A communication method and device

Abstract

The present application discloses a communication method and device, which is used to solve the problem that the existing Msg 3 repeated transmission times indicates that more time-frequency resources are occupied. The method includes a terminal device receiving a first message; the terminal device obtains a first indication information according to a common bit in the first message; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times a third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in a random access process; the common bit is shared by the first indication information and the first information; the terminal device determines the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted according to the first indication information.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] In wireless communication systems, communications can be divided into different types according to the types of sending nodes and receiving nodes. Generally, the information sent by a network device to a terminal is called downlink (DL) communication, and the information sent by a terminal to a network device is called uplink (UL) communication. In the fourth generation (4G) and fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems - the new radio access technology (NR) system, in order to ensure that the terminal can successfully access the network, it is necessary to first ensure the successful transmission of each message in the random access process. Due to the large downlink transmission power, the downlink coverage is usually better than the uplink channel, so the coverage bottleneck is usually in the uplink. During the random access process, when the terminal successfully receives the random access response information sent by the network device, it needs to send message 3 (message 3, Msg 3; or called the third message, Msg 3 information) to the network device, and it is carried by the PUSCH channel.

[0003] In the existing communication system, a scheme of repeatedly transmitting Msg 3 is proposed for terminals with limited coverage; for example, different coverage levels are defined for different types of terminals, such as Coverage Enhancement (CE) mode A, namely CEmodeA, and Coverage Enhancement mode B, namely CEmodeB. In the random access process, when Radio Resource Control (RRC) has not been established, the transmission of Msg 3 is still indicated by the random access response information, that is, by the RAR UL grant field in the Random Access Response (RAR) information, and the Msg 3 PUSCH repetition indication field "Number of Repetitions for Msg 3 PUSCH" is included in the Random Access Response uplink grant RAR UL grant field. For different coverage levels, the number of indication bits for repeated transmission is also different, which can indicate different maximum number of repeated transmissions.

[0004] The above prior art indicates the number of repeated transmissions when indicating the transmission of Msg 3, but changes the number of bits of RAR UL grant and increases the occupied time and frequency resources. In addition, the Legacy terminal cannot recognize the newly defined RAR UL grant information. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present application provides a communication method for solving the problem that the existing Msg 3 indicates the number of repeated transmissions and occupies a large number of time and frequency resources.

[0006] In the first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, and the execution subject of the method can be a terminal device or a chip used in the terminal device. The following description is taken as an example that the execution subject is a terminal device. The main process includes: the terminal device receives the first information; the terminal device obtains the first indication information according to the common bit in the first information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times the third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in the random access process; the common bit is shared by the first indication information and the first information; the terminal device determines the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted according to the first indication information.

[0007] By implementing the method provided in the first aspect, after receiving the first information (the first information is the information that the network device and the terminal device will send during the random access process in the prior art), the terminal device obtains the first indication information according to the common bit in the first information, and the first indication information can indicate the number of repeated transmissions of Msg 3. The common bit is shared by the first information and the first indication information, that is, without carrying the first indication information, the common bit can be used to indicate the information that the first information needs to carry. Therefore, through the method provided in the first aspect, it is possible to achieve that the terminal device obtains the number of repeated transmissions of Msg 3 without increasing the time-frequency resource overhead, thereby achieving repeated transmission of Msg 3 and avoiding the problem of limited coverage of the terminal device.

[0008] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first indication information is further used to indicate a type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3; wherein the type of repeated transmission includes repetition type A and repetition type B.

[0009] Through the method provided by a possible implementation manner of the first aspect above, after the terminal device determines that Msg 3 needs to be repeatedly transmitted, it can also determine what method to use to implement the repeated transmission of Msg 3 according to the repeated transmission type indicated by the first indication information, thereby being able to adopt a more flexible method to implement the repeated transmission of Msg 3, further improving the stability of the terminal device's access to the network and ensuring normal communication.

[0010] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, determining the number of repeated transmissions of the third message according to the first indication information includes: determining the number of repeated transmissions of the third message according to the first number of repeated transmissions indicated by the first indication information and a repeated transmission factor K.

[0011] In the method of this embodiment, in order to achieve the purpose of indicating two kinds of information at the same time, the number of bits that can be used as common bits in the first information may be subject to certain restrictions. In order to be able to more flexibly set the number of times Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, in a method provided in a possible implementation of the first aspect above, a method is provided in which a repetition factor K and the first indication information are combined to indicate the number of repetitions. The repetition factor can be set in a variety of ways. By determining that repetition transmission is possible through the first indication information and setting a predefined number of repetitions, the repetition factor K (or scaling factor) can be used to flexibly set a variety of repetitions, thereby improving the flexibility of setting the number of repetitions.

[0012] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the repetition factor K is included in the first indication information, or the repetition factor K is a predefined value, or the repetition factor K is included in a received system message SIB. In an optional method, the repetition factor K may be indicated in a SIB1 message.

[0013] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field and / or a transmission power control TPC field.

[0014] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information is an MCS field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is one or two bits in the most significant bit MSB of the MCS field.

[0015] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information is a TPC field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is the least significant bit LSB or the most significant bit MSB of the TPC field.

[0016] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device determines the coverage level according to a reference signal power RSRP.

[0017] In the second aspect, the present application also provides another communication method, the execution subject of the method can be a network device, or a chip used in the network device. The following description is taken as an example that the execution subject is a network device. The main process includes: the network device carries the first indication information in the common bit position of the first information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times the third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in the random access process; the common bit position is shared by the first indication information and the first information; the network device sends the first information to the terminal device.

[0018] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first indication information is further used to indicate a type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3; wherein the type of repeated transmission includes repetition type A and repetition type B.

[0019] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method also includes: the network device carries a repetition transmission factor K in the first indication information; or carries the repetition transmission factor K in a system message SIB; wherein the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined by the first indication information and the repetition transmission factor K.

[0020] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field and / or a transmission power control TPC field.

[0021] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information is an MCS field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is one or two bits in the most significant bit MSB of the MCS field.

[0022] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information is a TPC field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is the least significant bit LSB or the most significant bit MSB of the TPC field.

[0023] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method also includes: the network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device based on the reserved physical random access channel PRACH resources used by the terminal device; or the network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device based on the number of times the terminal device PRACH is repeatedly transmitted; or the network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device based on the power of the received signal carried by the PRACH channel of the terminal device.

[0024] In the third aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device, comprising: a receiving unit, configured to receive first information; a processing unit, configured to obtain first indication information based on a common bit in the first information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times a third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in a random access process; the common bit is shared by the first indication information and the first information; and determining the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted based on the first indication information.

[0025] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first indication information is further used to indicate a type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3; wherein the type of repeated transmission includes repetition type A and repetition type B.

[0026] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first determination unit is specifically used to determine the number of repeated transmissions of the third message according to the first number of repeated transmissions indicated by the first indication information and the repeated transmission factor K.

[0027] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the repetition transmission factor K is included in the first indication information, or the repetition transmission factor K is a predefined value, or the repetition transmission factor K is included in a received system message SIB.

[0028] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first information includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field and / or a transmission power control TPC field.

[0029] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information is an MCS field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is one or two bits in the most significant bit MSB of the MCS field.

[0030] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first information is a TPC field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is the least significant bit LSB or the most significant bit MSB of the TPC field.

[0031] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the communication device further includes: a second determination unit, configured to determine the coverage level according to a reference signal power RSRP.

[0032] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device, comprising: a processing unit, used to carry first indication information in a common bit position of the first information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times a third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a wireless resource control RRC connection request in a random access process; the common bit position is shared by the first indication information and the first information; and a sending unit, used to send the first information to a terminal device.

[0033] In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first indication information is further used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3; wherein the type of repeated transmission includes repetition type A and repetition type B.

[0034] In a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is also used to carry a repetition transmission factor K in the first indication information; or, to carry the repetition transmission factor K in a system message SIB; wherein the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined by the first indication information and the repetition transmission factor K.

[0035] In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first information includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field and / or a transmission power control TPC field.

[0036] In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first information is an MCS field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is one or two bits in the most significant bit MSB of the MCS field.

[0037] In a possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the first information is a TPC field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is the least significant bit LSB or the most significant bit MSB of the TPC field.

[0038] In a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the processing unit is also used to determine the coverage level of the terminal device based on the reserved physical random access channel PRACH resources used by the terminal device; or determine the coverage level of the terminal device based on the number of times the PRACH of the terminal device is repeatedly transmitted; or determine the coverage level of the terminal device based on the power of the signal carried by the received PRACH channel of the terminal device.

[0039] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a terminal device in the above method embodiment, or a chip set in the terminal device. The communication device includes a processor and an interface circuit, and optionally, also includes a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs or instructions, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the interface circuit. When the processor executes the computer program or instruction, the communication device executes the method executed by the terminal device in the above first aspect method embodiment.

[0040] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a network device in the above method embodiment, or a chip set in the network device. The communication device includes a processor and an interface circuit, and optionally, also includes a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs or instructions, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the interface circuit. When the processor executes the computer program or instruction, the communication device executes the method executed by the network device in the above second aspect method embodiment.

[0041] In a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: a computer program code, when the computer program code is run, the method performed by the terminal device in the above aspects is executed.

[0042] In an eighth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: a computer program code, when the computer program code is run, the method performed by the network device in the above aspects is executed.

[0043] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the above-mentioned methods. In a possible design, the chip system also includes a memory for storing program instructions and / or data. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0044] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor for implementing the functions of the network device in the above-mentioned methods. In a possible design, the chip system also includes a memory for storing program instructions and / or data. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0045] In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, which, when executed, implements the methods performed by a terminal device in the above aspects.

[0046] In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program. When the computer program is executed, the method performed by the network device in the above aspects is implemented.

[0047] In a thirteenth aspect, a communication system is provided, wherein the communication system includes the network device and the terminal device involved in any of the above aspects. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0048] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to the present application;

[0049] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a random access process in the prior art;

[0050] Figure 3 A flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0056] The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0057] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as long term evolution (LTE) systems, fifth generation (5G) mobile communication systems, and future mobile communication systems.

[0058] like Figure 1As shown, a possible network architecture diagram applicable to the embodiment of the present application includes a terminal device 110 and an access network device 120. The terminal device 110 and the access network device 120 can communicate through the Uu air interface, and the Uu air interface can be understood as an interface between a universal terminal device and a network device (universal UE to network interface). The transmission of the Uu air interface includes uplink transmission and downlink transmission.

[0059] For example, uplink transmission refers to the terminal device 110 sending an uplink signal to the access network device 120. Among them, the uplink signal may include one or more of uplink data information, uplink control information, and a reference signal (RS). The channel used to transmit the uplink signal is called an uplink channel, and the uplink channel may be a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). PUSCH is used to carry uplink data, and the uplink data may also be called uplink data information. PUCCH is used to carry uplink control information (UCI) fed back by the terminal device. UCI may include channel state information (CSI), acknowledgement (ACK) / negative acknowledgement (NACK), etc.

[0060] In the LTE system, the access network device is the eNB and the core network device is the MME; in the UMTS system, the access network device is the RNC and the core network device is the SGSN; in other wireless communication systems, there are also corresponding access network devices and core network devices. In the following embodiments, the above-mentioned access network devices and core network devices are collectively referred to as network devices relative to terminal devices.

[0061] Based on the above communication system, the present application provides a communication method. The following is an explanation of some nouns or terms used in the present application, which are also considered as part of the invention content.

[0062] 1. Terminal equipment

[0063] The terminal device can be referred to as a terminal, also known as user equipment (UE), which is a device with wireless transceiver function. The terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); it can also be deployed in the air (for example, on airplanes, drones, balloons and satellites, etc.). The terminal device can be a mobile phone, a car, a tablet computer, a smart speaker, a detector, a gas station sensor, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality terminal device, an augmented reality terminal device, a wireless terminal device in industrial control, a wireless terminal device in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal device in telemedicine, a wireless terminal device in smart grids, a wireless terminal device in transportation safety, a wireless terminal device in smart cities, a wireless terminal device in smart homes, etc. The terminal device can also be fixed or mobile. The embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0064] In the embodiment of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal may be a terminal device; or it may be a device capable of supporting the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the terminal device. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described by taking the device for realizing the function of the terminal device as an example that the terminal device is an example.

[0065] 2. Network equipment

[0066] The network device may be an access network device, which may also be referred to as a radio access network (RAN) device, and is a device that provides wireless communication functions for terminal devices. Access network devices include, for example, but are not limited to: next generation base stations (generation nodeB, gNB) in 5G, evolved node B (evolved node B, eNB), baseband units (baseband units, BBU), transmitting and receiving points (transmitting and receiving points, TRP), transmitting points (transmitting points, TP), base stations in future mobile communication systems or access points in WiFi systems, etc. The access network device may also be a wireless controller, a centralized unit (CU), and / or a distributed unit (DU) in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or the network device may be a relay station, an on-board device, and a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc.

[0067] The terminal device can communicate with multiple access network devices of different technologies. For example, the terminal device can communicate with an access network device supporting long term evolution (LTE), can communicate with an access network device supporting 5G, and can also communicate with an access network device supporting LTE and an access network device supporting 5G at the same time. The embodiments of the present application are not limited.

[0068] In the embodiment of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the network device may be a network device; or it may be a device capable of supporting the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described by taking the device for realizing the function of the network device as an example that the network device is used as the network device.

[0069] 3. Random Access

[0070] Random access is the process of establishing a wireless link connection between a terminal device and a network device. Only after random access is completed can the network device and the terminal device perform data interoperation normally. According to different service triggering methods, random access can be divided into contention based random access procedure and non-contention based random access procedure. The main process of contention based random access includes the following steps (implementation process steps as follows Figure 2 shown):

[0071] S201, UE sends a random access preamble to a network device.

[0072] The random access preamble may also be called message 1 (Msg1) or a random access request. The function of the random access preamble is to notify the network device that there is a random access request.

[0073] S202, after detecting the random access preamble, the network device sends a random access response (RAR) to the UE. The random access response may also be referred to as message 2 (Msg2). The random access response includes the scheduling information of message 3, i.e., the RAR uplink (UL) grant information. The random access response may also include other information, which will not be described in detail here.

[0074] S203, the UE receives the random access response and sends message 3 in the time-frequency resources scheduled by the scheduling information in the random access response. Message 3 is carried by the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Message 3 may carry information such as a unique user identification of the terminal device.

[0075] S204, the network device receives message 3 from the UE and returns a conflict resolution message, also called message 4 (Msg4), to the UE that has successfully accessed. The network device will carry the unique user identifier in message 3 in the conflict resolution message to specify the UE that has successfully accessed, and other UEs that have not successfully accessed will re-initiate random access.

[0076] From the above process, it can be seen that the successful transmission of message 3 is more important for the success of the random access process, but in the communication system, the terminal device is limited in coverage in some application scenarios. Terminals with limited coverage are usually located in some deep coverage scenarios, such as the edge of the cell, the basement and other areas; or, terminal devices with limited coverage usually have lower communication performance, such as narrower bandwidth, fewer antenna ports, lower processing power, longer processing time, and / or lower transmission rate, etc. In addition, terminal devices with limited coverage may also have longer battery life, lower processing complexity and / or equipment cost. All these lead to a low signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) at the receiving end of the coverage-limited terminal device during uplink transmission, and it is usually necessary to repeat the uplink transmission. The receiving end demodulates and decodes after receiving and combining multiple uplink transmissions.

[0077] The implementation scheme of repeated transmission Msg 3 proposed for terminals with limited coverage refers to: the network device instructs the terminal device to perform multiple consecutive retransmissions of the same valid data on the valid uplink time domain resources through one scheduling, and the network device receives and combines the multiple consecutive uplink transmissions and then performs demodulation and decoding. In the existing NR protocol, for users who have established an RRC connection, the communication system supports two different types of PUSCH repetition transmissions, namely, repetition transmission of PUSCH type A (PUSCH repetition Type A) and repetition transmission of PUSCH type B (PUSCH repetition Type B). Among them, the repetition transmission of PUSCH type A is based on the time slot, requiring that the position and length of the time domain symbols occupied by PUSCH in each time slot used for PUSCH repetition transmission are the same, and PUSCH repetition transmission cannot be performed in time slots that do not meet the above conditions. For repeated transmission of PUSCH type B, repeated transmission of PUSCH is not limited to time slot-based transmission, but PUSCH is repeatedly transmitted on multiple consecutive uplink symbols starting from a certain starting uplink symbol (the specific implementation of repetition type B can be: the starting symbol is different in each repeated transmission; or the actual number of symbols transmitted each time is different in each repeated transmission).

[0078] If the existing NR protocol implements repeated transmission by increasing the number of bits of the RAR UL grant to indicate the number of repeated transmissions of Msg 3, this implementation will occupy more time and frequency resources; in addition, it will cause the Legacy terminal to be unable to recognize the newly defined RAR UL grant information, resulting in the inability to access the network, affecting normal communication.

[0079] Based on the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method for improving network coverage performance. The following is a specific description of the specific implementation steps of an embodiment of the present application in combination with a network device and a terminal device that implement the method of the embodiment of the present application, which may include (such as Figure 3 shown):

[0080] S301, the network device carries the first indication information in the shared bit position of the first information and sends it to the terminal device; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times the third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in the random access process; the shared bit position is shared by the first indication information and the first information;

[0081] In this embodiment, the first information can be information used by the terminal device in the process of random access in the prior art; the first information can be understood as a signaling or a field, as long as the first information can divide one or several bits of itself as bits shared with the first indication information through specific settings. Of course, when the first information and the first indication information share one or several bits, the original bit set originally used to indicate the meaning of the first information becomes the meaning to be indicated by the first information and the meaning to be indicated by the first indication information; that is, part of the bits in the original bit set are used to indicate the meaning of the first information; part of the bits are used to indicate the meaning of the first indication information. In this way, more information can be carried without increasing the length of the field or signaling, thereby achieving rational use of resources.

[0082] S302, the terminal device receives the first information;

[0083] S303, the terminal device obtains first indication information according to the common bits in the first information;

[0084] S304: The terminal device determines the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted according to the first indication information.

[0085] After determining that Msg 3 can be repeatedly transmitted through the method provided in the above embodiment, in view of the fact that in the existing NR protocol, the communication system supports two different types of PUSCH repetition transmissions (the repetition transmission types include: repetition transmission of PUSCH type A (PUSCH repetition Type A) and repetition transmission of PUSCH type B (PUSCH repetition Type B)), in order to be able to adopt a more flexible method to implement the repetition transmission of Msg 3, in this embodiment:

[0086] The first indication information is also used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3; wherein the type of repeated transmission includes repetition type A and repetition type B.

[0087] The repetition type A and repetition type B may be specifically explained in TS 38.214. The instruction in this example provides a way to instruct the terminal to use a method for repeated transmission, and does not limit which repetition type A or repetition type B is, or what the repetition type is.

[0088] In this embodiment, after determining that Msg 3 needs to be repeatedly transmitted, the terminal device can also determine which type of repetition type A or repetition type B to use to implement repeated transmission of Msg 3 based on the repeated transmission type indicated by the first indication information, thereby enabling a more flexible approach to implement repeated transmission of Msg 3, further improving the stability of the terminal device's access to the network and ensuring normal communication.

[0089] based on Figure 3 In the method shown, in the process of implementing the transmission of the first information and the first indication information, in order to achieve the purpose of indicating two kinds of information at the same time and without affecting each other, the number of bits that can be used as common bits in the first information may be limited to a certain extent. In order to be able to more flexibly set the number of times Msg 3 is transmitted repeatedly, a method of combining a repetition factor K and the first indication information to indicate the number of repetitions is also provided in an embodiment of the present application. The setting method of the repetition factor may include multiple methods. After determining that the basic data that can be transmitted repeatedly and setting a repetition transmission through the first indication information, multiple repetitions can be flexibly set through this repetition factor K (or variable factor), thereby improving the flexibility of setting the number of repetitions. A specific implementation method may be to determine the number of times the third message is transmitted repeatedly based on the first number of repetitions indicated by the first indication information and the repetition factor K.

[0090] In this implementation, the number of repeated transmissions indicated by the first indication information includes whether repeated transmission is possible. When the number of repeated transmissions indicated by the first indication information is 0, it indicates that repeated transmission is not supported. If the indicated number of repeated transmissions is not 0, a reasonable number of repeated transmissions can be determined according to the first indication information and the repeated transmission factor K for repeated transmission.

[0091] For the setting of the repetitive transmission factor K, the terminal device and the network device can achieve uniformity through a setting method, for example:

[0092] A1, the repetition factor K is included in the first indication information; the specific implementation may be:

[0093] The network device carries the repetition transmission factor K in the first indication information; or, the corresponding terminal device obtains the repetition transmission factor K in the first indication information.

[0094] A2, the repetition transmission factor K is a predefined value;

[0095] The terminal device pre-stores the repetitive transmission factor K, and after determining through the first indication information that repeated transmission can be performed, obtains the number of repeated transmissions based on the repetitive transmission cardinality indicated by the first indication information and the repetitive transmission factor K.

[0096] A3, the repetition factor K is included in the received system message SIB;

[0097] The corresponding network device may carry the repetition factor K in a system information block (SIB): in a specific application implementation, SIB1 may be selected to carry the repetition factor K. The corresponding terminal device may obtain the repetition factor K from the SIB1 message.

[0098] In this instance, the terminal device and the network device can be pre-configured to transmit a repetition transmission factor K through a second information transmission. Because before the Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection is established, the information exchanged between the network device and the terminal device is limited. In view of this situation, in this instance, an SIB message can be selected as the second information, that is, the SIB is selected to carry the repetition transmission factor K.

[0099] Through the above method, the value indicated by the first indication information can be combined with the repetition factor K to determine the number of repetitions, thereby expanding the range of optional repetitions, so that more repetitions can be provided. Further based on the above indication methods A1 and A3 of the repetition factor K, the repetition factor K can be updated and adjusted in real time; in the case where the number of repetitions that can be indicated by the first indication information is limited and the number of repetitions needs to be flexibly indicated, the latest repetition factor K can be indicated more flexibly through the first information or SIB.

[0100] In step 301, it is pointed out that in the embodiment of the present application, the signaling or field that can be used as the first information to carry the first indication information may include many kinds, but based on the most common use scenario of repeated transmission, repeated transmission is generally for terminal devices with limited coverage, so in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the field commonly used for information transmission with terminal devices with limited coverage can be selected to carry the first indication information, and the field is selected based on some characteristics of the terminal devices with limited coverage to provide common bits. First, in the embodiment of the application, the implementation method for determining whether the terminal device has limited coverage can be:

[0101] For a terminal device, the terminal device can determine whether its own coverage is limited by reference signal received power (RSRP), and determine the coverage level by RSRP value; when the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, the terminal device can be considered as a terminal device with limited coverage.

[0102] After the terminal device determines that it is a terminal device with limited coverage, the terminal device with limited coverage can increase the access probability through repeated transmission of PRACH. Based on the applicable scenario, the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application notifies the network device (which can be a base station) of its own coverage level (or whether the coverage is limited) in multiple ways. The specific way may include:

[0103] Method 1: Use the Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) resource to indicate the coverage level of the terminal device;

[0104] The base station reserves dedicated PRACH resources for terminal devices with limited coverage (i.e., a new type of PRACH resources is added); when the terminal device determines that the reference signal power (RSRP) is less than a predefined threshold value (i.e., it determines that it is a terminal with limited coverage), it chooses to use the reserved PRACH resources; further, when the coverage level of the terminal device is different, different reserved PRACH resources can be selected; that is, for terminals with limited coverage, access can be made through PRACH repeated transmission, and the PRACH repeated transmission includes multiple transmissions at different time domain or frequency domain locations. In the repeated transmission, the PRACH sequence does not change.

[0105] Correspondingly, the network device may determine the coverage level of the terminal device according to the PRACH resources used by the terminal device, that is, the network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device according to the time domain or frequency domain position of the PRACH resources used by the terminal device.

[0106] Method 2: Use the number of PRACH repetition transmissions of the terminal device to indicate the coverage level of the terminal device;

[0107] Terminal devices with limited coverage increase access probability through repeated PRACH transmissions. Correspondingly, the base station can identify whether there is access by detecting the number of repeated PRACH transmissions; further, the number of repeated PRACH transmissions can correspond to the restricted level of the terminal device, and the network device can determine the coverage level of the terminal device according to the number of repeated PRACH transmissions of the terminal device.

[0108] Mode 3: Determine the coverage level of the terminal device according to the power of the signal carried by the PRACH channel of the terminal device received;

[0109] Furthermore, for terminals with limited coverage, their SINR is low, so terminal devices with limited coverage usually select lower MCS index values, so there may be redundant bits for the existing MCS field; in addition, for terminal devices with limited coverage, full power transmission usually cannot meet the access requirements, so the power adjustment rate indicated by the transmit power control (Transmit power command, TPC) field should be a positive value, so the TPC field can provide shared bits. Therefore, the first information can be the MCS field and / or the TPC field. The following further describes the method provided in this embodiment for providing shared bits for two different fields:

[0110] 1. When the first information is an MCS field, the implementation method of indicating the number of repeated transmissions in the embodiment of the present application may be:

[0111] The method provided in the embodiment of the present application is to enable the MCS field to carry the first indication information without affecting the meaning of the existing MCS field. In order to further illustrate the common bits provided by the MCS field, the existing format of the MCS field and the meaning to be indicated by the field are first introduced, including:

[0112] In the uplink grant RAR UL grant information of the existing random access response, there are 16 MCS index values, indicated by 4 bits. As the index value increases from 0 to 15, the code rate, spectrum efficiency, etc. corresponding to the index value also increase in sequence (the mapping relationship between the MCS index value and the bit value is shown in Table 1).

[0113] Table 1

[0114]

[0115]

[0116] In the existing communication system, the terminal device can be divided into multiple coverage levels based on the coverage of the terminal device, and the coverage level is determined by the RSRP of the terminal device; if the coverage level of the terminal device is determined to be a preset coverage level according to the RSRP, the terminal device can be determined to be a coverage-limited terminal device; since the SINR of the coverage-limited terminal device is low, the coverage-limited terminal device usually selects a lower MCS index value to correspond to a lower code rate and spectrum efficiency. For example, the coverage-limited terminal device usually only selects MCS index values ​​of 0 to 3 or 0 to 7. If the MCS index value is 0 to 3; as shown in Table 1, at this time, the state value of the 4-bit field indicating the MCS index value is 0000 to 0011. In this case, it can also be understood that the coverage-limited terminal device only uses the lower two bits of the 4-bit field indicating the MCS index value, and the higher two bits are redundant bits. For another example, the coverage-limited terminal device usually only selects MCS index values ​​of 0 to 7. At this time, the status value of the 4-bit field indicating the MCS index value is 0000 to 0111. In this case, it can also be understood that the terminal device with limited coverage only uses the lower three bits of the 4-bit field indicating the MCS index value, and the highest bit is a redundant bit.

[0117] Based on the above description of the use of the MCS field for coverage-limited terminals, it can be understood that for coverage-limited terminals, the 4-bit MCS field can have 1 or 2 bits of redundancy when indicating the MCS index value. In the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the 1 or 2 bits of redundancy can be used as the shared bit position for transmitting the first indication information. That is, if the first information is the MCS field and the coverage level of the terminal device is the preset coverage level, the shared bit position is one or two bits in the most significant bit (MSB) of the MCS field. The shared bits for the above two situations are described in detail below:

[0118] Case 1: For a terminal device with limited coverage, an MCS index value of 0 to 7 is selected. At this time, the state value of the 4 bits indicating the MCS field is 0000 to 0111. In this case, the MCS field has 1 redundant bit, and the 1 redundant bit can be used as a common bit to indicate the first indication information.

[0119] For coverage-restricted terminals that select MCS index values ​​of 0 to 7, the most significant bit (MSB) is not used when indicating the MCS index value, so it can be used to indicate the number of repeated transmissions of Msg 3. For example, when the MSB in the MCS field is used as a common bit, when the terminal device receives "1110", if the terminal device is a coverage-restricted terminal, the MCS index value indicated by "1110" is 6, that is, the valid bits of the MCS index value are the three bits "110" on the right, and the most significant bit MSB is not calculated.

[0120] Further, the first indication information can be determined based on the relationship between the value carried by the predefined MSB and the number of repeated transmissions. For example: when the MSB is 0, it indicates that the number of repeated transmissions is 0 (i.e., Msg 3 repeated transmission is not supported); when the MSB is 1, the number of repeated transmissions is 2. Of course, for terminals with limited coverage, it can also be assumed that Msg 3 repeated transmissions are required. Then, when the MSB is 0, it can also indicate that the number of repeated transmissions is 2; or other set values. In this embodiment, the number of repeated transmissions refers to the sum of all transmission times, that is, the total number of the first transmission and subsequent repeated transmissions together.

[0121] In addition, in order to indicate the number of repeated transmissions more flexibly, the number of repeated transmissions can also be determined based on the predefined repeated transmission factor K combined with the value indicated by the common bit, and the final determined number of repeated transmissions = the value indicated by the common bit * K; the value indicated by the common bit in the embodiment of the present application is not limited to the value obtained by converting the common bit into binary; the value obtained by binary conversion can also be mapped to a new value based on a preset mapping relationship; for example, as shown in Table 2, when the binary conversion value of the common bit is 0, 0 is mapped to another value (for example, 1) according to the mapping relationship; in this example, the specific mapping relationship can be configured according to the specific transmission needs, and no specific limitation is made here. In this scenario, if K=2 is set and the preset MSB value is 1, the number of repeated transmissions indicated is shown in Table 2 below.

[0122] Table 2

[0123]

[0124] Of course, for terminal devices with unlimited coverage, when the MCS field is "1110", the indicated MCS index value is 14.

[0125] Case 2: For terminal devices with limited coverage, the MCS index value is selected to be 0 to 3. At this time, the state value of the 4-bit field indicating the MCS field is 0000 to 0011. In this case, the MCS field can have 2 redundant bits, and the 2 redundant bits can be used as common bits to indicate the first indication information. Similar to the indication method of the above case 1, when the state value of the MCS field is 0111, the valid bits of the corresponding MCS index value are the rightmost two bits (i.e., 11), and the corresponding MCS index value is 3; the number of repeated transmissions that can be indicated by the corresponding first indication information can be shown in Table 3:

[0126] Table 3

[0127] The most significant two bits of the MCS field The value indicated by the common bits Remark 00 1 Indicates no duplication, only transmit once 01 2 A total of 2 transfers 10 4 A total of 4 transfers 11 8 Total 8 transfers

[0128] In addition, in order to indicate the number of repeated transmissions more flexibly, the number of repeated transmissions may also be indicated based on a predefined repeated transmission factor, as shown in Table 4 below.

[0129] Table 4

[0130]

[0131] 2. When the first information is a TPC field, the implementation method of indicating the number of repeated transmissions in the embodiment of the present application may be:

[0132] The method provided in the embodiment of the present application enables the TPC field to carry the first indication information without affecting the meaning of the existing TPC field. In order to further illustrate the common bits provided by the TPC field, the existing format of the TPC field and the meaning to be indicated by the field are first introduced, including:

[0133] The TPC field is used to control the transmission power of the third message in the random access process. When the transmission power of the terminal device is low and cannot meet the demodulation requirements, the network device can instruct the terminal device to increase the transmission power through the TPC field. When the transmission power of the terminal device is high, the network device can instruct the terminal device to reduce the transmission power through this field. In the uplink authorization of the random access response, the TPC field is indicated by 3 bits, and different state values ​​of the TPC field correspond to different power adjustment amounts. Table 5 shows the state values ​​of the TPC field in the existing protocol and the power adjustment amount corresponding to each state value.

[0134] Table 5

[0135] TPC command Value(in dB) 0 -6 1 -4 2 -2 3 0 4 2 5 4 6 6 7 8

[0136] For terminal devices with limited coverage, full-power transmission usually cannot meet the access requirements, and the power adjustment rate indicated by the TPC field should be a positive value. According to this situation, the index value of the TPC field for the terminal with limited coverage is 4 to 7, that is, the selectable TPC index value required by the terminal with limited coverage is generally only used in 4 cases, so the use of two bits can meet the purpose of indicating the TPC index value of the terminal with limited coverage. In this case, one bit in the TPC field can be used as a common bit to carry the first indication information, and the common bit can be the MSB or the least significant bit (LSB) of the TPC field. That is, the first information is the TPC field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is the preset coverage level, then the common bit is the least significant bit LSB or the most significant bit MSB of the TPC field.

[0137] As shown in Table 5, if the index value of the TPC field selected by the coverage-limited terminal is 4 to 7 (the corresponding power adjustment value is 2, 4, 6, 8), then the corresponding TPC field state value is 100 to 111, the highest bit is always 1, and the different state values ​​of the lower 2 bits correspond to different power adjustment values. In this case, it can also be understood that the coverage-limited terminal device only needs to identify the state value of the lower two bits of the 3-bit field of the TPC field, and the highest bit is a redundant bit. Then the redundant bit can be used as a common bit to carry the first indication information.

[0138] In addition, if the least significant bit LSB of the TPC field is selected as the common bit, the state value of the TPC field from 000 to 001 indicates the power adjustment value 2, and then the LSB indicates the number of repeated transmissions. The corresponding relationship between the power adjustment value of the coverage-limited terminal and the Legacy UE and the state value of the TPC field is shown in Table 6:

[0139] Table 6

[0140] TPC Bit field Legacy UE Value Coverage Restricted UE Value 000 -6 2 001 -4 4 010 -2 6 011 0 8 100 2 2 101 4 4 110 6 6 111 8 8

[0141] Based on the above situation, the TPC field can provide a bit as a common bit to carry the first indication information. Based on the way in which a bit in the MCS field carries the first indication information, in this embodiment, the desired number of repeated transmissions can be flexibly set by pre-setting the number of repeated transmissions and the repeated transmission factor. The specific implementation method is similar to that of the MCS field and will not be repeated here.

[0142] Because in actual usage scenarios, both the MCS field and the TPC field may be used, the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can also combine the common bits that can be provided by the MCS field and the TPC field to further increase the value of the number of repetitions that can be indicated, and indicate the repetition type, repetition factor, etc. The specific implementation can be:

[0143] Joint indication method 1: If the most significant bit of the MCS field and the least significant bit of the TPC field are used to jointly indicate the number of repeated transmissions, when jointly indicating, you can choose to use the most significant bit of the MCS field and the least significant bit of the TPC field; or, you can also use the most significant bit of the MCS field and the most significant bit of the TPC field to jointly indicate the number of repeated transmissions. If the repeated transmission factor K is not configured, it defaults to 1. The corresponding indicated number of repeated transmissions is shown in Table 7 below. When the common bits in the MCS field are combined with the common bits in the TPC field, the order of the two bits is not limited to the order in the following table.

[0144] Table 7

[0145]

[0146] Joint indication method 2: If the first two bits of the most significant bit of the MCS field and the least significant bit of the TPC field are used to jointly indicate the number of repeated transmissions; when the joint indication is performed, the first two bits of the most significant bit of the MCS field and the most significant bit of the TPC field can be used to jointly indicate the number of repeated transmissions. As shown in Table 8 below, if the repeated transmission factor K is not configured, it defaults to 1; in this embodiment, K can be set to 2. The order of the most significant bit of the MCS field and the least significant bit of the TPC field is not limited to the order in the following table.

[0147] Table 8

[0148]

[0149] Joint indication method three: If the first two bits of the most significant bit of the MCS field are used to indicate the number of repeated transmissions, the least significant bit or the most significant bit of the TPC field can be used to indicate the repetition type, that is, whether the repeated transmission is repetition type A or repetition type B.

[0150] Of course, in the above three combined modes, when the common bits include at least two, one bit can be allocated to indicate the repetition type of repeated transmission.

[0151] In the embodiment of the present application, after receiving the first information (the first information is the information that the network device and the terminal device will send during the random access process in the prior art), the terminal device obtains the first indication information according to the common bit in the first information, and the first indication information can indicate the number of repeated transmissions of Msg 3. The common bit is shared by the first information and the first indication information, that is, without carrying the first indication information, the common bit can be used to indicate the information that the first information needs to carry. Therefore, through the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can obtain the number of repeated transmissions of Msg 3 without increasing the time-frequency resource overhead, thereby realizing the repeated transmission of Msg 3 and avoiding the problem of limited coverage of the terminal device.

[0152] It is understandable that, in order to implement the functions in the above-mentioned embodiments, the network equipment and the terminal equipment include hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and method steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware, software, or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0153] Figure 4 The structure diagram of a possible communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 400 can implement the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiment. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device can be as follows: Figure 1 The terminal device 110 shown may also be a module (such as a chip) applied to a terminal device.

[0154] like Figure 4 As shown, the communication device 400 includes a receiving unit 401, and a processing unit 402 can be used to implement the above Figure 3 The functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown. Among them:

[0155] The receiving unit 401 is configured to receive first information;

[0156] Optionally, the first information includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field and / or a transmission power control TPC field.

[0157] When the first information is an MCS field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, the common bit is one or two bits in the most significant bit MSB of the MCS field.

[0158] When the first information is a TPC field and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, the common bit is the least significant bit LSB or the most significant bit MSB of the TPC field.

[0159] Optionally, the first indication information is also used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3; wherein the type of repeated transmission includes repetition type A and repetition type B.

[0160] The processing unit 402 is used to obtain first indication information according to the common bit in the first information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times the third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in the random access process; the common bit is shared by the first indication information and the first information; and determine the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted according to the first indication information.

[0161] Optionally, the processing unit 402 is specifically configured to determine the number of repeated transmissions of the third message according to the first number of repeated transmissions indicated by the first indication information and a repeated transmission factor K.

[0162] The repetition factor K is included in the first indication information, or

[0163] The repetition factor K is a predefined value, or,

[0164] The repetition transmission factor K is included in the received system message SIB.

[0165] Optionally, the communication device may further include:

[0166] The processing unit 402 is further configured to determine the coverage level according to a reference signal power RSRP.

[0167] Figure 5 The structure diagram of a possible communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 500 can implement the functions of the network device in the above method embodiment, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiment. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device can be as follows: Figure 1 The access network device 120 shown may also be a module (such as a chip) applied to an access network device.

[0168] like Figure 5 As shown, the communication device 500 includes a processing unit 501 and a sending unit 502. The communication device 500 can be used to implement the above Figure 3 The functions of the network device in the method embodiment are shown.

[0169] Specifically, the processing unit 501 is used to carry the first indication information in the common bit position of the first information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times the third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in the random access process; the common bit position is shared by the first indication information and the first information;

[0170] In one implementation, the first indication information is also used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3; wherein the type of repeated transmission includes repetition type A and repetition type B.

[0171] The sending unit 502 is used to send the first information to the terminal device.

[0172] In one implementation, the processing unit 501 is also used to carry a repetition transmission factor K in the first indication information; wherein the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined by the first indication information and the repetition transmission factor K; or, the repetition transmission factor K is carried in a system message SIB.

[0173] In one implementation, the first information includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field and / or a transmission power control TPC field.

[0174] In one implementation, the first information is an MCS field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is one or two bits in the most significant bit MSB of the MCS field.

[0175] In one implementation, the first information is a TPC field, and the coverage level of the terminal device is a preset coverage level, then the common bit is the least significant bit LSB or the most significant bit MSB of the TPC field.

[0176] In one implementation, the communication device may further include:

[0177] The processing unit is further configured to determine the coverage level of the terminal device according to a reserved physical random access channel PRACH resource used by the terminal device; or,

[0178] Determine the coverage level of the terminal device according to the number of times the PRACH of the terminal device is repeatedly transmitted; or,

[0179] The coverage level of the terminal device is determined according to the power of the signal carried by the received PRACH channel of the terminal device.

[0180] For a more detailed description of the receiving unit 401, the processing unit 402, the processing unit 501 and the sending unit 502, reference may be made to the relevant description in the above method embodiment, which will not be described again here. The hardware elements of the receiving unit 401 and the sending unit 502 may be transceivers, and the hardware elements of the processing unit 402 and the processing unit 501 may be processors.

[0181] Figure 6 In an embodiment of the present application, the communication device 600 includes a processor 601 and an interface circuit 602. The processor 601 and the interface circuit 602 may be connected via a bus 603. It is understood that the interface circuit 602 is a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 600 may also include a memory for storing instructions executed by the processor 601 or storing input data required by the processor 601 to execute instructions or storing data generated after the processor 601 executes instructions.

[0182] When the communication device 600 is used to implement the method in the above method embodiment, the processor 601 is used to execute the functions of the above processing unit 402 or the processing unit 501, and the interface circuit 602 is used to execute the functions of the above receiving unit 401 and the sending unit 502.

[0183] When the communication device 600 is a chip applied to a terminal device, the terminal device chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device, and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal device; or the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device, and the information is sent by the terminal device to the network device.

[0184] When the communication device 600 is a chip applied to a network device, the network device chip implements the functions of the network device in the above method embodiment. The network device chip receives information from other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal device to the network device; or the network device chip sends information to other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

[0185] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0186] In an embodiment of the present application, a terminal device or a network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit (CPU), a memory management unit (MMU), and a memory (also called main memory). The operating system can be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through a process, such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer includes applications such as a browser, an address book, a word processing software, and an instant messaging software. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the specific structure of the execution subject of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, as long as it can communicate according to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application by running a program that records the code of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the execution subject of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module in a terminal device or a network device that can call a program and execute a program.

[0187] In addition, various aspects or features of the present application can be implemented as methods, devices or products using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. The term "product" used in this application covers computer programs that can be accessed from any computer-readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks or tapes, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), etc.), smart cards and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), cards, sticks or key drives, etc.). In addition, the various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing and / or carrying instructions and / or data.

[0188] Figure 7 2000 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application, for example, a schematic diagram of the structure of a base station. The base station 2000 can be applied to Figure 1 In the system shown, the functions of the network device in the above method embodiment are performed. As shown in the figure, the base station 2000 may include at least one antenna 2101 and at least one radio frequency unit 2102. Optionally, the transceiver unit 2100 may include a receiving unit and a sending unit, the receiving unit may correspond to a receiver (or receiver, receiving circuit), and the sending unit may correspond to a transmitter (or transmitter, transmitting circuit).

[0189] It should be understood that Figure 7 The base station 2000 shown can implement various processes involving network devices in the aforementioned method embodiments. The operations or functions of various modules in the base station 2000 are respectively to implement the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments. For details, please refer to the description in the aforementioned method embodiments. To avoid repetition, detailed description is appropriately omitted here.

[0190] Figure 8 3000 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the terminal device 3000 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in the figure, the terminal device 3000 includes a processor 3001 and a transceiver 3002. Optionally, the terminal device 3000 may also include a memory 3003. The processor 3001, the transceiver 3002 and the memory 3003 may communicate with each other through an internal connection path to transmit control and / or data signals, and the memory 3003 is used to store a computer program, and the processor 3001 is used to call and run the computer program from the memory 3003 to control the transceiver 3002 to send and receive signals.

[0191] The processor 3001 and the memory 3003 can be combined into a processing device 3004, and the processor 3001 is used to execute the program code stored in the memory 3003 to implement the above functions. It should be understood that the processing device 3004 shown in the figure is only an example. In a specific implementation, the memory 3003 can also be integrated into the processor 3001, or independent of the processor 3001. This application does not limit this.

[0192] The terminal device 3000 may further include an antenna 3010 for transmitting the uplink data or uplink control signaling output by the transceiver 3002 via a wireless signal.

[0193] It should be understood that Figure 8 The terminal device 3000 shown can implement various processes related to the terminal device in the aforementioned method embodiment. The operations or functions of each module in the terminal device 3000 are respectively to implement the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiment. For details, please refer to the description in the aforementioned method embodiment. To avoid repetition, the detailed description is appropriately omitted here.

[0194] Optionally, the terminal device 3000 may further include a power supply 3005 for providing power to various devices or circuits in the terminal device.

[0195] In addition, in order to make the functions of the terminal device more complete, the terminal device 3000 may also include one or more of an input unit 3006, a display unit 3007, an audio circuit 3008, a camera 3009 and a sensor 3011, and the audio circuit may also include a speaker 30081, a microphone 30082, etc.

[0196] It should be understood that the processing device can be a chip. For example, the processing device can be a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gates or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, a system on chip (SoC), a central processor unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), a digital signal processing circuit (DSP), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a programmable logic device (PLD) or other integrated chips. The methods, steps and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented or executed. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or the processor can also be any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present application can be directly embodied as a hardware decoding processor to be executed, or the hardware and software modules in the decoding processor are combined to be executed. The software module can be located in a mature storage medium in the field such as random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory or electrically erasable programmable memory, register, etc. The storage medium is located in the memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory and completes the steps of the above method in combination with its hardware.

[0197] The memory 3003 may be a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memories. Among them, the nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DRRAM).

[0198] It should be noted that memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0199] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes: a computer program code, when the computer program code is executed on a computer, the computer executes the method executed by the terminal device or the network device in any of the aforementioned method embodiments.

[0200] The present application also provides a computer-readable medium storing a program code. When the program code is executed on a computer, the computer executes the method executed by the network device or the terminal device in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0201] The present application also provides a system, which includes at least one terminal device and at least one network device.

[0202] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website site, computer, server or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode to another website site, computer, server or data center. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a high-density digital video disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state disc (SSD)).

[0203] The terms "component", "module", "system", etc. used in this specification are used to represent computer-related entities, hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable file, an execution thread, a program, or a computer. By way of illustration, both applications running on a computing device and a computing device can be components. One or more components may reside in a process or an execution thread, and a component may be located on a computer or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components may be executed from various computer-readable media having various data structures stored thereon. Components may communicate, for example, through local or remote processes based on signals having one or more data packets (e.g., data from two components interacting with another component between a local system, a distributed system, or a network, such as the Internet interacting with other systems through signals).

[0204] It should be understood that the "embodiment" mentioned throughout the specification means that the specific features, structures or characteristics related to the embodiment are included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, the various embodiments in the entire specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, these specific features, structures or characteristics can be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner.

[0205] It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the numbers "first", "second"... are only for distinguishing different objects, such as distinguishing different network devices, and do not constitute a limitation on the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0206] It should also be understood that in the present application, "when", "if" and "if" all mean that the network element will take corresponding actions under certain objective circumstances, and do not limit the time, nor do they require the network element to have a judgment action when implementing it, nor do they mean that there are other limitations.

[0207] It should also be understood that, in the present application, “at least one” means one or more, and “more than one” means two or more.

[0208] It should also be understood that in each embodiment of the present application, "A corresponds to B" means that B is associated with A, and B can be determined according to A. However, it should also be understood that determining B according to A does not mean determining B only according to A, and B can also be determined according to A and / or other information.

[0209] It should also be understood that the term "and / or" in this article is only a description of the association relationship of the associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / " in this article generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0210] The meaning of expressions similar to "the project includes one or more of the following: A, B, and C" in this application, unless otherwise specified, generally means that the project can be any of the following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B and C; A and A; A, A and A; A, A and B; A, A and C, A, B and B; A, C and C; B and B, B, B and B, B, B and C, C and C; C, C and C, and other combinations of A, B and C. The above is an example of three elements, A, B and C, to illustrate the optional items of the project. When it is expressed as "the project includes at least one of the following: A, B, ..., and X", that is, when there are more elements in the expression, the items that can be applied to the project can also be obtained according to the above rules.

[0211] It is understandable that in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device and / or the network device can perform some or all of the steps in the embodiment of the present application, and these steps or operations are only examples. The embodiment of the present application can also perform other operations or variations of various operations. In addition, each step can be performed in a different order presented in the embodiment of the present application, and it is possible not to perform all the operations in the embodiment of the present application.

[0212] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

[0213] Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0214] In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0215] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0216] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0217] If the functions are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be essentially or partly embodied in the form of a software product that contributes to the prior art. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage media include: various media that can store program codes, such as USB flash drives, mobile hard disks, read-only memories ROM, random access memories RAM, magnetic disks or optical disks.

[0218] The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art who is familiar with the present technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application, which should be included in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: The terminal device receives a random access response uplink grant, where the random access response uplink grant includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field; The terminal device obtains first indication information according to the highest two bits in the MCS field; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times a third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in a random access process; The terminal device determines the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted based on the first indication information.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first indication information is also used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that Determining, according to the first indication information, the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted includes: The number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined according to the state values ​​of the two highest bits in the MCS field.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that Determining, according to the state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field, the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted, includes: The number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined according to the state value of the highest two bits in the MCS field and the repetition factor K.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The repetition factor K is included in the first indication information, or, The repetition factor K is a predefined value, or, The repetition transmission factor K is included in the received system message SIB.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The number of bits of the MCS field is 4, and the two lowest bits of the MCS field are used to indicate an MCS index value, and the MCS index value is 0 to 3.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The terminal device is a terminal device with limited coverage.

8. A communication method, characterized in that: include: The network device carries the first indication information in the highest two bits of the modulation and coding strategy MCS field in the random access response uplink grant; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times the third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in the random access process; The network device sends the random access response uplink grant to the terminal device.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The first indication information is also used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that Different state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field correspond to different numbers of repeated transmissions of the third message.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Different state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field correspond to different numbers of repeated transmissions of the third message, including: The product of different state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field and the repetition transmission factor K corresponds to different numbers of repetition transmissions of the third message.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that Also includes: The network device carries a repetition transmission factor K in the first indication information; or The network device carries the repetition transmission factor K in a system message SIB; The number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined by the first indication information and the repeated transmission factor K.

13. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that The number of bits of the MCS field is 4, and the two lowest bits of the MCS field are used to indicate an MCS index value, and the MCS index value is 0 to 3.

14. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that The terminal device is a terminal device with limited coverage.

15. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that Also includes: The network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device according to a reserved physical random access channel PRACH resource used by the terminal device; or The network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device according to the number of PRACH repetition transmissions of the terminal device; or The network device determines the coverage level of the terminal device according to the power of the signal carried by the PRACH channel of the terminal device.

16. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A receiving unit, configured to receive a random access response uplink grant, wherein the random access response uplink grant includes a modulation and coding strategy MCS field; A processing unit, used to obtain first indication information according to the highest two bits in the MCS field; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times a third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in a random access process; and determine the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted according to the first indication information.

17. The communication device according to claim 16, wherein: The first indication information is also used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3.

18. The communication device according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that: When determining the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted according to the first indication information, the processing unit is specifically configured to: The number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined according to the state values ​​of the two highest bits in the MCS field.

19. The communication device according to claim 18, characterized in that When determining the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted according to the state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field, the processing unit is specifically configured to: The number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined according to the state value of the highest two bits in the MCS field and the repetition factor K.

20. The communication device according to claim 19, characterized in that The repetition factor K is included in the first indication information, or, The repetition factor K is a predefined value, or, The repetition transmission factor K is included in the received system message SIB.

21. The communication device according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that: The number of bits of the MCS field is 4, and the two lowest bits of the MCS field are used to indicate an MCS index value, and the MCS index value is 0 to 3.

22. The communication device according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that: The communication device is a terminal device with limited coverage.

23. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A processing unit, configured to carry the first indication information in the highest two bits of the modulation and coding strategy MCS field in the random access response uplink grant; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the number of times the third message Msg 3 is repeatedly transmitted, and the third message Msg 3 is a radio resource control RRC connection request in the random access process; A sending unit is used to send the random access response uplink authorization to the terminal device.

24. The communication device according to claim 23, characterized in that The first indication information is also used to indicate the type of repeated transmission of the Msg 3.

25. The communication device according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that: Different state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field correspond to different numbers of repeated transmissions of the third message.

26. The communication device according to claim 25, characterized in that Different state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field correspond to different numbers of repeated transmissions of the third message, including: The product of different state values ​​of the highest two bits in the MCS field and the repetition transmission factor K corresponds to different numbers of repetition transmissions of the third message.

27. The communication device according to claim 26, characterized in that The processing unit is further used to carry a repetition transmission factor K in the first indication information; or, to carry the repetition transmission factor K in a system message SIB; wherein the number of times the third message is repeatedly transmitted is determined by the first indication information and the repetition transmission factor K.

28. The communication device according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that: The number of bits of the MCS field is 4, and the two lowest bits of the MCS field are used to indicate an MCS index value, and the MCS index value is 0 to 3.

29. The communication device according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that: The terminal device is a terminal device with limited coverage.

30. The communication device according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that: The processing unit is also used for: Determining the coverage level of the terminal device according to a reserved physical random access channel PRACH resource used by the terminal device; or Determine the coverage level of the terminal device according to the number of PRACH repetition transmissions of the terminal device; or The coverage level of the terminal device is determined according to the power of the signal carried by the received PRACH channel of the terminal device.

31. A communication device, characterized in that: The device comprises at least one processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to provide the at least one processor with input or output of instructions and / or data, and when the at least one processor executes the above instructions, the device implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15.

32. A readable storage medium, characterized in that: The method comprises a program or an instruction. When the program or the instruction is run on a computer, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 or claims 8 to 15 is executed.

33. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises: a computer program code, and when the computer program code is executed, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15 is executed.

34. A communication system, characterized in that: The communication system comprises a terminal device and a network device, wherein the terminal device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, and the network device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 8 to 15.

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