A channel estimation method and related device

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application disclose a channel estimation method and related devices, which are used to improve the accuracy of channel estimation. The method of the embodiments of the present application includes: obtaining a plurality of first time slot signals and a plurality of second time slot signals of a target signal, where the plurality of first time slot signals are signals of a plurality of beams of the target signal in a first time slot, the plurality of second time slot signals are signals of the foregoing plurality of beams in a second time slot, and the second time slot is the subsequent time slot of the first time slot; performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signals and the second time slot signals of each of the plurality of beams to obtain beam channel estimation values of each of the plurality of beams; and determining a channel estimation value of the target signal according to the beam channel estimation values of the plurality of beams.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of wireless communication, and in particular, to a channel estimation method and related devices. Background Art

[0002] In the field of wireless communication, due to the low transmit power of the terminal device, the intensity of the uplink signal sent by the terminal device to the network device is weak, resulting in a small signal-to-noise ratio of the uplink signal. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the uplink signal, one method is to improve the accuracy of uplink channel estimation.

[0003] To improve the accuracy of uplink channel estimation, full-beam channel estimation can be performed on the uplink signal; that is, the uplink antenna signal is resolved to each beam (path), and channel estimation is performed based on the signals on each beam.

[0004] However, the signal intensity of some beams (paths) is low. On this beam (path), the result of channel estimation is greatly affected by noise, and the channel estimation result of this beam has a large error, which affects the accuracy of the channel estimation result of the entire uplink signal, resulting in low uplink channel estimation accuracy. Summary of the Invention

[0005] Embodiments of the present application provide a channel estimation method for improving the accuracy of channel estimation.

[0006] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a channel estimation method, which can be applied to a network device in a wireless communication network. The method includes: the network device obtains a plurality of first time slot signals and a plurality of second time slot signals of a target signal, where the plurality of first time slot signals are signals of a plurality of beams of the target signal in a first time slot, the plurality of second time slot signals are signals of the plurality of beams in a second time slot, and the second time slot is the subsequent time slot of the first time slot; the network device performs joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam among the plurality of beams to obtain the beam channel estimation value of each of the plurality of beams; the network device determines the channel estimation value of the target signal according to the beam channel estimation values of the plurality of beams.

[0007] In the embodiments of the present application, joint channel estimation is performed through the first time slot signals in the plurality of beams and the second time slot signals in the plurality of beams. Since joint channel estimation can greatly reduce the influence of noise, the method of the embodiments of the present application can reduce the channel estimation error caused by noise and improve the channel estimation accuracy.

[0008] It should be noted that in the embodiments of the present application, the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal are signals of the same beam. The number of beams is not limited. The beam can be a full beam (64 beams), or a partial beam, such as 16 beams, 20 beams, etc., which is not limited here.

[0009] In an alternative embodiment, the network device performs an operation of joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam among multiple beams. Specifically, it may include: the network device receives the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal; the network device adjusts the frequency ranges of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal that are not within the target frequency range to within the target frequency range; the network device performs joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal within the target frequency range to obtain a beam channel estimation value. In the embodiments of the present application, the target frequency range also includes the boundaries of the target frequency range, which is not limited here.

[0010] In the embodiments of the present application, the network device adjusts the received first time slot signal and second time slot signal so that both the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal are within the target frequency range, realizing the alignment of the frequency ranges of the front and rear time slot signals on the same beam. Since the aligned front and rear time slot signals on the same beam can effectively reflect the signal change situation on that beam, joint channel estimation based on the aligned time slot signals can determine a more accurate channel estimation result.

[0011] In an alternative embodiment, before the network device acquires multiple first time slot signals and multiple second time slot signals of the target signal, it may further include: the network device reserves resource block (RB) resources for the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal at the same resource position.

[0012] In the embodiments of the present application, controlling the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal at the same resource position is beneficial to realizing the alignment of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal, reducing the difficulty for the network device to align the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal, and thus facilitating the network device to perform joint channel estimation.

[0013] In an alternative embodiment, the starting value of the target frequency range is the first target starting value. The operation of the network device adjusting the frequency ranges of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal that are not within the target frequency range to within the target frequency range may specifically include: the network device adjusts the frequency starting value that is not equal to the first target starting value among the first frequency starting value of the first time slot signal and the second frequency starting value of the second time slot signal to the first target starting value.

[0014] In an alternative embodiment, the operation of the network device to adjust the frequency ranges of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal that are not within the target frequency range to within the target frequency range may specifically include: If the starting frequency value of the second time slot signal is not equal to the starting frequency value of the first time slot signal, the network device adjusts the starting frequency value of the second time slot signal so that the starting frequency value of the second time slot signal is equal to the starting frequency value of the first time slot signal.

[0015] In an alternative embodiment, the length of the target frequency range is equal to the maximum of the lengths of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal; the operation of the network device to adjust the frequency ranges of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal that are not within the target frequency range to within the target frequency range may specifically include: If the frequency length of the second time slot signal is greater than the frequency length of the first time slot signal, the network device fills in zeros at the missing frequency positions in the first time slot signal so that the length of the first time slot signal after filling in zeros is equal to the length of the second time slot signal; the operation of the network device to perform joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal within the target frequency range may specifically include: The network device performs joint channel estimation based on the second time slot signal and the first time slot signal after filling in zeros.

[0016] In an alternative embodiment, before the network device acquires multiple first time slot signals and multiple second time slot signals of the target signal, the method may further include: The network device determines the first RB number of the first time slot signal and the second RB number reserved for the second time slot signal; If the difference and / or ratio between the first RB number and the second RB number is less than the first threshold, the network device performs joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal.

[0017] In the embodiment of the present application, it is determined whether to perform joint channel estimation on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal based on the first RB number and the second RB number. If the difference and / or ratio between the first RB number and the second RB number is less than the first threshold, it indicates that the length difference between the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal is small, and complex alignment operations on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal are not required for joint channel estimation (if the lengths of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal differ greatly, the alignment process before joint channel estimation is relatively complex), and the network device can quickly align the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal; if the difference and / or ratio between the first RB number and the second RB number is greater than the second threshold, it indicates that the length difference between the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal is large, the difficulty of aligning the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal is high, and the processing of the signal during the alignment process is likely to cause distortion of the carried content, affecting the accuracy of channel estimation. Therefore, in this case, joint channel estimation is not performed, which can effectively improve the accuracy of channel estimation.

[0018] In an alternative embodiment, the length of the target frequency range is equal to the maximum of the length of the first time slot signal and the length of the second time slot signal; the operation of the network device to adjust the frequency ranges that are not within the target frequency range in the frequency range of the first time slot signal and the frequency range of the second time slot signal to within the target frequency range may specifically include: if the frequency length of the second time slot signal is less than the frequency length of the first time slot signal, the network device fills in zeros at the missing frequency positions in the second time slot signal to make the length of the second time slot signal after filling in zeros equal to the length of the first time slot signal; the operation of the network device to perform joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal within the target frequency range may specifically include: the network device performs joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal after filling in zeros.

[0019] In the embodiment of the present application, filling in zeros for the time slot signal with the shorter length in the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal can ensure that all useful information contained in the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal (including the information at the frequency positions corresponding to the zero-filled part of the first time slot signal on the second time slot signal, and the information at the frequency positions corresponding to the zero-filled part of the second time slot signal on the first time slot signal) participates in the joint channel estimation, that is, ensuring the integrity of the content of the time slot signal calculated by the joint channel estimation, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the joint channel estimation result.

[0020] In an alternative embodiment, before the network device performs joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam, the method may further include: the network device sending control signaling to the terminal device, where the control signaling is used to indicate a first resource block (RB) reserved for the first time slot signal of each beam and a second RB reserved for the second time slot signal of each of the foregoing beams, where the first RB and the second RB are within the same target frequency length; the action of the network device performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal may specifically include: if the difference and / or ratio between the frequency length of the second RB and the frequency length of the first RB is less than a first threshold, the network device performs joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal.

[0021] In the embodiments of the present application, if the difference and / or ratio between the frequency length of the second RB and the frequency length of the first RB is less than the first threshold, it indicates that the difference in the frequency lengths reserved by the network device for the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal is small, and complex alignment operations for the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal are not required for joint channel estimation (if the lengths of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal differ greatly, the alignment process before joint channel estimation is relatively complex).

[0022] In an alternative embodiment, the method may further include: the network device reserving corresponding RB resources for a third time slot signal according to the larger value of the length of the first time slot signal and the length of the second time slot signal, where the third time slot signal is the signal in the beam where the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal are located and in the time slot after the second time slot signal.

[0023] In an alternative embodiment, it may further include: the network device reserving a corresponding frequency length for the second time slot signal according to the frequency length of the first time slot signal.

[0024] In the embodiments of the present application, the frequency length reserved for the second time slot signal may be determined according to various factors, such as the bandwidth currently required by the service, the current network status, etc. Among them, reserving a corresponding frequency length for the second time slot signal according to the frequency length of the first time slot signal can minimize the difference between the frequency length of the first time slot signal and the frequency length of the second time slot signal, thereby facilitating the network device to perform joint channel estimation between the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal.

[0025] In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a network device, including a processor and a memory, where the processor is coupled to the memory;

[0026] The memory is used to store programs;

[0027] A processor for executing a program in a memory, such that the processor executes the method described in the first aspect.

[0028] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, including at least one processor and an interface;

[0029] The interface is used to provide program instructions or data for at least one processor;

[0030] At least one processor is used to execute program instructions to implement the method described in the first aspect.

[0031] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and when the computer program is run, the method described in the first aspect is implemented.

[0032] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, which includes: computer program code, and when the computer program code is run, the method described in the first aspect is implemented.

[0033] For the beneficial effects of the second aspect to the fifth aspect, please refer to the first aspect, which will not be elaborated here. Description of the Drawings

[0034] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the application scenario of the embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of an application architecture of the embodiment of the present application;

[0036] Figure 3 It is another schematic diagram of an application architecture of the embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 4 It is a flowchart of a channel estimation method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 5 It is another flowchart of a channel estimation method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Figure 6 It is another flowchart of a channel estimation method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

[0040] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of a channel estimation method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

[0041] Figure 8 It is another schematic diagram of a channel estimation method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

[0042] Figure 9 It is a schematic diagram of a network device provided by the embodiment of the present application;

[0043] Figure 10 This is a schematic structural diagram of a chip provided by an embodiment of the present application. Detailed implementation manners

[0044] Embodiments of the present application provide a channel estimation method and related devices, which are used to improve the accuracy of channel estimation.

[0045] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 , which is a schematic diagram of a possible network architecture applicable to an embodiment of the present application, including a terminal device and a network device. Communication can be carried out between the terminal device and the network device through the Uu air interface, and the Uu air interface can be understood as an interface between a general terminal device and a network device (universal UE to network interface). The transmission of the Uu air interface includes uplink transmission and downlink transmission. As shown in the figure, the channel used to implement uplink transmission is called the uplink channel.

[0046] Optionally, in the Figure 1 shown network architecture, a core network device may also be included. Among them, the terminal device can be connected to the network device wirelessly, and the network device can be connected to the core network device by wire or wirelessly. The core network device and the network device can be independent different physical devices, or the core network device and the network device can be the same physical device, and all / part of the logical functions of the core network device and the network device are integrated on this physical device.

[0047] It should be noted that in the Figure 1 shown network architecture, the terminal device can be fixed in position or movable, which is not limited. Figure 1 In the shown network architecture, other devices may also be included, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, etc., which are not limited. Figure 1 In the shown architecture, the number of terminal devices and network devices is not limited.

[0048] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems. For example, long term evolution (LTE) systems, fifth generation (5G) mobile communication systems, and future mobile communication systems, etc.

[0049] I. Explanation of nouns or terms appearing in the present application.

[0050] Some nouns or terms used in the present application are explained below, and this noun or term is also part of the invention content.

[0051] 1. Terminal device.

[0052] A terminal device can be simply referred to as a terminal, also known as a user equipment (UE), which is a device with wireless transceiver functions. The terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship, etc.); it can also be deployed in the air (such as an airplane, a drone, a balloon, a satellite, etc.). The terminal device can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver functions, a virtual reality terminal device, an augmented reality terminal device, a wireless terminal device in industrial control, a wireless terminal device in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal device in remote medical treatment, a wireless terminal device in a smart grid, a wireless terminal device in transportation safety, a wireless terminal device in a smart city, a wireless terminal device in a smart home. The terminal device can also be fixed or mobile. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0053] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the functions of the terminal can be a terminal device; it can also be a device capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions, such as a chip system, and this device can be installed in the terminal device. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system can be composed of chips, or can include chips and other discrete devices. In the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application, taking the device for implementing the functions of the terminal device as the terminal device as an example, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application are described.

[0054] 2. Network device.

[0055] The network device can be an access network device, and the access network device can also be referred to as a radio access network (RAN) device, which is a device that provides wireless communication functions for terminal devices. Network devices include, for example, but are not limited to: the next-generation base station (generation node B, gNB) in 5G, the evolved node B (eNB), the baseband unit (BBU), the transmitting and receiving point (TRP), the transmitting point (TP), the base station in future mobile communication systems, or the access point in the WiFi system, etc. The network device can also be a wireless controller, a centralized unit (CU), and / or a distributed unit (DU) in the cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or the network device can be a relay station, a vehicle-mounted device, and the network device in the future evolved PLMN network, etc.

[0056] The terminal device can communicate with multiple network devices of different technologies. For example, the terminal device can communicate with a network device supporting Long Term Evolution (LTE), can also communicate with a network device supporting 5G, and can also communicate with a network device supporting LTE and a network device supporting 5G simultaneously. The embodiments of this application do not limit this.

[0057] In the embodiments of this application, the device for implementing the functions of the network device can be the network device; it can also be a device capable of supporting the network device to implement this function, such as a chip system, and this device can be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided by the embodiments of this application, taking the device for implementing the functions of the network device as the network device as an example, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of this application is described.

[0058] 3. Joint channel estimation.

[0059] Based on the signals in different time slots, operations such as averaging and filtering are performed using the inter-slot correlation to retain the useful signals and eliminate the noise.

[0060] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the application architecture of the embodiments of this application. As Figure 2 shown, this architecture includes an antenna system, a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), and a Base Band Unit (BBU). Among them, the antenna system is used to receive the radio frequency signals sent by the terminal device and convert them into wired radio frequency signals; the RRU processes the wired radio frequency signals into baseband beam domain signals. During the process of the RRU processing the wired radio frequency signals, beam selection operations are often accompanied, and partial beams are selected from all beams (such as 64 baseband beam domain signals) for channel estimation.

[0061] Optionally, the RRU and the BBU can together form a network device. In addition, the network device can also have other compositions, such as the network device being composed of the BBU, etc., which is not limited here.

[0062] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the application architecture of the embodiments of this application. As Figure 3 shown, the BBU can have different functional divisions at the physical layer (i.e., L1 in the figure) and the Media Access Control layer (i.e., L2 in the figure).

[0063] At the physical layer (L1), the BBU includes a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) channel estimation module, a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) module, an equalization module, and a decoding module.

[0064] Among them, the DMRS channel estimation module is used to complete the joint channel estimation of multi-slot signals based on the baseband beam domain signals obtained by RRU processing; the PUSCH module is used to obtain the uplink data to be equalized from the RRU; the equalization module is used to equalize the uplink data from the PUSCH according to the channel estimation results of the DMRS channel estimation module (optionally, the log-likelihood ratio can be calculated); the decoding module is used to decode the equalized uplink data to recover the original data sent by the terminal device.

[0065] At the media access control layer (L2), the BBU includes a joint filtering control and determination module for realizing the control and determination of the joint rate wave. Specifically, the joint filtering control and determination module can make the signals in the front and rear time slots of the same beam occupy the same RB resources as much as possible, so as to perform joint filtering estimation based on the signals in the front and rear time slots; the joint filtering control and determination module can also judge whether to perform joint filtering estimation according to the RB resource conditions of the front and rear time slots of the same beam.

[0066] Optionally, at the L2 layer, the BBU may further include a beam selection module for selecting a suitable beam from the baseband beam domain signals obtained by RRU processing according to the channel sounding reference signal (SRS) reported by L1 for joint channel estimation. Optionally, in the embodiments of the present application, beam selection may not be performed either, and the full beam obtained by the RRU may be directly used for joint channel estimation, which is not limited here. In this case, beam selection is not required, and the BBU does not include a beam selection module.

[0067] Based on Figure 3 the architecture shown, the embodiments of the present application provide a channel estimation method for improving the channel estimation accuracy of the uplink channel, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the uplink channel. Please refer to Figure 4 , the method includes:

[0068] 401. The network device obtains a plurality of first time slot signals and a plurality of second time slot signals of the target signal, where the plurality of first time slot signals are the signals of a plurality of beams of the target signal in the first time slot, the plurality of second time slot signals are the signals of the foregoing plurality of beams in the second time slot, and the second time slot is the subsequent time slot of the first time slot.

[0069] Among the target signals obtained by the RRU, there are signals of multiple beams. The network device can perform joint channel estimation by fixing the signals of different time slots of some or all of the beams.

[0070] Exemplarily, the network device may select beams 1 to 16 for joint signal estimation. For any one of beams 1 to 16, the network device may determine the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of the beam, where the first time slot signal is the signal of the beam in the first time slot, the second time slot signal is the signal of the beam in the second time slot, and the second time slot is the subsequent time slot of the first time slot.

[0071] 402. The network device performs joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam among multiple beams, and obtains the beam channel estimation values of each of the multiple beams.

[0072] Having obtained the first time slot signal of the previous time slot and the second time slot signal of the subsequent time slot of each beam, the network device can perform joint channel estimation on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam to obtain the beam signal estimation values of each of the multiple beams.

[0073] 403. The network device determines the channel estimation value of the target signal according to the beam channel estimation values of the multiple beams.

[0074] Having obtained the beam signal estimation values of each of the multiple beams, the network device can determine the channel estimation value of the target signal according to the beam channel estimation values of the multiple beams. It should be noted that the beam channel estimation values of the multiple beams here are obtained by performing joint channel estimation based on the signals of the same time slot. For example, if the multiple beams are beams 1 to 16, and the beam channel estimation value of beam 1 is obtained based on the signals of time slot 2 (the first time slot) and time slot 3 (the second time slot), then the beam channel estimation values of beams 2 to 16 are all obtained based on the signals of time slot 2 and time slot 3.

[0075] In the embodiments of the present application, joint channel estimation is performed through the first time slot signals in multiple beams and the second time slot signals in the multiple beams. Since joint channel estimation can greatly reduce the influence of noise, the method in the embodiments of the present application can reduce the channel estimation error caused by noise and improve the channel estimation accuracy.

[0076] There are multiple implementation manners for the channel estimation method in the embodiments of the present application, including static reservation and dynamic reservation.

[0077] Specifically, refer to Figure 5 If the number of RBs of the time slot signals of a certain beam in each time slot is as Figure 5 shown, then different implementation manners have different operations on the signals of the beam.

[0078] 1. Static reservation.

[0079] As Figure 5As shown in the figure, in the static reservation method, RB resources are reserved for signals in different time slots of the same beam at the same resource position, and then joint filtering estimation is performed based on the signals in different time slots of the beam.

[0080] 2. Dynamic reservation.

[0081] 2.1 Simplified implementation method of dynamic reservation.

[0082] In the embodiments of the present application, signals in the front and rear time slots of the same beam (the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal) may not necessarily be able to perform joint channel estimation, and it is necessary to determine whether to perform joint channel estimation based on the number of RBs of the front and rear time slot signals. Please refer to Figure 6 , for each beam, the network device will dynamically reserve the RB resources of the next time slot. After completing the configuration of the corresponding communication resources, the number of RBs of the signal in this time slot can be determined. For example, when the network device reserves the RB resources of the second time slot and completes the configuration of the corresponding communication resources, the actual number of RBs of the second time slot signal can be determined.

[0083] If the difference between the number of RBs of the next time slot (such as the second time slot) and the current time slot (such as the first time slot) is less than threshold 1, it means that the difference between the number of RBs of the next time slot and the current time slot is not large, and joint channel estimation can be performed. Then the network device schedules to ensure that the second time slot uses the same number of RBs as the first time slot (align the number of RBs of the second time slot signal and the first time slot signal), and then perform joint filtering operations based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal with the same number of RBs.

[0084] If the difference between the number of RBs of the second time slot and the first time slot is greater than threshold 1, the network device determines the next operation based on the number of RBs of the second time slot; if the number of RBs of the second time slot is 0, no joint filtering operation is performed, and the resources reserved for this beam are released to end the channel estimation; if the number of RBs of the second time slot is not 0, no joint filtering operation is performed, and the RB resources of the third time slot (that is, the signal in the next time slot after the second time slot among the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal) are reserved.

[0085] In the embodiments of the present application, threshold 1 is also called the first threshold, which is used to determine whether to perform joint filtering operations on the signals in the next time slot and the current time slot (such as the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal). Optionally, in addition to the difference, other methods such as ratio can also be used to determine. For example, it is determined whether to perform joint filtering operations by whether the ratio of the number of RBs of the second time slot signal to the number of RBs of the first time slot signal is less than the first threshold, etc., which is not limited here.

[0086] 2.2 Optimal implementation method of dynamic reservation.

[0087] The optimal implementation of dynamic reservation is basically the same as the simplified implementation, except for the Figure 6 target branch in

[0088] Taking the first time slot as the current time slot and the second as the next time slot as an example, the target branch is described as follows:

[0089] Please refer to Figure 7 , in the target branch, the network device can determine whether the number of RBs of the first time slot signal is less than that of the second time slot signal.

[0090] As Figure 7 shown, if the number of RBs of the first time slot signal is less than that of the second time slot signal, the overlapping part of the RB resources of the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal is jointly filtered; for the non-overlapping part, the result of the second time slot signal is directly adopted; and the RB resources of the next time slot (the third time slot) are reserved according to the number of RBs of the second time slot signal.

[0091] For example Figure 8 in, if time slot 1 is the first time slot, time slot 2 is the second time slot, and time slot 3 is the third time slot; then the white part below the horizontal line is the overlapping part of the first time slot and the second time slot, and joint filtering is directly performed; for the light gray part on time slot 2, since the data in this part appears for the first time, the result of this light gray part is directly adopted; and since the number of RBs of time slot 2 is more, the RB resources of time slot 3 are reserved according to the number of RBs of time slot 2.

[0092] As Figure 7 shown, if the number of RBs of the first time slot signal is not less than that of the second time slot signal, the missing part of the second time slot is set to 0, and then joint filtering is performed, and the RB resources of the next time slot (the third time slot) are reserved according to the number of RBs of the first time slot signal.

[0093] For example Figure 8 in, if time slot 2 is the first time slot, time slot 3 is the second time slot, and time slot 4 is the third time slot; then the data within the dotted line box on time slot 3 is the number of RBs that the second time slot lacks compared to the first time slot, and the data within the dotted line box is set to 0 (also called zero-padding in the embodiments of this application), and after zero-padding, the number of RBs of the second time slot signal is the same as that of the first time slot signal, and joint filtering is performed; and since the number of RBs of time slot 2 (the first time slot) is more, the RB resources of time slot 4 (the third time slot) are reserved according to the number of RBs of time slot 2.

[0094] In Figure 8In this case, the time slot 4 needs to be padded with zeros to have the same number of RBs as time slot 2, and then joint channel estimation is performed with the signal of time slot 3; time slot 5 has more RBs than time slot 4, so joint channel estimation is performed for the overlapping part, and the result of the extra dark gray part is directly adopted for the extra dark gray part; time slot 6 has fewer RBs than time slot 5, so the part within the dashed box (including the parts in the white, light gray, and dark gray dashed boxes) is padded with zeros, and then joint filtering estimation is performed with the signal of time slot 6 after padding with zeros and the signal of time slot 5.

[0095] In the existing joint channel estimation scheme, joint signal estimation is performed using the signals of adjacent time slots. Since the beam may jump, some signals used for joint channel estimation may be missing due to beam jumping in the existing joint channel estimation, resulting in inaccurate channel estimation results.

[0096] In the embodiments of the present application, joint channel estimation is performed using the signals of adjacent time slots, ensuring that the beam used for joint estimation does not jump between adjacent time slots, thus improving the accuracy of channel estimation. Compared with the existing full-beam scheme (performing single-time-slot channel estimation using the signals of the full beam) or the above-mentioned existing joint channel estimation scheme, the beneficial effects shown in Table 1 can be obtained based on the channel estimation method provided in the embodiments of the present application. Table 1 takes the clustered delay line-B model (CDL-B) channel and the clustered delay line-C model (CDL-C) channel as examples to illustrate the gains brought by channel estimation in different situations.

[0097] As shown in Table 1, the gain of the full-beam + joint channel estimation method in the embodiments of the present application is greater than the sum of the gains of the pure full-beam gain and the joint channel estimation. The reason is that in the full-beam scheme, when the signal is weak and the signal-to-noise ratio is low, the channel estimation result is greatly affected by noise, and in some cases, even negative gain occurs (for example, when the MCS 0 strategy is adopted in the CDL-C channel, the gain is -0.1 dB). However, in the embodiments of the present application, the influence of noise is weakened through joint channel estimation, so the method in the embodiments of the present application can have a higher gain.

[0098] Table 1

[0099]

[0100] In the embodiments provided in the present application above, the channel estimation method provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced. To implement each function in the method provided in the embodiments of the present application above, a network device may include a hardware structure and / or a software module, and implement each of the above functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of a hardware structure and a software module. Whether a certain function among the above functions is executed in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of a hardware structure and a software module depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0101] Figure 9 FIG. is a schematic structural diagram of a possible communication device provided for an embodiment of the present application. These communication devices can implement the functions of the network device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device may be, for example, Figure 1 the network device shown, or may be, for example, Figure 2 or Figure 3 the BBU shown, or may also be a module (such as a chip) applied to the network device.

[0102] For example, Figure 9 as shown, the communication device 900 includes a transceiver module 901 and a processing module 902. The communication device 900 can be used to implement the functions of the network device in the above Figure 4 only Figure 8 method embodiments shown.

[0103] When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of the network device in the Figure 4 method embodiments described above: The transceiver module 901 is used to obtain a plurality of first time slot signals and a plurality of second time slot signals of a target signal. The plurality of first time slot signals are the signals of a plurality of beams of the target signal in the first time slot, and the plurality of second time slot signals are the signals of the foregoing plurality of beams in the second time slot. The second time slot is the subsequent time slot of the first time slot. The processing module 902 is used to perform joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam among the plurality of beams to obtain the beam channel estimation value of each of the plurality of beams; and determine the channel estimation value of the target signal according to the beam channel estimation values of the plurality of beams.

[0104] For a more detailed description of the above transceiver module 901 and processing module 902, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in the above method embodiments, and details are not described herein again.

[0105] For example, Figure 10As shown, the communication device 1000 includes a processor 1010 and an interface circuit 1020. The processor 1010 and the interface circuit 1020 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 1020 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further include a memory 1030, which is used to store instructions executed by the processor 1010, or input data required for the processor 1010 to run instructions, or data generated after the processor 1010 runs instructions.

[0106] When the communication device 1000 is used to implement the method in the above method embodiment, the processor 1010 is used to execute the function of the above processing module 902, and the interface circuit 1020 is used to execute the function of the above transceiver module 901.

[0107] When the above communication device is a chip applied to a network device, the network device chip implements the function of the network device in the above method embodiment. The network device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and this information is sent by a terminal device to the network device; or, the network device chip sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and this information is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

[0108] It can be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0109] The method steps in the embodiments of this application can be implemented in a hardware manner or by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in a random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disks, removable hard disks, CD-ROMs, or any other form of storage medium well-known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor, enabling the processor to read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC can be located in an access network device or a terminal device. Of course, the processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in the access network device or the terminal device.

[0110] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of this application are executed in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer program or instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted through the computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that the computer can access or a data storage device such as a server integrating one or more available media. The available medium can be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape; it can also be an optical medium, such as a DVD; or it can be a semiconductor medium, such as a solid state disk (SSD).

[0111] In various embodiments of this application, if there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be cross-referenced, and the technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their internal logical relationships.

[0112] In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality of" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects and indicates that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B may represent: A exists alone, both A and B exist simultaneously, or B exists alone, where A and B may be singular or plural. In the written description of this application, the character " / " generally represents an "or" relationship between the associated objects before and after; in the formulas of this application, the character " / " represents a "division" relationship between the associated objects before and after.

[0113] It can be understood that the various numerical numbers involved in the embodiments of this application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The magnitudes of the serial numbers of the above processes do not mean the sequence of execution, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined according to its function and internal logic.

Claims

1. A channel estimation method, characterized in that, the method includes: Obtaining a plurality of first time slot signals and a plurality of second time slot signals of a target signal, where the plurality of first time slot signals are signals of a plurality of beams of the target signal in a first time slot, the plurality of second time slot signals are signals of the plurality of beams in a second time slot, and the second time slot is the subsequent time slot of the first time slot; Performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam among the plurality of beams to obtain beam channel estimation values of the plurality of beams respectively; Determining a channel estimation value of the target signal according to the beam channel estimation values of the plurality of beams.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal of each beam among the plurality of beams includes: Receiving the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal; Adjusting a frequency range that is not within a target frequency range in the frequency range of the first time slot signal and the frequency range of the second time slot signal to within the target frequency range; Performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal within the target frequency range to obtain the beam channel estimation value.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, the length of the target frequency range is equal to the maximum value of the length of the first time slot signal and the length of the second time slot signal; the adjusting a frequency range that is not within a target frequency range in the frequency range of the first time slot signal and the frequency range of the second time slot signal to within the target frequency range includes: If the frequency length of the second time slot signal is greater than the frequency length of the first time slot signal, padding zeros at the missing frequency positions in the first time slot signal so that the length of the first time slot signal after padding zeros is equal to the length of the second time slot signal; the performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal within the target frequency range includes: Performing joint channel estimation based on the second time slot signal and the first time slot signal after padding zeros.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, the length of the target frequency range is equal to the maximum value of the length of the first time slot signal and the length of the second time slot signal; the adjusting a frequency range that is not within a target frequency range in the frequency range of the first time slot signal and the frequency range of the second time slot signal to within the target frequency range includes: If the frequency length of the second time slot signal is less than the frequency length of the first time slot signal, padding zeros at the missing frequency positions in the second time slot signal so that the length of the second time slot signal after padding zeros is equal to the length of the first time slot signal; the performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal within the target frequency range includes: Performing joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal after padding zeros.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that , before obtaining the multiple first time slot signals and multiple second time slot signals of the target signal, the method further includes: Reserve resource block (RB) resources for the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal at the same resource position.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that , before obtaining the multiple first time slot signals and multiple second time slot signals of the target signal, the method further includes: Determine the first number of RBs of the first time slot signal and the second number of RBs reserved for the second time slot signal; If the difference and / or ratio between the first number of RBs and the second number of RBs is less than a first threshold, perform joint channel estimation based on the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the method further includes: According to the larger value of the length of the first time slot signal and the length of the second time slot signal, reserve corresponding RB resources for a third time slot signal, where the third time slot signal is the signal in the beam where the first time slot signal and the second time slot signal are located and is the signal in the time slot after the second time slot signal.

8. A network device, characterized in that it includes a processor and a memory, and the processor is coupled to the memory; The memory is used to store programs; The processor is used to execute the programs in the memory, so that the processor executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. A chip, characterized in that it includes at least one processor and an interface; The interface is used to provide program instructions or data for the at least one processor; The at least one processor is used to execute the program instructions to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is run, it implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

11. A computer program product, the computer program product includes: Computer program code, and when the computer program code is run, it implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

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