WO2019095328A1

WO2019095328A1 - Method and device for data replication, and computer-readable medium

Info

Publication number: WO2019095328A1
Application number: PCT/CN2017/111747
Authority: WO
Inventors: 温萍萍
Original assignee: 上海诺基亚贝尔股份有限公司
Priority date: 2017-11-17
Filing date: 2017-11-17
Publication date: 2019-05-23
Also published as: CN111247758B; CN111247758A

Abstract

Disclosed are a communication method for data replication, a network device and terminal device supporting data replication, and a computer-readable medium. For example, the communication method comprises: at a network device, in response to establishing a connection with a terminal device, determining the same configuration of a first uplink logical channel and a second uplink logical channel which are associated with the terminal device and support data replication; and sending the configuration to the terminal device, so that the terminal device synchronously sends the same data over the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel where the data replication is enabled.

Description

Method, device, and computer readable medium for data copying

Technical field

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication technologies and, more particularly, to methods, apparatus, and computer readable media for data replication.

Background technique

In 3GPP, RAN2 agrees to use the new data replication data transmission mode to improve the reliability for services with strict delay requirements, such as high reliability low latency services (URLLC) and signaling radio bearers ( SRB) and so on.

Packet replication is gain in some cases, but in some cases the gain is limited and may not be an effective solution for URLLC.

The RAN therefore defines mechanisms that can effectively control data replication (eg, enabling and disabling replication through the Media Access Control Control Unit (MAC CE)). Since the non-ideal delay between the primary base station (MgNB) and the secondary base station (SgNB) has a large impact on the replication performance, and for the single-connection carrier aggregation scenario, the asynchronous transmission of the two branches supporting the data replication will also There is a large impact on the replication performance, so it is necessary to solve the problem of synchronous scheduling/sending on the two branches of the uplink.

Summary of the invention

In general, embodiments of the present disclosure propose a communication method implemented at a network device and a corresponding network device and a communication method implemented at the terminal device and a corresponding terminal device.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method implemented at a network device. The method includes determining, in response to establishing a connection with a terminal device, determining the same configuration of a first uplink logical channel and a second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device; and transmitting the configuration to the terminal device to The terminal device is caused to synchronously transmit the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel with data replication enabled.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method implemented at a terminal device. The method includes receiving, in response to establishing a connection with a network device, receiving, from a network device, the same configuration of a first uplink logical channel and a second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device; determining whether data multiplexing is enabled And in response to determining that data replication has been enabled, the same data is synchronously transmitted on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel based on the configuration.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network device. The network device includes at least one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor. The memory includes instructions stored therein that, when executed by at least one processing unit, cause the network device to perform an action. The action includes determining, in response to establishing a connection with the terminal device, the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device; and transmitting the configuration to the terminal device, To enable the terminal device to synchronously transmit the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel if data replication is enabled.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a terminal device. The terminal device includes at least one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor. The memory includes instructions stored therein that, when executed by at least one processing unit, cause the network device to perform an action. The action includes receiving, from the network device, the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device in response to establishing a connection with the network device; determining whether data multiplexing is Enabled; and in response to determining that data replication has been enabled, the same data is synchronously transmitted on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel based on the configuration.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, cause the at least one processing unit to be configured to perform an action. The action includes determining, in response to establishing a connection with the terminal device, the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device; and transmitting the configuration to the terminal device, To enable the terminal device to synchronously transmit the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel if data replication is enabled.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, cause the at least one processing unit to be configured to perform an action. The action includes receiving, from the network device, the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device in response to establishing a connection with the network device; determining whether data multiplexing is Enabled; and in response to determining that data replication has been enabled, the same data is synchronously transmitted on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel based on the configuration.

It is to be understood that the content of the present invention is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will be readily understood by the following description.

DRAWINGS

The above and other features, advantages and aspects of the various embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent. In the figures, the same or similar reference numerals indicate the same or similar elements, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of an example communication method in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of an example communication method in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure.

4 illustrates a schematic diagram of implementing communication based on data replication, in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of performing a logical channel priority process, in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of a device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals indicate the same or similar elements.

Detailed ways

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although certain embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the disclosure The present invention is to be understood as being limited to the embodiments described herein, and the embodiments are provided to provide a more complete and complete understanding of the present disclosure. The drawings and embodiments of the present disclosure are to be considered as illustrative only and not limiting the scope of the disclosure.

The term "network device" as used herein refers to other entities or nodes that have particular functionality in a base station or communication network. A "base station" (BS) may represent a Node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), a Node B (gNodeB or gNB) used in a 5g network, a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a Radio Head (RH) ), a remote radio head (RRH), a repeater, or a low power node such as a pico base station, a femto base station, or the like. In the context of the present disclosure, the terms "network device" and "base station" are used interchangeably for purposes of discussion and may be primarily eNBs as an example of a network device.

The term "terminal device" or "user equipment" (UE) as used herein refers to any terminal device capable of wireless communication with or between base stations. As an example, the terminal device may include a mobile terminal (MT), a subscriber station (SS), a portable subscriber station (PSS), a mobile station (MS), or an access terminal (AT), and the above-described device onboard. In the context of the present disclosure, the terms "terminal device" and "user device" are used interchangeably for purposes of discussion.

The term "comprising" and variations thereof as used herein are intended to be inclusive, that is, "including but not limited to". The term "based on" is "based at least in part on." The term "one embodiment" means "at least one embodiment"; the term "another embodiment" means "at least one additional embodiment." Relevant definitions of other terms will be given in the description below.

In 3GPP, RAN2 agrees to use the new data replication data transmission mode to improve the reliability for services with strict delay requirements, such as high reliability low latency services (URLLC) and signaling radio bearers ( SRB) and so on. Data replication occurs at the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer.

The following agreement has been reached on the standardization of data replication transmission in 3GPP:

User plane and control plane data support for packet duplication in NR-PDCP is defined in RAN2 NR AH#1. This protocol does not preclude discussion of other mechanisms to improve mobile robustness. Sex. The PDCP function in the sender supports packet replication, and the PDCP function in the receiver supports replication packet deletion.

In RAN2 #97, for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL), in the case of a replication solution for carrier aggregation (CA), PDCP replication is used to more than one logical channel, such that The replicated PDCP PDU is sent on a different carrier.

Radio Resource Control (RRC) is defined in RAN2 #97bis to configure the PDCP for replication and the radio protocol of UEs with separate Radio Link Layer (RLC) entities and logical channels to handle replication (referred to as "branch") ), where only one additional branch is configured for PDCP replication. The original PDCP Protocol Data Unit (PDU) and corresponding copy shall not be transmitted on the same transport block. The PDCP replication solution for CA requires only one MAC entity. Logical channel mapping restrictions need to be introduced to handle data replication within a MAC entity (CA).

It is defined in RAN2 #98 that replication on a single carrier is not supported, but mapping of two replicated logical channels (LCH) to different carriers by RRC is supported. That is, there cannot be two replicated logical channels mapped to one carrier. The copied PDCP PDU is delivered to two different RLC entities. UL replication is controlled by MAC CE. UL PDCP replication can be configured per data radio bearer (DRB), while for NR-NR dual connectivity (DC), UL PDCP replication can be configured per per SRB. The initial state of UL PDCP replication (copy enabled or not enabled, which branch is used if not enabled) is either default or determined by RRC signaling is now under discussion. Compared to RRC reconfiguration, RAN2 attempts to define at least one mechanism to start/stop PDCP replication more quickly and with less signaling overhead.

It is defined in RAN2 NR AH#2 that the MN decides to use the primary radio cell group (MCG) to replicate the SRB by the decision of the MgNB, and configures the MCG replication SRB by MN RRC signaling. For all DC cases of "Replicate SRB" (all MR-DC and NR-NR DC cases), UL packet transmission is configured by RRC to use the MCG path, SCG path or both MCG and SCG paths. 3GPP has observed that packet replication may be gainable in some cases, but in some cases the gain is limited and may not be used. An effective scheme for URLLC, therefore the RAN defines some mechanisms for effective control data replication, such as enabling and disabling replication through the Media Access Control Control Unit (MAC CE), and the initial PDCP PDU and corresponding copy should not Transfer on the same transport block, etc.

The performance evaluation of packet replication for URLLC is given in Table 1.

Table 1: L2 delay for packet replication for symmetric block error rates

As can be seen in Table 1, the delay of the Xn interface between MgNB and SgNB has a large impact on the replication performance. Under non-ideal Xn (large Xn delay) between MgNB and SgNB, packet replication does not have much delay improvement. The time to arrive at the receiving end by the packet of the SeNB branch experiencing the Xn delay is later. In this case, the fast retransmission via the MgNB may be much faster than the initial transmission through the SeNB. In order to increase the gain of data replication, fast retransmissions should be avoided faster than the initial transmission. From a scheduling point of view, it is desirable to be able to synchronize the data transmissions on the two branches, thus assigning the same/similar resource amounts to the two logical channels on different carriers. If the scheduling and data transmission between the two parties are not synchronized, that is, the resources allocated to one branch are more than the other, one branch will work faster and the other branch will work more slowly. Unbalanced two logical channels This results in data being accumulated and stored on a branch, the result being the same as in the case of DC data replication with non-ideal backhaul. If the retransmission via one leg is much faster than the initial transfer through the other leg, the copy gain is limited. In particular, in the uplink, scheduling grants are UE based and will use logical channel priority (LCP) procedures to allocate resources in logical channels.

Therefore, there is a need for an effective mechanism to ensure synchronous scheduling/transmission on two branches, thereby reducing the scheduling/transmission gap between the two branches to obtain a copy gain.

In order to address at least some of these and other possible potential problems, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method and apparatus for supporting data replication is provided. The method includes determining, by the network device, the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel associated with the terminal device after establishing the connection with the terminal device, and transmitting the configuration to the terminal device to The same data is transmitted on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel if replication is enabled.

In this way, the network device side performs the same configuration (for example, scheduling mode and logical channel priority parameter, etc.) on the two uplink logical channels supporting the data replication associated with the terminal device, and after the data replication is enabled, the terminal device The side controls the amount of data transmitted on the two uplink logical channels to ensure synchronous transmission between the two uplink logical channels.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The communication network 100 includes a terminal device 110 and two network devices, namely, a first network device 120 and a second network device 130.

In the communication network 100, the first network device 120 can be, for example, a primary network device (eg, a MgNB), and the second network device 130 can be, for example, a secondary network device (eg, a SgNB). The terminal device 110 can communicate with the first network device 120 and the second network device 130, respectively. Accordingly, the first network device 120 and the second network device 130 can also communicate with each other.

It should be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices shown in FIG. 1 is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to be limiting. Communication network 100 can include any suitable number of Network equipment and terminal equipment.

As shown, in this example, two logical channels for supporting data replication may be two uplink logical channels between the terminal device 110 and the first network device 120, and may also be the terminal device 110 and the first network. One uplink logical channel between the devices 120 and between the terminal device 110 and the second network device 130. That is, data replication is supported on two uplink logical channels between the terminal device 110 and the first network device 120 to transmit the same data, or between the terminal device 110 and the first network device 120 and the terminal device 110. Each of the uplink logical channels between the second network device 130 and the second network device 130 supports data replication to transmit the same data.

Currently, if two uplink logical channels for data replication have different configurations, for example, they have different scheduling modes or different channel priorities, the data transmission speeds of the two uplink logical channels are different in unit time. This results in a difference between the amount of data transferred. This will result in limited gain or even unrealization by data replication. On the other hand, since the two uplink logical channels have different configurations, signaling overhead for different configurations is increased.

To avoid this, the first network device 120 performs some of the same configuration for the two uplink logical channels associated with the terminal device 110 that support data replication (eg, configuring the scheduling mode and the logical channel priority parameter set to be the same) And inform the terminal device 110 of the configuration. Further, on the terminal device 110 side, a control mechanism (hereinafter referred to as a logical channel priority (LCP) process) for controlling the amount of data transmitted on the two uplink logical channels is performed, thereby realizing on the two uplink logical channels. Data is transmitted synchronously. Embodiments of this aspect will be described in detail later.

Communication in network 100 can be implemented in accordance with any suitable communication protocol. Examples of communication protocols include, but are not limited to, cellular communication protocols such as first generation (1G), second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), and fifth generation (5G), such as electrical Wireless local area network communication protocol with the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, and/or any other protocol currently known or developed in the future. Moreover, the communication uses any suitable wireless communication technology including, but not limited to, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex. (TDD), multiple inputs Multiple Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM), and/or any other technology currently known or developed in the future.

The principles and specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 2 through 5. Reference is first made to FIG. 2, which shows a flowchart of an example communication method 200, in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated that the method 200 can be implemented, for example, at the first network device 120 as shown in FIG. For convenience of description, the method 200 will be described below in conjunction with FIG.

At block 210, the network device (eg, the first network device 110 in FIG. 1), after establishing a connection with the terminal device 110, determines a first uplink logical channel and a second uplink logic that support data replication associated with the terminal device 110. The same configuration of the channel.

According to some embodiments, the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel may indicate that the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel have the same scheduling mode or have the same logical channel priority (LCP) parameter group. According to some embodiments, the scheduling mode may include at least one of a grant-free, a semi-persistent scheduling mode (SPS), and a grant based scheduling of unused scheduling grant signaling. According to some embodiments, the LCP parameter set may include at least one of a priority, a priority bit rate (PBR), and a bucket capacity duration (BSD).

By configuring the same scheduling mode and supporting the same scheduling related parameter set, it is possible to ensure resource allocation synchronization of two channels supporting replication in scheduling. In the case where the parameters of the two logical channels are the same, a set of parameter configuration signaling is supported for the two logical channels to reduce signaling overhead, such as scheduling period, priority, priority bit rate, and bucket capacity duration. The replicate logical channel autonomously uses the parameters configured for the initial logical channel because the data copy is configured for two logical channels. Thus, signaling for logical channel configuration only needs to be sent to one logical channel, and another replicated logical channel can use the same configuration.

According to some embodiments, the terminal device 110 is capable of establishing a dual connectivity (DC) with the first network device 120 and the second network device 130. In this case, the first network device 120 is the primary base station and the second network device 130 is the secondary base station. In this case, the two uplink logical channels supporting data replication are respectively an uplink logical channel (referred to as a first uplink logical channel) between the terminal device 110 and the first network device 120, and the terminal device 110 and the second network device. An uplink logical channel between 130 (referred to as a second uplink logical channel).

In a case where the terminal device 110 establishes a dual connection with the first network device 120 and the second network device 130, after the first network device 120 establishes a connection with the terminal device 110, the first network device 120 determines the first network device 120 and the terminal. The first uplink logical channel configuration of the data replication is supported between the devices 110, and the first network device 120 also sends the configuration of the first uplink logical channel to the second network device 130. In order to be able to synchronize data transmissions, the second network device 130 can configure some configurations of the second uplink logical channel to be the same as the first uplink logical channel (eg, configure the scheduling mode and the logical channel priority parameter set to be the same). When the configurations of the two uplink logical channels are the same, signaling overhead can be saved.

According to some embodiments, if the second network device 130 has not established a connection with the first network device 120 and the terminal device 110, in order to support the dual-connection data replication transmission mode, in the request to add the secondary base station request, the uplink logical channel The configuration may be sent to the second network device 130 in a signaling (SgNB Addition Request) that adds the second network device 130 as a secondary base station. According to some embodiments, if the second network device 130 has established a connection with the first network device 120 and the terminal device 110, but the connection does not support data replication, in order to support the dual-connection data replication transmission mode, the uplink logical channel The configuration may be included in the second network device 130 to be sent to the second network device 130 as a secondary base station configuration request signaling (SgNB Modification Request).

According to some embodiments, the terminal device 110 only establishes a connection with the first network device 120 and transmits data on the uplink. In this case, two uplink logical channels (i.e., the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel) supporting data replication are between the first network device 120 and the terminal device 110. This situation is called data replication in the case of Carrier Aggregation (CA).

It should be understood that the difference between the two cases of dual connectivity and carrier aggregation is that the first The uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel are uplink logical channels between the network device and the terminal device. The parameters associated with the first uplink logical channel configuration and the second uplink logical channel configuration are the same for the two different cases. For example, as already described above.

At block 220, the network device transmits the configuration to the terminal device 110 to cause the terminal device 100 to synchronously transmit the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel if data replication is enabled.

In the case of dual connectivity, after receiving a response from the second network device 130, the first network device 120 transmits the above configuration to the terminal device 110 such that the terminal device 110 can be in the case where data replication is enabled. The same data is synchronously transmitted on the uplink logical channels.

For the case of carrier aggregation, the first network device 120 determines the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel that support data replication and transmits the configuration of one of the logical channels to the terminal device 110, such that the terminal device 110 The same data can be synchronously transmitted on the two uplink logical channels with data copying enabled.

According to some embodiments, the first network device 120 may include the configuration of the first uplink logical channel or the second uplink logical channel in a radio resource control (RRC) configuration or reconfiguration signaling and configure or reconfigure the RRC The signaling is sent to the terminal device 110. It should be understood that the above configuration may also be separately transmitted by the first network device 120 to the terminal device 110.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an example communication method 300, in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated that the method 300 can be implemented, for example, at the terminal device 110 as shown in FIG. For ease of description, method 300 is described below in conjunction with FIG.

At block 310, after establishing a connection with the network device, the terminal device 110 receives from the network device the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device 110.

Corresponding to the method 200 described above in connection with FIG. 2, according to some embodiments, the network device may be the first network device 120 (ie, the primary base station), the first uplink logic The channel is the channel between the terminal device 110 and the first network device 120, and the second uplink logical channel is the channel between the terminal device 110 and the second network device 130 (secondary base station).

Optionally, according to some embodiments, the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel may also be channels between the terminal device 110 and the network device 120.

It should be understood that the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel received at block 310 for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device 110 may include a scheduling mode and a logical channel priority (LCP) parameter set. Signaling. A detailed description associated with this configuration has been presented above and will not be described again here.

At block 320, it is determined if data multiplexing is enabled. The signaling of the parameters in the configuration of the first uplink logical channel or the second uplink logical channel supporting the data replication may be included in the radio resource control (RRC) configuration or reconfiguration signaling received from the network device. Once the terminal device 130 receives the signaling of the RRC configuration or reconfiguration, it receives signaling regarding parameters in the configuration of the first uplink logical channel or the second uplink logical channel. At block 330, in the event that data replication has been enabled, the same data is transmitted synchronously on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel in accordance with the received configuration.

In 3GPP, the motivation for data packet replication is to increase the chances of successfully receiving PDCP PDUs in a short period of time by obtaining diversity gains on different branches of different carriers. From the perspective of scheduling, data can be transmitted synchronously on two channels, thus requiring the same/nearly number of resources allocated to two logical channels on different carriers, or the amount of buffered data between two logical channels supporting replication. The difference can be controlled. If the scheduling and data transmission of both parties are not synchronized, for example, resources are allocated more than one carrier in one carrier, the imbalance of the two logical channels reduces the replication efficiency. This aspect causes a waste of resources. On the other hand, since data that is not transmitted is stored before new data in a logical channel, true data copying cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, the terminal device 110 should control the data transmission of two uplink logical channels for copying.

The first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel have the same scheduling It can be synchronized in the scheduling mode as well as in the scheduling period. However, if the data transmission cannot be synchronized, the gain from data transmission cannot be achieved. Therefore, the data transmitted by the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel should be controlled.

In some embodiments, since the bucket data amount Bj can indicate the transmission data rate at the logical channel j, when the data transmission supporting data replication is performed, when the second uplink logical channel is changed from the inactive state to the active state The terminal device 110 can configure the value of the bucket data amount of the logical channel priority parameter of the second uplink logical channel and the value of the bucket data amount of the first uplink logical channel to be the same.

Alternatively, according to some embodiments, the LCP limit should be imposed on the replicated logical channel. That is, the same amount of data should be placed in different MAC PDUs for two logical channels, or the difference in the amount of buffered data between two replicated logical channels should be limited. A detailed description of the execution of the LCP by the terminal device will be further described below in connection with FIGS. 4 and 5.

4 illustrates a schematic diagram of implementing communication based on data replication, in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure. To better illustrate the

methods

200 and 300 illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, the interaction process of the terminal device 110, the first network device, and the second network device 120 in the dual connectivity scenario is now described in conjunction with FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, after the first network device 120 establishes a connection with the terminal device 110, the first network device 120 determines 410 the configuration of the uplink logical channel with the terminal device 110. As described above, in the case of dual connectivity, the first uplink logical channel is a logical channel between the terminal device 110 and the first network device 120, and the second uplink logical channel is between the terminal device 110 and the second network device 130. Logical channel. In order to make the configurations of the two uplink logical channels the same, the first network device 110 includes the configuration of the first uplink logical channel in the signaling of adding the second network device 130 as the request of the secondary base station or the second network device 130 as the secondary base station. The signaling of the secondary base station configuration request is modified and the signaling is sent 415 to the second network device 130.

After the second network device 130 responds 420 to the received signaling, the first network device 120 includes the configuration of the first uplink logical channel or the configuration of the second uplink logical channel in the RRC configuration signaling or the reconfiguration signaling. And sending the signaling to the terminal 425 Device to enable the data replication process. This essentially corresponds to block 220 in method 200 and block 310 in method 300.

After the RRC configuration or reconfiguration is completed, the terminal device 110 transmits 430 the configured completion signaling to the first network device 120, and the first network device 120 transmits 435 the signaling that completes the configuration to the second network device 130.

In order to maintain synchronization of data transmission, the terminal device 110 controls the data transmission on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel when transmitting data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel supporting data replication. . This control 440 is implemented in a logical channel priority (LCP) process.

It has been described in the description of the method of FIG. 3 that the bucket data amount Bj can indicate the transmission data rate at the logical channel j, so that when performing data transmission supporting data replication, the terminal device 110 can control the buckets in the two uplink logical channels. The amount of data. For example, when a logical channel supporting replication becomes disabled from enabled, it should be reset to have the same value as Bj in another logical channel supporting replication to further ensure synchronous data scheduling and transmission. For example, when the second uplink logical channel is disabled, the bucket data amount B2 of the second uplink logical channel will be reset to zero. The first uplink logical channel is enabled, and the bucket data amount B1 of the first uplink logical channel will be updated according to the LCP procedure. When the second uplink logical channel is changed from disabled to enabled, B2 should be reset to the same value as B1, ie B2 = B1.

Optionally, according to some embodiments, the terminal device may also control the amount of data transmitted on two logical channels supporting data replication or limit the difference in the amount of buffered data between the two logical channels.

For the case where the same amount of data is placed in different MAC PDUs of two logical channels, the terminal device 110 can transmit data of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel in the same unit data amount. This can be implemented, for example, by two rounds of LCP processes. In the first round of LCP, LCP is performed on two logical channels on different carriers, and the amount of data of the replicated logical channel on each MAC PDU is predetermined based on the LCP procedure. For example, the amount of data d1 determined for the first logical channel is placed in the MAC PDU of the first carrier, and the amount of data d2 determined for the second logical channel is placed Into the MAC PDU of the second carrier. Then, the data amount of one logical channel is selected as a reference value according to a predetermined rule, for example, a larger value in d1 and d2 may be selected, or a smaller value in d1 and d2 may be selected. For example, the larger value d1 is determined as the reference value. In the second round of LCP, the LCP for the first carrier remains the same as the first round. And for the second logical channel, the LCP on the second carrier will be executed again. The amount of data d1 will be placed in the MAC PDU of the second carrier. With this scheme, the same amount of data should be placed in different MAC PDUs for the two logical channels. A schematic of such an LCP process is shown in FIG. In the first round of LCP, the medium access control (MAC) layer 510 determines the amount of data of the replicated logical channel on each MAC PDU and places it into the first carrier 520 and the second carrier 520, respectively, where the first uplink logical channel Mapping to the first carrier 520, the second uplink logical channel is mapped to the second carrier 530. After the first round of LCP, different amounts of data d1 (box filled with a left slash) and d2 (a box filled with a right slash) are obtained. The larger value d1 is determined as the reference value. In the second round of LCP, the LCP on the second carrier 530 will be executed again. The amount of data d1 will be placed in the MAC PDU of the second carrier 530. Let d2 = d1.

For the case of limiting the difference in the amount of buffered data between the two replicated logical channels, the first buffered data amount to be transmitted on the first uplink logical channel and the second buffer to be transmitted on the second uplink logical channel may be monitored. The amount of data. The LCP process of the two logical channels is performed separately on the two carriers. When the amount of the first buffered data amount exceeding the second buffered data amount reaches the threshold value, the unit data amount of transmitting data on the logical channel (first uplink logical channel) having a larger amount of buffered data can be increased. The threshold may be sent by the first network device 120 or the second network device 130 to the terminal device. Similarly, when the amount of the second buffered data exceeds the first buffered data amount reaches the threshold, the amount of unit data for transmitting the data on the second uplink logical channel can be increased. Thereby the amount of remaining data in the buffers of the two logical channels is the same, or only with a small difference.

Returning again to FIG. 4, the above control process can enable the transmission 450 of the terminal device 110 to the first network device 120 and the transmission 460 of the terminal device 110 to the second network device 130 to be synchronized. This essentially corresponds to block 330 in method 300.

It should be understood that although only several aspects of the improved LCP process in the disclosure are illustrated in conjunction with the interaction diagram of the dual connectivity scenario illustrated in FIG. 4, the LCP process in a single-connection carrier aggregation scenario is the same as the LCP described above. The scheme of the process is the same, so it will not be described here.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of an apparatus 600 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 600 can be used to implement the terminal device 110 or the first network device 120 as shown in FIG.

As shown, device 600 includes a controller 610. Controller 610 controls the operation and functionality of device 600. For example, in some embodiments, controller 610 can perform various operations with instructions 630 stored in memory 620 coupled thereto. Memory 620 can be of any suitable type suitable for use in a local technology environment and can be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, including but not limited to semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices, and systems. Although only one memory unit is shown in FIG. 6, there may be multiple physically different memory units in device 600.

Controller 610 can be of any suitable type suitable for use in a local technology environment and can include, but is not limited to, general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microcontrollers, digital signal controllers (DSPs), and controller-based multi-core controller architectures. One or more multiple. Device 600 can also include a plurality of controllers 610. Controller 610 is coupled to transceiver 640, which can receive and transmit information by means of one or more antennas 650 and/or other components.

When device 600 acts as terminal device 110, controller 610 and transceiver 640 can operate in conjunction to implement method 200 described above with respect to FIG. When device 600 acts as first network device 120, controller 610 and transceiver 640 can operate in conjunction to implement method 300 described above with respect to FIG. All of the features described above with reference to FIGS. 1 through 5 are applicable to the device 600 and will not be described herein.

In general, the various example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while others may be performed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Implemented in firmware or software. When the various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated or described as a block diagram, a flowchart, or some other graphical representation, it will be understood that the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be non-limiting. Examples are implemented in hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

By way of example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be described in the context of machine-executable instructions, such as in a program module that is executed in a device on a real or virtual processor of a target. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, and the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data structures. In various embodiments, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or divided between the described program modules. Machine-executable instructions for program modules can be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules can be located in both local and remote storage media.

Computer program code for implementing the methods of the present disclosure can be written in one or more programming languages. The computer program code can be provided to a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer or a processor of other programmable data processing apparatus such that the program code, when executed by a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, causes a flowchart and/or block diagram. The functions/operations specified in are implemented. The program code can execute entirely on the computer, partly on the computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the computer and partly on the remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.

In the context of the present disclosure, a machine-readable medium can be any tangible medium that contains or stores a program for or relating to an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium can be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine-readable medium can include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More detailed examples of machine readable storage media include electrical connections with one or more wires, portable computer disks, hard disks, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read only Memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical storage device, magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof.

In addition, although the operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in a particular order or in a sequential order, or all illustrated operations are performed to obtain the desired results. In some cases, multitasking or parallel processing can be beneficial. As such, the present invention is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can be implemented in various embodiments or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methods, it is understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not limited to the specific features or acts described. Instead, the specific features and acts described above are implemented as a right.

Claims

A communication method implemented at a network device, the method comprising:

Determining, in connection with establishing a connection with the terminal device, the same configuration of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device;

And transmitting the configuration to the terminal device, so that the terminal device synchronously transmits the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel if data replication is enabled.
The method of claim 1, wherein the network device is a first network device, the first uplink logical channel is a logical channel between the terminal device and the first network device, and the second The uplink logical channel is a logical channel between the terminal device and the second network device, and the second network device is different from the first network device.
The method according to claim 2, wherein said first network device is a primary base station, said second network device is a secondary base station, said first network device and said second network device being configured to communicate with said terminal The device establishes a dual connection.
The method of claim 2 further comprising:

The configuration for the first uplink logical channel is sent from the first network device to the second network device by at least one of the following signaling:

Adding the second network device as a request of the secondary base station;

Modifying the second network device as a configuration request of the secondary base station.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel are both channels between the terminal device and the network device.
The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the configuration to the terminal device comprises:

Configuring the configuration of the first uplink logical channel or the second uplink logical channel in a radio resource control (RRC) configuration or reconfiguration signaling, and

Transmitting the RRC configuration or reconfiguration signaling to the terminal device.
The communication method according to claim 1, wherein said configuration indicates at least one of the following:

Scheduling mode;

Logical Channel Priority (LCP) parameter set.
The communication method according to claim 7, wherein said scheduling mode comprises at least one of the following:

A scheduling mode (grant-free) that does not use scheduling authorization signaling;

Semi-static scheduling mode (SPS);

A scheduling based on scheduling signaling (grant based).
The communication method according to claim 7, wherein said LCP parameter set comprises at least one of the following:

priority;

Priority bit rate (PBR);

Bucket capacity duration (BSD).
A communication method implemented at a terminal device, the method comprising:

Receiving, from the network device, a same configuration of a first uplink logical channel and a second uplink logical channel for supporting data replication associated with the terminal device in response to establishing a connection with a network device;

Determine if data reuse is enabled; and

In response to determining that data replication has been enabled, the same data is transmitted synchronously on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel based on the configuration.
The method of claim 10, wherein the network device is a first network device, the first uplink logical channel is a channel between the terminal device and the first network device, and the second uplink The logical channel is a channel between the terminal device and the second network device, and the second network device is different from the first network device.
The method of claim 10, wherein the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel are both channels between the terminal device and the network device.
The method of claim 10 wherein receiving the configuration comprises:

Receiving radio resource control (RRC) configuration or reconfiguration signaling, the configuration of the first uplink logical channel or the second uplink logical channel is included in the RRC configuration or reconfiguration signaling.
The communication method according to claim 10, wherein said configuration indicates at least one of the following:

Scheduling mode;

Logical Channel Priority (LCP) parameter set.
The communication method according to claim 14, wherein said scheduling mode comprises at least one of the following:

A scheduling mode (grant-free) that does not use scheduling authorization signaling;

Semi-static scheduling mode (SPS);

A scheduling based on scheduling signaling (grant based).
The communication method according to claim 14, wherein said LCP parameter set comprises at least one of the following:

priority;

Priority bit rate (PBR);

Bucket capacity duration (BSD).
The method of claim 10, wherein synchronizing the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel comprises:

And setting a value of a bucket data amount of a logical channel priority parameter of the second uplink logical channel to a bucket of the first uplink logical channel, in response to the second uplink logical channel transitioning from an inactive state to an active state The value of the data amount is the same.
The method of claim 10, wherein synchronizing the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel comprises:

Transmitting the data of the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel in the same unit data amount.
The method of claim 10 wherein transmitting the same data on the first uplink logical channel and the second uplink logical channel comprises:

Monitoring a first buffered data amount to be transmitted on the first uplink logical channel and a second buffered data amount to be sent on the second uplink logical channel;

And increasing the unit data amount of transmitting the data on the first uplink logical channel in response to the amount of the first buffered data exceeding the second buffered data amount reaching a threshold.

And in response to the amount of the second buffered data exceeding the first buffered data amount reaching a threshold, increasing a unit data amount of transmitting the data on the second uplink logical channel.
A network device, including:

At least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory including instructions stored therein, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processing unit, causing the network device to perform according to any of claims 1-9 The action described in one item.
A terminal device comprising:

At least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory including instructions stored therein, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processing unit, causing the network device to perform according to any of claims 10-19 The action described in one item.
A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processing unit, cause at least one processing unit to be configured to perform any of claims 1-9 The method described.
A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processing unit, cause at least one processing unit to be configured to perform any of claims 10-19 The method described.