Communication method and device

Abstract

Provided are a communication method and device, in the scheme, a terminal device can send first service data in an RLC layer for multiple times according to channel quality. According to the method, an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism of the terminal equipment is provided, the terminal equipment does not depend on an RLC state report to trigger RLC retransmission through the mechanism, and the RLC retransmission can be initiatively initiated through signal quality under the condition that the RLC state report is not received, so that the terminal equipment can initiate the RLC retransmission as soon as possible in a scene with a relatively poor network state, and the user experience is improved. Therefore, the transmission delay of the service data is reduced, and the data transmission reliability is improved.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] In mobile communication systems, the user plane protocol stack between terminal devices and network devices includes at least the following protocol layers: physical (PHY) layer, media access control (MAC) layer, and radio link control (RLC) layer.

[0003] To ensure the reliability of data transmission between terminal devices and network devices, different protocol layers in the protocol stack have some retransmission mechanisms, such as MAC retransmission and RLC retransmission.

[0004] MAC retransmission: The Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) mechanism is the most commonly used retransmission mechanism at the MAC layer. Its principle is as follows: the receiver sends HARQ feedback indicating whether the data packet transmission was successful or failed to the sender. The sender then determines whether to retransmit the data packet based on the transmission status. For example, HARQ feedback can be HARQ acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), including: Acknowledgement (ACK) and Negative Acknowledgement (NACK).

[0005] RLC Retransmission: As a supplement to the MAC retransmission mechanism, the Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) mechanism is a commonly used retransmission mechanism in the RLC layer. ARQ is triggered only when the MAC layer fails to transmit data packets successfully through multiple HARQ retransmissions. The principle of ARQ is as follows: the receiver's RLC entity sends an RLC status report to the sender's RLC entity. This RLC status report carries information indicating the transmission status of multiple data packets; the sender's RLC can actually initiate retransmissions based on this RLC status report.

[0006] To reduce transmission overhead, the HARQ mechanism does not include cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for HARQ feedback. Therefore, the transmission reliability of HARQ feedback itself cannot be guaranteed, and consequently, the HARQ mechanism cannot guarantee high data transmission reliability. In contrast, RLC status reports have a lower transmission frequency and incorporate CRC protection, resulting in higher transmission reliability. Thus, high data transmission reliability can also be achieved based on the ARQ mechanism.

[0007] As described above regarding the two retransmission mechanisms, in mobile communication systems, RLC retransmission is necessary to ensure high data transmission reliability. However, RLC retransmission requires multiple failed HARQ retransmissions from both the sender and receiver to trigger a transmission RLC status report before it can be further activated. The time from initial RLC transmission to RLC retransmission can be quite long, making it impossible to guarantee the data transmission latency requirements and reliability for some services with stringent latency constraints. Summary of the Invention

[0008] This application provides a communication method and device for providing an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for a terminal device, thereby reducing data transmission latency and improving data transmission reliability.

[0009] Among them, the automatic RLC retransmission of terminal devices means that the terminal devices no longer rely on the RLC status report to trigger RLC retransmission, and can actively send the service data in the RLC layer multiple times without receiving the RLC status report.

[0010] It should be understood that retransmission not only refers to the sender sending the same data again after sending it for the first time; it can also be understood as "retransmission" if the sender sends the same data multiple times at a single sending time for data that has not yet been sent.

[0011] Firstly, embodiments of this application provide a communication method that can be applied to a terminal device. Here, "terminal device" can refer to the terminal device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system within the terminal device that implements the method. The following description uses the execution of this method by a terminal device as an example. The method includes the following steps:

[0012] The terminal device determines the signal quality and transmits the first service data in the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer multiple times based on the signal quality.

[0013] This method provides an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for terminal devices. Through this mechanism, terminal devices no longer rely on RLC status reports to trigger RLC retransmission. Instead, they can proactively initiate RLC retransmission based on signal quality even without receiving an RLC status report. This allows terminal devices to initiate RLC retransmission earlier in scenarios with poor network conditions, thereby reducing the transmission latency of service data and improving the reliability of data transmission.

[0014] In one possible design, the terminal device can also receive transmission configuration information from a network device, which is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality.

[0015] With this design, terminal devices can perform automatic RLC retransmission based on the network device configuration.

[0016] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times based on signal quality.

[0017] This design allows for configuration granularity of transmission configuration information at the DRB level, PDCP entity level, RLC channel level, RLC entity level, logical channel level, or LCG level. This enables terminal devices to determine which specific RLC entities will execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism based on the configured transmission configuration information.

[0018] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes enable indication information; the enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the transmission of RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality.

[0019] With this design, the terminal device can enable / start sending the RLC layer service data multiple times based on the enable indication information, i.e., start the execution of the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism.

[0020] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes a signal quality threshold; when the signal quality is less than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the terminal device transmits the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times.

[0021] This signal quality threshold is used to determine the signal quality trigger conditions for sending service data multiple times. Through this design, network devices can be configured to determine the signal quality trigger conditions for terminal devices to initiate automatic RLC retransmission.

[0022] In one possible design, since the signal quality in the wireless air interface may be unstable, the terminal device can determine the signal quality within a first time period to obtain a more stable, accurate signal quality that better reflects the current network status.

[0023] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes the first duration.

[0024] In one possible design, the number of signal quality thresholds is multiple; the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times through the following steps:

[0025] When the signal quality is less than or equal to the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the first signal quality range, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M1 times; when the signal quality is less than the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the second signal quality range, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M2 times; wherein, the first signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds; the second signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds, or based on the minimum signal quality threshold; any value within the first signal quality range is greater than any value within the second signal quality range; the maximum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the largest value among the plurality of signal quality thresholds, and the minimum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the smallest value among the plurality of signal quality thresholds; M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and M2 is an integer greater than M1.

[0026] This design allows the terminal device to determine not only whether to send service data multiple times when the transmission configuration information includes multiple signal quality thresholds, but also the number of times service data can be sent. The terminal device can determine multiple signal quality ranges based on these thresholds, thus enabling a tiered setting of the number of service data transmissions according to signal quality. The worse the signal quality measured by the terminal device, the higher the number of times the terminal device will perform RLC retransmission.

[0027] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information further includes the number of transmissions M1 corresponding to the first signal quality range and the number of transmissions M2 corresponding to the second signal quality range.

[0028] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions N, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; based on this, the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer N times according to the signal quality.

[0029] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes a HARQ retransmission count threshold; based on this, when the HARQ retransmission count of the first service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission count threshold, the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0030] Through this design, network devices can also set a HARQ retransmission count threshold as a trigger condition for terminal devices to initiate automatic RLC retransmission.

[0031] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes data indication information: the data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range of service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times based on signal quality; the terminal device can also determine the first service data based on the data indication information; wherein, the first service data belongs to the data range.

[0032] In one possible design, the data indication information includes at least one of the following:

[0033] PDU set importance type, PDU set importance threshold, PDU set delay urgency type, and remaining transmission time threshold.

[0034] In one possible design, the terminal device includes a first PDCP entity and a first RLC entity; the terminal device can determine the first service data based on the data indication information through the following steps:

[0035] The first PDCP entity determines the first service data based on the data indication information; the first PDCP entity sends first indication information to the first RLC entity, the first indication information being used to indicate that the first service data needs to be sent multiple times; or the first PDCP entity adds second indication information to the header of the first data packet carrying the first service data, the second indication information being used to indicate that the first service data carried in the first data packet needs to be sent multiple times; the first RLC entity determines the first service data that needs to be sent multiple times based on the first indication information or the second indication information in the header of the first data packet.

[0036] Through this design, the terminal device can interact with the first PDCP entity and the first RLC entity, enabling the first RLC entity to determine the first service data that falls within the data range indicated by the data indication information.

[0037] In one possible design, to achieve maximum reliability gain, the terminal device may send multiple first data blocks; wherein each first data block carries the first service data.

[0038] In one possible design, the target data block in a plurality of first data blocks also carries second service data, wherein the priority of the first service data is different from that of the second service data; the terminal device can also encapsulate the first service data and the second service data into the target data block in the order of the priority of the first service data and the priority of the second service data.

[0039] This design allows terminal devices to encapsulate different service data into a TB (Transmission Block) based on their priorities. The priority of service data can be set according to whether it belongs to RLC initial transmission or RLC retransmission, or according to the remaining transmission time. Optionally, the priority setting rules for service data can be configured by the network device, for example, by including priority setting information in the transmission configuration information; or they can be determined by the terminal device or specified by the communication protocol.

[0040] In one possible design, when the second service data is the first transmission of the terminal device, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data; or when the remaining transmission time of the first service data is less than the remaining transmission time of the second service data, the priority of the first service data is higher than the priority of the second service data; or when the second service data is the service data retransmitted by the terminal device based on the received RLC status report, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data.

[0041] In one possible design, the terminal device may, based on the signal quality, transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times during the i-th HARQ retransmission of the first service data; where i is a positive integer.

[0042] With this design, the terminal device can automatically initiate RLC retransmission of the first service data when the HARQ retransmission opportunity of the first service data is available.

[0043] In one possible design, the terminal device includes a physical layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, and a first RLC entity; the physical layer or the MAC layer can measure signal quality; the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times based on the signal quality through the following steps:

[0044] The physical layer or the MAC layer sends a third indication information to the first RLC entity based on the signal quality; the third indication information is used to instruct the first RLC entity to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times; the first RLC entity sends the first service data multiple times based on the third indication information; or the physical layer or the MAC layer sends the signal quality to the first RLC entity; the first RLC entity sends the first service data in the first RLC entity multiple times based on the signal quality.

[0045] With this design, the terminal device can interact with the first RLC entity through the MAC layer / physical layer, enabling automatic RLC retransmission based on signal quality.

[0046] In one possible design, the first RLC entity may also send multiple second data packets to the MAC layer, the multiple second data packets carrying the first service data; wherein the header of the multiple second data packets contains fourth indication information, the fourth indication information being used to indicate to the MAC layer that the first service data carried in the multiple second data packets needs to be sent multiple times; or the first RLC entity may also send fifth indication information to the MAC layer; the fifth indication information being used to indicate that there is service data that needs to be sent multiple times.

[0047] In this design, the first RLC entity can interact with the MAC layer, enabling the MAC layer to successfully send multiple copies of service data for RLC retransmission.

[0048] In one possible design, one or more parameters in the aforementioned transmission configuration information may be standard predefined or pre-configured on the terminal device.

[0049] In one possible design, the terminal device can also receive de-enable instruction information from the network device, which is used to instruct the terminal device to de-enable sending the RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality.

[0050] This design allows terminal devices to enable the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism based on instructions from network devices.

[0051] In one possible design, the signal quality includes at least one of the following parameters:

[0052] Reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), signal amplitude, and signal strength.

[0053] Secondly, embodiments of this application provide a communication method that can be applied to a network device. Here, "network device" can refer to the network device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system within the network device that implements the method. The following description uses a network device executing this method as an example. The method includes the following steps:

[0054] The network device determines the transmission configuration information of the terminal device, wherein the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the signal quality; and sends the transmission configuration information to the terminal device.

[0055] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times based on signal quality; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times based on signal quality.

[0056] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes at least one of the following: enable indication information; signal quality threshold; number of transmissions N; HARQ retransmission count threshold; or data indication information;

[0057] The enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the transmission of RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality; the data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for the service data that the terminal device needs to transmit multiple times based on signal quality.

[0058] Thirdly, embodiments of this application provide a communication method that can be applied to a terminal device. Here, "terminal device" can refer to the terminal device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system within the terminal device that implements the method. The following description uses the execution of this method by a terminal device as an example. The method includes the following steps:

[0059] The terminal device sends the first uplink signal according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal; the terminal device sends the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0060] This method provides an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for terminal devices. Through this mechanism, the terminal device no longer relies on RLC status reports to trigger RLC retransmission. It can actively initiate RLC retransmission through the transmission parameters of the uplink signal even without receiving an RLC status report. Thus, in scenarios with poor network conditions, the terminal device can initiate RLC retransmission as early as possible, thereby reducing the transmission latency of service data and improving the reliability of data transmission.

[0061] In one possible design, the terminal device can also receive transmission configuration information from the network device, which is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0062] With this design, terminal devices can perform automatic RLC retransmission based on the network device configuration.

[0063] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first PDCP entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal. The service data in the first RLC entity is sent multiple times; or the transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0064] This design allows for configuration granularity of transmission configuration information at the DRB level, PDCP entity level, RLC channel level, RLC entity level, logical channel level, or LCG level. This enables terminal devices to determine which specific RLC entities will execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism based on the configured transmission configuration information.

[0065] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes enable indication information; the enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the transmission of RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0066] With this design, the terminal device can enable / start sending the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the uplink signal transmission parameters based on the enable indication information, that is, start executing the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism.

[0067] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes a transmission parameter difference threshold; when the transmission parameter difference between the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal and the set transmission parameters is greater than or equal to the transmission parameter difference threshold, the terminal device will send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times.

[0068] This transmit parameter difference threshold is used to determine the triggering conditions for sending service data multiple times. Through this design, network devices can be configured to trigger automatic RLC retransmissions by terminal devices.

[0069] In one possible design, the set transmission parameters are: the transmission parameters of the second uplink signal, or the transmission parameter threshold supported by the transmission capability of the terminal device; the second uplink signal is the uplink signal sent by the terminal device before it last received data transmission scheduling information from the network device.

[0070] This design allows for a network condition where the difference between the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal and the set transmission parameters is greater than or equal to a threshold. This indicates a poor network condition that may affect the transmission of service data. In this case, the terminal device initiates an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism to send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times, ensuring the reliability of service data transmission.

[0071] In one possible design, the number of transmission parameter difference thresholds is multiple; the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times through the following steps:

[0072] When the transmission parameter difference is greater than or equal to the minimum transmission parameter difference threshold, and the transmission parameter difference is within the first transmission parameter difference range, the first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted M1 times; when the transmission parameter difference is greater than the minimum transmission parameter difference threshold, and the transmission parameter difference is within the second transmission parameter difference range, the first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted M2 times; wherein, the first transmission parameter difference range is determined based on two adjacent transmission parameter difference thresholds among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds; the second transmission parameter difference... The value range is determined based on two adjacent transmission parameter difference thresholds among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds, or based on the maximum transmission parameter difference threshold; any value within the first transmission parameter difference range is less than any value within the second transmission parameter difference range; the minimum transmission parameter difference threshold is the smallest transmission parameter difference threshold among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds, and the maximum transmission parameter difference threshold is the largest transmission parameter difference threshold among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds; M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and M2 is an integer greater than M1.

[0073] This design allows the terminal device to determine the number of times service data should be transmitted when the transmission configuration information includes multiple transmission parameter difference thresholds. These thresholds can serve not only as a decision threshold for whether the terminal device should transmit service data multiple times, but also as a basis for determining the number of transmissions. The terminal device can determine multiple transmission parameter difference ranges based on these thresholds, and thus set the number of transmissions of service data in a stepped manner according to the transmission parameter difference between the uplink signal's transmission parameters and the set transmission parameters. The larger the transmission parameter difference between the first uplink signal's transmission parameters and the set transmission parameters, the higher the number of times the terminal device will perform RLC retransmission.

[0074] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information further includes the number of transmissions M1 corresponding to the first transmission parameter difference range and the number of transmissions M2 corresponding to the second transmission parameter difference range.

[0075] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions N, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; based on this, the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer N times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0076] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes a HARQ retransmission count threshold; based on this, when the HARQ retransmission count of the first service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission count threshold, the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0077] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes data indication information: the data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range of service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; the terminal device can also determine the first service data according to the data indication information; wherein, the first service data belongs to the data range.

[0078] In one possible design, the data indication information includes at least one of the following:

[0079] PDU set importance type, PDU set importance threshold, PDU set delay urgency type, and remaining transmission time threshold.

[0080] In one possible design, the terminal device includes a first PDCP entity and a first RLC entity; the terminal device can determine the first service data based on the data indication information through the following steps:

[0081] The first PDCP entity determines the first service data based on the data indication information; the first PDCP entity sends first indication information to the first RLC entity, the first indication information being used to indicate that the first service data needs to be sent multiple times; or the first PDCP entity adds second indication information to the header of the first data packet carrying the first service data, the second indication information being used to indicate that the first service data carried in the first data packet needs to be sent multiple times; the first RLC entity determines the first service data that needs to be sent multiple times based on the first indication information or the second indication information in the header of the first data packet.

[0082] In one possible design, the terminal device can send multiple first data blocks; wherein each first data block carries the first service data.

[0083] In one possible design, the target data block in a plurality of first data blocks also carries second service data, wherein the priority of the first service data is different from that of the second service data; the terminal device can also encapsulate the first service data and the second service data into the target data block in the order of the priority of the first service data and the priority of the second service data.

[0084] In one possible design, when the second service data is the first transmission of the terminal device, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data; or when the remaining transmission time of the first service data is less than the remaining transmission time of the second service data, the priority of the first service data is higher than the priority of the second service data; or when the second service data is the service data retransmitted by the terminal device based on the received RLC status report, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data.

[0085] In one possible design, the terminal device may transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times during the i-th HARQ retransmission of the first service data, based on the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal; where i is a positive integer.

[0086] In one possible design, the terminal device includes a physical layer, a MAC layer, and a first RLC entity; the physical layer or the MAC layer can determine the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal; the physical layer or the MAC layer transmits the first uplink signal according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0087] The terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal through the following steps:

[0088] The physical layer or the MAC layer sends a third indication information to the first RLC entity according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal; the third indication information is used to instruct the first RLC entity to transmit the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times; the first RLC entity transmits the first service data multiple times according to the third indication information; or the physical layer or the MAC layer sends the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal to the first RLC entity; the first RLC entity transmits the first service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0089] In one possible design, the first RLC entity may also send multiple second data packets to the MAC layer, the multiple second data packets carrying the first service data; wherein the header of the multiple second data packets contains fourth indication information, the fourth indication information being used to indicate to the MAC layer that the first service data carried in the multiple second data packets needs to be sent multiple times; or the first RLC entity may also send fifth indication information to the MAC layer; the fifth indication information being used to indicate that there is service data that needs to be sent multiple times.

[0090] In one possible design, one or more parameters in the aforementioned transmission configuration information may be standard predefined or pre-configured on the terminal device.

[0091] In one possible design, the terminal device can also receive de-enablement information from the network device, which instructs the terminal device to de-enable sending the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the uplink signal transmission parameters.

[0092] In one possible design, the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal include at least one of the following: signal strength and transmission power.

[0093] Fourthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication method that can be applied to a network device. Here, "network device" can refer to the network device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system within the network device that implements the method. The following description uses a network device executing the method as an example. The method includes the following steps:

[0094] The network device determines the transmission configuration information of the terminal device, wherein the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; the network device sends the transmission configuration information to the terminal device.

[0095] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal. The service data in the RLC entity is sent multiple times; or the transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or the transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0096] In one possible design, the transmission configuration information includes at least one of the following: enable indication information; transmit parameter difference threshold; number of transmissions N; HARQ retransmission number threshold; or data indication information;

[0097] The enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the transmission of RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; the data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range of the service data that the terminal device needs to transmit multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0098] Fifthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication device including units for performing the steps of any of the first to fourth aspects above. Optionally, the communication device may include a communication unit and a processing unit; the communication unit is used to receive and transmit signals, and the processing unit is used to perform the methods provided in any of the above aspects.

[0099] Sixthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication device, including a transceiver and a processor; wherein the transceiver is used to receive and transmit signals; the processor is used to execute program instructions, causing the communication device to perform the methods provided in any of the above aspects. Optionally, the communication device further includes a memory. The memory is used to store program instructions; the processor can read the program instructions in the memory, causing the communication device to perform the methods provided in any of the above aspects.

[0100] In a seventh aspect, embodiments of this application provide a communication device including at least one processing element and at least one storage element, wherein the at least one storage element is used to store programs and data, and the at least one processing element is used to execute the methods provided in any of the foregoing aspects of this application.

[0101] Eighthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication system, including: a terminal device for performing the first aspect and a network device for performing the second aspect; or a terminal device for performing the third aspect and a network device for performing the fourth aspect.

[0102] Ninthly, embodiments of this application also provide a computer program product that, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method provided in any of the above aspects. Optionally, the computer may be a communication device such as a terminal device or a network device.

[0103] In a tenth aspect, embodiments of this application also provide a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the methods provided in any of the above aspects. Optionally, the computer may be a communication device such as a terminal device or a network device.

[0104] Eleventhly, embodiments of this application also provide a chip for reading a computer program stored in a memory and executing the methods provided in any of the above embodiments. Optionally, the chip may include a processor coupled to the memory for reading the computer program stored in the memory and implementing the methods provided in the above embodiments. Optionally, the chip may further include components such as a memory, a communication interface, and a power supply module. The memory is used to store the computer program; the communication interface is used to receive and send data; and the power supply module is used to supply power to the processor.

[0105] In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of this application also provide a chip system including a processor for supporting a computer device in implementing the methods provided in any of the foregoing aspects. In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing programs and data necessary for the computer device. The chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices. Attached Figure Description

[0106] Figure 1 An architecture diagram of a communication system provided in this application embodiment;

[0107] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a wireless interface protocol stack provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0108] Figure 3 A flowchart illustrating a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0109] Figure 4 A flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0110] Figure 5 A structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0111] Figure 6 This is a structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0112] This application provides a communication method and apparatus for providing an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for a terminal device, thereby reducing data transmission latency and improving data transmission reliability. The method and apparatus are based on the same technical concept. Since the methods and apparatus solve problems in similar principles, their implementations can be mutually referenced, and repeated details will not be elaborated further.

[0113] The following explanations of some terms used in this application are provided to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0114] 1) A terminal device is a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to a user. A terminal device may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), or terminal, etc. In some subsequent descriptions of this application, the terminal device may be referred to as UE.

[0115] For example, the terminal equipment can be a handheld device with wireless connectivity, various vehicle-mounted devices, roadside units, etc. Currently, some examples of UEs include: mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), point-of-sale (POS) terminals, wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, various smart meters (smart water meters, smart electricity meters, smart gas meters), eLTE-DSA UEs, devices with integrated access and backhaul (IAB) capabilities, electronic control units (ECUs), in-vehicle computers, in-vehicle cruise control systems, and telematics boxes (T-BOXs).

[0116] 2) Network devices are devices in mobile communication systems that connect terminal devices to wireless networks. As nodes in a radio access network, network devices can be base stations, or they can be nodes (or devices) in a radio access network (RAN), also known as access points (APs).

[0117] Currently, some examples of network devices include: generation Node B (gNB), transmission reception point (TRP), evolved Node B (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), Node B (NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), or base band unit (BBU), etc.

[0118] In another network architecture, network equipment may include centralized unit (CU) nodes and distributed unit (DU) nodes, or RAN equipment including CU nodes and DU nodes. This architecture splits the protocol layer of the eNB in ​​a long term evolution (LTE) system or the protocol layer of the gNB in ​​a new radio (NR) system. Some protocol layer functions are centrally controlled by the CU, while the remaining part or all of the protocol layer functions are distributed in the DU, which are centrally controlled by the CU.

[0119] 3) Signal quality, which is the measurement result obtained by the terminal equipment for a cell, and may include one or more of the following signal quality parameters:

[0120] Reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), signal amplitude, signal strength, etc.

[0121] 4) The transmission time of service data, i.e., the transmission delay requirement from the sending device to the receiving device, reflects the Quality of Service (QoS) of the service. The transmission time of service data can also be referred to as the transmission delay, delay limit, or air interface delay. For example, in this application, the transmission time can be the protocol data unit (PDU) delay budget (PDU delay budget, PDB), the PDU set delay budget (PDUset delay budget, PSDB), etc.

[0122] To ensure the actual transmission time of service data is within the specified transmission time, a corresponding timer can be maintained within the data sending device for each piece of service data to be transmitted. When the sending device receives the service data, it can initialize the timer for that service data to the transmission time of that service data. The value of this timer decreases as time passes. Therefore, the value of this timer can also be equivalent to the remaining transmission time of the service data.

[0123] 5) HARQ feedback is sent by the receiving device based on the data packet transmission status. It notifies the sending device of the data packet transmission status, allowing the sending device to determine whether HARQ retransmission is necessary. This HARQ feedback can be HARQ-ACK, including ACK and NACK. ACK indicates successful data packet transmission; NACK indicates data packet transmission failure.

[0124] For example, in a communication system based on transport block (TB) transmission, the receiving device can send HARQ feedback based on the transmission status of the TB.

[0125] 6) Automatic RLC retransmission of terminal devices: The terminal devices no longer rely on RLC status reports to trigger RLC retransmission and can actively send the service data in the RLC layer multiple times without receiving an RLC status report.

[0126] It should be understood that retransmission not only refers to the sender sending the same data again after sending it for the first time; it can also be understood as "retransmission" if the sender sends the same data multiple times at a single sending time for data that has not yet been sent.

[0127] "AND / OR" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A AND / OR B can represent: A alone, A and B simultaneously, or B alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the objects before and after it are in an "OR" relationship.

[0128] It should be noted that "multiple" in this application refers to two or more. "At least one" refers to one or more.

[0129] In the embodiments of this application, descriptions such as "when," "under the circumstances," "if," and "if" all refer to the fact that the device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) will perform corresponding processing under certain objective circumstances. They are not time limits, nor do they require the device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) to perform a judgment action when implementing it, nor do they imply any other limitations.

[0130] It should be noted that in this application, "for indicating" can include both direct and indirect indication. When describing an indication information as indicating A, it can include whether the indication information directly or indirectly indicates A, but does not necessarily mean that the indication information carries A. Taking the first information as indicating the first content as an example, the first information can contain the first content, or a part of the first content, or an identifier or index of the first content, and can also contain algorithms or calculation parameters for determining the first content. This application does not limit the manner of "indication".

[0131] In this application, "containing / including A" may be equivalent to "containing / including information A". Information A is used to indicate A.

[0132] In addition, it should be understood that in the description of this application, the words "first" and "second" are used only for the purpose of distinguishing descriptions and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or order.

[0133] The embodiments of this application will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0134] Figure 1 The structure of a communication system to which the method provided in the embodiments of this application is applicable is shown. See also... Figure 1 As shown, the communication system includes network equipment and terminal equipment.

[0135] Network devices are entities on the network side that can receive and transmit wireless signals. They are responsible for providing wireless access services to terminal devices within their coverage area, implementing physical layer functions, resource scheduling and wireless resource management, Quality of Service (QoS) management, wireless access control, and mobility management functions. Through network devices, terminal devices can access the core network and ultimately connect to the data network (DN) to realize the terminal devices' services.

[0136] Optionally, each network device is responsible for managing at least one cell. Each cell uses corresponding spectrum resources to provide access services to terminal devices.

[0137] In a communication system, network devices can provide wireless access services to terminal devices through corresponding radio access technology (RAT). For example, RAT can be fourth-generation (4G) RAT, fifth-generation (5G) RAT, sixth-generation (6G) RAT, etc.

[0138] A terminal device is an entity on the user side capable of receiving and transmitting wireless signals. It can access a mobile communication system through a cell managed by an access network device. Terminal devices can be various devices that provide voice and / or data connectivity to users, such as in-vehicle devices and smartphones. Terminal devices and network devices can connect via a Uu interface to achieve communication between them. The Uu interface is also known as the air interface or air interface.

[0139] exist Figure 1 In the communication system shown, the Uu interface protocol stack can be divided into non-access stratum (NAS) and access stratum (AS) according to whether the signaling and process are related to access.

[0140] The NAS (Network Access Controller) is used to handle signaling or data transmission between terminal devices and the core network. The transmitted content can include user information or control information, such as signaling related to service establishment or release, or mobility management information. The structure of NAS messages is independent of the AS (Application Server), but transmission needs to be based on the AS protocol stack.

[0141] The AS protocol stack is the protocol used by the radio access network, i.e., the radio interface protocol, which includes a control plane protocol stack and a user plane protocol stack. For example, such as... Figure 2As shown, in order from top to bottom, the user plane protocol stack contains at least the following protocol layers: Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and PHY layer; the control plane protocol stack contains at least the following protocol layers: Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and PHY layer.

[0142] It should be noted that the terminal device can be based on Figure 2 The protocol stack shown transmits service data. Service data received by any protocol layer from or sent to the previous protocol layer can be called the SDU of that protocol layer, while service data sent by that protocol layer to or received from the next protocol layer can be called the PDU. Taking the RLC layer as an example, service data received by the RLC layer from or sent to the PDCP layer can be called the RLC SDU (or PDCP PDU); service data sent by the RLC layer to or received from the MAC layer can be called the RLCPDU (or MAC SDU).

[0143] It should also be noted that the service data transmitted by the terminal device, regardless of whether it is an SDU or PDU of any of the above protocol layers, can be collectively referred to as a data packet, data packet, or data.

[0144] The following is about Figure 2 The functions of several protocol layers involved in this application within the protocol stack shown are described below:

[0145] The SDAP layer is a sublayer of Layer 2 that can interact directly with the network layer and provide a mapping between QoS flows and DRBs. It can add QoS flow indicators (QFIs) to uplink and downlink packets.

[0146] The functions of the PDCP layer include: header compression and decompression of user plane data packets, security functions (such as encryption and decryption of user plane and control plane protocols, integrity protection and verification of control plane data), data transmission functions, and packet dropping functions. For example, on the user plane, after receiving a data packet (i.e., SDAP PDU or PDCP SDU) from the upper layer, the PDCP layer can compress and encrypt the packet header, and then transmit the data packet (i.e., PDCP PDU or RLC SDU) to the RLC layer. In addition, the PDCP layer can also provide in-order submission and duplicate packet detection functions to the upper layers.

[0147] The RLC layer is primarily responsible for segmenting and reassembling RLC SDUs corresponding to different logical channels to match the size of the MAC SDUs allocated by the MAC layer. After segmenting and reassembling the RLC SDUs, the RLC layer adds an RLC header and encapsulates them into RLC PDUs (i.e., MAC SDUs) before delivering them to the MAC layer. Additionally, the RLC layer can also handle functions such as duplicate packet detection and RLC SDU discarding.

[0148] The main functions of the MAC layer include: mapping logical channels and transport channels; multiplexing one or more logical channel MAC SDUs to transport blocks (TBs) (i.e., MAC PDUs) and sending them to the PHY layer through the transport channel; demultiplexing the TBs sent by the PHY layer through the transport channel into at least one MAC SDU and sending them to the RLC layer through the corresponding logical channel; scheduling information reporting; and handling the priorities of different users and the priorities of different logical channels of the same user through dynamic scheduling methods.

[0149] The PHY layer is located at the bottom of the wireless interface protocol stack and provides all the functions required for bit stream transmission in the physical interface.

[0150] After a terminal device connects to a network device, in order to transmit the terminal device's service data, each network element in the mobile communication system needs to establish a session for that terminal device. This session includes the data radio bearer (DRB) between the terminal device and the network device, the transmission tunnel between the network device and the user plane function (UPF) in the core network, and the transmission tunnel between the UPF and the DN.

[0151] It should be noted that a terminal device can establish one or more sessions with a mobile communication system, and any session can contain one or more QoS flows. Each QoS flow corresponds to one or more services with the same QoS requirements. Furthermore, between the terminal device and the base station, at least one QoS flow in the session corresponds to a DRB, through which the service data of the at least one QoS flow can be transmitted.

[0152] After the terminal device and the network device establish an RRC connection, in order to establish a DRB, the terminal device and the network device need to allocate transmission resources for it at various protocol layers, including: establishing an SDAP entity corresponding to the DRB at the SDAP layer, establishing a PDCP entity corresponding to the DRB at the PDCP layer, and establishing an RLC entity corresponding to the DRB at the RLC layer, etc.

[0153] like Figure 2As shown, the RLC layer is located between the PDCP layer and the MAC layer. Therefore, within a DRB, an RLC entity can communicate with the PDCP entity through the RLC channel and with the MAC layer through a logical channel. That is, one RLC entity corresponds to only one logical channel of the UE.

[0154] Based on the above description, it can be seen that there is a one-to-one correspondence between any two items in DRB, SDAP entity, PDCP entity, RLC entity, RLC channel, and logical channel.

[0155] In addition, to reduce channel overhead, communication systems typically divide multiple logical channels of terminal devices into at least one logical channel group (LCG). Each LCG can contain at least one logical channel. Since each logical channel corresponds to one logical channel entity, one LCG can correspond to at least one logical channel entity.

[0156] In addition, Figure 2 In the protocol stack shown, unlike the upper protocol layers where corresponding SDAP, PDCP, and RLC entities can be established for each DRB, the MAC layer can implement the functions of the MAC layer through a MAC entity, and the PHY layer can also implement the functions of the PHY layer through a PHY entity.

[0157] It should also be pointed out that, such as Figure 1The mobile communication system shown is merely an example and does not limit the mobile communication systems to which the methods provided in this application are applicable. In summary, the technical solutions provided in this application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: the 5th Generation (5G) communication system (also known as the new radio (NR) system), the 4th Generation (4G) communication system (also known as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication system), Wi-Fi systems, vehicle-to-everything (V2X), LTE-vehicle (LTE-V), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-everything (V2V), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), machine-type communications (MTC), the internet of things (IoT), LTE-machine-to-machine (LTE-M), machine-to-machine (M2M), and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication systems. This application does not limit these applications. The 5G communication system may include non-standalone (NSA) systems and / or standalone (SA) systems. Furthermore, the technical solutions provided in this application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as the 6th generation (6G) communication system, etc., and this application does not limit them.

[0158] exist Figure 1 In the communication system shown, to ensure the reliability of data transmission between the terminal equipment and the network equipment, in Figure 2 The different protocol layers in the illustrated protocol stack all have some retransmission mechanisms. For example, there are MAC layer retransmissions and RLC retransmissions, which can be referred to in the background section for details.

[0159] As described above, RLC retransmission is essential for ensuring high data transmission reliability in communication systems. However, in traditional RLC retransmission mechanisms, the receiving device needs to send an RLC status report to the sending device before the sending device can trigger RLC retransmission. Furthermore, the receiving device only triggers the transmission of the RLC status report after multiple HARQ retransmission failures. This results in a significant time delay from the initial RLC transmission to the final RLC retransmission of service data, leading to high actual transmission latency. This makes it impossible to guarantee the data transmission latency and reliability requirements of services with stringent latency requirements (such as video, audio, and extended reality (XR) services).

[0160] To achieve high reliability of data transmission in communication systems, one solution in the uplink direction is to accelerate RLC retransmission by the terminal device. Based on this, this application provides a communication method that offers an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for the terminal device. This method can be applied to applications such as... Figure 1 The communication system shown below. (Refer to the following...) Figure 3 The flowchart shown illustrates the method provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0161] S301: The terminal device determines the signal quality.

[0162] In a communication system, signal quality reflects the current network status between terminal devices and network devices, and thus the transmission status of service data. Therefore, embodiments of this application can use signal quality to determine the current network status.

[0163] Optionally, in S301, the terminal device may, but is not limited to, determine the signal quality within its serving cell through radio resource management (RRM) measurements. This signal quality is the signal quality of the serving cell, which the terminal device can determine by measuring downlink signals (e.g., downlink reference signals) transmitted by network devices within the serving cell.

[0164] Signal quality may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following parameters: RSRP, RSRQ, SNR, SINR, signal amplitude, and signal strength.

[0165] In addition, since the signal quality in the wireless air interface may be unstable, the terminal device may optionally determine the signal quality within a first time period to obtain a more stable, accurate signal quality that better reflects the current network status.

[0166] S302: The terminal device will send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0167] In the embodiments of this application, the terminal device can execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism provided in the embodiments of this application in the following two implementation scenarios.

[0168] The first implementation scenario: The terminal device performs automatic RLC retransmission according to the network device's configuration. Optionally, prior to S301, the network device could also send configuration information to the terminal device via S300.

[0169] S300: The network device determines the transmission configuration information of the terminal device and sends the transmission configuration information to the terminal device. The terminal device receives the transmission configuration information from the network device. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality, i.e., to configure the terminal device to execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism.

[0170] Optionally, the terminal device can configure all RLC entities in the RLC layer to perform the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism based on the transmission configuration information; alternatively, it can configure specific RLC entities in the RLC layer to perform the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism. Optionally, the terminal device can determine which specific RLC entities perform the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism based on the transmission configuration information, and the specific methods may be, but are not limited to, those shown in A1-A6 below:

[0171] Method A1: Associating transmission configuration information with the first DRB. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first DRB. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the DRB level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0172] Method A2: Associating transmission configuration information with the first PDCP entity. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first PDCP entity. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the PDCP entity level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to signal quality.

[0173] Method A3: Associating transmission configuration information with the first RLC channel. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first RLC channel. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the RLC channel level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0174] Method A4: Associating transmission configuration information with the first RLC entity. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first RLC entity. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the RLC entity level, and the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0175] Method A5: Transmit configuration information associated with the first logical channel. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first logical channel. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the logical channel level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0176] Method A6: Associating transmission configuration information with the first LCG. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first LCG. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the LCG level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the signal quality. The number of first RLC entities corresponding to the first LCG can be one or more.

[0177] Optionally, the transmission configuration information may be carried in any of the following messages: RRC signaling, MAC control element (CE), or downlink control information (DCI), and this application does not limit this.

[0178] In this embodiment, after the terminal device obtains the transmission configuration information through S300, it can send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times during S302, based on the transmission configuration information and the signal quality determined in S301. Depending on the specific content contained in the transmission configuration information, the terminal device can execute S302 through, but is not limited to, the following implementation methods:

[0179] Implementation Method 1: The transmission configuration information may include enable indication information. This enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be transmitted multiple times based on signal quality. For example, this enable indication information may be called auto_retrans_enable.

[0180] Based on the enable indication information, the terminal device can enable / start sending the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the signal quality, and begin to execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0181] Optionally, after the terminal device sends an uplink signal, the network device can measure the signal quality of the uplink signal. When the signal quality of the uplink signal meets the conditions for enabling automatic RLC retransmission, the network device can send transmission configuration information containing enabling indication information to the terminal device. For example, the conditions for enabling automatic RLC retransmission can be that the signal quality of the uplink signal is less than or equal to an enabling threshold, or that the signal quality difference between the first uplink signal and the second uplink signal is greater than or equal to an enabling difference threshold; this application does not limit this. The enabling threshold or enabling difference threshold can be set by the network device or specified by the communication protocol; this application does not limit this.

[0182] Implementation Method 2: The transmission configuration information may include a signal quality threshold. This signal quality threshold is used to determine the signal quality triggering conditions for transmitting service data multiple times.

[0183] In this embodiment, when the terminal device executes S302, it can send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times when the signal quality is less than or equal to the signal quality threshold.

[0184] Optionally, the transmission configuration information may include one or more signal quality thresholds. When the transmission configuration information includes a signal quality threshold, that threshold can be used as a decision threshold for whether the terminal device should send service data multiple times.

[0185] When the transmission configuration information includes multiple signal quality thresholds, these thresholds can serve not only as a decision threshold for whether the terminal device should send service data multiple times, but also as a basis for determining the number of times service data can be sent. Optionally, the terminal device can execute S302 through the following steps:

[0186] When the signal quality is less than or equal to the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the first signal quality range, the terminal device will send the first service data in the RLC layer M1 times.

[0187] When the signal quality is less than the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the second signal quality range, the terminal device will send the first service data in the RLC layer M2 times.

[0188] The first signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds; the second signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds, or based on the minimum signal quality threshold; any value within the first signal quality range is greater than any value within the second signal quality range.

[0189] The maximum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the largest value among multiple signal quality thresholds, and the minimum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the smallest value among multiple signal quality thresholds;

[0190] M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and M2 is an integer greater than M1.

[0191] In this way, the terminal device can determine multiple signal quality ranges based on these multiple signal quality thresholds, and thus set the number of times service data is transmitted in a tiered manner according to signal quality. It should be noted that the number of transmissions corresponding to these multiple signal quality ranges can be determined by the terminal device itself, or it can be configured in the transmission configuration information. For example, the transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions M1 corresponding to the first signal quality range, the number of transmissions M2 corresponding to the second signal quality range, and the number of transmissions corresponding to other signal quality ranges.

[0192] It should also be noted that in this embodiment, when signal quality includes one parameter, each signal quality threshold also includes the threshold for that parameter; and when signal quality includes multiple parameters, each signal quality threshold also includes the thresholds corresponding to those multiple parameters. For example, when signal quality is RSRP, any signal quality threshold includes one RSRP threshold; when signal quality includes RSRP and RSRQ, any signal quality threshold includes one RSRP threshold and one RSRQ threshold. In this case, a signal quality threshold can also be called a set of signal quality thresholds. When signal quality includes multiple parameters, the terminal device can trigger automatic RLC retransmission when each parameter measured by the terminal device is less than or equal to the corresponding parameter threshold; or the terminal device can trigger automatic RLC retransmission when at least one parameter measured by the terminal device is less than or equal to the corresponding parameter threshold. For example, when signal quality includes RSRP and RSRQ, the terminal device can only trigger automatic RLC retransmission when the RSRP measured by the terminal device is less than or equal to the corresponding RSRP threshold, and the RSRQ measured by the terminal device is less than or equal to the corresponding RSRQ threshold. For example, when signal quality includes RSRP and RSRQ, the terminal device can trigger automatic RLC retransmission when the RSRP measured by the terminal device is less than or equal to the corresponding RSRP threshold, or when the RSRQ measured by the terminal device is less than or equal to the corresponding RSRQ threshold.

[0193] Implementation method 3: The transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions N, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0194] In this embodiment, when the terminal device executes S302, it can send the first service data in the RLC layer N times according to the signal quality.

[0195] In this embodiment and in Embodiment 2, the transmission configuration information includes multiple transmission counts corresponding to multiple signal quality ranges, which are mutually exclusive. Optionally, when the transmission configuration information includes multiple signal quality thresholds and a transmission count N, this transmission count N can be used as the minimum transmission count. For example, among the multiple signal quality ranges determined by the multiple signal quality thresholds, the transmission count corresponding to the signal quality range 1 with the highest value is N; the transmission count corresponding to the signal quality range 2 with a value lower than any value in signal quality range 1 and adjacent to signal quality range 1 is N+a; the transmission count corresponding to the signal quality range 3 with a value lower than any value in signal quality range 2 and adjacent to signal quality range 2 is N+a+b, and so on. Optionally, when the transmission count N included in the transmission configuration information is the minimum transmission count, the transmission configuration information can also include an increment step P for the transmission count, so that the transmission count corresponding to signal quality range 2 is N+P, and the transmission count corresponding to signal quality range 3 is N+2P.

[0196] Implementation Method 4: The transmission configuration information includes a HARQ retransmission count threshold. This HARQ retransmission count threshold can also be used to determine the triggering conditions for sending service data multiple times.

[0197] In this embodiment, when the terminal device executes S302, it can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times based on signal quality when the HARQ retransmission count of the first service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission count threshold; or it can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times based on signal quality when the HARQ retransmission count of other service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission count threshold. The other service data is different from the first service data.

[0198] Implementation Method 5: The transmission configuration information includes data indication information. This data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times based on signal quality.

[0199] Therefore, before executing S302, the terminal device can also determine the first service data based on the data indication information. This first service data falls within the data range indicated by the data indication information.

[0200] Optionally, the data indication information may include at least one of the following ad:

[0201] a. Importance type of PDU set. For example, the value of the importance type of PDU set can be important (e.g., important only), unimportant (e.g., less important only), or all (e.g., all).

[0202] b. PDU set importance (PSI) threshold. Currently, the PSI value ranges from 0 to 15. For example, service data with a PSI less than or equal to this threshold can be used for automatic RLC retransmission.

[0203] c. Delay urgency type of PDU set. For example, the delay urgency type of a PDU set can be delayed critical only, non-delay critical only, or all.

[0204] d. Remaining transmission time threshold. For example, service data or PDU sets with a remaining transmission time less than or equal to this remaining transmission time threshold (e.g., 5ms) can be used for automatic RLC retransmission.

[0205] It should be noted that the aforementioned PDU set consists of one or more PDUs. As a data format carrying service data, the service data carried in a PDU set can correspond to a group of service data packets (e.g., service frames (voice frames, image frames, etc.), video slices, image tiles, etc.). Furthermore, a data burst generated by an application can consist of one or more PDU sets. Therefore, the PDU set in the ad parameter of the aforementioned data indication information can also be replaced with terms such as data burst, service frame, or frame.

[0206] It should also be noted that the determination of the importance type or latency urgency type of the PDU set can be implemented by the terminal device itself, by the network device, or by the communication protocol; this application does not impose any limitations on this. Furthermore, if the data range indicated by the data indication information is unrelated to the importance type or latency urgency type of the PDU set (for example, when the data indication information includes the aforementioned parameters b and / or d), after determining multiple service data within the data range indicated by the data indication information, the terminal device can transmit the data a different number of times depending on the PDU set importance type or PDU set latency urgency type of the service data. For example, for service data 1, which is of a non-important type or non-latency urgency type, the terminal device can transmit service data 1 N times; for service data 2, which is of an important type or latency urgency type, the terminal device can transmit service data 2 2N times.

[0207] It should be noted that the embodiments of this application do not limit the implementation of the above-described implementation methods. In practical applications, the above-described implementation methods can be combined with each other or implemented individually.

[0208] In this embodiment, the terminal device can execute S302 in different ways depending on the transmission status of the first service data. For example, after the first service data has been initially transmitted, the terminal device can perform multiple RLC retransmissions of the first service data based on signal quality. Alternatively, before the first service data has been initially transmitted, the terminal device can perform one initial transmission and at least one RLC retransmission of the first service data based on signal quality.

[0209] Furthermore, after the initial transmission of the first service data, the terminal device can also perform multiple RLC retransmissions of the first service data at specified times. For example, the terminal device can send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times during the i-th HARQ retransmission of the first service data, based on the signal quality; where i is a positive integer. The timing of the terminal device initiating the RLC retransmission of the service data—the i-th HARQ retransmission of the service data (e.g., the last HARQ retransmission specified by the HARQ retransmission mechanism)—can be configured by the network device; for example, the transmission configuration information may include the timing of the terminal device initiating the RLC retransmission of the service data. Alternatively, it can be determined by the terminal device or specified by the communication protocol; this application does not limit this.

[0210] In this embodiment, to achieve maximum reliability gain, during execution of S302, the terminal device can encapsulate the first service data into different TBs for transmission. That is, during S302, the terminal device sends multiple first data blocks (TBs); each first data block carries the first service data. Optionally, these multiple first data blocks are consecutive. In practice, the terminal device can transmit multiple RLC PDUs (MAC SDUs) associated with the same RLC SDU on different TBs.

[0211] As described above regarding the functions of the MAC and RLC layers, the MAC layer can multiplex MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels into a TB, and the RLC layer will segment / reassemble the RLC SDUs according to the size of the MAC SDUs allocated by the MAC layer. Therefore, a TB can contain multiple MAC SDUs carrying different service data. Furthermore, the size of a TB is limited, and in some cases, it may not be able to simultaneously carry all the data from multiple services. We know that when encapsulating a TB, the MAC layer can encapsulate data from different logical channels into the TB according to the priority of different logical channels. In this embodiment, when the terminal device executes S302, it can also encapsulate different service data into a TB according to the priority of different service data.

[0212] Let's take a target data block from the aforementioned multiple first data sets as an example. Assume that this target data block also carries second service data; then the priorities of the first and second service data are different. The first and second service data can belong to the same logical channel or different logical channels. The terminal device can encapsulate the first and second service data into the target data block according to their priorities.

[0213] Optionally, the priority of service data can be set according to whether the service data belongs to RLC initial transmission or RLC retransmission, automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission (RLC retransmission triggered by RLC status report), or according to data characteristics such as remaining transmission time. Optionally, the priority setting rules for service data can be configured by the network device, for example, the priority setting information of service data is included in the transmission configuration information; or it can be determined by the terminal device or specified by the communication protocol, which is not limited in this application.

[0214] Since the first service data in this embodiment is initiated by the terminal device through RLC retransmission, the terminal device is unaware of the actual transmission status of the first service data, and it is possible that the first service data has already been successfully transmitted. Therefore, in some implementations, the priority of the first service data requiring RLC retransmission can be set lower than that of other service data undergoing initial RLC transmission. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the second service data is the terminal device's first transmission (initial RLC transmission), the priority of the second service data is higher than that of the first service data.

[0215] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be set according to the remaining transmission time. For example, the lower the remaining transmission time of service data, the higher its priority. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the remaining transmission time of the first service data is less than the remaining transmission time of the second service data, the priority of the first service data is higher than that of the second service data.

[0216] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be set according to whether the service data belongs to automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission. Since traditional RLC retransmission is initiated due to service data transmission failure, the terminal device needs to retransmit as quickly as possible. Therefore, service data belonging to traditional RLC retransmission has a higher priority than service data belonging to automatic RLC retransmission, and also a higher priority than service data belonging to the initial RLC retransmission. Assuming that service data belonging to the initial RLC retransmission has a higher priority than service data belonging to automatic RLC retransmission, the priority setting order is: service data belonging to traditional RLC retransmission has the highest priority, service data belonging to the initial RLC retransmission has the second highest priority, and service data belonging to automatic RLC retransmission has the lowest priority. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the second service data is service data that the terminal device triggers RLC retransmission based on the received RLC status report, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data.

[0217] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be determined based on RLC retransmission and RLC initial transmission, and the remaining transmission time. For example, service data undergoing RLC initial transmission with a remaining transmission time less than or equal to the remaining transmission time threshold has the highest priority; service data undergoing RLC retransmission has the second highest priority; and service data undergoing RLC initial transmission with a remaining transmission time greater than the remaining transmission time threshold has the lowest priority. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the remaining transmission time of the second service data undergoing RLC initial transmission is less than or equal to the remaining transmission time threshold, then the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data; if the remaining transmission time of the second service data undergoing RLC initial transmission is greater than the remaining transmission time threshold, then the priority of the first service data is higher than the priority of the second service data.

[0218] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be determined based on RLC retransmission and RLC initial transmission, whether it is automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission, and the remaining transmission time. For example, the priority can be ordered from highest to lowest as follows: service data that undergoes traditional RLC retransmission; service data that undergoes RLC initial transmission and whose remaining transmission time is less than or equal to the remaining transmission time threshold; service data that undergoes automatic RLC retransmission; and service data that undergoes RLC initial transmission and whose remaining transmission time is greater than the remaining transmission time threshold has the lowest priority.

[0219] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be determined based on RLC retransmission and RLC initial transmission, and whether it is automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission. For example, the priority can be ordered from high to low as follows: priority of service data that undergoes traditional RLC retransmission; priority of service data that undergoes automatic RLC retransmission; and priority of service data that undergoes RLC initial transmission.

[0220] It should be noted that the different implementation methods in the embodiments of this application can be implemented individually, or the steps in different implementation methods can be combined.

[0221] In addition, to implement the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism provided in this application embodiment, communication and interaction are also required between different protocol layers within the terminal device. Figure 2 As shown in the protocol stack, after the terminal device and network device establish the first DRB, the SDAP layer, PDCP layer, and RLC layer inside the terminal device will respectively create the first SDAP entity, first PDCP entity, and first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB, and also include the MAC layer and physical layer. The communication process between different protocol layers is described below according to different scenarios:

[0222] Scenario 1: Transmission configuration information can be sent to the first RLC entity by other protocol layers.

[0223] For example, when transmission configuration information is included in RRC signaling, the RRC layer of the terminal device can send the transmission configuration information to the first RLC entity after parsing the RRC signaling to obtain the transmission configuration information.

[0224] For example, when the transmission configuration information is contained in the MAC CE, the MAC layer of the terminal device can send the transmission configuration information to the first RLC entity after parsing the MAC CE to obtain the transmission configuration information.

[0225] For example, when the transmission configuration information is included in the DCI, the physical layer of the terminal device can send the transmission configuration information to the first RLC entity after obtaining the transmission configuration information.

[0226] Scenario 2: Since information such as the importance type of PDU set and the urgency type of PDU set delay is maintained at the PDCP layer, in the above-described implementation method 5, the terminal device can interact with the first PDCP entity and the first RLC entity to enable the first RLC entity to determine the first service data that belongs to the data range indicated by the data indication information.

[0227] Terminal devices can determine the first service data based on data indication information in the following ways:

[0228] The first implementation method includes the following steps B1-B3:

[0229] Step B1: The first PDCP entity determines the first service data based on the data instruction information;

[0230] Step B2: The first PDCP entity sends a first indication message to the first RLC entity, which is used to indicate that the first service data needs to be sent multiple times;

[0231] Step B3: The first RLC entity determines, in the first RLC, the first service data that needs to be sent multiple times based on the first instruction information.

[0232] Another implementation includes the following steps C1-C2:

[0233] Step C1: The first PDCP entity adds second indication information to the header of the first data packet carrying the first service data. The second indication information is used to indicate that the first service data carried in the first data packet needs to be sent multiple times.

[0234] Step C2: The first RLC entity determines the first service data that needs to be sent multiple times based on the second indication information in the header of the first data message.

[0235] Scenario 3: In the terminal device, the MAC layer or physical layer is responsible for measuring signal quality, while the first RLC entity is responsible for implementing RLC retransmission of service data. Therefore, during the execution of S301-S302, the MAC layer / physical layer needs to interact with the first RLC entity.

[0236] In S301, the physical layer or MAC layer measures signal quality. The terminal device can execute S302 in the following two ways:

[0237] The first implementation method is as follows: the physical layer or MAC layer sends a third indication information to the first RLC entity based on the measured signal quality; wherein, the third indication information is used to instruct the first RLC entity to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times; the first RLC entity sends the first service data multiple times according to the third indication information.

[0238] Optionally, when the transmission configuration information includes parameters such as signal quality threshold and HARQ retransmission number threshold used to determine the triggering conditions for sending service data multiple times, the first RLC entity can also notify the MAC layer or physical layer of these parameters.

[0239] The second implementation method is as follows: the physical layer or MAC layer sends the measured signal quality to the first RLC entity; the first RLC entity sends the first service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0240] Scenario 4: In order for the MAC layer to successfully send multiple copies of service data for RLC retransmission, the first RLC entity can also interact with the MAC layer in the following ways:

[0241] The first implementation method: The first RLC entity can add indication information to the header of the data packet carrying the first service data, specifically including the following steps:

[0242] The first RLC entity sends multiple second data packets to the MAC layer, each carrying first service data; wherein the header of the multiple second data packets contains fourth indication information, which is used to indicate that the first service data carried in the multiple second data packets of the MAC layer needs to be sent multiple times.

[0243] The second implementation involves the first RLC entity sending a fifth indication message to the MAC layer. This fifth indication message indicates the existence of service data that needs to be transmitted multiple times. In this way, when the MAC layer receives multiple identical copies of the first service data (RLC PDUs carrying the same RLC SN), it will not discard the first service data.

[0244] Scenario 5: Since the PDCP layer is responsible for maintaining the remaining transmission time of service data, in the scenario where the first RLC entity and the MAC layer encapsulate TB based on the priority of service data, and the priority of service data is determined by the first RLC entity based on the remaining transmission time of service data, the first PDCP entity can also synchronize the remaining transmission time of each service data to the first RLC entity; or when the remaining transmission time of a certain service data is less than the remaining transmission time threshold, the first PDCP entity notifies the first RLC entity of the information of that service data; or the first PDCP entity and the first RLC entity can interact to enable both the first PDCP entity and the first RLC entity to maintain timers for the remaining transmission time of service data, so that the first RLC entity can determine the remaining transmission time of each service data.

[0245] The above describes the specific implementation steps and process of enabling the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality (i.e., enabling the terminal device to execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism). In addition, embodiments of this application also provide some methods to enable the terminal device to disable the multiple transmission of RLC layer service data based on signal quality (i.e., disabling the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism), as shown below:

[0246] Method D1: The terminal device continues to measure the signal quality. When the latest signal quality meets the disable condition, the terminal device can disable sending the RLC layer service data multiple times based on the signal quality.

[0247] Optionally, the de-enabling condition can be determined by the terminal device, configured by the network device, or specified by the communication protocol; this application does not limit this.

[0248] For example, when the transmission configuration information contains a signal quality threshold, the terminal device can determine the disable condition based on the signal quality threshold, such as setting the disable condition to a signal quality greater than the signal quality threshold; when the transmission configuration information contains multiple signal quality thresholds, the terminal device can determine the disable condition based on the maximum signal quality threshold, such as setting the disable condition to a signal quality greater than the maximum signal quality threshold.

[0249] For example, when the transmission configuration information contains at least one signal quality threshold, the terminal device can determine the disable signal quality threshold based on these signal quality thresholds. The disable signal quality threshold can be set to be greater than or equal to the largest signal quality threshold among these signal quality thresholds. Then, based on the disable signal quality threshold, the disable condition is determined.

[0250] For example, the configuration information transmitted or other information sent by the network device may include a disable signal quality threshold, which is used by the terminal device to determine the disable condition.

[0251] Method D2: When the terminal device receives an RLC status report sent by the network device, and the RLC status report indicates that there is no failed transmission of service data, the terminal device can enable the RLC layer service data to be sent multiple times based on signal quality.

[0252] Method D3: The terminal device receives a de-enable instruction from the network device. The de-enable instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to de-enable the transmission of RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality.

[0253] It should be noted that, similar to the transmission configuration information, the terminal device can also configure all RLC entities in the RLC layer to enable automatic RLC retransmission based on the disable indication information; it can also configure specific RLC entities in the RLC layer to perform automatic RLC retransmission. For example, the disable indication information can be associated with the first DRB, the first PDCP entity, the first RLC channel, the first RLC entity, the first logical channel, or the first LCG. For details, please refer to methods A1-A6 above, which will not be elaborated here.

[0254] The second implementation scenario: The terminal device executes the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism according to the provisions of the communication protocol.

[0255] For example, the communication protocol can specify transmission configuration information used to trigger the terminal device to perform automatic RLC retransmission. This transmission configuration information can include various related information contained in the transmission configuration information in the first implementation scenario, and may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: the timing for the terminal device to enable the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism, signal quality threshold, number of transmissions N, HARQ retransmission number threshold, data indication information, etc. The terminal device can perform automatic RLC retransmission based on this information. For details, please refer to the description in the first implementation scenario above, which will not be repeated here.

[0256] In summary, this application provides a communication method. In this scheme, the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times based on channel quality. This method provides an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for the terminal device. Through this mechanism, the terminal device no longer relies on RLC status reports to trigger RLC retransmission; it can proactively initiate RLC retransmission based on signal quality even without receiving an RLC status report. Therefore, in scenarios with poor network conditions, the terminal device can initiate RLC retransmission as early as possible, thereby reducing the transmission latency of service data and improving data transmission reliability.

[0257] To achieve high reliability of data transmission in a communication system, one solution in the uplink direction is for the terminal device to accelerate RLC retransmission. Based on this, this application also provides another communication method, which also provides an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for the terminal device. This method can be applied to applications such as... Figure 1 The communication system shown below. (Refer to the following...) Figure 4 The flowchart shown illustrates the method provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0258] S401: The terminal device sends the first uplink signal according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0259] Optionally, the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal may include, but are not limited to, the transmission power of the first uplink signal and the signal strength of the first uplink signal. The first uplink signal may be, but is not limited to, an uplink reference signal, such as a channel sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0260] In communication systems, terminal devices or network devices can adjust their uplink signal transmission parameters based on the current network status to ensure reliable uplink signal transmission. Therefore, the uplink signal transmission parameters of a terminal device can reflect the current network status between the terminal device and the network device, and consequently, the transmission status of service data.

[0261] S402: The terminal device sends the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0262] same Figure 3 As shown in the embodiments, in the embodiments of this application, the terminal device can execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism provided in the embodiments of this application through the following two implementation scenarios.

[0263] The first implementation scenario: The terminal device performs automatic RLC retransmission according to the network device's configuration. Optionally, prior to S401, the network device could also send configuration information to the terminal device via S400.

[0264] S400: The network device determines the transmission configuration information of the terminal device and sends the transmission configuration information to the terminal device. The terminal device receives the transmission configuration information from the network device. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times according to the uplink signal transmission parameters, i.e., to configure the terminal device to execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism.

[0265] Optionally, the terminal device can configure all RLC entities in the RLC layer to perform the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism based on the transmission configuration information; alternatively, it can configure specific RLC entities in the RLC layer to perform the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism. Optionally, the terminal device can determine which specific RLC entities perform the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism based on the transmission configuration information, and the specific methods may be, but are not limited to, those shown in E1-E6 below:

[0266] Method E1: Transmission configuration information is associated with the first DRB. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first DRB. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the DRB level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0267] Method E2: Transmission configuration information is associated with the first PDCP entity. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first PDCP entity. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the PDCP entity level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0268] Method E3: Transmit configuration information associated with the first RLC channel. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first RLC channel. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the RLC channel level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0269] Method E4: Transmit configuration information associated with the first RLC entity. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first RLC entity. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the RLC entity level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0270] Method E5: Transmit configuration information associated with the first logical channel. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first logical channel. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the logical channel level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0271] Method E6: Associating transmission configuration information with the first LCG. For example, the transmission configuration information may include the identification information of the first LCG. In this case, the configuration granularity of the transmission configuration information can be at the LCG level. This transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal. The number of first RLC entities corresponding to the first LCG can be one or more.

[0272] Optionally, the transport configuration information can be carried in any of the following messages: RRC signaling, MAC CE, or DCI.

[0273] In this embodiment, after the terminal device obtains the transmission configuration information through S400, it can send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times during S402, based on the transmission configuration information and the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal. Figure 3 Similar to the illustrated embodiment, depending on the specific content contained in the transmission configuration information, the terminal device may, but is not limited to, execute S402 through the following implementation methods:

[0274] Implementation Method 1: The transmission configuration information may include enable indication information. This enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be transmitted multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal. For example, this enable indication information may be called auto_retrans_enable.

[0275] Based on the enable indication information, the terminal device can enable / start sending the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal, and begin to execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism provided in the embodiments of this application.

[0276] Optionally, the network device can send transmission configuration information containing the enable indication information to the terminal device based on the measured uplink signal quality of the terminal device. For details, please refer to... Figure 3 The description in Implementation Method 1 of the illustrated embodiments will not be repeated here.

[0277] Implementation Method 2: The transmission configuration information may include a transmission parameter difference threshold. This transmission parameter difference threshold is used to determine the triggering condition for sending service data multiple times.

[0278] In this embodiment, when the terminal device executes S402, it can send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times when the difference between the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal and the set transmission parameters is greater than or equal to the transmission parameter difference threshold.

[0279] The transmission parameters can be specified by the communication protocol or set by the network device through transmission configuration information. Optionally, the transmission parameters can be the transmission parameters of the second uplink signal or the transmission parameter threshold supported by the transmission capability of the terminal device.

[0280] like Figure 4 As shown in S400a and S400b, the second uplink signal can be an uplink signal sent by the terminal device before it last received data transmission scheduling information from the network device. The signal type of the second uplink signal can be the same as that of the first uplink signal, for example, the second uplink signal can be SRS. The network device can estimate the uplink channel based on the second uplink signal and perform data transmission scheduling for the terminal device according to the frequency domain information of the uplink channel, generating data transmission scheduling information; the network device sends the data transmission scheduling information to the terminal device, which can instruct the terminal device to configure the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0281] For example, if the signal strength of the first uplink signal is greater than that of the second uplink signal, and the difference between their signal strengths exceeds a signal strength difference threshold, it indicates a deterioration in the current network condition, which may affect the transmission of service data. Similarly, if the transmission power of the first uplink signal is greater than that of the second uplink signal, and the difference between their transmission power exceeds a transmission power difference threshold, it also indicates a deterioration in the current network condition, which may affect the transmission of service data.

[0282] The transmission parameters of the first uplink signal are calculated by the terminal device or network device based on the frequency domain information of the uplink channel. If the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal are greater than the transmission parameter threshold supported by the terminal device's transmission capacity, the terminal device can only actually use the transmission parameter threshold to transmit the first uplink signal and service data, which may also cause the service data transmission to fail. For example, if the transmission power of the first uplink signal is A, but the transmission power threshold (maximum transmission power) supported by the terminal device's transmission capacity is B, and A is greater than B, the terminal device will actually use the transmission power threshold B to send the first uplink signal and service data. If A and B are greater than the transmission power difference threshold at this time, the terminal device will trigger the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism.

[0283] Based on the above description, when the difference between the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal and the set transmission parameters is greater than or equal to the transmission parameter difference threshold, the terminal device starts the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism to send the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times, which can ensure the reliability of service data transmission.

[0284] Optional, with Figure 3 Similar to Implementation Method 2 in the illustrated embodiment, in this embodiment, the transmission configuration information may also include one or more transmission parameter difference thresholds. When the transmission configuration information includes a transmission parameter difference threshold, this threshold can serve as a decision threshold for whether the terminal device should transmit service data multiple times.

[0285] When the transmission configuration information includes multiple transmission parameter difference thresholds, these thresholds can serve not only as a decision threshold for whether the terminal device should send service data multiple times, but also as a basis for determining the number of times service data can be sent. Optionally, the terminal device can execute S402 through the following steps:

[0286] When the difference between the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal and the set transmission parameters is greater than or equal to the minimum transmission parameter difference threshold, and the transmission parameter difference is within the range of the first transmission parameter difference, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M1 times.

[0287] When the transmission difference parameter is greater than the minimum transmission parameter difference threshold and the transmission parameter difference is within the range of the second transmission parameter difference, the first service data in the RLC layer will be sent M2 times.

[0288] The first transmission parameter difference range is determined based on two adjacent transmission parameter difference thresholds from among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds; the second transmission parameter difference range is determined based on two adjacent transmission parameter difference thresholds from among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds, or based on the maximum transmission parameter difference threshold; any value within the first transmission parameter difference range is less than any value within the second transmission parameter difference range;

[0289] The minimum transmission parameter difference threshold is the smallest transmission parameter difference threshold among the multiple transmission parameter difference thresholds, and the maximum transmission parameter difference threshold is the largest transmission parameter difference threshold among the multiple transmission parameter difference thresholds.

[0290] M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and M2 is an integer greater than M1.

[0291] In this way, the terminal device can determine multiple transmission parameter difference ranges based on these multiple transmission parameter difference thresholds, and thus set the number of times service data is sent in a stepped manner according to the transmission parameter differences between the uplink signal transmission parameters and the set transmission parameters. It should be noted that the number of transmissions corresponding to these multiple transmission parameter difference ranges can be determined by the terminal device itself, or it can be configured in the transmission configuration information. For example, the transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions M1 corresponding to the first transmission parameter difference range, the number of transmissions M2 corresponding to the second transmission parameter difference range, and the number of transmissions corresponding to other transmission parameter difference ranges.

[0292] Implementation method 3: The transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions N, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0293] In this embodiment, when the terminal device executes S402, it can send the first service data in the RLC layer N times according to the signal quality.

[0294] In this embodiment and in Embodiment 2, the transmission configuration information containing multiple transmission parameter difference ranges corresponding to the number of transmissions is mutually exclusive. Optionally, when the transmission configuration information contains multiple transmission parameter difference thresholds and a transmission count N, this transmission count N can be used as the minimum number of transmissions. Optionally, when the transmission count N included in the transmission configuration information is the minimum number of transmissions, the transmission configuration information may also include an increment step P for the number of transmissions, so that the terminal device can determine the number of transmissions corresponding to different transmission parameter difference ranges. For details, please refer to... Figure 3 The description in Implementation Method 3 of the illustrated embodiments.

[0295] Implementation Method 4: The transmission configuration information includes a HARQ retransmission count threshold. This HARQ retransmission count threshold can also be used to determine the triggering conditions for sending service data multiple times.

[0296] In this embodiment, when the terminal device executes S402, it can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal when the HARQ retransmission count of the first service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission count threshold; or it can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal when the HARQ retransmission count of other service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission count threshold. The other service data is different from the first service data.

[0297] Implementation Method 5: The transmission configuration information includes data indication information. This data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times based on signal quality.

[0298] Therefore, before executing S402, the terminal device can also determine the first service data based on the data indication information. This first service data falls within the data range indicated by the data indication information. For a detailed description of this data indication information, please refer to [link / reference needed]. Figure 3 The fifth embodiment shown in the examples will not be described again here.

[0299] It should be noted that the embodiments of this application do not limit the implementation of the above-described implementation methods. In practical applications, the above-described implementation methods can be combined with each other or implemented individually.

[0300] In this embodiment, the specific implementation process of the terminal device sending the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times can also be referred to Figure 3 The relevant descriptions in the illustrated embodiments will not be repeated here.

[0301] In addition, to implement the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism provided in this application embodiment, communication and interaction are also required between different protocol layers within the terminal device. Figure 2 As shown in the protocol stack, after the terminal device and network device establish the first DRB, the SDAP layer, PDCP layer, and RLC layer inside the terminal device will respectively create the first SDAP entity, first PDCP entity, and first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB, and also include the MAC layer and physical layer. The communication process between different protocol layers is described below according to different scenarios:

[0302] Scenario 1: Transmission configuration information can be sent to the first RLC entity by other protocol layers.

[0303] Scenario 2: The terminal device can interact with the first PDCP entity and the first RLC entity to enable the first RLC entity to determine the first service data that falls within the data range indicated by the data indication information.

[0304] Scenario 3: Within the terminal device, the transmission parameters of the uplink signal are generally determined by the MAC layer or the physical layer, while the first RLC entity is responsible for implementing the RLC retransmission of service data. Therefore, in this embodiment, the MAC layer / physical layer needs to interact with the first RLC entity.

[0305] The following describes the process of the terminal device executing S402 according to different implementation methods:

[0306] The first implementation method is as follows: the physical layer or MAC layer sends a third indication information to the first RLC entity according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal; the third indication information is used to instruct the first RLC entity to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times; the first RLC entity sends the first service data multiple times according to the third indication information.

[0307] Optionally, when the transmission configuration information includes parameters such as the transmit parameter difference threshold and the HARQ retransmission number threshold, which are used to determine the triggering conditions for sending service data multiple times, the first RLC entity can also notify the MAC or physical layer of these parameters.

[0308] The second implementation method is as follows: the physical layer or MAC layer sends the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal to the first RLC entity; the first RLC entity sends the first service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0309] Scenario 4: In order for the MAC layer to successfully send multiple copies of service data for RLC retransmission, the first RLC entity can also interact with the MAC layer.

[0310] Scenario 5: The first PDCP entity can interact with the first RLC entity so that the first RLC entity can determine the remaining transmission time of the service data.

[0311] The specific interaction processes for scenarios one, two, four, and five above can be found by referring to... Figure 3 The corresponding descriptions in the illustrated embodiments will not be repeated here.

[0312] The above steps describe the specific implementation steps and process of enabling the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times based on the uplink signal transmission parameters (i.e., enabling the terminal device to execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism). The terminal device can also enable the sending of RLC layer service data multiple times based on the uplink signal transmission parameters (i.e., enabling the terminal device to execute the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism); for details, please refer to [link to relevant documentation]. Figure 3 Methods D1-D3 in the illustrated embodiments will not be described again here.

[0313] The second implementation scenario: The terminal device executes the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism according to the provisions of the communication protocol.

[0314] For example, the communication protocol can specify transmission configuration information used to trigger the terminal device to perform automatic RLC retransmission. This transmission configuration information can include various related information contained in the transmission configuration information in the first implementation scenario, and may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: the timing for the terminal device to enable the automatic RLC retransmission mechanism, the transmission parameter difference threshold, the number of transmissions N, the HARQ retransmission number threshold, data indication information, etc. The terminal device can perform automatic RLC retransmission based on this information. For details, please refer to the description in the first implementation scenario above, which will not be repeated here.

[0315] In summary, this application provides a communication method. In this method, the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times based on the uplink signal transmission parameters. This method provides an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for the terminal device. Through this mechanism, the terminal device no longer relies on RLC status reports to trigger RLC retransmission. It can proactively initiate RLC retransmission based on the uplink signal transmission parameters even without receiving an RLC status report. Therefore, in scenarios with poor network conditions, the terminal device can initiate RLC retransmission as early as possible, thereby reducing the transmission latency of service data and improving data transmission reliability.

[0316] based on Figure 4 The method provided in the illustrated embodiments is further described in this application as a communication method. In this method, after a terminal device sends an uplink signal, it can obtain the signal quality of the uplink signal measured by the network device. When the signal quality of the first uplink signal is less than the signal quality of the second uplink signal, and the difference in signal quality between the two uplink signals is greater than or equal to a signal quality difference threshold, the terminal device sends the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times. The first uplink signal is the most recently sent uplink signal by the terminal device, and the second uplink signal is the uplink signal sent by the terminal device before it last received data transmission scheduling information from the network device. The terminal device can execute this method according to the configuration of the network device or according to the provisions of the communication protocol; for details, please refer to [reference needed]. Figure 4 The embodiments shown are not described in detail here.

[0317] This application also provides yet another communication method. This method may include the following steps:

[0318] The network device sends an enable indication message to the terminal device. This enable indication message instructs the terminal device to enable the multiple transmission of RLC layer service data, i.e., instructs the terminal device to enable automatic RLC retransmission. The terminal device, based on this enable indication message, enables automatic RLC retransmission and transmits the RLC layer service data multiple times. Optionally, the configuration granularity of the enable indication message can be at the DRB level, PDCP entity level, RLC channel level, RLC entity level, logical channel level, or LCG level, similar to the transmission configuration information in the above embodiments. Optionally, the network device can send this enable indication message through information such as the first MAC CE, the first control PDU, or the first DCI.

[0319] Optionally, after receiving the enable indication information, the terminal device can automatically perform RLC retransmission based on at least one of the configuration parameters such as the number of transmissions N, the HARQ retransmission threshold, and data indication information. For details, please refer to [reference needed]. Figure 3 or Figure 4 The description in the illustrated embodiments.

[0320] Optionally, any of the above configuration parameters can be configured by the network device, specified by the communication protocol, or preset in the terminal device; this application does not limit this. When the network device can also send configuration parameters to the terminal device, the network device can send enable indication information and configuration parameters in the same message, or it can send enable indication information and configuration parameters separately in different messages. For example, the configuration parameters can be carried in the second MAC CE, the second control PDU, or the second DCI; or carried in an RRC message.

[0321] In scenarios where network devices send enable indication information and configuration parameters in different messages, the configuration granularity of the configuration parameters sent by the network devices can also be DRB level, PDCP entity level, RLC channel level, RLC entity level, logical channel level, or LCG level, similar to the transmission configuration information mentioned above.

[0322] Optionally, before the network device sends the enable indication information to the terminal device, the terminal device may also send capability information to the network device. This capability information indicates whether the network device has automatic RLC retransmission capability. Based on the terminal device's capability information, if the network device determines that the terminal device has automatic RLC retransmission capability, it sends the enable indication information to the terminal device.

[0323] In addition, network devices can also send de-enable instruction information to terminal devices to instruct terminal devices to disable automatic RLC retransmission.

[0324] This application also provides a communication method, which includes, during the process of an automatic RLC retransmission of first service data by a terminal device, the terminal device may send multiple first data blocks, each of which carries the first service data.

[0325] In this embodiment, the terminal device can encapsulate different service data into TB according to the priority of different service data.

[0326] The following explanation uses a target data block from among the aforementioned multiple first data blocks as an example. Assume that this target data block also carries second service data; in this case, the priorities of the first and second service data are different. The first and second service data may belong to the same logical channel or different logical channels. The terminal device can encapsulate the first and second service data into the target data block according to their priorities.

[0327] Optionally, the priority of service data can be set according to whether the service data belongs to RLC initial transmission or RLC retransmission, automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission (RLC retransmission triggered by RLC status report), or according to data characteristics such as remaining transmission time. Optionally, the priority setting rules for service data can be configured by the network device, for example, the priority setting information of service data is included in the transmission configuration information issued by the network device; or it can be determined by the terminal device or specified by the communication protocol, which is not limited in this application.

[0328] Since the first service data in this embodiment is initiated by the terminal device through RLC retransmission, the terminal device is unaware of the actual transmission status of the first service data, and it is possible that the first service data has already been successfully transmitted. Therefore, in some implementations, the priority of the first service data requiring RLC retransmission can be set lower than that of other service data undergoing initial RLC transmission. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the second service data is the terminal device's first transmission (initial RLC transmission), the priority of the second service data is higher than that of the first service data.

[0329] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be set according to the remaining transmission time. For example, the lower the remaining transmission time of service data, the higher its priority. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the remaining transmission time of the first service data is less than the remaining transmission time of the second service data, the priority of the first service data is higher than that of the second service data.

[0330] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be set according to whether the service data belongs to automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission. Since traditional RLC retransmission is initiated due to service data transmission failure, the terminal device needs to retransmit as quickly as possible. Therefore, service data belonging to traditional RLC retransmission has a higher priority than service data belonging to automatic RLC retransmission, and also a higher priority than service data belonging to the initial RLC retransmission. Assuming that service data belonging to the initial RLC retransmission has a higher priority than service data belonging to automatic RLC retransmission, the priority setting order is: service data belonging to traditional RLC retransmission has the highest priority, service data belonging to the initial RLC retransmission has the second highest priority, and service data belonging to automatic RLC retransmission has the lowest priority. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the second service data is service data that the terminal device triggers RLC retransmission based on the received RLC status report, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data.

[0331] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be determined based on RLC retransmission and RLC initial transmission, and the remaining transmission time. For example, service data undergoing RLC initial transmission with a remaining transmission time less than or equal to the remaining transmission time threshold has the highest priority; service data undergoing RLC retransmission has the second highest priority; and service data undergoing RLC initial transmission with a remaining transmission time greater than the remaining transmission time threshold has the lowest priority. Continuing with the target data block as an example, when encapsulating the target data block, if the remaining transmission time of the second service data undergoing RLC initial transmission is less than or equal to the remaining transmission time threshold, then the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data; if the remaining transmission time of the second service data undergoing RLC initial transmission is greater than the remaining transmission time threshold, then the priority of the first service data is higher than the priority of the second service data.

[0332] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be determined based on RLC retransmission and RLC initial transmission, whether it is automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission, and the remaining transmission time. For example, the priority can be ordered from highest to lowest as follows: service data that undergoes traditional RLC retransmission; service data that undergoes RLC initial transmission and whose remaining transmission time is less than or equal to the remaining transmission time threshold; service data that undergoes automatic RLC retransmission; and service data that undergoes RLC initial transmission and whose remaining transmission time is greater than the remaining transmission time threshold has the lowest priority.

[0333] In some implementations, the priority of service data can be determined based on RLC retransmission and RLC initial transmission, and whether it is automatic RLC retransmission or traditional RLC retransmission. For example, the priority can be ordered from high to low as follows: priority of service data that undergoes traditional RLC retransmission; priority of service data that undergoes automatic RLC retransmission; and priority of service data that undergoes RLC initial transmission.

[0334] It should also be noted that each step in the above embodiments can be executed by a corresponding device, or by a component such as a chip, processor, or chip system within that device. The embodiments of this application do not limit its execution. The above embodiments are merely illustrative examples of execution by a corresponding device. Furthermore, the specific implementation methods or examples in the above embodiments do not limit the solutions provided by the embodiments of this application.

[0335] It should be noted that in the above embodiments, some steps can be selected for implementation, and the order of the steps in the figures can be adjusted. This application does not limit this. It should be understood that performing some of the steps in the figures, adjusting the order of the steps, or combining them in a specific implementation all fall within the protection scope of this application. In addition, the solutions provided by different embodiments can be implemented individually, or the steps in different embodiments can be combined with each other.

[0336] It is understood that, in order to achieve the functions described in the above embodiments, each device involved in the above embodiments includes a hardware structure and / or software module corresponding to perform each function. Those skilled in the art should readily recognize that, based on the units and method steps of the various examples described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed in this application, this application can be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed by hardware or by computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0337] It is understood that the network architecture and application scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention. As those skilled in the art will know, with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new services, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0338] It should be noted that the "steps" in the embodiments of this application are merely illustrative and are intended to better understand one method of presentation used in the embodiments. They do not constitute a substantial limitation on the execution of the solution of this application. For example, the "step" can also be understood as a "feature". Furthermore, the steps do not constitute any limitation on the execution order of the solution of this application. Any changes to the order of steps, or the merging or splitting of steps made on this basis without affecting the overall solution implementation, resulting in a new technical solution, are also within the scope of disclosure of this application.

[0339] Based on the same technical concept, this application also provides a communication device, which can be applied to, for example... Figure 1 The communication system shown is described. The communication device is used to implement the methods provided in the above embodiments, and can be applied to the network devices or terminal devices involved in the above embodiments. See also... Figure 5 As shown, the communication device 500 includes a communication unit 501 and a processing unit 502.

[0340] The communication unit 501 is used to receive and send signals, and supports the communication device 500 to communicate with other devices.

[0341] The processing unit 502 is used to control and manage the operation of the communication device 500 and execute the steps performed by the network device or terminal device in the communication methods provided in the above embodiments.

[0342] Optionally, the communication device 500 may further include a storage unit for storing the program code and / or data of the communication device 500.

[0343] The communication unit 501 can be referred to as an input / output unit, transceiver unit, etc., and can be a transceiver and a communication interface; the processing unit 502 can be a processor. When the communication device 500 is a module (e.g., a chip) in a communication device (e.g., a network device or a terminal device), the communication unit 501 can be an input / output interface, input / output circuit, or input / output pins, etc., and can also be referred to as an interface, communication interface, or interface circuit, etc.; the processing unit 502 can be a processor, processing circuit, or logic circuit, etc.

[0344] In one embodiment, the communication device 500 can be applied to Figure 3 The terminal device shown in the embodiment. The processing unit 502 is configured to perform the following steps:

[0345] Determine signal quality;

[0346] The first service data in the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer is transmitted multiple times based on the signal quality.

[0347] Optionally, the processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0348] The communication unit 501 receives transmission configuration information from the network device, which is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times according to signal quality.

[0349] Optionally, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0350] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0351] The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0352] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0353] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0354] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0355] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes enable indication information; the enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be transmitted multiple times according to signal quality.

[0356] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes a signal quality threshold;

[0357] The processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0358] When the signal quality is less than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent multiple times.

[0359] Optionally, the processing unit 502 is specifically used to: determine the signal quality within a first time period.

[0360] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes the first duration.

[0361] Optionally, the number of signal quality thresholds can be multiple;

[0362] The processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0363] When the signal quality is less than or equal to the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the first signal quality range, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M1 times.

[0364] When the signal quality is less than the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the second signal quality range, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M2 times.

[0365] Wherein, the first signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds; the second signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds, or based on the minimum signal quality threshold; any value within the first signal quality range is greater than any value within the second signal quality range;

[0366] The maximum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the largest value among the plurality of signal quality thresholds, and the minimum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the smallest value among the plurality of signal quality thresholds;

[0367] M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and M2 is an integer greater than M1.

[0368] Optionally, the transmission configuration information may further include the number of transmissions M1 corresponding to the first signal quality range and the number of transmissions M2 corresponding to the second signal quality range.

[0369] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions N, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

[0370] The processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0371] The first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted N times according to the signal quality.

[0372] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes a HARQ retransmission count threshold; the processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0373] When the number of HARQ retransmissions of the first service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission threshold, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0374] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes data indication information: the data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for the service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times according to signal quality;

[0375] The processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0376] Based on the data indication information, the first service data is determined; wherein the first service data belongs to the data range.

[0377] Optionally, the data indication information includes at least one of the following:

[0378] PDU set importance type, PDU set importance threshold, PDU set delay urgency type, and remaining transmission time threshold.

[0379] Optionally, the processing unit 502 includes a first PDCP entity and a first RLC entity;

[0380] The first PDCP entity is configured to determine the first service data according to the data indication information; send first indication information to the first RLC entity, the first indication information being used to indicate that the first service data needs to be sent multiple times; or add second indication information to the header of the first data packet carrying the first service data, the second indication information being used to indicate that the first service data carried in the first data packet needs to be sent multiple times.

[0381] The first RLC entity is used to determine, based on the first indication information or the second indication information in the header of the first data packet, the first service data that needs to be sent multiple times.

[0382] Optionally, when the processing unit 502 sends the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times, it is specifically used for:

[0383] Multiple first data blocks are sent through the communication unit 501; wherein each first data block carries the first service data.

[0384] Optionally, the target data block in the plurality of first data blocks may also carry second service data, wherein the priority of the first service data is different from the priority of the second service data; the processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0385] The first business data and the second business data are encapsulated into the target data block according to the priority of the first business data and the priority of the second business data.

[0386] Optionally, when the second service data is being transmitted for the first time by the terminal device, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data; or

[0387] When the remaining transmission time of the first service data is less than the remaining transmission time of the second service data, the priority of the first service data is higher than the priority of the second service data; or

[0388] When the second service data is the service data retransmitted by the terminal device based on the received RLC status report, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data.

[0389] Optionally, the processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0390] Based on the signal quality, during the i-th HARQ retransmission of the first service data, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent multiple times; i is a positive integer.

[0391] Optionally, the processing unit 502 includes a physical layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, and a first RLC entity;

[0392] The physical layer or the MAC layer is used to measure signal quality;

[0393] The physical layer or the MAC layer is further configured to send third indication information to the first RLC entity according to the signal quality; the third indication information is used to instruct the first RLC entity to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times; the first RLC entity is configured to send the first service data multiple times according to the third indication information; or

[0394] The physical layer or the MAC layer is further configured to send the signal quality to the first RLC entity; the first RLC entity is configured to send the first service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0395] Optionally, the first RLC entity is further configured to send multiple second data packets to the MAC layer, the multiple second data packets carrying the first service data; wherein the header of the multiple second data packets includes fourth indication information, the fourth indication information being used to indicate to the MAC layer that the first service data carried in the multiple second data packets needs to be sent multiple times; or

[0396] The first RLC entity is also used to send a fifth indication information to the MAC layer; the fifth indication information is used to indicate that there is service data that needs to be sent multiple times.

[0397] Optionally, the processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0398] The communication unit 501 receives de-enable instruction information from the network device, which instructs the terminal device to de-enable sending the RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality.

[0399] Optionally, the signal quality includes at least one of the following parameters:

[0400] Reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), signal amplitude, and signal strength.

[0401] In one embodiment, the communication device 500 can be applied to Figure 3 The network device shown in the embodiment. The processing unit 502 is configured to perform the following steps:

[0402] Determine the transmission configuration information of the terminal device, wherein the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the signal quality;

[0403] The transmission configuration information is sent to the terminal device through the communication unit 501.

[0404] Optionally, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0405] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0406] The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0407] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0408] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to signal quality; or

[0409] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the signal quality.

[0410] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes at least one of the following:

[0411] Enable indication information; signal quality threshold; number of transmissions N; HARQ retransmission count threshold; or data indication information;

[0412] The enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be sent multiple times based on signal quality.

[0413] The data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for the service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times based on signal quality.

[0414] In one embodiment, the communication device 500 can be applied to Figure 4 The terminal device shown in the embodiment. The processing unit 502 is configured to perform the following steps:

[0415] The first uplink signal is transmitted through the communication unit 501 according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal;

[0416] The first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0417] Optionally, the processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0418] The communication unit 501 receives transmission configuration information from the network device. The transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0419] Optionally, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0420] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first PDCP entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0421] The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0422] The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal;

[0423] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0424] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0425] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes enable indication information; the enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be transmitted multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0426] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes a transmission parameter difference threshold;

[0427] The processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0428] When the difference between the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal and the set transmission parameters is greater than or equal to the transmission parameter difference threshold, the first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted multiple times.

[0429] Optionally, the set transmission parameters are: the transmission parameters of the second uplink signal, or the transmission parameter threshold supported by the transmission capability of the terminal device; the second uplink signal is the uplink signal sent by the terminal device before it last received data transmission scheduling information from the network device.

[0430] Optionally, the number of the transmission parameter difference thresholds can be multiple;

[0431] The processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0432] When the transmission parameter difference is greater than or equal to the minimum transmission parameter difference threshold, and the transmission parameter difference is within the range of the first transmission parameter difference, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M1 times.

[0433] When the transmission difference parameter is greater than the minimum transmission parameter difference threshold and the transmission parameter difference is within the range of the second transmission parameter difference, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M2 times.

[0434] Wherein, the first transmission parameter difference range is determined based on two adjacent transmission parameter difference thresholds among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds; the second transmission parameter difference range is determined based on two adjacent transmission parameter difference thresholds among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds, or based on the maximum transmission parameter difference threshold; any value within the first transmission parameter difference range is less than any value within the second transmission parameter difference range;

[0435] The minimum transmission parameter difference threshold is the smallest transmission parameter difference threshold among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds, and the maximum transmission parameter difference threshold is the largest transmission parameter difference threshold among the plurality of transmission parameter difference thresholds.

[0436] M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and M2 is an integer greater than M1.

[0437] Optionally, the transmission configuration information may further include the number of transmissions M1 corresponding to the first transmission parameter difference range and the number of transmissions M2 corresponding to the second transmission parameter difference range.

[0438] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions N, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

[0439] The processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0440] The first service data in the RLC layer is sent N times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0441] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes a HARQ retransmission count threshold; the processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0442] When the number of HARQ retransmissions of the first service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission threshold, the first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0443] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes data indication information: the data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for the service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal;

[0444] The processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0445] Based on the data indication information, the first service data is determined; wherein the first service data belongs to the data range.

[0446] Optionally, the data indication information includes at least one of the following:

[0447] PDU set importance type, PDU set importance threshold, PDU set delay urgency type, and remaining transmission time threshold.

[0448] Optionally, the processing unit 502 includes a first PDCP entity and a first RLC entity;

[0449] The first PDCP entity is configured to determine the first service data according to the data indication information; send first indication information to the first RLC entity, the first indication information being used to indicate that the first service data needs to be sent multiple times; or add second indication information to the header of the first data packet carrying the first service data, the second indication information being used to indicate that the first service data carried in the first data packet needs to be sent multiple times.

[0450] The first RLC entity is used to determine, based on the first indication information or the second indication information in the header of the first data packet, the first service data that needs to be sent multiple times.

[0451] Optionally, when the processing unit 502 sends the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times, it is specifically used for:

[0452] Multiple first data blocks are sent through the communication unit 501; wherein each first data block carries the first service data.

[0453] Optionally, the target data block in the plurality of first data blocks may also carry second service data, wherein the priority of the first service data is different from the priority of the second service data; the processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0454] The first business data and the second business data are encapsulated into the target data block according to the priority of the first business data and the priority of the second business data.

[0455] Optionally, when the second service data is being transmitted for the first time by the terminal device, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data; or

[0456] When the remaining transmission time of the first service data is less than the remaining transmission time of the second service data, the priority of the first service data is higher than the priority of the second service data; or

[0457] When the second service data is the service data retransmitted by the terminal device based on the received RLC status report, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data.

[0458] Optionally, the processing unit 502 is specifically used for:

[0459] Based on the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal, the first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted multiple times during the i-th HARQ retransmission of the first service data; i is a positive integer.

[0460] Optionally, the processing unit 502 includes a physical layer, a MAC layer, and a first RLC entity;

[0461] The physical layer or the MAC layer is used to determine the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal; and to send the first uplink signal according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0462] The physical layer or the MAC layer is further configured to send third indication information to the first RLC entity according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal; the third indication information is used to instruct the first RLC entity to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times; the first RLC entity is configured to send the first service data multiple times according to the third indication information; or

[0463] The physical layer or the MAC layer is further configured to send the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal to the first RLC entity; the first RLC entity is configured to send the first service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal.

[0464] Optionally, the first RLC entity is further configured to send multiple second data packets to the MAC layer, the multiple second data packets carrying the first service data; wherein the header of the multiple second data packets includes fourth indication information, the fourth indication information being used to indicate to the MAC layer that the first service data carried in the multiple second data packets needs to be sent multiple times; or

[0465] The first RLC entity is also used to send a fifth indication information to the MAC layer; the fifth indication information is used to indicate that there is service data that needs to be sent multiple times.

[0466] Optionally, the processing unit 502 is further configured to:

[0467] The communication unit 501 receives de-enable instruction information from the network device. The de-enable instruction information is used to instruct the terminal device to de-enable the transmission of RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0468] Optionally, the transmission parameters of the first uplink signal include at least one of the following: signal strength and transmission power.

[0469] In one embodiment, the communication device 500 can be applied to Figure 4 The network device shown in the embodiment. The processing unit 502 is configured to perform the following steps:

[0470] Determine the transmission configuration information of the terminal device, wherein the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal;

[0471] The transmission configuration information is sent to the terminal device through the communication unit 501.

[0472] Optionally, the transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to transmit service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0473] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0474] The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0475] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0476] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal; or

[0477] The transmission configuration information is associated with a first logical channel group (LCG); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0478] Optionally, the transmission configuration information includes at least one of the following:

[0479] Enable indication information; transmit parameter difference threshold; number of transmissions N; HARQ retransmission count threshold; or data indication information;

[0480] The enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be sent multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal;

[0481] The data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for the service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times according to the transmission parameters of the uplink signal.

[0482] It should be noted that the specific functions of the processing unit 502 can be referred to the relevant descriptions in the above embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0483] It should be noted that the module division in the embodiments of this application is illustrative and only represents one logical functional division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of this application can be integrated into one processing unit, exist as separate physical entities, or have two or more units integrated into one unit. The integrated units described above can be implemented in hardware or as software functional units.

[0484] If the integrated unit is implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) or processor to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, portable hard drives, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0485] Based on the above embodiments, this application also provides a communication device, which can be as follows: Figure 1 The network device or terminal device in the communication system shown. The communication device can implement the methods in the above embodiments and has the functions of communication device 500. See also... Figure 6 As shown, the communication device 600 includes a transceiver 601, a processor 602, and a memory 603. The transceiver 601, the processor 602, and the memory 603 are interconnected.

[0486] Optionally, the transceiver 601, the processor 602, and the memory 603 are interconnected via a bus 604. The bus 604 can be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, Figure 6 The bus is represented by a single thick line, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0487] The transceiver 601 is used to receive and send signals to enable communication with other devices.

[0488] The function of the processor 602 can be referred to the description in the above embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0489] The processor 602 can be a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP, etc. The processor 602 may further include hardware chips. These hardware chips can be application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or combinations thereof. The PLD can be a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a generic array logic (GAL), or any combination thereof. When implementing the above functions, the processor 602 can be implemented in hardware, or it can be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The steps of the method disclosed in the above embodiments of this application can be directly reflected as the processor 602 completing the execution, or as the hardware and software modules in the processor 602 combining to complete the execution.

[0490] The memory 603 is used to store program instructions and data. Specifically, the program instructions may include program code, which includes computer operation instructions. The memory 603 may include volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM); it may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one disk storage device, hard disk drive (HDD), or solid state drive (SSD). The memory 603 may also be any other medium capable of carrying or storing program code in the form of instructions or data structures that can be accessed by a computer; this application does not limit this. The processor 602 executes the program instructions stored in the memory 603 to implement the above functions, thereby implementing the method provided in the above embodiments.

[0491] Based on the above embodiments, this application also provides a communication system, which includes a network device and a terminal device. The network device is used to implement the steps performed by the network device in the method provided in the above embodiments, and the terminal device is used to implement the steps performed by the terminal device in the method provided in the above embodiments.

[0492] Based on the above embodiments, this application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program; when the computer program is run on a computer, the computer performs the method provided in the above embodiments.

[0493] Based on the above embodiments, this application also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the methods provided in the above embodiments.

[0494] Optionally, the aforementioned computers may include, but are not limited to, the following: Figure 1 The network equipment or terminal equipment in the communication system shown.

[0495] The storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access. For example, but not limited to, a computer-readable medium can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

[0496] Based on the above embodiments, this application also provides a chip for reading a computer program stored in a memory to implement the method provided in the above embodiments. Optionally, the chip may include a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is coupled to the memory and is used to read the computer program stored in the memory to implement the method provided in the above embodiments.

[0497] Based on the above embodiments, this application provides a chip system including a processor for supporting a computer device in implementing the functions involved in the terminal devices described in the above embodiments. In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing necessary programs and data of the computer device. This chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete components.

[0498] In summary, this application provides a communication method and device. In this solution, the terminal device can transmit the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times based on channel quality. This method provides an automatic RLC retransmission mechanism for the terminal device. Through this mechanism, the terminal device no longer relies on RLC status reports to trigger RLC retransmission; it can proactively initiate RLC retransmission based on signal quality even without receiving an RLC status report. Therefore, in scenarios with poor network conditions, the terminal device can initiate RLC retransmission as early as possible, thereby reducing the transmission latency of service data and improving data transmission reliability.

[0499] Those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of this application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, this application can take the form of a completely hardware embodiment, a completely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, this application can take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code.

[0500] This application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to this application. It should be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, generate instructions for implementing the flowchart illustrations. Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A device that provides the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0501] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means, which are implemented in a process Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The function specified in one or more boxes.

[0502] These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing equipment to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable equipment to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby providing instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable equipment for implementing the process. Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The steps of the function specified in one or more boxes.

[0503] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this application without departing from the spirit and scope of this application. Therefore, if such modifications and variations fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalents, this application also intends to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method applied to a terminal device, characterized in that, include: Determine signal quality; The first service data in the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer is transmitted multiple times based on the signal quality.

2. The method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The method further includes: The terminal device receives transmission configuration information from a network device, which is used to configure the terminal device to send RLC layer service data multiple times based on signal quality.

3. The method as described in claim 2, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) entity; The transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to the signal quality; or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel group (LCG); The transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the signal quality.

4. The method as described in claim 2 or 3, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information includes enable indication information; the enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be transmitted multiple times according to signal quality.

5. The method according to any one of claims 2-4, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information includes signal quality thresholds; The step of transmitting the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the signal quality includes: When the signal quality is less than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent multiple times.

6. The method as described in claim 5, characterized in that, Determining the signal quality includes: determining the signal quality within a first time period.

7. The method as described in claim 6, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information includes the first duration.

8. The method according to any one of claims 5-7, characterized in that, The number of signal quality thresholds is multiple; When the signal quality is less than or equal to the signal quality threshold, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent multiple times, including: When the signal quality is less than or equal to the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the first signal quality range, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M1 times. When the signal quality is less than the maximum signal quality threshold and the signal quality is within the second signal quality range, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent M2 times. Wherein, the first signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds; the second signal quality range is determined based on two adjacent signal quality thresholds among the plurality of signal quality thresholds, or based on the minimum signal quality threshold; any value within the first signal quality range is greater than any value within the second signal quality range; The maximum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the largest value among the plurality of signal quality thresholds, and the minimum signal quality threshold is the signal quality threshold with the smallest value among the plurality of signal quality thresholds; M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and M2 is an integer greater than M1.

9. The method as described in claim 8, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information also includes the number of transmissions M1 corresponding to the first signal quality range and the number of transmissions M2 corresponding to the second signal quality range.

10. The method according to any one of claims 2-7, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information includes the number of transmissions N, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; The step of transmitting the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the signal quality includes: The first service data in the RLC layer is transmitted N times according to the signal quality.

11. The method according to any one of claims 2-10, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information includes a HARQ retransmission number threshold; the step of sending the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the signal quality includes: When the number of HARQ retransmissions of the first service data is greater than or equal to the HARQ retransmission threshold, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent multiple times according to the signal quality.

12. The method according to any one of claims 2-11, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information includes data indication information: the data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for the service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times based on signal quality. The method further includes: Based on the data indication information, the first service data is determined; wherein the first service data belongs to the data range.

13. The method as described in claim 12, characterized in that, The data indication information includes at least one of the following: PDU set importance type, PDU set importance threshold, PDU set delay urgency type, and remaining transmission time threshold.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1-13, characterized in that, The step of sending the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times includes: Send multiple first data blocks; wherein each first data block carries the first service data.

15. The method as described in claim 14, characterized in that, The target data block in a plurality of first data blocks also carries second service data, wherein the priority of the first service data is different from the priority of the second service data; the method further includes: The first business data and the second business data are encapsulated into the target data block according to the priority of the first business data and the priority of the second business data.

16. The method as described in claim 15, characterized in that, When the second service data is being transmitted for the first time by the terminal device, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data; or When the remaining transmission time of the first service data is less than the remaining transmission time of the second service data, the priority of the first service data is higher than the priority of the second service data. or When the second service data is the service data retransmitted by the terminal device based on the received RLC status report, the priority of the second service data is higher than the priority of the first service data.

17. The method according to any one of claims 1-16, characterized in that, The step of transmitting the first service data in the RLC layer multiple times according to the signal quality includes: Based on the signal quality, during the i-th HARQ retransmission of the first service data, the first service data in the RLC layer is sent multiple times; i is a positive integer.

18. A communication method applied to a network device, characterized in that, include: Determine the transmission configuration information of the terminal device, wherein the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the RLC layer service data multiple times according to the signal quality; The transmission configuration information is sent to the terminal device.

19. The method as described in claim 18, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB); the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first DRB multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) entity; The transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first PDCP entity multiple times according to the signal quality; or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first RLC channel multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first RLC entity; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel; the transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first logical channel multiple times according to the signal quality. or The transmission configuration information is associated with the first logical channel group (LCG); The transmission configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to send the service data in the first RLC entity corresponding to the first LCG multiple times according to the signal quality.

20. The method as described in claim 18 or 19, characterized in that, The transmission configuration information includes at least one of the following: Enable indication information; signal quality threshold; number of transmissions N; HARQ retransmission count threshold; or data indication information; The enable indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to enable the RLC layer service data to be sent multiple times based on signal quality. The data indication information is used to indicate the applicable data range for the service data that the terminal device needs to send multiple times based on signal quality.

21. A communication device, characterized in that, include: The communication unit is used to receive and send data; A processing unit is configured to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1-20.

22. A communication device, characterized in that, include: A transceiver is used to receive and send signals; A processor for executing program instructions that cause the communication device to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1-20.

23. A communication system, characterized in that, include: A terminal device for performing any one of claims 1-17, and a network device for performing any one of claims 18-20.

24. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program that, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1-20.

25. A chip, characterized in that, The chip includes a processor; the processor is coupled to a memory, the processor being configured to read a computer program stored in the memory, causing the chip to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1-20.

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