Communication method and device

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a communication method and device. The network device sends first configuration information to the first terminal device and sends second configuration information to the second terminal device, and the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to execute related joint sending; the second terminal device sends the first data to the first terminal device, and processes the first data based on the second configuration information; and the first terminal device receives the first data from the second terminal device, and processes the first data based on the first configuration information. According to the scheme, the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment can perform the same processing on the same data, and the same data is sent on the air interface, so that the first terminal equipment and the second terminal equipment execute related joint sending, and the effect of saving resource overhead is achieved.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] At present, the communication system can support multi-path relay (also known as multi-path Relay) technology, such as: the remote terminal equipment (Remote UE) can communicate with the network equipment (such as the base station) through a direct link and an indirect link at the same time. On the direct link, the Remote UE communicates with the base station directly through the air interface (such as the universal terrestrial radio access network-user (Uu or Uu) interface). On the indirect link, the Remote UE communicates with the base station through the relay terminal equipment (Relay UE). The Remote UE can send and receive the same or different data simultaneously through two links, which can improve the throughput and reliability of data reception and transmission.

[0003] However, in a multi-path Relay scenario, data transmission between the Relay UE and the Remote UE is performed independently, and the base station allocates resources to the Relay UE and the Remote UE independently, so the Relay UE and the Remote UE need to occupy two air interface transmission resources.

[0004] When the Remote UE sends the same data through two links at the same time, the Relay UE and the Remote UE have to occupy two air interface transmission resources, resulting in a problem of high resource overhead. Summary of the invention

[0005] A communication method and apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application are used to enable a Relay UE and a Remote UE to generate and send the same uplink data, so that the Relay UE and the Remote UE perform related joint sending, thereby saving air interface transmission resources.

[0006] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be applied to a first terminal device or a chip in the first terminal device. Taking the method applied to the first terminal device as an example, the method includes: receiving first configuration information from a network device, the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the first terminal device is used for the second terminal device to communicate with the network device; receiving first data from the second terminal device, the first data being uplink data of the second terminal device; processing the first data based on the first configuration information to generate second data; and sending the second data to the network device. The first terminal device is, for example, a Relay UE, and the second terminal device is, for example, a Remote UE.

[0007] In the above scheme, the first terminal device processes the uplink data of the second terminal device (i.e., the first data) based on the first configuration information sent by the network device. Since the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission, the processing of the first data by the first terminal device will be the same as the processing of the first data by the second terminal device. The data (i.e., the second data) sent by the first terminal device on the air interface is the same as the data sent by the second terminal device on the air interface, thereby enabling the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission and achieving the effect of saving air interface transmission resources.

[0008] In one possible design, the first configuration information includes one or more of the following: a first number of antenna ports, a first rank parameter, and a first coherent codebook set; the first number of antenna ports is equal to the sum of the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device and the number of antenna ports of the second terminal device.

[0009] It can be understood that in this design, the first data can be a media access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) or a transport block (TB), or it can be a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU, etc., and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

[0010] In this way, it can be ensured that the processing of the first data by the first terminal device at the physical layer is the same as the processing of the first data by the second terminal device at the physical layer.

[0011] In one possible design, the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device is the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device that can be used to transmit uplink data (such as first data) of the second terminal device, and the antenna ports of the first terminal device that can be used to transmit uplink data of the second terminal device can be all or part of the antenna ports of the first terminal device.

[0012] In one possible design, the method may further include: receiving first indication information from a network device, the first indication information indicating that first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0013] In this way, the first terminal device can determine the first configuration information based on the first indication information for the first terminal device to perform related joint sending, and then subsequently process the first data based on the first configuration information when performing the related joint sending, thereby improving the reliability of the solution.

[0014] In one possible design, the first indication information includes an identifier of the second terminal device.

[0015] In this way, the first terminal device can determine that the first terminal device and the second terminal device cooperate to perform related joint transmission, or in other words, the first configuration information is associated with the second terminal device.

[0016] In a possible design, before processing the first data based on the first configuration information, first scheduling information may also be obtained, where the first scheduling information is used to schedule the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission.

[0017] In this way, the first terminal device can start to perform relevant joint transmission based on the scheduling of the network device, thereby improving the reliability of the solution.

[0018] In one possible design, the first scheduling information is received from a network device. In another possible design, the first scheduling information is received from a second terminal device, for example, the network device first sends second scheduling information to the second terminal device, the second scheduling information is used to schedule the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the second terminal device sends the first scheduling information to the first terminal device based on the second scheduling information, and the first scheduling information is the same as or different from the second scheduling information.

[0019] The design provides two methods for scheduling the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the solution is highly flexible.

[0020] In one possible design, the first scheduling information indicates the execution of related joint transmission; or, the first scheduling information corresponds to the first identifier of the first terminal device; or, the first scheduling information corresponds to the first downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI) format; or, the first scheduling information indicates the first carrier, and the first carrier is used for related joint transmission.

[0021] Of course, the above are only some examples of the first scheduling information and are not limited thereto.

[0022] In one possible design, the first configuration information includes the configuration of the first bearer; the first bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, and the first wireless bearer is an end-to-end wireless bearer between the second terminal device and the network device; the first bearer is used for related joint transmission.

[0023] It can be understood that in this design, the first data can be PDCP PDU, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

[0024] In this way, the first terminal device processes the data (such as the first data) of the end-to-end wireless bearer (i.e., the first wireless bearer) of the second terminal device and the network device based on the first bearer. Since the first bearer is used for related joint transmission, the processing of the first data by the first terminal device based on the first bearer is the same as the processing of the first data by the second terminal device based on the bearer of the second terminal device associated with the first wireless bearer (such as the second bearer).

[0025] In one possible design, the configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of the first wireless bearer; or, the configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of the first logical channel, and the identifier of the first logical channel is associated with the first wireless bearer.

[0026] Of course, the actual manner in which the first bearer is associated with the first radio bearer is not limited to the above two.

[0027] In one possible design, the first configuration information indicates reconfiguring the bearer of the first terminal device. The method may also include: configuring the first bearer according to the first configuration information; after the data transmission associated with the third bearer is completed, releasing the third bearer, the third bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, and the third bearer is associated with the first radio bearer; or releasing the third bearer and configuring the first bearer according to the first configuration information, the third bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, and the third bearer is associated with the first radio bearer; retransmitting the data of the first radio bearer based on the first configuration information.

[0028] In this way, the bearer reconfiguration of the first terminal device can be achieved, the bearer before reconfiguration is the third bearer used for non-related joint transmission, and the bearer after reconfiguration is the first bearer used for related joint transmission. Of course, in actual applications, the bearer before reconfiguration can also be the first bearer used for related joint transmission, and the bearer after reconfiguration can also be the third bearer used for non-related joint transmission.

[0029] In one possible design, the method may also include: receiving a first message from a network device; activating the first bearer or deactivating a third bearer according to the first message, the third bearer being used for non-related joint transmission, and the third bearer being associated with the first wireless bearer.

[0030] In this way, the first terminal device performs relevant joint transmission based on the first bearer when the first bearer is activated, thereby improving the reliability of the solution.

[0031] In one possible design, the method may also include: sending first information and / or second information to the network device based on the first bearer, the first information is generated by the first terminal device, and the second information is generated by the second terminal device.

[0032] In this way, the first terminal device aligns data transmission content by interacting with the second terminal device to ensure the reliability of related joint transmission.

[0033] In one possible design, the method may further include: sending first information to the network device based on a fifth bearer, where the first information is generated by the first terminal device, and the fifth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission. The fifth bearer is the same as or different from the third bearer.

[0034] In this way, the first terminal device transmits data different from that of the second terminal device side based on the bearer used for non-related joint transmission, thereby ensuring the reliability of related joint transmission.

[0035] In one possible design, the first information is used to indicate the reception status of the first terminal device for the downlink data of the network device, and the second information is used to indicate the reception status of the second terminal device for the downlink data of the network device. Of course, the actual implementation of the first information and the second information is not limited to this.

[0036] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be applied to a second terminal device or a chip in the second terminal device. Taking the application of the method to the second terminal device as an example, the method includes: receiving second configuration information from a network device; the second configuration information is used by the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the second terminal device communicates with the network device through the first terminal device; sending first data to the first terminal device, the first data being uplink data of the second terminal device; and processing the first data based on the second configuration information to generate third data, and sending the third data to the network device.

[0037] In the above scheme, the second terminal device processes the uplink data of the second terminal device (i.e., the first data) based on the second configuration information sent by the network device. Since the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, the processing of the first data by the second terminal device will be the same as the processing of the first data by the first terminal device. The data sent by the second terminal device on the air interface (i.e., the third data) is the same as the data sent by the first terminal device on the air interface, thereby enabling the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, thereby achieving the effect of saving air interface transmission resources.

[0038] In one possible design, the second configuration information includes one or more of the following: a second number of antenna ports, a second rank parameter, and a second coherent codebook set; the second number of antenna ports is equal to the sum of the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device and the number of antenna ports of the second terminal device.

[0039] It can be understood that in this design, the first data can be MAC PDU or TB, or PDCP PDU, etc., and the embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0040] In this way, it can be ensured that the processing of the first data by the second terminal device at the physical layer is the same as the processing of the first data by the first terminal device at the physical layer.

[0041] In one possible design, the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device is the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device that can be used to transmit uplink data (such as first data) of the second terminal device, and the antenna ports of the first terminal device that can be used to transmit uplink data of the second terminal device can be all or part of the antenna ports of the first terminal device.

[0042] In one possible design, the method may further include: receiving second indication information from the network device, the second indication information indicating that the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0043] In this way, the second terminal device can determine the second configuration information based on the second indication information for the second terminal device to perform related joint sending, and then subsequently process the first data based on the second configuration information when performing the related joint sending, thereby improving the reliability of the solution.

[0044] In one possible design, the second indication information includes an identifier of the first terminal device.

[0045] In this way, the first terminal device can determine that the first terminal device and the second terminal device cooperate to perform related joint transmission, or in other words, the first configuration information is associated with the second terminal device.

[0046] In one possible design, before processing the second data based on the second configuration information, second scheduling information may also be obtained, where the second scheduling information is used to schedule the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission.

[0047] In this way, the second terminal device can start to perform related joint transmission based on the scheduling of the network device, thereby improving the reliability of the solution.

[0048] In one possible design, first scheduling information may also be sent to the first terminal device based on the second scheduling information, and the first scheduling information is used to schedule the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission.

[0049] In one possible design, the second scheduling information indicates the execution of related joint transmission; or, the second scheduling information corresponds to the first identifier of the second terminal device; or, the second scheduling information corresponds to the first DCI format; or, the second scheduling information indicates the first carrier, and the first carrier is used for related joint transmission.

[0050] Of course, the above are only some examples of the second scheduling information and are not limited thereto.

[0051] In one possible design, the second configuration information includes the configuration of the second bearer; the second bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, and the first wireless bearer is an end-to-end wireless bearer between the second terminal device and the network device; the second bearer is used for related joint transmission.

[0052] It can be understood that in this design, the first data can be PDCP PDU, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

[0053] In this way, the second terminal device processes the data (such as the first data) of the end-to-end wireless bearer (i.e., the first wireless bearer) of the second terminal device and the network device based on the second bearer. Since the second bearer is used for related joint transmission, the processing of the first data by the second terminal device based on the first bearer is the same as the processing of the first data by the first terminal device based on the bearer of the first terminal device associated with the first wireless bearer (such as the first bearer).

[0054] In one possible design, the second configuration information indicates the reconfiguration of the bearer of the second terminal device; the method may also include: configuring the second bearer according to the second configuration information; after the data transmission associated with the fourth bearer is completed, releasing the fourth bearer, the fourth bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, and the fourth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission; or, releasing the fourth bearer and configuring the second bearer according to the second configuration information, the fourth bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, and the fourth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission; retransmitting the data of the first wireless bearer based on the second configuration information.

[0055] In this way, the bearer reconfiguration of the second terminal device can be achieved, the bearer before reconfiguration is the fourth bearer used for non-related joint transmission, and the bearer after reconfiguration is the second bearer used for related joint transmission. Of course, in actual applications, the bearer before reconfiguration can also be the second bearer used for related joint transmission, and the bearer after reconfiguration can also be the fourth bearer used for non-related joint transmission.

[0056] In one possible design, a second message can also be received from the network device; the second bearer is activated or the fourth bearer is deactivated according to the second message, the fourth bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, and the fourth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission.

[0057] In this way, the second terminal device performs relevant joint transmission based on the second bearer when the second bearer is activated, thereby improving the reliability of the solution.

[0058] In one possible design, the first information and / or the second information can also be sent to the network device based on the second bearer, where the first information is generated by the first terminal device and the second information is generated by the second terminal device.

[0059] In this way, the second terminal device aligns the data transmission content by interacting with the first terminal device to ensure the reliability of the related joint transmission.

[0060] In a possible design, second information can also be sent to the network device based on a sixth bearer, the second information is generated by the second terminal device, and the sixth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission. The sixth bearer is the same as or different from the fourth bearer.

[0061] In this way, the second terminal device transmits data different from that of the first terminal device based on the bearer used for non-related joint transmission, thereby ensuring the reliability of related joint transmission.

[0062] In one possible design, the first information is used to indicate the reception status of the first terminal device for the downlink data of the network device, and the second information is used to indicate the reception status of the second terminal device for the downlink data of the network device. Of course, the actual implementation of the first information and the second information is not limited to this.

[0063] According to a third aspect, a communication method is provided. The method can be applied to a network device (such as a base station) or a chip in a network device (such as a base station). Taking the application of the method to a network device as an example, the method includes: sending first configuration information to a first terminal device; sending second configuration information to a second terminal device; wherein the second terminal device communicates with the network device through a relay of the first terminal device, and the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0064] In the above scheme, the network device sends the first configuration information and the second configuration information to the first terminal device and the second terminal device respectively, so that the first terminal device and the second terminal device can perform the same processing on the same data (i.e., the uplink data of the second terminal device, such as the first data) based on the first configuration information and the second configuration information respectively, and then generate the same data (such as the second data and the third data), so that the data (such as the second data and the third data) sent by the first terminal device and the second terminal device on the air interface are consistent, thereby enabling the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, thereby achieving the effect of saving resource overhead.

[0065] In one possible design, the first configuration information includes one or more of the following: the first number of antenna ports, the first rank parameter, and the first coherent codebook set; the second configuration information includes one or more of the following: the second number of antenna ports, the second rank parameter, and the second coherent codebook set; wherein the first number of antenna ports is the same as the second number of antenna ports, the first rank parameter is the same as the second rank parameter, and the first coherent codebook set is the same as the second coherent codebook set. It can be understood that in this design, the first data can be a MAC PDU or a TB, or a PDCP PDU, etc., which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0066] In one possible design, the number of the first antenna ports or the number of the second antenna ports is equal to the sum of the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device and the number of antenna ports of the second terminal device.

[0067] In one possible design, the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device is the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device that can be used to transmit uplink data (such as first data) of the second terminal device, and the antenna ports of the first terminal device that can be used to transmit uplink data of the second terminal device can be all or part of the antenna ports of the first terminal device.

[0068] In one possible design, the method may also include: sending first indication information to a first terminal device, the first indication information indicating that the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint sending; and / or, sending second indication information to a second terminal device; the second indication information indicates that the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0069] In one possible design, the first indication information includes an identifier of the second terminal device; and / or the second indication information includes an identifier of the first terminal device.

[0070] In one possible design, the first configuration information includes the configuration of a first bearer, and the first bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer; and / or the second configuration information includes the configuration of a second bearer, and the second bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer; the first wireless bearer is an end-to-end wireless bearer between the first terminal device and the network device.

[0071] It can be understood that in this design, the first data can be PDCP PDU, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

[0072] In one possible design, the configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of the first wireless bearer; or, the configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of the first logical channel, and the identifier of the first logical channel is associated with the first wireless bearer.

[0073] In one possible design, the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer include the same logical channel parameter configuration.

[0074] In one possible design, the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer include the same radio link control (RLC) configuration parameters; wherein the RLC configuration parameters include one or more of the following: RLC transmission mode, the transmission mode is acknowledged mode (AM) mode or unacknowledged mode (UM); the length of the sequence number (SN) in the RLC PDU header; in AM mode, the maximum number of retransmissions of the RLC transmitter; polling retransmission timer; polling protocol data unit; polling byte.

[0075] In one possible design, the first configuration information indicates reconfiguration of the bearer of the first terminal device; and / or the second configuration information indicates reconfiguration of the bearer of the second terminal device.

[0076] In one possible design, a first message may also be sent to the first terminal device, the first message being used to activate the first bearer or deactivate the third bearer, the third bearer being associated with the first wireless bearer, and the third bearer being used for non-related joint transmission; and / or a second message may be sent to the second terminal device, the second message being used to activate the second bearer or deactivate the fourth bearer, the fourth bearer being associated with the first wireless bearer, and the fourth bearer being used for non-related joint transmission.

[0077] In one possible design, the method may also send first scheduling information to the first terminal device, the first scheduling information being used to schedule the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission; and / or, send second scheduling information to the second terminal device, the second scheduling information being used to schedule the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission.

[0078] In one possible design, the first scheduling information indicates the execution of related joint transmission; or, the first scheduling information corresponds to the first identifier of the first terminal device; or, the first scheduling information corresponds to the first DCI format; or, the first scheduling information indicates the first carrier, and the first carrier is used for related joint transmission; or, the second scheduling information indicates the execution of related joint transmission; or, the second scheduling information corresponds to the first identifier of the second terminal device; or, the second scheduling information corresponds to the first DCI format; or, the second scheduling information indicates the first carrier, and the first carrier is used for related joint transmission.

[0079] The beneficial effects of each design method of the third aspect mentioned above can refer to the beneficial effects of the corresponding design in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0080] According to a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a module or unit or technical means for executing the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect.

[0081] Exemplarily, the device may include:

[0082] The transceiver module is used to receive first configuration information from the network device, the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the first terminal device is used for the second terminal device to communicate with the network device; receive first data from the second terminal device, and the first data is uplink data of the second terminal device;

[0083] The processing module is used to process the first data based on the first configuration information to generate second data; and send the second data to the network device.

[0084] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a module or unit or technical means for executing the method described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect.

[0085] Exemplarily, the device may include:

[0086] The transceiver module is used to receive second configuration information from the network device; the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the second terminal device communicates with the network device through the first terminal device; and sends first data to the first terminal device, where the first data is uplink data of the second terminal device;

[0087] The processing module is used to process the first data based on the second configuration information, generate third data, and send the third data to the network device.

[0088] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a module or unit or technical means for executing the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect.

[0089] Exemplarily, the apparatus may include: a transceiver module, used to send first configuration information to a first terminal device; and send second configuration information to a second terminal device; wherein the second terminal device communicates with a network device via a relay of the first terminal device, and the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used by the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0090] In the seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a processor, the processor being coupled to a memory, the memory being used to store programs or instructions, and when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the communication device executes the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, or the communication device executes the method described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, or the communication device executes the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect.

[0091] In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, wherein the storage medium stores a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are executed by a communication device, the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect is implemented, or the method described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect is implemented, or the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect is implemented.

[0092] In the ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided, comprising a computer program or instructions, which, when executed by a communication device, causes the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect to be executed, or causes the method described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect to be executed, or causes the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect to be executed.

[0093] In the tenth aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising a first terminal device, a second terminal device and a network device; the first terminal device is used to execute the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, the second terminal device is used to execute the method described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect, and the network device is used to execute the method described in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect.

[0094] For the technical effects that can be achieved in the above-mentioned fourth to tenth aspects, please refer to the description of the technical effects that can be achieved by the corresponding design schemes in the above-mentioned first to third aspects, and this application will not repeat them here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0095] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system used in an embodiment of the present application;

[0096] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the user plane protocol stack of UE;

[0097] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a virtual network;

[0098] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of cooperation at the base station side;

[0099] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the communication architecture from edge link UE to network relay;

[0100] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the protocol stack of SL U2N Relay;

[0101] Figure 7 This is a schematic diagram of the multi-path relay communication architecture;

[0102] Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of the multi-path relay protocol stack architecture based on UE-to-UE connection;

[0103] Fig. 9 A flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0104] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of a related joint transmission provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0105] Fig.11 It is a schematic diagram of the MAC layer offloading architecture;

[0106] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of a PDCP layer traffic distribution architecture;

[0107] Fig.13 Schematic diagrams of several specific configurations of the first terminal device and the second terminal device;

[0108] Fig.14 Schematic diagrams of several specific configurations of the first terminal device and the second terminal device;

[0109] Fig.15 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0110] Fig.16 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0111] Fig.17 A schematic diagram of the structure of a chip provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0112] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: fifth generation (5G) communication systems, sixth generation (6G) communication systems or other future evolution systems, or various other wireless communication systems using wireless access technologies, etc., can all adopt the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

[0113] For example, Figure 1 The schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system that can be applied in the embodiment of the present application is shown in FIG. The communication system 1000 includes a wireless access network 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The wireless access network 100 includes at least one access network device, such as Figure 1 110a and 110b in the embodiment, and further comprising at least one terminal device, such as Figure 1120a-120j in the figure. 110a is a base station, 110b is a micro station, 120a, 120e, 120f and 120j are mobile phones, 120b is a car, 120c is a gas station, 120d is a home access point (HAP) arranged indoors or outdoors, 120g is a laptop, 120h is a printer, and 120i is a drone. The same terminal device or access network device can provide different functions in different application scenarios. For example, Figure 1 The mobile phones in the figure are 120a, 120e, 120f and 120j. The mobile phone 120a can access the base station 110a, connect to the car 120b, communicate directly with the mobile phone 120e and access the HAP. The mobile phone 120b can access the HAP and communicate directly with the mobile phone 120a. The mobile phone 120f can be connected to the micro station 110b, connect to the laptop computer 120g, connect to the printer 120h, and the mobile phone 120j can control the drone 120i.

[0114] The terminal equipment is connected to the access network equipment, and the access network equipment is connected to the core network. The core network equipment and the access network equipment can be independent and different physical devices, or the functions of the core network equipment and the logical functions of the access network equipment can be integrated on the same physical device, or the functions of some core network equipment and some access network equipment can be integrated on one physical device. Terminal equipment and terminal equipment, as well as access network equipment and access network equipment can be connected to each other by wire or wireless means. Figure 1 This is just a schematic diagram. The communication system may also include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices. Figure 1 Not drawn in.

[0115] The access network equipment can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a base station in the sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system, etc.; it can also be a module or unit that completes part of the functions of a base station, for example, a centralized unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU). The access network equipment can be a macro base station (such as Figure 1110a), or a micro base station or an indoor station (such as Figure 1 110b), may also be a relay node or a donor node, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the access network device. In the embodiments of the present application, a base station is used as an example of an access network device for description.

[0116] In one possible scenario, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist the terminal in achieving wireless access, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and DU can be set separately, or can also be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU) or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0117] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an open radio access network (O-RAN or open RAN or ORAN) system, CU may also be called O-CU (open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, CU-CP may also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be called O-CU-UP, and RU may also be called O-RU. For the convenience of description, this application takes CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples for description. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0118] Terminal devices may also be referred to as terminals, user equipment (UE), mobile stations, mobile terminals, etc. Terminal devices can be widely used in various scenarios, for example, device-to-device (D2D), vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. Terminal devices may be mobile phones, tablet computers, computers with wireless transceiver functions, wearable devices, vehicles, drones, helicopters, airplanes, ships, robots, robotic arms, smart home devices, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal devices.

[0119] The base station and UE can be fixed or movable. The base station and UE can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on the water surface; they can also be deployed on airplanes, balloons, and artificial satellites in the air. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the base station and UE.

[0120] The roles of the base station and the UE may be relative, for example, Figure 1 The helicopter or drone 120i in the figure can be configured as a mobile base station. For those 120j that access the wireless access network 100 through 120i, 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, 120i is a UE, that is, 110a and 120i communicate through the wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate through the interface protocol between base stations. In this case, relative to 110a, 120i is also a base station. Therefore, base stations and UEs can be collectively referred to as communication devices. Figure 1 110a and 110b in the figure may be referred to as communication devices having base station functions. Figure 1 120a-120j in the figure can be called communication devices with UE functions.

[0121] Base stations and UEs, base stations and base stations, and UEs and UEs can communicate through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both; they can communicate through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), spectrum above 6 GHz, or spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0122] To facilitate understanding of the solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the nouns or terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are explained below.

[0123] 1. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO): Multiple-antenna technology is also called multiple-input multiple-output or MIMO technology. It refers to using multiple transmitting antennas and receiving antennas at the transmitting end and the receiving end respectively, so that the signal is transmitted and received through the multiple antennas at the transmitting end and the receiving end, thereby improving the communication quality. Usually, a multiple-input multiple-output system with M transmitting antennas and N receiving antennas is called an M×N MIMO system.

[0124] 2. Power gain: The gain obtained by the transmitter by increasing the transmission power. In a MIMO system, if the transmission power of a single antenna remains unchanged, using multiple antennas to transmit is equivalent to increasing the total transmission power. For example, if there are n transmitting antennas, the total transmission power is equivalent to n times that of a single antenna, so the gain is 10log(n)dB, thereby increasing the signal coverage.

[0125] 3. Diversity gain: The same channel reaches the receiving end through different paths. The performance gain obtained by using the independence of spatial channel fading to reduce the fluctuation of the signal-to-noise ratio of the combined signal is called diversity gain. Diversity gain can improve the stability of the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiving end, thereby improving the reliability of wireless signal reception, which translates into improved system capacity and coverage performance.

[0126] 4. Sidelink communication:

[0127] In a wireless communication system, UEs can communicate data through the network, or they can communicate directly with each other without the help of the network. The interface between UEs is called the PC5 interface, which is similar to the Uu interface between UEs and base stations. The link between UEs is called sidelink. A typical application scenario of sidelink communication is vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In the vehicle network, each vehicle is a UE, and UEs can directly transmit data through sidelink without going through the network, which can effectively reduce communication delays. It can be understood that the side link can also be called a side link, a sidelink, or a side link.

[0128] 5. Radio Bearer (RB): Radio Bearer is a general term for a series of protocol entities (or protocol layers) and configurations allocated by the base station to the UE, including the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity, the radio link control (RLC) protocol entity, the medium access control (MAC) protocol entity, and a series of resources allocated by the physical layer (PHY). The user plane protocol stack of the UE is as follows: Figure 2 shown.

[0129] Radio bearers are divided into data radio bearers (DRB) and signaling radio bearers (SRB). The former is used to carry data, and the latter is used to carry signaling messages. In the sidelink communication scenario, communication between UEs is carried out through sidelink radio bearers (SLRB), including sidelink DRBs and sidelink SRBs.

[0130] In the 3GPP protocol, the radio bearer configuration generally only includes the configuration of the PDCP layer and the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer. The protocol entity below the RLC layer is called the RLC bearer, and the corresponding configuration is given in the RLC bearer configuration.

[0131] 6. RLC bearer refers to the protocol entity and configuration below the RLC layer, which is the lower layer of the radio bearer, including a series of resources such as RLC protocol entity and logical channel. One RLC bearer is associated with one logical channel. Usually, one RLC bearer is associated with one PDCP entity, that is, one RLC serves one radio bearer RB.

[0132] 7. Logical channel packetization: During uplink transmission, the MAC layer of the UE performs logical channel packetization based on the scheduling of the base station. Specifically, the RLC layer delivers data to the MAC layer through different logical channels. One RLC bearer is associated with one logical channel. The MAC will obtain data from different logical channels according to the resource size configured by the base station through the logical channel priority (LCP) process, and then generate a MAC protocol data unit (PDU). The MAC PDU is then delivered to the physical layer for processing. The data sent from the MAC layer to the physical layer is organized in the form of transport blocks (TB). One TB corresponds to a data block containing one MAC PDU. From the above perspective, one TB can be equivalent to one MAC PDU.

[0133] 8. RLC status report: When the transmission mode of the RLC layer is the acknowledged mode (AM) mode, the receiving end sends an RLC status report to the sending end to indicate the data reception status, thereby triggering the sending end to retransmit the data.

[0134] It can be understood that the transmission mode of the RLC layer includes a transparent mode (transparent mode, TM), an unacknowledged mode (unacknowledged mode, UM) and an acknowledged mode.

[0135] TM: The RLC entity is unidirectional and independently completes the sending and receiving of data; the sending entity does not add additional information to the data.

[0136] UM: As in transparent mode, the RLC entity is unidirectional and independently sends and receives data; the sending entity adds the necessary control protocol overhead to the higher-level PDU and, if necessary, segments the RLC SDU, which is not guaranteed to be delivered to the peer entity.

[0137] AM: Unlike TM and UM, the RLC entity is bidirectional, and one entity is divided into a receiving side and a sending side. The sending side adds the necessary control protocol overhead to the high-level data before transmitting it. If necessary, the RLC SDU needs to be segmented and delivered to the peer entity, which adds the requirement of supporting ARQ retransmission. In AM mode, the receiving end sends an RLC status report to the sending end to indicate the data reception status, thereby triggering the sending end to retransmit the data.

[0138] The receiving end feeds back the RLC status report, including two scenarios:

[0139] Scenario 1: The sender notifies the receiver to feedback the status report, which is a passive response.

[0140] In scenario 1, the sender instructs the receiver to send a status report by using a bit in the RLC PDU header, that is, the polling bit in the RLC header. Setting the polling bit to 1 indicates that the receiver is notified to trigger an RLC status report.

[0141] Scenario 2: The receiving end actively provides status report feedback.

[0142] In scenario 2, after the reassembly timer times out, the RLC receiving end checks whether there is any message that is not correctly received, and immediately triggers a status report if there is any message that is not correctly received.

[0143] 9. RAN-side collaboration technology: multiple base station nodes or multiple cells can simultaneously serve the same user. That is, a virtual network is formed with the user as the center. This virtual network moves with the user. Therefore, the user can obtain high-speed, low-latency and zero-interruption user experience at any location in the system. Figure 3 RAN-side collaborative technologies, such as but not limited to dual connectivity (DC), carrier aggregation (CA), coordinated multipoint transmission / reception (CoMP), etc.

[0144] 10. Coherent joint transmission (CJT): refers to the joint beamforming of multiple antennas. The transmitted signals can be superimposed in the same direction to obtain higher beamforming gain. Figure 4An example of base station-side collaboration for downlink-related joint transmission is given. Two base stations send the same data to the UE via downlink MIMO. Through beamforming, the signals of the two base stations are coherently superimposed or coherently combined on the UE side to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the receiving end signal, thereby obtaining coherent gain or array gain.

[0145] It can be understood that the related joint transmission may also have other names, for example, it may also be called related joint transmission, coherent joint transmission, etc.

[0146] 11. Sidelink UE-to-Network Relay (also called sidelink UE-to-Network Relay, SL UE-to-Network Relay or SL U2N Relay): SL U2N Relay is a technology in which a UE helps another UE to communicate with a base station, also known as relay technology. Figure 5 The figure is a schematic diagram of the communication architecture of Rel-17SL U2NRelay. The remote UE communicates with the base station through the cooperation of the relay UE. The remote UE and the relay UE communicate through the sidelink. The corresponding interface is called PC5. The relay UE is directly connected to the base station, that is, it communicates through the Uu interface.

[0147] Figure 6 The following is a diagram of the protocol stack of L2 SL U2N Relay. Figure 6 (a) in the figure is the user plane protocol stack. Figure 6 (b) in the figure is the control plane protocol stack. This protocol architecture adds a sidelink relay adaptation protocol (SRAP) layer between the RLC layer and the PDCP layer. The main function of the SRAP layer is the multiplexing and demultiplexing of radio bearers, that is, it supports the multiplexing of different radio bearers onto one RLC bearer and the corresponding demultiplexing process. The data packets of the Remote UE are relayed below the PDCP layer of the Relay UE, that is, the Relay UE only maintains the relayed RLC bearer, including the RLC layer, MAC layer and PHY layer. Therefore, there are end-to-end PDCP layer, SDAP layer and RRC layer between the Remote UE and the base station, but there are no end-to-end RLC layer, MAC layer and PHY layer.

[0148] 12. Multi-path relay (also called multi-path relay):

[0149] The “path” in the embodiments of the present application refers to a communication path or a communication link.

[0150] Multi-path relay technology is an evolution of SL U2N Relay. Figure 7 The figure is a schematic diagram of a multi-path relay communication architecture. The remote UE communicates with the base station through a direct link and an indirect link at the same time. The direct link can also be called a direct link or other names, and the indirect link can also be called an indirect link, an indirect link, or a relay link or other names.

[0151] The Remote UE and the Relay UE are located within the cell coverage of the same base station. On the direct link, the Remote UE communicates with the base station directly through the Uu interface. On the indirect link, the Remote UE communicates with the base station through the Relay UE, where the Remote UE and the Relay UE can be connected and communicated through the sidelink or through a non-3GPP link. The Remote UE improves the throughput and reliability of data reception and transmission by sending and receiving the same or different data on two links at the same time.

[0152] Based on the two link connections, the wireless bearer data of the Remote UE can be configured in four transmission modes: always transmitted on the direct link, always transmitted on the indirect link, PDCP replication, and PDCP splitting. If configured as PDCP replication, the data of the Remote UE will be replicated at the PDCP layer, and the replicated data will be delivered to the Uu RLC of the direct link and the PC5 RLC of the indirect link for transmission, thereby ensuring reliability through multi-path transmission. If configured as PDCP splitting, the PDCP layer will deliver the data to the Uu RLC of the direct link or the PC5 RLC of the indirect link for transmission according to certain rules, thereby increasing the transmission rate through dual-link transmission.

[0153] In a possible implementation, in a multi-path relay communication architecture, the radio bearer data of the Remote UE is offloaded at the PDCP layer, that is, the radio bearer data of the Remote UE can be delivered from the PDCP entity to the RLC entity on the Uu or the RLC entity on the PC5. Figure 8 As shown, a multi-path relay protocol stack architecture for establishing a UE-to-UE connection based on sidelink is provided. This architecture is based on the SL U2N Relay protocol stack architecture (such as Figure 5 As shown in FIG, a protocol stack for direct communication between the Remote UE and the base station is added.

[0154] In the above architecture, the Remote UE performs dual-link data transmission through a direct link (i.e., Uu interface) and an indirect link (i.e., PC5 interface), and can improve data transmission reliability through data replication and improve data transmission rate through data diversion.

[0155] However, data transmission between the Relay UE and the Remote UE is performed independently, and the base station schedules the Relay UE and the Remote UE for uplink transmission respectively. For example, the base station allocates air interface transmission resources to the Relay UE and the Remote UE respectively, so the size and time of the resources allocated to the Relay UE and the Remote UE are completely independent.

[0156] When the radio bearer data of the Remote UE is configured as the PDCP replication transmission mode, although the reliability of data transmission can be improved through redundant transmission, the Relay UE and the Remote UE need to occupy two air interface transmission resources to transmit the same data, and the resource overhead will be relatively large.

[0157] In view of this, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application is provided, which can be applied to the scenario of multi-UE collaboration, for example, Figure 7 The multi-path relay scenario shown is used to enable the Relay UE and the Remote UE to generate and send the same uplink data, so that the Relay UE and the Remote UE perform related joint transmission, thereby achieving the effect of improving the UE uplink transmission capability and saving resource overhead.

[0158] See also Fig. 9 , is a flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, the method comprising steps S101 to S105.

[0159] S101, a network device sends first configuration information to a first terminal device; correspondingly, the first terminal device receives the first configuration information;

[0160] S102, the network device sends second configuration information to the second terminal device; correspondingly, the second terminal device receives the second configuration information;

[0161] It can be understood that the present application does not limit the order of step S101 and step S102, that is, step S101 and step S102 can be executed simultaneously, step S101 can be executed first and then step S102, or step S102 can be executed first and then step S101.

[0162] In the embodiment of the present application, the second terminal device can communicate directly with the network device (for example, based on the Uu interface), the second terminal device can communicate directly with the first terminal device (for example, based on the PC5 interface, WiFi, Bluetooth, wired link, etc.), and the first terminal device can communicate directly with the network device (for example, based on the Uu interface). The second terminal device can also communicate with the network device through the relay of the first terminal device, that is, the first terminal device can act as a relay to assist the second terminal device in communicating with the network device. As an example, the second terminal device is Figure 7 The Remote UE shown, the first terminal device is Figure 7 The relay UE shown in the figure is a network device. Figure 7 For the convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application takes the second terminal device being a Remote UE and the first terminal device being a Relay UE as an example.

[0163] In one possible scenario, the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission. The related joint transmission means that the antennas of the first terminal device and the second terminal device jointly perform beamforming, and send the same data to the network device through uplink MIMO, so that the signals sent by the first terminal device and the second terminal device can be superimposed in the same direction, and the network device can obtain a higher beamforming gain. In other words, the first terminal device and the second terminal device send the same uplink data to the network device on the same resources through joint precoding.

[0164] In an embodiment of the present application, the first terminal device performs the related joint transmission, which may include: receiving the first data from the second terminal device, processing the first data based on the first configuration information, and sending the processed data (i.e., the second data). In an embodiment of the present application, the second terminal device performs the related joint transmission, which may include: sending the first data to the first terminal device, processing the first data based on the second configuration information, and sending the processed data (i.e., the third data).

[0165] It can be understood that the related joint transmission in the embodiments of the present application can also be replaced by other terms such as uplink related joint transmission, uplink CJT, uplink coherent transmission, coherent transmission, etc.

[0166] See also Fig.10 , which is a schematic diagram of a related joint transmission provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.10 [H1, H2] in represents the channel coding matrix of Remote UE and Relay UE. represents the antenna coding matrix of the Remote UE and the Relay UE, X' is the uplink data of the Remote UE, X represents the uplink data sent on the air interface after the Remote UE and the Relay UE process X', and N represents noise; f1 represents the carrier transmitting X, Y is the signal received by the network device, and is the coherent superposition result of the uplink signal sent by the first terminal device and the uplink signal sent by the second terminal device.

[0167] In some embodiments, the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, which may specifically include: the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to transmit the same data (such as Fig.10 X' shown in FIG. 1 is processed in the same manner to generate the same data (such as Fig.10 X shown). The same data generated by the first terminal device and the second terminal device refers to data to be sent on the air interface, such as data processed by the PHY layer.

[0168] Accordingly, the first configuration information sent by the network device to the first terminal device is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and specifically may include the first configuration information being used for the first terminal device to process data. Accordingly, the second configuration information sent by the network device to the second terminal device is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and specifically may include the second configuration information being used for the second terminal device to process data.

[0169] The data processed by the first terminal device and the second terminal device are uplink data of the second terminal device (i.e., remote UE), and specifically may be data processed by any protocol layer of the second terminal device, such as PDCP PDU or RLC SDU, or RLC PDU or MAC SDU, or MAC PDU or TB, etc. Correspondingly, the second configuration information may include the configuration of at least one protocol layer of the second terminal device, and the first configuration information may include the configuration of at least one protocol layer of the first terminal device.

[0170] In one possible scenario, the first configuration information is associated with the second configuration information, or in other words, the first configuration information and the second configuration information have an associated relationship. The associated relationship may include: the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used by the first terminal device and the second terminal device to access the same data (such as Fig.10 X' shown in FIG. 1 is processed in the same manner to generate the same data (such as Fig.10 X shown). The same data generated by the first terminal device and the second terminal device refers to data to be sent on the air interface, such as data output by the PHY layer.

[0171] Similarly, the data processed by the first terminal device and the second terminal device is the uplink data of the second terminal device (i.e., the remote UE), and specifically may be data processed by any protocol layer of the second terminal device, such as PDCP PDU or RLC SDU, or RLC PDU or MAC SDU, or MAC PDU or TB, etc. Correspondingly, the second configuration information may include the configuration of at least one protocol layer of the second terminal device, and the first configuration information may include the configuration of at least one protocol layer of the first terminal device.

[0172] Of course, the above two possible situations are merely exemplary descriptions of the functions, effects, or definitions of the first configuration information and the second configuration information. In actual situations, the functions, effects, or definitions of the first configuration information and the second configuration information can also be described in other ways, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

[0173] For ease of description, the embodiments of the present application are mainly described by taking the first configuration information and the second configuration information used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint sending as an example.

[0174] It can be understood that before the network device sends the first configuration information and the second configuration information, the network device needs to first configure multiple paths for the second terminal device, such as a direct link with the network device, and an indirect link between the second terminal device based on the first terminal device and the network device. For relevant explanations about direct links and indirect links, please refer to the previous terminology explanations, which will not be repeated here.

[0175] Optionally, before sending the first configuration information and the second configuration information, the network device further determines to configure the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0176] In specific implementation, the network device determines whether to configure the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission based on one or more of the uplink transmission performance requirements of the first terminal device (such as high requirements for data transmission reliability), the channel conditions of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the distance between the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the link type between the first terminal device and the second terminal device, and the interface delay between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0177] For example, the network device determines whether the channel conditions of the first terminal device and the second terminal device meet the preset channel conditions based on the channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) measurement results or the sounding reference signal (SRS) measurement results of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, and only when they meet the conditions can the first terminal device and the second terminal device be configured to perform related joint transmission. For example, the network device determines whether the distance between the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within a preset range, and only when the distance between the first terminal device and the second terminal device is within the preset range can the first terminal device and the second terminal device be configured to perform related joint transmission. For example, the network device determines whether the reliability of the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device meets the requirements for configuring related joint transmission, such as when the delay of the link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device is less than the preset delay, and only then can the first terminal device and the second terminal device be configured to perform related joint transmission. Of course, the above are only examples, and are not limited to these.

[0178] In this way, the first terminal device and the second terminal device can be configured to perform related joint transmission only when the first terminal device and the second terminal device support performing related joint transmission, which can improve the reliability of the solution.

[0179] 103. The second terminal device sends the first data to the first terminal device, and correspondingly, the first terminal device receives the first data; and, S104. The second terminal device processes the first data based on the second configuration information to generate third data, and sends the third data to the network device, and correspondingly, the network device receives the third data.

[0180] The first data is the uplink data of the second terminal device, and is also the same data that the first terminal device and the second terminal device need to process. The first data can be data processed by any protocol layer of the second terminal device, such as PDCP PDU or RLC SDU, or RLC PDU or MAC SDU, or MAC PDU or TB, etc.

[0181] Here are some possible scenarios:

[0182] Example 1: UE collaboration based on MAC layer offload architecture:

[0183] The first data is data processed by the MAC layer of the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE), such as MAC PDU or TB. When the MAC layer of the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE) delivers the MAC PDU or TB to its own PHY layer, it also copies a copy of the MAC PDU or TB and delivers it to the PHY layer of the first terminal device (i.e., Relay UE). Fig.11 As shown. Alternatively, when the MAC layer of the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE) delivers the MAC PDU or TB to its own PHY layer, the MAC layer of the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE) will also be used to generate the MAC SDU (or RLC PDU) and the packetization control information (i.e., the first data) and deliver them to the first terminal device. The MAC layer of the first terminal device packets the MAC SDU (or RLC PDU) based on the packetization control information, thereby obtaining the same MAC PDU or TB.

[0184] In this scenario, the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform the same PHY layer processing on the same MAC PDU or TB based on the first configuration information and the second configuration information respectively to generate the same data (such as the second data and the third data).

[0185] Example 2: UE collaboration based on PDCP layer offload architecture:

[0186] The first data is data processed by the PDCP layer of the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE), such as PDCP PDU or RLC SDU. When the PDCP layer of the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE) delivers the PDCP PDU (i.e., the first data) to its own RLC layer, it also copies a copy of the PDCP PDU and delivers it to the RLC layer of the first terminal device (i.e., Relay UE). Fig.12 shown.

[0187] The first terminal device and the second terminal device perform the same RLC, MAC, PHY and other protocol layer processing on the same PDCP PDU based on the first configuration information and the second configuration information respectively, and generate the same data (such as the second data and the third data).

[0188] Of course, the above two diversion architectures are only examples. In actual applications, diversion can also be performed at other protocol layers, that is, the first data delivered by the second terminal device to the first terminal device can also be data processed by other protocol layers except PDCP and MAC layers.

[0189] In a specific implementation, when the second terminal device submits the first data to the first terminal device, the first data may be submitted based on a 3GPP method or a non-3GPP method. Fig.12Taking the scenario shown as an example, the second terminal device can deliver the PDCP PDU to the RLC layer of the second terminal device based on other communication protocol architectures such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

[0190] S105. The first terminal device processes the first data received from the second terminal device based on the first configuration information, generates second data, and sends the second data to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the second data.

[0191] The second data obtained by the first terminal device after processing the first data based on the first configuration information and the third data obtained by the second terminal device after processing the first data based on the second configuration information are the same.

[0192] When the first terminal device sends the second data and the second terminal device sends the third data, the first terminal device and the second terminal device send the same data (i.e., the second data and the third data) to the network device on the same transmission resources (such as time-frequency resources), and perform coherent superposition of the signals. For example, the first terminal device maps the second data to the antenna for transmission, forming a first antenna signal for transmission, and the second terminal device maps the third data to the antenna for transmission, forming a second antenna signal for transmission, and the first antenna signal and the second antenna signal are superimposed in the same direction during the transmission process, and arrive at the network device after being transmitted through the channel. The network device obtains the uplink transmission signal from the superimposed signal, and obtains the uplink data of the second terminal, i.e., the first data, through the processing of the protocol stack.

[0193] In the above scheme, in a multi-path relay scenario, the network device sends the first configuration information and the second configuration information to the relay UE (i.e., the first terminal device) and the remote UE (i.e., the second terminal device), respectively. The relay UE and the remote UE perform the same processing on the same data (i.e., the uplink data of the second terminal device, i.e., the first data) based on the first configuration information and the second configuration information, respectively, and then generate the same data (i.e., the second data and the third data), so that the data (i.e., the second data and the third data) sent by the relay UE and the remote UE on the air interface are consistent, thereby realizing the related joint transmission by the relay UE and the remote UE, thereby achieving the effect of improving the UE uplink transmission capability and saving resource overhead.

[0194] In one possible design, the first configuration information and the second configuration information may include a configuration of a PHY layer (or referred to as PHY layer configuration information or a PHY layer configuration parameter or a PHY layer parameter, etc.). Exemplarily, the configuration of the PHY layer in the first configuration information may include one or more of the following: a first number of antenna ports, a first rank parameter, and a first coherent codebook set; the configuration of the PHY layer in the second configuration information may include one or more of the following: a second number of antenna ports, a second rank parameter, and a second coherent codebook set.

[0195] In order to ensure that the PHY layer of the first terminal device and the PHY layer of the second terminal device perform the same processing on the same data, the first number of antenna ports and the second number of antenna ports are the same, the first rank parameter and the second rank parameter are the same, and the first coherent codebook set and the second coherent codebook set are the same.

[0196] The first antenna port number (or the second antenna port number) may be less than or equal to the sum of the antenna port number of the first terminal device and the antenna port number of the second terminal device, and the first antenna port number (or the second antenna port number) may be greater than the antenna port number of the second terminal device.

[0197] Optionally, the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device may specifically be the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device that can be used to transmit uplink data (such as first data) of the second terminal device. The antenna ports of the second terminal device that can be used to transmit the first data may be all antenna ports of the second terminal device or some antenna ports of the second terminal device. In other words, the antenna ports of the first terminal device may be partially or completely used to perform related joint transmission (i.e., sending the second data).

[0198] For example, the first terminal device has antenna port 1, antenna port 2, and antenna port 3, and the second terminal device has antenna port 4, antenna port 5, and antenna port 6. Then: antenna ports 1 to 3 of the first terminal device and antenna ports 4 to 6 of the second terminal device are all used to perform related joint transmission, and the number of first antenna ports or the number of second antenna ports is 6; or, some antenna ports of the first terminal device, such as antenna port 1 and antenna ports 4 to 6 of the second terminal device, are used to perform related joint transmission, and the number of first antenna ports or the number of second antenna ports is 4.

[0199] It is understandable that this design is suitable for Fig.11 The MAC layer offload architecture shown is also applicable to Fig.12 The PDCP layer offload architecture is shown.

[0200] Through this design approach, it can be ensured that the relay UE (ie, the first terminal device) and the remote UE (ie, the second terminal device) perform the same PHY layer processing on the data.

[0201] In one possible design, the first configuration information may include the configuration of the first bearer (or called the configuration information of the first bearer or the configuration parameters of the first bearer, etc.), and the first bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, or the first bearer is a mirror bearer; and / or, the second configuration information may include the configuration of the second bearer (or called the configuration information of the second bearer or the configuration parameters of the second bearer, etc.), and the second bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, or the second bearer is a mirror bearer.

[0202] The first radio bearer is an end-to-end radio bearer between the first terminal device and the network device, for example, the configuration of the first radio bearer includes the configuration of the PDCP layer and the SDAP layer. The data of the first radio bearer (which may be referred to as the first radio bearer data) is the data transmitted on the first radio bearer.

[0203] A mirror bearer can be understood as follows: if a bearer of one terminal device has an associated bearer on another terminal device, then these two bearers are mirror bearers, and the two associated bearers are used to perform the same processing on the same data.

[0204] In some embodiments, the first bearer is associated with the first radio bearer, including: the first bearer is used to transmit or process data of the first radio bearer, or the network device associates the first radio bearer to the first bearer. The second bearer is associated with the first radio bearer, including: the second bearer is used to transmit or process data of the first radio bearer, or the network device associates the first radio bearer to the second bearer.

[0205] In a specific implementation, the second bearer is associated with the first radio bearer, and the network device configures the first bearer to be associated with the first radio bearer. For example, the network device may carry the identifier of the first radio bearer in the configuration of the first bearer (optionally, it may also carry the identifier of the second terminal device, used to indicate that the first radio bearer is the radio bearer of the second terminal device), and the first terminal device may determine that the first bearer is associated with the first radio bearer based on the identifier, and then the first terminal device processes the data of the first radio bearer based on the first bearer. Since the first bearer and the second bearer are both associated with the first radio bearer, the first bearer and the second bearer can be associated, that is, the first bearer and the second bearer are used to process the data of the same radio bearer.

[0206] In another specific implementation, the second bearer is associated with the first radio bearer, the identifier of the first logical channel is associated with the first radio bearer (such as the data of the first radio bearer is transmitted in the first logical channel), and the network device configures the first bearer to be associated with the identifier of the first logical channel. For example, the network device can carry the identifier of the first logical channel in the configuration of the first bearer, and the first terminal device can determine that the first bearer is associated with the identifier of the first logical channel based on the identifier; since the identifier of the first logical channel is associated with the first radio bearer, the first terminal device can determine that the first bearer is associated with the first radio bearer based on the identifier of the first logical channel carried in the configuration of the first bearer, and then process the data of the first radio bearer (that is, the data corresponding to the first logical channel) based on the first bearer. Since the first bearer and the second bearer are both associated with the first radio bearer, the first bearer and the second bearer can be associated, that is, the first bearer and the second bearer are used to process the data of the same radio bearer.

[0207] Optionally, the first configuration information may include an indication information for indicating that the configured first bearer has a second bearer of an associated second terminal device, or for indicating that the configured first bearer is a mirror bearer. In one possible case, the indication information may be 1-bit indication information, for example: when the value of the 1-bit indication information is 0, it indicates that the first bearer has no associated bearer or indicates that the first bearer is not a mirror bearer, and when the value of the 1-bit indication information is 1, it indicates that the first bearer has a second bearer of an associated second terminal or indicates that the first bearer is a mirror bearer; or, when the value of the 1-bit indication information is 1, it indicates that the first bearer has no associated bearer or indicates that the first bearer is not a mirror bearer, and when the value of the 1-bit indication information is 0, it indicates that the first bearer has a second bearer of an associated second terminal or indicates that the first bearer is a mirror bearer.

[0208] Similarly, the second configuration information may include an indication information for indicating that the second bearer is configured with the first bearer of the associated first terminal device or indicating that the configured second bearer is a mirror bearer. The specific implementation method can refer to the first configuration information and will not be described in detail.

[0209] Below Fig.12 Taking the PDCP split architecture shown in FIG. 1 as an example, the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer are described in detail:

[0210] The configuration of the first bearer (or the first configuration information) may include the configuration of the RLC bearer (or referred to as RLC bearer configuration information or RLC bearer configuration parameters or RLC bearer parameters, etc.). The RLC bearer configuration may specifically include at least one of the configuration of the RLC layer, the configuration of the logical channel (or referred to as logical channel configuration information or logical channel configuration parameters or logical channel parameters, etc.), the configuration of the logical channel group (or referred to as logical channel group configuration information or logical channel group configuration parameters or logical channel group parameters, etc.), and the like.

[0211] The configuration of the first bearer may further indicate that the first bearer is associated with the first radio bearer. For example, the configuration of the first bearer includes a first radio bearer identifier.

[0212] Optionally, the first configuration information also includes the configuration of the PDCP layer. The configuration of the PDCP layer is used to configure the PDCP layer of the first terminal device. The configuration of the RLC is used to configure the RLC layer of the first terminal device. The configuration of the logical channel can be used to configure the logical channel of the first terminal device. The configuration of the logical channel group is used to configure the logical channel group of the second terminal device or can indicate the logical channel group of the second terminal device, and which logical channels each logical channel group contains, etc.

[0213] In some embodiments, the configuration of the RLC bearer is also used to configure the MAC layer and the PHY layer of the first terminal device. For example, configure the MAC process or resources, configure the PHY layer parameters (such as the number of antenna ports, rank parameters, coherent codebooks, etc.). Alternatively, the first configuration information includes the configuration of the MAC layer and the PHY layer, etc., and the configuration of the RLC bearer does not include the configuration of the MAC layer and the PHY layer, etc.

[0214] For ease of distinction, the embodiments of the present application use "first" to express the information, parameters, entities, resources, etc. related to the first configuration information, such as the first PDCP layer, the first RLC bearer, the first logical channel, the first logical channel group, the first MAC layer, the first PHY layer, etc.

[0215] Similarly, the configuration of the second bearer (or the second configuration information) may include the configuration of the RLC bearer of the second terminal device. The configuration of the RLC bearer includes at least one of the configuration of the RLC layer, the configuration of the logical channel, the configuration of the logical channel group, etc. The configuration of the RLC bearer is used to configure the RLC layer of the second terminal device (optionally, the configuration of the RLC bearer is also used to configure the MAC layer and the PHY layer of the second terminal device). The configuration of the logical channel can be used to configure the logical channel of the second terminal device. The configuration of the logical channel group can be used to configure the logical channel group of the second terminal device or can indicate the logical channel group, and which logical channels each logical channel group contains, etc. Optionally, the second configuration information also includes: the configuration of the PDCP layer, which is used to configure the PDCP layer of the second terminal device.

[0216] For ease of distinction, the embodiments of the present application use "second" to express the information, parameters, entities, resources, etc. related to the second configuration information, such as the second PDCP layer, the second RLC bearer, the second logical channel, the second logical channel group, the second MAC layer, the second PHY layer, etc.

[0217] Of course, the above is based on the PDCP split architecture as an example, and the actual split architecture is not limited to this. When splitting at other protocol layers above the PDCP layer (such as SDAP), the configuration of the mirror bearer (i.e., the first bearer and the second bearer) can also include the configuration of the PDCP layer. The configuration content under other split architectures can refer to the configuration ideas under the PDCP split architecture, which will not be elaborated here.

[0218] Based on the above-mentioned first configuration information and second configuration information, the second terminal device can copy the data (corresponding to the first data described above) generated by the second PDCP layer (i.e., the PDCP layer associated with the first bearer), i.e., the PDCP PDU of the second terminal device, and deliver one PDCP PDU to the RLC layer of the second terminal device, and the other PDCP PDU to the RLC layer of the first terminal device. The first terminal device processes the PDCP PDU based on the first bearer, for example, the RLC layer of the first terminal device (i.e., the first RLC layer) processes the PDCP PDU to generate an RLC PDU, and delivers it to the MAC layer of the first terminal device (i.e., the first MAC layer) through a logical channel, and the second terminal device processes the PDCP PDU based on the second bearer, for example, the RLC layer of the second terminal device (i.e., the second RLC layer) processes the PDCP PDU to generate an RLC PDU, and delivers it to the MAC layer of the second terminal device (i.e., the second MAC layer) through a logical channel. Since the first bearer and the second bearer are associated bearers or mirror bearers, the first terminal device and the second terminal device process the PDCP PDU in the same way, for example, the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer process the PDCP PDU in the same way, the generated RLC PDU is also the same, the logical channel carrying the RLC PDU is also the same, and so on.

[0219] Optionally, when the second terminal device delivers the PDCP PDU to the RLC layer of the first terminal device, it can also indicate the logical channel identifier (LCH identity, LCID) or the wireless bearer identifier corresponding to the PDCP PDU, so that the first terminal device can determine the first bearer based on the identifier, and process the PDCP PDU based on the first bearer.

[0220] In order to ensure that the same PDCP PDU is processed by the same RLC layer on the first terminal device and the second terminal device, the configuration of the RLC bearer on the first terminal device and the configuration of the RLC bearer on the second terminal device must be consistent. For example, the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer both include one or more of the following RLC configuration parameters, and the values ​​of each parameter in the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer are the same:

[0221] 1) RLC transmission mode, used to indicate whether the transmission mode of the RLC layer is the acknowledgement mode AM or the unacknowledgement mode UM;

[0222] 2) Sequence number length (SN-FieldLengthh), used to indicate the length of the SN number in the RLC PDU header;

[0223] 3) Maximum number of retransmissions (maxRetxThreshold), used to indicate the maximum number of retransmissions of the RLC transmitter in AM mode;

[0224] 4) Poll retransmit timer (t-PollRetransmit);

[0225] 5) Polling protocol data unit (pollPDU);

[0226] 6) Poll Byte (pollByte).

[0227] In addition, the initial values ​​of the parameters applied in the user plane processes of the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer need to be consistent, for example, both are 0; the RLC segmentation processing algorithms of the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer need to be consistent.

[0228] Of course, in addition to the above RLC bearer configuration parameters, the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer may also include other parameters such as a reassembly timer (t-Reassembly) and a status prohibition timer (t-StatusProhibit). The values ​​of t-Reassembly or t-StatusProhibit in the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer may be the same or different.

[0229] In addition, the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer also include the same logical channel identifier, thereby ensuring that the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer deliver the RLC PDU to the MAC layer through the same logical channel.

[0230] Based on the above configuration of the RLC layer, the same PDCP PDU is processed identically at the RLC layer of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, and then delivered to the MAC layer.

[0231] Furthermore, in order to ensure that the MAC layer of the first terminal device and the MAC layer of the second terminal device perform the same MAC packet processing, the first bearer and the second bearer need to be configured with the same logical channel parameters. For example, the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer both include one or more of the following parameters, and the values ​​of each parameter in the configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer are the same:

[0232] 1) Logical channel priority (LCP), which is used to indicate the priority of the logical channel in the packet assembly process;

[0233] 2) Prioritized bit rate (PRB);

[0234] 3) bucket size duration (BSD);

[0235] 4) an allowed subcarrier spacing (SCS) table (allowedSCS-list), used to indicate one or more allowed subcarrier spacings;

[0236] 5) Maximum uplink data shared channel (physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH) duration (maxPUSCH-Duration);

[0237] 6) configured Grant Type 1 is allowed to be applied (configuredGrantType1Allowed), which is used to indicate whether the resource allocation method of configured Grant Type 1 can be applied for transmission.

[0238] 7) Allowed Serving Cells: used to indicate cells that are allowed to be used for transmission.

[0239] 8) Allowed hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mode (allowedHARQ-mode), used to refer to the HARQ mode of transmitting data.

[0240] Based on the above logical channel parameters, the MAC layer of the relay UE (ie, the first terminal device) can perform the same MAC packet processing as the MAC layer of the remote UE (ie, the second terminal device), thereby generating the same MAC PDU.

[0241] In one possible design, the network device may also send configuration information for performing non-correlated joint transmission to the first terminal device and / or the second terminal device, so that the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform non-correlated joint transmission. The non-correlated joint transmission may also be replaced by other names, such as ordinary uplink transmission, non-coherent transmission, uplink non-correlated joint transmission, etc., which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0242] Non-correlated joint transmission is a transmission mode different from correlated joint transmission.

[0243] In the embodiment of the present application, the non-correlated joint transmission of the second terminal device (ie, Remote UE) includes the following two cases:

[0244] 1) The network device configures the second terminal device to send uplink data only through the direct link.

[0245] In this case, only the second terminal device processes and transmits the uplink data of the second terminal device, the second terminal device does not send the uplink data of the second terminal device to the first terminal device, and the first terminal device does not process the uplink data of the second terminal device.

[0246] 2) The network device configures the second terminal device to send uplink data through the direct link and through the first terminal device (ie, Relay UE).

[0247] In this case, the second terminal device sends its uplink data to the first terminal device. The first terminal device and the second terminal device can perform different processing on the same data (such as the uplink data of the second terminal device), thereby generating different data and transmitting them independently.

[0248] Exemplarily, the network device may send third configuration information to the first terminal device, and the third configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform non-correlated joint transmission. For example, the third configuration information is used for the first terminal device to process uplink data of the second terminal device and generate data to be sent on the air interface.

[0249] Exemplarily, the network device may send fourth configuration information to the second terminal device, and the fourth configuration information is used by the second terminal device to perform non-correlated joint transmission. For example, the fourth configuration information is used by the second terminal device to process the uplink data of the second terminal device and generate data to be sent on the air interface. When the second terminal device processes the uplink data of the second terminal device based on the fourth configuration information, the second terminal device does not deliver the uplink data of the second terminal device to the first terminal device, that is, the second terminal device does not send the uplink data to the network device through the relay of the first terminal device; or, when the second terminal device processes the uplink data of the second terminal device based on the fourth configuration information, the second terminal device sends the uplink data to the network device through the relay of the first terminal device, but the first terminal device sends the uplink data of the second terminal device by performing non-joint coherent transmission, for example, processing the uplink data of the second terminal device based on the third configuration information of the first terminal device to generate data to be sent on the air interface.

[0250] It can be understood that when the first terminal device processes the same data (such as uplink data of the second terminal device) based on the third configuration information and the second terminal device processes the same data based on the fourth configuration information, the data obtained after processing may be different.

[0251] Optionally, the network device may also send fifth configuration information to the first terminal device, where the fifth configuration information is used by the first terminal device to process uplink data of the first terminal device.

[0252] In different scenarios, the content of the third configuration information may be different, and the configuration content of the fourth information may be different, and specific reference may be made to the content of the first configuration information or the second configuration information.

[0253] Taking the MAC split architecture as an example, The network device may configure and send two sets of PHY layer configurations to the first terminal device, one set of PHY layer configurations is used to perform related joint transmission, and the other set of PHY layer configurations is used to perform non-related joint transmission. Fig.13 As shown in (a) in the figure, the network device may send first configuration information and third configuration information to the first terminal device, wherein the configuration of the PHY layer in the first configuration information may include the first number of antenna ports, the first rank parameter, the first coherent codebook set, etc., for performing related joint transmission, and the configuration of the PHY layer in the third configuration information may include the third number of antenna ports, the third rank parameter, the third coherent codebook set, etc., for performing non-related joint transmission. The third number of antenna ports is, for example, the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device.

[0254] In the MAC offload architecture, the network device also sends two sets of PHY layer configurations to the second terminal device, one set of PHY layer configurations is used to perform related joint transmission, and the other set of PHY layer configurations is used to perform non-related joint transmission. Fig.13 As shown in (b), the first terminal device and the second terminal device each have two sets of PHY layer configurations. The network device may send second configuration information and fourth configuration information to the second terminal device, wherein the configuration of the PHY layer in the second configuration information may include the second number of antenna ports, the second rank parameter, the second coherent codebook set, etc., for performing related joint transmission, and the configuration of the PHY layer in the fourth configuration information may include the fourth number of antenna ports, the fourth rank parameter, the fourth coherent codebook set, etc., for performing non-related joint transmission. The fourth number of antenna ports is, for example, the number of antenna ports of the second terminal device.

[0255] When the second terminal device is scheduled to perform related joint transmission (for example, the second scheduling information is received, and the second scheduling information is described below), the second terminal device has a MAC PDU or TB to send, the second terminal device sends the MAC PDU or TB to the first terminal device, and the second terminal device processes the MAC PDU or TB based on the second configuration information (i.e., the second number of antenna ports, the second rank parameter, the second coherent codebook set, etc.). When the second terminal device is scheduled to perform non-related joint transmission (for example, the fourth scheduling information is received, and the fourth scheduling information is described below), the second terminal device has a MAC PDU or TB to send, and the second terminal device processes the MAC PDU or TB based on the fourth configuration information (i.e., the fourth number of antenna ports, the fourth rank parameter, the fourth coherent codebook set, etc.). The second terminal device does not send the MAC PDU or TB to the first terminal device, or the second terminal device sends the MAC PDU or TB to the first terminal device and the first terminal device processes the MAC PDU or TB based on the configuration of the PHY layer in the third configuration information (such as the third number of antenna ports, the third rank parameter, the third coherent codebook set, etc.).

[0256] Optionally, the network device may also configure and send two sets of MAC layer configurations to the second terminal device, one set of MAC layer configurations is used to perform related joint transmission, and the other set of MAC layer configurations is used to perform non-related joint transmission.

[0257] Furthermore, the network device may also send a radio bearer configuration to the second terminal device, for configuring a radio bearer for the second terminal device, such as configuring an SRB or a DRB. The radio bearer configuration may include one or more of the following: a PDCP layer configuration, an RLC bearer configuration, a logical channel configuration, a logical channel group configuration, etc. For each radio bearer configuration, an association indication information may also be included, for indicating whether the radio bearer configured by the radio bearer configuration is associated with a joint transmission or an unassociated joint transmission. Fig.13 As shown in (c), the second terminal device associates data of different wireless bearers (referred to as wireless bearer data) to different MAC layers and PHY layers for processing.

[0258] Correspondingly, the MAC layer of the second terminal device can independently process the wireless bearer data associated with the relevant joint transmission and the wireless bearer data not associated with the relevant joint transmission, for example, independently perform the logical channel priority process and MAC layer packetization through different MAC processes or resources.

[0259] Specifically, during the uplink transmission process, the wireless bearer data of the second terminal device is submitted to the MAC layer through the PDCP layer and the RLC layer. The second terminal device can maintain two independent MAC processes or resources. Accordingly, the second terminal device separately manages the logical channels corresponding to the wireless bearers associated with the relevant joint transmission and the logical channels corresponding to the wireless bearers associated with the non-related joint transmission. When the second terminal device has uplink data transmission, it is necessary to send a buffer status report (buffer status report, BSR) to the network device to indicate the size of the uplink buffer data, which is used to indicate to the network device how many uplink transmission resources the second terminal device needs.

[0260] Specifically, the BSR may include the identifier of the logical channel group for transmitting uplink data, the total data size of the logical channel cache corresponding to the logical channel group, and the cache data size in the RLC layer and PDCP layer corresponding to each logical channel in the logical channel group.

[0261] In an embodiment of the present application, the second terminal device may distinguish the cached data corresponding to the relevant joint transmission from the cached data corresponding to the irrelevant joint transmission in the BSR, including but not limited to the following two methods:

[0262] 1. Distinguish by the identifier (ID) of the logical channel group: When configuring the logical channel group for the radio bearer used for the related joint transmission and the radio bearer used for the non-related joint transmission, the logical channel group ID is not reused, and then the network device can determine the buffer data size corresponding to the related joint transmission and the buffer data size corresponding to the non-related joint transmission based on the logical channel group ID indicated in the BSR. In this way, a single BSR can include the buffer data size corresponding to the related joint transmission and the buffer data size corresponding to the non-related joint transmission at the same time; or a single BSR only carries the buffer data size corresponding to the related joint transmission or the buffer data size corresponding to the non-related joint transmission.

[0263] 2. Differentiate through different control elements (MAC CE): The terminal device applies MACCE to carry BSR, and the MAC subheader corresponding to the MAC CE contains a specific value of LCID, which is used to indicate to the network device that the MAC CE carries the BSR. The second terminal device can use different LCIDs to indicate the BSR corresponding to the related joint transmission and the BSR corresponding to the non-related joint transmission.

[0264] Based on the BSR reported by the second terminal device, the network device can allocate transmission resources (such as time-frequency resources) for related joint transmission or non-related joint transmission to the second terminal device. The MAC layer of the second terminal device performs packet processing based on the transmission resources configured by the network device. For the data corresponding to the related joint transmission, the MAC layer can also deliver the MAC PDU or TB, etc. to the first terminal device after packetization.

[0265] Taking the PDCP split architecture as an example, The network device can configure two sets of bearers for the first terminal device, such as a first bearer and a third bearer, wherein the first bearer is used for related joint transmission and the third bearer is used for unrelated joint transmission, that is, the third bearer is not a mirror bearer, or the third bearer does not have an associated bearer.

[0266] The third bearer may be associated with the first wireless bearer, that is, the third bearer may be used by the first terminal device to process uplink data of the second terminal device.

[0267] Optionally, the network device also configures a third set of bearers for the first terminal device, such as a fifth bearer, where the fifth bearer is associated with the second wireless bearer, and the second wireless bearer is an end-to-end wireless bearer between the first terminal device and the network device, i.e., the fifth bearer is used to process data of the second wireless bearer (i.e., uplink data of the first terminal device).

[0268] The network device may configure two sets of bearers for the second terminal device, such as a second bearer and a fourth bearer, wherein the second bearer is used for related joint transmission, and the fourth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, that is, the fourth bearer is not a mirror bearer, or the fourth bearer does not have an associated bearer. The second bearer and the fourth bearer are both associated with the first wireless bearer, that is, both are used to process the uplink data of the second terminal device.

[0269] As an example, Fig.14 As shown in (a), the network device can send first configuration information and third configuration information to the first terminal device, wherein the first configuration information includes the configuration of the first bearer (the configuration of the first bearer can refer to the relevant introduction above), and the third configuration information includes the configuration of the third bearer. The content included in the configuration of the third bearer can refer to the content included in the configuration of the first bearer, for example, including the configuration of the RLC bearer (including at least one of the configuration of the RLC layer, the configuration of the logical channel, the configuration of the logical channel group, etc., and optionally also including the configuration of the MAC layer, the configuration of the PHY layer, etc.).

[0270] For the sake of distinction, in the embodiment of the present application, the information, parameters, entities, or resources related to the third configuration information are all expressed as "third", such as a third PDCP layer, a third RLC bearer, a third logical channel, a third logical channel group, a third MAC layer, a third PHY layer, etc. Optionally, the third configuration information also includes the configuration of the PDCP layer.

[0271] Similarly, the network device may also send second configuration information and fourth configuration information to the second terminal device, wherein the second configuration information includes the configuration of the second bearer (the configuration of the second bearer may refer to the relevant introduction above), and the fourth configuration information includes the configuration of the fourth bearer. The content included in the configuration of the fourth bearer may refer to the content included in the configuration of the second bearer, for example, including the configuration of the RLC bearer (including at least one of the configuration of the RLC layer, the configuration of the logical channel, the configuration of the logical channel group, etc., and optionally also including the configuration of the MAC layer, the configuration of the PHY layer, etc.). Optionally, the fourth configuration information also includes the configuration of the PDCP layer.

[0272] For ease of distinction, the embodiment of the present application uses "fourth" to express the information, parameters, entities or resources related to the fourth configuration information, such as the fourth PDCP layer, the fourth RLC bearer, the fourth logical channel, the fourth logical channel group, the fourth MAC layer, the fourth PHY layer, etc.

[0273] Similarly, in order to isolate the data transmission of related joint transmission and unrelated joint transmission, the network device can also respectively configure and send two sets of MAC layer configurations to the first terminal device and the second terminal device, one set of MAC layer configurations is used to perform related joint transmission, and the other set of MAC layer configurations is used to perform unrelated joint transmission. The first terminal device and the second terminal device respectively maintain two sets of MAC layer processing processes or resources to perform related joint transmission and unrelated joint transmission.

[0274] When the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform related joint transmission, the second terminal device can send a BSR to the network device to indicate the size of the cached data corresponding to the first wireless bearer data. The first terminal device may not report the size of the cached data corresponding to the first wireless bearer data, but the first terminal device can report the size of the cached data of its own wireless bearer data (such as the second wireless bearer data), that is, the first terminal device does not need to report the BSR for the mirrored bearer.

[0275] In addition, the network device may also send two sets of PHY layer configurations to the first terminal device and the second terminal device respectively, one set of PHY layer configurations is used to perform related joint transmission, and the other set of PHY layer configurations is used to perform non-related joint transmission.

[0276] In the above design, the network device configures multiple sets of parameters (such as two sets of physical layer configurations, two sets of bearer configurations, etc.) for the remote UE (i.e., the second terminal device) and performs resource isolation, so as to flexibly configure the remote UE to perform related joint transmission or non-related joint transmission. The network device configures multiple sets of parameters (such as two sets of physical layer configurations, two sets of bearer configurations, etc.) for the relay UE (i.e., the first terminal device) and performs resource isolation, so as to flexibly configure the relay UE to perform related joint transmission or non-related joint transmission. The flexibility of uplink transmission is improved.

[0277] In one possible design, when the network device sends first configuration information to the first terminal device, the network device may also send first indication information to the first terminal device, where the first indication information indicates that the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint sending; accordingly, the first terminal device receives the first indication information from the network device, and then the first terminal device may determine, based on the first indication information, that the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0278] In a specific implementation, the first indication information may be included in the first configuration information. Alternatively, the first indication information is not carried in the first configuration information, but is carried in other information or sent separately, for example, the first configuration information and the second indication information are respectively carried in different messages.

[0279] Optionally, the first indication information is a bit indication information in the first configuration information, and when the value of the bit is 0 (or 1), it indicates that the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission. For example, under the PDCP split architecture, the bit is specifically used to indicate that the first bearer has a second bearer of an associated second terminal device, or to indicate that the first bearer is a mirror bearer.

[0280] Optionally, the first indication information may include an identifier of the second terminal device. Through the identifier, the first terminal device may determine that the first terminal device and the second terminal device cooperate to perform related joint transmission, or in other words, the first configuration information is associated with the second terminal device.

[0281] Similarly, when the network device sends the second configuration information to the second terminal device, the network device may also send the second indication information to the second terminal device, the second indication information indicating that the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission; accordingly, the second terminal device receives the second indication information from the network device, and then the second terminal device may determine that the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission according to the second indication information. Similarly, the second indication information may be included in the second configuration information, or the second indication information is not carried in the second configuration information.

[0282] In a specific implementation, the second indication information may be included in the second configuration information. Alternatively, the second indication information is not carried in the second configuration information, but is carried in other information or sent separately, for example, the first configuration information and the second indication information are respectively carried in different messages.

[0283] Optionally, the second indication information is a bit indication information in the second configuration information, and when the value of the bit is 0 (or 1), it indicates that the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission. For example, under the PDCP split architecture, the bit is specifically used to indicate that the second bearer configured has the first bearer of the associated first terminal device, or to indicate that the configured second bearer is a mirror bearer.

[0284] Optionally, the second indication information may include an identifier of the first terminal device. Through the identifier, the first terminal device may determine that the first terminal device and the second terminal device cooperate to perform related joint transmission, or in other words, the second configuration information is associated with the first terminal device.

[0285] Similarly, when the network device sends the third configuration information to the first terminal device, the network device may also send third indication information to the first terminal device, the third indication information indicating that the third configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform non-related joint transmission; accordingly, the first terminal device receives the third indication information from the network device, and then the first terminal device may determine, based on the third indication information, that the third configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform non-related joint transmission. The specific implementation of the third indication information may refer to the first indication information or the second indication information.

[0286] Similarly, when the network device sends the fourth configuration information to the second terminal device, the network device may also send fourth indication information to the second terminal device, the fourth indication information indicating that the fourth configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform non-related joint transmission; accordingly, the second terminal device receives the fourth indication information from the network device, and then the second terminal device may determine, based on the fourth indication information, that the fourth configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform non-related joint transmission. The specific implementation of the fourth indication information may refer to the first indication information or the second indication information.

[0287] Through the above design, the network device can indicate the role of the configuration information to the terminal device, and then the terminal device can perform the corresponding uplink transmission based on the corresponding configuration information. For example, the relay UE (i.e., the first terminal device) can determine the first configuration information for the relay UE to perform related joint transmission based on the first indication information, and the remote UE (i.e., the second terminal device) can determine the second configuration information for the remote UE to perform related joint transmission based on the second indication information, and then when the relay UE and the remote UE perform related joint transmission, the relay UE and the remote UE process the data based on the first configuration information and the second configuration information respectively, to ensure that the same data is processed in the same way. In this way, the reliability of the solution can be improved.

[0288] In one possible design, the network device may schedule the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission or unrelated joint transmission.

[0289] Exemplarily, the network device sends first scheduling information to the first terminal device (i.e., Relay UE), and the first scheduling information is used to schedule the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission. Also, the network device sends second scheduling information to the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE), and the second scheduling information is used to schedule the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission.

[0290] Alternatively, the network device sends second scheduling information to the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE), and the second scheduling information is used to schedule the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission. And, the second terminal device sends first scheduling information to the first terminal device (i.e., Relay UE) based on the second scheduling information, and the first scheduling information is used to schedule the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission. Among them, the first scheduling information can be the same as the second scheduling information (i.e., the second terminal device directly forwards the second scheduling information sent by the network device to the first terminal device), and the first scheduling information can also be different from the second scheduling information (such as the second terminal device determines the first scheduling information based on the second scheduling information).

[0291] Alternatively, the network device sends first scheduling information to the first terminal device (i.e., Relay UE), and the first scheduling information is used to schedule the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission. And, the first terminal device sends second scheduling information to the second terminal device (i.e., Remote UE) based on the first scheduling information, and the second scheduling information is used to schedule the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission. The second scheduling information may be the same as the first scheduling information (i.e., the first terminal device directly forwards the first scheduling information sent by the network device to the second terminal device), and the second scheduling information may also be different from the first scheduling information (such as the first terminal device determines the second scheduling information based on the first scheduling information).

[0292] Correspondingly, after receiving the second scheduling information, the second terminal device performs relevant joint sending (such as processing the first data based on the second configuration information). After receiving the first scheduling information, the first terminal device performs relevant joint sending (such as processing the first data based on the first configuration information).

[0293] Of course, the network device may also schedule the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform non-correlated joint transmission. For example, the network device sends third scheduling information to the first terminal device, and the third scheduling information is used to schedule the first terminal device to perform non-correlated joint transmission; and / or the network device sends fourth scheduling information to the second terminal device, and the fourth scheduling information is used to schedule the second terminal device to perform non-correlated joint transmission.

[0294] Correspondingly, the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform corresponding data processing and transmission based on the scheduling information sent by the network device. It can be understood that the first terminal device and the second terminal device process data based on the scheduling information sent by the network device, including the MAC layer of the first terminal device and the second terminal device reading TB from the logical channel for packet processing.

[0295] In a specific implementation, the scheduling information for scheduling the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission (i.e., the first scheduling information) and the scheduling information for scheduling the first terminal device to perform non-related joint transmission (i.e., the third scheduling information) can be implemented by different types of scheduling information. Several possible examples are listed below:

[0296] Example 1: The scheduling information (such as DCI) sent by the network device includes an indication information for indicating whether to perform related joint transmission or to perform non-related joint transmission.

[0297] For example, the indication information may be 1-bit indication information, where a value of 0 indicates that related joint transmission is performed, and a value of 1 indicates that unrelated joint transmission is performed; or a value of 0 indicates that unrelated joint transmission is performed, and a value of 1 indicates that related joint transmission is performed.

[0298] Example 2: The first scheduling information and the third scheduling information correspond to different terminal identifiers of the first terminal device.

[0299] Exemplarily, the first terminal device may apply different terminal identifiers to receive different scheduling information (such as DCI). For example, the terminal identifier is specifically a cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI). If the first terminal device applies RNTI 1 to receive scheduling information (such as RNTI 1 included in the scheduling information), the first terminal device performs related joint transmission; if the first terminal device applies RNTI 2 to receive scheduling information (such as RNTI 2 included in the scheduling information), the first terminal device performs non-related joint transmission.

[0300] Example 3: The first scheduling information and the third scheduling information correspond to different DCI formats.

[0301] For example, the network device schedules the first terminal device to perform related joint transmission through DCI scheduling in the first DCI format, and schedules the first terminal device to perform non-related joint transmission through DCI scheduling in the second DCI format, that is, the first scheduling information corresponds to the first DCI format, that is, the third scheduling information corresponds to the second DCI format. The first DCI format is different from the second DCI format.

[0302] The DCI format includes, but is not limited to, DCI format 1, DCI format 2, etc.

[0303] (4) Related joint transmission and non-related joint transmission are associated with different carriers respectively. The network device can indicate the carrier in the scheduling information (such as DCI), and the first terminal device determines whether to perform related joint transmission or non-related joint transmission through the carrier indicated in the scheduling information.

[0304] For example, the first carrier is used for non-correlated joint transmission, and the second carrier is used for non-correlated joint transmission. Then the first scheduling information may indicate the first carrier, and the third scheduling information may indicate the second carrier.

[0305] Of course, the above four types are only examples and are not limited to them.

[0306] Similarly, the scheduling information used to schedule the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission (i.e., the second scheduling information) and the scheduling information used to schedule the second terminal device to perform non-related joint transmission (i.e., the fourth scheduling information) can also be implemented through different types of scheduling information. The specific implementation method can refer to the first scheduling information and the third scheduling information, which will not be repeated here.

[0307] Through the above design, the network device can flexibly schedule the relay UE (ie, the first terminal device) and / or the remote UE (ie, the second terminal device) to perform related joint transmission or related joint transmission, which can improve the flexibility and reliability of the solution.

[0308] In a possible design, the network device can reconfigure the bearer of the first terminal device and / or the second terminal device. Reconfiguring the bearer includes modifying the original bearer (or called the configured bearer) or replacing the original bearer.

[0309] Take the original bearer as a bearer for non-related joint transmission (such as the third bearer and the fourth bearer) and the reconfigured bearer as a bearer for related joint transmission (such as the first bearer and the second bearer) as an example:

[0310] The first configuration information indicates reconfiguring the bearer of the first terminal device, for example, the first configuration information is a first reconfiguration message or the first configuration information is carried in the first reconfiguration message. Accordingly, the first terminal device reconfigures the bearer, for example, configures the first bearer and releases the third bearer.

[0311] The second configuration information indicates reconfiguring the bearer of the second terminal device, for example, the second configuration information is a second reconfiguration message or the second configuration information is carried in the second reconfiguration message. The second terminal device reconfigures the bearer, for example, configures the second bearer and releases the fourth bearer.

[0312] In specific implementation, in order to ensure lossless transmission of data during the bearer reconfiguration process, the first terminal device and / or the second terminal device may reconfigure the bearer based on the following two methods:

[0313] Method 1: Configure a new bearer and keep the transmission of the original bearer data. Release the new bearer after the data transmission on the original bearer is completed. Put the original load.

[0314] Among them, the original bearer data, or the data associated with the original bearer, the data on the original bearer, etc., refers to the data being processed or to be processed on the original bearer. In the embodiment of the present application, these data can be referred to as in-transit data.

[0315] For example, the first terminal device configures the first bearer according to the first configuration information, and configures the first bearer to be associated with the first radio bearer; after the data associated with the third bearer (i.e., in-transit data) is transmitted, the third bearer is released. The third bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, and the third bearer is associated with the first radio bearer (i.e., the in-transit data is the uplink data of the second terminal device).

[0316] For example, the second terminal device configures the second bearer according to the second configuration information, and configures the first bearer to be associated with the first radio bearer; after the data associated with the fourth bearer (i.e., in-transit data) is transmitted, the fourth bearer is released. The fourth bearer is associated with the first radio bearer (i.e., the in-transit data is the uplink data of the second terminal device), and the fourth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission.

[0317] For a specific example, see Fig.14(b) in the figure takes the bearer as an RLC bearer as an example: the second terminal device is originally configured with a fourth bearer (i.e., the original RLC bearer), and the network device reconfigures the RLC bearer for the second terminal device, such as configuring a second bearer (i.e., a new RLC bearer), and the second bearer is a mirror bearer (or called a mirror RLC bearer), that is, the second bearer is associated with the first bearer of the first terminal device. After configuring the second bearer, the second terminal device copies the PDCP PDU of the wireless bearer associated with the second bearer, and delivers it to the second bearer and to the first bearer of the first terminal device. During this process, the original RLC bearer (i.e., the fourth bearer) is kept from being released. When the second terminal device sends a PDCP PDU to the first terminal device, it can carry indication information for indicating which mirror bearer the PDCP PDU corresponds to, such as the logical channel identifier or wireless bearer identifier corresponding to the mirror bearer. After the in-transit data in the original RLC bearer is sent, the second terminal device releases the original RLC bearer.

[0318] For a specific example, see Fig.14 In (c), take the RLC bearer as an example: the transmission mode of the wireless bearer data of the second terminal device is configured as PDCP replication, but is not configured for related joint transmission, that is, the PDCP PDU of the second terminal device is replicated at the PDCP layer and transmitted through multiple channels, but the uplink transmission between the first terminal device and the second terminal device is performed independently, such as the first terminal device transmits the PDCP PDU of the second terminal device based on the third bearer (that is, the original RLC bearer on the first terminal device side), and the second terminal device transmits the PDCP PDU of the second terminal device based on the fourth bearer (that is, the original RLC bearer on the second terminal device side). In addition, the first terminal device can also transmit the PDCP PDU of the first terminal device based on the fifth bearer. In this case, the network device configures the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, then the first terminal device and the second terminal device need to establish a mirror bearer and execute the process of first maintaining and then releasing the original bearer.

[0319] Specifically, the first terminal device and the second terminal device establish a mirrored RLC bearer (such as a first bearer and a second bearer) according to the configuration information sent by the network device. During the process of the first terminal device receiving the PDCP PDU sent by the second terminal device, the first terminal device can determine that the data transmission of the original RLC bearer (such as the third bearer) is completed according to the local configuration policy or based on the indication of the second terminal device. For example, after receiving the mirrored bearer, the second terminal device sends an indication message to the first terminal device, so that the first terminal device releases the original RLC bearer; or, after the first terminal device does not receive the PDCP PDU sent by the second terminal device for more than a preset time, it determines that the data transmission on the original RLC bearer is completed and releases the original RLC bearer.

[0320] Method 2: configure a new bearer and release the original bearer, and retransmit the released data in the original bearer.

[0321] For example, the first terminal device reconfigures the third bearer as the first bearer (or configures the first bearer and releases the third bearer) according to the first configuration information, the third bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, the third bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, the first bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer and is used for related joint transmission; the data of the first wireless bearer is retransmitted based on the first bearer configured based on the first configuration information.

[0322] For example, the second terminal device reconfigures the fourth bearer as the second bearer (or configures the second bearer and releases the fourth bearer) according to the second configuration information, the fourth bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, the fourth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, the second bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, and is used for related joint transmission; the data of the first wireless bearer is retransmitted based on the second bearer configured based on the second configuration information.

[0323] Still taking the bearer as an RLC bearer as an example: the first terminal device is originally configured with a third bearer (such as a third RLC bearer), and the second terminal device is originally configured with a fourth bearer (such as a fourth RLC bearer). The network device reconfigures the RLC bearers for the first terminal device and the second terminal device, such as: the network device sends the configuration of the first bearer (such as the first RLC bearer) to the first terminal device, and indicates in the configuration that the first bearer is a mirror bearer, and the network device sends the configuration of the second bearer (such as the first RLC bearer) to the second terminal device, and indicates in the configuration that the second bearer is a mirror bearer; after the first terminal device and the second terminal device respectively receive the configuration of the mirror bearers (i.e., the first bearer and the second bearer), they reset the user plane parameters of the third bearer and the fourth bearer according to the configuration of the mirror bearers. The timer related to the user plane processing, that is, RLC re-establishment (that is, the first terminal device reconfigures the third bearer as the first bearer, and the second terminal device reconfigures the fourth bearer as the second bearer); the first terminal device and the second terminal device also clear the in-transit data, which is the data mapped to the original RLC bearer (that is, the fourth bearer) received by the second terminal device after receiving the configuration of the mirror bearer. The first terminal device can determine which data are in-transit according to the indication of the second terminal device. For example, the second terminal device sends an indication message after sending the data packet of the original RLC bearer to the first terminal device, and then the first terminal device can determine that the data packet received before receiving the indication message is the in-transit data; the second terminal device side also triggers the PDCP data recovery process, and the PDCP data recovery process triggers the second terminal device to retransmit the data packet that has not received the confirmation receipt indication from the other end (that is, the network device) after the RLC re-establishment.

[0324] The above takes the example of a network device reconfiguring a bearer used for non-related joint transmission (such as the third bearer, the fourth bearer) as a bearer used for related joint transmission (such as the first bearer, the first bearer). In actual applications, the network device can reconfigure the bearer used for related joint transmission (such as the third bearer, the fourth bearer) as a bearer used for non-related joint transmission (such as the first bearer, the first bearer), that is, the original bearer can also be a bearer used for related joint transmission, and the reconfigured bearer is a bearer used for non-related joint transmission.

[0325] For example, the network device first sends the first configuration information and the second configuration information to the first terminal device and the second terminal device respectively, so as to configure the first bearer and the second bearer for the first terminal device and the second terminal device respectively. In the process of the first terminal device and the second terminal device performing related joint transmission based on the first bearer and the second bearer, the network device sends the third configuration information (including the configuration of the third bearer) and the fourth configuration information (the configuration of the fourth bearer) to the first terminal device and the second terminal device respectively, for reconfiguring the bearers of the first terminal device and the second terminal device, for example, the third configuration information is the third reconfiguration message or the third configuration information is carried in the third reconfiguration message, for example, the fourth configuration information is the fourth reconfiguration message or the fourth configuration information is carried in the fourth reconfiguration message. Correspondingly, after the first terminal device receives the configuration of the third bearer, it can perform the process of first keeping and then releasing the original bearer (first bearer) according to the above method 1, or directly reconfigure the bearer according to the above method 2 and retransmit the data released on the original bearer; after the second terminal device receives the configuration of the fourth bearer, it can perform the process of first keeping and then releasing the original bearer (second bearer) according to the above method 1, or directly reconfigure the bearer according to the above method 2 and retransmit the data released on the original bearer.

[0326] Through the above design, the network device can reconfigure the bearers of the remote UE (i.e., the second terminal device) and the relay UE (i.e., the first terminal device), and achieve the effect of flexibly configuring the remote UE and the relay UE to perform related joint transmission or non-related joint transmission, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0327] In one possible design, the network device may activate or deactivate the bearers of the first terminal device and / or the second terminal device. For example, the network device may configure at least two sets of bearers (such as the first bearer and the third bearer) for the first terminal device, and / or, configure at least two sets of bearers (such as the second bearer and the fourth bearer) for the second terminal device. The network device activates one set of bearers for each terminal device for uplink transmission.

[0328] Exemplarily, the network device may send a first message to the first terminal device, the first message being used to activate the first bearer or deactivate the third bearer; and / or send a second message to the second terminal device, the second message being used to activate the second bearer or deactivate the fourth bearer. In this way, the first bearer of the first terminal device and / or the second bearer of the second terminal device may be activated, so that the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform related joint transmission.

[0329] It can be understood that after the first bearer is activated, if the original bearer (such as the third bearer) still has data being processed (i.e., there is data in transit), the first terminal device can first maintain the data processing flow of the original bearer, and after the data transmission of the original bearer is completed, the first terminal device suspends the original bearer (i.e., suspends the use of the original bearer to transmit data). After the second bearer is activated, if the original bearer (such as the fourth bearer) still has data being processed, the second terminal device can first maintain the data processing flow of the original bearer, and after the data transmission of the original bearer is completed, the second terminal device suspends the original bearer (i.e., suspends the use of the original bearer to transmit data).

[0330] Exemplarily, the network device may send a third message to the first terminal device, where the third message is used to deactivate the first bearer or activate the third bearer; and / or send a fourth message to the fourth terminal device, where the second message is used to deactivate the second bearer or activate the fourth bearer. In this way, the second bearer of the first terminal device and / or the fourth bearer of the second terminal device may be activated, so that the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform non-related joint transmission.

[0331] It can be understood that after the third bearer is activated, if the original bearer (such as the first bearer) still has data being processed (i.e., there is data in transit), the first terminal device can first maintain the data processing flow of the original bearer, and after the data transmission of the original bearer is completed, the first terminal device suspends the original bearer (i.e., suspends the use of the original bearer to transmit data). After the fourth bearer is activated, if the original bearer (such as the second bearer) still has data being processed, the second terminal device can first maintain the data processing flow of the original bearer, and after the data transmission of the original bearer is completed, the second terminal device suspends the original bearer (i.e., suspends the use of the original bearer to transmit data).

[0332] In a specific implementation, the activation or deactivation message (such as one or more of the first message, the second message, the third message or the fourth message) can be implemented through MAC CE.

[0333] Optionally, before the first bearer is activated or after it is deactivated, the first terminal device may reset parameters for the user plane processing flow in the RLC entity corresponding to the first bearer, and before the second bearer is activated or after it is deactivated, the second terminal device may reset parameters for the user plane processing flow in the RLC entity corresponding to the second bearer, so as to ensure that when the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform related joint transmission, the RLC processing flow of the first terminal device is consistent with the RLC processing flow of the second terminal device.

[0334] Through the above design method, the network equipment can flexibly select the activated bearer, and realize the effect of flexibly configuring the remote UE (i.e., the second terminal device) and the relay UE (i.e., the first terminal device) to perform related joint transmission or non-related joint transmission, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0335] In one possible design, during the data processing of each protocol layer, the triggering mechanism of signaling such as the polling bit of the RLC layer, the uplink RLC status report of the RLC layer, and the uplink control information (UCI) of the PHY layer may cause the data generated by the first terminal device and the second terminal device to be different. In these scenarios, the first terminal device and the second terminal device can align the data transmission content at both ends through interaction, or set the resources used for related joint transmission not to apply the transmission of the above three control signalings, or the first terminal device and the second terminal device do not use the corresponding functions.

[0336] Exemplarily, during the process of the first terminal device and the second terminal device performing related joint transmission, if the first terminal device generates first information, the first terminal device may send the first information to the second terminal device; and / or, if the second terminal device generates second information during the process of processing the first data based on the second configuration, the second terminal device may send the second information to the first terminal device. Furthermore, the first terminal device may send the first information and / or the second information to the network device based on the first bearer, and the second terminal device may send the first information and / or the second information to the network device based on the second bearer, so that the first terminal device and the second terminal device send the same data.

[0337] Alternatively, during the process of the first terminal device and the second terminal device performing related joint transmission, if the first terminal device generates first information, the first terminal device may send the first information to the network device based on the fifth bearer, the fifth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, the fifth bearer may be the third bearer, or the fifth bearer is different from the third bearer. During the process of the first terminal device and the second terminal device performing related joint transmission, if the second terminal device generates second information, the second terminal device may send the second information to the network device based on the sixth bearer, the sixth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, the sixth bearer may be the fourth bearer, or the sixth bearer is different from the fourth bearer.

[0338] For example, the first information may indicate the reception status of the first terminal device for the downlink data of the network device, such as the first information is an uplink RLC status report generated by the first terminal device, and the second information may indicate the reception status of the second terminal device for the downlink data of the network device, such as the second information is an uplink RLC status report generated by the second terminal device. Or, for example, the first information is the UCI generated by the first terminal device, and the second information is the UCI generated by the second terminal device.

[0339] The following is a detailed description with several specific examples:

[0340] Example 1: Processing of RLC polling bit

[0341] The polling bit is used by the sender (such as the first terminal device or the second terminal device) to instruct the receiver (such as the network device) to send an RLC status report. After the sender triggers the polling bit, the Polling bit carried in the RLC PDU header instructs the receiver to trigger the RLC status report. The sender triggers the polling bit based on the following three parameters: t-PollRetransmit, pollPDU, and pollByte.

[0342] In the specific implementation, the sender triggers the polling bit in the following three situations:

[0343] (1) The variable PDU_WITHOUT_POLL maintained by the transmitter is accumulated and updated to pollPDU, or the variable BYTE_WITHOUT_POLL maintained by the transmitter is accumulated and updated to pollByte. PDU_WITHOUT_POLL is used to accumulate the number of RLC PDUs sent by the transmitter since the last triggering of the polling bit, and BYTE_WITHOUT_POLL is used to accumulate the total number of bytes of data packets sent by the transmitter since the last triggering of the polling bit. pollPDU and pollByte are preset threshold values.

[0344] (2) t-PollRetransmit times out. t-PollRetransmit is a timer used to trigger the polling bit.

[0345] (3) After the AM RLC entity at the transmitting end sends an AMD PDU, the buffer of the RLC layer is empty or full.

[0346] For the above situations (1) and (2), the network device can configure the same t-PollRetransmit, pollPDU, and pollByte for the first terminal device and the second terminal device (such as the t-PollRetransmit value in the first configuration information is consistent with the t-PollRetransmit value in the second configuration information, the pollPDU value in the first configuration information is consistent with the pollPDU value in the second configuration information, and the pollByte value in the first configuration information is consistent with the pollByte value in the second configuration information) to ensure that the first terminal device and the second terminal device trigger the polling bit at the same time.

[0347] For the above situation (3), if the buffer is empty or full, the network device can configure the first terminal device and the second terminal device to always select the RLC SDU with the largest SN number to carry the Polling bit, thereby ensuring that the first terminal device and the second terminal device trigger the polling bit at the same time.

[0348] With respect to the above situations (1) and (3), in order to avoid the problem that the transmission delay in the link transmission between the first terminal device and the second terminal device causes the RLC layer cache conditions of the first terminal device and the second terminal device to be inconsistent, thereby causing the polling bit triggering time to be inconsistent, the first terminal device and the second terminal device may perform any of the following methods:

[0349] 1. The first terminal device side disables the function of actively filling in the polling bit, the second terminal device decides to fill in the polling bit, and the second terminal device instructs the first terminal device to fill in the SN number of the polling bit;

[0350] 2. The first terminal device only actively fills in the polling bit for the above situation (1). In the above situation (2) or (3), the second terminal device decides to fill in the polling bit, and the second terminal device instructs the first terminal device to fill in the SN number of the polling bit;

[0351] 3. The PDCP layer of the second terminal device delays the delivery of the PDCP PDU to the RLC layer based on the link delay, so as to ensure synchronization of the RLC layer cache states of the second terminal device and the first terminal device;

[0352] 4. The first terminal device configures a separate bearer for transmitting the polling bit, and the bearer is associated with the mirror bearer (such as the first bearer); and / or the second terminal device configures a separate bearer for transmitting the polling bit, and the bearer is associated with the mirror bearer (such as the second bearer).

[0353] 5. When the first terminal device and the second terminal device perform related joint transmission, the first terminal device and the second terminal device do not support (or do not trigger) the polling bit.

[0354] Of course, the above five methods are only examples and not limitations.

[0355] Example 2: Uplink RLC status report processing

[0356] The first terminal device or the second terminal device may trigger an uplink RLC status report when any of the following conditions is met, and the uplink RLC status report is used to indicate the reception status of the data sent by the network device by the terminal device:

[0357] 1. Receive the polling bit sent by the network device;

[0358] 2. t-Reassembly timeout.

[0359] In the above situation 1, the network device can send the same polling bit to the first terminal device and the second terminal device at the same time, but the downlink reception conditions of the first terminal device and the second terminal device are not consistent, so the first terminal device and the second terminal device may not trigger the uplink RLC status report at the same time, and the content of the RLC status report may not be consistent. In this case, the first terminal device and the second terminal device can solve the problem in any of the following ways:

[0360] Mode 1: After the mirror bearer of the first terminal device and the second terminal device triggers the uplink RLC status report, the first terminal device and the second terminal device exchange uplink RLC status reports. During the interaction, the transmitting end can simultaneously indicate the identifier of the radio bearer (such as the first radio bearer) of the second terminal device corresponding to the uplink RLC status report, and the receiving end can submit the received uplink RLC status report to the corresponding RLC entity (i.e., the RLC entity used for the relevant joint transmission, or the RLC entity corresponding to the mirror bearer) according to the identifier.

[0361] Mode 2: The uplink RLC status report is not transmitted on the mirror bearer, and the first terminal device and the second terminal device are respectively configured with separate bearers for transmitting the uplink RLC status report.

[0362] Example 3: UCI processing

[0363] In the specific implementation, when UCI transmission and PUSCH transmission are scheduled in the same time domain, the terminal device carries UCI on the PUSCH channel for transmission, i.e., UCI is transmitted on the PUSCH channel. UCI includes: HARQ feedback and CSI feedback. However, the HARQ feedback and CSI feedback generated by the first terminal device and the second terminal device are not necessarily the same. In this case, the first terminal device and the second terminal device can solve the problem in any of the following ways:

[0364] Mode 1: The first terminal device and the second terminal device exchange UCI through the UE-to-UE link, each copies the other's UCI and then maps all UCI to PUSCH for transmission;

[0365] Mode 2: UCI is not transmitted on the mirrored bearer, and the first terminal device and the second terminal device are respectively configured with separate bearers for transmitting UCI messages.

[0366] Through the above design, it can be ensured that the first terminal device and the second terminal device trigger the same polling bit, uplink RLC status report, UCI and other signaling at the same time, thereby ensuring the reliability of the first terminal device and the second terminal device performing related joint transmission.

[0367] It can be understood that the above design methods can be implemented separately or in combination with each other, and this application does not limit them.

[0368] The method provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced above in combination with the accompanying drawings, and the device provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced below in combination with the accompanying drawings.

[0369] Based on the same technical concept, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which includes a module / unit / means for executing the method executed by the device in the above method embodiment. The module / unit / means can be implemented by software, or by hardware, or the corresponding software can be implemented by hardware.

[0370] For example, see Fig.15 , is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application, the device comprising a transceiver module 201 and a processing module 202.

[0371] When the device is a first terminal device or is located in a first terminal device, the functions of the modules of the device are as follows:

[0372] The transceiver module 201 is used to receive first configuration information from a network device; the first configuration information is used by a first terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the first terminal device is used by a second terminal device to communicate with the network device;

[0373] The transceiver module 201 is further configured to receive first data from a second terminal device, where the first data is uplink data of the second terminal device;

[0374] The processing module 202 is used to process the first data based on the first configuration information to generate second data;

[0375] The transceiver module 201 is further configured to send second data to the network device.

[0376] When the device is a second terminal device or is located in a second terminal device, the functions of the modules of the device are as follows:

[0377] The transceiver module 201 is used to receive second configuration information from the network device; the second configuration information is used for the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the second terminal device communicates with the network device through the first terminal device;

[0378] The transceiver module 201 is further used to send first data to the first terminal device, where the first data is uplink data of the second terminal device;

[0379] A processing module 202, configured to process the first data based on the second configuration information to generate third data;

[0380] The transceiver module 201 is further configured to send the third data to the network device.

[0381] When the device is a network device or is located in a network device, the functions of the modules of the device are as follows:

[0382] The transceiver module 201 is used to send first configuration information to the first terminal device;

[0383] The transceiver module 201 is further configured to send second configuration information to the second terminal device;

[0384] The second terminal device communicates with the network device through the relay of the first terminal device, and the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint sending.

[0385] Optionally, the processing module 202 is used to generate first configuration information and second configuration information.

[0386] It should be understood that all relevant contents of each step involved in the above method embodiment can be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module and will not be repeated here.

[0387] Based on the same technical concept, see Fig.16 , the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device, including:

[0388] At least one processor 301; and a communication interface 303 that is communicatively connected to the at least one processor 301; the at least one processor 301 executes instructions stored in the memory 302, so that the apparatus executes the method steps executed by any device in the above method embodiment through the communication interface 303.

[0389] Optionally, the memory 302 is located outside the device.

[0390] Optionally, the device includes the memory 302, which is connected to the at least one processor 301, and the memory 302 stores instructions that can be executed by the at least one processor 301.

[0391] Optionally, the memory 302 is located outside the device.

[0392] Optionally, the device includes the memory 302, the memory 302 is connected to the at least one processor 301, and the memory 302 stores instructions that can be executed by the at least one processor 301. Fig.16 The dashed lines indicate that memory 302 is optional for the device.

[0393] The processor 301 and the memory 302 may be coupled via an interface circuit or may be integrated together, which is not limited here.

[0394] The specific connection medium between the processor 301, the memory 302 and the communication interface 303 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Fig.16 In the embodiment, the processor 301, the memory 302 and the communication interface 303 are connected via a bus 304. Fig.16 The connections between the other components are shown in bold lines, which are only for illustration and are not intended to be limiting. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, Fig.16 Only one thick line is used in the diagram, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0395] When the above communication device is a chip applied to a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above method embodiment. The terminal chip receives information from other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the base station to the terminal; or the terminal chip sends information to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station.

[0396] When the above-mentioned communication device is a module applied to a base station, the base station module implements the functions of the base station in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The base station module receives information from other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station; or, the base station module sends information to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the base station to the terminal. The base station module here can be a baseband chip of a base station, or it can be a DU or other module, and the DU here can be a DU under an open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture.

[0397] Based on the same technical concept, the present application embodiment also provides a chip, see Fig.17 , the chip may include a logic circuit and an input / output interface. Optionally, it may also include a memory. The input / output interface may be used to receive code instructions (the code instructions are stored in the memory, and may be read directly from the memory, or may be read from the memory through other devices) and transmit them to the logic circuit; the logic circuit may be used to run the code instructions to execute the method in the above method embodiment.

[0398] Alternatively, the input-output interface may also be a signal transmission interface circuit between a logic circuit and a transceiver. For example, in a sending scenario, the logic circuit is used to perform XX to obtain Y data (XX is a non-air interface operation, including but not limited to determination, judgment, processing, calculation, search, comparison and other operations); the input-output interface may be used to send Y data to a transmitter (the transmitter is used to perform a sending operation on the air interface). For another example, in a receiving scenario, the input-output interface may be used to receive Z data from a receiver (the receiver is used to perform a receiving operation on the air interface), and send the Z data to the logic circuit; the logic circuit is used to perform XX processing on the Z data (XX is a non-air interface operation, including but not limited to determination, judgment, processing, calculation, search, comparison and other operations).

[0399] It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by hardware or by software. When implemented by hardware, the processor can be a logic circuit, an integrated circuit, etc. When implemented by software, the processor can be a general-purpose processor implemented by reading software code stored in a memory.

[0400] Exemplarily, the processor 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, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may also be any conventional processor, etc.

[0401] It should be understood that the memory mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (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 random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (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 memory bus random access memory (DirectRambus RAM, DR RAM).

[0402] It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component, the memory (storage module) can be integrated into the processor.

[0403] It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to include, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0404] Based on the same technical concept, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the method steps executed by any device in the above method embodiment are implemented.

[0405] Based on the same technical concept, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or the instructions are run by a communication device, the method steps performed by any device in the above method embodiments are executed.

[0406] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present application may adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment in combination with software and hardware. Moreover, the present application may adopt the form of a computer program product implemented in one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) that include computer-usable program code.

[0407] The present application is described with reference to the flowcharts and / or block diagrams of the methods, devices (systems), and computer program products according to the present application. It should be understood that each process and / or box in the flowchart and / or block diagram, as well as the combination of the processes and / or boxes in the flowchart and / or block diagram, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device generate instructions for implementing the processes in the flowchart and / or block diagram. Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A device that provides the functions specified in a block or multiple blocks.

[0408] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory produce an article of manufacture including an instruction device, which implements the process Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A function specified in one or more boxes.

[0409] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby providing instructions for implementing the process. Figure 1 A process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The steps for the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0410] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Receiving first configuration information from a network device; the first configuration information is used by a first terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the first terminal device is used by a second terminal device to communicate with the network device; receiving first data from the second terminal device, where the first data is uplink data of the second terminal device; Processing the first data based on the first configuration information to generate second data; The second data is sent to the network device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first configuration information includes one or more of the following: a first number of antenna ports, a first rank parameter, and a first coherent codebook set; the first number of antenna ports is equal to the sum of the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device and the number of antenna ports of the second terminal device.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information indicates that the first configuration information is used by the first terminal device to perform the related joint sending.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The first indication information includes an identifier of the second terminal device.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The first configuration information includes configuration of the first bearer; The first bearer is associated with a first radio bearer, and the first radio bearer is an end-to-end radio bearer between the second terminal device and the network device; The first bearer is used for the related joint transmission.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of the first radio bearer; or, The configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of a first logical channel, and the identifier of the first logical channel is associated with the first radio bearer.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that The first configuration information indicates reconfiguring the bearer of the first terminal device; The method also includes: configuring the first bearer according to the first configuration information; releasing the third bearer after data transmission associated with the third bearer is completed, the third bearer being used for non-related joint transmission and being associated with the first radio bearer; or, According to the first configuration information, a third bearer is released and the first bearer is configured, the third bearer is used for non-related joint transmission, and the third bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer; and data of the first wireless bearer is retransmitted based on the first configuration information.

8. A communication method, characterized in that: include: receiving second configuration information from the network device; the second configuration information is used by the second terminal device to perform related joint transmission, and the second terminal device communicates with the network device through the first terminal device; Sending first data to the first terminal device, where the first data is uplink data of the second terminal device; and processing the first data based on the second configuration information to generate third data, and sending the third data to the network device.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The second configuration information includes one or more of the following: a second number of antenna ports, a second rank parameter, and a second coherent codebook set; the second number of antenna ports is equal to the sum of the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device and the number of antenna ports of the second terminal device that can be used to transmit the first data.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information indicates that the second configuration information is used by the second terminal device to perform the related joint sending.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The second indication information includes an identifier of the first terminal device.

12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, characterized in that: Before processing the second data based on the second configuration information, it also includes: acquiring second scheduling information, where the second scheduling information is used to schedule the second terminal device to perform the related joint transmission.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that Also includes: First scheduling information is sent to the first terminal device according to the second scheduling information, where the first scheduling information is used to schedule the first terminal device to perform the related joint transmission.

14. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 13, characterized in that: The second configuration information includes configuration of the second bearer; The second bearer is associated with a first radio bearer, and the first radio bearer is an end-to-end radio bearer between the second terminal device and the network device; The second bearer is used for the related joint transmission.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The second configuration information indicates reconfiguring the bearer of the second terminal device; The method also includes: configuring the second bearer according to the second configuration information; releasing the fourth bearer after data transmission associated with the fourth bearer is completed, the fourth bearer being associated with the first radio bearer, the fourth bearer being used for non-related joint transmission; or, Release a fourth bearer and configure the second bearer according to the second configuration information, the fourth bearer is associated with the first wireless bearer, and the fourth bearer is used for non-related joint transmission; and retransmit data of the first wireless bearer based on the second configuration information.

16. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Sending first configuration information to the first terminal device; Sending second configuration information to the second terminal device; The second terminal device communicates with the network device through the relay of the first terminal device, and the first configuration information and the second configuration information are used for the first terminal device and the second terminal device to perform related joint sending.

17. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that The first configuration information includes one or more of the following: a first number of antenna ports, a first rank parameter, and a first coherent codebook set; The second configuration information includes one or more of the following: a second antenna port number, a second rank parameter, and a second coherent codebook set; Among them, the first number of antenna ports is the same as the second number of antenna ports, the first rank parameter is the same as the second rank parameter, and the first coherent codebook set is the same as the second coherent codebook set.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that The first number of antenna ports or the second number of antenna ports is equal to the sum of the number of antenna ports of the first terminal device and the number of antenna ports of the second terminal device that can be used to transmit the first data.

19. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 18, characterized in that: The method further comprises: sending first indication information to the first terminal device, where the first indication information indicates that the first configuration information is used for the first terminal device to perform the related joint sending; and / or, Sending second indication information to the second terminal device; the second indication information indicates that the second configuration information is used by the second terminal device to perform the related joint sending.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein: The first indication information includes an identifier of the second terminal device; and / or the second indication information includes an identifier of the first terminal device.

21. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 20, characterized in that: The first configuration information includes configuration of a first bearer, the first bearer being associated with a first radio bearer; and / or the second configuration information includes configuration of a second bearer, the second bearer being associated with the first radio bearer; The first radio bearer is an end-to-end radio bearer between the first terminal device and the network device.

22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that The configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of the first radio bearer; or, The configuration of the first bearer includes an identifier of a first logical channel, and the identifier of the first logical channel is associated with the first radio bearer.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer include the same logical channel parameter configuration.

24. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 23, characterized in that The configuration of the first bearer and the configuration of the second bearer include the same radio link control RLC configuration parameters; The RLC configuration parameters include one or more of the following: RLC transmission mode, the transmission mode is an acknowledgement mode AM or an unacknowledgement mode UM; The length of the sequence number SN in the RLC PDU header; In AM mode, the maximum number of retransmissions by the RLC transmitter; Polling retransmission timer; Polling protocol data unit; Poll Bytes.

25. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a module or a unit for executing the method as claimed in any one of claims 1-7 or 8-15 or 16-24.

26. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, the memory is used to store a program or instruction, when the program or instruction is executed by the processor, the communication device executes the method as described in any one of claims 1-7, or the communication device executes the method as described in any one of claims 8-15, or the communication device executes the method as described in any one of claims 16-24.

27. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The storage medium stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by the communication device, the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 7 is implemented, or the method as described in any one of claims 8 to 15 is implemented, or the method as described in any one of claims 16 to 24 is implemented.

28. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises a computer program or instructions, and when the computer program or the instructions are executed by a communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 8 to 15 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 16 to 24 is executed.

29. A communication system, characterized in that: including a first terminal device, a second terminal device and a network device; The first terminal device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, the second terminal device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 8 to 15, and the network device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 16 to 24.

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