WO2024098267A1

WO2024098267A1 - Data transmission apparatus, data sending apparatus, and method

Info

Publication number: WO2024098267A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/130732
Authority: WO
Inventors: 易粟; 李国荣; 贾美艺; 路杨
Original assignee: 富士通株式会社; 易粟; 李国荣; 贾美艺; 路杨
Priority date: 2022-11-08
Filing date: 2022-11-08
Publication date: 2024-05-16

Abstract

Provided in the embodiments of the present application are a data transmission apparatus, a data sending apparatus, and a method. The data transmission apparatus comprises: a transmission unit, which performs, according to first information, repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or dual active protocol stack (DAPS) handover on a protocol data unit (PDU) carried by a data radio bearer (DRB), wherein one DRB comprises at least one PDU group, and the PDU group comprises at least one PDU set having the same predetermined first information.

Description

Data transmission device, data sending device and method

Technical Field

The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communication technologies.

Background technique

In the 3GPP standardization process, the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) is studying key issues, solutions and conclusions to support advanced media services, such as high data rate low latency (HDRLL) services, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR)/extended reality (XR) services and tactile/multimodal communication services.

For example, extended reality (XR) is supported in 3GPP services and networks, where XR is a general term for different types of reality. The different application areas of XR include entertainment, medical care, education, etc.

Virtual reality (VR) is a rendered version of a published visual and audio scene. The rendering is intended to simulate the visual and auditory sensory stimulation of the real world as naturally as possible when the observer or user moves within the limits defined by the application; Augmented reality (AR) refers to providing users with additional information or artificially generated items or content overlaid on their current environment; Mixed reality (MR) is an advanced form of AR in which some virtual elements are inserted into the physical scene with the aim of providing an illusion that these elements are part of the real scene.

Extended reality (XR) refers to all real and virtual combined environments and human-computer interactions generated by computer technology and wearable devices, including representative forms such as AR, MR, VR and hybrid cross-fields.

It should be noted that the above introduction to the technical background is only for the convenience of providing a clear and complete description of the technical solutions of the present application and for the convenience of understanding by those skilled in the art. It cannot be considered that the above technical solutions are well known to those skilled in the art simply because these solutions are described in the background technology part of the present application.

Summary of the invention

The key issues, solutions and conclusions that 5G technologies are studying to support advanced media services include:

- Enhancements to support multi-mode services:

Investigate whether and how to enable applications to provide relevant tactile and multimodal data to users at similar times (e.g., audio, video, and tactile data associated with a specific time), focusing on the need for enhanced policy control (e.g., QoS policy coordination).

- Enhanced network exposure to support interaction between 5GS and applications:

Study whether and how to synchronize applications and coordinate QoS policies between multiple user equipment (UE) or multiple Quality of Service (QoS) flows per UE, and how to interact between application functions (AF) and the 5G system (5GS);

Study the exposure of 5GS QoS information (e.g., QoS capabilities) and network conditions to applications to enable fast codec/rate adaptation that helps provide the desired Quality of Experience (QoE) (e.g., helping alleviate 5GS congestion).

- Study whether and how to perform the following QoS and policy enhancements for XR services and media services transport:

Study the traffic characteristics of media services that can improve network resource utilization and QoE;

Enhance the QoS framework to support Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Set granularity (e.g., video/audio frame/tile, application data unit, control information), where a PDU Set consists of PDUs with the same QoS requirements;

Considering the different importance of PDU Set, differentiated QoS processing is supported. For example, packets belonging to less important PDU Sets can be discarded legally to reduce resource waste;

Whether and how to support uplink-downlink transmission coordination to meet the round-trip time (RTT) latency requirements between the UE and the User Plane Function (UPF) N6 interface (the interface between the UPF and the Data Network (DN)) endpoint;

Potential policy enhancements to minimize jitter, focusing on demand provisioning from AF (Application Function) and extension of PCC (policy and charging control) rules.

A PDU Set (PDU Set) or PDU Set includes one or more Protocol Data Units (PDUs) that carry the payload of an information unit generated at the application layer (e.g., frames or video slices for XR and media services). For example, in the present invention, a PDU Set refers to an application-level PDU set. In some implementations, all PDUs in a PDU Set are required by the application layer in order to use the corresponding information unit; in other implementations, the application layer can still recover part or all of the information unit when some PDUs are lost. In addition, a PDU Set has different QoS requirements, such as priority, importance, etc.

The existing QoS model based on QoS flow cannot support the different QoS requirements of PDU Set. Specifically, there are two major requirements for the processing of PDU Set: integrated packet processing of PDU Set and differentiated processing of PDU Set.

In the current 5GS, QoS flow is the finest granularity of QoS differentiation in a PDU session, and the 5G QoS characteristics are determined by the 5G QoS Identifier (5QI), which means that each data packet in the QoS flow is processed according to the same QoS requirements.

The integrated data packet processing process of PDU Set is:

For XR/Media Services, a group of packets is used to carry the payload of a PDU Set (e.g., frame, video slice/tile).

At the media layer, packets in such a PDU Set are decoded/processed as a whole. For example, a frame/video slice can be decoded only if all or a certain number of packets carrying the frame/video slice are successfully transmitted. For example, a client can decode a frame in a GOP (group of pictures) only if all frames on which the frame depends are successfully received. Therefore, groups of packets in a PDU Set have inherent interdependencies in the media layer. If such dependencies between packets in a PDU Set are not taken into account, the 5GS may perform scheduling inefficiently. For example, the 5GS may randomly drop one or more packets, but try to transmit other packets of the same PDU Set, which are useless to the client, thereby wasting radio resources.

Differentiated processing of PDU Set refers to:

In view of the high data rate and low latency of XR/media services, in Rel-18, the 5GS QoS framework will be enhanced to support different QoS processing of PDU Sets, where PDU Sets can carry different contents, such as I/B/P frames, slices/tiles within I/B/P frames, etc. In this way, the different importance of PDU Sets can be taken into account, for example, by treating data packets (i.e. PDUs) belonging to less important PDU Sets differently to reduce resource waste.

The inventors have discovered that in order to achieve integrated packet processing and differentiated PDU Set processing of PDU Set, how to perform repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) is a problem that needs to be solved.

In response to at least the above problems, embodiments of the present application provide a data transmission device, a data sending device, and a method. According to the first information, the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) is repeatedly transmitted or/and separated and/or DAPS switched, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, and reducing resource waste. In addition, it can ensure the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meet the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

According to one aspect of an embodiment of the present application, a data transmission method is provided, wherein the method includes:

Repeat transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching are performed on a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information,

Wherein, one of the data radio bearers (DRB) includes at least one of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

According to another aspect of an embodiment of the present application, a data sending method is provided, wherein the method includes:

Sending a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a PDCP entity corresponding to a data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

Among them, one of the data radio bearers (DRB) includes at least one of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

According to another aspect of an embodiment of the present application, a data transmission device is provided, the data transmission device comprising:

a transmission unit, which performs repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or dual active protocol stack (DAPS) switching on a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information,

According to another aspect of an embodiment of the present application, a data sending device is provided, wherein the data sending device includes:

A first sending unit, which sends a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity corresponding to a data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

One of the beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present application is that: according to the first information, the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) is repeatedly transmitted or/and separately transmitted and/or DAPS switched, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, and reducing resource waste. In addition, it can ensure the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meet the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

With reference to the following description and accompanying drawings, the specific embodiments of the present application are disclosed in detail, indicating the way in which the principles of the present application can be adopted. It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application are not limited in scope. Within the scope of the spirit and clauses of the appended claims, the embodiments of the present application include many changes, modifications and equivalents.

Features described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be used in the same or similar manner in one or more other embodiments, combined with features in other embodiments, or substituted for features in other embodiments.

It should be emphasized that the term “include/comprises” when used herein refers to the presence of features, integers, steps or components, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps or components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The elements and features described in one figure or one implementation of the present application embodiment may be combined with the elements and features shown in one or more other figures or implementations. In addition, in the accompanying drawings, similar reference numerals represent corresponding parts in several figures and can be used to indicate corresponding parts used in more than one implementation.

1 is a schematic diagram of the classification of QoS flows and the principle of user plane marking and mapping to access network resources according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG2 is a diagram showing the mapping structure of PDU Set at layer 2 according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4A is a schematic diagram of a separate support structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG4B is another schematic diagram of a separate support structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a second signaling according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG6 is another schematic diagram of the second signaling according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG7 is a schematic diagram of a data sending method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of a data transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG9 is a schematic diagram of a data sending device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG10 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

With reference to the accompanying drawings, the above and other features of the present application will become apparent through the following description. In the description and the accompanying drawings, specific embodiments of the present application are specifically disclosed, which show some embodiments in which the principles of the present application can be adopted. It should be understood that the present application is not limited to the described embodiments. On the contrary, the present application includes all modifications, variations and equivalents falling within the scope of the attached claims.

In the embodiments of the present application, the terms "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish different elements from the title, but do not represent the spatial arrangement or time sequence of these elements, etc., and these elements should not be limited by these terms. The term "and/or" includes any one and all combinations of one or more of the terms listed in association. The terms "comprise", "include", "have", etc. refer to the existence of the stated features, elements, components or components, but do not exclude the existence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components or components.

In the embodiments of the present application, the singular forms "a", "the", etc. include plural forms and should be broadly understood as "a kind" or "a type" rather than being limited to the meaning of "one"; in addition, the term "said" should be understood to include both singular and plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In addition, the term "according to" should be understood as "at least in part according to...", and the term "based on" should be understood as "at least in part based on...", unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

In an embodiment of the present application, the term "communication network" or "wireless communication network" may refer to a network that complies with any of the following communication standards, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), enhanced Long Term Evolution (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and the like.

Furthermore, communication between devices in the communication system may be carried out according to communication protocols of any stage, such as but not limited to the following communication protocols: 1G (generation), 2G, 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G, 4G, 4.5G and 5G, New Radio (NR), etc., and/or other communication protocols currently known or to be developed in the future.

In the embodiments of the present application, the term "network device" refers to, for example, a device in a communication system that connects a terminal device to a communication network and provides services for the terminal device. The network device may include, but is not limited to, the following devices: base station (BS), access point (AP), transmission reception point (TRP), broadcast transmitter, mobile management entity (MME), gateway, server, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), etc.

Among them, base stations may include but are not limited to: Node B (NodeB or NB), evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB) and 5G base station (gNB), etc., and may also include remote radio heads (RRH, Remote Radio Head), remote radio units (RRU, Remote Radio Unit), relays or low-power nodes (such as femeto, pico, etc.). And the term "base station" may include some or all of their functions, and each base station can provide communication coverage for a specific geographical area. The term "cell" can refer to a base station and/or its coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

In the embodiments of the present application, the term "user equipment" (UE) or "terminal equipment" (TE) refers to, for example, a device that accesses a communication network through a network device and receives network services. The terminal device may be fixed or mobile, and may also be referred to as a mobile station (MS), a terminal, a subscriber station (SS), an access terminal (AT), a station, and the like.

Among them, terminal devices may include but are not limited to the following devices: cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDA, Personal Digital Assistant), wireless modems, wireless communication devices, handheld devices, machine-type communication devices, laptop computers, cordless phones, smart phones, smart watches, digital cameras, etc.

For another example, in scenarios such as the Internet of Things (IoT), the terminal device can also be a machine or device for monitoring or measuring, such as but not limited to: machine type communication (MTC) terminal, vehicle-mounted communication terminal, device to device (D2D) terminal, machine to machine (M2M) terminal, and so on.

In addition, the term "network side" or "network device side" refers to one side of the network, which may be a base station, or may include one or more network devices as above. The term "user side" or "terminal side" or "terminal device side" refers to one side of the user or terminal, which may be a UE, or may include one or more terminal devices as above. Unless otherwise specified herein, "device" may refer to either a network device or a terminal device.

The following describes the scenarios of the embodiments of the present application through examples, but the present application is not limited thereto.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the classification of QoS flows and the principle of user plane marking and mapping to access network resources according to an embodiment of the present application. For simplicity, Figure 1 only schematically illustrates the classification of QoS flows and the principle of user plane marking and mapping to access network resources.

Since traditional QoS flows are not applicable to the same XR/Media (XRM) service flows (e.g., video flows) with different types of PDU Sets of different importance and QoS requirements. 3GPP proposes to extend the QoS framework based on QoS flows (QoS Flows), where a QoS flow contains multiple sub-QoS flows, where different types of PDU Sets belonging to the QoS flow are mapped to different sub-QoS flows (sub QoS Flows) of the relevant QoS flow. The QoS flow still has a QoS profile, which is named the main QoS profile (QoS profile). Each sub-QoS flow of a QoS flow has its own QoS Profile, called a sub-QoS profile (sub QoS profile).

All child QoS profiles and the associated main QoS profile have the same 5QI but different QoS characteristics.

3GPP also proposed QoS parameters for PDU Set and QoS processing for PDU Set. For example, QoS processing for PDU Set can be determined by dynamic or non-dynamic Policy Control and Charging (PCC).

The inventors found that for uplink traffic, the non-access stratum (NAS) layer of the UE can identify the first information related to the above PDU Set. For example, for the classification of upstream data packets, during the establishment/modification of the PDU session, the PDU Set importance is prepared for the UE according to the single network slice selection assistance information/data network name (S-NSSAI/DNN) of the PDU session. The PDU Set importance rules can be sent to the UE from the 5G core network (5GC) through the N1 session management (SM) container defined in the session management process. The PDU Set importance can be used by the UE to map the PDU Set to the appropriate medium access control (MAC) transmission cache. If PDU Set importance is used for mapping of QoS flow or sub-QoS flow, the UE classifies and marks the uplink user plane traffic according to the QoS rules, that is, the association of XRM uplink traffic with QoS flow and/or sub-QoS flow.

The first information related to these PDU Sets includes at least one of the following information: importance information or priority of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); identification information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); protocol data unit (PDU) sequence number within the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); start and/or end flags of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); size information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); identification information of the quality of service (QoS) flow mapped to the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); identification information of the sub-quality of service (QoS) flow mapped to the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); or identification information of the protocol data unit (PDU) group, etc.

For example, taking the first information being the importance information of a protocol data unit set (PDU Set), the importance information of the PDU Set (for example, the importance can be expressed from high to medium to low through numbers from 0 to Nmax) indicates the importance of the PDU Set in the XRM service flow, or its priority, and can also be used to perform differentiated processing of the PDU Set in the RAN, such as priority processing, scheduling, data discarding, etc.

For example, the core network identifies the importance information of PDU Set based on existing technologies, which can be used to map PDU Set to different QoS flows, or to map to different sub-QoS flows (sub-QoS flows), or it can be included in the General packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user plane part (GPRS Tunnelling Protocol for the user plane, GTP-U) header to notify the RAN.

The above is just an example of a classification method using PDU Set importance. If PDU Sets of different PDU Set importances are mapped to different QoS flows or sub-QoS flows, a structural design can also be performed for the QoS flow or sub-QoS flow corresponding to the PDU Set importance. The corresponding PDU Set importance information, such as the PDU Set importance identifier, is the corresponding QoS flow identifier or sub-QoS flow identifier, and this application does not impose any restrictions on this.

FIG2 is a diagram of the mapping structure of the PDU Set at layer 2 of an embodiment of the present application. For example, the method shown in FIG2 can be used to map data streams corresponding to different PDU Set importances to the resources of the access network. For example, these data are called a collection of PDU Sets with the same importance or priority, a PDU family, etc. They can use the PDU Set importance information as an identifier, or an identifier of a sub-QoS flow, or a PDU priority tag, a PDU family identifier, etc., or directly use the PDU Set identifier (if each PDU Set is regarded as an independent class); if different PDU Sets corresponding to different PDU Set importance information are mapped to different QoS flows, the QoS flow identifier can also be used.

As shown in 202 of FIG. 2 , multiple types of PDU Sets can be multiplexed into one XR QoS flow at the NAS layer, and then a one-to-one mapping of the QoS flow to the DRB can be performed in the RAN; at the PDCP layer, the PDCP entity demultiplexes (also referred to as "mapping") the data in the DRB to different radio link control (RLC) bearers according to the first information (e.g., PDU Set importance information). For example, as mentioned above, here a type of PDU Set can also be used as a sub-QoS flow at the NAS layer; as shown in 201 of FIG. 2 , if a QoS flow does not contain a PDU set, for example, a QoS flow can be mapped to a DRB and then mapped to an RLC entity (or a logical channel) with reference to the prior art. As a result, the system architecture supporting PDU Sets can be compatible with the system architecture supporting traditional QoS flows.

In the present application, a PDU Set having the same value of the first information of a predetermined type may also be referred to as a PDU group, a collection of PDU Sets, a PDU family, a data burst, etc. The first information of the predetermined type may be the importance information of the PDU Set (e.g., PDU Set Importance), etc. Taking the PDU group as an example, for example, the identification of the PDU group may use the importance information of the PDU Set, and/or, the identification of the QoS flow (if PDU Sets of different PDU Set Importances are mapped to different QoS flows), and/or, the identification of the sub-QoS flow (if PDU Sets of different PDU Set Importances are mapped to different sub-QoS flows), and/or, a PDU priority tag, and/or, a PDU family identification, etc., and/or, identification information of the PDU Set (e.g., each PDU Set is regarded as an independent category, that is, each PDU set is a PDU group); this application does not list them one by one.

Therefore, how to map data streams carrying different first information to the resources of the corresponding access network is a problem that needs to be solved.

Specifically, in the prior art, the QoS flow is mapped to the DRB and then to the RLC bearer at the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) sublayer, and the QoS flow consists of multiple application-level PDU Sets. If the concept of PDU Set is introduced in the XRM service, then how to repeat transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) is a problem that needs to be solved. If layer 2 mapping (for example, mapping from the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) to the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) to the radio link control (RLC)) is performed according to the prior art and then repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching is performed, it will be impossible to perform QoS differentiation on the PDU Sets corresponding to different first information in the QoS flow, for example, it is impossible to perform QoS differentiation on PDU Sets with different importance, which leads to problems such as inefficiency and waste of resources in resource allocation and packet loss processing.

In response to at least one of the above problems, embodiments of the present application provide a data transmission device, a data sending device, and a method.

Embodiments of the first aspect

The embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method, wherein the data transmission method is applied on the terminal device side. FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the data transmission method of the embodiment of the present application, as shown in FIG3 , the method includes:

301, repeat transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information;

Wherein, one of the data radio bearers (DRB) includes at least one of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same first information. Wherein, the same first information may be predetermined first information, thereby, the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

Therefore, the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) is repeatedly transmitted and/or separately transmitted and/or DAPS switched according to the first information, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, and reducing resource waste. In addition, it can ensure the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meet the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

It is worth noting that the above FIG. 3 is only a schematic illustration of the embodiment of the present application, taking the terminal device as an example, but the present application is not limited thereto. For example, the execution order between the various operations can be appropriately adjusted, and other operations can be added or some operations can be reduced. In addition, the objects of the above operations can be adjusted. Those skilled in the art can make appropriate modifications based on the above content, and are not limited to the description of the above FIG. 3.

The following is a detailed description of the "Protocol Data Unit (PDU) group carried by the Data Radio Bearer (DRB)".

In some embodiments, a data radio bearer (DRB) includes at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

For example, the predetermined first information includes first information predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured first information, which is not limited in the present application.

In some embodiments, the first information includes at least one of the following information: importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); identification information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); protocol data unit (PDU) sequence number within the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); start and/or end flags of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); size information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); identification information of the quality of service (QoS) flow to which the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped; identification information of the sub-quality of service (QoS) flow to which the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped; or identification information of the protocol data unit (PDU) group. For example, the first information may be for uplink data or for downlink data.

For example, the first information is the importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set), wherein the importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) can be, for example, the importance of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) expressed by numbers from 0 to Nmax, taking Nmax=2 as an example, 0 represents "low" importance, 1 represents "medium" importance, and 2 represents "high" importance; that is, the importance of the PDU Set in the XRM service flow can be indicated by an explicit digital expression, or it can also be called priority; the importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) can be explicit information or implicit information, for example, the core network identifies the importance information of the PDU Set according to the existing technology (for example, refer to the user plane function part of Figure 1), which can be used to map the PDU Set to different QoS flows, can also be used to map to different sub-QoS flows (sub-QoS flows), and can also be included in the general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user plane part (GPRS Tunnelling Protocol for the user plane, GTP-U) header to notify the RAN. RAN nodes and devices (base stations or UEs) obtain the importance information of PDU Sets through the mapped QoS flow or sub-QoS flow (implicitly) or the information in the GTP-U header (explicitly). Based on the access layer mapping structure shown in Figure 2, since different PDU Sets in a DRB may be assigned to different RLC bearers, the repeated transmission mechanism at the DRB level needs to be enhanced, otherwise the repeated transmission of PDU Sets cannot be achieved, thus affecting the transmission reliability and low latency requirements of the XRM service. Similarly, for split bearers and DAPS (dual active protocol stack) bearers, PDU Sets also need to be enhanced to support the split transmission and DAPS switching of XRM services. For example, PDU Sets of different PDU Set importance are mapped to different RLC bearers. Such a PDCP entity is associated with multiple RLC entities, and then the RLC entity corresponding to the PDU Set is determined according to the importance of the PDU set, so as to perform repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB).

For example, the first information is the identification information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set), which can also be called the data unit set identification (PDU Set identity, PSID). For example, "PDU Set identity (PSID)" is 4 bits, where "0000" indicates the identification of the first PDU set. For example, the first information is the identification information of the protocol data unit (PDU) group, which can be called "PDU Set Group Identity (PSGID)", which will not be repeated here.

For example, the first information is a protocol data unit (PDU) sequence number within a protocol data unit set (PDU Set), wherein the specific content of the PDU sequence number can be referred to in the prior art, and the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

For example, the first information is a start and/or end flag of a protocol data unit set (PDU Set). For example, the start and end of a protocol data unit set (PDU Set) may be indicated by two bits. For example, if the first bit is "1", it indicates the start of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); if the second bit is "1", it indicates the end of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set). For example, the start and/or end flag is used to determine the start time of the PDU Set, which can be used for performance enhancement such as energy saving.

For example, the first information is identification information of a quality of service (QoS) flow to which a protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped, and/or the first information is identification information of a sub-quality of service (QoS) flow to which a protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped; for example, a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) is repeatedly transmitted or/and separately transmitted and/or DAPS switched based on the identification information of the quality of service (QoS) flow and/or the sub-quality of service (QoS) flow.

The above is only an illustrative description of the specific content of the first information; optionally, the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) can be repeatedly transmitted or/and separated and/or DAPS switched according to a predetermined type of information in the first information; the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) can also be repeatedly transmitted or/and separated and/or DAPS switched according to multiple predetermined information in the first information; optionally, another predetermined information can be obtained according to a predetermined type of information in the first information, and then the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) can be repeatedly transmitted or/and separated and/or DAPS switched in combination with the predetermined type of information and the predetermined type of information.

For example, the importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) can be determined according to the identification information (PSID) of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); for example, the importance corresponding to the PSID is determined in a predefined manner, for example, taking a PSID of 4 bits as an example, wherein the importance of the PDU Set with a PSID of "0000"-"0011" is "high"; the importance of the PDU Set with a PSID of "0100"-"0111" is "medium"; the importance of the PDU Set with a PSID of "1000"-"1111" is "low"; after indicating the corresponding PSID, the importance of the PDU Set can be determined, and then the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) can be repeatedly transmitted or/and separately transmitted and/or DAPS switched.

The above only takes the identification information (PSID) of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) and the importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) as examples for illustration. Other information in the "first information" can also be combined to perform repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB), which are not listed one by one in this application.

In some embodiments, a protocol data unit (PDU) group includes a protocol data unit set (PDU Set), or the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes a set of protocol data unit sets (PDU Set) having importance information of the same protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

For example, each protocol data unit set (PDU Set) corresponds to a different importance, and thus each protocol data unit set (PDU Set) corresponds to a protocol data unit (PDU) group; for example, different protocol data unit sets (PDU Sets) may have the same importance, and thus a set of protocol data unit sets (PDU Sets) with the same importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) can be set as a protocol data unit (PDU) group.

The following is a detailed description of "repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or DAPS switching".

In some embodiments, the repetition transmission mechanism is to duplicate the same PDCP protocol data unit (PDU), and the repetition transmission is divided into carrier aggregation (CA) repetition transmission and dual connectivity (DC) repetition transmission. For example, for CA repetition transmission, data is repeated twice on two carriers of a node (e.g., a base station); for DC repetition transmission, data is repeated on two nodes, for example, each node can have CA, and then a total of 4 repetitions can be made. For example, DC retransmission is based on a split bearer, and the RLC entity corresponding to one PDCP entity leads to two nodes (for example, a base station); based on the split bearer, when DC retransmission is activated, retransmission is performed; when DC retransmission is not activated, split transmission is performed; in the absence of a split bearer, for example, when a split bearer is not configured, CA retransmission is performed, and after activating CA retransmission, retransmission is performed on multiple RLC entities corresponding to the CA retransmission; after deactivating CA retransmission, transmission is performed on the main path corresponding to the CA retransmission.

In some embodiments, the split bearer is a radio bearer that has RLC bearers in both the master cell group (MCG) and the secondary cell group (SCG) in DC repeated transmission. For example, in the split bearer, data corresponding to a PDCP entity is split to two RLC entities for transmission, and the two RLC entities are respectively associated with the MAC layer of the master node and the MAC layer of the secondary node; thus, repeated transmission can copy the same PDCP PDU and send it to the above two RLC entities for simultaneous transmission, thereby obtaining the gains of high transmission reliability and low transmission delay.

For example, for a PDU Set having the same predetermined first information, a primary path includes a cell group and a primary RLC entity (indicated by a logical channel identifier) corresponding to a default path in repeated transmission or split transmission, and a split secondary path includes a split secondary RLC entity (indicated by a logical channel identifier) on a cell group other than the cell group corresponding to the primary path where DC repeated transmission falls back to split transmission. A non-primary RLC entity refers to an RLC entity other than the primary RLC entity that is used to transmit data having the same predetermined first information.

For example, for the four RLC entities associated with the same PDCP entity, they correspond to RLC entity 0, RLC entity 1, RLC entity 2, and RLC entity 3 respectively; and the data carried by RLC entity 0, RLC entity 1, RLC entity 2, and RLC entity 3 have the same predetermined first information; and RLC entity 0 and RLC entity 1 belong to MCG, and RLC entity 2 and RLC entity 3 belong to SCG; for example, RLC entity 0 is configured as the main RLC entity, and RLC entity 2 is a separated secondary RLC entity; and RLC entity 1, RLC entity 2, and RLC entity 3 except RLC entity 0 are non-main RLC entities.

In some embodiments, DAPS handover refers to the process in which the UE maintains a connection with the source base station (gNB) after receiving an RRC handover message during handover until the source cell is released after random access to the target base station (gNB) is successful. For example, a DAPS bearer refers to a bearer in which the radio protocol is located at both the source gNB and the target gNB in order to use the resources of the source gNB and the target gNB at the same time during the DAPS handover process.

The following takes the predetermined first information as “importance information of a protocol data unit set (PDU Set)” as an example to explain in detail “repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information”. This explanation is also applicable to the case where the predetermined first information is other content.

In some embodiments, after mapping the QoS flow of the corresponding protocol data unit (PDU) group to the DRB, different PDU Sets (or one or more PDU Sets with different "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)") need to be mapped to different RLC bearers. As previously described, if PDU Sets with different "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)" are mapped to different QoS flows at the NAS layer, then multiple QoS flows of XR service traffic can be multiplexed into one DRB at the RAN (e.g., SDAP layer); further, at the PDCP layer, the PDCP entity demultiplexes (also referred to as "mapping") the data in the DRB to different RLC bearers according to the "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)". Thus, one PDCP entity is associated with multiple RLC entities.

In order to support repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of a protocol data unit set (PDU Set), in some embodiments, based on the configuration related to the repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or DAPS switching, the at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group on the data radio bearer (DRB) is mapped to a corresponding radio link control (RLC) bearer.

For example, the configuration of separate bearers in repeated transmission and/or separate transmission can be relatively flexible. For example, a DRB has RLC bearers in both MCG and SCG, but not all primary RLC bearers of MCG (taking the primary RLC bearer on MCG as an example) have corresponding (for example, corresponding to the same "importance information of protocol data unit set (PDU Set)") RLC of SCG (separated secondary RLC bearer); for example, the configuration of RLC bearers for CA repeated transmission can also be relatively flexible. In the RLC bearer corresponding to a DRB in the same cell group, a PDU set of "importance information of protocol data unit set (PDU Set)" can be mapped to two RLC bearers, or only a PDU set of another "importance information of protocol data unit set (PDU Set)" can be mapped to one RLC bearer; the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

302, receiving a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of the PDCP entity corresponding to the data radio bearer (DRB); and/or, the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of the repeated transmission.

For example, in some embodiments, the first signaling includes a first field, wherein the first field configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission; and/or the first field configures the activation state and/or deactivation state of repeated transmission; when the value of the first field is true, the PDCP entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, and/or when the value of the first field is false, the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity deactivates repeated transmission; optionally, the above statement can also be replaced by, when the value of the first field is true, the PDCP entity is activated for repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, and/or when the value of the first field is false, the PDCP entity is deactivated for repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity deactivates repeated transmission.

For example, the first signaling is an RRCReconfiguration message; the first field is a "pdcp-Duplication" field.

For example, when a PDCP entity is configured to activate duplication transmission (the value of "pdcp-Duplication" is true), all RLC entities associated with the PDCP entity perform duplication transmission when applicable.

For example, in some embodiments, repeated transmission is performed between RLC entities corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

For example, when a PDU set (or PDU group) corresponding to a "protocol data unit set (PDU Set) importance information" is associated with multiple RLC entities, repeated transmission is performed between all RLC entities mapped by the PDU set (or PDU group) corresponding to the "protocol data unit set (PDU Set) importance information". For example, when all the RLC entities belong to different cell groups, DC and/or CA repeated transmission is performed; when all the RLC entities belong to the same cell group, CA repeated transmission is performed.

For example, when the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate duplicate transmission (the pdcp-Duplication value is false), all RLC entities associated with the PDCP entity deactivate duplicate transmission. When all RLC entities associated with the PDCP entity deactivate duplicate transmission, it is necessary to further determine which RLC entity to fall back to for transmission. The following examples are given below:

In some embodiments, the first signaling further includes a second field, wherein the second field indicates at least one primary path; and/or, the first signaling further includes a third field, wherein the third field indicates at least one secondary path of separate transmission. In some embodiments, when the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separate bearer, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable; wherein the primary path and/or secondary path of the separate transmission is determined according to the second field and/or the third field; in some embodiments, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable, including: when at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information corresponds to multiple RLC entities and the multiple RLC entities belong to different cell groups, separate transmission is performed on multiple RLC entities corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

For example, the specific main transmission path can be indicated by the newly added second field in the RRC signaling. For example, when the DRB corresponding to the PDCP is a separate bearer, all RLC entities associated with the PDCP implement or fall back to separate transmission when applicable. For example, when the PDU set (or PDU group) corresponding to the "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)" is mapped to multiple RLC entities, and the multiple RLC entities belong to different cell groups, the RLC bearer corresponding to the "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)" is transmitted separately. For example, the auxiliary path of the specific separate transmission is indicated by the new third field in the RRC signaling. (The specific contents of the second field and the third field will be described in detail in the subsequent instructions).

Therefore, it is possible to support determining the RLC entity corresponding to the PDCP entity during repeated transmission/or separate transmission when the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission (pdcp-Duplication value is false).

In some embodiments, the first signaling also includes a fourth field, wherein the first field is ignored when the fourth field is configured, wherein the fourth field configures the repeated transmission activation and/or deactivation status of each non-primary RLC entity corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

For example, when the second field of the first signaling indicates one or more main transmission paths and the third field indicates one or more auxiliary paths of separate transmission, when the fourth field is configured, the value configured in the first field (pdcp-Duplication) is ignored, and the fourth field configures the duplication transmission activation state or deactivation state of the non-primary RLC entity corresponding to the PDCU set corresponding to each "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)". (The specific content of the fourth field will be described in detail in the subsequent instructions).

The following describes the details of the second field, the third field, and the fourth field respectively:

In some embodiments, the first signaling is a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration (RRC-Reconfiguration) message; the second field and/or the third field and/or the fourth field are included in the configuration field for configuring parameters related to the PDCP entity.

In some embodiments, the second field includes a first list, wherein the first list includes: a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a primary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity used for uplink data transmission when the PDU group is associated with multiple RLC entities; in some embodiments, the primary RLC entity belongs to a cell group corresponding to a cell group field in a primary path field; in some embodiments, in the first list, the logical channel identifiers (LCIDs) are sorted in ascending order.

For example, the second field is a list or sequence. Taking the second field including the first list as an example, for example, the name of the first list is "primaryLCH", which indicates that when the PDCP entity is associated with multiple RLC entities, it is a list of LCIDs of all primary RLC entities used for uplink data transmission; the primary RLC entity belongs to the cell group corresponding to the "cellGroup" in the "primaryPath" field; for example, the first list can be sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifier.

In some embodiments, the third field includes a second list, wherein the second list includes: a logical channel identifier corresponding to a separated secondary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity indicated for uplink data transmission to fall back to a separated bearer when the DRB corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separated bearer; in some embodiments, the second list is arranged in ascending order of the logical channel identifier corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity; wherein, when the primary RLC entity corresponding to a specific index position in the third field does not have a corresponding separated secondary RLC entity in different cell groups, the third field of the index position is ignored.

For example, the third field includes a second list, for example, the name of the second list is "splitSecondaryPath-XR", which is a list of logical channel identifiers corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity indicated for uplink data transmission to fall back to the separated bearer when the DRB corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separated bearer; for example, the third field and the second field have a one-to-one correspondence, that is, the third field (the logical channel list corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity) is arranged in ascending order of the corresponding second field value (the logical channel identifier corresponding to the primary RLC entity); for example, for the same index, the RLC entity corresponding to the value in the second field and the RLC entity corresponding to the value in the third field are used to transmit the same (or have the same "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)") PDU Set; for example, for a primary RLC entity with a specific index, if there is no corresponding separated secondary RLC entity in different cell groups (that is, separate transmission is not configured for the RLC entity), then the third field at the index position is ignored.

In some embodiments, the fourth field includes a third list, the third list indicating the state of repeated transmission of each associated uplink RLC entity when the first signaling is received; in some embodiments, each value in the third list of the fourth field is an X-bit bitmap, the bitmap indicating whether other non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the index position are in a repeated transmission activation or deactivation state; in the case where the bit is the first value, the repeated transmission of the RLC entity corresponding to the bit is activated; wherein the indication order of the X bits is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifiers of other associated RLC entities other than the primary RLC entity, and is sorted in order of the primary cell group and the secondary cell group; in some embodiments, when the number of non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity is less than X, the high-order indication of the corresponding bit of the bitmap is ignored; and/or the repeated transmission state corresponding to the primary RLC entity of the fourth field is arranged in ascending order according to the value of the logical channel identifier corresponding to the primary RLC entity of the corresponding second field; and/or when the primary RLC entity of a specific index has no corresponding non-primary RLC entity, the fourth field of the index position is ignored.

For example, the fourth field includes a third list, the name of the third list is "duplicationState-XR", and the third list indicates the state of duplication transmission of each associated uplink RLC entity when the first signaling is received. For example, each value in the third list is a 3-bit bitmap (also called a sequence of 3 Boolean variables), and the bitmap indicates whether other non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the index position are in a duplication transmission activation or deactivation state; for example, if the bit is 1 (the Boolean variable is true), the duplication transmission of the RLC entity corresponding to the bit is activated; if the bit is 0 (the Boolean variable is false), the duplication transmission of the RLC entity corresponding to the bit is deactivated; for example, the indication order of the 3 bits is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifiers of other associated RLC entities except the primary RLC entity, and is sorted in the order of the primary cell group and the secondary cell group. For example, when the number of non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity is less than three, the bitmap is ignored. Corresponding high-bit indication; similar to the third field, the fourth field has a one-to-one correspondence with the first field, that is, the fourth field (the repeated transmission status of the non-master RLC entities corresponding to each master RLC entity) is arranged in ascending order according to the corresponding second field value (the logical channel identifier corresponding to the master RLC entity); for example, for the same index, the RLC entity corresponding to the value in the second field and one or more RLC entities corresponding to the status value in the fourth field are used to transmit the same (or have the same "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)") PDU Set; if the master RLC entity of a certain index does not have a corresponding non-master RLC entity (that is, the master RLC entity is not configured for separate transmission or repeated transmission), then the fourth field at the index position is ignored.

In some embodiments, the second field, the third field, and the fourth field may be placed in a group to configure PDCP, for example, named "moreThanOneRLC-XR"; in some embodiments, only the first field, the second field, and the third segment may be configured, or the first field, the second field, the third field, and the fourth field may be configured; for example, when only the first field, the second field, and the third segment are configured, the configuration of repeated transmission and/or separate transmission is based on the granularity of the DRB, for example, all RLC entities associated with the PDCP entity corresponding to the DRB activate/or deactivate repeated transmission; for example, when the first field, the second field, the third field, and the fourth field are configured, the configuration of repeated transmission and/or separate transmission is based on the granularity of the RLC entity, for example, a specific RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity corresponding to the DRB can activate/or deactivate repeated transmission (the specific content can refer to the above method, which is not repeated here).

The following is an example of protocol enhancement (PDCP-Config IE) for TS38.331:

Taking the case of a terminal device in dual connection and a PDCP entity corresponding to a separate bearer as an example, Figure 4A is a schematic diagram of the structure of a separate bearer in an implementation manner of the present application; Figure 4B is another schematic diagram of the structure of a separate bearer in an implementation manner of the present application.

For example, PDU Set 1 in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B is mapped to the primary cell group network device RLC bearer 1 (MN RLC1) and the secondary cell group network device RLC1 (SN RLC1), respectively; PDU Set 2 is mapped to the primary cell group network device RLC bearer 2 (MN RLC2) and the secondary cell group network device RLC2 (SN RLC2), respectively. For example, MN RLC1 and MN RLC2 are primary RLC entities.

For example, in the case where only the first field, the second field, and the third field are configured in the first signaling, corresponding to Figure 4A, if the first field (pdcp-Duplication) is configured as true, then DC duplication transmission is performed on both PDU Set 1 and PDU Set 2, for example, the data corresponding to PDU set 1 will be repeatedly transmitted on MN RLC1 and SN RLC1; if the first field (pdcp-Duplication) is configured as false, and the second field indicates that the main RLC entity (list) is MN RLC1, MN RLC2, and the third field indicates that the separated secondary RLC entity (list) corresponding to the main RLC entity is SN RLC 1, SN RLC2, then both PDU Set 1 and PDU Set 2 are transmitted separately, for example, PDU Set 1 and PDU Set 2 (when the data amount is lower than the first threshold, the details of the first threshold will be introduced later) are transmitted on MN RLC1 and MN RLC2, respectively, and not on SN RLC1 and SN RLC2.

For example, in the case where the first signaling is configured with the first field, the second field, the third field, and the fourth field, as shown in corresponding FIG4B, if the fourth field is configured, the content of the first field is ignored, and the 3-bit indications of the two bitmaps in the third list of the fourth field are respectively "001" and "000" (assuming the number of bits is from high to low), wherein the "001" corresponding to the first bitmap indicates that the non-primary SN RLC 1 entity corresponding to PDU Set 1 is configured as a repeated transmission activation state, and the "000" corresponding to the second bitmap indicates that the non-primary SN RLC 2 entity corresponding to PDU Set 2 is configured as a repeated transmission deactivation state, and then PDU Set 1 is repeatedly transmitted on MN RLC1 and SN RLC1, and PDU Set 2 is separately transmitted on MN RLC2 and SN RLC2. For example, when the data volume is lower than the first threshold, the data of PDU Set 2 (the details of the first threshold will be introduced later) is only transmitted on MN RLC 2.

In some embodiments, when the data radio bearer (DRB) is configured with a DAPS bearer, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity corresponding to the DRB performs DAPS switching when applicable; wherein, when the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped to two RLC entities available for uplink transmission of the DAPS bearer and one of the two RLC entities available for uplink transmission is for a source cell and the other of the two RLC entities available for uplink transmission is for a target cell, the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) performs DAPS switching.

For example, for XRM data based on PDU Set, if the corresponding DRB is configured with DAPS bearer, all RLC entities associated with the PDCP entity corresponding to the DRB shall implement DAPS switching when applicable. For example, when a PDU Set is mapped to two RLC entities (such as AM RLC entity or uplink UM RLC entity) that can be used for uplink transmission on a DAPS bearer, and one of the RLC entities is for the source cell and the other RLC entity is for the target cell, then DAPS switching can be performed on the PDU Set.

The above PDU Set-based separate bearers, repeated transmissions, and DAPS bearers are all configured in a flexible manner. In order to simplify the protocol design, in some embodiments, in a data radio bearer (DRB) including at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group, each of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups has the same number of RLC bearers associated with each cell group. Through this restriction, all PDU Sets contained in all DRBs can perform the same behavior, and there is no need to configure different PDU Sets separately, thereby reducing the configuration complexity.

Taking DAPS bearer as an example, for DAPS bearer, all PDU Sets mapped to the bearer will be mapped to two RLC entities that can be used for uplink transmission, and one RLC entity is for the source cell and the other RLC entity is for the target cell. Then all RLC entities that can be used for uplink and are associated with the PDCP entity corresponding to the DRB will implement DAPS switching.

The above application only uses PDU Set as an example for illustration. As mentioned above, a PDU Set with a specific importance can be replaced with a QoS flow, sub-QoS flow, PDU group, PDU family, etc. with the same importance or priority; the above-mentioned PDU Set importance information can also be replaced with a sub-QoS flow identifier, a PDU priority tag, a PDU family identifier, etc.; no repetitive explanation is given here.

In some embodiments, for a PDCP entity, if the PDCP entity is not associated with an application-level PDU Set, the PDCP entity is associated with 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 RLC entities. The specific number depends on the characteristics of the radio bearer (e.g., unidirectional or bidirectional transmission, whether it is a split bearer) or the RLC mode, etc.

In some embodiments, the number of radio link control (RLC) entities associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is determined by at least one of the following: the number of values of a predetermined type of information in the first information, the characteristics of a radio bearer (RB); or the radio link control (RLC) mode.

For example, for a DRB that transmits a PDU Set, the corresponding PDCP entity will be associated with multiple (not limited to 8) RLC entities. In addition to depending on the characteristics of the above wireless bearer and the RLC mode, it also depends on the number of PDU Sets in the DRB or the number of values of the predetermined type of information in the first information.

In some embodiments, for a separated bearer or a radio bearer configured with PDCP repeated transmission, for each transmission direction, each PDCP entity is associated with less than or equal to N×M UM RLC entities; or is associated with less than or equal to N×M AM RLC entities, wherein; for a separated bearer: N=2; for a radio bearer configured with PDCP repeated transmission: 2<=N<=4; for a DAPS bearer, for each transmission direction, each PDCP entity is associated with less than or equal to M UM RLC entities for a source cell and less than or equal to M UM RLC entities for a target cell; or is associated with less than or equal to M UM RLC entities for a source cell and less than or equal to M AM RLC entities for a target cell; wherein M represents the number of different primary RLC entities mapped to the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) included in the data radio bearer (DRB).

For example, assume that M is the number of all PDU Sets in the same DRB mapped to different primary RLC entities, that is, M will be less than or equal to the number of PDU Sets or the number of PDU Set Importance values.

For split bearers, each PDCP is associated to less than or equal to 2×M UM (unacknowledged mode) RLC entities (for the same transmission direction), or less than or equal to 4×M UM RLC entities (less than or equal to 2×M in each direction), or less than or equal to 2×M AM (acknowledged mode) RLC entities.

For radio bearers configured with PDCP retransmission, each PDCP entity is associated with less than or equal to N×M UM RLC entities (for the same transmission direction), or 2×N×M UM RLC entities (less than or equal to N×M in each direction), or less than or equal to N×M AM RLC entities, where 2<＝N<＝4.

For DAPS bearer, each DPCP entity is associated with less than or equal to 2×M UM RLC entities (for the same transmission direction, less than or equal to M for the source cell, and less than or equal to M for the target cell), or less than or equal to 4×M UM RLC entities (less than or equal to 2×M source cells and target cells in each direction), or less than or equal to 2×M AM RLC entities (less than or equal to M source cells and less than or equal to M target cells).

In some embodiments, in a data radio bearer (DRB) including at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group, each of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups has the same number of RLC bearers associated with each cell group, so the above less than or equal to can be replaced by equal to.

In some implementations, the PDCP layer needs to be enhanced to support demultiplexing of data of different "Protocol Data Unit Sets (PDU Sets) importance information" in the DRB into different RLC bearers.

In some embodiments, the method further includes: submitting the data SDU to the corresponding RLC entity according to the first information in the SDAP header of the data SDU and the mapping relationship between the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) configured by RRC and the radio link control (RLC) bearer, and/or the repeated transmission activation status of the RLC entity.

For example, in order to perform repeated transmission, separate transmission, or DAPS switching of the relevant data of the application level PDU Set at the PDCP layer, it is necessary to know whether a certain PDCP entity is used to transmit the PDU Set or whether a certain PDCP SDU belongs to the application level PDU Set. For example, the data SDU can be submitted to the corresponding RLC entity based on the first information in the SDAP header of the data SDU ("PDU Set identification information" or "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)"), and the mapping relationship between the RRC-configured PDU Set and the RLC bearer, and/or the repeated transmission activation status of the RLC entity.

Specifically, when the PDCP entity performs a sending operation, the following enhancements are required to support data transmission based on PDU Set; for example, when submitting a PDCP PDU to the lower layer, the sending PDCP entity needs to do the following:

In some embodiments, when the sending PDCP entity is associated with at least two of the RLC entities, and PDCP retransmission is activated, and the PDCP entity is configured for application-level PDU Set: copy the PDCP data PDU, and submit the PDCP data PDU to the associated RLC entity with PDCP retransmission activated according to the first information.

For example, if the sending PDCP entity is associated with at least two RLC entities, PDCP retransmission is activated for the radio bearer, and the PDCP entity is configured for application-level PDU Set, then the PDCP data PDU is copied and submitted to the associated RLC entity with PDCP retransmission activated based on the first information (e.g., "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)").

In some embodiments, when the transmitted PDCP entity is associated with at least two of the RLC entities, and PDCP retransmission is not configured or deactivated, and the PDCP entity is configured for a PDU Set at the application level, a separate secondary RLC entity is configured for at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information, and when the size of the PDCP data PDU is equal to or higher than a first threshold, the PDCP data PDU is submitted to the primary RLC entity or the separated secondary RLC entity according to the first information; and/or, when the size of the PDCP data PDU is lower than the first threshold, the PDCP data PDU is submitted to the corresponding primary RLC entity according to the first information.

For example, if the sending PDCP entity is associated with at least two RLC entities, PDCP repeated transmission is not configured or deactivated for the wireless bearer, if the PDCP entity is configured for application-level PDU Set, and a separate secondary RLC entity is configured for the PDU Set corresponding to the first information (e.g., "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)"), then when the data to be transmitted by the PDCP and RLC is equal to or higher than the threshold, the PDCP data PDU can be submitted to the main RLC entity or the separated secondary RLC entity based on the first information (e.g., "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)"); when it is lower than the threshold, the PDCP data PDU is submitted to the corresponding main RLC entity according to the first information (e.g., "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)").

In some embodiments, when the PDCP entity sent is associated with a DAPS bearer and the PDCP entity is configured for an application-level PDU Set: when uplink data switching is not required: submit the PDCP data PDU to the RLC entity associated with the source cell according to the first information; when uplink data switching is required: submit the PDCP data PDU to the RLC entity associated with the target cell according to the first information, and, for the PDCP control PDU associated with the source cell, submit the PDCP control PDU to any RLC entity associated with the source cell, and for the PDCP control PDU associated with the target cell, submit the PDCP control PDU to any RLC entity associated with the target cell.

For example, if the sending PDCP entity is associated with a DAPS bearer and the PDCP entity is configured for an application-level PDU Set, then when uplink data switching is not required, the PDCP data PDU is submitted to the RLC entity associated with the source cell based on the first information (e.g., "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)"); otherwise: for the PDCP data PDU, based on the first information (e.g., "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)"), the PDCP data PDU is submitted to the RLC entity associated with the target cell; for the PDCP control PDU associated with the source cell, it is submitted to any RLC entity associated with the source cell; and for the PDCP control PDU associated with the target cell, it is submitted to any RLC entity associated with the target cell.

The following is an example of the enhancements to TS 38.323 proposed by this application:

In some embodiments, when the PDCP entity is configured for an application-level PDU Set and the sent PDCP entity is associated with two RLC entities corresponding to the same predetermined first information, the number of PDCP SDUs submitted to the lower layer is minimized before receiving a lower layer request, and the PDCP sequence number interval between the PDCP SDUs submitted to the two RLC entities corresponding to the same predetermined first information is minimized.

For example, if the PDCP entity is configured for application-level PDU Set, and the sending PDCP entity is associated with two RLC entities corresponding to PDU Sets with the same first information (e.g., "importance information of protocol data unit set (PDU Set)"), the terminal device should minimize the number of PDCP SDUs submitted to the lower layer before receiving the lower layer request, and minimize the PDCP sequence number interval between the two associated RLC entities. Thereby, the PDCP reordering delay of the receiving PDCP entity is minimized.

For example, when the DRB corresponding to the PDU Set is configured for PDCP repeated transmission, the network side can activate or deactivate PDCP repeated transmission for all or part of the RLC entities associated with the PDU Set corresponding to the configured DRB that has the same first information (for example, "importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set)").

For example, the "duplicationState-XR" field in the first signaling is semi-statically configured while being activated or deactivated through a more dynamic second signaling.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

303. Receive a second signaling: wherein the second signaling activates and/or deactivates repeated transmission of the RLC entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set); in some embodiments, the second signaling is MAC CE; when the second signaling indicates activation of one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) with the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP repeated transmission, indicate the activation information to the upper layer; and/or, when the second signaling indicates deactivation of one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) with the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP repeated transmission, indicate the deactivation information to the upper layer.

For example, the name of the second signaling is "Duplication RLC for PDU Set Activation/Deactivation MAC CE"; if the DRB used for PDU Set is configured for PDCP repeated transmission, the MAC entity needs to perform the following operations: If "Duplication RLC for PDU Set Activation/Deactivation MAC CE" is received, indicating that one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) with the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP repeated transmission are activated, then a data radio bearer (DRB) with the same predetermined first information carried by the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) will be activated. The activation information for activating one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) of the predetermined first information is indicated to the upper layer; if "Duplication RLC for PDU Set Activation/Deactivation MAC CE" is received, in the case of deactivating one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) with the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP duplicate transmission, then the deactivation information for deactivating one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) with the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) is indicated to the upper layer.

In some embodiments, the activation information and/or the deactivation information includes: a DRB identification field, which indicates the identification of the DRB corresponding to the second signaling; a first information (i) field, which indicates the first information value with index position (i); an RLC (ij) field, which indicates the PDCP repetition transmission activation/deactivation status of the RLC entity (j) associated with the first information (i); wherein (j) is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identification of the non-primary RLC entity associated with the first information (i), and is sorted in the order of MCG first and then SCG; when the RLC (ij) field is set to the first value, it indicates that the PDCP repetition transmission of the RLC entity (j) is activated; when the RLC (ij) field is set to the second value, it indicates that the PDCP repetition transmission of the RLC entity (j) is deactivated.

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a second signaling according to an implementation manner of the present application.

For example, the second signaling "Duplication RLC for PDU Set Activation/Deactivation MAC CE" is identified by a MAC subheader with the specified eLCID (extended logical channel ID).

For example, the length of the MAC CE is variable and contains N+1 bytes, where N is the number of different PDU Set Importance values corresponding to the RLC entities that need to be activated/deactivated.

For example, as shown in Figure 5, the DRB identification field (DRB ID field) indicates the identification of the DRB targeted by the MAC CE, for example, the field length is 5 bits; the first information (i) field (PDU Set Importance i) field indicates the PDU Set Importance value at index i, for example, the field length is assumed to be 5 bits; the RLC (ij) field (RLCij) field indicates the PDCP repetition transmission activation/deactivation status of the RLC entity j associated with PDU Set Importance i; wherein j is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifiers of the non-primary RLC entities associated with PDU Set Importance i, and in the order of MCG and SCG; for example, if the RLCij field is set to 1, then the PDCP repetition transmission of the RLC entity j is activated; if the RLCij field is set to 0, then the PDCP repetition transmission of the RLC entity j is deactivated.

For example, Figure 5 takes the first information (i) field (PDU Set Importance i) field as 5 bits as an example, wherein each byte (Oct 2-Oct N+1 in Figure 5) can indicate the PDCP repeated transmission activation status of each non-primary RLC entity corresponding to a PDU Set corresponding to a PDU Set Importance information; if the number of non-primary RLC entities is less than 3, then the value of the corresponding high (or low) bit in RLCij is ignored; wherein, if the first information (i) field (PDU Set Importance i) field is other bit lengths, the format design can be performed according to other methods, such as adding reserved bits (R) and other methods, and the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

In some embodiments, activating and/or deactivating repeated transmission of the RLC entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) through the second signaling also includes: simultaneously activating/deactivating RLC entities associated with multiple DRBs.

For example, multiple RLC entities associated with DRBs may be activated/deactivated simultaneously through the same second signaling. Fig. 6 is another schematic diagram of the second signaling of an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG6 , taking the first information (i) field (PDU Set Importance i) field as 1 byte as an example, the second signaling "Duplication RLC for PDU Set Activation/Deactivation MAC CE" is identified by a MAC subheader with a specified eLCID (extended logical channel ID); for example, the length of the MAC CE is variable, including 2N bytes, N is the number of different combination values corresponding to the RLC entity that needs to be activated/deactivated, for example, the combination is (DRB ID, PDU Set Importance). For example, every two bytes represent the PDCP activation/deactivation state of a non-primary RLC entity corresponding to a (DRB, PDU Set Importance) combination value. Among them, the content of the specific fields of FIG6 is similar to that of FIG5 , and will not be repeated here.

In some implementations, the above two types of MAC CE can also be supported simultaneously. For example, when it is necessary to activate/deactivate RLC entities associated with multiple PDU Set Importance values in the same DRB, the MAC CE format shown in Figure 5 is used, and when it is necessary to activate/deactivate RLC entities associated with multiple DRBs, the MAC CE format shown in Figure 6 is used.

The above embodiments are merely exemplary of the embodiments of the present application, but the present application is not limited thereto, and appropriate modifications may be made based on the above embodiments. For example, the above embodiments may be used alone, or one or more of the above embodiments may be combined.

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the present application performs repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching on the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, and reducing resource waste. In addition, it can ensure the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meet the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

Embodiments of the second aspect

The embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method, which is applied to a network device side. The embodiment of the present application can be combined with the embodiment of the first aspect, or can be implemented separately. The same contents as the embodiment of the first aspect are not repeated here.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a data sending method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 7 , the method includes:

701, sending a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a PDCP entity corresponding to a data radio bearer (DRB); and/or, the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

Therefore, the present application performs repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or DAPS switching of the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, reducing resource waste, and ensuring the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meeting the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

In some embodiments, the first signaling includes a first field, wherein the first field configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission; and/or the first field configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission; when the value of the first field is true, the PDCP entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, and/or when the value of the first field is false, the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity deactivates repeated transmission.

In some embodiments, when the PDCP entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, including: performing repeated transmission between RLC entities corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

In some embodiments, when the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission; the first signaling also includes a second field, wherein the second field indicates at least one primary path; and/or the first signaling also includes a third field, wherein the third field indicates at least one secondary path of separate transmission.

In some embodiments, when the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separate bearer, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable; wherein the main path and/or auxiliary path of the separate transmission is determined based on the second field and/or the third field.

In some embodiments, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable, including: when at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information corresponds to multiple RLC entities and the multiple RLC entities belong to different cell groups, separate transmission is performed on the multiple RLC entities corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

In some embodiments, the first signaling is an RRC-Reconfiguration message; the second field and/or the third field and/or the fourth field are included in a configuration field for configuring parameters related to the PDCP entity.

In some embodiments, the second field includes a first list, wherein the first list includes: a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a primary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity used for uplink data transmission when the PDU group is associated with multiple RLC entities.

In some implementations, the primary RLC entity belongs to a cell group corresponding to a cell group field in a primary path field.

In some embodiments, the first list is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifier (LCID).

In some embodiments, the third field includes a second list, wherein the second list includes: a logical channel identifier corresponding to a separated secondary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity indicated for uplink data transmission to fall back to a separated bearer when the DRB corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separated bearer.

In some embodiments, the second list is arranged in ascending order of the logical channel identifier corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity; wherein, when the primary RLC entity corresponding to a specific index position in the third field does not have a corresponding separated secondary RLC entity in a different cell group, the third field of the index position is ignored.

In some implementations, the fourth field includes a third list, and the third list indicates the status of repeated transmission of each associated uplink RLC entity when the first signaling is received.

In some embodiments, each value in the third list of the fourth field is an X-bit bitmap, and the bitmap indicates whether other non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the index position are in a repeated transmission activation or deactivation state; in the case where the bit is the first value, the repeated transmission of the RLC entity corresponding to the bit is activated; wherein the indication order of the X bits is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifiers of other associated RLC entities except the primary RLC entity, and is sorted in order of the primary cell group and the secondary cell group.

In some embodiments, when the number of non-master RLC entities corresponding to the master RLC entity is less than X, the high-order indication of the bitmap is ignored; and/or the repeated transmission status corresponding to the master RLC entity of the fourth field is arranged in ascending order of the value of the logical channel identifier corresponding to the master RLC entity of the corresponding first field; and/or when the master RLC entity of a specific index has no corresponding non-master RLC entity, the fourth field of the index position is ignored.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

702. Send a second signaling: wherein the second signaling activates and/or deactivates repeated transmission of the RLC entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

In some embodiments, the second signaling is a MAC CE, and the second signaling includes activation information or deactivation information of one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP repeated transmission.

In some embodiments, the activation information and/or the deactivation information includes: a DRB identification field, which indicates the identification of the DRB corresponding to the second signaling; a first information (i) field, which indicates the first information value with index position (i); an RLC (ij) field, which indicates the PDCP repetition transmission activation/deactivation status of the RLC entity j associated with the first information (i); wherein (j) is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identification of the non-primary RLC entity associated with the first information (i), and is sorted in the order of MCG first and then SCG; when the RLC (ij) field is set to the first value, it indicates that the PDCP repetition transmission of the RLC entity (j) is activated; when the RLC (ij) field is set to the second value, it indicates that the PDCP repetition transmission of the RLC entity (j) is deactivated.

It is worth noting that the above FIG. 7 is only a schematic illustration of the embodiment of the present application, but the present application is not limited thereto. For example, the execution order between the various operations can be appropriately adjusted, and other operations can be added or some operations can be reduced. Those skilled in the art can make appropriate modifications based on the above content, and are not limited to the description of the above FIG. 7.

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the present application performs repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching on the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, reducing resource waste, and ensuring the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meeting the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

Embodiments of the third aspect

The embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission device, which may be, for example, a terminal device, or may be one or more components or assemblies configured in the terminal device; in addition, the same contents as those in the embodiment of the first aspect are not repeated here.

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of a data transmission device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG8 , the data transmission device 800 includes:

a transmission unit 801, which performs repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or dual active protocol stack (DAPS) switching on a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information,

Among them, one of the data radio bearers (DRB) includes at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

Therefore, the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) is repeatedly transmitted and/or separately transmitted and/or DAPS switched according to the first information, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, reducing resource waste, and ensuring the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meeting the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

In some embodiments, the transmission unit 801 includes: a mapping unit 8011, which maps the at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group on the data radio bearer (DRB) to a corresponding radio link control (RLC) bearer based on the configuration related to the repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) switching.

In some embodiments, the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Identification information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

a protocol data unit (PDU) sequence number within the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

The start and/or end flag of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Size information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Identification information of the quality of service (QoS) flow to which the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped;

identification information of the sub-quality of service (QoS) flow to which the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped; or

The identification information of the protocol data unit (PDU) group.

In some embodiments, the data transmission device 800 also includes: a first receiving unit 802, which receives a first signaling, wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity corresponding to the data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures an activation state and/or deactivation state of the repeated transmission.

In some embodiments, the first signaling includes a first field, wherein the first field configures repeated transmission and/or separated transmission; and/or the first field configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

In case the value of the first field is true, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, and the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, and/or

When the value of the first field is false, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission, and a radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity deactivates repeated transmission.

In some embodiments, when the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, including: performing repeated transmission between radio link control (RLC) entities corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

In some embodiments, wherein the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission; the first signaling also includes a second field, wherein the second field indicates at least one primary path; and/or the first signaling also includes a third field, wherein the third field indicates at least one secondary path of separate transmission.

In some embodiments, when the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is a separate bearer, the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable; wherein the main path and/or auxiliary path of the separate transmission is determined based on the second field and/or the third field.

In some embodiments, the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity implementing or falling back to separate transmission when applicable includes:

When at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information corresponds to multiple radio link control (RLC) entities and the multiple radio link control (RLC) entities belong to different cell groups, the multiple radio link control (RLC) entities corresponding to the at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) are transmitted separately.

In some embodiments, the first signaling also includes a fourth field, wherein the first field is ignored when the fourth field is configured, wherein the fourth field configures the repeated transmission activation and/or deactivation status of each non-primary radio link control (RLC) entity corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

In some embodiments, the second field includes a first list, wherein the first list includes: a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a primary radio link control (RLC) entity, wherein the logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary radio link control (RLC) entity is a logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary radio link control (RLC) entity used for uplink data transmission when the protocol data unit (PDU) group is associated with multiple radio link control (RLC) entities.

In some embodiments, the third field includes a second list, wherein the second list includes: a logical channel identifier corresponding to a separated secondary radio link control (RLC) entity, wherein the logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary radio link control (RLC) entity is a logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary radio link control (RLC) entity indicated for uplink data transmission to fall back to a separated bearer when the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is a separated bearer.

In some embodiments, the fourth field includes a third list indicating a status of repeated transmission of each associated uplink radio link control (RLC) entity when the first signaling is received.

In some embodiments, when the data radio bearer (DRB) is configured with a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) bearer, the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity corresponding to the data radio bearer (DRB) performs a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) switch when applicable; wherein, the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped to two radio link control (RLC) entities available for uplink transmission carried by the dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) bearer, and when one of the two radio link control (RLC) entities available for uplink transmission is for a source cell and the other of the two radio link control (RLC) entities available for uplink transmission is for a target cell, the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) performs a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) switch.

In some embodiments, in a data radio bearer (DRB) including at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group, each of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups is associated with the same number of RLC bearers in each cell group.

In some implementations, the number of radio link control (RLC) entities associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is determined by at least one of the following:

the number of values of the predetermined type of information in the first information,

Characteristics of the Radio Bearer (RB); or

Radio Link Control (RLC) mode.

In some embodiments, the mapping unit 8011 is further configured to: for a separate bearer or a wireless bearer configured with repeated transmission of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), for each transmission direction, each packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is associated with less than or equal to N×M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities; or is associated with less than or equal to N×M acknowledged mode (AM) radio link control (RLC) entities, where; for a separate bearer: N=2; for a wireless bearer configured with repeated transmission of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP): 2<=N<=4; for a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) bearer, for each transmission direction , each packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is associated with less than or equal to M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the source cell and less than or equal to M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the target cell; or is associated with less than or equal to M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the source cell and less than or equal to M acknowledged mode (AM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the target cell; wherein M represents the number of different primary radio link control (RLC) entities mapped to the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) included in the data radio bearer (DRB).

In some embodiments, the transmission unit 801 also includes: a submission unit 8012, which submits the data service data unit (SDU) to the corresponding radio link control (RLC) entity according to the first information in the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) header of the data service data unit (SDU) and the mapping relationship from the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) configured by the radio resource control (RRC) to the radio link control (RLC) bearer, and/or the repeated transmission activation status of the radio link control (RLC) entity.

In some implementations, the submitting unit 8012 is further configured to:

duplicating a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU), and submitting the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) to an associated radio link control (RLC) entity activated for packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) repeat transmission according to the first information; and/or

A separate secondary radio link control (RLC) entity is configured for at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information, and when the size of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is equal to or higher than a first threshold, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is submitted to a primary radio link control (RLC) entity or a separate secondary radio link control (RLC) entity according to the first information; and/or, when the size of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is lower than the first threshold, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is submitted to the corresponding primary radio link control (RLC) entity according to the first information; and/or

In the case where the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity sent is associated with a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) bearer:

When uplink data switching is not required: submitting the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) to a radio link control (RLC) entity associated with a source cell according to the first information;

When uplink data switching is required: submit the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) to the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the target cell according to the first information, and/or, for the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) associated with the source cell, submit the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) to any radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the source cell, and for the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) associated with the target cell, submit the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) to any radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the target cell.

In some embodiments, the submission unit 8012 is further configured to: when the sending PDCP entity is associated with at least two of the RLC entities, and PDCP retransmission is activated, and the PDCP entity is configured for application-level PDU Set: copy the PDCP data PDU, and submit the PDCP data PDU to the associated RLC entity with PDCP retransmission activated according to the first information.

In some embodiments, the submission unit 8012 is further configured to: when the sent PDCP entity is associated with at least two of the RLC entities, and PDCP repeated transmission is not configured or deactivated, and the PDCP entity is configured for a PDU Set at the application level, a separate secondary RLC entity is configured for at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information, when the size of the PDCP data PDU is equal to or higher than a first threshold, submit the PDCP data PDU to the primary RLC entity or the separated secondary RLC entity according to the first information; and/or, when the size of the PDCP data PDU is lower than the first threshold, submit the PDCP data PDU to the corresponding primary RLC entity according to the first information.

In some embodiments, the submission unit 8012 is further configured to: when the PDCP entity sent is associated with a DAPS bearer and the PDCP entity is configured for an application-level PDU Set: when uplink data switching is not required: submit the PDCP data PDU to the RLC entity associated with the source cell according to the first information; when uplink data switching is required: submit the PDCP data PDU to the RLC entity associated with the target cell according to the first information, and, for the PDCP control PDU associated with the source cell, submit the PDCP control PDU to any RLC entity associated with the source cell, and for the PDCP control PDU associated with the target cell, submit the PDCP control PDU to any RLC entity associated with the target cell.

In some embodiments, the submission unit 8012 is further configured to: minimize the number of PDCP SDUs submitted to the lower layer before receiving a lower layer request, and minimize the PDCP sequence number interval between the two RLC entities corresponding to the same predetermined first information, when the PDCP entity is configured for an application-level PDU Set and the sent PDCP entity is associated with two RLC entities corresponding to the same predetermined first information.

In some embodiments, the data transmission device 800 also includes: a second receiving unit 803, which receives a second signaling, wherein the second signaling activates and/or deactivates repeated transmission of a radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

In some embodiments, the second signaling is a MAC control element (MAC CE); when the second signaling indicates activation of one or more radio link control (RLC) entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with repeated transmission of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), the activation information is indicated to an upper layer; and/or,

When the second signaling indicates the deactivation of one or more radio link control (RLC) entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with repeated transmission of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), the deactivation information is indicated to the upper layer.

In some implementations, the activation information and/or the deactivation information includes:

A DRB identification field, which indicates an identification of the DRB corresponding to the second signaling;

A first information (i) field indicating a first information value at index position (i);

An RLC (ij) field, which indicates the status of PDCP repetitive transmission activation/deactivation for the RLC entity (j) associated with the first information (i); wherein (j) is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifier of the non-primary RLC entity associated with the first information (i), and is sorted in the order of MCG first and then SCG; when the RLC (ij) field is set to a first value, it indicates that the PDCP repetitive transmission of the RLC entity (j) is activated; when the RLC (ij) field is set to a second value, it indicates that the PDCP repetitive transmission of the RLC entity (j) is deactivated.

It is worth noting that the above only describes the components or modules related to the present application, but the present application is not limited thereto. The data transmission device 800 may also include other components or modules, and the specific contents of these components or modules may refer to the relevant technology.

In addition, for the sake of simplicity, FIG8 only exemplifies the connection relationship or signal direction between various components or modules, but it should be clear to those skilled in the art that various related technologies such as bus connection can be used. The above-mentioned various components or modules can be implemented by hardware facilities such as processors, memories, transmitters, and receivers; the implementation of this application is not limited to this.

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the present application performs repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching on the protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by the data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information, thereby improving the transmission performance of the XRM service, further improving the efficiency in resource allocation and packet loss processing, reducing resource waste, and can ensure the processing of differentiated PDU Sets and meet the integrated data processing requirements of PDU Sets.

Embodiments of the fourth aspect

The embodiment of the present application provides a data sending device, which may be, for example, a network device, or may be one or more components or assemblies configured in the network device, and the same contents as those in the embodiment of the second aspect will not be repeated.

FIG9 is a schematic diagram of a data sending device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG9 , the data sending device 900 includes:

A first sending unit 901, which sends a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity corresponding to a data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

In some embodiments, when the number of non-master RLC entities corresponding to the master RLC entity is less than X, the high-order indication of the bitmap is ignored; and/or the repeated transmission states corresponding to the master RLC entities of the fourth field are arranged in ascending order of the values of the logical channel identifiers corresponding to the master RLC entities of the corresponding first field; and/or when the master RLC entity of a specific index has no corresponding non-master RLC entity, the fourth field of the index position is ignored.

In some embodiments, the data sending device 900 also includes: a second sending unit 902, which sends a second signaling: wherein the second signaling activates and/or deactivates repeated transmission of the RLC entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

It is worth noting that the above only describes the components or modules related to the present application, but the present application is not limited thereto. The data sending device 900 may also include other components or modules, and the specific contents of these components or modules may refer to the relevant technology.

In addition, for the sake of simplicity, FIG. 9 only exemplifies the connection relationship or signal direction between various components or modules, but it should be clear to those skilled in the art that various related technologies such as bus connection can be used. The above-mentioned various components or modules can be implemented by hardware facilities such as processors, memories, transmitters, and receivers; the implementation of this application is not limited to this.

Embodiments of the fifth aspect

An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, and the contents that are the same as those of the embodiments of the first to fourth aspects are not repeated here.

In some embodiments, the communication system may include at least:

A network device that sends a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a PDCP entity corresponding to a data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

A terminal device, which performs repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or DAPS switching on a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information,

An embodiment of the present application further provides a network device, which may be, for example, a base station, but the present application is not limited thereto and may also be other network devices.

FIG10 is a schematic diagram of the composition of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG10 , the network device 1000 may include: a processor 1010 (e.g., a central processing unit CPU) and a memory 1020; the memory 1020 is coupled to the processor 1010. The memory 1020 may store various data; in addition, it may also store a program 1030 for information processing, and the program 1030 may be executed under the control of the processor 1010, thereby implementing the method described in the embodiment of the second aspect.

In addition, as shown in FIG10 , the network device 1000 may further include: a transceiver 1040 and an antenna 1050, etc.; wherein the functions of the above components are similar to those of the prior art and are not described in detail here. It is worth noting that the network device 1000 does not necessarily have to include all the components shown in FIG10 ; in addition, the network device 1000 may also include components not shown in FIG10 , which may refer to the prior art.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a terminal device, but the present application is not limited thereto and may also be other devices.

FIG11 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG11 , the terminal device 1100 may include a processor 1110 and a memory 1120; the memory 1120 stores data and programs and is coupled to the processor 1110. It is worth noting that the figure is exemplary; other types of structures may also be used to supplement or replace the structure to implement telecommunication functions or other functions.

For example, the processor 1110 may be configured to execute a program to implement the data transmission method as described in the embodiment of the first aspect. For example, the processor 1110 may be configured to perform the following control: repeat transmission or/and separate transmission and/or dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) switching of a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information, wherein one of the data radio bearers (DRB) includes at least one of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

As shown in FIG11 , the terminal device 1100 may further include: a communication module 1130, an input unit 1140, a display 1150, and a power supply 1160. The functions of the above components are similar to those in the prior art and are not described in detail here. It is worth noting that the terminal device 1100 does not necessarily include all the components shown in FIG11 , and the above components are not necessary; in addition, the terminal device 1100 may also include components not shown in FIG11 , and reference may be made to the prior art.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program, wherein when the program is executed in a terminal device, the program enables the terminal device to execute the data transmission method described in the embodiment of the first aspect.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program enables a terminal device to execute the data transmission method described in the embodiment of the first aspect.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program, wherein when the program is executed in a terminal device, the program causes the terminal device to execute the data sending method described in the embodiment of the second aspect.

An embodiment of the present application also provides a storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program enables a terminal device to execute the data sending method described in the embodiment of the second aspect.

The above devices and methods of the present application can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware combined with software. The present application relates to such a computer-readable program, which, when executed by a logic component, enables the logic component to implement the above-mentioned devices or components, or enables the logic component to implement the various methods or steps described above. The present application also relates to a storage medium for storing the above program, such as a hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a DVD, a flash memory, etc.

The method/device described in conjunction with the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as hardware, a software module executed by a processor, or a combination of the two. For example, one or more of the functional block diagrams shown in the figure and/or one or more combinations of the functional block diagrams may correspond to various software modules of the computer program flow or to various hardware modules. These software modules may correspond to the various steps shown in the figure, respectively. These hardware modules may be implemented by solidifying these software modules, for example, using a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

The software module may be located in a RAM memory, a flash memory, a ROM memory, an EPROM memory, an EEPROM memory, a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium known in the art. A storage medium may be coupled to a processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium; or the storage medium may be an integral part of the processor. The processor and the storage medium may be located in an ASIC. The software module may be stored in a memory of a mobile terminal or in a memory card that can be inserted into the mobile terminal. For example, if a device (such as a mobile terminal) uses a large-capacity MEGA-SIM card or a large-capacity flash memory device, the software module may be stored in the MEGA-SIM card or the large-capacity flash memory device.

For one or more of the functional blocks described in the drawings and/or one or more combinations of functional blocks, it can be implemented as a general-purpose processor, digital signal processor (DSP), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component or any appropriate combination thereof for performing the functions described in the present application. For one or more of the functional blocks described in the drawings and/or one or more combinations of functional blocks, it can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in communication with a DSP, or any other such configuration.

The present application is described above in conjunction with specific implementation methods, but it should be clear to those skilled in the art that these descriptions are exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present application. Those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to the present application based on the spirit and principles of the present application, and these modifications and variations are also within the scope of the present application.

Regarding the implementation methods including the above embodiments, the following additional notes are also disclosed:

1. A data transmission method, wherein the method comprises:

2. According to the method described in Note 1, based on the configuration related to the repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or DAPS switching, the at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group on the data radio bearer (DRB) is mapped to the corresponding radio link control (RLC) bearer.

3. The method according to Note 1, wherein the first information includes at least one of the following information:

Importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Identification information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

The start and/or end flag of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Size information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

The identification information of the protocol data unit (PDU) group.

4. The method according to Note 3, wherein the method further includes: receiving a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of the PDCP entity corresponding to the data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures the activation state and/or deactivation state of the repeated transmission.

5. The method according to Note 4, wherein the first signaling includes a first field, wherein the first field configures repeated transmission and/or separated transmission; and/or the first field configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

In case the value of the first field is true, the PDCP entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, and/or

In case the value of the first field is false, the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission, and the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity deactivates repeated transmission.

6. The method according to Note 5, wherein, when the PDCP entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, including:

Repeated transmission is performed between RLC entities corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

7. The method according to Note 5, wherein, in the case where the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission;

The first signaling further includes a second field, wherein the second field indicates at least one primary path; and/or,

The first signaling further includes a third field, wherein the third field indicates at least one secondary path of separate transmission.

8. The method according to Note 7, wherein, in the case where the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separate bearer, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable;

Wherein, the main path and/or auxiliary path of the separated transmission is determined according to the second field and/or the third field.

9. The method according to Note 8, wherein the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable, including:

When at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information corresponds to multiple RLC entities and the multiple RLC entities belong to different cell groups, the multiple RLC entities corresponding to the at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) are transmitted separately.

10. The method according to Note 7, wherein the first signaling further includes a fourth field,

Wherein, the first field is ignored when the fourth field is configured, wherein the fourth field configures the repeated transmission activation and/or deactivation status of each non-primary RLC entity corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.

11. The method according to Note 10, wherein the first signaling is a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration (RRC-Reconfiguration) message; the second field and/or the third field and/or the fourth field are included in the configuration field for configuring parameters related to the PDCP entity.

12. The method according to Note 11, wherein the second field includes a first list, and the first list includes: a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a primary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity used for uplink data transmission when the PDU group is associated with multiple RLC entities.

13. The method according to Note 12, wherein the main RLC entity belongs to the cell group corresponding to the cell group field in the main path field.

14. The method according to Note 12, wherein, in the first list, the logical channel identifier (LCID) is sorted in ascending order.

15. A method according to Note 11, wherein the third field includes a second list, wherein the second list includes: a logical channel identifier corresponding to a separated secondary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity indicated for uplink data transmission to fall back to a separated bearer when the DRB corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separated bearer.

16. A method according to Note 15, wherein the second list is arranged in ascending order of the logical channel identifier corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity; wherein, when the primary RLC entity corresponding to a specific index position in the third field does not have a corresponding separated secondary RLC entity in a different cell group, the third field of the index position is ignored.

17. The method according to Note 11, wherein the fourth field includes a third list, and the third list indicates the status of repeated transmission of each associated uplink RLC entity when the first signaling is received.

18. A method according to Note 17, wherein each value in the third list of the fourth field is an X-bit bitmap, and the bitmap indicates whether other non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the index position are in a repeated transmission activation or deactivation state; in the case where the bit is the first value, the repeated transmission of the RLC entity corresponding to the bit is activated; wherein the indication order of the X bits is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifiers of other associated RLC entities except the primary RLC entity, and is sorted in the order of the primary cell group and the secondary cell group.

19. The method according to Note 18, wherein:

When the number of non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity is less than X, ignoring the high-order indication of the bitmap; and/or

The repetitive transmission states corresponding to the master RLC entity of the fourth field are arranged in ascending order according to the values of the logical channel identifiers corresponding to the master RLC entities of the corresponding first field; and/or

In the case where a master RLC entity at a specific index has no corresponding non-master RLC entity, the fourth field at the index position is ignored.

20. The method according to Note 3, wherein, in the case where the data radio bearer (DRB) is configured with a DAPS bearer, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity corresponding to the DRB performs DAPS switching when applicable;

Wherein, the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped to two RLC entities available for uplink transmission carried by the DAPS and, in the case where one of the two RLC entities available for uplink transmission is for a source cell and the other of the two RLC entities available for uplink transmission is for a target cell,

Perform DAPS switching on the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

21. A method according to Note 3, wherein, in a data radio bearer (DRB) comprising at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group, each of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups has the same number of RLC bearers associated with each cell group.

22. The method according to Note 4, wherein the number of radio link control (RLC) entities associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is determined by at least one of the following:

Characteristics of the Radio Bearer (RB); or

Radio Link Control (RLC) mode.

23. The method according to Note 22, wherein:

For split bearers or radio bearers configured with PDCP retransmission, for each transmission direction, each PDCP entity is associated with less than or equal to N×M UM RLC entities; or is associated with less than or equal to N×M AM RLC entities, where: for split bearers: N=2; for radio bearers configured with PDCP retransmission: 2<=N<=4;

For DAPS bearers, for each transmission direction, each PDCP entity is associated with less than or equal to M UM RLC entities for the source cell and less than or equal to M UM RLC entities for the target cell; or is associated with less than or equal to M UM RLC entities for the source cell and less than or equal to M AM RLC entities for the target cell;

Among them, M represents the number of different main RLC entities mapped by the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) included in the data radio bearer (DRB).

24. The method according to Note 4, wherein the method further comprises:

According to the first information in the SDAP header of the data SDU and the mapping relationship between the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) configured by RRC and the radio link control (RLC) bearer, and/or the repeated transmission activation status of the RLC entity, the data SDU is submitted to the corresponding RLC entity.

25. The method according to Note 24, wherein the method further comprises:

In case the PDCP entity sending is associated with at least two of the RLC entities, PDCP retransmission is activated, and the PDCP entity is configured for application level PDU Set:

The PDCP data PDU is copied and submitted to the associated RLC entity activated for PDCP repeat transmission according to the first information.

26. The method according to Note 24, wherein the method further comprises:

In the case where the PDCP entity sending is associated with at least two of the RLC entities, and PDCP retransmission is not configured or deactivated, and the PDCP entity is configured for application-level PDU Set,

A separate secondary RLC entity is configured for at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information, and when the size of the PDCP data PDU is equal to or higher than a first threshold, the PDCP data PDU is submitted to the primary RLC entity or the separated secondary RLC entity according to the first information; and/or, when the size of the PDCP data PDU is lower than the first threshold, the PDCP data PDU is submitted to the corresponding primary RLC entity according to the first information.

27. The method according to Note 24, wherein the method further comprises: when the PDCP entity sent is associated with a DAPS bearer and the PDCP entity is configured as a PDU Set for application level:

When uplink data switching is not required: submitting the PDCP data PDU to the RLC entity associated with the source cell according to the first information;

When uplink data switching is required: submit the PDCP data PDU to the RLC entity associated with the target cell according to the first information, and, for the PDCP control PDU associated with the source cell, submit the PDCP control PDU to any RLC entity associated with the source cell, and for the PDCP control PDU associated with the target cell, submit the PDCP control PDU to any RLC entity associated with the target cell.

28. The method according to Note 24, wherein the method further comprises:

In case the PDCP entity is configured for an application level PDU Set and the PDCP entity sending is associated to two RLC entities corresponding to the same predetermined first information,

Minimize the number of PDCP SDUs submitted to the lower layer before receiving a lower layer request, and minimize the PDCP sequence number interval between the two RLC entities corresponding to the same predetermined first information.

29. According to the method described in Note 3, the method also includes receiving a second signaling; wherein the second signaling activates and/or deactivates the repeated transmission of the RLC entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

30. The method according to Note 29, wherein the second signaling is MAC CE;

In case the second signaling indicates activation of one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP repeated transmission, indicating activation information to an upper layer; and/or,

When the second signaling indicates the deactivation of one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP repeated transmission, the deactivation information is indicated to the upper layer.

31. The method according to Note 30, wherein the activation information and/or the deactivation information comprises:

32. According to the method described in Note 29, the repeated transmission of the RLC entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) activated and/or deactivated by the second signaling also includes: simultaneously activating/deactivating RLC entities associated with multiple DRBs.

33. A data transmission method, wherein the method comprises:

34. The method according to Note 33, wherein the first signaling includes a first field, wherein the first field configures repeated transmission and/or separated transmission; and/or the first field configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

35. The method according to Note 34, wherein, in a case where the PDCP entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, comprising:

36. The method according to Note 34, wherein, in a case where the PDCP entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission;

37. The method according to Note 36, wherein, in the case where the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separate bearer, the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable;

38. The method according to Note 37, wherein the RLC entity associated with the PDCP entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable, including:

39. The method according to Note 34, wherein the first signaling further includes a fourth field,

40. The method according to Note 39, wherein the first signaling is an RRC-Reconfiguration message; the second field and/or the third field and/or the fourth field are included in the configuration field for configuring parameters related to the PDCP entity.

41. A method according to Note 40, wherein the second field includes a first list, and the first list includes: a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a primary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary RLC entity used for uplink data transmission when the PDU group is associated with multiple RLC entities.

42. A method according to Note 41, wherein the main RLC entity belongs to the cell group corresponding to the cell group field in the main path field.

43. A method according to Note 41, wherein, in the first list, the logical channel identifier (LCID) is sorted in ascending order.

44. A method according to Note 40, wherein the third field includes a second list, wherein the second list includes: a logical channel identifier corresponding to a separated secondary RLC entity, wherein the logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity is a logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity indicated for uplink data transmission to fall back to a separated bearer when the DRB corresponding to the PDCP entity is a separated bearer.

45. A method according to Note 44, wherein the second list is arranged in ascending order of the logical channel identifier corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the separated secondary RLC entity; wherein, when the primary RLC entity corresponding to a specific index position in the third field does not have a corresponding separated secondary RLC entity in a different cell group, the third field of the index position is ignored.

46. A method according to Note 40, wherein the fourth field includes a third list, and the third list indicates the status of repeated transmission of each associated uplink RLC entity when the first signaling is received.

47. A method according to Note 46, wherein each value in the third list of the fourth field is an X-bit bitmap, and the bitmap indicates whether other non-primary RLC entities corresponding to the primary RLC entity corresponding to the index position are in a repeated transmission activation or deactivation state; in the case where the bit is the first value, the repeated transmission of the RLC entity corresponding to the bit is activated; wherein the indication order of the X bits is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifiers of other associated RLC entities except the primary RLC entity, and is sorted in the order of the primary cell group and the secondary cell group.

48. The method according to Note 47, wherein:

49. The method according to Note 33, further comprising:

Sending a second signaling: wherein the second signaling activates and/or deactivates repeated transmission of the RLC entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).

50. The method according to Note 49, wherein the second signaling is MAC CE, and the second signaling includes activation information or deactivation information of one or more RLC entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with PDCP repeated transmission.

51. The method according to note 50, wherein the activation information and/or the deactivation information comprises:

An RLC (ij) field, which indicates the status of PDCP repetitive transmission activation/deactivation for the RLC entity j associated with the first information (i); wherein (j) is sorted in ascending order of the logical channel identifier of the non-primary RLC entity associated with the first information (i), and is sorted in the order of MCG first and then SCG; when the RLC (ij) field is set to a first value, it indicates that the PDCP repetitive transmission of the RLC entity (j) is activated; when the RLC (ij) field is set to a second value, it indicates that the PDCP repetitive transmission of the RLC entity (j) is deactivated.

52. A terminal device, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program to implement the data transmission method as described in any one of Notes 1 to 32.

53. A network device, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program to implement the data sending method as described in any one of Notes 33 to 51.

54. A communication system comprising:

Claims

A data transmission device, comprising:

a transmission unit, which performs repeated transmission or/and separate transmission and/or dual active protocol stack (DAPS) switching on a protocol data unit (PDU) group carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) according to the first information,

Wherein, one of the data radio bearers (DRB) includes at least one of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.
The device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission unit comprises:

A mapping unit, which maps the at least one protocol data unit (PDU) group on the data radio bearer (DRB) to a corresponding radio link control (RLC) bearer based on the configuration related to the repeated transmission and/or separate transmission and/or dual active protocol stack (DAPS) switching.
The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following information:

Importance information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Identification information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

a protocol data unit (PDU) sequence number within the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

The start and/or end flag of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Size information of the protocol data unit set (PDU Set);

Identification information of the quality of service (QoS) flow to which the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped;

identification information of the sub-quality of service (QoS) flow to which the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped; or

The identification information of the protocol data unit (PDU) group.
The device according to claim 3, wherein the data transmission device further comprises:

A first receiving unit receives a first signaling, wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity corresponding to the data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of the repeated transmission.
The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the first signaling comprises a first field, wherein the first field configures repeated transmission and/or separated transmission; and/or the first field configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

In case the value of the first field is true, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, and the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, and/or

When the value of the first field is false, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission, and a radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity deactivates repeated transmission.
The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, in a case where the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to activate repeated transmission, the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity performs repeated transmission when applicable, comprising:

Repeated transmission is performed between radio link control (RLC) entities corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.
The apparatus of claim 5, wherein, in a case where the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity is configured to deactivate repeated transmission;

The first signaling further includes a second field, wherein the second field indicates at least one primary path; and/or,

The first signaling further includes a third field, wherein the third field indicates at least one secondary path of separate transmission.
The apparatus of claim 7, wherein, in a case where the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is a split bearer, the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) implements or falls back to split transmission when applicable;

Wherein, the main path and/or auxiliary path of the separated transmission is determined according to the second field and/or the third field.
The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity implements or falls back to separate transmission when applicable, comprising:

When at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information corresponds to multiple radio link control (RLC) entities and the multiple radio link control (RLC) entities belong to different cell groups, the multiple radio link control (RLC) entities corresponding to the at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) are transmitted separately.
The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the first signaling further includes a fourth field,

Wherein, the first field is ignored when the fourth field is configured, wherein the fourth field configures the repeated transmission activation and/or deactivation status of each non-primary radio link control (RLC) entity corresponding to at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.
The device according to claim 7, wherein the second field includes a first list, and the first list includes: a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a primary radio link control (RLC) entity, wherein the logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary radio link control (RLC) entity is a logical channel identifier (LCID) of the primary radio link control (RLC) entity used for uplink data transmission when the protocol data unit (PDU) group is associated with multiple radio link control (RLC) entities.
The device according to claim 7, wherein the third field includes a second list, wherein the second list includes: a logical channel identifier corresponding to a separated secondary radio link control (RLC) entity, wherein the logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary radio link control (RLC) entity is a logical channel identifier corresponding to the separated secondary radio link control (RLC) entity indicated for uplink data transmission to fall back to a separated bearer when the data radio bearer (DRB) corresponding to the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is a separated bearer.
The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the fourth field comprises a third list indicating a state of repeated transmission of each associated uplink radio link control (RLC) entity when the first signaling is received.
The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, when the data radio bearer (DRB) is configured with a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) bearer, a radio link control (RLC) entity associated with a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity corresponding to the data radio bearer (DRB) performs a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) switch when applicable;

Wherein, the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) is mapped to two radio link control (RLC) entities available for uplink transmission carried by a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS), and one of the two radio link control (RLC) entities available for uplink transmission is for a source cell, and the other of the two radio link control (RLC) entities available for uplink transmission is for a target cell.

Perform dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) switching on the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).
The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the mapping unit is further configured to:

For a separated bearer or a radio bearer configured with repeated transmission of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), for each transmission direction, each Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity is associated with less than or equal to N×M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities; or is associated with less than or equal to N×M acknowledged mode (AM) radio link control (RLC) entities, where: for a separated bearer: N=2; for a radio bearer configured with repeated transmission of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP): 2<=N<=4;

For a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) bearer, for each transmission direction, each packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity is associated with less than or equal to M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the source cell and less than or equal to M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the target cell; or is associated with less than or equal to M unacknowledged mode (UM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the source cell and less than or equal to M acknowledged mode (AM) radio link control (RLC) entities for the target cell;

Among them, M represents the number of different primary radio link control (RLC) entities mapped by the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) included in the data radio bearer (DRB).
The device according to claim 4, wherein the transmission unit further comprises:

A submission unit, which submits the data service data unit (SDU) to the corresponding radio link control (RLC) entity according to the first information in the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) header of the data service data unit (SDU) and the mapping relationship from the protocol data unit set (PDU Set) configured by the radio resource control (RRC) to the radio link control (RLC) bearer, and/or the repeated transmission activation state of the radio link control (RLC) entity.
The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the submitting unit is further configured to:

duplicating a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU), and submitting the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) to an associated radio link control (RLC) entity activated for packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) repeat transmission according to the first information; and/or

A separate secondary radio link control (RLC) entity is configured for at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information, and when the size of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is equal to or higher than a first threshold, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is submitted to a primary radio link control (RLC) entity or a separate secondary radio link control (RLC) entity according to the first information; and/or, when the size of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is lower than the first threshold, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) is submitted to the corresponding primary radio link control (RLC) entity according to the first information; and/or

In the case where the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity sent is associated with a dual activation protocol stack (DAPS) bearer:

When uplink data switching is not required: submitting the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) to a radio link control (RLC) entity associated with a source cell according to the first information;

When uplink data switching is required: submit the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU) to the radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the target cell according to the first information, and/or, for the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) associated with the source cell, submit the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) to any radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the source cell, and for the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) associated with the target cell, submit the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) to any radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the target cell.
The device according to claim 3, wherein the data transmission device further comprises:

A second receiving unit receives a second signaling, wherein the second signaling activates and/or deactivates repeated transmission of a radio link control (RLC) entity associated with the protocol data unit set (PDU Set).
The device according to claim 18, wherein the second signaling is a MAC control element (MAC CE);

In a case where the second signaling indicates activation of one or more radio link control (RLC) entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with repeated transmission of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), indicating activation information to an upper layer; and/or,

When the second signaling indicates the deactivation of one or more radio link control (RLC) entities associated with at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information carried by a data radio bearer (DRB) configured with repeated transmission of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), the deactivation information is indicated to the upper layer.
A data sending device, wherein the data sending device comprises:

A first sending unit, which sends a first signaling; wherein the first signaling configures repeated transmission and/or separate transmission of a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity corresponding to a data radio bearer (DRB); and/or the first signaling configures an activation state and/or a deactivation state of repeated transmission;

Among them, one of the data radio bearers (DRB) includes at least one of the protocol data unit (PDU) groups, wherein the protocol data unit (PDU) group includes at least one protocol data unit set (PDU Set) having the same predetermined first information.