JP7110275B2 - Control information format processing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a control information format processing method and apparatus.

The control channel carries downlink control information. Downlink control information may be used to carry control channel command information. For example, the control channel command information may include one or more of a random access preamble index indication, a random access channel profile index indication, or a random access channel coverage enhancement level indication.

Downlink control information may also be used to carry grant information. Authorization information carries control information required by the user equipment to receive or transmit data. Downlink control information used to indicate downlink data transmission is sometimes referred to as a downlink grant. Uplink control information used to indicate uplink data transmission is sometimes referred to as an uplink grant.

The payload (English: payload) size (e.g. number of bits) of the control channel carrying the grant information, in order not to increase the control channel blind detection performed by the user equipment (English full name: User Equipment, UE for short) is typically the same as the payload size (eg, number of bits) of the control channel carrying the control channel command information. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish whether the downlink control information carries grant information for the UE or control channel command information.

In the prior art, when downlink control information carries control channel command information, there are usually many reserved bits. The reserved bits may be reserved bits or padding bits. Reserved bits also include all bits included in fields of significance when downlink control information carries grant information and all bits included in fields of significance when downlink control information carries control channel command information. It may be the difference bit between the bits. A significant field indicates that the field has a definite physical meaning in the downlink control information. Significant fields are not reserved bits, padding bits, or reserved bits. The functions borne by the downlink control information can be differentiated by setting reserved bits to preset values. For example, if the downlink control information carries control channel command information, there are 30 reserved bits. The states of the 30 reserved bits may be set to fixed bit states. Therefore, when the downlink control information carries grant information, the bit states corresponding to the 30 reserved bits in the downlink control information are not the aforementioned fixed bit states. Since there are many reserved bits, when the downlink control information carries grant information, the base station flexibly sets the bit states corresponding to the reserved bits in the downlink control information to states other than fixed bit states. is quite possible. In this way, whether the downlink control information carries grant information or control channel command information can be distinguished according to the bit states corresponding to the reserved bits.

However, in the coverage enhancement scenario there are few bits in the downlink control information. When the downlink control information carries control channel command information, there are only a few reserved bits (eg, only one reserved bit). By setting the reserved bit to a preset value, it is likely that the functions borne by the downlink control information cannot be distinguished. For example, if the downlink control information carries control channel command information, there is one reserved bit. According to the prior art, the bit state corresponding to one spare bit may be set to a fixed bit state. When the downlink control information carries grant information, it is likely that the bit state corresponding to one reserved bit is the aforementioned fixed bit state. As a result, the user equipment is more likely to erroneously determine the content that the control channel is responsible for. That is, in the coverage enhancement scenario, whether the downlink control information carries grant information or control channel command information cannot be distinguished according to the bit states corresponding to the reserved bits.

Embodiments of the present invention provide control information format processing methods, base stations and user equipments to effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a control information format processing method, the method comprising:
determining a control information format for downlink control information;
if the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format, determining that the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates a valid setting; Or, if the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, determine that the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting. a step;
and sending downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format to the user equipment (UE).

Referring to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation of the first aspect,
a valid setting comprises a valid bit state, or a valid first information index, or a valid combination of a first information index and a second information;
an invalid setting includes an invalid bit state, or an invalid first information index, or an invalid combination of a first information index and a second information;
A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first information.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation of the first aspect,
The bit positions of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field, or is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field, and X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the lower X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the second Same as field bit position.

With reference to the first aspect or the first or second possible implementation of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation of the first aspect:
The first field contains one or more of the transport block size field, the modulation and coding scheme field, the narrowband resource allocation field, or the padding bits field, and the second field contains the transport block size field. a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field, or the first field is a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, The second field includes one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field.

With reference to the first, second or third possible implementations of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation of the first aspect:
A valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2;
An invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. contains a value

With reference to the first, second, third or fourth possible implementations of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation of the first aspect:
valid bit states include state values of all four-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; and/or invalid bit states include 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111 and/or a valid first information index whose index number is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 and/or the invalid first information index includes an index whose index number is one of 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15;

With reference to the first, second, third, fourth or fifth possible implementations of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation of the first aspect, the first information is transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding scheme index and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks is.

A seventh possible implementation of the first aspect with reference to the first aspect or the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth possible implementations of the first aspect. In, downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control channel command information.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a control information format processing method, the method comprising:
detecting a first field included in downlink control information transmitted by a base station or a second field included in downlink control information;
obtaining downlink control information according to a first control information format if it is determined that a first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting;
and obtaining downlink control information according to a second control information format if it is determined that a second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting.

Referring to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation of the second aspect,
a valid setting comprises a valid bit state, or a valid first information index, or a valid combination of a first information index and a second information;
an invalid setting includes an invalid bit state, or an invalid first information index, or an invalid combination of a first information index and a second information;
A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first information.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation of the second aspect:
The bit positions of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field, or is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field, and X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the lower X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the second Same as field bit position.

With reference to the second aspect or the first or second possible implementation of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation of the second aspect:
The first field contains one or more of the transport block size field, the modulation and coding scheme field, the narrowband resource allocation field, or the padding bits field, and the second field contains the transport block size field. a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field, or the first field is a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, The second field includes one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field.

With reference to the first, second or third possible implementations of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation of the second aspect:
A valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2;
An invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. contains a value

With reference to the first, second, third or fourth possible implementations of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation of the second aspect:
valid bit states include state values of all four-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; and/or invalid bit states include 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111 and/or a valid first information index whose index number is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 and/or the invalid first information index includes an index whose index number is one of 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15;

With reference to the first, second, third, fourth or fifth possible implementations of the second aspect, in a sixth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first information is transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding scheme index and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks is.

A seventh possible implementation of the second aspect with reference to the second aspect or the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth possible implementations of the second aspect. In, downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control channel command information.

According to a third aspect, an embodiment of the invention provides a base station, the base station comprising:
an information format determination module configured to determine a control information format for downlink control information;
if the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format, determining that the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates a valid setting; Or, if the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, determine that the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting. a field setting determination module configured to:
a transmit/receive module configured to transmit downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format to a user equipment (UE).

Referring to the third aspect, in a first possible implementation of the third aspect,
valid settings determined by the field setting determination module include valid bit states, or valid first information indices, or valid combinations of first information indices and second information;
an invalid setting determined by the field setting determination module includes an invalid bit state, or an invalid first information index, or an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information;
A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first information.

With reference to the third aspect or the first possible implementation of the third aspect, in the second possible implementation of the third aspect, the field setting determination module comprises:
the bit positions of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; the bit positions of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the field of 1 are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the low-order X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the first bit in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field It is specifically configured to determine that it is the same as the bit position of the field of 2.

With reference to the third aspect or the first or second possible implementation of the third aspect, in a third possible implementation of the third aspect, the field setting determination module comprises:
The first field contains one or more of the transport block size field, the modulation and coding scheme field, the narrowband resource allocation field, or the padding bits field, and the second field contains the transport block size field. Modulation and Coding Scheme field, Intra-Narrowband Resource Allocation field, or Padding Bits field, or the first field is the Transport Block Size field, the Modulation and Coding Scheme field , a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field, the second field including one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field. is specifically configured to determine

With reference to the first, second or third possible implementations of the third aspect, in a fourth possible implementation of the third aspect:
The field setting determination module determines that a valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is Used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2. specifically configured in
The field setting determination module determines that an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. Containing a value is specifically configured to determine that it contains.

With reference to the first, second, third or fourth possible implementations of the third aspect, in a fifth possible implementation of the third aspect:
and/ or the field set determination module is specifically configured to determine that the invalid bit state includes at least one state value of 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111; The module determines that a valid first information index includes an index whose index number is one of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. and/or the field setting determination module determines that the invalid first information index is an index whose index number is one of 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15. is specifically configured to determine that it contains

With reference to the first, second, third, fourth or fifth possible implementations of the third aspect, in a sixth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first information is transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding scheme index and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks is.

The seventh possible implementation of the third aspect with reference to the third aspect or the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth possible implementations of the third aspect. In, downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control channel command information.

According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the invention provides a user equipment (UE), the UE comprising:
a detection module configured to detect a first field included in downlink control information transmitted by a base station or a second field included in downlink control information;
a first obtaining module configured to obtain downlink control information according to a first control information format when determining that a first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting;
and a second obtaining module configured to obtain downlink control information according to a second control information format when determining that a second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting.

Referring to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation of the fourth aspect,
valid settings determined by the first acquisition module include valid bit states, or valid first information indices, or valid combinations of first information indices and second information;
The invalid setting specifically determined by the second acquisition module includes an invalid bit state, or an invalid first information index, or an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information;
A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first information.

With reference to the fourth aspect or the first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the detection module comprises:
the bit positions of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; the bit positions of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the field of 1 are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the low-order X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the first bit in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field It is specifically configured to detect the same as the bit position of the field of 2.

With reference to the fourth aspect or the first or second possible implementation of the fourth aspect, in a third possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the detection module comprises:
The first field contains one or more of the transport block size field, the modulation and coding scheme field, the narrowband resource allocation field, or the padding bits field, and the second field contains the transport block size field. Modulation and Coding Scheme field, Intra-Narrowband Resource Allocation field, or Padding Bits field, or the first field is the Transport Block Size field, the Modulation and Coding Scheme field , a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field, the second field including one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field. is specifically configured to detect

With reference to the first, second or third possible implementations of the fourth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation of the fourth aspect:
The first acquisition module determines that a valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is Used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2. specifically configured in
The second acquisition module determines that an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. Containing a value is specifically configured to determine that it contains.

With reference to the first, second, third or fourth possible implementations of the fourth aspect, in a fifth possible implementation of the fourth aspect:
the first acquisition module is specifically configured to determine valid bit states include state values of all four-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; /or the second acquisition module is specifically configured to determine that the invalid bit state includes at least one state value of 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111; A retrieval module of 1 retrieves an index whose valid first information index is one of the index numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. and/or the second acquisition module determines that the invalid first information index is one of the index numbers 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 is specifically configured to determine that it contains an index that is

With reference to the first, second, third, fourth or fifth possible implementations of the fourth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first information is transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding scheme index and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks is.

A seventh possible implementation of the fourth aspect with reference to the fourth aspect or the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth possible implementations of the fourth aspect. In, downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control channel command information.

From the above technical solutions, it can be seen that the embodiments of the present invention have the following advantages.

In embodiments of the present invention, the control information format of downlink control information is first determined. When the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format, it is determined that the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates valid settings. Alternatively, when the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, it is determined that the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting. be. Downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format is finally sent to the UE. Whether the setting is valid may be indicated by the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information according to the control information format of the downlink control information. Therefore, the UE can identify the control information format used by the base station according to the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information, so that the UE can identify the determined control information format downlink control information can be obtained according to Since the first field and the second field indicate the contents of the fixed fields carried within the downlink control information, the payload of the downlink control information can be reduced by indicating the contents of the fixed fields using the control information format. It does not increase in size and can effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a process of a control information format processing method according to one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a process of another control information format processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a control information format processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another application scenario of the control information format processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another application scenario of the control information format processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another application scenario of the control information format processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the organizational structure of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention; 1 is a schematic diagram of an organizational structure of user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another base station organizational structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another user equipment organizational structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Embodiments of the present invention provide control information format processing methods, base stations and user equipments to effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

In order to make the inventive objectives, features and advantages of the present invention more clear and comprehensible, the following clearly describes the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. do. Of course, the embodiments described below are merely a part rather than all of the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by persons skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In the specification, claims, and accompanying drawings of the present invention, terms such as "first," "second," etc. are used to distinguish between like objects and not necessarily in a particular order or sequence. does not necessarily indicate It should be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable in appropriate contexts and are merely a distinction scheme used when objects having the same attributes are described in embodiments of the present invention. Moreover, the terms "comprise", "include" and any other variations are meant to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, product comprising a series of units or devices are not necessarily limited to those units and may include other units not explicitly listed or specific to such processes, methods, products, or devices.

First, the system architecture to which the control information format processing method provided by the embodiments of the present invention is applied will be described. The control information format processing method provided by the embodiments of the present invention is applied to the base station side and the user equipment side. The base station transmits downlink control information according to the determined control information format. A UE must first detect the downlink control information sent by the base station to obtain the downlink control information. In the following, the control information format processing methods provided by the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail from the perspective of the base station side and the user equipment side.

Referring to FIG. 1, the control information format processing method provided by an embodiment of the present invention may include the following steps.

101: Determine the control information format of the downlink control information.

In this embodiment of the invention, the control channel carries downlink control information, which may be used to carry control information in multiple formats. Therefore, the base station first needs to determine the control information format of the downlink control information. Specifically, the base station can set multiple control information formats, and the control information formats set by the base station include a first control information format and a second control information format. A first control information format and a second control information format refer to two different control information formats. In various specific scenarios, the first control information format and the second control information format may be used to indicate the actual control information format. In this embodiment of the invention, the control information format of the downlink control information may not be limited to the first control information format and the second control information format, and may further include more control information formats. . The method for processing more control information formats is similar to the method for processing the first control information format and the second control information format provided in this embodiment of the present invention, and the first See the process for processing the first control information format and the second control information format described in the following embodiments, which is similar to the method for processing the control information format and the second control information format of can do.

In some embodiments of the invention, the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control Carries channel command information. In this implementation scenario, the downlink control information may carry grant information or control channel command information. The downlink control information may further carry other control information, for example, it may carry scheduling information for paging messages, system information update instructions, earthquake and typhoon warnings, commercial mobile access services, or extensions. One or more of the access barring (English full name: Extended Access Barring, EAB for short) can additionally be carried.

102: Determine that the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates a valid setting when the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format or, when the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting to decide.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the base station first needs to determine the control information format of downlink control information in step 101 . The base station needs to determine various control information formats for downlink control information using various control information format indication methods, so that the UE can use various control information formats determined by the base station. Various control information formats used by the base station can be identified according to the indication method. In this embodiment of the invention, the base station can use a field included in the downlink control information to indicate the control information format. Specifically, the base station can indicate whether a field included in the downlink control information indicates valid settings to indicate the control information format used by the base station. Since the fields contained in the Downlink Control Information are part of the content of the Downlink Control Information that needs to be transmitted, the method of specifying whether the fields contained in the Downlink Control Information indicate valid settings depends on the control Used by the base station to indicate the information format. This method does not add extra configuration fields to the downlink control information, it just reuses the fields contained in the downlink control information. Therefore, the payload size of the downlink control information does not increase and the overhead of detecting the downlink control information by the UE does not increase.

In this embodiment of the invention, for ease of explanation, the fields used to indicate the control information format within the downlink control information are defined as first and second fields. When the first field included in the downlink control information indicates valid settings, it indicates that the base station uses the first control information format. When the second field included in the downlink control information indicates invalid setting, it indicates that the base station uses the second control information format. A valid setting may refer to the field content contained in the first field being valid, and an invalid setting referring to the field content contained in the second field being invalid. Therefore, if the base station determines that the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format, the base station sets the indication of the first field included in the downlink control information to a valid setting. However, the UE can determine that the base station used the first control information format according to the indication of the first field included in the downlink control information, ie valid settings. Similarly, if the base station determines that the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, the base station sets the indication of the second field included in the downlink control information to an invalid setting. setting, the UE can determine that the base station used the second control information format according to the indication of the second field included in the downlink control information, ie invalid setting.

Note that in some embodiments of the invention, the first field and the second field may be the same field or different fields. For example, the first field may include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field, and the second field may include: It may include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field. Alternatively, the first field may include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field, and the second field is It may include one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field.

The transport block size field, modulation and coding scheme field, narrowband resource allocation field, and padding bits field are specific fields included in the downlink control information. In this embodiment of the invention, one or more of the fields may be used as the first field and the second field. In addition, the grant discrimination field and the reserved bit field are also specific fields included in the downlink control information, and the second field may be implemented using the grant discrimination field and the reserved bit field.

In some embodiments of the invention, a valid setting may comprise a valid bit state, or a valid first information index, or a valid combination of a first information index and a second information.

Invalid settings include invalid bit states, or invalid first information indices, or invalid combinations of first information indices and second information.

A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first information.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the invention, the valid setting may be a valid bit state, and the valid bit state may indicate valid first information or a valid first information index. and the first information index can indicate the first information. That is, upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station can set the indication in the first field to a valid bit state. The UE can know via the valid bit state that the base station used the first control information format. The valid setting may be a valid first information index, i.e., upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station sets the indication of the first field to the valid first information index. Can be set to index. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format via the valid first information index. A valid setting may be a valid combination of the first information index and the second information, ie the combination of the first information index and the second information is valid. The second information may be information other than the first information. If the valid setting is a valid combination of the first information index and the second information, i.e., deciding to use the first control information format, the base station indicates the indication of the first field. It can be set to a valid combination of the first information index and the second information. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format through a valid combination of the first information index and the second information.

In this embodiment of the invention, the invalid setting may be an invalid bit state, the invalid bit state may indicate invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first The information index can indicate the first information. That is, upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station can set the indication in the second field to an invalid bit state. The UE can know via the invalid bit state that the base station used the first control information format. The invalid setting may be an invalid first information index, i.e., upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station sets the indication in the second field to an invalid first information index. Can be set to index. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format via the invalid first information index. An invalid setting may be an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information, ie the combination of the first information index and the second information is invalid. The second information may be information other than the first information. If the invalid setting is an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information, i.e., deciding to use the first control information format, the base station indicates the indication of the second field. It can be set to an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format via the invalid combination of the first information index and the second information.

Furthermore, in other embodiments of the invention the first information is a transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding The scheme index and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks. Note that in actual application scenarios, the first information, the first information index and the second information may be further implemented in different manners. Only a possible implementation scenario for this embodiment of the invention is provided here.

In some embodiments of the invention, valid and invalid combinations are further described below. Specifically, a valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is Used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index may include an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2.

The first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, i.e., the first information index includes index number 0, index number 1, index number 2, index number 3, index number 4, index number It may be number 5, index number 6, index number 7, index number 8, or index number 9. This is not a limitation herein. Specifically, the specific index number included in the first information index may be determined according to the application scenario.

Specifically, an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. may include containing a value.

In some embodiments of the invention, valid bit states and invalid bit states are described by the following examples. Specifically, valid bit states may include state values of all 4-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111, and/or invalid bit states may include 1011, may include at least one state value of 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111; and/or a valid first information index has index numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 9, or 10, and/or an invalid first information index is one whose index number is may contain an index that is one of

In some embodiments of the invention, the bit position of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field. is the same as the bit position, or the bit position of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the bit position of the second bit in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field is the same as the bit position of the field and X is a non-zero natural number, OR The bit position of the lower X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field corresponds to the second field It is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information.

A bit position refers to a specific position of a field within the downlink control information. The bit position may be the relative position of the field with respect to another field within the downlink control information, or it may be the bit order of the field within the downlink control information. This is not specifically limited herein. Additionally, the upper X bits of the first field can refer to a total of X bits starting from the most significant bit in top-to-bottom order within the first field. The low-order X bits of the first field may refer to the total X bits starting with the least significant bit in bottom-to-top order within the first field.

In some embodiments of the invention, the number of bits in the first field is the same as the number of bits in the second field, or the number of high order X bits in the first field is is the same as the number of bits in the field of 2 and X is the number of bits in the second field, or the number of low-order X bits in the first field is the number of bits in the second field and X is the number of bits in the second field.

In other words, in this embodiment of the invention, the first field may have the same field length as the second field, i.e. the number of bits in the first field equals the number of bits in the second field. can be the same as the number of bits in Additionally, the first field may alternatively have a larger field length than the second field, i.e. the number of high order X bits in the first field is equal to the number of It is the same as the number of bits, or the number of low order X bits in the first field is the same as the number of bits in the second field.

103. Send downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format to the UE.

In this embodiment of the present invention, according to the description of step 102, after the base station sets the indication of the control information format in the downlink control information, the base station sends the downlink format corresponding to the determined control information format. Control information may be sent to the UE. A base station may use the first control information format or the second control information format. When the base station uses the first control information format and the second control information format, the base station separately sets different validity settings for the first field and the second field included in the downlink control information. It can be seen from step 102 to implement. The downlink control information sent by the base station to the UE includes information regarding the validity setting of the first field or the second field. A UE detects downlink control information sent by a base station, and according to information about validity settings of a first field or a second field included in the downlink control information, the base station uses a first control information format. or the second control information format can obtain the downlink control information sent by the base station according to the determined control information format.

From the description of this embodiment of the invention, it can be seen that the control information format of the downlink control information is determined first. When the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format, it is determined that the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates valid settings. Alternatively, when the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, it is determined that the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting. be. Downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format is finally sent to the UE. Whether the setting is valid may be indicated by the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information according to the control information format of the downlink control information. Therefore, the UE can identify the control information format used by the base station according to the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information, so that the UE can identify the determined control information format downlink control information can be obtained according to Since the first field and the second field indicate the contents of the fixed fields carried within the downlink control information, the payload of the downlink control information can be reduced by indicating the contents of the fixed fields using the control information format. It does not increase in size and can effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

The foregoing embodiments describe the control information format processing method provided by this embodiment of the present invention from the perspective of the base station side, and hereinafter provided by one embodiment of the present invention from the perspective of the user equipment side. The control information format processing method used is described in detail. Referring to FIG. 2, the control information format processing method provided by this embodiment of the present invention may include the following steps.

201. A first field included in the downlink control information sent by the base station or a second field included in the downlink control information is detected.

In this embodiment of the invention, the UE detects downlink control information sent by the base station. The UE may use fields included in the downlink control information to identify the control information format. Specifically, the UE identifies the control information format used by the base station according to whether the fields included in the downlink control information indicate valid settings. Since the fields contained in the Downlink Control Information are part of the content of the Downlink Control Information that needs to be transmitted, the method of specifying whether the fields contained in the Downlink Control Information indicate valid settings depends on the control Used by the base station to indicate the information format. This method does not add extra configuration fields to the downlink control information, it just reuses the fields contained in the downlink control information. Therefore, the payload size of the downlink control information does not increase and the overhead of detecting the downlink control information by the UE does not increase.

Specifically, the UE can detect the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information. In the above embodiments, the base station configures information as to whether the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information indicates valid settings. The UE may detect the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information and determine whether the indications in the first field or the second field indicate valid settings. If the first field indication result detected by the UE is different from the second field indication result, the UE may separately perform steps 202 and 203 described below.

In this embodiment of the invention, when the downlink control information transmitted by the base station uses different control information formats, the UE also needs to receive the downlink control information using the corresponding control information format. be. In this embodiment of the present invention, the UE controls the downlink transmitted by the base station according to whether the base station has set the indication of the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information to a valid setting. A method for obtaining link control information can be determined. The UE detects the validity setting of the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information and the indication of the first field or the second field is a valid setting or an invalid setting. determines whether the base station used the first control information format or the second control information format.

Note that in various specific scenarios, the first control information format and the second control information format may be used to indicate the actual control information format. In this embodiment of the invention, the control information format of the downlink control information may not be limited to the first control information format and the second control information format, and may further include more control information formats. . The method for processing more control information formats is similar to the method for processing the first control information format and the second control information format provided in this embodiment of the present invention, and the first See the process for processing the first control information format and the second control information format described in the following embodiments, which is similar to the method for processing the control information format and the second control information format of can do.

In some embodiments of the invention, the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control Carries channel command information. In this implementation scenario, the downlink control information may carry grant information or control channel command information. This is different from the functions borne by downlink control information, which must use a different control information format. It may be that the downlink control information may further carry other control information, for example, it may carry scheduling information for paging messages, system information update instructions, earthquake and typhoon warnings, commercial mobile access services, or It is not limited to being able to further carry one or more of the extended access controls.

In some embodiments of the invention, the first field and the second field may be the same field or different fields. For example, the first field may include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field, and the second field may include: It may include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field. Alternatively, the first field may include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field, and the second field is It may include one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field.

The transport block size field, modulation and coding scheme field, narrowband resource allocation field, and padding bits field are specific fields included in the downlink control information. In this embodiment of the invention, one or more of the fields may be used as the first field and the second field. In addition, the grant discrimination field and the reserved bit field are also specific fields included in the downlink control information, and the second field may be implemented using the grant discrimination field and the reserved bit field.

In some embodiments of the invention, a valid setting may comprise a valid bit state, or a valid first information index, or a valid combination of a first information index and a second information.

Invalid settings include invalid bit states, or invalid first information indices, or invalid combinations of first information indices and second information.

A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first information.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the invention, the valid setting may be a valid bit state, and the valid bit state may indicate valid first information or a valid first information index. and the first information index can indicate the first information. That is, upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station can set the indication in the first field to a valid bit state. The UE can know via the valid bit state that the base station used the first control information format. The valid setting may be a valid first information index, i.e., upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station sets the indication of the first field to the valid first information index. Can be set to index. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format via the valid first information index. A valid setting may be a valid combination of the first information index and the second information, ie the combination of the first information index and the second information is valid. The second information may be information other than the first information. If the valid setting is a valid combination of the first information index and the second information, i.e., deciding to use the first control information format, the base station indicates the indication of the first field. It can be set to a valid combination of the first information index and the second information. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format through a valid combination of the first information index and the second information.

In this embodiment of the invention, the invalid setting may be an invalid bit state, the invalid bit state may indicate invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first The information index can indicate the first information. That is, upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station can set the indication in the second field to an invalid bit state. The UE can know via the invalid bit state that the base station used the first control information format. The invalid setting may be an invalid first information index, i.e., upon deciding to use the first control information format, the base station sets the indication in the second field to an invalid first information index. Can be set to index. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format via the invalid first information index. An invalid setting may be an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information, ie the combination of the first information index and the second information is invalid. The second information may be information other than the first information. If the invalid setting is an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information, i.e., deciding to use the first control information format, the base station indicates the indication of the second field. It can be set to an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information. The UE can know that the base station used the first control information format via the invalid combination of the first information index and the second information.

Furthermore, in other embodiments of the invention the first information is a transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding method index. The second information is the number of resource blocks. Note that in actual application scenarios, the first information, the first information index and the second information may be further implemented in different manners. Only a possible implementation scenario for this embodiment of the invention is provided here.

In some embodiments of the invention, valid and invalid combinations are further described below. Specifically, a valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is Used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index may include an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2.

The first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, i.e., the first information index includes index number 0, index number 1, index number 2, index number 3, index number 4, index number It may be number 5, index number 6, index number 7, index number 8, or index number 9. This is not a limitation herein. Specifically, the specific index number included in the first information index may be determined according to the application scenario.

Specifically, an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. may include containing a value.

In some embodiments of the invention, valid bit states and invalid bit states are described by the following examples. Specifically, valid bit states may include state values of all 4-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111, and/or invalid bit states may include 1011, may include at least one state value of 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111; and/or a valid first information index has index numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 9, or 10, and/or an invalid first information index is one whose index number is may contain an index that is one of

In some embodiments of the invention, the bit position of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field. is the same as the bit position, or the bit position of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the bit position of the second bit in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field is the same as the bit position of the field and X is a non-zero natural number, OR The bit position of the lower X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field corresponds to the second field It is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information.

A bit position refers to a specific position of a field within the downlink control information. The bit position may be the relative position of the field with respect to another field within the downlink control information, or it may be the position number of the field within the downlink control information. This is not specifically limited herein. Additionally, the upper X bits of the first field can refer to a total of X bits starting from the most significant bit in top-to-bottom order within the first field. The low-order X bits of the first field may refer to the total X bits starting with the least significant bit in bottom-to-top order within the first field.

In some embodiments of the invention, the number of bits in the first field is the same as the number of bits in the second field, or the number of high order X bits in the first field is is the same as the number of bits in the field of 2 and X is the number of bits in the second field, or the number of low-order X bits in the first field is the number of bits in the second field and X is the number of bits in the second field.

In other words, in this embodiment of the invention, the first field may have the same field length as the second field, i.e. the number of bits in the first field equals the number of bits in the second field. can be the same as the number of bits in Additionally, the first field may alternatively have a larger field length than the second field, i.e. the number of high order X bits in the first field is equal to the number of It is the same as the number of bits, or the number of low order X bits in the first field is the same as the number of bits in the second field.

202. When it is determined that the first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting, downlink control information is obtained according to the first control information format.

In this embodiment of the invention, the UE can detect the first field included in the downlink control information. When determining that the first field indicates a valid configuration, the UE may determine that the base station used the first control information format, and the UE performs downlink control according to the first control information format. Information can be obtained.

203. When it is determined that the second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting, downlink control information is obtained according to the second control information format.

In this embodiment of the invention, the UE can detect the second field included in the downlink control information. When determining that the second field indicates an invalid setting, the UE may determine that the base station used the second control information format, and the UE performs downlink control according to the second control information format. Information can be obtained.

From the description of this embodiment of the invention, it can be seen that the UE first detects the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information sent by the base station. Upon determining that the first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting, the UE obtains the downlink control information according to the first control information format. Upon determining that the second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting, the UE obtains the downlink control information according to the second control information format. Whether the setting is valid may be indicated by the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information according to the control information format of the downlink control information. Therefore, the UE can identify the control information format used by the base station according to the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information, so that the UE can identify the determined control information format downlink control information can be obtained according to Since the first field and the second field indicate the contents of the fixed fields carried within the downlink control information, the payload of the downlink control information can be reduced by indicating the contents of the fixed fields using the control information format. It does not increase in size and can effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

In order to better understand and implement the aforementioned solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the following uses corresponding application scenarios as specific illustrative examples.

In this embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for coverage enhancement scenarios to effectively distinguish whether downlink control information carries grant information or control channel command information.

Referring to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 shows the organization of downlink control information when downlink control information carries grant information and when downlink control information carries control information commands in this embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic diagram of a structure; FIG. When the downlink control information carries grant information, the grant information contains the following fields: grant distinction indication, narrowband index indication, narrowband resource allocation indication, and transport block size (English full name: Transport Block Size, abbreviated). TBS) indication, or modulation and coding scheme (English full name: Modulation and Coding Scheme, abbreviated MCS) indication, repetition count indication, hybrid automatic repeat request process number indication, new data indicator, hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment resource offset a content of at least one of an indication, a downlink control information repetition count indication, and padding bits. Each field included in the authorization information is described below.

The grant sensitive indication is listed first and is used to indicate whether the grant is an uplink grant or a downlink grant. A narrowband index indication is used to indicate the index number used by the narrowband. For example, the ceil(log2(floor(N _DL RB/6))) bits are used to indicate the narrowband index number, where ceil indicates the rounding up function, floor indicates the rounding down function, and N _DL RB is Indicates the number of resource blocks (English full name: Resource Block, RB for short) included in the downlink system bandwidth. For example, the system bandwidth is as follows: 14MHz (English full name: Mega Hertz, abbreviated MHz), 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz and 20MHz, and the number of resource blocks included in N _DL RB is 6 , 15, 25, 50, 75, and 100. The number of bits required by the narrowband index indication is, by way of example:

When system bandwidth = 1.4 MHz, there is a total of 1 narrowband and 0 bit indicates the narrowband index.

When system bandwidth = 3MHz, there are a total of 2 narrowbands and 1 bit indicates the narrowband index.

When system bandwidth = 5 MHz, there are a total of 4 narrowbands and 2 bits indicate the narrowband index.

When system bandwidth = 10 MHz, there are a total of 8 narrowbands and 3 bits indicate the narrowband index.

When system bandwidth = 15MHz, there are a total of 12 narrowbands and 4 bits indicate the narrowband index.

When system bandwidth = 20MHz, there are a total of 16 narrowbands and 4 bits indicate the narrowband index.

Intra-narrowband resource allocation indications are described. For example, if one narrowband contains 6 resource blocks: {PRBn, PRBn+1, PRBn+2, PRBn+3, PRBn+4, PRBn+5}, then there are two ways to allocate resources within the narrowband: 6 resource blocks {PRBn, PRBn+1 , PRBn+2, PRBn+3, PRBn+4, PRBn+5} to the user equipment, or four resource blocks {PRBn, PRBn+1, PRBn+2, PRBn+3} to the user equipment. In this case, one bit is required to indicate resource allocation within the narrowband. Naturally, resource indication within narrowband may be implemented using 5, 4, or 3 bits.

Describe the TBS or MCS instructions. For example, 4 bits are used to indicate the TBS index or MCS index. Referring to Table 1, Table 1 is a configuration relation table between the TBS index and the number of resource blocks. When 4 bits are used to indicate the TBS index, the TBS may be obtained according to the indicated TBS index and the number of resource blocks in the table. Since there are a total of 11 TBS indices in Table 1 when 4 bits are used to indicate the TBS index or MCS index, there are still 5 unused states. For example, the five unused states (leftmost bit is most significant bit) may be assumed to be 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, 1111.

Additionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the number of repetitions indication may be 3 bits, the hybrid automatic repeat request process number indication may be 1 bit, and the new data indicator may be 1 bit. , the hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment resource offset indication may be 2 bits, and the downlink control information repetition count indication may be 2 bits. In addition, if the grant information further includes padding bits, the padding bits are x bits, where x is a natural number that can be set according to requirements.

When the downlink control information contains grant information, the states of some fields in the downlink control information are set to fixed values in order to grant scheduling of some messages. For example, the bit states of the hybrid automatic repeat request process number indication and the new data indicator are preset fixed values (eg, 1 or 0) to authorize scheduling of random access response messages.

Note that when the number x of padding bits is not equal to 0, the grant information further includes padding bits. x is a predefined number. When the number of padding bits is equal to 0, the grant information does not contain padding bits.

When the downlink control information carries control channel command information, the control channel command information contains the following fields: Grant Distinction Indication, Narrowband Index Indication, Narrowband Intra-Resource Allocation Indication, Random Access Preamble Index Indication, Random Access Channel Profile. including contents of at least one of an index indication, a random access channel coverage enhancement level indication, and padding bits.

The definitions and sizes of the grant distinguishing indication, narrowband index indication, narrowband resource allocation indication, and padding bit fields included in the control channel command information are the same as those of the grant distinguishing indication, narrowband index indication, narrowband index indication, and narrowband index indication included in the grant information. It is the same as the definition and size of the In-Band Resource Allocation Indication and Padding Bits fields.

For random access preamble index indication, the random access preamble index may be a preamble index that may be indicated by A bits, where A is a predefined positive integer. For example, A equals 6, 5, 4, 3, or 2.

For the random access channel profile index indication, the random access channel profile index may be a physical random access channel (English full name: Physical Random Access Channel, PRACH for short) mask index, which may be indicated by the B bit, where: B is a predefined positive integer. For example, B equals 4, 3, 2, 5, or 6.

For the random access channel coverage enhancement level indication, the random access channel coverage enhancement level may be indicated by C bits, where C is a predefined positive integer. For example, C equals 2, 1, 3 or 4.

In this embodiment of the invention, the TBS index (or MCS index) is a valid or invalid index, and the TBS index indicates whether the downlink control channel carries grant information or control channel command information. may be used to indicate

When the downlink control information of the downlink control channel carries control channel command information, the downlink control information of the downlink control channel further includes a field indicating the TBS index (or MCS index). When the downlink control information carries control channel command information, the bit size of the field indicating the TBS index (or MCS index) in the downlink control information is the same as in the grant information when the downlink control information carries grant information. is the same as the bit size of the field that indicates the TBS index (or MCS index).

Referring to FIG. 4-a, FIG. 4-a shows downlink control information when downlink control information carries grant information and when downlink control information carries control information commands in this embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another organizational structure for control information; For example, the number of bits indicating the preamble index may be reduced and the saved bits used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index). For example, 6 bits originally indicate the preamble index, but the 6 bits may be changed to 3 bits to indicate the preamble index. Therefore, the saved 3 bits may be used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index). In downlink control information carrying control channel command information, where 4 bits indicate the field of the TBS index (or MCS index) in the grant information, 3 bits are saved and 1 specific bit (e.g., the specific bit is a reserved bit). ) may comprise 4 bits, which are used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index) in the downlink control information that carries the control channel command information. One specific bit may be a bit that distinguishes an uplink grant from a downlink grant, a reserved bit, a padding bit, another predefined bit, or a newly added bit. In Figure 4-a, a TBS/MCS valid state or valid index is used to indicate that the control channel is used for grant information, and a TBS/MCS invalid state or invalid index is used to indicate the control channel. Used to indicate that the channel is used for control channel command information.

Referring to FIG. 4-b, FIG. 4-b shows downlink control information when the downlink control information carries grant information and when the downlink control information carries control information commands in this embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another organizational structure for control information; For example, the number of bits indicating the preamble index and the number of bits indicating the PRACH mask index may be reduced and the saved bits used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index). For example, 6 bits originally indicate the preamble index, but the 6 bits are changed to 4 bits to indicate the preamble index. For example, 4 bits originally indicate the PRACH mask index, and the 4 bits are changed to 3 bits to indicate the PRACH mask index. Therefore, the saved 3 bits may be used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index). In the downlink control information carrying control channel command information, if 4 bits indicate the TBS index (or MCS index) field in the grant information, the 3 saved bits and 1 specific bit may constitute 4 bits. Often the 4 bits are used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index) within the downlink control information that carries the control channel command information. A specific bit may be a bit that distinguishes an uplink grant from a downlink grant, a spare bit, a padding bit, another predefined bit, or a newly added bit. In Figure 4-b, a TBS/MCS valid state or valid index is used to indicate that the control channel is used for grant information, and a TBS/MCS invalid state or invalid index is used to indicate the control channel. Used to indicate that the channel is used for control channel command information.

Naturally and alternatively, the number of bits in another field may be reduced so that the saved bits and/or specific bits are used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index). Where applicable, the bit size of the saved bits and/or specific bits in the downlink control information carrying the control channel command information is the same as the bit size of the field indicating the TBS index (or MCS index) in the grant information. Any scheme may be used to ensure the same.

To distinguish whether the downlink control information carries control channel command information or grant information, the TBS index (or MCS index) indicated within the downlink control information carrying control channel command information is , must be an invalid TBS index (or MCS index), and the TBS index (or MCS index) indicated in the downlink control information carrying grant information is a valid TBS index (or MCS index). Invalid TBS index (or MCS index) refers to the inability of the TBS index (or MCS index) to indicate a valid TBS (or MCS). For example, as described above, the TBS index (or MCS index) indicated by the four bits is invalid when the state of the four bits indicating the TBS index (or MCS index) is one of the following states: is an index. Otherwise, the TBS index (or MCS index) indicated by the 4 bits is a valid index when the state of the 4 bits indicating the TBS index (or MCS index) is not one of the following states. The 4 bits may be one of the following five pieces of information: 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111.

In this embodiment of the invention, the valid TBS index (or MCS index) or the invalid TBS index (or MCS index) indicated in the downlink control information is used to convey the The information type distinguishing scheme may be applied to distinguish various other information types included in the downlink control information. If the downlink control information has different information types (or information formats), the scheme of using valid index (or valid state) or invalid index (or invalid state) is conveyed in the downlink control information. may be used to distinguish the information type (or information format) that is being processed. For example, the downlink control information can carry scheduling information for paging messages, and the downlink control information is one of system information update instructions, earthquake and typhoon warnings, commercial mobile access services, or extended access restrictions. One or more can be further transported.

According to the method of this embodiment, the complexity of blind detection of the control channel by the UE can be avoided, and the power consumption of the UE can be reduced.

Note that the order of the fields included in the downlink control information may be changed in the method described in this embodiment of the invention. The schematic diagram of the information organization structure in the present invention is only an example. An invalid TBS index (or MCS index) is indicated when the downlink control information carries control channel command information. A valid TBS index (or MCS index) is indicated when the downlink control information carries control channel command information and when the downlink control information carries grant information.

Other embodiments of the invention are described below. To distinguish whether the downlink control information carries control channel command information or grant information, an invalid TBS index (or MCS index) or a valid TBS index (or MCS index) is May be indicated within the information. The downlink control information carries control channel command information when an invalid TBS index (or MCS index) is indicated in the downlink control information. Downlink control information carries grant information when a valid TBS index (or MCS index) is indicated in the downlink control information.

As described above, when the state of the four bits indicating the TBS index (or MCS index) is any one of the following states, e.g. The TBS index (or MCS index) provided is an invalid index.

The base station only needs to enable the user equipment to know the invalid TBS index (or MCS index), and the user equipment to know the state of the specific bit corresponding to the invalid TBS index (or MCS index). Note that there is no need to enable The last four field states of the five invalid field states have common properties. The two most significant bits are 11. When the two most significant bits used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index) field are 11, it is impossible to indicate a valid TBS index (or MCS index). Therefore, if the UE sees that the 2 most significant bits used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index) field are 11, the UE will know that the downlink control information carries control channel command information. know. Otherwise, if the UE finds that the 2 most significant bits used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index) field are not 11, the UE will indicate that the downlink control information carries grant information. know.

As shown in Figure 5, when the downlink control information carries control channel command information, the 2-bit state should be set to 11, and the 2-bit position in the downlink control information is the downlink control information. Corresponds to the two most significant bits used to indicate the field of the TBS index (or MCS index) when the link control information carries grant information. For example, the second field indicates an invalid setting, the second field contains an authorization distinguishing indication and reserved bits. The authorization distinguishing indication contains 1 bit, and the value of that bit is fixed to 1. A reserved bit contains one bit whose value is fixed at one. An invalid state or invalid index of TBS/MCS is used to indicate that the control channel is used for control channel commands. When the downlink control information carries grant information, the bit value of the two most significant bits indicating TBS/MCS cannot be 11, and valid state or valid index of TBS/MCS indicates that the control channel carries grant information. Used to indicate that it is used.

After detecting the downlink control information, the UE identifies the bit states corresponding to the bit positions of the two most significant bits used to indicate the TBS index (or MCS index) field in the downlink control information. If the bit state is 11, the UE considers the downlink control information to carry control channel command information. If the bit state is not 11, the UE considers the downlink control information to carry grant information.

For the base station side, the highest level used to indicate the field of the TBS index (or MCS index) within the downlink control information, if the downlink control information transmitted from the base station carries control channel command information. The bit state corresponding to the 2-bit bit position is set to 11. Corresponds to the bit positions of the two most significant bits used to indicate the field of the TBS index (or MCS index) in the downlink control information when the downlink control information transmitted from the base station carries grant information. Bit state is not set to 11.

Note that when the downlink control information carries grant information, the bit positions of the grant distinguishing indication field in the downlink control information are predefined fixed bit positions. However, the bit positions of the grant distinction indication field in downlink control information when the downlink control information carries grant information are the same as those in the grant in downlink control information when the downlink control information carries control channel command information. It is different from the bit position of the distinguishing indication field.

In this embodiment of the present invention, there is no need to reduce the bit size of any field in the downlink control information, and the authorization distinguishing indicator field and/or spare bits are used to indicate an invalid TBS index (or MCS index). used.

Note that the order of the fields included in the downlink control information may be changed in the method described in this embodiment of the invention. The schematic diagram of this embodiment of the invention is only an example. However, the bit positions of the grant distinction indication field and/or reserved bits in the downlink control information when the downlink control information carries control channel command information are the same as those of the downlink control information when the downlink control information carries grant information. It is the same as the bit position of the upper (or lower) Y bits used to indicate the field of the TBS index (or MCS index) in the control information. Y is the number of bits contained in the authorization distinguishing field and/or reserved bits.

In this embodiment of the invention, an invalid TBS (or MCS) or a valid TBS (or MCS) is used to distinguish whether the downlink control information carries control channel command information or grant information. may be indicated in the downlink control information. The downlink control information carries control channel command information when an invalid TBS (or MCS) is indicated in the downlink control information. Downlink control information carries grant information when a valid TBS (or MCS) is indicated in the downlink control information.

For example, as shown in Table 1, when the TBS index (or MCS index) is 10 and the number of allocated resource blocks is 6, there is no TBS indicated by the TBS index (or MCS index). or unavailable. Thus, a TBS index (or MCS index) of 10 and the number of allocated resource blocks of 6 may be used to indicate that the downlink control information carries control channel command information. When the TBS index (or MCS index) indicated by the base station is an index value ranging from 0 to 9 and the number of allocated resource blocks is a value ranging from 1 to 6, the downlink control information is granted convey information; Alternatively, when the TBS index (or MCS index) indicated by the base station is 10 and the number of allocated resource blocks is a value ranging from 1 to 5, the downlink control information carries grant information.

As another example, if the Grant Distinction field indicates an uplink grant, but the number of resource blocks after resource allocation is a value in the range of 3 to 6, then the downlink control information carries control channel command information. . To take another example, if the grant distinguishing field indicates uplink grant, but the number of resource blocks after resource allocation is a value ranging from 1 to 2, the downlink control information carries grant information.

As another example, if the grant distinction field indicates downlink grant, but the number of resource blocks after resource allocation is a value of 1, 2, 3, or 5, the downlink control information is the control channel command information. to convey. To take another example, if the grant distinguishing field indicates downlink grant, but the number of resource blocks after resource allocation is a value of 4 or 6, the downlink control information carries grant information.

Note that for simplicity of explanation, the above-described method embodiments have been presented as a series of acts. However, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the order of operation described, as certain steps may be performed in other orders or concurrently in accordance with the present invention. In addition, those skilled in the art should also understand that the embodiments described herein all belong to preferred embodiments, and the operations and modules are not necessarily essential to the present invention.

In order to better implement the aforementioned solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the following further provides related devices for implementing the aforementioned solutions.

Referring to FIG. 6, a base station 600 provided by an embodiment of the present invention may include an information format determination module 601, a field setting determination module 602 and a transmission/reception module 603. As shown in FIG.

The information format determination module 601 is configured to determine the control information format of downlink control information.

The field setting determination module 602 determines whether the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format is valid when the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format. or when the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format is invalid It is configured to determine that the setting indicates an appropriate setting.

The transmit/receive module 603 is configured to transmit downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format to a user equipment (UE).

In some embodiments of the invention, valid settings determined by field setting determination module 602 are valid bit states, or valid first information indices, or first information indices and second information. contains valid combinations of

Invalid settings determined by the field setting determination module include invalid bit states, or invalid first information indices, or invalid combinations of first information indices and second information.

A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first information.

In some embodiments of the invention, field setting determination module 602:
the bit positions of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; the bit positions of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the field of 1 are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the low-order X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the first bit in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field It is specifically configured to determine that it is the same as the bit position of the field of 2.

In some embodiments of the invention, field setting determination module 602:
The first field contains one or more of the transport block size field, the modulation and coding scheme field, the narrowband resource allocation field, or the padding bits field, and the second field contains the transport block size field. Modulation and Coding Scheme field, Intra-Narrowband Resource Allocation field, or Padding Bits field, or the first field is the Transport Block Size field, the Modulation and Coding Scheme field , a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field, the second field including one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field. is specifically configured to determine

In some embodiments of the invention, the field setting determination module 602 determines that a valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2 is configured specifically for

The field setting determination module determines that an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. Containing a value is specifically configured to determine that it contains.

In some embodiments of the invention, the field setting determination module 602 determines that valid bit states include state values of all four-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111. and/or the field setting determination module specifically determines that the invalid bit states include at least one state value of 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111 and/or the field setting determination module specifically determines that a valid first information index has an index number of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10, and/or the field setting determination module specifically determines that the invalid first information index contains an index whose index numbers are 11, 12, 13; , 14, or 15.

In some embodiments of the invention the first information is a transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding scheme and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks.

In some embodiments of the invention, the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control Carries channel command information.

From the description of this embodiment of the invention, it can be seen that the control information format of the downlink control information is determined first. When the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format, it is determined that the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates valid settings. Alternatively, when the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, it is determined that the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting. be. Downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format is finally sent to the UE. Whether the setting is valid may be indicated by the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information according to the control information format of the downlink control information. Therefore, the UE can identify the control information format used by the base station according to the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information, so that the UE can identify the determined control information format downlink control information can be obtained according to Since the first field and the second field indicate the contents of the fixed fields carried within the downlink control information, the payload of the downlink control information can be reduced by indicating the contents of the fixed fields using the control information format. It does not increase in size and can effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

Referring to FIG. 7, a user equipment 700 provided by an embodiment of the present invention may include a detection module 701, a first acquisition module 702 and a second acquisition module 703.

The detection module 701 is configured to detect a first field included in the downlink control information transmitted by the base station or a second field included in the downlink control information.

A first obtaining module 702 is configured to obtain downlink control information according to a first control information format upon determining that a first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting.

A second obtaining module 703 is configured to obtain downlink control information according to a second control information format upon determining that a second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting.

In some embodiments of the invention, the valid setting determined by the first acquisition module 702 is a valid bit state, or a valid first information index, or a first information index and a second information index. Contains valid combinations with

Invalid settings specifically determined by the second acquisition module include invalid bit states, or invalid first information indices, or invalid combinations of first information indices and second information.

A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first piece of information.

In some embodiments of the invention, detection module 701 includes:
the bit positions of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; the bit positions of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the field of 1 are the same as the bit positions of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field; X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the low-order X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the first bit in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field It is specifically configured to detect the same as the bit position of the field of 2.

In some embodiments of the invention, detection module 701 includes:
The first field contains one or more of the transport block size field, the modulation and coding scheme field, the narrowband resource allocation field, or the padding bits field, and the second field contains the transport block size field. Modulation and Coding Scheme field, Intra-Narrowband Resource Allocation field, or Padding Bits field, or the first field is the Transport Block Size field, the Modulation and Coding Scheme field , a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field, the second field including one or more of a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field, or a padding bit field. is specifically configured to detect

In some embodiments of the invention, the first obtaining module 702 determines that a valid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is Used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2. is configured specifically for

A second acquisition module 703 determines that an invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. Containing a value is specifically configured to determine that it contains.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the first obtaining module 702 determines that valid bit states include state values among all 4-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111. and/or the second obtaining module 703 determines that the invalid bit state includes at least one state value of 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111 and/or the first obtaining module 702 determines that the valid first information index is such that the index numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and/or the second obtaining module 703 is configured to determine that an invalid first information index contains an index whose index number is one of 11; , 12, 13, 14, or 15.

In some embodiments of the invention the first information is a transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or modulation and coding scheme and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks.

In some embodiments of the invention, the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format carries grant information and/or the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format carries control Carries channel command information.

From the description of this embodiment of the invention, it can be seen that the UE first detects the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information sent by the base station. Upon determining that the first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting, the UE obtains the downlink control information according to the first control information format. Upon determining that the second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting, the UE obtains the downlink control information according to the second control information format. Whether the setting is valid may be indicated by the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information according to the control information format of the downlink control information. Therefore, the UE can identify the control information format used by the base station according to the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information, so that the UE can identify the determined control information format downlink control information can be obtained according to Since the first field and the second field indicate the contents of the fixed fields carried within the downlink control information, the payload of the downlink control information can be reduced by indicating the contents of the fixed fields using the control information format. It does not increase in size and can effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

It should be noted that the contents such as information exchange between modules/units of the device and its execution process are based on the same idea as the method embodiment of the present invention and bring about the same technical effect as the method embodiment of the present invention. For details, please refer to the description of the method embodiments of the present invention, and the details are not described here again.

An embodiment of the invention further provides a computer storage medium. A computer storage medium stores a program, which performs some or all of the steps of the aforementioned method embodiments.

Another base station provided by an embodiment of the present invention is described below. Referring to FIG. 8, base station 800
a receiver 801, a transmitter 802, a processor 803, and a memory 804 (there may be one or more processors 803 within the base station 800; one processor is used as an example in FIG. 8). ). In some embodiments of the invention, receiver 801, transmitter 802, processor 803, and memory 804 may be connected using a bus or otherwise. FIG. 8 shows an example of a connection using a bus.

Processor 803 performs the following steps:
determining a control information format for downlink control information;
determining that a first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates a valid setting when the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format; Or, when the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, determine that the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting. a step;
transmitting downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format to a user equipment (UE).

In some embodiments of the invention, a valid setting determined by processor 803 is a valid bit state, or a valid first information index, or a valid combination of the first information index and the second information. Including combinations.

Invalid settings include invalid bit states, or invalid first information indices, or invalid combinations of first information indices and second information.

A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first piece of information.

In some embodiments of the invention, the bit position of the first field within the downlink control information corresponding to the first field determined by the processor 803 is the downlink control information corresponding to the second field. or the bit position of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field is the same as the bit position of the second field in the control information and X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the lower X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is , is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field.

In some embodiments of the invention, the first field determined by processor 803 is one of transport block size field, modulation and coding scheme field, narrowband resource allocation field, or padding bits field. the second field includes one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field; or The fields include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field, the second field being a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field. , or include one or more of the padding bit fields.

In some embodiments of the invention, a valid combination of the first information index and the second information determined by processor 803 is:
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is Used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2.

An invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. contains a value

In some embodiments of the invention, valid bit states determined by processor 803 include state values of all four-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; or invalid bit states include at least one state value of 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111; and/or valid first information indices whose index numbers are 0, 1, 2, contains an index that is one of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 and/or an invalid first information index whose index number is 11, 12, 13, 14 , or contains an index that is one of 15.

In some embodiments of the invention the first information determined by the processor 803 is a transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or the modulation and coding scheme index, and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks.

In some embodiments of the invention, the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format as determined by the processor 803 carries grant information and/or downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format. Link control information carries control channel command information.

From the description of this embodiment of the invention, it can be seen that the control information format of the downlink control information is determined first. When the control information format of the downlink control information is the first control information format, it is determined that the first field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format indicates valid settings. Alternatively, when the control information format of the downlink control information is the second control information format, it is determined that the second field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format indicates an invalid setting. be. Downlink control information corresponding to the determined control information format is finally sent to the UE. Whether the setting is valid may be indicated by the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information according to the control information format of the downlink control information. Therefore, the UE can identify the control information format used by the base station according to the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information, so that the UE can identify the determined control information format downlink control information can be obtained according to Since the first field and the second field indicate the contents of the fixed fields carried within the downlink control information, the payload of the downlink control information can be reduced by indicating the contents of the fixed fields using the control information format. It does not increase in size and can effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

Another user equipment provided by an embodiment of the present invention is described below. Referring to FIG. 9, user equipment 900
a receiver 901, a transmitter 902, a processor 903, and a memory 904 (there may be one or more processors 903 within the user equipment 900; one processor is used as an example in FIG. 9). ). In some embodiments of the invention, receiver 901, transmitter 902, processor 903, and memory 904 may be connected using a bus or otherwise. FIG. 9 shows an example of a connection using a bus.

Processor 903 performs the following steps:
detecting a first field included in downlink control information transmitted by a base station or a second field included in downlink control information;
obtaining downlink control information according to a first control information format when it is determined that a first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting;
obtaining downlink control information according to a second control information format if it is determined that a second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting.

In some embodiments of the invention, a valid setting determined by processor 903 is a valid bit state, or a valid first information index, or a valid combination of the first information index and the second information. Including combinations.

Invalid settings include invalid bit states, or invalid first information indices, or invalid combinations of first information indices and second information.

A valid bit state indicates valid first information or a valid first information index, an invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or an invalid first information index, and the first information An index is used to indicate the first piece of information.

In some embodiments of the invention, the bit position of the first field within the downlink control information corresponding to the first field determined by the processor 903 is the downlink control information corresponding to the second field. or the bit position of the upper X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field is the same as the bit position of the second field in the control information and X is a non-zero natural number, or the bit position of the lower X bits of the first field in the downlink control information corresponding to the first field is , is the same as the bit position of the second field in the downlink control information corresponding to the second field.

In some embodiments of the invention, the first field determined by processor 903 is one of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, an intra-narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bits field. the second field includes one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field; or The fields include one or more of a transport block size field, a modulation and coding scheme field, a narrowband resource allocation field, or a padding bit field, the second field being a grant distinction field, a reserved bit field. , or include one or more of the padding bit fields.

In some embodiments of the invention, a valid combination of the first information index and the second information determined by processor 903 is:
the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 9, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 4 or 6; and/or the downlink control information is used for downlink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number of 10 and the second information includes a value of 4; and/or the downlink control information is Used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 10, and the second information includes a value that is a fixed value of 1 or 2.

An invalid combination of the first information index and the second information is
the first information index includes an index number that is a fixed value of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15 and the second information includes a value of 6; and/or the downlink control information includes a downlink and/ or the downlink control information is used for uplink data scheduling, the first information index contains an index number that is a fixed value from 0 to 15, and the second information is a fixed value that is 3, 4, 5, or 6. contains a value

In some embodiments of the invention, valid bit states determined by processor 903 include state values of all four-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; or invalid bit states include at least one state value of 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, or 1111; and/or valid first information indices whose index numbers are 0, 1, 2, contains an index that is one of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 and/or an invalid first information index whose index number is 11, 12, 13, 14 , or contains an index that is one of 15.

In some embodiments of the invention the first information determined by the processor 903 is a transport block size or modulation and coding scheme and/or the first information index is a transport block size index or the modulation and coding scheme index, and/or the second information is the number of resource blocks.

In some embodiments of the invention, the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format as determined by the processor 903 carries grant information and/or downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format. Link control information carries control channel command information.

From the description of this embodiment of the invention, it can be seen that the UE first detects the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information sent by the base station. Upon determining that the first field included in the downlink control information indicates a valid setting, the UE obtains the downlink control information according to the first control information format. Upon determining that the second field included in the downlink control information indicates an invalid setting, the UE obtains the downlink control information according to the second control information format. Whether the setting is valid may be indicated by the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information according to the control information format of the downlink control information. Therefore, the UE can identify the control information format used by the base station according to the first field or the second field included in the downlink control information, so that the UE can identify the determined control information format downlink control information can be obtained according to Since the first field and the second field indicate the contents of the fixed fields carried within the downlink control information, the payload of the downlink control information can be reduced by indicating the contents of the fixed fields using the control information format. It does not increase in size and can effectively distinguish downlink control information in coverage enhancement scenarios.

Additionally, it should be noted that the described apparatus embodiments are merely exemplary. Units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate and parts described as units may or may not be physical units and are united in one place. or distributed over multiple network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the objectives of the solutions of the embodiments. In addition, in the attached drawings of the device embodiments provided by the present invention, the connection relationship between the modules has communication connections with each other, which modules can be specifically implemented as one or more communication buses or signal cables. indicates that Those skilled in the art can understand and implement the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts.

Based on the preceding implementation descriptions, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented by software in addition to the required general-purpose hardware, or by dedicated hardware including dedicated integrated circuits, dedicated CPUs, dedicated memories, dedicated components, etc. You can clearly understand what you are getting. In general, any function that can be performed by a computer program can be easily implemented using corresponding hardware. Moreover, the specific hardware structures used to implement the same functionality may take various forms, such as analog circuits, digital circuits, dedicated circuits, and so on. However, for the present invention, a software program implementation is often a better implementation. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention essentially or the part contributing to the prior art may be implemented in the form of software products. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT may be stored on any readable storage medium such as computer floppy disks, USB flash drives, removable hard disks, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks. It contains a number of instructions for instructing a computing device (which may be a personal computer, server, network device, etc.) to be stored and to perform the methods described in the embodiments of the invention.

The foregoing embodiments are merely for describing the technical solutions of the present invention, not for limiting the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, a person skilled in the art can appreciate the features described in the foregoing embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood that the technical solutions can be further modified or equivalent replacements can be made to some technical features thereof.

600 base stations
601 Information Format Decision Module
602 Field Setting Judgment Module
603 Transceiver module
700 User Equipment
701 detection module
702 first acquisition module
703 second acquisition module
800 base stations
801 Receiver
802 Transmitter
803 processor
804 memory
900 User Equipment
901 receiver
902 Transmitter
903 processor
904 memory

Claims (22)

A control information format processing method comprising:
determining a control information format for downlink control information, said downlink control information comprising an intra-narrowband resource allocation field;
valid for the intra-narrowband resource allocation field in response to determining that the downlink control information carries grant information and the control information format of the downlink control information is a first control information format. settings , or
The intra-narrowband resource allocation field in response to determining that the downlink control information carries control channel command information and the control information format of the downlink control information is a second control information format. setting a disabled setting to the
and transmitting said downlink control information to a user equipment (UE). The bit position of the narrowband resource allocation field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format corresponds to the narrowband control information included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format. 2. The method of claim 1 , which is the same as the bit position of the in-band resource allocation field. the valid setting comprises a valid bit state or a valid first information index;
the invalid setting comprises an invalid bit state or an invalid first information index;
the valid bit state indicates valid first information or the valid first information index, the invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or the invalid first information index; 3. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein said first information index is used to indicate said first information. said valid bit states include state values among all 4-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; and/or said invalid bit states include 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110 , or 1111. A control information format processing method comprising:
detecting downlink control information from a base station, said downlink control information comprising an intra-narrowband resource allocation field;
obtaining the downlink control information according to a first control information format to obtain grant information in response to determining that the in-narrowband resource allocation field indicates a valid setting; or
obtaining control channel command information by obtaining the downlink control information according to a second control information format in response to determining that the intra -narrowband resource allocation field indicates an invalid configuration. Method. The bit position of the narrowband resource allocation field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format corresponds to the narrowband control information included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format. 6. The method of claim 5 , which is the same as the bit position of the in-band resource allocation field. the valid setting comprises a valid bit state or a valid first information index;
the invalid setting comprises an invalid bit state or an invalid first information index;
the valid bit state indicates valid first information or the valid first information index, the invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or the invalid first information index; 7. A method according to claim 5 or 6 , wherein said first information index is used to indicate said first information. said valid bit states include state values among all 4-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; and/or said invalid bit states include 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110 , or 1111 . A control information format processing device,
determining a control information format for downlink control information, wherein the downlink control information includes an intra-narrowband resource allocation field;
valid for the intra-narrowband resource allocation field in response to determining that the downlink control information carries grant information and the control information format of the downlink control information is a first control information format. settings , or
The intra-narrowband resource allocation field in response to determining that the downlink control information carries control channel command information and the control information format of the downlink control information is a second control information format. setting invalid settings to
a processing module configured to perform
a transmit/receive module configured to transmit said downlink control information to a user equipment (UE). The bit position of the narrowband resource allocation field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format corresponds to the narrowband control information included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format. 10. The apparatus of claim 9 , which is the same as the bit position of the in-band resource allocation field. the valid setting comprises a valid bit state or a valid first information index;
the invalid setting comprises an invalid bit state or an invalid first information index;
the valid bit state indicates valid first information or the valid first information index, the invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or the invalid first information index; 11. Apparatus according to claim 9 or 10 , wherein said first information index is used to indicate said first information. said valid bit states include state values among all 4-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; and/or said invalid bit states include 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110 , or 1111. The apparatus of claim 11 , comprising at least one state value of: A control information format processing device,
a processing module configured to detect downlink control information from a base station, said downlink control information including an intra-narrowband resource allocation field;
The processing module is
obtaining grant information by obtaining the downlink control information according to a first control information format in response to determining that the in -narrowband resource allocation field indicates a valid setting; or
Obtaining the downlink control information according to a second control information format to obtain control channel command information in response to determining that the intra -narrowband resource allocation field indicates an invalid configuration.
The apparatus further configured to perform The bit position of the narrowband resource allocation field included in the downlink control information corresponding to the first control information format corresponds to the narrowband control information included in the downlink control information corresponding to the second control information format. 14. The apparatus of claim 13 , which is the same as the bit position of the in-band resource allocation field. the valid setting comprises a valid bit state or a valid first information index;
the invalid setting comprises an invalid bit state or an invalid first information index;
the valid bit state indicates valid first information or the valid first information index, the invalid bit state indicates invalid first information or the invalid first information index; 15. Apparatus according to claim 13 or 14 , wherein said first information index is used to indicate said first information. said valid bit states include state values among all 4-bit state values except 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, and 1111; and/or said invalid bit states include 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110 16. The apparatus of claim 15 , comprising at least one state value of 1111. A control information format processing device,
determining a control information format for downlink control information, wherein the downlink control information includes an intra-narrowband resource allocation field;
valid for the intra-narrowband resource allocation field in response to determining that the downlink control information carries grant information and the control information format of the downlink control information is a first control information format. settings , or
The intra-narrowband resource allocation field in response to determining that the downlink control information carries control channel command information and the control information format of the downlink control information is a second control information format. setting invalid settings to
a processor configured to perform
a transmitter configured to transmit said downlink control information to a user equipment (UE). A control information format processing device,
a receiver, a processor,
the processor configured to detect downlink control information from a base station, the downlink control information including an intra-narrowband resource allocation field;
the processor
obtaining grant information by obtaining the downlink control information according to a first control information format in response to determining that the in -narrowband resource allocation field indicates a valid setting; or
Obtaining the downlink control information according to a second control information format to obtain control channel command information in response to determining that the intra-narrowband resource allocation field indicates an invalid configuration.
The apparatus further configured to perform A computer-readable recording medium recording instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 4 . A computer-readable recording medium recording instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 5 to 8. A program that causes a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 . A program that causes a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 5 to 8.

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