Electronic equipment, communication method and computer readable storage medium

Abstract

The invention relates to electronic equipment, a communication method and a computer readable storage medium. An electronic device for an aggregation initiating user equipment (UE), comprising processing circuitry configured to: obtain transmission condition information for the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperation UE; splitting transmission data into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperation UE, respectively, based on the acquired transmission condition information; transmitting the first data portion to an aggregation server via a base station; and sending the at least one second data portion to the at least one aggregation cooperation UE, respectively, so that the aggregation cooperation UE transmits the corresponding second data portion to the aggregation server via the base station, and the first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to a target node.

Description

Electronic device, communication method, and computer-readable storage medium

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to Chinese patent application 2023100920366, filed on January 30, 2023, entitled “Electronic device, communication method, and computer-readable storage medium,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates to uplink transmission in a wireless communication network, and more particularly, to an electronic device, a communication method, and a computer-readable storage medium for multi-user cooperative transmission of wireless data. Background Art

[0004] With the advancement of wireless communication technology, more and more applications and services can be accessed through cellular networks. Currently, 5G communication networks can provide users with high-speed data communication. However, the user experience for downlink communication (from base stations to user terminals) and downlink communication (from user terminals to base stations) may be asymmetric. Some services require higher uplink communication rates and more robust network support, such as real-time uploading of 4K and 8K high-definition video and sensor data transmission in autonomous driving scenarios.

[0005] Currently, wireless communication networks, especially mobile cellular networks, may not be able to provide high-speed and reliable data communications that meet user needs in certain situations (for example, when the user terminal is at the edge of a cell or moving at high speed, or when the user needs to upload a high-bitrate video service stream in real time).

[0006] Therefore, there is a demand for enhanced uplink data transmission to adapt to various existing or emerging service scenarios.

[0007] Summary of the Invention

[0008] The present disclosure provides multiple aspects. By applying one or more aspects of the present disclosure, the above-mentioned needs can be met.

[0009] A brief overview of the present disclosure is provided below to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the present disclosure. However, it should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overview of the present disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or important parts of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Its purpose is simply to present certain concepts of the present disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that will be given later.

[0010] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for aggregation-initiating user equipment (UE) is provided, including a processing circuit, configured to: obtain transmission condition information of the aggregation-initiating UE and at least one aggregation-cooperating UE; based on the obtained transmission condition information, split the transmission data into a first data part to be transmitted by the aggregation-initiating UE and at least one second data part to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation-cooperating UE respectively; transmit the first data part to an aggregation server via a base station; and send the at least one second data part to the at least one aggregation-cooperating UE respectively so that the aggregation-cooperating UE transmits the corresponding second data part to the aggregation server via the base station, wherein the first data part and the at least one second data part are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to a target node.

[0011] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for aggregation collaborative user equipment (UE) is provided, including a processing circuit, configured to: receive a second data portion of transmission data from an aggregation initiating UE, the transmission data being split into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE to an aggregation server and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation collaborative UE to the aggregation server based on transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation collaborative UE; and transmit the second data portion to the aggregation server via a base station, wherein the first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to a target node.

[0012] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for a base station is provided, including a processing circuit, configured to: send resource allocation information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE to an aggregation initiating user equipment (UE); receive a first data part and at least one second data part of transmission data from the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, wherein the first data part and the at least one second data part of the transmission data are split by the aggregation initiating UE based on the resource allocation information; and aggregate the first data part and the at least one second data part and transmit the aggregated data to a target node.

[0013] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication method is provided, comprising steps performed by any one of the above processing circuits.

[0014] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions is provided. When the executable instructions are executed, the communication method described above is implemented. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The present disclosure may be better understood by referring to the detailed description given below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to represent the same or similar elements. All drawings, together with the following detailed description, are incorporated into and form a part of this specification and are used to further illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and to explain the principles and advantages of the present disclosure. Among them:

[0016] FIG1 illustrates an exemplary system architecture for cooperative wireless data transmission according to the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG2 shows a block diagram of a configuration of a cooperative transmission system according to the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a cooperative transmission system according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG4 shows a flowchart that can be implemented by the cooperative transmission system in FIG3 according to the first embodiment;

[0020] FIG5 is a block diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a cooperative transmission system according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0021] FIG6 shows the NR radio protocol stack for the user plane of the UE and the base station;

[0022] FIG7 shows a frame structure in a 5G communication system;

[0023] 8-10 show flowcharts that can be implemented by the cooperative transmission system shown in FIG. 5 according to the second embodiment;

[0024] FIG11 shows an exemplary flow chart for adjusting cooperative transmission;

[0025] FIG12 shows an example block diagram of a computer that may be implemented as a user device or a control device according to the present disclosure;

[0026] FIG13 illustrates a first example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure;

[0027] FIG14 illustrates a second example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure;

[0028] FIG15 illustrates a schematic configuration example of a smartphone according to the present disclosure;

[0029] FIG. 16 illustrates a schematic configuration example of a car navigation device according to the present disclosure.

[0030] The features and aspects of the present disclosure will be clearly understood by reading the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. For the sake of clarity and conciseness, not all features of the embodiments are described in this specification. However, it should be noted that when implementing the embodiments of the present disclosure, many implementation-specific settings can be made according to specific needs, such as to comply with those restrictions related to equipment and services, and these restrictions may vary depending on the implementation. In addition, it should be understood that although the development work may be complex and tedious, for those skilled in the art who benefit from the content of this disclosure, such development disclosure is merely a routine task.

[0032] In addition, it should be noted that in order to avoid obscuring the present disclosure due to unnecessary details, some drawings only show processing steps and / or equipment structures that are closely related to at least the technical content of the present disclosure, while in other drawings, in order to facilitate a better understanding of the present disclosure, existing processing steps and / or equipment structures are additionally shown.

[0033] The exemplary embodiments and application examples according to the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description of the exemplary embodiments is merely illustrative and is not intended to limit the present disclosure and its applications.

[0034] For ease of explanation, various aspects of the present disclosure may be described below in the context of 5G New Radio (NR). However, it should be noted that this does not limit the scope of application of the present disclosure, and one or more aspects of the present disclosure may also be applied to existing wireless communication systems such as 4G LTE / LTE-A or various wireless communication systems developed in the future. The architecture, entities, functions, processes, etc. mentioned in the following description may be found in NR or other communication standards.

[0035]

Overview

[0036] Wireless communication systems such as 5G NR offer high-speed communications capabilities, enabling the rapid development of many services. Cloud broadcasting, for example, moves the functionality of traditional satellite broadcast vehicles to the cloud. 4K or 8K high-definition video signals from live events such as sporting events, theatrical performances, and large-scale conferences can be transmitted to cloud broadcast platforms via 5G terminals over cellular networks, significantly expanding the reach of live broadcasts and reducing the burden on operators. Another example is autonomous driving, where various sensor data from vehicles can be uploaded to cloud platforms in real time via 5G networks for recording and control decisions. The high bandwidth requirements for uplink communications from these services can pose challenges to wireless communication networks, especially when users are located at the cell edge or moving at high speeds. In actual use, limited transmission rates, high packet loss rates, and the need for backup upload links may occur.

[0037] Multi-user cooperative transmission may be a solution. However, in existing cooperative transmission schemes, multiple user terminals typically upload the same data to achieve a certain diversity gain, which only improves transmission efficiency to a limited extent. Furthermore, user terminals on different operator networks cannot effectively communicate directly with each other, making cooperative transmission difficult for user terminals on different operators.

[0038] In view of this, the present disclosure aims to provide an efficient and complete collaborative transmission solution so as to meet the above-mentioned or any other business requirements.

[0039] Figure 1 shows an exemplary system architecture for cooperative wireless data transmission according to the present disclosure. As shown in the figure, the system according to the present disclosure includes a data source, an aggregation initiating node, an aggregation coordinating node, a base station, a public network, an aggregation server, a transmission condition management server, and a target node.

[0040] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation coordinating node are user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system that can communicate with a base station. In the context of the present disclosure, the term "base station" is an example of a control device in a wireless communication system and has the full breadth of its common meaning. For example, in addition to the gNB and ng-eNB specified in the 5G communication standard, depending on the scenario in which the technical solution of the present disclosure is applied, the "base station" may also be, for example, an eNB, a remote radio head, a wireless access point, a relay node, or a communication device or component thereof that performs similar control functions in an LTE communication system. The following sections will describe in detail the application examples of base stations. In addition, the term "UE" used in the present disclosure has the full breadth of its common meaning and includes various terminal devices or in-vehicle devices that communicate with the base station. As an example, a UE may be a terminal device or component thereof such as a mobile phone, a laptop, a tablet computer, an in-vehicle communication device, etc. The following sections will describe in detail the application examples of UE.

[0041] The aggregation initiating node obtains raw data from the data source through its data interface and, after possible data processing, works with at least one aggregation coordinating node to transmit the data to the target node. Examples of data sources include various types of data acquisition devices, such as video cameras, surveillance cameras, and sensors. Alternatively, examples of data sources may also include various data carriers, such as optical disks, magnetic disks, and semiconductor memories. In other words, the data to be transmitted can be either real-time or near-real-time captured data or pre-stored data, and will be collectively referred to as "transmitted data" below.

[0042] Although Figure 1 shows only two converged collaboration nodes, namely, converged collaboration node 1 and converged collaboration node 2, as an example, the number of converged collaboration nodes is not limited to this. The converged initiating node and the converged collaboration node can communicate with their respective base stations (e.g., base station A, base station B, and base station C shown in Figure 1). Depending on the specific application scenario, base station A, base station B, and base station C can be the same base station or different base stations; they can belong to the same mobile operator or different operators. User data transmitted to the base stations can be routed to the desired destination via the public network.

[0043] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the aggregation initiating node can split the transmission data into multiple parts based on the transmission condition information from the transmission condition management server, so as to be transmitted by itself and the aggregation cooperation node respectively. In the context of the present disclosure, "transmission conditions" refer to network factors that restrict the data transmission of each node, which can be characterized by various indicators. For example, the transmission condition information may include indicators that reflect the network status between the transmission source (aggregation initiating node or aggregation cooperation node) and the destination (aggregation server), such as average transmission rate, packet loss rate, end-to-end delay, etc. For example, the transmission condition information may include information about the transmission resources available to the node, such as available bandwidth, wireless transmission resource blocks (RBs), etc. However, the transmission condition information according to the present disclosure is not limited to those listed, but may include other commonly used constraints.

[0044] The aggregation server aggregates the various data parts originating from the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation coordinating node and transmitted via the corresponding base station to restore them into transmission data, and forwards the aggregated data to the target node. Depending on the specific application scenario, the target node can be, for example, a director's room, a flat pan / tilt head, a content server, etc., which will not be introduced here. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the aggregation server and the transmission condition management server can be located at the target node, on a public network, in the core network of the wireless communication system (for example, as a network function in the core network), in a base station, or in any other suitable place.

[0045] FIG2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a cooperative transmission system according to the present disclosure.

[0046] As shown in Figure 2, the aggregation initiating node may include a first data interface, a first data processing unit, a collaborative communication unit, and an external communication unit. The aggregation initiating node obtains raw data from a data source through its first data interface, such as a 4K / 8K high-bitrate video stream, a sensor data stream, etc. In one example, the first data interface can be implemented as a wired data interface connected to the data source, such as a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface, an Ethernet interface, etc. In another example, the first data interface can be implemented as a wireless data interface, such as a Bluetooth interface, a Wifi interface, etc.

[0047] The raw data received by the first data interface can be extracted to the first data processing unit for processing. Optionally, the first data processing unit can perform pre-processing on the raw data before transmission, including but not limited to image / video processing, format conversion, compression, encryption, etc., which will not be described in detail here.

[0048] Most importantly, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first data processing unit splits the data to be transmitted into parts (hereinafter referred to as "first data parts") transmitted by the aggregation initiating node and parts (hereinafter referred to as "second data parts") transmitted by the aggregation cooperation node. The division of the transmission data can be based on transmission condition information from the transmission condition management server, such as network status information, transmission resource allocation information, etc. In one example, the first data part and the second data part can be non-overlapping subsets of the transmission data. In an alternative example, the first data part and the second data part can be divided into partially overlapping intersecting subsets, thereby having a certain degree of redundancy. Based on the transmission condition information, the first data processing unit can calculate the splitting ratio of the transmission data and the optional transmission rate (the transmission rate to the aggregation cooperation node and the upload rate from the aggregation cooperation node to the base station) according to some optimization algorithm, such as a genetic algorithm, a machine learning algorithm or a neural network. As a result of the division, the first data part and at least one second data part into which the transmission data is divided may have different sizes to adapt to the transmission conditions of each node.

[0049] Optionally, the first data processing unit may further select one or more aggregated collaborative nodes from a group of aggregated collaborative nodes willing to participate in the collaboration for collaborative transmission. For example, based on the transmission condition information of each aggregated collaborative node, the first data processing unit may select one, two, or more aggregated collaborative nodes with the best transmission conditions. The selection of aggregated collaborative nodes may also take into account additional factors, such as the node's device capabilities, availability, and the size of the transmitted data.

[0050] After the division by the first data processing unit, the first data processing unit can encapsulate the various parts of the transmitted data into data packets, and add the corresponding source address and destination address in the header of the data packet. On the one hand, for the first data part, the first data processing unit adds the IP address of the aggregation initiating node as the source address, the IP address of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the header of the corresponding data packet, and transmits it to the aggregation server through the external communication unit of the aggregation initiating node. The external communication unit may include a cellular network interface for communicating with the base station, and utilizes the uplink transmission resources scheduled by the base station to transmit data to the base station through, for example, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The base station forwards the received first data part to the aggregation server based on the address information contained in the data packet.

[0051] On the other hand, the first data processing unit adds the IP address of the aggregation initiating node as the source address and the IP address of the aggregation coordinating node as the destination address in the header of the data packet of the second data portion, so as to facilitate sending each second data portion to the corresponding aggregation coordinating unit. The cooperative communication unit may include various wireless interfaces utilizing various device-to-device (D2D) communication technologies, such as WiFi (Wi-Fi-Direct) interfaces, Sidelink interfaces, Bluetooth interfaces, etc.

[0052] The aggregation initiating node receives the corresponding second data part through its collaborative communication unit, and performs pre-processing before transmission through the second data processing unit. The second data processing unit changes the destination address of the data packet of the received second data part to the IP address of the aggregation server and the target node. Preferably, the second data processing unit also changes the source address of the data packet of the second data part to the IP address of the aggregation collaborative node. This is necessary when the aggregation collaborative node and the aggregation initiating node belong to different operators. For example, assume that the aggregation initiating node belongs to operator A, and the aggregation collaborative node belongs to operator B. For the data packet forwarded by the aggregation initiating node to the aggregation collaborative node, its source IP address defaults to the IP address of the aggregation initiating node, and such a data packet will be discarded when it reaches the base station of operator B.

[0053] The aggregation coordinating node transmits the second data portion to the aggregation server via its external communication unit. Similar to the external communication unit of the aggregation initiating node, the external communication unit of the aggregation coordinating node may include a cellular network interface for communicating with the base station. The unit utilizes uplink transmission resources scheduled by the base station, for example, via the PUSCH, to transmit data to the base station. The base station forwards the received second data portion to the aggregation server based on the address information contained in the data packet.

[0054] The aggregation server receives the first data portion and the second data portion of the transmission data, and its third data processing unit can be configured as an aggregation processor for aggregating the data packets to restore them into the transmission data. The third data processing unit can re-encapsulate the aggregated data and use the IP address of the target node as the destination address in the header of the data packet, so that the aggregation server can forward the aggregated transmission data to the target node.

[0055] The transmission condition management server is used to obtain and manage the transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation coordinating node, and provide the transmission condition information to the aggregation initiating node for use by the first data processing unit when dividing the transmission data.

[0056] In one example, the transmission condition management server can test the network status from each node to the aggregation server through its transmission condition management unit. Preferably, the transmission condition management server and the aggregation server can be located in the same location. In this case, the transmission condition management server can detect the average transmission rate, end-to-end delay, packet loss rate, etc. of the node by receiving test data packets from each node. For example, in pull mode, in response to the network status request of the aggregation initiating node, the transmission condition management server can send the network status information of the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation cooperation node to the aggregation initiating node. In push mode, the transmission condition management server can actively push the network status information of the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation cooperation node to the aggregation initiating node. Alternatively, in either mode, the network status information of the aggregation initiating node can be sent directly to the aggregation initiating node by the transmission condition management server, and the network status information of the aggregation cooperation node can be first sent to the aggregation cooperation node, and then sent to the aggregation initiating node by the aggregation cooperation node.

[0057] In another example, the transmission condition management server can be configured as a scheduler that allocates transmission resources to each node. For example, the transmission condition management server can use a scheduling algorithm to allocate uplink transmission resources to the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation coordinating node. Preferably, this resource allocation can be based on the wireless channel conditions from each node to the base station. Nodes with good channel quality can be allocated more transmission resources (e.g., resource blocks), while nodes with poor channel quality can be allocated fewer transmission resources, which is conducive to improving the resource utilization of the system. The transmission condition management server can send resource allocation information of the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation coordinating node to the aggregation initiating node.

[0058] It should be understood that the various units described above are merely logical divisions based on the specific functions they implement, and are not intended to limit specific implementations. For example, in actual implementation, the functions of multiple units may be implemented by one module, or the functions of one unit may be implemented by multiple modules.

[0059] By utilizing the collaborative transmission system disclosed herein, data can be adaptively and collaboratively transmitted based on the transmission conditions of multiple user devices, providing at least one upload backup link, which is conducive to improving the transmission rate, reducing data transmission delay, reducing packet loss rate, and improving the stability of the transmission system.

[0060] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the following embodiments are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the present disclosure to the implementations described in detail below.

[0061] [First embodiment]

[0062] FIG3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a cooperative transmission system according to the first embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0063] In Figure 3, the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation coordinating node are shown as user equipment (UE) such as a mobile terminal. The first data interface of the aggregation initiating UE is implemented as a USB interface to receive data such as a real-time video stream. The cooperative communication units of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation coordinating UE are implemented as WiFi (e.g., WiFi-direct) interfaces to enable inter-UE communication, and the external communication units are implemented as radio access network (RAN) interfaces to enable wireless communication with a base station.

[0064] According to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, the first data processing unit of the aggregation-initiating UE is configured to operate at the application (APP) layer and can preferably be implemented as an APP, which may or may not have an interface for interacting with a user. As shown in Figure 3, the APP of the aggregation-initiating UE can extract data received through the USB interface to the application layer, and at the application layer, divide the transmission data based on the network status information of the aggregation-initiating UE and the aggregation-cooperating UE, encapsulate the data packets, and add the source and destination addresses.

[0065] The following describes a flowchart according to a first embodiment that can be implemented by the cooperative transmission system in FIG. 3 , with reference to FIG. 4 . It should be understood that while FIG. 4 illustrates a single aggregated cooperative UE, the flowchart is applicable to multiple aggregated cooperative UEs. Furthermore, it should be understood that the order in which the steps in FIG. 4 are executed is merely exemplary; the order of some steps may be reversed, or some steps may be executed in parallel.

[0066] The process may begin at step S10, where the aggregation-initiating UE sends a collaboration request message to the aggregation-cooperating UE to inquire whether the aggregation-cooperating UE is available to assist the aggregation-initiating UE in transmitting data. If so, in step S11, the aggregation-cooperating UE may return a collaboration confirmation message to the aggregation-initiating UE, where the collaboration confirmation message may include the IP address of the aggregation-cooperating UE.

[0067] In step S12, the aggregation initiating UE initiates a network status test request to the network status management server, where the request includes the IP addresses of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE.

[0068] In step S13, in response to the network status test request from the aggregation-initiating UE, the network status management server tests the network status of the aggregation-initiating node and the aggregation-cooperating node based on the IP addresses in the request message to obtain information including end-to-end delay, packet loss rate, transmission rate, etc. The network status test can use, for example, the ping method, or any other method that can obtain the desired information.

[0069] In response, the network status management server returns the acquired network status information of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE to the aggregation initiating UE. Alternatively, as described above with reference to FIG2 , the network status management server may also send the network status information of the aggregation initiating UE to the aggregation initiating UE, and the network status information of the aggregation cooperating UE to the aggregation cooperating UE, and the aggregation cooperating UE then sends its network status information to the aggregation initiating UE through inter-UE communication.

[0070] In one example, the network state management server provides network state information only once at the start of the collaborative transmission. In another example, during the collaborative transmission process, the network state management server may periodically (e.g., every n (n>=1) IP packets) update the network state and feed back the updated network state information to the aggregation initiating UE, or update the network state based on the transmission quality of the collaborative transmission (e.g., when the transmission quality is lower than a predetermined threshold), thereby irregularly feeding back the updated network state information to the aggregation initiating UE.

[0071] In step S14, the aggregation initiating UE (e.g., through its APP) splits the transmission data based on the received network status information of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. The transmission data splitting can utilize, for example, a genetic algorithm, a machine learning algorithm, or a neural network, so that the amount of data to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE (the first data portion) and the amount of data to be transmitted by the aggregation cooperating UE (the second data portion) are adapted to the network status of the respective UEs.

[0072] Optionally, the aggregation initiating UE may further select one or more aggregation cooperating UEs suitable for cooperative transmission from a group of aggregation cooperating UEs based on network state information.

[0073] Subsequently, in step S15, the aggregation-initiating UE (e.g., via a WiFi interface) sends the second data portion to the aggregation-cooperating UE. In step S16, the aggregation-cooperating UE (e.g., via its APP) replaces the IP address of the aggregation-cooperating UE as the source address and the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the second data portion, and sends the second data portion to the base station (e.g., via its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0074] In step S17, the aggregation initiating UE (for example, through its APP) adds the IP address of the aggregation initiating UE as the source address, the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the first data part, and sends the first data part to the base station (for example, through its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0075] In step S18, the aggregation server (eg, through its aggregation processor) aggregates the received first data portion and the second data portion to restore the transmission data. Subsequently, in step S19, the aggregation server forwards the aggregated transmission data to the target node for use by the target node.

[0076] According to the first embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmission data can be split and encapsulated at the application layer and sent by the WiFi interface and the RAN interface. Therefore, the collaborative transmission of multiple user devices can be easily achieved by only developing the corresponding APP.

[0077] [Second embodiment]

[0078] FIG5 is a block diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a cooperative transmission system according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0079] In Figure 5, the aggregation initiating node and the aggregation coordinating node are shown as user equipment (UE) such as a mobile terminal. The first data interface of the aggregation initiating UE is implemented as, for example, a USB interface to receive data such as a real-time video stream, and the external communication units of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation coordinating UE are implemented as, for example, a RAN interface to enable wireless communication with a base station.

[0080] Although FIG5 shows that the aggregation server and the transmission condition management server are implemented in a base station, the second embodiment of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. That is, the aggregation server and the transmission condition management server may also be located at the target node, on a public network, in the core network of the wireless communication system (e.g., as a network function in the core network), or in any other suitable location.

[0081] Unlike the collaborative transmission system shown in FIG3 , in the collaborative transmission system according to the second embodiment as shown in FIG5 , the collaborative communication units of the aggregation-initiating UE and the aggregation-cooperating UE are implemented as Sidelink interfaces to achieve inter-UE communication. Both the RAN interface and the Sidelink interface can comply with air interface specifications such as 5G NR, and it can be considered to implement the splitting, encapsulation, and transmission of transmission data at the access network protocol layer (AN protocol layer). Therefore, according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, collaborative transmission can be achieved through the underlying chip of the mobile terminal without going through the application layer, thereby reducing processing delay.

[0082] As used in this disclosure, "access network protocol layer" represents the radio protocol stack of the access network and depends on the specific access network type. If access is from an eNB, the corresponding radio protocol stack is defined in TS36.300, and if access is from a gNodeB, the corresponding radio protocol is defined in TS38.300. Figure 6 shows the NR radio protocol stack for the user plane of the UE and the base station. The access network protocol layer includes the physical (PHY) layer in Layer 1 and the medium access control (MAC) sublayer, radio link control (RLC) sublayer, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) sublayer, and service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) sublayer in Layer 2. The physical layer is the lowest layer and is used to implement various physical layer signal processing to provide transparent transmission of signals. Layer 2 (L2) is above the physical layer and is responsible for managing the wireless link between the UE and the base station. The relationship between the various sublayers of layer 2 is that the physical layer provides transport channels for the MAC sublayer, the MAC sublayer provides logical channels for the RLC sublayer, the RLC sublayer provides RLC channels for the PDCP sublayer, and the PDCP sublayer provides radio bearers for the SDAP sublayer.

[0083] In particular, the SDAP sublayer is a new protocol layer added by 5G NR for the user plane. The NR core network introduces a more sophisticated user plane data processing mechanism based on Quality of Service (QoS) flows. From the air interface point of view, data is carried based on data radio bearers (DRBs). At this time, it is necessary to map the data of different QoS flows to different DRBs according to the rules of network configuration. The main services and functions of the SDAP sublayer include: mapping between QoS flows and data radio bearers; marking QoS flow ID (QFI) in uplink and downlink data packets. One or more QoS flows can be mapped to the same DRB, and a QoS flow can usually only be mapped to one DRB. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the splitting of data transmitted by different UEs can be achieved at the SDAP layer. However, the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to this, and the splitting of transmission data can also occur in other protocol layers below the application layer, such as other sublayers of the access network protocol layer, or another protocol layer added in the future.

[0084] Typically, data transmission conditions may be primarily constrained by the radio channel. According to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, data transmission can be split by primarily considering the radio channel transmission conditions from the cooperatively transmitted UE to the base station. As previously described, the transmission conditions may include transmission rate, jitter, latency, etc. on the radio channel. Additionally or alternatively, according to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmission conditions may include the allocation of radio transmission resources.

[0085] As shown in the exemplary arrangement of FIG5 , the transmission condition management server according to the second embodiment may be configured as a resource scheduler that manages transmission resource allocation for the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE, and deployed in a base station like the aggregation server.

[0086] In 5G NR, downlink (DL), uplink (UL) and sidelink (SL) transmissions are organized into frames. Figure 7 shows a diagram of the frame structure in a 5G communication system. As a fixed structure compatible with LTE / LTE-A, the frame in NR also has a length of 10ms and consists of 10 equally sized subframes, each of which is 1ms. Unlike LTE / LTE-A, the frame structure in NR has a flexible structure that depends on the subcarrier spacing. Each subframe has a configurable time slots, such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. Each time slot also has a configurable OFDM symbols, for a normal cyclic prefix, each time slot contains 14 consecutive OFDM symbols, while for an extended cyclic prefix, each time slot includes 12 consecutive OFDM symbols. In the frequency domain dimension, each time slot includes a number of resource blocks (RBs), each resource block containing 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. Therefore, a resource grid can be used to represent the resource elements (REs) in the time slot, as shown in Figure 7. The resource blocks available for uplink and downlink transmission can be divided into a data segment and a control segment. The resource elements in the control segment can be allocated for transmitting control information. The data segment can include all resource elements not included in the control segment for transmitting data to the UE or base station.

[0087] Time domain resources can be scheduled at various granularities, such as a single time slot, multiple consecutive time slots (also known as aggregated time slots), or partial OFDM symbols within a single time slot (also known as mini-slots). Frequency domain resources are generally scheduled in RB units and can be divided into different types depending on whether the scheduled RBs are contiguous.

[0088] The base station can send DCI through the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to indicate the time-frequency transmission resources scheduled for uplink transmission. The base station can schedule transmission resources for the UE in each transmission time interval (TTI). This scheduling method is called dynamic grant (DG). In order to save PDCCH resources, the base station can also adopt a non-dynamic scheduling method and send a periodically valid scheduling command to the UE, so as to periodically allocate transmission resources to the UE. For PUSCH transmission, the base station can use the configured grant (CG) to configure an uplink grant (UL grant) for the UE to indicate the periodic uplink transmission resources that the UE can use. There are two types of CG: CG Type 1, the UE can directly use the configured resources to upload data without DCI activation; CG Type 2, the base station needs to activate the uplink configuration grant before the UE uses the configured resources.

[0089] Therefore, according to the second embodiment, three modes of physical resource allocation of the base station to the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE are considered:

[0090] -Static mode: The base station pre-configures the UE's uplink resources, and the transmission resources can be used directly after being allocated to each UE;

[0091] -Semi-static mode: The base station pre-configures the UE's uplink resources. If the UE requests uplink transmission, the base station sends an activation command to activate the uplink configuration grant;

[0092] -Dynamic mode: Each time the UE performs uplink transmission, it needs to request a UL dynamic grant and can use the corresponding transmission resources only after obtaining the grant.

[0093] Figure 8 shows a flowchart of the coordinated transmission system shown in Figure 5 in static scheduling mode. The process begins at step S20, where the aggregation-initiating UE sends a coordinated transmission request to the base station. This request can be indicated by a single bit in the uplink control information (UCI) carried on the PUSCH or PUCCH. For example, a "1" indicates that coordinated transmission is required, while a "0" indicates that coordinated transmission is not required.

[0094] In step S21, the base station (e.g., through its resource scheduler) allocates uplink transmission resources to the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. Preferably, resource scheduling can be based on the channel conditions of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. The base station sends resource allocation information to the aggregation initiating UE, where the resource allocation information includes not only the available resource blocks (RBs) of the aggregation initiating UE, but also the available RBs of the aggregation cooperating UE and the corresponding UE identifiers. This resource allocation information can be sent to the aggregation initiating UE via the PDCCH in the form of CG Type 1.

[0095] In step S22, the aggregation initiating UE (e.g., through its first data processing unit) splits the transmission data into a first data portion and a second data portion based on the resource allocation information (available RBs) of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. Optionally, the aggregation initiating UE may also select at least one aggregation cooperating UE suitable for cooperative transmission from a group of aggregation cooperating UEs based on their resource allocation information.

[0096] In step S23, the aggregation initiating UE sends the resource allocation information of the aggregation cooperating UE to the corresponding aggregation cooperating UE (eg, via its Sidelink interface). This can be achieved, for example, by sending Sidelink Control Information (SCI).

[0097] In step S24, the aggregation initiating UE (for example, through its Sidelink interface) sends the split second data part to the corresponding aggregation cooperation UE, and in step S25, the aggregation cooperation UE (for example, through its second data processing unit) adds the IP address of the aggregation cooperation UE as the source address, the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the second data part, and sends the second data part to the base station (for example, through its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0098] In step S26, the aggregation initiating UE (e.g., through its first data processing unit) adds the IP address of the aggregation initiating UE as the source address, and the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the first data portion, and sends the first data portion to the base station (e.g., through its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0099] In step S27, the aggregation server (eg, through its aggregation processor) aggregates the received first data portion and the second data portion to restore the transmission data. Subsequently, in step S28, the aggregation server forwards the aggregated transmission data to the target node for use by the target node.

[0100] Figure 9 shows a flowchart of the coordinated transmission system shown in Figure 5 that can be implemented in semi-persistent scheduling mode. The process begins at step S30, where the aggregation-initiating UE sends a coordinated transmission request to the base station. This request can be indicated by a single bit in the uplink control information (UCI) carried on the PUSCH or PUCCH. For example, a "1" indicates that coordinated transmission is required, and a "0" indicates that coordinated transmission is not required.

[0101] In step S31, the base station (e.g., through its resource scheduler) allocates uplink transmission resources to the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. Preferably, resource scheduling can be based on the channel conditions of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. The base station sends resource allocation information to the aggregation initiating UE, where the resource allocation information includes not only the available resource blocks (RBs) of the aggregation initiating UE, but also the available RBs of the aggregation cooperating UE and the corresponding UE identifiers. This resource allocation information can be sent to the aggregation initiating UE via the PDCCH in the form of CG Type 2.

[0102] In step S32, the base station sends activation commands corresponding to the uplink configuration grant to the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE respectively, so that the UE can use the pre-configured transmission resources for PUSCH transmission.

[0103] In step S33, the aggregation initiating UE (e.g., through its first data processing unit) splits the transmission data into a first data portion and a second data portion based on the resource allocation information (available RBs) of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. Optionally, the aggregation initiating UE may also select at least one aggregation cooperating UE suitable for cooperative transmission from a group of aggregation cooperating UEs based on their resource allocation information.

[0104] In step S34, the aggregation initiating UE sends the resource allocation information of the aggregation cooperating UE to the corresponding aggregation cooperating UE (eg, via its Sidelink interface). This can be achieved, for example, by sending Sidelink Control Information (SCI).

[0105] In step S35, the aggregation initiating UE (for example, through its Sidelink interface) sends the split second data part to the corresponding aggregation cooperation UE, and in step S36, the aggregation cooperation UE (for example, through its second data processing unit) replaces the IP address of the aggregation cooperation UE as the source address, the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the second data part, and sends the second data part to the base station (for example, through its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0106] In step S37, the aggregation initiating UE (e.g., through its first data processing unit) adds the IP address of the aggregation initiating UE as the source address, and the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the first data portion, and sends the first data portion to the base station (e.g., through its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0107] In step S38, the aggregation server (eg, through its aggregation processor) aggregates the received first data portion and the second data portion to restore the transmission data. Subsequently, in step S39, the aggregation server forwards the aggregated transmission data to the target node for use by the target node.

[0108] Figure 10 shows a flowchart of the coordinated transmission system shown in Figure 5 in dynamic scheduling mode. The process begins at step S40, where the aggregation-initiating UE sends a coordinated transmission request to the base station. This request can be indicated by a single bit in the uplink control information (UCI) carried on the PUSCH or PUCCH. For example, a "1" indicates that coordinated transmission is required, and a "0" indicates that coordinated transmission is not required.

[0109] The base station (for example, through its resource scheduler) allocates uplink transmission resources to the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. Preferably, resource scheduling can be based on the channel conditions of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. In step S41, the base station sends resource allocation information including UL dynamic grants of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE through PDCCH to the aggregation initiating UE, wherein the resource allocation information includes not only the available resource blocks (RBs) of the aggregation initiating UE, but also the available RBs of the aggregation cooperating UE and the corresponding UE identifiers. In step S42, the base station also sends the UL dynamic grant of the aggregation cooperating UE to the aggregation cooperating UE through PDCCH.

[0110] In step S43, the aggregation initiating UE (e.g., through its first data processing unit) splits the transmission data into a first data portion and a second data portion based on the resource allocation information (available RBs) of the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE. Optionally, the aggregation initiating UE may also select at least one aggregation cooperating UE suitable for cooperative transmission from a group of aggregation cooperating UEs based on their resource allocation information.

[0111] In step S44, the aggregation initiating UE sends the resource allocation information of the aggregation cooperating UE to the corresponding aggregation cooperating UE (eg, via its Sidelink interface). This can be achieved, for example, by sending Sidelink Control Information (SCI).

[0112] In step S45, the aggregation initiating UE (for example, through its Sidelink interface) sends the split second data part to the corresponding aggregation cooperation UE, and in step S46, the aggregation cooperation UE (for example, through its second data processing unit) replaces the IP address of the aggregation cooperation UE as the source address, the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the second data part, and sends the second data part to the base station (for example, through its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0113] In step S47, the aggregation initiating UE (e.g., through its first data processing unit) adds the IP address of the aggregation initiating UE as the source address, and the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address in the data packet of the first data portion, and sends the first data portion to the base station (e.g., through its RAN interface) for transmission to the aggregation server.

[0114] In step S48, the aggregation server (eg, through its aggregation processor) aggregates the received first data portion and the second data portion to restore the transmission data. Subsequently, in step S49, the aggregation server forwards the aggregated transmission data to the target node for use by the target node.

[0115] The transmission conditions (such as channel conditions) of the UEs participating in the collaborative transmission may change. In this case, corresponding adjustments can be made according to different scenarios and requirements. Figure 11 shows an exemplary flowchart for adjusting collaborative transmission. First, the base station determines whether it is necessary to reallocate uplink resources to the UE. The judgment conditions may include: 1) the data reception quality does not meet the predetermined requirements. For example, if the number of retransmissions is greater than the threshold, it is considered that the data reception quality is poor, and the uplink resources need to be reallocated to the UE; 2) the uplink resources are reallocated to the UE according to a predetermined time period. In some scenarios, the relative position between the aggregation initiating UE and the aggregation cooperating UE is basically unchanged, so the channel quality changes are also small, and the base station can maintain a stable data reception quality, then the uplink resources do not need to be reallocated.

[0116] If the base station determines that uplink resources need to be reallocated, it can send the reallocated resource allocation information to the aggregation-initiating UE using the three scheduling modes described above. The aggregation-initiating UE can then re-split the transmission data based on the updated resource allocation information. Subsequently, referring to the processes described in Figures 8-10, the aggregation-initiating UE and the aggregation-cooperating UE can begin transmitting the re-split data portions. This description is omitted here.

[0117] According to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, multi-user collaborative transmission can be implemented based on transmission conditions at the bottom layer, which is beneficial to reducing the processing delay caused by application layer processing.

[0118] According to example embodiments of the present disclosure, the above process can be implemented as a computer software program or on a computer-readable storage medium. For example, embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer program product comprising a computer program tangibly embodied on a machine-readable medium, the computer program comprising program code for executing the method. In such embodiments, the computer program can be downloaded and installed from a network via a communication unit, and / or installed from a removable medium.

[0119] In general, the various example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuitry (e.g., control circuitry), software, logic, or any combination thereof. For example, the units discussed above may be executed by a control circuit (e.g., a CPU in combination with other components), and thus, the control circuitry may perform the actions described in the present disclosure. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software that may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device (e.g., control circuitry). Although various aspects of the example embodiments of the present disclosure are shown and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other graphical representation, it will be understood that the modules, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented as, by way of non-limiting example, hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuitry or logic, general-purpose hardware or a controller or other computing device, or some combination thereof.

[0120] Furthermore, the various blocks shown in the flowcharts may be viewed as method steps, and / or operations resulting from the operation of computer program code, and / or as a plurality of coupled logic circuit elements configured to perform the associated function(s). For example, embodiments of the present disclosure include a computer program product comprising a computer program tangibly embodied on a machine-readable medium, the computer program comprising program code configured to perform the above-described method.

[0121] In the context of the present disclosure, a machine-readable medium may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program used by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, device, or apparatus. A machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. A machine-readable medium may be non-transient and may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of machine-readable storage media would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0122] [Exemplary Implementation of the Present Disclosure]

[0123] According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, various implementations of the concepts of the present disclosure can be envisioned, including but not limited to:

[0124] 1) An electronic device for aggregating and initiating user equipment (UE), comprising:

[0125] The processing circuit is configured to:

[0126] Acquiring transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE;

[0127] Splitting the transmission data into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE respectively based on the acquired transmission condition information;

[0128] transmitting the first data portion to an aggregation server via a base station; and

[0129] sending the at least one second data portion to the at least one aggregation cooperation UE respectively so that the aggregation cooperation UE transmits the corresponding second data portion to the aggregation server via the base station;

[0130] The first data portion and at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node.

[0131] 2) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein the transmission condition information includes network status information of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE detected by a network status management server.

[0132] 3) In the electronic device described in 2), the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0133] a) sending a network status request including the IP addresses of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE to a network status management server, and receiving, as a response to the network status request, network status information based on the IP address test of each UE from the network status management server; or

[0134] b) receiving the network status information of the aggregation initiating UE pushed by the network status management server, and receiving, from the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, the network status information pushed by the network status management server to the corresponding aggregation cooperating UE.

[0135] 4) The electronic device as described in 2), wherein the network status information includes at least one of an average transmission rate, a packet loss rate, and an end-to-end delay.

[0136] 5) The electronic device as described in 1), wherein the aggregation server is implemented in any one of the following locations: the target node, the base station, a public network, and a core network of a wireless communication system.

[0137] 6) The electronic device according to 1), wherein the transmission condition information includes resource allocation information received from the base station, the resource allocation information indicating resource blocks (RBs) and associated UE identifiers allocated by the base station to the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, and wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0138] The transmission data is split based on RBs available to the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE.

[0139] 7) The electronic device according to 6), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0140] Sending a cooperation request indicating that coordinated transmission is required to the base station through uplink control information (UCI); and

[0141] As a response to the cooperation request, resource allocation information scheduled by the base station based on the channel conditions of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE is received.

[0142] 8) The electronic device as described in 6), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to send the corresponding second data part and resource allocation information to each aggregated cooperative UE in the at least one aggregated cooperative UE via Sidelink.

[0143] 9) The electronic device as described in 6), wherein the resource allocation information includes uplink configuration authorization or uplink dynamic authorization.

[0144] 10) The electronic device as described in 7), wherein the splitting occurs at the application layer or the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer.

[0145] 11) The electronic device according to 1), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0146] Sending a cooperative transmission request to the at least one aggregated cooperative UE; and

[0147] A cooperation confirmation message is received from the at least one converged cooperation UE, where the cooperation confirmation message indicates that the corresponding converged cooperation UE is available for cooperative transmission and includes an IP address of the converged cooperation UE.

[0148] 12) The electronic device according to 1), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0149] receiving transmission condition information of a group of aggregated cooperative UEs from a base station; and

[0150] The at least one aggregated cooperative UE is selected from the group of aggregated cooperative UEs based on the received transmission condition information.

[0151] 13) An electronic device for aggregating collaborative user equipment (UE), comprising:

[0152] The processing circuit is configured to:

[0153] receiving a second data portion of transmission data from the aggregation initiating UE, the transmission data being split into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE to the aggregation server and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE to the aggregation server based on transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE; and

[0154] transmitting the second data portion to the aggregation server via a base station,

[0155] The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node.

[0156] 14) The electronic device according to 13), wherein the transmission condition information includes network status information detected by a network status management server.

[0157] 15) The electronic device as described in 14), wherein the aggregation server is implemented at any one of the following locations: the target node, the base station, a public network, and a core network of a wireless communication system.

[0158] 16) The electronic device according to 15), wherein the transmission condition information includes resource allocation information, the resource allocation information indicating resource blocks (RBs) and associated UE identifiers allocated by the base station to the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, and wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0159] Corresponding resource allocation information is received from the aggregation initiating UE.

[0160] 17) The electronic device according to 13), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0161] receiving a coordinated transmission request from the aggregation-initiating UE; and

[0162] A cooperation confirmation message is sent to the aggregation initiating UE, where the cooperation confirmation message indicates that the aggregation cooperating UE is available for cooperative transmission and includes the IP address of the aggregation cooperating UE.

[0163] 18) The electronic device according to 13), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0164] The IP address of the aggregation cooperation UE is added as a source address in the second data portion received from the slave, and the IP addresses of the aggregation server and the target node are added as destination addresses.

[0165] 19) An electronic device for a base station, comprising:

[0166] The processing circuit is configured to:

[0167] Sending resource allocation information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE to an aggregation initiating UE;

[0168] receiving a first data portion and at least one second data portion of transmission data from the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, where the first data portion and the at least one second data portion of the transmission data are split by the aggregation initiating UE based on the resource allocation information; and

[0169] The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated and the aggregated data is transmitted to a destination node.

[0170] 20) The electronic device according to 19), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0171] receiving a cooperation request indicating that coordinated transmission is required from the aggregation initiating UE through uplink control information (UCI); and

[0172] Transmission resources are allocated to each UE based on channel conditions of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE.

[0173] 21) The electronic device as described in 19), wherein the resource allocation information includes uplink configuration authorization or uplink dynamic authorization.

[0174] 22) The electronic device according to 19), wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0175] In response to data reception quality failing to meet a predetermined requirement or according to a time period, resources are reallocated for at least one of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE.

[0176] 23) A communication method, comprising:

[0177] Acquiring transmission condition information of an aggregation-initiating user equipment (UE) and at least one aggregation-cooperating UE;

[0178] Splitting the transmission data into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE respectively based on the acquired transmission condition information;

[0179] transmitting the first data portion to an aggregation server via a base station; and

[0180] sending the at least one second data portion to the at least one aggregation cooperation UE respectively so that the aggregation cooperation UE transmits the corresponding second data portion to the aggregation server via the base station;

[0181] The first data portion and at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node.

[0182] 24) A communication method, comprising:

[0183] receiving a second data portion of transmission data from an aggregation initiating user equipment (UE), the transmission data being split into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE to an aggregation server and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE to the aggregation server based on transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE; and

[0184] transmitting the second data portion to the aggregation server via a base station,

[0185] The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node.

[0186] 25) A communication method, comprising:

[0187] Sending resource allocation information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE to an aggregation initiating UE;

[0188] receiving a first data portion and at least one second data portion of transmission data from the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, where the first data portion and the at least one second data portion of the transmission data are split by the aggregation initiating UE based on the resource allocation information; and

[0189] The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated and the aggregated data is transmitted to a destination node.

[0190] 26. A computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions, wherein the executable instructions, when executed, implement the communication method as described in any one of 23) to 25).

[0191] [Application Examples of the Present Disclosure]

[0192] FIG12 shows an example block diagram of a computer that can be implemented as a terminal device or a control device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0193] 12 , a central processing unit (CPU) 1301 executes various processes according to a program stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 1302 or a program loaded from a storage section 1308 to a random access memory (RAM) 1303. In the RAM 1303, data required when the CPU 1301 executes various processes and the like is also stored as needed.

[0194] The CPU 1301, the ROM 1302, and the RAM 1303 are connected to one another via a bus 1304. An input / output interface 1305 is also connected to the bus 1304.

[0195] The following components are connected to the input / output interface 1305: an input section 1306 including a keyboard, a mouse, etc.; an output section 1307 including a display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), etc., and a speaker, etc.; a storage section 1308 including a hard disk, etc.; and a communication section 1309 including a network interface card such as a LAN card, a modem, etc. The communication section 1309 performs communication processing via a network such as the Internet.

[0196] A drive 1310 is also connected to the input / output interface 1305 as needed. A removable medium 1311 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, etc. is mounted on the drive 1310 as needed so that a computer program read therefrom is installed in the storage section 1308 as needed.

[0197] In the case of realizing the above-described series of processing by software, a program constituting the software is installed from a network such as the Internet or a storage medium such as the removable medium 1311 .

[0198] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such storage media are not limited to the removable media 1311 shown in FIG12 , which stores programs therein and is distributed separately from the device to provide the programs to users. Examples of the removable media 1311 include magnetic disks (including floppy disks (registered trademark)), optical disks (including compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs)), magneto-optical disks (including minidiscs (MDs) (registered trademark)), and semiconductor memories. Alternatively, the storage medium may be the ROM 1302, a hard disk included in the storage section 1308, or the like, in which the programs are stored and distributed to users together with the device containing them.

[0199] The techniques described in this disclosure can be applied to a variety of products.

[0200] For example, the electronic device according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented as various base stations or installed in a base station, or may be implemented as various user equipments or installed in various user equipments.

[0201] The communication method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by various base stations or user equipment; the methods and operations according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be embodied as computer-executable instructions, stored in a non-temporary computer-readable storage medium, and can be executed by various base stations or user equipment to implement one or more functions described above.

[0202] The technology according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be made into various computer program products, which can be used in various base stations or user equipments to implement one or more functions described above.

[0203] The base stations referred to in this disclosure may be implemented as any type of base station, preferably, such as the macro gNB and ng-eNB defined in the 3GPP 5G NR standard. A gNB may cover a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico gNB, micro gNB, and home (femto) gNB. Alternatively, a base station may be implemented as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB, eNodeB, and base transceiver station (BTS). A base station may also include: a main body configured to control wireless communications, and one or more remote radio heads (RRHs) located separately from the main body, wireless relay stations, drone towers, control nodes in automated factories, and the like.

[0204] The user equipment can be implemented as a mobile terminal (such as a smartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable / dongle-type mobile router, and a digital camera) or an in-vehicle terminal (such as a car navigation device). The user equipment can also be implemented as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also known as a machine-type communication (MTC) terminal), a drone, a sensor and actuator in an automated factory, etc. In addition, the user equipment can be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) installed on each of the above terminals.

[0205] First application example of base station

[0206] FIG13 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the techniques of this disclosure may be applied. In FIG13 , the base station may be implemented as gNB 1400. gNB 1400 includes multiple antennas 1410 and a base station device 1420. Base station device 1420 and each antenna 1410 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. In one implementation, gNB 1400 (or base station device 1420) herein may correspond to the base station described in the above embodiments.

[0207] Antenna 1410 includes multiple antenna elements. Antenna 1410 can be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and used by base station device 1420 to transmit and receive wireless signals. For example, multiple antennas 1410 can be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1400.

[0208] The base station device 1420 includes a controller 1421 , a memory 1422 , a network interface 1423 , and a wireless communication interface 1425 .

[0209] The controller 1421 may be, for example, a CPU or DSP, and operates various higher-layer functions of the base station device 1420. For example, the controller 1421 may include functions for executing the method flows described in Figures 8-10. For example, the controller 1421 generates data packets based on data in signals processed by the wireless communication interface 1425 and transmits the generated packets via the network interface 1423. The controller 1421 may bundle data from multiple baseband processors to generate bundled packets and transmit the generated bundled packets. The controller 1421 may have logic functions for performing control such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control, and scheduling. This control may be performed in conjunction with nearby gNBs or core network nodes. The memory 1422 includes RAM and ROM and stores programs executed by the controller 1421 and various types of control data (such as terminal lists, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

[0210] The network interface 1423 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1420 to the core network 1424 (e.g., a 5G core network). The controller 1421 can communicate with the core network node or another gNB via the network interface 1423. In this case, the gNB 1400 and the core network node or other gNB can be connected to each other via logical interfaces (such as NG interfaces and Xn interfaces). The network interface 1423 can also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for wireless backhaul lines. If the network interface 1423 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1423 can use a higher frequency band for wireless communication than the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1425.

[0211] The wireless communication interface 1425 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 5G NR) and provides wireless connectivity to terminals located in the cell of the gNB 1400 via the antenna 1410. The wireless communication interface 1425 may typically include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1426 and RF circuitry 1427. The BB processor 1426 can perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and various types of signal processing at various layers (e.g., the physical layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, and SDAP layer). In place of the controller 1421, the BB processor 1426 may perform some or all of the aforementioned logical functions. The BB processor 1426 may be a memory that stores communication control programs, or a module including a processor configured to execute programs and associated circuitry. Program updates can modify the functionality of the BB processor 1426. This module may be a card or blade inserted into a slot in the base station device 1420. Alternatively, it may be a chip mounted on the card or blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1427 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1410. Although FIG13 shows an example in which one RF circuit 1427 is connected to one antenna 1410, the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1427 may be connected to multiple antennas 1410 at the same time.

[0212] As shown in Figure 13 , the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple BB processors 1426. For example, multiple BB processors 1426 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1400. As shown in Figure 13 , the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple RF circuits 1427. For example, multiple RF circuits 1427 may be compatible with multiple antenna elements. While Figure 13 illustrates an example in which the wireless communication interface 1425 includes multiple BB processors 1426 and multiple RF circuits 1427, the wireless communication interface 1425 may also include a single BB processor 1426 or a single RF circuit 1427.

[0213] In the gNB 1400 shown in FIG13 , one or more units for executing the method flows described in FIG8-10 may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 825. Alternatively, at least a portion of these units may be implemented in the controller 821. For example, the gNB 1400 may include a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1426) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1425, and / or a module including the controller 1421, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that enables the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program that enables the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, the program that enables the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1400, and the wireless communication interface 1425 (e.g., the BB processor 1426) and / or the controller 1421 may execute the program. As described above, the gNB 1400, base station device 1420, or module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and the program that enables the processor to function as one or more components may also be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein can be provided.

[0214] Second application example of base station

[0215] FIG14 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. In FIG14 , the base station is shown as a gNB 1530. The gNB 1530 includes multiple antennas 1540, a base station device 1550, and an RRH 1560. The RRH 1560 and each antenna 1540 can be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station device 1550 and the RRH 1560 can be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1530 (or base station device 1550) herein may correspond to the base station described in the above embodiments.

[0216] Antenna 1540 includes multiple antenna elements. Antenna 1540 can be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used by base station device 1550 to transmit and receive wireless signals. For example, multiple antennas 1540 can be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1530.

[0217] Base station device 1550 includes a controller 1551, a memory 1552, a network interface 1553, a wireless communication interface 1555, and a connection interface 1557. Controller 1551, memory 1552, and network interface 1553 are the same as controller 1421, memory 1422, and network interface 1423 described with reference to FIG.

[0218] The wireless communication interface 1555 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 5G NR) and provides wireless communication to terminals located in the sector corresponding to the RRH 1560 via the RRH 1560 and the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1555 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1556. The BB processor 1556 is identical to the BB processor 1426 described with reference to FIG. 13 , except that the BB processor 1556 is connected to the RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560 via the connection interface 1557. As shown in FIG. 14 , the wireless communication interface 1555 may include multiple BB processors 1556. For example, multiple BB processors 1556 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1530. Although FIG. 14 illustrates an example in which the wireless communication interface 1555 includes multiple BB processors 1556, the wireless communication interface 1555 may also include a single BB processor 1556.

[0219] The connection interface 1557 is an interface for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560. The connection interface 1557 may also be a communication module for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560 for communication in the high-speed line.

[0220] The RRH 1560 includes a connection interface 1561 and a wireless communication interface 1563 .

[0221] The connection interface 1561 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1560 (wireless communication interface 1563) to the base station device 1550. The connection interface 1561 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0222] The wireless communication interface 1563 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1563 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 1564. The RF circuit 1564 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. Although FIG14 illustrates an example in which one RF circuit 1564 is connected to one antenna 1540, the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1564 may be connected to multiple antennas 1540 simultaneously.

[0223] As shown in FIG14 , the wireless communication interface 1563 may include multiple RF circuits 1564. For example, multiple RF circuits 1564 may support multiple antenna elements. Although FIG14 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1563 includes multiple RF circuits 1564, the wireless communication interface 1563 may also include a single RF circuit 1564.

[0224] In the gNB 1500 shown in FIG14 , one or more units for implementing the method flow described with reference to FIG8-10 may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1525. Alternatively, at least a portion of these units may be implemented in the controller 1521. For example, the gNB 1500 may include a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1526) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1525, and / or a module including the controller 1521, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that enables the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program that enables the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, the program that enables the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1500, and the wireless communication interface 1525 (e.g., the BB processor 1526) and / or the controller 1521 may execute the program. As described above, the gNB 1500, base station device 1520, or module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and the program that enables the processor to function as one or more components may also be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein can be provided.

[0225] First application example of user equipment

[0226] 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 1600 to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied. In one example, the smartphone 1600 may be implemented as an aggregation initiating UE or an aggregation cooperating UE described in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0227] The smart phone 1600 includes a processor 1601, a memory 1602, a storage device 1603, an external connection interface 1604, a camera 1606, a sensor 1607, a microphone 1608, an input device 1609, a display device 1610, a speaker 1611, a wireless communication interface 1612, one or more antenna switches 1615, one or more antennas 1616, a bus 1617, a battery 1618 and an auxiliary controller 1619.

[0228] The processor 1601 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip (SoC), and controls the functions of the application layer and other layers of the smartphone 1600. The processor 1601 may include or serve as a processing circuit for executing the method flow described in Figures 4, 8-10. The memory 1602 includes RAM and ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1601 to implement the communication method described with reference to Figures 4, 8-10. The storage device 1603 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 1604 is an interface for connecting an external device (such as a memory card and a universal serial bus (USB) device) to the smartphone 1600.

[0229] The camera 1606 includes an image sensor (such as a charge coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)) and generates a captured image. The sensor 1607 may include a group of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1608 converts the sound input to the smartphone 1600 into an audio signal. The input device 1609 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1610, and receives an operation or information input from the user. The display device 1610 includes a screen (such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display) and displays the output image of the smartphone 1600. The speaker 1611 converts the audio signal output from the smartphone 1600 into sound.

[0230] The wireless communication interface 1612 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR, etc.) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1612 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614. The BB processor 1613 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1614 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1616. The wireless communication interface 1612 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 1613 and the RF circuit 1614 are integrated. As shown in FIG. 15 , the wireless communication interface 1612 may include multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits 1614. Although FIG. 15 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1612 includes multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits 1614, the wireless communication interface 1612 may also include a single BB processor 1613 or a single RF circuit 1614.

[0231] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1612 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless local area network (LAN) scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614 for each wireless communication scheme.

[0232] Each of the antenna switches 1615 switches the connection destination of the antenna 1616 between a plurality of circuits (eg, circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 1612 .

[0233] The antenna 1616 includes a plurality of antenna elements. The antenna 1616 may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used for the wireless communication interface 1612 to transmit and receive wireless signals. The smartphone 1600 may include one or more antenna panels (not shown).

[0234] In addition, the smartphone 1600 may include an antenna 1616 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1615 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 1600.

[0235] The bus 1617 connects the processor 1601, the memory 1602, the storage device 1603, the external connection interface 1604, the camera 1606, the sensor 1607, the microphone 1608, the input device 1609, the display device 1610, the speaker 1611, the wireless communication interface 1612, and the auxiliary controller 1619. The battery 1618 supplies power to the various blocks of the smartphone 1600 shown in FIG15 via feeders, which are partially shown as dashed lines in the figure. The auxiliary controller 1619 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 1600, for example, in sleep mode.

[0236] In the smartphone 1600 shown in FIG15 , one or more units for implementing the method flows shown in FIG4 , 8-10 may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1612. Alternatively, at least a portion of these units may be implemented in the processor 1601 or the auxiliary controller 1619. As an example, the smartphone 1600 includes a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1613) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1612, and / or a module including the processor 1601 and / or the auxiliary controller 1619, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the smartphone 1600, and the wireless communication interface 1612 (e.g., the BB processor 1613), the processor 1601, and / or the auxiliary controller 1619 may execute the program. As described above, the smartphone 1600 or module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0237] Second application example of user equipment

[0238] Figure 16 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 1720 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation device 1720 can be implemented as the UE described in the embodiments of the present disclosure. The car navigation device 1720 includes a processor 1721, a memory 1722, a global positioning system (GPS) module 1724, a sensor 1725, a data interface 1726, a content player 1727, a storage medium interface 1728, an input device 1729, a display device 1730, a speaker 1731, a wireless communication interface 1733, one or more antenna switches 1736, one or more antennas 1737, and a battery 1738. In one example, the car navigation device 1720 can be implemented as the aggregation initiating UE or the aggregation cooperating UE described in the present disclosure.

[0239] The processor 1721 may be, for example, a CPU or an SoC, and controls a navigation function and other functions of the car navigation device 1720. The memory 1722 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1721.

[0240] The GPS module 1724 uses GPS signals received from GPS satellites to measure the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the car navigation device 1720. The sensor 1725 may include a group of sensors such as a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 1726 is connected to, for example, the vehicle network 1741 via a terminal not shown, and obtains data generated by the vehicle (such as vehicle speed data).

[0241] The content player 1727 reproduces content stored in a storage medium (such as a CD or DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 1728. The input device 1729 includes, for example, a touch sensor, button, or switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1730, and receives operations or information input from the user. The display device 1730 includes a screen such as an LCD or OLED display and displays images of the navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 1731 outputs sounds of the navigation function or reproduced content.

[0242] The wireless communication interface 1733 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1733 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735. The BB processor 1734 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1735 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1737. The wireless communication interface 1733 may also be a chip module on which the BB processor 1734 and the RF circuit 1735 are integrated. As shown in Figure 15, the wireless communication interface 1733 may include multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735. Although Figure 15 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1733 includes multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735, the wireless communication interface 1733 may also include a single BB processor 1734 or a single RF circuit 1735.

[0243] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near field communication schemes, and wireless LAN schemes. In this case, for each wireless communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can include a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735.

[0244] Each of the antenna switches 1736 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1737 between a plurality of circuits included in the wireless communication interface 1733 , such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes.

[0245] The antenna 1737 includes a plurality of antenna elements and may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used by the wireless communication interface 1733 to transmit and receive wireless signals.

[0246] In addition, the car navigation device 1720 may include an antenna 1737 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1736 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 1720.

[0247] The battery 1738 supplies power to the respective blocks of the car navigation device 1720 shown in Fig. 15 via a feeder line, which is partially shown as a dotted line in the figure. The battery 1738 accumulates the power supplied from the vehicle.

[0248] In the car navigation device 1720 shown in FIG15 , one or more units for executing the method flows shown in FIG4 , 8-10 may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1733. Alternatively, at least a portion of these units may be implemented in the processor 1721. As an example, the car navigation device 1720 includes a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1734) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1733, and / or a module including the processor 1721, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the car navigation device 1720, and the wireless communication interface 1733 (e.g., the BB processor 1734) and / or the processor 1721 may execute the program. As described above, the car navigation device 1720 or a module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein can be provided.

[0249] The technology of the present disclosure can also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 1740 including a car navigation device 1720, an in-vehicle network 1741, and one or more blocks of a vehicle module 1742. The vehicle module 1742 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the in-vehicle network 1741.

[0250] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present disclosure is certainly not limited to the above examples. Those skilled in the art may obtain various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications will naturally fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0251] For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0252] In this specification, the steps described in the flowchart include not only processing executed in time series in the order described, but also processing executed in parallel or individually rather than necessarily in time series. In addition, even in the steps processed in time series, it goes without saying that the order can be changed as appropriate.

[0253] Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and transformations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variations thereof in the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, such that a process, method, article, or device comprising a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article, or device. In the absence of further restrictions, an element defined by the statement "comprising a ..." does not exclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or device comprising the element.

Claims

1. An electronic device for aggregating and initiating user equipment (UE), comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: Acquire transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE; Based on the acquired transmission condition information, split the transmission data into a first data part to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE and at least one second data part to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE respectively; transmitting the first data portion to an aggregation server via a base station; as well as sending the at least one second data portion to the at least one aggregation cooperation UE respectively so that the aggregation cooperation UE transmits the corresponding second data portion to the aggregation server via the base station, The first data portion and at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node. 2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the transmission condition information comprises network status information of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperative UE detected by a network status management server.

3. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: a) sending a network status request including the IP addresses of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE to a network status management server, and receiving network status information based on the IP address test of each UE from the network status management server as a response to the network status request; or b) receiving the network status information of the aggregation initiating UE pushed by the network status management server, and receiving, from the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, the network status information pushed by the network status management server to the corresponding aggregation cooperating UE.

4. The electronic device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the network status information comprises at least one of an average transmission rate, a packet loss rate, and an end-to-end delay. 5 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the aggregation server is implemented at any one of the following: the target node, the base station, a public network, or a core network of a wireless communication system.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission condition information comprises resource allocation information received from the base station, the resource allocation information indicating resource blocks (RBs) and associated UE identifiers allocated by the base station to the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, and wherein, The processing circuit is further configured to: The transmission data is split based on RBs available to the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE.

7. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: Sending a cooperation request indicating that cooperative transmission is required to the base station through uplink control information (UCI); and As a response to the cooperation request, resource allocation information scheduled by the base station based on the channel conditions of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE is received. 8 . The electronic device of claim 6 , wherein the processing circuit is further configured to send the corresponding second data portion and resource allocation information to each of the at least one converged cooperative UE via a sidelink.

9. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein the resource allocation information comprises an uplink configuration grant or an uplink dynamic grant.

10. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the splitting occurs at an application layer or a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer.

11. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: sending a cooperative transmission request to the at least one aggregate cooperative UE; and A cooperation confirmation message is received from the at least one converged cooperation UE, where the cooperation confirmation message indicates that the corresponding converged cooperation UE is available for cooperative transmission and includes an IP address of the converged cooperation UE.

12. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: receiving transmission condition information of a group of aggregated cooperative UEs from a base station; and Based on the received transmission condition information, the at least one aggregated UE is selected from the group of aggregated cooperative UEs. Collaborative UEs.

13. An electronic device for aggregating collaborative user equipment (UE), comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: receiving a second data portion of transmission data from an aggregation initiating UE, wherein the transmission data is split into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE to an aggregation server and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE to the aggregation server based on transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE; as well as transmitting the second data portion to the aggregation server via a base station, The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node. 14 . The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein the transmission condition information comprises network status information detected by a network status management server. 15 . The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the aggregation server is implemented at any one of the following: the target node, the base station, a public network, a core network of a wireless communication system.

16. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein the transmission condition information comprises resource allocation information, the resource allocation information indicating resource blocks (RBs) and associated UE identifiers allocated by the base station to the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, and wherein, The processing circuit is further configured to: Corresponding resource allocation information is received from the aggregation initiating UE.

17. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: receiving a coordinated transmission request from the aggregation-initiating UE; and A collaboration confirmation message is sent to the aggregation initiating UE, where the collaboration confirmation message indicates that the aggregation collaboration UE is available for collaborative transmission and includes an IP address of the aggregation collaboration UE.

18. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: In the received second data part, the IP address of the aggregation cooperation UE is added as the source address and Add the IP address of the aggregation server and the target node as the destination address.

19. An electronic device for a base station, comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: Sending resource allocation information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE to an aggregation initiating user equipment (UE); Receiving a first data portion and at least one second data portion of transmission data from the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, wherein the first data portion and the at least one second data portion of the transmission data are split by the aggregation initiating UE based on the resource allocation information; as well as The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated and the aggregated data is transmitted to a destination node.

20. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: receiving a cooperation request indicating that cooperative transmission is required from the aggregation initiating UE through uplink control information (UCI); and Transmission resources are allocated to each UE based on channel conditions of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE.

21. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the resource allocation information comprises an uplink configuration grant or an uplink dynamic grant.

22. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: In response to data reception quality failing to meet a predetermined requirement or according to a time period, resources are reallocated for at least one of the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE.

23. A communication method, comprising: Acquiring transmission condition information of an aggregation initiating user equipment (UE) and at least one aggregation cooperating UE; Based on the acquired transmission condition information, split the transmission data into a first data part to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE and at least one second data part to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE respectively; transmitting the first data portion to an aggregation server via a base station; as well as sending the at least one second data portion to the at least one aggregation cooperation UE respectively so that the aggregation cooperation UE transmits the corresponding second data portion to the aggregation server via the base station, The first data portion and at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node.

24. A communication method, comprising: receiving a second data portion of transmission data from an aggregation initiating user equipment (UE), the transmission data being split into a first data portion to be transmitted by the aggregation initiating UE to an aggregation server and at least one second data portion to be transmitted by the at least one aggregation cooperating UE to the aggregation server based on transmission condition information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE; as well as transmitting the second data portion to the aggregation server via a base station, The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated by the aggregation server and transmitted to the target node.

25. A communication method, comprising: Sending resource allocation information of the aggregation initiating UE and at least one aggregation cooperating UE to an aggregation initiating user equipment (UE); Receiving a first data portion and at least one second data portion of transmission data from the aggregation initiating UE and the at least one aggregation cooperating UE, respectively, wherein the first data portion and the at least one second data portion of the transmission data are split by the aggregation initiating UE based on the resource allocation information; as well as The first data portion and the at least one second data portion are aggregated and the aggregated data is transmitted to a destination node.

26. A computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions, which when executed implement the communication method according to any one of claims 23 to 25.

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