Electronic devices, communication methods and storage media

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to electronic devices, communication methods and storage media in wireless communication systems. An electronic device for a user equipment side is provided, comprising a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: sequentially send multiple signals to a control device in consecutive time slots, each signal containing repeated user data; at a moment after a preconfigured duration has passed since the end of sending of the first signal of the multiple signals, receive one or more HARQ feedbacks from the control device, the one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding of the user data by the control device is successful.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an electronic device, a communication method, and a storage medium, and more particularly, to an electronic device, a communication method, and a storage medium for feedback processing of uplink repeated transmission using time slot aggregation. Background Art

[0002] Benefiting from the development of wireless communication technology, many mobile application services are becoming increasingly popular. Depending on the type of service, the requirements for wireless communication vary. As the next generation of communication technology, 5G New Radio (NR) considers three important application scenarios: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC). These application scenarios have corresponding requirements for the reliability and latency of data transmission.

[0003] Similar to 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE), the 5G NR communication system introduces the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mechanism of the medium access control (MAC) layer to ensure the reliability of data transmission. HARQ is a technology that combines forward error correction (FEC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) methods, in which FEC adds redundant information to the data to be transmitted so that the receiving end can correct some errors, thereby reducing the number of retransmissions, and the receiving end feeds back HARQ confirmation (HARQ-ACK) to the sending end depending on the error detection result of the received data. For errors that FEC cannot correct, the receiving end can request the sending end to resend the data through the ARQ mechanism.

[0004] For uplink data transmission, 3GPP RAN 1#98 defines the minimum duration D that the user equipment waits to receive downlink feedback information (DFI), that is, the duration from the end symbol of the transmission to the start symbol of the downlink feedback information (DFI) carrying HARQ-ACK. For the case where a single time slot or mini-time slot is used as the basic time domain resource scheduling unit, the user equipment only needs to confirm the validity of the HARQ-ACK for this uplink transmission received after the duration D has passed since the end of the uplink transmission.

[0005] However, there is also a specific case of repeated transmission using slot aggregation, that is, repeated user data is transmitted on multiple consecutive time slots (aggregated time slots). The minimum duration D applicable to this scenario has not yet been defined. In addition, since the specific decoding process on the base station side is unknown to the user equipment, the user equipment does not know whether the feedback received on the decoding result is for all aggregated time slots or for some aggregated time slots, and cannot judge the validity of this feedback, and thus cannot determine the subsequent behavior.

[0006] Therefore, for uplink repetitive transmission using timeslot aggregation, a suitable minimum duration D needs to be defined, and the operations performed by both the base station and the user equipment in the HARQ feedback process need to be improved. Summary of the invention

[0007] In view of the above-mentioned problems and other problems, the present disclosure provides various aspects of feedback processing applicable to uplink repetitive transmission with time slot aggregation.

[0008] A brief overview of the disclosure is given below in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. However, it should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify the key or important parts of the disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Its purpose is simply to give some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description given later.

[0009] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for a user equipment side is provided, comprising a processing circuit, wherein the processing circuit is configured to: sequentially send a plurality of signals to a control device in consecutive time slots, each signal comprising repeated user data; and receive one or more HARQ feedbacks from the control device at a moment after a preconfigured duration has elapsed since the end of sending of the first signal of the plurality of signals, the one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding of the user data by the control device is successful.

[0010] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for controlling a device side is provided, comprising a processing circuit, wherein the processing circuit is configured to: sequentially receive a plurality of signals from a user device in consecutive time slots, each signal comprising repeated user data; decode the user data using at least one of the plurality of signals; and send one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding is successful to the user device at a moment after a preconfigured duration has elapsed since the reception of the first of the plurality of signals is completed.

[0011] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication method is provided, comprising: sending a plurality of signals in sequence to a control device in consecutive time slots, each signal comprising repeated user data; and receiving one or more HARQ feedbacks from the control device at a moment after a preconfigured duration has elapsed since the end of sending of the first signal of the plurality of signals, the one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding of the user data by the control device is successful.

[0012] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication method is provided, comprising: decoding the user data using at least one of the multiple signals; and sending one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding is successful to a user equipment at a moment after a preconfigured duration has passed since the reception of the first signal of the multiple signals is completed.

[0013] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions is provided. When the executable instructions are executed, any one of the communication methods described above is implemented.

[0014] According to one or more embodiments of the present application, appropriate HARQ feedback processing may be applied in a scenario of uplink repeated transmission using time slot aggregation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The present disclosure may be better understood by referring to the detailed description given below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to represent the same or similar elements. All drawings together with the following detailed description are included in this specification and form a part of the specification to further illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and explain the principles and advantages of the present disclosure. Among them:

[0016] Figure 1 is a simplified diagram illustrating the architecture of an NR communication system;

[0017] Figure 2A and 2B The NR radio protocol architecture for the user plane and control plane are illustrated separately;

[0018] Figure 3 Illustrate the frame structure used in 5G NR;

[0019] Figure 4 An example of uplink repetitive transmission using time slot aggregation is illustrated;

[0020] Figure 5 The relationship between the reception start time and validity of HARQ feedback is illustrated;

[0021] Fig. 6A A block diagram of an electronic device on the user equipment side according to the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0022] Figure 6B A communication method on the user equipment side according to the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0023] Fig. 7A A block diagram of an electronic device on the control device side according to the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0024] Figure 7BA communication method on the control device side according to the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0025] Figure 8 A first example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0026] Fig. 9 A second example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0027] Fig.10 illustrates a schematic configuration example of a smartphone according to the present disclosure;

[0028] Fig.11 A schematic configuration example of a car navigation device according to the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0029] The features and aspects of the present disclosure will be clearly understood by reading the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. For the sake of clarity and conciseness, not all features of the embodiments are described in this specification. However, it should be noted that when implementing the embodiments of the present disclosure, many implementation-specific settings can be made according to specific needs, such as to meet those restrictions related to equipment and services, and these restrictions may vary depending on the implementation. In addition, it should be understood that although the development work may be complex and laborious, for those skilled in the art who benefit from the content of this disclosure, such development disclosure is just a routine task.

[0031] In addition, it should be noted that in order to avoid obscuring the present disclosure due to unnecessary details, some drawings only show processing steps and / or equipment structures that are closely related to at least the technical content of the present disclosure, while in other drawings, in order to facilitate a better understanding of the present disclosure, existing processing steps and / or equipment structures are additionally shown.

[0032] The exemplary embodiments and application examples according to the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description of the exemplary embodiments is merely illustrative and is not intended to be any limitation on the present disclosure and its application.

[0033] For the purpose of convenience of explanation, various aspects of the present disclosure will be described below in the context of 5G NR. However, it should be noted that this is not a limitation on the scope of application of the present disclosure, and one or more aspects of the present disclosure may also be applied to existing wireless communication systems such as 4G LTE / LTE-A or various wireless communication systems to be developed in the future. The architecture, entity, function, process, etc. mentioned in the following description may be found in NR or other communication standards.

[0034]

System Overview

[0035] Figure 1 is a simplified diagram showing the architecture of a 5G NR communication system. Figure 1 As shown in , on the network side, the radio access network (NG-RAN) nodes of the NR communication system include gNB and ng-eNB, wherein gNB is a newly defined node in the 5G NR communication standard, which is connected to the 5G core network (5GC) via the NG interface, and provides NR user plane and control plane protocols terminated with the terminal device (also referred to as "user equipment", hereinafter referred to as "UE"); ng-eNB is a node defined for compatibility with the 4G LTE communication system, which can be an upgrade of the evolved node B (eNB) of the LTE radio access network, connecting the device to the 5G core network via the NG interface, and providing the evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocols terminated with the UE. There is an Xn interface between NG-RAN nodes (e.g., gNB, ng-eNB) to facilitate mutual communication between nodes. Hereinafter, gNB and ng-eNB are collectively referred to as "base stations".

[0036] However, it should be noted that the term "base station" used in the present disclosure is not limited to the above two types of nodes, but is an example of a control device in a wireless communication system, with the full breadth of its usual meaning. For example, in addition to the gNB and ng-eNB specified in the 5G communication standard, depending on the scenario in which the technical solution of the present disclosure is applied, the "base station" may also be, for example, an eNB in ​​an LTE communication system, a remote radio head, a wireless access point, a relay node, a drone control tower, a control node in an automated factory, or a communication device or its element that performs similar control functions. The following chapters will describe the application examples of base stations in detail.

[0037] In addition, the term "UE" used in this disclosure has the full breadth of its usual meaning, including various terminal devices or vehicle-mounted devices that communicate with the base station. As an example, UE can be a terminal device or its elements such as a mobile phone, a laptop, a tablet computer, a vehicle-mounted communication device, a drone, a sensor and an actuator in an automated factory, etc. The following sections will describe the application examples of UE in detail.

[0038] Next, combine Figure 2A and 2B To describe the Figure 1 NR radio protocol architecture for base stations and UEs in NR. Figure 2A shows the radio protocol stack for the user plane of the UE and the base station, Figure 2B The radio protocol stack for the control plane of the UE and the base station is shown.

[0039] Layer 1 (L1) of the radio protocol stack is the lowest layer, also known as the physical layer. The L1 layer implements various physical layer signal processing to provide transparent transmission of signals.

[0040] Layer 2 (L2) of the radio protocol stack is above the physical layer and is responsible for managing the wireless link between the UE and the base station. In the user plane, the L2 layer includes the medium access control (MAC) sublayer, the radio link control (RLC) sublayer, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) sublayer, and the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) sublayer. In addition, in the control plane, the L2 layer includes the MAC sublayer, the RLC sublayer, and the PDCP sublayer.

[0041] The relationship between these sublayers is that the physical layer provides transport channels for the MAC sublayer, for example, in the uplink direction, including the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), physical random access channel (PRACH), and in the downlink direction, including the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical broadcast channel (PBCH); the MAC sublayer provides logical channels for the RLC sublayer, such as the uplink shared channel (UL-SCH), random access channel (RACH), downlink shared channel (DL-SCH), broadcast channel (BCH), paging channel (PCH), etc.; the RLC sublayer provides RLC channels for the PDCP sublayer, and the PDCP sublayer provides radio bearers for the SDAP sublayer. In particular, the MAC sublayer is responsible for allocating various radio resources (e.g., time-frequency resource blocks) in a cellular cell among various UEs.

[0042] In the control plane, the UE and the base station also include a radio resource control (RRC) sublayer in layer 3 (L3). The RRC sublayer is responsible for obtaining radio resources (i.e., radio bearers) and for configuring the lower layers using RRC signaling. In addition, the non-access stratum (NAS) control protocol in the UE performs functions such as authentication, mobility management, and security control.

[0043] The following is a brief introduction to the uplink data transmission process. Uplink data transmission from the UE to the base station is completed through the PUSCH. 5G NR generally supports two uplink transmission schemes: codebook-based transmission and non-codebook-based transmission. For codebook-based transmission, the base station provides the UE with a transmit precoding matrix indication (TPMI) in the downlink control information (DCI), which the UE can use to select a PUSCH transmit precoder from the codebook. For non-codebook-based transmission, the UE determines its PUSCH transmit precoder based on the wideband SRS resource indicator (SRI) field in the DCI.

[0044] User data from the MAC layer will be treated as a "transport block (TB)" and needs to go through a series of uplink physical layer processing in order to be mapped to the transmission channel of the physical layer. The uplink physical layer processing generally includes:

[0045] - Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) addition of a transport block, the entire transport block from the UL-SCH is used to calculate the CRC check bits, and the calculated check bits are added to the transport block;

[0046] - Code block segmentation and code block CRC addition, the transport block is segmented into several code blocks, and the check bits are calculated based on each code block, and the calculated check bits are added to the corresponding code blocks;

[0047] - Channel coding, each code block is coded by low-density parity check (LDPC);

[0048] - Physical layer HARQ processing;

[0049] -Rate matching, the rate matching of LDPC codes is defined for each coded block and includes bit selection and bit interleaving;

[0050] - Scrambling, for example, using the UE's C-RNTI, new RNTI, TC-RNTI, CS-RNTI or SP-CSI-RNTI for scrambling;

[0051] - Modulation, including π / 2 binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), 64QAM and 256QAM;

[0052] - Layer mapping, transform precoding and precoding;

[0053] - Mapping to allocated resources and antenna ports.

[0054] With the help of various signal processing functions of the physical layer, the bit stream as user data is encoded and modulated into OFDM symbols, and sent to the serving base station by the antenna array using the allocated time-frequency resources. The base station that receives the signal decodes the user data through the inverse processing of the above signal processing.

[0055] In 5G NR, both downlink and uplink transmissions are organized into frames. Figure 3 A diagram showing a frame structure in a 5G communication system. As a fixed structure compatible with LTE / LTE-A, a frame in NR also has a length of 10ms and includes 10 equally sized subframes, each of which is 1ms. Unlike LTE / LTE-A, the frame structure in NR has a flexible structure that depends on the subcarrier spacing. Each subframe has a configurable time slots, such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. Each time slot also has a configurable OFDM symbols, for a normal cyclic prefix, each time slot contains 14 consecutive OFDM symbols, and for an extended cyclic prefix, each time slot contains 12 consecutive OFDM symbols. In the frequency domain dimension, each time slot includes a number of resource blocks, each resource block contains, for example, 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. Therefore, a resource grid can be used to represent the resource elements (REs) in a time slot, such as Figure 3 As shown in . The resource blocks available for uplink transmission can be divided into a data segment and a control segment. The resource elements in the control segment can be allocated to the UE for transmitting control information. The data segment can include all resource elements not included in the control segment. The UE can also be allocated resource elements in the data segment for transmitting data to the base station.

[0056] A UE that has data to send can send a scheduling request (SR) and / or a buffer status report (BSR) to the base station to request time-frequency resources for sending user data. In the dynamic authorization resource scheduling method, the base station can use the DCI containing resource allocation information to dynamically schedule PUSCH. In the configuration authorization resource scheduling method, the base station can pre-configure available time-frequency resources for the UE through RRC layer signaling, so that the UE can directly use the pre-configured time-frequency resources for PUSCH transmission without requesting the base station to send uplink authorization each time.

[0057] In most cases, the scheduling of time domain resources is based on a single time slot or a mini-time slot. However, there is a scheduling method that utilizes time slot aggregation, that is, multiple consecutive time slots (aggregated time slots) are scheduled for the UE at one time for downlink or uplink data transmission. Time slot aggregation can generally be used for repeated transmission of data. For example, for the configuration authorization described above, the parameter repK in the RRC layer signaling ConguredGrantConfig is configured to, for example, 1, 2, 4, 8, and the UE can repeatedly transmit the same data on the corresponding number of consecutive time slots during PUSCH transmission to ensure the reliability of data transmission when, for example, the channel condition is poor.

[0058] However, the industry has not yet standardized feedback processing applicable to the above repeated transmissions.

[0059] On the one hand, RAN1#98 defines the minimum duration D configured by RRC layer signaling, which is the end symbol of the PUSCH transmission to the start symbol of the downlink feedback information (DFI) carrying the HARQ-ACK for the PUSCH transmission. The reason for configuring the minimum duration D is that the reception and decoding processing at the base station requires a certain amount of time and cannot provide feedback to the UE immediately. By configuring this parameter, the UE can idle its communication module for a period corresponding to the minimum duration D after completing the PUSCH transmission to reduce energy consumption, or can use its communication module to perform other sending or receiving tasks during the period corresponding to the minimum duration D, without having to monitor the channel all the time to wait for the reception of HARQ-ACK. However, the minimum duration D that has been defined is only for non-repeated PUSCH transmissions, and such a minimum duration D has not yet been defined for repeated PUSCH transmissions. This means that the UE needs to monitor the channel all the time after completing the PUSCH transmission, which is not conducive to the energy saving and working efficiency of the communication module. If, like non-repeated PUSCH transmission, the time period from the end symbol of the repeated PUSCH transmission to the start symbol of the DFI carrying HARQ-ACK is defined as the minimum duration D, this means that even if the base station decodes the user data using the signal transmitted on the first time slot, it needs to wait until the transmission on all time slots is completed plus the configured minimum duration D before sending HARQ-ACK to the UE, which will undoubtedly increase the delay.

[0060] On the other hand, the decoding process at the base station is unknown to the UE, that is, the UE does not know whether the HARQ-ACK provided by the base station is for all aggregated time slots or for some aggregated time slots. For example, suppose the base station cannot decode the user data based on the signal transmitted on the first time slot, and sends a NACK containing an indication of unsuccessful decoding to the UE. However, the UE that receives the NACK cannot determine its validity because the UE does not know whether the NACK means that the user data cannot be successfully decoded using the signals transmitted on all aggregated time slots and the data needs to be retransmitted, or whether it means that the user data has not been successfully decoded temporarily and it needs to wait for possible subsequent ACK or NACK.

[0061] Taking the above factors into consideration, the present disclosure provides a definition of a minimum duration applicable to a timeslot aggregation scenario, and proposes a HARQ feedback process that makes the interpretation of downlink feedback information unambiguous.

[0062] Refer to the following Figure 4 The embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to exemplary scenarios.

[0063] like Figure 4As shown in , the base station semi-statically configures PUSCH resource allocation for the UE in the form of configuration grant. For example, the base station can configure the ConfiguredGrantConfig parameter in the BWP information element for the UE. ConfiguredGrantConfig can, for example, provide information about the resource allocation pre-configured to the UE, such as the time domain allocation parameter timeDomainAllocation (which indicates the combination of PUSCH mapping type, starting symbol and length) and the frequency domain allocation parameter frequencyDomainAllocation; it can also provide information about the modulation order, target code rate and transport block size, such as the parameter mcsAndTBS, etc.

[0064] In addition, the ConfiguredGrantConfig can also schedule repeated transmissions on multiple consecutive time slots by configuring the parameter repK to a value greater than 1 (e.g., 2, 4, 8, etc.), and the value of repK indicates the number of repetitions. When repeated transmission is enabled, the ConfiguredGrantConfig can also provide repK-RV, which indicates the redundancy version (RV) sequence to be used.

[0065] exist Figure 4 In the non-limiting example shown, it is assumed that repK is set to 4, that is, the UE can repeatedly transmit the same user data 4 times in the allocated consecutive time slots.

[0066] Here, the user data repeatedly transmitted by PUSCH corresponds to one transport block (TB). That is, the UE can repeatedly send TBs containing the same user data four times, such as Figure 4 TB#0, TB#1, TB#2, TB#3 shown in . Depending on the pre-configured parameter repK-RV, the redundancy version can be applied to each TB according to the redundancy version sequence corresponding to repK-RV. For example, for the nth transmission opportunity (i.e., the transmission on the nth time slot) in repK=4 repetitions, the redundancy version to be applied to the TB corresponds to the (mod(n-1,4)+1)th value in the configured redundancy version sequence. Thus, the transport blocks TB#0, TB#1, TB#2, TB#3 to be transmitted in each repetition respectively include the same user data and their respective redundancy versions.

[0067] In the scenario of configuration authorization, the time and frequency resources available to the UE for PUSCH transmission appear periodically, and the UE can send these transport blocks at the latest available transmission opportunity. For example, the first transport block TB#0 will be sent in the first time slot scheduled by the configuration authorization after the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) addition, code block segmentation and code block CRC addition, channel coding, physical layer HARQ processing, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, transform precoding and precoding as well as mapping to the allocated resources and antenna ports of the transport block as described above.

[0068] 5G NR supports asynchronous incremental redundancy HARQ to ensure the reliability of downlink and uplink data transmission. HARQ uses a stop-and-wait protocol to send data. Specifically, after the sender transmits a TB, it stops and waits for confirmation information. The receiver uses 1 bit of information to confirm (ACK) or negatively (NACK) the TB. However, the sender stops and waits for confirmation after each transmission, which results in low throughput. Therefore, the sender can use multiple parallel HARQ processes: when one HARQ process is waiting for confirmation information, the sender can use another HARQ process to continue sending data. These HARQ processes together form a HARQ entity, which combines the stop-and-wait protocol and allows continuous transmission of data.

[0069] Each HARQ process processes only one TB in one transmission time interval (TTI). At the receiving end, each HARQ process needs to have an independent HARQ buffer to perform soft combining on the received data. Figure 4 In the example shown, the transport blocks TB#0, TB#1, TB#2, and TB#3 to be sent are processed by the same HARQ process and therefore have the same HARQ process number (i.e., HARQ process ID). The HARQ process sends the first transport block TB#0 via PUSCH in the first time slot, sends the second transport block TB#1 via PUSCH in the second time slot, and so on.

[0070] The base station as the receiving end receives the signals carrying TB#0, TB#1, TB#2, and TB#3 in sequence, and stores the signals in the HARQ buffer after signal processing such as demodulation and descrambling. The base station can perform decoding processing using the received signals.

[0071] The decoding performed by the base station can start immediately after receiving the signal carrying TB#0. The result of the decoding depends on the quality of the signal. For example, when the channel condition is good, the base station can successfully decode the user data carried in the signal, while when the interference is severe, the base station may not be able to successfully decode the user data carried in the signal. If the decoding of the signal using TB#0 fails, the base station can combine the signal of TB#0 stored in the HARQ buffer and the signal of TB#1 received subsequently, and use the combined signal for joint decoding, which can improve the success rate of decoding. However, if the user data still cannot be decoded using the signal of TB#0 and the signal of TB#1, the base station can combine the signal of TB#0 stored in the HARQ buffer, the signal of TB#1 and the signal of TB#2 received subsequently, and use these three for joint decoding, and so on.

[0072] The base station can feed back to the UE an ACK indicating successful decoding or a NACK indicating unsuccessful decoding. Depending on the specific feedback settings at the base station, the base station can send a HARQ feedback after the decoding of the signal received in each time slot is completed, or it can send a HARQ feedback after the final decoding result comes out.

[0073] However, since the decoding process and feedback mechanism at the base station are unknown to the UE, the earliest case that needs to be considered is that the base station may send ACK or NACK to the UE after decoding the signal of TB#0.

[0074] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, for the case of time slot aggregation, the minimum duration D before receiving HARQ feedback is defined as the period from the completion of transmission / reception of the transport block on the first time slot (i.e., the completion of transmission / reception of the end symbol of the transport block) to the start of reception / transmission of the DFI carrying the relevant HARQ feedback (i.e., the start of reception / transmission of the start symbol of the DFI). That is, for example, Figure 4 In the example shown, the UE may expect to receive HARQ feedback at the earliest after a preconfigured minimum duration D has elapsed from the end of the transmission of the last symbol of the first transport block TB#0, rather than after a preconfigured minimum duration D has elapsed from the end of the transmission of the last symbol of the last transport block TB#3. Accordingly, the base station may send HARQ feedback at the earliest after a preconfigured minimum duration D has elapsed from the end of the reception of the last symbol of the first transport block TB#0, rather than after a preconfigured minimum duration D has elapsed from the end of the reception of the last symbol of the last transport block TB#3. It is assumed here that the transmission at the UE and the reception at the base station, or the reception at the UE and the transmission at the base station, are synchronized because the electromagnetic wave propagation time between the UE and the base station is short enough to be ignored.

[0075] Therefore, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in the scenario of time slot aggregation, the minimum duration D before sending / receiving HARQ feedback is defined with reference to the first transmission among repeated transmissions, rather than with reference to the entire repeated transmissions. It should be understood that the unit of the defined minimum duration D can be the number of time slots, the number of symbols, or the absolute time (e.g., ms), because given the subcarrier spacing (SCS), these metrics are convertible to each other. Similarly, the time slot duration "T slot " can have the same measurement as the minimum duration D, such as the number of time slots, the number of symbols or the absolute time. For example, when the minimum duration D represents the number of time slots, T slot can represent 1 time slot; when the minimum duration D represents the number of symbols, T slot The number of symbols in a time slot (e.g., 12 or 14 symbols); and when the minimum duration D represents an absolute time, T slot It can represent the duration of 1 time slot, and so on.

[0076] For time division duplex (TDD) communication, the UE can only receive after the scheduled repeated transmission behavior is completed, so preferably, the minimum duration D is configured to be no shorter than the duration of subsequent repeated transmissions, for example, Figure 4 In the example, the minimum duration D is not shorter than the length of 3 time slots, so that the communication module of the UE can receive after the transmission of TB#1, TB#2, and TB#3 is completed.

[0077] By defining the minimum duration D as described above, even if the base station sends HARQ feedback for each transport block, the UE can receive the HARQ feedback without omission without always monitoring the channel.

[0078] Further, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE may determine the validity of the feedback according to the time when the HARQ feedback (especially NACK) is received.

[0079] The following discusses the HARQ feedback implemented by the base station and the UE for a specific decoding scenario. For ease of understanding, it is assumed that the signal transmission or reception end time of TB#0 is t end :

[0080] 1) For decoding of TB#0 signal, the base station can end +D, downlink feedback information (DFI#0) containing HARQ feedback associated with signal decoding of TB#0 is sent. This feedback may be an ACK indicating successful decoding, and the UE will know that the base station has obtained the sent data, thereby determining that the ACK is valid and terminating the HARQ process associated with the repeated transmission.

[0081] This feedback may also be a NACK indicating unsuccessful decoding. The UE determines whether the time of receiving the NACK is within t end +D+(repK-1)T slot Previously, if yes, it was determined that the NACK was invalid because the NACK received at this time was not the final decoding result.

[0082] 2) If the decoding of the signal of TB#0 fails, the base station can use the subsequently received signal of TB#1 to perform joint decoding with the signal of TB#0. For the joint decoding of the signals of TB#0 and TB#1, the base station can perform joint decoding at t end +D+T slot At a later time, DFI#1 containing HARQ feedback associated with this joint decoding is sent to the UE. This feedback may be an ACK indicating successful decoding. The UE will know that the base station has successfully decoded and terminate the HARQ process associated with the repeated transmission.

[0083] This feedback may also be a NACK indicating unsuccessful decoding. The UE determines whether the time of receiving the NACK is within t end +D+(repK-1)T slot Previously, if yes, it was determined that the NACK was invalid because the NACK received at this time was not the final decoding result.

[0084] 3) If the joint decoding of the signals of TB#0 and TB#1 fails, the base station can use the subsequently received signal of TB#2 to perform joint decoding with the signals of TB#0 and TB#1. For the joint decoding of the signals of TB#0, TB#1 and TB#2, the base station can perform joint decoding at t end +D+2*T slot At a later time, DFI#2 containing HARQ feedback associated with this joint decoding is sent to the UE. This feedback may be an ACK indicating successful decoding. The UE will know that the base station has successfully decoded and terminate the HARQ process associated with the repeated transmission.

[0085] This feedback may also be a NACK indicating unsuccessful decoding. The UE determines whether the time of receiving the NACK is within t end +D+(repK-1)T slot Previously, if yes, it was determined that the NACK was invalid because the NACK received at this time was not the final decoding result.

[0086] 4) If the joint decoding of the signals of TB#0, TB#1, and TB#2 fails, the base station can use the subsequently received signal of TB#3 to perform joint decoding with the signals of TB#0, TB#1, and TB#2. For the joint decoding of the signals of TB#0, TB#1, TB#2, and TB#3, the base station can perform joint decoding at t end +D+3*T slot At a later time, DFI#3 containing HARQ feedback associated with this joint decoding is sent to the UE. This feedback may be an ACK indicating successful decoding. The UE will know that the base station has successfully decoded and terminate the HARQ process associated with the repeated transmission.

[0087] This feedback may also be a NACK indicating unsuccessful decoding. The UE determines the time when the NACK is received at t end +D+(repK-1)T slot Afterwards, the UE will know that the decoding based on all the repeatedly transmitted signals has failed, and determine that the NACK is valid. The UE can retransmit TB#0 to TB#3 on the next group of aggregated time slots configured with the grant.

[0088] According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, preferably, the base station can be restricted so that NACK is only sent at t end +D+(repK-1)T slot After that, it is sent once, thus avoiding sending too many invalid NACKs. Of course, ACK is not subject to this restriction and can be sent after t end Sent any time after +D.

[0089] As described above, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, a time point threshold t is designed. end +D+(repK-1)T slot , thus the UE can judge the validity of the HARQ feedback by comparing the time of receiving the HARQ feedback with the time point threshold. Correspondingly, the base station can also grant the validity of the HARQ feedback by controlling the sending time. Figure 5 The relationship between the reception start time and validity of HARQ feedback is shown.

[0090] Preferably, the aggregated time slots scheduled for repeated transmission should be within the channel occupancy time (COT) of the UE. However, the inventors of the present disclosure consider that there may be a situation where part of the scheduled aggregated time slots is outside the COT of the UE. This means that the UE cannot complete the configured repK repeated transmissions within a single COT.

[0091] As a solution, the UE can abandon the number of repeated transmissions that are not within the current COT, that is, the number of repeated transmissions actually completed by the UE repK acutalis less than the configured number of repeated transmissions. At this time, the time point threshold t defined above end +D+(repK-1)T slot It should be changed to t end +D+(repK acutal -1)T slot .

[0092] As another solution, the communication system can be required to support repeated transmission across COTs, that is, the number of repeated transmissions that are not completed in the current COT can be completed in the next COT. At this time, the time point threshold t defined above end +D+(repK-1)T slot It should be changed to t end +D+(repK acutal -1)T slot +T cot , where T cot is the duration between two COTs. Since T cot This is usually longer, which will cause a significant increase in the delay of HARQ feedback.

[0093] As another solution, the UE can modify repK and notify the gNB of the modified repK through uplink control information (UCI). At this time, the time point threshold t defined above end +D+(repK-1)T slot repK in is the modified number of repeated transmissions. This solution may increase the signaling burden.

[0094] Next, electronic devices and communication methods to which embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied are described.

[0095] Fig. 6A 1 is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 100 according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 100 may be a UE or a component of a UE.

[0096] like Fig. 6A As shown in FIG. 1 , the electronic device 100 includes a processing circuit 101. The processing circuit 101 includes at least a sending unit 102 and a receiving unit 103. The processing circuit 101 may be configured to perform Figure 6B The processing circuit 101 may refer to various implementations of a digital circuit system, an analog circuit system, or a mixed signal (a combination of analog signals and digital signals) circuit system that performs functions in a UE.

[0097] The sending unit 102 of the processing circuit 101 is configured to sequentially send a plurality of signals to a control device such as a gNB in ​​consecutive time slots, that is, to perform Figure 6BStep S101 in the embodiment. The multiple signals sent contain repeated user data. Each signal may include different redundant versions of the user data in addition to the user data. The transmission of the multiple signals may correspond to the same HARQ process.

[0098] The receiving unit 103 is configured to receive one or more HARQ feedbacks from the control device at a time after a preconfigured duration has passed since the transmission end time of the first signal among the multiple signals, that is, to perform Figure 6B The one or more HARQ feedbacks indicate whether the decoding of the user data by the control device is successful. The one or more HARQ feedbacks have the same HARQ process number. The preconfigured duration is equal to or longer than the period from the end of sending the first signal to the end of sending the last signal.

[0099] The processing circuit 101 may also be configured to determine the validity of the HARQ feedback based on the start time of receiving the HARQ feedback. In particular, after (D+(repK-1)*T slot ) is determined to be invalid, where D is the preconfigured duration, repk is the number of the plurality of signals received, T slot is the length of each time slot.

[0100] The electronic device 100 may further include a communication unit 105. The communication unit 105 may be configured to communicate with a base station under the control of the processing circuit 101. In one example, the communication unit 105 may be implemented as a transceiver, including communication components such as an antenna array and / or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 105 is drawn with a dotted line because it may also be located outside the electronic device 100.

[0101] The electronic device 100 may further include a memory 106. The memory 106 may store various data and instructions, such as programs and data for the operation of the electronic device 100, various data generated by the processing circuit 101, various control signaling or service data sent or received by the communication unit 105, etc. The memory 106 is drawn with a dotted line because it may also be located within the processing circuit 101 or outside the electronic device 100.

[0102] Fig. 7A 2 is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 200 according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 200 may be a base station device, or be located in a base station device.

[0103] like Fig. 7AAs shown in FIG. 1 , the electronic device 200 includes a processing circuit 201. The processing circuit 201 includes at least a receiving unit 202, a decoding unit 203, and a sending unit 204. The processing circuit 201 may be configured to perform Figure 7B The communication method shown in . The processing circuit 201 may refer to various implementations of digital circuit systems, analog circuit systems, or mixed signal (a combination of analog signals and digital signals) circuit systems that perform functions in a base station device.

[0104] The receiving unit 202 may be configured to sequentially receive multiple signals from the user equipment in consecutive time slots, that is, to perform Figure 7B Each signal includes repeated user data. In addition to the user data, each signal may also include different redundant versions of the user data. The transmission of the multiple signals may correspond to the same HARQ process. The receiving unit 202 may store the multiple signals in a HARQ buffer associated with the HARQ process.

[0105] The decoding unit 203 may be configured to decode the user data using at least one of the plurality of signals, i.e., to perform Figure 7B The decoding unit 203 may perform decoding by soft combining the data stored in the HARQ buffer.

[0106] In response to the decoding result of the decoding unit 203, the sending unit 204 may be configured to send one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding is successful to the user equipment at a time after a preconfigured duration has passed from the reception end time of the first signal among the multiple signals. In particular, the sending unit 204 may be configured to send one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding is successful at a time after (D+(repK-1)*T slot If the decoding unit 203 successfully decodes the user data, the sending unit 204 may send an ACK at any time after a pre-configured duration has passed since the reception end time of the first signal.

[0107] The electronic device 200 may further include a communication unit 205. The communication unit 205 may be configured to communicate with the UE under the control of the processing circuit 201. In one example, the communication unit 205 may be implemented as a transmitter or a transceiver, including communication components such as an antenna array and / or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 205 is drawn with a dotted line because it may also be located outside the electronic device 200.

[0108] The electronic device 200 may further include a memory 206. The memory 206 may store various data and instructions, programs and data for the operation of the electronic device 200, various data generated by the processing circuit 201, data to be sent by the communication unit 205, etc. The memory 206 is drawn with a dotted line because it may also be located within the processing circuit 201 or outside the electronic device 200.

[0109] Various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail above, but it should be noted that the above description of the structure, arrangement, type, quantity, etc. of the antenna array, ports, reference signals, communication equipment, communication methods, etc. shown is not intended to limit the aspects of the present disclosure to these specific examples.

[0110] It should be understood that the various units of the electronic devices 100 and 200 described in the above embodiments are only logical modules divided according to the specific functions implemented by them, rather than being used to limit the specific implementation methods. In actual implementation, the above units can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

[0111] It should be understood that the processing circuits 101 and 201 described in the above embodiments may include, for example, circuits such as integrated circuits (ICs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), parts or circuits of a separate processor core, the entire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardware device such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and / or a system including multiple processors. The memories 106 and 206 may be volatile memories and / or non-volatile memories. For example, the memories 106 and 206 may include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), read-only memory (ROM), and flash memory.

[0112] It should be understood that the various units of the electronic devices 100 and 200 described in the above embodiments are only logical modules divided according to the specific functions implemented by them, rather than being used to limit the specific implementation methods. In actual implementation, the above units can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

[0113] [Exemplary Implementation of the Present Disclosure]

[0114] According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, various implementations of the concepts of the present disclosure can be conceived, including but not limited to:

[0115] 1) An electronic device for a user equipment side, comprising: a processing circuit, configured to: send a plurality of signals to a control device in sequence on consecutive time slots, each signal containing repeated user data; and receive one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedbacks from the control device at a moment after a preconfigured duration has passed since the end of sending of the first signal of the plurality of signals, the one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding of the user data by the control device is successful.

[0116] 2) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: if after (D+(repK-1)*T slot ), then the HARQ feedback indicating that the decoding is unsuccessful is determined to be invalid, wherein D is the pre-configured duration, repK is the number of the multiple signals sent, and T slot is the length of each time slot.

[0117] 3) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: if after (D+(repK-1)*T slot ) at a moment after which HARQ feedback indicating unsuccessful decoding is received, it is determined that the HARQ feedback is valid, and the multiple signals are resent.

[0118] 4) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: if HARQ feedback indicating successful decoding is received at the time, determine that the HARQ feedback is valid.

[0119] 5) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein the processing circuit is configured to send the multiple signals within a single channel occupation time (COT).

[0120] 6) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein each of the multiple signals includes a respective redundant version in addition to the user data.

[0121] 7) The electronic device as described in 2), wherein the pre-configured duration is equal to or longer than (repK-1)*T slot .

[0122] 8) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein the one or more HARQ feedbacks have the same HARQ process number.

[0123] 9) An electronic device for controlling a device side, comprising: a processing circuit configured to: sequentially receive multiple signals from a user device in consecutive time slots, each signal containing repeated user data; decode the user data using at least one of the multiple signals; and send one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedbacks indicating whether the decoding is successful to the user device at a moment after a preconfigured duration has passed since the reception of the first signal of the multiple signals is completed.

[0124] 10) An electronic device as described in 9), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: in response to decoding the user data using at least one of the multiple signals, send HARQ feedback indicating successful decoding to the user equipment at the moment.

[0125] 11) The electronic device as described in 9), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: after (D+(repK-1)*T slot ), wherein D is the preconfigured duration, repk is the number of the plurality of signals received, and T slot is the length of each time slot.

[0126] 12) The electronic device as described in 9), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: decode the user data by combining a currently received signal and a previously received signal among the multiple signals.

[0127] 13) The electronic device as described in 10), wherein the multiple signals are sent by the user equipment within a single channel occupation time (COT).

[0128] 14) An electronic device as described in 9), wherein each of the multiple signals includes a respective redundant version in addition to the user data.

[0129] 15) The electronic device as described in 9), wherein the pre-configured duration is equal to or longer than (repK-1)*T slot .

[0130] 16) A communication method, comprising: sending a plurality of signals to a control device in sequence on consecutive time slots, each signal comprising repeated user data; and receiving one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedbacks from the control device at a moment after a preconfigured duration has elapsed since the end of sending of the first signal of the plurality of signals, the one or more HARQ feedbacks indicating whether the decoding of the user data by the control device is successful.

[0131] 17) A communication method, comprising: decoding the user data using at least one of the multiple signals; and sending one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedbacks indicating whether the decoding is successful to a user equipment at a moment after a preconfigured duration has passed since the reception of the first signal of the multiple signals is completed.

[0132] 18) A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions, wherein the executable instructions, when executed, implement the communication method as described in 16) or 17).

[0133] [Application examples of the present disclosure]

[0134] The techniques described in this disclosure can be applied to a variety of products.

[0135] For example, the electronic device 200 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be implemented as various base stations or installed in a base station, and the electronic device 100 may be implemented as various user equipments or installed in various user equipments.

[0136] The communication method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by various base stations or user equipment; the methods and operations according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be embodied as computer-executable instructions, stored in a non-temporary computer-readable storage medium, and can be executed by various base stations or user equipment to implement one or more functions described above.

[0137] The technology according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be made into various computer program products, which can be used in various base stations or user equipments to implement one or more functions described above.

[0138] The base station mentioned in the present disclosure may be implemented as any type of base station, preferably, such as macro gNB and ng-eNB defined in the 5G NR standard of 3GPP. The gNB may be a gNB that covers a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico gNB, a micro gNB, and a home (femto) gNB. Alternatively, the base station may be implemented as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB, an eNodeB, and a base transceiver station (BTS). The base station may also include: a main body configured to control wireless communication and one or more remote radio heads (RRHs) arranged at a place different from the main body, a wireless relay station, a drone tower, a control node in an automated factory, and the like.

[0139] The user equipment may be implemented as a mobile terminal (such as a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable / dongle-type mobile router, and a digital camera) or a vehicle-mounted terminal (such as a car navigation device). The user equipment may also be implemented as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also known as a machine type communication (MTC) terminal), a drone, a sensor and an actuator in an automated factory, etc. In addition, the user equipment may be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) installed on each of the above terminals.

[0140] First application example of base station

[0141] Figure 8 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. Figure 8 In the embodiment, the base station can be implemented as a gNB 1400. The gNB 1400 includes a plurality of antennas 1410 and a base station device 1420. The base station device 1420 and each antenna 1410 can be connected to each other via an RF cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1400 (or the base station device 1420) here can correspond to the above-mentioned electronic device 200.

[0142] Antenna 1410 includes multiple antenna elements. Antenna 1410 can be arranged into an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used for base station device 1420 to send and receive wireless signals. For example, multiple antennas 1410 can be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1400.

[0143] The base station device 1420 includes a controller 1421 , a memory 1422 , a network interface 1423 , and a wireless communication interface 1425 .

[0144] The controller 1421 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operates various functions of the higher layers of the base station device 1420. For example, the controller 1421 may include the processing circuit 201 described above, and execute Figure 7B, or controls the various components of the electronic device 200. For example, the controller 1421 generates a data packet based on the data in the signal processed by the wireless communication interface 1425, and transmits the generated packet via the network interface 1423. The controller 1421 can bundle data from multiple baseband processors to generate a bundled packet, and transmit the generated bundled packet. The controller 1421 may have a logical function to perform the following control: the control is such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control and scheduling. The control can be performed in conjunction with a nearby gNB or core network node. The memory 1422 includes RAM and ROM, and stores programs executed by the controller 1421 and various types of control data (such as terminal lists, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

[0145] The network interface 1423 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1420 to the core network 1424 (e.g., a 5G core network). The controller 1421 can communicate with the core network node or another gNB via the network interface 1423. In this case, the gNB 1400 and the core network node or other gNBs can be connected to each other through logical interfaces such as NG interfaces and Xn interfaces. The network interface 1423 can also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for a wireless backhaul line. If the network interface 1423 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1423 can use a higher frequency band for wireless communication compared to the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1425.

[0146] The wireless communication interface 1425 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 5G NR) and provides wireless connection to a terminal located in the cell of the gNB 1400 via the antenna 1410. The wireless communication interface 1425 may generally include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1426 and an RF circuit 1427. The BB processor 1426 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing of each layer (e.g., physical layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, SDAP layer). Instead of the controller 1421, the BB processor 1426 may have part or all of the above-mentioned logical functions. The BB processor 1426 may be a memory for storing a communication control program, or a module including a processor configured to execute a program and related circuits. Updating the program may change the function of the BB processor 1426. The module may be a card or a blade inserted into a slot of the base station device 1420. Alternatively, the module may also be a chip mounted on a card or a blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1427 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via the antenna 1410. Figure 8An example is shown in which one RF circuit 1427 is connected to one antenna 1410 , but the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1427 may be connected to a plurality of antennas 1410 at the same time.

[0147] like Figure 8 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple BB processors 1426. For example, the multiple BB processors 1426 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1400. Figure 8 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple RF circuits 1427. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1427 may be compatible with multiple antenna elements. Figure 8 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1425 includes a plurality of BB processors 1426 and a plurality of RF circuits 1427 , but the wireless communication interface 1425 may also include a single BB processor 1426 or a single RF circuit 1427 .

[0148] exist Figure 8 In the gNB 1400 shown in FIG. Fig. 7A One or more units (e.g., receiving unit 202, transmitting unit 204) included in the described processing circuit 201 may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1425. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the controller 1421. For example, the gNB 1400 includes a portion (e.g., BB processor 1426) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1425, and / or a module including the controller 1421, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operation of one or more components), and the program may be executed. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1400, and the wireless communication interface 1425 (e.g., BB processor 1426) and / or the controller 1421 may execute the program. As described above, as a device including one or more components, the gNB 1400, the base station device 1420, or the module may be provided, and a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0149] Second application example of base station

[0150] Fig. 9 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. Fig. 9In the figure, the base station is shown as gNB 1530. The gNB 1530 includes multiple antennas 1540, a base station device 1550, and an RRH 1560. The RRH 1560 and each antenna 1540 can be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station device 1550 and the RRH 1560 can be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1530 (or base station device 1550) here can correspond to the above-mentioned electronic device 200.

[0151] Antenna 1540 includes multiple antenna elements. Antenna 1540 can be arranged into an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used for base station device 1550 to send and receive wireless signals. For example, multiple antennas 1540 can be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1530.

[0152] The base station device 1550 includes a controller 1551, a memory 1552, a network interface 1553, a wireless communication interface 1555, and a connection interface 1557. The controller 1551, the memory 1552, and the network interface 1553 are similar to the reference Figure 8 The controller 1421, memory 1422, and network interface 1423 described are the same.

[0153] The wireless communication interface 1555 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 5G NR) and provides wireless communication to a terminal located in a sector corresponding to the RRH 1560 via the RRH 1560 and the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1555 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1556. In addition to the BB processor 1556 being connected to the RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560 via the connection interface 1557, the BB processor 1556 is connected to the reference RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560. Figure 8 The same as the BB processor 1426 described above. Fig. 9 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1555 may include multiple BB processors 1556. For example, the multiple BB processors 1556 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1530. Fig. 9 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1555 includes a plurality of BB processors 1556 , but the wireless communication interface 1555 may also include a single BB processor 1556 .

[0154] The connection interface 1557 is an interface for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560. The connection interface 1557 may also be a communication module for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560 for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0155] The RRH 1560 includes a connection interface 1561 and a wireless communication interface 1563 .

[0156] The connection interface 1561 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1560 (wireless communication interface 1563) to the base station device 1550. The connection interface 1561 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0157] The wireless communication interface 1563 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1563 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 1564. The RF circuit 1564 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. Fig. 9 An example is shown in which one RF circuit 1564 is connected to one antenna 1540 , but the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1564 may be connected to a plurality of antennas 1540 at the same time.

[0158] like Fig. 9 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1563 may include multiple RF circuits 1564. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1564 may support multiple antenna elements. Fig. 9 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1563 includes a plurality of RF circuits 1564 , but the wireless communication interface 1563 may also include a single RF circuit 1564 .

[0159] exist Fig. 9 In the gNB 1500 shown in FIG. Fig. 7A One or more units (e.g., receiving unit 202, transmitting unit 204) included in the described processing circuit 201 may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1525. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the controller 1521. For example, the gNB 1500 includes a portion (e.g., BB processor 1526) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1525, and / or a module including the controller 1521, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operation of one or more components), and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1500, and the wireless communication interface 1525 (e.g., BB processor 1526) and / or the controller 1521 may execute the program. As described above, as a device including one or more components, the gNB 1500, the base station device 1520, or the module may be provided, and a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0160] First application example of user equipment

[0161] Fig.10 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smart phone 1600 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. In one example, the smart phone 1600 can be implemented as the electronic device 100 described in the present disclosure.

[0162] The smart phone 1600 includes a processor 1601, a memory 1602, a storage device 1603, an external connection interface 1604, a camera 1606, a sensor 1607, a microphone 1608, an input device 1609, a display device 1610, a speaker 1611, a wireless communication interface 1612, one or more antenna switches 1615, one or more antennas 1616, a bus 1617, a battery 1618 and an auxiliary controller 1619.

[0163] The processor 1601 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on chip (SoC), and controls functions of an application layer and other layers of the smartphone 1600. The processor 1601 may include or serve as a reference. Fig. 6A The memory 1602 includes RAM and ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1601 to implement the reference Figure 6B The communication method described above. The storage device 1603 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 1604 is an interface for connecting an external device such as a memory card and a universal serial bus (USB) device to the smartphone 1600.

[0164] The camera 1606 includes an image sensor such as a charge coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), and generates a captured image. The sensor 1607 may include a group of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1608 converts the sound input to the smart phone 1600 into an audio signal. The input device 1609 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1610, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 1610 includes a screen such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, and displays an output image of the smart phone 1600. The speaker 1611 converts an audio signal output from the smart phone 1600 into sound.

[0165] The wireless communication interface 1612 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR, etc.) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1612 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614. The BB processor 1613 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1614 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1616. The wireless communication interface 1612 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 1613 and the RF circuit 1614 are integrated. Fig.10 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits 1614. Fig.10 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1612 includes a plurality of BB processors 1613 and a plurality of RF circuits 1614 , but the wireless communication interface 1612 may also include a single BB processor 1613 or a single RF circuit 1614 .

[0166] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1612 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near field communication schemes, and wireless local area network (LAN) schemes. In this case, the wireless communication interface 1612 can include a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614 for each wireless communication scheme.

[0167] Each of the antenna switches 1615 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1616 between a plurality of circuits (eg, circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 1612 .

[0168] The antenna 1616 includes a plurality of antenna elements. The antenna 1616 may be arranged, for example, in an antenna array matrix and used for the wireless communication interface 1612 to transmit and receive wireless signals. The smartphone 1600 may include one or more antenna panels (not shown).

[0169] In addition, the smartphone 1600 may include an antenna 1616 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1615 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 1600.

[0170] The bus 1617 connects the processor 1601, the memory 1602, the storage device 1603, the external connection interface 1604, the camera 1606, the sensor 1607, the microphone 1608, the input device 1609, the display device 1610, the speaker 1611, the wireless communication interface 1612, and the auxiliary controller 1619 to each other. Fig.10The various blocks of the smartphone 1600 shown are supplied with power, the feed lines being partially shown as dashed lines in the figure. The auxiliary controller 1619 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 1600, for example in a sleep mode.

[0171] exist Fig.10 In the smart phone 1600 shown in FIG. 1 , one or more components included in the processing circuit may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1612, such as referring to FIG. Fig. 6A The transmitting unit 102 or receiving unit 103 of the processing circuit 101 described in the embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the processor 1601 or the auxiliary controller 1619. Alternatively, at least a part of these components may be implemented in the processor 1601 or the auxiliary controller 1619. As an example, the smart phone 1600 includes a part (e.g., BB processor 1613) or the whole of the wireless communication interface 1612, and / or a module including the processor 1601 and / or the auxiliary controller 1619, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to play the role of one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operation of one or more components), and the program may be executed. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to play the role of one or more components may be installed in the smart phone 1600, and the wireless communication interface 1612 (e.g., BB processor 1613), the processor 1601 and / or the auxiliary controller 1619 may execute the program. As described above, as a device including one or more components, the smart phone 1600 or the module may be provided, and a program for allowing the processor to play the role of one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0172] Second application example of user equipment

[0173] Fig.11 17 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 1720 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation device 1720 can be implemented as a reference Fig. 6A The electronic device 100 described herein. The car navigation device 1720 includes a processor 1721, a memory 1722, a global positioning system (GPS) module 1724, a sensor 1725, a data interface 1726, a content player 1727, a storage medium interface 1728, an input device 1729, a display device 1730, a speaker 1731, a wireless communication interface 1733, one or more antenna switches 1736, one or more antennas 1737, and a battery 1738. In one example, the car navigation device 1720 may be implemented as a UE described in the present disclosure.

[0174] The processor 1721 may be, for example, a CPU or a SoC, and controls a navigation function and other functions of the car navigation device 1720. The memory 1722 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and a program executed by the processor 1721.

[0175] The GPS module 1724 measures the position (such as latitude, longitude and altitude) of the car navigation device 1720 using GPS signals received from GPS satellites. The sensor 1725 may include a group of sensors such as a gyro sensor, a geomagnetic sensor and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 1726 is connected to, for example, the vehicle network 1741 via an unshown terminal and acquires data (such as vehicle speed data) generated by the vehicle.

[0176] The content player 1727 reproduces content stored in a storage medium such as a CD and a DVD, which is inserted into the storage medium interface 1728. The input device 1729 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1730, and receives an operation or information input from a user. The display device 1730 includes a screen such as an LCD or an OLED display, and displays an image of a navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 1731 outputs a sound of a navigation function or reproduced content.

[0177] The wireless communication interface 1733 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1733 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735. The BB processor 1734 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1735 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1737. The wireless communication interface 1733 may also be a chip module on which the BB processor 1734 and the RF circuit 1735 are integrated. Fig.11 As shown, the wireless communication interface 1733 may include multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735. Fig.11 An example is shown in which the wireless communication interface 1733 includes a plurality of BB processors 1734 and a plurality of RF circuits 1735 , but the wireless communication interface 1733 may also include a single BB processor 1734 or a single RF circuit 1735 .

[0178] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near field communication schemes, and wireless LAN schemes. In this case, for each wireless communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can include a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735.

[0179] Each of the antenna switches 1736 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1737 between a plurality of circuits included in the wireless communication interface 1733 , such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes.

[0180] The antenna 1737 includes a plurality of antenna elements and may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used by the wireless communication interface 1733 to transmit and receive wireless signals.

[0181] In addition, the car navigation device 1720 may include an antenna 1737 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1736 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 1720.

[0182] Battery 1738 is fed via a feed line to Fig.11 The respective blocks of the illustrated car navigation device 1720 are supplied with electric power, and feed lines are partially illustrated as dotted lines in the figure. The battery 1738 accumulates electric power supplied from the vehicle.

[0183] exist Fig.11 In the car navigation device 1720 shown in FIG. 1 , one or more components included in the processing circuit may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1733, such as referring to Fig. 6A The transmitting unit 102 or receiving unit 103 of the processing circuit 101 described in the embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the processor 1721. Alternatively, at least a part of these components may be implemented in the processor 1721. As an example, the car navigation device 1720 includes a part (e.g., BB processor 1734) or the whole of the wireless communication interface 1733, and / or a module including the processor 1721, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to play the role of one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operation of one or more components), and the program may be executed. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to play the role of one or more components may be installed in the car navigation device 1720, and the wireless communication interface 1733 (e.g., BB processor 1734) and / or the processor 1721 may execute the program. As described above, as a device including one or more components, the car navigation device 1720 or a module may be provided, and a program for allowing the processor to play the role of one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium in which the program is recorded may be provided.

[0184] The technology of the present disclosure may also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 1740 including a car navigation device 1720, an in-vehicle network 1741, and one or more blocks in a vehicle module 1742. The vehicle module 1742 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information), and outputs the generated data to the in-vehicle network 1741.

[0185] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present disclosure is certainly not limited to the above examples. Those skilled in the art may obtain various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications will naturally fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0186] For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0187] In this specification, the steps described in the flowchart include not only the processing performed in time series in the order described, but also the processing performed in parallel or individually rather than necessarily in time series. In addition, even in the steps processed in time series, it goes without saying that the order can be appropriately changed.

[0188] Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and transformations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the terms "including", "comprising" or any other variants of the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, so that the process, method, article or equipment including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also includes other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or equipment. In the absence of further restrictions, the elements defined by the statement "including one..." do not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or equipment including the elements.

Claims

1. An electronic device for a user device, comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: In response to scheduling information in downlink control information (DCI), sequentially sending a plurality of signals containing the same user data to a control device over a plurality of consecutive time slots; sequentially receiving a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback information related to the transmitted signals among the plurality of signals, each of the plurality of HARQ feedback information being received after a preconfigured duration D has elapsed since the transmission of a corresponding signal among the transmitted signals was completed, and indicating whether decoding of user data of the corresponding signal among the transmitted signals by the control device is successful; as well as Sequentially determining whether the received multiple HARQ feedback information is valid, comprising: In the case of receiving HARQ feedback information that is ACK, determining that the first arriving ACK is valid HARQ feedback information and terminating signal transmission; In case of receiving HARQ feedback information that is NACK, unless the HARQ feedback information is related to the last signal of the plurality of signals, determining that the NACK is invalid HARQ feedback information and continuing signal transmission; and Only when the received HARQ feedback information related to the last signal among the multiple signals is NACK, the NACK is determined to be valid HARQ feedback information and retransmission of the user data is performed.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The time after the last signal is sent is (D+(repK-1)*T slot ), where repK is the number of the plurality of signals sent, T slot is the length of each time slot.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: receiving RRC signaling indicating the duration D, and The duration D is configured to determine whether the HARQ feedback information is valid.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The processing circuit is configured to transmit the plurality of signals within a single channel occupation time (COT).

5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: Each signal of the plurality of signals includes, in addition to the user data, a respective redundancy version.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The pre-configured duration D is equal to or longer than (repK-1)*T slot , where repK is the number of the plurality of signals sent, T slot is the length of each time slot.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein: The HARQ feedback information for each signal is associated with the same HARQ process number.

8. A communication method, comprising: In response to scheduling information in downlink control information (DCI), sequentially sending a plurality of signals containing the same user data to a control device over a plurality of consecutive time slots; sequentially receiving a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback information related to the transmitted signals among the plurality of signals, each of the plurality of HARQ feedback information being received after a preconfigured duration D has elapsed since the transmission of a corresponding signal among the transmitted signals was completed, and indicating whether decoding of user data of the corresponding signal among the transmitted signals by the control device is successful; as well as Sequentially determining whether the received multiple HARQ feedback information is valid, comprising: In the case of receiving HARQ feedback information that is ACK, determining that the first arriving ACK is valid HARQ feedback information and terminating signal transmission; In case of receiving HARQ feedback information that is NACK, unless the HARQ feedback information is related to the last signal of the plurality of signals, determining that the NACK is invalid HARQ feedback information and continuing signal transmission; and Only when the received HARQ feedback information related to the last signal among the multiple signals is NACK, the NACK is determined to be valid HARQ feedback information and retransmission of the user data is performed.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions, which when executed implement the communication method of claim 8.

Images