A communication method and device

Abstract

The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and discloses a communication method and device. The method includes: a network device sends first information to a terminal device, and then the terminal device determines a HARQ feedback mode according to the first information, and the HARQ feedback mode may include ignoring ACK and / or NACK feedback. In this way, the HARQ feedback mode adopted by the terminal device is controlled by the network device, so that the terminal device can be flexibly controlled to adopt different HARQ feedback modes for different scenarios, which is convenient to adapt to business needs, effectively reduce the power consumption of the terminal device and save air interface resources.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on February 28, 2020, with application number 202010130397.1 and invention name "A Communication Method and Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and device. Background Art

[0003] In wireless communications, transmitted signals have to pass through a complex propagation environment. To ensure signal transmission quality, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) is introduced.

[0004] HARQ is a technology that combines forward error correction (FEC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) methods. Among them, FEC adds redundant information so that the receiving end can correct some errors, thereby reducing the number of retransmissions; for errors that FEC cannot correct, the receiving end will request the sending end to resend the data through the ARQ mechanism. Specifically, the receiving end can use the error detection code to detect whether the received data packet is decoded successfully; if the decoding is successful, the receiving end will send a positive acknowledgment (ACK) to the sending end, and after receiving the ACK, the sending end will continue to send the next data packet; if the decoding fails, the receiving end will send a negative acknowledgment (NACK) to the sending end, and after receiving the NACK, the sending end will resend the same data packet.

[0005] However, for downlink transmission, how the terminal device performs HARQ feedback to save power consumption of the terminal device still needs further research. Summary of the invention

[0006] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for implementing flexible HARQ feedback, thereby adapting to business requirements of different scenarios, reducing unnecessary HARQ feedback overhead, and reducing power consumption of terminal devices.

[0007] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a terminal device, or can also be applied to a chip inside the terminal device. Taking the method applied to the terminal device as an example, in the method, the terminal device receives first information from a network device, and determines a HARQ feedback mode according to the first information, and the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK and / or NACK feedback; and the terminal device performs feedback processing on the first HARQ process according to the HARQ feedback mode.

[0008] In this way, the HARQ feedback mode adopted by the terminal device is controlled by the network device, so that the terminal device can be flexibly controlled to adopt different HARQ feedback modes for different scenarios, which is convenient to adapt to business needs, effectively reduce the power consumption of the terminal device and save air interface resources.

[0009] In one possible design, the terminal device performs feedback processing on the first HARQ process according to the HARQ feedback mode, including: the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK feedback, and the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process, and the data packet is decoded successfully, then no ACK is fed back to the first HARQ process for the data packet; or, the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring NACK feedback, and the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process, and the data packet decoding fails, then no NACK is fed back to the first HARQ process for the data packet; or, the terminal device does not receive the data packet from the first HARQ process, then no NACK is fed back to the first HARQ process; or, the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback, and the terminal device does not feed back ACK and NACK to the first HARQ process for the data packet.

[0010] In one possible design, the data packet is decoded successfully, including: at least one CBG in the data packet is decoded successfully. In this case, feeding back ACK or not feeding back ACK for the data packet indicates feeding back ACK or not feeding back ACK for the successfully decoded CBG.

[0011] In one possible design, the decoding failure of the data packet includes: at least one CBG in the data packet fails to be decoded. In this case, NACK is fed back to the data packet or no NACK is fed back, indicating that NACK is fed back to the CBG that failed to be decoded or no NACK is fed back.

[0012] In one possible design, the first information includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate a HARQ feedback mode.

[0013] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; the terminal device receives indication information from the network device, including: the terminal device receives an RRC message from the network device, the RRC message includes indication information, and the RRC message is used to configure the SPS resources; or, the terminal device receives a DCI from the network device, the DCI includes indication information, and the DCI is used to activate or reactivate the SPS resources.

[0014] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resources; the terminal device receives indication information from the network device, including: the terminal device receives DCI from the network device, the DCI includes indication information, and the DCI is used to schedule the dynamic scheduling resources.

[0015] In one possible design, a terminal device receives indication information from a network device, including: the terminal device receives a first message from the network device, and the first message includes the indication information; wherein the first message is a control message of the PDCP layer, the RLC layer, the MAC layer, or the physical layer.

[0016] In one possible design, a terminal device receives indication information from a network device, including: the terminal device receives a data packet from the network device, the data packet including the indication information; wherein the data packet is sent via a first HARQ process.

[0017] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the first service; the terminal device receives indication information from the network device, including: the terminal device receives an RRC message from the network device, the RRC message includes indication information, and the RRC message is used to configure a logical channel corresponding to the first service.

[0018] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; the first information includes an RRC message, the RRC message is used to configure PUCCH resources, and the PUCCH resources are used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; the terminal device determines the HARQ feedback mode according to the first information, including: the terminal device determines the HARQ feedback mode according to whether the RRC message carries the configuration information of the PUCCH resources.

[0019] In one possible design, the first information includes DCI; the terminal device determines the HARQ feedback method based on the first information, including: determining the HARQ feedback method based on the format or scrambling method of the DCI.

[0020] In this way, the HARQ feedback mode is determined by the format or scrambling mode of the DCI, so there is no need to indicate it through other additional information, which can effectively save resources.

[0021] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources, and the DCI is used to indicate the activation or reactivation of the SPS resources; or, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resources, and the DCI is used to schedule the dynamic scheduling resources.

[0022] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the first service; the first information includes preset priority information; the terminal device determines the HARQ feedback mode, including: the terminal device determines the HARQ feedback mode according to the priority of the logical channel corresponding to the first service and the preset priority information.

[0023] In one possible design, the method also includes: the terminal device receives second information from the network device, the second information is used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method, and the at least one HARQ process includes the first HARQ process.

[0024] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a network device, or can also be applied to a chip inside a network device. Taking the method applied to a network device as an example, in the method, the network device determines a HARQ feedback mode and sends first information to a terminal device, the first information is used by the terminal device to determine the HARQ feedback mode; the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK and / or NACK.

[0025] By adopting this method, the network device can control the HARQ feedback method adopted by the terminal device through the first information, thereby realizing flexible HARQ feedback of the terminal device, effectively reducing the power consumption of the terminal device and saving air interface resources.

[0026] In one possible design, the first information includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate a HARQ feedback mode.

[0027] In one possible design, the network device sends indication information to the terminal device, including: the network device sends an RRC message to the terminal device, the RRC message includes indication information, and the RRC message is used to configure SPS resources; or, the network device sends DCI to the terminal device, the DCI includes indication information, and the DCI is used to activate or reactivate SPS resources.

[0028] In one possible design, the network device sends indication information to the terminal device, including: the network device sends DCI to the terminal device, the DCI includes the indication information, and the DCI is used to schedule dynamic scheduling resources.

[0029] In one possible design, the network device sends indication information to the terminal device, including: the network device sends a first message to the terminal device, and the first message includes the indication information; wherein the first message is a control message of the PDCP layer, the RLC layer, the MAC layer, or the physical layer.

[0030] In one possible design, the network device sends indication information to the terminal device, including: the network device sends a data packet to the terminal device, and the data packet includes the indication information.

[0031] In one possible design, the network device sends indication information to the terminal device, including: the network device sends an RRC message to the terminal device, the RRC message includes the indication information, and the RRC message is used to configure a logical channel corresponding to the first service.

[0032] In one possible design, the first information includes an RRC message, which is used to configure PUCCH resources, and the PUCCH resources are used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; when the RRC message does not carry the configuration information of the PUCCH resources, the RRC message is used to indicate the HARQ feedback method.

[0033] In one possible design, the first information includes DCI, and the format or scrambling method of the DCI is used to indicate the HARQ feedback method.

[0034] In one possible design, DCI is used to indicate activation or reactivation of SPS resources; or, DCI is used to schedule dynamic scheduling resources.

[0035] In one possible design, the first information includes preset priority information.

[0036] In one possible design, the method also includes: the network device sends second information to the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0037] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a terminal device, or can also be applied to a chip inside a terminal device. Taking the application of the method to a terminal device as an example, in the method, the terminal device receives configuration information from a network device, the configuration information is used to configure a first SPS resource and a first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource; determines that feedback information of a HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource; is in a DRX activation state in a first time period, and the start time of the first time period is determined according to the first SPS resource.

[0038] Using the above method, when it is impossible to send feedback information on the first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource, the terminal device can be in a DRX activation state within a first time period, so as to promptly receive the DCI sent by the network device for indicating the retransmission resources of the feedback information, thereby ensuring that the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource can be sent to the network device in a timely manner, thereby improving the efficiency of downlink transmission.

[0039] In one possible design, the method also includes: receiving DCI from the network device, the DCI is used to indicate a second HARQ resource, and the second HARQ resource is used to carry the feedback information; the end time of the first time period is the reception time of the DCI.

[0040] In one possible design, being in the DRX activated state in the first time period includes: entering the DRX activated state at the start time of the first time period, and entering the DRX sleep state at the end time of the first time period.

[0041] In one possible design, being in the DRX activated state in the first time period includes: starting the timer corresponding to the HARQ process at the start time of the first time period, and stopping the timer at the end time of the first time period; wherein, when the timer is running, the terminal device is in the DRX activated state.

[0042] In one possible design, the timer is an uplink DRX retransmission timer.

[0043] In one possible design, the method further includes determining that the PDSCH is successfully received on the first SPS resource.

[0044] In one possible design, the starting time of the first time period is determined based on the first SPS resource, including: the starting time of the first time period is determined based on the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH received on the first SPS resource.

[0045] In one possible design, the starting time of the first time period is any one of the following moments: the starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; the moment after the starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by m time units; the ending time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; the moment after the ending time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by n time units; wherein m and n are integers.

[0046] In one possible design, the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process is to ignore NACK feedback.

[0047] In one possible design, determining that HARQ feedback information cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource includes: determining that the first HARQ resource overlaps with a first resource, and the first resource is used to transmit downlink information; or determining that the first HARQ resource overlaps with a second resource, and the second resource is used to transmit uplink information, and the priority of the HARQ feedback information is lower than the priority of the uplink information.

[0048] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a network device, or can also be applied to a chip inside a network device. Taking the application of the method to a network device as an example, in the method, the network device sends configuration information to a terminal device, the configuration information is used to configure a first SPS resource and a first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource; determines that feedback information of a HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be received on the first HARQ resource; sends a DCI to the terminal device, the DCI is used to indicate a dynamic scheduling resource, and the dynamic scheduling resource overlaps with the first SPS resource.

[0049] Using the above method, when the network device determines that it cannot receive feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, it can indicate to the terminal device the dynamic scheduling resources that overlap with the first SPS resource; since the network device can flexibly indicate the HARQ resources corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resources, it can effectively avoid the problem that the terminal device cannot send feedback information to the network device in time, thereby improving the efficiency of downlink transmission.

[0050] In one possible design, the DCI is also used to indicate a third HARQ resource, and the third HARQ resource is used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resource.

[0051] In one possible design, it is determined that feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be received on the first HARQ resource, including: determining that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the first resource, and the first resource is used to transmit downlink information; or, determining that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the second resource, and the second resource is used to transmit uplink information, and the priority of the HARQ feedback information is lower than the priority of the uplink information.

[0052] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a terminal device or a chip disposed inside the terminal device. The communication device has the function of implementing the first aspect or the third aspect, for example, the communication device includes a module or unit or means corresponding to the steps involved in the first aspect or the third aspect, and the function or unit or means may be implemented by software, or by hardware, or by hardware executing the corresponding software implementation.

[0053] In a possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit, wherein the communication unit can be used to send and receive signals to achieve communication between the communication device and other devices, for example, the communication unit is used to receive configuration information from a network device; the processing unit can be used to perform some internal operations of the communication device. The functions performed by the processing unit and the communication unit can correspond to the steps involved in the first aspect or the third aspect described above.

[0054] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and may also include a transceiver, the transceiver is used to send and receive signals, and the processor executes program instructions to complete the method in any possible design or implementation of the first aspect or the third aspect above. Among them, the communication device may also include one or more memories, and the memory is used to couple with the processor. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor or may be separated from the processor, which is not limited in this application. The memory may store the necessary computer programs or instructions for implementing the functions involved in the first aspect or the third aspect above. The processor may execute the computer program or instructions stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instructions are executed, the communication device implements the method in any possible design or implementation of the first aspect or the third aspect above.

[0055] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and a memory, and the memory can store necessary computer programs or instructions for implementing the functions involved in the first aspect or the third aspect. The processor can execute the computer program or instructions stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instructions are executed, the communication device implements the method in any possible design or implementation of the first aspect or the third aspect.

[0056] In one possible design, the communication device includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, wherein at least one processor is used to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and execute the method in any possible design or implementation of the first aspect or the third aspect above.

[0057] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a network device or a chip disposed inside a network device. The communication device is capable of implementing the functions involved in the second aspect or the fourth aspect, for example, the communication device includes a module or unit or means corresponding to the steps involved in the second aspect or the fourth aspect, and the functions or units or means may be implemented by software, or by hardware, or by hardware executing the corresponding software implementation.

[0058] In a possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit, wherein the communication unit can be used to send and receive signals to achieve communication between the communication device and other devices, for example, the communication unit is used to send system information to a terminal device; the processing unit can be used to perform some internal operations of the communication device. The functions performed by the processing unit and the communication unit can correspond to the steps involved in the second aspect or the fourth aspect described above.

[0059] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and may also include a transceiver, the transceiver is used to send and receive signals, and the processor executes program instructions to complete the method in any possible design or implementation of the second aspect or the fourth aspect above. Among them, the communication device may also include one or more memories, and the memory is used to couple with the processor. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor or may be separated from the processor, which is not limited in this application. The memory may store the necessary computer programs or instructions for implementing the functions involved in the second aspect or the fourth aspect above. The processor may execute the computer program or instructions stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instructions are executed, the communication device implements the method in any possible design or implementation of the second aspect or the fourth aspect above.

[0060] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor and a memory, and the memory can store necessary computer programs or instructions for implementing the functions involved in the second aspect or the fourth aspect. The processor can execute the computer program or instructions stored in the memory, and when the computer program or instructions are executed, the communication device implements the method in any possible design or implementation of the second aspect or the fourth aspect.

[0061] In one possible design, the communication device includes at least one processor and an interface circuit, wherein the at least one processor is used to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and execute the method in any possible design or implementation of the second aspect or the fourth aspect above.

[0062] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer-readable instructions are stored. When a computer reads and executes the computer-readable instructions, the computer executes a method in any possible design of the first aspect or the second aspect mentioned above.

[0063] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product. When a computer reads and executes the computer program product, the computer executes the method in any possible design of the first to fourth aspects above.

[0064] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a chip, comprising a processor, wherein the processor is coupled to a memory and is used to read and execute a software program stored in the memory to implement a method in any possible design of the first to fourth aspects above.

[0065] These and other aspects of the present application will become more clearly understood in the description of the following embodiments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0066] Figure 1a A schematic diagram of a possible system architecture applicable to the embodiments of the present application;

[0067] Figure 1b A schematic diagram of another network architecture applicable to the embodiments of the present application;

[0068] Figure 1c A schematic diagram of another network architecture applicable to the embodiments of the present application;

[0069] Figure 2a A schematic diagram of transmission of downlink data between layers provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0070] Figure 2b A schematic diagram of downlink data transmission between a network device and a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0071] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of activating, deactivating, and reactivating SPS resources through DCI provided by a network device in an embodiment of the present application;

[0072] Figure 4a A schematic diagram of using SPS resources to transmit data packets provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0073] Figure 4b A schematic diagram of data packet transmission in scenario 1 provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0074] Figure 4c A schematic diagram of data packet transmission for scenario 2 provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0075] Figure 5A flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Example 1 of the present application;

[0076] Figure 6 A flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 2 of the present application;

[0077] Figure 7 A flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 3 of the present application;

[0078] Figure 8 A flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 4 of the present application;

[0079] Fig. 9 A flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 5 of the present application;

[0080] Fig.10 A flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 6 of the present application;

[0081] Fig.11 A possible exemplary block diagram of the device involved in the embodiments of the present application;

[0082] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0083] Fig.13 A schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0084] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all the embodiments.

[0085] First, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0086] (1) Terminal device: It can be a wireless terminal device that can receive network device scheduling and instruction information. The wireless terminal device can be a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to users, or a handheld device with wireless connection function, or other processing equipment connected to a wireless modem. The terminal device can communicate with one or more core networks or the Internet via a radio access network (RAN). The terminal device can be a mobile terminal device, such as a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone, mobile phone), a computer and a data card. For example, it can be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted mobile device that exchanges language and / or data with the radio access network. For example, personal communication service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers (Pads), computers with wireless transceiver functions, and other devices. The wireless terminal device may also be referred to as a system, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile station (MS), a remote station (remotestation), an access point (AP), a remote terminal device (remote terminal), an access terminal device (access terminal), a user terminal device (user terminal), a user agent, a subscriber station (SS), a customer premises equipment (CPE), a terminal, a user equipment (UE), a mobile terminal (MT), etc. The terminal device may also be a wearable device and a next generation communication system, for example, a terminal device in a 5G communication system or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), etc.

[0087] (2) Network equipment: It can be equipment in a wireless network, for example, a network equipment can be a radio access network (RAN) node (or equipment) that connects a terminal device to a wireless network, which can also be called a base station. At present, some examples of RAN equipment are: a new generation Node B (gNodeB) in a 5G communication system, a transmission reception point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a base station controller (BSC), a base transceiver station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a base band unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) access point (AP). In addition, in a network structure, a network equipment can include a centralized unit (CU) node, a distributed unit (DU) node, or a RAN equipment including a CU node and a DU node. In addition, in other possible cases, the network device may be other devices that provide wireless communication functions for the terminal device. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network device. For the convenience of description, in the embodiments of the present application, the device that provides wireless communication functions for the terminal device is called a network device.

[0088] (3) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application can be used interchangeably. "At least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the objects associated with each other are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, "at least one of A, B and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects.

[0089] Figure 1a Schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to the embodiment of the present application. Figure 1a As shown, the terminal device 130 can access the wireless network to obtain services of the external network (such as the Internet) through the wireless network, or communicate with other devices through the wireless network, such as communicating with other terminal devices. The wireless network includes a radio access network (RAN) device 110 and a core network (CN) device 120, wherein the RAN device 110 is used to access the terminal device 130 to the wireless network, and the CN device 120 is used to manage the terminal device and provide a gateway for communicating with the external network. It should be understood that Figure 1a The number of devices in the communication system shown is for illustration only, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. In actual applications, the communication system may further include more terminal devices 130, more RAN devices 110, and other devices.

[0090] A CN may include multiple CN devices 120. Figure 1a When the network architecture shown is applicable to a 5G communication system, the CN device 120 may be an access and mobility management function (AMF) entity, a session management function (SMF) entity, or a user plane function (UPF) entity, etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the CN device 120 is taken as a UPF entity as an example. Exemplarily, the interface between the terminal device 130 and the RAN device 110 may be referred to as a Uu interface or an air interface, and the interface between the RAN device 110 and the UPF entity may be referred to as an N3 interface.

[0091] Figure 1b FIG. 1 is another schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to the embodiment of the present application. Figure 1b As shown, the network architecture includes CN equipment, RAN equipment and terminal equipment. Among them, the RAN equipment includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device, wherein the baseband device can be implemented by one node or by multiple nodes, and the radio frequency device can be independently implemented remotely from the baseband device, or integrated in the baseband device, or partially remotely integrated in the baseband device. For example, in an LTE communication system, the RAN equipment (eNB) includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device, wherein the radio frequency device can be remotely arranged relative to the baseband device, such as the radio frequency remote unit (RRU) is remotely arranged relative to the BBU. For another example, in an evolutionary structure, the RAN equipment may include a CU and a DU, multiple DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU, and the interface between the CU and the DU may be called an F1-U interface.

[0092] Figure 1c FIG. 1 is another schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 1b The network architecture shown, Figure 1c The control plane (CP) and the user plane (UP) of the CU can also be separated and implemented by dividing them into different entities, namely, a control plane (CP) CU entity (i.e., a CU-CP entity) and a user plane (UP) CU entity (i.e., a CU-UP entity).

[0093] In the above network architecture, the signaling generated by the CU can be sent to the terminal device through the DU, or the signaling generated by the terminal device can be sent to the CU through the DU. The DU can directly encapsulate the signaling through the protocol layer and transparently transmit it to the terminal device or CU without parsing it. In the following embodiments, if the transmission of such signaling between the DU and the terminal device is involved, at this time, the sending or receiving of the signaling by the DU includes this scenario. For example, the signaling of the radio resource control (RRC) layer or the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer will eventually be processed into physical layer signaling and sent to the terminal device, or converted from the received physical layer signaling. Under this architecture, the signaling of the RRC or PDCP layer can also be considered to be sent by the DU, or sent by the DU and the radio frequency loading.

[0094] Above Figure 1a , Figure 1b or Figure 1cThe network architecture shown can be applicable to communication systems of various radio access technologies (RAT), such as 5G (or new radio (NR)) communication systems, and of course future communication systems. The network architecture and service scenarios described in the embodiments of the present application are intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. It is known to those skilled in the art that with the evolution of the communication network architecture and the emergence of new service scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0095] The devices in the following embodiments of the present application may be located in a terminal device or a network device according to the functions implemented. When the above CU-DU structure is adopted, the network device may be a CU, or a DU, or a RAN device including a CU and a DU.

[0096] In the above Figure 1a , Figure 1b or Figure 1cIn the illustrated network architecture, the communication between the network device and the terminal device may follow a certain protocol layer structure, for example, the control plane protocol layer structure may include the functions of the protocol layers such as the RRC layer, the PDCP layer, the radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, the media access control (media access control, MAC) layer and the physical layer (physical layer, PHY); the user plane protocol layer structure may include the functions of the protocol layers such as the PDCP layer, the RLC layer, the MAC layer and the physical layer; in a possible implementation, the PDCP layer may also include a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer. Exemplarily, the network device may implement the functions of the protocol layers such as RRC, PDCP, RLC and MAC by one node, or may implement the functions of these protocol layers by multiple nodes. For example, if the network device includes a CU and a DU, the CU and the DU may be divided according to the protocol layers of the wireless network, for example, the functions of the PDCP layer and the protocol layers above are set in the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP, such as the RLC layer and the MAC layer, are set in the DU. This division of the protocol layer is only an example. It can also be divided in other protocol layers, such as dividing in the RLC layer, setting the functions of the RLC layer and the protocol layers above in the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer in the DU; or dividing in a certain protocol layer, for example, setting some functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers above the RLC layer in the CU, and setting the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer in the DU. In addition, it can also be divided in other ways, such as dividing by latency, setting the functions whose processing time needs to meet the latency requirements in the DU, and the functions that do not need to meet the latency requirements in the CU.

[0097] Taking data transmission between network devices and terminal devices as an example, data transmission needs to pass through the user plane protocol layer, such as the SDAP layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer. The SDAP layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer can also be collectively referred to as the access layer. According to the data transmission direction, it is divided into sending or receiving. Each of the above layers is divided into a sending part and a receiving part. Taking downlink data transmission as an example, see Figure 2a The figure shows the schematic diagram of downlink data transmission between layers. Figure 2aThe downward arrow in the figure indicates data transmission, and the upward arrow indicates data reception. After the PDCP layer obtains data from the upper layer, it transmits the data to the RLC layer and the MAC layer. The MAC layer then generates a transport block (TB) and then transmits it wirelessly through the physical layer. Data is encapsulated in each layer accordingly. The data received by a layer from the upper layer of the layer is regarded as the service data unit (SDU) of the layer. After layer encapsulation, it becomes a protocol data unit (PDU) and is then passed to the next layer. For example, the data received by the PDCP layer from the upper layer is called PDCP SDU, and the data sent by the PDCP layer to the lower layer is called PDCP PDU; the data received by the RLC layer from the upper layer is called RLC SDU, and the data sent by the RLC layer to the lower layer is called RLC PDU; the data received by the MAC layer from the upper layer is called MAC SDU, and the data sent by the MAC layer to the lower layer is called MAC PDU. MAC PDU can also be called TB. In the protocol, the connection between layers is mostly corresponding in the form of channels. The RLC layer and the MAC layer correspond through a logical channel (LCH), and the MAC layer and the physical layer correspond through a transport channel. Below the physical layer is the physical channel, which is used to correspond to the physical layer at the other end.

[0098] according to Figure 2a It can also be seen that the terminal device may also have an application layer and a non-access layer; wherein the application layer may be used to provide services to the application installed in the terminal device, for example, the downlink data received by the terminal device may be sequentially transmitted from the physical layer to the application layer, and then provided by the application layer to the application. The non-access layer may be used to forward user data, for example, forwarding the uplink data received from the application layer to the SDAP layer or forwarding the downlink data received from the SDAP layer to the application layer.

[0099] Still Figure 2a For example, see Figure 2bAs shown, the MAC layer of the network device may include a HARQ entity, and a HARQ entity may maintain or manage one or more HARQ processes, such as HARQ process 1, HARQ process 2, ..., HARQ process n. Each HARQ process has an independent HARQ buffer at the receiving end (i.e., terminal device), such as HARQ buffer 1, HARQ buffer 2, ..., HARQ buffer n, wherein HARQ buffer 1 may be the HARQ buffer of HARQ process 1, HARQ buffer 2 may be the HARQ buffer of HARQ process 2, and so on.

[0100] Among them, the HARQ process sends data based on the stop-and-wait protocol, so it can also be called a stop-and-wait process. In the stop-and-wait protocol, after the sender sends a TB, it stops and waits for confirmation information; the receiver will confirm the TB with a positive (ACK) or negative (NACK). Considering that the sender stops and waits for confirmation after each transmission, the throughput will be very low. Therefore, multiple parallel HARQ processes are used in LTE communication systems and 5G communication systems. While a HARQ process is waiting for confirmation information, the sender can use another HARQ process to continue sending data. These HARQ processes together constitute a HARQ entity, which combines the stop-and-wait protocol and allows continuous transmission of data.

[0101] The HARQ buffer corresponding to each HARQ process can be used to cache the data packets that failed to be decoded, so as to perform soft merging on the received data. Specifically, in the ARQ mechanism, after the receiving end determines that the received data packet has failed to be decoded, it will discard the data packet and send a NACK to the sending end to request retransmission of the data packet; considering that the data packet that failed to be decoded may contain useful information, if it is discarded, this useful information may also be discarded. Therefore, HARQ with soft combining can be used, that is, the receiving end can save the received data packet that failed to be decoded in the HARQ buffer and merge it with the retransmitted data packet received subsequently, so as to obtain a data packet that is more reliable than decoding alone (the process of "soft merging"), and then decode the merged data packet. If the decoding still fails, the process of "requesting retransmission and then performing soft merging" can be repeated.

[0102] like Figure 2bAs shown, the HARQ process in the network device can deliver the MAC PDU (ie, TB) to the encoding entity, which is then encoded by the encoding entity, and then the encoded TB is transmitted to the physical layer, which is then transmitted to the physical layer of the terminal device. Exemplarily, the TB is associated with HARQ information, which can be passed from the physical layer to the MAC layer. The HARQ information may include a new data indicator (NDI), a transport block size (TBS), a redundancy version (RV), and a HARQ process identifier (HARQ process ID). Among them, NDI is used to indicate whether the TB is newly transmitted or retransmitted. Each HARQ process will save an NDI value. If the NDI value of the same HARQ process changes compared to the previous one (NDI toggled), it means that the current transmission is a newly transmitted TB, otherwise (NDI not toggled) indicates that the current transmission is a retransmitted TB. RV is used to indicate the redundancy version used for transmission, and its value range is 0 to 3. The HARQ process identifier is information used to identify the HARQ process, such as the HARQ process identifier can be the HARQ process number.

[0103] Accordingly, after the physical layer of the terminal device receives the TB, it can deliver the TB to the MAC layer decoding entity, which decodes it. If the decoding is successful, the HARQ entity of the MAC layer can notify the physical layer to feedback ACK for the HARQ process; if the decoding fails, the HARQ entity of the MAC layer can notify the physical layer to feedback NACK for the HARQ process. In addition, if the terminal device does not receive the TB, the HARQ entity of the MAC layer can also notify the physical layer to feedback NACK for the HARQ process.

[0104] The above combination Figure 2a and Figure 2b The process of downlink data transmission between the network device and the terminal device is described. The resources used for downlink data transmission will be introduced below.

[0105] Exemplarily, the network device may send a downlink data packet to the terminal device by dynamically scheduling resources, or may send a downlink data packet to the terminal device by semi-statically scheduling resources.

[0106] (1) Dynamically Scheduling Resources

[0107] When scheduling an uplink dynamic grant (DG), the network device can indicate information such as the time-frequency position of the scheduled uplink transmission resources through the downlink control information (DCI) in the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); it can be understood that the network device schedules the dynamic scheduling resources through DCI. For example, the network device can notify the terminal device through DCI: receive data (downlink) in the YYY frequency band at XXX time; send data (uplink) in the VVV frequency band at ZZZ time. In other words, the dynamically scheduled resources can be resources used for downlink transmission, or they can also be resources used for uplink transmission. The embodiments of the present application are mainly described by taking the dynamically scheduled resources as resources used for downlink transmission as an example.

[0108] Exemplarily, the resources allocated by the network device based on dynamic scheduling are valid once, that is, the resources allocated by the network device to the terminal device through DG can only be used once.

[0109] (2) Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) resources

[0110] Semi-static scheduling refers to downlink static / semi-static scheduling. The configured downlink resource allocation (configured downlink assignment) configured by the network device is valid multiple times. For example, suppose the network device notifies the terminal through RRC signaling, MAC signaling, or physical layer signaling: receive data in the YYY frequency band at XXX time, and then receive data in the YYY frequency band at XXX time every period T.

[0111] Exemplarily, the network device can configure SPS resources through RRC messages, and the RRC messages may include parameters such as the period of SPS resources and the number of HARQ processes using SPS resources; and activate or reactivate SPS resources through DCI or MAC layer control messages. Taking DCI activation or reactivation of SPS resources as an example, DCI may include parameters such as the time-frequency position of SPS resources and modulation and coding scheme (MCS).

[0112] For example, see Figure 3 As shown in FIG, a schematic diagram of a network device activating, deactivating, and reactivating SPS resources through DCI. Figure 3 Shown include:

[0113] At time T1, the network device configures SPS resources through RRC messages.

[0114] At time T2, the network device sends DCI-a to the terminal device. DCI-a is used to indicate activation of SPS resources. DCI-a indicates that the time-frequency position of the SPS resource is position 1.

[0115] At time T3, the network device sends DCI-b to the terminal device. DCI-b is used to indicate deactivation of SPS resources.

[0116] At time T4, the network device sends DCI-c to the terminal device. DCI-c is used to indicate activation of SPS resources. DCI-c indicates that the time-frequency position of the SPS resource is position 2.

[0117] At time T5, the network device sends DCI-d to the terminal device. DCI-d is used to indicate the reactivation of SPS resources. DCI-d indicates that the time-frequency position of the SPS resources is position 3.

[0118] Based on the above description of downlink data transmission between the network device and the terminal device, the HARQ feedback of the terminal device is further studied below.

[0119] 5G communication systems can support a variety of possible services, such as ultrareliability and low latency communication (URLLC) services, which can be applied to scenarios such as smart grids and intelligent transportation systems. Since URLLC services usually have a deterministic cycle and have extremely high requirements for latency and reliability, the downlink transmission of this service can use SPS resources.

[0120] Figure 4a Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of using SPS resources to transmit data packets (ie, TB). Figure 4a As shown, the number of HARQ processes is 5, namely HARQ process 1 to HARQ process 5 ( Figure 4a The #1 in the byte indicates that the HARQ process ID corresponding to the SPS resource is HARQ process 1). Since the transmission reliability of the URLLC service is relatively high, in one possible scenario, 7 TBs are continuously transmitted on the SPS resource, only one TB fails to be decoded, and the terminal device needs to feedback NACK, while the other 6 TBs are decoded successfully, and the terminal device needs to feedback ACK.

[0121] Considering that the reliability of URLLC services can reach 99.999%, when the quality of the wireless link is good, only one data packet out of about 100,000 data packets may fail to transmit and need to feedback NACK, and the remaining more than 99,000 data packets need to feedback ACK, resulting in a large overhead for ACK feedback. Therefore, in a possible solution, the terminal device can adopt a HARQ feedback method with only NACK feedback (i.e., ignoring ACK feedback), thereby saving a lot of ACK feedback overhead and reducing the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0122] As shown in Table 1, the feedback behavior of the terminal device when the HARQ feedback mode with only NACK feedback is adopted is illustrated.

[0123] Table 1: HARQ feedback method with only NACK feedback

[0124] DL decoding results HARQ feedback from terminal equipment Behavior of network devices TB decoding failed NACK Scheduling Retransmission TB decoding successful - No further action TB not received NACK No further action

[0125] It can be seen from Table 1 that the terminal device no longer feeds back ACK when the TB decoding is successful, and feeds back NACK when the TB decoding fails or the TB is not received; accordingly, if the network device receives NACK feedback, it can be determined that the corresponding TB transmission has failed, and then the retransmission of the TB can be scheduled. If the network device does not receive any feedback, it can be determined that the corresponding TB transmission has been successful.

[0126] However, the solution that the terminal device adopts the HARQ feedback mode with only NACK feedback by default for SPS resources has certain limitations, such as the solution is mainly applicable to the scenario where the service cycle matches the SPS cycle. Due to the diversity of URLLC service scenarios, there are some other scenarios, such as scenarios 1 to 3 described below.

[0127] Scenario 1

[0128] For some scenarios such as smart grids, differentially protected data packets not only have high requirements for latency and reliability, but also require latency jitter to be in a lower range. Therefore, the service cycle in some scenarios is a non-integer multiple of the SPS cycle, such as a service cycle of 0.833ms, so it is impossible to configure a matching SPS cycle with an integer multiple of a time slot. In this case, multiple sets of SPS resources can be configured, for example, one set of SPS resources has a cycle of 0.8ms and another set of SPS resources has a cycle of 0.9ms, so as to meet the requirements of latency jitter as much as possible. However, using this method will result in no TB transmission in the downlink resource allocation of some configurations.

[0129] like Figure 4bAs shown in the figure, the packet arrival interval is 0.833ms, and two sets of SPS resources with different periods are configured. The first set of SPS resources has a period of 0.8ms, and the HARQ processes are HARQ process 1 to HARQ process 5. The second set of SPS resources has a period of 0.9ms, and the HARQ processes are HARQ process 6 to HARQ process 10. In a period of time, there is TB transmission in HARQ process 6, HARQ process 2, HARQ process 3, HARQ process 4, HARQ process 9, HARQ process 10 and HARQ process 6 corresponding to SPS, and the terminal device can feedback ACK, while there is no TB transmission on other resources, and the terminal device can feedback NACK. During this period of time, there are only 7 TB transmissions in the total 13 configurations of downlink resource allocation. When more sets of SPS resources are configured, there will be more configurations of downlink resource allocation without TB transmission, which will result in more NACK feedback.

[0130] Scenario 2

[0131] For services with uncertain periods, that is, data packets arrive without a fixed period, such as Figure 4c As shown in the figure, in order to ensure the stringent requirements of the service delay, the network equipment can configure a shorter SPS period, so that when a data packet arrives in the downlink, the data packet can be transmitted in time to reduce the transmission delay. However, using this method will cause more configurations of downlink resource allocation without TB transmission, for example, the HARQ feedback corresponding to HARQ process 2, HARQ process 3, HARQ process 5 and HARQ process 1 are all NACK.

[0132] Scene 3

[0133] For some remote control industrial application scenarios with strict latency requirements, the interval between data packets arriving is less than 0.5ms, so HARQ retransmission can no longer meet the latency requirements of the service. Therefore, any HARQ feedback from the terminal device is no longer helpful for the reliability of the service.

[0134] Based on this, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method for implementing flexible HARQ feedback, thereby adapting to business requirements of different scenarios, reducing unnecessary HARQ feedback overhead, and reducing power consumption of terminal devices.

[0135] In the following description, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applied to Figure 1a The method may be performed by a first communication device and a second communication device, wherein the first communication device may be Figure 1a The second communication device may be a network device or a communication device capable of supporting the network device to implement the functions required by the method, and may also be other communication devices, such as a chip or a chip system. Figure 1a The terminal device in the embodiment or the communication device capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions required by the method may of course be other communication devices, such as a chip or a chip system. For ease of introduction, in the following, the method is performed by a network device and a terminal device as an example, that is, the first communication device is a network device and the second communication device is a terminal device as an example.

[0136] Embodiment 1

[0137] Figure 5 A flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is shown in FIG. Figure 5 As shown, including:

[0138] Step 501: A network device sends first information to a terminal device.

[0139] Exemplarily, the network device may determine the HARQ feedback method and the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method according to the service requirements of the terminal device, and then send the first information to the terminal device. The service requirements may include one or more of the service cycle, delay jitter requirements, delay requirements, and network slices.

[0140] For example, for the above scenario 1, the network device may determine that the HARQ feedback method includes ignoring NACK feedback, and the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method may include the HARQ process corresponding to the first set of SPS resources and the second set of SPS resources.

[0141] For another example, with respect to the above scenario 2, the network device may determine that the HARQ feedback method includes ignoring NACK feedback, and the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method may include the HARQ process corresponding to a service with an uncertain period.

[0142] For another example, with respect to the above scenario 3, the network device may determine that the HARQ feedback method includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback, and the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method may include the HARQ process corresponding to the service with relatively strict latency.

[0143] Step 502: The terminal device receives first information, and determines a HARQ feedback mode according to the first information. The HARQ feedback mode may include ignoring ACK and / or NACK feedback.

[0144] Exemplarily, there are multiple ways for the terminal device to determine the HARQ feedback method according to the first information.

[0145] In a possible implementation, the first information may include indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate the HARQ feedback mode; accordingly, the terminal device may determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the indication information. The indication information may be carried in a variety of possible messages, such as an RRC message, a control message of the PDCP layer, a control message of the RLC layer, a control message of the MAC layer, or a control message of the physical layer; or, the indication information may be carried in a data packet. The RRC message may be an RRC reconfiguration message, an RRC resume message, or an RRC setup message, which is not specifically limited; the control message of the PDCP layer may be a control PDU of the PDCP layer; the control message of the RLC layer may be a control PDU of the RLC layer; the control message of the MAC layer may be a MAC CE; and the control message of the physical layer may be a DCI.

[0146] It should be noted that: (1) The specific location of the indication information in the message is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. For example, when the indication information is carried in the MAC CE, the indication information can be carried in the header or data payload of the MAC CE. For another example, when the indication information is carried in the data packet, the indication information can be carried in the header of the data PDU of the PDCP layer or the RLC layer.

[0147] (2) The specific manner in which the indication information indicates the HARQ feedback mode in the embodiment of the present application is not limited. For example, the indication information may include an index value of the HARQ feedback mode. If the index value is 1, it indicates that the HARQ feedback mode is to ignore ACK feedback; if the index value is 2, it indicates that the HARQ feedback mode is to ignore NACK feedback; if the index value is 3, it indicates that the HARQ feedback mode is to ignore ACK and NACK feedback. For another example, when the indication information is carried in the header of a MAC CE, the header of the MAC CE includes a logical channel identifier (LCID) field, and the indication information may occupy the LCID field, that is, different HARQ feedback modes may be indicated through the LCID field; for example, LCID=X indicates that the HARQ feedback mode is to ignore ACK feedback; LCID=Y indicates that the HARQ feedback mode is to ignore NACK feedback; LCID=Z indicates that the HARQ feedback mode is to ignore ACK and NACK feedback.

[0148] In another possible implementation, the first information may include a message, which may be an RRC message or a DCI. Accordingly, the terminal device may determine the HARQ feedback method according to whether the message includes configuration information of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource, the format of the message, or the scrambling method of the message (e.g., a radio network temporary identity (RNTI) used to scramble the message). Among them, the PUCCH resource can be used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process, such as ACK or NACK.

[0149] In another possible implementation, the first information may include preset priority information. Accordingly, the terminal device may determine the HARQ feedback method according to the priority of the logical channel corresponding to the service and the preset priority information.

[0150] Step 503: The terminal device determines at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0151] Here, the at least one HARQ process may include a HARQ process corresponding to SPS resources and / or a HARQ process corresponding to dynamic scheduling resources; or, the at least one HARQ process may include a HARQ process corresponding to one or more services.

[0152] Exemplarily, there may be multiple ways for the terminal device to determine at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback mode. Two possible implementation modes are described herein, namely, implementation mode a1 and implementation mode a2.

[0153] In implementation a1, the network device may send second information to the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method. Exemplarily, the second information may include the HARQ process number of at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method; and then, the terminal device may determine the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method according to the second information. Among them, the second information may be carried in a variety of possible messages, such as an RRC message, and the RRC message may be an RRC reconfiguration message, an RRC recovery message, or an RRC establishment message, which is not specifically limited.

[0154] In implementation a2, the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method may be agreed upon in advance by the protocol, for example, it may be agreed that: the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method includes all HARQ processes corresponding to SPS resources and / or all HARQ processes corresponding to dynamic scheduling resources; or includes all HARQ processes corresponding to one or more services. In this case, the network device may no longer need to send the second information to the terminal device, thereby effectively saving transmission resources.

[0155] It should be noted that the above-mentioned implementation method a1 and implementation method a2 can be implemented separately or in combination. For example, one scenario of combined implementation is that if the network device sends the second information to the terminal device, the terminal device can determine the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method based on the second information (i.e., implementation method a1); if the network device does not send the second information to the terminal device, the terminal device can determine the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method based on the protocol agreement (i.e., implementation method a2).

[0156] Step 504: The terminal device performs feedback processing on at least one HARQ process according to the HARQ feedback method.

[0157] Exemplarily, at least one HARQ process includes a first HARQ process. Taking the first HARQ process as an example, some possible implementations of feedback processing of the first HARQ process by the terminal device according to the HARQ feedback method are described below.

[0158] For example, in 1, the HARQ feedback method may include ignoring ACK feedback. If the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet is decoded successfully, no ACK is fed back to the first HARQ process for the data packet. Optionally, if the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet is decoded unsuccessfully, NACK is fed back to the first HARQ process for the data packet; or, if the terminal device does not receive a data packet from the first HARQ process, NACK is fed back to the first HARQ process. The HARQ feedback method may also be described as NACK only feedback.

[0159] For example, in 2, the HARQ feedback method includes ignoring NACK feedback. If the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet decoding fails, then the terminal device does not feedback NACK to the first HARQ process for the data packet; or, if the terminal device does not receive a data packet from the first HARQ process, then the terminal device does not feedback NACK to the first HARQ process. Optionally, if the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet decoding succeeds, then the terminal device feedbacks ACK to the first HARQ process for the data packet. This HARQ feedback method can also be described as ACK only feedback.

[0160] For example, in 3, the HARQ feedback method includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback, and the terminal device does not feedback ACK and NACK to the first HARQ process. The terminal device does not feedback ACK and NACK to the first HARQ process, which may include: if the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet is decoded successfully, then the terminal device does not feedback ACK to the first HARQ process for the data packet; or, if the terminal device receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet is decoded unsuccessfully, then the terminal device does not feedback NACK to the first HARQ process for the data packet; or, if the terminal device does not receive a data packet from the first HARQ process, then the terminal device does not feedback NACK to the first HARQ process.

[0161] In a possible scheme, there may be two types of HARQ feedback mechanisms, namely, a HARQ feedback mechanism based on TB transmission and a HARQ feedback mechanism based on code block group (CBG) transmission. Among them, a TB includes multiple CBs, and a CBG in the TB may include at least one CB in the TB; that is, CBG is a grouping of multiple CBs in a TB. For the HARQ feedback mechanism based on TB transmission, if the TB is decoded successfully, ACK is fed back, and if the TB is decoded unsuccessfully or the TB is not received, NACK is fed back. For the HARQ feedback mechanism based on CBG transmission, the HARQ information (such as ACK or NACK) of a TB may include multiple bits, each bit may correspond to a CBG in the TB, and the value of the bit is used to indicate whether the CBG corresponding to the bit is decoded successfully. If a CBG in the TB is decoded successfully, ACK is fed back for the CBG, and if another CBG fails to be decoded, NACK is fed back for the CBG.

[0162] The HARQ feedback method in the embodiment of the present application may refer to the HARQ feedback method in the HARQ feedback mechanism based on TB transmission, or it may also be the HARQ feedback method in the HARQ feedback mechanism based on CBG transmission, which are introduced below respectively.

[0163] (1) The HARQ feedback method in the embodiment of the present application is the HARQ feedback method in the HARQ feedback mechanism based on TB transmission. In this case, the success or failure of data packet decoding described in the above examples 1 to 3 refers to the success or failure of TB decoding.

[0164] ① The HARQ feedback method includes skipping ACK feedback, which means that if the TB decoding is successful, no ACK is fed back, and if the TB decoding fails, NACK is fed back.

[0165] ②HARQ feedback methods include skipping NACK feedback, which means that if TB decoding fails, NACK is not fed back, and if TB decoding succeeds, ACK is fed back.

[0166] ③ The HARQ feedback method includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback, which means that no matter whether the TB decoding succeeds or fails, no NACK or ACK is fed back, that is, no HARQ feedback is made.

[0167] (2) The HARQ feedback method in the embodiment of the present application is the HARQ feedback method in the HARQ feedback mechanism based on CBG transmission. In this case, the successful decoding of the data packet described in the above examples 1 to 3 may include: at least one CBG in the data packet (i.e., TB) is successfully decoded. Feedback ACK or no feedback ACK to the data packet can be understood as feedback ACK or no feedback ACK to the successfully decoded CBG in the TB. Alternatively, the decoding failure of the data packet described in the above examples 1 to 3 may include: at least one CBG in the data packet (i.e., TB) fails to decode. Feedback NACK or no feedback NACK to the data packet can be understood as feedback NACK or no feedback NACK to the CBG that failed to decode in the TB.

[0168] ① The HARQ feedback method includes ignoring ACK (skip ACK) feedback, which means that if at least one CBG in the TB is decoded successfully or all CBGs in the TB are decoded successfully, the ACK of the at least one CBG or all CBGs in the TB is not fed back; if at least one CBG in the TB fails to be decoded or all CBGs in the TB fail to be decoded, NACK of the at least one CBG or all CBGs in the TB is fed back.

[0169] ②The HARQ feedback method includes ignoring NACK (skip NACK) feedback, which means that if at least one CBG in the TB fails to be decoded or all CBGs in the TB fail to be decoded, the NACK of the at least one CBG or all CBGs in the TB is not fed back; if at least one CBG in the TB is successfully decoded or all CBGs in the TB are successfully decoded, the ACK of the at least one CBG or all CBGs in the TB is fed back.

[0170] ③The HARQ feedback method includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback, which means that no matter whether at least one CBG in the TB is decoded successfully or failed, or no matter whether all CBGs in the TB are decoded successfully or failed, the ACK of the at least one CBG or all CGBs in the TB is not fed back, and the NACK of the at least one CBG or all CBGs in the TB is not fed back, that is, no HARQ feedback is performed.

[0171] It should be noted that when the network device carries indication information in a data packet, there may be multiple possible implementations. Two implementations are described in detail here, namely, implementation b1 and implementation b2.

[0172] (1) Implementation method b1

[0173] The network device may carry the indication information in a certain data packet or carry the indication information separately in certain data packets. For example, the indication information is used to indicate HARQ feedback mode a, and the network device may indicate the HARQ process applicable to HARQ feedback mode a through the second information; furthermore, the terminal device may perform feedback processing on the corresponding HARQ process according to HARQ feedback mode a.

[0174] It can be understood that the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback mode a may include the HARQ process for transmitting the above-mentioned certain data packet or certain data packets, and may also include other HARQ processes.

[0175] (2) Implementation method b2

[0176] The network device may carry indication information in multiple data packets respectively, for example, the multiple data packets include data packet 1, data packet 2 and data packet 3, data packet 1 carries indication information 1, and indication information 1 indicates HARQ feedback mode 1; data packet 2 carries indication information 2, and indication information 2 indicates HARQ feedback mode 2; data packet 3 carries indication information 3, and indication information 3 indicates HARQ feedback mode 3. Among them, data packet 1, data packet 2 and data packet 3 may be data packets transmitted through the same HARQ process, or may also be data packets transmitted through different HARQ processes. For example, data packet 1 and data packet 2 are data packets transmitted by HARQ process 1, and data packet 3 is a data packet transmitted by HARQ process 2. After receiving data packet 1, the terminal device may perform feedback processing on HARQ process 1 according to the decoding result of data packet 1 and HARQ feedback mode 1; after receiving data packet 2, the terminal device may perform feedback processing on HARQ process 1 according to the decoding result of data packet 2 and HARQ feedback mode 2; after receiving data packet 3, the terminal device may perform feedback processing on HARQ process 2 according to the decoding result of data packet 3 and HARQ feedback mode 3. The above-mentioned HARQ feedback mode 1, HARQ feedback mode 2, and HARQ feedback mode 3 may be the same or different.

[0177] Exemplarily, in the case where the terminal device does not receive a data packet from HARQ process 1 or HARQ process 2, it can be pre-agreed to feedback NACK or not feedback NACK in this case.

[0178] Exemplarily, in implementation b2, the network device may not need to indicate the HARQ process to which the HARQ feedback method is applicable.

[0179] In the embodiment of the present application, the network device sends the first information to the terminal device, and then the terminal device can determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the first information, and the HARQ feedback mode can include ignoring ACK and / or NACK feedback. In this way, the network device can determine the corresponding HARQ feedback mode according to the service requirements of different scenarios, and then indicate it to the terminal device; that is, by controlling the HARQ feedback mode adopted by the terminal device through the network device, the terminal device can be flexibly controlled to adopt different HARQ feedback modes according to different scenarios, so as to adapt to the service requirements, effectively reduce the power consumption of the terminal device and save air interface resources.

[0180] Based on the first embodiment, some possible implementations are described below in combination with the second to fourth embodiments.

[0181] Embodiment 2

[0182] Figure 6 This is a flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Example 2 of the present application, such as Figure 6 As shown, including:

[0183] Step 601: The network device sends message 1 to the terminal device.

[0184] Step 602: The terminal device receives message 1 and determines the HARQ feedback method according to message 1.

[0185] Exemplarily, message 1 may be a message associated with an SPS resource (referred to as SPS resource 1 for ease of description).

[0186] In one example, message 1 is RRC message 1, and RRC message 1 is used to configure SPS resource 1. For example, RRC message 1 may include configuration information of SPS resource 1 and configuration information of PDSCH transmitted in SPS resource 1. RRC message 1 may include indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate the HARQ feedback mode. For example, the indication information may be included in the configuration information of SPS resource 1, or may also be included in the configuration information of PDSCH transmitted in SPS resource 1. In this case, the terminal device may determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the indication information included in RRC message 1.

[0187] For example, taking the dedicated configuration of the downlink bandwidth part (BWP) carried in RRC message 1 as an example, in the BWP-DownlinkDedicated information element (IE), the indication information can be included in the pdsch-Config information element (ie, the configuration information of PDSCH) and can also be included in the sps-Config information element (ie, the configuration information of SPS resource 1).

[0188]

[0189] In another example, message 1 is RRC message 2, RRC message 2 is used to configure PUCCH resources, and PUCCH resources are used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to SPS resource 1. In this case, the terminal device can determine the HARQ feedback mode according to whether RRC message 2 carries the configuration information of the PUCCH resources. In other words, RRC message 2 indicates the HARQ feedback mode by whether it carries the configuration information of the PUCCH resources; for example, when RRC message 2 does not carry the configuration information of the PUCCH resources, the indicated HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK and / or NACK feedback; when RRC message 2 carries the configuration information of the PUCCH resources, it indicates normal HARQ feedback (that is, ACK is not ignored, and NACK is not ignored).

[0190] In another example, message 1 is DCI-1, DCI-1 is used to activate or reactivate SPS resource 1, and DCI-1 may include indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate the HARQ feedback mode. In this case, the terminal device can determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the indication information included in the DCI-1.

[0191] In another example, message 1 is DCI-2, and DCI-2 is used to activate or reactivate SPS resource 1. In this case, the terminal device can determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the DCI format (DCI format) or scrambling mode of DCI-2. In other words, DCI-2 indicates the HARQ feedback mode by the adopted format or scrambling mode.

[0192] For example, when the format of DCI-2 is DCI format 1, the indicated HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK feedback; when the format of DCI-2 is DCI format 2, the indicated HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring NACK; when the format of DCI-2 is DCI format 3, the indicated HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback. Among them, DCI format 1, DCI format 2, and DCI format 3 can be formats pre-defined by the protocol.

[0193] For another example, when the scrambling method of DCI-2 is RNTI#1 scrambling, the indicated HARQ feedback method includes ignoring ACK feedback; when the scrambling method of DCI-2 is RNTI#2 scrambling, the indicated HARQ feedback method includes ignoring NACK feedback; when the scrambling method of DCI-2 is RNTI#3 scrambling, the indicated HARQ feedback method includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback. Among them, RNTI#1, RNTI#2, and RNTI#3 can be RNTIs pre-defined by the protocol.

[0194] In another example, message 1 is a control message of the MAC layer (or MAC signaling), and the MAC signaling is used to activate or reactivate SPS resource 1. The MAC signaling may include indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate the HARQ feedback mode. In this case, the terminal device can determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the indication information included in the MAC signaling.

[0195] Step 603: The terminal device determines at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0196] Step 604: The terminal device performs feedback processing on at least one HARQ process according to the HARQ feedback method.

[0197] Here, the terminal device may determine that there may be multiple types of at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0198] In one possible implementation, at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method may be agreed in advance by a protocol. For example, it may be agreed that: when the network device indicates the HARQ feedback method through a message associated with SPS resource 1 (such as the above-mentioned RRC message 1, RRC message 2, DCI-1, DCI-2 or MAC signaling), the HARQ processes applicable to the HARQ feedback method include all HARQ processes corresponding to SPS resource 1.

[0199] In another possible implementation, the network device may send a second information to the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method. For example, the second information indicates that the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method is all or part of the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resource 1. For another example, the network device may configure multiple sets of SPS resources for the terminal device, and the at least one HARQ process indicated by the second information may include part or all of the HARQ processes corresponding to the multiple sets of SPS resources configured by the network device for the terminal device. For example, in addition to the above-mentioned SPS resource 1, the network device also configures SPS resources 2 and SPS resources 3 for the terminal device, and the HARQ process corresponding to SPS resource 1 includes HARQ process 1 to HARQ process 5, and the HARQ process corresponding to SPS resource 2 includes HARQ process 6 to HARQ process 10. The HARQ process corresponding to SPS resource 3 includes HARQ process 11 to HARQ process 15, then at least one HARQ process may include part or all of the HARQ processes in HARQ process 1 to HARQ process 15.

[0200] Exemplarily, the second information may be carried in RRC message 1 or RRC message 2, or may be carried in other possible messages, which are not specifically limited.

[0201] In this way, the network device indicates the HARQ feedback mode applicable to the HARQ process corresponding to SPS resource 1 through the message associated with SPS resource 1, so as to indicate the corresponding HARQ feedback mode for the service transmitted on the specific resource.

[0202] Embodiment 3

[0203] Figure 7 This is a flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Example 3 of the present application, such as Figure 7 As shown, including:

[0204] Step 701: The network device sends DCI to the terminal device, where the DCI is used to schedule dynamic scheduling resources (referred to as resource 1 for ease of description).

[0205] Step 702: The terminal device receives the DCI and determines the HARQ feedback method according to the DCI.

[0206] In one example, the DCI may include indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate the HARQ feedback mode. In this case, the terminal device may determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the indication information included in the DCI.

[0207] In another example, the DCI indicates the HARQ feedback mode by using the adopted DCI format or scrambling mode. In this case, the terminal device can determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the format or scrambling mode of the DCI.

[0208] Step 703: The terminal device determines at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0209] Step 704: The terminal device performs feedback processing on at least one HARQ process according to the HARQ feedback method.

[0210] Here, the terminal device may determine that there may be multiple types of at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0211] In a possible implementation, the HARQ processes applicable to the HARQ feedback mode may be agreed upon in advance by a protocol. For example, it may be agreed that when the network device indicates the HARQ feedback mode via the DCI scheduling resource 1, the HARQ processes applicable to the HARQ feedback mode include all HARQ processes corresponding to resource 1.

[0212] In another possible implementation, the network device may send second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method. For example, the second information indicates that the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method is all or part of the HARQ processes corresponding to resource 1.

[0213] In this way, the network device indicates the HARQ feedback mode applicable to the HARQ process corresponding to resource 1 by scheduling the DCI of resource 1, so as to indicate the corresponding HARQ feedback mode for the service transmitted on the specific resource.

[0214] Embodiment 4

[0215] Figure 8 This is a flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Example 4 of the present application, such as Figure 8 As shown, including:

[0216] Step 801: The network device sends an RRC message to the terminal device.

[0217] Step 802: The terminal device receives an RRC message and determines a HARQ feedback method according to the RRC message.

[0218] Exemplarily, the RRC message may be a message associated with the first service. For example, the RRC message may be used to configure a logical channel corresponding to the first service.

[0219] In one example, the RRC message may include indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate the HARQ feedback mode. In this case, the terminal device may determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the indication information included in the RRC message. Exemplarily, the RRC message may include configuration information of the logical channel, and the indication information may be carried in the configuration information of the logical channel.

[0220] In another example, the RRC message may include preset priority information. In this case, the terminal device may determine the HARQ feedback mode according to the priority information of the logical channel corresponding to the first service and the preset priority information. For example, when the priority signal of the logical channel corresponding to the first service is higher than or equal to the preset priority, the HARQ feedback mode is indicated to include ignoring ACK and / or NACK feedback; when the priority signal of the logical channel corresponding to the first service is lower than the preset priority, the HARQ feedback is indicated to be performed normally.

[0221] It should be noted that, in other possible embodiments, the preset priority information may also be pre-agreed upon by the protocol. In this case, the terminal device no longer needs to obtain the preset priority information from the network device, thereby saving resource overhead.

[0222] Step 803: The terminal device determines at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0223] Step 804: The terminal device performs feedback processing on at least one HARQ process according to the HARQ feedback method.

[0224] Here, the terminal device may determine that there may be multiple types of at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0225] In a possible implementation, the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method may be agreed upon in advance by a protocol. For example, it may be agreed that when the network device indicates the HARQ feedback method through a message associated with the first service (such as the above-mentioned RRC message), the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method includes all HARQ processes corresponding to the first service.

[0226] In another possible implementation, the network device may send second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method. For example, the second information indicates that the HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method is all or part of the HARQ processes corresponding to the first service.

[0227] By adopting the above method, the network device can indicate the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the service through the RRC message, so that the corresponding HARQ feedback mode can be used more accurately for the specific service.

[0228] In air interface communication between terminal equipment and network equipment, in order to save power consumption of the terminal equipment, a discontinuous reception (DRX) mechanism is introduced.

[0229] The DRX mechanism is described below.

[0230] Under the DRX mechanism, the terminal device can be in the DRX active state or the DRX dormant state. When the terminal device is in the DRX active state, the terminal device can turn on the receiver to listen to the PDCCH (for example, it can listen to various types of RNTI-scrambled PDCCH), and when the terminal device is in the DRX dormant state, the terminal device can no longer listen to the PDCCH, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device. Among them, the terminal device is in the DRX active state, which can also be described as: the terminal device is in the active state, or the terminal device is in the awake state, or the terminal device is awake, without specific limitation; the terminal device is in the DRX dormant state, which can also be described as: the terminal device is in the dormant state, or the terminal device is in the sleeping state, without specific limitation.

[0231] Exemplarily, after the DRX mechanism is introduced, the network device may configure the following parameters for the terminal device:

[0232] (1) DRX cycle: a discontinuous reception cycle. In each cycle, the terminal device will wake up for a period of time (during which time the terminal device is in the DRX active state) to listen to the PDCCH. There are two types of DRX cycles: long cycle and short cycle. The long cycle is an integer multiple of the short cycle.

[0233] (2) drx-onDurationTimer: This is a continuous downlink duration, which indicates the time the terminal device stays awake after waking up (i.e., the time the terminal device is in the DRX activated state); during this time, the terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH. This timer starts at the beginning of each DRX cycle.

[0234] (3) drx-InactivityTimer: This is a continuous downlink duration during which the terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH. This timer can be started or restarted when the terminal device successfully demodulates the PDCCH used to schedule new data (which can be uplink or downlink new data) of the terminal device.

[0235] (4) drx-HARQ-RTT-Timer: the minimum retransmission scheduling interval, which is used to indicate the earliest number of symbols after which the next HARQ retransmission will occur. This timer can be divided into a timer corresponding to the uplink (i.e., drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL) and a timer corresponding to the downlink (i.e., drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL). The drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL starts at the first symbol after the HARQ feedback of the downlink transmission of a HARQ process ends; the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL starts at the first symbol after the uplink transmission of a HARQ process (if the uplink transmission is a repetition transmission, it starts at the first symbol after the first transmission ends).

[0236] (5) drx-RetransmissionTimer: the waiting time for receiving retransmission scheduling. This timer indicates the maximum time that the terminal device waits for retransmission data in the DRX activation state. The timer can be divided into a timer corresponding to the uplink (i.e., drx-RetransmissionTimerUL) and a timer corresponding to the downlink (i.e., drx-RetransmissionTimerDL). The drx-RetransmissionTimerDL starts at the first symbol after the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL of a HARQ process times out; the drx-RetransmissionTimerUL starts at the first symbol after the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerUL of a HARQ process times out.

[0237] (6) drx-shortCycleTimer: the life cycle of the short cycle. After the timer times out, the long cycle needs to be used. When the short cycle is configured, the timer is started or restarted in the following two situations: 1) drx-InactivityTimer times out, 2) the terminal device receives the DRX command MAC CE. Among them, the DRX command MAC CE is the MAC CE that allows the terminal device to enter the sleep state immediately; after the terminal device receives the control signaling, it can immediately stop drx-onDurationTimer and drx-InactivityTimer.

[0238] In addition to the parameters described above, the network device may also configure other possible parameters for the terminal device, such as drx-SlotOffset and drx-StartOffset. drx-StartOffset is used to determine which subframe the DRX cycle starts from, and drx-SlotOffset is used to delay the start of drx-onDurationTimer by a certain time from the front boundary of the subframe where the DRX cycle starts.

[0239] For the DRX cycle and various timers described above, the terminal device can maintain them according to the following rules: DRX cycle, drx-onDurationTimer, drx-InactivityTimer, and drx-shortCycleTimer are maintained by each MAC entity (per MAC entity), that is, a MAC entity of the terminal device only maintains a set of DRX cycles, as well as drx-onDurationTimer, drx-InactivityTimer, drx-shortCycleTimer, etc.; and drx-HARQ-RTT-Timer and drx-RetransmissionTimer are maintained by each HARQ process, that is, each HARQ process can start / restart the drx-HARQ-RTT-Timer and drx-RetransmissionTimer related to the HARQ process according to conditions.

[0240] After configuring the DRX cycle, the time when the terminal device is in the active state (i.e., the time when the terminal device is awake) includes: (1) the time when drx-onDurationTimer / drx-InactivityTimer / drx-RetransmissionTimerDL / drx-RetransmissionTimerU L is running; (2) the time when ra-ContentionResolutionTimer used to receive Msg4 in the random access process is running; (3) the time when the terminal device sends a scheduling request (SR) on the PUCCH, but the SR is in a suspended state; (4) the time when the terminal device successfully receives a random access response (RAR) in the random access process with conflict avoidance, but does not receive the newly transmitted data scheduled by the PDCCH scrambled by the cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI).

[0241] As mentioned above, SPS resources are periodic downlink resources configured by the network device for the terminal device. Different from the dynamically scheduled resources (the HARQ resources corresponding to the dynamically scheduled resources are dynamically indicated through DCI), the HARQ resources corresponding to the SPS resources can also be configured by the network device in a semi-static manner. However, in a time division duplexing (TDD) system, configuring the HARQ resources corresponding to the SPS resources in a semi-static manner may cause the HARQ resources corresponding to some SPS resources (such as the first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource) to overlap with the downlink resources, resulting in the terminal device being unable to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource. To solve this problem, a possible solution is that the network device dynamically triggers the retransmission of the feedback information, for example, the network device can indicate a new HARQ resource (called the second HARQ resource) to the terminal device through DCI, so that the terminal device can send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the second HARQ resource.

[0242] However, if the terminal device is configured with the DRX function, the terminal device may be in a DRX sleep state for a period of time before and after the first SPS resource, that is, it does not listen to the DCI scheduled by the network device, so that the network device cannot promptly indicate the retransmission resources of the feedback information to the terminal device through the DCI, and the terminal device cannot promptly send the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource to the network device, thereby affecting the efficiency of downlink transmission.

[0243] Based on this, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method for improving the efficiency of downlink transmission.

[0244] The communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is described in detail below in combination with Embodiment 5 and Embodiment 6.

[0245] Embodiment 5

[0246] In the fifth embodiment, the terminal device may receive configuration information from the network device, and the configuration information is used to configure the first SPS resource and the first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource. When the terminal device determines that the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource, the terminal device may be in the DRX activation state in the first time period, so as to receive the DCI (used to indicate the retransmission resource of the feedback information) sent by the network device. Fig. 9 Describe a possible implementation flow.

[0247] Fig. 9 This is a flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Embodiment 5 of the present application, such as Fig. 9 As shown, including:

[0248] Step 901: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device, where the configuration information is used to configure a first SPS resource and a first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource; accordingly, the terminal device can receive the configuration information from the network device.

[0249] Exemplarily, the configuration information may include configuration information 1 and configuration information 2, wherein configuration information 1 is used to configure the first SPS resource, and configuration information 2 is used to configure the first HARQ resource. The specific implementation of configuration information 1 configuring the first SPS resource may refer to the description of the SPS resource in the foregoing text, for example, the network device may send an RRC message to the terminal device, and the RRC message includes configuration information 1. Configuration information 1 may include parameters such as the period of the SPS resource, and each period may include an SPS resource. The first SPS resource may be an SPS resource within a certain period. The specific implementation of configuration information 2 configuring the first HARQ resource may adaptively refer to the implementation of configuration information 1 configuring the first SPS resource, and the multiple HARQ resources configured by configuration information 2 may correspond one-to-one to the multiple SPS resources configured by configuration information 1.

[0250] It should be noted that the network device can send configuration information 1 and configuration information 2 to the terminal device through the same RRC message, or can send configuration information 1 and configuration information 2 to the terminal device through different RRC messages, without specific limitation.

[0251] Step 902: The terminal device determines the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource. If the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is the first HARQ feedback mode, step S903 is executed; if the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is the second HARQ feedback mode, step 906 is executed.

[0252] Here, the first HARQ feedback mode can be a normal HARQ feedback mode. When the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is the normal HARQ feedback mode, the terminal device receives a data packet from the HARQ process and the data packet is decoded successfully, then ACK is fed back to the transmission corresponding to the HARQ process on the corresponding HARQ resource; if the terminal device receives a data packet from the HARQ process and the data packet decoding fails, then NACK is fed back to the transmission corresponding to the HARQ process on the corresponding HARQ resource; or, if the terminal device does not receive a data packet from the HARQ process, then NACK is fed back to the transmission corresponding to the HARQ process on the corresponding HARQ resource.

[0253] The second HARQ feedback mode may be to ignore NACK feedback or ACK-only feedback. When the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is to ignore NACK feedback or ACK-only feedback, if the terminal device receives a data packet from the HARQ process and the data packet is decoded successfully, then ACK is fed back for the transmission of the HARQ process; if the terminal device receives a data packet from the HARQ process and the data packet decoding fails, then no HARQ feedback is performed for the transmission of the HARQ process, that is, neither ACK nor NACK is fed back; or, if the terminal device does not receive a data packet from the HARQ process, then no HARQ feedback is performed for the transmission of the HARQ process.

[0254] There may be multiple implementations of the terminal device determining the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource. In one example, the terminal device may determine whether the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is configured as the second HARQ feedback mode based on the configuration of the network device; if the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is not configured as the second HARQ feedback mode, it means that the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is the first HARQ feedback mode.

[0255] In addition, the terminal device may also adopt the method described in the above-mentioned embodiments 1 to 4 to determine the HARQ feedback method of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource.

[0256] In step 903, the terminal device determines whether it is possible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource. If the terminal device determines that it is not possible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, step 904 is executed; if the terminal device determines that it is possible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, step 905 is executed.

[0257] Here, the terminal device determines that it is impossible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, which may include a variety of possible situations. For example, the terminal device determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the first resource, and the first resource is used to transmit downlink information, such as the first resource is a downlink resource in the TDD system, which means that it is impossible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource. For another example, the terminal device determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the second resource, and the second resource is used to transmit uplink information, and the priority of the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is lower than the priority of the uplink information, which means that it is impossible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource; wherein the uplink information may be information carried in PUSCH, or information carried in PUCCH, without specific limitation.

[0258] It should be noted that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the first resource, which may mean that the first HARQ resource completely overlaps or partially overlaps with the first resource. The first HARQ resource overlaps with the second resource, which may mean that the first HARQ resource completely overlaps or partially overlaps with the second resource.

[0259] Step 904, the terminal device is in the DRX activation state in time period 1 to receive the DCI sent by the network device, where the DCI is used to indicate the second HARQ resource, and the second HARQ resource is used to carry the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource, that is, the second HARQ resource is a retransmission resource for the feedback information.

[0260] Here, the starting time of time period 1 can be determined according to the first SPS resource. For example, the starting time of time period 1 can be any of the following: (1) the starting time of the first SPS resource; (2) the moment after the starting time of the first SPS resource is shifted by k1 time units; (3) the end time of the first SPS resource; (4) the moment after the end time of the first SPS resource is shifted by k2 time units. Among them, the time unit can be a symbol. k1 and k2 can be positive integers or negative integers, and k1 and k2 can be the same, or they can be different. The value of k1 or k2 can be pre-defined by the protocol, or it can be configured by the network device for the terminal device, for example, the network device can configure the value of k1 or k2 through an RRC message. Exemplarily, the starting time of the first SPS resource can be the starting time of the first symbol occupied by the first SPS resource. For example, the first symbol occupied by the first SPS resource is symbol 2, k1 is 1, then the moment after the starting time of the first SPS resource is shifted by k1 time units can be the starting time of symbol 3.

[0261] When the terminal device is in the DRX activated state, it can listen to the PDCCH. If the terminal device receives a DCI from the network device, and the DCI is used to indicate the second HARQ resource, the terminal device can determine the end time of time period 1 according to the reception time of the DCI. For example, the end time of time period 1 is the reception time of the DCI.

[0262] In an embodiment of the present application, there may be multiple specific implementations of the terminal device being in a DRX activation state in time period 1, which are described below in conjunction with two examples (Example 1 and Example 2).

[0263] Example 1: The terminal device may start timer 1 associated with the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource at the start time of time period 1, and stop timer 1 at the end time of time period 1. When timer 1 is running, the terminal device is in a DRX activation state. Timer 1 may be a newly introduced timer, or may be drx-RetransmissionTimerDL.

[0264] Example 2: The terminal device may enter the DRX active state at the start time of time period 1, and enter the DRX sleep state at the end time of time period 1. In this example, whether the terminal device is in the DRX active state may not be constrained by timer 1.

[0265] It should be noted that, in Example 2, if the terminal device is in the DRX sleep state before the start time of time period 1, the terminal device can enter the DRX active state from the DRX sleep state at the start time of time period 1; if the terminal device is already in the DRX active state before the start time of time period 1, the terminal device can maintain the DRX active state during time period 1. In addition, at the end time of time period 1, the terminal device can enter the DRX sleep state, or it can not enter the DRX sleep state; for example, at the end time of time period 1, the terminal device can determine whether there are other factors that require the terminal device to be in the DRX active state (see the previous description), if not, the terminal device can enter the DRX sleep state from the DRX active state at the end time of time period 1, if so, the terminal device can continue to maintain the DRX active state. That is to say, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device is constrained to be in the DRX active state during time period 1, and there is no restriction on the state of the terminal device outside time period 1. For example, outside time period 1, it can be executed with reference to the prior art.

[0266] Step 905: The terminal device sends feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource.

[0267] Exemplarily, after sending the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, the terminal device may also start the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL. Furthermore, if the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL is in a running state, the terminal device may also stop the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL.

[0268] Step 906, the terminal device determines whether the PDSCH is successfully received on the first SPS resource; if the terminal device determines that the PDSCH is successfully received on the first SPS resource, execute S907; if the terminal device determines that the PDSCH is not successfully received on the first SPS resource, execute step 910.

[0269] Here, the terminal device determines that the PDSCH is successfully received on the first SPS resource, which may mean that the terminal device receives a data packet from the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource, and the data packet is decoded successfully. The terminal device determines that the PDSCH is not successfully received on the first SPS resource, which may mean that: the terminal device receives a data packet from the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource, and the data packet decoding fails; or, the terminal device does not receive a data packet from the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource. As a possible implementation, the network device may send an indication message to the terminal device, the indication message indicating that the first SPS resource is skipped (skip), and the terminal device may determine, based on the indication message, that the data packet from the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is not received.

[0270] Step 907: The terminal device determines whether it is possible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource. If the terminal device determines that it is not possible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, step 908 is executed; if the terminal device determines that it is possible to send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, step 909 is executed.

[0271] Here, the situation in which the terminal device determines that the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource can be referred to the description in the above step 903.

[0272] Step 908, the terminal device is in the DRX activation state in time period 2 to receive the DCI sent by the network device, where the DCI is used to indicate the second HARQ resource, and the second HARQ resource is used to carry the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource, that is, the second HARQ resource is a retransmission resource for the feedback information.

[0273] Here, the starting time of time period 2 can be determined based on the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH received on the first SPS resource. For example, the starting time of time period 2 can be any of the following times: (1) the starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; (2) the time after the starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by m time units; (3) the ending time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; (4) the time after the ending time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by n time units. Among them, the time unit can be a symbol. m and n can be positive integers or negative integers, m and n can be the same, or they can be different. The value of m or n can be pre-defined by the protocol, or it can be configured by the network device for the terminal device, for example, the network device can configure the value of m or n through an RRC message.

[0274] When the terminal device is in the DRX activated state, it can listen to PDCCH. If the terminal device receives DCI from the network device, and the DCI is used to indicate the second HARQ resource, the terminal device can determine the end time of time period 2 according to the reception time of DCI. For example, the end time of time period 2 is the reception time of DCI.

[0275] In an embodiment of the present application, there may be multiple specific implementations of the terminal device being in the DRX activation state in time period 2, which are described below in combination with two examples (Example 1 and Example 2).

[0276] Example 1: The terminal device may start timer 2 associated with the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource at the start time of time period 2, and stop timer 2 at the end time of time period 2. When timer 2 is running, the terminal device is in a DRX activation state. Timer 2 may be a newly introduced timer, or may be drx-RetransmissionTimerDL.

[0277] Example 2: The terminal device may enter the DRX active state at the start time of time period 2, and enter the DRX sleep state at the end time of time period 2. In this example, timer 2 may not be used to constrain whether the terminal device is in the DRX active state.

[0278] It should be noted that, in Example 2, if the terminal device is in the DRX sleep state before the start time of time period 2, the terminal device can enter the DRX active state from the DRX sleep state at the start time of time period 2; if the terminal device is already in the DRX active state before the start time of time period 2, the terminal device can maintain the DRX active state in time period 2. In addition, at the end time of time period 2, the terminal device can enter the DRX sleep state, or it can not enter the DRX sleep state; for example, at the end time of time period 2, the terminal device can determine whether there are other factors that require the terminal device to be in the DRX active state (see the previous description), if not, the terminal device can enter the DRX sleep state from the DRX active state at the end time of time period 2, if so, the terminal device can continue to maintain the DRX active state. That is to say, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device is constrained to be in the DRX active state in time period 2, and there is no restriction on the state of the terminal device outside time period 2. For example, outside time period 2, it can be executed with reference to the prior art.

[0279] Step 909: The terminal device sends feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource.

[0280] Exemplarily, after sending the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, the terminal device may also start the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL. Furthermore, if the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL is in a running state, the terminal device may also stop the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL.

[0281] In step 910, the terminal device may not start drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL.

[0282] Exemplarily, if the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL is in a running state, the terminal device may not stop the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL.

[0283] Using the above method, when the feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is the first HARQ feedback mode, since the terminal device needs to send feedback information (ACK or NACK) to the network device, therefore, when the first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot send feedback information, regardless of whether the terminal device successfully receives the PDSCH on the first SPS resource, the terminal device can be in a DRX activation state within time period 1, so as to promptly receive the DCI sent by the network device for indicating the retransmission resources of the feedback information, thereby ensuring that the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource can be sent to the network device in a timely manner, thereby improving the efficiency of downlink transmission. When the feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is the second HARQ feedback mode (ignoring NACK feedback), if the terminal device fails to successfully receive the PDSCH on the first SPS resource, then since the terminal device does not need to feedback NACK, even if the feedback information cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource, the terminal device does not need to be in an activated state to receive the DCI (used to indicate the retransmission resources of the feedback information) sent by the network device, thereby effectively avoiding the terminal device from performing unnecessary operations and reducing the processing complexity and power consumption of the terminal device.

[0284] It should be noted that the above content is described for the feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource, which is the first HARQ feedback mode or the second HARQ feedback mode. If the feedback mode of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is other possible HARQ feedback modes, it can be adaptively implemented by referring to the above.

[0285] Embodiment 6

[0286] Fig.10This is a flow chart corresponding to the communication method provided in Example 6 of the present application, such as Fig.10 As shown, including:

[0287] Step 1001: A network device sends configuration information to a terminal device, where the configuration information is used to configure a first SPS resource and a first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource; accordingly, the terminal device can receive the configuration information from the network device.

[0288] For example, the implementation of step 1001 may refer to the description of step 901 in the fifth embodiment.

[0289] Step 1002: The network device determines that it is unable to receive feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource.

[0290] Here, the network device determines that it cannot receive feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, which can also be described as the network device determines that the terminal device cannot send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource.

[0291] The network device determines that it cannot receive the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, which may include a variety of possible situations. For example, the network device determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the first resource, and the first resource is used to transmit downlink information, such as the first resource is a downlink resource in a TDD system, which means that it is impossible to receive the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource. For another example, the network device determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the second resource, and the second resource is used to transmit uplink information, and the priority of the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource is lower than the priority of the uplink information, which means that it is impossible to receive the feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource; wherein the uplink information may be information carried in PUSCH or information carried in PUCCH, without specific limitation.

[0292] Step 1003: The network device sends a DCI to the terminal device, where the DCI is used to indicate a dynamically scheduled resource, where the dynamically scheduled resource overlaps with the first SPS resource; accordingly, the terminal device can receive the DCI.

[0293] Exemplarily, the above-mentioned DCI may also indicate a third HARQ resource, where the third HARQ resource is used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resource.

[0294] Exemplarily, the dynamic scheduling resource overlaps with the first SPS resource, which may mean that the dynamic scheduling resource completely overlaps or partially overlaps with the first SPS resource.

[0295] In the embodiment of the present application, for the terminal device, if the terminal device determines that the dynamically scheduled resources scheduled by the network device overlap with the SPS resources, the terminal device will process the dynamically scheduled resources instead of the SPS resources. Therefore, in step 1003, after receiving the DCI, the terminal device can receive the PDSCH sent by the network device on the dynamically scheduled resources according to the DCI, and send feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamically scheduled resources on the third HARQ resource indicated by the DCI.

[0296] Using the above method, when the network device determines that it cannot receive feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, it can indicate to the terminal device the dynamic scheduling resources that overlap with the first SPS resource and the HARQ resources corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resources; since the network device can flexibly indicate the HARQ resources corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resources, it can effectively avoid the problem that the terminal device cannot send feedback information to the network device in time, thereby improving the efficiency of downlink transmission.

[0297] It should be noted that: (1) the above-mentioned embodiments 2 to 4 are some possible implementations based on the description of embodiment 1, and different embodiments of embodiments 1 to 4 can refer to each other. For example, the specific implementation of the DCI indicating the HARQ feedback method through the DCI format or scrambling method in embodiment 3 can refer to embodiment 2.

[0298] (2) The various flow charts described in Examples 1 to 6 (e.g. Figures 5 to 10 ) is only an example of the execution process and does not constitute a limitation on the order of execution of the steps. In the embodiments of the present application, there is no strict execution order between the steps that have no timing dependency relationship with each other. In addition, not all the steps shown in each flowchart are required to be executed, and some steps can be added or deleted based on each flowchart according to actual needs.

[0299] The above mainly introduces the scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application from the perspective of interaction between communication devices. It is understandable that in order to achieve the above functions, the communication device may include hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be easily appreciated by those skilled in the art that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to exceed the scope of the present application.

[0300] The embodiment of the present application can divide the communication device into functional units according to the above method example. For example, each functional unit can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one unit. The above integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional units.

[0301] In the case of an integrated unit, Fig.11 A possible exemplary block diagram of the device involved in the embodiments of the present application is shown. Fig.11 As shown, the device 1100 may include: a processing unit 1102 and a communication unit 1103. The processing unit 1102 is used to control and manage the actions of the device 1100. The communication unit 1103 is used to support the communication between the device 1100 and other devices. Optionally, the communication unit 1103 is also called a transceiver unit, and may include a receiving unit and / or a sending unit, which are respectively used to perform receiving and sending operations. The device 1100 may also include a storage unit 1101 for storing program codes and / or data of the device 1100.

[0302] The apparatus 1100 may be a terminal device in any of the above embodiments, or may be a chip set in the terminal device. The processing unit 1102 may support the apparatus 1100 to perform the actions of the terminal device in the above method examples. Alternatively, the processing unit 1102 mainly performs the internal actions of the terminal device in the method examples, and the communication unit 1103 may support the communication between the apparatus 1100 and the network device. For example, the communication unit 1103 may be used to perform Figure 5 Step 502; the processing unit 1102 can be used to perform Figure 5 Step 503 and step 504.

[0303] Specifically, in one embodiment, the communication unit 1103 is used to receive first information from a network device; the processing unit 1102 is used to determine a HARQ feedback mode based on the first information, the HARQ feedback mode including ignoring ACK and / or NACK feedback; and perform feedback processing on the first HARQ process according to the HARQ feedback mode.

[0304] In one possible design, the processing unit 1102 is specifically used for: the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK feedback, and if it is determined that the communication unit 1103 receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet is decoded successfully, then no ACK is fed back to the first HARQ process. Alternatively, the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring NACK feedback, and if it is determined that the communication unit 1103 receives a data packet from the first HARQ process and the data packet decoding fails, then no NACK is fed back to the first HARQ process; or, if it is determined that the communication unit 1103 does not receive a data packet from the first HARQ process, then no NACK is fed back to the first HARQ process. Alternatively, the HARQ feedback mode includes ignoring ACK and NACK feedback, and then no ACK and NACK are fed back to the first HARQ process.

[0305] In one possible design, the first information includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate a HARQ feedback mode.

[0306] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive an RRC message from a network device, the RRC message includes indication information, and the RRC message is used to configure the SPS resources; or, the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive a DCI from a network device, the DCI includes indication information, and the DCI is used to activate or reactivate the SPS resources.

[0307] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamically scheduled resources; the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive a DCI from the network device, the DCI includes the indication information, and the DCI is used to schedule the dynamically scheduled resources.

[0308] In one possible design, the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive a first message from the network device, where the first message includes the indication information; wherein the first message is a control message of the PDCP layer, the RLC layer, or the MAC layer.

[0309] In one possible design, the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive a data packet from the network device, wherein the data packet includes the indication information; wherein the data packet is sent through the first HARQ process.

[0310] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the first service; the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive an RRC message from the network device, the RRC message includes the indication information, and the RRC message is used to configure a logical channel corresponding to the first service.

[0311] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; the first information includes an RRC message, the RRC message is used to configure PUCCH resources, and the PUCCH resources are used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; the processing unit 1102 is also used to determine the HARQ feedback method according to whether the RRC message carries the configuration information of the PUCCH resources.

[0312] In one possible design, the first information includes DCI; the processing unit 1102 is also used to determine the HARQ feedback method according to the format or scrambling method of the DCI.

[0313] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources, and the DCI is used to indicate the activation or reactivation of the SPS resources; or, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resources, and the DCI is used to schedule the dynamic scheduling resources.

[0314] In one possible design, the first HARQ process belongs to the HARQ process corresponding to the first service; the first information includes preset priority information; and the processing unit 1102 is also used to determine the HARQ feedback method according to the priority of the logical channel corresponding to the first service and the preset priority information.

[0315] In one possible design, the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive second information from the network device, where the second information is used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method, and the at least one HARQ process includes the first HARQ process.

[0316] In another embodiment, the communication unit 1103 is used to receive configuration information from a network device, wherein the configuration information is used to configure a first SPS resource and a first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource; the processing unit 1102 is used to determine that feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource; and the DRX activation state is in a first time period, and the starting time of the first time period is determined based on the first SPS resource.

[0317] In one possible design, the communication unit 1103 is also used to receive DCI from the network device, where the DCI is used to indicate a second HARQ resource, and the second HARQ resource is used to carry the feedback information; the end time of the first time period is the reception time of the DCI.

[0318] In one possible design, the processing unit 1102 is specifically used to control the terminal device to enter a DRX activation state at the start time of the first time period, and to enter a DRX sleep state at the end time of the first time period.

[0319] In one possible design, the processing unit 1102 is specifically used to start the timer corresponding to the HARQ process at the start time of the first time period, and stop the timer at the end time of the first time period; wherein, when the timer is running, the terminal device is in the DRX activation state.

[0320] In one possible design, the timer is an uplink DRX retransmission timer.

[0321] In one possible design, the processing unit 1102 is further used to determine whether the PDSCH is successfully received on the first SPS resource.

[0322] In one possible design, the starting time of the first time period is determined based on the first SPS resource, including: the starting time of the first time period is determined based on the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH received on the first SPS resource.

[0323] In one possible design, the starting time of the first time period is any one of the following moments: the starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; the moment after the starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by m time units; the ending time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; the moment after the ending time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by n time units; wherein m and n are integers.

[0324] In one possible design, the HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process is to ignore NACK feedback.

[0325] In one possible design, the processing unit 1102 determines that HARQ feedback information cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource, including: the processing unit 1102 determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the first resource, and the first resource is used to transmit downlink information; or determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the second resource, the second resource is used to transmit uplink information, and the priority of the HARQ feedback information is lower than the priority of the uplink information.

[0326] The apparatus 1100 may be a network device in any of the above embodiments, or may be a chip set in the network device. The processing unit 1102 may support the apparatus 1100 to perform the actions of the network device in each method example above. Alternatively, the processing unit 1102 mainly performs the internal actions of the network device in the method example, and the communication unit 1103 may support the communication between the apparatus 1100 and the terminal device. For example, the communication unit 1103 may be used to perform Figure 5 Step 501.

[0327] Specifically, in one embodiment, the processing unit 1102 is used to determine a HARQ feedback mode, which includes ignoring ACK and / or NACK; the communication unit 1103 is used to send first information to the terminal device, and the first information is used by the terminal device to determine the HARQ feedback mode.

[0328] In one possible design, the first information includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate a HARQ feedback mode.

[0329] In one possible design, the communication unit 1103 is also used to send a first message to the terminal device, and the first message includes indication information; wherein the first message is an RRC message, a control message of the PDCP layer, a control message of the RLC layer, a control message of the MAC layer or DCI; or, the communication unit 1103 is also used to send a data packet to the terminal device, and the data packet includes indication information.

[0330] In one possible design, the RRC message is used to configure SPS resources, or to configure a logical channel corresponding to the first service. Alternatively, the DCI is used to activate or reactivate SPS resources, or to schedule dynamic scheduling resources.

[0331] In one possible design, the first information includes an RRC message, which is used to configure PUCCH resources, and the PUCCH resources are used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the SPS resources; when the RRC message does not carry the configuration information of the PUCCH resources, the RRC message is used to indicate the HARQ feedback method.

[0332] In one possible design, the first information includes DCI, and the format or scrambling method of the DCI is used to indicate the HARQ feedback method.

[0333] In one possible design, the DCI is used to indicate activation or reactivation of SPS resources; alternatively, the DCI is used to schedule dynamic scheduling resources.

[0334] In one possible design, the first information includes preset priority information.

[0335] In one possible design, the communication unit 1103 is further used to send second information to the terminal device, where the second information is used to indicate at least one HARQ process applicable to the HARQ feedback method.

[0336] In another embodiment, the communication unit 1103 is used to send configuration information to the terminal device, wherein the configuration information is used to configure a first SPS resource and a first HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource; the processing unit 1102 is used to determine that feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be received on the first HARQ resource; the communication unit 1103 is also used to send a DCI to the terminal device, wherein the DCI is used to indicate a dynamic scheduling resource, and the dynamic scheduling resource overlaps with the first SPS resource.

[0337] In one possible design, the DCI is also used to indicate a third HARQ resource, and the third HARQ resource is used to carry feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the dynamic scheduling resource.

[0338] In one possible design, the processing unit 1102 determines that it is impossible to receive feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource on the first HARQ resource, including: the processing unit 1102 determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the first resource, and the first resource is used to transmit downlink information; or the processing unit 1102 determines that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the second resource, and the second resource is used to transmit uplink information, and the priority of the HARQ feedback information is lower than the priority of the uplink information.

[0339] It should be understood that the division of the units in the above device is only a division of logical functions. In actual implementation, they can be fully or partially integrated into one physical entity, or they can be physically separated. And the units in the device can all be implemented in the form of software calling through processing elements; they can also be all implemented in the form of hardware; some units can also be implemented in the form of software calling through processing elements, and some units can be implemented in the form of hardware. For example, each unit can be a separately established processing element, or it can be integrated in a certain chip of the device. In addition, it can also be stored in the memory in the form of a program, and called and executed by a certain processing element of the device. The function of the unit. In addition, all or part of these units can be integrated together, or they can be implemented independently. The processing element described here can also be a processor, which can be an integrated circuit with signal processing capabilities. In the implementation process, each step of the above method or each unit above can be implemented by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor element or in the form of software calling through a processing element.

[0340] In one example, the unit in any of the above devices may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method, such as one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), or one or more digital singnal processors (DSP), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. For another example, when the unit in the device can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler, the processing element can be a processor, such as a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), or other processors that can call programs. For another example, these units can be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC).

[0341] The above unit for receiving is an interface circuit of the device, which is used to receive signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the receiving unit is an interface circuit of the chip used to receive signals from other chips or devices. The above unit for sending is an interface circuit of the device, which is used to send signals to other devices. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the sending unit is an interface circuit of the chip used to send signals to other chips or devices.

[0342] Please refer to Fig.12, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application. It can be the terminal device in the above embodiment, and is used to implement the operation of the terminal device in the above embodiment. Fig.12 As shown, the terminal device includes: an antenna 1210, a radio frequency part 1220, and a signal processing part 1230. The antenna 1210 is connected to the radio frequency part 1220. In the downlink direction, the radio frequency part 1220 receives information sent by the network device through the antenna 1210, and sends the information sent by the network device to the signal processing part 1230 for processing. In the uplink direction, the signal processing part 1230 processes the information of the terminal device and sends it to the radio frequency part 1220. The radio frequency part 1220 processes the information of the terminal device and sends it to the network device through the antenna 1210.

[0343] The signal processing part 1230 may include a modulation and demodulation subsystem for processing each communication protocol layer of the data; it may also include a central processing subsystem for processing the operating system and application layer of the terminal device; in addition, it may also include other subsystems, such as a multimedia subsystem, a peripheral subsystem, etc., wherein the multimedia subsystem is used to control the camera, screen display, etc. of the terminal device, and the peripheral subsystem is used to connect with other devices. The modulation and demodulation subsystem may be a separately provided chip.

[0344] The modem subsystem may include one or more processing elements 1231, for example, a main control CPU and other integrated circuits. In addition, the modem subsystem may also include a storage element 1232 and an interface circuit 1233. The storage element 1232 is used to store data and programs, but the program used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method may not be stored in the storage element 1232, but stored in a memory outside the modem subsystem, and loaded and used by the modem subsystem when in use. The interface circuit 1233 is used to communicate with other subsystems.

[0345] The modem subsystem can be implemented by a chip, which includes at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein the processing element is used to execute each step of any method executed by the above terminal device, and the interface circuit is used to communicate with other devices. In one implementation, the unit of the terminal device that implements each step in the above method can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduling program. For example, the device for the terminal device includes a processing element and a storage element, and the processing element calls the program stored in the storage element to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The storage element can be a storage element on the same chip as the processing element, that is, an on-chip storage element.

[0346] In another implementation, the program for executing the method executed by the terminal device in the above method can be in a storage element on a different chip from the processing element, that is, an off-chip storage element. In this case, the processing element calls or loads the program from the off-chip storage element to the on-chip storage element to call and execute the method executed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

[0347] In another implementation, the unit of the terminal device implementing each step in the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, which are arranged on the modulation and demodulation subsystem. The processing elements here may be integrated circuits, such as one or more ASICs, or one or more DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these integrated circuits. These integrated circuits may be integrated together to form a chip.

[0348] The units of the terminal device implementing the various steps in the above method can be integrated together and implemented in the form of a SOC, and the SOC chip is used to implement the above method. The chip can integrate at least one processing element and a storage element, and the method executed by the above terminal device can be implemented in the form of a program stored in the storage element by the processing element; or, the chip can integrate at least one integrated circuit to implement the method executed by the above terminal device; or, the above implementation methods can be combined, and the functions of some units can be implemented in the form of a processing element calling a program, and the functions of some units can be implemented in the form of an integrated circuit.

[0349] It can be seen that the above apparatus for terminal equipment may include at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein at least one processing element is used to execute any of the methods performed by the terminal equipment provided in the above method embodiments. The processing element may execute part or all of the steps performed by the terminal equipment in a first manner: that is, by calling a program stored in a storage element; or in a second manner: that is, by combining an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element with instructions to execute part or all of the steps performed by the terminal equipment; of course, the first manner and the second manner may also be combined to execute part or all of the steps performed by the terminal equipment.

[0350] The processing element here is the same as described above and can be implemented by a processor. The function of the processing element can be Fig.11 The processing unit described in the above has the same function. Exemplarily, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a CPU, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method, such as one or more ASICs, or one or more microprocessors DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. The storage element may be implemented by a memory, and the function of the storage element may be the same as Fig.11The storage element can be implemented by a memory, and the function of the storage element can be the same as that of the storage unit described in Fig.11 The storage element may be a memory or a collective name for multiple memories.

[0351] Fig.12 The terminal equipment shown is capable of implementing Figure 5 , Figure 6 , Figure 7 , Figure 8 , Fig. 9 , Fig.10 The illustrated method embodiment involves various processes of a terminal device. Fig.12 The operations and / or functions of each module in the terminal device shown are respectively for implementing the corresponding processes in the above method embodiment. For details, please refer to the description in the above method embodiment. To avoid repetition, the detailed description is appropriately omitted here.

[0352] Please refer to Fig.13 , which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. It is used to implement the operation of the network device in the above embodiment. Fig.13 As shown, the network device includes: an antenna 1301, a radio frequency device 1302, and a baseband device 1303. The antenna 1301 is connected to the radio frequency device 1302. In the uplink direction, the radio frequency device 1302 receives information sent by the terminal device through the antenna 1301, and sends the information sent by the terminal device to the baseband device 1303 for processing. In the downlink direction, the baseband device 1303 processes the information of the terminal device and sends it to the radio frequency device 1302, and the radio frequency device 1302 processes the information of the terminal device and sends it to the terminal device through the antenna 1301.

[0353] The baseband device 1303 may include one or more processing elements 13031, for example, including a main control CPU and other integrated circuits. In addition, the baseband device 1303 may also include a storage element 13032 and an interface 13033, the storage element 13032 is used to store programs and data; the interface 13033 is used to interact with the radio frequency device 1302. The interface is, for example, a common public radio interface (CPRI). The above device for the network device may be located in the baseband device 1303. For example, the above device for the network device may be a chip on the baseband device 1303, the chip includes at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein the processing element is used to execute each step of any method executed by the above network device, and the interface circuit is used to communicate with other devices. In one implementation, the unit for the network device to implement each step in the above method can be implemented in the form of a processing element scheduler. For example, the device for the network device includes a processing element and a storage element, and the processing element calls the program stored in the storage element to execute the method executed by the network device in the above method embodiment. The storage element may be a storage element on the same chip as the processing element, ie, an on-chip storage element, or may be a storage element on a different chip from the processing element, ie, an off-chip storage element.

[0354] In another implementation, the unit of the network device implementing each step in the above method may be configured as one or more processing elements, which are arranged on the baseband device. The processing elements here may be integrated circuits, such as one or more ASICs, or one or more DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these integrated circuits. These integrated circuits may be integrated together to form a chip.

[0355] The units of the network device implementing the various steps in the above method can be integrated together and implemented in the form of a system-on-a-chip (SOC). For example, the baseband device includes the SOC chip to implement the above method. The chip can integrate at least one processing element and a storage element, and the processing element calls the stored program of the storage element to implement the method executed by the above network device; or, the chip can integrate at least one integrated circuit to implement the method executed by the above network device; or, the above implementation methods can be combined, and the functions of some units are implemented by the processing element calling the program, and the functions of some units are implemented by the integrated circuit.

[0356] It can be seen that the above apparatus for network equipment may include at least one processing element and an interface circuit, wherein at least one processing element is used to execute any one of the methods performed by the network equipment provided in the above method embodiments. The processing element may execute part or all of the steps performed by the network equipment in a first manner: that is, by calling a program stored in a storage element; or in a second manner: that is, by combining an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor element with instructions to execute part or all of the steps performed by the network equipment; of course, the first manner and the second manner may be combined to execute part or all of the steps performed by the above network equipment.

[0357] The processing element here is the same as described above and can be implemented by a processor. The function of the processing element can be Fig.11 The processing unit described in the above has the same function. Exemplarily, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, such as a CPU, or one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above method, such as one or more ASICs, or one or more microprocessors DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, etc., or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms. The storage element may be implemented by a memory, and the function of the storage element may be the same as Fig.11 The storage element can be implemented by a memory, and the function of the storage element can be the same as that of the storage unit described in Fig.11 The storage element may be a memory or a collective name for multiple memories.

[0358] Fig.13 The network equipment shown can achieve Figure 5 , Figure 6 , Figure 7 , Figure 8 , Fig. 9 , Fig.10 The illustrated method embodiment involves various processes of a network device. Fig.13 The operations and / or functions of each module in the network device shown are respectively for implementing the corresponding processes in the above method embodiments. For details, please refer to the description in the above method embodiments. To avoid repetition, the detailed description is appropriately omitted here.

[0359] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment in combination with software and hardware. Moreover, the present application may adopt the form of a computer program product implemented in one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) that include computer-usable program code.

[0360] The present application is described with reference to the flowchart and / or block diagram of the method, device (system), and computer program product according to the present application. It should be understood that each process and / or box in the flowchart and / or block diagram, as well as the combination of the process and / or box in the flowchart and / or block diagram can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce a device for implementing the function specified in one process or multiple processes in the flowchart and / or one box or multiple boxes in the block diagram.

[0361] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce a manufactured product including an instruction device that implements the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0362] These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operational steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, whereby the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0363] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: The method is applied to a terminal device or a chip in the terminal device, and the method includes: Receiving configuration information from a network device, where the configuration information is used to configure a first semi-persistent scheduling SPS resource and a first hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ resource corresponding to the first SPS resource; Determining that feedback information of the HARQ process corresponding to the first SPS resource cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource; The discontinuous reception DRX state is activated in a first time period, and a start time of the first time period is determined according to the first SPS resource.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive downlink control information DCI from the network device, where the DCI is used to indicate a second HARQ resource, and the second HARQ resource is used to carry the feedback information; the end time of the first time period is the reception time of the DCI.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The DRX activation state in the first time period includes: Entering the DRX active state at the start time of the first time period, and entering the DRX sleep state at the end time of the first time period.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The DRX activation state in the first time period includes: A timer corresponding to the HARQ process is started at the start time of the first time period, and the timer is stopped at the end time of the first time period; wherein, when the timer is running, the terminal device is in the DRX activation state.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The timer is an uplink DRX retransmission timer.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The method further comprises: It is determined that a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH is successfully received on the first SPS resource.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The start time of the first time period is determined according to the first SPS resource, including: The starting time of the first time period is determined according to the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH received on the first SPS resource.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that The starting time of the first time period is any of the following times: The starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; The starting time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by m time units; The end time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH; The end time of the time domain resources occupied by the PDSCH is shifted by n time units; Wherein, m and n are integers.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The HARQ feedback mode of the HARQ process is to ignore NACK feedback.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that Determining that the HARQ feedback information cannot be sent on the first HARQ resource includes: determining that the first HARQ resource overlaps with the first resource, and the first resource is used to transmit downlink information; or, It is determined that the first HARQ resource overlaps with a second resource, the second resource is used to transmit uplink information, and the priority of the HARQ feedback information is lower than the priority of the uplink information.

11. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises means for performing the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

12. A communication device, characterized in that: The device comprises at least one processor and an interface circuit, wherein the at least one processor is used to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

13. A communication device, characterized in that: The invention comprises a processor, which is used to call a program stored in a memory to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

14. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The invention comprises a program, and when the program is executed by a processor, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 is executed.

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