Device and method in wireless communication system, and computer readable storage medium

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method in a wireless communication system, and a computer-readable storage medium. The apparatus includes a processing circuit, which is configured to: decode a group common physical downlink control channel (group common PDCCH) of a group of user equipment including a target user equipment to obtain control information about multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission of the control channel; and based on the control information, decode the user-specific physical downlink control channel (UE-specific PDCCH) of the target user equipment to obtain exclusive transmission control information about the target user equipment, wherein the UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is superimposed on the same transmission resource for transmission with the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipment. According to at least one aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, MU-MIMO transmission of the downlink control channel is effectively implemented, thereby improving resource utilization.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on February 11, 2018, with application number 201810140997.9 and invention name “Device and method in wireless communication system, computer-readable storage medium”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and more specifically, to an apparatus and method for optimizing multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) transmission in a wireless communication system, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Background Art

[0003] New Radio (NR) is a next-generation wireless access method for Long Term Evolution (LTE) and a radio access technology (RAT) different from LTE. NR is an access technology that can cope with various use cases including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). NR is studied with the goal of developing a technical architecture that corresponds to the utilization scenarios, request conditions, and configuration scenarios in these use cases. The details of NR's scenarios and request conditions are disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1.

[0004] On the one hand, in the current Long Term Evolution (LTE, or 4G) / New Radio Access Technology (NR, or 5G) wireless communication system, "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission of downlink data channels (i.e., physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH) is already supported. The so-called "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission here means that the target user equipment (User Equipment, UE) is unaware of the existence of other user equipments scheduled for MU-MIMO transmission with it, that is, the target UE does not know the exact interference of the layers where the data streams of other user equipments are located on the layer where the target data stream is located, so that the receiver of the target UE only attempts to decode the target data stream and cannot effectively process the inter-layer interference.

[0005] User equipment under "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission is unaware of the interference between multiple users, and is therefore unable to measure interference between multiple users, and is therefore unable to suppress or eliminate interference between multiple users, which reduces the system throughput and reliability to a certain extent.

[0006] On the other hand, in the current 4G / 5G communication system, MU-MIMO transmission of downlink control channels (physical downlink control channels, PDCCH) has not yet been proposed. Specifically, in the prior art, only the user-specific physical downlink control channel (UE-specific PDCCH) for a specific user device is transmitted on a certain transmission resource, and the control channels of different user devices cannot share transmission resources by utilizing the spatial processing capabilities of multiple antennas. In other words, the prior art does not superimpose the UE-specific PDDCH of different user devices on the same transmission resource for transmission, which reduces the utilization rate of time-frequency resources.

[0007] Prior art literature

[0008] Non-patent literature

[0009] Non-patent document 1: 3rd Generation Partnership Project; TechnicalSpecification Group Radio Access Network; Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies; (Release 14), 3GPP TR 38.913 V0.2.0 (2016-02). Summary of the invention

[0010] A brief overview of the disclosure is given below in order to provide a basic understanding of certain aspects of the disclosure. However, it should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify the key or important parts of the disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Its purpose is simply to give certain concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description given later.

[0011] In view of the above problems, an object of at least one aspect of the present disclosure is to provide an apparatus and method in a wireless communication system, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, which can effectively implement MU-MIMO transmission of a downlink control channel.

[0012] Another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide an apparatus and method in a wireless communication system, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, which enable a target user device to indirectly learn of interference from other user devices that are scheduled with it to perform MU-MIMO transmission on a downlink data channel, thereby improving the throughput and reliability of the system.

[0013] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a device in a wireless communication system is provided, the device including a processing circuit, wherein the processing circuit is configured to: decode a group common physical downlink control channel (group common PDCCH) of a group of user equipment including a target user equipment to obtain control information about multi-user-multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) transmission of the control channel; and based on the control information, decode a user-specific physical downlink control channel (UE-specific PDCCH) of the target user equipment to obtain specific transmission control information about the target user equipment, wherein the UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is superimposed on the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipment in a group of user equipment on the same transmission resources for transmission.

[0014] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a device in a wireless communication system is also provided, which includes a processing circuit, and the processing circuit is configured to: generate a group common physical downlink control channel (group common PDCCH) for a group of user equipment and a user-specific physical downlink control channel (UE-specific PDCCH) for each user equipment in the group of user equipment, the group common physical downlink control channel including control information about multi-user-multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) transmission of the control channel for all user equipment in the group of user equipment; control the base station to send the group common physical downlink control channel to a group of user equipment; and based on the control information, control the base station to send the UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment in a group of user equipment on the same transmission resources.

[0015] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method in a wireless communication system is also provided, the method comprising: decoding a group common physical downlink control channel (group common PDCCH) of a group of user equipment including a target user equipment to obtain control information about multi-user-multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) transmission of the control channel; and based on the control information, decoding a user-specific physical downlink control channel (UE-specific PDCCH) of the target user equipment to obtain specific transmission control information about the target user equipment, wherein the UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is superimposed on the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipment in a group of user equipment on the same transmission resources for transmission.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method in a wireless communication system is also provided, the method comprising: generating a group common physical downlink control channel (Group common PDCCH) for a group of user equipment and a user-specific physical downlink control channel (UE-specific PDCCH) for each user equipment in a group of user equipment, the group common physical downlink control channel including control information about multi-user-multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) transmission of the control channel for all user equipment in a group of user equipment; controlling the base station to send the group common physical downlink control channel to a group of user equipment; and based on the control information, controlling the base station to send the UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment in a group of user equipment on the same transmission resources.

[0017] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a device in a wireless communication system is provided, the device including a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: determine the transmission-related configuration of other user equipment based on control information from a base station regarding a user equipment being simultaneously scheduled with other user equipment for multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission, wherein the control information includes information indirectly indicating the transmission-related configuration of the other user equipment; and based on the determined transmission-related configuration of the other user equipment, decode a signal received from the base station and sent using MU-MIMO transmission to obtain a signal portion for the user equipment.

[0018] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a device in a wireless communication system is also provided, which includes a processing circuit, which is configured to: generate control information about multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission for each user equipment among one or more user equipment within a group of user equipment that are simultaneously scheduled to perform MU-MIMO transmission, and control the base station to send the control information to the user equipment, wherein the control information includes information indirectly indicating transmission-related configurations of other user equipment within the group of user equipment except the user equipment; and control the base station to send signals to a group of user equipment simultaneously on specific transmission resources.

[0019] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method in a wireless communication system is also provided, the method comprising: determining the transmission-related configuration of other user equipment based on control information from a base station regarding a user equipment being simultaneously scheduled with other user equipment for multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission, wherein the control information includes information indirectly indicating the transmission-related configuration of the other user equipment; and based on the determined transmission-related configuration of the other user equipment, decoding a signal received from the base station and sent using MU-MIMO transmission to obtain a signal portion for the user equipment.

[0020] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method in a wireless communication system is also provided, the method comprising: generating control information about multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission for each user equipment among one or more user equipment within a group of user equipment that are simultaneously scheduled to perform MU-MIMO transmission, and controlling a base station to send the control information to the user equipment, wherein the control information includes information indirectly indicating transmission-related configurations of other user equipment within a group of user equipment except the user equipment; and controlling the base station to simultaneously send signals to a group of user equipment on specific transmission resources.

[0021] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions is also provided. When the executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor performs various functions of the method or device in the above wireless communication system.

[0022] According to other aspects of the present disclosure, a computer program code and a computer program product for implementing the above method according to the present disclosure are also provided.

[0023] According to at least one aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, by carrying the control information of MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel of a group of user equipment in the group common physical downlink control channel, each user equipment can obtain the transmission-related configuration (for example, DMRS configuration) of at least its own UE-specific PDCCH by decoding the group common physical downlink control channel, and then extract its own UE-specific PDCCH from the received superimposed signal according to the transmission-related configuration, thereby effectively realizing MU-MIMO transmission of the downlink control channel, thereby improving resource utilization.

[0024] According to at least another aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, for MU-MIMO transmission of a downlink data channel, by indirectly indicating to the target UE the transmission-related configurations of other user equipments scheduled together with it, limited physical layer scheduling signaling can be effectively utilized so that the target UE can determine, suppress and / or eliminate interference from other user equipments according to the transmission-related configurations, and then decode to obtain the target data stream for the target UE, thereby improving system throughput and reliability.

[0025] Other aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are given in the following description, wherein the detailed description is used to fully disclose the preferred embodiments of the embodiments of the present disclosure without imposing limitations thereon. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] The present disclosure may be better understood by referring to the detailed description given below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to represent the same or similar components. The accompanying drawings, together with the following detailed description, are included in and form a part of the present specification to further illustrate the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure and to explain the principles and advantages of the present disclosure. Among them:

[0027] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a “transparent” MU-MIMO transmission;

[0028] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a “non-transparent” MU-MIMO transmission;

[0029] Figure 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0030] Figure 4 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0031] Figure 5is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the device on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure

[0032] Figure 6 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0033] Figure 7 is a flowchart showing a signaling interaction process for implementing a first exemplary solution according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0034] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a mapping relationship between a CSI-RS resource or a CSI-RS port and a DMRS port according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0035] Fig. 9 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0036] Fig.10 is a block diagram showing a specific functional configuration example of a determination unit in an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0037] Fig.11 is a block diagram showing a specific functional configuration example of an interference measurement unit in a device on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0038] Fig.12 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0039] Fig.13 is a block diagram showing a specific functional configuration example of a control information generation unit in the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0040] Fig.14 is a flowchart showing a signaling interaction process for implementing a second exemplary solution according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0041] Fig.15 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0042] Fig.16 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0043] Fig.17 is a flowchart showing a signaling interaction process for implementing the third example solution according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0044] Fig.18 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a mapping pattern of DMRS ports 7 to 10 on resource elements (REs);

[0045] Fig.19 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0046] Fig. 20 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0047] Fig.21 is a flowchart showing a signaling interaction process for implementing a fourth example solution according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0048] Fig. 22 is a flowchart showing a signaling interaction process of a two-stage DCI structure for implementing MU-MIMO transmission of a control channel according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0049] Fig.23 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0050] Fig.24 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0051] Fig.25 is a schematic diagram showing an example architecture of a GC-PDCCH and a relationship between the GC-PDCCH and a UE-specific PDDCH according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0052] Fig.26 is a schematic diagram showing a first exemplary solution according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0053] Fig. 27 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0054] Fig.28 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0055] Fig.29 is a schematic diagram showing a second exemplary solution according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0056] Fig.30 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0057] Fig.31is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0058] Fig.32A is a schematic diagram showing a first example of a modification example of the second example aspect according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0059] Fig.32B is a schematic diagram showing a second example of a modification of the second example aspect according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0060] Fig.33 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the GC-PDCCH and the UE-specific PDCCH in the time-frequency domain according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0061] Fig.34 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0062] Fig.35 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0063] Fig.36 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on a user equipment side according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0064] Fig.37 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on a base station side according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0065] Fig.38 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on a user equipment side according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0066] Fig.39 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on a base station side according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0067] Fig.40 is a block diagram showing an example structure of a personal computer as an information processing device that can be employed in an embodiment of the present disclosure

[0068] Fig.41 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of an evolved node (eNB) to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied;

[0069] Fig.42 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied;

[0070] Fig.43is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied; and

[0071] Fig.44 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0072] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. For the sake of clarity and conciseness, not all features of the actual implementation are described in the specification. However, it should be understood that many implementation-specific decisions must be made in the process of developing any such actual implementation in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as meeting those constraints related to the system and business, and these constraints may vary from implementation to implementation. In addition, it should be understood that although the development work may be very complex and time-consuming, it is only a routine task for those skilled in the art who benefit from the content of this disclosure.

[0073] It is also necessary to explain here that in order to avoid obscuring the present disclosure due to unnecessary details, only the device structure and / or processing steps closely related to the scheme according to the present disclosure are shown in the accompanying drawings, while other details that are not closely related to the present disclosure are omitted.

[0074] Before describing the embodiments of the present disclosure in detail, in order to facilitate understanding of the content of the present disclosure, “transparent” MU-MIMO transmission and “non-transparent” MU-MIMO transmission will be briefly introduced.

[0075] In "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission, such as Figure 1 As shown in FIG. 1 , the base station schedules multiple UEs to perform downlink MU-MIMO transmission at the same time. Among them, the first layer signal stream for UE k and the other three layers of signal streams (these three layers of signal streams may be for one or more other user equipments) share the same time-frequency resources through spatial multiplexing, but UE k itself does not know the existence of other layers (these layers are in Figure 1 Indicated by dotted lines in the figure), that is, UE k does not know the exact interference from other layers. In this way, when detecting the downlink channel, the receiver of UE k only attempts to recover the downlink signal sent by the base station to UE k, and cannot effectively process the inter-layer interference.

[0076] In "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission, such as Figure 2 As shown, the base station schedules the signal flow of UE k and one or more other user equipments on the same time-frequency resources, and simultaneously notifies UE k of the existence of other layers (these layers are in Figure 2The receiver of UE k can recover the downlink signal sent by the base station to UE k by processing the interference from other layers.

[0077] The advantages of "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission over "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission are: the UE under non-transparent transmission can know the interference between multiple users, so that more advanced receivers can be used to suppress or eliminate the interference between multiple users, thereby improving the throughput and reliability of the entire system; and by knowing the situation of multiple users, interference measurement between multiple users becomes possible, and the interference measurement here is based on DMRS. The possible disadvantages are: in order for the UE in multi-user transmission to know other users with which it shares scheduling time and frequency resources, additional signaling notifications are required; and advanced receivers often bring greater detection complexity, causing the receiver to consume more computing and time resources.

[0078] Therefore, in an embodiment of at least one aspect of the present disclosure, the problem of implementing “non-transparent” MU-MIMO transmission of a data channel with less signaling overhead and less computing and time resources is solved to optimize the “non-transparent” MU-MIMO transmission.

[0079] Hereinafter, the description will be made in the following order. However, it should be noted that although the embodiments of the present disclosure are described in the following chapter order for the convenience of description, such chapter division and order do not constitute a limitation of the present disclosure. On the contrary, when actually implementing the technology of the present disclosure, those skilled in the art can combine the following embodiments according to the principles of the present disclosure and actual conditions, unless these embodiments conflict with each other.

[0080] 1. “Non-transparent” MU-MIMO transmission of downlink data channel (first embodiment)

[0081] 1-1. First example scenario

[0082] 1-2. Second example solution

[0083] 1-3. Third Example Scheme

[0084] 1-4. Fourth example solution

[0085] 2. MU-MIMO Transmission of Downlink Control Channel (Second Embodiment)

[0086] 2-1. First example scenario

[0087] 2-2. Second example solution

[0088] 2-3. Modification of the Second Exemplary Scheme

[0089] 2-4. Third Example Solution

[0090] 3. Method Embodiments According to the Present Disclosure

[0091] 3-1. First embodiment

[0092] 3-2. Second embodiment

[0093] 4. Computing device for implementing the embodiments of the apparatus and method of the present disclosure

[0094] 5. Application Examples of the Technology Disclosed

[0095] 5-1. Application examples of base stations

[0096] 5-2. Application examples of user equipment

[0097] Next, we will refer to Figures 1 to 44 Embodiments according to the present disclosure are described in detail.

[0098] [1. “Non-transparent” MU-MIMO transmission of downlink data channel (first embodiment)]

[0099] Figure 3 : is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of a device on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0100] like Figure 3 As shown, the apparatus 300 according to this example may include a determining unit 302 and a decoding unit 304 .

[0101] It should be pointed out that Figure 3 The various functional units in the device shown are only logical modules divided according to the specific functions implemented by them, and are not used to limit the specific implementation method. In actual implementation, the above-mentioned various functional units and modules can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.), which also applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the user equipment side. The configuration examples of each functional unit will be described in detail below.

[0102] The determination unit 302 may be configured to determine the transmission-related configuration of other user equipment based on control information from the base station regarding the target user equipment and other user equipment being scheduled for MU-MIMO transmission simultaneously, wherein the control information includes information indirectly indicating the transmission-related configuration of other user equipment.

[0103] At present, in the LTE system, the base station notifies each UE in MU-MIMO transmission of its corresponding DMRS port number, scrambling ID and the number of layers occupied by the signal stream of the UE through the downlink control channel. Preferably, the transmission-related configuration here includes the DMRS configuration. The DMRS configuration may preferably directly refer to the DMRS port number (port index). Alternatively, the DMRS configuration may also refer to the information of the pseudo-random sequence and the corresponding orthogonal cover code (OCC) used to generate the DMRS. Among them, a pseudo-random sequence can apply multiple OCC codes to generate multiple orthogonal DMRSs, so the same pseudo-random sequence can be used for multiple UEs.

[0104] It should be noted that, for the sake of ease of description, the technology of the present disclosure will be described using the DMRS port number as an example of transmission-related configuration in the following detailed description, but it should be understood that this does not constitute any limitation to the present disclosure, and the description is also applicable to situations where the DMRS configuration of the user equipment is represented by other forms of information.

[0105] In order to enable the target UE to know the DMRS configuration of other UEs to achieve "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission, as a most direct and simple way, the DMRS configuration of other UEs (for example, DMRS port number) can be notified to the target UE one by one through the downlink control channel. However, especially in the large data transmission business of the NR system, the total number of layers of the signal stream transmitted by MU-MIMO is often large. In other words, the number of DMRS ports is large. This one-to-one notification method will result in a large signaling overhead, resulting in a waste of precious physical layer signaling resources, and may not be suitable for application scenarios with large data transmission requirements in NR.

[0106] In view of this, in the scheme of the present disclosure, it is proposed to include information indirectly indicating the DMRS configuration of other user equipment in the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the target UE, so that the target UE can obtain the DMRS configuration of other user equipment based on the control information with as little signaling overhead as possible.

[0107] The decoding unit 304 may be configured to decode a signal sent using MU-MIMO transmission and received from a base station based on the determined transmission-related configuration of other user equipments, to obtain a signal portion for the user equipment.

[0108] The decoding operation of the decoding unit 304 will be described in further detail by taking serial interference cancellation as an example.

[0109] Assume that the target UE is k, and the signal sent using MU-MIMO transmission received from the base station is as follows:

[0110]

[0111] Among them, H k is the channel from the base station to UE k, P k is the precoding vector of UE k, n k is the receiver noise of UE k; in addition, H k P i x i is the interference from UE i in MU-MIMO transmission. When UE k learns the DMRS configuration information of UE i, it can first estimate the interference equivalent channel from UE i, that is, H k P i , and try to decode the data x of UE i i ; If UEk can decode x i And estimated H k P i , the interference of UE i to UE k can be recovered, so the interference can be subtracted from the above formula. By eliminating the interference from all UEs i≠k in turn, we can get:

[0112] y′ k =H k P k x k +n k

[0113] Next, UE k can use a conventional linear receiver W to decode the data sent by the base station to UE k:

[0114]

[0115] It should be pointed out that the decoding operation given here to decode the target data stream based on the DMRS configuration information of other interfering user equipment in MU-MIMO transmission is only an example. Those skilled in the art may also adopt other decoding operations known in the art or that may appear in the future, and decode the target data stream based on the DMRS configuration information of the interfering UE. The present disclosure does not limit the specific decoding method.

[0116] Here, it should also be noted that the above-mentioned device 300 on the user equipment side can be implemented at the chip level, or can also be implemented at the device level. For example, the device 300 can work as the user equipment itself, and can also include memory, transceiver (optionally, in Figure 3The memory may be used to store programs and related data information that the user equipment needs to execute to implement various functions. The transceiver may include one or more communication interfaces to support communication with different devices (e.g., base stations, other user equipment, etc.), and the implementation form of the transceiver is not specifically limited here. The same applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the user equipment side.

[0117] With the above Figure 3 Corresponding to the configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side shown, the present disclosure also provides the following configuration example on the base station side. Figure 4 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0118] like Figure 4 As shown, the device 400 according to this example may include a control information generating unit 402 and a transmission control unit 404 .

[0119] Likewise, it should be noted that Figure 4 The various functional units in the device shown are only logical modules divided according to the specific functions implemented by them, and are not used to limit the specific implementation method. In actual implementation, the above-mentioned various functional units or modules can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.), which also applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the base station side. The configuration examples of each functional unit will be described in detail below.

[0120] The control information generation unit 402 may be configured to generate control information about MU-MIMO transmission for each user equipment in one or more user equipments in a group of user equipments that are simultaneously scheduled to perform MU-MIMO transmission, and control the base station to send the generated control information to the user equipment. The generated control information includes information that indirectly indicates the transmission-related configuration of other user equipments in a group of user equipments except the user equipment. Preferably, the transmission-related configuration here includes DMRS configuration.

[0121] In some examples, for a group of user devices that are simultaneously scheduled for MU-MIMO transmission, the receivers of the individual user devices may have different processing capabilities. For some user devices with weaker receiver processing capabilities, even if the DMRS configurations of other UEs in the group are informed, the receivers of these user devices may not be able to decode their target data streams through, for example, the above-mentioned linear interference elimination method. At this time, if the DMRS configuration from the interfering UE is still notified to these user devices through the control channel, it is actually a waste of physical layer signaling resources. Therefore, for these user devices, it is preferable to configure "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission, that is, only inform these user devices of their own DMRS configurations.

[0122] On the other hand, for other user equipments with strong receiver processing capabilities, the "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission proposed in the present disclosure can be preferably configured, that is, the information indirectly indicating the transmission-related configuration of other UEs in the group is included in the control information to notify these user equipments, so that these user equipments can know and eliminate interference from other UEs. The above-mentioned "one or more user equipments in a group of user equipments" means this part of user equipments that can support and implement "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission. In addition, in this specification, when referring to "target user equipment", it generally refers to any user equipment among these one or more user equipments.

[0123] Thus, in the MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel according to the present disclosure, there are both "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission and "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission, which may also be referred to as hybrid transparent MU-MIMO transmission.

[0124] However, it should be noted that when the receiver processing capabilities of all user equipments in the group performing MU-MIMO transmission are strong and thus can support and implement "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission, the control information generation unit 402 on the base station side can also generate the above control information for each user equipment in the group of user equipments. The base station can flexibly determine which UEs need to perform "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission and which UEs can apply the technology of the present disclosure to perform "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission based on the relevant information of the user equipment, and the present disclosure does not make specific restrictions on this.

[0125] The transmission control unit 404 may be configured to control the base station to simultaneously send respective signals to a group of user equipments on the same specific transmission resource.

[0126] In this way, the user equipment receiving the generated control information can learn the DMRS configuration of other user equipments in the group, and then demodulate the target signal from the received signal by eliminating the signals for other user equipments transmitted together with the target signal as interference. On the other hand, for the user equipment configured to perform "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission, it directly attempts to recover the target signal from the received superimposed signal according to its own DMRS configuration.

[0127] It should be noted that the configuration example of the device on the base station side described here corresponds to the configuration example of the device on the user equipment side mentioned above. Therefore, for the content not described in detail here, please refer to the description of the corresponding position above and it will not be repeated here.

[0128] In addition, it should be noted that the above-mentioned apparatus 400 on the base station side can be implemented at the chip level, or can also be implemented at the device level. For example, the apparatus 400 can work as the base station itself, and can also include memory, transceiver (optionally, in Figure 4 The memory may be used to store programs and related data information that the base station needs to execute to implement various functions. The transceiver may include one or more communication interfaces to support communication with different devices (e.g., user equipment, other base stations, etc.), and the implementation form of the transceiver is not specifically limited here. The same applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the base station side.

[0129] As an example but not a limitation, the first to fourth example solutions for implementing the DMRS configuration for indirectly indicating the interfering UE will be described in detail below. However, it should be understood that those skilled in the art can make appropriate modifications to these example solutions according to the principles of the present disclosure to obtain other solutions for indirectly indicating the DMRS configuration for the interfering UE, and such modifications should obviously be considered to fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0130] (1-1. First Example Scheme)

[0131] In the first example scheme, the control information from the base station may include the DMRS configuration of the target user equipment and the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission. In MU-MIMO transmission, one layer of data stream corresponds to one DMRS port. Therefore, the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission here can also be considered as the total number of DMRS configurations or DMRS ports, or the total number of data streams. The following describes in detail how to deduce the DMRS configuration of other interfering user equipment based on the DMRS configuration of the target user equipment and the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission.

[0132] Figure 5is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0133] like Figure 5 As shown, the apparatus 500 according to this example may include a determining unit 502 and a decoding unit 504. The functional configuration example of the decoding unit 504 is similar to that of the above reference Figure 3 The functional configuration examples of the decoding unit 304 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0134] The determining unit 502 may further include a DMRS allocation scheme acquiring module 5021 , a DMRS configuration set determining module 5022 and a DMRS configuration determining module 5023 .

[0135] The DMRS allocation scheme acquisition module 5021 may be configured to acquire a DMRS allocation scheme for MU-MIMO transmission by receiving from a base station or reading from a memory.

[0136] The DMRS allocation scheme here may represent an allocation method of DMRS ports, which may be dynamically configured by the base station through high-level signaling (e.g., RRC layer signaling), or may be a default allocation method pre-stored in a memory. In the case where the base station dynamically configures the DMRS allocation scheme through high-level signaling, the DMRS allocation scheme acquisition module 5021 may acquire the DMRS allocation scheme by decoding the high-level signaling from the base station.

[0137] The DMRS configuration set determination module 5022 may be configured to determine a DMRS configuration set for MU-MIMO transmission based on at least a DMRS allocation scheme and a total number of layers. The DMRS configuration set here refers to a set of DMRS configurations of a group of user equipment participating in MU-MIMO transmission.

[0138] The DMRS configuration determining module 5023 may be configured to determine a DMRS configuration in the DMRS configuration set that is different from the DMRS configuration of the user equipment as the DMRS configuration of other user equipments.

[0139] As an example implementation, the DMRS allocation scheme may include a sequence of DMRS configurations, which represents multiple DMRS configurations arranged in sequence and available for a MU-MIMO transmission, and the DMRS configuration set determination module 5022 can read a number of DMRS configurations equal to the total number of layers from the sequence of DMRS configurations according to a predetermined order as a DMRS configuration set.

[0140] For example, in the LTE system, the 8 DMRS ports are numbered as antenna ports 7 to 14. Assuming that the DMRS configuration sequence configured by the base station through RRC signaling is [7, 8, 11, 13, 9, 10, 12, 14], the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission is 6 layers, and the pre-agreed or base station-configured usage order is, for example, reading in sequence from the end of the sequence, then the DMRS configuration set determination module 5022 reads the last 6 DMRS configurations 11, 13, 9, 10, 12, 14 from the sequence as the DMRS configuration set for this MU-MIMO transmission. Assuming that the DMRS port number of the target user equipment is 10, the DMRS configuration determination module 5023 of the target user equipment can determine the numbers 11, 13, 9, 12, 14 as the DMRS ports corresponding to the interference data streams of other user equipment. In the NR system, the numbering of DMRS ports is different from that in the LTE system, and its DMRS port index is 1000~1011. However, various examples described in this disclosure using the LTE system as an example can be applied, and will not be repeated for the sake of brevity.

[0141] As another example implementation, the DMRS allocation scheme may include a sequence of DMRS configurations, which may not indicate the order in which the DMRS configurations are used, and the above control information may include, in addition to the DMRS configuration and the total number of layers of the target UE, the starting layer sequence number of MU-MIMO transmission in the configuration sequence. In this case, the DMRS configuration set determination module 5022 may be further configured to start from the DMRS configuration corresponding to the starting layer sequence number in the sequence of DMRS configurations, and sequentially read the DMRS configurations equal to the total number of layers from the sequence of DMRS configurations as the DMRS configuration set.

[0142] More specifically, still taking the above-configured DMRS configuration sequence [7, 8, 11, 13, 9, 10, 12, 14] as an example, the sequence number of each DMRS port in the sequence can be considered to correspond to the layer sequence number of the MU-MIMO transmission. For example, DMRS port 7 corresponds to layer 1, DMRS port 11 corresponds to layer 3, and so on. Assuming that the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission is 6 and the starting layer sequence number is 2, the DMRS configuration set determination module 5022 reads 6 DMRS configurations 8, 11, 13, 9, 10, 12 in sequence starting from the second DMRS port in the sequence as the DMRS configuration set for the MU-MIMO transmission. Assuming that the DMRS port number of the target user equipment is 10, the DMRS configuration determination module 5023 of the target user equipment can determine the numbers 8, 11, 13, 9, 12 as the DMRS ports corresponding to the interfering data streams of other user equipment.

[0143] According to this example implementation, by further specifying the starting layer sequence number of MU-MIMO transmission in the control information, more flexible use of DMRS configuration for MU-MIMO transmission can be supported.

[0144] As another example implementation, the DMRS allocation scheme may include information indicating the order of use of the DMRS configuration. For example, the DMRS allocation scheme indicates that the order of use of the DMRS ports is to use them in order from small to large numbers (7 to 14), or to use them in order from large to small numbers (14 to 7), or to be a specified specific order, for example, a sequence indicating the order of use [7, 8, 11, 13, 9, 10, 12, 14]. In this case, the DMRS configuration set determination module 502 may be further configured to obtain DMRS configurations whose number is equal to the total number of layers to form a DMRS configuration set according to the order of use indicated by the DMRS allocation scheme.

[0145] More specifically, assuming that the usage order of the DMRS ports indicated by the DMRS allocation scheme is from small to large, and the total number of layers is 6, the DMRS configuration set determination module 5022 can directly obtain 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 as the DMRS configuration set for MU-MIMO transmission. Assuming that the DMRS port number of the target user equipment is 10, the DMRS configuration determination module 5023 of the target user equipment can determine the numbers 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 as the DMRS ports corresponding to the interfering data streams of other user equipment.

[0146] The above describes as an example an example implementation scheme of indirectly inferring the DMRS configuration of other user equipment in the group based on the DMRS configuration of the target user equipment and the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission, but it should be understood that the above example is for illustrative purposes only and not limiting. Those skilled in the art may make appropriate modifications to the above example implementation scheme based on the principles of the present disclosure and in combination with actual conditions, and such modifications should obviously be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0147] Corresponding to the configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side described above, the configuration example of the apparatus on the base station side in the first exemplary solution will be described in detail below. Figure 6 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0148] like Figure 6 As shown, the apparatus 600 according to this example may include a control information generating unit 602 and a transmission control unit 604. The functional configuration example of the transmission control unit 604 is similar to that of the above reference Figure 4 The functional configuration examples of the transmission control unit 404 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0149] The control information generation unit 602 can be configured to generate control information for a target user equipment in a group of user equipment performing MU-MIMO transmission by including the DMRS configuration of the user equipment and the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission, and control the base station to send the generated control information to the target user equipment, so that the target user equipment can deduce the DMRS configuration of other interfering UEs in the group based on the control information and the DMRS allocation scheme pre-stored or configured by the base station.

[0150] Preferably, in the case where the DMRS allocation scheme is configured by the base station, the apparatus 600 may further include a DMRS allocation scheme generating unit 606 .

[0151] The DMRS allocation scheme generation unit 606 can be configured to generate a DMRS allocation scheme for MU-MIMO transmission, and control the base station to send the generated DMRS allocation scheme to the target user equipment, so that the user equipment can determine the DMRS configuration of other user equipment within a group of user equipment based on at least the DMRS allocation scheme, the DMRS configuration of the user equipment and the total number of layers.

[0152] Preferably, the DMRS allocation scheme generating unit 606 sends the generated DMRS allocation scheme to the target user equipment by including it in a higher layer signaling (eg, RRC signaling).

[0153] As an example implementation, the generated DMRS allocation scheme may include a sequence of DMRS configurations, so that the user equipment can read DMRS configurations equal to the total number of layers from the sequence according to a predetermined order as a DMRS configuration set for MU-MIMO transmission.

[0154] As another example implementation, the generated DMRS allocation scheme may include a sequence of DMRS configurations, and the control information generation unit 602 may be further configured to generate control information by including the starting layer sequence number of the MU-MIMO transmission in the DMRS configuration sequence in addition to the DMRS configuration and the total number of layers of the target UE, so that the user equipment can start from the DMRS configuration corresponding to the starting layer sequence number and read a number of DMRS configurations equal to the total number of layers in the DMRS configuration sequence in sequence as a DMRS configuration set for MU-MIMO transmission.

[0155] As another example implementation, the generated DMRS allocation scheme may include information of a usage order of the DMRS configurations, so that the user equipment may read DMRS configurations having a number equal to the total number of layers as a DMRS configuration set for MU-MIMO transmission according to the usage order.

[0156] It should be pointed out that Figure 6The DMRS allocation scheme generation unit 606 shown is optional (in Figure 6 In the case where the DMRS allocation scheme is pre-configured and stored in a memory on the user equipment side, this unit may also be omitted.

[0157] In addition, it should be pointed out that the reference here Figure 6 The configuration example of the base station side is the same as that of the above reference Figure 5 The configuration example on the user equipment side described corresponds to that described above, so the content not described in detail here can be found in the description of the corresponding position above and will not be repeated here.

[0158] In order to further understand the above first example solution, the following will refer to Figure 7 The flowchart shown is used to describe the signaling interaction process for implementing the first example solution. Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating a signaling interaction process for implementing a first exemplary solution according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0159] like Figure 7 As shown, first, in step S701, after establishing the RRC connection, the base station notifies the user equipment k (UE k) of the DMRS allocation scheme through RRC signaling. Then, in step S702, the base station sends a downlink reference signal (e.g., channel state information-reference signal CSI-RS) to the user equipment k to obtain the channel state. In step S703, the user equipment k feeds back the measured channel state information to the base station. The base station performs MU-MIMO transmission scheduling based on the channel state information reported by multiple user equipments, and in step S704, sends control information including the DMRS configuration of the user equipment k and the total number of MU-MIMO transmission layers to the user equipment k. The control information may be included in the user-specific downlink control information (UE-specific DCI) transmitted on the PDCCH. Then, in step S705, the base station performs downlink data transmission to a group of user equipments including the user equipment k on the same time-frequency resources according to the determined MU-MIMO transmission configuration. User equipment k can learn the DMRS configuration of itself and other UEs in the group by decoding the received DCI, and then demodulate the received data information according to the information.

[0160] It should be noted that the above reference Figure 7 The signaling interaction process described is only an example and not a limitation. Those skilled in the art can modify the above interaction process according to the principles of the present disclosure and in combination with actual conditions. Figure 7The numbering of the steps is only for the convenience of description and does not mean a restriction on the execution order. For another example, in order to avoid blurring the subject matter of the present disclosure, some interactive processes with low technical relevance to the present disclosure are omitted in the above flowchart. Furthermore, some steps in the above flowchart can be omitted. For example, in the case where the DMRS allocation scheme is pre-configured and stored, the configuration of the DMRS allocation scheme in the above step S701 can be omitted (in Figure 7 All such modifications should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure and will not be listed here one by one.

[0161] According to the first example scheme described above, it can be seen that by utilizing the target UE's own DMRS configuration and the total number of MU-MIMO transmission layers to indirectly indicate the DMRS configuration of other UEs in the group to the target UE, "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission can be achieved with a smaller signaling overhead, which is beneficial to optimizing the system performance of MU-MIMO transmission.

[0162] (1-2. Second Example)

[0163] In the second example scheme of the present disclosure, it is proposed to use interference measurement resources to indirectly notify the target UE of the transmission-related configuration information of other interfering UEs in the group. Preferably, the interference measurement resource may include a non-zero power CSI-RS (Non-Zero Power CSI-RS, NZP CSI-RS) resource. In addition, the interference measurement resource may also include a channel state information-interference measurement (Channel State Information-Interference Measurement, CSI-IM) resource. The technology of the present disclosure will be described below using NZP CSI-RS resources as an example of interference measurement resources, but it should be understood that this is only an example and not a limitation, and the technology described below can be similarly applied to other interference measurement resources.

[0164] Currently, in the NR system, multi-user interference measurement based on NZP CSI-RS is already supported. Therefore, the present disclosure proposes that interference information in MU-MIMO transmission can be indirectly indicated based on the CSI-RS resources selected in the multi-user interference measurement, so that the user equipment can indirectly deduce the DMRS configuration corresponding to the data stream interfering with the UE based on the information about the CSI-RS resources.

[0165] Specifically, a mapping relationship between a CSI-RS resource or an antenna port for sending a CSI-RS resource (also referred to as a CSI-RS port) and a DMRS port may be pre-established. Figure 8is a schematic diagram showing an example of a mapping relationship between CSI-RS resources or CSI-RS ports and DMRS ports according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0166] As an example implementation, a mapping relationship between CSI-RS resources and DMRS ports may be established. Figure 8 As shown, taking the NR system as an example, CSI-RS resource 1 is mapped to DMRS ports 1007, 1008, and 1011; CSI-RS resource 2 is mapped to DMRS ports 1007 and 1003; and CSI-RS resource 3 is mapped to DMRS ports 1011 and 1004.

[0167] Alternatively, as another example implementation, a mapping relationship between CSI-RS ports and DMRS ports can also be established. CSI-RS supports part or all of the settings of 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24 and 32 antenna ports. For example, CSI-RS supports 32 antenna ports, that is, CSI-RS can be sent by 32 antenna ports. In LTE, CSI-RS is sent using one or more of antenna ports 15 to 46 (port numbers 15 to 46). In addition, the supported antenna ports can also be determined based on the terminal device capabilities of the terminal device, the settings of RRC parameters, and / or the set transmission mode. In NR, there are 32 CSI-RS ports (the actual antenna port numbers in the NR system are 3000 to 3031) and 12 DMRS ports (the actual antenna port numbers in the NR system are 1000 to 1011), so that the mapping of CSI-RS ports to DMRS ports can be achieved. For example, a CSI-RS port can be uniquely mapped to a DMRS port, and a DMRS port can be mapped to multiple CSI-RS ports, so that the DMRS port corresponding to the CSI-RS port can be uniquely determined according to the CSI-RS port. Figure 8 As shown, CSI-RS ports 3015 and 3018 are both mapped to DMRS port 1007, CSI-RS port 3016 is mapped to DMRS port 1008, CSI-RS ports 3017 and 3030 are both mapped to DMRS port 1011, and so on, which are not listed one by one here.

[0168] In addition, it should be noted that there is also a certain correspondence between CSI-RS resources and CSI-RS ports, and the correspondence can be pre-configured by the base station through RRC. In this way, no matter whether the established mapping relationship is a mapping relationship between CSI-RS resources or CSI-RS ports and DMRS ports, the user equipment can determine the corresponding DMRS port according to the indication information about CSI-RS resources or CSI-RS ports from the base station and the mapping relationship.

[0169] Next, in the multi-user interference measurement phase, the base station can configure multiple interference measurement resources corresponding to multiple multi-user combinations for multiple user equipments at the RRC layer, such as CSI-RS resources. There is a mapping relationship between these CSI-RS resources or CSI-RS ports and DMRS ports that is known to the base station and the user equipment.

[0170] Each CSI-RS resource may correspond to a MU combination. Figure 8 As shown, NZP CSI-RS resource 1 corresponds to the MU combination including UE 1, UE m and UE n, NZP CSI-RS resource 2 corresponds to the MU combination including UE 2 and UE 4; and NZP CSI-RS resource 3 corresponds to the MU combination including UE i and UE t. The user equipment measures multiple CSI-RS resources and reports the measurement results to the base station. After receiving the measurement results reported by multiple user equipments, the base station runs a multi-user scheduling algorithm to determine a group of user equipments to perform MU-MIMO transmission. Then, the base station can select the CSI-RS resource corresponding to the MU scheduling result from the configured multiple CSI-RS resources and notify the user equipment of the selected CSI-RS resource. The user equipment can obtain the DMRS ports of other UEs participating in MU-MIMO transmission based on the known mapping relationship, thereby realizing "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission.

[0171] It should be noted that in the above second exemplary solution, the interference during MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel is simulated based on the antenna port of the NZP CSI-RS, and the NZP CSI-RS uses the same beamforming as the DMRS. The NZP CSI-RS and the DMRS should occupy the same or similar frequency band resources, such as occupying the same sub-band resources.

[0172] The configuration examples of the user equipment side and the base station side for implementing the above-mentioned second example solution will be described in detail below.

[0173] Fig. 9 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0174] like Fig. 9 As shown, the apparatus 900 according to this example may include a determining unit 902 and a decoding unit 904. The functional configuration example of the decoding unit 904 is the same as that of the above reference Figure 3 The functional configuration examples of the decoding unit 304 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0175] The determination unit 902 may be configured to determine a transmission-related configuration of the interfering UE based on control information from the base station, wherein the control information may include information indicating an interference measurement resource selected by the base station from one or more interference measurement resources or information indicating an antenna port used to send the selected interference measurement resource.

[0176] Preferably, the interference measurement resource may include an NZP CSI-RS resource. In addition, preferably, the information indicating the selected interference measurement resource may include a CSI-RS resource indicator (CSI-RS Resource Indicator, CRI), so that the base station may include the CRI of the selected CSI-RS resource in, for example, user-specific downlink control information (UE-specific DCI) to notify the target UE.

[0177] Will refer to Fig.10 A specific functional configuration example of the determination unit 902 is described in detail. Fig.10 : is a block diagram showing a specific functional configuration example of a determination unit in the apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0178] like Fig.10 As shown, the determining unit 902 may further include a mapping relationship acquiring module 1001 and a DMRS configuration determining module 1002 .

[0179] The mapping relationship acquisition module 1001 may be configured to acquire information indicating a mapping relationship between an interference measurement resource or an antenna port for sending an interference measurement resource and a DMRS configuration by receiving from a base station or reading from a memory.

[0180] Specifically, the above reference Figure 8 The mapping relationship between the described CSI-RS resource or CSI-RS port and the DMRS port may be pre-stored in a memory on the user equipment side, or may be dynamically configured by the base station through high-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling). In the case of dynamic configuration by the base station, the mapping relationship acquisition module 1001 may acquire the mapping relationship by decoding the high-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling) from the base station.

[0181] The DMRS configuration determining module 1002 may be configured to determine, based on the acquired mapping relationship, the DMRS configuration corresponding to the interference measurement resource selected by the base station as the DMRS configuration of other user equipments.

[0182] Specifically, as an example, return to reference Figure 8, if the CRI included in the control information from the base station indicates that the selected interference measurement resource is CSI-RS resource 1, and the acquired mapping relationship is the mapping relationship between the CSI-RS resource and the DMRS port, the DMRS configuration determination module 1022 can directly determine that the DMRS ports corresponding to the CSI-RS resource 1 are 7, 8, and 11, and determine these three ports as the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE in the group. Alternatively, if the acquired mapping relationship is the mapping relationship between the CSI-RS port and the DMRS port, the DMRS configuration determination module 1002 needs to first determine the CSI-RS port corresponding to the CSI-RS resource indicated by the CRI according to the corresponding relationship between the CSI-RS resource and the CSI-RS port configured by the base station through RRC or pre-stored, and then determine the DMRS ports corresponding to these CSI-RS ports as the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE according to the mapping relationship between the CSI-RS port and the DMRS port.

[0183] On the other hand, in the case where the control information from the base station includes information indicating the CSI-RS port, the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE can be similarly determined, which will not be discussed in detail here.

[0184] It should be noted that it is preferred to use CRI to indirectly indicate the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE in order to reduce the signaling overhead of the physical layer.

[0185] Return to reference Fig. 9 Preferably, the apparatus 900 may further include an interference measurement unit 906. The interference measurement unit 906 may be configured to perform multi-user interference measurement based on the interference measurement resources configured by the base station and report the measurement result to the base station, so that the base station can select from the configured multiple interference measurement resources based on the measurement result. Fig.11 A functional configuration example of the interference measurement unit 906 is described in detail. Fig.11 : is a block diagram showing a specific functional configuration example of an interference measurement unit in the apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0186] like Fig.11 As shown, according to this example, the interference measurement unit 906 may include an interference measurement resource acquisition module 1101 , a measurement module 1102 and a control module 1103 .

[0187] The interference measurement resource acquisition module 1101 may be configured to acquire one or more interference measurement resources by decoding higher layer signaling received from a base station.

[0188] Specifically, as an example, assume that the base station configures M NZP CSI-RS resources for the user equipment through high-level RRC signaling, i.e., CSI-RS resource 1 to CSI-RS resource M, so that the interference measurement resource acquisition module 1101 can obtain M NZP CSI-RS resources by decoding the RRC signaling.

[0189] The measurement module 1102 may be configured to perform interference measurement based on one or more interference measurement resources and generate a measurement result indication corresponding to each of the one or more interference measurement resources.

[0190] Specifically, as an example, the measurement module 1102 may measure M CSI-RS resources respectively, and generate measurement result indications corresponding to the M CSI-RS resources. Preferably, the measurement result indication may include at least one of a multi-user channel quality indication (MU-CQI), a reference signal received power (RSRP), and a reference signal received quality (RSRQ). Taking MU-CQI as an example, the measurement module 1102 generates MU-CQI 1 to MU-CQI M corresponding to the M CSI-RS resources respectively.

[0191] The control module 1103 may be configured to control the user equipment to feed back all or part of the one or more measurement result indications to the base station, so that the base station selects the selected interference measurement resource from the one or more interference measurement resources.

[0192] Specifically, as an example, the control module 1103 can control the user equipment to report all M MU-CQIs to the base station, so that the base station can select appropriate CSI-RS resources from the M CSI-RS resources by integrating the measurement results from other user equipments and the specific network conditions. On the other hand, in order to reduce transmission overhead and processing overhead, the control module 1103 can also control the user equipment to report only a part of the MU-CQI to the base station, for example, only reporting MU-CQI greater than a predetermined threshold, so that the base station only selects from the CSI-RS resources for which its measurement results are received.

[0193] Corresponding to the above-mentioned configuration example on the user equipment side, a configuration example on the base station side will be described below. Fig.12 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0194] like Fig.12 As shown, the device 1200 according to this example may include a control information generating unit 1202 and a transmission control unit 1204. The functional configuration example of the transmission control unit 1204 is the same as that of the above reference Figure 4The functional configuration examples of the transmission control unit 404 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0195] The control information generation unit 1202 may be configured to generate control information regarding MU-MIMO transmission based on multi-user interference measurement to indirectly indicate the transmission-related configuration of the interfering UE to the target UE.

[0196] The following will refer to Fig.13 A specific functional configuration example of the control information generating unit 1202 is described in detail. Fig.13 : is a block diagram showing a specific functional configuration example of a control information generation unit in the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0197] like Fig.13 As shown, according to this example, the control information generating unit 1202 may include a resource configuration module 1301 , a resource selection module 1302 and a control information generating module 1303 .

[0198] The resource configuration module 1301 may be configured to configure one or more interference measurement resources for each user equipment in a group of user equipments that are to perform MU-MIMO transmission.

[0199] Specifically, the resource configuration module 1301 may configure a plurality of, for example, NZP CSI-RS resources for each user equipment through, for example, high-layer RRC signaling, and the plurality of CSI-RS resources may correspond to a plurality of MU combinations.

[0200] The resource selection module 1302 can be configured to select an interference measurement resource from one or more interference measurement resources, i.e., select a multi-user combination for MU-MIMO transmission, for a target user equipment, based on measurement result indications fed back by the user equipment and other user equipment based on one or more configured interference measurement resources, and generate indication information of the selected interference measurement resource or indication information of an antenna port for sending the selected interference measurement resource.

[0201] Specifically, the base station sends a downlink reference signal CSI-RS to each user equipment based on the configured multiple CSI-RS resources, and receives a measurement result indication of one or more of the multiple CSI-RS resources reported by each user equipment, and the measurement result indication may include at least one of MU-CQI, RSRP and RSRQ. Then, the resource selection module 1302 on the base station side can determine a group of user equipment to perform MU-MIMO transmission based on, for example, MU-CQI reported by multiple user equipments by using a known MU scheduling algorithm, thereby determining the CSI-RS resources for the target user equipment. For the specific MU scheduling algorithm, please refer to the relevant description in the prior art, which will not be described in detail here.

[0202] The control information generating module 1303 may be configured to generate control information for a target user equipment in the determined group of user equipments by including the indication information.

[0203] Specifically, the control information generation module 1303 may include the indication information of the selected CSI-RS resource (e.g., CRI) or the indication information of the corresponding CSI-RS port (e.g., CSI-RS port index) in the control information, so as to send it to the target user equipment via, for example, UE-specific DCI on the PDCCH, so that the target user equipment can obtain the CRI or CSI-RS port index included therein by decoding the received DCI, and then determine the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE in combination with the known mapping relationship.

[0204] Return to reference Fig.12 Preferably, the device 1200 may further include a mapping relationship configuration unit 1206 .

[0205] The mapping relationship configuration unit 1206 can be configured to generate information indicating the mapping relationship between the interference measurement resource or the antenna port used to send the interference measurement resource and the DMRS configuration for the target user equipment, and control the base station to send the information indicating the mapping relationship to the target user equipment, so that the user equipment can determine the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE in the group based on the mapping relationship and the CSI-RS resource or port indicated by the control information.

[0206] Preferably, the mapping relationship configuration unit 1206 can configure, for example, reference Figure 8 For example, the mapping relationship is included in the RRC signaling to be sent to the target user equipment.

[0207] It should be noted that the mapping relationship configuration unit 1206 is optional (in Fig.12 In the case where the mapping relationship is pre-configured and stored in a memory on the user equipment side, the user equipment can directly read the mapping relationship from the memory, so that the mapping relationship configuration unit 1206 can be omitted.

[0208] In addition, it should be noted that the reference here Fig.12 and Fig.13 The configuration example on the base station side described corresponds to the configuration example on the user equipment side described above, so the content not described in detail here can be found in the description of the corresponding position above and will not be repeated here.

[0209] In order to further understand the above second example solution, the following will refer to Fig.14The flowchart shown is used to describe the signaling interaction process for implementing the second example solution. Fig.14 is a flowchart illustrating a signaling interaction process for implementing the second exemplary solution according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0210] like Fig.14 As shown, first, after establishing the RRC connection, in step S1401, the base station configures, for example, M NZP CSI-RS resources and a mapping relationship between CSI-RS resources or CSI-RS ports and DMRS ports to the user equipment k through RRC signaling. Then, in step S1402, the base station sends a downlink reference signal CSI-RS to the user equipment k based on the M NZP CSI-RS resources. The user equipment k measures the M NZP CSI-RS resources respectively, and reports, for example, a MU-CQI as a measurement result to the base station in step S1403. The user equipment k can report all M MU-CQIs to the base station, or only report, for example, a MU-CQI greater than a predetermined threshold. The base station performs MU-MIMO transmission scheduling by integrating the MU-CQI reported by multiple user equipments to select one NZP CSI-RS resource from the M NZP CSI-RS resources, and sends the DMRS configuration of the user equipment k itself and the control information including, for example, the CRI of the selected CSI-RS resource to the user equipment k through, for example, DCI in step S1404. Then, in step S1405, the base station performs downlink data transmission to a group of user equipments including the user equipment k on the same time-frequency resources. The user equipment k can obtain the DMRS configuration of itself and other UEs in the group by decoding the received DCI, and then demodulate the received data information according to the information.

[0211] It should be noted that the above reference Fig.14 The signaling interaction process described is only an example and not a limitation. Those skilled in the art can modify the above interaction process according to the principles of the present disclosure and in combination with actual conditions. Fig.14 The numbered steps are only for the convenience of description and do not mean a restriction on the execution order. For another example, in order to avoid blurring the subject matter of the present disclosure, some interactive processes with low technical relevance to the present disclosure are omitted in the above flowchart. Furthermore, for example, when the mapping relationship is pre-configured and stored, in the above step S1401, the base station may not notify the user equipment of the mapping relationship. All such modifications should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure and are not listed here one by one.

[0212] According to the second example scheme of the present disclosure above, by utilizing the existing multi-user interference measurement based on interference measurement resources and pre-establishing a mapping relationship between the interference measurement resources or the corresponding antenna ports and the DMRS configuration, the interference measurement resources are used to indirectly indicate to the target user equipment the DMRS configuration corresponding to the interference data stream in the MU-MIMO transmission. This enables the user equipment to obtain relevant interference information to achieve "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission without significantly increasing the processing load and signaling overhead, which is beneficial to optimizing system performance.

[0213] (1-3. Third Example Scheme)

[0214] In the third exemplary solution of the present disclosure, a transmission configuration indication (TCI) mechanism is proposed to indirectly notify the DMRS configuration of MU-MIMO transmission. The existing TCI mechanism will be briefly introduced below.

[0215] In the current 3GPP 5G standardization progress, a mechanism for using TCI to notify Quasi Co-location (QCL) relationships has been determined. Specifically, two antenna ports can be expressed as Quasi Co-location (QCL) if predetermined conditions are met. The predetermined condition is that the wide-area characteristics of the transmission channel carrying symbols in a certain antenna port can be inferred from the transmission channel carrying symbols in other antenna ports. Wide-area characteristics include delay spread, Doppler spread, Doppler shift, average gain, average delay and / or spatial reception. For example, if TCI indicates that CSI-RS port 15 and DMRS port 7 are QCL in the spatial dimension, it means that the spatial characteristics of the two reference signals from the transmitter to the receiver are consistent. TCI is a mechanism that supports base stations to notify user equipment of QCL relationships. The following is a brief introduction to the existing TCI mechanism.

[0216] For example, assuming that for a certain antenna port or CSI-RS resource (for example, CSI-RS port 3015, or CSI-RS resource ID5), the base station configures M TCI states for each UE through the user-specific RRC (UE-specific RRC). These M TCI states include {downlink reference signal 1|QCL_type1, downlink reference signal 2|QCL_type2, ... downlink reference signal M|QCL_typeM}, which respectively indicate that the downlink reference signal 1 and the CSI-RS port 3015 are quasi-co-located with QCL_type1, the downlink reference signal 2 and the CSI-RS port 3015 are quasi-co-located with QCL_type2, and so on.

[0217] Among them, the downlink reference signal may include CSI-RS, CRS, DMRS, etc.; QCL_type indicates the quasi co-location type. There are currently four quasi co-location types. QCL type A: Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread (frequency domain and time domain); QCL type B: Doppler shift, Doppler spread (frequency domain); QCL type C: average delay, Doppler shift (simplified frequency domain and time domain); and QCL type D: spatial reception (spatial domain).

[0218] The third exemplary solution of the present disclosure proposes to use the above TCI mechanism to indirectly indicate the DMRS configuration of the MU-MIMO transmission group to the user equipment. The configuration examples of the user equipment side and the base station side for implementing the third exemplary solution will be described in detail below.

[0219] Fig.15 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0220] like Fig.15 As shown, the apparatus 1500 according to this example may include a determining unit 1502 and a decoding unit 1504. The functional configuration example of the decoding unit 1504 is similar to that of the above reference Figure 3 The functional configuration examples of the decoding unit 304 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0221] The determining unit 1502 may include a TCI configuration acquiring module 1521 and a DMRS configuration determining module 1522 .

[0222] The TCI configuration acquisition module 1521 may be configured to acquire a TCI configuration including a first number of TCI states from a base station. Each TCI state in the TCI configuration includes a DMRS configuration and a quasi-co-location type indication, the quasi-co-location type indication being used to indicate that the DMRS configuration is an interference DMRS configuration in MU-MIMO transmission.

[0223] Specifically, for the target user equipment, the base station can configure a TCI configuration including, for example, a first number (represented as M here) of TCI states through a user-specific RRC, to indicate the M DMRS ports that can be used for MU-MIMO transmission. In the scheme of the present disclosure, the TCI state in the TCI configuration is used to indicate the interference DMRS configuration in MU-MIMO transmission, rather than to represent the QCL relationship between two antenna ports. Therefore, as an example implementation, in addition to the existing four quasi-co-location types QCL types A to D, a quasi-co-location type can be added, for example, marked as QCL type E, to distinguish it from the existing TCI usage. As an example, the configured M TCI states may include {DMRS 1|QCL_typeE, DMRS 2|QCL_typeE, ...DMRS M|QCL_typeE} to indicate that DMRS 1 to DMRS M are interference ports in MU-MIMO transmission at this time. Alternatively, as another example, in the TCI configuration for MU-MIMO transmission, the quasi-co-location type included in each TCI state may also be defaulted, and information such as 1 bit may be added in the RRC signaling to indicate whether the configured TCI is used to indicate QCL or for MU-MIMO transmission.

[0224] In this way, the TCI configuration acquisition module 1521 on the user equipment side can obtain M TCI states configured for MU-MIMO transmission by decoding the high-level RRC signaling from the base station, and understand that the DMRS ports indicated by these M TCI states may be used as interference ports in MU-MIMO transmission.

[0225] The DMRS configuration determination module 1522 may be configured to determine the DMRS configuration corresponding to the TCI state used among the configured first number of TCI states as the DMRS configuration of other user equipment based on the information indicating the usage configuration of the TCI state included in the control information from the base station.

[0226] Specifically, for the target user equipment, the base station can generate usage configuration information indicating which DMRS configurations corresponding to the TCI states among the configured M TCI states are used as the DMRS configurations of other UEs that are scheduled to perform MU-MIMO transmission at the same time as the target user equipment.

[0227] Preferably, as an example implementation, the usage configuration information may be information indicating the number of TCI states in which the DMRS configuration included in the M TCI states is used as an interference DMRS configuration in MU-MIMO transmission, and is included in the UE-specific DCI and sent to the user equipment, so that the DMRS configuration determination module 1522 on the user equipment side can read the number of TCI states indicated by the usage configuration information from the configured M TCI states in sequence according to a predetermined order (for example, reading from large to small, reading from small to large, or reading from beginning to end, etc.), and determine the DMRS configuration corresponding to the read TCI state as the interference DMRS configuration.

[0228] Preferably, as another example implementation, the usage configuration information may be information in the form of a bitmap, for example, a used DMRS port is represented as 1 in the bitmap, and an unused DMRS port is represented as 0 in the bitmap. The usage configuration information may be included in a UE-specific DCI and sent to the user equipment, so that the DMRS configuration determination module 1522 on the user equipment side may obtain the bitmap information by decoding the DCI from the base station, and determine the DMRS port corresponding to the TCI state marked as "1" in the bitmap information as the interfering DMRS port. Furthermore, the user equipment may perform corresponding interference elimination and data demodulation, thereby realizing "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission with the help of the TCI mechanism.

[0229] In addition, it should be noted that the bits of the information used to indicate the usage configuration of the TCI state in the DCI can be fixed to facilitate the demodulation of the physical layer signaling by the user equipment. For example, when the usage configuration information is used to indicate the number of TCI states used, it can be fixed to, for example, 3 bits, so that up to 8 interfering DMRS configurations can be indicated. On the other hand, when the usage configuration information is bitmap information, it can be fixed to, for example, 8 bits. When M is less than 8, the insufficient number of bits in the bitmap information representing the usage configuration of the M TCI states can be padded with 0, for example.

[0230] On the other hand, when M is greater than 8, in order to save physical layer signaling overhead and to solve the problem that the number of bits reserved in the DCI may be insufficient, preferably, the base station can first use the user-specific MAC layer control element (MAC CE) to activate a second number (for example, N = 8) of TCI states from the M TCI states. The activation operation can also be implemented in the form of information such as a bitmap. For example, an activated TCI state is represented as 1, and an unactivated TCI state is represented as 0. Then, the base station uses the physical layer DCI as described above to notify the target user equipment of the usage configuration of the activated N TCI states in MU-MIMO transmission.

[0231] Therefore, preferably, the determination unit 1502 on the user equipment side may further include an activation configuration determination module 1523 .

[0232] The activation configuration determination module 1523 may be configured to determine a second number of TCI states to be activated in the first number of TCI states according to information indicating the activation configuration of the TCI state from the base station. Preferably, the second number is 8.

[0233] Specifically, the activation configuration determination module 1523 can obtain the activation configuration information in the bitmap form of the TCI state by decoding the MAC CE from the base station, and determine the TCI state corresponding to the bit "1" as the activated TCI state. In this way, the activation configuration determination module 1523 can determine, for example, 8 TCI states that are activated among the M TCI states.

[0234] In this case, the information indicating the usage configuration of the TCI state from the base station may be information indicating the usage configuration of the 8 activated TCI states. For example, it may be information indicating the number of TCI states used for MU-MIMO transmission in the 8 TCI states (3 bits), or it may be bitmap information (8 bits) indicating whether each of the 8 TCI states is used for MU-MIMO transmission, so that the DMRS configuration determination module 1522 may read the indicated number of TCI states from the 8 activated TCI states in a predetermined order according to the usage configuration information, and determine the corresponding DMRS configuration as the interference DMRS configuration; or the DMRS configuration determination module 1522 may determine the DMRS configuration corresponding to the TCI state marked as "1" in the 8 activated TCI states as the DMRS configuration of other user equipment according to the 8-bit bitmap information.

[0235] It should be noted that activating the configuration determination module 1523 is optional (in Fig.15 In the case where M is less than or equal to 8, the base station does not need to use MAC CE to perform the activation operation, so the user equipment side does not need to set the activation configuration determination module 1523.

[0236] Corresponding to the above-mentioned configuration example on the user equipment side, a configuration example on the base station side will be described below. Fig.16 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the device on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0237] like Fig.16 As shown, the device 1620 according to this example may include a control information generating unit 1630 and a transmission control unit 1640. The functional configuration example of the transmission control unit 1640 is the same as that of the above reference Figure 4The functional configuration examples of the transmission control unit 404 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0238] The control information generating unit 1630 may further include a TCI configuration generating module 1631 , a usage configuration information generating module 1632 , and a control information generating module 1633 .

[0239] The TCI configuration generation module 1631 may be configured to generate a TCI configuration including a first number of TCI states, and control the base station to send the TCI configuration to the target user equipment. In the TCI configuration, each TCI state includes a DMRS configuration and a quasi-co-location type indication, and the quasi-co-location type indication is used to indicate that the DMRS configuration is an interference DMRS configuration in MU-MIMO transmission.

[0240] Specifically, the TCI configuration generation module 1631 may generate a TCI configuration including, for example, M TCI states, and include the TCI configuration in, for example, user-specific RRC signaling to send to a target user equipment. As an example, the configured M TCI states may include {DMRS 1|QCL_typeE, DMRS2|QCL_typeE, ...DMRS M|QCL_typeE}, where QCL_typeE is used to indicate that the DMRS port is an interference port in MU-MIMO transmission, so as to distinguish it from the TCI state used to indicate a quasi co-location type in the prior art.

[0241] The usage configuration information generation module 1632 may be configured to generate information indicating usage configuration of a first number of TCI states according to the DMRS configuration of an interfering UE other than the target UE in a group of user equipments performing MU-MIMO transmission.

[0242] Preferably, for example, the usage configuration information may be information indicating the number of TCI states in which the DMRS configuration included in the first number of TCI states is used as an interference DMRS configuration in MU-MIMO transmission. Alternatively, preferably, for example, the information indicating the usage configuration of the TCI state may be bitmap information. For example, the usage configuration information generation module 1632 may generate the bitmap information by marking the TCI state corresponding to the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE as 1 and marking other unused TCI states as 0.

[0243] The control information generation module 1633 may be configured to generate control information by including the generated information indicating the usage configuration of the TCI state. Preferably, the usage configuration information may be included in the user-specific DCI and sent to the target UE, for indirectly indicating the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE in the MU-MIMO transmission group to the target UE, and then the target UE performs interference cancellation and data demodulation to restore the target data stream, thereby realizing "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission.

[0244] Preferably, the control information generation unit 1630 may further include an activation configuration information generation module 1634. The activation configuration information generation module 1634 may be configured to activate a second number of TCI states from the first number of TCI states and generate activation configuration information indicating the activated second number of TCI states.

[0245] Specifically, when the number M of TCI states configured by RRC is too large, for example, when M is greater than 8, in order to save physical layer signaling overhead and maintain the consistency of the physical layer signaling format, preferably, the base station can first activate N (for example, N is 8) TCI states from the M TCI states, and indicate the activation operation by activation configuration information in the form of a bitmap, for example. For example, the activated TCI state is represented as 1 in the bitmap information, and the unactivated TCI state is represented as 0 in the bitmap information. The activation configuration information in the form of a bitmap can be included in a user-specific MAC CE and sent to the target UE.

[0246] Then, the usage configuration information generation module 1632 can generate usage configuration information indicating the usage of the activated TCI state according to the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE in the MU-MIMO transmission. For example, information indicating the number of TCI states used for MU-MIMO transmission in the N activated TCI states is generated. For another example, among the N activated TCI states, the TCI state corresponding to the interfering DMRS configuration is marked as 1, and the unused TCI state is marked as 0, thereby generating N-bit bitmap information.

[0247] In this way, the target UE can determine the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE according to the activation configuration information received from the MAC layer and the usage configuration information received from the physical layer, and then perform interference elimination and data demodulation.

[0248] It should be noted that the above activation configuration information generation module 1634 is optional (in Fig.16 In the case where the number of TCI states configured by RRC is less than or equal to 8, for example, the activation operation can be omitted, and thus there is no need to set the activation configuration information generation module 1634.

[0249] In addition, it should be noted that the reference here Fig.16 The configuration example on the base station side described corresponds to the configuration example on the user equipment side described above, so the content not described in detail here can be found in the description of the corresponding position above and will not be repeated here.

[0250] In order to further understand the third exemplary solution, the following will refer to Fig.17 The flowchart shown is used to describe the signaling interaction process for implementing the third example solution. Fig.17 is a flowchart illustrating a signaling interaction process for implementing the third exemplary solution according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0251] like Fig.17 As shown, first, after establishing an RRC connection, in step S1701, the base station configures the TCI configuration for MU-MIMO transmission including, for example, M TCI states to the user equipment k through RRC signaling. Then, in step S1702, the base station activates N TCI states from the M TCI states, and includes the information indicating the activation configuration of the TCI state in the MAC CE and sends it to the user equipment k. Next, in step S1703, the base station sends a downlink reference signal CSI-RS to the user equipment k to obtain channel state information, and the user equipment k sends the measured channel state information to the base station in step S1704. Then, in step S1705, the base station performs MU-MIMO transmission scheduling based on the channel state information reported by the user equipment k and other user equipments and in combination with the specific network conditions, thereby generating information indicating the use configuration in the activated N TCI states according to the scheduling result, and includes the use configuration information in, for example, DCI to send to the user equipment k, so as to indicate the interference DMRS configuration in MU-MIMO transmission to the user equipment k. At the same time, in step S1706, the base station sends information including the DMRS configuration of user equipment k to user equipment k via DCI. Next, in step S1707, the base station simultaneously transmits downlink data to a group of user equipments including user equipment k on the same transmission resources. User equipment k can learn the DMRS configuration of itself and other UEs in the group by decoding the received DCI, and then demodulate the received data information according to the information.

[0252] It should be noted that the above reference Fig.17 The signaling interaction process described is only an example and not a limitation. Those skilled in the art can modify the above interaction process according to the principles of the present disclosure and in combination with actual conditions. Fig.17The numbering of the steps is only for the convenience of description and does not mean any restriction on the execution order. For example, the above describes the DCI including the usage configuration information of the TCI state and the DCI including the DMRS configuration of the user equipment k itself, which are sent in steps S1705 and S1706 respectively. However, this is only to illustrate that UE k can directly deduce the interference DMRS configuration according to the usage configuration information including the TCI state without the need to rely on the DMRS configuration of UE k itself. In fact, these two steps can be performed simultaneously, that is, these two types of information can be sent in the same DCI. For another example, in order to avoid blurring the subject matter of the present disclosure, some interactive processes with low technical relevance to the present disclosure are omitted in the above flowchart. Furthermore, Fig.17 Some steps in can also be omitted. For example, when M is small, the activation operation in the above step S1702 can be omitted (in Fig.17 All such modifications should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure and will not be listed here one by one.

[0253] According to the third example scheme of the present disclosure, by indirectly indicating the DMRS configuration corresponding to the interfering data stream in the MU-MIMO transmission to the target user equipment based on the existing TCI mechanism, the user equipment can be enabled to obtain relevant interference information to achieve "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission without significantly increasing the processing load and signaling overhead, which is beneficial to optimizing system performance.

[0254] (1-4. Fourth Example)

[0255] In the fourth example scheme of the present disclosure, it is proposed to indirectly notify the interfering DMRS configuration in the MU-MIMO transmission group based on the DMRS configuration of the target user equipment itself and the related information of the code division multiplexing (CDM) group where the DMRS configuration is located.

[0256] First, the related concepts of DMRS and CDM groups will be briefly introduced. DMRS is composed of an orthogonal sequence (orthogonal code) using Walsh code and a scrambling sequence based on a pseudo-random sequence. In addition, the downlink DMRS (DL-DMRS) is independent for each antenna port and can be multiplexed in each resource block pairing. DL-DMRS is in a mutually orthogonal relationship between antenna ports using CDM and / or frequency division multiplexing (Frequency Division Multiplexing, FDM). DL-DMRS is code-division multiplexed using orthogonal codes in the CDM group. DL-DMRS are frequency-division multiplexed between CDM groups. DL-DMRS in the same CDM group are mapped to the same resource elements respectively. DL-DMRS in the same CDM group use different orthogonal sequences between antenna ports, and these orthogonal sequences are in a mutually orthogonal relationship. The DL-DMRS used for the downlink data channel PDSCH can use part or all of up to 12 antenna ports (antenna ports 1000 to 1011). That is to say, in the case of single-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (SU-MIMO) transmission, the PDSCH associated with the DL-DMRS can perform MIMO transmission of up to 8 ranks; in the case of MU-MIMO transmission, each UE is allocated up to 4 ranks, and all UEs are allocated up to 12 ranks in total. The DL-DMRS used for the downlink control channel PDCCH uses, for example, part or all of the 4 antenna ports (antenna ports 1007 to 1010). In addition, the DL-DMRS can change the CDM diffusion code length and the number of mapped resource elements according to the rank number of the associated channel.

[0257] Fig.18 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a mapping pattern of DMRS ports 7 to 10 on resource elements (REs), in Fig.18 , the shaded squares represent the resource elements to which antenna ports 7 to 10 (i.e., DMRS ports 7 to 10) are mapped. Specifically, in LTE, for example, Fig.18 As shown, DMRS ports 7 and 8 in the same CDM group are mapped to the same resource element, so that codewords [+1+1+1+1] and codewords [+1-1+1-1] are used respectively in CDM group CDM4; DMRS ports 9 and 10 are mapped to the same resource element, so that codewords [+1+1+1+1] and codewords [+1-1+1-1] are used respectively in CDM group CDM4.

[0258] Generally speaking, when a DMRS port and the CDM group to which the DMRS port belongs are given, the other DMRS ports included in the CDM group are also determined. In view of this, in the fourth example scheme of the present disclosure, it is proposed that the base station can notify the target UE of the usage of all or part of the codewords in its CDM group through, for example, DCI, thereby indirectly notifying the usage of each DMRS port in MU-MIMO transmission. For example, assuming that in CDM4, the base station allocates DMRS port 7 to the target UE through DCI and informs the target UE that all codewords in the CDM group are used by the DMRS port of MU-MIMO transmission, then the target UE can infer that the other DMRS ports 8, 11, and 13 in the CDM4 group are interference ports in MU-MIMO transmission, and then perform interference elimination and data demodulation to recover the target data stream, thereby realizing "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission.

[0259] The configuration examples of the user equipment side and the base station side for implementing the fourth example solution described above will be described in detail below.

[0260] Fig.19 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0261] like Fig.19 As shown, the device 1900 according to this example may include a determining unit 1902 and a decoding unit 1904. The functional configuration example of the decoding unit 1904 is the same as that of the above reference Figure 3 The functional configuration examples of the decoding unit 304 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0262] The determining unit 1902 may further include a DMRS configuration set determining module 1921 and an interference DMRS configuration determining module 1922 .

[0263] The DMRS configuration set determination module 1921 may be configured to determine a DMRS configuration set corresponding to a CDM group for MU-MIMO transmission.

[0264] Specifically, NR currently supports CDM2, CDM4 and CDM8. After establishing the RRC connection, the base station can notify the target UE of the CDM group in which the DMRS port configured for it is located, that is, which one of CDM2, CDM4 and CDM8, through, for example, user-specific high-level RRC signaling. In addition, at the RRC layer, if the type of DMRS configuration is determined, the relationship between the DMRS and the CDM group is also determined. For example, in general, for DMRS associated with PDSCH, CDM4 is mainly supported. In this way, the DMRS configuration set determination module 1921 on the user equipment side can obtain the CDM group used for MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel by decoding the high-level signaling from the base station, and then uniquely determine the DMRS configuration set corresponding to the CDM group.

[0265] The interference DMRS configuration determining module 1922 may be configured to determine the DMRS configuration of other user equipments as the interference DMRS configuration according to the configuration information of the CDM group included in the control information.

[0266] Specifically, for example, the configuration information of the CDM group may include information indicating whether all the codewords therein are used by the DMRS ports of the MU-MIMO transmission. For example, it can be indicated by 1 bit of information, 1 indicates that all are used, and 0 indicates that only part of them are used. The interference DMRS configuration determination module 1922 can determine other DMRS configurations in the DMRS configuration set that are different from the DMRS configuration of the target UE as interference DMRS configurations when it is determined according to the configuration information that all the codewords in the CDM group are used.

[0267] On the other hand, if the configuration information indicates that not all codewords in the CDM group are used, further information needs to be combined to determine which codewords are used and which codewords are not used, so as to determine the interfering DMRS configuration.

[0268] Preferably, the configuration information of the CDM group included in the control information from the base station may be information indicating the occupation of the codewords in the CDM group. The information may preferably be information in the form of a bitmap, for example, the codewords occupied by the DMRS port are represented by 1 in the bitmap, and the codewords not occupied by the DMRS port are represented by 0 in the bitmap. For example, assuming that the bitmap information corresponding to CDM4 is "1010", it means that the codewords [+1+1+1+1] and [+1-1+1-1] in CDM4 are occupied by two interfering DMRS ports, while the remaining two codewords [+1+1-1-1] and [-1+1+1-1] are not used.

[0269] In this way, the interference DMRS configuration determination module 1922 can further determine the occupied codewords in the CDM group according to the bitmap information indicating the codeword occupancy status in the CDM group included in the control information, and then determine the DMRS port corresponding to the occupied codeword in the DMRS configuration set as the interference DMRS port.

[0270] It can be seen that by notifying the codeword occupancy in the CDM group in the form of a bitmap, the scheme of the present disclosure can be applied to both the partial use of the CDM group and the full use of the CDM group. However, in the case of full use, as mentioned above, by indicating with, for example, 1-bit information "1", the signaling overhead of the bitmap information can also be saved, which is particularly evident in the case of CDM4 and CDM8. Therefore, in actual implementation, these two information notification methods can also be combined. For example, when it is determined that the CDM group is fully used based on 1-bit information, the interference DMRS configuration can be directly derived based on the DMRS configuration of the target UE; conversely, when it is determined that the CDM group is not fully used based on 1-bit information, the interference DMRS configuration is determined in combination with the bitmap information indicating the specific usage of the CDM group.

[0271] Corresponding to the above-mentioned configuration example on the user equipment side, a configuration example on the base station side will be described below.

[0272] Fig. 20 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0273] like Fig. 20 As shown, the apparatus 2000 according to this example may include a control information generating unit 2002 and a transmission control unit 2004. The functional configuration example of the transmission control unit 2004 is similar to that described in the above reference. Figure 4 The functional configuration examples of the transmission control unit 404 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0274] The control information generating unit 2002 may further include a configuration information generating module 2021 and a control information generating module 2022 .

[0275] The configuration information generation module 2021 may be configured to generate configuration information of a CDM group for MU-MIMO transmission according to the DMRS configuration of a group of user equipments performing MU-MIMO transmission. As an example implementation, the configuration information may be used to indicate whether the DMRS configuration set corresponding to the CDM group is used for the MU-MIMO transmission in its entirety, i.e., whether all codewords in the CDM group are used by the interfering DMRS ports of the MU-MIMO transmission. For example, 1 indicates that all are used, and 0 indicates that only part of them are used.

[0276] The control information generation module 2022 can be configured to generate control information including the configuration information of the CDM group and the DMRS configuration of the target UE, for indirectly indicating the interference DMRS configuration in the MU-MIMO transmission. The control information can be sent to the target UE via, for example, a user-specific DCI of the physical layer. Thus, the target UE can, based on the received control information, determine other DMRS configurations in the DMRS configuration set corresponding to the CDM group that are different from its own DMRS configuration as interference DMRS configurations when the configuration information indicates that all CDM groups are used.

[0277] On the other hand, as described above, there is a situation where not all codewords in the CDM group are used. Therefore, preferably, as another example implementation, the configuration information generated by the configuration information generation module 2021 may include bitmap information for indicating the usage of the codewords in the CDM group. For example, 1 indicates that the codeword is used by the interfering DMRS port, and 0 indicates that the codeword is not used by the DMRS port. The control information generation module 2022 can generate control information by including the configuration information in the form of the bitmap, and send the control information to the target UE through, for example, a user-specific DCI of the physical layer, so as to indirectly indicate the interfering DMRS configuration to the target UE.

[0278] In addition, preferably, the apparatus 2000 may further include a CDM group configuration unit 2006, configured to configure a CDM group for the target UE to use for its MU-MIMO transmission.

[0279] Specifically, the CDM group configuration unit 2006 may be configured to generate, for the target UE, indication information of the CDM group for MU-MIMO transmission, for indicating which one of CDM2, CDM4 and CDM5 is used. The indication information may be included in, for example, a high-level RRC signaling sent to the target UE.

[0280] It can be understood that for different CDM groups (CDM2 / 4 / 8), the configuration information in the form of the bitmap described above, which is used to indicate the usage of the codewords in the CDM group, included in the DCI, may have different lengths. Therefore, by informing the user equipment of the CDM group used in advance through RRC by the base station, the user equipment can interpret the bitmap information of different lengths in the DCI accordingly according to the RRC configuration, thereby avoiding information demodulation failure.

[0281] In addition, it should be noted that reference is made here to Fig. 20 The configuration example on the base station side described corresponds to the configuration example on the user equipment side described above, so the content not described in detail here can be found in the description of the corresponding position above and will not be repeated here.

[0282] In order to further understand the fourth exemplary solution, the following will refer to Fig.21 The flowchart shown is used to describe the signaling interaction process for implementing the fourth example solution. Fig.21 is a flowchart illustrating a signaling interaction process for implementing the fourth example solution according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0283] like Fig.21 As shown, first, after establishing the RRC connection, in step S2101, the base station configures the CDM group for MU-MIMO transmission to the user equipment k through RRC signaling. Then, in step S2102, the base station sends a downlink reference signal CSI-RS to the user equipment k to obtain channel state information, and the user equipment k sends the measured channel state information to the base station in step S2103. Then, in step S2104, the base station performs MU-MIMO transmission scheduling based on the channel state information reported by the user equipment k and other user equipments and in combination with the specific network conditions, thereby generating configuration information indicating the CDM group according to the scheduling result, and including the configuration information and the DMRS configuration of the user equipment k in, for example, DCI to send to the user equipment k. The configuration information may include 1-bit information indicating whether all the codewords in the CDM group are used, and / or bitmap information indicating the specific usage of the codewords in the CDM group, so as to indicate the interference DMRS configuration in MU-MIMO transmission to the user equipment k. Next, in step S2105, the base station simultaneously transmits downlink data to a group of user equipments including user equipment k on the same transmission resource. User equipment k can obtain the DMRS configuration of itself and other UEs in the group by decoding the received DCI, and then demodulate the received data information according to the information.

[0284] It should be noted that the above reference Fig.21 The signaling interaction process described is only an example and not a limitation. Those skilled in the art can modify the above interaction process according to the principles of the present disclosure and in combination with actual conditions. Fig.21 The numbered steps are only for the convenience of description and do not limit the execution order. For another example, in order to avoid blurring the subject matter of the present disclosure, some interactive processes with low technical relevance to the present disclosure are omitted in the above flowchart. All such modifications should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure and will not be listed here one by one.

[0285] According to the fourth example scheme of the present disclosure, by utilizing the determined correspondence between each type of DMRS configuration and the CDM group, the target UE is notified of the DMRS configuration of the target UE and the usage of the CDM group to which it belongs, so that the user equipment can be informed of the relevant interference information to achieve "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission without significantly increasing the processing load and signaling overhead, which is beneficial to optimizing system performance.

[0286] It should be pointed out here that the above described, in combination with the first to fourth example schemes, how to achieve "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission of the downlink data channel by indirectly notifying the user equipment of the interference situation of the MU-MIMO transmission according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, but it should be understood that these example schemes are only preferred embodiments and not limitations, and those skilled in the art may also make appropriate modifications or combinations to the above schemes based on the principles of the present disclosure, and such variations should certainly be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0287] [2. MU-MIMO transmission of downlink control channel (second embodiment)]

[0288] The following describes the MU-MIMO transmission of the downlink control channel according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure. The so-called MU-MIMO transmission of the downlink control channel here means that the downlink control channels for multiple different user equipments (i.e., UE-specific PDCCH) are superimposed on the same time-frequency resources for transmission, so as to improve the utilization efficiency of time-frequency resources.

[0289] As described above, in the prior art, usually only a control channel for a certain UE (i.e., UE-specific PDCCH) is transmitted on a certain time-frequency resource, and control channels for multiple UEs are not superimposed on the same time-frequency resource for transmission as data channels. The inventors of the present invention recognize that this is because, as described in the first embodiment above, for the target UE, the MU-MIMO transmission of its data channel can be assisted by control signaling (e.g., UE-specific DCI) carried by the control channel UE-specific PDCCH of the target UE, for example, the relevant control information of the MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel (including the DMRS configuration of the target UE and information directly or indirectly indicating the interference DMRS configuration) is included in the UE-specific DCI. However, if MU-MIMO transmission is also performed on the control channel of the user equipment itself, the control channel cannot be used to provide relevant control information about its own MU-MIMO transmission, i.e., the DMRS configuration corresponding to the UE-specific PDCCH of the target UE and the optional DMRS configuration corresponding to the UE-specific PDCCH of other UEs. Based on the problems faced, the prior art has not yet proposed any solution that can effectively implement MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel.

[0290] In the NR system, the use of Group Common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) to carry information about the time slot structure, such as the Slot Format Indicator (SFI), is supported.

[0291] Here we need to briefly explain the relationship between GC-PDCCH and Common Search Space (CSS). CSS is where all UEs can attempt blind decoding, while user-specific search space will attempt blind decoding only if the UE is configured in advance. The GC-PDCCH in the present disclosure can be located in the CSS so that it can be easily decoded by a UE in a group of UEs.

[0292] In the second embodiment of the present disclosure, it is proposed that GC-PDCCH can be used to carry relevant control information of MU-MIMO transmission of control channels. That is to say, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, GC-PDCCH not only includes time slot information such as SFI, but also includes control information for MU-MIMO transmission of control channels. The base station can configure the time-frequency resources available for GC-PDCCH for the user equipment through RRC. The user equipment receives GC-PDCCH by detecting on the corresponding time-frequency resources, obtains control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel from GC-PDCCH, and then recovers its own UE-specific PDCCH from the received superimposed signal stream based on the control information. This structure of sending GC-PDCCH and UE-specific PDCCH to the user equipment can also be called a dual-stage DCI structure. In order to facilitate understanding of this process, reference will be made to Fig. 22 The flowchart shown briefly describes the signaling interaction flow chart of the two-stage DCI structure for implementing MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel.

[0293] like Fig. 22As shown, first, in step S2201, the base station sends a downlink reference signal CSI-RS to user equipment k to obtain channel state information, and user equipment k sends the measured channel state information to the base station in step S2202. Then, in step S2203, the base station performs MU-MIMO transmission scheduling based on the channel state information reported by user equipment k and other user equipments and in combination with specific network conditions, and sends GC-PDCCH (this is the first level DCI) to user equipment k according to the scheduling result. The GC-PDCCH includes SFI and control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel. Then, in step S2204, the base station sends its exclusive UE-specific PDCCH (this is the second level DCI) to user equipment k. Different from the prior art, the UE-specific PDCCH is superimposed on the same time-frequency resource for transmission with the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipments in the MU-MIMO transmission group, so the signal received by the user equipment is not its own separate UE-specific PDCCH, but is superimposed with the UE-specific PDDCH of other user equipments. Next, in step S2205, the base station sends a data stream to user equipment k, and the data stream is superimposed with the data streams of other user equipments in the MU-MIMO transmission group for transmission. In this way, user equipment k can first recover its own UE-specific PDCCH from the received superimposed signal stream according to the control information about MU-MIMO transmission included in the received GC-PDCCH, and then recover the target data stream from the received superimposed data stream according to the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel included in the UE-specific PDDCH. How to demodulate the target data stream according to the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel included in the UE-specific PDCCH can refer to the scheme in the first embodiment above, or other schemes in the prior art can also be adopted, which will not be discussed in detail in this embodiment.

[0294] It should be pointed out here that Fig. 22In the flowchart shown, the simultaneous existence of MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel and MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel is described, but this is only an example and not a limitation, and the two can of course exist independently. It should also be pointed out that even if the two exist at the same time, the MU-MIMO mode of the control channel may be different from the MU-MIMO mode of the data channel. For example, assume that the UE-specific PDCCH of a user equipment has only one layer during MU-MIMO transmission, while the data information of the user equipment includes multiple layers during MU-MIMO transmission. Specifically, for example, assuming that there are 3 UEs performing MU-MIMO transmission, the MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel may include only 3 layers, each layer belonging to one UE; and the MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel may include 6 layers, and each UE includes two layers of data streams.

[0295] In addition, the DMRS configuration used to transmit the PDCCH (also referred to as the DMRS configuration associated with the PDCCH) and the DMRS configuration used to transmit the PDSCH (also referred to as the DMRS configuration associated with the PDSCH) may also be different. For example, the DMRS associated with the PDCCH is transmitted using one or more of the antenna ports 107 to 114, while the DMRS associated with the PDSCH is transmitted using one or more of the antenna ports 7 to 14.

[0296] In addition, it should be pointed out that there is no limit on the number of layers that a UE-specific PDCCH of a user equipment can occupy in MU-MIMO transmission, which can be one or more layers, that is, one or more DCIs for a UE can exist in one time slot.

[0297] Next, configuration examples of the user equipment side and the base station side for implementing the solution of using GC-PDCCH to assist in implementing MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail respectively.

[0298] Fig.23 : is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0299] like Fig.23 As shown, the device 2300 according to this example may include a MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2302 and a dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 2304.

[0300] It should be pointed out that Fig.23The various functional units in the device shown are only logical modules divided according to the specific functions implemented by them, and are not used to limit the specific implementation method. In actual implementation, the above-mentioned various functional units and modules can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.), which also applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the user equipment side. The configuration examples of each functional unit will be described in detail below.

[0301] The MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2302 may be configured to decode a GC-PDCCH for a group of user equipments including the target user equipment to acquire control information on MU-MIMO transmission of control channels of the group of user equipments.

[0302] Specifically, the GC-PDCCH from the base station may include control information about superimposing the UE-specific PDCCHs of a group of user equipment for MU-MIMO transmission. The control information may include, for example, information related to the DMRS configuration corresponding to the UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment, including the DMRS port number, scrambling ID and number of layers; or it may be information for generating a pseudo-random sequence of DMRS and the corresponding orthogonal cover code (OCC).

[0303] The dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 2304 can be configured to decode the UE-specific PDCCH of the target UE, which is superimposed on the same transmission resources as the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipments, according to the acquired MU-MIMO transmission control information, to obtain transmission control information about the target UE.

[0304] Specifically, the DMRS associated with the PDCCH is sent using the subframe and frequency band used to send the PDCCH associated with the DMRS. The DMRS is used to demodulate the PDCCH associated with the DMRS. The PDCCH is sent using the antenna port used to send the DMRS. Therefore, similar to data information, after knowing the DMRS configuration corresponding to at least the UE-specific PDCCH of the target UE, the target UE can recover its own UE-specific PDCCH from the received superimposed signal stream to obtain the transmission control information dedicated to the target UE, which can be used for transmission control of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and can also be used for future transmission control of the direct link (sidelink), such as transmission control of the direct link-shared channel (SL-SCH), the physical direct link control channel (PSCCH), etc. The so-called transmission control here includes resource allocation, transmission format / modulation coding format, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information, DMRS allocation, etc.

[0305] Here, it should be noted that the above-mentioned device 2300 on the user equipment side can be implemented at the chip level, or can also be implemented at the device level. For example, the device 2300 can work as the user equipment itself, and can also include memory, transceiver (optionally, in Fig.23 The memory may be used to store programs and related data information that the user equipment needs to execute to implement various functions. The transceiver may include one or more communication interfaces to support communication with different devices (e.g., base stations, other user equipment, etc.), and the implementation form of the transceiver is not specifically limited here. The same applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the user equipment side.

[0306] With the above Fig.23 Corresponding to the configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side shown, the present disclosure also provides the following configuration example on the base station side. Fig.24 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0307] like Fig.24 As shown, the device 2400 according to this example may include a control channel generation unit 2402 and a transmission control unit 2404.

[0308] Likewise, it should be noted that Fig.24The various functional units in the device shown are only logical modules divided according to the specific functions implemented by them, and are not used to limit the specific implementation method. In actual implementation, the above-mentioned various functional units or modules can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.), which also applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the base station side. The configuration examples of each functional unit will be described in detail below.

[0309] The control channel generation unit 2402 can be configured to generate a group common physical downlink control channel (GC-PDCCH) for a group of user equipment and a user-specific physical downlink control channel (UE-specific PDCCH) for each user equipment in a group of user equipment, wherein the GC-PDCCH includes control information for multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output MU-MIMO transmission of control channels of all user equipment in a group of user equipment, and the control information may include, for example, the DMRS configuration corresponding to the UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment.

[0310] The transmission control unit 2404 can be configured to send the generated GC-PDCCH to a group of user equipment, and based on the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel in the GC-PDCCH, control the base station to simultaneously send respective UE-specific PDCCHs to each user equipment on the same transmission resources.

[0311] It should be noted that the configuration example of the device on the base station side described here corresponds to the configuration example of the device on the user equipment side mentioned above. Therefore, for the content not described in detail here, please refer to the description of the corresponding position above and it will not be repeated here.

[0312] In addition, it should be noted that the above-mentioned apparatus 2400 on the base station side can be implemented at the chip level, or can also be implemented at the device level. For example, the apparatus 2400 can work as the base station itself, and can also include memory, transceiver (optionally, in Fig.24 The memory may be used to store programs and related data information that the base station needs to execute to implement various functions. The transceiver may include one or more communication interfaces to support communication with different devices (e.g., user equipment, other base stations, etc.), and the implementation form of the transceiver is not specifically limited here. The same applies to the subsequent description of other configuration examples on the base station side.

[0313] According to the technology disclosed in the present invention, the GC-PDCCH includes control information about MU-MIMO transmission of control channels in addition to time slot information such as SFI. However, as mentioned above, GC-PDCCH is for all UEs, that is, all UEs will try to decode GC-PDCCH, and the MU-MIMO transmission control information included therein is only for a group of user equipments that want to perform MU-MIMO transmission on their control channels. Therefore, preferably, in order to prevent other UEs except this group of UEs from decoding and obtaining the control information, consider scrambling this part of the content. The existing DCI scrambling technology will be briefly introduced below.

[0314] Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) parity bits are added to the DCI. The CRC parity bits are scrambled by the Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI). RNTI is an identifier that can be specified or set according to the purpose of the DCI, etc. RNTI is an identifier pre-specified in accordance with the standard, an identifier set as cell-specific information, an identifier set as terminal device-specific information, or an identifier set as group-specific information belonging to the terminal device. For example, when monitoring the PDCCH, the terminal device descrambles the CRC parity bits attached to the DCI with a predetermined RNTI to identify whether the CRC is correct. If the CRC is correct, it can be known that the DCI is for the terminal device.

[0315] In the present disclosure, a group common identifier dedicated to the scrambling of control information about MU-MIMO transmission of control channels in GC-PDCCH is designed. According to the scrambling object of the group common identifier, it can be called, for example, MU-PDCCHRNTI or MU-MIMO RNTI to distinguish it from RNTI used for other purposes. For example, the scrambled identifier used for SFI in GC-PDCCH can be called SFI RNTI.

[0316] In order to further understand the technology of the present disclosure, the following Fig.25 To describe the relationship between GC-PDCCH and UE-specific PDCCH and the information contained in GC-PDCCH. Fig.25 is a schematic diagram showing an example architecture of a GC-PDCCH and a relationship between the GC-PDCCH and a UE-specific PDDCH according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0317] exist Fig.25 In the example shown, the MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel includes 4 layers, such as Fig.25As shown on the right side of , dedicated transmission control information for four UEs is superimposed on the UE-specific PDCCH received by the UE, which is the transmission control information of UE1, UE2, UE k and UE m from top to bottom. Fig.25 The left side of the figure shows a group-common PDCCH, which includes information such as SFI and MU-MIMO transmission control information scrambled with, for example, MU-PDCCH RNTI. The four boxes in the MU-MIMO transmission control information represent the DMRS configurations (including DMRS port number, scrambling ID, and number of layers) associated with the UE-specific PDCCH of UE1, UE2, UE k, and UE m, respectively. It is assumed that the DMRS configurations corresponding to UE 1, UE 2, UE k, and UE m are respectively referred to as DMRS configuration 1, DMRS configuration 2, DMRS configuration k, and DMRS configuration m. In this way, for example, UE k, after obtaining at least its own DMRS configuration k by decoding the GC-PDCCH, it can attempt to demodulate and recover its own transmission control information from the received UE-specific PDCCH.

[0318] In the following description, as an example, a scrambling scheme for control information on MU-MIMO transmission of a control channel in a GC-PDCCH will be described in detail in combination with a first example scheme, a second example scheme, and a variation of the second example scheme, respectively.

[0319] (2-1. First Example Scheme)

[0320] In a first exemplary solution of the present disclosure, it is proposed to scramble the DMRS configuration of each UE included in the GC-PDCCH by using a group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI. Fig.26 is a schematic diagram showing a first exemplary scenario according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0321] It should be pointed out that in Fig.26 In the schematic diagram shown, for the purpose of clarity, the illustration of information such as SFI included in the GC-PDCCH is omitted, and only the part closely related to the technology of the present disclosure is shown.

[0322] like Fig.26As shown, the DMRS configurations of UE1, UE2, UE k and UE m included in the GC-PDCCH are scrambled respectively using MU-PDCCH RNTI. Since the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI is known to a group of user equipments performing MU-MIMO transmission (for example, the base station can configure MU-PDCCH RNTI for user equipments that may participate in MU-MIMO transmission in advance through, for example, high-level RRC signaling), UE1, UE2, UE k and UE m can all use MU-PDCCH RNTI to descramble the scrambled GC-PDCCH, thereby obtaining four DMRS configurations. However, at this time, each UE does not know which DMRS configuration is its own DMRS configuration and which DMRS configurations are interference. Therefore, the user equipment can attempt to blindly decode the UE-specific PDCCH based on all the obtained DMRS configurations, that is, make different interference DMRS configuration assumptions to try whether the UE-specific PDCCH can be decoded, and use the user-specific identifier (for example, the cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI) to verify the decoded information. That is, the CRC parity bits of the UE-specific PDCCH are descrambled with the C-RNTI to identify whether the CRC is correct. If the CRC is correct, the verification is successful, indicating that the decoded information is the transmission control information for the user itself.

[0323] It can be seen that in the above-mentioned first example scheme, the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI is used to scramble the DMRS configuration of each user equipment in the MU-MIMO transmission group. This scrambling scheme can also be called a "first-level scrambling scheme." Each user equipment can obtain the DMRS configuration of the entire group by decoding the GC-PDCCH using the MU-PDCCH RNTI, and decode the UE-specific PDCCH by performing interference elimination based on different interference DMRS assumptions. In other words, the user equipment not only knows its own DMRS configuration, but also knows the DMRS configuration of the interfering UE. Therefore, the first example scheme is equivalent to a "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel.

[0324] The configuration examples of the user equipment side and the base station side for implementing the above-mentioned first example solution will be described in detail below.

[0325] Fig. 27 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0326] like Fig. 27As shown, the device 2700 according to this example may include a MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2702 and a dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 2704.

[0327] The MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2702 may be configured to decode the GC-PDCCH from the base station using the group common identifier to acquire control information about the MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel. The MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2702 may further include an identifier acquisition module 2721 and a descrambling module 2722.

[0328] The identifier acquisition module 2721 may be configured to acquire a group common identifier (e.g., MU-PDCCH RNTI) and a unique identifier of the user equipment (e.g., C-RNTI) from the base station. The descrambling module 2722 may be configured to decode the GC-PDCCH using the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI to acquire control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel for all user equipment included therein. Fig.26 Taking the configuration shown as an example, assuming that the DMRS configurations corresponding to UE 1, UE 2, UE k and UE m are respectively called DMRS configuration 1, DMRS configuration 2, DMRS configuration k and DMRS configuration m, and taking UE k as an example of the target UE, the de-scrambling module 2722 of UE k can decode and obtain DMRS configuration 1, DMRS configuration 2, DMRS configuration k and DMRS configuration m.

[0329] The dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 2704 may be configured to decode the UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment based on the control information acquired by the MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2702 and the dedicated identifier of the target user equipment to acquire transmission control information about the target user equipment.

[0330] Preferably, the dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 2704 may further include a blind decoding module 2741 and a verification module 2742 .

[0331] The blind decoding module 2741 may be configured to perform blind decoding on the UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment by treating the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipments as interference based on the control information acquired by the MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2702 .

[0332] Specifically, Fig.26Taking UE k in the example shown as an example of the target UE, the blind decoding module 2741 of UE k can respectively assume one of the four DMRS configurations obtained (including DMRS configuration 1, DMRS configuration 2, DMRS configuration k and DMRS configuration m) as its own DMRS configuration, and assume the remaining three DMRS configurations as interference DMRS configurations, thereby decoding the received UE-specific PDCCH according to, for example, the linear interference elimination method described above.

[0333] However, at this time, it cannot be guaranteed that the decoded information is the transmission control information for UE k. Therefore, verification is still required.

[0334] The verification module 2742 may be configured to verify the decoded information using a unique identifier (eg, C-RNTI) of UE k, and obtain the verified decoded information as transmission control information about the target user equipment.

[0335] Specifically, UE k uses its own C-RNTI to sequentially descramble the CRC parity bits in the decoded transmission control information to identify whether the CRC is correct. If the CRC is correct, the verification is successful, indicating that this transmission control information is intended for UE k.

[0336] Corresponding to the above-mentioned configuration example on the user equipment side, a configuration example on the base station side will be described below. Fig.28 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0337] like Fig.28 As shown, the device 2800 according to this example may include a control channel generation unit 2802 and a transmission control unit 2804. The functional configuration example of the transmission control unit 2804 is the same as that of the above reference Fig.24 The functional configuration examples of the transmission control unit 2404 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0338] The control channel generating unit 2802 further includes a scrambling module 2821 and a notification module 2822 .

[0339] The scrambling module 2821 may be configured to generate a GC-PDCCH by scrambling control information on MU-MIMO transmission of a control channel included in the GC-PDCCH using a group common identifier (eg, MU-PDCCH RNTI).

[0340] Specifically, refer to the above Fig.26The scrambling module 2821 uses the MU-PDCCH RNTI to scramble the four DMRS configurations (including DMRS configuration 1, DMRS configuration 2, DMRS configuration k and DMRS configuration m) included in the GC-PDCCH respectively to obtain the scrambled GC-PDCCH.

[0341] The notification module 2822 can be configured to control the base station to send a group common identifier (e.g., MU-PDCCH RNTI) to each user equipment, so that the group of user equipment performing MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel can obtain the DMRS configuration included therein by decoding the received GC-PDCCH using the MU-PDCCH RNTI.

[0342] It should be noted that the configuration example of the device on the base station side described here corresponds to the configuration example of the device on the user equipment side mentioned above. Therefore, for the content not described in detail here, please refer to the description of the corresponding position above and it will not be repeated here.

[0343] It can be seen that according to the above-mentioned first example scrambling scheme, the descrambling operation on the user equipment side and the scrambling operation on the base station side are relatively simple, but the user equipment needs to blindly decode the UE-specific PDCCH based on multiple interference assumptions, so the processing load on the user equipment side is large. In order to support the blind decoding of the UE-specific PDCCH by the user equipment and avoid the inability of the user equipment receiver to demodulate the corresponding information due to the excessive total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission, preferably, for the MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel, the total number of layers can include two layers and four layers.

[0344] In addition, according to the first example scrambling scheme described above, the user equipment can be aware of the interference situation and perform interference elimination and signal demodulation, which actually realizes "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel, thereby improving the throughput and reliability of the system.

[0345] (2-2. Second example scenario)

[0346] In the second exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a two-stage scrambling scheme is proposed. Fig.29 The two-stage scrambling scheme is described in detail. Fig.29 is a schematic diagram showing a second exemplary scheme according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0347] like Fig.29As shown, for each DMRS configuration included in the GC-PDCCH, it is scrambled twice using a group common identifier and a user-specific identifier. Specifically, taking UE k as an example, the DMRS configuration k included in the GC-PDCCH is scrambled using the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI and the user-specific identifier (C-RNTI k) of UE k respectively. For example, the MU-PDCCH RNTI can be used to perform a first-level scrambling to obtain a first scrambled content, and then the C-RNTIk can be used to perform a second-level scrambling on the first content to obtain a second content. It should be noted that the order of the scrambling RNTIs used in the two scramblings is not restricted. Preferably, C-RNTI k can be used for scrambling first, and then MU-PDCCH RNTI can be used for scrambling. Accordingly, the order when UE k is descrambled is to first use the group common MU-MIMO RNTI to determine the occurrence of PDCCH MU-MIMO transmission, and then use C-RNTI k to determine its own PDCCH to participate in MU-MIMO transmission and related information. In this way, only UE k that knows both MU-PDCCH RNTI and C-RNTI k can demodulate DMRS configuration k included in GC-PDCCH. Similarly, other user equipments UE 1, UE 2 and UE m can only demodulate their own DMRS configurations.

[0348] It can be seen that the two-stage scrambling scheme in the above second example scheme enables the user equipment to only know its own DMRS configuration but cannot know the interference situation of other UEs in the same group. Therefore, this scheme is essentially equivalent to a "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission.

[0349] The configuration examples of the user equipment side and the base station side for implementing the above-mentioned second example solution will be described in detail below.

[0350] Fig.30 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0351] like Fig.30 As shown, the device 3000 according to this example may include a MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 3002 and a dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 3004.

[0352] The MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 3002 may be configured to acquire control information on MU-MIMO transmission of a control channel of a target user equipment by decoding a GC-PDCCH from a base station using a group common identifier and a unique identifier of the user equipment.

[0353] Specifically, the MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 3002 may further include an identifier acquisition module 3021 , a first descrambling module 3022 , and a second descrambling module 3023 .

[0354] The identifier acquisition module 3021 may be configured to acquire a group common identifier (eg, MU-PDCC HRNTI) and a unique identifier of the user equipment (eg, C-RNTI) from the base station.

[0355] The first descrambling module 3022 may be configured to decode the received GC-PDCCH using one of the group common identifier and a unique identifier of the user equipment (eg, MU-PDCCH RNTI) to obtain the first content.

[0356] The second descrambling module 3023 may be configured to decode the first content acquired by the first descrambling module 3022 using the other of the group common identifier and the user equipment's unique identifier (eg, C-RNTI) to acquire control information of the target UE regarding MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel.

[0357] Specifically, Fig.29 Taking the UE k shown in the figure as an example, the DMRS configuration k included in the GC-PDCCH can be uniquely obtained by performing two-stage descrambling on the GC-PDCCH using the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI and the specific identifier C-RNTI k of UE k by the first descrambling module 3022 and the second descrambling module 3023. It should be noted that although it is described in the above example that the first descrambling module 3022 first performs the first-stage descrambling on the GC-PDCCH using the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI, and then the second descrambling module 3023 performs the second-stage descrambling using the user-specific identifier C-RNTI, this is not a limitation, and the order of the descrambling RNTIs used in the two-stage descrambling can be exchanged.

[0358] The dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 3004 may be configured to decode the received UE-specific PDCCH based on the acquired control information of the target UE regarding MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel, thereby acquiring the transmission control information for UE k included therein.

[0359] Specifically, Fig.29 In the example shown, UE k is taken as an example of a target UE, and the dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 3004 of UE k can decode the received UE-specific PDCCH based on the acquired DMRS configuration k of UE k.

[0360] In this example solution, UE k cannot know the DMRS configuration of other UEs in the group, and thus cannot perform interference cancellation, so the processing performance requirement for the receiver of UE k is relatively low.

[0361] Corresponding to the above-mentioned configuration example on the user equipment side, a configuration example on the base station side will be described below. Fig.31 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0362] like Fig.31 As shown, the device 3100 according to this example may include a control channel generation unit 3102 and a transmission control unit 3104. The functional configuration example of the transmission control unit 3104 is the same as that of the above reference Fig.24 The functional configuration examples of the transmission control unit 2404 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0363] The control channel generation unit 3102 may be configured to generate a GC-PDCCH by scrambling the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of each UE included in the GC-PDCCH using the group common identifier and the specific identifier of the user equipment, and control the base station to send the group common identifier and the specific identifier of each user equipment to the user equipment. Specifically, the control channel generation unit 3102 may further include a first scrambling module 3121, a second scrambling module 3122 and a notification module 3123.

[0364] The first scrambling module 3121 may be configured to generate first content regarding each user device for a group of user devices by scrambling control information regarding MU-MIMO transmission of a control channel of each user device using a group common identifier and one of the specific identifiers of each user device (e.g., MU-PDCCH RNTI).

[0365] Specifically, refer to Fig.29 In the example shown, the first scrambling module 3121 can first use, for example, the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI to perform first-level scrambling on four DMRS configurations (DMRS configuration 1, DMRS configuration 2, DMRS configuration k and DMRS configuration m), thereby obtaining first content about UE 1, UE 2, UE k and UE m, respectively.

[0366] The second scrambling module 3122 can be configured to scramble the first content regarding each user equipment by utilizing a group common identifier and another one of the unique identifiers of each user equipment (e.g., C-RNTI), thereby generating a GC-PDCCH including MU-MIMO transmission control information regarding a control channel for a group of user equipment.

[0367] Reference Fig.29 In the example shown, the second scrambling module 3122 can perform second-level scrambling on the first content obtained by the first scrambling module 3121 using, for example, a unique identifier of each user equipment. More specifically, the second scrambling module 3122 performs second-level scrambling on the DMRS configuration 1 that has been scrambled using the MU-PDCCH RNTI using the C-RNTI 1 of UE 1, performs second-level scrambling on the DMRS configuration 2 that has been scrambled using the MU-PDCCH RNTI using the C-RNTI 2 of UE2, performs second-level scrambling on the DMRS configuration k that has been scrambled using the MU-PDCCH RNTI using the C-RNTI k of UE k, and performs second-level scrambling on the DMRS configuration m that has been scrambled using the MU-PDCCH RNTI using the C-RNTI m of UE m, thereby obtaining a GC-PDCCH of MU-MIMO transmission control information including two-level scrambling.

[0368] The notification module 3123 may be configured to control the base station to send the group common identifier and the unique identifier of the user equipment to each user equipment.

[0369] Specifically, refer to Fig.29 In the example shown, the notification module 3123 sends the group common identifier MU-PDCCHRNTI to all user equipments in the group, but sends the dedicated identifier C-RNTI 1 of UE 1 only to UE 1, sends the dedicated identifier C-RNTI 2 of UE 2 only to UE 2, sends the dedicated identifier C-RNTI k of UE k only to UE k, and sends the dedicated identifier C-RNTI m of UEm only to UE m. In this way, only the user equipment that has mastered these two RNTIs at the same time can successfully decode the control information for the user equipment included in the GC-PDCCH, and then use the control information to decode the received UE-specific PDCCH superimposed with the dedicated transmission control information of other UEs, so as to recover the dedicated transmission control information for the user equipment itself.

[0370] It should be noted that the configuration example of the device on the base station side described here corresponds to the configuration example of the device on the user equipment side mentioned above. Therefore, for the content not described in detail here, please refer to the description of the corresponding position above and it will not be repeated here.

[0371] It can be seen that according to the above-mentioned second example scrambling scheme, although the descrambling operation on the user equipment side and the scrambling operation on the base station side are slightly complicated, since each user equipment can only know its own DMRS configuration, and thus attempts to decode the UE-specific PDCCH without performing interference elimination, the implementation of the receiver on the user equipment side is relatively simple and the processing load is small.

[0372] In addition, according to the above-mentioned second example scrambling scheme, the user equipment can demodulate information only according to its own DMRS configuration without interference elimination, which actually realizes "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel, thereby simplifying the design and processing of the receiver and reducing costs.

[0373] (2-3. Modification of the Second Exemplary Scheme)

[0374] According to the above second example solution, each UE can only recover its own DMRS configuration from the GC-PDCCH and cannot know the interference situation of other UEs in the group. In this variant, it is proposed that the second embodiment can be combined with the first embodiment, so that the second example solution as a "transparent" MU-MIMO transmission can be converted into a "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission.

[0375] As an example implementation, the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission may be included in the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel in the GC-PDCCH. Fig.32A is a schematic diagram showing a first example of a modification example of the second exemplary aspect according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0376] like Fig.32A As shown, compared to Fig.29 In the example shown, in the box representing the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of UE 1, UE 2, UE k and UE m, in addition to the DMRS configuration of the UE itself, the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission is also increased.

[0377] In this variant, as described in the second example scheme in the second embodiment, the information in the box representing each UE (including the DMRS configuration and the total number of layers) is scrambled using a group common identifier and a dedicated identifier, respectively, so that each UE can decode its own DMRS configuration and the total number of layers of the MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel from the GC-PDCCH. Then, in combination with the first example scheme in the first embodiment above, by notifying the user equipment of the DMRS allocation scheme in advance through high-layer signaling or according to the stored default DMRS allocation scheme, the user equipment can indirectly deduce the DMRS configuration of other UEs scheduled to perform MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel with it according to the DMRS allocation scheme, its own DMRS configuration and the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission, and then can perform interference elimination and information demodulation, thereby realizing "non-transparent" MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel. How to deduce the DMRS configuration of other UEs based on the DMRS allocation scheme, the total number of layers and the user's own DMRS configuration can refer to the description of the first embodiment above, which will not be repeated here.

[0378] According to the above Fig.32A In the example shown, the information about the total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission is set in the control information of MU-MIMO transmission for each UE, and is scrambled using the group common identifier and the specific identifier of each UE. However, since the total number of layers information is the same information for a group of user equipment performing MU-MIMO transmission, preferably, in order to reduce the signaling resources occupied by the total number of layers information in GC-PDCCH, the total number of layers information can also be set as common information for a group of UEs.

[0379] Fig.32B 2 is a schematic diagram showing a second example of a variation of the second example solution according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure. Fig.32B As shown, the total number of layers is represented by a box independent of the box representing the DMRS configuration of the four UEs. The total number of layers can be encrypted only by the group common identifier MU-PDCCH RNTI, so that only the user equipment configured with the group common identifier can decode the total number of layers from the GC-PDCCH.

[0380] It should be noted that the above reference Fig.32A and Fig.32B An example of indirectly inferring interference information in MU-MIMO transmission of a control channel by means of total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission is described, but this does not mean any limitation, and those skilled in the art can also make some other modifications according to the principles of the present disclosure. Fig.32A and Fig.32BThe example arrangements shown are susceptible to appropriate modifications, and such modifications are considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0381] In addition, it should be pointed out that although the combination of the second embodiment and the first embodiment is described here by taking the first example scheme in the first embodiment and the second example scheme in the second embodiment as examples, this is only an example and not a limitation. Those skilled in the art can also make other appropriate combinations of the first embodiment and the second embodiment according to the principles of the present disclosure, and such combinations should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0382] (2-4. Third Example Scheme)

[0383] Generally speaking, after establishing an RRC connection, the base station configures the range of the control resource set (Control Resource Set, CORESET) in which GC-PDCCH and UE-specific PDCCH may appear for the user equipment through RRC signaling. Then the user equipment can detect and receive the GC-PDCCH and UE-specific PDCCH from the base station respectively according to the CORESET configured by the base station.

[0384] Fig.33 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the GC-PDCCH and the UE-specific PDCCH in the time-frequency domain according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0385] like Fig.33 As shown, the control channel generally appears in the first three OFDM symbols, and the GC-PDCCH generally appears before the UE-specific PDCCH. Since the base station often configures a relatively wide range of time-frequency resources through RRC signaling, as the communication process progresses, the base station will become more aware of the resource allocation and utilization of the network, and may hope to narrow the range of the previously configured CORESET to improve resource utilization efficiency.

[0386] In addition, it should be noted that Fig.33 It is shown that DMRS is included in the RE group carrying UE-specific PDCCH, and these DMRS and the control information of UE-specific PDCCH are placed on different REs in the same physical resource block (PRB). This is different from the original communication system, in which PDCCH does not carry DMRS, so MU-MIMO transmission for control channels is not possible in the original communication system.

[0387] In view of this, in the third example scheme of the present disclosure, it is proposed that the indication information of the control resource set that may appear in the UE-specific PDCCH can be carried in the GC-PDCCH to narrow the range of the CORESET of the UE-specific PDCCH previously configured by the base station through the RRC. In this way, the waste of resources caused by the inability of the base station to predict the exact scheduling information in advance when configuring the CORESET resources by the RRC can be greatly reduced. In other words, by using GC-PDCCH to dynamically adjust the search space of the user equipment for the UE-specific PDCCH, the calculation complexity and power consumption of the UE can be reduced, and the detection delay of the PDCCH is reduced, thereby optimizing the system performance and resource utilization efficiency.

[0388] The following will describe in detail the configuration examples of the user equipment side and the base station side for implementing the third example solution described above.

[0389] Fig.34 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of an apparatus on the user equipment side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0390] like Fig.34 As shown, the device 3400 according to this example may include a MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 3402, an indication information acquisition unit 3404, a detection unit 3406, and a dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 3408. The functional configuration examples of the MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 3402 and the dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 3408 are the same as those described above with reference to Fig.23 The functional configuration examples of the MU-MIMO transmission control information acquisition unit 2302 and the dedicated transmission control information acquisition unit 2304 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0391] The indication information acquisition unit 3404 may be configured to acquire indication information of a control resource set to which a transmission resource for transmitting a UE-specific PDCCH belongs by decoding the GC-PDCCH.

[0392] Specifically, the GC-PDCCH from the base station also includes indication information of the CORESET where the UE-specific PDCCH may appear. The indication information may preferably include an indication of the OFDM symbols occupied by the CORESET where the UE-specific PDCCH may appear, that is, an indication of which OFDM symbols among the first three OFDM symbols the UE-specific PDCCH may appear.

[0393] The detection unit 3406 may be configured to perform detection on a corresponding control resource set according to the acquired indication information to receive a UE-specific PDCCH of the user equipment.

[0394] With the above Fig.34 Corresponding to the configuration example of the apparatus on the user equipment side shown, the present disclosure also provides the following configuration example on the base station side. Fig.35 is a block diagram showing another functional configuration example of a device on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0395] like Fig.35 As shown, the device 3500 according to this example may include a control channel generation unit 3502 and a transmission control unit 3504. The functional configuration example of the transmission control unit 3504 is the same as that of the above reference Fig.24 The functional configuration examples of the transmission control unit 2404 described are basically the same and will not be repeated here.

[0396] The control channel generating unit 3502 is configured to include information indicating the control resource set to which the transmission resources of the UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment belong in the GC-PDCCH, so that each user equipment can receive and detect its own UE-specific PDCCH by decoding the GC-PDCCH.

[0397] Specifically, in addition to the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of control channels for a group of user equipment, the GC-PDCCH from the base station may also include indication information about the CORESET that may appear in the UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment. This is because compared to the moment when the CORESET that may appear when the GC-PDCCH and UE-specific PDCCH are configured through RRC, the base station can make more accurate resource scheduling at this time, thereby narrowing the range of CORESETs that may appear in the UE-specific PDCCH, and including the relevant indication information in the GC-PDCCH that appears before the UE-specific PDCCH, so that the user equipment can detect and receive the UE-specific PDCCH within the narrowed CORESET range according to the indication information included in the GC-PDCCH.

[0398] Preferably, the indication information may include an indication related to the OFDM symbols occupied by the CORESET to which the transmission resources for transmitting the UE-specific PDCCH belong, that is, an indication of which OFDM symbols the UE-specific PDCCH may appear.

[0399] It can be seen that according to the third exemplary solution of the present disclosure, by including more detailed information of the CORESET that may appear in the UE-specific PDCCH in the GC-PDCCH, the search space of the user equipment for the UE-specific PDCCH can be reduced, for example, from three OFDM symbols to two OFDM symbols or even one OFDM symbol, thereby greatly reducing the processing load and power consumption of the user equipment and reducing the detection delay of the UE-specific PDCCH. At the same time, since the base station can perform more accurate resource scheduling, the resource utilization efficiency is also greatly improved.

[0400] According to the second embodiment, a variety of specific implementation schemes for MU-MIMO transmission of control channels are provided, which greatly improves resource utilization efficiency compared to the prior art of transmitting only a control channel for a certain UE on a certain transmission resource.

[0401] It should be pointed out that although the device embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the block diagrams shown in the accompanying drawings, this is only an example and not a limitation. Those skilled in the art may also add, delete, modify, combine and / or change the various functional modules therein according to the principles of the present disclosure, and all such variations should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0402] [3. Method embodiment according to the present disclosure]

[0403] (3-1. First embodiment)

[0404] Corresponding to the above-mentioned device embodiments, the present disclosure also provides the following method embodiments.

[0405] Fig.36 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on a user equipment side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0406] like Fig.36 As shown, the method according to this embodiment starts at step S3601. In step S3601, according to control information from a base station about a user equipment being scheduled to perform MU-MIMO transmission with other user equipment at the same time, the transmission-related configuration of the other user equipment is determined, wherein the control information includes information indirectly indicating the transmission-related configuration of the other user equipment.

[0407] Preferably, the transmission-related configuration may include a DMRS configuration. For a specific implementation example of the target UE indirectly inferring the DMRS configuration of other user equipment according to the information indirectly indicating the DMRS configuration of other user equipment included in the control information, refer to the description of the apparatus on the user equipment side in the first to fourth example schemes of the first embodiment above, which will not be repeated here.

[0408] Next, the method proceeds to step S3602. In step S3602, based on the determined transmission-related configuration of other user equipments, a signal received from the base station and sent using MU-MIMO transmission is decoded to obtain a signal part for the user equipment.

[0409] Specifically, the signal part for other user equipment can be eliminated as interference from the received superimposed data stream in the above-mentioned linear interference elimination manner according to the acquired DMRS configuration of other user equipment, and then the signal part for the target UE can be restored. The specific process can be referred to the description of the corresponding position in the above device embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

[0410] Fig.37 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on the base station side according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0411] like Fig.37 As shown, the method according to this embodiment starts at step S3701. In step S3701, for each user equipment in one or more user equipments in a group of user equipments that are simultaneously scheduled to perform MU-MIMO transmission, control information about MU-MIMO transmission is generated, and the base station is controlled to send the control information to the user equipment. The control information includes information that indirectly indicates the transmission-related configuration of other user equipments in a group of user equipments except the user equipment.

[0412] The "one or more user equipments" may be all user equipments in a group of user equipments, or may be some user equipments. In other words, the base station may indirectly indicate the transmission-related configurations of other user equipments only to some of the user equipments, and support the hybrid configuration of "transparent" and "opaque" MU-MIMO transmission of the data channel.

[0413] In addition, it should be pointed out that specific implementation examples of how to generate control information including information that indirectly indicates transmission-related configurations of other user equipment can be found in the description of the device on the base station side in the first to fourth example schemes of the first embodiment above, which will not be repeated here.

[0414] Next, the method proceeds to step S3702. In step S3702, the base station is controlled to simultaneously send signals to a group of user equipments on specific transmission resources.

[0415] It should be pointed out here that the methods on the user equipment side and the base station side in the first embodiment described here correspond to the devices on the user equipment side and the base station side in the above-mentioned first embodiment respectively. Therefore, for the contents not described in detail here, please refer to the description of the corresponding positions above and will not be repeated here.

[0416] (3-2. Second embodiment)

[0417] Fig.38 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on a user equipment side according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0418] like Fig.38 As shown, the method according to this embodiment starts at step S3801. In step S3801, a group common physical downlink control channel (GC-PDCCH) of a group of user equipment including a target user equipment is decoded to obtain control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel. The MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel here refers to superimposing UE-specific PDCCHs of multiple user equipments on the same time-frequency resources for transmission.

[0419] For specific implementation examples of how to decode GC-PDCCH to obtain the DMRS configuration of all UEs in a group of user equipment or to obtain the DMRS configuration of only the target UE itself, please refer to the description of the device on the user equipment side in the first to third example schemes of the second embodiment above, which will not be repeated here.

[0420] Next, the method proceeds to step S3802. In step S3802, based on the acquired control information about the MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel, the UE-specific PDCCH of the target UE, which is transmitted on the same time-frequency resources as the UE-specific PDCCH of other UEs, is decoded to obtain exclusive transmission control information of the target UE.

[0421] Preferably, the indication information of the CORESET to which the transmission resources used by the base station to transmit the UE-specific PDCCH belong can also be obtained by decoding the GC-PDCCH, and then detection is performed on the corresponding time-frequency resources according to the indication information to receive the UE-specific PDCCH.

[0422] Fig.39 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a method on the base station side according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0423] like Fig.39As shown, the method according to this embodiment starts at step S3901. In step S3901, a GC-PDCCH for a group of user equipment and a UE-specific PDCCH for each user equipment are generated. Preferably, the GC-PDCCH includes control information about MU-MIMO transmission of control channels for a group of user equipment. For the specific scrambling process of the control information for MU-MIMO transmission included in the GC-PDCCH, please refer to the description of the device on the base station side in the first to third example schemes of the second embodiment above, which will not be repeated here.

[0424] In addition, preferably, the GC-PDCCH also includes information indicating the CORESET where the UE-specific PDCCH of each UE may appear, so as to narrow the search space of the user equipment for the UE-specific PDCCH.

[0425] Next, the method proceeds to step S3902. In step S3902, the base station is controlled to send the generated GC-PDCCH to a group of user equipments, and based on the control information about MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel, the base station is controlled to send UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment in the group of user equipments on the same transmission resource.

[0426] It should be pointed out here that the methods on the user equipment side and the base station side in the second embodiment described here correspond to the devices on the user equipment side and the base station side in the above-mentioned second embodiment respectively. Therefore, for the contents not described in detail here, please refer to the description of the corresponding positions above and will not be repeated here.

[0427] Furthermore, it should be noted that although the above reference Figure 36 to Figure 39 The flowchart shown describes an embodiment of the method according to the present disclosure, but this is only an example and not a limitation. Those skilled in the art may also add, delete, combine and / or change the above steps according to the principles of the present disclosure, and the order of the steps may also be changed appropriately. All such variations should be considered to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0428] In addition, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic device is also provided, which may include a transceiver and one or more processors, and the one or more processors may be configured to perform the functions of the corresponding units in the method or device in the wireless communication system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, and the transceiver may assume the corresponding communication function.

[0429] It should be understood that the machine-executable instructions in the storage medium and program products according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can also be configured to execute methods corresponding to the above-mentioned device embodiments. Therefore, the contents not described in detail here can refer to the description of the previous corresponding positions and will not be repeated here.

[0430] Accordingly, the storage medium for carrying the program product including the machine executable instructions is also included in the disclosure of the present invention, including but not limited to a floppy disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a memory card, a memory stick, and the like.

[0431] [4. Computing device for implementing the embodiments of the apparatus and method of the present disclosure]

[0432] In addition, it should be noted that the above series of processes and devices can also be implemented by software and / or firmware. In the case of being implemented by software and / or firmware, from a storage medium or a network to a computer with a dedicated hardware structure, such as Fig.40 The general-purpose personal computer 4000 shown installs the programs constituting the software, and when the various programs are installed, the computer can execute various functions and the like. Fig.40 : is a block diagram showing an example structure of a personal computer as an information processing device employable in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0433] exist Fig.40 In the embodiment, a central processing unit (CPU) 4001 executes various processes according to a program stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 4002 or a program loaded from a storage section 4008 to a random access memory (RAM) 4003. In the RAM 4003, data required when the CPU 4001 executes various processes and the like is also stored as needed.

[0434] The CPU 4001, the ROM 4002, and the RAM 4003 are connected to one another via a bus 4004. An input / output interface 4005 is also connected to the bus 4004.

[0435] The following components are connected to the input / output interface 4005: an input section 4006 including a keyboard, a mouse, etc.; an output section 4007 including a display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), etc., and a speaker, etc.; a storage section 4008 including a hard disk, etc.; and a communication section 4009 including a network interface card such as a LAN card, a modem, etc. The communication section 4009 performs communication processing via a network such as the Internet.

[0436] A drive 4010 is also connected to the input / output interface 4005 as needed. A removable medium 4011 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory or the like is mounted on the drive 4010 as needed so that a computer program read therefrom is installed into the storage section 4008 as needed.

[0437] In the case where the above-described series of processing is realized by software, a program constituting the software is installed from a network such as the Internet or a storage medium such as the removable medium 4011 .

[0438] It should be understood by those skilled in the art that such storage media is not limited to Fig.40 The removable medium 4011 shown has a program stored therein and is distributed separately from the device to provide the program to the user. Examples of the removable medium 4011 include magnetic disks (including floppy disks (registered trademark)), optical disks (including compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) and digital versatile disks (DVD)), magneto-optical disks (including minidiscs (MD) (registered trademark)), and semiconductor memories. Alternatively, the storage medium may be a ROM 4002, a hard disk included in the storage section 4008, or the like, in which the program is stored and distributed to the user together with the device containing them.

[0439] [5. Application examples of the technology disclosed herein]

[0440] The technology of the present disclosure can be applied to various products. For example, the base station mentioned in the present disclosure can be implemented as a gNodeB (gNB), any type of eNB (such as macro eNB and small eNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), an enterprise long term evolution (eLTE)-eNB, and the like. A small eNB may be an eNB that covers a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico eNB, a micro eNB, and a home (femto) eNB. Alternatively, the base station may be implemented as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB and a base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS). The base station may include: a main body (also referred to as a base station device) configured to control wireless communications; and one or more remote radio heads (Remote RadioHead, RRH) arranged in a place different from the main body. In addition, the various types of terminals described below can all work as base stations by temporarily or semi-persistently performing base station functions.

[0441] For example, the user equipment mentioned in the present disclosure can be implemented as a vehicle, a mobile terminal (such as a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable / dongle-type mobile router, and a digital camera device), a vehicle-mounted terminal (such as a car navigation device), a drone, a mobile station, etc. The user equipment can also be implemented as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also called a machine-type communication (MTC) terminal). In addition, the user equipment can be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) installed on each of the above-mentioned terminals.

[0442] The following will refer to Figure 41 to Figure 44 Application examples according to the present disclosure are described.

[0443] <5-1. Application examples for base stations>

[0444] (First application example)

[0445] Fig.41 14 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The eNB 1400 includes one or more antennas 1410 and a base station device 1420. The base station device 1420 and each antenna 1410 may be connected to each other via an RF cable.

[0446] Each of the antennas 1410 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna) and is used for the base station device 1420 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Fig.41 As shown, the eNB 1400 may include multiple antennas 1410. For example, the multiple antennas 1410 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1400. Fig.41 An example is shown in which the eNB 1400 includes a plurality of antennas 1410 , but the eNB 1400 may also include a single antenna 1410 .

[0447] The base station device 1420 includes a controller 1421 , a memory 1422 , a network interface 1423 , and a wireless communication interface 1425 .

[0448] The controller 1421 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operates various functions of the higher layers of the base station device 1420. For example, the controller 1421 generates a data packet based on the data in the signal processed by the wireless communication interface 1425, and transmits the generated packet via the network interface 1423. The controller 1421 may bundle data from a plurality of baseband processors to generate a bundled packet, and transmit the generated bundled packet. The controller 1421 may have a logical function to perform the following control: the control may be such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control, and scheduling. The control may be performed in conjunction with a nearby eNB or core network node. The memory 1422 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores programs executed by the controller 1421 and various types of control data (such as a terminal list, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

[0449] The network interface 1423 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1420 to the core network 1424. The controller 1421 can communicate with the core network node or another eNB via the network interface 1423. In this case, the eNB 1400 and the core network node or other eNBs can be connected to each other through a logical interface (such as an S1 interface and an X2 interface). The network interface 1423 can also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for a wireless backhaul line. If the network interface 1423 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1423 can use a higher frequency band for wireless communication compared to the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1425.

[0450] The wireless communication interface 1425 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as long term evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and new radio access technology (NR)), and provides a wireless connection to a terminal located in a cell of the eNB 1400 via the antenna 1410. The wireless communication interface 1425 may generally include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1426 and an RF circuit 1427. The BB processor 1426 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing of layers (such as L1, medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)). Instead of the controller 1421, the BB processor 1426 may have a part or all of the above-mentioned logical functions. The BB processor 1426 may be a memory storing a communication control program, or a module including a processor configured to execute a program and related circuits. Updating the program may change the function of the BB processor 1426. The module may be a card or a blade inserted into a slot of the base station device 1420. Alternatively, the module may also be a chip mounted on a card or a blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1427 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via the antenna 1410 .

[0451] like Fig.41 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple BB processors 1426. For example, the multiple BB processors 1426 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1400. Fig.41 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple RF circuits 1427. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1427 may be compatible with multiple antenna elements. Fig.41 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1425 includes a plurality of BB processors 1426 and a plurality of RF circuits 1427 , but the wireless communication interface 1425 may also include a single BB processor 1426 or a single RF circuit 1427 .

[0452] (Second application example)

[0453] Fig.42 1 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The eNB 1530 includes one or more antennas 1540, a base station device 1550, and an RRH 1560. The RRH 1560 and each antenna 1540 can be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station device 1550 and the RRH 1560 can be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable.

[0454] Each of the antennas 1540 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for the RRH 1560 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Fig.42 As shown, the eNB 1530 may include multiple antennas 1540. For example, the multiple antennas 1540 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1530. Fig.42 An example is shown in which the eNB 1530 includes a plurality of antennas 1540 , but the eNB 1530 may also include a single antenna 1540 .

[0455] The base station device 1550 includes a controller 1551, a memory 1552, a network interface 1553, a wireless communication interface 1555, and a connection interface 1557. The controller 1551, the memory 1552, and the network interface 1553 are similar to the reference Fig.41 The controller 1421, memory 1422, and network interface 1423 described are the same.

[0456] The wireless communication interface 1555 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE, LTE-Advanced, and NR), and provides wireless communication to a terminal located in a sector corresponding to the RRH 1560 via the RRH 1560 and the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1555 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1556. In addition to the BB processor 1556 being connected to the RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560 via the connection interface 1557, the BB processor 1556 is connected to the reference RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560. Fig.41 The same as the BB processor 1426 described above. Fig.42 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1555 may include multiple BB processors 1556. For example, the multiple BB processors 1556 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1530. Fig.42 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1555 includes a plurality of BB processors 1556 , but the wireless communication interface 1555 may also include a single BB processor 1556 .

[0457] The connection interface 1557 is an interface for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560. The connection interface 1557 may also be a communication module for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560 for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0458] The RRH 1560 includes a connection interface 1561 and a wireless communication interface 1563 .

[0459] The connection interface 1561 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1560 (wireless communication interface 1563) to the base station device 1550. The connection interface 1561 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0460] The wireless communication interface 1563 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1563 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 1564. The RF circuit 1564 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. Fig.42 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1563 may include multiple RF circuits 1564. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1564 may support multiple antenna elements. Fig.42 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1563 includes a plurality of RF circuits 1564 , but the wireless communication interface 1563 may also include a single RF circuit 1564 .

[0461] exist Fig.41 and Fig.42 In the eNB 1400 and eNB 1530 shown, the transceiver in the above-mentioned base station side device can be implemented by the wireless communication interface 1425 and the wireless communication interface 1555 and / or the wireless communication interface 1563. At least part of the functions of the above-mentioned base station side device can also be implemented by the controller 1421 and the controller 1551.

[0462] <5-2. Application examples of user equipment>

[0463] (First application example)

[0464] Fig.43 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 1600 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The smartphone 1600 includes a processor 1601, a memory 1602, a storage device 1603, an external connection interface 1604, a camera 1606, a sensor 1607, a microphone 1608, an input device 1609, a display device 1610, a speaker 1611, a wireless communication interface 1612, one or more antenna switches 1615, one or more antennas 1616, a bus 1617, a battery 1618, and an auxiliary controller 1619.

[0465] The processor 1601 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on chip (SoC), and controls the functions of the application layer and other layers of the smartphone 1600. The memory 1602 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1601. The storage device 1603 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 1604 is an interface for connecting an external device (such as a memory card and a universal serial bus (USB) device) to the smartphone 1600.

[0466] The camera 1606 includes an image sensor such as a charge coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), and generates a captured image. The sensor 1607 may include a group of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1608 converts the sound input to the smart phone 1600 into an audio signal. The input device 1609 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1610, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 1610 includes a screen such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, and displays an output image of the smart phone 1600. The speaker 1611 converts an audio signal output from the smart phone 1600 into sound.

[0467] The wireless communication interface 1612 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE, LTE-Advanced and New Radio Access Technology NR), and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1612 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614. The BB processor 1613 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1614 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1616. The wireless communication interface 1612 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 1613 and the RF circuit 1614 are integrated. Fig.43 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits 1614. Fig.43 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1612 includes a plurality of BB processors 1613 and a plurality of RF circuits 1614 , but the wireless communication interface 1612 may also include a single BB processor 1613 or a single RF circuit 1614 .

[0468] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1612 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near field communication schemes, and wireless local area network (LAN) schemes. In this case, the wireless communication interface 1612 can include a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614 for each wireless communication scheme.

[0469] Each of the antenna switches 1615 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1616 between a plurality of circuits (eg, circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 1612 .

[0470] Each of the antennas 1616 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for the wireless communication interface 1612 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Fig.43 As shown, the smart phone 1600 may include multiple antennas 1616. Fig.43 An example is shown in which the smart phone 1600 includes a plurality of antennas 1616 , but the smart phone 1600 may also include a single antenna 1616 .

[0471] In addition, the smartphone 1600 may include an antenna 1616 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1615 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 1600.

[0472] The bus 1617 connects the processor 1601, the memory 1602, the storage device 1603, the external connection interface 1604, the camera 1606, the sensor 1607, the microphone 1608, the input device 1609, the display device 1610, the speaker 1611, the wireless communication interface 1612, and the auxiliary controller 1619 to each other. Fig.43 The various blocks of the smartphone 1600 shown are supplied with power, the feed lines being partially shown as dashed lines in the figure. The auxiliary controller 1619 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 1600, for example in a sleep mode.

[0473] exist Fig.43 In the illustrated smart phone 1600 , the transceiver in the apparatus on the user equipment side may be implemented by the wireless communication interface 1612 . At least part of the functions of the apparatus on the user equipment side may also be implemented by the processor 1601 or the auxiliary controller 1619 .

[0474] (Second application example)

[0475] Fig.4417 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 1720 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation device 1720 includes a processor 1721, a memory 1722, a global positioning system (GPS) module 1724, a sensor 1725, a data interface 1726, a content player 1727, a storage medium interface 1728, an input device 1729, a display device 1730, a speaker 1731, a wireless communication interface 1733, one or more antenna switches 1736, one or more antennas 1737, and a battery 1738.

[0476] The processor 1721 may be, for example, a CPU or a SoC, and controls a navigation function and other functions of the car navigation device 1720. The memory 1722 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and a program executed by the processor 1721.

[0477] The GPS module 1724 measures the position (such as latitude, longitude and altitude) of the car navigation device 1720 using GPS signals received from GPS satellites. The sensor 1725 may include a group of sensors such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 1726 is connected to, for example, the vehicle network 1741 via an unshown terminal and acquires data (such as vehicle speed data) generated by the vehicle.

[0478] The content player 1727 reproduces content stored in a storage medium such as a CD and a DVD, which is inserted into the storage medium interface 1728. The input device 1729 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1730, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 1730 includes a screen such as an LCD or an OLED display, and displays an image of a navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 1731 outputs a sound of a navigation function or reproduced content.

[0479] The wireless communication interface 1733 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE, LTE-Advanced and New Radio Access Technology NR), and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1733 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735. The BB processor 1734 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1735 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1737. The wireless communication interface 1733 may also be a chip module on which the BB processor 1734 and the RF circuit 1735 are integrated. Fig.44As shown, the wireless communication interface 1733 may include multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735. Fig.44 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1733 includes a plurality of BB processors 1734 and a plurality of RF circuits 1735 , but the wireless communication interface 1733 may also include a single BB processor 1734 or a single RF circuit 1735 .

[0480] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near field communication schemes, and wireless LAN schemes. In this case, for each wireless communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can include a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735.

[0481] Each of the antenna switches 1736 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1737 between a plurality of circuits included in the wireless communication interface 1733 , such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes.

[0482] Each of the antennas 1737 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for the wireless communication interface 1733 to transmit and receive wireless signals. Fig.44 As shown, the car navigation device 1720 may include multiple antennas 1737. Fig.44 An example is shown in which the car navigation device 1720 includes a plurality of antennas 1737 , but the car navigation device 1720 may also include a single antenna 1737 .

[0483] In addition, the car navigation device 1720 may include an antenna 1737 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1736 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 1720.

[0484] Battery 1738 is fed via a feed line to Fig.44 The respective blocks of the illustrated car navigation device 1720 are supplied with electric power, and feed lines are partially illustrated as dotted lines in the figure. The battery 1738 accumulates electric power supplied from the vehicle.

[0485] exist Fig.44 In the illustrated car navigation device 1720 , the transceiver in the apparatus on the user equipment side may be implemented by the communication interface 1733 . At least part of the functions of the apparatus on the user equipment side may also be implemented by the processor 1721 .

[0486] The technology of the present disclosure may also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 1740 including a car navigation device 1720, an in-vehicle network 1741, and one or more blocks in a vehicle module 1742. The vehicle module 1742 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information), and outputs the generated data to the in-vehicle network 1741.

[0487] The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present disclosure is certainly not limited to the above examples. Those skilled in the art may obtain various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications will naturally fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0488] For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0489] In this specification, the steps described in the flowchart include not only the processing performed in time series in the order described, but also the processing performed in parallel or individually rather than necessarily in time series. In addition, even in the steps processed in time series, it goes without saying that the order can be appropriately changed.

[0490] Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and transformations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the terms "including", "comprising" or any other variants of the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, so that the process, method, article or equipment including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also includes other elements that are not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or equipment. In the absence of further restrictions, the elements defined by the statement "including a ..." do not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or equipment including the elements.

Claims

1. An apparatus in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: Acquire, from a base station, a group common identifier of a group of user equipment including a target user equipment and a unique identifier of the target user equipment; Decoding a group common physical downlink control channel of the group of user equipments by using the group common identifier to obtain control information of multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission of the control channel of all user equipments in the group of user equipments; as well as Based on the control information and the specific identifier of the target user equipment, a user-specific physical downlink control channel UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is decoded to obtain specific transmission control information about the target user equipment, The UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is superimposed on the same transmission resource as the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipments in the group of user equipments for transmission, and The group-shared physical downlink control channel is different from the user-specific physical downlink control channel.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: The group common physical downlink control channel scrambled by using the group common identifier is received from a base station; and the UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is scrambled by using the unique identifier of the target user equipment is received.

3. The device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: Based on the acquired control information, blindly decoding the UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment by treating the UE-specific PDCCH of the other user equipment as interference; as well as The decoded information is verified using the unique identifier of the target user equipment, and the decoded information that passes the verification is obtained as the unique transmission control information about the target user equipment.

4. The device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The group common identifier is a group common radio network temporary identifier, and the specific identifier is a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI.

5. The device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The control information includes information related to a demodulation reference signal DMRS configuration.

6. The device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The control information includes a total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission of control channels of the group of user equipments.

7. The device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel of the group of user equipments includes 2 and 4.

8. The device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The apparatus operates as the target user equipment and further includes: a memory; and a transceiver.

9. An apparatus in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: Generate a group common physical downlink control channel for a group of user equipments, which is scrambled with a group common identifier of the group of user equipments, and a user-specific physical downlink control channel UE-specific PDCCH for each user equipment in the group of user equipments, which is scrambled with a specific identifier of the user equipment, wherein the group common physical downlink control channel includes control information about multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission of a control channel for all user equipments in the group of user equipments, and is different from the user-specific physical downlink control channel; Controlling the base station to send the group common physical downlink control channel to the group of user equipments; as well as Based on the control information, the base station is controlled to send a UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment in the group of user equipments on the same transmission resource.

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: The base station is controlled to send the group common identifier to the group of user equipments, so that each user equipment in the group of user equipments acquires the control information by decoding the group common physical downlink control channel.

11. The device according to claim 10, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: For each user equipment, the base station is controlled to send a unique identifier of the user equipment to the user equipment, so that the user equipment can obtain the control information about the MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel of the user equipment included in the control information by decoding the UE-specific PDCCH of the user equipment based on the control information and the unique identifier.

12. The device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: The group common identifier is a group common radio network temporary identifier, and the specific identifier is a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI.

13. The device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: The control information includes information related to a demodulation reference signal DMRS configuration.

14. The device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: The control information includes a total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission of control channels of the group of user equipments.

15. The device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: The total number of layers of MU-MIMO transmission of the control channel of the group of user equipments includes 2 and 4.

16. The device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein: The device operates as the base station and further includes: a memory; and a transceiver.

17. A method in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: Acquire, from a base station, a group common identifier of a group of user equipment including a target user equipment and a unique identifier of the target user equipment; Decoding a group common physical downlink control channel including the group of user equipment using the group common identifier to obtain control information about multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission of the control channel of the group of user equipment; as well as Based on the control information and the specific identifier of the target user equipment, a user-specific physical downlink control channel UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is decoded to obtain specific transmission control information about the target user equipment, The UE-specific PDCCH of the target user equipment is superimposed on the same transmission resource as the UE-specific PDCCH of other user equipments in the group of user equipments for transmission, and The group-shared physical downlink control channel is different from the user-specific physical downlink control channel.

18. A method in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: Generate a group common physical downlink control channel for a group of user equipments, which is scrambled with a group common identifier of the group of user equipments, and a user-specific physical downlink control channel UE-specific PDCCH for each user equipment in the group of user equipments, which is scrambled with a specific identifier of the user equipment, wherein the group common physical downlink control channel includes control information about multi-user-multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission of a control channel for all user equipments in the group of user equipments, and is different from the user-specific physical downlink control channel; Controlling the base station to send the group common physical downlink control channel to the group of user equipments; as well as Based on the control information, the base station is controlled to send a UE-specific PDCCH of each user equipment in the group of user equipments on the same transmission resource.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to claim 17 or 18.

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