A communication method and apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and device, the method comprising: receiving, by a terminal device, first information from a network device, the first information being used to indicate an antenna port configuration used by an uplink carrier; and determining, by the terminal device, a state of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration, L being an integer greater than 0. Through the above method, the terminal device can determine the state of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the first information, and thus can determine whether transmission channel switching is required before transmitting information.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application. The original application has the application number 202080104611.4 and the original application date is August 26, 2020. The entire contents of the original application are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] This application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and apparatus. Background Technology

[0003] When a network device schedules a terminal device to send data, it can explicitly indicate the antenna port used for data transmission, but it does not indicate which transmission channels the terminal device will use. If a terminal device is configured with more uplink carriers than downlink carriers, the same antenna port configuration can correspond to multiple transmission channel configurations. Therefore, when the network device instructs the terminal device on the antenna port configuration, it cannot know which transmission channels the terminal device will use for data transmission.

[0004] Switching between different transmission channels requires switching time, and these switching times vary between channels. The longer the switching time, the more uplink transmission opportunities are consumed. If network devices could know the status of the terminal device's transmission channels—that is, which channels the terminal device will use during each carrier scheduling—then network devices could more flexibly and comprehensively consider antenna port configurations, enabling the terminal device to obtain more uplink transmission opportunities. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of this application is to provide a communication method and apparatus for instructing a terminal device on the configuration of a transmission channel.

[0006] In a first aspect, this application provides a communication method, comprising: a terminal device receiving first information from a network device, the first information being used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by an uplink carrier; the terminal device determining the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration; where L is an integer greater than 0.

[0007] Using the above method, the terminal device can determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device based on the first information, thereby determining whether a transmission channel switch is needed before sending information.

[0008] In one possible implementation, the terminal device determines the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration, including: the terminal device determines at least one uplink carrier, the at least one uplink carrier is used to transmit information or the at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier that is scheduled to be used by the terminal device; The terminal device determines the antenna port transmission configuration based on at least one uplink carrier and the antenna port configuration; the antenna port transmission configuration is used to indicate the antenna port corresponding to at least one uplink carrier; the terminal device determines the status of L transmission channels based on the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0009] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then determining to perform a transmission channel configuration switch; or, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then determining not to perform a transmission channel configuration switch; wherein the second transmission channel configuration is the state of L transmission channels when or before the terminal device receives the first information; and the first transmission channel configuration is the state of L transmission channels determined according to the antenna port configuration.

[0010] In one possible implementation, the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to one or more transmission channel configurations; the terminal device determines the state of L transmission channels based on the antenna port transmission configuration, including: if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to only one transmission channel configuration, then the transmission channel configuration corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration is determined as the first transmission channel configuration; or, if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations, and the multiple transmission channel configurations include a second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device determines the second transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration; or, if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations, and the multiple transmission channel configurations do not include a second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device selects one transmission channel configuration from the multiple transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration as the first transmission channel configuration; wherein, the second transmission channel configuration is the transmission channel configuration when or before the terminal device receives the first information.

[0011] Using the above method, when the terminal device determines the antenna port transmission configuration corresponding to the second transmission channel configuration, it prioritizes keeping the current transmission channel configuration unchanged. This avoids the terminal device frequently switching transmission channels, thereby reducing switching time and allowing the terminal device to obtain more uplink transmission opportunities.

[0012] In one possible implementation, the terminal device selects one transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration from multiple transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration. This includes: the terminal device determining a transmission channel configuration that meets certain conditions from at least one transmission channel configuration according to a preset order, and using the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions as the first transmission channel configuration; wherein, the at least one transmission channel configuration is determined based on L transmission channels of the terminal device; the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions means that one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmission channel configuration include the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the second transmission channel configuration is located in the first group of transmission channel configurations among N groups of transmission channel configurations, and the first group of transmission channel configurations includes at least one transmission channel configuration. The terminal device selects one transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration from among the multiple transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration. This includes: if the terminal device determines that there is a transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions in the first group of transmission channel configurations, then it selects the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions as the first transmission channel configuration; or, if the terminal device determines that there is no transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions in the first group of transmission channel configurations, then it determines the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions from the N groups of transmission channel configurations in a preset order, and selects the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions as the first transmission channel configuration; wherein, the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions means that one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmission channel configuration include the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0014] One possible implementation further includes: the terminal device determining the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each uplink carrier in at least one uplink carrier based on the state of the L transmission channels; and determining at least one transmission channel for transmitting information based on the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each uplink carrier in at least one uplink carrier.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving third information from the network device; the third information is used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L is an integer greater than 0; or, the third information is used to indicate the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier in at least one carrier in the terminal device; Alternatively, the terminal device sends a fifth message to the network device, the fifth message indicating the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L is an integer greater than 0; or, the fifth message indicating the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier in at least one carrier in the terminal device; or, the terminal device sets the status of the L transmission channels to a pre-configured state.

[0016] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving scheduling information from the network device; the scheduling information is used to indicate the index value of a first configuration combination, the first configuration combination being one of H pre-established configuration combinations, one of the H configuration combinations including an antenna port transmission configuration and a transmission channel configuration, and the H configuration combinations including all configuration combinations consisting of the antenna port transmission configuration and the transmission channel configuration corresponding to the terminal device.

[0017] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device sending capability information to the network device; wherein the capability information is used to indicate one or more of the following: The terminal device is able to determine the uplink carrier for transmitting information from more than L uplink carriers; The terminal device is able to select an uplink carrier for transmitting information from a maximum of S uplink carriers, where S is a positive integer greater than L; L.

[0018] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving configuration information from the network device, the configuration information indicating one or more of the following: The uplink carrier information configured by the network device for the terminal device; The uplink carrier information activated by the network device for the terminal device; Uplink carrier information used by terminal devices to transmit information; The number of uplink carriers X configured by the network device for the terminal device, where X is a positive integer greater than L, and L is the maximum number of uplink carriers that the terminal device can transmit uplinks simultaneously. The network device configures the terminal device with the number of uplink carriers X, where X is a positive integer greater than P, and P is the maximum number of transmission channels that the terminal device can transmit uplink simultaneously; the terminal device uses the number of uplink carriers m to transmit information, where m is a positive integer less than or equal to L.

[0019] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving first power information from the network device, the first power information indicating that the transmission power of at least one carrier is a first transmission power; and the terminal device using the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier.

[0020] In one possible implementation, before the terminal device receives the first power information from the network device, the method includes: the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on an antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; or the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on a carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power.

[0021] In one possible implementation, the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port, including: the terminal supports transmitting information using the first transmission power on one antenna port through K transmission channels; where K is a positive integer.

[0022] In one possible implementation, the second power information includes at least one of the following parameters: the carrier frequency band using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency index using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency identifier using the first transmit power, the number of antenna ports using the first transmit power to transmit information, the antenna port number using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of transmit channels using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers using the first transmit power to transmit information, and the power gain.

[0023] In one possible implementation, the terminal device transmits information on at least one carrier using a first transmit power, including: the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on at least one carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; or, for the i-th carrier among the at least one carrier, the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on the i-th carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; where i is a positive integer.

[0024] Secondly, this application provides a communication method, comprising: a network device sending first information to a terminal device, the first information being used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier; the network device determining the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration; where L is an integer greater than 0.

[0025] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then determining to perform a transmission channel configuration switch; or, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then determining not to perform a transmission channel configuration switch; wherein, the second transmission channel configuration is the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier in at least one carrier when the terminal device receives the first information or before; the first transmission channel configuration is the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier in at least one carrier determined according to the antenna port configuration.

[0026] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information being used to instruct the terminal device to support information transmission using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on an antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; or, the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information being used to instruct the terminal device to support information transmission using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on a carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power.

[0027] Thirdly, this application provides a communication method, comprising: a terminal device receiving third information from a network device; the third information being used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L being an integer greater than 0; and the terminal device determining at least one transmission channel in the terminal device for transmitting information based on the status of the L transmission channels.

[0028] Using the method described above, the terminal device can directly determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device based on the third information, thereby determining which transmission channels to use to send information.

[0029] In one possible implementation, the state of the transmission channel includes at least one of an on state and an off state.

[0030] In one possible implementation, the third information is used to indicate whether each of the L transmission channels is in an on or off state; or, the third information is used to indicate the transmission channels in the on state among the L transmission channels; or, the third information is used to indicate the transmission channels in the off state among the L transmission channels; or, the third information is used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier in at least one carrier in the terminal device.

[0031] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving second information from the network device; the second information is used to indicate information of an uplink carrier corresponding to each of the at least one transmission channel, or the second information is used to indicate information of at least one uplink carrier.

[0032] In one possible implementation, the terminal device determines at least one transmission channel for transmitting information based on the states of L transmission channels, including: the terminal device determining the transmission channels that are in the active state among the L transmission channels based on third information; the terminal device determining the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one uplink carriers based on second information, and determining the state of the transmission channel in the active state corresponding to the at least one uplink carrier as the at least one transmission channel for transmitting information; or, the terminal device determining the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one uplink carriers based on the states of the L transmission channels and the second information; the terminal device determines at least one transmission channel for transmitting information in the terminal device.

[0033] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving first information from the network device, the first information indicating the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier; or, the first information indicating the antenna port configuration used by each of the X uplink carriers configured for the terminal device, where X is a positive integer.

[0034] In one possible implementation, the terminal device determines at least one transmission channel for transmitting information based on the states of L transmission channels, including: the terminal device determining the transmission channels that are in the "on" state among the L transmission channels based on third information; the terminal device determining the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one antenna port based on first information, and determining the state of the transmission channel in the "on" state corresponding to at least one antenna port as at least one transmission channel for transmitting information; or, the terminal device determining the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each antenna port among at least one uplink carrier based on the states of the L transmission channels and the first information; the terminal device determines at least one transmission channel for transmitting information in the terminal device.

[0035] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the third information is also used to indicate one or more of the following: the status of the transmission channel used by the uplink carrier; the number of transmission channels used by the uplink carrier; or, the third information is also used to indicate one or more of the following: the status of the transmission channel used by each uplink carrier on X uplink carriers; the number of transmission channels used by each uplink carrier on X uplink carriers; where X is a positive integer.

[0036] In one possible implementation, the terminal device determines at least one transmission channel for transmitting information based on the status of L transmission channels, including: the terminal device determining at least one transmission channel for transmitting information based on at least one transmission channel that is in the open state among the L transmission channels; or, the terminal device determines at least one transmission channel for transmitting information based on the status of the transmission channel used by each uplink carrier on X uplink carriers.

[0037] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving first power information from the network device, the first power information indicating that the transmission power of at least one carrier is a first transmission power; and the terminal device using the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier.

[0038] In one possible implementation, before the terminal device receives the first power information from the network device, the method includes: the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on an antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; or the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on a carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power.

[0039] In one possible implementation, the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port, including: the terminal supports transmitting information using the first transmission power on one antenna port through K transmission channels; where K is a positive integer.

[0040] In one possible implementation, the second power information includes at least one of the following parameters: the carrier frequency band using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency index using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency identifier using the first transmit power, the number of antenna ports using the first transmit power to transmit information, the antenna port number using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of transmit channels using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers using the first transmit power to transmit information, and the power gain.

[0041] In one possible implementation, the terminal device transmits information on at least one carrier using a first transmit power, including: the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on at least one carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; or, for the i-th carrier among the at least one carrier, the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on the i-th carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; where i is a positive integer.

[0042] Fourthly, this application provides a communication method, comprising: a network device sending third information to a terminal device; the third information being used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; or, the third information being used to indicate the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier; and the network device receiving information on at least one carrier according to the status of the transmission channels.

[0043] In one possible implementation, the network device sends first power information to the terminal device, the first power information being used to indicate that the transmission power of at least one carrier is a first transmission power.

[0044] In one possible implementation, the network device receives second power information from the terminal device. The second power information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on an antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; the second power information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports transmitting information using the first transmission power or the second transmission power on a carrier.

[0045] Fifthly, this application provides a communication method, comprising: a terminal device receiving third information from a network device; the third information indicating the state of a transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier; and the terminal device determining at least one transmission channel in the terminal device for transmitting information based on the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one carrier.

[0046] Using the method described above, the terminal device can determine the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier based on the third information, thereby determining the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device, and thus determining which transmission channels to use to send information.

[0047] In one possible implementation, the state of the transmission channel includes an on state and / or an off state.

[0048] In one possible implementation, the third information includes at least one of the following: the state of the transmission channel used by the uplink carrier; the number of transmission channels used by the uplink carrier; or, the third information includes at least one of the following: the state of the transmission channel used by each of the X uplink carriers; the number of transmission channels used by each of the X uplink carriers; where X is a positive integer.

[0049] In one possible implementation, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then it is determined that a transmission channel configuration switch will be performed; or, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then it is determined that a transmission channel configuration switch will not be performed; wherein, the second transmission channel configuration is the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier in at least one carrier when the terminal device receives the first information or before; the first transmission channel configuration is the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier in at least one carrier determined according to the antenna port configuration.

[0050] In one possible implementation, the terminal device receives first power information from the network device, the first power information being used to indicate that the transmission power of at least one carrier is a first transmission power; the terminal device uses the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier.

[0051] In one possible implementation, before the terminal device receives the first power information from the network device, the method includes: the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on an antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; or the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on a carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power.

[0052] In one possible implementation, the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port, including: the terminal supports transmitting information using the first transmission power on one antenna port through K transmission channels; where K is a positive integer.

[0053] In one possible implementation, the second power information includes at least one of the following parameters: the carrier frequency band using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency index using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency identifier using the first transmit power, the number of antenna ports using the first transmit power to transmit information, the antenna port number using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of transmit channels using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers using the first transmit power to transmit information, and the power gain.

[0054] In one possible implementation, the terminal device transmits information on at least one carrier using a first transmit power, including: the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on at least one carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; or, for the i-th carrier among the at least one carrier, the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on the i-th carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; where i is a positive integer.

[0055] Sixthly, this application provides a communication method, comprising: a terminal device receiving first power information from a network device, the first power information being used to indicate that the transmission power of at least one carrier is a first transmission power; and the terminal device using the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier.

[0056] In one possible implementation, before the terminal device receives the first power information from the network device, the method includes: the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on an antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; or the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information indicating that the terminal device supports transmitting information using either the first transmission power or the second transmission power on a carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power.

[0057] In one possible implementation, the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port, including: the terminal supports transmitting information using the first transmission power on one antenna port through K transmission channels; where K is a positive integer.

[0058] In one possible implementation, the second power information includes at least one of the following parameters: the carrier frequency band using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency index using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency identifier using the first transmit power, the number of antenna ports using the first transmit power to transmit information, the antenna port number using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of transmit channels using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers using the first transmit power to transmit information, and the power gain.

[0059] In one possible implementation, the terminal device transmits information on at least one carrier using a first transmit power, including: the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on at least one carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; or, for the i-th carrier among the at least one carrier, the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on the i-th carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; where i is a positive integer.

[0060] In a seventh aspect, this application provides a communication method, comprising: a terminal device sending second power information to a network device, the second power information being used to indicate that the terminal device supports information transmission using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on an antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; or, the terminal device sending second power information to the network device, the second power information being used to indicate that the terminal device supports information transmission using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on a carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power.

[0061] In one possible implementation, the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port, including: the terminal supports transmitting information using the first transmission power on one antenna port through K transmission channels; where K is a positive integer.

[0062] In one possible implementation, the second power information includes at least one of the following parameters: the carrier frequency band using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency index using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency identifier using the first transmit power, the number of antenna ports using the first transmit power to transmit information, the antenna port number using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of transmit channels using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers using the first transmit power to transmit information, and the power gain.

[0063] In one possible implementation, the terminal device receives first power information from the network device, the first power information being used to indicate that the transmission power of at least one carrier is a first transmission power; the terminal device uses the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier.

[0064] In one possible implementation, the terminal device transmits information on at least one carrier using a first transmit power, including: the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on at least one carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; or, for the i-th carrier among the at least one carrier, the terminal device uses K transmit channels to transmit information on the i-th carrier using the first transmit power on one antenna port; where i is a positive integer.

[0065] Eighthly, this application also provides a communication device that can implement any of the methods provided in any of the first to seventh aspects. This communication device can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the functions described above.

[0066] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a processor configured to support the communication device in performing corresponding functions of the terminal device in any of the methods provided above. The communication device may also include a memory coupled to the processor, which stores necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication interface for supporting communication between the communication device and devices such as network devices.

[0067] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a processor configured to support the communication device in performing corresponding functions of the network device in any of the methods provided above. The communication device may also include a memory coupled to the processor, which stores necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication interface for supporting communication between the communication device and devices such as terminal devices.

[0068] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes corresponding functional units, each used to implement the steps in the above method. The functions can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units corresponding to the functions described above.

[0069] In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit, which can perform the corresponding functions in the above method examples, as described in the method provided in the first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0070] Ninthly, this application provides a communication device including a processor, wherein when the processor executes a computer program or instructions in a memory, the method described in the first aspect is performed.

[0071] In a tenth aspect, this application provides a communication device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory being used to store computer programs or instructions; the processor being used to execute the computer programs or instructions stored in the memory to cause the communication device to perform any of the methods provided in any of the first to seventh aspects.

[0072] Eleventhly, this application provides a communication device, the communication device including a processor, a memory and a communication interface, the communication interface being used to receive or transmit signals; the memory being used to store computer programs or instructions; the processor being used to call the computer programs or instructions from the memory to execute any method provided by any one of the first to seventh aspects.

[0073] In a twelfth aspect, this application provides a communication device comprising a processor and a communication interface, the communication interface being configured to receive code instructions and transmit them to the processor; the processor executing the code instructions to perform any method provided in any of the first to seventh aspects.

[0074] In a thirteenth aspect, this application provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program or instructions that, when read and executed by a computer, cause any of the methods provided in any of the first to seventh aspects to be implemented.

[0075] In a fourteenth aspect, this application provides a computer program product including instructions that, when a computer reads and executes the computer program product, cause any method provided in any of the first to seventh aspects to be implemented.

[0076] In a fifteenth aspect, this application provides a chip including a processor coupled to a memory for executing a computer program or instructions stored in the memory, wherein when the processor executes the computer program or instructions, any method provided in any of the first to seventh aspects is implemented. Attached Figure Description

[0077] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the network architecture applicable to the embodiments of this application; Figure 2 This is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 3This is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 4 This is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of a communication device structure provided in an embodiment of this application; Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of a communication device structure provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0078] The embodiments of this application will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0079] The technical solutions of this application can be applied to various communication systems, such as new radio (NR) systems, long term evolution (LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, and LTE time division duplex (TDD) systems, etc., and are not limited thereto.

[0080] In this application embodiment, the terminal device can be a device with wireless transceiver function or a chip that can be set in any device. It can also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device. The terminal device in this application embodiment can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, virtual reality (VR) terminal, augmented reality (AR) terminal, wireless terminal in industrial control, wireless terminal in self-driving, wireless terminal in remote medical care, wireless terminal in smart grid, wireless terminal in transportation safety, wireless terminal in smart city, wireless terminal in smart home, etc.

[0081] Network equipment can be a next-generation node B (gNB) in an NR system, an evolved node B (eNB) in an LTE system, a base transceiver station (BTS) in a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, or a base station (nodeB, NB) in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, etc.

[0082] To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of this application, let's first take... Figure 1 The communication system shown in the figure is used as an example to describe in detail the communication system applicable to the embodiments of this application. Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a wireless communication system applicable to an embodiment of this application. For example... Figure 1 As shown, a wireless communication system includes terminal equipment and network equipment. Depending on the transmission direction, the transmission link from the terminal equipment to the network equipment is denoted as the uplink (UL), and the transmission link from the network equipment to the terminal equipment is denoted as the downlink (DL). Similarly, data transmission in the uplink can be abbreviated as uplink data transmission or uplink transmission, and data transmission in the downlink can be abbreviated as downlink data transmission or downlink transmission.

[0083] It should be noted that, Figure 1 The architecture of the communication system shown is not limited to the devices shown in the figure, but may also include other devices not shown in the figure, which will not be listed here.

[0084] The following are definitions of technical terms that may appear in the embodiments of this application.

[0085] A transmitter (TX) is a physical concept, also known as a radio frequency (RF) transmission channel, and is referred to as a transmitter channel throughout this application. In this application, the transmitter channel may operate in the following manner, but is not limited to: the transmitter channel receives baseband signals from a baseband chip, performs RF processing (such as up-conversion, amplification, and filtering) on ​​the baseband signals to obtain RF signals, and finally radiates the RF signals into space through an antenna. Specifically, the transmitter channel may include electronic devices such as antenna switches, antenna tuners, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), power amplifiers (PAs), mixers, local oscillators (LOs), and filters, which can be integrated into one or more chips as needed. An antenna can sometimes be considered part of the transmitter channel.

[0086] An antenna port is a logical concept; when actually transmitting signals, the antenna port is mapped to a corresponding transmission channel. Currently, network devices can explicitly indicate the port number of the antenna port used for data transmission when scheduling terminal devices to transmit data.

[0087] A component carrier (CC) is a frequency domain resource used to carry information output from the transmit channel. Component carriers are sometimes also translated as component carriers, and can be simply referred to as carriers. Network devices can configure multiple uplink carriers and multiple downlink carriers for terminal devices. In this application, the number of uplink carriers configured by the network device can be greater than the number of downlink carriers.

[0088] Suppose a terminal device uses a transmit channel to send data on uplink carrier CC1. This transmit channel needs to be adapted to the frequency of CC1. When the terminal device switches to uplink carrier CC2, the transmit channel also needs to be adapted to the frequency of CC2. Because CC1 and CC2 have different frequencies, it takes a certain amount of time for the frequency adapted to the terminal device's transmit channel to be readjusted from one frequency to another. This time can be denoted as switching time (TX) or RF retuning time, etc. For ease of description, it will be referred to as switching time below. Switching time is related to the terminal device's hardware and software configuration.

[0089] During the transmission channel switching process, data transmission will be interrupted. As mentioned earlier, the data transmission interruption time includes the switching time. Therefore, reducing the switching time can reduce the data transmission interruption time, which is beneficial to improving system performance.

[0090] The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application. As those skilled in the art will know, with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0091] In this embodiment, the interaction between a terminal device and a network device is used as an example for illustration. The method provided in this embodiment can also be applied to the interaction between other execution entities, such as the interaction between a terminal device chip or module and a chip or module in a network device. When the execution entity is a chip or module, the description in this embodiment can be referred to, and will not be repeated here.

[0092] In this embodiment of the application, before the network device configures the uplink carrier for the terminal device, the terminal device may send capability information to the network device. The capability information is used to indicate one or more of the following: The terminal device is able to determine the uplink carrier for transmitting information from more than L uplink carriers, where L is an integer greater than 0; The terminal device is able to support determining the uplink carrier for transmitting information from a maximum of S uplink carriers, where S is a positive integer greater than L; The L.

[0093] Accordingly, the network device can send configuration information to the terminal device, the configuration information being used to indicate one or more of the following: The network device is the uplink carrier information configured for the terminal device; The network device is the uplink carrier information activated by the terminal device; The uplink carrier information used by the terminal device to transmit information; The network device configures the terminal device with the number of uplink carriers X, where X is a positive integer greater than L, and L is the maximum number of uplink carriers that the terminal device can transmit uplink simultaneously. The network device configures the terminal device with an uplink carrier number X, where X is a positive integer greater than P, and P is the maximum number of transmission channels that the terminal device can transmit uplink simultaneously. The number of uplink carriers m used by the terminal device to transmit information, where m is a positive integer less than or equal to L.

[0094] The uplink carrier information may be at least one of the following: an uplink carrier identifier; an uplink carrier index; an uplink carrier frequency; an uplink carrier frequency index; an uplink carrier frequency identifier, etc.

[0095] Regarding the carrier: "The network device is an uplink carrier configured for the terminal device" means that this type of carrier can also be referred to as the carrier being configured, or a carrier being configured. In this case, it can also be said that the carrier is a configuration carrier. Of course, it can also be called other names, which are not limited in this application. Specifically, the configured carrier may be one or more of the following: synchronization, measurement, and power control adjustments performed by the terminal device on the carrier; or the terminal device may have transmitted a reference signal on the carrier; or the network device may have simply configured a carrier for the terminal device, but the terminal device does not need to perform physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) listening, random access channel (RACH) access, uplink-synchronization channel (UL-SCH) transmission, or report channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indication (PMI), rank indicator (RI), precoding type indicator (PTI), or channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource indicator (CRI) on the carrier; or it may not need to transmit a sounding reference signal (SRS) on the carrier. In short, this invention does not impose any limitations.

[0096] The phrase "the network device is an uplink carrier activated by the terminal device" means that the carrier can be referred to as being activated, or a carrier can be activated, or the carrier can be described as an activated carrier. Of course, it can also be called by other names, which are not limited in this application. Specifically, the activated carrier can be at least one of the following performed by the terminal device on the carrier: transmitting SRS, transmitting reference signals, performing PDCCH listening, performing physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) / short PUCCH (SPUCCH) transmission, or performing CQI / PMI / RI / PTI / CRI reporting.

[0097] "The uplink carrier used by the terminal device to transmit information" means that the carrier has been scheduled, or that a carrier has been scheduled. In this case, the carrier can also be called a scheduled carrier. Of course, it can also be called other names, which are not limited in this application. A scheduled carrier can mean that the terminal device can send information on the carrier, or that communication can be performed on the carrier; it can also mean that the network allocates resources to the terminal device for the terminal device to use those resources to send information on the carrier, etc.

[0098] Specifically, for example, a network device might configure 5 carriers for a terminal device, activating 3 of them so the terminal can use them for communication at any time. However, during actual scheduling, the network device might only use 2 of those 3 carriers for communication. It should be noted that these 3 carriers represent the maximum number of uplink carriers that the UE can support in parallel transmission, or in other words, the maximum number of TX transmission channels that the terminal device can support.

[0099] The above can be performed before step 203.

[0100] Based on the preceding description, such as Figure 2 The diagram shown is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application. See also... Figure 2 The method includes: Step 201: The network device sends the first information to the terminal device.

[0101] The first information is used to indicate the antenna port configuration, which is the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier of the terminal device; or the antenna port configuration is the antenna port configuration used by each uplink carrier configured by the terminal device.

[0102] The specific way the network device sends the first information is not limited in the embodiments of this application. For example, the first information can be sent through higher-layer signaling or through downlink control information (DCI).

[0103] For example, in this embodiment of the application, the network device may also indicate information about at least one uplink carrier to the terminal device. Optionally, the at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier activated by the terminal device, a configured uplink carrier, or a scheduled uplink carrier.

[0104] It should be noted that, assuming the network device configures X uplink carriers for the terminal device, not all of these X uplink carriers will necessarily be activated. The network device will activate only Q uplink carriers out of the X uplink carriers, where Q is less than or equal to X, depending on the terminal device's capabilities.

[0105] Once an uplink carrier is activated, the terminal device can only transmit information on that uplink carrier when it is scheduled. In other words, at least one uplink carrier that the terminal device is scheduled to use is some or all of the Q activated uplink carriers.

[0106] In one possible implementation of this application embodiment, the network device sends second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate whether the uplink carrier is scheduled or whether the uplink carrier is activated.

[0107] The network device may transmit a second piece of information in the downlink carrier corresponding to each uplink carrier. The second piece of information is used to indicate the information of the uplink carrier. At this time, the second piece of information may include one or more of the following: the identifier of the uplink carrier; the index of the uplink carrier; the frequency index of the uplink carrier; the frequency identifier of the uplink carrier; whether the uplink carrier is scheduled; and whether the uplink carrier is activated.

[0108] In another possible implementation, the network device may transmit second information in a downlink carrier, which indicates information about the at least one uplink carrier. This implementation can be applied when the terminal device supports a number of uplink carriers greater than the number of downlink carriers. In this implementation, the second information may include one or more of the following: identifiers of m uplink carriers; indices of m uplink carriers; frequency indices of m uplink carriers; frequency identifiers of m uplink carriers; where m is a positive integer and represents the number of the at least one scheduled uplink carrier; whether the uplink carrier is scheduled; and whether the uplink carrier is activated.

[0109] In this implementation, the second information includes A1 bits, each bit indicating whether an uplink carrier has been scheduled or activated. For example, if the network device is configured with 5 uplink carriers, the second information may include 5 bits, each bit corresponding to one uplink carrier. Assuming a bit value of 1 indicates that the uplink carrier has been scheduled, and a bit value of 0 indicates that the uplink carrier has not been scheduled; a second information value of 11000 indicates that 2 of the 5 uplink carriers have been scheduled. Specifically, the 5 carriers can be assigned numbers; for example, the 2 uplink carriers are the first carrier CC1 and the second carrier CC2, respectively, which are scheduled.

[0110] In this application, regarding step 201, one implementation involves the network device sending first information to the terminal device, enabling the terminal device to obtain the antenna configuration of the uplink carrier. The uplink carrier includes at least one uplink carrier, which can be a configuration carrier or an activation carrier. The network device also sends second information to the terminal device, enabling the terminal device to obtain information about the scheduling carrier through the second information.

[0111] In this application, for step 201, another implementation is that the network device sends first information to the terminal device, enabling the terminal device to obtain the antenna configuration of the uplink carrier, wherein the uplink carrier includes at least one uplink carrier, and the uplink carrier may be a scheduled carrier.

[0112] Step 202: The terminal device receives first information from the network device, the first information being used to indicate the antenna port configuration, the antenna port configuration including the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier configured for the terminal device.

[0113] Specifically, if the network device configures X uplink carriers for the terminal device, then the first information can be used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by each of the X uplink carriers, such as the number of antenna ports and / or antenna port number. The specific implementation of the first information is not limited in this application embodiment, and can be referred to the description in the prior art.

[0114] In this application, regarding step 202, one implementation involves the network device sending first information to the terminal device, enabling the terminal device to obtain the antenna port configuration of an uplink carrier. The uplink carrier includes at least one uplink carrier, which can be a configuration carrier or an activation carrier. The network device also sends second information to the terminal device, enabling the terminal device to obtain information about the scheduled carrier. Through the first and second information, the terminal device obtains the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier configured for the terminal device.

[0115] In this application, for step 202, another implementation is that the network device sends first information to the terminal device, enabling the terminal device to obtain the antenna configuration of the uplink carrier, wherein the uplink carrier includes at least one uplink carrier, for example, the uplink carrier may be a scheduled carrier.

[0116] Step 203: The terminal device determines the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration.

[0117] Where L is an integer greater than 0. The state of the transmission channel includes at least one of an on state and a off state. A transmission channel in the on state can be used to transmit information, but whether it is used to transmit information depends on whether the uplink carrier corresponding to the transmission channel is scheduled; a transmission channel in the off state cannot be used to transmit information.

[0118] Furthermore, the states of the L transmission channels in the terminal device can have various combinations. In this embodiment, for ease of description, one combination of the states of the L transmission channels is referred to as the transmission channel configuration. That is, the transmission channel configuration is used to indicate the transmission channels in the terminal device that are in the on state and / or the transmission channels that are in the off state. This application mainly uses the example of the transmission channel configuration indicating the transmission channels in the terminal device that are in the on state and the transmission channels that are in the off state to illustrate the invention.

[0119] Furthermore, terminal devices can transmit information via a single transmit channel on an uplink carrier, or via multiple transmit channels on a single uplink carrier. To this end, the transmit channel configuration can also indicate the number of transmit channels transmitting information on the same uplink carrier. "Transmitting information via a single transmit channel on an uplink carrier" is equivalent to "transmitting information on one uplink carrier via a single transmit channel," or "transmitting information on one uplink carrier via a single transmit channel." "Multiple transmit channels can transmit information on a single uplink carrier" is equivalent to "transmitting information on the same uplink carrier via multiple transmit channels," meaning that the information transmitted on multiple channels all serves the same uplink carrier and contains the same uplink carrier content. However, the information transmitted on multiple transmit channels can be the same or different.

[0120] For example, suppose a terminal device has three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2 and TX3. The terminal device can use two of these transmission channels to send information at the same time. The transmission channel configuration of the terminal device can be as shown in Table 1.

[0121] Table 1

[0122] In this embodiment, the terminal device can also determine the antenna port transmission configuration based on at least one uplink carrier and the antenna port configuration. The at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier used for transmitting information, or the at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier scheduled for use by the terminal device, or the at least one uplink carrier is an activated uplink carrier. The activated uplink carrier is a carrier that can be used to transmit information at any time. Whether the activated uplink carrier transmits information depends on whether the carrier is actually scheduled, or whether there is a service on the carrier that needs to transmit information. In the prior art, each carrier has a corresponding antenna port configuration. In this embodiment, for ease of description, the antenna port corresponding to at least one carrier is referred to as the antenna port transmission configuration; it can also be referred to as the antenna port transmission indication, or as the carrier transmission indication, or as the carrier transmission configuration. The antenna port transmission configuration is used to indicate the antenna port corresponding to the at least one uplink carrier; that is, the antenna port transmission configuration can indicate the antenna port that the terminal device needs to use when sending information.

[0123] For example, taking L=3: In steps 201 and 202, the network device activates three uplink carriers for the terminal device, namely CC1, CC2, and CC3. When only CC1 is scheduled, the antenna port transmission configuration can be represented as {1P, 0P, 0P}, where 1P indicates that the terminal device needs to use the antenna port corresponding to CC1 to send information, the first 0P indicates that the terminal device does not need to use the antenna port corresponding to CC2 to send information, and the second 0P indicates that the terminal device does not need to use the antenna port corresponding to CC3 to send information. Therefore, the terminal device's antenna port transmission configuration according to the antenna port configuration of these three carriers is {1P, 0P, 0P}.

[0124] For example, taking L=3: In steps 201 and 202, the network device activates three uplink carriers for the terminal device, namely CC1, CC2, and CC3. When only CC1 is scheduled, the antenna port transmission configuration can be represented as {1P, 0P, 0P}, where 1P indicates that the terminal device needs to use the antenna port corresponding to CC1 to send information, the first 0P indicates that the terminal device does not need to use the antenna port corresponding to CC2 to send information, and the second 0P indicates that the terminal device does not need to use the antenna port corresponding to CC3 to send information. Therefore, the terminal device's antenna port transmission configuration based on the antenna port configuration of these three carriers is {1P, 0P, 0P}.

[0125] Furthermore, in the embodiments of this application, there is a correspondence between the transmission channels and uplink carriers in the terminal device. This correspondence can be pre-configured. For example, assuming that the terminal device includes 3 transmission channels, represented as TX1, TX2 and TX3 respectively, and the network device activates 3 uplink carriers for the terminal device, represented as CC1, CC2 and CC3 respectively, then TX1 can be matched with CC1, TX2 with CC2, and TX3 with CC3.

[0126] Based on the preceding descriptions, from the perspective of transmission channels, if a transmission channel in the terminal device is active, the uplink carrier corresponding to that channel may or may not be scheduled; if a transmission channel in the terminal device is inactive, the uplink carrier corresponding to that channel will not be scheduled. From the perspective of uplink carriers, if an uplink carrier is scheduled, the transmission channel corresponding to that uplink carrier must be active; if an uplink carrier is not scheduled, the transmission channel corresponding to that uplink carrier may or may not be active.

[0127] Based on the above description, in this embodiment, a correspondence between the transmission channel configuration and the antenna port transmission configuration can be pre-established. The specific process of establishing this correspondence will not be elaborated further. For example, when a terminal device is activated with 3 carriers, but only 2 carriers are actually used for transmission, or when a terminal device is configured with 3 carriers, but only 2 carriers are actually used for information transmission, referring to Table 1, when a terminal device includes 3 transmission channels, and can only use a maximum of 2 transmission channels to send information at a time, and the network device activates 3 uplink carriers for the terminal device, the terminal device obtains one antenna port transmission configuration based on the antenna port configuration of each of these 3 carriers. This antenna port transmission configuration can correspond to one transmission channel configuration. This means that the terminal device will adjust the state of the 3 transmission channels to the aforementioned transmission channel configuration. However, since multiple antenna port transmission configurations can correspond to the same transmission channel configuration, this application uses this as an example to list the correspondence between the transmission channel configuration and the antenna port transmission configuration as shown in Table 2.

[0128] Table 2

[0129] As shown in Table 2, in the embodiments of this application, one transmit channel configuration corresponds to one or more antenna port transmission configurations; correspondingly, one antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to one or more transmit channel configurations.

[0130] Based on the preceding description, once the terminal device has determined at least one scheduled uplink carrier, it can determine the antenna port transmission configuration. The terminal device can then determine the status of the L transmission channels within the terminal device based on the antenna port transmission configuration, which will be described separately below. Specifically, for example, the at least one scheduled uplink carrier can be at least one uplink carrier used for actual information transmission.

[0131] For ease of description, in the following description, the states of the L transmission channels determined according to the antenna port transmission configuration are referred to as the first transmission channel configuration, and the states of the L transmission channels when or before the terminal device receives the first information are referred to as the second transmission channel configuration. It should be noted that the second transmission channel configuration is the current state of the L transmission channels in the terminal device, while the first transmission channel configuration is the state of the L transmission channels that the terminal device needs to configure before sending information.

[0132] Regarding step 203, how the terminal device determines the status of the L transmission channels based on the antenna port transmission configuration, this application will provide more details in later embodiments.

[0133] It should be noted that the antenna port used by the terminal device to transmit information on the scheduled uplink carrier is the antenna port configured for that uplink carrier.

[0134] In this embodiment, multiple transmission channels can be supported to transmit information using different antenna ports on one uplink carrier, or multiple transmission channels can be supported to transmit information using the same antenna port on one uplink carrier.

[0135] For example, referring to Table 2 above, when the first transmission channel is configured as {2T, 0T, 0T} and the antenna port transmission is configured as {2P, 0P, 0P}, it means that information is transmitted in CC1 through TX1 and TX1, and TX1 and TX1 transmit information through different antenna ports respectively; when the first transmission channel is configured as {2T, 0T, 0T} and the antenna port transmission is configured as {1PX, 0P, 0P}, it means that information is transmitted in CC1 through TX1 and TX1, and TX1 and TX1 transmit information through the same antenna port.

[0136] Furthermore, when the terminal device determines that the number of antenna ports is less than the number of transmission channels, that is, when it determines that information is transmitted through multiple transmission channels using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier, it can use high power gain to transmit information in that antenna port.

[0137] Furthermore, there may be multiple methods for the network device to instruct the terminal device to configure the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, or for the terminal device to transmit the configuration as {1P, 0P, 0P} through the antenna port to obtain the configuration of the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}.

[0138] Specifically, if a terminal device supports multiple transmission channels using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier to transmit information, and the terminal device can transmit information with a higher power than normal, then the network device can instruct the terminal to use a higher power than normal when configuring the carrier, thereby instructing the terminal device to set the first transmission channel to {2T, 0T, 0T}.

[0139] Specifically, for example, when a terminal reports capability information, it informs the network device that the terminal device supports transmitting information via 2TX on a single port, and that the transmission power can be 3dBm higher than the usual transmission power of 23dBm. Therefore, the network device can use one bit to instruct the terminal device to transmit information using a higher power than usual on a certain carrier. For example, 1 represents 26dBm, and 0 represents 23dBm, thus effectively instructing the terminal device to use 2TX to transmit information on a certain carrier.

[0140] In all embodiments of this application, the network device instructs the terminal device to transmit information using M TXs on a certain carrier through a single antenna port by indicating a first transmit power. For specific implementation details, please refer to Embodiment 5.

[0141] Optionally, the following steps may also be included: The terminal device may determine the transmission channel that corresponds to the uplink carrier in at least one uplink carrier and is in the open state among the L transmission channels as at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

[0142] Optionally, the following steps may also be included: after the terminal device determines the status of the L transmission channels, it determines whether to perform a transmission channel switch or not; or, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel and determines whether to perform a transmission channel switch or not.

[0143] Specifically, based on the status of the L transmission channels, at least one transmission channel for transmitting information in the terminal device is determined, that is, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel. Then, the terminal device determines whether a transmission channel switch is needed: specifically, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then a transmission channel configuration switch is determined, that is, the terminal device's transmission channel needs to be switched, the switch time needs to be determined, and then data is sent; if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are the same, then it is determined not to switch the transmission channel configuration, or it can be determined to keep the current transmission channel configuration unchanged; that is, no switch is needed for each transmission channel of the terminal device.

[0144] Example 1: Regarding step 203, one possible implementation is as follows; the other steps are the same as those in the above embodiment and will not be repeated here: Step 203: The terminal device determines the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration. Specifically, this may include steps A, B, and C. The terminal device may choose to execute any one of the three steps based on the actual situation.

[0145] Step A: After the terminal device determines the antenna port transmission configuration, if the terminal device determines that the antenna port transmission configuration can only correspond to one transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device can determine the transmission channel configuration corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration as the first transmission channel configuration.

[0146] For example, referring to Table 2 above, if the determined antenna port transmission configuration is {1P, 1P, 0P}, then as shown in Table 2, {1P, 1P, 0P} can only correspond to {1T, 1T, 0T}. Therefore, {1T, 1T, 0T} can be directly used as the first transmission channel configuration. In this case, there is actually a one-to-one correspondence between the first transmission channel configuration and the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0147] Step B: After the terminal device determines the antenna port transmission configuration, if it determines that among the multiple transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration, there is a second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device determines that the second transmission channel configuration is the same as the first transmission channel configuration, that is, the second transmission channel configuration can be determined as the first transmission channel configuration.

[0148] For example, referring to Table 2 above, if the second transmit channel is configured as {1T, 0T, 1T}, the determined antenna port transmission configuration is {1P, 0P, 0P}. Table 2 shows that {1P, 0P, 0P} corresponds to {1T, 1T, 0T} and {1T, 0T, 1T}, which includes the second transmit channel configuration. Therefore, the second transmit channel configuration can be used as the first transmit channel configuration, thus keeping the current transmit channel configuration unchanged.

[0149] Step C: After the terminal device determines the antenna port transmission configuration, if it determines that the second transmission channel configuration is not included among the multiple transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration, the terminal device can select one transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration from one or more transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration. The specific selection method will be described in detail later.

[0150] If the second transmit channel is configured as {1T, 0T, 1T}, the determined antenna port transmission configuration is {0P, 0P, 1P}. Table 2 shows that {0P, 0P, 1P} corresponds to {0T, 1T, 1T} and {1T, 0T, 1T}, excluding the second transmit channel configuration. Therefore, one can be selected from {0T, 1T, 1T} and {1T, 0T, 1T} as the first transmit channel configuration.

[0151] Regarding step C, the specific method for selecting a transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration is described as follows: For the states of L transmission channels, there can be N transmission channel configurations.

[0152] Taking a terminal device configured with 3 active carriers but actually using 2 carriers to transmit information in parallel as an example, the terminal device can have 6 possible transmission channel configurations (N=6 in this case), as shown in Table 3-1: Table 3-1

[0153] For example, referring to Table 3-1, each group of transmit channel configurations includes one transmit channel configuration, and the corresponding index value can be shown in Table 3-1.

[0154] For example, if the second transmission channel configuration is located in one of the six transmission channel configurations (e.g., index value is 001, {1T, 1T, 0T}), this transmission channel configuration is referred to as the first group of transmission channel configurations. When the terminal device determines the antenna port transmission configuration (e.g., the antenna port transmission configuration is {0P, 0P, 1P}), the antenna port transmission configuration can correspond to multiple transmission channel configurations, but cannot correspond to the antenna port transmission configuration included in the second transmission channel configuration.

[0155] At this time, the first transmission channel configuration can be determined in the following way: If the terminal device determines that there is no transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions in the first type of transmission channel configuration, then it determines the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions from the N types of transmission channel configurations according to a preset order, and uses the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions as the first transmission channel configuration. Wherein, the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions means that one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmission channel configuration include the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0156] It should be noted that, assuming each of the N transmission channel configurations corresponds to an index value, the preset order can refer to a cyclical order of the N transmission channel index values ​​from largest to smallest, or a cyclical order of the N transmission channel index values ​​from smallest to largest. This embodiment of the application does not limit this. Other implementations of the preset order are also possible, which will not be listed here.

[0157] Referring to Table 3-1 above, if the second transmission channel is configured as {0T, 0T, 2T}, the determined antenna port transmission configuration is {0P, 0P, 1P}. Table 2 shows that {0P, 0P, 1P} does not correspond to {0T, 0T, 2T}. Therefore, we can sequentially check the transmission channel configurations corresponding to index values ​​001, 010, 011…101 in descending order of index value to determine if a suitable transmission channel configuration exists. In this example, we can first determine the suitable transmission channel configuration from the transmission channel configuration corresponding to 010, thus allowing {1T, 0T, 1T} to be used as the first transmission channel configuration.

[0158] The example above uses a single transmission channel as a group. In practical applications, other grouping situations may exist, such as grouping {1T, 1T, 0T} and {1T, 1T, 0T} together, grouping {0T, 1T, 1T} and {2T, 0T, 0T} together, grouping {0T, 2T, 0T} and {0T, 0T, 2T} together, etc., which will not be elaborated here.

[0159] Referring to Table 3-1, assume the terminal device has three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2, and TX3, and can simultaneously use two of these channels to send information. The network device activates three uplink carriers for the terminal device, namely CC1, CC2, and CC3, where TX1 corresponds to CC1, TX2 to CC2, and TX3 to CC3. The meaning of the transmission configuration for different antenna ports in this case can be found in Table 3-2.

[0160] Table 3-2

[0161] Note that 1PX in the table actually means the same thing as 1P. It is just to illustrate that at this time, the terminal device is transmitting information through two transmission channels on one carrier and one antenna port.

[0162] Specifically, regarding the case where {1PX, 0P, 0P} corresponds to {2T, 0T, 0T}, how does the network device instruct the terminal device to configure the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, or in other words, how does the terminal device transmit the configuration as {1P, 0P, 0P} through the antenna port to obtain the configuration of the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}? This will be described in detail below.

[0163] Specifically, if a terminal device supports multiple transmission channels (e.g., 2 TX, 3 TX, 4 TX, etc.) and transmits information using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier, and the terminal device can transmit information with a higher power than usual, then the network device can instruct the terminal device to use a higher power than usual when configuring the carrier, thereby instructing the terminal device to configure the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}.

[0164] Specifically, for example, when a terminal device reports capability information, it informs the network device that the terminal device supports sending information via 2TX on a single port, and that the transmission power can be 3dBm higher than the usual transmission power of 23dBm. Therefore, the network device can use one bit to instruct the terminal device to send information using a higher power than usual on a certain carrier. For example, 1 represents 26dBm, and 0 represents 23dBm, thus effectively instructing the terminal device to use 2TX to send information on a certain carrier.

[0165] Therefore, in all embodiments of this application, the network device instructs the terminal device to transmit information using M TXs on a certain carrier through a single antenna port by indicating a first transmit power. For specific implementation details, please refer to Embodiment 5.

[0166] Example 2: Regarding step 203, one possible implementation is as follows; the other steps are the same as those in the above embodiment and will not be repeated here: Step 203: The terminal device determines the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration.

[0167] Unlike Embodiment 1, in this embodiment, N sets of transmission channel configurations can be predetermined. These N sets are determined based on the on / off states of L transmission channels in the terminal device. Assuming the terminal device has three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2, and TX3, and can simultaneously use two of these channels to send information, the on / off states of the three transmission channels can have the six possible configurations shown in Table 1. N sets of transmission channel configurations can be determined based on these six configurations. For example, {1T, 1T, 0T} and {1T, 1T, 0T} can be grouped together; {0T, 1T, 1T} and {2T, 0T, 0T} can be grouped together; and {0T, 2T, 0T} and {0T, 0T, 2T} can be grouped together, etc. In practical applications, other grouping situations may also exist, which will not be exemplified here.

[0168] It should be noted that each of the N transmission channel configurations includes at least one transmission channel configuration, where N is an integer greater than 1.

[0169] Specifically, it may include steps A, B, and C. The terminal device can choose to execute one of the three steps based on the actual situation.

[0170] Step A: One antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to one or more transmission channel configurations. If the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to only one transmission channel configuration, it is not necessary to compare it with the second transmission channel. The transmission channel configuration corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration can be directly used as the first transmission channel configuration.

[0171] It should be noted that since the correspondence between the transmit channel configuration and the antenna port transmission configuration is established in advance, the terminal device can determine the number of transmit channel configurations corresponding to each antenna port transmission configuration.

[0172] Specifically, if the terminal device determines a transmission channel configuration corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration, the terminal device can determine the transmission channel configuration corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration as the first transmission channel configuration.

[0173] Step B: If it is determined that the antenna port transmission indication corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations, including a second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device can determine the second transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration.

[0174] Step C: If it is determined that the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations and does not include a second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device may select one transmission channel configuration from one or more transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration as the first transmission channel configuration.

[0175] For C, the configurations of all transmission channels corresponding to the L transmission channels of the terminal device are divided into N groups of transmission channel configurations. Each group of transmission channel configurations includes at least one transmission channel configuration, and N is an integer greater than 1. The specific selection method in this case will be described in detail later.

[0176] Assuming the second transmit channel configuration is located in the first group of the N transmit channel configurations, when the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmit channel configurations but does not include the second transmit channel configuration, the first transmit channel configuration can be determined in the following way: If the terminal device determines that there is a transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions in the first group of transmission channel configurations, then the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions is used as the first transmission channel configuration; wherein, the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions means that one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmission channel configuration include the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0177] Alternatively, if the terminal device determines that there is no transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions in the first group of transmission channel configurations, it determines the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions from the N groups of transmission channel configurations in a preset order, and uses the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions as the first transmission channel configuration. Wherein, the transmit channel configuration that meets the conditions refers to one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmit channel configuration including the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0178] It should be noted that, assuming each of the N transmission channel configurations corresponds to an index value, the preset order can refer to a cyclical order of the N transmission channel index values ​​from largest to smallest, or a cyclical order of the N transmission channel index values ​​from smallest to largest. This embodiment of the application does not limit this. Other implementations of the preset order are also possible, which will not be listed here.

[0179] For example, referring to Table 2, each group of transmit channel configurations includes one transmit channel configuration, and the corresponding index value can be shown in Table 4.

[0180] Table 4

[0181] Referring to Table 2 above, if the second transmit channel is configured as {0T, 0T, 2T}, the determined antenna port transmission configuration is {0P, 0P, 1P}. Table 2 shows that {0P, 0P, 1P} does not correspond to {0T, 0T, 2T}. Therefore, we can sequentially check the transmit channel configurations corresponding to index values ​​001, 010, 011…101 to determine if a suitable transmit channel configuration exists. In this example, we can first determine the suitable transmit channel configuration from the transmit channel configuration corresponding to 010, thus allowing {1T, 0T, 1T} to be used as the first transmit channel configuration.

[0182] The example above uses a single transmission channel as a group. In practical applications, other grouping situations may exist, such as grouping {1T, 1T, 0T} and {1T, 1T, 0T} together, grouping {0T, 1T, 1T} and {2T, 0T, 0T} together, grouping {0T, 2T, 0T} and {0T, 0T, 2T} together, etc., which will not be elaborated here.

[0183] Alternatively, in another possible implementation, the configuration of the first transmission channel can also be determined in the following way: If the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to only one transmission channel configuration, then the transmission channel configuration corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration is determined as the first transmission channel configuration; Alternatively, if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations, and the multiple transmission channel configurations include the second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device will determine the second transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration; Alternatively, if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations, and the second transmission channel configuration is not included among the multiple transmission channel configurations, then the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions is determined from at least one transmission channel configuration in a preset order, and the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions is used as the first transmission channel configuration; the at least one transmission channel configuration is determined based on the L transmission channels of the terminal device; Wherein, the transmit channel configuration that meets the conditions refers to one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmit channel configuration including the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0184] Specifically, the configuration of the at least one transmission channel is determined based on the on and off states of the L transmission channels in the terminal device. Assuming the terminal device includes three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2, and TX3, and the terminal device can simultaneously use two of these transmission channels to send information, then the on and off states of the three transmission channels in the terminal device can have the six transmission channel configurations shown in Table 1.

[0185] In specific implementations, or in the description of Embodiment 1 or Embodiment 2, before step 201, in order to maintain a consistent understanding between the network device and the terminal device regarding the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device, optionally, before the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel, the network device and the terminal device can also synchronize the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device. The synchronization method can include, but is not limited to, any of the following: Method 1: The status settings of the L transmission channels in the terminal device can be pre-configured. Specifically, the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device can be pre-defined. For example, when the terminal device has 3 transmission channels, the network device can choose an antenna port transmission configuration to configure the antenna port configuration of the 3 carriers of the terminal device. For example, the selected antenna port transmission configuration can only correspond to one transmission channel configuration. In this way, the network device can align the transmission channel transmission configuration with the terminal device without explicitly indicating the TX status (i.e., the transmission channel transmission configuration). This can be understood as initial transmission channel configuration synchronization.

[0186] Method 2: The terminal device indicates the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device to the network device. For example, the network device can send third information to the terminal device, which is used to indicate the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device. The specific method of indication is not limited in this embodiment. Optionally, the terminal device indicates the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device at time T1 to the network device.

[0187] Method 3: The network device indicates the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device to the terminal device. For example, the terminal device sends fifth information to the network device, which is used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device. The specific method of indication is not limited in this embodiment. Optionally, the network device indicates the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device at time T2.

[0188] It should be noted that the network device and the terminal device only need to synchronize the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device once. Of course, this application does not limit the number of synchronizations.

[0189] Furthermore, as mentioned above, when the terminal device's transmission channel is in the open state, it does not necessarily need to transmit information. In this embodiment, after the terminal device determines the first transmission channel configuration, it can also determine at least one transmission channel for transmitting information based on the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one uplink carriers. The at least one uplink carrier is used for transmitting information, or the at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier scheduled for use by the terminal device.

[0190] It should be noted that "the terminal device's transmission channel is in the open state" can be understood as: The transmission channel can transmit information; or, the transmission channel transmits information; or, the terminal device has already made adjustments such as synchronization and / or power control on a certain carrier through the transmission channel.

[0191] Optionally, the process may also include the step of: the terminal device may determine the transmission channel among the L transmission channels that corresponds to the uplink carrier of at least one uplink carrier and is in the open state as at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

[0192] Specifically, the terminal device can identify the transmission channel among the L transmission channels that corresponds to the uplink carrier of at least one uplink carrier and is in the open state as at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

[0193] For example, suppose a terminal device has three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2, and TX3. The network device activates three uplink carriers for the terminal device, denoted as CC1, CC2, and CC3, where TX1 corresponds to CC1, TX2 corresponds to CC2, and TX3 corresponds to CC3. When the terminal device determines that the first transmission channel is configured as {1T, 1T, 0T} and schedules CC1, it can be determined that TX1 is at least one transmission channel used for transmitting information. Although TX2 is enabled, its corresponding CC2 is not scheduled and therefore is not used for transmitting information.

[0194] Optionally, the process may also include the following steps: after determining the status of the L transmission channels, the terminal device determines whether to perform a transmission channel switch or not; or, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel and determines whether to perform a transmission channel switch or not.

[0195] Specifically, based on the status of the L transmission channels, at least one transmission channel for transmitting information in the terminal device is determined, that is, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel. Then, the terminal device determines whether a transmission channel switch is needed: specifically, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then a transmission channel configuration switch is determined, that is, the terminal device's transmission channel needs to be switched, the switch time needs to be determined, and then data is sent; if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are the same, then it is determined not to switch the transmission channel configuration, or it can be determined to keep the current transmission channel configuration unchanged; that is, no switch is needed for each transmission channel of the terminal device.

[0196] This application also relates to power and transmission channel configuration, which is described in detail below: It should be noted that the antenna port used by the terminal device to transmit information on the scheduled uplink carrier is the antenna port configured for that uplink carrier.

[0197] In this embodiment, multiple transmission channels can be supported to transmit information using different antenna ports on one uplink carrier, or multiple transmission channels can be supported to transmit information using the same antenna port on one uplink carrier.

[0198] For example, referring to Table 2 above, when the first transmission channel is configured as {2T, 0T, 0T} and the antenna port transmission is configured as {2P, 0P, 0P}, it means that information is transmitted in CC1 through TX1 and TX1, and TX1 and TX1 transmit information through different antenna ports respectively; when the first transmission channel is configured as {2T, 0T, 0T} and the antenna port transmission is configured as {1PX, 0P, 0P}, it means that information is transmitted in CC1 through TX1 and TX1, and TX1 and TX1 transmit information through the same antenna port.

[0199] Furthermore, when the terminal device determines that the number of antenna ports is less than the number of transmission channels, that is, when it determines that information is transmitted through multiple transmission channels using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier, it can use high power gain to transmit information in that antenna port.

[0200] Furthermore, how the network device instructs the terminal device to configure the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, or how the terminal device transmits the configuration as {1P, 0P, 0P} through the antenna port to obtain the configuration of the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, will be described in detail below.

[0201] Specifically, if a terminal device supports multiple transmission channels (e.g., 2 TX, 3 TX, 4 TX, etc.) to transmit information using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier, and the terminal device can transmit information with a higher power than usual, then the network device can instruct the terminal to use a higher power than usual when configuring the carrier, thereby instructing the terminal device to set the first transmission channel to {2T, 0T, 0T}.

[0202] Specifically, for example, when a terminal reports capability information, it informs the network device that the terminal device supports sending information via 2TX on a single port, and that the transmission power can be 3dBm higher than the usual transmission power of 23dBm. Therefore, the network device can use one bit to instruct the terminal device to send information using a higher power than usual on a certain carrier. For example, 1 represents 26dBm, and 0 represents 23dBm, thus effectively instructing the terminal device to use 2TX to send information on a certain carrier.

[0203] In all embodiments of this application, the network device instructs the terminal device to transmit information using M TXs on a certain carrier through a single antenna port by indicating a first transmit power. For specific implementation details, please refer to Embodiment 5.

[0204] Example 3: In the previous embodiments, the terminal device needed to determine the status of L radio frequency channels based on the antenna port configuration of each carrier in at least one carrier. In this embodiment, the network device can directly indicate the status of the L radio frequency channels, which will be described in detail below.

[0205] Method 1: Table 2 above shows the antenna port transmission configurations corresponding to different transmission channel configurations. Therefore, this application can first determine all possible configuration combinations consisting of antenna port transmission configuration and transmission channel configuration, and then directly indicate the corresponding configuration combination to the terminal device.

[0206] Assume that the number of all possible configuration combinations consisting of the antenna port transmission configuration and the transmit channel configuration is H, where H is a positive integer. Each of the H configuration combinations includes one antenna port transmission configuration and one transmit channel configuration, and each of the H configuration combinations corresponds to an index value.

[0207] When a network device determines to indicate a first configuration combination among H configuration combinations to a terminal device, the network device can send scheduling information to the terminal device. This scheduling information indicates the index value of the first configuration combination. Based on the index value indicated by the scheduling information, the terminal device can determine the first configuration combination, thereby determining the antenna port transmission configuration and transmit channel configuration included in the first configuration combination, and further determining the status of L radio frequency channels, as well as at least one scheduled uplink carrier.

[0208] For example, referring to Table 2, as shown in Table 5, all possible configuration combinations of antenna port transmission configuration and transmit channel configuration are presented. The network device indicates the transmit channel state corresponding to the antenna port configuration of the terminal device by sending an index value. This ensures that the network device and the terminal device are aligned with the transmit channel state of the terminal device.

[0209] Table 5

[0210] Referring to Table 5, when the scheduling information sent by the network device is 0010, the terminal device can determine that the first transmission channel is configured as {0T, 1T, 1T} and the antenna port transmission is configured as {0P, 1P, 1P}. Other cases will not be elaborated further.

[0211] Method 2: As described above, some transmit channel configurations and antenna port transmission configurations have a one-to-one correspondence. In this case, the first transmit channel configuration can be indirectly indicated through the scheduled uplink carrier instead of being explicitly specified. Specifically, in this situation, the transmit channel corresponding to the scheduled uplink carrier is in the open state, while the transmit channel corresponding to the unscheduled uplink carrier is in the closed state.

[0212] For example, suppose a terminal device has three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2, and TX3. The network device activates three uplink carriers for the terminal device, denoted as CC1, CC2, and CC3, where TX1 corresponds to CC1, TX2 corresponds to CC2, and TX3 corresponds to CC3. When the network device schedules the terminal device to transmit information in CC1 and CC2, it may not indicate the configuration of the first transmission channel. In this case, the terminal device can determine the configuration of the first transmission channel as {1T, 1T, 0T} based on the scheduled uplink carriers. When the network device schedules the terminal device to transmit information in CC1 and CC3, it may not indicate the configuration of the first transmission channel. In this case, the terminal device can determine the configuration of the first transmission channel as {1T, 0T, 1T} based on the scheduled uplink carriers.

[0213] When the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmit channel configurations, the method in Method 1 can be used to directly indicate the configuration. For example, it can be shown in Table 6.

[0214] Table 6

[0215] Of course, there may be other ways to implement the above instructions, which will not be elaborated here.

[0216] Example 4: In this embodiment of the application, the network device can also directly indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device, which will be described in detail below.

[0217] like Figure 3 The diagram shown is a flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application. The method includes: Step 301: The network device sends third information to the terminal device.

[0218] In this embodiment, the third information is used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L is an integer greater than 0. Alternatively, in this embodiment, the third information is used to indicate the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier in the terminal device. The at least one carrier may be a configuration carrier, an activation carrier, or a scheduling carrier, and this application does not impose any restrictions.

[0219] Specifically, taking an active carrier as an example, the third information is used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each active carrier in at least one active carrier in the terminal device.

[0220] The specific way the network device sends the third information is not limited in the embodiments of this application. For example, the third information can be sent through higher-layer signaling or through DCI.

[0221] For example, {1T, 1T, 0T} corresponds to 110. When the network device instructs the terminal device to enable two transmission channels in the terminal device, the third message sent can be 110, indicating that the first transmission channel is configured as {1T, 1T, 0T}, which means that TX1 and TX2 in the terminal device are in the enabled state.

[0222] Optionally, the network device determines third information prior to this. The specific method by which the network device determines the third information is not limited in this embodiment.

[0223] Step 302: The terminal device receives third information from the network device.

[0224] Specifically, taking an active carrier as an example, the third information is used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each active carrier in at least one active carrier in the terminal device. For example, the terminal device is configured with L=3 active carriers, and each carrier corresponds to 1 TX.

[0225] It should be noted that the terminal device can also receive first information and second information from the network device. The specific content of the first information and second information can be found in the previous description, and will not be repeated here.

[0226] For example, the first information is used to indicate the antenna port configuration, which is the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier of the terminal device; or the antenna port configuration is the antenna port configuration used by each uplink carrier configured by the terminal device.

[0227] For example, a network device sends a second message to a terminal device, the second message indicating whether an uplink carrier has been scheduled or activated.

[0228] Network devices can transmit a second piece of information in the downlink carrier corresponding to each uplink carrier. The second piece of information is used to indicate the information of that uplink carrier. At this time, the second piece of information may include one or more of the following: the identifier of the uplink carrier; the index of the uplink carrier; the frequency index of the uplink carrier; the frequency identifier of the uplink carrier; whether the uplink carrier is scheduled; and whether the uplink carrier is activated.

[0229] In another possible implementation, the network device may transmit second information in a downlink carrier, which indicates information about the at least one uplink carrier. This implementation can be applied when the terminal device supports more uplink carriers than downlink carriers. In this implementation, the second information may include one or more of the following: identifiers of m uplink carriers; indices of m uplink carriers; frequency indices of m uplink carriers; frequency identifiers of m uplink carriers; where m is a positive integer, m is the number of the at least one scheduled uplink carrier, whether the uplink carrier is scheduled, and whether the uplink carrier is activated.

[0230] In this implementation, the second information includes A1 bits, each bit indicating whether an uplink carrier has been scheduled or activated. For example, if the network device is configured with 5 uplink carriers, the second information may include 5 bits, each bit corresponding to one uplink carrier. Assuming a bit value of 1 indicates that the uplink carrier has been scheduled, and a bit value of 0 indicates that the uplink carrier has not been scheduled; a second information value of 11000 indicates that 2 of the 5 uplink carriers have been scheduled. Specifically, the 5 carriers can be assigned numbers; for example, the 2 uplink carriers are the first carrier CC1 and the second carrier CC2, respectively, which are scheduled.

[0231] Optionally, step 303: The terminal device determines at least one transmission channel in the terminal device used for transmitting information based on the status of the L transmission channels.

[0232] In this embodiment of the application, the third information is used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L is an integer greater than 0.

[0233] Specifically, the third information can be used to indicate whether each of the L transmission channels is in an on or off state; or, the third information can be used to indicate the transmission channels in an on state among the L transmission channels; or, the third information can be used to indicate the transmission channels in a off state among the L transmission channels.

[0234] In this application embodiment, at least one transmission channel for transmitting information can be determined in various ways, which are described below.

[0235] Implementation method 1: Based on the third information and the second information, the terminal device determines the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each uplink carrier in the at least one uplink carrier indicated by the second information, thereby determining at least one transmission channel in the terminal device used for transmitting information.

[0236] Specifically, based on the status of the L transmission channels, the terminal device can determine the transmission channel corresponding to each uplink carrier in at least one uplink carrier, and determine the status of the transmission channel in the open state corresponding to the at least one uplink carrier as at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

[0237] Taking a terminal device configured with L=3 active carriers, each corresponding to 1 TX, but in reality, the network device only configures 2 carriers for concurrent data transmission by the terminal device as an example. The terminal device obtains the status of the 3 transmission channels through the third information. Through the second information, the terminal device obtains information on the actual scheduling of the active carriers, meaning that two of the 3 carriers are used for actual information transmission. Therefore, based on the third and second information, the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the 3 uplink carriers is determined, thereby identifying at least one transmission channel in the terminal device used for information transmission.

[0238] Specifically, based on the status of the three transmission channels, the terminal device can determine the transmission channel corresponding to each uplink carrier in at least one uplink carrier, and determine the status of the transmission channel in the open state corresponding to the at least one uplink carrier as at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

[0239] Implementation Method Two: The terminal device can determine the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each antenna port in the at least one uplink carrier based on the third information and the first information, thereby determining at least one transmission channel in the terminal device used for transmitting information.

[0240] Specifically, the terminal device can determine the transmission channel that is in the open state among the L transmission channels based on the third information, and determine the transmission channel corresponding to each antenna port among the at least one antenna port based on the first information, thereby determining the state of the transmission channel in the open state corresponding to the at least one antenna port as at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

[0241] Taking a terminal device configured with L=3 active carriers, each carrier corresponding to 1 TX, as an example, the network device will actually only configure 2 carriers for the terminal device to transmit data concurrently.

[0242] The terminal device obtains the status of the three transmission channels through the third information. That is, the terminal device can determine which transmission channels are in the "on" state and which are in the "off" state among the L transmission channels based on the third information. The terminal device obtains the antenna port configuration corresponding to the three carriers through the first information, meaning the terminal device determines the status of the transmission channel corresponding to the antenna port of each of the three carriers. Therefore, the status of at least one transmission channel with an "on" state corresponding to its antenna port can be determined as at least one transmission channel used for transmitting information.

[0243] Implementation method three: In implementation method three, the third information is used to indicate the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier in at least one carrier in the terminal device.

[0244] Specifically, network devices can send a third message in the downlink carrier corresponding to each uplink carrier. In this case, the third message is also used to indicate one or more of the following: the status of the transmission channel used by the uplink carrier; and the number of transmission channels used by the uplink carrier.

[0245] Alternatively, the network device may also transmit a third message in a downlink carrier, where the third message also indicates one or more of the following: the status of the transmit channel used by each uplink carrier on the X uplink carriers; and the number of transmit channels used by each uplink carrier on the X uplink carriers.

[0246] For example, suppose a terminal device has three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2, and TX3. The network device activates three uplink carriers for the terminal device, denoted as CC1, CC2, and CC3, where TX1 corresponds to CC1, TX2 to CC2, and TX3 to CC3. The third information may include three bits, each corresponding to one of the transmission channels and one of the uplink carriers. A bit value of 1 indicates that the uplink carrier is scheduled and the corresponding transmission channel is active; a bit value of 0 indicates that the uplink carrier is not scheduled and the corresponding transmission channel is inactive. A third information value of 110 indicates that TX1 and TX2 are active, and CC1 and CC2 are scheduled.

[0247] In implementation method three, the terminal device determines at least one transmission channel used for information transmission based on the status of the transmission channel used by each of the X uplink carriers. Specifically, the terminal device can determine at least one transmission channel used for information transmission from the L transmission channels that are in the active state.

[0248] Specifically, regarding the case where {1PX, 0P, 0P} corresponds to {2T, 0T, 0T}, how does the network device instruct the terminal device to configure the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, or in other words, how does the terminal device transmit the configuration as {1P, 0P, 0P} through the antenna port to obtain the configuration of the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}? This will be described in detail below.

[0249] Specifically, if a terminal device supports multiple transmission channels (e.g., 2 TX, 3 TX, 4 TX, etc.) to transmit information using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier, and the terminal device can transmit information with a higher power than usual, then the network device can instruct the terminal to use a higher power than usual when configuring the carrier, thereby instructing the terminal device to set the first transmission channel to {2T, 0T, 0T}.

[0250] Specifically, for example, when a terminal reports capability information, it informs the network device that the terminal device supports sending information via 2TX on a single port, and that the transmission power can be 3dBm higher than the usual transmission power of 23dBm. Therefore, the network device can use one bit to instruct the terminal device to send information using a higher power than usual on a certain carrier. For example, 1 represents 26dBm, and 0 represents 23dBm, thus effectively instructing the terminal device to use 2TX to send information on a certain carrier.

[0251] Therefore, in all embodiments of this application, the network device instructs the terminal device to transmit information using M TXs on a certain carrier through a single antenna port by indicating a first transmission power. For specific implementation details, please refer to Embodiment 5.

[0252] Optionally, the following steps may also be included: after the terminal device determines the status of L transmission channels, it determines whether to perform transmission channel switching or not; or, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel and determines whether to perform transmission channel switching or not.

[0253] Specifically, based on the status of the L transmission channels, at least one transmission channel for transmitting information in the terminal device is determined, that is, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel. Then, the terminal device determines whether a transmission channel switch is needed: specifically, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then a transmission channel configuration switch is determined, that is, the terminal device's transmission channel needs to be switched, the switch time needs to be determined, and then data is sent; if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are the same, then it is determined not to switch the transmission channel configuration, or it can be determined to keep the current transmission channel configuration unchanged; that is, no switch is needed for each transmission channel of the terminal device.

[0254] Example 5: In the embodiments of this application, such as Figure 4 The diagram shown is a flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application. The method includes: Step 401: The terminal device sends the second power information to the network device.

[0255] The second power information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on an antenna port; or the first power information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on a carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power.

[0256] Regarding "the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port": specifically, it indicates that "the terminal supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port through K transmission channels; where K is a positive integer."

[0257] Regarding "the terminal device supports transmitting using a first transmit power on a carrier": specifically, it can be used to indicate that "the terminal supports transmitting information using a first transmit power on an antenna port through K transmit channels on a carrier".

[0258] The second power information includes at least one of the following parameters: the carrier frequency band using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency index using the first transmit power, the carrier frequency identifier using the first transmit power, the number of antenna ports using the first transmit power to transmit information, the antenna port number using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of transmit channels using the first transmit power to transmit information, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers using the first transmit power to transmit information, and the power gain.

[0259] The power gain could be, for example, 3dBm. If the normal power is the second transmission power, then the first transmission power is the sum of the second transmission power and the power gain.

[0260] Therefore, regarding the above, the terminal device supports multiple transmission channels (e.g., it can support 2 TX, 3 TX, 4 TX, etc.) to transmit information using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier. Moreover, the terminal device can transmit information with a higher power than normal. If the network device can instruct the terminal to transmit information with a higher power than normal when configuring the carrier, it can instruct the terminal device to set the first transmission channel to {2T, 0T, 0T} instead of {1T, 0T, 0T}.

[0261] Step 402: The network device sends first power information to the terminal device, the first power information being used to instruct the terminal device to transmit information on the first carrier using the first transmission power.

[0262] The first carrier can refer to any carrier configured or activated for the terminal device.

[0263] Specifically, for each uplink carrier, there are different corresponding downlink carriers. The network device transmits first power information on downlink carrier 1 to instruct the terminal device to transmit information using a first transmit power on the first carrier. At this time, the first carrier can be the uplink carrier corresponding to the downlink carrier that transmitted the first power information.

[0264] Specifically, in the case where one downlink carrier can indicate the scheduling of multiple uplink carriers, the network device transmits first power information on downlink carrier 1 to instruct the terminal device to transmit information using a first transmission power on multiple uplink carriers. In this case, the first carrier can be any one of the multiple uplink carriers.

[0265] For example, if a terminal device reports first power information to indicate support for 2TX transmission using a single antenna port on a carrier, and the transmission power used is the first transmission power, the network device transmits second power information on downlink carrier 1. This second power information contains x bits. This embodiment uses 3 bits as an example. The second power information is used to indicate the power transmission information of the three uplink carriers. For example, 100 indicates that uplink carrier 1 uses the first transmission power to transmit information, and uplink carriers 2 and 3 use the second transmission power to transmit information.

[0266] Therefore, by using the first power information, the network device has effectively instructed the terminal device to transmit information using 2TX on a single carrier port with a single antenna port. Thus, it effectively instructs the terminal device to configure the first transmit channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, instead of {1T, 0T, 0T}.

[0267] Step 403: The terminal device transmits information to the network device on the first carrier using the first transmit power.

[0268] The terminal device uses K transmission channels on one antenna port and the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier.

[0269] Alternatively, for the i-th carrier among the at least one carrier, the terminal device uses K transmission channels to transmit information on the i-th carrier using the first transmission power on one antenna port; where i is a positive integer.

[0270] Specifically, the terminal device transmits information on a carrier through K transmission channels on one antenna port using a second transmission power; where K is a positive integer. For example, K=2 means that the terminal device transmits data of a certain carrier (e.g., carrier 1) using 2TX and transmits the data of carrier 1 through one antenna port.

[0271] For example, if a terminal device reports first power information to indicate support for transmitting information using a single antenna port on a carrier with 2TX, and the transmission power used is the first transmission power, the network device transmits second power information on downlink carrier 1. The second power information contains x bits. This embodiment uses 3 bits as an example to illustrate the invention. The second power information is used to indicate the power transmission information of the three uplink carriers. For example, 100 indicates that uplink carrier 1 uses the first transmission power to transmit information, and uplink carriers 2 and 3 use the second transmission power to transmit information.

[0272] Upon receiving the second power information, the terminal device transmits information using a single antenna port on a carrier wave via 2TX, with the transmission power being the first transmission power. In other words, the terminal device configures the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, instead of {1T, 0T, 0T}.

[0273] The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific values ​​of the first transmission power and the second transmission power. For example, the first transmission power is 26dBm and the second transmission power is 23dBm.

[0274] "The terminal device uses K transmission channels on one antenna port and the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier." Specifically, the network device instructs the power transmission of five carriers, of which the second and fifth carriers require transmission at the first power, and the others use the second power. The terminal device then transmits information on the second carrier using the first transmission power through K transmission channels on one antenna port, and transmits information at the same rate on the fifth carrier using the first transmission power through K transmission channels on one antenna port. "The terminal device uses K transmission channels on one antenna port and the first transmission power to transmit information on at least one carrier" specifically means that the terminal device transmits information on the second carrier using the first transmission power through K transmission channels on one antenna port, and transmits information at the same rate on the fifth carrier using the first transmission power through K transmission channels on one antenna port.

[0275] Example 6: Step 1: The terminal device sends the first capability message to the network device.

[0276] The first capability message may include at least one of capability information and first power information.

[0277] The capability information is used to indicate one or more of the following: The terminal device is able to determine the uplink carrier for transmitting information from more than L uplink carriers, where L is an integer greater than 0; the terminal device is able to support determining the uplink carrier for transmitting information from a maximum of S uplink carriers, where S is a positive integer greater than L; L.

[0278] Specifically, the first power information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on one antenna port; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power; or the terminal device sends the first power information to the network device, wherein the first power information is used to indicate that the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power or a second transmission power on one carrier; wherein the first transmission power is greater than the second transmission power. Regarding "the terminal device supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port": specifically, it is used to indicate that the terminal supports transmitting information using a first transmission power on one antenna port through K transmission channels; wherein K is a positive integer.

[0279] Regarding "the terminal device supports transmitting using a first transmit power on a carrier": specifically, it can be used to indicate that the terminal supports transmitting information using a first transmit power on an antenna port through K transmit channels on a carrier; where K is a positive integer.

[0280] The second power information includes at least one of the following parameters: the carrier frequency band using the first transmission power, the carrier frequency using the first transmission power, the carrier frequency index using the first transmission power, the carrier frequency identifier using the first transmission power, the number of antenna ports using the first transmission power to transmit information, the antenna port number using the first transmission power to transmit information, the number of transmit channels using the first transmission power to transmit information, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers using the first transmission power to transmit information, and the power gain.

[0281] The power gain could be, for example, 3dBm. If the normal power is the second transmission power, then the first transmission power is the sum of the second transmission power and the power gain.

[0282] Therefore, regarding the above, the terminal device supports multiple transmission channels using the same antenna port on one uplink carrier to transmit information, and at this time, the terminal device can use a higher power to transmit information than the normal power: if the network device can instruct the terminal to use a higher power to transmit information when configuring the carrier, thereby instructing the terminal device to set the first transmission channel to {2T, 0T, 0T} instead of {1T, 0T, 0T}.

[0283] Step 2: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0284] The configuration information is used to indicate one or more of the following: The network device is the uplink carrier information configured for the terminal device; The network device is the uplink carrier information activated by the terminal device; The uplink carrier information used by the terminal device to transmit information; The network device configures the terminal device with the number of uplink carriers X, where X is a positive integer greater than L, and L is the maximum number of uplink carriers that the terminal device can transmit uplink simultaneously. The network device configures the terminal device with an uplink carrier number X, where X is a positive integer greater than P, and P is the maximum number of transmission channels that the terminal device can transmit uplink simultaneously. The number of uplink carriers m used by the terminal device to transmit information, where m is a positive integer less than or equal to L.

[0285] The uplink carrier information may be at least one of the following: an uplink carrier identifier; an uplink carrier index; an uplink carrier frequency; an uplink carrier frequency index; an uplink carrier frequency identifier, etc.

[0286] Regarding the carrier: "The network device is configured as an uplink carrier for the terminal device" means that the terminal device has performed one or more of the following adjustments on the carrier: synchronization, measurement, and power control. This type of carrier can also be referred to as "the carrier is configured," or "a configured carrier." In this case, it can also be said that the carrier is a configured carrier. Of course, it can have other names, which are not limited in this application.

[0287] "The network device is an uplink carrier activated by the terminal device" means that the terminal device can send information or communicate on the carrier at any time. In this case, it can be said that the carrier is activated, or that a carrier is activated, or that the carrier is an active carrier. Of course, other names are also possible, and this application does not limit this.

[0288] "The uplink carrier information used by the terminal device to transmit information" means that the terminal device sends information on the carrier, or can communicate on the carrier. In this case, it can also be said that the carrier is scheduled, or that a carrier is scheduled. In this case, the carrier can also be called a scheduled carrier. Of course, it can also be called other names, which are not limited in this application.

[0289] Specifically, for example, a network device might configure 5 carriers for a terminal device, activating 3 of them so the terminal can use them for communication at any time. However, during actual scheduling, the network device might only use 2 of those 3 carriers for communication. It should be noted that these 3 carriers represent the maximum number of uplink carriers that the UE can support in parallel transmission, or in other words, the maximum number of TX transmission channels that the terminal device can support.

[0290] Step 3: The network device sends third-party information to the terminal device.

[0291] In this embodiment, the third information is used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one carrier in the terminal device. The at least one carrier may be a configuration carrier, an activation carrier, or a scheduling carrier; this application does not impose any limitations on this.

[0292] Specifically, taking an active carrier as an example, the third information is used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each active carrier in at least one active carrier in the terminal device.

[0293] Specifically, the specific way the network device sends the third information is not limited in the embodiments of this application. For example, the third information can be sent through higher-layer signaling.

[0294] For example, with L=3 and m=2, the terminal device has 3 TX channels, and the network device is configured with 3 active carriers for data transmission, each corresponding to 1 TX. However, only 2 carriers are actually scheduled to transmit data. The third information can be X bits used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier in at least one carrier of the terminal device. Specifically, the third information can be 110, indicating that the first transmission channel is configured as {1T, 1T, 0T}, indicating that TX1 and TX2 in the terminal device are in the enabled state.

[0295] Step 4: The terminal device receives at least one of the third information and the first power information from the network device.

[0296] The third piece of information is used to indicate the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one carrier in the terminal device. The at least one carrier may be a configuration carrier, an activation carrier, or a scheduling carrier; this application does not impose any limitations on this.

[0297] For example, with L=3 and m=2, the terminal device has 3 TX channels, and the network device is configured with 3 active carriers for data transmission, each corresponding to 1 TX. However, only 2 carriers are actually scheduled to transmit data. The third information can be X bits used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier in at least one carrier of the terminal device. Specifically, the third information can be 110, indicating that the first transmission channel is configured as {1T, 1T, 0T}, indicating that TX1 and TX2 in the terminal device are in the enabled state.

[0298] The first power information is used to instruct the terminal device to transmit information on the first carrier using the first transmission power.

[0299] Specifically, for each uplink carrier with its own corresponding downlink carrier, the network device transmits first power information on downlink carrier 1 to instruct the terminal device to transmit information on a certain carrier using the first transmission power; or, specifically, for the case where one downlink carrier can instruct the scheduling of multiple uplink carriers, the network device transmits first power information on downlink carrier 1 to instruct the terminal device to transmit information on multiple uplink carriers using the first transmission power.

[0300] For example, in the case where a terminal device reports second power information to indicate support for transmitting information using a single antenna port on a carrier with 2TX, and the transmission power used is the first transmission power, the network device transmits the first power information on downlink carrier 1. The first power information contains x bits. This embodiment uses 3 bits as an example to illustrate the invention. The first power information is used to indicate the power transmission information of the three uplink carriers. For example, 100 indicates that uplink carrier 1 uses the first transmission power to transmit information, and uplink carriers 2 and 3 use the second transmission power to transmit information.

[0301] Therefore, the network device, through the second power information, has effectively instructed the terminal device to transmit information using 2TX on a single carrier port with a single antenna port. Thus, it effectively instructs the terminal device to configure the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, instead of {1T, 0T, 0T}.

[0302] Special note regarding the introduction of second power information: In the case where {1PX, 0P, 0P} corresponds to {2T, 0T, 0T}, how does the network device instruct the terminal device to configure the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}, or in other words, how does the terminal device transmit the configuration as {1P, 0P, 0P} through the antenna port to obtain the configuration of the first transmission channel as {2T, 0T, 0T}?

[0303] Specifically, if a terminal device supports multiple transmission channels using the same antenna port on an uplink carrier to transmit information, and the terminal device can transmit information with a higher power than normal, then the network device can instruct the terminal to use a higher power than normal when configuring the carrier, thereby instructing the terminal device to set the first transmission channel to {2T, 0T, 0T}.

[0304] Specifically, for example, when a terminal reports capability information, it informs the network device that the terminal device supports sending information via 2TX on a single port, and that the transmission power can be 3dBm higher than the usual transmission power of 23dBm. Therefore, the network device can use one bit to instruct the terminal device to send information using a higher power than usual on a certain carrier. For example, 1 represents 26dBm, and 0 represents 23dBm, thus effectively instructing the terminal device to use 2TX to send information on a certain carrier.

[0305] Therefore, in all embodiments of this application, the network device instructs the terminal device to transmit information using M TXs on a certain carrier through a single antenna port by indicating a first transmission power. For specific implementation details, please refer to Embodiment 5.

[0306] Optionally, step 5: The terminal device determines at least one transmission channel in the terminal device for transmitting information based on the status of the L transmission channels.

[0307] Specifically, the third information is used to indicate the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one carrier in the terminal device. Therefore, the terminal determines the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the L carriers based on the third information.

[0308] The following content is identical to the content of step 303 in Example 5, which is implemented in method three.

[0309] Specifically, the network device can send a third message in the downlink carrier corresponding to each uplink carrier. In this case, the third message is also used to indicate one or more of the following: the status of the transmission channel used by the uplink carrier; and the number of transmission channels used by the uplink carrier.

[0310] Alternatively, the network device may also transmit a third message in a downlink carrier, where the third message also indicates one or more of the following: the status of the transmit channel used by each uplink carrier on the X uplink carriers; and the number of transmit channels used by each uplink carrier on the X uplink carriers.

[0311] For example, let's take L=3 and m=2 as an example. The terminal device includes three transmission channels, denoted as TX1, TX2, and TX3. The network device activates three uplink carriers for the terminal device, denoted as CC1, CC2, and CC3, where TX1 corresponds to CC1, TX2 to CC2, and TX3 to CC3. The third information may include three bits, each bit corresponding to one of the transmission channels and one of the uplink carriers. Assuming a bit value of 1 indicates that the uplink carrier is scheduled and the corresponding transmission channel is active; a bit value of 0 indicates that the uplink carrier is not scheduled and the corresponding transmission channel is inactive. When the third information is 110, it indicates that TX1 and TX2 are active, and CC1 and CC2 are scheduled. When the third information is 100, it indicates that TX1 is active, CC1 is scheduled for transmission, and CC2 and CC3 are not scheduled and are not used for information transmission.

[0312] The terminal device determines at least one transmission channel used for information transmission based on the status of the transmission channel used by each of the X uplink carriers. Specifically, the terminal device can determine at least one transmission channel used for information transmission from the L transmission channels that are in the active state.

[0313] Specifically, the terminal device can determine the number of TXs used on each carrier by using the first power information.

[0314] Step 6: After determining the status of L transmission channels, the terminal device determines whether to perform a transmission channel switch or not; or, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel and determines whether to perform a transmission channel switch or not.

[0315] Specifically, based on the status of the L transmission channels, at least one transmission channel for transmitting information in the terminal device is determined, that is, the terminal device determines the configuration of the first transmission channel. Then, the terminal device determines whether a transmission channel switch is needed: specifically, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then a transmission channel configuration switch is determined, that is, the terminal device's transmission channel needs to be switched, the switch time needs to be determined, and then data is sent; if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are the same, then it is determined not to switch the transmission channel configuration, or it can be determined to keep the current transmission channel configuration unchanged; that is, no switch is needed for each transmission channel of the terminal device.

[0316] The various embodiments described herein can be independent solutions or combinations thereof based on their inherent logic, and all such solutions fall within the protection scope of this application.

[0317] It is understood that, in the above-described method embodiments, the methods and operations implemented by the terminal device can also be implemented by components (such as chips or circuits) that can be used in the terminal device, and the methods and operations implemented by the network device can also be implemented by components (such as chips or circuits) that can be used in the network device.

[0318] In the embodiments provided above, the methods provided by the embodiments of this application have been described from the perspective of interaction between various devices. To implement the functions of the methods provided in the embodiments of this application, the terminal device and the network device may include hardware structures and / or software modules, implementing the above functions in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or a combination of hardware structures and software modules. Whether a particular function is executed in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or a combination of hardware structures and software modules depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0319] The module division in this embodiment is illustrative and represents only one logical functional division; in actual implementation, other division methods may be used. Furthermore, the functional modules in the various embodiments of this application can be integrated into a single processor, exist as separate physical entities, or be integrated into a single module. The integrated modules described above can be implemented in hardware or as software functional modules.

[0320] Similar to the above concept, such as Figure 5 As shown, this application embodiment also provides an apparatus 500 for implementing the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method. For example, the apparatus can be a software module or a chip system. In this application embodiment, the chip system can be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices. The apparatus 500 may include: a processing unit 501 and a communication unit 502.

[0321] In this embodiment of the application, the communication unit may also be called a transceiver unit, which may include a sending unit and / or a receiving unit, respectively used to perform the sending and receiving steps of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiment.

[0322] The following, combined with Figures 5 to 6 This application provides a detailed description of the communication device provided in its embodiments. It should be understood that the descriptions of the device embodiments correspond to the descriptions of the method embodiments; therefore, any content not described in detail here will be referred to the method embodiments above, and for the sake of brevity, will not be repeated here.

[0323] In one possible design, the device 500 can implement the steps or processes executed by the terminal device or network device corresponding to the method embodiments described above, which are described below.

[0324] For example, when the device 500 implements the functions of the terminal device in the embodiments of this application: A communication unit is configured to receive first information from a network device, the first information being used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier. The processing unit is used to determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration; L is an integer greater than 0.

[0325] In one possible implementation, the processing unit is specifically used for: Determine at least one uplink carrier, wherein the at least one uplink carrier is used to transmit information or the at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier that is scheduled to be used by the terminal device; An antenna port transmission configuration is determined based on the at least one uplink carrier and the antenna port configuration; the antenna port transmission configuration is used to indicate the antenna port corresponding to the at least one uplink carrier. The status of the L transmission channels is determined based on the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0326] In one possible implementation, the processing unit is further configured to: If the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then it is determined that a transmission channel configuration switch will be performed; or, if the first transmission channel configuration and the second transmission channel configuration are different, then it is determined that a transmission channel configuration switch will not be performed; wherein, the second transmission channel configuration is the state of the L transmission channels when the terminal device receives the first information or before; the first transmission channel configuration is the state of the L transmission channels determined according to the antenna port configuration.

[0327] In one possible implementation, the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to one or more transmit channel configurations; The processing unit is specifically used to: if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to only one transmission channel configuration, then determine the transmission channel configuration corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration as the first transmission channel configuration; Alternatively, if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations, and the multiple transmission channel configurations include the second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device determines the second transmission channel configuration as the first transmission channel configuration; or, if the antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to multiple transmission channel configurations, and the multiple transmission channel configurations do not include the second transmission channel configuration, then the terminal device selects one transmission channel configuration from the multiple transmission channel configurations corresponding to the antenna port transmission configuration as the first transmission channel configuration; wherein, the second transmission channel configuration is the transmission channel configuration when the terminal device receives the first information or before.

[0328] In one possible implementation, the processing unit is specifically used for: According to a preset order, the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions is determined from at least one transmission channel configuration, and the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions is used as the first transmission channel configuration; the at least one transmission channel configuration is determined based on the L transmission channels of the terminal device; Wherein, the transmit channel configuration that meets the conditions refers to one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmit channel configuration including the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0329] In one possible implementation, the second transmission channel configuration is located in the first group of transmission channel configurations among the N groups of transmission channel configurations, and the first group of transmission channel configurations includes at least one transmission channel configuration; The processing unit is specifically used to: if it is determined that there is a transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions in the first group of transmission channel configurations, then use the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions as the first transmission channel configuration; Alternatively, if it is determined that there is no transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions in the first group of transmission channel configurations, then the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions is determined from the N groups of transmission channel configurations in a preset order, and the transmission channel configuration that meets the conditions is used as the first transmission channel configuration; Wherein, the transmit channel configuration that meets the conditions refers to one or more antenna port configurations corresponding to the transmit channel configuration including the antenna port transmission configuration.

[0330] For example, when the device 500 implements the functions of the network device in the embodiments of this application: A communication unit is used to send first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information is used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier. The processing unit is used to determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration; L is an integer greater than 0.

[0331] For example, when the device 500 implements the functions of the terminal device in the embodiments of this application: A communication unit is configured to receive third information from a network device; the third information is used to indicate the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each of at least one carrier. The processing unit is configured to determine at least one transmission channel in the terminal device for transmitting information based on the state of the transmission channel corresponding to each of the at least one carrier.

[0332] For example, when the device 500 implements the functions of the network device in the embodiments of this application: A communication unit is used to send third information to a terminal device; the third information is used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; or, the third information is used to indicate the status of the transmission channel corresponding to each carrier in at least one carrier. A processing unit for receiving information on the at least one carrier.

[0333] For example, when the device 500 implements the functions of the terminal device in the embodiments of this application: A communication unit is used to receive third information from a network device; the third information is used to indicate the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L is an integer greater than 0; The processing unit is configured to determine at least one transmission channel in the terminal device used for transmitting information based on the status of the L transmission channels.

[0334] For example, when the device 500 implements the functions of the terminal device in the embodiments of this application: The processing unit is configured to receive first power information from the network device via a communication unit, wherein the first power information is used to indicate that the transmission power of at least one carrier is a first transmission power; The processing unit is configured to transmit information on the at least one carrier using the first transmission power via the communication unit.

[0335] like Figure 6 The diagram shown is a schematic representation of a communication structure provided in an embodiment of this application. Figure 6 The device shown can be Figure 5 The illustrated device represents one hardware circuit implementation. This communication device can be adapted to perform the functions of a terminal device or network device as described in the above method embodiments. For ease of explanation, Figure 6 Only the main components of the communication device are shown.

[0336] Figure 6 The illustrated device 600 includes at least one processor 620, a communication interface 610, and a memory 630. The processor 620 is used to execute instructions or programs stored in the memory 630. When the instructions or programs stored in the memory 630 are executed, the processor 620 is used to perform the operations performed by the processing unit 501 in the above embodiments, and the communication interface 610 is used to perform the operations performed by the communication unit 502 in the above embodiments.

[0337] Memory 630 is used to store program instructions and / or data. Memory 630 is coupled to processor 620. The coupling in this embodiment is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules, which can be electrical, mechanical, or other forms, for information exchange between devices, units, or modules. Processor 620 may operate in conjunction with memory 630. Processor 620 may execute program instructions stored in memory 630. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

[0338] In implementation, each step of the above method can be completed by integrated logic circuits in the processor's hardware or by instructions in software. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of this application can be implemented by a hardware processor, or by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software modules can reside in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, or other mature storage media in the art. This storage medium is located in memory, and the processor reads information from the memory and, in conjunction with its hardware, completes the steps of the above method. To avoid repetition, detailed descriptions are omitted here.

[0339] It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of this application can be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. During implementation, each step of the above method embodiments can be completed by the integrated logic circuitry in the processor's hardware or by instructions in software form. The processor described above can be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components.

[0340] It is understood that the memory in the embodiments of this application may be volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or flash memory. It should be noted that the memory in the systems and methods described herein is intended to include, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0341] Device 600 may further include a communication interface 610 for communicating with other devices via a transmission medium, thereby enabling the devices in device 600 to communicate with other devices. In this embodiment, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface. In this embodiment, when the communication interface is a transceiver, the transceiver may include an independent receiver, an independent transmitter, or a transceiver integrating transceiver functions, or an interface circuit.

[0342] Device 600 may further include a communication line 640. The communication interface 610, processor 620, and memory 630 can be interconnected via the communication line 640. The communication line 640 can be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The communication line 640 can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, Figure 6The bus is represented by a single thick line, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0343] 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, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code.

[0344] 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 and / or block diagrams. Figure 1 One or more processes and / or boxes Figure 1 A device that provides the functions specified in one or more boxes.

[0345] 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.

[0346] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this application without departing from the 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, characterized in that, include: Receive first information from the network device, the first information being used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier; Based on the antenna port configuration, determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L is an integer greater than 0.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The step of determining the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device based on the antenna port configuration includes: Determine at least one uplink carrier, wherein the at least one uplink carrier is used to transmit information or the at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier that is scheduled to be used by the terminal device; An antenna port transmission configuration is determined based on the at least one uplink carrier and the antenna port configuration; the antenna port transmission configuration is used to indicate the antenna port corresponding to the at least one uplink carrier. The status of the L transmission channels is determined based on the antenna port transmission configuration.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive third information from the network device; Based on the third information and the first information, determine the state of the transmit channel corresponding to each antenna port in the at least one uplink carrier; Identify at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, The third piece of information is used to indicate the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that, The third information is carried in higher-level signaling.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, The antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to the states of multiple L transmission channels.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that, The antenna port configuration corresponds to multiple L transmit channel states, including one or more of the following: 。 8. A communication method, characterized in that, include: Send first information to the terminal device, the first information being used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier; Based on the antenna port configuration, determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device; L is an integer greater than 0.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, The method further includes: A third message is sent to the terminal device, the third message and the first message being used to indicate the status of the transmit channel corresponding to each antenna port in the at least one uplink carrier.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The third piece of information is used to indicate the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that, The third information is carried in higher-level signaling.

12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, characterized in that, The antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to the states of multiple L transmission channels.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that, The antenna port configuration corresponds to multiple L transmit channel states, including one or more of the following: 。 14. A communication device, characterized in that, include: A communication unit is configured to receive first information from a network device, the first information being used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier. The processing unit is used to determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration; L is an integer greater than 0.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that, The processing unit is specifically used for: Determine at least one uplink carrier, wherein the at least one uplink carrier is used to transmit information or the at least one uplink carrier is an uplink carrier that is scheduled to be used by the terminal device; The antenna port transmission configuration is determined based on the at least one uplink carrier and the antenna port configuration; The antenna port transmission configuration is used to indicate the antenna port corresponding to the at least one uplink carrier; The status of the L transmission channels is determined based on the antenna port transmission configuration.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that, The communication unit is also used for: Receive third information from the network device; The processing unit is also used for: Based on the third information and the first information, determine the state of the transmit channel corresponding to each antenna port in the at least one uplink carrier; Identify at least one transmission channel for transmitting information.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, characterized in that, The third piece of information is used to indicate the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device.

18. The apparatus according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that, The third information is carried in higher-level signaling.

19. The apparatus according to any one of claims 14 to 18, characterized in that, The antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to the states of multiple L transmission channels.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, characterized in that, The antenna port configuration corresponds to multiple L transmit channel states, including one or more of the following: 。 21. A communication device, characterized in that, include: A communication unit is used to send first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information is used to indicate the antenna port configuration used by the uplink carrier. The processing unit is used to determine the status of L transmission channels in the terminal device according to the antenna port configuration; L is an integer greater than 0.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, characterized in that, The communication unit is also used for: A third message is sent to the terminal device, the third message and the first message being used to indicate the status of the transmit channel corresponding to each antenna port in the at least one uplink carrier.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, characterized in that, The third piece of information is used to indicate the status of the L transmission channels in the terminal device.

24. The apparatus according to claim 22 or 23, characterized in that, The third information is carried in higher-level signaling.

25. The apparatus according to any one of claims 21 to 24, characterized in that, The antenna port transmission configuration corresponds to the states of multiple L transmission channels.

26. The apparatus according to claim 25, characterized in that, The antenna port configuration corresponds to multiple L transmit channel states, including one or more of the following: 。 27. A communication device comprising a processor, wherein when the processor executes instructions in a memory, the method of at least one of claims 1 to 7 is implemented, or the method of at least one of claims 8 to 13 is implemented.

28. A computer-readable storage medium for storing instructions that, when executed, cause the method of at least one of claims 1 to 7 to be implemented, or cause the method of at least one of claims 8 to 13 to be implemented.

29. A computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the method of at least one of claims 1 to 7 to be implemented, or cause the method of at least one of claims 8 to 13 to be implemented.

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