Method and device for sending precoding matrix indication information

Abstract

A method and device for sending precoding matrix indication information, the method comprising: a terminal receiving antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, the antenna indication information being used to indicate the position of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array; the terminal preprocessing a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array; and the terminal generating precoding matrix indication information based on the second codebook and sending the information to the base station. In an embodiment of the present invention, the sparse array can reuse the codebook of a uniform array defined in existing standards by exchanging the antenna indication information of the sparse array between the base station and the terminal. When transmitting based on the codebook, beam pointing equivalent to the uniform array pattern can be achieved, effectively improving the system performance of sparse arrays in ultra-large-scale MIMO applications.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of mobile communication technology, and in particular to a method and device for sending precoding matrix indication information. Background Art

[0002] Large-scale antenna design must consider commercial deployment constraints such as windward surface area, volume, weight, and power consumption. This is particularly true in high-frequency bands, where smaller antenna spacing allows for a greater number of antenna elements within the same deployment specifications. Future research on ultra-large-scale antennas, whether for low or high frequencies, will focus on optimizing element design and employing sparse arrays to reduce overall cost and improve system performance. A sparse array (also known as a sparse array) is an irregular array designed to achieve the performance of a uniform array with fewer elements by optimizing element position and excitation amplitude.

[0003] To achieve the optimal application of sparse arrays in mobile communication systems, it is necessary to consider how to perform precoding operations on sparse arrays. In existing mobile communication systems, antenna precoding schemes fall into two categories: one is a precoding scheme based on channel reciprocity, and the other is a precoding scheme based on a codebook. When the system uses frequency division duplex (FDD) or the user equipment (UE) is moving at high speed, the precoding scheme based on channel reciprocity is not ideal for data transmission, so a codebook-based precoding scheme needs to be considered. The precoding scheme discussed in this article is a codebook-based precoding scheme intended for sparse arrays.

[0004] When a mobile communication system uses a sparse array and considers a codebook-based precoding scheme, existing technologies only support precoding codebooks for uniform arrays (with fixed array spacing) with a specific number of antennas (a power of 2) and do not support precoding codebooks for sparse arrays (where the number of antennas is not necessarily a power of 2 and the array spacing is not fixed). Therefore, when the mobile communication system uses a sparse array for data transmission, the terminal cannot feedback precoding matrix indicator (PMI) information based on the number of sparse array antennas to the base station. In addition, since the number of antennas and antenna spacing in a sparse array are related to the application scenario and the sparse synthesis algorithm, the array forms of sparse arrays in the future will inevitably be diverse, making it difficult to standardize sparse array precoding codebooks. Summary of the Invention

[0005] At least one embodiment of the present invention provides a method and device for sending precoding matrix indication information, which enables the sparse array to reuse the codebook in the existing technology for codebook-based transmission through interaction between the base station and the terminal and processing of antenna indication information of the sparse array.

[0006] According to one aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a method for sending precoding matrix indication information, characterized by including:

[0007] The terminal receives antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array;

[0008] The terminal preprocesses the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array;

[0009] The terminal generates precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook and sends the precoding matrix indication information to the base station.

[0010] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, preprocessing the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain the second codebook corresponding to the sparse array includes:

[0011] Determining positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array according to antenna indication information of the sparse array;

[0012] According to positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the sparse array are deleted from the first codebook to obtain the second codebook.

[0013] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, generating precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook includes:

[0014] Receiving a reference signal sent by the base station and performing downlink channel estimation to obtain a downlink channel matrix observation;

[0015] A precoding vector is calculated based on the second codebook and the downlink channel matrix observation quantity, and precoding matrix indication information is determined based on the precoding vector.

[0016] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0017] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, when the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, determining the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array includes:

[0018] The terminal determines the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array according to pre-acquired configuration information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array;

[0019] Based on the pre-obtained antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array and the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, the positions of the remaining antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array are determined, and combined with the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array to obtain the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0020] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0021] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or,

[0022] The bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0023] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information, including:

[0024] The base station determines antenna indication information of the sparse array according to positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array and sends the information to the terminal;

[0025] The base station sends a reference signal using the sparse array, and receives precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal.

[0026] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the precoding matrix indication information, the method further includes:

[0027] The base station selects a target precoding vector using the precoding matrix indication information and the second codebook, wherein the second codebook is obtained by processing the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array;

[0028] The base station uses the target precoding vector to precode the demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal and then sends the precoded information.

[0029] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0030] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, when the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, determining the antenna indication information of the sparse array according to the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array includes:

[0031] According to the antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array, some antennas are selected from all antennas in the sparse array, and antenna indication information of the sparse array is generated according to positions of the some antennas relative to the reference uniform array.

[0032] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention further comprises:

[0033] The base station configures information about the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

[0034] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0035] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or,

[0036] The bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0037] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a method for sending precoding matrix indication information, including:

[0038] The terminal receives a reference signal sent by the base station using the first sparse array and performs downlink channel estimation to determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array;

[0039] The terminal determines, based on multiple candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array, multiple candidate sparse arrays, and generates a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array;

[0040] The terminal selects a second sparse array from the multiple candidate sparse arrays based on the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse array, and sends antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array to the base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0041] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, selecting a second sparse matrix from the multiple candidate sparse matrixes according to the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse matrix includes:

[0042] The terminal calculates the precoding vector and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to each candidate sparse array according to the candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array;

[0043] The terminal determines a second sparse array that meets a preset condition from the plurality of candidate sparse arrays according to the precoding vector corresponding to each candidate sparse array.

[0044] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the preset condition is maximization of channel capacity.

[0045] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, generating a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array includes:

[0046] According to positions of antennas in the candidate sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the candidate sparse array are deleted from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array to obtain a candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse array.

[0047] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0048] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention further comprises:

[0049] The terminal receives indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array sent by the base station, and determines the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0050] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information, including:

[0051] The base station sends a reference signal to the terminal using a first sparse array;

[0052] The base station receives antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to a second sparse array sent by the terminal, wherein the second sparse array is a sparse array corresponding to an arrangement mode selected by the terminal from a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the reference signal, and the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0053] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention further comprises:

[0054] Determining, by the base station, positions of antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to a reference uniform array according to antenna indication information corresponding to the second sparse array;

[0055] Deleting, from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the second candidate sparse array according to positions of the antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the second sparse array;

[0056] The base station selects a target precoding vector according to the precoding matrix indication information and the second codebook, and precodes a demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal before sending the precoding.

[0057] In addition, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0058] Furthermore, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention further comprises:

[0059] The base station sends indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

[0060] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a terminal including a transceiver and a processor, wherein:

[0061] The transceiver is configured to receive antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, wherein the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array;

[0062] The processor is configured to preprocess a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array; and generate precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook and send the precoding matrix indication information to the base station.

[0063] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a base station, including a transceiver and a processor, wherein:

[0064] The processor is configured to determine antenna indication information of the sparse array based on positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, and send the information to the terminal;

[0065] The transceiver is configured to send a reference signal using the sparse array, and receive precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal.

[0066] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a terminal including a transceiver and a processor, wherein:

[0067] The transceiver is configured to receive a reference signal sent by a base station using a first sparse array and perform downlink channel estimation to determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array;

[0068] The processor is configured to determine, based on multiple candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array, a plurality of candidate sparse arrays, and generate a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array; select, based on the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse arrays, a second sparse array from the plurality of candidate sparse arrays; and send antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array to a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0069] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a base station, including a transceiver and a processor, wherein:

[0070] The transceiver is configured to send a reference signal to a terminal using a first sparse array;

[0071] The processor is configured to receive antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to a second sparse array sent by the terminal, wherein the second sparse array is a sparse array corresponding to an arrangement mode selected by the terminal from a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the reference signal, and the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0072] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a terminal comprising: a processor, a memory, and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the program implements the steps of the method described above when executed by the processor, or implements the steps of the method described above.

[0073] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a base station, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the program implements the steps of the method described above when executed by the processor, or implements the steps of the method described above.

[0074] According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one embodiment provides a computer-readable storage medium having a program stored thereon. When the program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method described above are implemented.

[0075] Compared with the prior art, the method and device for sending precoding matrix indication information provided by the embodiments of the present invention exchange antenna indication information of the sparse array between the base station and the terminal, so that the sparse array can reuse the codebook of the uniform array defined by the existing standard. When transmitting based on the codebook, beam pointing equivalent to the uniform array pattern can be achieved, effectively improving the system performance of the sparse array in ultra-large-scale MIMO applications. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0076] Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description of the preferred embodiment below. The accompanying drawings are for illustration purposes only and are not to be considered as limiting the present invention. The same reference symbols are used throughout the drawings to represent the same components. In the drawings:

[0077] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an application scenario of an embodiment of the present invention;

[0078] Figure 2 This is a flowchart of a method for sending precoding matrix indication information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0079] Figure 3 This is an example diagram of generating a bitmap and determining a first codebook in one embodiment of the present invention;

[0080] Figure 4 This is a flowchart of a method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0081] Figure 5 This is a flowchart of a method for sending precoding matrix indication information according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0082] Figure 6 This is a flowchart of a method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0083] Figure 7 This is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0084] Figure 8 This is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0085] Figure 9 This is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0086] Figure 10 This is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0087] Figure 11 This is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0088] Figure 12 This is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0089] Figure 13 This is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0090] Figure 14 This is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0091] Figure 15 This is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0092] Figure 16 This is a structural diagram of a base station according to another embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0093] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the present invention can be implemented in various forms and should not be limited by the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided to enable a more thorough understanding of the present invention and to fully convey the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art.

[0094] The terms "first", "second" etc. in the specification and claims of the present application are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequential order. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchangeable in appropriate circumstances, so that the embodiments of the present application described herein, for example, can be implemented in an order other than those illustrated or described herein. In addition, the terms "comprise" and "have" and any of their variations are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, for example, the process, method, system, product or equipment comprising a series of steps or units need not be limited to those steps or units clearly listed, but may include other steps or units that are not clearly listed or that are intrinsic to these processes, methods, products or equipment. "And / or" in the specification and claims represents at least one of the connected objects.

[0095] The technology described herein is not limited to NR systems and Long Time Evolution (LTE) / LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, and can also be used in various wireless communication systems such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single-carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA system can implement radio technologies such as CDMA2000 and Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA). UTRA includes Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and other CDMA variants. A TDMA system can implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). OFDMA systems can implement radio technologies such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Evolution-UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.21 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, and Flash-OFDM. UTRA and E-UTRA are parts of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). LTE and more advanced LTE, such as LTE-A, are new versions of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization called the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization called the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2).The techniques described herein may be used for the systems and radio technologies mentioned above, as well as for other systems and radio technologies. However, the following description describes an NR system for example, and NR terminology is used throughout the description, even though the techniques are applicable to applications beyond NR systems.

[0096] The following description provides examples and does not limit the scope, applicability, or configuration set forth in the claims. Changes may be made to the function and arrangement of the elements discussed without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure. The various examples may appropriately omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components. For example, the described methods may be performed in an order different from that described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. In addition, features described with reference to certain examples may be combined in other examples.

[0097] See Figure 1 , Figure 1 The following is a block diagram of a wireless communication system applicable to embodiments of the present invention. The wireless communication system includes a terminal 11 and a network device 12. Terminal 11 may also be referred to as a user terminal or user equipment (UE). Terminal 11 may be a terminal-side device such as a mobile phone, tablet personal computer, laptop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile internet device (MID), wearable device, or vehicle-mounted device. It should be noted that the specific type of terminal 11 is not limited in the embodiments of the present invention. The network device 12 can be a base station and / or a core network element, wherein the above-mentioned base station can be a base station of 5G and later versions (for example: gNB, 5G NR NB, etc.), or a base station in other communication systems (for example: eNB, WLAN access point, or other access point, etc.), wherein the base station can be called node B, evolved node B, access point, base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS), radio base station, radio transceiver, basic service set (Basic Service Set, BSS), extended service set (Extended Service Set, ESS), B node, evolved B node (eNB), home B node, home evolved B node, WLAN access point, WiFi node or other appropriate terms in the field. As long as the same technical effect is achieved, the base station is not limited to specific technical vocabulary. It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present invention, only the base station in the NR system is taken as an example, but the specific type of base station is not limited.

[0098] The base station can communicate with the terminal 11 under the control of a base station controller, which in various examples can be part of the core network or certain base stations. Some base stations can communicate control information or user data with the core network via a backhaul. In some examples, some of these base stations can communicate with each other directly or indirectly via a backhaul link, which can be a wired or wireless communication link. The wireless communication system can support operation on multiple carriers (waveform signals of different frequencies). A multi-carrier transmitter can transmit modulated signals on these multiple carriers simultaneously. For example, each communication link can be a multi-carrier signal modulated according to various radio technologies. Each modulated signal can be sent on a different carrier and can carry control information (e.g., reference signals, control channels, etc.), overhead information, data, etc.

[0099] The base station can communicate wirelessly with the terminal 11 via one or more access point antennas. Each base station can provide communication coverage for its respective coverage area. The coverage area of ​​an access point can be divided into sectors that constitute only a portion of the coverage area. A wireless communication system may include different types of base stations (e.g., macro base stations, micro base stations, or pico base stations). The base stations may also utilize different radio technologies, such as cellular or WLAN radio access technologies. The base stations may be associated with the same or different access networks or operator deployments. The coverage areas of different base stations (including coverage areas of the same or different types of base stations, coverage areas utilizing the same or different radio technologies, or coverage areas belonging to the same or different access networks) may overlap.

[0100] A communication link in a wireless communication system may include an uplink for carrying uplink (UL) transmissions (e.g., from terminal 11 to network device 12), or a downlink for carrying downlink (DL) transmissions (e.g., from network device 12 to terminal 11). UL transmissions may also be referred to as reverse link transmissions, while DL transmissions may also be referred to as forward link transmissions. Downlink transmissions may be performed using a licensed frequency band, an unlicensed frequency band, or both. Similarly, uplink transmissions may be performed using a licensed frequency band, an unlicensed frequency band, or both.

[0101] In this article, an array antenna refers to an antenna system composed of multiple individual antennas arranged in a regular pattern, also known as an antenna array. A uniform array is one in which the spacing between antennas is fixed, and the total number of antennas is typically a power of 2. A sparse array is one in which the spacing between antennas is not fixed, and the total number of antennas is not necessarily a power of 2.

[0102] This embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting precoding matrix indication information. By exchanging and processing antenna indication information for a sparse array between a base station and a terminal, this method enables the reuse of codebooks in existing standards for codebook-based transmission. Specifically, depending on how the antenna indication information is configured, this embodiment can be categorized as either a base station-determined antenna indication information or a terminal-determined antenna indication information information. The following describes these two implementations.

[0103] First, it is introduced that the base station determines the antenna indication information, that is, the base station configures the sparse array antenna indication information to the terminal.

[0104] Please refer to Figure 2 The method for sending precoding matrix indication information provided by an embodiment of the present invention, when applied to a terminal side, includes:

[0105] Step 21: The terminal receives antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array.

[0106] Here, in order to reuse the codebook-based transmission of uniform arrays in the prior art, an embodiment of the present invention uses a uniform array (reference uniform array) as a reference antenna array to indicate the antenna positions in a sparse array, thereby generating the antenna indication information for the sparse array. The sparse array only includes some of the antennas in the reference uniform array and can therefore be considered a subset of the reference uniform array. That is, in this embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information is used to indicate the antennas (i.e., activated antennas) present in the sparse array using the antenna positions of the reference uniform array as a reference. Alternatively, the antenna indication information is used to indicate the antennas present in the sparse array using the antenna positions in the reference uniform array.

[0107] One form of the antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, in which each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the uniform array. For example, one correspondence method may be to correspond each bit to each antenna in the uniform array in a one-to-one manner in a sequence from left to right and from top to bottom. This embodiment of the present invention does not specifically limit this. In this way, the value of each bit in the bitmap can be used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array. For example, when a bit takes the value of 1, it indicates that the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated, that is, the antenna corresponding to the bit exists in the sparse array. Conversely, when the bit takes the value of 0, it indicates that the antenna corresponding to the bit is not activated, that is, the antenna corresponding to the bit does not exist in the sparse array.

[0108] like Figure 3As shown, assume that the uniform array has a total of N antennas, namely: antenna 0, antenna 1, ..., antenna N-1. At this time, a bitmap with N bits is used, namely: bit 0, bit 1, ..., bit N-1. In this way, each bit corresponds to an antenna. For example, bit 0 corresponds to antenna 0 in the uniform array, bit 1 corresponds to antenna 1 in the uniform array, and so on. The antenna position of the sparse array is based on the antenna position in the reference uniform array. When there is an antenna of the sparse array at a certain antenna position in the reference uniform array (such as Figure 3 When the black circle position in the reference uniform array is reached, the value of the bit in the bitmap corresponding to the antenna position is 1. Figure 3 When the antenna position is at the white circle position in the figure, the value of the bit in the bitmap corresponding to this antenna position is 0, thereby obtaining the antenna indication information of the sparse array, which is represented in the form of a bitmap. Of course, the above value definitions can also be interchanged. For example, a value of 0 indicates activation, while a value of 1 indicates inactivation. This is not specifically limited in the present embodiment.

[0109] Step 22: The terminal preprocesses the first codebook corresponding to the uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array.

[0110] Here, the position of the antenna in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array can be determined based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array. For example, when a bit in the bitmap is set to 1, it means that the antenna corresponding to the bit exists in the sparse array, and the position of the antenna can be indicated by the position of the antenna relative to the reference uniform array. Figure 3 For example, when the value of bit 0 in btimap is 1, it means that there is an activated antenna in this bit, and the position of this antenna is: the position of antenna 0 in the uniform array.

[0111] Then, according to the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, the codewords corresponding to the inactivated antennas in the sparse array are deleted from the first codebook to obtain the second codebook. Figure 3 As an example, the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array is shown, where each column corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array. Since the value of bit 0 is 1, the codeword of the antenna corresponding to this bit is retained, that is, the first column in the first codebook is retained, such as Figure 3 As shown in the solid box in . Since the value of bit 1 is 0, the codeword of the antenna corresponding to this bit is deleted, that is, the second column in the first codebook is deleted, as shown in Figure 3Thus, through the above processing, the embodiment of the present invention reduces the dimension of the first codebook, thereby reusing the codebook in the existing standard (first codebook C) to obtain the codebook corresponding to the sparse array (second codebook C s ).

[0112] Step 23: The terminal generates precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook and sends the precoding matrix indication information to the base station.

[0113] Here, the terminal may receive a reference signal sent by the base station and perform downlink channel estimation to obtain a downlink channel matrix observation. Then, based on the second codebook and the downlink channel matrix observation, a precoding vector is calculated, and precoding matrix indication information is determined based on the precoding vector.

[0114] Specifically, the terminal receives the channel state information reference signal (CSI Reference Signal, CSI-RS) sent by the base station, performs downlink channel estimation based on the CSI-RS, and calculates the downlink channel matrix observation quantity Then, according to the preset criteria, based on the second codebook C s , calculate the precoding vector Q j For example, according to the channel capacity maximization criterion, based on the second codebook C s , calculate the precoding vector Q that maximizes the channel capacity j , the specific calculation method can refer to Formula 1:

[0115]

[0116] In formula 1, P I is the interference power, N noise is the noise power.

[0117] Then according to Q j Obtain precoding matrix indicator (PMI) information.

[0118] Through the above steps, the embodiment of the present invention can generate the precoding matrix indication information of the sparse array based on the first codebook of the existing uniform array. In this way, the base station can refer to the precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal and generate the precoding matrix indication information based on the second codebook C s A precoding vector is selected to precode a demodulation reference signal (such as a dedicated demodulation reference signal (DM-RS)) and data information of the terminal before transmission.

[0119] In this embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the uniform array, or to indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the uniform array. For example, when the antenna indication information is represented by a bitmap, the bit length of the bitmap can be equal to or less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array. Indicating only the position information of some antennas can reduce the overhead of the antenna indication information and thus lower the consumption of transmission resources.

[0120] When the antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the uniform array, the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the uniform array can be directly determined according to the antenna indication information.

[0121] When the antenna indication information indicates the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the uniform array, for example, when the bit length of the bitmap is less than the total number of antennas in the uniform array, embodiments of the present invention may pre-configure information about the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal, either explicitly or implicitly. For example, the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array may also be configured in the antenna indication information, or the base station may configure the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array via another configuration message, or the terminal may pre-configure the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array locally. Then, in step 22, the terminal may determine the total number of antennas in the uniform array based on the pre-acquired configuration information about the total number of antennas in the uniform array. Then, based on the pre-acquired antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array and the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, the terminal may determine the positions of the remaining antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, and combine these with the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array to obtain the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0122] For example, for a sparse array with central symmetry in antenna arrangement characteristics, the antenna indication information may only indicate the positions of the antennas in the front half or the back half of the sparse array relative to the uniform array. For example, when the antenna indication information is represented by a bitmap, assuming that the length of the received bitmap is 8 bits, and the total number of antennas is 16, the received bitmap may be mirrored to obtain a mirrored bitmap, and then the two bitmaps may be concatenated to obtain a new 16-bit bitmap. This method is suitable for a sparse array with central symmetry in antenna arrangement characteristics. The above-mentioned mirroring process refers to reversing the order of the bits in the received bitmap, that is, the first bit in the original bitmap is used as the last bit of the mirrored bitmap, the second bit in the original bitmap is used as the second to last bit of the mirrored bitmap, and so on, until the last bit in the original bitmap is used as the first bit of the mirrored bitmap to obtain a mirrored bitmap. For example, the original bitmap is 10110101, the mirrored bitmap is 10101101, and the final stitched new bitmap is 101101010101101.

[0123] Please refer to Figure 4 The method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information according to an embodiment of the present invention, when applied to a base station, includes:

[0124] Step 41: The base station determines antenna indication information of the sparse array according to positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, and sends the information to the terminal.

[0125] Step 42: The base station sends a reference signal using the sparse array, and receives precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal.

[0126] Through the above steps, the base station of the embodiment of the present invention configures the sparse array antenna indication information for the terminal, and the indication information is generated based on the antenna position of the reference uniform array, so that the uniform array codebook in the prior art can be reused for codebook-based transmission.

[0127] After step 42, the base station may further select a target precoding vector using the precoding matrix indication information and a second codebook. The second codebook is obtained by processing the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array based on the antenna indication information for the sparse array. The method for generating the second codebook is described above and is not further described here to save space. The base station then precodes the demodulation reference signal and / or data information for the terminal using the target precoding vector and then transmits the precoded data.

[0128] Similarly, the antenna indication information may indicate the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0129] When the antenna indication information indicates the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, in step 41, the base station may select some antennas from all antennas in the sparse array based on the antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array, and generate the antenna indication information for the sparse array based on the positions of the some antennas relative to the reference uniform array. The selected some antennas must meet the following condition: the positions of the remaining antennas in the sparse array can be determined based on the positions of the some antennas.

[0130] For example, for a sparse array with centrally symmetrical antenna arrangement characteristics, the antenna indication information may indicate only the positions of the antennas in the front or back half of the sparse array relative to the uniform array. The positions of the remaining antennas can be generated by the receiving end based on the acquired antenna positions in accordance with the centrally symmetrical arrangement characteristics.

[0131] As an implementation, the antenna indication information for the sparse array can be a bitmap, where each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit indicates whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array. The bit length of the bitmap can be equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; alternatively, the bit length of the bitmap can be less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0132] In addition, when the antenna indication information indicates the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, the base station may also configure information about the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal. Specifically, this information may be configured in the antenna indication information or via another configuration message. This is not specifically limited in the present invention.

[0133] Next, it is introduced that the terminal determines the antenna indication information, that is, the terminal sends the sparse array antenna indication information to the base station.

[0134] Please refer to Figure 5 The method for sending precoding matrix indication information provided by an embodiment of the present invention, when applied to a terminal side, includes:

[0135] Step 51: The terminal receives a reference signal sent by the base station using a first sparse array and performs downlink channel estimation to determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array.

[0136] Here, the base station uses the first sparse array to send a reference signal, and the terminal receives the reference signal and performs downlink channel estimation to obtain the downlink channel matrix observation quantity Then, we can observe the downlink channel matrix Determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array. The reference signal may be a CSI-RS.

[0137] In step 52, the terminal determines a plurality of candidate sparse arrays according to a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array, and generates a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array.

[0138] Here, the terminal can obtain multiple candidate sparse arrays based on various candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in the reference uniform array. The first sparse array only includes some of the antennas in the reference uniform array and can therefore be considered a subset of the reference uniform array. Then, the terminal can delete the codewords corresponding to the inactivated antennas in the candidate sparse array from the first codebook C corresponding to the reference uniform array based on the positions of the antennas in the candidate sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, and obtain a candidate codebook C corresponding to the candidate sparse array. s .

[0139] In step 53, the terminal selects a second sparse array from the multiple candidate sparse arrays, and sends antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array to the base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0140] Here, the terminal may calculate, based on a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array, a precoding vector and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to each candidate sparse array; and then, based on the precoding vector corresponding to each candidate sparse array, determine, from the plurality of candidate sparse arrays, a second sparse array that satisfies a preset condition. One of the preset conditions is maximizing channel capacity.

[0141] For example, based on the candidate codebook corresponding to the i-th candidate sparse array, calculate the precoding vector Q i,j For example, according to the channel capacity maximization criterion, based on the candidate codebook, the precoding vector Q that maximizes the channel capacity is calculated. i,j And the corresponding channel capacity. The specific calculation method can refer to Formula 2:

[0142]

[0143] In formula 2, P I is the interference power, N noise is the noise power.

[0144] Then, according to the precoding vector Q corresponding to each candidate sparse array i,j And the corresponding channel capacity, select the precoding vector Q corresponding to the maximum channel capacity i,j , the precoding vector Q i,j The corresponding candidate sparse array is used as the second sparse array, and the antenna indication information corresponding to the second sparse array is generated to obtain the precoding vector Q i,j The corresponding precoding matrix indication information (ie, the precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array).

[0145] As a form of representation, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array can be represented by a bitmap, where each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0146] Through the above steps, in an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal determines antenna indication information corresponding to the sparse array and sends it to the base station. Because the antenna indication information uses a reference uniform array to indicate the antenna position, the base station can reuse the codebook of the uniform array in the prior art, determine the codebook of the sparse array, and perform codebook-based transmission.

[0147] In addition, embodiments of the present invention can pre-configure information about the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal, either explicitly or implicitly. For example, the terminal receives information indicating the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array from a base station and determines the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array. Alternatively, the terminal can pre-configure the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array locally.

[0148] Please refer to Figure 6 The method for sending precoding matrix indication information provided by an embodiment of the present invention, when applied to a base station side, includes:

[0149] Step 61: The base station sends a reference signal to the terminal using a first sparse array.

[0150] Here, the base station sends a reference signal using a first sparse array, and the reference signal may be a CSI-RS.

[0151] Step 62: The base station receives antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to a second sparse array sent by the terminal, wherein the second sparse array is a sparse array corresponding to an arrangement method selected by the terminal from a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the reference signal, and the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0152] Through the above steps, the terminal in the embodiment of the present invention feeds back antenna indication information of the second sparse array to the base station. The indication information is generated based on the antenna positions of the reference uniform array, so that the codebook of the uniform array in the prior art can be reused for codebook-based transmission.

[0153] After step 62, the base station may also determine the positions of the antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to the reference uniform array based on the antenna indication information corresponding to the second sparse array. Then, based on the positions of the antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, the base station deletes the codewords corresponding to the inactivated antennas in the second sparse array from the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the second sparse array. The base station then selects a target precoding vector based on the precoding matrix indication information and the second codebook, and precodes the demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal before transmitting the precoded information.

[0154] Specifically, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0155] In addition, the base station sends indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

[0156] From the above description, it can be seen that in the embodiment of the present invention, the antenna indication information of the sparse array is exchanged between the base station and the terminal, so that the sparse array can reuse the codebook of the uniform array defined in the existing standard, and can achieve beam pointing equivalent to the uniform array pattern during codebook-based transmission, thereby effectively improving the system performance of the sparse array in ultra-large-scale MIMO applications.

[0157] The above describes the first implementation method of determining antenna indication information by the base station and the second implementation method of determining antenna indication information by the terminal from the perspectives of the terminal and the base station, respectively. The following further illustrates the above implementation methods through several examples, taking the use of bitmaps for antenna indication information as an example.

[0158] Example 1: The base station determines a bitmap, referring to the total number of antennas in the uniform array, which is 16. The bitmap length is the same as the total number of antennas in the uniform array. This example includes the following steps:

[0159] a. The base station determines the bitmap information based on the antenna arrangement of the sparse array. The bitmap length is 16: 1011010110101101 (where the number of active antennas in the sparse array is 10).

[0160] b. The base station sends the bitmap information through relevant signaling (such as RRC signaling).

[0161] c. The terminal obtains the bitmap information and preprocesses the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array. Based on the bitmap information, the terminal obtains the total number of antennas in the original uniform array 16 and the activated antenna position information, and removes the codeword information corresponding to the bit with a value of 0. After the removal, the codebook forms a codebook C with a dimension of 64*10. s (Assume O1 is 4).

[0162] d. Terminal based on codebook C s Obtain PMI information. Assume that according to the above formula 1, the calculated PMI is 16.

[0163] e. The terminal reports PMI information to the base station.

[0164] f. PMI information fed back by the base station reference, based on C s A precoding vector is selected, and the DM-RS and / or data information are precoded before being sent.

[0165] Example 2: The base station determines a bitmap. Assuming that the total number of reference uniform array antennas is 16, the bitmap length is 1 / 2 of the total number of reference uniform array antennas.

[0166] a. The base station determines the bitmap information based on the sparse array antenna arrangement. Based on the centrosymmetric nature of the sparse array antenna arrangement, the bitmap length can be configured to be 8:10110101. (Also, the current bitmap length can be explicitly or implicitly configured to be half the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.)

[0167] b. The base station sends the bitmap information and the total number of reference uniform array antennas through relevant signaling (such as RRC signaling).

[0168] c. The terminal obtains the bitmap information and preprocesses the first codebook of the reference uniform array. According to the bitmap information, the terminal obtains the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array 16 and the activated antenna position information, and removes the codeword information corresponding to the bit with a value of 0. After the removal, the codebook is constructed with a dimension of 64*10 C s (Assume O1 is 4).

[0169] d. Terminal based on codebook C s Obtain PMI information. Calculated according to Formula 1, the PMI is 16.

[0170] e. The terminal reports PMI information to the base station.

[0171] f. PMI information fed back by the base station reference, based on C s A precoding vector is selected, and the DM-RS and / or data information are precoded before being sent.

[0172] Example 3: Terminal determines bitmap

[0173] a. The base station sends CSI-RS information through a limited number of antennas (e.g., 12).

[0174] b. The terminal estimates the downlink channel based on the CSI-RS information and calculates the downlink channel matrix observation quantity

[0175] c. Terminal according to The number of detected base station antennas is used to construct several candidate bitmaps. Assume that

[0176] As shown in Table 1:

[0177] Index bitmap 1 1011010110101101 2 1011001111001101 3 1101010110101011 4 1010110110110101

[0178] Table 1

[0179] For each bitmap, construct a codebook C s , calculate the precoding vector corresponding to each bitmap respectively, where the precoding vector corresponding to the i-th bitmap is Q i,j .

[0180] d. Terminal according to Q i,j Get the PMI information corresponding to each bitmap, as shown in Table 2:

[0181]

[0182]

[0183] Table 2

[0184] It can be seen that the second bitmap can maximize the channel capacity (22.4598).

[0185] e. The terminal reports the second bitmap information and the PMI of 48 to the base station.

[0186] f. The bitmap information and PMI information fed back by the base station are referenced and based on the corresponding C s The codebook selects a precoding vector and precodes the DM-RS and / or data information before sending.

[0187] The above describes various methods of the embodiments of the present invention. The following further provides apparatuses for implementing the above methods.

[0188] Please refer to Figure 7 The embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal 70, including:

[0189] A first receiving module 71 is configured to receive antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array;

[0190] A codebook processing module 72 is configured to pre-process the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array;

[0191] The first sending module 73 is configured to generate precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook and send the precoding matrix indication information to the base station.

[0192] Optionally, the preprocessing module is further used to: determine, based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array, the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array; and, based on the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, delete the codewords corresponding to the inactivated antennas in the sparse array from the first codebook to obtain the second codebook.

[0193] Optionally, the first sending module is also used to: receive the reference signal sent by the base station and perform downlink channel estimation to obtain a downlink channel matrix observation value; calculate a precoding vector based on the second codebook and the downlink channel matrix observation value, and determine the precoding matrix indication information based on the precoding vector.

[0194] Optionally, the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0195] Optionally, the preprocessing module is further used to: when the antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, determine the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the pre-obtained configuration information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; determine the positions of the remaining antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array based on the pre-obtained antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array and the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, and combine them with the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array to obtain the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0196] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0197] Optionally, the bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or, the bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0198] Please refer to Figure 8 , an embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal 80, comprising: a transceiver 81 and a processor 82;

[0199] The transceiver 81 is configured to receive antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array;

[0200] The processor 82 is configured to preprocess the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array; generate precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook and send the precoding matrix indication information to the base station.

[0201] Optionally, the processor is further used to: determine, based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array, the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array; and, based on the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, delete the codewords corresponding to the inactivated antennas in the sparse array from the first codebook to obtain the second codebook.

[0202] Optionally, the transceiver is also used to receive the reference signal sent by the base station and perform downlink channel estimation to obtain a downlink channel matrix observation value; the processor is also used to calculate the precoding vector based on the second codebook and the downlink channel matrix observation value, and determine the precoding matrix indication information based on the precoding vector.

[0203] Optionally, the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0204] Optionally, the processor is further used to: when the antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, determine the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the pre-obtained configuration information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; determine the positions of the remaining antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array based on the pre-obtained antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array and the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, and combine them with the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array to obtain the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0205] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0206] Optionally, the bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or, the bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0207] Please refer to Figure 9 The embodiment of the present invention further provides a base station 90, including:

[0208] A first determining module 91 is configured to determine antenna indication information of the sparse array based on positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, and send the information to the terminal;

[0209] The first transceiver module 92 is configured to send a reference signal using the sparse array, and receive precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal.

[0210] Optionally, the base station further includes:

[0211] a precoding determination module, configured to select a target precoding vector using the precoding matrix indication information and a second codebook, wherein the second codebook is obtained by processing the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array;

[0212] The first sending module is configured to precode the demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal using a target precoding vector and then send the precoded information.

[0213] Optionally, the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0214] Optionally, the first determination module is further used to select some antennas from all the antennas in the sparse array according to the antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array when the antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, and generate antenna indication information of the sparse array according to the positions of the some antennas relative to the reference uniform array.

[0215] Optionally, the base station further includes:

[0216] The second sending module is configured to configure information about the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

[0217] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0218] Optionally, the bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or, the bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0219] Please refer to Figure 10 , an embodiment of the present invention further provides a base station 100, comprising: a transceiver 101 and a processor 102;

[0220] The processor 102 is configured to determine antenna indication information of the sparse array based on positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, and send the information to the terminal;

[0221] The transceiver 101 is configured to send a reference signal using the sparse array, and receive precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal.

[0222] Optionally, the processor 102 is further configured to select a target precoding vector using the precoding matrix indication information and a second codebook, wherein the second codebook is obtained by processing a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array;

[0223] The transceiver 101 is further configured to use a target precoding vector to precode a demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal before sending the precoded information.

[0224] Optionally, the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0225] Optionally, the processor is further used to, when the antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, select some antennas from all antennas in the sparse array according to the antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array, and generate antenna indication information of the sparse array according to the positions of the some antennas relative to the reference uniform array.

[0226] Optionally, the transceiver 101 is further configured to configure information about the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

[0227] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0228] Optionally, the bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or, the bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0229] Please refer to Figure 11 , an embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal 110, including:

[0230] A first receiving module 111 is configured to receive a reference signal sent by a base station using a first sparse array and perform downlink channel estimation to determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array;

[0231] A first generating module 112 is configured to determine a plurality of candidate sparse arrays according to a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array, and generate a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array;

[0232] The first sending module 113 is configured to select a second sparse array from the multiple candidate sparse arrays based on the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse array, and send antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array to the base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0233] Optionally, the first sending module 113 is further used to calculate the precoding vector and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to each candidate sparse array based on the candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array; and determine a second sparse array that meets preset conditions from the multiple candidate sparse arrays based on the precoding vector corresponding to each candidate sparse array.

[0234] Optionally, the preset condition is maximizing channel capacity.

[0235] Optionally, the first generation module 112 is further configured to delete, from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the candidate sparse array based on positions of the antennas in the candidate sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, to obtain a candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse array.

[0236] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0237] Optionally, the terminal further includes:

[0238] The first determining module is configured to receive indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array sent by a base station, and determine the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0239] Please refer to Figure 12 , an embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal 120, comprising: a transceiver 121 and a processor 122;

[0240] The transceiver 121 is configured to receive a reference signal sent by the base station using the first sparse array and perform downlink channel estimation to determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array;

[0241] The processor 122 is configured to determine, based on multiple candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array, multiple candidate sparse arrays, and generate a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array; select a second sparse array from the multiple candidate sparse arrays based on the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse arrays, and send antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array to a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0242] Optionally, the transceiver 121 is further used to calculate the precoding vector and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to each candidate sparse array based on the candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array; and determine a second sparse array that meets preset conditions from the multiple candidate sparse arrays based on the precoding vector corresponding to each candidate sparse array.

[0243] Optionally, the preset condition is maximizing channel capacity.

[0244] Optionally, the processor is further configured to delete, from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the candidate sparse array based on positions of the antennas in the candidate sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, to obtain a candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse array.

[0245] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0246] Optionally, the transceiver is further configured to receive indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array sent by a base station, and determine the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

[0247] Please refer to Figure 13 The embodiment of the present invention further provides a base station 130, including:

[0248] A first sending module 131 is configured to send a reference signal to a terminal using a first sparse array;

[0249] The first receiving module 132 is used to receive antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to a second sparse array sent by the terminal, wherein the second sparse array is a sparse array corresponding to an arrangement method selected by the terminal from a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the reference signal, and the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0250] Optionally, the base station further includes:

[0251] A first determining module is configured to determine positions of antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to a reference uniform array based on antenna indication information corresponding to the second sparse array;

[0252] a first generating module, configured to delete, from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the second candidate sparse array based on positions of the antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the second sparse array;

[0253] The second sending module is configured to select a target precoding vector according to the precoding matrix indication information and the second codebook, and precode the demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal before sending.

[0254] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0255] Optionally, the base station further includes:

[0256] The third sending module is configured to send indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

[0257] Please refer to Figure 14 , an embodiment of the present invention further provides a base station 140, comprising: a transceiver 141 and a processor 142;

[0258] The transceiver 141 is configured to send a reference signal to a terminal using a first sparse array;

[0259] The processor 142 is configured to receive antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to a second sparse array sent by the terminal, wherein the second sparse array is a sparse array corresponding to an arrangement mode selected by the terminal from a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the reference signal, and the antenna indication information is used to indicate a position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

[0260] Optionally, the processor is further configured to determine, based on the antenna indication information corresponding to the second sparse array, positions of antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to a reference uniform array; and, based on the positions of the antennas in the second candidate sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, delete codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the second sparse array from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the second sparse array;

[0261] The transceiver is further configured to select a target precoding vector according to the precoding matrix indication information and the second codebook, and precode the demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal before sending.

[0262] Optionally, the antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

[0263] Optionally, the transceiver is further configured to send indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

[0264] Please refer to Figure 15An embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal 150, including a processor 151, a memory 152, and a computer program stored in the memory 152 and executable on the processor 151. When the computer program is executed by the processor 151, the computer program implements the various processes of the embodiment of the method for sending precoding matrix indication information executed by the terminal, and can achieve the same technical effects. To avoid repetition, the details will not be described here.

[0265] Please refer to Figure 16 An embodiment of the present invention further provides a network device 160, including a processor 161, a memory 162, and a computer program stored in the memory 162 and executable on the processor 161. When the computer program is executed by the processor 161, the various processes of the embodiment of the method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information executed by the base station are implemented, and the same technical effects can be achieved. To avoid repetition, they will not be described here.

[0266] An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer program implements the various processes of the above-mentioned method for sending or obtaining precoding matrix indication information, and can achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, the details are not described here. The computer-readable storage medium is, for example, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0267] It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "includes," or any other variations thereof are intended to encompass non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus comprising a series of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not explicitly listed, or elements inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. In the absence of further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising a ..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus comprising the element.

[0268] Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the above-mentioned embodiment methods can be implemented by means of software plus the necessary general hardware platform, and of course can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases the former is a better embodiment. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk), and includes a number of instructions for enabling a terminal (which can be a mobile phone, computer, server, air conditioner, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in each embodiment of the present invention.

[0269] The embodiments of the present invention are described above in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned specific implementation methods. The above-mentioned specific implementation methods are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Under the guidance of the present invention, ordinary technicians in this field can also make many forms without departing from the scope of protection of the present invention and the claims, all of which are protected by the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for sending precoding matrix indication information, characterized in that: include: The terminal receives antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array; The terminal preprocesses the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array; The terminal generates precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook and sends the precoding matrix indication information to the base station; The method of preprocessing the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain the second codebook corresponding to the sparse array includes: determining positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array; and deleting codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the sparse array from the first codebook according to the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array to obtain the second codebook. Generating precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook includes: receiving a reference signal sent by the base station and performing downlink channel estimation to obtain a downlink channel matrix observation; calculating a precoding vector according to the second codebook and the downlink channel matrix observation, and determining precoding matrix indication information according to the precoding vector.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or is used to indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein In a case where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, determining the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array includes: The terminal determines, according to pre-acquired configuration information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array, the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; Based on the pre-obtained antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array and the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, the positions of the remaining antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array are determined, and combined with the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array to obtain the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein The antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein The bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or, The bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

6. A method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information, characterized in that: include: The base station determines antenna indication information of the sparse array according to positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array and sends the information to the terminal; The base station sends a reference signal using the sparse array, and receives precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein After receiving the precoding matrix indication information, the method further includes: The base station selects a target precoding vector using the precoding matrix indication information and the second codebook, wherein the second codebook is obtained by processing the first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array; The base station uses the target precoding vector to precode the demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal and then sends the precoded information.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein The antenna indication information is used to indicate the positions of all antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, or is used to indicate the positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein In a case where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of some antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, determining the antenna indication information of the sparse array according to the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array includes: According to the antenna arrangement characteristics of the sparse array, some antennas are selected from all antennas in the sparse array, and antenna indication information of the sparse array is generated according to positions of the some antennas relative to the reference uniform array.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein Also includes: The base station configures information about the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein The antenna indication information of the sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein The bit length of the bit map is equal to the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array; or, The bit length of the bit map is less than the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

13. A method for sending precoding matrix indication information, characterized in that: include: The terminal receives a reference signal sent by the base station using the first sparse array and performs downlink channel estimation to determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array; The terminal determines, according to multiple candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array, multiple candidate sparse arrays, and generates a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array; The terminal selects a second sparse array from the multiple candidate sparse arrays based on the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse array, and sends antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array to the base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein The selecting a second sparse matrix from the plurality of candidate sparse matrixes according to the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse matrixes includes: The terminal calculates the precoding vector and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to each candidate sparse array according to the candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array; The terminal determines a second sparse array that meets a preset condition from the plurality of candidate sparse arrays according to the precoding vector corresponding to each candidate sparse array.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein The preset condition is maximizing the channel capacity.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein Generating a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array includes: According to positions of antennas in the candidate sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the candidate sparse array are deleted from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array to obtain a candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse array.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein The antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein Also includes: The terminal receives indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array sent by the base station, and determines the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array.

19. A method for obtaining precoding matrix indication information, characterized in that: include: The base station sends a reference signal to the terminal using a first sparse array; The base station receives antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to a second sparse array sent by the terminal, wherein the second sparse array is a sparse array corresponding to an arrangement mode selected by the terminal from a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in the reference uniform array based on the reference signal, and the antenna indication information is used to indicate the position of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein Also includes: The base station determines, according to the antenna indication information corresponding to the second sparse array, positions of antennas in the second sparse array relative to a reference uniform array; Deleting, from a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the second sparse array according to positions of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the second sparse array; The base station selects a target precoding vector according to the precoding matrix indication information and the second codebook, and precodes the demodulation reference signal and / or data information of the terminal before sending.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein The antenna indication information of the second sparse array is a bitmap, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to an antenna in the reference uniform array; the value of each bit is used to indicate whether the antenna corresponding to the bit is activated in the sparse array.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein: Also includes: The base station sends indication information of the total number of antennas in the reference uniform array to the terminal.

23. A terminal, characterized in that: including a transceiver and a processor, wherein The transceiver is configured to receive antenna indication information of a sparse array sent by a base station, wherein the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array; The processor is configured to preprocess a first codebook corresponding to the reference uniform array according to the antenna indication information of the sparse array to obtain a second codebook corresponding to the sparse array; generate precoding matrix indication information according to the second codebook and send the precoding matrix indication information to the base station; The processor is further configured to: determine, based on the antenna indication information of the sparse array, positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array; and delete, based on the positions of the antennas in the sparse array relative to the reference uniform array, codewords corresponding to inactivated antennas in the sparse array from the first codebook to obtain the second codebook; The transceiver is further used to receive the reference signal sent by the base station and perform downlink channel estimation to obtain a downlink channel matrix observation; the processor is further used to calculate a precoding vector based on the second codebook and the downlink channel matrix observation, and determine precoding matrix indication information based on the precoding vector.

24. A base station, characterized in that: including a transceiver and a processor, wherein The processor is configured to determine antenna indication information of the sparse array based on positions of antennas in the sparse array relative to a reference uniform array, and send the information to the terminal; The transceiver is configured to send a reference signal using the sparse array, and receive precoding matrix indication information sent by the terminal.

25. A terminal, characterized in that: including a transceiver and a processor, wherein The transceiver is configured to receive a reference signal sent by a base station using a first sparse array and perform downlink channel estimation to determine a first number of antennas in the first sparse array; The processor is configured to determine, based on multiple candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array, a plurality of candidate sparse arrays, and generate a candidate codebook corresponding to each candidate sparse array; select, based on the candidate codebook corresponding to the candidate sparse arrays, a second sparse array from the plurality of candidate sparse arrays; and send antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to the second sparse array to a base station, where the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

26. A base station, characterized in that: including a transceiver and a processor, wherein The transceiver is configured to send a reference signal to a terminal using a first sparse array; The processor is configured to receive antenna indication information and precoding matrix indication information corresponding to a second sparse array sent by the terminal, wherein the second sparse array is a sparse array corresponding to an arrangement mode selected by the terminal from a plurality of candidate arrangements of the first number of antennas in a reference uniform array based on the reference signal, and the antenna indication information is used to indicate positions of the antennas in the second sparse array relative to the reference uniform array.

27. A terminal, characterized in that: include: A processor, a memory, and a program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the program is executed by the processor, the program implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, or implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 13 to 18.

28. A base station, characterized in that: include: A processor, a memory, and a program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the program is executed by the processor, the program implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 6 to 12, or implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 19 to 22.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, which, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 22.

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