Communication method and communication device

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a communication method and a communication device. The method is used for reducing pilot frequency pollution between terminal devices. The method comprises: sending first information, the first information indicating pilots corresponding to a plurality of terminal devices in a first user group, the corresponding pilots among the plurality of terminal devices in the first user group being orthogonal, and the plurality of terminal devices in the first user group comprising terminal devices in at least two cells.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] In large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), due to the increase in the number of users in the area, mutually orthogonal pilot sequences cannot fully meet the needs of all users in the area. Therefore, non-orthogonal pilot sequences may be adopted among users in different cells. When the base station obtains the channel information of the terminals in its own cell, it may also obtain the channel information of the terminals in other cells, resulting in the channel estimation of the base station for its own cell being superimposed with the information of other terminals, contaminating the pilot information. These pilot contaminations will cause deviations in the signal processing of the base station, resulting in interference between cells, severely limiting the improvement of system performance. Summary of the Invention

[0003] This application provides a communication method and a communication device, which reduce the pilot contamination between terminal devices.

[0004] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided. This method is executed by a control device, or by some components in the control device (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or this method can also be implemented by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the control device. The control device is a device in the access network. The control device can be a network device including a BBU, a CU, or a BBH. Or the control device is a BBU, a CU, or a BBH. This method is executed by one of a plurality of control devices (hereinafter referred to as the target control device). The plurality of control devices are control devices with a cooperative relationship. The plurality of control devices can be deployed in the same computer room or in different computer rooms, and no limitation is made here.

[0005] The method includes: the control device sends first information, the first information indicates the pilots corresponding to multiple terminal devices in a first user group, the pilots corresponding to the multiple terminal devices in the first user group are orthogonal to each other, and the multiple terminal devices in the first user group include terminal devices in at least two cells. The pilot can also be referred to as pilot information, a pilot signal, a reference signal (RS), a reference sequence, or a pilot sequence, etc. The pilot can be used for channel measurement or channel estimation. Therefore, whether the pilot is contaminated can affect the accuracy of channel estimation, and further affect the demodulation performance of the signal.

[0006] In the embodiments of the present application, by grouping the terminal devices in at least two cells to obtain multiple user groups, and the pilots of the terminal devices in each user group being orthogonal, it is possible to reduce pilot pollution, ensure the accuracy of channel estimation, and further improve the demodulation performance. Moreover, the terminal devices in the user groups in the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the terminal devices in the same cell, but can come from different cells, thereby being able to reduce the pilot pollution between the terminal devices in different cells.

[0007] In a possible implementation manner, the terminal devices in the same user group are terminal devices with relatively large channel correlation, relatively large interference, or relatively close positions. Thus, by dividing the interfering terminal devices into the same user group and allocating orthogonal pilots to the terminal devices in the same user group, the pilot pollution between the terminal devices with originally serious interference can be reduced.

[0008] In a possible implementation manner, the control device sends second information, and the second information indicates the control device associated with the first user group. The control device is used to process the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the associated first user group. The second information can be sent to the radio frequency device. Thus, the radio frequency device can, according to the association relationship between the user group and the control device, send the uplink signals from the terminal devices to the control device associated with the terminal device, so that the control device can demodulate the uplink signals of the terminal devices in units of user groups without interaction between the control devices, which can reduce the time delay and improve the gain.

[0009] In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: sending third information, and the first information indicates the terminal devices included in the first user group. The third information can be sent to other cooperative control devices, so that the control device can identify the terminal devices in the same user group, and then demodulate the uplink signals of the terminal devices in units of user groups.

[0010] In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving the uplink signals of multiple terminal devices in the associated second user group; jointly demodulating the uplink signals of the multiple terminal devices in the second user group. The uplink signals of the terminal devices can include the signals received by the radio frequency device corresponding to the serving cell, and can also include the signals received by the radio frequency device corresponding to the cooperative cell. The control device can obtain the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the same user group from the radio frequency device, so that it can demodulate the uplink signals of the terminal devices in units of user groups without interacting with other control devices, which can reduce the processing time delay.

[0011] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: obtaining channel measurement information corresponding to terminal devices in multiple cells; determining multiple terminal devices in the first user group according to the channel measurement information. The channel measurement information includes, for example, at least one of reference signal receiving power (RSRP), sounding reference signal (SRS) measurement information, positioning reference signal (PRS) (including uplink PRS (UL-PRS) or downlink PRS (DL-PRS)) measurement information, and channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) measurement information, etc. The control device can divide terminal devices with high channel correlation / high interference / short distance among the multiple terminal devices into the same user group, reducing pilot contamination between terminal devices with originally severe interference.

[0012] The second aspect provides a communication method. The method includes: receiving first information, where the first information indicates pilots corresponding to multiple terminal devices in the first user group, the pilots corresponding to the multiple terminal devices in the first user group are orthogonal to each other, and the multiple terminal devices in the first user group include terminal devices in at least two cells.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving second information, where the second information indicates an association with a control device associated with the first user group, and the control device is used to process uplink signals of terminal devices in the associated first user group.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving a first uplink signal of a terminal device in the user group; sending a second uplink signal to the control device associated with the terminal device, where the second uplink signal is obtained based on the first uplink signal.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: sending fourth information, where the fourth information indicates pilots corresponding to terminal devices in the user group. Thus, the terminal device can use the corresponding pilot to send an uplink signal, improving the accuracy of uplink channel estimation and the performance of demodulating the uplink signal.

[0016] In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, which has functions to implement the actions in the method example of the first aspect above. For the beneficial effects, reference can be made to the description of the first aspect and will not be elaborated here. This communication device can be the terminal device in the first aspect, or this communication device can be a device such as a chip or a chip system that can support the terminal device in the first aspect to implement the functions required by the method provided in the first aspect.

[0017] In a possible design, this communication device includes corresponding means or modules for performing the method of the first aspect. For example, this communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module) and / or a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module). These units (modules) can perform the corresponding functions in the method example of the first aspect above. For specific details, refer to the detailed description in the method example and will not be elaborated here.

[0018] In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, which has functions to implement the actions in the method example of the second aspect above. For the beneficial effects, reference can be made to the description of the second aspect and will not be elaborated here. This communication device can be the network device in the second aspect, or this communication device can be a device such as a chip or a chip system that can support the network device in the second aspect to implement the functions required by the method provided in the second aspect.

[0019] In a possible design, this communication device includes corresponding means or modules for performing the method of the second aspect. For example, this communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module) and / or a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module). These units (modules) can perform the corresponding functions in the method example of the second aspect above. For specific details, refer to the detailed description in the method example and will not be elaborated here.

[0020] In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, which can be the communication device in the third aspect or the fourth aspect in the above embodiments, or a chip or a chip system disposed in the communication device in the third aspect or the fourth aspect. This communication device includes a communication interface and a processor. Optionally, it further includes a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs or instructions or data. The processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor reads the computer programs or instructions or data, the communication device is enabled to execute the methods performed by the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiments.

[0021] In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, which includes at least one processor. Optionally, it further includes a memory. The at least one processor is coupled to the memory. The at least one processor is used to execute the methods described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0022] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor, and may further include a memory and / or a communication interface for implementing the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect. In a possible implementation, the chip system further includes a memory for storing program instructions and / or data. The chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices.

[0023] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes a communication device for executing the method described in the first aspect and a communication device for executing the method described in the second aspect. Among them, the communication device for executing the method described in the first aspect is, for example, the terminal device described in the first aspect, and the communication device for executing the method described in the second aspect is, for example, the network device described in the second aspect. Optionally, the communication system may further include a positioning management device.

[0024] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, which when run, implements the method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect above.

[0025] In a tenth aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes computer program code that, when run, causes the method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect above to be executed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the system architecture of the method provided for the application embodiment;

[0027] Figure 2a Schematic diagram of the architecture of a radio access network provided by the present application;

[0028] Figure 2b Another schematic diagram of the architecture of a radio access network provided by the present application;

[0029] Figure 2c Another schematic diagram of the architecture of a radio access network provided by the present application;

[0030] Figure 2d Another schematic diagram of the architecture of a radio access network provided by the present application;

[0031] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the software and hardware architecture of the access network provided by the present application;

[0032] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the flowchart of a communication method provided by the present application;

[0033] Figure 5 Schematic diagram of a communication device provided by this application;

[0034] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of another communication device provided by this application. Detailed implementation manners

[0035] Next, the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0036] The technical solutions of the embodiments of this application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD) systems, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication systems, 5th generation (5G) systems or New Radio (NR), 6th generation (6G) systems or future communication systems, etc. The 5G mobile communication systems described in this application include non-standalone (NSA) 5G mobile communication systems or standalone (SA) 5G mobile communication systems. The communication system can also be a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), Device-to-Device (D2D) communication system, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication system, Internet of Things (IoT) communication system, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication system, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) communication system or other communication systems.

[0037] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, " / " indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship. For example, A / B may represent A or B. The "and / or" in this application is merely a description of the association relationship of the associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B may represent: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. Here, A and B may be singular or plural. Also, in the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "a plurality of" means two or more than two. "At least one (item)" or its similar expression refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural item(s). For example, at least one (item) of a, b, and c may represent: a, b, c, a - b, a - c, b - c, or a - b - c, where a, b, and c may be single or plural.

[0038] In addition, for the convenience of clearly describing the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, in the embodiments of this application, terms such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish the same items or similar items with basically the same functions and roles. Those skilled in the art can understand that terms such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and execution order, and terms such as "first" and "second" do not necessarily limit that they are different. At the same time, in the embodiments of this application, words such as "exemplarily" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations, or explanations. Any embodiment or technical solution described as "exemplarily" or "for example" in the embodiments of this application should not be interpreted as being more preferred or having more advantages than other embodiments or design solutions. Exactly speaking, using words such as "exemplarily" or "for example" aims to present relevant probabilities in a specific way for easy understanding.

[0039] Furthermore, the network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are for more clearly explaining the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this application. Those of ordinary skill in the art know that with the evolution of the network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this application are equally applicable to similar technical problems.

[0040] To facilitate the understanding of the embodiments of this application, first, in combination with Figure 1 a detailed description of an application scenario of the embodiments of this application is given.

[0041] Figure 1 is the system architecture applicable to the method provided by the embodiments of this application. As Figure 1As shown, the system includes: a first network device and a second network device. The first network device and the second network device are connected through a first interface, and the first interface can be any one of the following interfaces: Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), Enhanced CPRI (eCPRI) interface, F1 interface, or an interface defined in the future for connecting two network devices. The eCPRI services are carried on top of the eCPRI protocol layer, and the eCPRI services include user data, real-time control, and other eCPRI services. The eCPRI services can be carried on the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) layer, or can be directly encapsulated in the Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) layer by skipping the TCP / IP layer. Exemplarily, the first interface can be referred to as a fronthaul interface or a midhaul interface.

[0042] Exemplarily, the first network device is a control device, and the second network device is a radio frequency device. In the scenario of multi-cell cooperation, the first network device can send first information and second information to the second network device through the first interface. The first information indicates the pilots corresponding to multiple terminal devices in the user group. The second information indicates the control device associated with the user group, or the association relationship between the user group and the control device. Correspondingly, after receiving the first information from the first network device, the second network device can send the pilots to the corresponding terminal devices. After receiving the second information from the first network device, the second network device can, after receiving the uplink signal of the terminal device, send the uplink signal corresponding to the terminal device to the control device associated with the terminal device.

[0043] Among them, the control device can serve as the main device of the base station, providing the function of processing baseband signals, such as providing the baseband high (BBH) function, and / or providing the control and management of the functions of each device of the base station. Exemplarily, BBH may have one or more functions of coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping in the downlink direction, and BBH may have one or more functions of decoding, rate de-matching, de-scrambling, de-modulation, channel estimation / equalization in the uplink direction. In another implementation, the control device may be a baseband unit (BU or BBU), a centralized unit (CU), etc., or the control device may be a device including a BBU or a CU.

[0044] In some deployments, the control device may include a CU. Further, the CU may also adopt an architecture with separation of the control plane (CP) and the user plane (UP), that is, the CU may include a CU-CP entity and a CU-UP entity.

[0045] The radio frequency device can be used as the radio frequency module of a base station. It can be used to process intermediate frequency signals and / or radio frequency signals, and can also be used to receive and transmit wireless signals. The radio frequency device can also be used to provide some baseband signal processing functions. For example, it can provide the baseband low (BBL) function. In some deployments, the radio frequency device may also include a distributed unit (DU). It can be understood that the DU includes some baseband processing functions. In this application, the DU is deployed close to the antenna array, so the DU is used as a functional module in the radio frequency device. Exemplarily, BBL may have one or more functions such as resource element mapping, digital beam forming (DBF), inverse fast Fourier transformation (IFFT), cyclic prefix addition, analog beam forming (ABF), and analog to digital in the downlink direction. BBL may have one or more functions such as fast Fourier transformation (FFT), cyclic prefix removal, and resource element de-mapping in the uplink direction. Exemplarily, the radio frequency device may be a device including a radio unit (RU), a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), a DU, etc., or the radio frequency device is an RU, an RRU, an AAU, or a DU, etc.

[0046] The control device may include a processing module, which is mainly used to process the received data for L3 protocol functions, L2 protocol functions, and the upper part of the baseband processing BBH function in L1 layer. The BBH function may be a part of the L1 protocol function. For example, the BBH function includes but is not limited to one or more of encoding, layer mapping, precoding, antenna mapping, resource element (RE) mapping, and inverse fast Fourier transformation. For another example, the BBH function includes but is not limited to one or more of resource element (RE) de-mapping, beam mapping, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) equalization, and decoding.

[0047] In some deployments, when the radio frequency device includes the BBL function and the control device includes the BBH function, the radio frequency device can be used to process the data for the lower baseband processing BBL function in the L1 layer, including at least discrete Fourier transform and / or inverse discrete Fourier transform. For example, when the BBL function in the radio frequency device includes at least discrete Fourier transform, the BBH function in the control device does not include discrete Fourier transform; when the BBL function in the radio frequency device includes at least inverse discrete Fourier transform, the BBH function in the control device does not include inverse discrete Fourier transform; when the BBL function in the radio frequency device includes at least discrete Fourier transform and inverse discrete Fourier transform, the BBH function in the control device does not include discrete Fourier transform and inverse discrete Fourier transform.

[0048] In the case of 4G / 5G, since the bandwidth can be greatly compressed after discrete Fourier transform or inverse discrete Fourier transform, if uplink data is received, the time-domain data becomes frequency-domain data after discrete Fourier transform or inverse discrete Fourier transform. The frequency domain is generally allocated according to users (terminals). When there are few terminals, most of the frequency domain is idle, and this part of the idle frequency-domain data can be not transmitted. In this way, less data volume can be transmitted between the radio frequency device and the control device.

[0049] In an example, taking the L1 protocol function including encoding, modulation, layer mapping, precoding, antenna mapping, resource element (RE) mapping, and inverse fast Fourier transform as an example, if the BBH function includes encoding, layer mapping, and precoding, then the BBL function includes the functions in the L1 protocol function except the BBH function, that is, the BBL function includes modulation, antenna mapping, resource element (RE) mapping, inverse fast Fourier transform, etc.

[0050] The relevant data involved in this application are explained below:

[0051] 1. (Radio) access network device (radio access network, (R)AN)

[0052] (R)AN can also be called an access device. (R)AN can manage radio resources, provide access services for user equipment, and complete the forwarding of user equipment data between the user equipment and the core network. (R)AN can also be understood as a base station in the network.

[0053] Exemplarily, the access network device in the embodiments of the present application may be any communication device with wireless transceiver function for communicating with user equipment. The access network device includes, for example, but is not limited to: evolved Node B (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), Node B (NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), home evolved NodeB (HeNB, or home Node B, HNB), baseBandunit (BBU), access point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (WIFI) system, wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, transmission point (TP), or transmission and reception point (TRP), etc. It may also be a 5G device, such as the next generation node B (gNB) in an NR system, or a transmission point (TRP or TP), one or a group of antenna panels (including multiple antenna panels) of a base station in a 5G system, or it may also be a network node constituting a gNB or a transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a DU, etc. In a 5G core network-based positioning architecture, a gNB / ng-eNB may provide measurement information for a target user equipment and convey this information to a positioning management device.

[0054] The RAN device can also be a module or unit that completes some functions of the base station. For example, it can be a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), or a Radio Unit (RU). Here, the CU completes the functions of the Radio Resource Control protocol and the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) of the base station, and can also complete the function of the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP); the DU completes the functions of the Radio Link Control layer and the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of the base station, and can also complete some or all of the functions of the Physical layer. For specific descriptions of the above protocol layers, reference can be made to the relevant technical specifications of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The CU and DU can be set separately, or can also be included in the same network element, such as the Baseband Unit (BBU). The RU can be included in the radio frequency device or radio frequency unit, such as included in the Remote Radio Unit (RRU), the Active Antenna Unit (AAU), or the Remote Radio Head (RRH). In different systems, the CU, DU, or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, the CU can also be called O-CU (Open-CU, Open Centralized Unit), the DU can also be called O-DU, and the RU can also be called O-RU. Any one of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU, and RU in this application can be implemented through a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0055] 2. Terminal device

[0056] A terminal device can also be referred to as a terminal, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. Terminals can be widely used in various scenarios, such as 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, remote healthcare, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearables, smart transportation, smart city, etc. A terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, wearable device, vehicle, drone, helicopter, airplane, ship, robot, robotic arm, smart home device, etc. Embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technologies and specific device forms adopted by the terminal.

[0057] 3. Radio Unit (RU)

[0058] The RU can implement functions such as intermediate frequency processing, radio frequency processing, and duplexing of signals. For example, the RU can be a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or other network elements or communication devices with the ability to process intermediate frequency signals, radio frequency signals, or intermediate and radio frequency signals. In a communication system using enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI), the RU may include a low-layer baseband processing (BBL).

[0059] 4. Baseband Unit (BU)

[0060] The BU can implement the function of processing baseband signals. For example, the BU can be a baseband unit (BBU), a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or other network elements or communication devices with the ability to process baseband signals. Among them, the BU may include a high-layer baseband processing (BBH).

[0061] 5. Pilot

[0062] Pilots can also be referred to as pilot information, pilot signals, RS, reference sequences, etc. Pilots can be used for channel measurement. Pilots can include uplink pilots and downlink pilots. Uplink pilots are used for uplink channel measurement to estimate uplink CSI (or the uplink channel matrix). The uplink pilot is sent by the terminal device, and the network device estimates the uplink CSI based on the pilot, and then transposes the uplink CSI using the reciprocity of the uplink and downlink channels as the downlink CSI. Downlink pilots are used for downlink channel measurement to estimate downlink CSI (or the downlink channel matrix). Exemplarily, the uplink pilot can be a sounding reference signal (SRS), and the downlink pilot can be a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). It should be understood that the reference signals listed above are only examples and should not constitute any limitation to this application. This application does not exclude the possibility of defining other reference signals in future protocols to achieve the same or similar functions.

[0063] Uplink Coordination Multi-Point (UL CoMP) refers to the use of antennas in adjacent cells to jointly receive the transmission signals of a certain user to obtain the signal combining gain or interference suppression gain of multiple antennas. UL CoMP mainly refers to the Joint Reception (JR) technology, that is, by jointly processing signals from different cells or base stations at the baseband, and through larger-scale multi-antenna processing, to enhance the signal and suppress interference. It includes: Soft Combination (SC), Joint Detection (JD), Joint Interference Rejection Combine (JIRC), and Coordination Multi-Point Interference Cancellation (CoMP IC), etc.

[0064] JD means regarding all antennas of the cooperative receiving nodes as virtual multi-antennas, regarding multiple users in different cells on the same time-frequency resource as multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU MIMO) users, and performing uplink multi-user joint detection, so as to better obtain the signal combining gain and interference suppression gain. The transmitted information includes scheduling information and antenna frequency-domain data, and has high requirements for real-time performance. The scalability is low, and the complexity increases cubically with the number of cooperative users and cubically with the number of cooperative nodes. The specification is limited by the maximum number of jointly received antennas and the maximum number of cooperative users.

[0065] JIRC means regarding all antennas of the cooperative receiving node as a virtual multi-antenna, jointly equalizing and receiving the signals of the target user in the serving cell to obtain the combining gain and interference suppression gain; like JD, the transmitted information includes scheduling information and antenna frequency-domain data, and has high requirements for real-time performance. The scalability is medium, the complexity increases linearly with the number of cooperative users and cubically with the number of cooperative nodes. The specification is limited by the maximum number of jointly received antennas.

[0066] Limited by the existing rule of allocating different pilot root sequences between cells, the channel estimation accuracy of the strong interference UE to the serving cell will be affected by pilot contamination, thereby reducing the gains of JD and JIRC.

[0067] The interaction between cooperative cells is realized by the interaction of processing cores. As the number of cooperative users and cooperative nodes increases, the delay becomes larger and larger, resulting in the performance degradation of JD and JIRC.

[0068] In view of this, the present application provides the following embodiments. As Figure 2a shown, Figure 2a is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a radio access network provided by the present application. Figure 2a The radio access network in includes a plurality of control devices and a plurality of radio frequency devices. Each radio frequency device among the plurality of radio frequency devices is respectively connected to the plurality of control devices. The radio frequency device is used to connect to at least one terminal device through the air interface.

[0069] In this embodiment, one of the multiple control devices (hereinafter simply referred to as the target control device) is used to control the radio frequency device to measure the channels of the terminal device to obtain the channel measurement information of the terminal device. The target control device is further used to group the terminal devices from multiple cells according to the channel measurement information to obtain multiple user groups. There are terminal devices in the user groups from at least two cells. The terminal devices in the same user group include terminal devices with relatively high channel correlation or relatively high interference determined according to the channel measurement information. And the user groups are associated with the control devices. One user group can be associated with one control device, and one control device can be associated with at least one user group. The control device processes the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the associated user groups. The target control device can also allocate orthogonal pilots to the terminal devices in each user group, thereby reducing pilot contamination between the terminal devices in the same user group. The control device can also send the grouping result of the terminal devices (information of multiple user groups), the pilot allocation result, and the association result between the user group and the control device to multiple radio frequency devices, so that the radio frequency devices can send the pilots to the corresponding terminal devices, and when receiving the uplink signals from the terminal devices, send the uplink signals to the control device associated with the terminal devices, or after performing certain processing on the uplink signals, send the processed uplink signals to the control device associated with the terminal devices. The target control device can also send the grouping result of the terminal devices to other control devices, so that the control devices can jointly process the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the user groups.

[0070] In this embodiment, the control device may include a BBU, a BBH, or a CU, etc. The radio frequency device may include an RRU, a BBL, a TRP, or an AAU, etc. Under different architectures, the components included in the control device and the radio frequency device are different.

[0071] For example, as Figure 2b shown, the control device may include a BBU, and the radio frequency device may include an RRU and an antenna array. The RRU can be connected to multiple BBUs through a fronthaul network. The RRU is deployed, for example, at a position close to the antenna array. The BBUs of multiple control devices can be deployed in the same computer room or in different computer rooms. The RRU can send the uplink signal of the terminal device to the corresponding BBU according to the user group to which the terminal device belongs and the control device associated with the user group. Thus, the delay of negotiation and interaction between BBUs can be reduced.

[0072] Also for example, as Figure 2cAs shown in the figure, the controller may include a BBH, and the radio frequency device may include a BBL and a TRP. The BBL may connect multiple BBHs through a fronthaul network. The BBL is deployed, for example, in a location close to the TRP. The BBHs of multiple control devices may be deployed in the same computer room or in different computer rooms. The BBL may process the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the cell, and then send the processed uplink signals to the corresponding BBH of the terminal device according to the user group to which the terminal device belongs and the control device associated with the user group. Thus, the delay of negotiation and interaction between BBHs can be reduced.

[0073] Also, for example, as Figure 2d shown in the figure, the control device may include a CU, and the radio frequency device may include a DU and an AAU. The DU may be connected to the AAU through a fronthaul network. The DU is deployed, for example, in a location close to the AAU. The DU may be connected to multiple CUs through a midhaul network. The CUs of multiple control devices may be deployed in the same computer room or in different computer rooms. The DU may process the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the cell, and then send the uplink signals of the terminal device to the corresponding CU according to the user group to which the terminal device belongs and the control device associated with the user group. Thus, the delay of negotiation and interaction between CUs can be reduced.

[0074] As Figure 3 shown in the figure, Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the software and hardware architecture of the access network provided by this application. Figure 3 The software and hardware architecture shown includes user plane software, a computing and processing hardware network, a physical transceiver node communication network, and control plane management.

[0075] Among them, the user plane software includes modules such as channel measurement, user management, and user group management. The channel measurement is used to obtain the channel measurement results of the terminal device. The user management is used to group the terminal devices in multiple cells according to the channel measurement results to obtain multiple user groups. For example, terminal devices with high channel correlation from the same cell or different cells are divided into the same user group, or neighbor cell terminal devices with high interference power to the target cell and at least one terminal device in the target cell are assigned to the same user group. The user group may include terminal devices from different cells. The user group management is used to assign a root sequence to each user group and allocate orthogonal pilots to the terminal devices within the user group based on the root sequence of the user group. The root sequences of different user groups may be the same, different, or some user groups may have the same root sequences and some user groups may have different root sequences. The user group management may also be used to associate a control device with each user group so that the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the user group are merged and processed by the associated control device.

[0076] The computing and processing hardware network includes multiple control devices, and a user group is associated with one control device. Each control device is used to process the uplink signals corresponding to the terminal devices in the associated user group. It should be noted that, in the figure, an example is given where one user group is associated with one control device. When the number of user groups is greater than the number of control devices, at least two user groups can be associated with one control device, and there is no restriction here.

[0077] The physical transceiver node communication network includes multiple radio frequency devices, which receive the uplink signals of the terminal devices through the radio frequency devices of the serving cell and the cooperative cell, and send the uplink signals corresponding to the terminal devices to the control device associated with the terminal device.

[0078] Control plane management is used to assist in managing the control signals and control signaling related to the terminal devices. For example, it is used to send corresponding pilots to the terminal devices.

[0079] Such as Figure 4 shown, Figure 4 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by this application. This method can be implemented by a radio access network with any one of the Figures 2a - 2d architectures. This embodiment includes the following steps:

[0080] S401: The target control device obtains the channel measurement information of multiple terminal devices.

[0081] The channel measurement information includes, for example, at least one of the reference signal received power RSRP, SRS measurement information, PRS (including UL-PRS or DL-PRS) measurement information, and CSI-RS measurement information, etc. The channel measurement information may also include the status information such as the traffic volume and quality of service (QoS) corresponding to the terminal device.

[0082] The channel measurement information can be measured by the terminal device for the downlink reference signal and then reported to the devices in the radio access network, such as RSRP, DL-PRS, or CRI-RS measurement information. In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device can report the channel measurement information periodically, and the target control device obtains the channel measurement information periodically reported by multiple terminal devices. In another possible implementation manner, it can also be that the control device sends a measurement reference signal to the terminal device through the radio frequency device, and the terminal device reports the channel measurement information according to the indication of the measurement reference signal. According to the channel reciprocity, the channel measurement information of the uplink channel can be obtained based on the channel measurement information of the downlink channel.

[0083] The channel measurement information may also be obtained by a device in the radio access network through measuring the uplink signal of the terminal device, such as SRS measurement information or UL-PRS, etc. In a possible implementation, the SRS may be periodically sent by the terminal device, and the device in the access network receives the SRS periodically sent by the terminal device to measure the SRS and obtain the SRS measurement information. In another possible implementation, for semi-persistent or non-periodic SRS, the target control device may also send measurement control information to the terminal device, and the terminal device sends the SRS or UL-PRS according to the indication of the measurement control information.

[0084] In this embodiment, the multiple terminal devices include terminal devices from multiple cells. The channel measurement information of the terminal device may include the channel measurement information corresponding to the serving cell of the terminal device, and may also include the channel measurement information corresponding to the neighboring cells of the terminal device.

[0085] S402: The target control device determines multiple user groups according to the channel measurement information of the multiple terminal devices, and each user group includes at least one terminal device.

[0086] In this embodiment, since the multiple terminal devices include terminal devices from multiple cells, there are terminal devices from different cells in the multiple user groups. Or rather, the user groups in this embodiment may include terminal devices belonging to different serving cells. A terminal device belongs to only one user group.

[0087] The target control device may determine the channel correlation between the multiple terminal devices or the interference power magnitude between the terminal devices according to the channel measurement information, and determine the terminal devices in the multiple user groups according to the channel correlation or the interference power magnitude. Or rather, determine which terminal devices are divided into the same user group according to the channel correlation or the interference power magnitude between the terminal devices, so that the terminal devices with high channel correlation or strong interference are divided into the same user group. The greater the interference power, the stronger the interference indicated between the two terminal devices, and vice versa, the weaker the interference.

[0088] The target control device can group multiple terminal devices through a user grouping algorithm. The user grouping algorithm can be based on graph theory, mixed integer programming, heuristic algorithms, etc. Based on graph theory, mixed integer programming, and heuristic algorithms, the global or local optimal terminal device grouping results can be determined. Based on graph theory, for example, a clustering algorithm based on graph theory can be included. For example, each terminal device can be used as a vertex, and the terminal devices with channel correlation or interference can be connected through edges, and the channel correlation or interference power value between two terminal devices with edges is used as the weight of the edge to obtain a graph that can describe the channel correlation or interference power between terminal devices, and then the graph is segmented so that several subgraphs are formed after segmentation, and the weights (similarity) of the edges connecting different subgraphs are as low as possible, and the weights (similarity) of the edges in the same subgraph are as high as possible. There are many ways to segment the graph, such as cut / Ratio Cut, Normalized Cut, or conversion to singular value decomposition (SVD) problem solving. Heuristic algorithms include, for example, simulated annealing algorithm, genetic algorithm, list search algorithm, evolutionary programming, evolutionary strategy, ant colony algorithm, artificial neural network, etc.

[0089] Alternatively, the target control device may determine the locations of multiple terminal devices based on the channel measurement information, and then divide the user groups based on the locations of the terminal devices. For example, the location (position) of the terminal device may be obtained based on the PRS measurement information, and then the distance between the terminal devices may be determined based on the location of the terminal device, and then the terminal devices that are closer in distance may be divided into the same user group. The target control device may divide multiple terminal devices that are spatially clustered into the same user group based on a clustering algorithm.

[0090] Optionally, the number of user groups is the same as the maximum number of allocatable root sequences.

[0091] It should be noted that user grouping can be updated with factors such as the movement of terminal devices and changes in interference between terminal devices. For example, when the channel measurement information of a terminal device changes, grouping calculation is performed again based on the changed channel measurement information to obtain an updated user group.

[0092] S403: The target control device sends first information to the radio frequency device. Correspondingly, the radio frequency device receives the first information. The first information indicates pilots corresponding to multiple terminal devices in the user group, and the pilots corresponding to the multiple terminal devices in the user group are orthogonal.

[0093] The target control device can send the first information to multiple radio frequency devices respectively. On the one hand, it can indicate the grouping results of multiple terminal devices to the radio frequency devices, which terminal device belongs to which user group, so that when the radio frequency device subsequently receives the uplink signal from the terminal device, it can determine which control device to send the uplink signal of the terminal device to for processing. On the other hand, it can indicate the pilot assigned to the terminal device to the radio frequency device, so that the radio frequency device can send the fourth information of the terminal device to the terminal device in the serving cell, and the fourth information indicates the pilot assigned to the terminal device, so that the terminal device uses the corresponding pilot to send the uplink signal. The pilot assigned by the target control device to the terminal device here is the pilot for channel estimation and uplink demodulation, such as DMRS, etc.

[0094] The first information may include the pilot configuration information of the terminal devices in multiple user groups. The multiple user groups include a first user group, and the multiple terminal devices in the first user group include the terminal devices in at least two cells. It should be noted that the first user group including the terminal devices in at least two cells means including at least one terminal device in at least two cells, that is, the first user group may include all the terminal devices in at least two cells, or may include some of the terminal devices in at least two cells, depending on the actual grouping situation, and there is no restriction here.

[0095] The target control device can assign a root sequence to each user group. The root sequences of the terminal devices in one user group are the same. The target control device realizes the pilot orthogonality of the terminal devices in the same user group through time, frequency, and code division based on the root sequence. Thus, the pilot contamination between the terminal devices that originally had interference can be reduced or eliminated, and the cooperation gain can be improved. And since the terminal devices in the same user group may come from different cells, by the target control device assigning pilots to the terminal devices in multiple user groups, it is possible to ensure the pilot orthogonality between multiple terminal devices in the same user group without negotiation and interaction between control devices, and the negotiation delay between control devices can be reduced.

[0096] Different root sequences can be assigned to different user groups. Of course, there may also be some user groups assigned the same root sequence and some user groups assigned different root sequences. There is no restriction on the pilot orthogonality between the terminal devices in the user groups assigned the same root sequence.

[0097] S404: The target control device sends the second information to the radio frequency device. Correspondingly, the radio frequency device receives the second information. The second information indicates the control device associated with the user group.

[0098] The target control device can send the second information to multiple radio frequency devices respectively. Thus, when the radio frequency devices subsequently receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, they can determine to send the uplink signal of the terminal device to the control device associated with the terminal device for processing based on the user group to which the terminal device belongs and the association relationship between the user group and the control device.

[0099] The second information may include information of control devices associated with multiple user groups. One control device can be associated with at least two user groups, and one user group is only associated with one control device. For example, when the number of user groups is greater than the number of control devices, one control device can be associated with at least two user groups. The above-mentioned first user group is included in the multiple user groups. The first information and the second information can be the same information or different information, and there is no limitation here.

[0100] S405: The target control device sends the third information to other control devices. Correspondingly, the other control devices receive the third information. The third information indicates the terminal devices included in the user group associated with the control device.

[0101] This step is an optional step and is shown by a dashed line in Figure 4 In.

[0102] In this embodiment, the control device demodulates the uplink signals of the associated user groups in units of user groups. When one control device is associated with multiple user groups, the control device needs to distinguish which terminal devices belong to the same user group, so as to accurately demodulate the uplink signals of multiple terminal devices in the user group in units of user groups. It should be noted that the uplink signals processed by the control device in this embodiment may refer to the uplink signals processed by the radio frequency device. For example, when the radio frequency device includes BBL or DU, BBL / DU will perform partial baseband processing on the uplink signal and then send the processed uplink signal to the corresponding control device.

[0103] In a possible implementation, the third information may include information of the terminal devices of all user groups. In this case, the target control device may send the third information to all other control devices. Of course, the target control device may also send the third information to only some control devices. For example, the third information may be sent only to the control devices associated with at least two user groups. In another possible implementation, the third information may also include information of the terminal devices in at least two user groups associated with the same control device. In this case, the target control device may send the third information to the control devices associated with at least two user groups. In yet another possible implementation, the third information includes information of the terminal devices in the user group associated with a control device, and the target control device sends the corresponding third information to each of the other control devices respectively, that is, the third information sent to the control device indicates the terminal devices in the user group associated with the control device.

[0104] S406: The radio frequency device receives the uplink signal of the terminal device. The terminal device is the terminal device in the second user group associated with the target control device.

[0105] The radio frequency device may receive the uplink signal of the terminal device in the serving cell or the uplink signal of the terminal device in the cooperative cell. The radio frequency devices that receive the uplink signal of the terminal device include the radio frequency devices in the serving cell and the radio frequency devices in the cooperative group. Here, the terminal device is taken as an example of the terminal device in the second user group associated with the target control device.

[0106] S407: The radio frequency device sends the uplink signal corresponding to the terminal device to the control device associated with the terminal device.

[0107] After receiving the uplink signal of the terminal device, the radio frequency device performs corresponding processing on the uplink signal, such as filtering, low-noise amplification, and down-conversion, etc., to obtain the processed uplink signal. When the radio frequency device includes a BBL or a DU, the radio frequency device may also perform corresponding baseband processing on the uplink signal. For example, the BBL may perform first-level equalization / beam dimension reduction processing on the first uplink signal (the signal received by the BBL after being processed by the TRP), such as one or more of cyclic prefix removal, FFT, resource demapping, etc., to obtain the second uplink signal, and then send the second uplink signal to the corresponding control device.

[0108] The radio frequency device determines the control device associated with the terminal device and sends the processed uplink signal to the corresponding control device. That is, regardless of whether the terminal device is a terminal device in the serving cell of the radio frequency device, the radio frequency device will send the uplink signal corresponding to the terminal device to the control device associated with the terminal device, so that the control device can obtain the uplink signals of the terminal devices associated with the control device from different radio frequency devices without interaction between control devices, which can reduce the time delay of the control device demodulating the uplink signal.

[0109] Figure 4 Taking the terminal device in the second user group associated with the target control device as an example, that is, each radio frequency device sends the uplink signal corresponding to the terminal device (the uplink signal processed by the radio frequency device) to the target control device.

[0110] S408: The target control device jointly demodulates the uplink signals of multiple terminal devices in the second user group.

[0111] The target control device jointly demodulates the uplink signals of multiple terminal devices in the second user group. Since the pilots of the terminal devices in the same user group are orthogonal, the pilot contamination between the terminal devices in the user group is reduced, the accuracy of the uplink channel estimation can be increased, and further the performance of demodulating the uplink signal can be improved.

[0112] In this embodiment, by grouping the terminal devices in multiple cells according to the channel measurement information to obtain multiple user groups, and then performing pilot allocation based on the user groups to make the pilots of the terminal devices in the user group orthogonal, thereby reducing the pilot contamination of the terminal devices in the user group, making the uplink channel estimation more accurate, improving the demodulation performance of the uplink signal, and increasing the cooperation gain. Further, by associating a user group with a control device, a control device jointly demodulates the uplink signals of the terminal devices in the associated user group in units of the user group without interaction between control devices, which can reduce the time delay and improve the demodulation efficiency.

[0113] In Figure 4 the related description, the target control device allocates pilots for the terminal devices in all user groups. Optionally, in another implementation manner, it may also be that each control device allocates pilots for the terminal devices in the user group associated with itself, as long as the pilots of the terminal devices in the same user group are orthogonal. Specifically, after the target control device determines multiple user groups, the control devices associated with the user groups, and the root sequences corresponding to the user groups, the target control device sends the corresponding user group information (information about the terminal devices in the user group associated with the control device, and the root sequences allocated to the associated user group, etc.) to other control devices, and then each control device allocates orthogonal pilots for the terminal devices in the user group associated with itself. In this case,Figure 4 The first user group and the second user group in can both be considered as user groups associated with the target control device. The first user group and the second user group can be the same user group or different user groups.

[0114] Next, the communication device used to implement the above method in the embodiments of the present application will be introduced with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0115] As Figure 5 shown, it is a possible exemplary block diagram of the communication device involved in the present application. The communication device 500 can correspondingly implement the functions or steps implemented by the control device or the radio frequency device in the above various method embodiments. The communication device may include a transceiver module 501 and a processing module 502. Optionally, it may further include a storage module, and the storage module can be used to store instructions (codes or programs) and / or data. The processing module 502 can be coupled to the storage module. For example, the processing module 502 can read the instructions (codes or programs) and / or data in the storage module to implement the corresponding method. The above various modules can be set independently, or partially or fully integrated.

[0116] It should be understood that the processing module 502 can be a processor or a controller. For example, it can be a general central processing unit (CPU), a general processor, a digital signal processing (DSP), an application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in combination with the disclosure of the present application. The processor can also be a combination that implements computing functions, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of DSP and a microprocessor, and so on. The transceiver module 501 is an interface circuit of the device for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the transceiver module 501 is the interface circuit of the chip for receiving signals from other chips or devices, or is the interface circuit of the chip for sending signals to other chips or devices.

[0117] The communication device 500 may be the control device or the radio frequency device in the above embodiments, or may be a chip for implementing the functions of the control device or the radio frequency device in the above embodiments. For example, when the communication device 500 is the control device or the radio frequency device, the processing module 502 may be a processor, and the transceiver module 501 may be a transceiver. Optionally, the transceiver may include a radio frequency circuit, and the storage unit may be a memory. For example, when the communication device 500 is a chip for implementing the functions of the control device or the radio frequency device, the processing module 502 may be a processor, and the transceiver module 501 may be an input / output interface, a pin, a circuit, etc. The processing module 502 may execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the storage unit. Optionally, the storage unit is a storage unit within the chip, such as a register, a cache, etc. The storage unit may also be a storage unit outside the chip within the control device or the radio frequency device, such as a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM), etc.

[0118] In some possible implementation manners, the communication device 500 can correspondingly implement the behaviors and functions of the control device in the above method embodiments. For example, the communication device 500 may be a control device, or may be a component (such as a chip or a circuit) applied to the control device. The transceiver module 501 may be used to support the communication between the control device and other network entities. For example, it supports the communication between the terminal device and Figure 3 the radio frequency device shown. The processing module 502 is used to control and manage the actions of the control device. For example, the processing module 502 is used to support the control device to execute Figure 4 all operations of the control device except for transceiver operations.

[0119] For example, the transceiver module 501 may be used to execute Figure 4 all the receiving or sending operations performed by the control device in the embodiments shown, such as Figure 3 S403, S404, S405, S405, etc. in the embodiments shown, and / or be used to support other processes of the technologies described herein. Among them, the processing module 502 is used to execute all operations performed by the control device except for transceiver operations in the embodiments shown, such as being used to support other processes of the technologies described herein. Figure 4 In some embodiments, the transceiver module 501 is used to send first information, where the first information indicates pilots corresponding to multiple terminal devices in a first user group, the pilots corresponding to the multiple terminal devices in the first user group are orthogonal to each other, and the multiple terminal devices in the first user group include terminal devices in at least two cells.

[0120] ​

[0121] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 501 is further configured to send second information, where the second information indicates a control device associated with the first user group, and the control device is configured to process uplink signals of terminal devices in the associated first user group.

[0122] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 501 is further configured to send third information, where the first information indicates terminal devices included in the first user group.

[0123] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 501 is further configured to receive uplink signals of multiple terminal devices in an associated second user group. The processing module 502 is configured to jointly demodulate the uplink signals of the multiple terminal devices in the second user group.

[0124] In a possible implementation, the processing module 502 is configured to obtain channel measurement information corresponding to terminal devices in multiple cells. The processing module 502 is configured to determine multiple terminal devices in the first user group according to the channel measurement information.

[0125] In some possible embodiments, the communication device 500 can correspondingly implement the behaviors and functions of the radio frequency device in the above method embodiments. For example, the communication device 500 can be a radio frequency device, or can be a component (such as a chip or a circuit) applied to the radio frequency device. The radio frequency device is, for example, an RRU, an AAU, a TRP, etc. in an access network device. The transceiver module 501 can be used to support communication between the radio frequency device and other network entities, for example, to support communication between the radio frequency device and Figure 4 the control device shown. The processing module 502 is used to control and manage the actions of the radio frequency device. For example, the processing module 502 is used to support the radio frequency device to execute Figure 4 all operations other than transceiver.

[0126] In some embodiments, the transceiver module 501 is configured to receive first information, where the first information indicates pilots corresponding to multiple terminal devices in a first user group, the pilots corresponding to the multiple terminal devices in the first user group are orthogonal to each other, and the multiple terminal devices in the first user group include terminal devices in at least two cells.

[0127] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 501 is configured to receive second information, where the second information indicates an association with a control device associated with the first user group, and the control device is configured to process uplink signals of terminal devices in the associated first user group.

[0128] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 501 is configured to receive a first uplink signal from a terminal device in the user group; the transceiver module 501 is configured to send a second uplink signal to a control device associated with the terminal device, where the second uplink signal is obtained based on the first uplink signal.

[0129] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 501 is configured to send fourth information indicating a pilot corresponding to a terminal device in the user group.

[0130] It should be understood that the processing module 502 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit components, and the transceiver module 501 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuit components.

[0131] As Figure 6 shown, it is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by the present application. Among them, the communication device 600 may be a control device, etc., capable of implementing the functions of the control device in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application, or the communication device 600 may be a radio frequency device, capable of implementing the functions of the device in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application; or, the communication device 600 may also be a device capable of supporting the control device or the radio frequency device to implement the corresponding functions in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application. Among them, the communication device 600 may be a chip system. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

[0132] The communication device 600 includes at least one processor 620. The processor 620 may be a CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the solution of the present application, and is used to implement or support the communication device 600 to implement the functions of the control device or the radio frequency device in the method provided by the embodiments of the present application. For specific details, refer to the detailed description in the method examples, and details are not described here.

[0133] The communication device 600 may further include at least one memory 630 for storing program instructions and / or data. The memory 630 is coupled to the processor 620. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information interaction between devices, units or modules. The processor 620 may cooperate with the memory 630. The processor 620 may execute the program instructions and / or data stored in the memory 630 to enable the communication device 600 to implement the corresponding method. At least one of the at least one memories may be included in the processor 620.

[0134] The communication device 600 may further include a communication interface 610, which uses any device such as a transceiver for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as radio frequency devices. The communication interface 610 is used to communicate with other devices through a transmission medium, so that the devices in the communication device 600 can communicate with other devices. Exemplarily, when the communication device 600 is a control device, the other device is a radio frequency device; or when the communication device is a radio frequency device. The processor 620 may use the communication interface 610 to send and receive data. The communication interface 610 may specifically be a transceiver.

[0135] In the embodiments of the present application, the specific connection medium between the communication interface 610, the processor 620, and the memory 630 is not limited. In the embodiments of the present application Figure 6 it is shown that the memory 630, the processor 620, and the communication interface 610 are connected through a bus 640. The bus is represented by a thick line in Figure 6 which. The connection manners between other components are only for illustrative purposes and are not to be taken as limiting. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For the sake of convenience of representation, Figure 6 only a thick line is used to represent it in which, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0136] In the embodiments of the present application, the processor 620 may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field-programmable gate array, or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and can implement or execute the various methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in combination with the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as being executed by a hardware processor, or executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

[0137] The memory 630 can be a ROM or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a RAM or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or can also be an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), magnetic disk storage media, or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory can exist independently and be connected to the processor through a communication line. The memory can also be integrated with the processor.

[0138] Among them, the memory 630 is used to store the computer execution instructions for implementing the solution of this application, and is controlled by the processor 620 for execution. The processor 620 is used to execute the computer execution instructions stored in the memory 630, so as to implement the communication method provided in the above embodiments of this application.

[0139] Optionally, the computer execution instructions in the embodiments of this application can also be referred to as application program code, and the embodiments of this application do not make specific limitations thereon.

[0140] It should be noted that the communication device in the above embodiments may be a radio frequency device, a circuit, a chip applied to a radio frequency device, or other combined devices or components with the functions of the above radio frequency devices. When the communication device is a radio frequency device, the transceiver module may be a transceiver, which may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, etc., and the processing module may be a processor, for example: a central processing unit (CPU). When the communication device is a component with the functions of the above radio frequency device, the transceiver module may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module may be a processor. When the communication device is a chip system, the communication device may be a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a CPU, a network processor (NP), a digital signal processing circuit (DSP), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a programmable logic device (PLD), or other integrated chips. The processing module 502 may be the processor of the chip system. The transceiver module 701 or the communication interface may be the input / output interface or interface circuit of the chip system. For example, the interface circuit may be a code / data read / write interface circuit. The interface circuit may be used to receive code instructions (the code instructions are stored in the memory and can be directly read from the memory or can also be read from the memory through other devices) and transmit them to the processor; the processor may be used to run the code instructions to execute the methods in the above method embodiments. Another example is that the interface circuit may also be a signal transmission interface circuit between the communication processor and the transceiver.

[0141] Exemplarily, the communication device in the above embodiments may be a chip, which includes a logic circuit and an input / output interface, and may also include a memory. Among them, the input / output interface may be used to receive code instructions (the code instructions are stored in the memory and can be directly read from the memory or can also 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 methods in the above method embodiments. Or, the input / output interface may also be a signal transmission interface circuit between the logic circuit and the transceiver.

[0142] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, including instructions, which when running on a computer, cause the computer to execute Figure 4 the methods executed by the control device and the radio frequency device in

[0143] An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, including instructions, which, when running on a computer, cause the computer to execute Figure 4 the methods performed by the control device and the radio frequency in

[0144] An embodiment of the present application provides a chip system. The chip system includes a processor and may further include a memory for implementing the functions of the network device and the terminal device in the foregoing methods. The chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices.

[0145] In the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in this embodiment are generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable devices. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or a data center that includes one or more integrated available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (such as a digital video disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (such as an SSD), etc.

[0146] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations 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 equivalent technologies, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, the method includes: sending first information, the first information indicating pilots corresponding to a plurality of terminal devices in a first user group, the pilots corresponding to the plurality of terminal devices in the first user group being orthogonal to each other, and the plurality of terminal devices in the first user group including terminal devices in at least two cells.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the method further includes: sending second information, the second information indicating a control device associated with the first user group, the control device being used to process uplink signals of the terminal devices in the associated first user group.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, the method further includes: sending third information, the first information indicating the terminal devices included in the first user group.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, the method further includes: receiving uplink signals of a plurality of terminal devices in an associated second user group; jointly demodulating the uplink signals of the plurality of terminal devices in the second user group.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, the method further includes: acquiring channel measurement information corresponding to terminal devices in a plurality of cells; determining the plurality of terminal devices in the first user group according to the channel measurement information.

6. A communication method, characterized in that, the method includes: receiving first information, the first information indicating pilots corresponding to a plurality of terminal devices in a first user group, the pilots corresponding to the plurality of terminal devices in the first user group being orthogonal to each other, and the plurality of terminal devices in the first user group including terminal devices in at least two cells.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that, the method further includes: receiving second information, the second information indicating association with a control device associated with the first user group, the control device being used to process uplink signals of the terminal devices in the associated first user group.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, the method further includes: receiving a first uplink signal of a terminal device in the user group; sending a second uplink signal to a control device associated with the terminal device, the second uplink signal being obtained based on the first uplink signal.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that, the method further includes: sending fourth information, the fourth information indicating pilots corresponding to the terminal devices in the user group.

10. A communication device, characterized in that, it includes a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

11. A communication device, characterized in that, it includes at least one processor, and the at least one processor is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

12. A readable storage medium, characterized in that, a computer program or instruction is stored in the storage medium, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is implemented.

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