WO2022082461A1

WO2022082461A1 - Communication method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2022082461A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/122287
Authority: WO
Inventors: 刘显达; 纪刘榴; 张旭
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2020-10-20
Filing date: 2020-10-20
Publication date: 2022-04-28

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of communications, and provides a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal receiving configuration information for indicating the association between a set of first PDCCH candidates and a first control resource set and the association between a set of second PDCCH candidates and a second control resource set; according to time-frequency resources corresponding to the set of first PDCCH candidates and the set of second PDCCH candidates, determining an association relationship between N first PDCCH candidates in the set of first PDCCH candidates and N second PDCCH candidates in the set of second PDCCH candidates; and according to the association relationship, detecting DCI on the set of first PDCCH candidates and the set of second PDCCH candidates, so that when the DCI is sent on two PDCCH candidates having an association relationship, two pieces of DCI scheduling the same data can be prevented from occupying the same time-frequency resource, thereby preventing interference between the two pieces of DCI, and also preventing the demodulation performance of the terminal from being affected.

Description

Communication method and device

technical field

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

Background technique

In the multi-point transmission technology, multiple transmission reception points (transmission reception points, TRP) can transmit downlink signals for users through cooperation, and/or receive uplink signals of users through cooperation.

For example, two TRPs can send their respective downlink control information (DCI) to the same terminal, and the two DCIs schedule the same data. The DCI is carried on a certain physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) candidate (PDCCH candidates) in the control resource set (CORESET). Each of the two TRPs corresponds to a different CORESET. A CORESET includes at least one PDCCH candidate. A PDCCH candidate consists of at least one control channel element (CCE). The index value (ID) of the CCE included in each PDCCH candidate is related to the detection timing of the PDCCH candidate and the ID of the CORESET. Therefore, the CCE corresponding to the PDCCH candidate will change uncontrollably over time, so that even if two CORESETs are configured The number and position of the CCEs are the same, and the CCE positions corresponding to the PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same aggregation level (aggregation level, AL) associated with the CORESET determined by the terminal are different. However, it is found through simulation that there is still a certain probability that the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs collide, that is, the resources of the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs overlap partially or completely. For example, when two CORESETs are completely overlapped and the transmission time interval (TTI) is 50 milliseconds (ms), the simulated collision probability of PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs can be seen in FIG. 1 . It can be seen from FIG. 1 that the smaller the number of CCEs in the CORESET, the greater the probability of collision of PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs. Since the DCIs delivered by the two TRPs need to be independently demodulated and then merged, if the PDCCH candidates carrying the two DCIs collide, the two DCIs will interfere with each other, which seriously affects the demodulation performance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus, which are used to improve the demodulation performance of a terminal.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, comprising: receiving configuration information, the configuration information being used to indicate that a first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and a set of second PDCCH candidates is associated with a second control resource Set association; determine N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH in the first PDCCH candidate set according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set The association relationship between N second PDCCH candidates in the candidate set, where N is an integer greater than 1; DCI is detected on the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set according to the association relationship . In the prior art, by default, PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs have an association relationship, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the SSS itself are not considered. Therefore, the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs may collide. In the communication method provided by the first aspect, the network device and the terminal determine the PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set by using time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set Therefore, when sending DCI on two PDCCH candidates with an associated relationship, it is possible to avoid scheduling two DCIs with the same data to occupy the same time-frequency resources, thereby avoiding mutual interference between the two DCIs, and avoiding affecting the terminal's demodulation performance.

In a possible implementation manner, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is a first association relationship or a second association relationship; the first association relationship is: The index values in the set of the first PDCCH candidates from small to large are respectively {a ₁ , a ₂ , ..., a _N } in the set of the N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates. The N second PDCCH candidates, respectively {b ₁ , b ₂ , ..., b _N } from small to large are associated one by one according to the order of index values from small to large; the second association relationship is: The index values in the set of the first PDCCH candidates from small to large are {a ₁ , a ₂ , ..., a _N } respectively. The index values in the set of the N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates are: The _N _second _PDCCH candidates of { _{c 1} _, c ₂ , . The index _values {b ₁ , b ₂ , .

In a possible implementation, c _n mod N=( _bn +Δ) mod N, n=1, 2, . . . , N, where Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or a positive integer less than N. The above mechanism for determining the association relationship can effectively ensure that the associated PDCCH candidates occupy orthogonal time-frequency resources, thereby ensuring transmission performance. In addition, the preset mechanism can avoid the overhead of configuration signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, when the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate with an index value of an _' and the second PDCCH candidate with an index value of _bn' do not overlap, the The association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship; or, the first PDCCH candidate with an index value of an _' and an index value of b _{n '} In the case where the time-frequency resources occupied by the second PDCCH candidates overlap, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the second association relationship; wherein, a _n' ∈{a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N }, b _n' ∈{b ₁ ,b ₂ ,...,b _N }, n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N. In this possible implementation manner, the time-frequency resources occupied by the associated PDCCH candidates may not overlap.

In a possible implementation manner, the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same aggregation level. On the one hand, the AL of the correlated PDCCH candidates is the same, which can make it easier for the receiving end to perform the soft combining operation and reduce the processing complexity of the receiving end. On the other hand, the AL of the PDCCH candidates that are related to each other is the same, which can also make it easier for the mechanism for determining the correlation relationship to ensure the orthogonality of the PDCCH candidates.

In a possible implementation manner, the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates correspond to different sets of search spaces respectively. Therefore, the interrelated PDCCH candidates can be independently configured with detection timings, which improves the flexibility of configuration.

In a possible implementation manner, both the CCE-to-REG cluster mapping in the first control resource set and the second control resource set adopts a non-interleaving manner, or, the first control resource set and the The CCE-to-REG cluster mapping in the second control resource set adopts an interleaving manner and the dimensions of the interleaving matrix are the same. Thus, it is easier to ensure the orthogonality of the interrelated PDCCH candidates. If the CCE-to-REG cluster mapping in the first control resource set adopts an interleaving manner, and the CCE-REG cluster mapping in the second control resource set adopts a non-interleaving manner, the probability of resource conflict increases.

In a possible implementation manner, the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first control resource set and the second control resource set partially or completely overlap. Thus, two TRPs can schedule DCI over the entire system bandwidth, improving scheduling flexibility.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, comprising: sending configuration information, the configuration information being used to indicate that a first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and a set of second PDCCH candidates is associated with a second control resource Set association; determine N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH in the first PDCCH candidate set according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set Association relationship between N second PDCCH candidates in the candidate set, N is an integer greater than 1; DCI is sent on the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set according to the association relationship . In the prior art, by default, PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs have an association relationship, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the SSS itself are not considered. Therefore, the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs may collide. In the communication method provided by the second aspect, the network device and the terminal determine the PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set by using the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set Therefore, when sending DCI on two PDCCH candidates with an associated relationship, it is possible to avoid scheduling two DCIs with the same data to occupy the same time-frequency resources, thereby avoiding mutual interference between the two DCIs, and avoiding affecting the terminal's demodulation performance.

In a possible implementation, c _n mod N=( _bn +Δ) mod N, n=1, 2, . . . , N, where Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or a positive integer less than N.

In a possible implementation manner, the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same aggregation level.

In a possible implementation manner, the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates correspond to different sets of search spaces respectively.

In a possible implementation manner, both the CCE-to-REG cluster mapping in the first control resource set and the second control resource set adopts a non-interleaving manner, or, the first control resource set and the The CCE-to-REG cluster mapping in the second control resource set adopts an interleaving manner and the dimensions of the interleaving matrix are the same.

In a possible implementation manner, the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first control resource set and the second control resource set partially or completely overlap.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, comprising: receiving configuration information for indicating that a first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first QCL hypothesis, and a second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second QCL hypothesis ; According to the time-frequency resources occupied by the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates, determine the first number and/or the second number; the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates, and the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates. A number less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, where the second number is the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set The number of non-overlapping CCEs corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates, the second number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of CCEs in the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates; according to the first The number and/or the second number determine the DCI to be detected. In the method provided by the third aspect, when the network device determines the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI, and when the terminal determines the DCI to be detected, both are determined according to the first number and/or the second number, and the first number and the second number are determined. are determined based on the time-frequency resources occupied by the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates. In this case, according to the values of the first number and the second number, some PDCCH candidates will be recorded as one PDCCH Candidates, some CCEs will be recorded as one CCE, so that the terminal can perform combined detection when performing DCI detection (that is, perform DCI detection as a channel signal), so as to avoid mutual interference between two DCIs.

In a possible implementation manner, the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources. Therefore, each TRP can use its own control resource set to deliver DCI, for example, each TRP can use different DMRS scrambling codes, or each TRP can use different OFDM symbol numbers to improve transmission flexibility.

In a possible implementation manner, the first PDCCH candidate set and the PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set have an associated relationship. By defining an association relationship, DCI can be sent in a repeated manner on non-overlapping PDCCH candidates, and DCI can be sent on SFN on overlapping PDCCH candidates.

In a possible implementation manner, the time-frequency resources occupied by the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set are respectively Overlapping, N ₁ is an integer greater than 0; the value of the first number is N ₁ +K, where K is based on the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the set of the first PDCCH candidates except the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates The number of PDCCH candidates and the number of PDCCH candidates other than the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the set of second PDCCH candidates are determined. In the above manner, the transmission on the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates adopts the SFN manner, and the detection complexity is reduced and the detection performance is improved by jointly processing the first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the determining the DCI to be detected according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity includes: according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity, and the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and the PDCCH candidates other than the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set to determine the DCI to be detected, wherein the index value corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set is less than the The index value corresponding to the set of the second PDCCH candidates, the index value corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates refers to the index value of the control resource set corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates or the index value of the search space set. That is to say, for the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates, whether detection is required is determined according to the index value of the set of PDCCH candidates corresponding to the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates. Specifically, the PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates may be sequentially read in descending order according to the index values corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates, until the number of read PDCCH candidates is greater than the first threshold or the read PDCCH candidates occupy The number of non-overlapping CCEs is greater than the second threshold. Wherein, when the i+1 th PDCCH candidate set is read, all PDCCH candidates in the i+1 th PDCCH candidate set that do not overlap the time-frequency resources of the first i PDCCH candidate set are read, and this At this time, it is considered that the PDCCH candidates that overlap with the set of the first i PDCCH candidates among the i+1 th PDCCH candidates need to be detected, and the overlapping PDCCH candidates are regarded as the same detection. When the set of the first i PDCCH candidates has been read, the number of read PDCCH candidates is less than or equal to the first threshold and the number of non-overlapping CCEs occupied by the read PDCCH candidates is less than or equal to the second threshold, and read When the set of i+1th PDCCH candidates is completed, the number of read PDCCH candidates is greater than the first threshold, or the number of non-overlapping CCEs occupied by the read PDCCH candidates is greater than the second threshold, then the DCI to be detected is The DCI of the PDCCH candidates in the set of the first i PDCCH candidates read, i is an integer greater than 0.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the determining the DCI to be detected according to the first number and/or the second number includes: determining the DCI to be detected according to the first number and the second number, and a first threshold and a second threshold The detected DCI; wherein, when the first number is less than or equal to the first threshold, and the second number is less than or equal to the second threshold, the DCI to be detected includes the set of the first PDCCH candidates DCI corresponding to the set of the second PDCCH candidates; when the first number is greater than the first threshold or the second number is greater than the second threshold, the DCI to be detected includes the first PDCCH The DCI corresponding to some PDCCH candidates in the candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set; wherein, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with overlapping time-frequency resources correspond to one DCI to be detected, and the partial PDCCH candidates are based on the PDCCH candidates. The priority of the candidate set is determined.

In a possible implementation manner, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate whose occupied time-frequency resources overlap correspond to the same aggregation level. Thus enabling SFN transmission.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the method further includes: combining the PDCCH candidates occupying the same time-frequency resources into one PDCCH candidate, the combined PDCCH candidates are associated with the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption, and the combined PDCCH candidate is The occupied time-frequency resources are the same as the PDCCH candidates before merging.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the method further includes: performing channel estimation on the same time-frequency resource according to the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption.

In a possible implementation manner, the performing channel estimation on the same time-frequency resource according to the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption includes: according to the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption Two QCL assumptions generate first filter parameters; perform channel estimation on the same time-frequency resources according to the first filter parameters and the DMRS on the same time-frequency resources. Therefore, multiple QCL assumptions can be used to set reasonable filter parameters to obtain more accurate channel estimation results.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resources, so the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources; the method further includes: determining the same set of resources according to the first set of control resources The scrambling sequence of the DMRS on the time-frequency resource, and the DMRS is received on the same time-frequency resource according to the scrambling sequence of the DMRS. Therefore, the DMRS signals can be spatially combined and the terminal receives and jointly processes the combined signals, thereby reducing the implementation complexity.

In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided, comprising: sending configuration information for indicating that a first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first QCL hypothesis, and a second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second QCL hypothesis ; According to the time-frequency resources occupied by the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates, determine the first number and/or the second number; the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates, and the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates. A number less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, where the second number is the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set The number of non-overlapping CCEs corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates, the second number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of CCEs in the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates; according to the first The number and/or the second number determine PDCCH candidates for transmitting DCI. In the method provided by the fourth aspect, when the network device determines the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI, and when the terminal determines the DCI to be detected, both are determined according to the first number and/or the second number, and the first number and the second number are determined. are determined based on the time-frequency resources occupied by the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates. In this case, according to the values of the first number and the second number, some PDCCH candidates will be recorded as one PDCCH Candidates, some CCEs will be recorded as one CCE, so that the terminal can perform combined detection when performing DCI detection (that is, perform DCI detection as a channel signal), so as to avoid mutual interference between two DCIs.

In a possible implementation manner, the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources.

In a possible implementation manner, the first PDCCH candidate set and the PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set have an associated relationship.

In a possible implementation manner, the time-frequency resources occupied by the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set are respectively Overlapping, N ₁ is an integer greater than 0; the value of the first number is N ₁ +K, where K is based on the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the set of the first PDCCH candidates except the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates The number of PDCCH candidates and the number of PDCCH candidates other than the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the set of second PDCCH candidates are determined.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the determining the PDCCH candidates for sending the DCI according to the first number and/or the second number includes: according to the first number and/or the second number, and the N ₁ th A PDCCH candidate and PDCCH candidates other than the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the set of second PDCCH candidates determine the PDCCH candidates for transmitting the DCI, wherein the set of first PDCCH candidates corresponds to The index value is smaller than the index value corresponding to the second set of PDCCH candidates, and the index value corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates refers to the index value of the control resource set corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates or the index value of the search space set.

In a possible implementation manner, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate whose occupied time-frequency resources overlap correspond to the same aggregation level.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resources, so the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources; the method further includes: determining the same set of resources according to the first set of control resources The scrambled sequence of the DMRS on the time-frequency resource, and the DMRS is sent on the same time-frequency resource according to the scrambled sequence of the DMRS.

In a fifth aspect, a communication method is provided, comprising: receiving configuration information for indicating that a first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first QCL hypothesis, and a second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second QCL hypothesis ; The index values in the set of the first PDCCH candidates from small to large are respectively {a ₁ , a ₂ ,..., a _N } The index values in the sets of the N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates are The N second PDCCH candidates of {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } are associated one by one according to the order of the index values from front to back, a _n' ≠c _n' , the first PDCCH candidates that have an association relationship and the DCI on the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data, n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N; according to the association relationship between the set of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate Detect DCI on the set of . In the prior art, by default, PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs have an association relationship, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the SSS itself are not considered. Therefore, the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs may collide. In the communication method provided by the fifth aspect, the network device and the terminal determine the PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set by using time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set Therefore, when sending DCI on two PDCCH candidates with an associated relationship, it is possible to avoid scheduling two DCIs with the same data to occupy the same time-frequency resources, thereby avoiding mutual interference between the two DCIs, and avoiding affecting the terminal's demodulation performance.

In a possible implementation, c _n mod N=(an +Δ) mod N, _n =1, 2, . . . , N, where Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or a positive integer less than N.

In a sixth aspect, a communication method is provided, comprising: sending configuration information for indicating that a first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first QCL hypothesis, and a second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second QCL hypothesis ; The index values in the set of the first PDCCH candidates from small to large are respectively {a ₁ , a ₂ ,..., a _N } The index values in the sets of the N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates are The N second PDCCH candidates of {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } are associated one by one according to the order of the index values from front to back, a _n' ≠c _n' , the first PDCCH candidates that have an association relationship and the DCI on the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data, n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N; according to the association relationship between the set of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate DCI is sent on the set of . In the prior art, by default, PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs have an association relationship, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the SSS itself are not considered. Therefore, the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs may collide. In the communication method provided by the sixth aspect, the network device and the terminal determine the PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set by using time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set Therefore, when sending DCI on two PDCCH candidates with an associated relationship, it is possible to avoid scheduling two DCIs with the same data to occupy the same time-frequency resources, thereby avoiding mutual interference between the two DCIs, and avoiding affecting the terminal's demodulation performance.

In a seventh aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit; the communication unit is configured to receive configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the first PDCCH candidate set is associated with the first control resource set , and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second control resource set; the processing unit is configured to determine the the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N second PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set, where N is an integer greater than 1; the processing unit, further for detecting DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.

In a possible implementation manner, when the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate with an index value of an _' and the second PDCCH candidate with an index value of _bn' do not overlap, the The association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship; or, the first PDCCH candidate with an index value of an _' and an index value of b _{n '} In the case where the time-frequency resources occupied by the second PDCCH candidates overlap, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the second association relationship; wherein, a _n' ∈{a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N }, b _n' ∈{b ₁ ,b ₂ ,...,b _N }, n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N.

In an eighth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, including: a communication unit and a processing unit; the communication unit is configured to send configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the first PDCCH candidate set is associated with the first control resource set , and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second control resource set; the processing unit is configured to determine the The association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N second PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set, where N is an integer greater than 1; the communication unit, further for sending DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.

In a ninth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit; the communication unit is configured to receive configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that a set of first PDCCH candidates is associated with a first QCL hypothesis, And the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis; the processing unit is configured to determine the first number and /or a second number; the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates, and the first number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set , the second number is the number of non-overlapping CCEs corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, and the second number is less than or equal to the first PDCCH candidate set and The sum of the number of CCEs in the set of the second PDCCH candidates; the processing unit is further configured to determine the DCI to be detected according to the first number and/or the second number.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the processing unit is specifically configured to: divide the N according to the first number and/or the second number, and the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates in the set PDCCH candidates other than _one second PDCCH candidate determine the DCI to be detected, wherein the index value corresponding to the set of the first PDCCH candidates is smaller than the index value corresponding to the set of the second PDCCH candidates, and the PDCCH The index value corresponding to the candidate set refers to the index value of the control resource set corresponding to the PDCCH candidate set or the index value of the search space set.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the processing unit is further configured to: combine the PDCCH candidates occupying the same time-frequency resources into one PDCCH candidate, the combined PDCCH candidates are associated with the first QCL hypothesis and the second QCL hypothesis, and after the combination The time-frequency resources occupied by the PDCCH candidates are the same as the PDCCH candidates before merging.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the processing unit is further configured to: perform channel estimation on the same time-frequency resource according to the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is specifically configured to: generate a first filter parameter according to the first QCL hypothesis and the second QCL hypothesis; The DMRS on the same time-frequency resource performs channel estimation on the same time-frequency resource.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resources, so The first PDCCH candidate set is associated with the first control resource set, and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second control resource set; the processing unit is further configured to: determine according to the first control resource set The scrambling sequence of the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource, and receiving the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource by the communication unit according to the scrambling sequence of the DMRS.

In a tenth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit; the communication unit is configured to send configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the set of first PDCCH candidates is associated with the first QCL hypothesis, And the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis; the processing unit is configured to determine the first number and /or a second number; the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates, and the first number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set , the second number is the number of non-overlapping CCEs corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, and the second number is less than or equal to the first PDCCH candidate set and The sum of the number of CCEs in the set of the second PDCCH candidates; the processing unit is further configured to determine the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI according to the first number and/or the second number.

In a possible implementation, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource , the processing unit is specifically configured to: divide the N according to the first number and/or the second number, and the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates in the set A PDCCH candidate other than _one second PDCCH candidate determines a PDCCH candidate for transmitting the DCI, wherein the index value corresponding to the set of the first PDCCH candidate is smaller than the index value corresponding to the set of the second PDCCH candidate, and the The index value corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates refers to the index value of the control resource set corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates or the index value of the search space set.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resources, so The first PDCCH candidate set is associated with the first control resource set, and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second control resource set; the processing unit is further configured to: determine according to the first control resource set For the scrambling sequence of the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource, the DMRS is sent by the communication unit on the same time-frequency resource according to the scrambling sequence of the DMRS.

According to an eleventh aspect, a communication apparatus includes: a communication unit and a processing unit; the processing unit is configured to receive configuration information through the communication unit, where the configuration information is used to indicate a set of first PDCCH candidates and a first The QCL hypothesis is associated, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis; the index values in the first set of PDCCH candidates from small to large are respectively N of {a ₁ , a ₂ ,...,a _N } In the set of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } are associated one by one in the order of the index values from front to back, a _n' ≠c _n' , the DCI on the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with an associated relationship are used to schedule the same data, n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N; the processing unit , and is further configured to detect DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates through the communication unit according to the association relationship.

A twelfth aspect provides a communication device, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit; the processing unit is configured to send configuration information through the communication unit, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the set of first PDCCH candidates is the same as the The first QCL hypothesis is associated, and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second QCL hypothesis; the index values in the first PDCCH candidate set from small to large are {a ₁ , a ₂ ,...,a _N } respectively. In the set of the N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates, the _N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {c ₁ , c ₂ , . , a _n' ≠c _n' , the DCIs on the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with an associated relationship are used to schedule the same data, n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N; the The processing unit is further configured to send DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates through the communication unit according to the association relationship.

In a thirteenth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, including: a processor. The processor is connected to the memory, the memory is used for storing computer-executed instructions, and the processor executes the computer-executed instructions stored in the memory, thereby implementing any one of the methods provided in the first aspect or the third aspect or the fifth aspect. Exemplarily, the memory and the processor may be integrated together, or may be independent devices. In the latter case, the memory may be located in the communication device or outside the communication device.

In a possible implementation, the processor includes a logic circuit, and also includes an input interface and/or an output interface. Exemplarily, the output interface is used for performing the sending action in the corresponding method, and the input interface is used for performing the receiving action in the corresponding method.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device further includes a communication interface and a communication bus, and the processor, the memory and the communication interface are connected through the communication bus. The communication interface is used to perform the actions of transceiving in the corresponding method. The communication interface may also be referred to as a transceiver. Optionally, the communication interface includes at least one of a transmitter and a receiver. In this case, the transmitter is configured to perform the sending action in the corresponding method, and the receiver is configured to perform the receiving action in the corresponding method.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device exists in the form of a chip product.

A fourteenth aspect provides a communication device, comprising: a processor. The processor is connected to the memory, the memory is used for storing computer-executed instructions, and the processor executes the computer-executed instructions stored in the memory, thereby implementing any one of the methods provided in the second aspect or the fourth aspect or the sixth aspect. Exemplarily, the memory and the processor may be integrated together, or may be independent devices. In the latter case, the memory may be located in the communication device or outside the communication device.

A fifteenth aspect provides a communication device, comprising: a processor and an interface, the processor is coupled to a memory through the interface, and when the processor executes the computer program or instructions in the memory, the first aspect or the third aspect or the Any one of the methods provided in the five aspects is executed.

A sixteenth aspect provides a communication device, comprising: a processor and an interface, the processor is coupled to a memory through the interface, and when the processor executes a computer program or instructions in the memory, the second aspect or the fourth aspect or the first Any one of the methods provided in the six aspects is performed.

A seventeenth aspect provides a communication system, comprising: the communication device provided by any one of the seventh aspect, ninth aspect, eleventh aspect, thirteenth aspect, and fifteenth aspect, and the eighth aspect The communication device provided by any one of the tenth aspect, the twelfth aspect, the fourteenth aspect, and the sixteenth aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, comprising computer-executable instructions, when the computer-executable instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is made to execute any one of the first to sixth aspects. a method.

A nineteenth aspect provides a computer program product, comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when the computer-executable instructions are run on a computer, cause the computer to execute any one of the methods provided in any one of the first to sixth aspects .

For the technical effects brought about by any one of the implementation manners of the seventh aspect to the nineteenth aspect, reference may be made to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding implementation manners in the first aspect to the sixth aspect, which will not be repeated here.

It should be noted that, on the premise that the solutions are not contradictory, the solutions in the above aspects can be combined.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the relationship between the collision probability between PDCCH candidates and the number of CCEs in CORESET;

2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application;

3 is a schematic diagram of a frequency domain resource of a CORESET provided by an embodiment of the present application;

4 is a schematic diagram of a CCE occupied by PDCCH candidates of different ALs according to an embodiment of the present application;

5 is a schematic diagram of another CCE occupied by PDCCH candidates of different ALs according to an embodiment of the present application;

6 is a schematic diagram of a resource for DCI detection of different CORESETs provided by an embodiment of the present application;

7 is a schematic diagram of two TRPs sending DCI in different CORESETs according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a PDCCH candidate association provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

10 is a schematic diagram of another PDCCH candidate association provided by an embodiment of the present application;

11 is a schematic diagram of another PDCCH candidate association provided by an embodiment of the present application;

12 is a schematic diagram of another PDCCH candidate association provided by an embodiment of the present application;

13 is a flowchart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

14 is a schematic diagram of another kind of two TRPs sending DCI in different CORESETs according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

16 is a schematic diagram of resource overlap of a PDCCH candidate provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of resource overlap of yet another PDCCH candidate provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of the composition of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of another communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to 4th generation (4th Generation, 4G) systems, various systems based on 4G system evolution, 5th generation (5th Generation, 5G) systems, and various systems based on 5G system evolution . The 4G system may also be called an evolved packet system (EPS). The core network of the 4G system may be called an evolved packet core (EPC), and the access network may be called long term evolution (LTE). The core network of the 5G system can be called 5GC (5G core), and the access network can be called new radio (NR). The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are applicable to homogeneous networks as well as heterogeneous networks, and are applicable to frequency division duplex (frequency-division duplex, FDD) systems and time-division duplex (time-division duplex, TDD) systems, It is suitable for low-frequency communication scenarios as well as high-frequency communication scenarios.

A communication system to which the technical solutions provided in this application are applicable may include at least one network device and at least one terminal. One or more of the at least one terminal may communicate with one or more of the at least one network device. In the first case, referring to FIG. 2 , a terminal can communicate with multiple network devices (eg, network device 1 and network device 2 ), and the multiple network devices perform data and/or signaling transmission through coordinated multipoint. In the second case, a network device may use different beams or different communication modules (eg, different antenna panels) to communicate with a terminal. For example, a network device uses different beams to send downlink data to the terminal in different time domain resources. In these two cases, the network device can configure uplink and downlink resources, transmit and receive uplink and downlink signals, and can also send DCI when the network device is in the scheduling mode. The terminal can send and receive uplink and downlink signals and side signals. In addition to these two situations, the present application is also applicable to communication scenarios derived based on these two situations.

A network device is an entity on the network side that is used for sending a signal, or receiving a signal, or sending a signal and receiving a signal. A network device may be a device deployed in a radio access network (RAN) to provide a wireless communication function for a terminal, for example, a TRP, a base station, various forms of control nodes (for example, a network controller, a radio control (for example, a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario), etc. Specifically, the network equipment can be various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations (also called small cells), relay stations, access points (access points, APs), etc., and can also be antenna panels of base stations, remote radio heads (remote radio heads), etc. radio head, RRH), etc. The control node can be connected to multiple base stations, and configure resources for multiple terminals covered by the multiple base stations. In systems using different radio access technologies, the names of devices with base station functions may vary. For example, an LTE system may be called an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB), and a 5G system or an NR system may be called a next generation node base station (gNB), the specific name of the base station in this application Not limited. The network device may also be a network device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN). The multiple network devices in the above first case may be the same type of network devices, or may be different types of network devices. For example, all of them may be macro base stations, or all may be micro base stations, and some may be macro base stations and some may be micro base stations.

A terminal is an entity on the user side that is used to receive signals, or send signals, or receive and send signals. The terminal is used to provide one or more of voice service and data connectivity service to the user. A terminal may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), terminal equipment, access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device. The terminal may be a mobile station (mobile station, MS), a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), an unmanned aerial vehicle, an internet of things (Internet of things, IoT) device, a station (station, ST), cellular phone, smart phone, cordless phone, wireless data card, tablet computer, session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, wireless local loop (WLL) ) station, personal digital assistant (PDA) device, laptop computer, machine type communication (MTC) terminal, handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, computing device or connected to a wireless Other processing devices for modems, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices (also known as wearable smart devices). The terminal may also be a terminal in a next-generation communication system, for example, a terminal in a 5G system or a terminal in a future evolved PLMN, a terminal in an NR system, and the like.

The network architecture and service scenarios described in the embodiments of the present application are for the purpose of illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application more clearly, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application. Those of ordinary skill in the art know that with the evolution of the network architecture and the emergence of new service scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

In order to make the embodiments of the present application clearer, some concepts involved in the present application are briefly introduced first.

1. CORESET

CORESET is used to indicate the frequency domain resource location occupied by the PDCCH and the time domain orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbol length. The PDCCH is used to carry the DCI delivered by the network device. CORESET should be understood as a candidate resource location delivered by the PDCCH, and the actual resource location delivered by the PDCCH is determined by the network device.

Compared with sending the PDCCH at a fixed resource location, the advantage of the network device selecting the actual resource location for the PDCCH delivery in the CORESET is to increase the flexibility of the network device delivering the PDCCH. For example, multiple terminals served by a network device can share a CORESET (that is, the time-frequency resources occupied by the CORESET configured for multiple terminals are the same), and then select appropriate resources for each terminal in CORESET according to the actual scheduling situation. Send PDCCH. For another example, the network device may determine appropriate resources to issue the PDCCH according to service requirements, for example, a service requiring high reliability requires more resources to transmit the PDCCH.

Exemplarily, a resource indication manner occupied by the PDCCH is: in the frequency domain, the number of resource blocks (resource blocks, RBs) occupied by the CORESET is an integer multiple of 6, which is indicated by a bitmap (bitmap). For example, referring to Figure 3, a bandwidth part (BWP) occupies a total of 18 RBs. When the value of a bit in the bitmap is 1, it means that 6 consecutive RBs are allocated to CORESET, then 3 bits "110" can be used. Indicates that the current CORESET occupies the first 12 RBs. In the time domain, one CORESET can be configured to occupy 1-3 consecutive OFDM symbols.

In CORESET, the quasi colocation (QCL) assumption information of DCI, the scrambling sequence of demodulation reference signal (DMRS), the precoding granularity, and the CCE to resource elements are also configured to be sent on the time-frequency resource. Group (resource element group, REG) mapping method and other information. Exemplarily, the network device may configure multiple CORESETs for the terminal, and each CORESET may use radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) signaling/media access control control element (media access control control element, MAC CE) signaling. Configure some or all of the following parameters independently:

(1) CORESET ID: used to identify a CORESET.

(2) QCL assumption parameters (see below for meaning).

The QCL assumption parameter can choose one or more of the following QCL types: QCL type A (Type A), QCL type B (Type B), QCL type C (Type C), QCL type D (Type D). Wherein, each parameter can be indirectly indicated by the reference signal index value.

(3) Time-frequency resource configuration parameter occupied by the PDCCH: used to indicate the frequency-domain resource location and the number of time-domain OFDM symbols corresponding to the CORESET.

(4) DMRS scrambling sequence initialization value (scrambling sequence initialization), which is an integer ranging from 0 to 65535, and is used to indicate the scrambling sequence of the DMRS used for PDCCH demodulation.

(5) Precoding granularity: including wideband precoding and subband precoding types. Under wideband precoding, the terminal can perform joint channel estimation according to the DMRS on the RB occupied by CORESET. Under subband precoding, the terminal can perform joint channel estimation according to each subband The DMRS in the channel are estimated respectively.

(6) CCE to REG mapping parameter (see below for the meaning), the CCE to REG mapping parameter can be one of the following:

a. Interleaved mapping: The REG clusters (REG bundles) included in each CCE in CORESET are non-consecutive in the frequency domain. The specific REG clusters included are based on the number of rows of the interleaving matrix and the size of the REG clusters (that is, the REG bundle contains The number of REGs) is determined.

b. Non-interleaved mapping: REG clusters included in each CCE in CORESET are continuous in the frequency domain.

2. DCI detection

The actual resource location delivered by the DCI requires the terminal to perform multiple blind detection and determination on the time-frequency resources indicated by CORESET according to preset rules. Specifically, in the time-frequency resource indicated by CORESET, according to preset rules, on a specific resource in the time-frequency resource (for example, the time-frequency resource corresponding to each PDCCH candidate), according to the corresponding DCI format and scrambling method. DCI reception, channel estimation, demodulation, soft information combining, decoding and other operations.

Among them, operations such as DCI reception, channel estimation, demodulation, soft information merging, and decoding may be regarded as a process of detecting DCI as a whole, or only DCI reception may be regarded as a process of detecting DCI, which is not limited in this application. The following description in the present application takes DCI detection including DCI reception, channel estimation, demodulation, soft information combining, decoding and other operations as an example for description.

3. PDCCH candidates

The terminal needs to specify how to perform DCI detection under a certain CORESET configuration. The PDCCH candidate can be understood as the basic granularity for the terminal to perform DCI detection. A PDCCH candidate corresponds to a DCI detection, or corresponds to a DCI detection process (performing operations such as parsing, decoding, and decision of information bits), and corresponds to a specific time-frequency resource on the CORESET.

Each PDCCH candidate includes at least one CCE. Among them, the number of CCEs in the PDCCH candidates is called AL. The candidate values of AL in NR are: {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}. Different PDCCH candidates may correspond to different ALs. For example, referring to FIG. 4, a CORESET includes a total of 8 CCEs, numbered 0-7, AL=2 corresponds to 4 PDCCH candidates, numbered 0-3; AL=4 corresponds to 2 PDCCH candidates, numbered 0-1 ; AL=8 corresponds to one PDCCH candidate, numbered 0.

One CCE corresponds to 6 REGs. Each REG includes 1 RB in the frequency domain, that is, 12 subcarriers, and includes 1 OFDM symbol in the time domain, and the REGs are numbered sequentially according to time first and then frequency. Multiple REGs with consecutive numbers can form a REG bundle, and multiple REG bundles are numbered sequentially on CORESET (REG numbers are for actual time-frequency resources, that is, REGs with consecutive numbers must be adjacent in time domain or frequency domain). Each REG bundle can include 2, 3, or 6 REGs, and this information can be configured by higher layer signaling. Determining the REG bundle number actually corresponding to each CCE can be referred to as CCE-to-REG mapping, and CCE-to-REG can be mapped in a non-interleaving manner or an interleaving manner. The actual time-frequency resources corresponding to one PDCCH candidate may be continuous (interleaving) or discontinuous (non-interleaving) according to the different mapping methods from CCEs to REGs. The mapping process of CCEs to REGs is well known to those skilled in the art, and details are not repeated here.

4. Search space set (SSS)

The SSS can be understood as a set loaded with configuration information related to multiple PDCCH candidates. An SSS may be associated with at least one CORESET, and the association relationship indicates that the time-frequency resources occupied by each PDCCH candidate in the SSS are determined according to the associated CORESET. The SSS can configure parameters such as the number of PDCCH candidates corresponding to each AL, and the detection timing of the PDCCH.

Exemplarily, the network device may configure multiple SSSs for the terminal, and each SSS may independently configure the following parameters through RRC signaling:

(1) SSS ID, used to identify the SSS.

(2) The ID of the associated CORESET, which is used to indicate the CORESET associated with the SSS.

(3) The included AL values and the number of PDCCH candidates under each AL value.

(4) PDCCH detection timing, the configuration information is used to indicate the time domain position for detecting each PDCCH candidate in the SSS, and the period of the PDCCH detection timing can be configured, for example, can be configured as one or more time slots (slot) or A sub-slot (sub-slot) or a time unit of an OFDM symbol group is a period, and a specific OFDM symbol position within a period can also be configured for DCI detection. The terminal may perform DCI detection according to the detection timing of the PDCCH, for example, the terminal may perform one DCI detection per time slot, or perform multiple DCI detections per time slot.

(5) Search space types, including common search space (CSS) and cell-specific search space (UE specific search space, USS).

5. Determination of DCI detection resources

Before the DCI detection, that is, before the PDCCH detection opportunity, the terminal needs to determine the CCE ID included in the PDCCH candidate to be detected, so as to determine which frequency domain resources to perform the DCI detection on. The CCE ID included in the PDCCH candidate can be determined according to the following formula:

Wherein, L is the aggregation level corresponding to the PDCCH candidate;

is an _array of ₀ , 1, . N _{CCE, p} is the number of CCEs included in the CORESET associated with the PDCCH candidate;

is the maximum number of PDCCH candidates configured under the aggregation level L in the SSS number s in each carrier; i=0, 1, . . . , L-1.

in,

is the number of the time slot where the detection timing of the PDCCH is located, the initial value

n _RNTI is the value configured for the terminal, and the value of _AP is related to the CORESET number p, for example, when pmod3=0, _Ap =39827, when pmod3=1, _Ap =39829, when pmod3=2, _Ap =39839 , D=65537. It can be seen that the CCE position corresponding to a PDCCH candidate is related to the CORESET configuration (including the CORESET ID, the number of CCEs included in the CORESET), and its corresponding AL, and changes over time

Variety. The function of this mechanism is to reduce the probability of collision when multiple terminals occupy the same RB resources by multiplexing.

The CCE IDs included in the PDCCH candidates are related to the ALs of the PDCCH candidates, and the CCE IDs of the PDCCH candidates of different ALs may be different. Exemplarily, if the number of PDCCH candidates with AL=2 configured in the SSS is 3, and the number of PDCCH candidates with AL=4 is 2, then the CCE corresponding to each PDCCH candidate may be as shown in FIG. 5 .

It should be noted that CORESET will configure the PDCCH to occupy several OFDM symbols. Through the configuration of CORESET, the terminal can determine the length of the time domain resource for a DCI detection, and the terminal can determine the frequency domain resource occupied by the PDCCH candidate through the CCE ID contained in the PDCCH candidate. , through the detection timing of the PDCCH, the terminal can determine when to start DCI detection, and thus the terminal can determine on which time-frequency resources to perform DCI detection. Exemplarily, if SSS1 is associated with CORESET1, and SSS2 is associated with CORESET2, if the terminal performs DCI detection once per time slot, the detection timing of the PDCCH configured by SSS1 is the start time of each time slot, and the detection timing of the PDCCH configured by SSS2. For the 8th OFDM symbol of each time slot, for CORESET1 and CORESET2, the resources for the terminal to perform DCI detection can be referred to as shown in FIG. 6 .

According to the process of calculating the CCE IDs included in the PDCCH candidates, if the time-frequency resources occupied by the two CORESETs are the same and the CCEs to REGs are mapped in the same way, one of the two SSSs associated with the two CORESETs under the same AL is the same. The CCEs occupied by the two PDCCH candidates of the ID are different, then the CCEs occupied by the other two PDCCH candidates of the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs are different due to the different CORESET IDs, and the two SSSs associated with the two CORESETs The CCEs occupied by two PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs are the same, then the CCEs occupied by other two PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs are also the same. For example, if the PDCCH candidate IDs whose AL is 4 in the two SSSs (assumed to be SSS1 and SSS2) include 0 and 1, if the CCE occupied by the PDCCH candidate ID=0 in SSS1 and the PDCCH candidate ID=0 in SSS2 are occupied If the CCE occupied by PDCCH candidate ID=1 in SSS1 is different from the CCE occupied by PDCCH candidate ID=1 in SSS2, if the CCE occupied by PDCCH candidate ID=0 in SSS1 is different from the CCE occupied by PDCCH candidate ID=0 in SSS2 If the CCEs occupied by =0 are the same, the CCEs occupied by PDCCH candidate ID=1 in SSS1 are also the same as the CCEs occupied by PDCCH candidate ID=1 in SSS2. Since the CCE-to-REG mapping methods of the two CORESETs are the same, if the CCEs occupied by the two PDCCH candidates in the two SSSs are the same, the time-frequency resources occupied by the two PDCCH candidates are also the same. When the CCEs occupied by the PDCCH candidates are different, the time-frequency resources occupied by the two PDCCH candidates are also different.

6. DCI processing capacity limitation

The DCI processing capability limitation limits the complexity of the terminal's DCI detection. The parameters limiting the terminal's detection complexity include the maximum number of DCI detections (corresponding to the number of PDCCH candidates to be detected) and the maximum number of non-overlapped CCEs.

For the maximum number of DCI detections, since each execution of DCI detection consumes the processing process of a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), in order to meet the processing delay requirements, the terminal can only perform a limited number of DCI detections within a limited time. For example, a serving cell (serving cell) can support a maximum of 44 DCI detections in one detection period.

The maximum number of non-overlapping CCEs represents the complexity of the terminal's channel estimation. For example, each non-overlapping CCE needs to consume CPU storage and processing process respectively, and for overlapping CCEs, only one CPU storage and processing process can be consumed. In the prior art, the CCEs corresponding to the PDCCH candidates to be detected are non-overlapping CCEs if they satisfy the following conditions: the CORESETs corresponding to the CCEs are different, or the time domain starting positions occupied by the PDCCH candidates corresponding to the CCEs are different.

The PDCCH candidates configured by the network device may exceed the maximum detection capability of the terminal at certain times. At this time, the terminal will determine the PDCCH candidates that can be processed in the DCI detection period according to preset rules before each DCI detection period starts. Which, and which PDCCH candidates are discarded for detection. For example, the terminal sequentially reads the SSS according to the preset priority, and calculates the total number of PDCCH candidates currently read and the number of non-overlapping CCEs. When the total number of PDCCH candidates and the number of non-overlapping CCEs exceed the number supported by the capability, the last PDCCH candidates in the SSS that are read once and PDCCH candidates in other SSSs that are not read. The preset priority is, for example, that the priority of the SSS of the CSS is higher than that of the SSS of the USS, and the priority corresponding to the ID of the SSS of the USS from small to large is from high to low.

7. QCL assumption of the signal

The QCL assumption of the signal characterizes the large-scale characteristics of the channel experienced by the transmitted signal in the wireless propagation space, including: Doppler shift, Doppler spread, Delay spread, average Time delay (average delay), spatial reception parameters (Spatial Rx parameter), etc. The QCL assumption of a signal can be indicated by a transmission configuration index (TCI).

In the NR protocol, QCL types can be divided into the following four types based on different parameters:

QCL Type A: Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread;

QCL Type B: Doppler shift, Doppler spread;

QCL Type C: Doppler frequency shift, average delay;

QCL Type D: Spatial filtering parameters/spatial receiving parameters/receiving beams.

The present application does not exclude other QCL types, for example, QCL types including only delay spread, or QCL types including Doppler spread and delay spread, and the like.

The above is a brief introduction to some concepts involved in this application.

Currently, in order to improve the reliability of DCI transmission, multiple TRPs can jointly send multiple DCIs. Each of the cooperative TRPs corresponds to a different CORESET, because the QCL assumption is independently configured in each CORESET, so that the QCL assumption corresponding to DCI transmission can be configured according to the transmission path from each TRP to the terminal. Specifically, for the same DCI information bit (information source), the coded bits can be formed by the same or different coding methods, and then sent by multiple TRPs on different time-frequency resources, and the terminal can respectively use the above time-frequency resources. Receive multiple coded bits, and then perform a joint analysis operation to obtain DCI information bits (sources), for example, perform channel estimation on the above time-frequency resources and demodulate the received signals to obtain likelihood values (soft information) for combining. The above operations can be equivalently understood as improving the signal-to-noise ratio (signal-to-noise ratio, SNR) of transmission, thereby improving reliability. At the same time, considering that the transmission link from the terminal to a certain TRP may be interrupted due to channel changes, the transmission scheme can prevent this from happening. Referring to FIG. 7 , TRP1 and TRP2 serve one terminal at the same time through cooperation. DCI1 delivered by TRP1 corresponds to CORESET1 (where the first QCL is configured to assume the channel characteristics corresponding to the terminal to TRP1), and DCI2 delivered by TRP2 corresponds to CORESET2 (where the second QCL is configured to assume the channel characteristics corresponding to the terminal to TRP2). CORESET1 and CORESET2 may be configured with full/partial overlap to improve the flexibility of DCI transmission and ensure frequency selective scheduling gain. DCI1 and DCI2 have an associated relationship, that is, the above-mentioned soft information combining operation can be performed. If CORESET1 and CORESET2 are associated with 4 PDCCH candidates respectively, after the terminal performs demodulation operation based on 8 PDCCH candidates to obtain soft information, it needs to try

There are several possible combinations to decode, and the complexity is very high. Therefore, in order to prevent the terminal from performing too many soft combining operations, the complexity of the terminal is reduced. It is necessary to define the association relationship between the PDCCH candidates associated with the two CORESETs. The association relationship indicates that the PDCCH candidates with the association relationship can perform the soft combining operation, and the DCI sent by the network device on the PDCCH candidates with the association relationship is used to schedule the same , the encoded bits in DCI are exactly the same. Specifically, there are two ways to associate PDCCH candidates:

Mode 1. Assuming that CORESET1 is associated with SSS1, CORESET2 is associated with SSS2, and there is an association relationship between SSS1 and SSS2, then two PDCCHs with PDCCH candidate ID=y under AL=X in SSS1 and PDCCH candidate ID=y under AL=X in SSS2 Candidates are associated. Exemplarily, referring to FIG. 8 , two PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=0 under AL=4 in SSS1 and two PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=0 under AL=4 in SSS2 have an associated relationship, and PDCCH candidate ID=0 under AL=4 in SSS1 1 and the two PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=1 under AL=4 in SSS2 are associated, the two PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=0 under AL=8 in SSS1 and the two PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=0 under AL=8 in SSS2 There is an association relationship, and there is an association relationship between the two PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=1 under AL=8 in SSS1 and PDCCH candidate ID=1 under AL=8 in SSS2.

Mode 2: SSS1 associates with CORESET1 and CORESET2 at the same time, then the PDCCH candidate ID=y associated with CORESET1 under AL=X in SSS1 and the two PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=y associated with CORESET2 under AL=X in SSS1 are associated.

The present application does not exclude another PDCCH delivery mechanism: the DCI bits delivered on the associated PDCCH candidates are different, but they are all used to schedule the same data. At this time, the terminal can blindly detect each PDCCH candidate independently without performing a soft combining operation.

Since the DCIs delivered by the two TRPs need to be independently demodulated and then merged, if the PDCCH candidates carrying the two DCIs collide, the two DCIs will interfere with each other, which seriously affects the demodulation performance. The collision of PDCCH candidates means that the time-frequency resources occupied by the PDCCH candidates partially/completely overlap. According to the above, although by associating different CORESETs, the time-frequency resources corresponding to PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL can avoid collision to a certain extent through different CORESET IDs. The ID of the CORESET corresponding to the AL and PDCCH candidates is related to the detection timing of the PDCCH. Therefore, the CCE corresponding to the PDCCH candidate may change uncontrollably with time. Therefore, ideally, when the number and position of CCEs configured by the two CORESETs are the same, the CCE positions corresponding to the PDCCH candidates associated with the two CORESETs can be guaranteed to be different in most cases. It is probable that the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs collide, that is, the resources of the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs overlap partially or completely, which seriously affects the demodulation performance.

In order to solve the above problem, the present application provides a communication method, and the communication method can be implemented by the following Embodiment 1 or Embodiment 2. Embodiment 1 The collision of PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs (that is, two PDCCH candidates with an association relationship) is avoided by defining a reasonable association relationship, thereby preventing the two DCIs from interfering with each other. Embodiment 2 In the case of collision of PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs, a single frequency network (single frequency network, SFN) mechanism may be used to perform DCI detection, and the signals on the two PDCCH candidates may be regarded as one signal for DCI detection, thereby performing DCI detection. Avoid mutual interference between two DCIs, and improve the reliability of DCI transmission. Among them, the two DCIs are used to schedule the same data (eg, transmission block (TB)).

Example 1

In the first embodiment, the communication method provided in the first embodiment is exemplified by scenario 1 (the network device configures two different CORESETs for the terminal) and scenario 2 (the network device configures one CORESET for the terminal).

Scenario 1. The network device configures two different CORESETs for the terminal.

In scenario 1, the network device can configure multiple CORESETs for the terminal through RRC signaling/MAC CE signaling, and each CORESET is configured with at least one QCL assumption. At the same time, the network device configures multiple SSSs for the terminal.

Referring to FIG. 9 , the communication method provided by Embodiment 1 under scenario 1 includes:

901. The network device sends configuration information. The configuration information is used to indicate that the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the first CORESET, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second CORESET. Accordingly, the terminal receives the configuration information. The present application does not exclude other ways of configuring the association relationship between the set of PDCCH candidates and CORESET, for example, the association relationship between the set of PDCCH candidates and CORESET may be preset or stipulated by a protocol.

The network device may be one network device, or may be multiple network devices, for example, two network devices. When it is the former, the network device can send the PDCCH to the terminal by using different beams or different antenna panels respectively using the time-frequency resources in the first CORESET and the second CORESET. If it is the latter, the two network devices respectively use the time-frequency resources in the first CORESET and the second CORESET to send the PDCCH to the terminal. For the latter, if the network device includes network device 1 and network device 2, the configuration information may be sent by network device 1, or may be sent by network device 2, or the configuration information sent by network device 1 may be used to indicate the first The set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the first CORESET, and the configuration information sent by the network device 2 is used to indicate that the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second CORESET.

Optionally, the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates correspond to different SSSs respectively. In one case, the first set of PDCCH candidates is one SSS, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is another SSS. In another case, the set of first PDCCH candidates is a set consisting of N first PDCCH candidates with AL=X in one SSS, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is a set of N first PDCCH candidates with AL=X in another SSS The set composed of the second PDCCH candidates, N is an integer greater than 1, and the value of X is one or more of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}. Specifically, the ID of the CORESET may be configured in the configuration information of the SSS, thereby indicating the association relationship between the SSS and the CORESET.

Optionally, the configuration information includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that there is an association relationship between the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates. Of course, the indication information may also be a separate signaling, which is not carried in the configuration information, or it is preset that there is an association relationship between the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates. Wherein, it may be indicated that the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set have an association relationship by indicating that the SSSs corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set have an association relationship. When indicating that the two SSSs are associated, the two SSSs may be indicated by adding the ID of the other SSS to the configuration information of at least one of the two SSSs, or a separate indication message may be sent to use In order to indicate that the two SSSs have an associated relationship, for example, the indication information may be the IDs of the two SSSs.

Optionally, the QCL assumption and the ID of the CORESET are respectively configured in the first CORESET and the second CORESET.

Optionally, part or all of the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first CORESET and the second CORESET overlap.

Optionally, the mapping of CCEs to REGs in the first CORESET and the second CORESET adopts a non-interleaving manner, or the mapping of CCEs to REGs in the first CORESET and the second CORESET adopts an interleaving manner and the dimensions of the interleaving matrix are the same. . At this time, in the case where the CCE IDs included in the PDCCH candidates in the first CORESET and the PDCCH candidates in the second CORESET are the same, the time-frequency resources corresponding to the two PDCCH candidates are also the same.

902. The network device determines, according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, the N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidate sets N in the first PDCCH candidate set Association between the second PDCCH candidates.

Optionally, the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same AL.

Optionally, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship or the second association relationship, and the DCI on the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with the association relationship is used for for scheduling the same data. Wherein, the first association relationship and the second association relationship may be pre-configured, or determined through negotiation between the network device and the terminal, or stipulated by the protocol. In this case, unnecessary signaling is not required to indicate the association relationship to avoid increasing signaling overhead. .

The first association relationship is: the index values in the set of the first PDCCH candidates from small to large are respectively {a ₁ , a ₂ , ..., a _N } The index values in the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates The _N second PDCCH candidates, respectively {b ₁ , b ₂ , . Among them, {a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N } and {b ₁ ,b ₂ ,...,b _N }The numerical values of the element numbers from front to back are integers from small to large.

In one case, an= _bn , _n =1,2,...,N. At this time, among the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates, the first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates with the same ID are associated. Exemplarily, based on the example shown in FIG. 8 , the N first PDCCH candidates may be PDCCH candidates with AL=4 PDCCH candidate ID=0 and PDCCH candidate ID=1 in SSS1, and the N second PDCCH candidates may be In SSS2, the PDCCH candidate ID=0 of AL=4 and the PDCCH candidate ID=1 of the PDCCH candidate, at this time, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates can be seen in FIG. 8 .

In another case, an _' ≠b _n' , n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N. At this time, at least one pair of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate having an associated relationship have different IDs. Exemplarily, if the IDs of the PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS1 are 0 and 1, and the IDs of the PDCCH candidates in SSS2 are 0-3, the N first PDCCH candidates may be the PDCCH candidate IDs with AL=4 in SSS1 =0 and PDCCH candidate ID=1 PDCCH candidate, if N second PDCCH candidates are PDCCH candidates with AL=4 PDCCH candidate ID=0 and PDCCH candidate ID=2 in SSS2, at this time, N first PDCCH candidates For the association relationship between the candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates, see (a) in FIG. 10 . If the N second PDCCH candidates are PDCCH candidate ID=2 with AL=4 and PDCCH candidate ID=3 in SSS2 PDCCH candidates, at this time, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates may refer to (b) in FIG. 10 .

The second association relationship is: the index values in the first PDCCH candidate set are {a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N }, respectively, from small to large index values in the set of N first PDCCH candidates and second PDCCH candidates The N second PDCCH candidates of {c ₁ , c ₂ , . . . , c _N } are sequentially associated one by one in the order of the index values. Here, the index values {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } are different from the index values {b ₁ ,b ₂ ,...,b _N }. The element numbers in {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,…,c _N } are all integers. Optionally, c _n mod N=( _bn +Δ) mod N, n=1, 2, . . . , N, and Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or a positive integer less than N.

Exemplarily, the IDs of PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS1 and SSS2 are both 0 and 1, and the N first PDCCH candidates may be PDCCH candidates with AL=4 ID=0 and PDCCH candidate ID=1 in SSS1 PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates may be PDCCH candidates with AL=4 PDCCH candidate ID=0 and PDCCH candidate ID=1 in SSS2, at this time, if Δ=1, N first PDCCH candidates and N PDCCH candidates For the association relationship between the second PDCCH candidates, please refer to FIG. 11 .

Exemplarily, the IDs of the PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS1 and SSS2 are both 0-3, and the N first PDCCH candidates may be PDCCH candidates with AL=4 ID=0 to PDCCH candidate ID=3 in SSS1 PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates may be PDCCH candidates with AL=4 PDCCH candidate ID=0 to PDCCH candidate ID=3 in SSS2, at this time, if Δ=2, N first PDCCH candidates and N PDCCH candidates For the association relationship between the second PDCCH candidates, please refer to FIG. 12 .

In the above-mentioned first association relationship and second association relationship, exemplarily, an modN=b _n modN=(c _n +1)modN, or, an _modN =b _n mod _N =(c _n -1) modN.

In the above-mentioned first association relationship and second association relationship, optional, {a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N }, {b ₁ ,b ₂ ,...,b _N } and {c ₁ ,c ₂ , The values of the element numbers in ...,c _N } are consecutive integers.

Optionally, the network device determines an association relationship from the first association relationship and the second association relationship according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set.

Optionally, in the case where the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate with an index value of an' and the second PDCCH candidate with an index value of b _n _' do not overlap, the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates do not overlap. The association relationship between the PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship; or, in the case where the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate with the index value an _' and the second PDCCH candidate with the index value _bn' overlap, N The relationship between the first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the second relationship; where a _n' ∈{a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N }, b _n' ∈{b ₁ , b ₂ ,...,b _N }, n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N.

Optionally, an _' = b _n' . Exemplarily, under the condition that the time-frequency resources occupied by the two PDCCH candidates with the first PDCCH candidate ID=1 and the second PDCCCH candidate ID=1 do not overlap, the associated PDCCH may be determined according to the first association relationship. When the time-frequency resources occupied by the two PDCCH candidates with the PDCCH candidate ID=1 and the second PDCCCH candidate ID=1 overlap, the associated PDCCH is determined according to the second association relationship.

As can be seen from the above, if the time-frequency resources occupied by the two CORESETs are the same and the CCE to REG mapping methods are the same, two PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs associated with the two CORESETs occupy the If the CCEs of the two SSSs are different, the CCEs occupied by the two PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs are also different. If the CCEs occupied by the two PDCCH candidates are the same, the CCEs occupied by the other two PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs are also the same. Therefore, this optional method can ensure that the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with the association relationship do not overlap, thereby preventing DCI sent on the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with the association relationship. interference between them.

When determining the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates, it can be determined by judging that the first PDCCH candidate with the index value an _' and the second PDCCH candidate with the index value _bn' occupy the Whether the time-frequency resources overlap determines the first association relationship or the second association relationship. The first association relationship may also be pre-configured. When the time-frequency resources occupied by the associated PDCCH candidates under the first association relationship overlap, or when the first association relationship The time-frequency resources occupied by the associated PDCCH candidates all overlap, then the associated PDCCH candidates are determined according to the second association relationship, or the second association relationship is pre-configured. When the time-frequency resources occupied by the associated PDCCH candidates under the second association relationship The resources overlap, or, when the time-frequency resources occupied by the associated PDCCH candidates under the second association relationship overlap, the associated PDCCH candidates are determined according to the first association relationship.

Optionally, if n' takes certain values, the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate with the index value an' and the second PDCCH candidate with the index value b _n _' do not overlap, and when taking other values, The time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate with an index value of an' and the second PDCCH candidate with an index value of b _n _' overlap, and the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates can be is the first association relationship, and may also be the second association relationship.

Wherein, the index value {a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N } is the index value of the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set, and the index value {b ₁ ,b ₂ ,...,b _N } and {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } is the index value of the N second PDCCH candidates in the set of second PDCCH candidates. For example, when the set of the first PDCCH candidates is SSS1, {a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N } is the index value of the first PDCCH candidates in SSS1, and similarly, when the set of the second PDCCH candidates is SSS2 , {b ₁ ,b ₂ ,...,b _N } and {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } are the index values of the second PDCCH candidates in SSS2.

The above description is based on the association relationship between the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate under one AL. In actual implementation, it may be that the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate have an associated relationship under some specific ALs in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set. For example, the specific AL may be AL=4, AL=8, it can also be other ALs, and these values are configurable. For example, PDCCH candidates with AL={1, 2, 4, 8} are configured in SSS1 and SSS2, but AL only takes 4 or 8, or there is an association relationship between the PDCCH candidates under 4 and 8. For another example, there is an association relationship between the PDCCH candidates under AL included in SSS1 and SSS2. For example, SSS1 is configured with PDCCH candidates with AL={1,2,4,8}, and SSS2 is configured with AL={4 , 8} PDCCH candidates, the PDCCH candidates under

AL

4 or 8 have a correlation relationship, while the PDCCH candidates with AL=1 or AL=2 in SSS1 have no correlation with the PDCCH candidates in SSS2. When the ALs included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set are the same, it may be the first PDCCH candidate under all ALs in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set There is an associated relationship with the second PDCCH candidate.

It should be noted that the number of PDCCH candidates under the same AL in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set may be the same or different. For example, the number of PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS1 may be 4, and the number of PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS2 may be 6. For one AL, the N first PDCCH candidates may be some or all of the PDCCH candidates under the AL in the set of first PDCCH candidates, and the N second PDCCH candidates may be those under the AL in the set of second PDCCH candidates Some or all of the PDCCH candidates. For example, when the number of PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS1 is 4, and the number of PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS2 is 6, the N first PDCCH candidates may be 4 PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS1, The N second PDCCH candidates may be the number of 4 PDCCH candidates with AL=4 in SSS2.

903. The network device sends DCI on the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.

When step 903 is specifically implemented, when the network device is one network device, the network device can transmit DCI by using the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with the associated relationship respectively through different beams or different antenna panels. When the network devices are two network devices, the two network devices may respectively use the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with an associated relationship to send DCI. The DCIs sent on the two PDCCH candidates schedule the same data, thereby improving the reliability of DCI transmission.

In an implementation manner, the network device performs modulation, channel coding, and rate matching operations according to the information bits to generate the coded information bits. The encoded information bits are sent on the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate respectively.

Through step 903, it is ensured that the network device can always deliver the DCI according to the soft information merge processing mode.

904. The terminal determines, according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N first PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set. Association between two PDCCH candidates.

The related description of step 904 can refer to the above-mentioned step 902, the only difference is that here the terminal determines the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates.

905. The terminal detects DCI on the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.

When step 905 is specifically implemented, if the terminal detects DCI on both the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with an associated relationship, the terminal performs soft information combination on the two DCIs. The terminal can determine how to perform the soft information combining operation according to the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates, that is, determine which two PDCCH candidates to perform the soft information combining operation on.

In the prior art, by default, PDCCH candidates with the same ID under the same AL in the two SSSs have an association relationship, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the SSS itself are not considered. Therefore, the PDCCH candidates carrying two DCIs may collide. In the communication method provided in the first embodiment in scenario 1, the network device and the terminal determine the set of the first PDCCH candidate and the set of the second PDCCH candidate by using the time-frequency resources corresponding to the set of the first PDCCH candidate and the set of the second PDCCH candidate Therefore, when DCI is sent on two PDCCH candidates with an association relationship, it can be avoided that two DCIs that schedule the same data sent on the associated PDCCHs occupy the same time-frequency resources, thereby avoiding The two DCIs interfere with each other to avoid affecting the demodulation performance of the terminal.

In scenario 1, in addition to using the above method to avoid mutual interference between the two DCIs, in another implementation manner, the set of first PDCCH candidates and the set of second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same SSS, and the SSS is the same as the first CORESET and The second CORESET is simultaneously associated. The SSS may carry identification information, where the identification information is used to indicate that there is an association relationship between the set of first PDCCH candidates corresponding to the first CORESET and the set of second PDCCH candidates corresponding to the second CORESET, and the set of first PDCCH candidates It corresponds to the same PDCCH detection occasion as the set of second PDCCH candidates. At this time, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate in the associated relationship correspond to the index values of different PDCCH candidates under the same AL value in the SSS. At this time, the time-frequency resources of the two PDCCH candidates will not overlap, and it is naturally avoided that the two DCIs that schedule the same data sent on the associated PDCCH occupy the same time-frequency resources, thereby avoiding mutual interference between the two DCIs. It also avoids affecting the demodulation performance of the terminal.

Another implementation manner in scenario 1: the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set correspond to the same SSS, and at this time, the SSS is associated with the first CORESET and the second CORESET at the same time. The first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set correspond to different PDCCH detection occasions, for example, the first PDCCH candidate corresponds to the first detection occasion, and the second PDCCH candidate corresponds to the second detection occasion. The first detection timing and the second detection timing may be determined according to preset rules, or configured by high-layer signaling. For example, the first detection timing may be an odd-numbered detection timing among the PDCCH detection timings configured by the SSS, and the second detection timing may be an even-numbered detection timing among the PDCCH detection timings configured by the SSS. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate having an associated relationship are PDCCH candidates with the same AL and the same ID in the SSS.

Scenario 2. The network device configures a CORESET for the terminal.

In scenario 2, the network device may configure multiple QCL assumptions for the CORESET through RRC signaling/MAC CE signaling, including the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption. Each QCL hypothesis may include one or more QCL types, for example, both the first QCL hypothesis and the second QCL hypothesis include QCL Type A and QCL Type D.

Referring to FIG. 13 , the communication method provided by Embodiment 1 under scenario 2 includes:

1301. The network device sends configuration information. The configuration information is used to indicate that the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the first QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis. Correspondingly, the terminal receives configuration information from the network device. The present application does not exclude other ways of configuring the association relationship between the set of PDCCH candidates and the QCL hypothesis. For example, the association relationship between the set of PDCCH candidates and the QCL hypothesis may be preset or stipulated by the protocol.

The network device may be one network device, or may be multiple network devices, for example, two network devices. When it is the former, the network device can send the PDCCH to the terminal using the time-frequency resources in CORESET through different beams or different antenna panels. If it is the latter, both network devices use the time-frequency resources in CORESET to send the PDCCH to the terminal. For the latter, if the network device includes network device 1 and network device 2, the configuration information may be sent by network device 1, or may be sent by network device 2, or the configuration information sent by network device 1 may be used to indicate the first The set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the first QCL hypothesis, and the configuration information sent by the network device 2 is used to indicate that the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis.

Optionally, the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates correspond to different SSSs respectively. In one case, the first set of PDCCH candidates is one SSS, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is another SSS. In another case, the set of first PDCCH candidates is a set consisting of N first PDCCH candidates with AL=X in one SSS, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is a set of N first PDCCH candidates with AL=X in another SSS The set composed of the second PDCCH candidates, N is an integer greater than 1, and the value of X is one or more of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}. Specifically, the ID of the CORESET and the QCL assumption of the CORESET may be configured in the configuration information of the SSS, thereby indicating the association relationship between the SSS and a certain QCL assumption of the CORESET.

Optionally, the configuration information includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that there is an association relationship between the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates. Of course, the indication information may also be a separate signaling, which is not carried in the configuration information, or it is preset that there is an association relationship between the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates. For other descriptions of the optional method, reference may be made to the descriptions in Scenario 1, and details are not repeated here.

Wherein, it may be defined that the PDCCH candidates in the SSS with the associated relationship have an associated relationship. In specific implementation, the association relationship between the SSSs can be independently indicated through RRC signaling/MAC CE signaling, for example, the association between SSS0 and SSS1 is directly indicated. The multiple SSSs configured by the terminal may also be divided into multiple groups, and each group corresponds to a QCL assumption of CORESET respectively. Associations between SSSs corresponding to different QCL assumptions can be established through preset rules. For example, the SSSs in group 1 correspond to the SSSs in group 2 in ascending order of ID. Exemplarily, the SSS numbers associated with the CORESET are 0-5. Among them, SSS 0-2 corresponds to QCL assumption 1, SSS 3-5 corresponds to QCL assumption 2, then SSS0 is associated with SSS3, SSS1 is associated with SSS4, and SSS2 is associated with SSS5.

Wherein, the index values in the set of the first PDCCH candidates from small to large are {a ₁ , a ₂ ,..., a _N } respectively, the index values in the set of N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates are {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } The N second PDCCH candidates are associated one by one in the order of index values from front to back, an _' ≠c _n' , the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that have an associated relationship The DCI above is used to schedule the same data, and n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N.

Optionally, c _n mod N=(an +Δ) mod N, _n =1, 2, . . . , N, and Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or a positive integer less than N. In scenario 2, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is similar to the foregoing second association relationship, which can be understood with reference to the description of the foregoing second association relationship, and will not be repeated here.

In the above association relationship, exemplarily, an modN=(cn ₊ ₁ )modN, or, an _modN =(cn _- 1)modN.

In the above association relationship, optionally, the values of the element numbers in {a ₁ ,a ₂ ,...,a _N } and {c ₁ ,c ₂ ,...,c _N } are consecutive integers.

Optionally, the total number of PDCCH candidates included in the SSS corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set is the same as the total number of PDCCH candidates included in the SSS corresponding to the second PDCCH candidate set.

It can be understood that, since two DCIs that schedule the same data correspond to the same CORESET, as long as it is ensured that the two DCIs that schedule the same data correspond to PDCCH candidates with different IDs, it can be ensured that the time-frequency resources occupied by the two DCIs do not overlap. Therefore, the mutual interference of the two DCIs is avoided, and the demodulation performance of the terminal is also avoided.

1302. The network device sends DCI on the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.

For the related description of step 1302, reference may be made to the above-mentioned step 903, which will not be repeated.

1303. The terminal detects DCI on the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.

For the related description of step 1303, reference may be made to the above-mentioned step 905, and details are not repeated here.

For the beneficial effects of the communication method provided by the first embodiment in the scenario 2, reference may be made to the beneficial effects of the communication method provided by the first embodiment in the scenario 1, which will not be repeated.

In scenario 2, in addition to using the above method to avoid mutual interference between the two DCIs, in another implementation manner, the set of first PDCCH candidates and the set of second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same SSS. In a set of PDCCH candidates and a set of second PDCCH candidates, the PDCCH candidates with the associated relationship are PDCCH candidates with the same AL but different IDs in the SSS. At this time, the set of first PDCCH candidates and the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resources because they correspond to the same CORESET. Therefore, as long as the IDs of the two PDCCH candidates are different and the time-frequency resources occupied are different, this can be avoided. Two DCIs that schedule the same data and are sent on the associated PDCCH occupy the same time-frequency resource, thereby avoiding mutual interference between the two DCIs and affecting the demodulation performance of the terminal.

It should be noted that, in the setting of the association relationship in the first embodiment, it is only necessary to ensure that the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with the association relationship are not the same. Several examples of association relationships are given, but do not constitute a limitation on the association relationship.

Embodiment 2

In order to increase the flexibility of network device scheduling, the present application provides Embodiment 2. In Embodiment 2, the network device may not be restricted to use two PDCCH candidates with the same occupied time-frequency resources to send and schedule two DCIs that schedule the same data (for example, 14, TRP1 and TRP2 can send their respective DCIs on the PDCCH candidates occupying the same time-frequency resources), the network equipment can be not limited by whether the time-frequency resources occupied by the two PDCCH candidates collide, nor the first PDCCH Restriction on whether there is an association relationship between the set of candidates and the set of second PDCCH candidates. The second embodiment can be implemented through the process shown in FIG. 15 or FIG. 18 .

Referring to FIG. 15 , the communication method provided by the second embodiment includes:

1501. The network device sends configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the first QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis. Accordingly, the terminal receives the configuration information.

In one case, a first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first CORESET and a second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second CORESET. The first CORESET configures the first QCL hypothesis and the second CORESET configures the second QCL hypothesis. In this case, for the process of sending configuration information when the network device is one network device or multiple network devices, reference may be made to the relevant description under scenario 1 in the first embodiment. The difference is that when configuring the association relationship, the first set of PDCCH candidates may be further configured to be associated with the first QCL hypothesis of the first CORESET, and the second set of PDCCH candidates may be associated with the second QCL hypothesis of the second CORESET.

In another case, both the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates are associated with one CORESET. The CORESET configures the first and second QCL assumptions. In this case, for the process of sending configuration information when the network device is one network device or multiple network devices, reference may be made to the relevant description under scenario 2 in the first embodiment.

Optionally, the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates correspond to different SSSs respectively. In one case, the first set of PDCCH candidates is one SSS, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is another SSS. In another case, the set of first PDCCH candidates is a set of first PDCCH candidates with AL=X in one SSS, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is a set of second PDCCH candidates with AL=X in another SSS composed collection. The value of X is one or more of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}.

Optionally, the PDCCH candidates in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the PDCCH candidates in the second set of PDCCH candidates are associated. The association relationship may be an existing association relationship, or may be the association relationship described in the first embodiment.

1502. The network device determines the first number and/or the second number according to the time-frequency resources occupied by the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates.

The first number is the number of PDCCH candidates, and the first number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates, that is, the first number is less than or equal to the configuration The sum of the number of PDCCH candidates in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates. The second number is the number of non-overlapping CCEs corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, and the second number is less than or equal to the number of CCEs in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set and.

When step 1502 is specifically implemented, the network device may determine the first number and/or the second number according to the overlap of time-frequency resources occupied by the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates.

When determining the first number, optionally, the time-frequency resources occupied by N ₁ first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set respectively overlap, The value of the first number is N ₁ +K. Wherein, K is based on the number of PDCCH candidates other than N ₁ first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set (denoted as X1) and the number of second PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set except N ₁ second PDCCH candidates The number of external PDCCH candidates (denoted as X2) is determined. Wherein, K may be equal to X1+X2 or greater than X1+X2 (for example, when soft information combining is to be performed on X1 first PDCCH candidates and X2 second PDCCH candidates, K may be greater than X1+X2).

Optionally, before determining the first number, first determine the number of overlapping PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set. The first number is determined according to the number of overlapping PDCCH candidates. Specifically, if the time-frequency resources of the two PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set completely overlap, the two PDCCH candidates are recorded as one PDCCH candidate (that is, when determining the first number of PDCCH candidates) Denote these two PDCCH candidates as 1). For example, referring to FIG. 16 , if the set of the first PDCCH candidates is SSS1, the set of the second PDCCH candidates is SSS2, and the PDCCH candidates with AL=4 and IDs {0, 1, 2, 3} are configured in SSS1 and SSS2, Among them, the time-frequency resources of the PDCCH candidates with

IDs

2 and 3 in SSS1 and the PDCCH candidates with

IDs

0 and 1 in SSS2 completely overlap, respectively. In this case, the PDCCH candidates with IDs 2 in SSS1 and SSS2 The PDCCH candidate whose ID is 0 is recorded as one PDCCH candidate, the PDCCH candidate whose ID is 3 in SSS1 and the PDCCH candidate whose ID is 1 in SSS2 is recorded as one PDCCH candidate, and the first number is 6.

Optionally, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate whose occupied time-frequency resources overlap correspond to the same AL.

When determining the second number, the meaning of "non-overlapping CCEs" can be referred to above, but when determining the number of non-overlapping CCEs in this application, it is necessary to combine the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set occupied by the set Time-frequency resources, specifically, the number of CCEs may be determined according to whether the time-frequency resources overlap. The number of non-overlapping CCEs determined in this application may be the number of existing non-overlapping CCEs minus the number of CCEs whose time-frequency resources overlap in both the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set. For example, based on the example shown in FIG. 16 and referring to FIG. 17 , if one PDCCH candidate includes 4 CCEs, the “non-overlapping CCEs” include CCE0 to CCE15 in the PDCCH candidates in SSS1 and CCE0 to CCE15 in the PDCCH candidates in SSS1 CCE8 to CCE23, the existing number of non-overlapping CCEs is 32, the number of CCEs with overlapping time-frequency resources is 8, and the second number is 32-8=24.

In an implementation manner, the meaning of "non-overlapping CCEs" is not changed, but two calculation methods can be defined for the number of non-overlapping CCEs, one is the calculation of the number of existing non-overlapping CCEs Another calculation method is the calculation method of the number of non-overlapping CCEs in this application. In this case, the network device may instruct the terminal through signaling which calculation method to use to determine the number of non-overlapping CCEs.

In another implementation manner, two definitions of "non-overlapping CCEs" may be given, one is the definition in the prior art, and the other is: if the CCE corresponding to the PDCCH candidate to be detected satisfies the following conditions, it is Non-overlapping CCEs: The time domain starting positions occupied by the PDCCH candidates corresponding to the CCEs are different. The number of non-overlapping CCEs calculated by the latter definition is the number of non-overlapping CCEs calculated by using the method in this application. At this time, the PDCCH transmission adopts the SFN mechanism. In this case, the network device may indicate the definition of "non-overlapping CCEs" to the terminal through signaling. At this time, the number of non-overlapping CCEs in the present application can be directly determined without first determining the number of non-overlapping CCEs in the prior art. Referring to FIG. 17 , according to the definition of non-overlapping CCEs in this application, CCEs with different time domain start positions occupied by corresponding PDCCH candidates in SSS1 and SSS2 are CCE0 to CCE23, and the second number is 24.

In addition to the above two implementations, the number of non-overlapping CCEs in the prior art and the number of non-overlapping CCEs in the present application can also be distinguished by text, that is, the "non-overlapping CCEs" in the present application The number of CCEs" may also have other descriptions, for example, it may be described as "the number of CCEs that do not overlap in the time domain".

1503. The network device determines, according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity, PDCCH candidates for sending DCI.

Wherein, the PDCCH candidate for sending DCI determined by the network device is the PDCCH candidate to be detected determined by the terminal, so as to ensure that the DCI sent by the network device can be detected by the terminal.

When determining the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI, the first number and/or the second number need to be compared with the DCI processing capability limit of the terminal. If the maximum number of DCI detections of the terminal is less than or equal to the number of PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set, or, if the maximum DCI detection number of the terminal is greater than the number of PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set is less than the first number , the PDCCH candidate for sending DCI is determined to be a PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set. If the maximum number of DCI detection times of the terminal is greater than or equal to the first number, the PDCCH candidate for sending DCI is determined to be a PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set. Further, if the number of CCEs occupied by the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI is determined (in the case where the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI are PDCCH candidates in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates, the number is the 2) is greater than the number of CCEs that the terminal can handle (that is, the current maximum number of non-overlapping CCEs), then the network device needs to further reduce the number of CCEs occupied by the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI to less than or equal to the number of CCEs that the terminal can handle the number of CCEs.

Exemplarily, referring to FIG. 17 , when determining a PDCCH candidate for sending DCI, if the maximum number of DCI detections of the terminal is less than or equal to 4 (the number of PDCCH candidates in SSS1), or, the maximum number of DCI detections of the terminal is greater than 4 (SSS1 ). The number of PDCCH candidates in ) is less than 6 (the first number), and the network device determines that the PDCCH candidate for sending DCI is the PDCCH candidate in SSS1. If the maximum number of DCI detections of the terminal is greater than or equal to 6, the network device determines that the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI are PDCCH candidates in SSS1 and SSS2. Further, if the number of CCEs that can be processed by the terminal is greater than or equal to 24, the network device determines that the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI are PDCCH candidates in SSS1 and SSS2. If the number of CCEs that the terminal can process is less than 24, the network device also needs to Further reduce the number of CCEs occupied by the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI to be less than or equal to the number of CCEs that the terminal can handle. For example, if the number of CCEs that the terminal can handle is 16, the network device determines that the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI are in SSS1 the PDCCH candidate.

When determining the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI, the index values corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates may be sorted in ascending order, and the PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates with the corresponding smaller index values are preferentially selected as the PDCCH for sending DCI candidate. In this application, it is assumed that the index value corresponding to the first set of PDCCH candidates is small, and the index value corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates refers to the index value of CORESET or the index value of SSS corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates.

Optionally, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resource, step 1503 includes: The network device according to the first number and/or the second number, and PDCCH candidates other than the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates in the set of N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and second PDCCH candidates (ie, X2 second PDCCH candidates) candidate) to determine the PDCCH candidates for transmitting DCI.

That is to say, for the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates, whether detection is required is determined according to the index value of the set of PDCCH candidates corresponding to the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates. Specifically, the PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates may be sequentially read in descending order according to the index values corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates, until the number of read PDCCH candidates is greater than the first threshold or the read PDCCH candidates occupy The number of non-overlapping CCEs is greater than the second threshold. Wherein, when the i+1 th PDCCH candidate set is read, all PDCCH candidates in the i+1 th PDCCH candidate set that do not overlap the time-frequency resources of the first i PDCCH candidate set are read, and this At this time, it is considered that the PDCCH candidates that overlap with the set of the first i PDCCH candidates among the i+1 th PDCCH candidates need to be detected, and the overlapping PDCCH candidates are regarded as the same detection. When the set of the first i PDCCH candidates has been read, the number of read PDCCH candidates is less than or equal to the first threshold and the number of non-overlapping CCEs occupied by the read PDCCH candidates is less than or equal to the second threshold, and read When the set of i+1th PDCCH candidates is completed, the number of read PDCCH candidates is greater than the first threshold, or the number of non-overlapping CCEs occupied by the read PDCCH candidates is greater than the second threshold, then the DCI to be detected is The DCI of the PDCCH candidates in the set of the first i PDCCH candidates read, i is an integer greater than 0.

The first threshold may be the maximum number of DCI detections of the terminal, and the second threshold may be the number of CCEs that the terminal can process. That is to say, during specific implementation, the network device may sequentially read the PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set in ascending order of index values corresponding to the PDCCH candidate set. Among them, the maximum number of read PDCCH candidates is the same as the maximum number of DCI detections of the terminal, the maximum number of CCEs occupied by the read PDCCH candidates is the same as the number of CCEs that the terminal can handle, and the occupied time-frequency resources overlap PDCCH candidates It is only read once, and the read is performed in units of a set of PDCCH candidates. Based on the example shown in FIG. 17 , if the maximum number of DCI detections of the terminal is 5, and the number of CCEs that the terminal can process is 18, the network device can first read the 4 PDCCH candidates in SSS1, and find out 1 of the read PDCCH candidates. The number of CCEs occupied by the read PDCCH candidates is less than 5, and the number of CCEs occupied by the read PDCCH candidates is less than 18, then the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates that overlap with the time-frequency resources of the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates are determined according to the N ₁ first PDCCH candidates. Read, read PDCCH candidates with PDCCH candidate ID=2 and PDCCH candidate ID=3 in SSS2, and find that the number of read PDCCH candidates is greater than 5, then the network device determines that the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI are 4 in SSS1 PDCCH candidate.

Optionally, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resource, step 1503 includes: Determine the DCI to be detected according to the first number and the second number, as well as the first threshold and the second threshold; wherein, when the first number is less than or equal to the first threshold, and the second number is less than or equal to the second threshold, the DCI to be detected Including the DCI corresponding to the set of the first PDCCH candidate and the set of the second PDCCH candidate; when the first number is greater than the first threshold or the second number is greater than the second threshold, the DCI to be detected includes the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH DCI corresponding to some PDCCH candidates in the candidate set; wherein the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with overlapping time-frequency resources correspond to one DCI to be detected, and some PDCCH candidates are determined according to the priority of the set of PDCCH candidates.

When determining partial PDCCH candidates, the priority of the set of PDCCH candidates is determined according to the index value of the set of PDCCH candidates. For example, the smaller the index value of the set of PDCCH candidates, the higher the priority of the set of PDCCH candidates. It is generally considered that the priority of the PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates with high priority is higher than the priority of PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates with low priority. However, when the time-frequency resources of the PDCCH candidates in the two sets of PDCCH candidates overlap, the two PDCCH candidates whose time-frequency resources overlap are considered to have the same priority. The meaning of the same priority is: if it is determined that the DCI corresponding to a PDCCH candidate is to be detected, then the DCI corresponding to the PDCCH candidate with the same priority as the PDCCH candidate is also to be detected. Similarly, if it is determined that the DCI corresponding to a PDCCH candidate is discarded, Then the DCI corresponding to the PDCCH candidate with the same priority as the PDCCH candidate is also discarded. That is to say, two PDCCH candidates with the same priority are essentially regarded as one PDCCH candidate, and a DCI detection is performed. The specific process of determining some of the PDCCH candidates according to the priorities of the set of PDCCH candidates may refer to the above, and will not be repeated here.

1504. The terminal determines the first number and/or the second number according to the time-frequency resources occupied by the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates.

Similar to the network device, optionally, when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the first PDCCH candidate set and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the second PDCCH candidate set occupy the same time-frequency resource, step 1504 The specific implementation includes: the terminal determines the pending PDCCH candidates according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity, and the set of N ₁ first PDCCH candidates and second PDCCH candidates except the N ₁ second PDCCH candidates Detected DCI.

For the specific implementation of step 1504, reference may be made to the above-mentioned step 1502, the only difference is that it is executed by the terminal here.

1505. The terminal determines the DCI to be detected according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity.

Wherein, "DCI to be detected" may also be replaced with "PDCCH candidate to be detected". The process for the terminal to determine the DCI to be detected is similar to the process for the network device to determine the PDCCH candidates for sending the DCI, which can be understood with reference to the above, and will not be repeated here. Generally, the number of DCIs to be detected is less than or equal to the number of configured PDCCH candidates.

In the method provided in Embodiment 2, when the network device determines the PDCCH candidates for sending DCI, and when the terminal determines the DCI to be detected, it is determined according to the first number and/or the second number, and the first number and the second number are determined. are determined based on the time-frequency resources occupied by the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates. In this case, according to the values of the first number and the second number, some PDCCH candidates will be recorded as one PDCCH Candidates, some CCEs will be recorded as one CCE, so that the terminal can perform combined detection when performing DCI detection (that is, perform DCI detection as a channel signal), so as to avoid mutual interference between two DCIs. Optionally, referring to FIG. 15 , when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resource, the method further includes: :

1506. The terminal combines the PDCCH candidates occupying the same time-frequency resources into one PDCCH candidate (that is, denoted as one PDCCH candidate). Wherein, the combined PDCCH candidate is associated with the first QCL hypothesis and the second QCL hypothesis, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the combined PDCCH candidate are the same as those occupied by the combined PDCCH candidate. That is, the overlapping first PDCCH candidate and second PDCCH candidate correspond to one DCI detection and channel estimation.

Optionally, referring to FIG. 15 , when at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resource, the method further includes: :

1507. The terminal performs channel estimation on the same time-frequency resource according to the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption.

Optionally, step 1507 includes:

1507-1. The terminal generates first filter parameters according to the first QCL hypothesis and the second QCL hypothesis. For example, the first QCL hypothesis and the second QCL hypothesis are combined according to the corresponding received power to obtain the first filter parameter.

1507-2. The terminal performs channel estimation on the same time-frequency resource according to the first filter parameter and the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource.

Optionally, the filter parameter is a Wiener filter used to generate the channel estimate.

In the second embodiment, since the two DCIs that schedule the same data occupy the same resources, they have been spatially combined during the transmission process. Therefore, the terminal can perform channel estimation in a unified manner, and it is not necessary to perform soft information after receiving them separately. merge.

Optionally, referring to FIG. 15 , at least one first PDCCH candidate in the set of first PDCCH candidates and at least one second PDCCH candidate in the set of second PDCCH candidates occupy the same time-frequency resources, and the set of first PDCCH candidates is associated with the first CORESET, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second CORESET; the method further includes:

1508. The network device determines the scrambling sequence of the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource according to the first CORESET (that is, the scrambling sequence of the DMRS corresponding to the first CORESET), and sends the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource according to the scrambling sequence of the DMRS . Correspondingly, the terminal determines the DMRS scrambling sequence on the same time-frequency resource according to the first CORESET, and receives the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource according to the DMRS scrambling sequence.

Further, after receiving the DMRS, the terminal adopts the least squares (least squares, LS) between the DMRS and the received signal to obtain a channel estimation result.

Wherein, the scrambled sequence of the DMRS on the same time-frequency resource may be the scrambled sequence of the DMRS of the CORESET corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates with a smaller CORESET ID or a smaller SSS ID. In this application, it is assumed that the first The CORESET ID corresponding to the set of PDCCH candidates is smaller or the SSS ID is smaller.

It should be noted that, when the terminal uses SFN to perform DCI detection, the network device also needs to use SFN to send DCI. Optionally, in the second embodiment, an association relationship between two sets of PDCCH candidates (for example, two SSSs) may also be established. In this case, it may be the AL in the set of two PDCCH candidates that have an association relationship When the CCEs corresponding to the same two PDCCH candidates completely overlap, the terminal uses SFN to perform combined detection on the CCEs corresponding to the two PDCCH candidates.

In the above embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set correspond to different SSSs as an example for description. In fact, the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set may also correspond to the same SSS. . At this time, the SSS can associate two CORESETs, the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set are respectively associated with the two CORESETs, and the SSS can also associate with one CORESET, at this time, the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH The set of candidates is associated with different QCL assumptions of the CORESET, and the same method can be applied.

The first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set correspond to the same SSS, the SSS is associated with a CORESET, and the index values of the PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set are the same as the PDCCH candidates included in the second PDCCH candidate set. When the candidate index values are exactly the same, in addition to the above method, the method shown in FIG. 18 can also be used to avoid mutual interference between the two DCIs, which specifically includes: 1801. The network device sends configuration information, and the configuration information is used to indicate the first DCI. A set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the first QCL hypothesis, and a second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis. Accordingly, the terminal receives the configuration information. For the specific implementation of step 1801, reference may be made to the foregoing step 1501, and details are not repeated here.

1802. The network device determines the first number and the second number according to the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates. The first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates each include M1 PDCCH candidates, and each includes M2 CCEs. Then, the first number corresponding to the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates is M1, and the second number corresponding to the set of the first PDCCH candidate and the second set of PDCCH candidates is M2.

Optionally, the network device sends configuration information indicating that the SSS transmission mechanism corresponding to the first set of PDCCH candidates and the set of second PDCCH candidates is SFN, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the configuration information.

1803. The network device determines, according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity, PDCCH candidates for sending DCI. For the specific implementation of step 1803, reference may be made to the foregoing step 1503, and details are not repeated here.

1804. The terminal determines the first number and/or the second number according to the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates. The specific implementation of step 1804 is similar to that of step 1802, the only difference is that it is performed by the terminal here, and reference may be made to the relevant description of step 1802, and details are not repeated here.

1805. The terminal determines the DCI to be detected according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity. For the specific implementation of step 1805, reference may be made to the foregoing step 1505, and details are not repeated here.

Optionally, referring to Figure 18, the method further includes:

1806. The terminal combines the PDCCH candidates occupying the same time-frequency resource into one PDCCH candidate (that is, recorded as one PDCCH candidate). Wherein, the combined PDCCH candidate is associated with the first QCL hypothesis and the second QCL hypothesis, and the time-frequency resources occupied by the combined PDCCH candidate are the same as those occupied by the combined PDCCH candidate. That is, the overlapping first PDCCH candidate and second PDCCH candidate correspond to one DCI detection and channel estimation.

Optionally, referring to Figure 18, the method further includes:

1807. The terminal performs channel estimation on the same time-frequency resource according to the first QCL assumption and the second QCL assumption. For the specific implementation of step 1807, reference may be made to the foregoing step 1507, and details are not repeated here.

In the second embodiment, the terminal will determine the CCE positions corresponding to the PDCCH candidates associated with each CORESET respectively. When the CCE positions corresponding to the PDCCH candidates with the same AL and the same AL associated with the two CORESETs are the same, the terminal may use the method provided in this application. Determine the DCI to be detected.

The solutions in the various embodiments of the present application may be combined under the circumstance that there is no contradiction. For example, Embodiment 2 can be combined with Embodiment 1. When two PDCCH candidates in a set of two PDCCH candidates with an associated relationship (for example, two SSSs) occupy different CCEs, the network device transmits DCI on different CCEs respectively. , the terminal performs DCI detection on different CCEs respectively. When two PDCCH candidates in a set of two PDCCH candidates with an associated relationship occupy the same CCE, the network device transmits DCI on the same CCE respectively, and the terminal performs combined detection on the CCE.

The solutions of the embodiments of the present application have been introduced above mainly from the perspective of methods. It can be understood that, in order to implement the above functions, each network element, for example, a terminal and a network device, includes at least one of a hardware structure and a software module corresponding to each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that the present application can be implemented in hardware or in the form of a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed by hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal and the network device may be divided into functional units according to the foregoing method examples. For example, each functional unit may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing unit. The above-mentioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of software functional units. It should be noted that the division of units in the embodiments of the present application is illustrative, and is only a logical function division, and other division methods may be used in actual implementation.

Exemplarily, FIG. 19 shows a possible schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device (referred to as the communication device 190 ) involved in the above embodiment, where the communication device 190 includes a processing unit 1901 and a communication unit 1902 . Optionally, a storage unit 1903 is also included. The communication apparatus 190 may be used to illustrate the structures of the terminal and the network device in the foregoing embodiments.

When the schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 19 is used to illustrate the structure of the terminal involved in the above embodiment, the processing unit 1901 is used to control and manage the actions of the terminal. For example, the processing unit 1901 is used to execute 901, 904 and 905, 1301 and 1303 in FIG. 13, 1501 and 1504-1508 in FIG. 15, 1801 and 1804-1807 in FIG. 18, and/or executed by the terminal in other processes described in the embodiments of this application action. The processing unit 1901 may communicate with other network entities through the communication unit 1902, for example, with the network device in FIG. 9 . The storage unit 1903 is used to store program codes and data of the terminal.

When the schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 19 is used to illustrate the structure of the network device involved in the above embodiment, the processing unit 1901 is used to control and manage the actions of the network device, for example, the processing unit 1901 is used to execute the 901-903, 1301 and 1302 in FIG. 13, 1501-1503 and 1508 in FIG. 15, 1801-1803 in FIG. 18, and/or actions performed by the network device in other processes described in the embodiments of this application . The processing unit 1901 may communicate with other network entities through the communication unit 1902, for example, communicate with the terminal in FIG. 9 . The storage unit 1903 is used to store program codes and data of the network device.

Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 190 may be a device or a chip or a chip system.

When the communication apparatus 190 is a device, the processing unit 1901 may be a processor; the communication unit 1902 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, or an input interface and/or an output interface. Optionally, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the input interface may be an input circuit, and the output interface may be an output circuit.

When the communication device 190 is a chip or a chip system, the communication unit 1902 may be a communication interface, input interface and/or output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin or related circuit, etc. on the chip or chip system. The processing unit 1901 may be a processor, a processing circuit, a logic circuit, or the like.

The integrated units in FIG. 19 may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as separate products. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be embodied in the form of software products in essence, or the parts that contribute to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solutions, and the computer software products are stored in a storage The medium includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. Storage media for storing computer software products include: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or CD, etc. that can store program codes medium.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of a communication apparatus, see FIG. 20 or FIG. 21 , the communication apparatus includes a processor 2001 and optionally, a memory 2002 connected to the processor 2001 .

The processor 2001 may be a CPU, a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the programs of the present application. The processor 2001 may also include a plurality of CPUs, and the processor 2001 may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, or processing cores for processing data (eg, computer program instructions).

The memory 2002 can be a ROM or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a RAM or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory). read-only memory, EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk A storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. The memory 2002 may exist independently (in this case, the memory 2002 may be located outside the communication device, or may be located in the communication device), or may be integrated with the processor 2001 . Wherein, the memory 2002 may contain computer program code. The processor 2001 is configured to execute the computer program code stored in the memory 2002, thereby implementing the method provided by the embodiments of the present application.

In a first possible implementation manner, referring to FIG. 20 , the communication apparatus further includes a transceiver 2003 . The processor 2001, the memory 2002 and the transceiver 2003 are connected by a bus. The transceiver 2003 is used to communicate with other devices or communication networks. Optionally, the transceiver 2003 may include a transmitter and a receiver. A device in the transceiver 2003 for implementing the receiving function may be regarded as a receiver, and the receiver is configured to perform the receiving steps in the embodiments of the present application. A device in the transceiver 2003 for implementing the sending function may be regarded as a transmitter, and the transmitter is used to perform the sending step in the embodiment of the present application.

Based on the first possible implementation manner, the schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 20 may be used to illustrate the structures of the terminals and network devices involved in the foregoing embodiments.

When the schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 20 is used to illustrate the structure of the terminal involved in the above embodiment, the processor 2001 is used to control and manage the actions of the terminal. For example, the processor 2001 is used to execute 901, 904 and 905, 1301 and 1303 in FIG. 13, 1501 and 1504-1508 in FIG. 15, 1801 and 1804-1807 in FIG. 18, and/or executed by the terminal in other processes described in the embodiments of this application action. The processor 2001 may communicate with other network entities through the transceiver 2003, eg, with the network device in FIG. 9 . The memory 2002 is used to store program codes and data of the terminal.

When the schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 20 is used to illustrate the structure of the network device involved in the foregoing embodiment, the processor 2001 is used to control and manage the actions of the network device, for example, the processor 2001 is used to execute the 901-903, 1301 and 1302 in FIG. 13, 1501-1503 and 1508 in FIG. 15, 1801-1803 in FIG. 18, and/or actions performed by the network device in other processes described in the embodiments of this application . The processor 2001 may communicate with other network entities through the transceiver 2003, eg, with the terminal in FIG. 9 . The memory 2002 is used to store program codes and data of the network device.

In a second possible implementation, the processor 2001 includes a logic circuit and an input interface and/or an output interface. Exemplarily, the output interface is used for performing the sending action in the corresponding method, and the input interface is used for performing the receiving action in the corresponding method.

Based on the second possible implementation manner, see FIG. 21 . The schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 21 may be used to illustrate the structures of the terminals and network devices involved in the foregoing embodiments.

When the schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 21 is used to illustrate the structure of the terminal involved in the above embodiment, the processor 2001 is used to control and manage the actions of the terminal, for example, the processor 2001 is used to execute 901, 904 and 905, 1301 and 1303 in FIG. 13, 1501 and 1504-1508 in FIG. 15, 1801 and 1804-1807 in FIG. 18, and/or executed by the terminal in other processes described in the embodiments of this application action. The processor 2001 may communicate with other network entities, eg, with the network device in FIG. 9, through the input interface and/or the output interface. The memory 2002 is used to store program codes and data of the terminal.

When the schematic structural diagram shown in FIG. 21 is used to illustrate the structure of the network device involved in the above embodiment, the processor 2001 is used to control and manage the actions of the network device, for example, the processor 2001 is used to execute the 901-903, 1301 and 1302 in FIG. 13, 1501-1503 and 1508 in FIG. 15, 1801-1803 in FIG. 18, and/or actions performed by the network device in other processes described in the embodiments of this application . The processor 2001 may communicate with other network entities, eg, with the terminal in FIG. 9 , through the input interface and/or the output interface. The memory 2002 is used to store program codes and data of the network device.

In the implementation process, each step in the method provided in this embodiment may be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor or an instruction in the form of software. The steps of the methods disclosed in conjunction with the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as executed by a hardware processor, or executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium, including computer-executable instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute any of the above methods.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product, including computer-executable instructions, which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute any of the above methods.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a communication system, including: one or more of a terminal and a network device.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device, including: a processor and an interface, the processor is coupled to a memory through the interface, and when the processor executes a computer program or computer-executable instruction in the memory, any A method is executed.

In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "/" means or means, for example, A/B can mean A or B; "and/or" in this text is only a relationship to describe the related objects, Indicates that three relationships can exist, for example, A and/or B, can represent: A alone exists, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In the description of this application, unless stated otherwise, "at least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more.

In addition, in order to clearly describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish the same or similar items with basically the same function and effect. Those skilled in the art can understand that the words "first", "second" and the like do not limit the quantity and execution order, and the words "first", "second" and the like are not necessarily different.

In the above-mentioned embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on the computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. Computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website site, computer, server, or data center over a wire (e.g. coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (eg infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means to transmit to another website site, computer, server or data center. Computer-readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer or data storage devices including one or more servers, data centers, etc., that can be integrated with the media. Useful media may be magnetic media (eg, floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes), optical media (eg, DVDs), or semiconductor media (eg, solid state disks (SSDs)), and the like.

Although the application is described herein in conjunction with various embodiments, in practicing the claimed application, those skilled in the art can understand and implement the disclosure by reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims Other variations of the embodiment. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that these measures cannot be combined to advantage.

Although the present application has been described in conjunction with specific features and their embodiments, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations may be made without departing from the scope of protection of the present application. Accordingly, this specification and drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the application as defined by the appended claims, and are deemed to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of this application. Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the protection scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A communication method, comprising:

receiving configuration information, the configuration information being used to indicate that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first set of control resources, and the set of second PDCCH candidates is associated with the second set of control resources;

Determine N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidate set in the first PDCCH candidate set according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set The association relationship between the N second PDCCH candidates in , where N is an integer greater than 1;

Downlink control information DCI is detected on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is a first association relationship or a second association relationship;

The first association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {b 1 , b 2 , .

The second association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {c 1 , c 2 , . . . , c N } are associated one by one in the order of the index values;

Wherein, the index value {c 1 ,c 2 ,...,c N } is different from the index value {b 1 ,b 2 ,...,b N }, and the first PDCCH candidate that has an associated relationship with the The DCI on the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data.
The method according to claim 2, wherein c n mod N=( bn +Δ)mod N, n=1,2,...,N, Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or, less than N positive integer of .
The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate whose index value is an ' and the second PDCCH candidate whose index value is bn' do not overlap. In the case of , the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship; or, in the first PDCCH candidate whose index value is an ' In the case of overlapping time-frequency resources occupied by the second PDCCH candidates whose index value is b n' , the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the Two associations; among them, a n' ∈{a 1 ,a 2 ,…,a N }, b n' ∈{b 1 ,b 2 ,…,b N }, n' is greater than 0 and less than or equal to N Integer.
A communication method, comprising:

sending configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidate set is associated with the first control resource set, and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second control resource set;

Determine N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidate set in the first PDCCH candidate set according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set The association relationship between the N second PDCCH candidates in , where N is an integer greater than 1;

Downlink control information DCI is sent on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.
The method according to claim 5, wherein the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is a first association relationship or a second association relationship;

The first association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {b 1 , b 2 , .

The second association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {c 1 , c 2 , . . . , c N } are associated one by one in the order of the index values;

Wherein, the index value {c 1 ,c 2 ,...,c N } is different from the index value {b 1 ,b 2 ,...,b N }, and the first PDCCH candidate that has an associated relationship with the The DCI on the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data.
The method according to claim 6, wherein c n mod N=( bn +Δ) mod N, n=1,2,...,N, Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or less than N positive integer of .
The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate whose index value is an ' and the second PDCCH candidate whose index value is bn' do not overlap. In the case of , the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship; or, in the first PDCCH candidate whose index value is an ' In the case of overlapping time-frequency resources occupied by the second PDCCH candidates whose index value is b n' , the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the Two associations; among them, a n' ∈{a 1 ,a 2 ,…,a N }, b n' ∈{b 1 ,b 2 ,…,b N }, n' is greater than 0 and less than or equal to N Integer.
A communication method, comprising:

receiving configuration information for indicating that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis;

The first number and/or the second number are determined according to the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set; the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates, and the first number The number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, where the second number is the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate The number of non-overlapping control resource element CCEs corresponding to the candidate set, the second number being less than or equal to the sum of the number of CCEs in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set;

The downlink control information DCI to be detected is determined according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity.
9. The method of claim 9, wherein the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources.
The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the PDCCH candidates in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the PDCCH candidates in the second set of PDCCH candidates are associated.
The method according to any one of claims 9-11, wherein the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set The time-frequency resources occupied by the two PDCCH candidates overlap respectively, and N 1 is an integer greater than 0;

The value of the first number is N 1 +K, where K is based on the number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second The number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 second PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates is determined.
A communication method, comprising:

sending configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis;

The first number and/or the second number are determined according to the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set; the first number is the number of PDCCH candidates, and the first number The number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, where the second number is the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate The number of non-overlapping control resource element CCEs corresponding to the candidate set, the second number being less than or equal to the sum of the number of CCEs in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set;

PDCCH candidates for sending downlink control information DCI are determined according to the first number and/or the second number.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources.
The method according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the PDCCH candidates in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the PDCCH candidates in the second set of PDCCH candidates are associated.
The method according to any one of claims 13-15, wherein the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set The time-frequency resources occupied by the two PDCCH candidates overlap respectively, and N 1 is an integer greater than 0;

The value of the first number is N 1 +K, where K is based on the number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second The number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 second PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates is determined.
A communication method, comprising:

receiving configuration information for indicating that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis; the first PDCCH In the candidate set, the index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 ,...,a N }, respectively, in the set of N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates, the index values are {c 1 ,c 2 , . _ The downlink control information DCI on the candidate is used to schedule the same data, and n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N;

DCI is detected on the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates according to the association.
The method according to claim 17, wherein c n mod N=(an +Δ) mod N, n =1,2,...,N, Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or, less than N positive integer of .
The method according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same aggregation level.
The method according to any one of claims 17-19, wherein the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates respectively correspond to different sets of search spaces.
A communication method, comprising:

Sending configuration information, the configuration information is used to indicate that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis; the first PDCCH In the candidate set, the index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 ,...,a N }, respectively, in the set of N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates, the index values are {c 1 ,c 2 , . _ The downlink control information DCI on the candidate is used to schedule the same data, and n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N;

DCI is sent on the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates according to the association.
The method according to claim 21, wherein c n mod N=(an +Δ) mod N, n =1,2,...,N, Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or, less than N positive integer of .
The method according to claim 21 or 22, wherein the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same aggregation level.
The method according to any one of claims 21-23, wherein the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates respectively correspond to different sets of search spaces.
A communication device, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit;

The communication unit is configured to receive configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidate set is associated with the first control resource set, and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second control resource set ;

The processing unit is configured to determine, according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set. an association relationship between N second PDCCH candidates in the set of second PDCCH candidates, where N is an integer greater than 1;

The processing unit is further configured to detect downlink control information DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.
The communication device according to claim 25, wherein the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is a first association relationship or a second association relationship;

The first association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {b 1 , b 2 , .

The second association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {c 1 , c 2 , . . . , c N } are associated one by one in the order of the index values;

Wherein, the index value {c 1 ,c 2 ,...,c N } is different from the index value {b 1 ,b 2 ,...,b N }, and the first PDCCH candidate that has an associated relationship with the The DCI on the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data.
The communication device according to claim 26, wherein cn mod N =( bn +Δ)mod N, n=1,2,...,N, and Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or less than A positive integer of N.
The communication device according to claim 26 or 27, wherein the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate whose index value is an ' and the second PDCCH candidate whose index value is bn' are different. In the case of overlapping, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship; or, in the first PDCCH whose index value is an ' In the case where the time-frequency resources occupied by the candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with an index value of bn' overlap, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the The second relationship; among them, a n' ∈{a 1 ,a 2 ,...,a N }, b n' ∈{b 1 ,b 2 ,...,b N }, n' is greater than 0 and less than or equal to N the integer.
A communication device, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit;

The communication unit is configured to send configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidate set is associated with the first control resource set, and the second PDCCH candidate set is associated with the second control resource set ;

The processing unit is configured to determine, according to the time-frequency resources corresponding to the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the N first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set. an association relationship between N second PDCCH candidates in the set of second PDCCH candidates, where N is an integer greater than 1;

The communication unit is further configured to send downlink control information DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates according to the association relationship.
The communication device according to claim 29, wherein the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is a first association relationship or a second association relationship;

The first association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {b 1 , b 2 , .

The second association relationship is: the N first PDCCH candidates and the first PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N } respectively in the first PDCCH candidate set. In the set of two PDCCH candidates, the N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are {c 1 , c 2 , . . . , c N } are associated one by one in the order of the index values;

Wherein, the index value {c 1 ,c 2 ,...,c N } is different from the index value {b 1 ,b 2 ,...,b N }, and the first PDCCH candidate that has an associated relationship with the The DCI on the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data.
The communication device according to claim 30, wherein c n mod N=( bn +Δ)mod N, n=1,2,...,N, and Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or less than A positive integer of N.
The communication device according to claim 30 or 31, wherein the time-frequency resources occupied by the first PDCCH candidate whose index value is an ' and the second PDCCH candidate whose index value is bn' are different. In the case of overlapping, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the first association relationship; or, in the first PDCCH whose index value is an ' In the case where the time-frequency resources occupied by the candidate and the second PDCCH candidate with an index value of bn' overlap, the association relationship between the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates is the The second relationship; among them, a n' ∈{a 1 ,a 2 ,...,a N }, b n' ∈{b 1 ,b 2 ,...,b N }, n' is greater than 0 and less than or equal to N the integer.
A communication device, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit;

the communication unit, configured to receive configuration information, the configuration information being used to indicate that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis association;

the processing unit, configured to determine the first number and/or the second number according to the time-frequency resources occupied by the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates; the first number is the PDCCH candidate The first number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, and the second number is the first PDCCH candidate the number of non-overlapping control resource element CCEs corresponding to the set and the second set of PDCCH candidates, the second number being less than or equal to the CCEs in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates the sum of the quantities;

The processing unit is further configured to determine the downlink control information DCI to be detected according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity.
The communications apparatus of claim 33, wherein the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources.
The communication apparatus according to claim 33 or 34, wherein the PDCCH candidates in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the PDCCH candidates in the second set of PDCCH candidates are associated.
The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 33-35, wherein N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the set of the first PDCCH candidates and N 1 in the set of the second PDCCH candidates The time-frequency resources occupied by the second PDCCH candidates overlap respectively, and N 1 is an integer greater than 0;

The value of the first number is N 1 +K, where K is based on the number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second The number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 second PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates is determined.
A communication device, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit;

The communication unit is configured to send configuration information, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with the second QCL hypothesis association;

the processing unit, configured to determine the first number and/or the second number according to the time-frequency resources occupied by the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates; the first number is the PDCCH candidate The first number is less than or equal to the sum of the number of PDCCH candidates included in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second PDCCH candidate set, and the second number is the first PDCCH candidate the number of non-overlapping control resource element CCEs corresponding to the set and the second set of PDCCH candidates, the second number being less than or equal to the CCEs in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the second set of PDCCH candidates the sum of the quantities;

The processing unit is further configured to determine PDCCH candidates for sending downlink control information DCI according to the first quantity and/or the second quantity.
The communications apparatus of claim 37, wherein the first set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a first set of control resources, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with a second set of control resources.
The communication apparatus according to claim 37 or 38, wherein the PDCCH candidates in the first set of PDCCH candidates and the PDCCH candidates in the second set of PDCCH candidates are associated.
The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 37-39, wherein N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the second PDCCH candidate set The time-frequency resources occupied by the second PDCCH candidates overlap respectively, and N 1 is an integer greater than 0;

The value of the first number is N 1 +K, where K is based on the number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 first PDCCH candidates in the first PDCCH candidate set and the second The number of PDCCH candidates other than the N 1 second PDCCH candidates in the set of PDCCH candidates is determined.
A communication device, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit;

The processing unit is configured to receive configuration information through the communication unit, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with Associated with the second QCL hypothesis; N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 ,..., a N } respectively in the set of the first PDCCH candidates The N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are { c 1 ,c 2 ,...,c N } in the set of the The downlink control information DCI on the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data, and n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N;

The processing unit is further configured to detect DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates through the communication unit according to the association relationship.
The communication device according to claim 41, wherein c n mod N=(an +Δ) mod N, n =1, 2, . . . , N, and Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or less than A positive integer of N.
The communication apparatus according to claim 41 or 42, wherein the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same aggregation level.
The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 41-43, wherein the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates respectively correspond to different sets of search spaces.
A communication device, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit;

The processing unit is configured to send configuration information through the communication unit, where the configuration information is used to indicate that the set of first physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidates is associated with the first quasi-co-located QCL hypothesis, and the second set of PDCCH candidates is associated with Associated with the second QCL hypothesis; N first PDCCH candidates and the second PDCCH candidates whose index values from small to large are {a 1 , a 2 ,..., a N } respectively in the set of the first PDCCH candidates The N second PDCCH candidates whose index values are { c 1 ,c 2 ,...,c N } in the set of the The downlink control information DCI on the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate is used to schedule the same data, and n' is an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to N;

The processing unit is further configured to send DCI on the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates through the communication unit according to the association relationship.
The communication device according to claim 45, wherein c n mod N=(an +Δ) mod N, n =1, 2, . . . , N, and Δ is a negative integer greater than -N, or less than A positive integer of N.
The communication apparatus according to claim 45 or 46, wherein the N first PDCCH candidates and the N second PDCCH candidates correspond to the same aggregation level.
The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 45-47, wherein the set of the first PDCCH candidates and the set of the second PDCCH candidates respectively correspond to different sets of search spaces.
A communication device, comprising: a processor;

The processor is connected to a memory, the memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, and the processor executes the computer-implemented instructions stored in the memory, so that the communication device implements any one of claims 1-4 Item, alternatively, any one of claims 9-12, alternatively, the method of any one of claims 17-20.
A communication device, comprising: a processor;

The processor is connected to a memory, the memory is used to store computer-executable instructions, and the processor executes the computer-implemented instructions stored in the memory, so that the communication device implements any one of claims 5-8 Item, alternatively, any one of claims 13-16, alternatively, the method of any one of claims 21-24.
A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-24.
A computer program product, comprising computer-executable instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-24.