Data transmission method and related device

Abstract

The invention provides a data transmission method and a related device, and belongs to the technical field of communication. A first node in the application can determine a next hop node of a to-be-transmitted data packet based on first feedback information of a destination node, and the to-be-transmitted data packet is transmitted to the next hop node. The first feedback information of the destination node is used for representing transmission states of a plurality of data packets transmitted within a set historical duration, the transmission states of the plurality of data packets can reflect end-to-end performance indexes from the source node to the destination node in a data packet transmission process, and a first node in the communication network is based on the first feedback information of the destination node. The next hop node of the to-be-transmitted data packet is determined, a proper data transmission strategy can be rapidly determined, and the network transmission performance is improved.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] In recent years, in order to meet the surging service demands in wireless networks, the network structure has started to develop from single-hop to multi-hop wireless Mesh networks. In a multi-hop wireless Mesh network, data packets are generated at a source node, transmitted through intermediate nodes, and finally need to be transmitted to a destination node. The process of transmitting a data packet from the source node to the destination node can be referred to as end-to-end transmission.

[0003] During the end-to-end transmission process of a data packet, if the data packet is transmitted to the destination node through a transmission link with poor network transmission performance, it will result in a long transmission duration of the data packet and cannot meet the data transmission requirements. How to determine a better data transmission strategy and improve network transmission performance is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Embodiments of this application provide a data transmission method and related devices, which are beneficial to quickly determining a suitable data transmission strategy and improving network transmission performance.

[0005] In a first aspect, embodiments of this application provide a data transmission method. This data transmission method can be executed by a first node in a communication network, or a chip, chip system, or circuit in the first node. The first node can be any node in the communication network. The method can include: The first node determines the destination node of the data packet to be transmitted, determines the next-hop node of the data packet to be transmitted based on the first feedback information of the destination node, and transmits the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node. The first feedback information of the destination node is used to characterize the transmission status of multiple data packets, or in other words, is used to characterize the transmission status of multiple data packets transmitted within a set historical duration.

[0006] In embodiments of this application, the first feedback information of the destination node is used to characterize the transmission status of multiple data packets transmitted within a set historical duration. The transmission status of multiple data packets can reflect the end-to-end performance metrics from the source node to the destination node during the data packet transmission process. The first node in the communication network determines the next-hop node of the data packet to be transmitted based on the first feedback information of the destination node, which is beneficial to quickly determining a suitable data transmission strategy and improving network transmission performance.

[0007] In a possible implementation, the first node may determine the next-hop node based on the first feedback information of the destination node and the second feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the first node. Among them, the second feedback information corresponding to the first neighbor node is determined by the first node according to the transmission success rate of the first transmission link. The first neighbor node may be any neighbor node of the first node, and the first transmission link refers to the transmission link between the first node and the first neighbor node of the first node. Exemplarily, the first node may determine the second feedback information corresponding to the first neighbor node according to the data transmission information fed back by the first neighbor node. According to the data transmission information fed back by the first neighbor node in each feedback period, the first node may respectively determine the data rate and transmission success rate of the data transmitted on the first transmission link, and based on the data rate and successful transmission rate of the data transmitted on the first transmission link, the second feedback information corresponding to the first neighbor node may be determined.

[0008] The first feedback information of the destination node may also be referred to as global feedback information, and the second feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the first node may be referred to as local feedback information.

[0009] In the above implementation, the first node may combine the global feedback information of the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the first node to determine the next-hop node, which can effectively respond to the dynamic changes of the network in a timely manner.

[0010] In a possible implementation, the first node may determine the next-hop transmission strategy for the data packet to be transmitted according to the global feedback information of the destination node. The next-hop transmission strategy may include, in addition to the next-hop node of the data packet to be transmitted, the transmission power and / or time-frequency resources of the next-hop transmission of the data packet to be transmitted. For example, the first node may send the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node according to the first transmission power, and the first transmission power may be determined according to the global feedback information of the destination node; or, the first node may send the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node according to the first time-frequency resources, and the first time-frequency resources may be determined according to the global feedback information of the destination node; or, the first node may send the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node according to the first transmission power and the first time-frequency resources, and the first transmission power and the first time-frequency resources may be determined according to the global feedback information of the destination node.

[0011] In another possible implementation, the first node can determine the next-hop transmission policy for the data packet to be transmitted based on the global feedback information of the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the first node. The next-hop transmission policy may include, in addition to the next-hop node of the data packet to be transmitted, the transmission power and / or time-frequency resources for the next-hop transmission of the data packet to be transmitted. For example, the first node can send the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node according to the first transmission power, and the first transmission power can be determined based on the global feedback information of the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the first node; or, the first node can send the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node according to the first time-frequency resource, and the first time-frequency resource can be determined based on the global feedback information of the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the first node; or, the first node can send the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node according to the first transmission power and the first time-frequency resource, and the first transmission power and the first time-frequency resource can be determined based on the global feedback information of the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the first node.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the data packet to be transmitted has a data flow identifier, and the data flow identifier is used to indicate the quality of service (QoS) requirements, source node identifier, and destination node identifier corresponding to the data packet to be transmitted; or, when the same data flow identifier is included in different data packets, it is used to indicate that the QoS requirements, source node, and destination node of different data packets are the same. The QoS requirements may include at least one of the packet error rate (PER), guaranteed flow bit rate (GFBR), and maximum flow bit rate (MFBR).

[0013] In a possible implementation, when sending the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node, if the first node determines that it has not sent a data packet with the same data flow identifier as the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node, it sends the data packet to be transmitted carrying the QoS requirements to the next-hop node; if the first node determines that it has sent a data packet with the same data flow identifier as the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node, it sends the data packet to be transmitted without carrying the QoS requirements to the next-hop node, so as to shorten the length of the data packet to be transmitted and save network transmission resources.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the data flow identifier and the QoS requirements are carried in the media access control (MAC) layer protocol data unit (PDU) or MAC layer signaling of the data packet to be transmitted.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the first node may receive a data packet to be transmitted sent by the previous hop node. If the data packet to be transmitted carries a data flow identifier and QoS requirements, the first node may record the correspondence between the data flow identifier carried in the data packet to be transmitted and the QoS requirements, so as to avoid the need to carry the QoS requirements of the data packet each time the data packet is transmitted.

[0016] In a possible implementation, the first node may also receive third feedback information from the next hop node, and the third feedback information is determined by the next hop node based on the global feedback information. The first node sends fourth feedback information to the previous hop node, and the fourth feedback information is determined based on the third feedback information. Exemplarily, the first node may receive a first feedback signaling from the next hop node, and the first feedback signaling may be sent by the next hop node according to the information of the previous hop node of the data packet to be transmitted saved in the next hop node. The first feedback signaling contains the third feedback information. The first node determines the fourth feedback information according to the third feedback information in the first feedback signaling, and generates a second feedback signaling containing the fourth feedback information. The first node sends the second feedback signaling to the previous hop node of the first node according to the information of the previous hop node of the data packet to be transmitted saved in the first node.

[0017] In the above implementation, the global feedback information determined by the destination node can be backtracked and transmitted according to the transmission path of the data flow, providing a basis for each intermediate node to determine the next hop transmission strategy, so that the intermediate node can quickly determine an appropriate data transmission strategy.

[0018] In a possible implementation, when the first node receives the first feedback signaling from the next hop node, it can obtain the packet status information corresponding to the third feedback information from the first feedback signaling. If the node information included in the packet status information is consistent with the information of the next hop node saved in the first node, and the remaining time delay budget TTD in the packet status information is consistent with the TTD in the next hop status saved in the first node, then the fourth feedback information is determined according to the third feedback information in the first feedback signaling.

[0019] In a possible implementation, the first feedback signaling carries a generation timestamp of the global feedback information. If the generation timestamp belongs to a specified time range, the fourth feedback information is determined according to the third feedback information in the first feedback signaling.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the transmission states of multiple data packets are associated with at least one of throughput, packet loss rate, and QoS requirements.

[0021] In the above implementation, the destination node can determine the global feedback information based on the throughput, packet loss rate, and QoS requirements. The intermediate nodes can adjust the next-hop transmission strategy according to the global feedback information, which can ensure end-to-end performance in a distributed manner, maximize network throughput, and reduce waste of network resources.

[0022] In a possible implementation, the first feedback information is intermittently fed back by the destination node within a set historical duration. The interval duration is negatively correlated with the change trend of the global feedback information obtained from multiple feedbacks. The interval duration can be referred to as the feedback period. The destination node can determine the global feedback information based on the throughput that meets the delay constraint, the packet loss rate, and the QoS requirements corresponding to the data flow identifier of the data packet to be transmitted within the feedback period. Among them, the throughput that meets the delay constraint is determined based on the number of successfully delivered data packets within the feedback period. A successfully delivered data packet refers to a data packet received by the destination node that has the same data flow identifier as the data packet to be transmitted and meets the delay constraint. The packet loss rate is determined based on the number of data packets with excessive delay. A data packet with excessive delay refers to a data packet received by the destination node that has the same data flow identifier as the data packet to be transmitted and does not meet the delay constraint.

[0023] In the above implementation, the feedback period is negatively correlated with the change trend of the global feedback information. When the global feedback information tends to be stable, it indicates that the data transmission strategy is already the best or close to the best. At this time, the feedback frequency of the global feedback information can be reduced to avoid occupying network transmission resources.

[0024] In a second aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may include a module for executing any of the methods provided in the first aspect above.

[0025] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including a processor and an interface circuit. The interface circuit is configured to receive signals from other communication devices and transmit them to the processor, or send signals from the processor to other communication devices. The processor is configured to implement any of the methods provided in the first aspect through logic circuits or by executing code instructions.

[0026] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication chip, including a processor. The processor is coupled to a memory and is configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the memory to implement any of the methods provided in the first aspect.

[0027] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores computer-executable instructions, and the computer-executable instructions are configured to cause a computer to execute any of the methods provided in the first aspect above.

[0028] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product including computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to execute any one of the methods provided in the first aspect above.

[0029] The technical effects achievable by any one of the second to sixth aspects above may refer to the description of the beneficial effects in the first aspect above, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] Figure 1 FIG. is a schematic structural diagram of a communication network provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0031] Figure 2 FIG. is a schematic diagram of an information transmission process in a communication network provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0032] Figure 3 FIG. is a schematic diagram of forward data flow transmission provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0033] Figure 4 FIG. is a flowchart of a data transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] Figure 5 FIG. is a schematic diagram of a method for determining global feedback information provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 6 FIG. is a schematic diagram of another method for determining global feedback information provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0036] Figure 7 FIG. is a schematic structural diagram of a feedback signaling provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 8 FIG. is a schematic diagram of a process for backhauling global feedback information provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 9 FIG. is a flowchart of another data transmission method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Figure 10 FIG. is a schematic structural diagram of another feedback signaling provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] Figure 11 FIG. is a schematic diagram of a process for a communication node to determine a next-hop transmission strategy provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] Figure 12 FIG. is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] Figure 13 FIG. is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. Detailed implementation manners

[0043] In order to make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The terms used in the implementation manners part of the present application are only used to explain the specific embodiments of the present application, rather than to limit the present application.

[0044] Before introducing the specific solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application, some terms in the present application are explained to facilitate the understanding of those skilled in the art, and the terms in the present application are not limited.

[0045] (1) Wireless Mesh node: A communication node in a communication network that has the capabilities of generating, processing, forwarding, and receiving data packets. Any wireless Mesh node can be used as a source node, an intermediate node, or a destination node.

[0046] (2) Deadline: The time required for a data packet to be generated from the source node and delivered to the destination node, which is equal to the end-to-end delay constraint of the data packet.

[0047] (3) Timely throughput: It refers to the number of data packets successfully delivered to the destination node before the deadline within a unit time. Herein, the unit time can be a feedback period for the destination node to perform global feedback.

[0048] (4) Data stream: In a communication network, data is transmitted between communication nodes in the form of data packets. Multiple data packets transmitted in the same direction can be referred to as a data stream.

[0049] (5) Backtracking: The process of transmitting feedback information from the destination node to the source node along the path of the data stream from the source node to the destination node is called backtracking.

[0050] In the embodiments of the present application, "a plurality of" means two or more. In view of this, in the embodiments of the present application, "a plurality of" can also be understood as "at least two". "At least one" can be understood as one or more, for example, understood as one, two, or more. For example, including at least one means including one, two, or more, and it does not limit which ones are included. For example, including at least one of A, B, and C, then what can be included is A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects and indicates that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / ", unless otherwise specified, generally represents an "or" relationship between the front and rear associated objects.

[0051] Unless otherwise stated, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of this application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, time sequence, priority or importance of multiple objects.

[0052] The data transmission method provided by the embodiments of this application can be applied to a communication network including multiple communication nodes. Figure 1 Exemplarily shown is a schematic structural diagram of a communication network applicable to the embodiments of this application. This communication network is a wireless Mesh network. To meet the surging service demands in wireless networks, the structure of the fifth-generation (5G) / sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication network has started to develop from single-hop to multi-hop wireless Mesh networks. For example, the sidelink network in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standard TS23.304 is a multi-hop wireless Mesh network, and the integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network in the 3GPP standard TS38.174 is also a wireless multi-hop Mesh network.

[0053] Figure 1 The shown communication network includes multiple communication nodes such as N1, N2, N3, N4, N5, N6, N7, etc. Each communication node can also be referred to as a wireless Mesh node. Each communication node is a communication node with the capabilities of generating, processing, forwarding, and receiving data streams, and can serve as a source node, an intermediate node, or a destination node. For example, Figure 1 the communication node N2 in [description] can generate the data stream Flow1. Therefore, the communication node N2 can be the source node of the data stream Flow1, and the destination node of the data stream Flow1 can be the communication node N4. Figure 1 the communication node N1 in [description] can generate the data stream Flow2. Therefore, the communication node N1 can be the source node of the data stream Flow2, and the destination node of the data stream Flow2 can be the communication node N6. Figure 1 the communication node N3 in [description] can generate the data stream Flown. Therefore, the communication node N3 can be the source node of the data stream Flown, and the destination node of the data stream Flown can be the communication node N7. A communication node can be a computer, a server, a base station, or other network devices, or it can be a communication terminal.

[0054] It should be noted that in actual application scenarios, the communication network may include more than 7 communication nodes or less than 7 communication nodes. This application does not make any limitations in this regard.

[0055] Figure 1 The network architecture of the shown communication network can also be applicable to a cellular network or an IAB network. In a cellular network, Figure 1 the wireless Mesh nodes shown in can be base stations of the cellular network or radio access network (RAN) nodes, for example, wireless relay devices, wireless backhaul devices, etc.; the RAN nodes can be interconnected with each other in a wired or wireless manner. In an IAB network, the wireless Mesh nodes can be IAB donor nodes.

[0056] In Figure 1 the shown communication network, any node that generates data packets can be referred to as a source node. The data packets are generated at the source node, transmitted through intermediate nodes, and ultimately need to be transmitted to a destination node. The process of transmitting data packets from the source node to the target node can be referred to as end-to-end transmission, and each data packet has an end-to-end delay constraint. However, while satisfying the end-to-end delay constraint of each data packet, it is also necessary to maximize the network throughput to reduce waste of network resources.

[0057] In a traditional cellular network, a centralized method is adopted to maximize the network throughput, that is, by selecting a central node in the communication network, establishing a cross-layer joint optimization problem with end-to-end delay constraints for data packets, and solving the cross-layer joint optimization problem to obtain a resource scheduling scheme for maximizing the throughput. However, the central node of this method needs to collect information of all communication nodes in the communication network, resulting in a long response time, and it is also difficult to identify a suitable central node in the communication network.

[0058] Based on this, an embodiment of the present application provides a data transmission method. This data transmission method can be executed by a first node in the communication network, or a chip, chip system, or circuit in the first node. The first node can be any node in the communication network. The first node receives data packets to be transmitted. After determining the destination node of the data packets to be transmitted, it can determine the next-hop node of the data packets to be transmitted based on the first feedback information from the destination node, and transmit the data packets to be transmitted to the next-hop node. Adjusting the data transmission strategy in combination with the first feedback information is conducive to the rapid convergence of the data transmission strategy, determining the most suitable data transmission strategy in a relatively short time, and reducing waste of network resources.

[0059] In some embodiments, the first node may also determine the next-hop node of the data packet to be transmitted by combining the second feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node and the first feedback information from the destination node. When adjusting the data transmission strategy, considering the second feedback information can further respond to the dynamic changes of the network in a timely and effective manner. In the following description, the first feedback information from the destination node may be referred to as global feedback information, and the second feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node may be referred to as local feedback information. That is to say, the global feedback information in the following description is equivalent to the first feedback information described above, and the local feedback information is equivalent to the second feedback information described above.

[0060] Figure 2 An exemplary schematic diagram of the information transmission process in a communication network is shown. As Figure 2 shown, the information transmission in a communication network may include the forward transmission of data streams and the backpropagation of feedback information. Among them, the forward transmission of data streams refers to the process of data streams being transmitted from the source node to the destination node, and the backpropagation of feedback information refers to the process of feedback information being transmitted in the opposite direction of the data stream, including the process of global feedback information being transmitted from the destination node to the source node. Taking the data stream Flow2 generated by the communication node N1 as an example, the communication node N1 is the source node of the data stream Flow2. The source node transmits the data stream Flow2 to the communication node N2, the communication node N2 transmits the data stream Flow2 to the communication node N5, and the communication node N5 transmits the data stream Flow2 to the communication node N6. The communication nodes N2 and N5 can be regarded as intermediate nodes, and the communication node N6 is the destination node of the data stream Flow2. The destination node N6 can generate global feedback information and transmit the global feedback information to the source node N1 through the communication node N5 and the communication node N2. At the same time, for the source node N1, the neighbor node N2 of the source node N1 can also feedback data transmission information to the source node N1, and the source node N1 can determine the local feedback information corresponding to the neighbor node N2 according to the data transmission information feedback by the neighbor node N2.

[0061] For any data stream, when it reaches a communication node, the communication node can make a decision on the next-hop transmission strategy based on the global feedback information obtained from the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the communication node. Among them, the next-hop transmission strategy may include the next-hop node, and may also include at least one of the transmission power and time-frequency resources used to transmit data to the next-hop node. Among them, the time-frequency resources may be a combination of a unit subcarrier and a unit time. When the data stream reaches the destination node, the destination node can calculate the end-to-end performance metrics of the data stream and generate global feedback information based on the end-to-end performance metrics. Among them, the end-to-end performance metrics may include at least one of metrics such as throughput and packet loss rate. After the destination node generates the global feedback information, it can backpropagate the global feedback information along the path of the data stream transmission to each intermediate node and the source node in the middle. When data is transmitted next time, the intermediate node can update the next-hop transmission strategy based on the global feedback information from the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node to guide the distributed scheduling of subsequent data streams.

[0062] The data transmission method provided by the present application is introduced in detail below through specific embodiments. As Figure 3 shown, assume that the forward transmission path of a data stream is N1→N2→N3→N4→N5, that is, the source node of the data stream is the communication node N1, and the destination node is the communication node N5. The communication node N3 is one of the multiple intermediate nodes. Taking the communication node N3 as an example below, the process of the forward transmission of the data stream in the embodiment of the present application is described. As Figure 4 shown, the process may include the following steps:

[0063] S401, the communication node N3 receives the data packet a.

[0064] The communication node N3 receives the data packet a sent by the previous-hop node and determines the destination node of the data packet a.

[0065] Suppose the source node that generates data packet a is communication node N1. When communication node N1 needs to transmit data to communication node N5, it generates data packet a, and the destination node of data packet a is communication node N5. In some embodiments, considering that only the source node and the destination node can obtain the QoS requirements of the end-to-end transmitted data packet in the 3GPP standard, and the intermediate node also needs to use the QoS requirements to determine the local feedback information, therefore, the QoS requirements can be carried in the data packet. Communication node N1 can also determine the quality of service (QoS) requirements of data packet a according to the service type corresponding to data packet a, and load the QoS requirements into data packet a. The QoS requirements can include at least one of the packet error rate (PER), the guaranteed flow bit rate (GFBR), and the maximum flow bit rate (MFBR). Different service types correspond to different QoS requirements. Exemplarily, the service type can include but is not limited to video type, voice type, short message type, etc. The video type, voice type, and short message type each correspond to different QoS requirements.

[0066] In some embodiments, data packet a contains a flow ID (flow identifier). Data packets with the same QoS requirements, source node address, and destination node address use the same flow ID, and multiple data packets using the same flow ID form a data stream. That is to say, the data packets with the same flow ID as data packet a have the same QoS requirements, source node address, and destination node address as data packet a. Data packet a can also contain delay constraint information, and the delay constraint information can be the time-till-deadline (TTD). The destination node can determine whether the reception time of the data packet meets the delay constraint according to the TTD of the received data packet.

[0067] As Figure 3 shown, communication node N1 can choose to transmit data packet a to communication node N2, or can choose to transmit data packet a to communication node N6. Exemplarily, communication node N1 can determine whether to transmit data packet a to communication node N2 or to communication node N6 based on the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of communication node N1 (including communication node N2 and communication node N6) and the global feedback information from the destination node (communication node N5).

[0068] Each time the communication node N1 transmits a data packet to the next-hop node, it can record the information of the next-hop node corresponding to each transmitted data packet. Suppose the communication node N1 selects to transmit the data packet a to the communication node N2. The communication node N1 can determine whether it has ever transmitted a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a to the communication node N2 according to the information of the next-hop node corresponding to each data packet recorded in history. If it has never transmitted a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a to the communication node N2, it can transmit the data packet a to the communication node N2. The data packet a can include a flow ID, a source node address, a destination node address, a current node address, and QoS requirements, where the current node address is the address of the communication node N1. If a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a has been transmitted to the communication node N2 in history, the data packet a may not include QoS requirements, a source node address, and a destination node address, but only include a flow ID and a current node address. In this way, the QoS requirements, the source node address, and the destination node address only need to be carried once, that is, when sending a data packet with a certain flow ID to a certain communication node for the first time, the QoS requirements, the source node address, and the destination node address are carried once. When subsequently sending a data packet with the same flow ID to this communication node, there is no need to carry the information of the source node address, the destination node address, PER, GFBR, and MFBR of the data packet, so the communication overhead can be reduced.

[0069] In an alternative embodiment, if the QoS requirements are carried in the data packet a transmitted by the communication node N1 to the communication node N2, the flow ID and the QoS requirements can be carried through the medium access control (MAC) layer. For example, the flow ID and the QoS requirements are carried through the MAC sub-protocol data unit (PDU). The MAC sub-PDUs of different flow IDs carry their respective QoS requirements.

[0070] The communication node N2 receives the data packet a transmitted by the communication node N1, can extract the flow ID carried in the data packet a, and record the flow ID of the data packet a. If the data packet a carries QoS requirements, a source node address, and a destination node address, the communication node N2 can record the correspondence between the flow ID of the data packet a and the QoS requirements, the source node address, and the destination node address carried by the data packet a.

[0071] The communication node N2 can choose to transmit the data packet a to the communication node N3 or to the communication node N6. Exemplarily, the communication node N2 can determine whether to transmit the data packet a to the communication node N3 or to the communication node N6 based on the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the communication node N2 (including the communication node N3 and the communication node N6) and the global feedback information from the destination node (communication node N5).

[0072] Each time the communication node N2 transmits a data packet to the next-hop node, it can record the information of the next-hop node corresponding to each transmitted data packet. For example, if the communication node N2 chooses to transmit the data packet a to the communication node N3, the communication node N2 can determine whether it has ever transmitted a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a to the communication node N3 according to the information of the next-hop node corresponding to each data packet recorded in history. If it has never transmitted a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a to the communication node N3, it can transmit the data packet a to the communication node N3. The data packet a can include a flow ID, a source node address, a destination node address, a current node address, and QoS requirements, where the current node address is the address of the communication node N2. If a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a has been transmitted to the communication node N3 in history, the data packet a may not include QoS requirements, a source node address, and a destination node address, but only include a flow ID and a current node address.

[0073] When the communication node N3 receives the data packet a transmitted by the communication node N2, it can extract the flow ID carried in the data packet a and record the flow ID of the data packet a. If the data packet a carries QoS requirements, a source node address, and a destination node address, the communication node N3 can record the correspondence between the flow ID of the data packet a and the QoS requirements, the source node address, and the destination node address carried in the data packet a.

[0074] Assume that the flow ID of the data packet a is flow f. Then the communication node N3 can record the source node address, the destination node address, the PER, the GFBR, and the MFBR corresponding to flow f. As shown in Table 1, the communication node N3 can record that the source node address corresponding to flow f is N1 and the destination node address is N5. In some embodiments, the communication node N3 can also extract the current node address carried in the data packet a, that is, the address of the communication node N2, and record the current node address as the previous-hop address, that is, the previous-hop address is N2.

[0075] Table 1

[0076] Flow ID Source Node Address Destination Node Address Previous Hop Address Next Hop Address PER GFBR MFBR flow f N1 N5 N2 N4

[0077] If the data packet a only carries the flow ID of the data packet a and does not carry the destination node address, the communication node N3 can query the local record according to the flow ID of the data packet a to determine the destination node address corresponding to the flow ID, so as to determine the destination node of the data packet a.

[0078] In some embodiments, the communication node N3 can also save the status information of the data packet a for use when generating feedback information later, and can also be used for subsequent backtracking of the global feedback information. Among them, the status information of the data packet can be represented by a triple, namely: flow ID, the current node address (i.e., the node address where the data packet is currently located, the address of the communication node N3), and the TTD of the data packet. Data packets with the same status can use the same feedback information. The status information of the data packet a will also be carried by the data packet a and transmitted to the next-hop node.

[0079] S402, the communication node N3 sends the data packet a to the next-hop node.

[0080] In some embodiments, the communication node N3 can determine the next-hop node of the data packet a based on the global feedback information of the destination node. In some other embodiments, the communication node N3 can determine the next-hop node of the data packet a based on the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the communication node N3 and the global feedback information from the destination node.

[0081] In some other embodiments, the communication node N3 can determine the next-hop transmission policy of the data packet a based on the global feedback information of the destination node. In some other embodiments, the communication node N3 can determine the next-hop transmission policy of the data packet a based on the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the communication node N3 and the global feedback information from the destination node. The next-hop transmission policy includes at least one of the next-hop node of the data packet a, the transmission power of the next-hop transmission of the data packet a, and the time-frequency resources.

[0082] Among them, the local feedback information corresponding to the first neighbor node among each neighbor node is determined according to the data transmission information fed back by the first neighbor node. The generation methods of the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node and the global feedback information from the destination node will be introduced in detail below.

[0083] Exemplarily, the communication node N3 can determine whether to transmit the data packet a to the communication node N4, or to the communication node N6, or to the communication node N7 based on the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node (including the communication node N4, the communication node N6, and the communication node N7) of the communication node N3 and the global feedback information from the destination node (the communication node N5).

[0084] Each time the communication node N3 transmits a data packet to the next-hop node, it can record the information of the next-hop node corresponding to each transmitted data packet. For example, when the communication node N3 selects to transmit the data packet a to the communication node N4, it can record in Table 1 that the next-hop node corresponding to the data flow identifier flow f of the data packet a is N4. The communication node N3 can determine whether it has ever transmitted a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a to the communication node N4 based on the information of the next-hop node corresponding to each data packet recorded in history.

[0085] If it has never transmitted a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a to the communication node N4, it can transmit the data packet a to the communication node N4. The data packet a can contain the flow ID, source node address, destination node address, current node address, and QoS requirement, where the current node address is the address of the communication node N3. If the QoS requirement, source node address, and destination node address of the data packet a are not carried in the data packet a transmitted by the communication node N2 to the communication node N3, the communication node N3 can query the recorded information using the flow ID of the data packet a, such as Table 1, to obtain the QoS requirement, source node address, and destination node address of the data packet a, and add this information to the data packet a and transmit the data packet a to the communication node N4.

[0086] If a data packet with the same flow ID as the data packet a has been transmitted to the communication node N3 in history, the data packet a may not contain the QoS requirement, source node address, and destination node address, but only contain the flow ID and the current node address.

[0087] When the communication node N3 transmits the data packet a to the communication node N4, it will also update the TTD of the data packet carried in the data packet a according to the required transmission duration.

[0088] After the communication node N4 receives the data packet a transmitted by the communication node N3, the processing process of the data packet a is the same as that of the communication node N3 and will not be elaborated here. The communication node N4 transmits the data packet a to the next-hop node until it is transmitted to the destination node N5. The destination node N5 determines that the destination node address of the data packet a is its own address, and no longer transmits the data packet a to the next-hop node, but processes the data packet a. The destination node N5 records the status information of the data packet a, including the flow ID of the data packet a, the current node address, and the TTD of the data packet. And it judges whether the data packet a is a packet with excessive delay according to the TTD of the data packet.

[0089] For a data stream, the destination node can generate global feedback information according to the feedback period of the data stream, and transmit the global feedback information in the reverse direction of the data stream to the source node of the data stream. In order to enable the global feedback information generated by the destination node to reflect the end-to-end delay and be used to adjust the network state (transmission link selection and resource allocation), the destination node can use timely throughput and packet loss rate to generate global feedback information. Among them, timely throughput can characterize the change of data rate during the end-to-end transmission of the data stream, and the packet loss rate can characterize the number of packets with excessive delay. The combination of timely throughput and packet loss rate can completely reflect the performance of the data stream during end-to-end transmission.

[0090] For example, for the data stream to which packet a belongs, the destination node N5 can determine the global feedback information every other feedback period according to the timely throughput and packet loss rate within the feedback period. Among them, the timely throughput is determined according to the number of successfully delivered packets within the feedback period. A successfully delivered packet refers to a packet received by the destination node that has the same flow ID as packet a and satisfies the delay constraint. The packet loss rate is determined according to the number of packets with excessive delay; a packet with excessive delay refers to a packet received by the destination node that has the same flow ID as packet a and does not satisfy the delay constraint.

[0091] In some embodiments, the destination node N5 can also obtain the QoS requirements of the data stream, and determine the global feedback information according to at least one of the QoS requirements of the data stream, timely throughput, and packet loss rate. Exemplarily, the destination node N5 can use the approximation-to-target method to generate the global feedback information.

[0092] In an alternative embodiment, as Figure 5 shown, after the destination node N5 obtains PER, GFBR, and MFBR, it first determines the difference b between the throughput Timely throughput that satisfies the delay constraint and GFBR GFBR , b GFBR = Timely throughput - GFBR; and determines the difference b between timely throughput and MFBR MFBR , b MFBR = Timely throughput - MFBR; and determines the difference b between the packet loss rate and PER PER , b PER= Timely throughput - PER. Since the dimensions of timely throughput and packet loss rate are different and their value ranges vary greatly, the value range of packet loss rate is 0 to 1, while the value range of timely throughput can be dozens of Gbps. Therefore, a normalization function (i.e., the R function) can be used to map the obtained several differences to a common finite scale, and then sum them to obtain the global reward value, which can be used as the global feedback information. The monotonicity of the R function used in the embodiments of this application is consistent with the monotonicity of the changes in timely throughput and packet loss rate, and it is a convex function.

[0093] Exemplarily, by normalizing b through the R function GFBR , R(b GFBR ) can be obtained; by normalizing b through the R function MFBR , R(b MFBR ) can be obtained, and by normalizing b through the R function PER , R(b PER ) can be obtained. According to the first global reward calculation function R G = R(b GFBR ) - max[R(b MFBR ), 0] + R(b PER ), the global reward value R G can be obtained. Among them, max[R(b MFBR ), 0] represents the maximum value between R(b MFBR ) and 0. The target node N5 can use the global reward value as the global feedback information.

[0094] In another alternative embodiment, as Figure 6 shown, after the destination node N5 obtains the PER, GFBR, and MFBR, it first determines the difference between the Timely throughput and the GFBR, and the first ratio of the difference between the GFBR and the MFBR, and calculates the second ratio of the packet loss rate to the PER. Then, it uses the R function to normalize the first ratio to obtain R1, and uses the R function to normalize the second ratio to obtain R2. According to the second global reward calculation function R G = aR1 + (1 - a)R2, the global reward value R GAmong them, a is the weight of R1, and the weight can be set as needed to make the communication network operate in the desired direction. For example, if the throughput and packet loss rate of the communication network are equally important, the weight a can be set to 0.5; if the throughput of the communication network is expected to be as large as possible and the packet loss rate is ignored, the weight a can be set to 1; if a ultra-reliable communication network is expected to be achieved, that is, the packet loss rate is as small as possible, the weight a can be set to 0. In addition, if there are more performance indicators, they can be directly multiplied by the weight factor and added to the calculation of the global reward value. After obtaining the global reward value, the target node N5 can use the global reward value as the global feedback information.

[0095] By setting weights for different performance parameters, the network performance can be regulated, and global feedback information can be generated according to actual needs (i.e., a network with the maximum throughput or the lowest packet loss rate is expected), so that the communication network performance can move in the required direction, realizing the flexible configuration of the network, and flexibly achieving various purposes, such as minimizing the packet loss rate to achieve an ultra-reliable network, etc., which can make the network more flexible and diverse.

[0096] In some other embodiments, there can be more parameters for determining the global feedback information, and the number of parameters for determining the global feedback information can be determined according to specific needs, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0097] After determining the global feedback information, the target node N5 can load the global feedback information onto the feedback signaling and use the state backtracking table to assist the backtracking propagation of the feedback signaling. The format of the state backtracking table saved in the destination node can be shown in Table 2.

[0098] Table 2

[0099]

[0100] As shown in Table 2, the status backtracking table in the destination node may include the following content: current status, source node address, previous-hop status, and feedback information. Among them, the current status includes the data flow identifier Flow ID, the current node address, and the current TTD; the previous-hop status may include the previous-hop address and the TTD corresponding to the previous-hop; the feedback information may include the global feedback information determined as above and the global update time corresponding to the global feedback information. The destination node can determine the time for the next determination of the global feedback information for the data flow with the Flow ID according to the global update time and the feedback period. Among them, the feedback period can vary with the convergence speed of the data transmission strategy, and the convergence speed of the data transmission strategy can be determined according to the change trend of the globally determined feedback information for consecutive times, or the convergence of the global feedback information for short. For example, when the change trend of the globally determined feedback information for consecutive times is obvious, the feedback period can be shorter; when the change trend of the globally determined feedback information for consecutive times tends to be stable, the feedback period can be longer. In some embodiments, the destination node can determine the feedback period according to the convergence of the global feedback information. In other embodiments, the source node can also configure the feedback period according to the expected value.

[0101] The destination node can load the global feedback information onto the feedback signaling and backtrack and transmit the feedback signaling to the previous-hop node according to the previous-hop status in the status backtracking table. The feedback signaling can be transmitted using the piggyback method along with the data transmission, that is, directly place the feedback signaling on the blank resources in the data flow; or it can be transmitted using dedicated signaling. The feedback signaling can be MAC layer signaling. The structure of the feedback signaling transmitted by the destination node to the previous-hop node is as Figure 7 shown. The feedback signaling may include the Flow ID of the data flow, the source node address, the packet status, the global feedback information, and the generation timestamp of the global feedback information. Among them, the packet status may include at least one of the current node address and the TTD. If the destination node is the communication node N5, the current node address in the packet status is N5. The generation timestamp of the global feedback information is determined by the destination node according to the global update time in the status backtracking table and is used to detect the timeliness of the feedback signaling. When the intermediate node receives the feedback signaling, it can judge whether the feedback signaling is within the specified time range through the generation timestamp of the global feedback information. If it is not within the specified time range, the feedback signaling is discarded and there is no need to continue to forward it.

[0102] Figure 8 shows the process of backhauling the global feedback information generated by the destination node. As Figure 8As shown, taking the data stream f as an example, the destination node N5 can determine that the previous hop node is the communication node N4 according to the previous hop state in the state backtracking table. The destination node N5 transmits a feedback signaling to the communication node N4. The global feedback information in the feedback signaling is transmitted to the communication node N1 via the communication node N4, the communication node N3, and the communication node N2, so as to realize the backtracking propagation of the global feedback information from the end to the source. Still taking the communication node N3 as an example below, the processing process of each intermediate node for the feedback signaling is described. As Figure 9 shown, this process may include the following steps:

[0103] S901, the communication node N3 receives the first feedback signaling transmitted by the communication node N4.

[0104] The communication node N4 is the next hop node of the communication node N3. The communication node N4 can send the first feedback signaling to the communication node N3 according to the previous hop node information (i.e., the previous hop state) in the state backtracking table saved in the communication node N4. The first feedback signaling carries the third feedback information, and the third feedback information may be a feedback value obtained by the communication node N4 based on the global feedback information. Exemplarily, the structure of the first feedback signaling transmitted by the communication node N4 to the communication node N3 is as Figure 10 shown. The first feedback signaling may include the FlowID of the data stream, the source node address, the packet state, the third feedback information, and the generation timestamp of the global feedback information. Among them, the third feedback information may also be referred to as the V value. The V value is obtained according to the global feedback information and is used to represent the global feedback information. Exemplarily, the communication node N4 can determine the third feedback information according to the global feedback information in the received feedback signaling through the theory of constrained markov decision process (CMDP). The packet state may include the current node address and the TTD. The current node address is N4, and the TTD is the TTD of the current state in the state backtracking table saved in the communication node N4.

[0105] S902, the communication node N3 determines the fourth feedback information according to the third feedback information in the first feedback signaling, and generates a second feedback signaling including the fourth feedback information.

[0106] The communication node N3 also saves a state backtracking table. The format of the state backtracking table saved in the communication node N3 is shown in Table 3.

[0107] Table 3

[0108]

[0109] The communication node N3 can read the packet status information from the received feedback signaling, i.e., the above-mentioned packet status; the communication node N3 can also obtain the next-hop status from the status backtracking table, and match the packet status in the feedback signaling with the next-hop status in the status backtracking table. If the current node address (which can also be referred to as the current node information) in the packet status is consistent with the next-hop address (which can also be referred to as the next-hop node information) in the next-hop status saved in the status backtracking table, and the TTD in the packet status is consistent with the TTD in the next-hop status saved in the status backtracking table, it can be determined that the packet status matches the next-hop status in the status backtracking table successfully. In some embodiments, if the packet status matches the next-hop status in the status backtracking table successfully, the communication node N3 can determine the fourth feedback information according to the third feedback information in the first feedback signaling, and generate a second feedback signaling including the fourth feedback information. Since the third feedback information is a feedback value obtained by the communication node N4 based on the global feedback information, and the fourth feedback information is determined based on the third feedback information, it can be considered that the fourth feedback information is a feedback value obtained by the communication node N3 based on the global feedback information.

[0110] In other embodiments, when the packet status matches the next-hop status in the status backtracking table successfully, the communication node N3 can also infer the TTD of the first feedback signaling at the communication node N3 according to the TTD in the packet status and the link transmission time from the communication node N3 to the communication node N4, compare the inferred TTD with the TTD in the current status saved in the status backtracking table, if they are consistent, then determine the fourth feedback information according to the third feedback information in the first feedback signaling, and generate a second feedback signaling including the fourth feedback information.

[0111] Exemplarily, the communication node N3 reads the V value, i.e., the third feedback information, from the received first feedback signaling. Through the CMDP theory, the Q value can be determined according to the third feedback information. In some embodiments, the communication node N3 can use the obtained Q value as the updated V value, i.e., the fourth feedback information, and use the updated V value to replace the V value in the first feedback signaling, and generate a second feedback signaling including the fourth feedback information. Since the third feedback information is determined according to the global feedback information, the fourth feedback information obtained from the third feedback information can also represent the global feedback information.

[0112] In some other embodiments, the communication node N3 may receive feedback signaling returned by multiple communication nodes, and a corresponding Q value can be obtained for each feedback signaling. There is a transmission link between each communication node in the multiple communication nodes and the communication node N3. The communication node N3 can use the weighted sum of the Q values of at least one transmission link with the same current data packet state among the multiple transmission links as the updated V value, that is, the fourth feedback information, and use the updated V value to replace the V value in the first feedback signaling to generate a second feedback signaling containing the fourth feedback information. Among them, the current data packet state of any one transmission link can be inferred by the communication node N3 according to the data packet state (next-hop state) carried in the received feedback signaling. At least one transmission link with the same current data packet state indicates at least one transmission link corresponding to the same data stream. The weight corresponding to any one transmission link can be the probability that the communication node N3 selects this transmission link. The probability that the communication node N3 selects this transmission link can be determined according to the number of times the communication node N3 has selected this transmission link. Through the above process, the communication node N3 can merge the received feedback signaling of at least one transmission link into one feedback signaling for feedback transmission, thereby reducing the number of feedback signaling and reducing the communication signaling overhead.

[0113] S903. The communication node N3 transmits the second feedback signaling to the communication node N2.

[0114] The communication node N3 can send the second feedback signaling to the previous-hop node according to the saved previous-hop node information, and the structure of the second feedback signaling can also be as Figure 10 shown. Exemplarily, the communication node N3 can determine the previous-hop node as the communication node N2 according to the previous-hop node information saved in the state backtracking table, that is, the previous-hop address in the previous-hop state, set the current node address in the data packet state of the second feedback signaling to N3, and then send the second feedback signaling to the communication node N2.

[0115] After receiving the second feedback signaling, the communication node N2 updates the V value in the second feedback signaling and then transmits the feedback signaling to the source node N1.

[0116] Embodiments of this application utilize global feedback information to comprehensively characterize the end-to-end performance of data stream transmission, and use the backpropagation method to enable each intermediate node to use the global feedback information, so as to select an appropriate scheduling strategy, and finally distributively achieve the maximization of throughput under the guarantee of end-to-end performance. In a wireless Mesh network, the premise for ensuring the end-to-end performance of a data stream is that the node knows the end-to-end transmission situation of the data stream. Embodiments of this application provide a method for distributed decision-making scheduling using feedback information. The destination node feeds back performance statistical information such as the data rate and packet loss rate of the end-to-end transmission of the data stream to each intermediate node, so that the intermediate node uses the feedback information to adjust the scheduling strategy, thereby distributively ensuring the end-to-end performance and achieving the goal of maximizing the network throughput.

[0117] The above text introduced the process of backpropagation of global feedback information. Considering that the global feedback information only uses the feedback information generated by the destination node and is very sparse, this sparsity will cause a delay in the feedback information received by the intermediate node, resulting in the intermediate node randomly selecting a scheduling strategy. Therefore, embodiments of this application introduce local feedback information. The local feedback information is generated based on the information fed back after the transmission of a one-hop link, and uses the data rate and successful transmission probability of the data stream transmitted on the current transmission link as indicators. The generation method is the same as that of the global feedback information and promotes the convergence of the global feedback information.

[0118] Still taking the communication node N3 as an example, the process of determining the local feedback information corresponding to the communication node N4 by the communication node N3 is introduced below. The communication node N4 is a neighbor node of the communication node N3. For the transmission link corresponding to the communication node N4 (i.e., the transmission link between the communication node N3 and the communication node N4), the communication node N3 can respectively determine the data rate and successful transmission rate of the data transmitted on this transmission link according to the data transmission information fed back by the communication node N4 in each feedback period, and determine the local feedback information corresponding to the communication node N4 according to the data rate and successful transmission rate of the data transmitted on this transmission link.

[0119] For example, each time communication node N3 sends a data packet to communication node N4, if communication node N4 successfully receives the data packet, communication node N4 replies with an ACK message to communication node N3. If communication node N4 fails to successfully receive the data packet, i.e., there is a reception delay or decoding failure, communication node N4 replies with a NACK message to communication node N3. The ACK message or NACK message replied by communication node N4 can be used as the data transmission information fed back by communication node N4. The data rate of the data transmitted over the transmission link between communication node N4 and communication node N3 can be determined by communication node N3 based on the ratio of the successfully transmitted data volume (the bits of the data packet received with the ACK message excluding the packet header) to the transmission opportunity. The successful transmission rate of the transmission link between communication node N4 and communication node N3 can be determined by communication node N3 based on the number of ACK messages and NACK messages fed back by communication node N4. Communication node N3 can determine the local feedback information corresponding to communication node N4 based on the data rate and successful transmission rate of this transmission link.

[0120] Exemplarily, communication node N3 can determine the local feedback information corresponding to communication node N4 based on the data rate and successful transmission rate of this transmission link, as well as the QoS requirements of the data stream. The process by which communication node N3 determines the local feedback information corresponding to communication node N4 can refer to Figure 5 or Figure 6 the method for determining the global feedback information shown. Just replace Timelythroughput with the data rate of this transmission link and the packet loss rate with the successful transmission rate of this transmission link. The specific process will not be elaborated here.

[0121] Communication node N3 can use the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node and the global feedback information from the destination node (which can be obtained from the V value in the first feedback signaling transmitted by communication node N4) as the metrics of the scheduling policy to distributively select the next-hop node (the next-hop transmission link) and the power and time-frequency resources for the next-hop transmission, i.e., the next-hop transmission policy. Among them, the time-frequency resources for the next-hop transmission are related to the number of subcarriers selected. By selecting the next-hop transmission policy each time it transmits a data packet, communication node N3 makes the value of the global feedback information gradually increase, and the change trend of the global feedback information gradually decreases, so that the global feedback information converges after reaching the maximum value. As Figure 11 shown, in actual use, due to the large number of intermediate nodes, if communication node N3 is relatively close to the source node, it takes a certain amount of time for the global feedback information to propagate to communication node N3. For example, assume that the destination node of data stream flow2 is communication node N E , from communication node N EIt takes a certain amount of time for the global feedback information to propagate to communication node N3, which may make it difficult to follow the dynamic changes of the transmission link. Therefore, when communication node N3 does not receive the global feedback information, local feedback information can be used as an indicator for determining the scheduling strategy. Compare the magnitudes of the local feedback information brought by the number of subcarriers and power selected historically, and preferentially select the subcarriers and power with larger values of local feedback information to transmit the data packets of data flow flow2. The selection of the scheduling strategy for data flow flow1 is the same as that of data flow flow2 and will not be elaborated here.

[0122] When communication node N3 uses both global feedback information and local feedback information as indicators for the scheduling strategy, the role of local feedback information is reflected in timely adjusting the link selection scheme to avoid scheduling schemes with poor link quality. The scheduling strategy adopted in the embodiments of this application is a resource allocation algorithm based on feedback information, that is, communication node N3 can compare the magnitudes of the feedback information (including global feedback information and local feedback information) brought by the number of subcarriers and power selected historically, and preferentially select the subcarriers and power with larger values of feedback information. Each communication node can execute the scheduling strategy according to the received feedback information to enable each data flow of the communication node to distributively select the next-hop transmission link, the number of subcarriers, and power, ultimately achieving routing-free data transmission.

[0123] The above method can dynamically regulate the transmission of data flows, ensure the optimal end-to-end performance under constraint conditions, and at the same time regard each node in the wireless multi-hop Mesh network as an intelligent communication entity with the ability of autonomous resource scheduling and feedback signaling interaction.

[0124] Starting from ensuring end-to-end performance and improving network capacity, the embodiments of this application consider the end-to-end delay and data rate constraints of data flows, the power and subcarrier constraints of nodes, and propose a distributed decision-making scheduling method using feedback information based on the CMDP theory. In this method, for any data flow, when it reaches each communication node, it decides the scheduling strategy for the next-hop transmission according to the global feedback information from the destination node and the local feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node. After the data flow reaches the destination node, the destination node statistics the end-to-end performance metrics of the data flow, and generates global feedback information based on these performance metrics to guide the distributed scheduling of intermediate nodes. The destination node generates a feedback signaling containing the global feedback information and backpropagates the feedback signaling along the path of the data flow transmission to each intermediate node. At the same time, the intermediate nodes update the scheduling decision method based on the global feedback information to guide the distributed scheduling of subsequent data flows. The above process runs continuously until the value of the global feedback information remains unchanged or the scheduling strategy is fixed, then the data transmission strategy converges and reaches the maximum throughput. This method can be applied to various distributed networks coordinated by centralized nodes, such as IAB networks, multi-hop sidelink networks, etc.

[0125] The data transmission method provided by the embodiments of the present application is applied to a wireless multi-hop Mesh network. Communication nodes in the wireless multi-hop Mesh network use feedback information to determine the next-hop transmission strategy, and through end-to-source backtracking transmission, global feedback information that can characterize end-to-end performance enables intermediate nodes to distributively select transmission links that meet the QoS requirements of data streams, thereby maximizing the network throughput while ensuring end-to-end performance indicators. In other words, the destination node in the embodiments of the present application uses metrics of throughput and delivery rate that satisfy end-to-end delay to generate global feedback information, and transmits it back to each node through a feedback backtracking mechanism, thereby guiding each node to distributively schedule resources. The feedback signaling that backtracks from the destination node to the source node feeds back statistical performance such as the throughput and packet loss rate of end-to-end data stream transmission to each intermediate node, enabling the intermediate nodes to obtain global feedback information during end-to-end transmission, and using the global feedback information to adjust the scheduling strategy, thereby effectively guiding distributed scheduling, ensuring the end-to-end performance of the communication network, solving the problem of maximizing throughput through distributed scheduling under end-to-end delay constraints, effectively ensuring end-to-end delay, and greatly improving network capacity. Moreover, in the embodiments of the present application, the QoS requirements carried by the forward transmission of the data stream can support the determination of global feedback information by the destination node and local feedback information by each intermediate node, enabling the global feedback information and local feedback information to fully reflect the end-to-end performance of the data stream.

[0126] Based on the same technical concept as the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present application also provide a communication device. To implement the functions in the above embodiments, the communication device includes corresponding hardware structures and / or software modules for executing each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and method steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed in the way of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraint conditions of the technical solution.

[0127] Figure 12 and Figure 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a possible communication device provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the communication nodes in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments.

[0128] In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be any communication node as shown in Figure 1 , such as communication node N3, or can also be a module (such as a chip) applied to any communication node.

[0129] Such as Figure 12As shown, the communication device 1200 includes a processing unit 1210 and a transceiver unit 1220. The communication device 1200 is used to implement the above Figure 4 or Figure 9 functions of the terminal or network device in the method embodiments shown.

[0130] When the communication device 1200 is used to implement Figure 4 or Figure 9 the functions of the method embodiments shown, the transceiver unit 1220 is used to receive the data packet to be transmitted and send the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node; the processing unit 1210 is used to determine according to the first feedback information of the destination node of the data packet to be transmitted, and the first feedback information is used to characterize the transmission status of multiple data packets.

[0131] For a more detailed description of the above processing unit 1210 and transceiver unit 1220, reference can be made to Figure 4 or Figure 9 the relevant descriptions in the method embodiments shown.

[0132] As Figure 13 shown, the communication device 1300 may include a processor 1310 and an interface circuit 1320. The processor 1310 and the interface circuit 1320 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 1320 may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1300 may further include a memory 1330, which is used to store the instructions executed by the processor 1310 or store the input data required for the processor 1310 to run the instructions or store the data generated after the processor 1310 runs the instructions.

[0133] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement Figure 4 or Figure 9 the method shown, the processor 1310 is used to implement the functions of the above processing unit 1210, and the interface circuit 1320 is used to implement the functions of the above transceiver unit 1220.

[0134] When the above communication device is a communication chip applied to a communication node, the communication chip implements the functions of the communication node in the above method embodiments. The communication chip receives information from other communication nodes in the network. It can be understood that this information is first received by other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the communication node, and then sent to the communication chip by these modules. The communication chip sends information to other communication nodes in the network. It can be understood that this information is first sent to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the communication node, and then sent to other communication nodes in the network by these modules.

[0135] It can be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0136] Based on the same technical concept as the above embodiments, the embodiments of the present application further provide a communication chip, which can be applied to any one of the above communication nodes. The communication chip may include a processor, and the processor is coupled to a memory. The processor may be the processor described in the above embodiments, and is configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the memory to implement the functions of the communication node in the above method embodiments.

[0137] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware or in software instructions executable by a processor. The software instructions may be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules may be stored in a random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, registers, hard disk, removable hard disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor, so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium may also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium may be located in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium may also exist as discrete components in the base station or the terminal.

[0138] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in the form of a computer program product in whole or in part. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are executed in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable devices. The computer program or instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer program or instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center in a wired or wireless manner. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer, or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available medium can be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape; it can also be an optical medium, such as a digital video disc; or it can be a semiconductor medium, such as a solid-state drive. The computer-readable storage medium can be a volatile or non-volatile storage medium, or can include both volatile and non-volatile types of storage media.

[0139] It can be understood that the various digital numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The magnitudes of the serial numbers of the above processes do not mean the order of execution. The order of execution of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

[0140] In each embodiment of the present application, if there is no special description and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their internal logical relationships. In addition, the terms "include" and "have" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a method, system, product, or device that includes a series of steps or units does not necessarily have to be limited to those steps or units clearly listed, but may include other steps or units that are not clearly listed or are inherent to these processes, methods, products, or devices.

[0141] Although the present application has been described in conjunction with specific features and their embodiments, it is obvious that various modifications and combinations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Accordingly, this specification and the drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the solutions defined by the appended claims and are considered to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents within the scope of the present application.

[0142] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to this application without departing from the scope of this application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the embodiments of this application fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalent technologies, this application is also intended to include these changes and modifications.

Claims

1. A data transmission method, characterized in that, The method includes: Receiving a data packet to be transmitted; Sending the data packet to be transmitted to a next-hop node, where the next-hop node is determined according to first feedback information of a destination node of the data packet to be transmitted; the first feedback information is used to characterize the transmission status of multiple data packets.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The next-hop node is further determined according to second feedback information corresponding to each neighbor node of the current node, where the current node is the node that receives the data packet to be transmitted; The second feedback information corresponding to the first neighbor node is determined by the current node according to the transmission success rate of a first transmission link; the first transmission link refers to the transmission link between the current node and the first neighbor node.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The data packet to be transmitted has a data flow identifier, and the data flow identifier is used to indicate the quality of service (QoS) requirement, source node identifier, and destination node identifier corresponding to the data packet to be transmitted; Or The data packet to be transmitted contains a data flow identifier, and when different data packets contain the same data flow identifier, it indicates that the QoS requirements, source nodes, and destination nodes of the different data packets are the same.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Sending the data packet to be transmitted to the next-hop node includes: If it is determined that no data packet with the same data flow identifier as that carried by the data packet to be transmitted has been sent to the next-hop node, then sending the data packet to be transmitted carrying the QoS requirement to the next-hop node; If it is determined that a data packet with the same data flow identifier as that carried by the data packet to be transmitted has been sent to the next-hop node, then sending the data packet to be transmitted without carrying the QoS requirement to the next-hop node.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein The data flow identifier and / or the QoS requirement is carried in a media access control (MAC) layer protocol data unit (PDU) or MAC layer signaling of the data packet to be transmitted.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that, If the data packet to be transmitted carries the data flow identifier and the QoS requirement, then the method further includes: Recording the correspondence between the data flow identifier carried in the data packet to be transmitted and the QoS requirement.

7. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 6, characterized in that; The QoS requirement includes at least one of a packet error rate (PER), a guaranteed flow bit rate (GFBR), and a maximum flow bit rate (MFBR).

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The method further includes: Receiving third feedback information from the next-hop node, where the third feedback information is determined by the next-hop node based on the first feedback information; Sending fourth feedback information to the previous-hop node, where the fourth feedback information is determined based on the third feedback information.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, The third feedback information is carried in a first feedback signaling, and the first feedback signaling further includes at least one of a data flow identifier, current node information, and a remaining time-to-delivery (TTD).

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that, The generation timestamp of the first feedback information is included in the third feedback information.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that, The transmission conditions of the multiple data packets are associated with at least one of throughput, packet loss rate, and QoS requirement.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that The first feedback information is intermittently fed back by the destination node within a first time period.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein The interval duration of multiple intervals within the first time period is negatively correlated with the change trend of the first feedback information of multiple feedbacks.

14. A communication device, characterized in that, The communication device includes a module for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

15. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes a processor and an interface circuit. The interface circuit is configured to receive signals from other communication devices and transmit them to the processor, or send signals from the processor to other communication devices. The processor uses logic circuits or executes code instructions to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

16. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium stores computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

17. A communication chip, characterized in that, It includes a processor, which is coupled to a memory and is configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the memory, so that the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13 is executed.

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