Communication method, system and related equipment

Abstract

Provided in an embodiment of the present application are a communication method, system and related device, comprising: a UE determining a plurality of CG configurations, each of the plurality of CG configurations comprising at least one TO; then, the UE sends a first notification message to the network element, the first notification message is used for notifying the network element of at least one of a first TO and a second TO included in each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations, the first TO refers to a TO which is not used by the UE in the future time period, and the second TO refers to a TO which is used by the UE in the future time period. Therefore, the network element can timely know the first TO which is not used by the UE in the future time period. Thus, the network element can schedule the first TO to other UEs for use, thereby improving the number of UEs which can be served by the network element, and improving the utilization rate of wireless resources. Moreover, the UE can use one first notification message to notify the network element of the TO use conditions in the plurality of CG configurations, which can effectively reduce the resource consumption generated when the UE notifies the network element of the first TO.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] Extended reality (XR) refers to using hardware devices in combination with various technical means to create a virtual environment for human-computer interaction by integrating virtual content with the real scene, which integrates multiple technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). Since the communication frames in the XR service scenario are periodic, a network element (such as a base station, etc.) can configure the wireless resources used by the UE in each data transmission period so that the user equipment (UE) can perform data communication with the network element based on the configured wireless resources in each data transmission period, thereby supporting the UE to transmit communication frames in the XR service scenario to the network element.

[0003] However, based on the current resource configuration method, the problem of low utilization rate of the wireless resources of the network element is likely to occur, such as waste of some wireless resources allocated by the network element to the UE. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This application provides a communication method, system, and related devices, aiming to improve the service quality running on the terminal device, thereby improving the user experience provided by the service.

[0005] To achieve the above object, this application provides the following technical solutions:

[0006] In a first aspect, this application provides a communication method, which is applied to a user equipment (UE). Specifically, the UE determines multiple CG configurations for the UE, and each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations includes at least one transmission occasion (TO); then, the UE sends a first notification message, such as sending the first notification message to a network element, and the first notification message is used to notify the network element of at least one of the first TO and the second TO included in each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations, where the first TO refers to a TO that will not be used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO refers to a TO that will be used by the UE in a future time period.

[0007] Since the UE can notify the network element of the TOs that will not be used in a future period of time (i.e., the first TO) and / or the TOs that will be used (i.e., the second TO), the network element can timely learn about the first TOs that will not be used by the UE in the future period of time and schedule these first TOs for other UEs to use. As a result, the network element can utilize the limited radio resources to support more UEs in sending data, thereby achieving an increase in the number of UEs that the network element can serve and an increase in the utilization rate of the radio resources of the network element. Moreover, the UE can use a first notification message to notify the network element of the TO usage in multiple CG configurations, without the need to separately send a notification message for each CG configuration. This can effectively reduce the resource consumption caused by the UE notifying the network element of the first TO. Furthermore, when the radio resources included in the first part of the CG configuration are less, the radio resources included in the second part of the CG configuration can be used to send the first notification message to the network element, thereby avoiding the situation where the first TOs (in the future moment) in the first part of the CG configuration are not notified to the network element due to the less radio resources (at the current moment) included in the first part of the CG, or reducing the significant impact on the transmission of service data caused by the first part of the CG configuration uploading the notification message.

[0008] In a possible implementation manner, the multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration. At this time, the first notification message sent by the UE includes multiple bits. Moreover, the consecutive first bits among the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and the consecutive second bits among the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration. In this way, the UE can use the multiple bits in the first notification message to indicate the TO usage in each CG configuration, so that the network element can timely learn about the first TOs that will not be used by the UE in the future period of time.

[0009] In a possible implementation manner, the multiple CG configurations further include at least one third CG configuration, and the multiple bits further include consecutive third bits. Among them, the third bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration. In this way, the UE can use one notification message to indicate the TO usage in multiple CG configurations, thereby effectively reducing the resource consumption caused by the UE notifying the network element of the first TO.

[0010] In a possible implementation, before the UE sends the first notification message, it may also obtain a first control message. For example, the first control message may be sent by a network element. The first control message may be an RRC message, which can include the identifier of each CG configuration among multiple CG configurations and the length indication information of the corresponding bits for each CG configuration among multiple CG configurations. Each bit corresponding to each CG configuration is a part of multiple bits. The first control message is used to configure the length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration. In this way, under the configuration of the network element, the UE can use bits of a specified length to indicate the TO usage in each CG configuration.

[0011] In a possible implementation, the number of resource elements (REs) for transmitting the first bit is determined according to a first offset factor, and the number of REs for transmitting the second bit is determined according to a second offset factor; alternatively, the number of REs for transmitting multiple bits is determined according to a third offset factor. In this way, based on the requirements of the actual application, one or more offset factors can be used to determine the number of REs used to transmit multiple bits indicating the TO usage.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the UE may also send a second notification message. The first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and the second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate target information. For example, the target information may be HARQ information, etc. The priority of the second bit indicating the target information is higher than the priority of the second bit indicating the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration. The first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs. In this way, by truncating the bits used to indicate the TO usage in some CG configurations in the notification message, the UE can ensure that high-priority information is transmitted to the network element, thereby meeting the transmission requirements for high-priority information in the actual application scenario.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the first notification message includes multiple bits, and each of the multiple bits is used to sequentially indicate the first TO and the second TO included in multiple CG configurations in chronological order. In this way, the UE can use the multiple bits in the first notification message to indicate the TO usage in multiple CG configurations, so that the network element can timely learn the first TOs that will not be used by the UE in the future time period.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the first notification message is sent through a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; wherein, when the number of target bits in the PUSCH is lower than a threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some of the multiple CG configurations, or the first notification message does not include the first TO and the second TO in the multiple CG configurations, where the target bits are used to carry the indication information of the first TO or the second TO. In this way, by truncating the bits used to indicate the TO usage in some CG configurations in the notification message, the UE can ensure that high-priority information is transmitted to the network element, thereby meeting the transmission requirements for high-priority information in actual application scenarios.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the first notification message is further used to notify the network element that the target TO is the second TO, and this target TO is the TO used to send the first notification message. In this way, the UE can report the current TO usage situation and the TO usage situation in the future time period to the network element together, so that the network element can know the TO usage situation of the UE.

[0016] In a possible implementation, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs; or, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes one TO; or, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs. In this way, the UE can support reporting the TO usage situation of the CG configuration with a single TO and also support reporting the TO usage situation of the CG configuration with multiple TOs.

[0017] In a possible implementation, multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of radio resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold. Then, the UE may further obtain a second control message, which includes an identifier of the first CG configuration and an identifier of the second CG configuration. The second control message is used to configure the UE to send a first notification message by using the TO within the first CG configuration or the TO within the second CG configuration. In this way, the network element can specify the CG configuration to which the TO used by the UE to send the notification message belongs, which enables, on the basis of reporting the usage of the TOs in multiple CG configurations by using one notification message, when the third CG configuration includes fewer radio resources, the radio resources included in other CG configurations can be used to send the first notification message to the network element, thereby avoiding that the first TO in the third CG configuration is not notified to the network element due to fewer radio resources included in the third CG, or reducing the great impact on the transmission of service data caused by the third CG configuration uploading the notification message.

[0018] In a possible implementation, the TO is used to indicate the time-frequency resources of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG configuration for the UE to use.

[0019] In a possible implementation, the time-frequency resources include time-domain resources and frequency-domain resources. The time-domain resources include multiple consecutive symbols within a time slot, and the frequency-domain resources include multiple resource elements (REs) or multiple resource blocks (RBs).

[0020] In a possible implementation, the first notification message is a UTO-UCI message. Exemplarily, the UTO-UCI message may be a UCI message newly defined in the standard.

[0021] In a possible implementation, the multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and both the first TO and the second TO are valid TOs.

[0022] In a possible implementation, the multiple CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

[0023] In a second aspect, the present application further provides a communication method, which is applied to a network element. Specifically, the network element obtains a first notification message, where the first notification message is used to indicate at least one of a first TO and a second TO included in each of multiple configured grants (CG) configurations for a user equipment (UE). The first TO is a TO that will not be used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO is a TO that will be used by the UE in a future time period. The network element manages the first TO according to the first notification message.

[0024] In a possible implementation, a plurality of CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration; the first notification message includes a plurality of bits, and consecutive first bits among the plurality of bits are used to indicate a first TO and a second TO included in the first CG configuration, and consecutive second bits among the plurality of bits are used to indicate a first TO and a second TO included in the second CG configuration.

[0025] In a possible implementation, the plurality of CG configurations further includes at least one third CG configuration, and the plurality of bits further includes consecutive third bits, and the third bits are used to indicate a first TO and a second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration.

[0026] In a possible implementation, the network element may further send a first control message, and the first control message includes an identifier of each CG configuration among the plurality of CG configurations and length indication information of bits corresponding to each CG configuration among the plurality of CG configurations, and the bits corresponding to each CG configuration are partial bits among the plurality of bits, and the first control message is used to configure the length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration.

[0027] In a possible implementation, the number of resource elements RE for transmitting the first bit is determined according to a first offset factor, and the number of REs for transmitting the second bit is determined according to a second offset factor; alternatively, the number of REs for transmitting the plurality of bits is determined according to a third offset factor.

[0028] In a possible implementation, the network element may further obtain a second notification message, the first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate a first TO and a second TO included in the first CG configuration, the second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate target information, and the priority of the second bit indicating the target information is higher than the priority of the second bit indicating the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration, and the first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs; manage the first TO indicated by the second notification message.

[0029] In a possible implementation, the first notification message includes a plurality of bits, and each of the bits among the plurality of bits is used to sequentially indicate a first TO and a second TO included in the plurality of CG configurations in chronological order.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the first notification message is sent through a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; when the number of target bits in the PUSCH is lower than a threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of a first TO and a second TO in some of the CG configurations among the plurality of CG configurations, or the first notification message does not include the first TO and the second TO in the plurality of CG configurations, and the target bits are used to carry indication information of the first TO or the second TO.

[0031] In a possible implementation, the first notification message is further used to indicate that the target TO is the second TO, where the target TO is the TO used by the UE to send the first notification message.

[0032] In a possible implementation, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs; or, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes one TO; or, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs.

[0033] In a possible implementation, the multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of radio resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold; in this case, the network element may further send a second control message, where the second control message includes the identifier of the first CG configuration and the identifier of the second CG configuration, and the control message is used to configure the UE to send the first notification message by using the TO in the first CG configuration or the TO in the second CG configuration.

[0034] In a possible implementation, the TO is used to indicate the time-frequency resources of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG for the UE to use.

[0035] In a possible implementation, the time-frequency resources include time-domain resources and frequency-domain resources. The time-domain resources include multiple consecutive symbols within one time slot, and the frequency-domain resources include multiple resource elements REs or multiple resource blocks RBs.

[0036] In a possible implementation, the first notification message is a UTO-UCI message.

[0037] In a possible implementation, the multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and the first TO is a valid TO.

[0038] In a possible implementation, the multiple CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

[0039] In a possible implementation, when managing the first TO, specifically, the first TO is scheduled to a second UE.

[0040] It should be noted that the communication method provided in the second aspect corresponds to the communication method provided in the first aspect. Therefore, for various implementation manners of the second aspect and their technical effects, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions of the corresponding implementation manners and their technical effects in the first aspect, which will not be elaborated here.

[0041] In a third aspect, the present application provides a UE, which includes a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver is configured to perform the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method described in the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect. The processor is configured to perform other operations in the method described in the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect except the receiving operation and the sending operation.

[0042] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a network element, which includes a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver is configured to perform the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method described in the second aspect or any implementation manner of the second aspect. The processor is configured to perform other operations in the method described in the second aspect or any implementation manner of the second aspect except the receiving operation and the sending operation.

[0043] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes a UE and a network element. The UE is configured to perform the method described in the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect. The network element is configured to perform the method described in the second aspect or any implementation manner of the second aspect.

[0044] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a computer storage medium for storing a computer program, which when executed, is used to implement the communication method provided in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect of the present application.

[0045] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product containing instructions, which when running on at least one computing device, enables at least one computing device to implement the communication method provided in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect of the present application. Description of the Drawings

[0046] Figure 1 It is a structural diagram of an exemplary communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0047] Figure 2a It is a schematic diagram of a communication frame in an XR service scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0048] Figure 2b It is a schematic diagram showing that a CG configuration includes one TO in an embodiment of the present application;

[0049] Figure 2c It is a schematic diagram showing that a CG configuration includes multiple TOs in an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] Figure 2d It is a schematic diagram showing that network element 1 schedules the unused TO reported by UE1 to UE2;

[0051] Figure 2eSchematic diagram of TOs not used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations provided by embodiments of this application;

[0052] Figure 3 Schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by embodiments of this application;

[0053] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of using radio resources to send service data and notification message 1;

[0054] Figure 5a Schematic diagram of using 5 bits to sequentially indicate the usage of TOs in multiple CU configurations in chronological order;

[0055] Figure 5b Schematic diagram of sending notification messages on multiple TOs respectively;

[0056] Figure 6 Schematic diagram of a configuration field in a control message sent by an exemplary network element 1 to UE1;

[0057] Figure 7a Schematic diagram of using at least one consecutive bit to indicate the usage of TOs in a CG configuration;

[0058] Figure 7b Another schematic diagram of sending notification messages on multiple TOs respectively;

[0059] Figure 8 Schematic diagram of a configuration field in a control message sent by another exemplary network element 1 to UE1;

[0060] Figure 9a Schematic diagram of reporting the usage of TOs when there are invalid TOs in CG configuration 2;

[0061] Figure 9b Another schematic diagram of reporting the usage of TOs when there are invalid TOs in CG configuration 1;

[0062] Figure 10 Schematic flowchart of another communication method provided by embodiments of this application;

[0063] Figure 11 Schematic diagram of the structure of a network element provided by embodiments of this application;

[0064] Figure 12 Schematic diagram of the structure of a UE provided by embodiments of this application. Detailed implementation manners

[0065] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application. The terms used in the following embodiments are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the present application. As used in the specification and claims of the present application, the singular forms "a", "an", "the", "above", "said", "this" are also intended to include the plural forms such as "one or more", unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, "one or more" means one, two or more than two; "and / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects and means that three relationships can exist; for example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally means that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0066] Reference to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" etc. described in this specification means that a specific feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with that embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the present application. Thus, the statements "in one embodiment", "in some embodiments", "in other some embodiments", "in still other embodiments" etc. that appear in different places in this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, but mean "one or more but not all embodiments", unless otherwise specifically emphasized in another way. The terms "comprise", "include", "have" and their variants all mean "including but not limited to", unless otherwise specifically emphasized in another way.

[0067] The "multiple" involved in the embodiments of the present application means two or more than two. It should be noted that in the description of the embodiments of the present application, the terms such as "first" and "second" are only used for the purpose of distinguishing descriptions and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance, nor can they be understood as indicating or implying order.

[0068] The embodiments of the present application are applied to a communication system, which may be a fifth-generation (5G) communication system, or an LTE and 5G hybrid architecture, or a 5G New Radio (5G NR) system, as well as new communication systems emerging in the future development of communications.

[0069] An example of a communication system is Figure 1 as shown Figure 1 and includes network element 1, UE1 and UE2.

[0070] In the embodiments provided in this application, network element 1 can be any device located on the network side and having wireless transceiver functions, including but not limited to: base stations (gNodeB or gNB) or transmission receiving points (TRP) in new radio (NR). Network element 1 can be: macro base station, micro base station, pico base station, small station, relay station, or balloon station, etc. Network element 1 can include one or more co-located or non-co-located transmission reception points (TRP). Network element 1 can also be a radio controller, a centralized unit (CU), and / or a distributed unit (DU) in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario. Network element 1 can communicate with a terminal device or communicate with a terminal device through a relay station.

[0071] UE1 can communicate with multiple network elements of different technologies. For example, UE1 can communicate with a network element supporting an LTE network, can also communicate with a network element supporting a 5G network, and can also perform dual connection with a network element supporting an LTE network and a 5G network.

[0072] In the embodiments provided in this application, UE1 can be in various forms. For example, a mobile phone, a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiver functions, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a vehicle-mounted terminal device, a wireless terminal in self-driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home, a wearable terminal device, and so on. A UE can sometimes also be referred to as a terminal device, an access terminal device, a vehicle-mounted terminal, an industrial control terminal, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile station, a mobile unit, a remote station, a remote terminal device, a mobile device, a UE terminal device, a terminal device, a wireless communication device, a UE agent, or a UE device, etc. The terminal can also be a fixed terminal or a mobile terminal. The implementation manner of UE2 is similar to that of UE1, and will not be elaborated here.

[0073] The above is described by taking a communication system including network element 1, UE1, and UE2 as an example. In other possible implementation manners, the communication system may include a greater number of UEs or a greater number of network elements. Or, in other possible implementation manners, network element 1 in the communication system may also be replaced with other forms of network elements, which is not limited herein. For ease of understanding, the following still takes the interaction between UE1 and network element 1 as an example for description.

[0074] In the XR service scenario, the communication frames sent during the data interaction between network element 1 and UE1 have periodic characteristics. For example, Figure 2a as shown, UE1 can periodically send I frames (intra-coded frames, also referred to as key frames), P frames (predicted frames), and B frames (bidirectional frames) to network element 1. Among them, the frame rate and period in the XR service scenario can be as shown in Table 1.

[0075] Table 1

[0076] Frame rate fps 30 60 120 Period 1 / fps (ms) 33.33 16.67 8.33

[0077] When network element 1 and UE1 perform data interaction, an I frame can be sent in the first period, a P frame can be sent in the second period, a B frame can be sent in the third period, and an I frame can be sent in the fourth period, and so on.

[0078] In actual application, the frame rate and period in the XR service scenario can also be implemented in other ways. For example, the frame rate can be 144fps, etc., which is not limited herein.

[0079] Among them, network element 1 can pre-configure uplink radio resources for UE1. Exemplarily, there are several scheduling schemes without dynamic authorization as follows, and their main differences lie in different activation methods.

[0080] The first scheduling scheme, which can be called configured grant type 1 (CG1), network element 1 can send a radio resource control (RRC) message to UE1 to configure the relevant parameters of all uplink resources and activate uplink transmission by using this RRC message. In this way, as long as network element 1 successfully completes the RRC configuration, it does not need to send a downlink control information (DCI) message for activation, and UE1 can send data on the configured periodic uplink resources.

[0081] In the second scheduling scheme, which can be called configured grant type 2 (CG2), similar to the downlink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) method, network element 1 will first configure the data transmission period for UE1 through an RRC message, and then use the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) scrambled with the configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) to activate or release the uplink CG2 and specify the radio resources used by the uplink CG2. Then, in each period, UE can use this CG2 resource to send uplink data. Among them, in semi-static scheduling, the network element can configure CG2 in the RRC message, such as configuring CG2 by defining the "ConfiguredGrantConfigIndex-r16" field in the RRC message, etc.

[0082] In other embodiments, network element 1 can also indicate the radio resources used by UE1 when sending uplink data to network element 1 by sending other types of control messages to UE1 or through other means, which is not limited herein.

[0083] For ease of understanding and explanation, the following takes the configuration of UE1 based on the type of CG2 as an example for illustration.

[0084] Among them, the CG configuration (CG configuration) configured by network element 1 for UE1 can be as Figure 2bAs shown, each data transmission period in the CG configuration may include only 1 TO. The TO is used to support UE1 in sending the uplink data of CG. Among them, the TO indicates the time-frequency resources used by UE1 when sending CG uplink data. The time-frequency resources include time-domain resources and frequency-domain resources. The time-domain resources are a continuous plurality of symbols within a time slot indicated by messages such as radio resource control (RRC) messages or downlink control information (DCI) messages. The frequency-domain resources include a plurality of resource blocks (RBs) and / or resource elements (REs) indicated by RRC or DCI. Exemplarily, the first uplink channel adopted by UE1 when using the TO to send uplink data to network element 1 may be, for example, the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or the physical random access channel (PRACH), or may be other types of uplink channels, etc.

[0085] Different UEs may adopt different uplink channels to send uplink data to network element 1. For example, in the Figure 1 communication system shown, UE2 may adopt a second uplink channel to send uplink data to network element 1. The second uplink channel may be PUSCH, PUCCH, or PRACH, or may be other types of channels, which is not limited herein.

[0086] Currently, UE1 can achieve periodic transmission of uplink data based on the configured CG without dynamic scheduling each time, which is more suitable for the characteristics of XR services. However, for XR services, especially for scenarios such as MR mixed reality, a large amount of video-like services need to be sent uplink, with a large amount of data and a lot of resource occupancy. However, the amount of uplink data sent by UE1 to network element 1 in different data transmission periods is different. For example, UE1 sends an I frame with a large amount of data in the first data transmission period, a P frame with a relatively small amount of data in the second data transmission period, and a B frame with the smallest amount of data in the third data transmission period, and periodically sends I frame, P frame, and B frame data in this way. If CG resources within the period are reserved for each UE according to the maximum traffic volume, such as reserving CG resources according to the data volume of the I frame, then the system capacity of network element 1 will be very limited. Through actual simulation tests, it shows that network element 1 can only support about 10 UEs in the XR scenario. Therefore, in order to improve the capacity of network element 1, the CG can be enhanced in design.

[0087] Among them, when enhancing the design of the CG, two aspects can be included.

[0088] In the first aspect, as Figure 2c shown, for a CG configuration of UE1, Network Element 1 can configure multiple transmission occasions (TOs) in this CG configuration, and UE1 can use the corresponding radio resources to send uplink data to Network Element 1 at each TO.

[0089] In the second aspect, for a CG configuration configured for UE1, when UE1 only uses some TOs within one data transmission cycle of this CG configuration, UE1 can report to Network Element 1 the TOs that are not used (unused) by UE1 within this data transmission cycle. In this way, after learning the TOs not used by UE1, Network Element 1 can dynamically schedule the radio resources corresponding to these TOs to other UEs. As Figure 2d shown, when UE1 reports to Network Element 1 that UE1 does not use the 2nd and 4th TOs, Network Element 1 can schedule the radio resources corresponding to the 2nd TO and the 4th TO for UE2 to use, so as to increase the capacity of Network Element 1, that is, Network Element 1 can support more UEs to access simultaneously.

[0090] In actual application, Network Element 1 can configure one CG configuration for UE1, or Network Element 1 can also configure multiple CG configurations for UE1. For example, as Figure 2e shown, Network Element 1 can configure CG Configuration 1 and CG Configuration 2 for UE1. Among them, each data transmission cycle in CG Configuration 1 can only include 1 TO, and each data transmission cycle in CG Configuration 2 includes multiple TOs, such as 5 TOs. The TOs included in different CG configurations and the number of TOs can be different. For example, Network Element 1 can configure CG Configuration 1, CG Configuration 2, and CG Configuration 3 for UE1 respectively for I frames, P frames, and B frames in the XR service. Among them, CG Configuration 1 includes the largest number of TOs (such as 5 TOs), and the largest number of uplink data that each TO can support UE to send, which is used to support UE1 to send I frames to Network Element 1; CG Configuration 3 includes the smallest number of TOs (such as 1 TO), and the smallest number of uplink data that each TO can support UE to send, which is used to support UE1 to send B frames to Network Element 1; one or more TOs in CG Configuration 2 (such as 3 TOs) are used to support UE1 to send P frames to Network Element 1.

[0091] In the actual application scenario, there are often cases where UE1 does not send data to Network Element 1 at some TOs included in the CG configuration, as Figure 2eAs shown, both CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 configured for UE1 include TOs not used by UE1. When the number of TOs in some CG configurations is small, or the number of radio resources corresponding to the TOs included in some CG configurations is small, when UE1 uses the TOs included in this part of the CG configuration to send data to network element 1, it is difficult to have sufficient resources to simultaneously indicate to network element 1 the usage situation of TOs by UE1 in the future time period, that is, which TOs are used by UE1 and which TOs are not used by UE1. This causes the TOs not used by UE1 included in this part of the CG configuration to remain idle because they are not notified to network element 1, resulting in resource waste and low resource utilization rate of network element 1.

[0092] An embodiment of this application provides a communication method. By reporting to network element 1 the TOs not used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations, or reporting the TOs used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations, or reporting both the TOs used by UE1 and the TOs not used by UE1 at the same time, network element 1 can timely schedule the TOs not used by UE1 to other UEs (such as UE1) for use, thereby reducing wireless resource waste and improving the wireless resource utilization rate of network element 1.

[0093] See Figure 3 , which shows a communication method provided by an embodiment of this application. As Figure 3 shown, the process of this communication method includes the following steps:

[0094] S301: UE1 determines multiple CG configurations for UE1, and each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations includes at least one TO.

[0095] Among them, the TOs included in each CG configuration are used to support the UE to send uplink data of the CG. The TOs in the CG configuration can include valid TOs and invalid TOs. Among them, the reason for a TO to be invalid, for example, can be that during the time period corresponding to this part of the TOs, network element 1 will send downlink data to UE1, etc., so UE1 will not send uplink data to network element 1 during this time period, then this TO is an invalid TO. Valid TOs can include the first TO and the second TO. The first TO is a TO not used by the UE, and the second TO is a TO used by the UE

[0096] In practical applications, network element 1 can configure corresponding multiple CG configurations for UE1 according to the number of services for periodically interacting service data with UE1. Each CG configuration is used to support UE1 to transmit data under a certain communication service to network element 1. For example, for the I-frame data, P-frame data, and B-frame data interacted between network element 1 and UE1, network element 1 can configure 3 different CG configurations for UE1, and each CG configuration is used to support UE1 to transmit one type of frame data.

[0097] In a possible implementation, the network element 1 may pre-configure multiple CG configurations for the UE1 by sending multiple control messages to the UE1.

[0098] Specifically, as Figure 3 shown, the network element 1 may first send control message 1 to the UE1. The control message 1 may include the identifiers of multiple CG configurations, the TOs included in each CG configuration for supporting the UE1 to send CG uplink data, and the data transmission period of each CG configuration. Among them, the TO indicates the time-frequency resources used by the UE to send CG uplink data. The time-domain resource in the time-frequency resource is multiple consecutive symbols within a slot, and the frequency-domain resource in the time-frequency resource is multiple RBs and / or REs.

[0099] Among them, the time-frequency resources of the TOs included in different CG configurations do not overlap in the time domain or the frequency domain. Taking the network element 1 configuring CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 for the UE1 as an example, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 may be different in the frequency domain. At this time, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 may overlap in the time domain, or may not overlap in the time domain. Or, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 may be the same in the frequency domain. At this time, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 do not overlap in the time domain.

[0100] Moreover, each CG configuration configured by the network element 1 for the UE1 may include one or more TOs within a data transmission period. Taking the network element 1 configuring CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 for the UE1 as an example, both CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 may include one TO within a data transmission period; or, both CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 may include multiple TOs within a data transmission period; or, CG configuration 1 includes one TO within a data transmission period, while CG configuration 2 may include multiple TOs within a data transmission period.

[0101] Generally, after the UE1 obtains the CG configuration, the TO in the CG configuration is in an unactivated state. At this time, it is difficult for the UE1 to use the TO to send data to the network element 1. Therefore, the network element 1 may continue to send one or more control messages 2 to the UE1. The control message 2 is used to activate the TO in the CG configuration, as Figure 3 shown. Among them, the network element 1 may use one control message 2 to activate the TOs in multiple CG configurations in sequence; or, the network element 1 may send one control message 2 for each CG configuration among multiple CG configurations to activate the TO in the CG configuration, and this is not limited. In this way, for each activated TO within each CG configuration, the UE1 can use the TO to send corresponding service data to the network element 1.

[0102] Exemplarily, the control message (such as control message 1 or control message 2) sent by network element 1 may be, for example, a radio resource control (RRC) message or a downlink control information (DCI) message, or may be other applicable messages.

[0103] In actual application scenarios, UE1's use of TOs in various CG configurations may change dynamically. For example, in time period a, UE1 can use all TOs in the CG configuration to send data to network element 1. In time period b, UE1 may use part of the TOs in the CG configuration to complete the transmission of all data. At this time, the remaining TOs allocated to UE1 in the CG configuration will be idle, which may easily lead to waste of this part of the TOs. To this end, in this embodiment, UE1 may continue to perform the following steps to notify network element 1 of the TOs that will not be used by UE1.

[0104] S302: UE1 sends a notification message 1 to network element 1, and the notification message 1 is used to notify network element 1 of the first TO and the second TO included in each CG configuration of the multiple CG configurations, wherein the first TO refers to the TO that is not used by UE1 in the future time period 1, and the second TO refers to the TO that is used by UE1 in the future time period 1.

[0105] S303: Network element 1 manages the first TO according to notification message 1.

[0106] In this embodiment, for the TO in each CG configuration, UE1 can notify network element 1 of the usage of TO in the CG configuration in a future period of time, so that network element 1 can avoid wasting this part of TO (corresponding wireless resources) as much as possible by timely rescheduling UE1 not using the TO.

[0107] In specific implementation, for each CG configuration, taking CG configuration 1 as an example, UE1 can predict the data to be transmitted using the TO in the CG configuration 1 in the future time period 1, and based on the amount of data and the amount of data that can be transmitted by each TO included in the CG configuration 1, determine the number of TOs required for UE1 to complete the transmission of all data, that is, determine the TO used by UE1 in the future time period 1.

[0108] When the number of TOs required for UE1 to complete all data transmission is the same as the number of TOs included in CG configuration 1 in the future time period 1, it represents that all TOs in CG configuration 1 are used to support UE1 to send data to network element 1.

[0109] When the number of TOs required for all data transmissions by UE1 is less than the number of TOs included in CG configuration 1 within the future time period 1, it indicates that some TOs in this CG configuration 1 are not used by UE1. As a result, after UE1 sends all data within this time period 1, these TOs are in an idle state because they are not used by UE1, leading to resource waste. At this time, UE1 can determine the TOs used by UE1 and the TOs not used by UE1 in CG configuration 1 within the future time period 1 according to the current data volume to be transmitted. For the convenience of distinction and description, in this embodiment, the TOs not used by UE1 are referred to as the first TOs, and the TOs used by UE1 are referred to as the second TOs.

[0110] For example, in the XR service scenario, the TOs in CG configuration 1 configured by network element 1 for UE1 are used to support UE1 to transmit I-frame data to network element 1. Assume that within time period 1, CG configuration 1 includes 4 TOs, namely TO1, TO2, TO3, and TO4, and UE1 can predict that 3 TOs are needed to transmit this I-frame data within time period 1 according to the quantity of I-frame data to be transmitted. Then, UE1 can determine that the second TOs used by UE1 in CG configuration 1 include TO1, TO2, and TO3, and the first TOs not used by UE1 include TO4.

[0111] In this way, by referring to the above method, UE1 can determine the first TOs included in each CG configuration and the second TOs used by UE1 within the future time period 1. Among them, the future time period 1 can be determined according to the length of the time window. For example, when UE1 needs to report the usage of multiple TOs within a time window of 200 milliseconds, this future time period 1 can specifically be the time period between the current moment and the moment 200 milliseconds later. The length of the time window can be determined by UE1 itself or can be pre-configured for UE1 by network element 1. Moreover, the length of the time window can be greater than the duration of the data transmission cycle of any CG configuration, that is, UE1 can report the usage of TOs by multiple CG configurations within multiple data transmission cycles; or the length of the time window can be the maximum value among the durations of the data transmission cycles of multiple CG configurations. The present application does not limit the setting of the length of the time window.

[0112] Then, UE1 can generate Notification Message 1 according to the first TO included in each CG configuration, and send the Notification Message 1 to Network Element 1, so that Network Element 1 manages the first TO not used by UE1 according to the Notification Message 1, such as scheduling the first TO not used by UE1 to other UEs in a timely manner. Exemplarily, the generated Notification Message 1 may include multiple bits, and each of the multiple bits can be used to indicate whether a TO is used. For example, for each bit, when the value of the bit is the first value (such as 0, etc.), it is used to indicate that the TO corresponding to the bit is used by UE1; when the value of the bit is the second value (such as 1, etc.), it is used to indicate that the TO corresponding to the bit is not used by UE1. Among them, the first value can be 0 and the second value can be 1; or, the first value can be 1 and the second value can be 0. For ease of understanding, in this embodiment, the first value is 0, which is used to indicate that the TO is used by UE1, and the second value is 1, which is used to indicate that the TO is not used by UE1.

[0113] In this embodiment, when UE1 sends Notification Message 1, specifically, it can use the TO used to send service data currently, and send the service data and Notification Message 1 to Network Element 1 together. For example, as Figure 4 shown, assume that UE1 currently uses TO1 in CG Configuration 1 to send service data. Then, when UE1 sends service data using this TO, it can occupy part of the resources in this TO (i.e., the Figure 4 radio resources shown as the black squares) to send the Notification Message 1. Similarly, UE1 can use the TOs in other CG configurations to send the service data and the notification message to Network Element 1 together.

[0114] Among them, when UE1 uses part of the radio resources in the TO to send Notification Message 1, the number of REs for transmitting the data (bits) representing the TO usage situation in this radio resource can be determined by a predefined offset factor, and the offset factor can be, for example, the beta offset factor (beta-offset), etc. Exemplarily, the offset factor can be configured by Network Element 1 to UE1 in advance, so that UE1 can fill in the values of multiple bits in the corresponding frequency domain interval (i.e., the corresponding REs) according to the offset factor, and the values of the multiple bits are used to indicate the data of the TO usage situation.

[0115] Correspondingly, when the first TO (unused TO) in each CG configuration arrives at the current moment, UE1 does not need to generate and send a notification message. For example, UE1 does not need to generate and send a notification message when arriving at the above TO4.

[0116] Exemplarily, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may be an uplink control message (UCI), specifically, it may be a UCI that provides information about unused CG PUSCH transmission occasions (UTO-UCI) message. Among them, the UTO-UCI message may be a newly defined UCI message (such as being defined in the standard, etc.), which can indicate the first TO not used by UE1 in the CG configuration, and can also indicate the second TO used by UE1 in the CG configuration.

[0117] In other embodiments, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may also be other types of messages, such as UE assistance information (UAI) message, or medium access control layer control element (MAC-CE) message, etc., which is not limited herein.

[0118] In this embodiment, there are multiple implementation manners for the encoding manner of the data indicating the TO usage situation in multiple CG configurations in the notification message 1.

[0119] In the first implementation manner, for multiple CG configurations, UE1 may use multiple bits in the notification message 1 to sequentially indicate, in chronological order, the second TOs used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations within the future time period 1, and the first TOs not used by UE1, where each of the multiple bits is used to indicate the usage situation of one TO. Further, UE1 may also use the notification message 1 to indicate that the TO used for sending the first notification message currently (hereinafter referred to as the target TO) is used by UE1, that is, the target TO is the TO used by UE1 (for sending service data and this notification message).

[0120] For example, such as Figure 5aAs shown, assuming that UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, then, in the notification message 1 generated by UE1, "00101" can be included to indicate that in the current moment and future time period 1, TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, TO3 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO4 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, and TO5 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1. Among them, when the value of the bit is "0", it indicates that the TO is used by UE1; when the value of the bit is "1", it indicates that the TO is not used by UE1. And UE1 can send the notification message 1 to network element 1 at TO1.

[0121] It should be noted that Figure 5a only the usage of TOs in 2 CG configurations configured for UE1 is indicated by multiple bits in the notification message 1. In actual application, UE1 can be configured with 3 or more (including 3) CG configurations. Then, the multiple bits in the notification message 1 generated by UE1 can be used to sequentially indicate, in chronological order, the second TOs used by UE1 and the first TOs not used by UE1 in these 3 or more CG configurations during the future time period 1. The specific implementation method is similar to the above Figure 5a shown method and will not be elaborated here.

[0122] Correspondingly, when the current moment reaches the TO used in CG configuration 1, UE1 can use this TO to send the notification message 1 to network element 1 to notify network element 1 of the usage of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 by UE1 at the current moment and in the future time period 1. And as time goes by, when the current moment further reaches the TO used in CG configuration 2, UE1 can use the TO in CG configuration 2 to send the notification message 2 to network element 1 to notify network element 1 of the usage of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 by UE1 in the future time period 2 (as the time window moves).

[0123] When using multiple bits to sequentially indicate the usage of TOs in multiple CG configurations in chronological order in the future time period 1, as Figure 5b shown, UE1 can send the notification message 1 at TO1 in CG configuration 2 (i.e., the above-mentioned target TO). This notification message 1 includes 5 bits, and the values of these 5 bits are "00101", which can sequentially indicate the usage of UE1 for TO1 to TO5. As time goes by, when the current moment reaches TO2 used in CG configuration 1, UE1 can send the notification message 2 at TO2 in CG configuration 1. This notification message 2 includes 5 bits, and the values of these 5 bits are "01011", which sequentially indicate the usage for TO2 to TO6.

[0124] Among them, network element 1 can pre-specify the total length of multiple bits used to indicate TO usage in notification message 1.

[0125] In specific implementation, network element 1 can pre-send a control message to UE1, such as the aforementioned control message 1 or control message 2, and this control message can include the identifiers of multiple CG configurations and the total length of multiple bits used to indicate TO usage. For example, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 can include a configuration field as shown in Figure 6 “targetCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2, cg3}, nrof_UTO_UCI”. Among them, “targetCgConfigIndex” is a field used to configure which CG configurations' TO usage UE1 reports. “cg1, cg2, cg3” are the identifiers of multiple CG configurations, respectively used to indicate different CG configurations. That is, “targetCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2, cg3}” is used to indicate that UE1 reports the TO usage in the CG configurations identified by cg1, cg2, and cg3 respectively. “nrof_UTO_UCI” is length indication information used to indicate the usage of multiple TOs of multiple CG configurations, which can indicate the total length of multiple bits, thereby configuring UE1 to use the multiple bits indicated by “nrof_UTO_UCI” in the notification message to indicate the TO usage in these three CG configurations of “cg1, cg2, cg3”.

[0126] In this way, in the process of generating notification message 1, UE1 can first determine the usage of each TO in multiple CG configurations in chronological order, then determine the values of multiple bits accordingly, and add the values of these multiple bits to notification message 1.

[0127] At this time, UE1 can use a pre-defined offset factor to determine the number of REs occupied by these multiple bits on the CG PUSCH of TO when sending data to network element 1, and fill in the values of multiple bits in these REs, and the values of these multiple bits are used to sequentially indicate the TO usage in multiple CG configurations in chronological order.

[0128] In the second implementation, notification message 1 generated by UE1 can include multiple bits used to indicate TO usage in multiple CG configurations. Among them, for each CG configuration, UE1 can use consecutive partial bits among these multiple bits to indicate the second TO used by UE1 in this CG configuration at the current moment and in future time period 1, and the first TO not used by UE1.

[0129] For example, as shown in Figure 7aAs shown, assuming that UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, then, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may include "01", which is used to indicate that in the current moment and the future time period 1, TO1 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, and TO2 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1. The notification message generated by UE1 may also include "01010", which is used to indicate that in the current moment and the future time period 1, TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 is not used by UE1, TO3 is used by UE1, TO4 is not used by UE1, and TO5 is used by UE1. Among them, when the value of the bit is "0", it indicates that the TO is used by UE1; when the value of the bit is "1", it indicates that the TO is not used by UE1.

[0130] It should be noted that Figure 7a only the usage of TOs in two CG configurations configured for UE1 is indicated by multiple bits in the notification message 1. In actual application, UE1 may be configured with more than 3 (including 3) CG configurations. Then, the multiple bits in the notification message 1 generated by UE1, the multiple bits include at least one bit corresponding to each CG configuration among the 3 CG configurations, and, at least one bit corresponding to each CG configuration is used to indicate the second TO used by UE1 and the first TO not used by UE1 in this CG configuration. The specific implementation method is the same as the above Figure 6 shown method and will not be elaborated here.

[0131] Among them, at least one bit corresponding to each CG configuration for indicating the TO usage situation can be spliced in the notification message 1. Taking Figure 7a the shown CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 as an example, the bit used to indicate the TO usage situation in CG configuration 1 is "01", and the bit used to indicate the TO usage situation in CG configuration 2 is "01010". Then, UE1 can splice the bits corresponding to multiple CG configurations into "01 01010" (i.e., "01" + "01010") in the generated notification message 1, or can be spliced into "01010 01" (i.e., "01010" + "01").

[0132] Exemplarily, UE1 can use the identification order of the CG configurations as the order of splicing the bits corresponding to multiple CG configurations, such as splicing the bits corresponding to the above CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 into the above "0101010". Or, UE1 can add the bits corresponding to other CG configurations to the back of the bits corresponding to this CG configuration according to the CG configuration to which the TO occupied when sending the notification message belongs. For example, when UE1 sends a notification message using the TO in CG configuration 2, it can splice the bits corresponding to the above CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 into the above "0101001".

[0133] Accordingly, when reaching the TO used in CG configuration 1 at the current moment, UE1 can use this TO to send notification message 1 to network element 1, so as to notify network element 1 of the usage situation of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 at the current moment and in the future time period 1. And as time goes by, when reaching the TO used in CG configuration 2 at the current moment, UE1 can use the TO in CG configuration 2 to send notification message 2 to network element 1, so as to notify network element 1 of the usage situation of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 in the future time period 2 (as the time window moves).

[0134] When the usage situation of TOs in each CG configuration in the notification message 1 is indicated by a continuous plurality of bits, as Figure 7b shown, UE1 can send notification message 1 at TO1 in CG configuration 2. This notification message 1 includes 7 bits, and the values of these 7 bits are "01010 01", successively indicating the usage situation of TO1 to TO5 in CG configuration 2 and the usage situation of TO1 to TO2 in CG configuration 1 for UE1. As time goes by, when reaching TO1 used in CG configuration 1 at the current moment, UE1 can send notification message 2 at TO1 in CG configuration 1. This notification message 2 includes 7 bits, and the values of these 7 bits are "01 10100", successively indicating the usage situation of TO1 to TO2 in CG configuration 1 and the usage situation of TO2 to TO6 in CG configuration 1 for UE1.

[0135] Among them, network element 1 can pre-specify the number of bits used to indicate the usage situation of TOs in each CG configuration in the notification message 1.

[0136] In specific implementation, network element 1 can pre-send a control message to UE1, such as the aforementioned control message 1 or control message 2. And this control message can include the identifiers of multiple CG configurations and the length indication information of the corresponding bits for each CG configuration. Among them, the length indication information is used to indicate the length of the bits, that is, to indicate the number of bits. Thus, UE1 can carry the corresponding number of bits in the notification message 1 according to the length indication information corresponding to each CG configuration configured in the control message 1 to indicate the usage situation of TOs in this CG configuration.

[0137] For example, the control message that network element 1 can send to UE1 can include, as Figure 8The configuration fields shown include "targetCgConfigIndex{{cg1:nrof_UTO_UCI_1},{cg2:nrof_UTO_UCI_2},{cg3:nrof_UTO_UCI_3}}". Among them, "targetCgConfigIndex" is a field used to configure which TO usage in which CG configurations is reported by UE1. "cg1", "cg2", and "cg3" are identifiers of multiple CG configurations, respectively used to indicate different CG configurations. "nrof_UTO_UCI_1" is the length indication information corresponding to cg1; when the value of "nrof_UTO_UCI_1" is 3, it represents that 3 bits are used to indicate the usage of 3 TOs in cg1. Similarly, "nrof_UTO_UCI_2" is the length indication information corresponding to cg2; "nrof_UTO_UCI_3" is the length indication information corresponding to cg3. In this way, under the configuration of network element 1, UE1 can use at least one bit indicated by "nrof_UTO_UCI_1" to indicate the usage of at least one TO in CG configuration 1, use at least one bit indicated by "nrof_UTO_UCI_2" to indicate the usage of at least one TO in CG configuration 2, and use at least one bit indicated by "nrof_UTO_UCI_3" to indicate the usage of at least one TO in CG configuration 3 in the generated notification message 1.

[0138] Among them, in the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1, it can include the configuration area for each CG and the overall configuration area independent of each CG. Then, network element 1 can add the length indication information corresponding to this CG configuration in the configuration area of each CG, or can define the length indication information corresponding to each CG configuration in this overall configuration area.

[0139] At this time, UE1 can use multiple predefined offset factors. Each of the multiple offset factors is used to determine the number of REs occupied by at least one bit corresponding to this CG configuration on the TO's CG PUSCH, and fill in the value of at least one bit corresponding to this CG configuration in this number of REs to indicate the usage of at least one TO in this CG configuration. For example, assume that the multiple offset factors include offset factor 1 and offset factor 2. Among them, offset factor 1 can be used to indicate the number of REs occupied by at least one bit corresponding to CG configuration 1 on the TO's CG PUSCH, and offset factor 2 can be used to indicate the number of REs occupied by at least one bit corresponding to CG configuration 2 on the TO's CG PUSCH.

[0140] In actual application, due to the possible differences in the number of TOs included in different CG configurations or the time-frequency resources corresponding to each TO, for example, some CG configurations may include a smaller number of TOs, while other CG configurations may include a larger number of TOs, or the TOs in some CG configurations may correspond to more time-frequency resources, while the TOs in other CG configurations may correspond to fewer time-frequency resources. Therefore, UE1 can use the TOs in some CG configurations to send notification message 1 to network element 1 (the number of TOs included in this part of CG configurations is larger), that is, the TOs in other CGs do not send notification messages indicating the usage of TOs.

[0141] In a further possible implementation manner, network element 1 can (before activating multiple CG configurations) send a control message to UE1, so as to use this control message to indicate to UE1 which TOs in which CG configurations are used to send notification messages, such as Figure 3 shown.

[0142] Among them, the control message sent by network element 1 can be, for example, the above control message 1 or control message 2, and one or more CG configuration identifiers can be carried in this control message. The one or more CG configurations indicated by this identifier can be a part of the multiple CG configurations configured for UE1. In actual application, the CG configuration indicated by the identifier in the control message is the CG configuration with a larger number of TOs (such as greater than a threshold, etc.). In this way, UE1 can send notification messages using the TOs in the CG configurations specified by network element 1.

[0143] For example, assume that network element 1 pre-configures CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 for UE1, and network element 1 can determine that the number of TOs in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 is larger (or the number of radio resources corresponding to a single TO is larger), and the number of TOs in CG configuration 3 is smaller (or the number of radio resources corresponding to a single TO is smaller). At this time, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 can carry the identifier of CG configuration 1, the identifier of CG configuration 2, and an indication field for sending notification messages, so as to indicate to use the TOs in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 to send notification messages. For example, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 can include such as Figure 6 or Figure 8The configuration field shown includes "reportCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2}". Among them, the "reportCgConfigIndex" field is used to indicate which or which CG configurations' TOs the UE1 uses to send notification messages. "cg1" is the identifier of CG configuration 1, and "cg2" is the identifier of CG configuration 2. In this way, the UE1 can determine to send notification messages to network element 1 using the TOs in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 according to "reportCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2}".

[0144] Furthermore, when the TOs in multiple CG configurations overlap in the time domain (not overlapping in the frequency domain), for example, the UE1 currently uses the TO in CG configuration 1 at the same time m to send service data 1 to network element 1, and uses the TO in CG configuration 2 n to send service data 2 to network element 1. Then, the UE1 can send notification messages to network element 1 at TO m and TO n respectively. At this time, network element 1 can receive 2 notification messages simultaneously. Or, when the TOs in different CG configurations coincide (as long as there is an overlapping time period in the time domain, it is considered a coincidence, and it can overlap by 50%), the UE1 can send a notification message only at one of the TOs. At this time, network element 1 can receive only 1 notification message. In actual application, when the TOs in different CG configurations coincide, whether the UE1 sends 1 notification message or 2 notification messages to network element 1 can be pre-configured by network element 1. For example, it can be configured using the above control message 1 or control message 2, etc. For example, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 can include, for example Figure 6 or Figure 8The configuration fields shown include "simultaneousPusch ENUMERATED{true}, simultaneousReport ENUMERATED{true}". Among them, the "simultaneousPusch ENUMERATED" field is used to indicate whether UE1 is allowed to send notification messages at multiple overlapping TOs (belonging to different CG configurations). When the value of the field is "true", it means simultaneous sending is allowed, and when the value of the field is "false", it means simultaneous sending is not allowed. The "simultaneousReport ENUMERATED{true}" field is used to configure whether to send notification messages at multiple overlapping TOs. When the value of the field is "true", it means to configure UE1 to send notification messages simultaneously at multiple TOs, and when the value of the field is "false", it means to configure UE1 to send notification messages at different times at multiple TOs. Among them, when the value of the "simultaneousPusch ENUMERATED" field is "false", the value of "simultaneousReport ENUMERATED{false}" is also "false", that is, when network element 1 does not allow UE1 to send notification messages at multiple overlapping TOs, network element 1 will also configure UE1 not to send notification messages at multiple overlapping TOs.

[0145] It should be noted that the TO usage in multiple CG configurations reported by UE1 using notification message 1 can be the TO usage in all CG configurations configured for UE1. Alternatively, UE1 can also report the TO usage in some CG configurations using the notification message. For example, if UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3, UE1 can only report the TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2.

[0146] In a possible implementation manner, notification message 1 can be, for example, a UTO-UCI message, including various information with different priorities, such as high-priority hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information, etc. Then, UE1 can preferentially add high-priority information to notification message 1, and when the remaining bits available for carrying data in notification message 1 are not sufficient to carry the TO usage of all CG configurations, use the remaining bits in notification message 1 to carry the TO usage data of some CG configurations, that is, truncate the bits used to indicate the TO usage of the remaining part of the CG configurations in units of CG configurations.

[0147] For example, assume that UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, and the bit indicating the TO usage of CG configuration 1 within future time period 1 is "01", and the bit indicating the TO usage of CG configuration 2 within future time period 1 is "01010". When the number of remaining bits available for carrying data in notification message 1 is greater than or equal to 7, UE1 can use 7 of these bits in the generated notification message 1 to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2. When the number of remaining bits available for carrying data in notification message 1 is less than 7 and greater than 4, the remaining bits cannot carry the TO usage in all CG configurations. Then, 5 bits in the notification message 1 generated by UE1 can be used to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 2. At this time, the TO usage in CG configuration 1 may not be carried in notification message 1. That is, the original 2 bits used to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 can be used to participate in indicating target information with higher priority, such as the above-mentioned HARQ information, etc. Further, when all bits in notification message 1 are used to carry information with higher priority, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may not carry the TO usage in the CG configuration.

[0148] For another example, in the notification message 1 sent by UE1 at the first TO, multiple 7-bit can be used to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, while in the notification message 2 sent by UE1 at the second TO, 5 bits can be used to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 2. At this time, the original 2 bits used to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 in notification message 2 can be used to indicate information with higher priority.

[0149] In other possible implementation manners, when multiple bits carried in the notification message are used to sequentially indicate the TOs of the TOs used and the first TOs of the TOs not used in multiple CU configurations in chronological order, the bits used to indicate the TO usage in multiple CG configurations can be truncated at the TO granularity.

[0150] Taking Figure 5a the multiple CG configurations shown as an example, when there are sufficient bits available in the notification message for carrying the TO usage in the CG configuration, the value of 5 bits in the notification message can be "00101", which is used to sequentially indicate the usage of multiple TOs arranged in chronological order in multiple CG configurations. When the number of remaining bits for carrying the TO usage in the notification message is 3, the value of 3 bits in the notification message can be "001", indicating that TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, and TO3 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, that is, it can carry the information of the first 3 TOs used in chronological order.

[0151] In an actual application scenario, since UE1 not only sends data to network element 1 but also receives data sent by network element 1, there may be some invalid TOs in the CG configuration configured for UE1. For example, Figure 9a and Figure 9b the invalid TOs shown

[0152] Therefore, when UE1 notifies the usage of TOs in multiple CG configurations through notification message 1, it can skip the invalid TOs. For example, assume that when reporting the usage of TOs in multiple CG configurations in chronological order using multiple bits in notification message 1, the TOs indicated by these multiple bits do not include the invalid TOs. As Figure 9a shown, assume that 5 bits are used in notification message 1 to indicate the usage of TOs in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2. Then these 5 bits sequentially indicate that TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, TO3 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO4 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1, and TO5 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1. Correspondingly, the 5 bits in notification message 1 are respectively "00110", skipping the invalid TO in CG configuration 2. As Figure 9b shown, assume that 7 bits are used in notification message 1 to indicate the usage of TOs in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2. Then these 7 bits sequentially indicate that TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO3 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO4 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO5 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO1 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1, and TO2 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1. Correspondingly, the 7 bits in notification message 1 are respectively "0101001", skipping the invalid TO in CG configuration 1.

[0153] It can be understood that since UE1 does not use the first TO, that is, UE1 does not send data to network element 1 using this first TO. Therefore, in a possible implementation manner, when network element 1 manages the first TO, specifically, after determining the first TO according to notification message 1, it may not retrieve whether UE1 sends data on this first TO. And network element 1 can also dynamically schedule this first TO to UE2, as Figure 10 shown.

[0154] Thus, the first TO can be used by UE2, which can avoid the idle state of the first TO, that is, avoid the waste of the radio resources corresponding to the first TO. Therefore, network element 1 can timely schedule the TO of the first TO to UE2 for use, so that network element 1 can use the limited TO to support more UEs to send data, thereby improving the number of UEs that network element 1 can serve and the utilization rate of the radio resources of network element 1. It should be noted that after network element 1 dynamically schedules the first TO among the N TOs included in the CG configuration to UE2, the CG configuration of UE1 remains unchanged, that is, in the subsequent time period of time period 1, within one data transmission cycle of the CG configuration, UE1 can still send data to network element 1 on N TOs.

[0155] Moreover, UE1 can use a notification message to notify network element 1 of the first TO among multiple CG configurations, without the need to send a separate notification message for each CG configuration, which can effectively reduce the resource consumption caused by UE1 notifying network element 1 of the first TO in each CG configuration. Furthermore, when the number of TOs included in the first part of the CG configuration is small or the radio resources corresponding to the TOs included in the first part of the CG configuration are few, UE1 can use the TOs included in the second part of the CG configuration to send the notification message to network element 1, thereby avoiding the situation that the first TO in the first part of the CG configuration (future moment) is not notified to network element 1 due to the small number of TOs included in the first part of the CG configuration (current moment), or avoiding the situation that the transmission of the service data is greatly affected by using the TOs included in the first part of the CG configuration to upload the notification message (that is, transmitting the notification message occupies too much radio resources for transmitting service data in the TO).

[0156] In practical applications, in addition to scheduling the first TO not used by UE1 to other UEs, network element 1 can also manage the first TO in other ways, such as using the first TO as a reserve resource, etc., for providing services to accelerate data transmission for specific UEs in specific situations.

[0157] Moreover, after UE1 sends a notification message to network element 1 to notify the non-use situation of the first TO among multiple CG configurations in the future time period, before reaching the first TO, network element 1 can no longer schedule the first TO to UE1 for use, that is, at the start time of the first TO, even if UE1 has uplink data to send to network element 1, it cannot use the first TO, for example, the radio resources corresponding to the first TO have been scheduled by network element 1 to other UEs (such as UE2, etc.) for use. That is, after UE1 notifies network element 1 to use the first TO, it is not allowed to re-notify network element 1 that it needs to use the first TO in the future time period (that is, UE1 is not allowed to go back on its word).

[0158] Alternatively, after the UE1 sends a notification message to Network Element 1 to notify Network Element 1 of the non-usage of the first TO among multiple CG configurations within a future time period, before the arrival of the first TO, the UE1 can also notify Network Element 1 that the UE1 needs to reuse the first TO by resending the notification message to Network Element 1, so that when the UE1 has a sudden need to send uplink data, the UE1 can use the first TO to support the UE1 in sending the uplink data to Network Element 1 (i.e., allowing the UE1 to retract).

[0159] It should be noted that in the above Figure 3 illustrated embodiment, the notification message 1 reported by the UE1 includes both the first TO that will not be used by the UE1 and the second TO (and the target TO) that will be used by the UE1 within a future time period. In other embodiments, the notification message 1 sent by the UE1 to Network Element 1 may also only include relevant information indicating the first TO that the UE1 will not use within a future time period, such as including the index of the first TO, etc., so that Network Element 1 can determine the TOs that are not used by the UE1 in each CG configuration according to this notification message 1. Alternatively, the notification message 1 sent by the UE1 to Network Element 1 may also only include relevant information indicating the second TO that the UE1 will use within a future time period, such as including the index of the second TO, etc., so that Network Element 1 can determine the first TO that the UE1 does not use according to the relevant information of the second TO and manage the first TO. Among them, the specific implementation method for the UE1 to only indicate the first TO that the UE1 will not use within a future time period by using the notification message 1, and the specific implementation method for the UE1 to only indicate the second TO that the UE1 will use within a future time period by using the notification message 1, can refer to the relevant descriptions in the above Figure 3 illustrated embodiment and will not be elaborated here.

[0160] Moreover, in the above Figure 3 and Figure 10 illustrated embodiment, in combination with the accompanying drawings, it is introduced how to use multiple bits in the notification message 1 to indicate the usage of TOs in multiple CG configurations within a future time period and at the current moment, that is, the target TO used for sending the current notification message in the notification message 1 belongs to the second TO. In other embodiments, the notification message sent by the UE1 to Network Element 1 may also only indicate the usage of TOs in multiple CG configurations within a future time period, that is, it may not indicate the usage of the target TO for sending the notification message, and this application does not limit this.

[0161] Next, in combination with Figure 11 and Figure 12 , the hardware implementation methods of the network element and the UE will be further introduced.

[0162] See Figure 11, showing a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a network element. Figure 11 The network element shown includes at least one processor 111, at least one memory 112, at least one transceiver 113, at least one network interface 114, and one or more antennas 115. The processor 111, the memory 112, the transceiver 113, and the network interface 114 are connected, for example, through a bus. In the embodiments of the present application, the connection may include various interfaces, transmission lines, or buses, etc., and this embodiment does not limit this. The antenna 115 is connected to the transceiver 113. The network interface 114 is used to enable the network element to be connected to other communication devices through a communication link. For example, the network interface 114 may include a network interface between the network element and the network element in the core network, such as the S1 interface. The network interface may include a network interface between the network element and other network elements, such as the X2 or Xn interface.

[0163] Among them, Figure 11 The processor 111 shown in can specifically complete the actions of the network element processing in the above method. The memory 112 can complete the storage actions in the above method. The transceiver 113 and the antenna 115 can execute the transceiver actions on the air interface in the above method. The network interface 114 can complete the actions of interacting between the network element and other network elements in the above method.

[0164] The processor in the embodiments of the present application, such as the processor 111, may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller unit (MCU), or an artificial intelligence processor, etc., various computing devices that run software. Each computing device may include one or more cores for executing software instructions to perform operations or processing. The processor may be a single semiconductor chip or may be integrated with other circuits into a semiconductor chip. For example, it may form a system on a chip (SoC) with other circuits (such as codec circuits, hardware acceleration circuits, or various bus and interface circuits), or may also be integrated as an internal processor of an ASIC in the ASIC. The ASIC integrated with the processor may be separately packaged or may also be packaged with other circuits. In addition to including cores for executing software instructions to perform operations or processing, the processor may further include necessary hardware accelerators, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a logic circuit for implementing dedicated logical operations.

[0165] The memory in the embodiments of the present application may include at least one of the following types: read-only memory (ROM), or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memory (RAM), or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions. It may also be an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). In some scenarios, the memory may also be a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), magnetic disk storage media, or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto.

[0166] The memory 112 may exist independently and be connected to the processor 111. Optionally, the memory 112 may be integrated with the processor 111, for example, integrated within a single chip. Among them, the memory 112 can store the program code for executing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and is controlled by the processor 111 to execute. The various computer program codes being executed can also be regarded as the driver programs of the processor 111. For example, the processor 111 is used to execute the computer program code stored in the memory 112, thereby implementing the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application.

[0167] The transceiver 113 can be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency signals between network elements and other devices. The transceiver 113 can be connected to the antenna 115. The transceiver 113 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, one or more antennas 115 can receive radio frequency signals. The receiver Rx of the transceiver 113 is used to receive the radio frequency signals from the antenna, convert the radio frequency signals into digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals, and provide the digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals to the processor 111 so that the processor 111 can perform further processing on the digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals, such as demodulation processing and decoding processing. In addition, the transmitter Tx in the transceiver 113 is also used to receive the modulated digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals from the processor 111, convert the modulated digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals into radio frequency signals, and transmit the radio frequency signals through one or more antennas 115. Specifically, the receiver Rx can selectively perform one-stage or multi-stage down-conversion processing and analog-to-digital conversion processing on the radio frequency signals to obtain digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals, and the sequence of the down-conversion processing and the analog-to-digital conversion processing can be adjusted. The transmitter Tx can selectively perform one-stage or multi-stage up-conversion processing and digital-to-analog conversion processing on the modulated digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals to obtain radio frequency signals, and the sequence of the up-conversion processing and the digital-to-analog conversion processing can be adjusted. The digital baseband signals and the digital intermediate frequency signals can be collectively referred to as digital signals.

[0168] Figure 12 This is an example of the composition of the UE provided by the embodiments of the present application. The UE can be, for example, a mobile phone, a smart wearable device (such as a smart watch), etc. Taking a mobile phone as an example, the UE can include a processor 310, an external memory interface 320, an internal memory 321, a display screen 330, a camera 340, an antenna 1, an antenna 2, a mobile communication module 350, and a wireless communication module 360, etc.

[0169] It can be understood that the structure illustrated in this embodiment does not constitute a specific limitation on the UE. In other embodiments, the UE can include more or fewer components than those illustrated, or combine certain components, or split certain components, or have different component arrangements. The illustrated components can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0170] The processor 310 may include one or more processing units. For example, the processor 310 may include an application processor (AP), a modem processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), an image signal processor (ISP), a controller, a video codec, a digital signal processor (DSP), a baseband processor, and / or a neural-network processing unit (NPU), etc. Among them, different processing units may be independent devices or integrated in one or more processors.

[0171] It can be understood that the interface connection relationships between the modules illustrated in this embodiment are only illustrative and do not constitute a structural limitation on the UE. In other embodiments of the present application, the UE may also adopt different interface connection methods or a combination of multiple interface connection methods in the above embodiments.

[0172] The external memory interface 320 may be used to connect to an external memory card, such as a Micro SD card, to expand the storage capacity of the UE. The external memory card communicates with the processor 310 through the external memory interface 320 to implement the data storage function. For example, files such as music and videos are saved in the external memory card.

[0173] The internal memory 321 may be used to store computer-executable program code, and the executable program code includes instructions. The processor 310 executes various functional applications and data processing of the UE by running the instructions stored in the internal memory 321. The internal memory 321 may include a program storage area and a data storage area. Among them, the program storage area may store an operating system and application programs required for at least one function (such as a sound playback function, an image playback function, etc.). The data storage area may store data created during the use of the UE (such as video stream data). In addition, the internal memory 321 may include a high-speed random access memory and may also include a non-volatile memory, such as at least one disk storage device, a flash memory device, a universal flash storage (UFS), etc. The processor 310 executes various functions and data processing of the UE by running the instructions stored in the internal memory 321 and / or the instructions stored in the memory provided in the processor.

[0174] The wireless communication function of the UE may be implemented through antenna 1, antenna 2, a mobile communication module 350, a wireless communication module 360, a modem processor, and a baseband processor, etc.

[0175] Antenna 1 and Antenna 2 are used for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic wave signals. Each antenna in the UE can be used to cover a single or multiple communication frequency bands. Different antennas can also be multiplexed to improve the utilization rate of the antennas. For example, Antenna 1 can be multiplexed as a diversity antenna for a wireless local area network. In some other embodiments, the antenna can be used in combination with a tuning switch.

[0176] The mobile communication module 350 can provide solutions for wireless communications such as 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G applied to the UE. The mobile communication module 350 can include at least one filter, switch, power amplifier, low noise amplifier (LNA), etc. The mobile communication module 350 can receive electromagnetic waves through Antenna 1, filter, amplify, etc. the received electromagnetic waves, and transmit them to the modulation and demodulation processor for demodulation. The mobile communication module 350 can also amplify the signal modulated by the modulation and demodulation processor and convert it into electromagnetic waves through Antenna 1 for radiation. In some embodiments, at least some functional modules of the mobile communication module 350 can be disposed in the processor 310. In some embodiments, at least some functional modules of the mobile communication module 350 and at least some modules of the processor 310 can be disposed in the same device.

[0177] In some embodiments, the UE initiates or receives a call request through the mobile communication module 350 and Antenna 1.

[0178] In addition, an operating system runs on the above components. For example, iOS operating system, Android operating system, Windows operating system, etc. Application programs can be installed and run on the operating system. Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that for the sake of convenience and brevity of description, the explanations and beneficial effects of the relevant content in any of the above-mentioned UEs can refer to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and will not be elaborated here.

[0179] In addition, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which instructions are stored. When the instructions run on one or more computing devices, the one or more computing devices execute the communication method described in the above embodiments.

[0180] In addition, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product. When the computer program product is executed by one or more computing devices, the one or more computing devices execute any of the communication methods described above. The computer program product can be a software installation package. In the case where any of the communication methods described above needs to be used, the computer program product can be downloaded and executed on the computer.

[0181] Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the present application can be implemented by means of software plus necessary general hardware. Of course, it can also be implemented by dedicated hardware including application-specific integrated circuits, dedicated CPUs, dedicated memories, dedicated components, etc. Generally, functions completed by computer programs can be easily implemented by corresponding hardware, and the specific hardware structures for implementing the same function can also be diverse, such as analog circuits, digital circuits, or dedicated circuits, etc. However, for the present application, in more cases, software program implementation is a better embodiment. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of the present application, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a readable storage medium, such as a floppy disk, USB flash drive, mobile hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk, or optical disc of a computer, etc., and includes several instructions to enable a computer device (which can be a personal computer, training device, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in various embodiments of the present application.

[0182] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product.

[0183] The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general computer, a dedicated computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer 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 instructions can be transmitted from a website, computer, training device, or data center to another website, computer, training device, or data center by wire (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can store, or a data storage device such as a training device or data center that includes one or more integrated available media. The available medium can be a magnetic medium (such as a floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (such as a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (such as a solid state disk (SSD)), etc.

[0184] The system architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this application. Those of ordinary skill in the art will know that with the evolution of the network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this application are equally applicable to similar technical problems.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a user equipment (UE), and the method includes: Determine a plurality of configured grant (CG) configurations for the UE, where each CG configuration in the plurality of CG configurations includes at least one transmission occasion (TO); Send a first notification message, where the first notification message is used to notify a network element that each CG configuration in the plurality of CG configurations includes at least one of a first TO and a second TO, the first TO is a TO not used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO is a TO used by the UE in a future time period.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The plurality of CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration; The first notification message includes a plurality of bits, where consecutive first bits in the plurality of bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and consecutive second bits in the plurality of bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein The plurality of CG configurations further include at least one third CG configuration, and the plurality of bits further include consecutive third bits, where the third bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that Before sending the first notification message, the method further includes: Obtain a first control message, where the first control message includes an identifier of each CG configuration in the plurality of CG configurations and length indication information of bits corresponding to each CG configuration in the plurality of CG configurations, each bit corresponding to each CG configuration is a partial bit in the plurality of bits, and the first control message is used to configure the length indication information of each bit corresponding to each CG configuration.

5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that The number of resource elements (REs) for transmitting the first bit is determined according to a first offset factor, and the number of REs for transmitting the second bit is determined according to a second offset factor; Alternatively, the number of REs for transmitting the plurality of bits is determined according to a third offset factor.

6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send a second notification message, where a first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and a second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate target information, and the priority of the target information indicated by the second bit is higher than the priority of the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration indicated by the second bit, and the first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first notification message includes a plurality of bits, and each bit in the plurality of bits is used to sequentially indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the plurality of CG configurations in chronological order.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, The first notification message is sent through a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; When the number of target bits in the PUSCH is lower than a threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some of the CG configurations among the multiple CG configurations, or the first notification message does not include the first TO and the second TO in the multiple CG configurations, and the target bits are used to carry indication information of the first TO or the second TO.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that The first notification message is further used to notify the network element that the target TO is the second TO, and the target TO is the TO used for sending the first notification message.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that One data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs; Or, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes one TO; Or, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of radio resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold; The method further includes: Obtaining a second control message, where the second control message includes an identifier of the first CG configuration and an identifier of the second CG configuration, and the second control message is used to configure the UE to use the TO in the first CG configuration or the TO in the second CG configuration to send the first notification message.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that, The TO is used to indicate the UE to use the time-frequency resources of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG configuration.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein The time-frequency resources include time-domain resources and frequency-domain resources. The time-domain resources include multiple consecutive symbols within one time slot, and the frequency-domain resources include multiple resource elements REs or multiple resource blocks RBs.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that, The first notification message is a UTO-UCI message.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that, The multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and both the first TO and the second TO are valid TOs.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that, The multiple CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

17. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a network element, and the method includes: Obtaining a first notification message, where the first notification message is used to indicate at least one of a first TO and a second TO included in each of the multiple configured grants CG configurations for a user equipment UE. The first TO is a TO not used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO is a TO used by the UE in a future time period; Managing the first TO according to the first notification message.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein The multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration; The first notification message includes a plurality of bits. Successive first bits among the plurality of bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and successive second bits among the plurality of bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein, The plurality of CG configurations further includes at least one third CG configuration, and the plurality of bits further includes successive third bits, where the third bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration.

20. The method according to claim 18 or 19, characterized in that, The method further includes: Sending a first control message, where the first control message includes an identifier of each CG configuration among the plurality of CG configurations and length indication information of bits corresponding to each CG configuration among the plurality of CG configurations. The bits corresponding to each CG configuration are partial bits among the plurality of bits, and the first control message is used to configure the length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration.

21. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 20, characterized in that, The number of resource elements (REs) for transmitting the first bits is determined according to a first offset factor, and the number of REs for transmitting the second bits is determined according to a second offset factor; Alternatively, the number of REs for transmitting the plurality of bits is determined according to a third offset factor.

22. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 21, characterized in that, The method further includes: Obtaining a second notification message, where a first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and a second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate target information. The priority of the target information indicated by the second bit is higher than the priority of the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration indicated by the second bit. The first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs; Managing the first TO indicated by the second notification message.

23. The method according to claim 17, wherein The first notification message includes a plurality of bits, and each of the bits among the plurality of bits is used to sequentially indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the plurality of CG configurations in chronological order.

24. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 23, characterized in that, The first notification message is sent through a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; When the number of target bits in the PUSCH is lower than a threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some CG configurations among the plurality of CG configurations, or the first notification message does not include the first TO and the second TO in the plurality of CG configurations. The target bits are used to carry indication information of the first TO or the second TO.

25. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 24, characterized in that The first notification message is further used to indicate that the target TO is the second TO, and the target TO is the TO used by the UE to send the first notification message.

26. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 25, wherein One data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes a plurality of TOs; Alternatively, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes one TO; Alternatively, one data transmission period of the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs, and one data transmission period of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs.

27. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 26, characterized in that, The multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of radio resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold; The method further includes: Sending a second control message, where the second control message includes an identifier of the first CG configuration and an identifier of the second CG configuration, and the control message is used to configure the UE to use a TO within the first CG configuration or a TO within the second CG configuration to send the first notification message.

28. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 27, characterized in that, The TO is used to indicate the UE to use time-frequency resources of a physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein, The time-frequency resources include time-domain resources and frequency-domain resources. The time-domain resources include multiple consecutive symbols within a time slot, and the frequency-domain resources include multiple resource elements REs or multiple resource blocks RBs.

30. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 29, characterized in that The first notification message is a UTO-UCI message.

31. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 30, characterized in that, The multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and the first TO is a valid TO.

32. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 31, characterized in that, The multiple CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

33. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 32, characterized in that, The management of the first TO includes: Scheduling the first TO to a second UE.

34. A user equipment UE, characterized in that, including: A transceiver for performing receiving operations and sending operations in the method according to any one of claims 1-16; A processor for performing other operations in the method according to any one of claims 1-16 except the receiving operations and the sending operations.

35. A network element, characterized in that, including: A transceiver for performing receiving operations and sending operations in the method according to any one of claims 17-33; A processor for performing other operations in the method according to any one of claims 17-33 except the receiving operations and the sending operations.

36. A communication system, characterized in that, including a user equipment UE and a network element. The UE is used to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-16, and the network element is used to perform the method according to any one of claims 17-33.

37. A computer storage medium for storing a computer program, which when executed, is used to implement the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 33.

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