Data transmission method and communication device

Abstract

The present application provides a data transmission method and a communication device, which relate to the field of communication technology and can ensure business continuity. The method is applied to a terminal device configured with at least two uplink radio frequency channels. The method includes: sending first data on a first carrier. The first carrier includes at least one ordinary uplink NUL carrier, and the first carrier occupies all channels of at least two channels. Then, due to the influence of other factors, the terminal device determines that the signal quality has deteriorated and initiates random access on the second carrier. The second carrier belongs to a supplementary uplink SUL carrier and occupies at least one channel of at least two channels. A first message is received on a downlink carrier. The first message indicates at least one of the following: reducing the number of first carriers, or reducing the number of multi-input multi-output MIMO layers supported by the first carrier. Afterwards, second data is sent on the second carrier, and the second data is data sent after the first data.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a data transmission method and a communication device. Background Art

[0002] In uplink and downlink decoupling technology, when the terminal device is in the near-cell area with good uplink coverage, the normal uplink (NUL) carrier is used to send service data; when the terminal device is in the far-cell area with limited uplink coverage, the supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier is used to send service data.

[0003] However, if all the channels of the terminal device are used to send NUL carriers, and the terminal device moves from a near-point area to a far-point area, even if the terminal device supports uplink and downlink decoupling technology, call drops will occur due to uplink desynchronization, affecting service continuity. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The present application provides a data transmission method and a communication device, which can ensure business continuity.

[0005] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

[0006] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method, which is applied to a terminal device configured with at least two uplink radio frequency channels. The method includes: the terminal device sends first data on a first carrier. The first carrier includes at least one normal uplink NUL carrier, and the first carrier occupies all channels of at least two channels. Then, due to the influence of other factors, the terminal device determines that the signal quality has deteriorated and initiates random access on the second carrier. The second carrier belongs to a supplementary uplink SUL carrier and occupies at least one channel of at least two channels. The terminal device receives a first message on the downlink carrier. The first message indicates at least one of the following: reducing the number of first carriers, or reducing the number of multiple-input multiple-output MIMO layers supported by the first carrier. Afterwards, the terminal device sends second data on the second carrier. The second data is data sent after the first data.

[0007] In this way, even if all uplink RF channels in the terminal device are used to transmit NUL carriers, if it is determined that the signal quality has deteriorated, the terminal device can transmit the SUL carrier on at least one uplink RF channel, thereby initiating random access on the SUL carrier to achieve uplink synchronization between the terminal device and the network device. The terminal device receives a first message from the network device instructing the terminal device to reduce the uplink RF channels used to transmit the NUL carrier. In this way, the terminal device can have an idle uplink RF channel to continue transmitting service data, thereby avoiding call drops due to uplink desynchronization and maintaining service continuity.

[0008] In one possible design, the first message includes first information. The first information indicates that the configuration of the primary cell is modified, and the configuration indicated by the first information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the primary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the primary cell. Since the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the primary cell in the first carrier is reduced, the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the first carrier is reduced accordingly. In this way, some uplink RF channels are idle, and the terminal device can use the idle uplink RF channels to send uplink service data.

[0009] In one possible design, the first information is carried in the configuration field of modifying the primary cell of the first message.

[0010] In one possible design, the first message includes second information. The second information indicates that the configuration of the secondary cell is modified, and the configuration indicated by the second information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell. Since the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell in the first carrier is reduced, the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the first carrier is reduced accordingly. In this way, some uplink RF channels are idle, and the terminal device can use the idle uplink RF channels to send uplink service data.

[0011] In one possible design, the second information is carried in the modification secondary cell configuration field of the first message.

[0012] In one possible design, the first message includes third information. The third information indicates the configuration of deleting the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the third information is used to delete the NUL carrier of the secondary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell. Since the number of NUL carriers in the first carrier is reduced, the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the first carrier is reduced accordingly. In this way, some uplink RF channels are idle, and the terminal device can use the idle uplink RF channels to send uplink service data.

[0013] In one possible design, the third information is carried in the configuration field for deleting the secondary cell of the first message.

[0014] In one possible design, the first message is a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message, so that the network device instructs the terminal device to reduce the number of uplink radio frequency channels used to send NUL carriers through the RRC reconfiguration message.

[0015] In one possible design, the second carrier belongs to the SUL carrier of the primary cell.

[0016] In one possible design, the data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application further includes: the terminal device sending third data on a third carrier. The sum of the number of channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of channels occupied by the second carrier is less than or equal to the number of channels occupied by the first carrier. The third data is data sent after the first data.

[0017] That is to say, the terminal device can send uplink service data on other carriers except the second carrier, such as the third carrier, to improve throughput.

[0018] In one possible design, the third carrier includes at least one of the following: a NUL carrier of the primary cell, or a SUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0019] In one possible design, the first message also includes configuration information of the SUL carrier. The configuration information of the SUL carrier is used by the terminal device to send the second data. Exemplarily, the configuration information carried in the first message is dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier.

[0020] In this way, the network device provides the terminal device with dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier through one message, and instructs the terminal device to reduce the number of uplink radio frequency channels used for the NUL carrier to save signaling overhead.

[0021] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method, which is applied to a network device. The method includes: the network device receives first data on a first carrier. The first carrier includes at least one normal uplink NUL carrier. Then, the network device performs random access on a second carrier. The second carrier belongs to a supplementary uplink SUL carrier. The network device sends a first message on a downlink carrier. The first message indicates at least one of the following: reducing the number of first carriers, or reducing the number of multiple-input multiple-output MIMO layers supported by the first carrier. The network device receives second data on the second carrier. The second data is data received after the first data.

[0022] In one possible design, the first message includes first information. The first information indicates modification of the configuration of the primary cell, and the configuration indicated by the first information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the primary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the primary cell.

[0023] In one possible design, the first information is carried in the configuration field of modifying the primary cell of the first message.

[0024] In one possible design, the first message includes second information. The second information indicates modification of the configuration of the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the second information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0025] In one possible design, the second information is carried in the modification secondary cell configuration field of the first message.

[0026] In one possible design, the first message includes third information. The third information indicates a configuration for deleting the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the third information is used to delete the NUL carrier of the secondary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0027] In one possible design, the third information is carried in the configuration field for deleting the secondary cell of the first message.

[0028] In one possible design, the first message is a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message.

[0029] In one possible design, the second carrier belongs to the SUL carrier of the primary cell.

[0030] In one possible design, the data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application further includes: the network device receiving third data on a third carrier. The sum of the number of channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of channels occupied by the second carrier is less than or equal to the number of channels occupied by the first carrier. The third data is data received after the first data.

[0031] In one possible design, the third carrier includes at least one of the following: a NUL carrier of the primary cell, or a SUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0032] In one possible design, the first message also includes configuration information of the SUL carrier, wherein the configuration information of the SUL carrier is used by the terminal device to send the second data.

[0033] In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, which may be a terminal device in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, or a chip that implements the functions of the terminal device; the communication device includes a module, unit, or means corresponding to the method described above, which may be implemented through hardware, software, or hardware executing corresponding software implementations. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions described above.

[0034] The communication device includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. The sending unit is used to send first data on a first carrier. The first carrier includes at least one normal uplink NUL carrier, and the first carrier occupies all channels of at least two channels. The sending unit is also used to initiate random access on a second carrier. The second carrier belongs to a supplementary uplink SUL carrier and occupies at least one channel of at least two channels. The receiving unit is used to receive a first message on a downlink carrier. The first message indicates at least one of the following: reducing the number of first carriers, or reducing the number of multiple-input multiple-output MIMO layers supported by the first carrier. The sending unit is also used to send second data on the second carrier. The second data is data sent after the first data.

[0035] In one possible design, the first message includes first information. The first information indicates modification of the configuration of the primary cell, and the configuration indicated by the first information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the primary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the primary cell.

[0036] In one possible design, the first information is carried in the configuration field of modifying the primary cell of the first message.

[0037] In one possible design, the first message includes second information. The second information indicates modification of the configuration of the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the second information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0038] In one possible design, the second information is carried in the modification secondary cell configuration field of the first message.

[0039] In one possible design, the first message includes third information, wherein the third information indicates a configuration for deleting the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the third information is used to delete the NUL carrier of the secondary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0040] In one possible design, the third information is carried in the configuration field for deleting the secondary cell of the first message.

[0041] In one possible design, the first message is a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message.

[0042] In one possible design, the second carrier belongs to the SUL carrier of the primary cell.

[0043] In one possible design, the sending unit is further configured to send third data on a third carrier. The sum of the number of channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of channels occupied by the second carrier is less than or equal to the number of channels occupied by the first carrier. The third data is data sent after the first data.

[0044] In one possible design, the third carrier includes at least one of the following: a NUL carrier of the primary cell, or a SUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0045] In one possible design, the first message further includes configuration information of the SUL carrier, wherein the configuration information of the SUL carrier is used by the communication device to send the second data.

[0046] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which may be a network device in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, or a chip that implements the functions of the network device; the communication device includes a module, unit, or means corresponding to the above method, which may be implemented by hardware, software, or hardware executing the corresponding software implementation. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

[0047] The communication device includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. The receiving unit is used to receive first data on a first carrier. The first carrier includes at least one normal uplink (NUL) carrier. The receiving unit is also used to receive a random access request on a second carrier. The second carrier belongs to a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier. The sending unit is used to send a first message on a downlink carrier. The first message indicates at least one of the following: reducing the number of first carriers, or reducing the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers supported by the first carrier. The receiving unit is also used to receive second data on the second carrier. The second data is data received after the first data.

[0048] In one possible design, the first message includes first information. The first information indicates modification of the configuration of the primary cell, and the configuration indicated by the first information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the primary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the primary cell.

[0049] In one possible design, the first information is carried in the configuration field of modifying the primary cell of the first message.

[0050] In one possible design, the first message includes second information. The second information indicates modification of the configuration of the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the second information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0051] In one possible design, the second information is carried in the modification secondary cell configuration field of the first message.

[0052] In one possible design, the first message includes third information. The third information indicates a configuration for deleting the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the third information is used to delete the NUL carrier of the secondary cell. The first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0053] In one possible design, the third information is carried in the configuration field for deleting the secondary cell of the first message.

[0054] In one possible design, the first message is a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message.

[0055] In one possible design, the second carrier belongs to the SUL carrier of the primary cell.

[0056] In one possible design, the receiving unit is further configured to receive third data on a third carrier. The sum of the number of channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of channels occupied by the second carrier is less than or equal to the number of channels occupied by the first carrier. The third data is data received after the first data.

[0057] In one possible design, the third carrier includes at least one of the following: a NUL carrier of the primary cell, or a SUL carrier of the secondary cell.

[0058] In one possible design, the first message also includes configuration information of the SUL carrier, wherein the configuration information of the SUL carrier is used by the terminal device to send the second data.

[0059] In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising: a processor and a memory. The memory is configured to store computer instructions, and when the processor executes the instructions, the communication device executes the method performed by a terminal device in any of the aforementioned aspects or any possible designs of any of the aforementioned aspects. The communication device may be a terminal device in any of the aforementioned first aspects or any possible designs of the first aspect, or a chip that implements the functions of the aforementioned terminal device.

[0060] In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory, configured to read and execute instructions in the memory, so that the communication device performs a method as performed by a terminal device in any of the aforementioned aspects or any possible designs of any of the aforementioned aspects. The communication device may be a terminal device in any of the aforementioned first aspects or any possible designs of the first aspect, or a chip that implements the functions of the aforementioned terminal device.

[0061] In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip comprising a logic circuit and an input / output interface. The input / output interface is used to communicate with modules outside the chip. For example, the chip may be a chip that implements the terminal device functions described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect. The logic circuit is used to execute computer programs or instructions to implement the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect.

[0062] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device comprising: a processor and a memory. The memory is configured to store computer instructions, and when the processor executes the instructions, the communication device executes the method performed by the network device in any of the aforementioned aspects or any possible designs of any of the aforementioned aspects. The communication device may be the network device in the aforementioned second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, or a chip that implements the functions of the aforementioned network device.

[0063] In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, comprising: a processor coupled to a memory, configured to read and execute instructions in the memory, so that the communication device performs a method as performed by a network device in any of the aforementioned aspects or any possible designs of any of the aforementioned aspects. The communication device may be a network device in any of the aforementioned second aspects or any possible designs of the second aspect, or a chip that implements the functions of the aforementioned network device.

[0064] In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip comprising a logic circuit and an input / output interface. The input / output interface is used to communicate with modules outside the chip. For example, the chip may be a chip that implements the network device functionality described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect. The logic circuit is used to execute computer programs or instructions to implement the method described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect.

[0065] In the eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores instructions. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer can execute any method in any of the above aspects.

[0066] In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute any of the methods in any of the above aspects.

[0067] In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a circuit system, the circuit system including a processing circuit, and the processing circuit is configured to execute any method as described in any of the above aspects.

[0068] In the fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes a terminal device and a network device in any one of the above aspects.

[0069] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design in the second to fourteenth aspects can refer to the beneficial effects of the corresponding methods provided above, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0070] Figure 1a A schematic diagram illustrating the principle of an uplink and downlink decoupling technology provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0071] Figure 1b A schematic diagram of a random access process provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0072] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a communication scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0073] Figure 3 A flowchart of a data transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0074] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0075] Figure 5 A schematic structural diagram of a mobile phone provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0076] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0077] Figure 7 A flowchart of another data transmission method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0078] Figure 8 A schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0079] The terms "first" and "second" in the description and drawings of this application are used to distinguish different objects, or to distinguish different treatments of the same object, rather than to describe a specific order of objects. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof mentioned in the description of this application are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but may optionally include other steps or units that are not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units that are inherent to these processes, methods, products, or devices. In the embodiments of the present application, "multiple" includes two or more. In the embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in the embodiments of the present application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or designs. Specifically, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete way.

[0080] First, let’s introduce the technical terms involved in this application:

[0081] 1. Carrier aggregation (CA)

[0082] Carrier aggregation combines two or more component carriers (CCs) to support a larger transmission bandwidth, thereby improving the throughput of terminal devices. In practice, each component carrier corresponds to an independent cell. Generally, a component carrier can be equated with a cell.

[0083] 2. Primary cell (PCell) and secondary cell (SCell)

[0084] The primary cell is the cell where the terminal device establishes the initial connection, or the cell where the radio resource control (RRC) connection is reestablished, or the primary cell designated during the handover process. The primary cell is primarily responsible for RRC communication with the terminal device. The carrier component corresponding to the primary cell can be called the primary component carrier (PCC). The embodiments of this application are described using the primary cell as an example.

[0085] A secondary cell is added during RRC reconfiguration to provide additional radio resources. There is no RRC communication between the secondary cell and the terminal device. The carrier component corresponding to the secondary cell can be called a secondary component carrier (SCC). This embodiment of the application uses the secondary cell as an example for description.

[0086] Exemplarily, after the terminal device initiates random access, the network device performs steps 1 and 2:

[0087] Step 1: The network device sends an RRC Reconfiguration message to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the RRC Reconfiguration message from the network device.

[0088] The RRC Reconfiguration message carries information on adding a secondary cell configuration, such as information on adding a secondary cell configuration including a secondary cell addition list (SCell To Add Mod List), where the SCell To Add Mod List indicates an index of a secondary cell to be added.

[0089] Step 2: The terminal device sends an RRC Reconfiguration Complete message to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the RRC Reconfiguration Complete message from the terminal device.

[0090] The RRC Reconfiguration Complete message indicates that the secondary cell configuration has been added.

[0091] 3. Serving cell

[0092] A serving cell is a cell that provides services to a terminal device. If a terminal device is in RRC connected state but Carrier Access Control (CA) is not configured, it has only one serving cell, the primary cell. If a terminal device is in RRC connected state and Carrier Access Control (CA) is configured, its serving cell set includes the primary cell and all secondary cells.

[0093] 4. Uplink and downlink decoupling technology

[0094] In traditional communication systems, such as long term evolution (LTE) systems, uplink carriers and downlink carriers in the same frequency band need to be bound and paired for use, that is, one uplink carrier corresponds to one downlink carrier, and the uplink and downlink are coupled.

[0095] In new radio (NR), the uplink coverage in the NR frequency band networking may be smaller than the downlink coverage. For example, the uplink coverage of 3.5G time-division duplex (TDD) is 10dB to 15dB lower than the downlink coverage. Therefore, NR breaks the design of uplink and downlink coupling in traditional communication systems and introduces a design of uplink and downlink decoupling. Through uplink and downlink decoupling, NR supports the configuration of multiple uplink carriers in one cell. Among them, the carrier of the NR system can be called a normal uplink (NUL) carrier, and the added uplink carrier can be called a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier. By adding SUL in areas where NR uplink coverage is limited, the uplink throughput of the NR system can be improved. The SUL carrier can be flexibly configured and can be either a carrier in the existing LTE system or a separate uplink carrier.

[0096] For example, Figure 1a An example is given of configuring a 1.8 GHz LTE carrier as the SUL carrier of a 3.5 GHz NR carrier. In this example, the 1.8 GHz SUL carrier has a lower frequency than the 3.5 GHz carrier and has lower propagation loss (also known as path loss), which can effectively improve NR uplink coverage and utilize existing LTE carriers, saving operators' expenses.

[0097] 5. Random access mechanism

[0098] The random access process is used for the terminal device to establish a connection with the network device and obtain uplink synchronization. Figure 1b The process of a terminal device initiating random access is shown, which specifically includes the following steps:

[0099] S100: The network device sends a system message to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the system message from the network device.

[0100] Among them, the system message includes the public configuration information of the SUL carrier. The public configuration information of the SUL carrier includes the frequency information of the SUL carrier, the time alignment timer (TAT) information, the initial configuration information of the bandwidth part (BWP), etc. The BWP initial configuration information includes the basic configuration information of the random access channel (RACH), the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), and the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The basic configuration information of RACH includes the root sequence number and the physical random access channel (PRACH) time-frequency information. Among them, the root sequence number is used to determine the random access preamble. The PRACH time-frequency information is used to indicate the time-frequency resources occupied by the PRACH. The public configuration information of the SUL carrier can also be described as the conventional configuration information of the SUL carrier. In the embodiment of the present application, the public configuration information of the SUL carrier is taken as an example for introduction.

[0101] S101: A terminal device sends a message 1 (Msg1) to a network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the message 1 from the terminal device.

[0102] Msg1 includes a preamble. A preamble can also be called a random access preamble, a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble (PRACH preamble), a random access preamble sequence, or a preamble sequence. The preamble is determined based on the root sequence number in the basic RACH configuration information and is transmitted on the time-frequency resources indicated by the PRACH time-frequency information.

[0103] It should be understood that during S101, if the terminal device is in the near-point area, random access is performed using the PRACH on the NUL carrier. In this case, the terminal device can initiate random access on the PCell NUL carrier. If the terminal device is in the far-point area, random access is performed using the PRACH on the SUL carrier. In this case, the terminal device initiates random access on the PCell SUL carrier.

[0104] Msg1 can inform the network device that there is a random access request, and at the same time enable the network device to estimate the transmission delay between it and the terminal device and determine the timing advance (TA) based on the transmission delay.

[0105] There are two types of random access: contention-based and non-contention-based. In contention-based random access, the PRACH time-frequency resources and preamble are selected by the terminal device. Different terminal devices may simultaneously select the same PRACH time-frequency resources and preamble, leading to conflicts. A conflict resolution mechanism (i.e., S103 and S104) is required to resolve this issue. The contention-based random access process includes S101 to S104.

[0106] In the non-contention-based random access process, the terminal device already has a unique identifier cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) in the accessed cell, and the time-frequency resources and preamble occupied by the PRACH are specified by the network device, thereby ensuring that there will be no conflict with other terminal devices, and no conflict resolution mechanism is required (i.e., S103 and S104 are not required). In other words, the non-contention-based random access process includes S101 and S102.

[0107] S102: The network device sends a message 2 (Msg2) to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the message 2 from the network device.

[0108] Msg2 may be a random access response (RAR).

[0109] Msg2 may include TA, which is the TA calculated by the network device for the terminal device based on Msg1.

[0110] S103: The terminal device sends message 3 (Msg3) to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives message 3 from the terminal device.

[0111] In S103, the terminal device may use the TA in Msg2 to send Msg3 to the network device. Msg3 includes an important information: the terminal device's contention resolution identity, which will be used for contention resolution in S104.

[0112] It should be understood that when Msg1 is sent via the PCell NUL carrier, Msg3 is also sent via the PCell NUL carrier. When Msg1 is sent via the PCell SUL carrier, Msg3 is also sent via the PCell SUL carrier.

[0113] S104: The network device sends message 4 (Msg4) to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives message 4 from the network device.

[0114] Among them, message 4 indicates the competition result of random access of the terminal device.

[0115] Among them, in the conflict resolution mechanism of the network device, Msg4 carries the conflict resolution identifier of the terminal device to specify the terminal device that succeeded in the conflict resolution. Other terminal devices that did not succeed in the conflict resolution will re-initiate random access.

[0116] Through the above S101 to S104, the terminal device and the network device can achieve uplink synchronization with the network device through the above random access process.

[0117] In some embodiments, if the terminal device initiates random access on the PCell SUL carrier, the network device may further perform S105:

[0118] S105: The network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the network device.

[0119] The RRC reconfiguration message includes dedicated configuration information for the SUL carrier. This includes specific configurations of the SUL PUCCH, PUSCH, and sounding reference signal (SRS), such as different PUCCH format configurations, PUSCH scrambling codes, pilots, and codebooks, and SRS configuration.

[0120] It should be noted that the public configuration information of the SUL carrier can be used by the terminal device to initiate random access. For details, see the introduction of S100 and S101. The public configuration information of the SUL carrier and the dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier can be used by the terminal device to transmit uplink service data. During the uplink service data transmission process, the public configuration information of the SUL carrier and the dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier are indispensable. Only when the terminal device obtains the public configuration information and dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier can it send service data on the SUL carrier.

[0121] like Figure 2 As shown in the uplink and downlink decoupling technology, when the terminal device is in the near-point area of ​​the cell and the uplink coverage is good, the NUL carrier is used to initiate random access. The network device considers the terminal device to be in the near-point area and does not configure the SUL dedicated configuration for the terminal device. The specific process is as follows Figure 1bWhen the terminal device is in a remote area of ​​the cell and uplink coverage is limited, the SUL carrier is used to initiate random access. The network device considers the terminal device to be in a remote area and configures the SUL dedicated configuration for the terminal device. The specific process is as follows Figure 1b As shown in S100 to S105 in the figure, no further details are given here.

[0122] However, if the uplink RF channels of the terminal device are all used to send NUL carriers, and the terminal device moves from a near-point area to a far-point area, even if the terminal device supports uplink and downlink decoupling technology, the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device will be broken, resulting in call drops and affecting service continuity. For example, the terminal device in the far-point area determines that the signal quality has deteriorated, resulting in uplink desynchronization of the terminal device. Figure 3 As shown, the terminal device performs the following steps:

[0123] S301. The terminal device performs a cell search to achieve downlink synchronization.

[0124] S302: The terminal device initiates a random access process on the SUL carrier.

[0125] The terminal device executes the above Figure 1b After achieving uplink synchronization, the terminal device executes S303:

[0126] S303: The terminal device sends an RRC re-establishment request to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the RRC re-establishment request from the terminal device.

[0127] The RRC re-establishment request is used to request the re-establishment of the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device.

[0128] S304: The network device sends an RRC re-establishment message to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the RRC re-establishment message from the network device.

[0129] The RRC re-establishment message is used to confirm the re-establishment of the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device in response to the RRC re-establishment request.

[0130] After the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device is re-established, the network device executes S305:

[0131] S305: The network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the network device.

[0132] The RRC reconfiguration message includes the dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier. For details, please refer to the introduction of S105 and will not be repeated here. Then, the terminal device implements uplink data transmission based on the public configuration information of the SUL carrier in the system message and the dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier in the RRC reconfiguration message transmitted in S305.

[0133] As can be seen from this, after the terminal device enters the far-point area from the near-point area, the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device is broken, and the service data transmission is continued by re-establishing the RRC connection. In other words, service data transmission is interrupted and service continuity cannot be guaranteed.

[0134] In view of this, an embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method, which is applicable to various communication systems. The data transmission method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to fifth-generation (5G) communication networks, other similar networks, or other future networks. Figure 4 The present invention is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system applicable to the data transmission method according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication system may include a terminal device 40 and a network device 41. The terminal device 40 and the network device 41 are wirelessly connected. The number of terminal devices 40 may be one or more, and the number of network devices 41 may also be one or more. Figure 4 Only one network device and two terminal devices are shown in FIG. Figure 4 In the figure, an ellipse represents a cell. Figure 4 This is only a schematic diagram and does not constitute a limitation on the applicable scenarios of the data transmission method in the embodiment of the present application.

[0135] The network device 41 may be a base station or base station controller for wireless communication, etc. For example, the base station may include various types of base stations, such as micro base stations (also called small stations), macro base stations, relay stations, access points, etc., which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiments of the present application, the base station may be a base station in a 5G mobile communication network or a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the network device may be a network device, or it may be a device that can support the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system. In the embodiments of the present application, the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is described by taking the device for realizing the function of the network device as an example, which is a network device.

[0136] The network equipment referred to in this application, such as base stations, generally includes a baseband unit (BBU), a remote radio unit (RRU), an antenna, and a feeder for connecting the RRU and the antenna. Among them, the BBU is responsible for signal modulation. The RRU is responsible for radio frequency processing. The antenna is responsible for the conversion between the guided wave on the cable and the space wave in the air. On the one hand, the distributed base station greatly shortens the length of the feeder between the RRU and the antenna, which can reduce signal loss and reduce the cost of the feeder. On the other hand, the RRU plus the antenna is relatively small and can be installed anywhere, making network planning more flexible. In addition to remote RRUs, all BBUs can be centralized and placed in a central office (CO). Through this centralized approach, the number of base station rooms can be greatly reduced, the supporting equipment, especially the energy consumption of air conditioners, can be reduced, and a large amount of carbon emissions can be reduced. In addition, after the scattered BBUs are centralized into a BBU baseband pool, they can be managed and scheduled in a unified manner, and resource allocation is more flexible. In this mode, all physical base stations have evolved into virtual base stations. All virtual base stations share user data transmission and reception, channel quality and other information in the BBU baseband pool, and cooperate with each other to achieve joint scheduling.

[0137] In some deployments, a base station may include a centralized unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). The base station may also include an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU implements some base station functions, while the DU implements some base station functions. For example, the CU is responsible for processing non-real-time protocols and services, and implementing the functions of the radio resource control (RRC) and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layers. The DU is responsible for processing physical layer protocols and real-time services, and implementing the functions of the radio link control (RLC), media access control (MAC), and physical (PHY) layers. The AAU implements some physical layer processing functions, RF processing, and active antenna-related functions. Since RRC layer information will eventually become PHY layer information, or be converted from PHY layer information, in this architecture, higher-layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling or PDCP layer signaling, can also be considered to be sent by the DU, or by the DU+AAU. It is understood that the network device may include one or more of CU, DU, and AAU. In addition, the CU may be classified as a network device in the RAN, or may be classified as a network device in the core network (CN), without limitation herein.

[0138] The terminal device 40 is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities. The terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); it can also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons and satellites, etc.). The terminal device can be user equipment (UE). Among them, UE includes handheld devices, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices or computing devices with wireless communication functions. Exemplarily, UE can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer or a computer with wireless transceiver capabilities. The terminal device can also be a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in smart grids, a wireless terminal in smart cities, a wireless terminal in smart homes, etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal device can be a terminal device, or it can be a device that can support the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0139] The following embodiments use a mobile phone as an example to illustrate how a terminal device implements the specific technical solutions in the embodiments. Figure 5 As shown, the terminal device in this embodiment may be a mobile phone 500. The embodiment will be described in detail below using the mobile phone 500 as an example.

[0140] It should be understood that the illustrated mobile phone 500 is merely an example of a terminal device supporting uplink and downlink decoupling technology, and the mobile phone 500 may have more or fewer components than shown in the figure, may combine two or more components, or may have a different component configuration. Figure 5 The various components shown in the drawings may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, including one or more signal processing and / or application specific integrated circuits.

[0141] like Figure 5 As shown, the mobile phone 500 includes: a processor 510, a system-on-chip device 520, a display controller 530, a codec (CODEC) 540, a manager 550, a memory 560, an input device 570, a modem 580, a transceiver 590 and a power supply 591, etc.

[0142] Those skilled in the art will understand that Figure 5The mobile phone structure shown in the figure does not constitute a limitation to the mobile phone, and may include more or fewer components than shown in the figure, or combine certain components, or arrange the components differently.

[0143] like Figure 5 As shown, the mobile phone 500 may also include a SIM card interface 551. The SIM card interface 551 is used to communicate with the SIM card 552. For example, the SIM card interface 551 can be a SIM card connector, which includes a main body with a SIM card accommodating space, and a plurality of communication slots for receiving the conductive terminals of the received SIM card. Electrical signaling contact with the SIM card can be made through the conductive terminals and the slots. Example interfaces may include serial or parallel (e.g., 6-pin or 8-pin) connections. In addition, a variety of SIM card sizes (e.g., full-size SIM, mini SIM, or micro SIM) may be provided. In other embodiments, when multiple contracts are associated with a universal identity module (e.g., a universal SIM), the mobile phone 500 may not include multiple SIM card interfaces. The manager 550 is used to manage the SIM card 552.

[0144] like Figure 5 As shown, the mobile phone 500 may further include a speaker 541 and a microphone 542 coupled to a codec CODEC 540 . Figure 5 It is also indicated that the manager 550 may be coupled to the processor 510 and to a modem 580 that communicates with a transceiver 590. The transceiver 590 is connected to one or more antennas. Figure 5 Only one antenna example is shown.

[0145] In certain embodiments, transceiver 590 is coupled to multiple antennas and modem 580 supports diversity, where one of the multiple antennas is a primary antenna and the other antennas are secondary antennas.

[0146] The transceiver 590 can be an RF circuit, which can be used for sending and receiving information or receiving and sending signals during calls. It can receive the downlink information of the base station and send it to the processor 510 for processing; in addition, it can send uplink data to the base station. Generally, the RF circuit includes but is not limited to antennas, at least one amplifier, transceiver, coupler, low noise amplifier, duplexer and other devices. In addition, the RF circuit can also communicate with the network and other mobile devices through wireless communication. The wireless communication can use any communication standard or protocol, including but not limited to Global System for Mobile Communications, General Packet Radio Service, Code Division Multiple Access, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, Long Term Evolution, email, short message service, etc. In an embodiment of the present application, Figure 5 The transceiver 590 shown may include one RF Rx channel and two RF Tx channels ( Figure 5RF Tx1 channel, RF Tx2 channel and RF Rx1 channel shown). Of course, the number of RF Rx channels and RF Tx channels in the transceiver 590 can have other values, such as two RF Rx channels and three RF Tx channels, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this. In the embodiment of the present application, the letter T represents an uplink RF channel. For example, 1T means one uplink RF channel, such as the RF Tx1 channel, or the RF Tx2 channel. 2T means two uplink RF channels, such as the RF Tx1 channel and the RF Tx2 channel.

[0147] The memory 560 can be used to store software programs and data. The processor 510 executes various functions and data processing of the mobile phone 500 by running the software programs and data stored in the memory 560. For example, Figure 5 As shown, the memory 560 stores instructions 561. The instructions 561 can be executed by the processor 510. For example, the instructions 561 include instructions executable by the processor 510 to receive communication data related to the SIM card 552 at the input end of the modem 580.

[0148] The above-mentioned memory 560 may mainly include a program storage area and a data storage area, wherein the program storage area may store an operating system, an application program required for at least one function (such as a sound playback function, an image playback function), etc.; the data storage area may store data created according to the use of the mobile phone 500 (such as audio data, a phone book), etc. In addition, the memory 560 may include a high-speed random access memory, and may also include a non-volatile memory, such as at least one disk storage device, a flash memory device, or other volatile solid-state storage device. In the following embodiments, the memory 560 stores an operating system that enables the mobile phone 500 to run, such as the operating system developed by Apple. Operating system developed by Google Open source operating system developed by Microsoft Operating system, etc.

[0149] The input device 570 (such as a touch screen) can be used to receive input digital or character information, and to generate signal input related to the user settings and function control of the mobile phone 500. Specifically, the input device 570 may include a touch panel arranged on the front of the mobile phone 500, which can collect the user's touch operations on or near it (such as the user using any suitable object or accessory such as a finger, stylus, etc. on or near the touch panel) and drive the corresponding connection device according to a pre-set program. Optionally, the touch panel may include two parts: a touch detection device and a touch controller. Among them, the touch detection device detects the user's touch direction, detects the signal caused by the touch operation, and transmits the signal to the touch controller; the touch controller receives the touch information from the touch detection device, converts it into contact coordinates, and then sends it to the processor 510, and can receive instructions sent by the processor 510 and execute them. In addition, the touch panel can be implemented using various types such as resistive, capacitive, infrared and surface acoustic wave.

[0150] The display 531 (i.e., a display screen) can be used to display information input by the user or information provided to the user, as well as a graphical user interface (GUI) of various menus of the mobile phone 500. The display 531 may include a display panel disposed on the front of the mobile phone 500. The display panel may be configured in the form of a liquid crystal display, a light emitting diode, or the like.

[0151] When the touch panel detects a touch operation on or near it, it is transmitted to the processor 510 to determine the touch event, and then the processor 510 provides corresponding visual output on the display panel according to the type of touch event. Figure 5 In the embodiment, the touch panel and the display panel are two independent components to realize the input and output functions of the mobile phone 500, but in some embodiments, the touch panel and the display panel can be integrated to realize the input and output functions of the mobile phone 500, and the integrated touch panel and display panel can be simply referred to as a touch display screen.

[0152] In some other embodiments, the touch panel may also be provided with a pressure sensing sensor, so that when the user performs a touch operation on the touch panel, the touch panel can also detect the pressure of the touch operation, and the mobile phone 500 can detect the touch operation more accurately.

[0153] The mobile phone 500 may also include at least one sensor 543, such as a light sensor, a motion sensor, and other sensors. Specifically, the light sensor may include an ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor. The ambient light sensor may adjust the brightness of the display panel according to the brightness of the ambient light. The proximity sensor is set on the front of the mobile phone 500. When the mobile phone 500 is moved to the ear, the mobile phone 500 turns off the power of the display panel based on the detection of the proximity sensor, so that the mobile phone 500 can further save power. As a type of motion sensor, the accelerometer sensor can detect the magnitude of acceleration in all directions (generally three axes) and can detect the magnitude and direction of gravity when stationary. It can be used for applications that recognize the posture of the mobile phone (such as horizontal and vertical screen conversion, related games, magnetometer posture calibration), vibration recognition related functions (such as pedometer, tapping), etc.; as for other sensors that the mobile phone 500 can also be configured with, such as gyroscopes, barometers, hygrometers, thermometers, infrared sensors, etc., they will not be described in detail here.

[0154] CODEC 540, speaker 541, and microphone 542 provide an audio interface between the user and mobile phone 500. CODEC 540 converts received audio data into electrical signals and transmits them to speaker 541, which then converts the signals into sound signals for output. Microphone 542, on the other hand, converts collected sound signals into electrical signals, which are then received by CODEC 540 and converted into audio data. The audio data is then output to processor 510 for further processing, such as storage in memory 560.

[0155] Processor 510 is the control center of mobile phone 500. It connects all parts of the mobile phone using various interfaces and circuits. By running or executing software programs stored in memory 560 and accessing data stored in memory 560, it executes various functions of mobile phone 500 and processes data, thereby providing overall monitoring of the mobile phone. In some embodiments, processor 510 may include one or more processing units. Processor 510 may also integrate an application processor and a modem processor. The application processor primarily handles the operating system, user interface, and application programs, while the modem processor primarily handles wireless communications. It is understood that the modem processor may not be integrated into processor 510.

[0156] The mobile phone 500 may also include a Bluetooth module and a Wi-Fi module. The Bluetooth module is used to exchange information with other devices via a short-range communication protocol such as Bluetooth. For example, the mobile phone 500 can establish a Bluetooth connection with a wearable electronic device (such as a smartwatch) that also has a Bluetooth module through the Bluetooth module to exchange data. Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless transmission technology. The mobile phone 500 can help users send and receive emails, browse the web, and access streaming media through the Wi-Fi module, providing users with wireless broadband Internet access.

[0157] The mobile phone 500 also includes a power supply 591 (e.g., a battery) for supplying power to various components. The power supply can be logically connected to the processor 510 via a power management system, thereby enabling the power management system to manage functions such as charging, discharging, and power consumption. It will be understood that in the following embodiments, the power supply 591 can be used to supply power to the display panel and the touch panel. The methods in the following embodiments can all be implemented in a mobile phone 500 having the above-described hardware structure.

[0158] like Figure 6 As shown, an embodiment of the present application provides a structural diagram of a network device. The network device 600 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as an RRU 610 and one or more BBUs (also referred to as digital units (DUs)) 620. The RRU 610 may be referred to as a transceiver unit. Optionally, the transceiver unit 610 may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transmitter, a receiver, etc., and may include at least one antenna 611 and an RF circuit 612. Optionally, the transceiver unit 610 may include a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit may correspond to a receiver (or a receiver, a receiving circuit), and the transmitting unit may correspond to a transmitter (or a transmitter, a transmitting circuit). The RRU 610 is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals into baseband signals, for example, for sending a first message to a terminal device. The BBU 620 is mainly used for baseband processing, controlling the network device, etc. The RRU 610 and BBU 620 may be physically arranged together or physically separated, i.e., a distributed base station.

[0159] The BBU 620 is the control center of the network device, which can also be called a processing unit, and is mainly used to perform baseband processing functions such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spread spectrum, etc. For example, the BBU 620 can be used to control the network device to execute the method involved in this application.

[0160] In one example, the BBU 620 may be composed of one or more single boards, and the multiple single boards may jointly support a wireless access network with a single access standard (such as a 5G network), or may respectively support wireless access networks with different access standards (such as a 5G network or other networks). The BBU 620 also includes a memory 621 and a processor 622. The memory 621 is used to store necessary instructions and data. The processor 622 is used to control the network device to perform necessary actions, such as controlling the network device to execute the method involved in this application. The processor 622 in this application may refer to one or more processors. The memory 621 and the processor 622 may serve one or more single boards. That is, a memory and a processor may be set separately on each single board. Alternatively, multiple single boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, necessary circuits may be set on each single board.

[0161] In addition, the network equipment is not limited to the above-mentioned forms, and may also be other forms: for example, including a BBU and an adaptive radio unit (ARU), or a BBU and an active antenna unit (AAU); it may also be customer premises equipment (CPE), or it may be other forms, which are not limited in this application.

[0162] like Figure 7 As shown, a data transmission method 700 provided in an embodiment of the present application is applied to a terminal device. The terminal device is configured with at least two radio frequency Tx channels, respectively denoted as radio frequency Tx1 channel and radio frequency Tx2 channel. The data transmission method 700 includes the following steps:

[0163] S701: A terminal device sends first data to a network device via a first carrier. Correspondingly, the network device receives the first data from the terminal device via the first carrier.

[0164] The introduction of the first carrier includes the following two key points:

[0165] Key point 1: The first carrier occupies all channels in at least two uplink radio frequency channels. In other words, the first carrier occupies all uplink radio frequency channels of the terminal device. In other words, during the execution of S701, there is no idle uplink radio frequency channel in the terminal device. For example, Figure 5 For example, all uplink radio frequency channels of the terminal device include the radio frequency Tx1 channel and the radio frequency Tx2 channel, and the first carrier occupies the radio frequency Tx1 channel and the radio frequency Tx2 channel.

[0166] Key point 2: The first carrier includes at least one NUL carrier. The following four examples (Examples 1 to 4 below) are used to introduce:

[0167] Example 1, the first carrier includes a NUL carrier. The first carrier is recorded as PCell NUL carrier 1. The number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers supported by PCell NUL carrier 1 is two or more. PCell NUL carrier 1 occupies all uplink radio frequency channels of the terminal device. For example, Figure 5 For example, all uplink RF channels of a terminal device include 2T, namely, RF Tx1 channel and RF Tx2 channel. PCell NUL carrier 1 occupies 2T, namely, RF Tx1 channel and RF Tx2 channel.

[0168] Example 2: The first carrier includes two NUL carriers, and the two NUL carriers are PCell NUL carrier 1 and SCell NUL carrier 1. In the two NUL carriers, one NUL carrier occupies one radio frequency channel, and different NUL carriers occupy different radio frequency channels. Figure 5 For example, the total uplink RF channels of a terminal device include 2T, namely, RF Tx1 and RF Tx2. PCell NUL carrier 1 occupies 1T, such as RF Tx1. SCell NUL carrier 1 occupies 1T, such as RF Tx2.

[0169] In Example 3, the first carrier includes three NUL carriers, and the three NUL carriers are PCell NUL carrier 1, SCell NUL carrier 1, and SCell NUL carrier 2. Among the three NUL carriers, one NUL carrier occupies one RF channel, and different NUL carriers occupy different RF channels. Exemplarily, all uplink RF channels of the terminal device include 3T, namely, RF Tx1 channel, RF Tx2 channel, and RF Tx3 channel. PCell NUL carrier 1 occupies 1T, such as RF Tx1 channel. SCell NUL carrier 1 occupies 1T, such as RF Tx2 channel. SCell NUL carrier 2 occupies 1T, such as RF Tx3 channel.

[0170] In Example 4, the first carrier includes two NUL carriers, and the two NUL carriers are PCell NUL carrier 1 and SCell NUL carrier 1. Exemplarily, all uplink RF channels of the terminal device include 3T, namely, RF Tx1 channel, RF Tx2 channel, and RF Tx3 channel. PCell NUL carrier 1 occupies 1T, such as RF Tx1 channel. SCell NUL carrier 1 occupies 2T, such as RF Tx2 channel and RF Tx3 channel.

[0171] It should be understood that Examples 1 to 4 above are merely exemplary descriptions of the first carrier. Of course, the first carrier may also include more scenarios, such as the first carrier including one PCell NUL carrier and three SCell NUL carriers, where the PCell NUL carrier occupies two uplink RF channels, and the three SCell NUL carriers each occupy one uplink RF channel. Other scenarios of the first carrier are not listed here.

[0172] It should be noted that the terminal device executes S701 in the near-point area. Due to other factors (such as the movement of the terminal device, from the near-point area to the far-point area), the terminal device determines that the signal quality has deteriorated. For example, the downlink reference signal receiving power (RSRP) measured by the terminal device is less than a preset value, and the terminal device determines to switch from the NUL carrier to the SUL carrier. The terminal device executes S702:

[0173] S702: The terminal device initiates a random access process to the network device on the second carrier.

[0174] The introduction of the second carrier includes the following two key points:

[0175] Key point 1: The second carrier is a SUL carrier. Exemplarily, the second carrier is a PCell NUL carrier.

[0176] Key point 2: The second carrier occupies at least one uplink RF channel among all uplink RF channels of the terminal device. Exemplarily, the second carrier (such as a PCell NUL carrier) can occupy one uplink RF channel. Alternatively, in a MIMO scenario, the second carrier can occupy two or more uplink RF channels. The number of MIMO layers supported by the second carrier can be equal to the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the second carrier.

[0177] The random access process can be found in Figure 1b For example, if the terminal device sends Msg1 to the network device on the second carrier, if the terminal device adopts a contention-based random access process, the terminal device still sends Msg3 to the network device on the second carrier. Accordingly, the network device receives Msg3 from the terminal device on the second carrier.

[0178] It should be understood that during the terminal device's execution of S702, due to deterioration in signal quality, all uplink radio frequency channels in the terminal device are no longer used to transmit the NUL carrier. The terminal device may transmit the second carrier through at least one radio frequency channel among all uplink radio frequency channels. After the above random access process, the terminal device and the network device can achieve uplink synchronization.

[0179] For the network device, after receiving the random access request on the SUL carrier, the network device determines that the terminal device is in a far-point area. In addition, the network device, based on the capability information reported by the terminal device, determines that all uplink radio frequency channels of the terminal device are configured for transmission on the NUL carrier. The capability information indicates the number of uplink radio frequency channels in the terminal device. In this case, the network device executes S703:

[0180] S703: The network device sends a first message to the terminal device on a downlink carrier. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first message from the network device on the downlink carrier.

[0181] The first message may be implemented as an RRC reconfiguration message. Of course, the first message may also be other names, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0182] The first message indicates at least one of the following:

[0183] The first item is to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the first carrier. For example, when the first carrier includes a PCell NUL carrier, as in Example 1 in S701, the first message includes the first information. The first information indicates that the configuration of the primary cell is modified, and the configuration indicated by the first information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the PCell NUL carrier. Exemplarily, the first information can be recorded as modifying the primary cell configuration (PCell config), and the first information can be carried in the modification of the primary cell configuration field of the first message. In other words, the first message carries PCell config. For another example, when the first carrier includes an SCell NUL carrier, as in Example 4 in S701, the first message includes the second information. The second information indicates that the configuration of the secondary cell is modified, and the configuration indicated by the second information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the SCell NUL carrier. Exemplarily, the second information can be recorded as a secondary cell addition list (SCellToAddModList), and the second information can be carried in the modification of the secondary cell configuration field of the first message. In other words, the first message carries SCellToAddModList. The SCellToAddModList includes the index of the secondary cell to indicate that the configuration of the secondary cell corresponding to the index is modified, such as reducing the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell corresponding to the index in the SCellToAddModList.

[0184] The second item is to reduce the number of first carriers. For example, in the case where the first carrier includes an SCell NUL carrier, such as Example 2, Example 3 or Example 4 in S701, the first message includes third information. The third information indicates the configuration of deleting the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the third information is used to delete the SCell NUL carrier. Exemplarily, the third information can be recorded as a secondary cell deletion list (SCellToReleaseList), and the third information can be carried in the configuration field for deleting the secondary cell of the first message. In other words, the first message carries SCellToReleaseList. The SCellToReleaseList includes the index of the secondary cell to indicate the configuration of the secondary cell corresponding to the deletion index, such as deleting the configuration of the secondary cell corresponding to the index in the SCellToReleaseList.

[0185] When the first message is implemented as the first item above, the terminal device reduces the number of MIMO layers supported by the first carrier. Since the number of MIMO layers supported by the first carrier is reduced, the number of uplink radio frequency channels occupied by the first carrier is correspondingly reduced.

[0186] When the first message is implemented as the second item above, the terminal device reduces the number of NUL carriers in the first carrier. Since the number of NUL carriers in the first carrier is reduced, the number of uplink radio frequency channels occupied by the first carrier is correspondingly reduced.

[0187] It should be understood that in the data transmission method 700 of the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can receive the dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier from the network device, specifically refer to the introduction of S105. The terminal device first executes S105 and then executes S703, or it can execute S703 first and then execute S105, or it can execute S105 and S703 at the same time, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit this. Furthermore, in the case where the terminal device executes S105 and S703 at the same time, the dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier can also be carried in the first message. That is, through one message, the terminal device is provided with the dedicated configuration information of the SUL carrier, and is instructed to reduce the number of uplink radio frequency channels used for the NUL carrier to save signaling overhead.

[0188] and Figure 3 Compared with the data transmission method shown in FIG, in the data transmission method 700 of the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device does not need to send an RRC re-establishment request to the network device, nor does it need to receive an RRC re-establishment message from the network device. In other words, Figure 7In the data transmission method shown, even if the terminal device determines that the signal quality has deteriorated after executing S701, the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device is not broken, and there is no need to perform the RRC connection re-establishment process. Based on the configuration during the execution of S701, the network device sends a first message to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to reduce the number of uplink radio frequency channels for sending NUL carriers. Therefore, the terminal device has an idle uplink radio frequency channel for sending the second data to ensure service continuity. After the terminal device executes S703, it can execute S704:

[0189] S704: The terminal device sends second data to the network device on the second carrier. Correspondingly, the network device receives the second data from the terminal device on the second carrier.

[0190] The second data is data sent after the first data to ensure business continuity.

[0191] Exemplarily, after the terminal device determines that the signal quality has deteriorated, if the terminal device is in a remote area, the terminal device may also send second data to the network device on the second carrier.

[0192] It should be understood that after the terminal device executes S701 and before executing S704, the RRC connection between the terminal device and the network device is not disconnected. Therefore, the configuration of the PCell NUL carrier remains, and at least one uplink RF channel is used to transmit the PCell NUL carrier. Therefore, the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the second carrier is less than the total number of uplink RF channels of the terminal device.

[0193] In the data transmission method 700 of the embodiment of the present application, even if all uplink radio frequency channels in the terminal device are used to send NUL carriers, when it is determined that the signal quality has deteriorated, such as when the downlink RSRP is less than a preset value, the terminal device may also send a SUL carrier on at least one uplink radio frequency channel, thereby initiating random access on the SUL carrier to achieve uplink synchronization between the terminal device and the network device. The terminal device receives a first message from the network device so that the terminal device reduces the uplink radio frequency channels used to send NUL carriers. In this way, the terminal device can have an idle uplink radio frequency channel to continue sending service data, thereby avoiding call drops due to uplink desynchronization, so as to maintain service continuity.

[0194] In some embodiments, the data transmission method of the embodiment of the present application further includes S705:

[0195] S705: The terminal device sends third data to the network device on the third carrier. Correspondingly, the network device receives the third data from the terminal device on the third carrier.

[0196] The third data is data sent after the first data and is different from the second data.

[0197] The third carrier is a carrier used to transmit uplink service data in addition to the second carrier. Exemplarily, in terms of the number of carriers, the third carrier may be one carrier or multiple carriers. In terms of carrier characteristics, the third carrier may include a NUL carrier or a SUL carrier. The third carrier includes at least one of the following:

[0198] The first item is the NUL carrier of the primary cell, namely the PCell NUL carrier. For example, in the case of poor signal quality, the PCell NUL carrier configuration remains. Although the signal quality of the PCell NUL carrier has degraded to a certain extent, if the PCell NUL carrier can still transmit uplink service data, the terminal device can still send tertiary data on the PCell NUL carrier, i.e., the tertiary carrier includes the PCell NUL carrier, to improve data throughput.

[0199] The second item is the SUL carrier of the primary cell, that is, the PCell SUL carrier. For example, in Example 3 in S701, the terminal device can send a second carrier on the RF Tx2 channel and send a third carrier on the RF Tx3 channel, that is, the PCell SUL carrier. In other words, there can be two PCell SUL carriers. Among them, one PCell SUL carrier is used to send Msg1, that is, as the second carrier. The other PCell SUL carrier is used to send the third data, that is, as the third carrier. It should be understood that the number of PCell SUL carriers is only an example and should not be understood as a limitation on the PCell SUL carrier. For example, in the case where the terminal device has four uplink RF channels, there can be three PCell SUL carriers, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0200] The third item is the SUL carrier of the secondary cell, namely the SCell SUL carrier. For example, in Example 3 in S701, the terminal device can send the second carrier on the RF Tx2 channel and the third carrier on the RF Tx3 channel, namely the SCell SUL carrier. In other words, there can be one PCell SUL carrier and one SCell SUL carrier. One PCell SUL carrier is used to send Msg1, i.e., serves as the second carrier. The SCell SUL carrier is used to send the third data, i.e., serves as the third carrier.

[0201] It should be understood that the number of SCell SUL carriers and PCell SUL carriers is only an example and should not be construed as limiting the number of SCell SUL carriers and PCell SUL carriers. For example, if a terminal device has four uplink RF channels, there can be one PCell SUL carrier, occupying one uplink RF channel. There can be two SCell SUL carriers, each occupying one uplink RF channel, but this is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0202] In this way, even after the terminal device determines that the signal quality has deteriorated, the terminal device can still send uplink service data on more carriers to improve data throughput.

[0203] It should be noted that after the terminal device determines that the signal quality has deteriorated, the carriers used to send uplink service data include the second carrier and the third carrier. The sum of the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the second carrier is less than or equal to the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the first carrier. It should be understood that during the process of the terminal device executing S701 to S704, the configuration of the PCell NUL carrier remains. When the third carrier includes a PCell NUL carrier, the sum of the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the second carrier can be equal to the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the first carrier. When the third carrier does not include a PCell NUL carrier, the sum of the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the second carrier is less than the number of uplink RF channels occupied by the first carrier. In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may first execute S704 and then S705, or may first execute S705 and then S704, or may execute S704 and S705 simultaneously, and this embodiment of the present application is not limited to this.

[0204] The above mainly introduces the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application from the perspective of device interaction. It is understandable that, in order to realize the above functions, the terminal device includes a hardware structure and / or software module corresponding to the execution of each function. In combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiment disclosed in this application, the embodiment 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. Those skilled in the art 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 technical solution of the embodiment of the present application.

[0205] In the embodiment of the present application, the functional modules of the communication device can be divided according to the above method example. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical functional division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods.

[0206] like Figure 8 As shown, a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application includes a processing unit 801, a sending unit 802 and a receiving unit 803.

[0207] For example, the processing unit 801 is used to support the terminal device to execute Figure 7 S702, etc., and / or other processing operations that the terminal device needs to perform in the embodiment of the present application. The sending unit 802 is used to support the terminal device to perform Figure 7 S701, S704, S705, etc., and / or other sending operations that the terminal device needs to perform in the embodiment of the present application. The receiving unit 803 is used to support the terminal device to perform Figure 7 S703, etc., and / or other receiving operations that the terminal device needs to perform in the embodiment of the present application. As an example, Figure 8 The processing unit 801 in the Figure 5 The processor 510 is implemented as follows, Figure 8 The sending unit 802 and the receiving unit 803 in the embodiment can be composed of Figure 5 This is achieved by the transceiver 350 in .

[0208] For example, the receiving unit 803 is used to support the network device to execute Figure 7 S701, S704, S705, etc., and / or other receiving operations that the network device needs to perform in the embodiment of the present application. The sending unit 802 is used to support the network device to perform Figure 7 S703, etc., and / or other sending operations that the network device needs to perform in the embodiment of the present application. The processing unit 801 is used to support the network device to perform other processing operations that need to be performed. As an example, Figure 8 The processing unit 801 in the Figure 5 The processor 621 in the embodiment is implemented as follows, Figure 8 The sending unit 802 and the receiving unit 803 in the embodiment can be composed of Figure 6 This is achieved by using the RRU610 in the .

[0209] Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product carrying computer instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the data transmission method provided in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0210] Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions. When the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the computer executes the data transmission method provided by the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0211] Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip comprising: a processing circuit and transceiver pins, the processing circuit and transceiver pins being used to implement the data transmission method provided in the aforementioned method embodiment. The processing circuit is used to perform the processing actions in the corresponding method, and the transceiver pins are used to perform the receiving / sending actions in the corresponding method.

[0212] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated therein. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a digital video disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state disk (SSD)).

[0213] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical or other forms.

[0214] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple devices. Some or all of the units may be selected to achieve the purpose of the present embodiment according to actual needs.

[0215] In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into a single processing unit, or each functional unit may exist independently, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit. The aforementioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of hardware plus software functional units.

[0216] Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the present application can be implemented by means of software plus necessary general-purpose hardware, or of course by hardware, but in many cases the former is a better embodiment. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application, or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a readable storage medium, such as a computer floppy disk, hard disk or optical disk, and includes a number of instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in each embodiment of the present application.

[0217] The above is only a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application shall be included in the scope of protection of the present application. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present application shall be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A data transmission method, characterized in that: Applied to a terminal device, the terminal device includes at least two channels, and the method includes: Sending first data on a first carrier, where the first carrier includes at least one normal uplink (NUL) carrier, and the first carrier occupies all channels of the at least two channels; Initiating random access on a second carrier, where the second carrier is a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier and occupies at least one channel of the at least two channels; Receiving a first message on a downlink carrier, wherein the first message indicates at least one of the following: reducing the number of the first carriers, or reducing the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers supported by the first carrier; Second data is sent on the second carrier, where the second data is data sent after the first data.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first message includes first information, wherein the first information indicates modification of the configuration of the primary cell, and the configuration indicated by the first information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the primary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the primary cell.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The first information is carried in the modification primary cell configuration field of the first message.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein The first message includes second information, wherein the second information indicates modification of the configuration of the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the second information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The second information is carried in the modification secondary cell configuration field of the first message.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first message includes third information, wherein the third information indicates a configuration for deleting a secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the third information is used to delete a NUL carrier of the secondary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The third information is carried in the configuration field for deleting the secondary cell of the first message.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The first message is a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The second carrier belongs to the SUL carrier of the primary cell.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The method further comprises: Third data is sent on a third carrier, where the sum of the number of channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of channels occupied by the second carrier is less than or equal to the number of channels occupied by the first carrier, and the third data is data sent after the first data.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The third carrier includes at least one of the following: a NUL carrier of a primary cell, or a SUL carrier of a secondary cell.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 and 11, characterized in that The first message also includes configuration information of the SUL carrier, and the configuration information is used by the terminal device to send the second data.

13. A data transmission method, characterized in that: Applied to a network device, the method includes: receiving first data on a first carrier, where the first carrier includes at least one normal uplink (NUL) carrier; Performing random access on a second carrier, where the second carrier is a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier; Sending a first message on a downlink carrier, wherein the first message indicates at least one of the following: reducing the number of the first carriers, or reducing the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers supported by the first carrier; Second data is received on the second carrier, where the second data is data received after the first data.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein: The first message includes first information, wherein the first information indicates modification of the configuration of the primary cell, and the configuration indicated by the first information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the primary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the primary cell.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The first information is carried in the modification primary cell configuration field of the first message.

16. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The first message includes second information, wherein the second information indicates modification of the configuration of the secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the second information is used to reduce the number of MIMO layers supported by the NUL carrier of the secondary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

17. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that The second information is carried in the modification secondary cell configuration field of the first message.

18. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The first message includes third information, wherein the third information indicates a configuration for deleting a secondary cell, and the configuration indicated by the third information is used to delete a NUL carrier of the secondary cell, and the first carrier includes the NUL carrier of the secondary cell.

19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that The third information is carried in the configuration field for deleting the secondary cell of the first message.

20. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19, characterized in that: The first message is a radio resource control RRC reconfiguration message.

21. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19, wherein: The second carrier belongs to the SUL carrier of the primary cell.

22. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Third data is received on a third carrier, where the sum of the number of channels occupied by the third carrier and the number of channels occupied by the second carrier is less than or equal to the number of channels occupied by the first carrier, and the third data is data received after the first data.

23. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that The third carrier includes at least one of the following: a NUL carrier of a primary cell, or a SUL carrier of a secondary cell.

24. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19 and 23, characterized in that The first message also includes configuration information of the SUL carrier, and the configuration information is used by the terminal device to send the second data.

25. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a unit for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, or a unit for performing the method according to any one of claims 13 to 24.

26. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A processor and a memory, the processor and the memory are coupled, the memory stores program instructions, and when the program instructions stored in the memory are executed by the processor, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 13 to 24 is executed.

27. A chip, characterized in that: The chip includes a logic circuit and an input / output interface, the input / output interface is used to communicate with a module outside the chip, and the logic circuit is used to run a computer program or instruction to control the terminal device to execute the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 12, or to execute the method as described in any one of claims 13 to 24.

28. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The computer-readable storage medium includes computer instructions. When the computer instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12 or the method according to any one of claims 13 to 24.

29. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises computer instructions, and when the computer program product is run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, or the method according to any one of claims 13 to 24.

Images