits reference signals on time-frequency resource 609. The time-frequency resource 610 may be used to transmit PUSCH of terminal 1 to terminal k. If the time-frequency resource block 2 is also a resource block scheduled to the terminal 2 to the terminal k by the network device, and for the terminal 2 to the terminal k, the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 2 is different from the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 1, and the terminal 2 to the terminal k determine the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 2 according to the instruction of the network device.

For example, if the network device schedules the terminals 1 to p to transmit data, the working bandwidths of the terminals 1 to p are the same, the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signals by the terminals 1 to p is 8, and the reference signals occupy 2 OFDM symbols, and the working bandwidths of the terminals 1 to p may be as shown in fig. 6B. Wherein p is an integer greater than 1. In fig. 6B, the operating bandwidth of the terminal 1 to the terminal p includes W REs in the frequency domain, and the W REs are equally divided into N time-frequency resource blocks according to granularity of a scheduling subband (e.g., the scheduling subband includes 4 RBs), each time-frequency resource block includes 4 RBs. If the time-frequency resource block 2 is a resource block scheduled by the network device to the terminal 1 to the terminal p for data transmission, and the reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block 2 is the first RE on the time-frequency resource block 2 (i.e. the RE with the largest index on the time-frequency resource block 2), then for the terminal 1, the number of time-domain units occupied by the first information indication reference signal is 2, the number of frequency-domain units occupied by the second information indication reference signal on the time-frequency resource block 2 is 4, and the frequency-domain offset indicated by the third information is 0, so that the terminal 1 sends the reference signal on the time-frequency resource 611. For terminal 2, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the reference signal occupies 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information occupies 4 on time-frequency resource block 2, the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information is 4, so terminal 2 transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 612, and so on, for terminal p, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the reference signal occupies 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information occupies 4 on time-frequency resource block 2, and the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information is 4 x (p-1), so terminal p transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 613. The time-frequency resource 614 may be used to transmit PUSCH for terminal 1 to terminal p. In addition, the time-frequency resource block 1, the time-frequency resource block 3 to the time-frequency resource block N may also be used for transmitting PUSCH of the terminal 1 to the terminal p.

It can be appreciated that for fig. 6B, on time-frequency resource block 2, 8 consecutive REs form one CDM group to transmit the reference signal. Wherein, the consecutive 8 REs refer to 8 REs in the case of considering both the frequency domain and the time domain, that is, the 8 REs occupy 4 consecutive REs in the frequency domain and 2 consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. For example, 8 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 611 constitute CDM group 1, 8 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 612 constitute CDM group 2, and so on, 8 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 613 constitute CDM group. The 8 continuous REs can adopt TD-OCC2+FD-OCC4 to form one OCC8 for realizing orthogonality, and different terminals adopt FDM for realizing orthogonality so as to improve channel estimation quality.

For example, if the network device schedules the terminals 1 to r to transmit data, the working bandwidths of the terminals 1 to r are the same, the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signals by the terminals 1 to r is 4, and the reference signals occupy 1 OFDM symbol, and the working bandwidths of the terminals 1 to r may be as shown in fig. 6C. Wherein r is an integer greater than 1. In fig. 6C, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to r include W REs in the frequency domain, and the W REs are equally divided into N time-frequency resource blocks according to granularity of a scheduling subband (e.g., the scheduling subband includes 2 RBs), each time-frequency resource block including 2 RBs in the frequency domain. If the time-frequency resource block 2 is a resource block scheduled by the network device to the terminal 1 to the terminal r for data transmission, and the reference time-frequency resource on the time-frequency resource block 2 is the first RE on the time-frequency resource block 2 (i.e. the RE with the largest index on the time-frequency resource block 2), then for the terminal 1, the number of time-domain units occupied by the first information indication reference signal is 1, the number of frequency-domain units occupied by the second information indication reference signal on the time-frequency resource block 2 is 4, and the frequency-domain offset indicated by the third information is 0, so that the terminal 1 sends the reference signal on the time-frequency resource 621. For terminal 2, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information on time-frequency resource block 2 is 4, the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information is 4, so that terminal 2 transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 622, and so on, for terminal r, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information on time-frequency resource block 2 is 4, the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information is 4 x (r-1), so that terminal r transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 623. The time-frequency resource 624 may be used for transmitting PUSCH of terminal 1 to terminal r. In addition, the time-frequency resource block 1, the time-frequency resource block 3 to the time-frequency resource block N may also be used for transmitting PUSCH of the terminal 1 to the terminal r.

It can be appreciated that for fig. 6C, on time-frequency resource block 2, 4 consecutive REs form one CDM group to transmit the reference signal. For example, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 621 constitute CDM group 1,4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 622 constitute CDM group 2, and so on, and 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 623 constitute CDM group r. Wherein, the 4 continuous REs can adopt FD-OCC4 to form one OCC4 to realize orthogonality, and different terminals adopt FDM to realize orthogonality so as to improve channel estimation quality.

It can be appreciated that if the number of terminals scheduled by the network device at a time is greater, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal may be configured to be 2, so that more orthogonal resources may be allocated to more terminals. If the number of terminals scheduled by the network device at one time is small, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal can be configured to be 1, so that the complexity of terminal implementation is reduced.

It can be understood that if the delay spread of the terminal is larger, the frequency selectivity is stronger, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal can be configured to be 2, so as to reduce the number of continuous frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal, thereby reducing the frequency domain difference between the frequency domain unit with the minimum index and the frequency domain unit with the maximum index in the first time-frequency resource, and further improving the quality of channel estimation. If the delay spread of the terminal is smaller, the frequency selectivity is weaker, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal can be configured to be 1, so that the complexity of terminal implementation is reduced.

It will be appreciated that for scenario 1, upon receipt of a reference signal, the network device may demodulate data transmitted with the reference signal based on the reference signal. For example, if the reference signal is a DMRS, the equivalent channel of the data is the same as the equivalent channel of the DMRS, and the network device demodulates the data according to the equivalent signal of the DMRS; if the reference signal is an NP DMRS, the equivalent channel of the data is the same as the product of the channel of the NP DMRS and the precoding matrix indicated by the TPMI, and the network device demodulates the data using the product of the channel of the NP DMRS and the precoding matrix indicated by the TPMI as the estimated equivalent channel. In addition, the network device may further observe channel state information of the M first time-frequency resources, and infer channel state information of M time-frequency resource blocks scheduled by the network device according to the statistical information and observation results on the M first time-frequency resources.

In addition, compared with the traditional DMRS transmission method, the method provided by the embodiment of the application has fewer time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal. Taking the time-frequency resource mapping manner shown in fig. 2B and fig. 6A as an example, in fig. 2B, for a terminal, the existing dual-symbol Type 2DMRS occupies at least 8 REs on one RB, while in fig. 6A, for a terminal (such as terminal 1), a reference signal occupies 4 REs on one time-frequency resource block (the reference signal sent by terminal 1 occupies the time-frequency resource 601), and one time-frequency resource block includes at least one RB, that is, in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the reference signal may occupy at most 4 REs on one RB, and the channel state information of the time-frequency resource block may be deduced according to the statistics information and the observation results of the 4 REs. Therefore, the reference signals sent by each terminal occupy less time-frequency resources, and more terminals can be supported to send the reference signals under the same bandwidth, so that the performance of the PUSCH is improved.

Alternatively, in another possible scenario of the method shown in fig. 5 (hereinafter referred to as scenario 2), M time-frequency resource blocks are independent of data (e.g. PUSCH) scheduling, e.g. M is equal to N for any one terminal. It may be appreciated that in the scenario 2, the M time-frequency resource blocks may not be the time-frequency resource blocks scheduled by the network device for data transmission to the terminal, so the reference signal may not be transmitted with the PUSCH.

In one possible implementation, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal may be determined according to the number of terminals accessing the network device. The more terminals access the network device, the more time domain units the reference signal occupies, the fewer terminals access the network device, and the fewer time domain units the reference signal occupies. For example, if the number of terminals accessing the network device is greater than or equal to the second threshold, the reference signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols, so that more orthogonal resources can be allocated to more terminals; if the number of terminals accessing the network device is smaller than the second threshold, the reference signal occupies 1 OFDM symbol, so as to reduce the complexity of terminal implementation.

Optionally, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal may be further determined according to the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the terminals of the access network device to transmit the reference signal. Under the condition that the number of terminals accessing to the network equipment is fixed, the number of terminals with more antenna ports (or data stream numbers) is larger, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signals is larger, so that more orthogonal resources can be allocated to more terminals, and the number of terminals with more antenna ports (or data stream numbers) is smaller, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signals is smaller, so that the complexity of terminal implementation is reduced.

Taking the number of terminals accessing to the network device as 100 as an example, if the number of antenna ports for transmitting reference signals by 80 terminals is 4 and the number of antenna ports for transmitting reference signals by 20 terminals is 2, the reference signals occupy 2 OFDM symbols; if the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signal is 4 for 15 terminals and 2 for 85 terminals, the reference signal occupies 1 OFDM symbol.

In one possible implementation, the number N of time-frequency resource blocks may be determined according to the number of terminals accessing the network device. Optionally, the number N of time-frequency resource blocks may be further determined according to the number of antenna ports or the number of data streams used by each of the terminals of the access network device to transmit the reference signal.

For example, the more the number of terminals accessing the network device, the smaller N, the more frequency domain units on each time-frequency resource block, so that each terminal can be allocated to a time-frequency resource on each time-frequency resource block, and further, the network device can estimate channel state information of each terminal on each time-frequency resource block. The fewer the number of terminals accessing the network device, the larger N is, and the fewer frequency domain units on each time-frequency resource block are, so that the network device obtains more observation points, and the quality of channel estimation is improved.

For another example, in the case that the number of terminals accessing to the network device is fixed, the more the number of terminals with a larger number of antenna ports, the smaller N is, and then the more frequency domain units are on each time-frequency resource block, so that each terminal can allocate time-frequency resources on each time-frequency resource block, and further, the network device can estimate channel state information of each terminal on each time-frequency resource block. Under the condition that the number of terminals accessing to the network equipment is fixed, the number of terminals with more antenna ports is smaller, and N is larger, so that the frequency domain units on each time-frequency resource block are smaller, the network equipment obtains more observation points, and the quality of channel estimation is improved.

The following describes a pattern in which the operating bandwidth of the terminal may exist, taking the reference signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols and the reference signal occupies 1 OFDM symbol, respectively as examples.

For example, if the terminals accessing to the network device include terminals 1 to s, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to s are the same, the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signal by the terminals 1 to s is 4, and the reference signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to s may be as shown in fig. 7. Wherein s is an integer greater than 1. In fig. 7, the operating bandwidth of the terminal 1 to the terminal s includes W REs in the frequency domain, which are equally divided into N time-frequency resource blocks. The patterns of any two time-frequency resource blocks in the N time-frequency resource blocks are the same. In the following, a pattern of the time-frequency resource block 1 is taken as an example, for the terminal 1, the number of time-domain units occupied by the first information indicating reference signal is 2, the number of frequency-domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information on the time-frequency resource block 1 is 2, and the frequency-domain offset indicated by the third information is 0, so that the terminal 1 transmits the reference signal on the time-frequency resource 701. For terminal 2, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates the reference signal is 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information on the time-frequency resource block 1 is 2, and the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information is 2, so that terminal 2 transmits the reference signal on the time-frequency resource 702. For terminal 3, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the reference signal occupies 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information occupies 2 on time-frequency resource block 1, the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information indicates 4, so that terminal 3 transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 703, and so on, for terminal s, the number of time domain units occupied by the first information indicates that the reference signal occupies 2, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal indicated by the second information occupies 2 on time-frequency resource block 1, and the frequency domain offset indicated by the third information indicates 2 x (s-1), so that terminal s transmits the reference signal on time-frequency resource 704. The time-frequency resource 705 may be used for transmitting PUSCH of terminal 1 to terminal s.

It can be appreciated that for fig. 7, on time-frequency resource block 1,4 consecutive REs constitute one CDM group to transmit the reference signal. Wherein, 4 consecutive REs refer to 4 REs in the case of considering both the frequency domain and the time domain, that is, the 4 REs occupy 2 consecutive REs in the frequency domain and 2 consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. For example, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 701 constitute CDM group 1,4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 702 constitute CDM group 2, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 703 constitute CDM group 3, and so on, 4 consecutive REs included in time-frequency resource 704 constitute CDM group k. The 4 continuous REs can adopt TD-OCC2+FD-OCC2 to form one OCC4 for realizing orthogonality, and different terminals adopt FDM for realizing orthogonality so as to improve channel estimation quality.

For example, if the terminals accessing to the network device include terminals 1 to p, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to p are the same, the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signal by the terminals 1 to p is 8, and the reference signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols, then the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to p may be as shown in fig. 6B. Wherein p is an integer greater than 1. In fig. 6B, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to p include W REs in the frequency domain, which are equally divided into N time-frequency resource blocks. The patterns of any two time-frequency resource blocks in the N time-frequency resource blocks are the same. The pattern of each time-frequency resource block may refer to the explanation of the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 2 in the description corresponding to fig. 6B, which is not repeated here.

For example, if the terminals accessing to the network device include terminals 1 to r, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to r are the same, the number of antenna ports for transmitting the reference signals by the terminals 1 to r is 4, and the reference signals occupy 1 OFDM symbol, then the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to r may be as shown in fig. 6C. Wherein r is an integer greater than 1. In fig. 6C, the operating bandwidths of the terminals 1 to r include W REs in the frequency domain, which are equally divided into N time-frequency resource blocks. The patterns of any two time-frequency resource blocks in the N time-frequency resource blocks are the same. The pattern of each time-frequency resource block may refer to the description corresponding to fig. 6C, and the following explanation of the pattern of the time-frequency resource block 2 is omitted here.

It can be appreciated that if the number of terminals accessing the network device is large, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal may be configured to be 2, so that more orthogonal resources may be allocated to more. If the number of terminals accessing to the network device is small, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal can be configured to be 1, so as to reduce the complexity of terminal implementation.

It can be appreciated that in case 1, the network device schedules the terminal to transmit PUSCH on which time-frequency resource blocks or to perform uplink transmission, and the terminal transmits reference signals on these time-frequency resource blocks. Thus, the network device can infer channel state information for M time-frequency resource blocks scheduled by the network device. In scenario 2, the network device transmits reference signals on N time-frequency resource blocks, so after the network device receives the reference signals on each time-frequency resource block, the network device can estimate the channel state information of the time-frequency resource block according to the reference signals on any one time-frequency resource block, and infer the uplink channel state information of the full band (i.e. the working bandwidth of the terminal) according to the statistical information and the channel state information of each time-frequency resource block. Subsequently, if the uplink and downlink channels have reciprocity, the network device may further infer downlink signal quality of the full band based on the uplink channel state information of the full band, so as to perform downlink transmission.

It can be understood that, by using the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the terminal can also avoid the problem of channel aging (CHANNEL AGING) under the condition of extending the period of the full-band SRS. Taking a reference signal as a subband DMRS and taking a transmission period of a full-band SRS as an example for explanation, the subband DMRS may be understood that the DMRS is transmitted on a part of a full-band subband, and the full-band SRS may be understood that the SRS is transmitted on the full-band subband. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal sends full-band SRS to the network device in time domain unit 1 and time domain unit 1+t, and after the network device receives the full-band SRS, the network device may observe full-band uplink channel state information according to the full-band SRS, so as to obtain statistical information. The terminal transmits the subband DMRS to the network device on time domain unit 2, time domain unit 3 and time domain unit 4. After receiving the sub-band DMRS, the network device may observe channel state information of time-frequency resources occupied by the sub-band DMRS according to the sub-band DMRS, and infer uplink channel state information of the full band according to the statistical information and the observation result. In this way, the terminal can send the full-band SRS once for a long time (namely, make T become larger), and between the adjacent time domain units sending the full-band SRS twice, the network equipment deduces the uplink channel state information of the full band by sending the sub-band DMRS, so that the downlink channel state information is obtained by utilizing the uplink and downlink reciprocity. Thus, the period for transmitting the full-band SRS can be increased, and the problem of channel aging can be avoided under the condition that the resource overhead of the SRS is reduced.

It can be appreciated that in the case 2, if the terminal transmits the reference signal in the same pattern every Transmission Time Interval (TTI) in the case of the ue, the frequency domain resources carrying data in each time-frequency resource block are fixed, and the scheduling subbands corresponding to the frequency domain resources are also fixed, and the terminals corresponding to the scheduling subbands are also fixed. Therefore, the frequency domain resource carrying data in each time-frequency resource block can only be used for transmitting data to the fixed terminals, which causes imbalance of throughput performance among the terminals. In order to solve the above problem, the terminal may transmit the reference signal in different patterns in different TTIs, and in particular, reference may be made to the following description in scenario 3.

Optionally, in another possible scenario (hereinafter referred to as scenario 3) of the method shown in fig. 5, the M time-frequency resource blocks are irrelevant to scheduling of data (such as PUSCH), for example, for any one terminal, M is equal to N, and the patterns of the M time-frequency resource blocks are different in different TTIs, so that the terminal sends the reference signal in different patterns in different TTIs. It may be appreciated that in scenario 3, the M time-frequency resource blocks may not be the time-frequency resource blocks that the network device schedules for data transmission to the terminal, so the reference signal may not be transmitted with PUSCH.

One possible design, the TTI is associated with time-frequency resources occupied by reference time-frequency resources on a time-frequency resource block. And the terminal can determine the time-frequency resources occupied by the reference time-frequency resources corresponding to different TTIs according to the association relation.

For example, the protocol predefines multiple association relationships, each association relationship may be described as a time-frequency resource occupied by a reference time-frequency resource on a time-frequency resource block corresponding to one TTI in a time period, where the time period includes multiple TTIs; the network device and the terminal both store the plurality of association relations. Or the network equipment configures the various association relations and indicates the association relations to the terminal. Thus, the terminal can determine the frequency domain resources occupied by the transmitted reference signals under different TTIs according to the association relation. For example, one time period is 4 TTIs, the association relationships may be described in that the time-frequency resources occupied by the reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block corresponding to the 1 st TTI include a frequency domain unit with an index value of 0, the time-frequency resources occupied by the reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block corresponding to the 2 nd TTI include a frequency domain unit with an index value of 2, the time-frequency resources occupied by the reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block corresponding to the 3 rd TTI include a frequency domain unit with an index value of 1, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block corresponding to the 4 TTIs include a frequency domain unit with an index value of 3.

In another possible design, the TTI may be associated with a frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource. The terminal can determine the frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource under different TTIs according to the association relation.

For example, the protocol predefines a plurality of association relationships, each association relationship may be described as a frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource corresponding to one TTI in a time period, where the time period includes a plurality of TTIs; the network equipment and the terminal both store the various association relations; or the network device configures the plurality of association relationships and indicates to the terminal (e.g., via the third information). Thus, the terminal can determine the frequency domain resources occupied by the transmitted reference signals under different TTIs according to the association relation. For example, one time period is 4 TTIs, and the association relationships may be described as that for the 1 st TTI, the frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource is 0, for the 2 nd TTI, the frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource is 1, for the 3 rd TTI, the frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource is 2, and for the 4 th TTI, the frequency domain offset corresponding to each first time-frequency resource is 3.

Illustratively, in fig. 7, for TTI 1, terminal 1 transmits a reference signal on time-frequency resource 701, terminal 2 transmits a reference signal on time-frequency resource 702, terminal 3 transmits a reference signal on time-frequency resource 703, and so on, terminal s transmits a reference signal on time-frequency resource 704. The time-frequency resource 705 may be used for transmitting PUSCH of terminal 1 to terminal s. For TTI 2, terminal 1 sends a reference signal on time-frequency resource 706, terminal 2 sends a reference signal on time-frequency resource 707, terminal 3 sends a reference signal on time-frequency resource 708, and so on, terminal s sends a reference signal on time-frequency resource 709. The time-frequency resource 710 may be used to transmit PUSCH of terminal 1 to terminal s. Thus, the frequency domain location of the reference signal is different at different TTIs for each terminal. Therefore, for different TTIs, the frequency domain positions used for transmitting data in the time-frequency resource block are changed, the scheduling sub-bands corresponding to the frequency domain positions are also changed, and the terminals corresponding to the scheduling sub-bands are also changed. That is, for different TTIs, the terminal corresponding to the frequency domain position for transmitting the PUSCH is changed, so that the terminal accessing the network device has a probability to transmit the PUSCH by using the frequency domain position where the reference signal is not transmitted, thereby improving throughput.

The above-mentioned embodiments of the present application may be combined without limitation, where the schemes are not contradictory.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly introduced from the interaction angle among the network elements. Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides a communication device, which can be the terminal in the embodiment of the method, or a device containing the terminal, or a component applicable to the terminal; or the communication device may be a network device in the above method embodiment, or an apparatus including the above network device, or a component usable with the network device. It will be appreciated that, in order to achieve the above-mentioned functions, the terminal or the network device and the like include corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the present application may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software, as a unit and algorithm operations described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It should be understood that the above description describes interactions between various network elements by way of example only, with respect to terminals and network devices. In practice, the processing performed by the terminal is not limited to being performed by a single network element, nor is the processing performed by the network device limited to being performed by a single network element. For example, the processing performed by the network device may be performed by at least one of a Central Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), and a Remote Unit (RU), respectively.

The embodiment of the application can divide the functional modules of the terminal or the network equipment according to the method example, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, and two or more functions can be integrated in one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be understood that the division of the modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in practice.

For example, in the case where the respective functional modules are divided in an integrated manner, fig. 9 shows a schematic configuration of a communication apparatus 90. The communication device 90 comprises a transceiver module 901 and a processing module 902. The transceiver module 901, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is configured to perform a transceiver operation, and may be, for example, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, or a communication interface. The processing module 902, which may also be referred to as a processing unit, may be configured to perform operations other than transceiving operations, for example, may be a processing circuit or a processor, etc.

In some embodiments, the communication device 90 may also include a memory module (not shown in fig. 9) for storing program instructions and data.

The communication device 90 is illustratively used to implement the functionality of the terminal. The communication device 90 is, for example, a terminal as described in the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

The transceiver module 901 is configured to receive first information, second information, and third information from a network device. The first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of first time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks relative to reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resources are located, and the size of each of the M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information. For example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform S501.

A processing module 902, configured to generate reference signals on M first time-frequency resources.

The transceiver module 901 is further configured to send a reference signal to a network device. For example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform S502.

In one possible implementation, the M time-frequency resource blocks are part or all of N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to receive first indication information from a network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, any two time-frequency resource blocks of the N time-frequency resource blocks include the same number of time-frequency units.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to receive second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate the number of N time-frequency resource blocks included in the BWP.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to receive third indication information from the network device, where the third indication information is used to indicate frequency domain resource information of the reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, in a case that the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is the same, the second information includes a first field, where the first field is used to indicate the number of frequency domain units occupied by any one of the M time-frequency resource blocks; in the case that the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is not exactly the same, the second information includes M second fields, each of the M second fields being used to indicate the number of frequency domain units occupied by each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, in a case that the frequency domain offset of the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is the same, the third information includes a third field, where the third field is used to indicate the frequency domain offset; in case that the frequency domain offset of the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is not exactly the same, the third information comprises M fourth fields, each of the M fourth fields being for indicating the frequency domain offset on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1 or 2.

In one possible implementation, the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1, 2, 4 or 8.

In one possible implementation, any one of the first information, the second information, and the third information is carried in a radio resource control message or downlink control information.

When used to implement the functions of the terminal, reference is made to the relevant description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5 for other functions that can be implemented by the communication device 90, which will not be repeated.

Or, illustratively, the communication means 90 is for implementing the functionality of the network device. The communication device 90 is, for example, a network apparatus as described in the embodiment shown in fig. 5.

The processing module 902 is configured to generate first information, second information, and third information. The first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of first time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks relative to reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resources are located, and the size of each of the M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information.

The transceiver module 901 is configured to send the first information, the second information, and the third information to the terminal. For example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform S501.

The transceiver module 901 is further configured to receive reference signals from a terminal on M first time-frequency resources. For example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform S502.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to send first indication information to the terminal, where the first indication information is used to indicate M time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, any two of the N time-frequency resource blocks include the same number of frequency domain units.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to send second indication information to the terminal, where the second indication information is used to indicate the number of time-frequency resource blocks included in the BWP.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to send third indication information to the terminal, where the third indication information is used to indicate frequency domain resource information of the reference time-frequency resource on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

When used to implement the functions of the network device, reference may be made to the description of the embodiment shown in fig. 5 for other functions that can be implemented by the communication apparatus 90, which will not be repeated.

In a simple embodiment, one skilled in the art will recognize that the communication device 90 may take the form shown in FIG. 4. For example, the processor 401 in fig. 4 may cause the communication device 90 to perform the method described in the above-described method embodiment by calling a computer-executable instruction stored in the memory 403.

Illustratively, the functions/implementations of the transceiver module 901 and the processing module 902 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the processor 401 in fig. 4 invoking computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 403. Or the functions/implementation of the processing module 902 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the processor 401 in fig. 4 invoking computer executable instructions stored in the memory 403, and the functions/implementation of the transceiver module 901 in fig. 9 may be implemented by the communication interface 404 in fig. 4.

It is to be understood that one or more of the above modules or units may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. When any of the above modules or units are implemented in software, the software exists in the form of computer program instructions and is stored in a memory, a processor can be used to execute the program instructions and implement the above method flows. The processor may be built in a SoC (system on a chip) or ASIC, or may be a separate semiconductor chip. The processor may further include necessary hardware accelerators, such as field programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGAs), PLDs (programmable logic devices), or logic circuits implementing dedicated logic operations, in addition to the cores for executing software instructions for operation or processing.

When the above modules or units are implemented in hardware, the hardware may be any one or any combination of a CPU, microprocessor, digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip, micro control unit (microcontroller unit, MCU), artificial intelligence processor, ASIC, soC, FPGA, PLD, special purpose digital circuitry, hardware accelerator, or non-integrated discrete devices that may run the necessary software or that do not rely on software to perform the above method flows.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, including: at least one processor and an interface, the at least one processor being coupled with the memory through the interface, the at least one processor, when executing the computer programs or instructions in the memory, causing the method of any of the method embodiments described above to be performed. In one possible implementation, the system on a chip further includes a memory. Alternatively, the chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices, which are not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer readable storage medium. All or part of the flow in the above method embodiments may be implemented by a computer program to instruct related hardware, where the program may be stored in the above computer readable storage medium, and when the program is executed, the program may include the flow in the above method embodiments. The computer readable storage medium may be an internal storage unit of the communication device of any of the foregoing embodiments, such as a hard disk or a memory of the communication device. The computer-readable storage medium may be an external storage device of the communication apparatus, for example, a plug-in hard disk, a smart card (SMART MEDIA CARD, SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) card, or a flash memory card (FLASH CARD) provided in the communication apparatus. Further, the computer readable storage medium may further include both an internal storage unit and an external storage device of the communication apparatus. The computer-readable storage medium is used to store the computer program and other programs and data required by the communication device. The above-described computer-readable storage medium may also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

Optionally, the embodiment of the application further provides a computer program product. All or part of the above-described method embodiments may be implemented by a computer program to instruct related hardware, where the program may be stored in the above-described computer program product, and the program, when executed, may include the above-described method embodiments.

Optionally, the embodiment of the application further provides a computer instruction. All or part of the flow in the above method embodiments may be implemented by computer instructions to instruct related hardware (such as a computer, a processor, an access network device, a mobility management network element, or a session management network element, etc.). The program may be stored in the above-mentioned computer readable storage medium or in the above-mentioned computer program product.

Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, including: the network device and the terminal in the above embodiments.

From the foregoing description of the embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, only the above-described division of functional modules is illustrated, and in practical application, the above-described functional allocation may be implemented by different functional modules according to needs, i.e. the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different functional modules to implement all or part of the functions described above.

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

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

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

The foregoing is merely illustrative of specific embodiments of the present application, and the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, but any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application should be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting a reference signal, the method comprising:

receiving first information, second information and third information from a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of first time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks relative to reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resources are located, and the size of each of M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information;

And transmitting the reference signals to the network equipment on the M first time-frequency resources.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks are part or all of N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion BWP.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks used for transmitting a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH.

4. A method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

And receiving first indication information from the network equipment, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the M time-frequency resource blocks.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the frequency domain offset is associated with a transmission time interval, TTI.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein,

When the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is the same, the second information includes a first field, where the first field is used to indicate the number of frequency domain units occupied by any one of the M time-frequency resource blocks;

And in the case that the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is not identical, the second information includes M second fields, and each of the M second fields is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein,

In the case that the frequency domain offset of the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is the same, the third information includes a third field, where the third field is used to indicate the frequency domain offset;

In the case that the frequency domain offset of the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is not identical, the third information includes M fourth fields, where each of the M fourth fields is used to indicate the frequency domain offset on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein the reference signal occupies a number of time domain units of 1 or 2.

9. The method according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1, 2, 4 or 8.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein any of the first information, the second information and the third information is carried in a radio resource control, RRC, message or downlink control information, DCI.

11. A method for transmitting a reference signal, the method comprising:

Transmitting first information, second information and third information to a terminal, wherein the first information is used for indicating the number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, the second information is used for indicating the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, the third information is used for indicating the frequency domain offset of first time-frequency resources occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks relative to reference time-frequency resources on the time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resources are located, and the size of each of the M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information;

The reference signals from the terminal are received on the M first time-frequency resources.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks are part or all of N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion BWP.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks for receiving a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the method further comprises:

and sending first indication information to the terminal, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the M time-frequency resource blocks.

15. The method according to any of claims 11-14, wherein the frequency domain offset is associated with a transmission time interval, TTI.

16. The method according to any one of claims 11-15, wherein,

17. The method according to any one of claims 11-16, wherein,

18. The method according to any of claims 11-17, wherein the reference signal occupies a number of time domain units of 1 or 2.

19. The method according to any of claims 11-18, wherein the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1,2, 4 or 8.

20. The method according to any of claims 11-19, wherein any of the first information, the second information and the third information is carried in a radio resource control, RRC, message or downlink control information, DCI.

21. A communication device, the communication device comprising: a transceiver module and a processing module;

the transceiver module is configured to receive first information, second information and third information from a network device, where the first information is used to indicate a number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, the second information is used to indicate a number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, and the third information is used to indicate a frequency domain offset of a first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks relative to a reference time-frequency resource on a time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located, and a size of each of M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information;

the processing module is configured to generate the reference signals on the M first time-frequency resources;

the transceiver module is further configured to transmit the reference signal.

22. The communication apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks are part or all of N time-frequency resource blocks included in the bandwidth portion BWP.

23. The communications apparatus of claim 22, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks used for transmitting a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH.

24. A communication device according to claim 22 or 23, characterized in that,

The transceiver module is further configured to receive first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate the M time-frequency resource blocks.

25. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 21-24, wherein the frequency domain offset is associated with a transmission time interval, TTI.

26. The communication device according to any of the claims 21-25, characterized in that,

27. The communication device according to any of the claims 21-26, characterized in that,

28. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 21-27, wherein the number of time domain units occupied by the reference signal is 1 or 2.

29. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 21-28, wherein the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1,2, 4 or 8.

30. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 21-29, wherein any of the first information, the second information and the third information is carried in a radio resource control, RRC, message or downlink control information, DCI.

31. A communication device, the communication device comprising: a transceiver module and a processing module;

The processing module is configured to generate first information, second information and third information, where the first information is used to indicate a number of time domain units occupied by a reference signal, the second information is used to indicate a number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of M time-frequency resource blocks, M is a positive integer, and the third information is used to indicate a frequency domain offset of a first time-frequency resource occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks relative to a reference time-frequency resource on a time-frequency resource block where the first time-frequency resource is located, and a size of each of M first time-frequency resources is determined by the first information and the second information;

The receiving and transmitting module is used for sending the first information, the second information and the third information to a terminal;

The transceiver module is further configured to receive the reference signals from the terminal on the M first time-frequency resources.

32. The communication apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks comprise part or all of the N time-frequency resource blocks comprised in the bandwidth portion BWP.

33. The communication apparatus of claim 32, wherein the M time-frequency resource blocks are time-frequency resource blocks for receiving a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH.

34. A communication device according to claim 32 or 33, wherein,

The transceiver module is further configured to send first indication information to the terminal, where the first indication information is used to indicate the M time-frequency resource blocks.

35. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 31-34, wherein the frequency domain offset is associated with a transmission time interval, TTI.

36. The communication device according to any of the claims 31-35, characterized in that,

37. The communication device according to any of the claims 31-36, characterized in that,

38. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 31-37, wherein the reference signal occupies a number of time domain units of 1 or 2.

39. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 31-38, wherein the number of frequency domain units occupied by the reference signal on each of the M time-frequency resource blocks is 1,2, 4 or 8.

40. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 31-39, wherein any of the first information, the second information and the third information is carried in a radio resource control, RRC, message or downlink control information, DCI.

41. A communication device, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 10 or to perform the method of any one of claims 11 to 20.

42. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program or instructions, which when executed, cause a computer to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 10 or the method of any of claims 11 to 20.

43. A communication system, comprising: the device of any one of claims 21 to 30, and/or the device of any one of claims 31 to 40.

44. A chip, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the chip to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 10 or the method of any one of claims 11 to 20.