WO2022198443A1

WO2022198443A1 - Channel access method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2022198443A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/082397
Authority: WO
Inventors: 贾琼; 张佳胤; 范巍巍
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2021-03-23
Filing date: 2021-03-23
Publication date: 2022-09-29

Abstract

The present application discloses a channel access method that is applied to an unlicensed frequency band. The method is applied to an initiating device, wherein the initiating device may be a terminal device or a network device. The method comprises: an initiating device performing communication on the basis of a fixed frame period (FFP), wherein the FFP comprises a channel occupancy period and an idle period, and the initiating device performing channel monitoring before the channel occupancy period by using one of at least two groups of FFP configurations; and if a channel monitoring result indicates that a channel is idle, the initiating device starting to send a signal. By means of the method, a plurality of channel access opportunity points can be provided for an initiating device, so as to provide flexible FFP configurations, thereby improving the communication efficiency.

Description

A channel access method and device thereof

technical field

The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a method for enhancing a random access mechanism and a corresponding device.

Background technique

With the continuous evolution of communication technologies, wireless communication systems have introduced unlicensed (unlicensed) frequency bands to expand increasingly scarce spectrum resources. The communication system working in the unlicensed frequency band in the new radio (NR) is also called NR-U (NR in unlicensed spectrum). fidelity, wifi) system, license assisted access (license assisted access, LAA) system), in order to ensure that each system can use the unlicensed frequency band fairly, in the unlicensed frequency band, the transmitting node is required to use spectrum resources in a competitive manner. Generally, before transmitting a signal, a device needs to perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) for channel access, and the channel can be used only after it is determined that the channel is free.

For frame based equipment (FBE), FBE transmits signals based on a fixed frame format, and accordingly, CCA is designed based on the fixed frame format. FIG. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of an FBE frame. As shown in FIG. 1 , the transmission period of the FBE frame is called a fixed frame period (FFP). The duration of the FFP is between 1ms and 10ms, and the period of the FFP cannot be changed within a certain duration (for example: 200ms). An FFP includes a channel occupancy period (COT) and an idle period (idle period), where the idle period is used for the initiating device to perform CCA. If the channel state is assessed to be idle, the initiating device may send a signal in the subsequent COT. If the estimated channel state is busy, the initiating device cannot send a signal and waits for the next opportunity to perform CCA again. In this way, the channel occupation time in this period cannot be used for any transmission, which leads to a waste of resources to a certain extent, and the channel access efficiency is not high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a channel access method in an unlicensed frequency band, a communication device and related equipment to solve the technical problems of low FBE channel access efficiency and waste of resources in the related art.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a channel access method applied to an unlicensed frequency band, where the method is applied to an initiator device, and the initiator device may be a terminal device or a network device. The method includes: an initiating device communicates based on a fixed frame period FFP, where the FFP includes a channel occupancy time and an idle time, and the initiating device adopts a set of FFP configurations from the at least two sets of FFP configurations to perform communication before the channel occupancy time Channel listening, at least one of the channel occupancy time and the idle time duration is different between different FFP configurations; if the result of the channel listening is that the channel is idle, the initiating device starts to send a signal.

In the method provided by the present application, the FFP can have at least two sets of FFP configurations, and the two sets of FFP configurations can provide the initiating device with different configurations of channel occupation time and idle time, so as to provide a more flexible communication mechanism to adapt to different scenarios. Require.

In one possible design, the COT origins are different in different FFP configurations. Using different COT starting points can provide more channel access opportunity points for the initiator device, so as to adapt to different scenarios and improve the efficiency of channel access.

In a possible design, the initiating device is a terminal device, the FFP is an uplink FFP, the uplink FFP is an FFP used for uplink transmission of the terminal device, and the starting point of the uplink FFP is based on the starting point of the downlink FFP and the first offset is determined, the downlink FFP is the FFP used for downlink transmission by the network device, the first offset is the offset of the starting point of the uplink FFP relative to the starting point of the downlink FFP, and the offset Indicated by the network device.

When the initiating device is a terminal device, combining the FFP of the network device to indicate the starting point of the FFP for the terminal device can improve the access efficiency of the terminal device on the one hand, and save signaling overhead on the other hand.

In a possible design, the FFP includes a channel occupation time COT and an idle duration, the FFP is configured to configure an idle duration of the FFP, and the initiating device sends a signal during the channel occupation time other than the total idle duration , the total idle duration is the union of the respective idle durations in the at least two groups of FFP configurations.

In a possible relationship, the FFP configuration is further used to configure a channel listening duration, and the channel listening duration is used to indicate a duration for the initiating device to perform channel listening under the corresponding FFP configuration.

In a possible design, the at least two FFP configurations are carried in RRC signaling.

In a possible design, the value of the period of the FFP is one of {1ms, 2ms, 2.5ms, 4ms, 5ms, 10ms}.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a channel access method applied to an unlicensed frequency band, where the method is applied to an initiator device, and the initiator device may be a terminal device or a network device. The method includes: an initiating device performs channel listening based on a fixed frame period FFP, the FFP includes a channel occupation time COT and the COT includes at least two starting points, and the initiating device performs channel sensing based on one of the at least two starting points channel listening;

If the result of the channel listening is idle, the initiating device starts to send a signal.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which is used to execute the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or to perform the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect method in method. Optionally, the communication apparatus may be an initiating device, or may be an apparatus integrated in the initiating device.

The communication apparatus includes corresponding means for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or includes corresponding means for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect. For example, the communication device may include a transceiving unit and a processing unit.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, where the communication device includes a processor, configured to execute the method shown in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, or to execute the second aspect described above. A method illustrated by any possible implementation of the aspect or the second aspect. Optionally, the communication device may be a terminal device, or a chip, a chip system, or a processor that can support the terminal device to implement the above method, or a network device, or a chip or a chip system that can support the network device to implement the above method. , or processor, etc.

In the process of executing the above method, the process of sending a signal and/or receiving a signal in the above method can be understood as a process of outputting a signal by a processor, and/or a process of receiving an input signal by the processor. In outputting the signal, the processor may output the signal to the transceiver for transmission by the transceiver. After the signal is output by the processor, additional processing may be required before reaching the transceiver. Similarly, when the processor receives an incoming signal, the transceiver receives the signal and feeds it into the processor. Further, after the transceiver receives the signal, the signal may require additional processing before being input to the processor.

Based on the above principles, for example, the transmission signal mentioned in the foregoing method can be understood as the processor output signal. For another example, receiving a signal may be understood as the processor receiving an input signal.

For the operations of transmitting, sending and receiving involved in the processor, if there is no special description, or if it does not contradict its actual function or internal logic in the relevant description, it can be more generally understood as the processor output and Receive, input, etc. operations, rather than transmit, transmit, and receive operations directly performed by radio frequency circuits and antennas.

In the implementation process, the above-mentioned processor may be a processor specially used to execute these methods, or may be a processor that executes computer instructions in a memory to execute these methods, such as a general-purpose processor. The above-mentioned memory can be a non-transitory (non-transitory) memory, such as a read-only memory (Read Only Memory, ROM), which can be integrated with the processor on the same chip, or can be set on different chips respectively. The embodiment does not limit the type of the memory and the setting manner of the memory and the processor.

In one possible implementation, the memory is located outside the above-mentioned communication device.

In one possible implementation, the memory is located within the above-mentioned communication device.

In this application, the processor and the memory may also be integrated into one device, that is, the processor and the memory may also be integrated together.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device further includes a transceiver for receiving and/or transmitting signals. Exemplarily, the transceiver may be used to receive signals, or transmit signals, and the like.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a chip, the chip includes a logic circuit and an interface, the logic circuit and the interface are coupled.

In a possible design, the logic circuit is configured to perform communication based on a fixed frame period FFP, the FFP includes a channel occupied time and an idle time, and the initiating device adopts one set of FFP configurations in at least two sets of FFP configurations in the Channel listening is performed before the channel occupancy time; if the result of the channel listening is that the channel is idle, the interface is used to start sending signals.

It can be understood that for the specific implementation of the logic circuit and the interface, reference may also be made to the apparatus embodiments shown below, which will not be described in detail here.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program, which, when running on a computer, enables the above-mentioned first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect The shown method is performed, or causes the method shown in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect above to be performed. .

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer program or computer code, when it is run on a computer, the above-mentioned first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect is shown. The method is performed, or causes the method shown in the second aspect above or any possible implementation of the second aspect to be performed.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer program, when the computer program runs on a computer, the method shown in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect is executed, or the second aspect or the second aspect The method illustrated by any possible implementation of the aspect is performed.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the structural representation of FBE frame;

FIG. 2 is an example of the architecture of the communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a channel access method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a channel access method provided by another embodiment of the present application;

5 is a schematic diagram of the application of different types of channel listening provided by the present application;

6 is a schematic structural diagram of FBE frames based on different FFP configurations provided by the present application;

7 is a schematic structural diagram of an FBE frame based on different FFP configurations provided by the present application;

8 is a schematic diagram of the offset of the uplink FFP and the downlink FFP under different FFP configurations provided by the present application;

9-10 are schematic diagrams of uplink transmission and downlink transmission sharing under different FFP configurations provided by the present application;

11 to 14 are schematic diagrams of the communication apparatus provided by the present application.

Detailed ways

The technical solutions in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to wireless communication systems operating in unlicensed (unlicensed) frequency bands, especially wireless communication systems involving FBE, such as new radio (NR) unlicensed systems (hereinafter referred to as NR-U) and subsequent evolved versions.

Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system suitable for use in the present application. As shown in FIG. 1 , the communication system 100 may include at least one network device, such as the network device 110 shown in FIG. 1 ; the communication system 100 may also include at least one terminal device, such as the terminal device 120 shown in FIG. 1 .

The terminal device in this embodiment of the present application may refer to a user equipment (user equipment, UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a terminal, a wireless Communication equipment, user agent or user equipment. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless communication Functional handheld devices, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, in-vehicle devices, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks or terminals in the future evolution of the public land mobile network (PLMN) equipment, etc., which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

The network device in this embodiment of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal device. For example, the network device may be a base station (base station), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5G mobile communication system , a base station in a future mobile communication system or an access node in a WiFi system, etc. For another example, the network device may also be a module or unit that completes some functions of the base station, for example, may be a centralized unit (central unit, CU) or a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU). For another example, the network device may also be a wireless controller, a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, or other communication systems evolving in the future in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario. Access network equipment, etc. This application does not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network device.

In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device or the network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. This hardware layer includes hardware such as central processing unit (CPU), memory management unit (MMU), and memory (also called main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes, such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a Windows operating system. The application layer includes applications such as browsers, address books, word processing software, and instant messaging software. In addition, the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit the specific structure of the execution body of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application, as long as the program that records the codes of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application can be executed to provide the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application. For example, the execution subject of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module in the terminal device or network device that can call and execute a program.

Additionally, various aspects or features of the present application may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used in this application encompasses a computer program accessible from any computer readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (eg, hard disks, floppy disks, or magnetic tapes, etc.), optical disks (eg, compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs) etc.), smart cards and flash memory devices (eg, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), card, stick or key drives, etc.). Additionally, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instructions and/or data.

For easy understanding of the embodiments in this application, some concepts or terms involved in this application are briefly described first.

In the unlicensed frequency band, the transmitting node needs to use the unlicensed frequency band in a competitive manner. According to the definition of European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the channel access types of unlicensed frequency bands mainly include load based equipment (LBE) and fixed frame structure based equipment (frame based equipment, FBE). ). In other words, there are two channel detection mechanisms on the unlicensed frequency band, namely, a frame structure-based (ie, FBE-based) channel detection mechanism and a load-based (LBE-based) channel detection mechanism. Most of the current mainstream communication systems working in unlicensed frequency bands use the LBE channel access method, for example, Wi-Fi, LAA systems, and so on.

The load-based channel detection mechanism refers to triggering initial CCA detection when services arrive on the device. If the initial CCA of the device detects that the channel state is idle, it can occupy the channel immediately, and the occupying time of the channel is pre-configured. If the initial CCA of the device detects that the channel state is busy, it needs to generate a defer period. If it is detected that the channel state is busy within the delay time, a delay time is continued to be generated, until the channel state is detected to be idle within a certain delay time, and the extended channel idle evaluation (extended CCA, ECCA) is entered.

ECCA refers to the channel detection backoff times N for generating a random CCA detection time between (1, q), and q is pre-configured. During this period, if the CCA detection time detects that the channel state is busy, a delay time period also needs to be generated, and the ECCA process is not continued until the channel is detected to be idle within a certain delay time period. The device can occupy the channel only after detecting that the channel is idle in N times of CCA detection time, and the occupying time of the channel is also preset.

The frame structure-based channel detection mechanism refers to setting a cycle, and performing a listen before talk (LBT) channel detection at a fixed position in each cycle. The channel detection time is also called the channel clear assessment (CCA) detection time. If a device detects that the channel state is idle within the CCA detection time, the device can occupy the channel immediately. The occupation time of the channel is a pre-configured fixed value. If the device detects that the channel state is non-idle within the CCA detection time, the device cannot occupy the channel during this period until it waits for a fixed position in the next period to continue LBT channel detection.

Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an FBE frame. As shown in Figure 2, the transmission period of the FBE frame is called a fixed frame period (FFP). The duration of FFP is between 1ms and 10ms, and usually the period of FFP cannot be changed within 200ms. An FFP consists of two parts: channel occupancy period (COT) and idle period (idle period). Among them, Idle Period is used for the initiating device of the FBE frame to perform CCA. If the listening channel state is idle, the initiating device may send a signal in the subsequent COT. The initiating device can share the transmission opportunity to another or more devices during COT, which are called responding devices. If the sending interval between the initiating device and the responding device is less than 16 μs, the responding device does not need to do additional CCA, otherwise the responding device needs to do the CCA of the Observation Slot time length.

It can be seen that, unlike FBE, LBE does not have a fixed frame period.

Hereinafter, the method provided by the present application will be further described. It should be understood that in the method embodiments described below, only the network device and the terminal device are used as the execution subjects as an example. The network device can also be replaced by a chip configured in the network device, and the terminal device can also be replaced by a chip configured in the terminal device. chip.

The present application proposes a channel access method applied in an unlicensed frequency band, and the method is executed by an initiating device that needs to send a signal. In different embodiments, the initiating device may be a network device, or the initiating device may also be a terminal device. As shown in Figure 3, the channel access method includes:

S300, the initiating device performs channel listening based on the FFP, where the FFP includes at least two sets of configurations. Wherein, the initiating device adopts one of the at least two FFP configurations to perform channel listening;

The FFP configuration includes one or more of the following parameters: the duration of the fixed frame period, the duration of the channel occupation time COT, and the idle duration. The fixed frame period is the duration of the fixed frame, the channel occupation time COT is the time that the initiating device can occupy when accessing the channel, and the idle time is the time that the initiating device is not allowed to send signals, which can be used for the initiating device to perform CCA.

It can be understood that the “groups” in the above at least two FFP configurations are used to represent different FFP configurations, rather than being used to define groups of FFP configurations. In other implementation manners, they may also be referred to as at least two FFP configurations. configuration, or at least two FFP configurations.

In different implementations, different in different FFP configurations. In one implementation manner, in another implementation manner, the duration of the fixed frame period and the idle duration are different between different FFP configurations, and the duration of the channel occupation time may be the same or different.

In some embodiments, the FFP configuration includes the duration of the FFP, the duration of the channel occupation time, and the idle duration. In the at least two groups of FFP configurations of the FFP, if at least one configuration parameter is different between different FFP configurations, various FFP configurations can be provided. For example, the period durations between different FFP configurations are different, or the idle durations are different between different FFP configurations, or the durations of channel occupation time are different between different FFP configurations and the duration of the fixed frame period and the idle duration are the same. For FFPs with different FFP configurations, "Tx" indicates the duration of the FFP, "Ty" indicates the channel occupation duration, and "Tz" indicates the idle duration. The relationship between Tx, Ty, and Tz is different. In this way, within a unit time, the channel access opportunity points of FFPs with different FFP configurations are different, thereby increasing the number of channel access opportunity points.

S301, if the channel listening result is idle, the initiating device starts to send a signal.

If the channel detection result is busy, the initiating device may perform channel detection in the next FFP to try to access the channel.

On the premise of ensuring the fairness of unlicensed frequency band competition, the scheme can provide a flexible mechanism for the initiating device, provide more channel access opportunity points for the initiating device, and improve the efficiency of the initiating device accessing the channel.

The present application also proposes a channel access method applied in an unlicensed frequency band, where the method is performed by an initiating device that needs to send a signal. In different embodiments, the initiating device may be a network device, or the initiating device may also be a terminal device. As shown in Figure 4, the channel access method includes:

S400, the initiating device performs channel listening based on an FFP, the FFP includes a COT and the COT includes at least two starting points, and the initiating device performs channel listening based on one of the at least two starting points;

The starting point of the COT is used for initiating the device to perform channel monitoring, and the starting point can be understood as an opportunity point for channel access. A COT may include at least two origins with different offsets from the origin of the FFP. That is to say, within one COT, the initiating device has at least two access opportunity points. Exemplarily, the initiating device performs channel listening at the one of the at least two starting points that is closest to the FFP starting time. If the initiating device is busy in channel listening at one of the access opportunity points, it can perform channel listening at the next access opportunity point in the COT to try to access the channel.

S401, if the result of the channel listening is idle, the initiating device starts to send a signal.

This solution can provide multiple access opportunity points for the initiating device in one COT, thereby improving the success rate of the initiating device's access point and improving the communication efficiency.

Each parameter is further explained below. Each parameter can be defined by one or more of the following fields (filed), or a "field" can also be called a "domain":

Field 1:

It is used to define the duration Tx of the FFP, which can be represented by "period". The value range of field 1 may be {1ms, 2ms, 2.5ms, 4ms, 5ms, 10ms}, and its value may be one or more of the value ranges. Taking the value of field 1 as 5ms as an example, it means that the duration of FFP is 5ms, which means that the duration of an FFP configured by using field 1 is 5ms; taking the value of field 1 as 2.5ms as an example, it means that the duration of FFP is 2.5ms, It means that the duration of one FFP configured with field 1 is 2.5ms.

Field 2:

It is used to define the starting point of the channel occupation time in FFP, which can be represented by "startingpoint". The starting point of the channel occupation time can also be understood as the initial access opportunity point of the FFP, that is, for the FFP, if the initiating device senses that the channel is idle, it can start sending signals at the opportunity point. Exemplarily, field 2 may indicate the starting point of the channel occupancy time by means of an explicit indication or an implicit indication.

Wherein, field 2 may contain one value or multiple values. Exemplarily, the value range carried by the field 2 may be {0, 1, 2}, and the unit of the field 2 may be the number of symbols, milliseconds (ms), and the like. According to the result of channel listening, the initiating device can start to send signals from the closest opportunity point after the channel is detected to be idle.

Illustratively, Field 2 may indicate the location of the start of the channel occupancy time. In this way, field 2 directly indicates the time domain location of the origin of the channel occupancy time.

Exemplarily, Field 2 may also indicate an offset of the start of the channel occupancy time relative to the start of the FFP.

Exemplarily, field 2 may also indicate the offset value of the FFP by indicating the proportion of the channel occupied time in the FFP, for example, by the ratio of the channel occupied time Ty and the FFP duration Tx, or by the channel occupied time. It is indicated by the ratio of the sum of Ty and idle duration Tz to the duration Tx of the FFP.

If field 2 includes a value, the value is used for a group of FFP configurations, and for multiple groups of FFP configurations, it can correspond to multiple fields 2, and the field 2 can be located in the same cell or in different cells; if Field 2 includes multiple values, and the multiple values may respectively correspond to multiple sets of FFP configurations, that is, each value in Field 2 corresponds to a set of FFP configurations.

Field 3:

Used to define the idle time in FFP, which can be represented by "idle". Wherein, field 3 may include one or more values. If field 3 includes a value, the value is used for a group of FFP configuration, for multiple groups of FFP, it can include multiple fields 3, and the field 3 can be located in the same cell or in a different cell; if the field 3 includes multiple values, and the multiple values may correspond to multiple sets of FFP configurations respectively, that is, each value in field 3 corresponds to a set of FFP configurations.

Illustratively, field 3 may indicate idle duration.

Exemplarily, field 3 may indicate the idle duration by the ratio of the idle duration to the duration of the FFP, in other words, the field 3 may indicate the ratio of the idle duration to the duration of the FFP. The value range of the value carried in field 3 can be {0.05, 0.1}. Taking the value carried in field 3 as 0.05 as an example, it means that the proportion of idle time in the FFP where it is located is 0.05, that is, Tz=0.05×Tx ; Taking the value carried in field 3 as 0.1 as an example, it means that the proportion of idle duration in the FFP where it is located is 0.1, that is, Tz=0.1×Tx.

With the above fields, more channel access opportunity points can be provided for the FFP than in the prior art. For example, between different FFP configurations, if the duration of the FFP defined in field 1 is the same and the idle duration defined in field 3 is the same, the starting point of multiple channel occupation times can be defined through field 2 to provide more channel access opportunities point, the initiating device can use one of the set of configurations for channel access. In addition, the fixed frame period and idle time of each group of FFP configurations are the same, which can ensure fairness of competition with other devices operating in unlicensed frequency bands.

In some embodiments, the FFP configuration information may further include a channel listening parameter, where the channel listening parameter is a parameter used by the initiating device to perform channel listening, that is, the channel listening parameter is used by the initiating device to perform channel listening listen. The channel listening parameter may be defined using field 4, which may include the channel listening type and/or the channel listening duration. Taking the channel interception type as an example, the duration of each type of channel interception can be defined in advance, then configure the channel interception type through field 4, and the initiating device can know the channel interception duration corresponding to the channel interception type. Taking the channel listening duration as an example, the channel listening duration is configured through field 4, and the initiating device can know the channel listening duration. The channel listening parameters between different FFP configurations can be the same. For example, the channel listening durations of different FFP configurations are the same, which means that the initiating device uses different FFP configurations for the same duration of channel listening before sending a signal; or different FFP configurations The channel listening parameters may be different between them. For example, the channel listening types in different FFP configurations are different, which means that when the initiating device adopts different FFP configurations, the duration of channel listening before sending a signal is different.

The channel listening types may include a first type of channel listening, a second type of channel listening, and a third type of channel listening. Exemplarily, the first type of channel sensing may be a channel sensing with a duration of 9 μs, the second type of channel sensing may be a channel sensing with a duration of 16 μs, and the third type of channel sensing may be a channel sensing with a duration of 25 μs. Channel listening. In different implementations, the types of the channel listening types may be different, which is not limited by the method provided in this application.

Referring to FIG. 5 , FFP configuration 1 corresponds to channel sensing with a duration of 9 μs, and FFP configuration 2 and FFP configuration 3 corresponds to channel sensing with a duration of 25 μs.

Optionally, the rules for channel listening parameters can be preset by the system. Exemplarily, the protocol may stipulate that among multiple groups of FFP configurations, the FFP configuration with the longest channel occupancy time adopts the channel sensing of type A, and the FFP configuration of other groups adopts the channel sensing of type B. In some scenarios, the channel listening duration of type A is shorter than the channel listening duration of type B. In Figure 5, the design of multiple FFP configurations is equivalent to introducing more channel access opportunities. In the scenario of unlicensed spectrum, since multiple modes of communication systems are involved, in order to ensure the fairness of competition, the The right to use the channel is obtained by configuring a longer channel listening time, that is, sacrificing the channel listening time as a price in exchange for channel access opportunities to ensure fair competition.

Regarding the information element defining the FFP configuration, in different implementations, the FFP configuration information may be defined by one information element or multiple information elements, that is, the above-mentioned fields 1 to 4 may be located in one or more information elements. It can be understood that fields 1 to 4 may be located in the same or different cells. Optionally, the cell or cells may be cells in radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) signaling.

Exemplarily, the FFP configuration information is defined by one cell, and the one cell may include one or more of fields 1 to 4, which means that fields 1 to 4 are located in the same cell. This cell may be named SemiStaticChannelAccessConfigNew, and its definition may be similar to SemiStaticChannelAccessConfig in NR Release 16. It can be understood that, the cells used for configuring the FFP configuration in this application may multiplex the cells in R16.

Using one cell to define multiple groups of FFP configurations can save signaling overhead. The values in each field in one cell may be used to indicate different groups of FFP configurations, respectively.

In one case, the following is an illustration of SemiStaticChannelAccessConfigNew. In this example, the FFP configuration includes field 1, field 2, and field 3:

"period" represents field 1, which is used to define the duration of the FFP. Among them, {ms1, ms2, ms2dot5, ms4, ms5, ms10} is the value range of field 1, and the corresponding values are {1ms, 2ms, 2.5ms, 4ms, 5ms, 10ms}. Taking ms1 as an example, it means that the value is 1ms; taking ms2dot5 as an example, it means that the value is 2.5ms. Take the value of field 1 as {ms1,ms2,ms2dot5,ms4,ms5,ms10} as an example, it is used to indicate the FFP duration in FFP configurations 1 to 5, ms1 is used to indicate the FFP duration in FFP configuration 1, and ms2 is used for Indicates the FFP duration in FFP configuration 2, and other values are deduced by analogy.

"startpoint" indicates field 2, which is used to define the starting point of the channel occupancy time. Exemplarily, Startpoint SEQUENCE(SIZE(1...maxNroofStartingpoint)) OF Startingpoint represents the sequence of the starting point of the channel occupation time. If the length of the sequence is 3, field 2 indicates that the channel occupation time can correspond to 3 starting points; Startingpoint::=INTEGER (X...Y) represents the value range of the starting point of channel occupation, for example, the value range of the starting point of channel occupation may be (0, 1, 2).

"idle" represents field 3, which is used to define the idle duration. For the interpretation of {0.05, 0.1}, reference can be made to the description of the foregoing field 3, which will not be repeated here.

The value range of each field is exemplarily described above, and the initiating device may be configured to adopt one value in the value range of each field when configuring signaling.

Exemplarily, the FFP configuration information is defined by multiple cells, and the multiple cells may respectively correspond to multiple sets of FFP configurations, that is, one set of FFP configurations corresponds to one cell. This cell may be named SemiStaticChannelAccessConfigNew, and its definition may be similar to SemiStaticChannelAccessConfig in NR R16. Corresponding to multiple groups of FFPs, there are multiple information elements SemiStaticChannelAccessConfigNew, and the definition method of each information element can refer to the method of the aforementioned one information element, which will not be repeated here.

Different cells are used to define different FFP configurations, which can provide a more flexible configuration method and adapt to different scenarios.

In another case, the following is an illustration of SemiStaticChannelAccessConfigNew. In this example, the FFP configuration includes field 2, that is, there are multiple starting points in a COT configuration. The explanation of the following fields can refer to the previous description, and will not be repeated here:

In the embodiments of the present application, the durations of FFPs between different FFP configurations may be the same or different, which will be described separately below.

Mode 1: The FFP duration and idle duration are the same between FFP configurations of different groups, and the duration of the channel occupation time is different

In Mode 1, FFPs with different FFP configurations are aligned and idle durations are aligned, and channel occupation times are not aligned. Specifically, the starting points of the channel occupation time of the FFPs between different FFP configurations are different. Therefore, in a specific time period, with different FFP configurations, multiple channel access opportunity points can be provided for the initiating device.

Referring to FIG. 6 , FIG. 6 shows the structure of the FFP under three groups of FFP configurations. Taking field 2 for indicating the offset of the channel occupancy time of each configuration relative to the starting point of the FFP where it is located as an example, field 2 may include three values, corresponding to offset1 of FFP configuration 1, offset2 of FFP configuration 2, and FFP respectively. Config 3's offset3. If the value is 0, it means that the FFP corresponding to the value coincides with the starting point of the FFP where it is located. It can be seen from FIG. 5 that, within a time period equal to Tx1, the three groups of FFP configurations respectively provide three opportunity points for the initiating device to access the channel. With different FFP configurations, the access opportunity points of the initiating device configuration are different, which can adapt to different scenarios and improve communication efficiency.

Taking FFP configuration 2 as an example, the starting point of the channel occupation time of FFP21 using FFP configuration 2 has an offset offset2 relative to the starting point of FFP21, and the starting point of the channel occupation time of FFP22 using FFP configuration 2 has an offset relative to the starting point of FFP22. offset2 . Taking FFP configuration 3 as an example, the starting point of the channel occupation time of FFP31 using FFP configuration 3 has an offset offset3 relative to the starting point of FFP31, and the starting point of the channel occupation time of FFP32 using FFP configuration 3 has an offset relative to the starting point of FFP32. .

The duration of the FFP under different FFP configurations is Tx=Tx1=Tx2=Tx3, and the idle duration is Tz=Tz1=Tz2=Tz3. For FFP configuration 1, Tx1=Ty1+Tz1; for FFP configuration 2, Tx2>Ty2+Tz2; for FFP configuration 3, Tx1>Ty3+Tz3. Taking field 2 containing three values {0, 0.1, 0.2} and Tz=0.05×Tx as an example, the values contained in field 2 correspond to FFP configuration 1, FFP configuration 2 and FFP configuration 3 respectively. The starting point of Ty1 is relative to the FFP configuration. The starting point offset is 0, the starting point of Ty2 is offset relative to the starting point of FFP by 0.1×Tx, and the starting point of Ty3 is offset relative to the starting point of FFP by 0.2×Tx, that is, Ty1=0.95×Tx, Ty2=0.85×Tx , Ty3=0.75×Tx. The starting access opportunity point of an FFP in the FFP configuration defined in field 2 may also be determined by the ratio of Ty and Tx and/or the ratio of Tz and Tx in the FFP configuration.

Mode 2: Different FFP durations, channel occupation durations and/or idle durations between FFP configurations of different groups

As shown in FIG. 7 , in the same duration T ₁ , the channel access opportunity points using FFP configuration 4 include opportunity points a ₁ and a ₂ , and the channel access opportunity points adopting FFP configuration 5 include opportunity points b ₁ , b ₂ and b ₃ . It can be seen that in the same duration T ₁ , if the initiator device adopts FFP configuration 4, it can obtain 2 access opportunity points, and if it adopts FFP configuration 5, it can obtain 3 access opportunity points. From the perspective of channel occupation time, the initiator adopts FFP configuration 4 to obtain fewer access opportunity points than FFP configuration 5, but obtains longer channel occupation time than FFP configuration 5; the initiator adopts FFP configuration 5 More access opportunity points are obtained relative to FFP configuration 4, but shorter channel occupation duration relative to FFP configuration 4 is obtained.

If different FFP configurations are used, the number of channel access opportunity points obtained by the initiating device in the same time period is different, and the flexibly set channel occupation duration and/or idle duration, the network device can select the corresponding FFP configuration according to the application scenario , improve communication efficiency.

Optionally, considering the fairness of competition, a total idle duration may be set, which may be the union of idle durations in at least two sets of FFP configurations, and the total idle duration may be understood as a time domain resource corresponding to the idle duration. The initiating device does not send signals on the frequency domain resources that fall within the total idle time, and sends signals within the time domain resources that do not fall within the total idle time during the channel occupation time. In other words, in the channel occupation time outside the total idle time Signals are sent, but no signals are sent on the time domain resources corresponding to the total idle duration. In different implementations, the total idle duration may be configured by the network device, or may be determined by a protocol agreed upon by the initiating device according to the agreed upon rule.

Please continue to refer to FIG. 7 , a part of the channel occupation duration of FFP52 using FFP configuration 5 (gray part in FIG. 6 ) falls into the time domain resources corresponding to the idle duration T _Z4 of FFP41 using FFP configuration 4, then if the At the channel access opportunity point b2, the device _detects that the channel is idle and does not send signals, but starts to send signals at the end of the idle duration T _Z1 , and the part that falls into the channel occupied duration can be released for use by other devices.

In the example shown in FIG. 7 , the total idle duration includes the duration corresponding to the idle duration T _z4 of the FFP41 , the duration corresponding to the idle duration T _Z5 of the FFP52 , and the duration corresponding to the idle duration T _z 4 of the FFP42 . During the total idle time, the initiating device does not send a signal.

In this way, through the configuration of multiple groups of FFPs, the opportunity for channel access is equivalently increased, and the total idle time is defined to reduce the time of channel occupation, which can ensure the fairness of competition between various devices operating in unlicensed frequency bands.

In some embodiments, the network device may configure the uplink FFP based on the downlink FFP, where the downlink FFP refers to the FFP used for downlink transmission, and its initiating device is the network device; the uplink FFP refers to the FFP used for uplink transmission, and its initiating device is the network device. for terminal equipment. Exemplarily, the network device sends a second offset (“offset” shown in the figure) to the terminal device, where the second offset is used to indicate the offset of the starting point of the uplink FFP relative to the starting point of the downlink FFP. As shown in Figure 8, for the downlink FFP11 using FFP configuration 1, the starting point of the FFP of the downlink FFP11 has been configured, the network device sends an offset 801 to the terminal, and the terminal device can determine the uplink using FFP configuration 1 according to the offset 801. The origin of the FFP of FFP11. For downlink FFP configuration 2, the starting point of the channel occupation time of the downlink FFP61 has been configured, the network device sends an offset 60 to the terminal, and the terminal device can determine the starting point of the channel occupation time of the uplink FFP62 according to the offset 60. It can be understood that, in other implementation manners, the FFP configurations adopted by the uplink FFP and the downlink FFP may be different.

In this way, the terminal device can obtain the starting point of the uplink FFP according to the second offset and the known FFP configuration of the network device, thereby improving the access efficiency and the success rate of the terminal device accessing the new channel.

Using the above method, the terminal device can obtain information such as the period, channel occupation duration, idle duration, etc. of each FFP initiated by the network device according to any one of the methods 1 to 3. Based on this information, the terminal device can know at what time it can receive downlink data.

Exemplarily, in some embodiments, if the initiating device is a network device, the network device may also send remaining channel occupation duration information to the terminal device, which is used to indicate to the terminal device the unused portion of the channel occupation duration that the network device has obtained. , so that the acquired channel occupation duration can be shared with the terminal device. Please refer to Figure 9. If the network device shares the acquired channel occupation time with the terminal device, the terminal device can also know when to send the signal, that is, the terminal device can send the signal within the channel occupation time of the network device.

Exemplarily, in some embodiments, if the initiating device is a terminal device, the terminal device may send remaining channel occupation duration information to the network device, which is used to indicate to the network device the unused portion of the channel occupation duration that the terminal device has obtained, Therefore, the acquired channel occupation time duration can be shared with the network device. Referring to FIG. 10 , the network device can send downlink data within the time shared by the terminal devices.

In the above, the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application are described in detail in combination. Corresponding to the methods given in the foregoing method embodiments, the embodiments of the present application further provide corresponding apparatuses, including corresponding modules for executing the foregoing embodiments. The module can be software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware.

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device. The communication apparatus 1100 may be a network device, a server or a centralized controller, or may be a chip, a system-on-chip, or a processor that supports the network device, server, or centralized controller to implement the above method. The apparatus can be used to implement the method executed by the initiating device described in the foregoing method embodiment, and for details, refer to the description in the foregoing method embodiment.

The apparatus 1100 may include one or more processors 1101, and the processors 1101 may also be referred to as processing units, which may implement certain control functions. The processor 1101 may be a general-purpose processor or a special-purpose processor or the like. For example, it may be a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor can be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit can be used to control communication devices (such as base stations, baseband chips, terminals, terminal chips, DU or CU, etc.), execute software programs, process software program data.

In an optional design, the processor 1101 may also store instructions and/or data, and the instructions and/or data may be executed by the processor, so that the apparatus 1100 executes the methods described in the above method embodiments.

In another optional design, the processor 1101 may include a transceiver unit for implementing the functions of receiving and transmitting. For example, the transceiver unit may be a transceiver circuit, or an interface, or an interface circuit, or a communication interface. Transceiver circuits, interfaces or interface circuits used to implement receiving and transmitting functions may be separate or integrated. The above-mentioned transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit can be used for reading and writing code/data, or the above-mentioned transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit can be used for signal transmission or transmission.

In yet another possible design, the apparatus 1100 may include a circuit, and the circuit may implement the functions of sending or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments.

Optionally, the apparatus 1100 may include one or more memories 1102, and instructions may be stored thereon, and the instructions may be executed on the processor, so that the apparatus 1100 executes the methods described in the above method embodiments. Optionally, data may also be stored in the memory. Optionally, instructions and/or data may also be stored in the processor. The processor and memory can be provided separately or integrated. For example, the corresponding relationship described in the above method embodiments may be stored in a memory or in a processor.

Optionally, the apparatus 1100 may further include a transceiver 1103 and/or an antenna 1104 . The processor 1501 may be referred to as a processing unit, and controls the apparatus 1100 . The transceiver 1103 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver device, or a transceiver module, etc., and is used to implement a transceiver function.

Optionally, the apparatus 1100 in this embodiment of the present application may be used to execute the method described in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4 in the embodiment of the present application.

The processors and transceivers described in this application can be implemented in integrated circuits (ICs), analog ICs, radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), mixed-signal ICs, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), printed circuit boards ( printed circuit board, PCB), electronic equipment, etc. The processor and transceiver can also be fabricated using various IC process technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), nMetal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS), P-type Metal oxide semiconductor (positive channel metal oxide semiconductor, PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (Bipolar Junction Transistor, BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

The apparatus described in the above embodiments may be network equipment or terminal equipment, but the scope of the apparatus described in this application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the apparatus may not be limited by FIG. 11 . An apparatus may be a stand-alone device or may be part of a larger device. For example the device could be:

(1) Independent integrated circuit IC, or chip, or, chip system or subsystem;

(2) A set with one or more ICs, optionally, the IC set may also include storage components for storing data and/or instructions;

(3) ASIC, such as modem (MSM);

(4) Modules that can be embedded in other equipment;

(5) Receivers, terminals, smart terminals, cellular phones, wireless equipment, handsets, mobile units, in-vehicle equipment, network equipment, cloud equipment, artificial intelligence equipment, machine equipment, household equipment, medical equipment, industrial equipment, etc.;

(6) Others, etc.

The present application also provides a schematic structural diagram of another communication device. The communication apparatus is applicable to the above method embodiments, and is configured to perform the steps performed by the initiating device in the above method. The communication apparatus may be a terminal device, or may be a chip, a chip system, or a processor that supports the terminal device to implement the above method. For the convenience of description, FIG. 12 takes the communication device as a terminal device as an example for description, and FIG. 12 only shows the main components of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 12 , the terminal device 1200 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input and output device. The processor is mainly used to process communication protocols and communication data, control the entire terminal, execute software programs, and process data of the software programs. The memory is mainly used to store software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for the conversion of the baseband signal and the radio frequency signal and the processing of the radio frequency signal. Antennas are mainly used to send and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, and keyboards, are mainly used to receive data input by users and output data to users.

When the terminal device is powered on, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, parse and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent, and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit processes the baseband signal to obtain a radio frequency signal and sends the radio frequency signal through the antenna in the form of electromagnetic waves. . When data is sent to the terminal device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, the radio frequency signal is further converted into a baseband signal, and the baseband signal is output to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data. deal with.

For ease of illustration, Figure 12 shows only one memory and processor. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc., which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

As an optional implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit. The baseband processor is mainly used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used to control the entire terminal device, execute A software program that processes data from the software program. The processor in FIG. 12 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit. Those skilled in the art can understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, interconnected by technologies such as a bus. Those skilled in the art can understand that a terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to adapt to different network standards, a terminal device may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal device may be connected through various buses. The baseband processor can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

In one example, the antenna and control circuit with transceiving function can be regarded as the transceiving unit 1211 of the terminal device 1200 , and the processor having the processing function can be regarded as the processing unit 1212 of the terminal device 1200 . As shown in FIG. 12 , the terminal device 1200 includes a transceiver unit 1211 and a processing unit 1212 . The transceiving unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver, a transceiving device, or the like. Optionally, the device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiver unit 1211 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiver unit 1211 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit 1211 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. Exemplarily, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiver, a receiving circuit, and the like, and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, or the like. Optionally, the above-mentioned receiving unit and transmitting unit may be an integrated unit, or may be multiple independent units. The above-mentioned receiving unit and transmitting unit may be located in one geographic location, or may be dispersed in multiple geographic locations.

As shown in FIG. 13, another embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus 1300. The apparatus may be a network device, or may be a component of a network device (eg, an integrated circuit, a chip, etc.). Alternatively, the apparatus may also be a terminal device, or may be a component of a terminal device (e.g., an integrated circuit, a chip, etc.). Alternatively, the apparatus may also be other communication modules, which are used to implement the methods in the method embodiments of the present application. The communication device 1300 may include: a processing unit 1301 and an input/output unit 1302.

In a possible design, the processing unit 1301 is configured to perform channel sensing based on an FFP, where the FFP includes at least two sets of configurations. Wherein, the initiating device adopts one of the at least two FFP configurations to perform channel listening. If the channel listening result is idle, the input/output unit 1302 starts to transmit signals.

In yet another possible design, the processing unit 1301 is configured to perform channel sensing based on a fixed frame period FFP, where the FFP includes a channel occupation time COT and the COT includes at least two starting points, and the initiating device is based on the at least two starting points. One of the two origins conducts channel listening. If the channel listening result is idle, the input/output unit 1302 starts to transmit signals

In a possible design, one or more units as in Figure 13 may be implemented by one or more processors, or by one or more processors and memory; or by one or more processors and a transceiver; or implemented by one or more processors, a memory, and a transceiver, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. The processor, memory, and transceiver can be set up individually or integrated.

The communication apparatus 1300 has the function of implementing the network equipment described in the embodiments of the present application. For example, the communication apparatus includes a module or unit or means corresponding to the steps involved in the network equipment performing the network equipment described in the embodiments of the present application. Or units or means (means) may be implemented by software, or by hardware, or by executing corresponding software by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. For details, further reference may be made to the corresponding descriptions in the foregoing corresponding method embodiments.

In another possible implementation manner, when the above-mentioned communication apparatus is a system-on-chip, such as a system-on-chip in a network device, or, such as a system-on-a-chip in a terminal device, the processing unit 1301 may be one or more logic circuits, The input/output unit 1302 may be an input/output interface, also called a communication interface, or an interface circuit, or an interface, and so on. Alternatively, the input/output unit 1302 may also be a sending unit and a receiving unit, the sending unit may be an output interface, and the receiving unit may be an input interface, the sending unit and the receiving unit are integrated into one unit, such as an input and output interface. As shown in FIG. 14 , the communication device shown in FIG. 14 includes a logic circuit 1401 and an interface 1402 . That is, the above-mentioned processing unit 1301 can be implemented by the logic circuit 1401 , and the input/output unit 1302 can be implemented by the interface 1402 . The logic circuit 1401 may be a chip, a processing circuit, an integrated circuit, or a system on chip (SoC) chip, etc., and the interface 1402 may be a communication interface, an input/output interface, and the like. In this embodiment of the present application, the logic circuit and the interface may also be coupled to each other. The specific connection manner of the logic circuit and the interface is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In some embodiments of the present application, the logic circuit and interface may be used to perform the functions or operations performed by the above-mentioned initiating device.

For the design of the FFP, reference may be made to the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not described herein again.

It can be understood that, in some scenarios, some optional features in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented independently of other features, such as the solution currently based on them, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding The effect can also be combined with other features according to requirements in some scenarios. Correspondingly, the apparatuses provided in the embodiments of the present application may also implement these features or functions correspondingly, which will not be repeated here.

Those skilled in the art can also understand that various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical blocks) and steps (steps) listed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of the two. Whether such functionality is implemented in hardware or software depends on the specific application and overall system design requirements. For corresponding applications, those skilled in the art can use various methods to implement the described functions, but such implementation should not be understood as exceeding the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It can be understood that the processor in this embodiment of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip, which has signal processing capability. In the implementation process, each step of the above method embodiments may be completed by a hardware integrated logic circuit in a processor or an instruction in the form of software. The above-mentioned processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable circuits. Programming logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components.

The solutions described in this application can be implemented in various ways. For example, these techniques can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware. For a hardware implementation, a processing unit for performing the techniques at a communication device (eg, a base station, terminal, network entity, or chip) may be implemented in one or more general purpose processors, DSPs, digital signal processing devices, ASICs, A programmable logic device, FPGA, or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of the above. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or alternatively, the general-purpose processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented by a combination of computing devices, such as a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in combination with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration. accomplish.

It can be understood that the memory in this embodiment of the present application may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically programmable Erase programmable read-only memory (electrically EPROM, EEPROM) or flash memory. Volatile memory may be random access memory (RAM), which acts as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double data rate SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (synchlink DRAM, SLDRAM) ) and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to include, but not be limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The present application also provides a computer-readable medium on which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, implements the functions of any of the foregoing method embodiments.

The present application also provides a computer program product, which implements the functions of any of the above method embodiments when the computer program product is executed by a computer.

In the above-mentioned embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, 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 instructions are loaded and executed on a 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, special purpose computer, computer network, or other programmable device. The 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 downloaded from a website site, computer, server or data center Transmission to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wire (eg, coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line, DSL) or wireless (eg, infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that includes an integration of one or more available media. The available media may be magnetic media (eg, floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes), optical media (eg, high-density digital video discs (DVDs)), or semiconductor media (eg, solid state disks, SSD)) etc.

It is to be understood that reference throughout the specification to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic associated with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Thus, various embodiments throughout this specification are not necessarily necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It can be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its functions and internal logic, and should not be used in the embodiments of the present application. implementation constitutes any limitation.

It can be understood that in this application, "when", "if" and "if" all mean that the device will perform corresponding processing under certain objective circumstances, not a limited time, and it is not required that the device must be implemented when it is implemented. The act of judgment does not imply the existence of other limitations.

In this application, "simultaneously" can be understood as being at the same point in time, within a period of time, or within the same period.

Those skilled in the art can understand that the various numbers such as the first, the second, etc. involved in the present application are only for the convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The specific values of the numbers (also referred to as indexes) in this application, the specific values of the quantities, and the positions are only for illustrative purposes, not the only representations, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. . The first, second, and other numeral numbers involved in the present application are only for the convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

References in this application to elements in the singular are intended to mean "one or more" rather than "one and only one" unless specifically stated otherwise. In this application, unless otherwise specified, "at least one" is intended to mean "one or more", and "plurality" is intended to mean "two or more".

Additionally, the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein. The term "and/or" in this article is only an association relationship to describe the associated objects, indicating that there can be three kinds of relationships, for example, A and/or B, it can mean that A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and A and B exist independently The three cases of B, where A can be singular or plural, and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the associated objects are an "or" relationship.

The terms "at least one of" or "at least one of" herein mean all or any combination of the listed items, eg, "at least one of A, B, and C", It can be expressed as: A alone exists, B alone exists, C alone exists, A and B exist simultaneously, B and C exist simultaneously, and A, B and C exist simultaneously, where A can be singular or plural, and B can be Singular or plural, C can be singular or plural.

It can be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, "B corresponding to A" means that B is associated with A, and B can be determined according to A. However, it should also be understood that determining B according to A does not mean that B is only determined according to A, and B may also be determined according to A and/or other information.

The corresponding relationships shown in each table in this application may be configured or predefined. The values of the information in each table are only examples, and can be configured with other values, which are not limited in this application. When configuring the corresponding relationship between the information and each parameter, it is not necessarily required to configure all the corresponding relationships indicated in each table. For example, in the tables in this application, the corresponding relationships shown in some rows may not be configured. For another example, appropriate deformation adjustments can be made based on the above table, for example, splitting, merging, and so on. The names of the parameters shown in the headings in the above tables may also adopt other names that can be understood by the communication device, and the values or representations of the parameters may also be other values or representations that the communication device can understand. When the above tables are implemented, other data structures can also be used, such as arrays, queues, containers, stacks, linear lists, pointers, linked lists, trees, graphs, structures, classes, heaps, hash tables, or hash tables. Wait.

Predefined in this application may be understood as defining, predefining, storing, pre-storing, pre-negotiating, pre-configuring, curing, or pre-firing.

Those skilled in the art can understand that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented by electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software 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.

Those skilled in the art can understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the above-described systems, devices and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

It can be understood that the systems, devices and methods described in this application can also be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or Can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored, or not implemented. On the other hand, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, and may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution in this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically alone, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes .

The same or similar parts among the various embodiments in this application may refer to each other. In each embodiment in this application and each implementation/implementation method/implementation method in each embodiment, if there is no special description or logical conflict, between different embodiments and each implementation/implementation method in each embodiment The terms and/or descriptions between the implementation methods/implementation methods are consistent and can be referred to each other. Different embodiments, and the technical features in the various implementations/implementation methods/implementation methods in each embodiment are based on their inherent Logical relationships can be combined to form new embodiments, implementations, implementations, or implementations. The above-described embodiments of the present application do not limit the protection scope of the present application.

The above are only specific embodiments of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited to this. should be covered within the scope of protection of this application.

Claims

A channel access method applied to an unlicensed frequency band, comprising:

The initiating device communicates based on a fixed frame period FFP, the FFP includes a channel occupancy time and an idle duration, and the initiating device adopts a set of FFP configurations in at least two sets of FFP configurations to perform channel listening before the channel occupancy time;

If the result of the channel listening is that the channel is idle, the initiating device starts to send a signal.
The method of claim 1, wherein the starting point of the COT is different in different FFP configurations.
The method of claim 1, wherein the initiating device is a terminal device, the FFP is an uplink FFP, the uplink FFP is an FFP used for uplink transmission of the terminal device, and the starting point of the uplink FFP Determined according to the starting point of the downlink FFP and a first offset, where the downlink FFP is an FFP used for downlink transmission by network equipment, and the first offset is the offset of the starting point of the uplink FFP relative to the starting point of the downlink FFP , the offset is indicated by the network device.
The method of claim 1, wherein the FFP includes a channel occupation time COT and an idle duration, the FFP configuration is used to configure an idle duration of the FFP, and the initiating device uses a channel other than the total idle duration The signal is sent within the occupied time, and the total idle duration is the union of the respective idle durations in the at least two groups of FFP configurations.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the FFP configuration is further used to configure a channel listening duration, and the channel listening duration is used to indicate the corresponding FFP configuration under the The length of time for the initiating device to listen to the channel.
The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two FFP configurations are carried in RRC signaling.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the value of the period of the FFP is one of {1ms, 2ms, 2.5ms, 4ms, 5ms, 10ms}.
A communication device applied to an unlicensed frequency band, comprising:

a processing unit, configured to perform channel listening based on a fixed frame period FFP, where the FFP includes at least two groups of FFP configurations, and the processing unit performs channel listening by using a first FFP configuration in the at least two groups of FFP configurations;

A sending unit, configured to start sending a signal if the result of the channel listening is that the channel is idle.
The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the FFP includes a channel occupation time COT, and the starting point of the COT is different in different FFP configurations.
The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the communication apparatus is applied to terminal equipment, the uplink FFP is an FFP used for uplink transmission of the terminal equipment, and the starting point of the uplink FFP is based on the starting point of the downlink FFP and the The first offset is determined, the downlink FFP is the FFP used for downlink transmission by the network device, the first offset is the offset of the starting point of the uplink FFP relative to the starting point of the downlink FFP, and the offset is determined by The network device indicates.
The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the FFP includes a channel occupation time COT and an idle duration, the FFP configuration is used to configure an idle duration of the FFP, and the initiating device uses channels other than the total idle duration The signal is sent within the occupied time, and the total idle duration is the union of the respective idle durations in the at least two groups of FFP configurations.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein the FFP configuration is further used to configure a channel listening duration, and the channel listening duration is used to indicate the corresponding FFP configuration described below The length of time for the initiating device to listen to the channel.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 8 to 12, wherein the at least two FFP configurations are carried in RRC signaling.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 8 to 13, wherein the value of the duration of the FFP is one of {1ms, 2ms, 2.5ms, 4ms, 5ms, 10ms}.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions that, when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute any one of claims 1-7 the method described.