Scheduling method for UWB and related products

Abstract

This application discloses a scheduling method for UWB and related products. The application may be applied to a UWB-based wireless personal area network system, sensing system, positioning system, ranging system, or communication system, and may further be applied to a wireless local area network system supporting 802.11-based protocols, such as the next-generation Wi-Fi protocol of IEEE 802.11ax, e.g., 802.11be or Wi-Fi 7, and the next-generation protocol of 802.11be, e.g., Wi-Fi 8. The method includes the steps of generating scheduling information, the scheduling information including a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal in a first period, and the second field indicating a scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal; and transmitting the scheduling information. Since the UWB signal is transmitted periodically, signaling overhead can be reduced.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202211275259.8, entitled "Scheduling Method and Related Products for UWB," filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on October 18, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a scheduling method and related products for UWB. [Background technology]

[0003] Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is a wireless communication and detection / ranging technology that transmits signals using non-sinusoidal narrow impulses at the nanosecond level, thus occupying a wide spectrum range. Due to its narrow impulse and very low radiation spectral density, UWB systems have the advantages of strong multipath resolution, low power consumption, and high confidentiality, and have attracted widespread attention in the industry.

[0004] Since the Federal Communications Commission approved the introduction of UWB technology into the civilian sector in 2002, world-renowned and large-scale companies, research institutes, and standardization organizations have been actively engaged in the research, development, and standardization of ultra-wideband wireless communication technology. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has incorporated UWB technology into the IEEE 802 family of wireless standards and published the UWB-based wireless personal area network (WPAN) standard IEEE 802.15.4a and its evolutionary version, IEEE 802.15.4z. Currently, the next-generation UWB WPAN standard, IEEE 802.15.4ab, is being developed. The IEEE 802.15.4ab standard is expected to comprehensively upgrade UWB.

[0005] The scheduling information of UWB applications (e.g., ranging, sensing, positioning, and communication) is used to schedule one or more UWB devices to perform the UWB applications. Currently, existing UWB scheduling solutions usually have the problem of high signaling overhead. Therefore, there is a need to research UWB scheduling solutions that can reduce signaling overhead. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The embodiments of the present application disclose a scheduling method for UWB to reduce signaling overhead. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a scheduling method for UWB, the method includes: generating scheduling information, the scheduling information including a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time unit in which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal, and the second field indicating a scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal; and transmitting the scheduling information. Optionally, the first field indicates a time unit in which a UWB signal is transmitted in a first scheduling period of the UWB device.

[0008] In this embodiment of the present application, the first field indicates the time unit in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, and the second field indicates the scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. Both the first field and the second field can be used to indicate multiple time units allocated to the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal, thereby occupying fewer bits, which can reduce signaling overhead.

[0009] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a third field, which indicates the number of repetitions of transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device.

[0010] In this implementation, the third field included in the scheduling information indicates the number of repetitions for transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device, so that the number of repetitions for transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device can be flexibly indicated.

[0011] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information implicitly (or implicitly) indicates the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. For example, any scheduling information may assume that the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal is 16 by default, and the scheduling information does not need to use the information conveyed to indicate the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. In other words, the UWB device can know the number of repetitions at which the UWB signal is transmitted without using the scheduling information. For example, the number of repetitions at which the UWB signal is transmitted is preconfigured for the UWB device.

[0012] In this implementation, the scheduling information implicitly (or implicitly) indicates the number of repetitions for transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device, thereby reducing the bits occupied.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a fourth field, which instructs the UWB device to periodically transmit the UWB signal.

[0014] In this implementation, the fourth field instructs the UWB device to periodically transmit the UWB signal, thereby further reducing signaling overhead.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes an address of the UWB device, and the address of the UWB device is 2 bytes or 8 bytes in length.

[0016] In this implementation, the scheduling information further includes the address of the UWB device so that the UWB device knows the time unit occupied by the UWB device for transmitting a UWB signal.

[0017] In one possible implementation, the time unit is the time unit for transmitting a UWB signal in the first scheduling period.

[0018] In this implementation, the time unit indicated by the first field is the time unit for transmitting the UWB signal in the first scheduling period. Both the first field and the second field can be used to determine the time unit for transmitting the UWB signal in each scheduling period, which can reduce signaling overhead.

[0019] In one possible implementation, the first field is a time unit bitmap, where the time unit bitmap indicates whether a time unit is used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal, and the scheduling information further includes a bitmap offset, where the bitmap offset is used to determine a start time unit within a measurement period in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal, and the time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap is the start time unit. For example, the measurement may be one or more of ranging, sensing, positioning, or communication tasks. Optionally, the measurement period is a ranging round. Note that the measurement period is a longer period than the scheduling period and is a period for completing one or more measurement tasks. The measurement period is the entire period for completing ranging, sensing, or positioning tasks. The scheduling period is a period in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal within one measurement period or communication period. For example, one measurement period may include eight scheduling periods of a UWB device, where the UWB device transmits a UWB signal in the third and fifth time units within each scheduling period and does not transmit a UWB signal in the other time units. The measurement period may include a control phase, a measurement phase, and a reporting phase.

[0020] In this implementation, the bitmap offset determines the start time unit within one measurement period in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal, i.e., the time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap. The bitmap offset and the time unit bitmap ensure that the time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal in the first scheduling period is accurate, allowing the length of the time unit bitmap to be shortened, which further reduces signaling overhead.

[0021] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further comprises a field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap.

[0022] In this implementation, the scheduling information further includes a field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap, so that the length of the time unit bitmap can be accurately determined and the time unit corresponding to each bit in the time unit bitmap can be determined.

[0023] In one possible implementation, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within one measurement period.

[0024] In this implementation, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within one measurement period, so that the UWB device can quickly and accurately determine the start time unit at which to transmit a UWB signal by using this value.

[0025] In one possible implementation, the first field is a time unit bitmap, the time unit bitmap indicating whether a time unit is used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal, the scheduling information further includes a bitmap offset, the bitmap offset is used to determine a start time unit within one communication period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, and the time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap is the start time unit.

[0026] In this implementation, the bitmap offset determines the start time unit within a communication period in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal, i.e., the time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap. The bitmap offset and the time unit bitmap accurately determine the time unit in which the UWB signal is transmitted in the first scheduling period, allowing the length of the time unit bitmap to be shortened, further reducing signaling overhead. A scheduling period is a period in which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal within a measurement period or communication period. A communication period is a period for completing one or more communication tasks. A scheduling period is a period in which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal within a communication period. For example, one communication period includes eight scheduling periods for a UWB device, and the UWB transmits a UWB signal in the third and fifth time units within each scheduling period, but does not transmit a UWB signal in the other time units.

[0027] In one possible implementation, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within one communication period.

[0028] In this implementation, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within one communication period, so that the UWB device can quickly and accurately determine the start time unit in which to transmit a UWB signal by using this value.

[0029] In one possible implementation, the time unit bitmap includes K bits, where K is an integer greater than 0, and when one of the K bits is set to a specified value, the specified value indicates that the time unit corresponding to that bit is to be used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal.

[0030] This implementation can precisely indicate whether each time unit is used by a UWB device to transmit a UWB signal.

[0031] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a fifth field, where the fifth field indicates an address type of the UWB device, where the address type of the UWB device includes a short address and an extended address.

[0032] In this implementation, to be applicable to UWB devices with different address types, the fifth field indicates the address type of the UWB device.

[0033] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a sixth field and a scheduling list, the sixth field indicating the number of list elements in the scheduling list, one list element in the scheduling list being used to schedule one UWB device, and the first field and the second field corresponding to one list element in the scheduling list.

[0034] This implementation allows you to precisely indicate the number of list elements in a scheduling list.

[0035] In one possible implementation, the time unit is one of the following: a slot (e.g., a ranging slot), a ranging schedule time unit (RSTU), or a sensing schedule time unit (SSTU). The time unit may alternatively be another length of time. The sensing schedule time unit is a time unit that can be used to determine the duration of a sensing block, a sensing round, and a sensing slot.

[0036] This implementation allows the time unit to be flexibly configured based on the actual application scenario.

[0037] In one possible implementation, the method is applied to ranging, sensing or positioning scenarios.

[0038] In this implementation, in ranging, sensing or positioning scenarios where UWB is applied, the signaling overhead can be reduced by performing the scheduling method according to the first aspect.

[0039] In one possible implementation, the method is applied to application scenarios with a recurring periodic transmission structure, such as narrow-band assisted multi-millisecond (NBA-MMS) based ranging scenarios, uplink-time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) based positioning scenarios, and downlink-time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA) based positioning and sensing scenarios.

[0040] In this implementation, the method is applied to application scenarios with a recurring periodic transmission structure, which can effectively reduce signaling overhead.

[0041] According to a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another scheduling method for UWB, the method includes: receiving first scheduling information, the first scheduling information including a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time unit in which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal, and the second field indicating a scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal; and transmitting a UWB signal based on the first scheduling information.

[0042] In this embodiment of the present application, the first field indicates the time unit in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, and the second field indicates the scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. Both the first field and the second field can be used to indicate multiple time units allocated to the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal, thereby occupying fewer bits, which can reduce signaling overhead.

[0043] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a third field, which indicates the number of repetitions of transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device.

[0044] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information implicitly (or implicitly) indicates the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. For example, any scheduling information may assume that the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal is 16 by default, and the scheduling information does not need to use the information conveyed to indicate the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. In other words, the UWB device can know the number of repetitions at which the UWB signal is transmitted without using the scheduling information. For example, the number of repetitions at which the UWB signal is transmitted is preconfigured for the UWB device.

[0045] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a fourth field, which instructs the UWB device to periodically transmit the UWB signal.

[0046] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes an address of the UWB device, and the address of the UWB device is 2 bytes or 8 bytes in length.

[0047] In one possible implementation, the time unit is the time unit for transmitting a UWB signal in the first scheduling period.

[0048] In one possible implementation, the first field is a time unit bitmap, and the time unit bitmap indicates whether a time unit is used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal. The first scheduling information further includes a bitmap offset, and the bitmap offset is used to determine a start time unit within one measurement period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. The time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap is the start time unit. Optionally, the measurement period is a ranging round. Note that the measurement period is a period longer than the scheduling period and is a period for completing one or more measurement tasks. The measurement period is the total period for completing ranging, sensing, positioning, or communication tasks, and the scheduling period is a period for transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device. The scheduling period is a number of periods within one measurement period.

[0049] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further comprises a field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap.

[0050] In one possible implementation, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within one measurement period.

[0051] In one possible implementation, the first field is a time unit bitmap, the time unit bitmap indicating whether a time unit is used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal, the first scheduling information further includes a bitmap offset, the bitmap offset is used to determine a start time unit within one communication period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, and the time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap is the start time unit.

[0052] In one possible implementation, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within one communication period.

[0053] In one possible implementation, the time unit bitmap includes K bits, where K is an integer greater than 0, and when one of the K bits is set to a specified value, the specified value indicates that the time unit corresponding to that bit is to be used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal.

[0054] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a fifth field, where the fifth field indicates an address type of the UWB device, where the address type of the UWB device includes a short address and an extended address.

[0055] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a sixth field and a scheduling list, the sixth field indicating the number of list elements in the scheduling list, one list element in the scheduling list being used to schedule one UWB device, and the first field and the second field corresponding to one list element in the scheduling list.

[0056] In one possible implementation, the time unit is one of the following: a slot (e.g., a ranging slot), an RSTU, or an SSTU. The time unit may alternatively be another length of time.

[0057] In one possible implementation, the method is applied to ranging, sensing or positioning scenarios.

[0058] In one possible implementation, the method is applied to application scenarios with a recurring periodic transmission structure, such as NBA-MMS based ranging scenarios, UL-TDOA based positioning scenarios, and DL-TDOA based positioning and sensing scenarios.

[0059] In one possible implementation, the method further includes a step of receiving second scheduling information, wherein the format of the second scheduling information is different from the format of the first scheduling information, and the step of transmitting a UWB signal based on the first scheduling information includes a step of transmitting a UWB signal based on the order of receiving the first scheduling information and the second scheduling information and the first scheduling information.

[0060] In this implementation, UWB signals are transmitted based on the order in which different formats of scheduling information are received and one of the scheduling information, thereby reducing power consumption.

[0061] For technical effects brought about by possible implementations of the first aspect, please refer to the description of the technical effects of the first aspect or possible implementations of the first aspect.

[0062] According to a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device. The communication device has a function of performing the behavior of an embodiment of the method of the first aspect. The communication device may be a communication device, a component of the communication device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system), or a logic module or software capable of performing all or part of the functions of the communication device. The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software may include one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions described above. In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a transceiver module and a processing module. The processing module is configured to generate scheduling information, the scheduling information including a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal, and the second field indicating a scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, and the transceiver module is configured to transmit the scheduling information.

[0063] For possible implementations of the communication device of the third aspect, please refer to the possible implementations of the first aspect.

[0064] For technical effects brought about by possible implementations of the third aspect, please refer to the description of the technical effects of the first aspect or possible implementations of the first aspect.

[0065] According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device. The communication device has a function of performing the behavior of the method embodiment of the second aspect. The communication device may be a communication device, a component of the communication device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system), or a logic module or software capable of performing all or part of the functions of the communication device. The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software may include one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions. In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a transceiver module and a processing module. The transceiver module is configured to receive first scheduling information, the first scheduling information including a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal, and the second field indicating a scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, and the processing module is configured to transmit the UWB signal based on the first scheduling information.

[0066] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to receive second scheduling information, the format of the second scheduling information being different from the format of the first scheduling information, and the processing module is specifically configured to transmit a UWB signal based on the order in which the first scheduling information and the second scheduling information are received and the first scheduling information.

[0067] For possible implementations of the communication device of the fourth aspect, please refer to the possible implementations of the second aspect.

[0068] For technical effects brought about by possible implementations of the fourth aspect, please refer to the description of the technical effects of the second aspect or possible implementations of the second aspect.

[0069] According to a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication device, the communication device including a processor coupled to a memory, the memory configured to store a program or instructions, which, when executed by the processor, enable the communication device to perform the method according to the first to second aspects.

[0070] In this embodiment of the present application, in the process of executing the method, the process of transmitting information (or a signal) in the method may be understood as the process of outputting information based on the instruction of a processor. When information is output, the processor outputs the information to the transceiver, and the transceiver transmits the information. After the information is output by the processor, other processing may need to be performed on the information before it arrives at the transceiver. Similarly, when the processor receives input information, the transceiver receives the information and inputs the information to the processor. Furthermore, after the transceiver receives the information, other processing may need to be performed on the information before it is input to the processor.

[0071] Operations such as sending and / or receiving associated with a processor may generally be understood as instructions output by the processor unless otherwise specifically described, or unless the operations in the associated description are consistent with the actual function or internal logic of the operations.

[0072] In the course of implementation, the processor may be a processor specifically configured to perform these methods, or may be a processor, such as a general-purpose processor, that executes computer instructions in a memory to perform these methods. For example, the processor may be further configured to execute a program stored in the memory. When the program is executed, the communication device is enabled to perform a method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0073] In one possible implementation, the memory is located external to the communication device. In one possible implementation, the memory is located within the communication device.

[0074] In one possible implementation, the processor and memory may instead be integrated into one device, ie, the processor and memory may instead be integrated together.

[0075] In one possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver configured to receive or transmit signals or the like.

[0076] According to a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication device, the communication device including a processing circuit and an interface circuit, the interface circuit configured to obtain data or output data, and the processing circuit configured to perform the method according to the first or second aspect.

[0077] According to a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, the computer program including program instructions that, when executed, enable a computer to perform a method according to the first or second aspect.

[0078] According to an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, the computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed, enable a computer to perform a method according to the first or second aspect.

[0079] According to a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system including a communication device according to the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect, and a communication device according to the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect.

[0080] According to a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip including a processor and a communication interface, wherein the processor reads instructions stored in a memory through the communication interface to perform a method according to the first or fourth aspect.

[0081] To describe the technical solutions of the embodiments or background art of the present application more clearly, the following describes the accompanying drawings for illustrating the embodiments or background art of the present application. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0082] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram of stages within a prior art ranging round. [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a diagram of DL-TDOA positioning based on UWB signals. [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of a star topology structure. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of a point-to-point or mesh topology structure. [Figure 5] 1 illustrates an example of a UWB system to which the technical solution according to an embodiment of the present application can be applied; [Figure 6] 2 is a flowchart of a scheduling method for UWB according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 7] 4 is a flowchart of another scheduling method for UWB according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 8] FIG. 1 is a diagram of a scheduling instruction in a ranging scenario according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 9A] 1 illustrates an example of a list element in scheduling information according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 9B] 10 illustrates another example of a list element in scheduling information according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 10] 2 is a diagram of time units used by a UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 11A]2 is another diagram of time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 11B] 2 is another diagram of time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 12A] 10 illustrates another example of a list element in scheduling information according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 12B] 10 illustrates another example of a list element in scheduling information according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 13] 1 shows an example of a bitmap indicating whether a time unit is used by a UWB device to transmit a UWB signal in the prior art. [Figure 14] 1 illustrates an example in which a time unit bitmap indicates whether a time unit is used by a UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 15] FIG. 1 is a timeline diagram of a multi-millisecond transmission ranging process according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 16] 1 illustrates a group of exemplary scheduling modes in which the DL-TDOA positioning process can be completed. [Figure 17] FIG. 1 is a diagram of scheduling eight repeated DL-TDOA positioning according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 18] 18 is a diagram of the structure of a communication device 1800 according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 19] FIG. 10 is a diagram of the structure of another communication device 190 according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 20] 2 is a diagram of the structure of another communication device 200 according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0083] In the specification, claims, or accompanying drawings of this application, terms such as "first," "second," etc. are intended only to distinguish between different objects and not to describe a particular order. It should be understood that the various numbers in the embodiments of this application are used merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The sequential numbers of the above processes do not imply an execution order, and the execution order of the processes should be determined based on the functions and internal logic of the processes. In addition, the terms "comprise," "have," and any variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the enumerated steps or units, but may optionally further include unenumerated steps or units, or may optionally further include other specific steps or units of the process, method, product, or device.

[0084] The term "embodiment" as used herein means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described with reference to that embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The phrase may appear in various places in this specification and may not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, and is not an independent or optional embodiment that excludes another embodiment. It will be explicitly and implicitly understood by those skilled in the art that an embodiment described herein can be combined with another embodiment.

[0085] The terms used in the following embodiments of the present application are intended to describe particular embodiments only and are not intended to limit the present application. As used in this specification and the appended claims of the present application, the singular terms "a," "an," "the," "the," "said," "this," and "one of," are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and / or," as used in the present application, means and includes any or all possible combinations of one or more listed items. For example, "A and / or B" can refer to the following three cases: when only A is present, when only B is present, and when both A and B are present, and A and B may be singular or plural. The term "plurality," as used in the present application, means two or more. In the written description of the present application, the character " / " typically indicates an "or" relationship between related objects.

[0086] In the embodiments of the present application, it will be understood that "B corresponding to A" indicates that there is a correspondence between A and B, and that B can be determined based on A. However, it should also be understood that determining (or generating) B based on (or on) A does not mean that B is determined (or generated) based on (or on) A only, and instead, B can be determined (or generated) based on (or on) A and / or other information.

[0087] In order to facilitate understanding of the solutions of the present application, the following first describes the terms and technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

[0088] Ranging round, positioning round, sensing round, measurement period, communication period The IEEE 802.15.4z standard defines one ranging process as a ranging round. The IEEE 802.15.4z standard defines a ranging round as follows: a ranging round is a period of sufficient duration to complete one entire range-measurement cycle involving the set of ERDEVs participating in the ranging exchange. The minimum processing time unit in each ranging round is a ranging slot. A ranging round is divided into three phases: a ranging control phase, a ranging phase, and a measurement report phase. Figure 1 shows a diagram of each phase in a ranging round in the prior art. Figure 1 shows details. In the IEEE 802.15.4z standard, the ranging control phase includes one ranging slot. However, in the IEEE 802.15.4ab standard currently under discussion and development, the ranging control phase may include more than one ranging slot.

[0089] In the embodiment of the present application, one positioning process, i.e., the process of completing a positioning task, is defined as a positioning round. A positioning round may have another name, which is not limited in the present application. A positioning round may be a period (or time period) sufficient to complete one entire positioning task. The meaning of a positioning round is similar to that of a ranging round, except that one is a period corresponding to ranging and the other is a period corresponding to positioning. The smallest processing time unit of each positioning round is a positioning slot. A positioning round can be divided into three phases: a positioning control phase, a positioning phase, and a positioning report phase.

[0090] In an embodiment of the present application, one detection process, i.e., the process of completing a detection task, is defined as a detection round. A detection round may have another name, which is not limited in the present application. A detection round may be a period (or time period) of time sufficient to complete one entire detection task. The meaning of a detection round is similar to that of a ranging round, except that one is a period corresponding to ranging and the other is a period corresponding to detection. The smallest processing time unit of each detection round is a sensing slot. A detection round can be divided into three phases: a sensing control phase, a sensing phase, and a sensing report phase.

[0091] A measurement period is a period during which one or more UWB devices complete one or more measurement tasks. The measurement task here may be a ranging task, a positioning task, a sensing task, etc. A measurement period may be a ranging round, a positioning round, or a sensing round. A communication period is a period during which one or more UWB devices complete one or more communication tasks.

[0092] In addition, it should be further noted that the names of each stage in one measurement round (e.g., ranging round, sensing round, or positioning round) are merely examples and do not constitute any limitation on the scope of protection of the present application. For example, a measurement control stage may be understood as a stage used to configure parameters required in a measurement round. As another example, a measurement stage may be understood as a stage used to perform measurements. As another example, a measurement result reporting stage may be understood as a stage used to report measurement results, and may also be referred to as the conclusion of the measurement stage. In addition, it should be further noted that in the embodiments of the present application, the size of each field indicates the number of bits occupied by the field.

[0093] UWB positioning UWB can be used for indoor positioning. Principle methods of UWB positioning include, but are not limited to, UL-TDOA and DL-TDOA. Figure 2 is a diagram of DL-TDOA positioning based on UWB signals. DL-TDOA positioning based on UWB signals is sometimes referred to as UWB DL-TDOA positioning. In Figure 2, A, B, and C indicate anchor devices, and arrows indicate the flow direction of UWB positioning / ranging signals. Figure 2 shows that UWB DL-TDOA positioning is used as an example. In this method, three or more anchor devices are placed in an indoor space, and bidirectional UWB signal interaction is performed between the anchor devices to provide positioning signals to tag devices. The tag device listens to the UWB positioning / ranging interaction signals between the anchor devices and calculates the time difference of arrival between the signals to calculate the tag device's location, thereby performing the positioning function.

[0094] The following describes Prior Art 1 and Prior Art 2 related to the scheduling solution provided in the embodiments of the present application.

[0095] Prior art 1: Prior art 1 provides a scheduling information element for UWB ranging, namely, a ranging device management information element (RDM IE). Table 1 shows the format of the RDM IE in the prior art.

[0096] [Table 1]

[0097] Specifically, the meaning of some fields in Table 1 is as follows:

[0098] The SIU (slot index used) field indicates the access mode used in the current ranging process. If SIU is equal to 0, the current RDM IE is used to manage the ranging process based on contention access. If SIU is equal to 1, the current RDM IE is used to manage the ranging process based on scheduled access.

[0099] The Address Size field indicates the address type of the devices participating in the ranging process. If Address Size is equal to 0, it means that the addresses of all devices related to the current RDM List are short addresses, that is, the address length is 2 bytes. If Address Size is equal to 1, it means that the addresses of all devices related to the current RDM List are extended addresses (long addresses), that is, the address length is 8 bytes.

[0100] The RDM List Length field indicates the number of elements in the RDM List, i.e., the number of list elements in the format shown in Table 2. Table 2 shows the format of the list elements in the RDM List of Prior Art 1. In the embodiment of the present application, the list elements may be referred to as scheduling list elements.

[0101] The RDM List field is a list, and Table 2 shows the format of each element in this list.

[0102] [Table 2]

[0103] Specifically, the meaning of some fields in Table 2 is as follows:

[0104] The Ranging Role field indicates the ranging role of the device corresponding to the Address field of the current list element. If Ranging Role is equal to 0, it means that the device is a ranging responder. If Ranging Role is equal to 1, it means that the device is a ranging initiator.

[0105] The Ranging Slot Index field indicates the slot subscript assigned to the device participating in ranging and corresponding to the current list element. The device's address is determined based on the Address field in Table 2.

[0106] The Address field indicates the address of the device participating in the ranging and corresponding to the current list element.

[0107] Assume that there are N (an integer greater than 0) devices in a ranging system currently using Prior Art 1, and each device needs to call a maximum of S (an integer greater than 0) slots. In this case, the message length M required by the scheduling IE proposed in Prior Art 1 can be expressed as follows:

[0108] If all N devices are short address devices, the message length of the IE is (M=1+3*N*S) bytes.

[0109] If all N devices are long address devices, the message length of the IE is (M=1+9*N*S) bytes.

[0110] From the above analysis, it can be seen that the scheduling IE of prior art 1 has the following drawbacks:

[0111] High signaling overhead: When the number of devices N is constant, the length of the scheduling IE increases as S increases. For example, using a short address as an example, when S is equal to 32, the length of the scheduling IE is (M=1+96*N) bytes, or when S is equal to 64, the length of the scheduling IE is (M=1+192*N) bytes. Therefore, when the number of devices N is constant, if the number of slots S that currently need to be scheduled by the system is large (e.g., when S≧64), high signaling overhead will be caused.

[0112] Limited flexibility: In each list element of the RDM IE in Prior Art 1 (Table 2), one device can only indicate one slot, and one device cannot indicate multiple slots. As a result, the flexibility of instructing scheduling using the RDM IE is limited. Specifically, if a device needs to indicate multiple slots, multiple list elements shown in Table 2 are required. This results in signaling instruction redundancy, i.e., the signaling overhead problem described above.

[0113] Conventional technology 2 Prior Art 2 provides a format of a bitmap-based scheduling information element (IE) for UWB. Table 3 shows the format of the bitmap-based scheduling IE provided in Prior Art 2.

[0114] [Table 3]

[0115] The Control field occupies a size of one octet, and the Scheduling List field occupies a size of one or more octets. Table 4 shows the format of the Control field of the bitmap scheduling IE provided in Prior Art 2.

[0116] [Table 4]

[0117] If Address Type is 0, it means that the device address is a short address, i.e., the address length is 2 bytes (16 bits). If Address Type is 1, it means that the device address is a long address (or extended address), i.e., the address length is 8 bytes (64 bits). The device address here is the address of the device scheduled by the bitmap scheduling IE, i.e., the address of the device related to the scheduling list.

[0118] The Scheduling List Length indicates the number of list elements in the scheduling list field. The list elements are carried in the Scheduling List field. Table 5 shows the format of the list elements in the scheduling list of Prior Art 2.

[0119] [Table 5]

[0120] In Table 5, bitmap indicates a one-dimensional bit string, for example, 0000100100100000. Bitmap Size indicates the length of the bitmap. Table 6 below shows the relationship between the Bitmap Size value and the bitmap length. Table 6 shows the relationship between the Bitmap Size value and the bitmap length.

[0121] [Table 6]

[0122] For example, bitmap shown in Table 7 indicates a bit string with a length of 8, i.e., 8 slots (each bit corresponds to one slot), i.e., the corresponding value of Bitmap Size is 0. If a bit is 1, it means that the device participating in ranging and corresponding to the list element corresponding to bitmap transmits a UWB signal in the slot corresponding to that bit. Correspondingly, if a bit is 0, it means that the device does not transmit a UWB signal in the slot corresponding to bit 0.

[0123] [Table 7]

[0124] The bitmap shown in Table 7 indicates slot 1 to slot 8 (or slot 0 to slot 7) in order from left to right. If the bits corresponding to slot 2, slot 4, slot 5, slot 7, and slot 8 are all 1, it means that the device transmits UWB signals in slot 2, slot 4, slot 5, slot 7, and slot 8. If the bits corresponding to slot 1, slot 3, and slot 6 are all 0, it means that the device does not transmit UWB signals in slot 1, slot 3, and slot 6.

[0125] It should be noted that in this specification, the method of describing the bitmap in Table 7, for example, is left-to-right by default. In other words, the bitmap indicates the order of slots from near to far from left to right. For example, in the case of a bitmap with a length of 1 byte, the bitmap indicates slot 1 to slot 8 (or slot 0 to slot 7) from left to right. In addition, the bitmap in the embodiment of the present application may alternatively be described from right to left, that is, may indicate the order of slots from near to far. The description order of the bitmap is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. This specification is described using the left-to-right order as an example.

[0126] Assume that there are N devices (an integer greater than 0) in a system currently using Prior Art 2, and each device needs to call a maximum of S slots (an integer greater than 0). In this case, the message length M required by the scheduling IE proposed in Prior Art 2 can be expressed as follows:

[0127] If all N devices are short address devices, the message length of the IE is

number

[0128] If all N devices are long address devices, the message length of the IE is

number

[0129] symbol

number

[0130] From the above analysis, it can be seen that the scheduling IE of prior art 2 has the following drawbacks:

[0131] High signaling overhead: When the number of devices N is constant, the message length of the scheduling IE increases as S increases. Taking a short address as an example, when S is equal to 32, the length of the scheduling IE is (M=1+N*7) bytes, or when S is equal to 64, the length of the scheduling IE is (M=1+11*N) bytes. Therefore, when the number of devices N is constant, if the number of slots S that currently need to be scheduled by the system is large (e.g., when S≧64), high signaling overhead will be caused.

[0132] Message indication redundancy: In prior art 2, a bitmap indicates whether a slot is used to transmit UWB signals. Even for slots that do not participate in transmission, the bit must be set to 0. As a result, the message indication is not flexible enough, which causes unnecessary message indication redundancy.

[0133] In UWB applications with repetitive periodic transmission structures such as narrow-band assisted multi-millisecond (NBA-MMS) and DL-TDOA / UL-TDOA positioning and sensing, using only a bitmap to indicate whether a slot is used to transmit a UWB signal results in unnecessary repetition redundancy, and a large number of repetitions results in significant indication redundancy.

[0134] From the above description, it can be seen that the scheduling information elements provided in Prior Art 1 and Prior Art 2 both have the drawback of high overhead. In order to avoid the problem of high signaling overhead caused by using the scheduling information elements provided in Prior Art 1 or Prior Art 2, the embodiments of the present application provide a scheduling solution for UWB with low signaling overhead. The following describes a topology structure and a system to which the scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied.

[0135] The scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiments of the present application can operate in a star topology structure, a point-to-point topology structure, or a mesh topology structure. The scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiments of the present application can also operate in another topology structure, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an example of a star topology structure. As shown in FIG. 3, the star topology includes data communication between one or more other devices and a central control node, such as a personal area network (PAN) coordinator or coordinator shown in FIG. 3. The scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiments of the present application is applicable to data communication / sensing / ranging / positioning between the central control node and one or more other devices in a star topology. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example of a point-to-point topology structure or a mesh topology structure. The scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiments of the present application is also applicable to communication / sensing / ranging / positioning between different devices in a point-to-point topology structure or a mesh topology structure (FIG. 4). In Figures 3 and 4, the black nodes are full function devices (FFDs) and the white nodes are reduced function devices (RFDs). FFDs can function as PAN coordinators or coordinators, but RFDs cannot function as PAN coordinators or coordinators. FFDs can communicate with each other, and FFDs and RFDs can communicate with each other. RFDs cannot communicate with each other directly, but can only communicate with FFDs, or can transfer data to the outside through one FFD. In a UWB system, FFDs can be anchor devices or tag devices with strong computing capabilities (e.g., UWB tags equipped on smartphones), and RFDs are tag devices with only a certain degree of computing capabilities.

[0136] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are primarily applicable to UWB systems, such as UWB systems supporting the IEEE 802.15.4a standard, the IEEE 802.15.4z standard, the IEEE 802.15.4ab standard, or a successor to the IEEE 802.15.4ab standard. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that the aspects of the present application can be extended to other networks using various standards or protocols, such as BLUETOOTH®, high performance radio LAN (HIPERLAN) (a wireless standard similar to the IEEE 802.11 standard used primarily in Europe), wide area networks (WANs), personal area networks (PANs), or other networks now known or later developed. Therefore, regardless of the coverage area and wireless access protocol used, the various aspects provided in the embodiments of the present application are applicable to any suitable wireless network.

[0137] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a UWB system to which the technical solution according to an embodiment of the present application can be applied. The UWB system includes one or more anchors and one or more tags. FIG. 5 illustrates only one anchor, tag 1, and tag 2. Protocols supported by the anchors and tags may include protocols such as IEEE 802.15.4a, IEEE 802.15.4z, and IEEE 802.15.4ab. Naturally, with the continuous evolution and development of communication technologies, WLAN protocols may further include next-generation protocols of IEEE 802.15.4ab. The anchor may be an access point, and the tag may be a station (STA). Both the access point and the STA support the WLAN protocol, which may include IEEE 802.11be (also known as Wi-Fi 7 or EHT protocol).

[0138] An access point is a device with wireless communication capabilities, supports communication using a WLAN protocol, and is capable of communicating with other devices (e.g., stations or other access points) within the WLAN network. Of course, an access point may also be capable of communicating with other devices. A UWB system includes one or more access point (AP) stations and one or more non-access point stations (non-AP STAs). For ease of explanation, an access point station will be referred to as an access point (AP) and a non-access point station will be referred to as a station (STA) in this specification.

[0139] An access point may be an entire device, or may be a chip or processing system installed within the entire device. A device equipped with a chip or processing system can implement the methods and functions of the embodiments of the present application under the control of the chip or processing system (i.e., AP). An AP in the embodiments of the present application is a device that provides services to stations (STAs) and can support, for example, IEEE 802.15.4a, IEEE 802.15.4z, IEEE 802.15.4ab, or their next generation standards. For example, an AP may be a communication entity such as a communication server, a router, a switch, a bridge, a computer, or a mobile phone. An AP may include an anchor, macro base station, micro base station (also called a small cell), picocell base station, femto base station, relay station, access point, gNB, transmission reception point (TRP), evolved Node B (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), base band unit (BBU), WiFi access point (AP), integrated access and backhaul (IAB), etc. Of course, the AP may alternatively be chips and processing systems within these devices that take various forms to implement the methods and functions of embodiments of the present application.

[0140] A station is a device with wireless communication capabilities, supports communication using a WLAN protocol, and has the ability to communicate with other stations or access points in a WLAN network. For example, a STA is any communication device that allows a user to communicate with an AP and then with a WLAN. A communication device may be an entire device, or may be a chip or processing system installed within the entire device. A device equipped with a chip or processing system can implement the methods and functions of the embodiments of the present application under the control of the chip or processing system (i.e., a station). The STA may include a tag device / smart tag device, a mobile phone, a mobile station (MS), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with wireless transceiver functionality (e.g., a notebook computer), a virtual reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (AR) device, an industrial control wireless terminal, a self-driving wireless terminal, a remote medical wireless terminal, a smart grid wireless terminal, a transportation safety wireless terminal, a smart city wireless terminal, a smart home wireless terminal, a subscriber unit, a cellular phone, a wireless data card, a personal digital assistant (PDA) computer, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a machine type communication (MTC) terminal, and the like. The stations may include a variety of handheld, in-vehicle, wearable, or computing devices with wireless communication capabilities or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem.Optionally, the station may be a wireless communication-capable handheld device, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal in an Internet of Things or Internet of Vehicles network, or a terminal in any form of 5G or post-5G evolved communication system, etc., without limitation in this application. The station may support IEEE 802.15-based protocols, such as IEEE 802.15.4a, IEEE 802.15.4z, and IEEE 802.15.4ab.

[0141] The following describes the scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0142] 6 is a flowchart of a scheduling method for UWB according to an embodiment of the present application. The method shown in FIG. 6 can be applied to scenarios such as ranging, detection, positioning, and communication, for example, ranging in NBA-MMS mode, positioning in DL-TDOA mode, and positioning and detection in UL-TDOA mode. As shown in FIG. 6, the method includes the following steps:

[0143] 601: The transmitting end generates scheduling information.

[0144] The transmitting end may be a UWB device supporting the UWB standard. The transmitting end may be an AP or a station. The transmitting end may be an FFD or an RFD. The transmitting end may be a ranging, sensing, positioning, or communication initiator, i.e., a ranging initiator, sensing initiator, positioning initiator, or communication initiator, or a ranging, sensing, positioning, or communication responder, i.e., a ranging responder, sensing responder, positioning responder, or communication responder, or may be a third-party device (sometimes referred to as a controller device), i.e., not a ranging, sensing, positioning, or communication initiator or responder. For example, the transmitting end is a third-party device, and the scheduling information is a ranging control message (RCM). After receiving the scheduling information, all initiators / rangers participating in the ranging process interpret the information relevant to them in the scheduling information (e.g., sending the corresponding slot subscript) and perform the corresponding ranging process in the measurement phase.

[0145] The scheduling information includes a first field and a second field. The first field indicates a time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal. For example, the first field indicates a time unit in a first scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal. For example, the first field may be referred to as a time unit index field, a slot index field, or a starting slot index field. In this embodiment of the present application, the name of the first field is not limited. The second field indicates a scheduling period (sometimes referred to as a period for short) in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal. The second field may be referred to as a period index field or another field. In the following, implementation of the first field and the second field will be described with reference to an example of scheduling information.

[0146] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a third field, which indicates the number of repetitions of transmitting a UWB signal by the UWB device, i.e., the number of repetitions of UWB transmission. The value indicated by the R bit included in the third field indicates the number of repetitions of transmitting a UWB signal by the UWB device, where R is an integer greater than 0. For example, R is any one of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. For example, the third field may be referred to as a repetition index field or another field. Optionally, the third field indicates a consecutive value, for example, 1 to 32 times. The number that can be indicated by the third field is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the third field indicates a non-consecutive natural number. For example, the third field may indicate any number among a combination of values ​​(including multiple non-consecutive natural numbers), for example, 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128. For example, if the value of the third field is 1 (i.e., the repetition index is equal to 1), the number of times a UWB signal is periodically transmitted (or periodic UWB transmission) is 16. As another example, if the value of the third field is 2 (i.e., the repetition index is equal to 2), the number of times a periodic UWB transmission is performed is 32. The non-contiguous values ​​that may be indicated by the third field are not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In this implementation, the third field indicates the number of repetitions at which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal. Since both the first field and the second field can be used to indicate the time unit within each scheduling period at which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal, fewer bits are occupied. This can reduce signaling overhead.

[0147] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information implicitly (or implicitly) indicates the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. For example, any scheduling information assumes that the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal is 16 by default, and the scheduling information does not need to use the information it carries to indicate the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. In other words, the UWB device can know the number of repetitions at which the UWB signal is transmitted without using the scheduling information. For example, the number of repetitions at which the UWB signal is transmitted is preconfigured for the UWB device. In this implementation, since the scheduling information implicitly (or implicitly) indicates the number of repetitions at which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, the occupied bits can be reduced.

[0148] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes an address of the UWB device, and the length of the address of the UWB device is 2 bytes or 8 bytes. In this implementation, since the scheduling information further includes an address of the UWB device, the UWB device knows the time unit occupied by the UWB device for transmitting UWB.

[0149] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information includes a control field and a scheduling list field. The scheduling list field includes one or more list elements. The first field, the second field, the third field, and the address of the UWB device may be included in the same list element.

[0150] 602: The transmitting end transmits scheduling information.

[0151] One possible implementation of step 602 is as follows: the transmitting end transmits the scheduling information in a broadcast or multicast manner. Another possible implementation of step 602 is as follows: the transmitting end transmits the scheduling information separately to one or more scheduled UWB devices (i.e., receiving ends) in a unicast manner. Correspondingly, the receiving end receives the scheduling information from the transmitting end.

[0152] 603: The receiving end transmits the UWB signal according to the scheduling information.

[0153] The receiving end may be an anchor or a tag. The receiving end may be an FFD or an RFD. The receiving end is a UWB device to be scheduled using the scheduling information, and the receiving end receives the scheduling information from the transmitting end. The receiving end may be a ranging, detection, positioning, or communication initiator, or may be a ranging, detection, positioning, or communication responder. For example, a list element in the scheduling information includes a first field, a second field, a third field, and Address 1. The first field indicates a time unit in which UWB device 1 (i.e., the receiving end) transmits a UWB signal in a first scheduling period, the second field indicates a scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, the third field indicates the number of repetitions of UWB device 1 transmitting a UWB signal, and Address 1 is the address of UWB device 1. The list element is used to schedule UWB device 1. Step 603 is optional. In practical applications, there may be multiple receiving ends that receive scheduling information and transmit UWB signals according to the scheduling information to complete ranging, sensing, positioning, or communication.

[0154] The receiving end transmitting a UWB signal based on the scheduling information may be performing detection, ranging, positioning, or communication by transmitting a UWB signal based on the scheduling information. It should be understood that the scheduling information indicates the time units in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, and UWB device 1 can transmit a UWB signal in these time units to perform detection, ranging, positioning, or communication. In some embodiments, the scheduling information indicates the time units used by multiple UWB devices to transmit UWB signals, i.e., the scheduling information schedules multiple receiving ends to perform detection, ranging, positioning, or communication by transmitting UWB signals. The multiple UWB devices perform detection, ranging, positioning, or communication by transmitting UWB signals based on the scheduling information.

[0155] In this embodiment of the present application, the first field indicates the time unit used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal, and the second field indicates the scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal. Both the first field and the second field can be used to indicate multiple time units allocated to the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal, thereby occupying fewer bits, which can reduce signaling overhead.

[0156] 7 is a flowchart of another scheduling method for UWB according to an embodiment of the present application. The method steps in FIG. 7 are one possible implementation of the method described in FIG. 6. In this implementation, a UWB signal is transmitted based on the order in which scheduling information with different formats is received and one of the scheduling information, thereby reducing power consumption. As shown in FIG. 7, the method includes the following steps:

[0157] 701: A first transmitting end transmits first scheduling information.

[0158] The first transmitting end may be the transmitting end of Fig. 6, and the first scheduling information may be the scheduling information of Fig. 6. Correspondingly, the receiving end receives the first scheduling information from the first transmitting end, where the receiving end may be the receiving end of Fig. 6.

[0159] 702: A second transmitting end transmits second scheduling information.

[0160] The second transmitting end may be the transmitting end of FIG. 6 or may not be the transmitting end of FIG. 6. Correspondingly, the receiving end receives second scheduling information from the second transmitting end. The format of the second scheduling information is different from the format of the first scheduling information. The second transmitting end may be a ranging, detection, positioning, or communication initiator, a ranging, detection, positioning, or communication responder, or a third-party device, i.e., may not be a ranging, detection, positioning, or communication initiator or responder. The format of the second scheduling information differs from the format of the first scheduling information in that one or more fields in the second scheduling information are not included in the first scheduling information, or one or more fields in the first scheduling information are not included in the second scheduling information. For example, the second scheduling information includes the second field, and the first scheduling information does not include the second field. It will be appreciated that the format of the second scheduling information differs from the format of the first scheduling information when the fields in the first scheduling information and the fields in the second scheduling information are not exactly the same.

[0161] 703: The receiving end transmits a UWB signal according to the order in which the first scheduling information and the second scheduling information are received and the first scheduling information.

[0162] One possible implementation of step 703 is as follows: the first scheduling information and the second scheduling information are scheduling information sequentially received by the receiving end in the control phase of the same working period (e.g., the ranging control phase of the same ranging round), and the receiving end transmits a UWB signal based on the first scheduling information received first. The receiving end may transmit a UWB signal based only on the first scheduling information received first, and does not need to decode the second scheduling information received later, thereby reducing energy consumption.

[0163] Another possible implementation of step 703 is as follows: the first scheduling information and the second scheduling information are scheduling information sequentially received by the receiving end in the control phase of the same working period (e.g., the ranging control phase of the same ranging round), and the receiving end transmits a UWB signal based on the first scheduling information received later. The receiving end may transmit a UWB signal based only on the first scheduling information received later, and does not need to decode the second scheduling information received earlier, thereby reducing energy consumption.

[0164] In this embodiment of the present application, the receiving end transmits a UWB signal based on the order in which the different formats of the scheduling information are received and one of the different formats of the scheduling information, thereby reducing power consumption.

[0165] The application of the scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiments of the present application to a ranging scenario will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 8 is a diagram of a scheduling instruction in a ranging scenario according to an embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 8, a controller device transmits scheduling information provided in the embodiments of the present application to an initiator, a responder 1, and a responder 2 in a ranging control phase. The controller device may be a transmitting end, and a responder 1 or a responder 2 is a receiving end. As shown in FIG. 8, the controller device transmits scheduling information provided in the embodiments of the present application to all initiators and / or responders participating in ranging in the ranging control phase. The scheduling information may be an RCM or another message. After receiving the scheduling information, all initiators and / or responders participating in ranging interpret the information related to them in the scheduling information and perform corresponding ranging procedures in a measurement phase. In a measurement reporting phase, the initiators and / or responders can report measurement results obtained in the measurement phase. 8 illustrates the application of a scheduling solution for UWB to a ranging scenario according to an embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that the scheduling solution for UWB provided in the embodiment of the present application can also be used for sensing, DL-TDOA positioning, UL-TDOA positioning, communication, etc. Details will not be described again here. This specification is specifically described using the case where the controller device is a third-party device. The solution described herein is also applicable to the case where the controller device is an initiator or a responder. Details will not be described here.

[0166] FIG. 8 illustrates that the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application is used in the ranging control phase. FIG. 8 merely illustrates an example in which the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application is used in the control phase of the measurement period. The scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application may also be used in the measurement phase and the measurement reporting phase. Generally, when the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application is used in the measurement phase and the measurement reporting phase, a corresponding scheduling instruction is used in the next round. The next round may be a round adjacent to the current round or may be a round at least one round away from the current round. For example, the current measurement application is ranging. When the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application is used in the ranging phase and the measurement reporting phase, a corresponding scheduling instruction is used in the next ranging round. The next ranging round may be a ranging round adjacent to the current ranging round or may be a ranging round at least one ranging round away from the current ranging round.

[0167] The scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application may include a control field and a scheduling list field. In the following, an example of a list element in the scheduling list field and an example of a control field in the scheduling information will be described separately.

[0168] Example 1: Example of a list element in the scheduling list field in scheduling information.

[0169] Please refer to Figure 9A. The list element includes a first field, a second field, a third field, and Address 1. Figure 9A shows an example of a list element in scheduling information according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 9A, the list element in the scheduling information includes a first field (time unit index field), a second field (period index field), a third field (repetition index field), and Address 1. The first field indicates a time unit in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal in a first scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, the second field indicates a scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, the third field indicates the number of repetitions in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, and Address 1 is the address of UWB device 1. It will be understood that the list element shown in Figure 9A indicates a time unit occupied by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, i.e., is used to schedule UWB device 1. The first field determines the start time unit in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. UWB device 1 can be considered to be the UWB device associated with the list element. Address 1 is 2 bytes or 8 bytes long. In other words, the time unit indicated by the first field may be the start time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal. In other words, the time unit indicated by the first field may be the time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal in the first scheduling period. Optionally, the first field indicates a subscript of the start time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal. The specific manner is the same as that of the Ranging Slot Index field in prior art 1. Details will not be described again here. Please refer to Table 2. The Ranging Slot Index field in prior art 1 occupies 7 bits.For example, the first field occupies 7 bits, and the first field and the Ranging Slot Index field of the prior art 1 similarly indicate the subscript of the starting time unit assigned to the UWB device 1.

[0170] The third field is optional. For example, the list element includes a first field, a second field, and Address 1 (see FIG. 9B ), and the number of repetitions for transmitting a UWB signal is preconfigured for UWB device 1. For example, the number of repetitions for transmitting a UWB signal is preconfigured to 16 for UWB device 1. FIG. 9B shows another example of a list element in the scheduling information according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 9B , the list element in the scheduling information includes a first field (time unit index field), a second field (period index field), and Address 1. The first field indicates the time unit for transmitting a UWB signal in the first scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, the second field indicates the scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, and Address 1 is the address of UWB device 1. The scheduling information implicitly indicates the number of repetitions for transmitting a UWB signal by UWB device 1. It will be understood that the list elements shown in Figure 9B indicate the time units occupied by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals, i.e., are used to schedule UWB device 1. Figures 9A and 9B show two examples of list elements in the scheduling information. It should be understood that the format of the list elements in the scheduling information is the same, and each list element is used to schedule one UWB device.

[0171] The value indicated by the second field indicates a scheduling period in which the UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. Optionally, the second field (i.e., the period index field) indicates a consecutive value, for example, 1 to 32 or 1 to 64. The value indicated by the P bit included in the second field indicates a scheduling period in which the UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, where P is an integer greater than 0. For example, P may be any one of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc. For example, the value indicated by the second field is the number of time units corresponding to the scheduling period, for example, 1 to 32 time units. The number of time units that can be indicated by the second field is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. The unit of the value indicated by the second field may be a single time unit or multiple time units. The time unit may be a slot, for example, a ranging slot, an RSTU, or a sensing scheduling time unit. The sensing scheduling time unit is a time unit that can be used to determine the duration of a sensing block, a sensing round, and a sensing slot. The time unit may alternatively be another time length, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0172] Optionally, the second field indicates non-consecutive natural numbers. The natural number indicated by the H bit included in the second field indicates a scheduling period in which the UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, where H is an integer greater than 0. For example, H is 1, 2, 3, etc. Optionally, the second field indicates any one of a group of time unit numbers (including multiple time units), such as 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 time units. For example, when the value of the second field is 0 (i.e., the period index is equal to 0), the scheduling period in which the UWB device periodically transmits a UWB signal is 8 time units, i.e., the scheduling period of the UWB transmission is 8 time units. As another example, when the value of the second field is 1 (i.e., the period index is equal to 1), the scheduling period in which the UWB device periodically transmits a UWB signal is 16 time units, i.e., the scheduling period of the UWB transmission is 16 time units. For example, the first field indicates a start time unit at which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, and the second field indicates that the period at which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is 8 time units, i.e., that there is an interval of 8 time units between any two UWB transmissions. The non-continuous values ​​that can be indicated by the second field are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0173] Table 8 shows an example of list elements in the scheduling list field in the scheduling information provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0174] [Table 8]

[0175] See Table 8. The first field occupies 7 bits, i.e., bit 0 to bit 6, the second field occupies 4 bits, i.e., bit 7 to bit 10, the third field occupies 5 bits, i.e., bit 11 to bit 15, and address 1 occupies 2 bytes or 8 bytes. It will be understood that Table 8 shows only one example of a list element in a scheduling list field in scheduling information, and that the number and positions of bits occupied by each of the first field, second field, and third field in a list element are not limited.

[0176] The first field may be the Ranging Slot Index field of prior art 1. For example, the first field indicates that the start time unit for UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal is time unit 1, the second field indicates that the scheduling period for UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal is 8 time units, i.e., there is an interval of 8 time units between any two UWB transmissions, and the third field indicates that the number of repetitions for transmitting a UWB signal by UWB device 1 is 8. See FIG. 10. Referring to the first field, the second field, and the third field, time unit 1, time unit 9, time unit 17, ..., and time unit 57 used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal are indicated. FIG. 10 is a diagram of time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal according to one embodiment of the present application. 10, black rectangles indicate time units occupied by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals (i.e., time units in which UWB signals are transmitted), white rectangles indicate time units not occupied by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals (i.e., time units in which UWB signals are not transmitted), and the numbers above the time units indicate the sequence numbers of the time units. Time unit 1 is the start time unit in which UWB device 1 indicated by the first field transmits a UWB signal, the scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is 8 time units, and the number of repetitions of transmitting a UWB signal by UWB device 1 is 8.

[0177] Example 2: Example of a list element in the scheduling list field in scheduling information.

[0178] See FIG. 9A. The list element includes a first field, a second field, a third field, and Address 1. For the second field, the third field, and Address 1 of Example 2, see the second field, the third field, and Address 1 of Example 1, respectively. In other words, the second field of Example 2 may be the same as the second field of Example 1, the third field of Example 2 may be the same as the third field of Example 1, and Address 1 of Example 2 may be the same as Address 1 of Example 1. The third field is optional. For example, the list element includes a first field, a second field, and Address 1 (see FIG. 9B), and the number of repetitions for transmitting a UWB signal is preconfigured for UWB device 1. For example, the number of repetitions for transmitting a UWB signal is preconfigured to 16 for UWB device 1.

[0179] The first field indicates the number of time units before the start time unit in a measurement period (which may be a communication period) during which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. In other words, the first field indicates the number of time units before the start time unit in a measurement period during which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, and the measurement period includes the start time unit. A measurement period is a period during which a UWB device completes one or more measurement tasks. A measurement period may be a ranging round (also called a ranging period), a detection round, a positioning round, etc. The number of time units indicated by the first field is equal to the number of time units between the first time unit and the start time unit in the measurement period plus one. Assume that the number of time units indicated by the first field is T, and the time units in the measurement period are time unit 0 (the first time unit), time unit 1, time unit 2, etc. in chronological order. In this case, the start time unit is time unit T, where T is an integer greater than 1. For every UWB device, the first time unit in the measurement period is known. Therefore, any UWB device can determine the start time unit for transmitting a UWB signal based on the first field. Using a ranging round (see FIG. 1) as an example, each ranging slot in a ranging round is a time unit, with the first ranging slot of the ranging round being time unit 0, the second ranging slot being time unit 1, the third ranging slot being time unit 2, and so on. If the first field indicates that the number of time units before the start time unit in the ranging round in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is T, the start time unit is time unit T. For any UWB device, the first ranging slot in the ranging round is known. Therefore, the start time unit for transmitting a UWB signal can be determined based on the first field.

[0180] See Table 8 for the bits included in each field of the list element of Example 2. The first field of Example 2 may occupy 7 bits, i.e., bits 0 to 6, or may occupy fewer bits, e.g., 5 bits, with 2 bits reserved. It should be understood that the length of the list element of Example 2 is equal to the length of the list element of Example 1, both being 4 bytes (corresponding to a short address) or 10 bytes (corresponding to an extended address).

[0181] Example 3: Example of a list element in the scheduling list field in scheduling information.

[0182] See FIG. 9A. The list element includes a first field, a second field, a third field, and Address 1. The second field of Example 3 may be the same as the second field of Example 1, the third field of Example 3 may be the same as the third field of Example 1, and Address 1 of Example 3 may be the same as Address 1 of Example 1. The third field is optional. The first field is a time unit bitmap. Optionally, the list element further includes a bitmap size field, i.e., a field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap. Optionally, the list element further includes a reserved field, and the reserved field includes one or more reserved bits. The size and position of the bitmap size field are not limited in the embodiments of the present application. The size and position of the reserved field are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0183] The first field is a time unit bitmap, which corresponds to a number of time units (e.g., time unit 1 through time unit 8), and indicates whether a time unit is used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. For UWB device 1, the time unit corresponding to each bit in the time unit bitmap is known. For example, the time unit corresponding to the first bit in the time unit bitmap is the first time unit in the measurement period. In one possible implementation, the time unit bitmap indicates the time unit occupied for transmitting a UWB signal in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, i.e., the time unit in which UWB signal is transmitted. Optionally, K bits in the time unit bitmap correspond one-to-one to K time units in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, where each scheduling period is K time units, and K is an integer greater than 1. For example, the time unit bitmap includes 8 bits, and each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal includes 8 time units, and the time unit bitmap indicates that the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, and that the other time units are not used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. In this example, the 8 time units corresponding to the 8 bits included in the time unit bitmap are the 8 time units in the first scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. If the number of time units corresponding to the bits in the time unit bitmap is the same as the number of time units included in one scheduling period, the second field is optional.For example, the time unit bitmap indicates that the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period (including 8 time units) in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are used to transmit a UWB signal, the second field (optional) indicates that the scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is 8 time units, and the third field (optional) indicates that the number of repetitions in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is 8. See Figure 11A. Referring to the first field, the second field, and the third field, it is indicated that the time units in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period. Figure 11A is another diagram of time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal according to an embodiment of the present application. 11A, black rectangles indicate time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals, white rectangles indicate time units not used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals, and numbers above the time units indicate the sequential numbers of the time units. The time units in which UWB device 1 transmits UWB signals are the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period, the scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits UWB signals is eight time units, the number of repetitions of UWB device 1 transmitting UWB signals is eight, and the earliest eight time units is the first scheduling period.

[0184] Optionally, the K bits in the time unit bitmap correspond one-to-one to K consecutive time units (e.g., the first K time units or the last K time units) in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, where each scheduling period is Q time units, and Q is an integer greater than K. For example, the time unit bitmap includes 8 bits, and each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal includes 16 time units, the 8 bits in the time unit bitmap correspond one-to-one to the first 8 time units in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, and the time unit bitmap indicates that the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, and that other time units are not used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. For example, the time unit bitmap indicates that the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period (including 8 time units) in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, the second field indicates that the scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is 16 time units, and the third field (optional) indicates that the number of repetitions in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is 8. See Figure 11B. Referring to the first, second, and third fields, it is indicated that the time units in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period. Figure 11B is another diagram of the time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal according to an embodiment of the present application.As shown in FIG. 11B, black rectangles indicate time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals, white rectangles indicate time units not used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals, the time units in which UWB device 1 transmits UWB signals are the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period, the numbers above the time units indicate the sequential numbers of the time units, the scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits UWB signals is 16 time units, for example, the earliest of the 16 time units is the first scheduling period, and the number of repetitions in which UWB device 1 transmits UWB signals is 8.

[0185] In Example 3, the second and third fields may occupy a total of 1 byte (see Table 9 below), Address 1 may occupy 2 or 8 bytes, the time unit bitmap may occupy 1 or more bytes, and the bitmap size and reserved fields may occupy a total of 1 byte. It can be seen that the list element in Example 3 may occupy 5 bytes (corresponding to a short address) or 11 bytes (corresponding to an extended address).

[0186] Example 4: Example of a list element in the scheduling list field in scheduling information.

[0187] The list element includes a first field, a second field, a third field, a bitmap offset, and Address 1. The bitmap offset may be referred to as a bitmap offset field. The second field of Example 4 may be the same as the second field of Example 1, the third field of Example 4 may be the same as the third field of Example 1, and Address 1 of Example 4 may be the same as Address 1 of Example 1. The third field is optional. FIG. 12A shows another example of a list element in the scheduling information according to an embodiment of the present application. FIG. 12B shows another example of a list element in the scheduling information according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B, the list element in the scheduling information includes a first field (time unit index field), a second field (period index field), a third field (repetition index field), a bitmap offset, and Address 1. The first field indicates a time unit used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal in a first scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, the second field indicates a scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, the third field indicates a repetition number of times the UWB signal is transmitted by UWB device 1, and Address 1 is an address of UWB device 1. Optionally, the list element further includes a bitmap size field, i.e., a field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap. Optionally, the list element further includes a reserved field, which includes one or more reserved bits.

[0188] The first field is a time unit bitmap, where the time unit bitmap corresponds to a plurality of time units and the time unit bitmap indicates whether a time unit is used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. In one possible implementation, the time unit bitmap indicates the time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, i.e., the time units occupied by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. Optionally, K bits in the time unit bitmap correspond one-to-one to K time units in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, where each scheduling period is K time units, and K is an integer greater than 1. For example, the time unit bitmap includes 8 bits, and each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal includes 8 time units, and the time unit bitmap indicates that the third and fifth time units in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, and that other time units are not used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. Optionally, the K bits in the time unit bitmap correspond one-to-one to K consecutive time units (e.g., the first K time units or the last K time units) in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, and each scheduling period is Q time units, where Q is an integer greater than K. For example, the time unit bitmap includes 8 bits, each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal includes 16 time units, the 8 bits included in the time unit bitmap correspond one-to-one to the earliest 8 time units within the scheduling period, and the time unit bitmap indicates that the third and fifth time units within each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal are used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, and the other time units are not used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal.

[0189] In one possible implementation, the scheduling information further includes a field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap, and this field may be referred to as a bitmap size field. For the meaning of the field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap, please refer to Tables 5 and 6. The details will not be described again here. In this implementation, since the scheduling information further includes a field indicating the length of the time unit bitmap, the length of the time unit bitmap can be accurately determined, and the time unit corresponding to each bit in the time unit bitmap can be determined. The size and position of the bitmap size field are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0190] The bitmap offset is used to determine the starting time unit within a measurement period (which may be a communication period) during which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. Optionally, the bitmap offset indicates the number of time units before the starting time unit within the measurement period during which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. In other words, the bitmap offset indicates the number of time units before the starting time unit within the measurement period during which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, where the measurement period includes the starting time unit. For example, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the starting time unit within a measurement period. Optionally, the bitmap offset indicates the number of unused time units before the starting time unit within the measurement period during which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. For example, the value of the bitmap offset is the number of unused time units before the starting time unit within a measurement period. Optionally, the value of the bitmap offset is equal to the number of time units between the first time unit and the starting time unit within the measurement period plus one. Assume that the value of the bitmap offset is T, and the time units within the measurement period are chronologically ordered as time unit 0 (the first time unit), time unit 1, time unit 2, and so on. In this case, the start time unit is time unit T, where T is an integer greater than 1. For every UWB device, the first time unit within the measurement period is known. Therefore, every UWB device can determine the start time unit in which it will transmit a UWB signal, i.e., the time unit corresponding to the first bit in the time unit bitmap, based on the bitmap offset. The time unit corresponding to the first bit in the time unit bitmap is the start time unit in which UWB device 1 will transmit a UWB signal.

[0191] The bitmap offset may indicate a continuous value. For example, the bitmap offset may indicate a number of time units, e.g., 0 to 15 time units. The number of time units that may be indicated by the bitmap offset is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. The bitmap offset may indicate a non-continuous natural number. For example, the bitmap offset may indicate any one of a group of time unit numbers, e.g., 0, 1, 4, 8, 16, or 32. For example, if the bitmap offset value is 3, it means that the number of time units before the start time unit in the measurement period is 8, or if the bitmap offset value is 4, it means that the number of time units before the start time unit in the measurement period is 16. The non-continuous values ​​that may be indicated by the bitmap offset are not limited by the embodiment of the present application. The unit of the bitmap offset value is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. The bitmap offset value may be one time unit, multiple time units, or RSTU.

[0192] By referring to the bitmap offset, the first field, and the second field, the time unit in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal can be determined in each scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal, thereby reducing unnecessary indication overhead in the bitmap. This reduces the indication overhead of scheduling information. FIG. 13 shows an example in which a bitmap indicates whether a time unit is used by a UWB device to transmit a UWB signal in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 13, each rectangle indicates whether the time unit is used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal, and the number above each rectangle indicates the chronological order of the time unit indicated by the rectangle. Black rectangles indicate time units used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal, and white rectangles indicate time units not used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal. Time unit 0 to time unit 15 are 16 time units corresponding to a bitmap containing 16 bits. The time unit corresponding to the first bit of the bitmap (i.e., time unit 0 in FIG. 13) is the first time unit of the measurement period. The bitmap indicates whether each time unit from time unit 0 to time unit 15 is used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal. For example, if a bit in the bitmap is 1, it means that the time unit corresponding to that bit is used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal. The bitmap in FIG. 13 indicates that time unit 4, time unit 7, and time unit 10 in the measurement period are used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal, and that other time units in the measurement period are not used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal. The bitmap occupies 2 bytes, i.e., 16 bits.

[0193] The bitmap offset can reduce unnecessary indication overhead in the bitmap, thereby reducing the indication overhead of the scheduling information. Looking at FIG. 13 , it can be seen that none of the first four time units in the measurement period are used by the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal, resulting in wasteful bitmap indication. Therefore, it can be considered that the bitmap offset indicates the number of time units before the start time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal, thereby shortening the length of the bitmap. Specifically, the bitmap offset indicates the number of time units before the start time unit in which the UWB device transmits a UWB signal. For example, Bitmap Offset equal to 3 means that none of time units 0 to 3 are used. Correspondingly, the time units in which the UWB device shown in FIG. 13 transmits a UWB signal can be further indicated by FIG. 14. FIG. 14 illustrates an example in which the time unit bitmap indicates whether a time unit is used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 14 , each rectangle indicates whether a time unit is used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, and the number above each rectangle indicates the time sequence of the time unit indicated by the rectangle. Black rectangles indicate time units used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, and white rectangles indicate time units not used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. Time unit 0 to time unit 7 are eight time units corresponding to a time unit bitmap containing eight bits. The time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap (i.e., time unit 0 in FIG. 14 ) is determined based on a bitmap offset. The time unit bitmap indicates whether each time unit from time unit 0 to time unit 7 is used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. For example, if a bit in the time unit bitmap is 1, it means that the time unit corresponding to that bit is used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal.Assume that the bitmap offset indicates that the number of time units before the start time unit at which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal is four, i.e., time units 0 to 3 in the measurement period are not used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal. In this case, the time unit corresponding to the first bit of the time unit bitmap is time unit 4 in the measurement period, and the time units corresponding to the time unit bitmap are time unit 4, time unit 5, ..., and time unit 11 in chronological order. The time units in the measurement period are time unit 0, time unit 1, time unit 2, etc. in chronological order. It can be seen from FIG. 14 that the unnecessary indications of the first four time units are moved to the bitmap offset field in the scheduling list field. Therefore, the time unit bitmap can be completed with 8 bits. In other words, in this case, the time unit bitmap requires only one byte, rather than the two bytes required in FIG. 13, thereby reducing message overhead. In other words, the time unit bitmap and the bitmap offset jointly determine the transmission order in which UWB device 1 transmits the UWB signal.

[0194] The first field, i.e., the time unit bitmap, indicates the time unit used by UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal in a first scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. The bitmap offset is used to determine the starting time unit within one measurement period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. It will be understood that the first field and the bitmap offset jointly determine the UWB transmission in the first scheduling period, and the second field and the third field further determine the period and number of repetitions of the periodic UWB transmission. For UWB device 1's second scheduling period, third scheduling period, ..., and Xth scheduling period, the transmission order of the UWB signals in each scheduling period is the same as the transmission order in the first period. X is the number of repetitions indicated by the third field, and X is an integer greater than 1. For example, UWB device 1's scheduling periods are the first scheduling period, second scheduling period, third scheduling period, ..., and Xth scheduling period, in order. The first field and the bitmap offset jointly determine that the first and third time units in the first scheduling period will be used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals, and the second and third fields further determine that the first and third time units in the second scheduling period, the third scheduling period, ..., and the Xth scheduling period will be used by UWB device 1 to transmit UWB signals. The time units in each scheduling period are, in chronological order, the first time unit, the second time unit, the third time unit, ..., and the Cth time unit, where C is the number of time units included in the scheduling period and is an integer greater than 1.In other words, for the periodic UWB transmission process of any UWB device, the periodic UWB transmission process can be completely determined by determining the time unit (indicated by the first field, or indicated by the first field and the bitmap offset) for transmitting a UWB signal in the first scheduling period of the UWB device, the scheduling period (indicated by the second field), and the number of repeated transmissions (indicated by the third field). In other words, the specific time unit allocated to any UWB device for periodic UWB transmission can be completely determined.

[0195] Table 9, Table 10, Table 11, and Table 12 are four examples of list elements in the scheduling information provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0196] [Table 9]

[0197] See Table 9. The bitmap size field occupies 2 bits, i.e., bit 0 to bit 1; the bitmap offset occupies 4 bits, i.e., bit 2 to bit 5; the reserved field occupies 2 bits, i.e., bit 6 to bit 7; the time unit bitmap occupies 1 byte or more, i.e., the length of the time unit bitmap is a variable value; Address 1 occupies 2 bytes or 8 bytes; the second field occupies 4 bits; and the third field occupies 4 bits. It should be understood that Table 9 shows only one example of a list element in a scheduling list field in scheduling information, and the number of bits occupied by each field and the position of the field within the list element are not limited.

[0198] [Table 10]

[0199] See Table 10. The Ranging Role field and Receiver Address Presence field of the prior art appear in the list element format provided in the embodiment of the present application. In other words, for example, as shown in the following formats of Tables 11 and 12 below, the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application may allow the Ranging Role field and the Receiver Address Presence field to appear, or may allow one of the Ranging Role field and the Receiver Address Presence field to appear. This is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0200] [Table 11]

[0201] [Table 12]

[0202] Tables 10, 11, and 12 are examples of how fields in the prior art (e.g., a Ranging Role field and a Receiver Address Presence field) are arranged in the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that other fields in the prior art may also be arranged in the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the order positions and field sizes of the Bitmap Offset field, the Ranging Role field, the Receiver Address Presence field, etc. are not limited. Tables 10, 11, and 12 are merely examples.

[0203] See Tables 9 to 12. The list elements in Example 4 can occupy 5 bytes (corresponding to a short address) or 11 bytes (corresponding to an extended address).

[0204] Example 5: Example of a list element in the scheduling list field in scheduling information.

[0205] The list element includes a first field, a second field, a third field, a fourth field, a bitmap offset, and an address 1. The first field of Example 5 may be the same as the first field of Example 4, the second field of Example 5 may be the same as the second field of Example 4, the third field of Example 5 may be the same as the third field of Example 4, Address 1 of Example 5 may be the same as Address 1 of Example 4, and the bitmap offset of Example 5 may be the same as the bitmap offset of Example 4. The fourth field may be referred to as a period mode field or another field. The period mode field instructs UWB devices to periodically transmit UWB signals. In other words, the period mode field is used to trigger each UWB device scheduled using the scheduling information to periodically transmit UWB signals. In other words, the period mode field instructs triggering a periodic transmission mode. The period mode field may be considered a periodic transmission mode trigger field. The period mode field may occupy one or more bits. For example, the Period Mode field includes 1 bit. If the bit value is 1, the Period Mode field instructs the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal periodically, and the scheduling information includes a field related to the transmission period, such as the second field or the third field, or if the bit value is 0, the Period Mode field instructs the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal in another transmission mode, and the scheduling information does not include a field related to the transmission period. For example, the scheduling list field in the scheduling information is the same as the scheduling list field in Table 3.Alternatively, if the Period Mode field instructs the UWB device to periodically transmit a UWB signal, the scheduling information may include the first field and the second field; or if the Period Mode field instructs the UWB device to transmit a UWB signal in another mode, the scheduling information may not include the first field and the second field, and the scheduling list in the scheduling information may be the same as the scheduling list in the scheduling information element of Prior Art 1 (or Prior Art 2). It should be understood that the list elements in Examples 1 to 4 can all instruct UWB device 1 to periodically transmit a UWB signal. In an embodiment of the present application, the periodic transmission mode is a mode in which the UWB device periodically transmits a UWB signal, and is implemented using the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application, and the other transmission mode is a mode other than the periodic transmission mode.

[0206] Table 13 shows an example of list elements in the scheduling information provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0207] [Table 13]

[0208] The meaning of the fields in Table 13 may be the same as the meaning of the fields in Table 9. The difference between Table 13 and Table 9 is that bit 6 is the Period Mode field (i.e., the fourth field). For example, when Period Mode is equal to 1, fields related to the transmission period, such as the Period Index field and the Repetition Index field, appear and are enabled. When Period Mode is equal to 0, the Period Index field and the Repetition Index field, i.e., fields related to the transmission period, do not appear. It should be understood that Table 13 merely shows an example of a list element in a scheduling list field in scheduling information, and the number of bits occupied by each field and the position of the field in the list element are not limited.

[0209] See Table 13. The list elements in Example 5 can occupy 5 bytes (corresponding to a short address) or 11 bytes (corresponding to an extended address).

[0210] Example 6: Example of a list element in a scheduling list field in scheduling information.

[0211] The list element includes a first field, a second field, a third field, a fourth field (Period Index field), and Address 1. The first field of Example 6 may be the same as the first field of Example 1, the second field of Example 6 may be the same as the second field of Example 1, the third field of Example 6 may be the same as the third field of Example 1, Address 1 of Example 6 may be the same as Address 1 of Example 1, and the fourth field of Example 6 may be the same as the fourth field of Example 5.

[0212] Table 14 shows an example of list elements in the scheduling information provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0213] [Table 14]

[0214] See Table 14. The fourth field (Period Mode field) occupies one bit, i.e., bit 0; the first field occupies seven bits, i.e., bits 1 to 7; the second field occupies four bits, i.e., bits 8 to 11; the third field occupies four bits, i.e., bits 12 to 15; and Address 1 occupies two or eight bytes. It should be understood that Table 14 merely shows an example of a list element in a scheduling list field in scheduling information, and that the number and positions of bits occupied by each of the first, second, third, and fourth fields in a list element are not limited. In the list element format shown in Table 14, when Period Mode is equal to 1, fields related to the transmission period, such as the Period Index field and the Repetition Index field, appear and are enabled. When Period Mode is equal to 0, the Period Index field and the Repetition Index field, i.e., the fields related to the transmission period, do not appear.

[0215] See Table 14. The list elements in Example 6 can occupy 4 bytes (corresponding to a short address) or 10 bytes (corresponding to an extended address).

[0216] In Examples 1 to 6, the first field indicates the time unit in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal in a first scheduling period, and the second field indicates the scheduling period in which UWB device 1 transmits a UWB signal. Both the first and second fields can be used to indicate multiple time units allocated to UWB device 1 to transmit a UWB signal, thereby occupying fewer bits, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

[0217] Example 7: Example of control fields in scheduling information.

[0218] The control field in the scheduling information includes a fourth field, a fifth field, and a sixth field. The fourth field in Example 7 may be the same as the fourth field in Example 5. The fifth field indicates the address type of the UWB device, and the address type of the UWB device includes a short address (2 bytes long) and an extended address (8 bytes long). The fifth field may be referred to as an address type field. For example, the fifth field includes 1 bit. When the bit value is 0 (i.e., Address Type is 0), the fifth field indicates that the address of the UWB device is a short address, i.e., the address length is 2 bytes (16 bits). When the bit value is 1 (i.e., Address Type is 1), the fifth field indicates that the address of the UWB device is a long address (or extended address), i.e., the address length is 8 bytes (64 bits). The sixth field indicates the number of list elements in the scheduling list. The sixth field may be referred to as a scheduling list length field.

[0219] Table 15 shows an example of a control field in the scheduling information provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0220] [Table 15]

[0221] See Table 15. The fifth field occupies one bit, i.e., bit 0; the sixth field occupies six bits, i.e., bits 1 to 6; and the fourth field occupies one bit, i.e., bit 7. The fourth field is optional. For example, the control field includes the fifth and sixth fields but does not include the fourth field. By default, the scheduling information indicates that the UWB device periodically transmits a UWB signal or that the fourth field is in the scheduling list field. The control field in the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application occupies one byte. Table 15 merely illustrates an example of a control field in the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that Table 15 merely illustrates an example of a control field in the scheduling information, and the number of bits occupied by each field and the position of the field in the control field are not limited. See Table 15. The control field in the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application occupies one byte. The location of the fourth field is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, and the fourth field may alternatively be within the list element (see Tables 13 and 14).

[0222] In Example 7, the control field in the scheduling information includes a fourth field, a fifth field, and a sixth field. The fourth field instructs the UWB device to periodically transmit the UWB signal. The control field in the scheduling information can instruct the UWB device to periodically transmit the UWB signal to reduce signaling overhead by instructing the UWB device to periodically transmit the UWB signal. Example 8: Example of a control field in the scheduling information.

[0223] The control fields in the scheduling information include a second field, a third field, a fourth field, a fifth field, and a sixth field. The second field of Example 8 may be the same as the second field of Example 1, the third field of Example 8 may be the same as the third field of Example 1, the fourth field of Example 8 may be the same as the fourth field of Example 7, the fifth field of Example 8 may be the same as the fifth field of Example 7, and the sixth field of Example 8 may be the same as the sixth field of Example 7.

[0224] Table 16 shows an example of a control field in the scheduling information provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0225] [Table 16]

[0226] In this embodiment of the present application, the fields related to the transmission period may be arranged in the list elements (see Tables 8 to 14) or in the control fields (see Table 16). This is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In the control fields shown in Table 16, when Period Mode is equal to 1, the fields related to the transmission period, such as the Period Index field and the Repetition Index field, appear and are enabled. When Period Mode is equal to 0, the Period Index field and the Repetition Index field, i.e., the fields related to the transmission period, do not appear.

[0227] Examples of scheduling list fields and examples of control fields within the scheduling information are provided above. It should be understood that example scheduling information includes the scheduling list field of Example 1 and the control field of Example 7. Another example of scheduling information includes the scheduling list field of Example 2 and the control field of Example 7. Yet another example of scheduling information includes the scheduling list field of Example 3 and the control field of Example 7. An example of scheduling information includes the scheduling list field of Example 4 and the control field of Example 7. An example of scheduling information includes the scheduling list field of Example 5 and the control field shown in Table 2 or Table 4. An example of scheduling information includes the scheduling list field of Example 6 and the control field shown in Table 2 or Table 4. An example of scheduling information includes the control field of Example 8 and the scheduling list field shown in Table 5. An example of scheduling information includes the control field and scheduling list field 1 of Example 8, and the list element within scheduling list field 1 includes the time unit index field and address 1 shown in Table 8. It should be understood that only some, but not all, examples of scheduling information provided in embodiments of the present application are shown herein.

[0228] The following compares the signaling overhead of the scheduling information provided in the embodiments of the present application, the signaling overhead of the scheduling information elements of Prior Art 1, and the signaling overhead of the scheduling information elements of Prior Art 2. Table 17 shows the signaling overhead of the scheduling information elements of Prior Art 1, the signaling overhead of the scheduling information elements of Prior Art 2, the signaling overhead of scheduling information 1, and the signaling overhead of scheduling information 2. The signaling overhead of scheduling information 1 is equal to the signaling overhead of the scheduling information including the scheduling list field of Example 1 and the control field of Example 7. The signaling overhead of scheduling information 1 is also equal to the signaling overhead of the scheduling information including the scheduling list field of Example 2 and the control field of Example 7. The signaling overhead of scheduling information 2 is equal to the signaling overhead of the scheduling information including the scheduling list field of Example 3 and the control field of Example 7. The signaling overhead of scheduling information 2 is also equal to the signaling overhead of scheduling information including the scheduling list field of example 4 and the control field of example 7.

[0229] [Table 17]

[0230] In Table 17, S indicates the number of time units that need to be paged by a UWB device, and N indicates the number of UWB devices participating in the current UWB application in the system. S is an integer greater than 0, and N is an integer greater than 0. It can be seen from Table 17 that the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application does not depend on the number of time units S. In other words, the size of the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application does not increase as the number of time units S increases. In other words, when the same number of time units S needs to be scheduled and the number S is large, the message size of the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application is smaller than the message size of the scheduling IE in Prior Art 1 and Prior Art 2. Therefore, the air interface resource overhead required to transmit the scheduling information can be effectively reduced, and the air interface time required to transmit the scheduling information can be shortened.

[0231] The following further compares the signaling overhead of the scheduling information provided in the embodiments of the present application, the signaling overhead of the scheduling IE in prior art 1, and the signaling overhead of the scheduling IE in prior art 2 with reference to examples.

[0232] FIG. 15 is a timeline diagram of a multi-millisecond (MMS) ranging process according to one embodiment of the present application. FIG. 15 separately illustrates the time units used by the initiator, responder 1, and responder 2 to transmit UWB signals in the ranging process. Assume there are three devices currently participating in the MMS ranging process: one initiator end device and two responder devices. The sequence numbers above the timeline diagram in FIG. 15 indicate the timeline subscripts. If a time unit is scheduled and allocated for transmitting UWB signals, the corresponding time unit is set to gray. Conversely, if a time unit is not scheduled and allocated for transmitting UWB signals, the corresponding time unit is set to white.

[0233] It can be seen from FIG. 15 that the period between two adjacent transmissions of any device is four time units, i.e., after one UWB transmission, the next transmission must be performed four time units later. For example, in FIG. 15, an initiator transmits UWB signals in time units such as time unit 1, time unit 5, and time unit 9, and there are four time units between adjacent UWB signals. Assume that the values ​​0 to 15 of the second field (Period Index field) in the scheduling information correspond to 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1,024, 2,048, 4,096, 8,192, and 16,384 time units, respectively. In this case, a Period Index equal to 3 means that the period is four time units.

[0234] In addition, it can be seen from Figure 15 that the number of transmissions by any UWB device is 8, i.e., the number of repetitions of UWB transmission is 8. Assume that the values ​​0 to 15 of the third field (Repetition Index field) in the scheduling information correspond to 1 to 16 repeated transmissions, respectively. In this case, a Period Index equal to 7 means that the number of repeated transmissions is 8.

[0235] In addition, it can be seen from Figure 15 that the start time unit for transmitting UWB signals by initiator is time unit 1, the start time unit for transmitting UWB signals by responder 1 is time unit 2, and the start time unit for transmitting UWB signals by responder 2 is time unit 3.

[0236] Assume that the devices shown in FIG. 15 are all short address devices, ie, the address of each device is 2 bytes long.

[0237] Assume that the initiator's address shown in FIG. 15 is Address 0, the responder's address is Address 1, and the responder's address is Address 2.

[0238] Accordingly, for the MMS ranging process shown in Figure 15, it can be seen from the description of Table 10 that the Control field in the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application should have the configuration shown in Table 18 below.

[0239] [Table 18]

[0240] In Table 18, bit 7 is the value of the Period Mode field. If the value of the Period Mode field is 1, the Period Mode field indicates (or triggers) a periodic transmission mode, and the scheduling information includes a field related to the transmission period. If the value of the Period Mode field is 0, the Period Mode field indicates (or triggers) another transmission mode, and the scheduling information does not include a field related to the transmission period.

[0241] Furthermore, Table 19 below shows the scheduling list fields in the scheduling information provided in the embodiment of the present application.

[0242] [Table 19]

[0243] Accordingly, it can be seen from Figure 15 that S is equal to 32 and N is equal to 3. S indicates the number of time units and N indicates the number of devices. Therefore, in the situation shown in Figure 15, a comparison of the message consumption size of scheduling information is shown in Table 20 below.

[0244] [Table 20]

[0245] The scheduling information of the present application in Table 20 may be the scheduling information including the scheduling list field of Example 1 and the control field of Example 5, or may be the scheduling information including the scheduling list field of Example 2 and the control field of Example 5. It can be seen from Table 20 that compared with those of Prior Art 1 and Prior Art 2, the scheduling information provided in the present application can significantly reduce message size overhead.

[0246] FIG. 16 shows a group of typical scheduling modes in which a DL-TDOA positioning process can be completed. In this group of scheduling modes, three anchor devices (anchors), namely anchor 1, anchor 2, and anchor 3 in FIG. 16, transmit UWB signals in the scheduling manner shown in FIG. 16 to perform DL-TDOA positioning. Assume that the DL-TDOA scheduling mode shown in FIG. 16 needs to be repeated eight times and there is no gap between two adjacent DL-TDOA positioning processes. In this case, FIG. 17 shows the scheduling situation. FIG. 17 is a diagram of the scheduling of eight repeated DL-TDOA positioning processes according to an embodiment of the present application. In FIGS. 16 and 17, each rectangle indicates one time unit, and the time unit indicated by a gray rectangle is scheduled and allocated for transmitting a UWB signal, while the time unit indicated by a white rectangle is not scheduled and allocated for transmitting a UWB signal. Because one complete DL-TDOA process is completed in eight time units, there is no gap between two adjacent DL-TDOA processes shown in FIG. 17.

[0247] In the scheduling situation shown in Figure 17, it is necessary to enable Period Mode equal to 1 in this case, and the Period Index field (second field) and Repetition Index field (third field) can be used to effectively compress the signaling overhead of scheduling information in the situation shown in Figure 17. Assume that the Period Index field can indicate a periodicity value such as 0, 1, 4, 8, 16, or 32 time units, and the Repetition Index field can indicate 1 to 16 repetitions. In this case, the Period Index field is set to 0 (meaning there is no interval between two adjacent DL-TDOA measurements, and the next measurement starts immediately after the previous measurement is completed), and the Repetition Index field is set to 7 (meaning 8 repetitions since the subscript starts from 0), so that the scheduling indication for the situation in Figure 17 can be implemented. Assume that the Period Index field can indicate a periodicity value such as 0, 1, 4, 8, 16, or 32 time units, and the Repetition Index field can indicate 1 to 16 repetitions. In this case, the Period index field is set to 8 (meaning the scheduling period is 8 time units) and the Repetition Index field is set to 7 (meaning 8 repetitions since the subscript starts from 0), so that the scheduling instructions for the situation in Figure 17 can be implemented.

[0248] Correspondingly, it can be seen from Figure 17 that S is equal to 64 and N is equal to 3. Therefore, in the situation shown in Figure 17, a comparison of the signaling consumption of scheduling information is shown in Table 21 below.

[0249] [Table 21]

[0250] The scheduling information of the present application in Table 21 may be scheduling information including the scheduling list field of Example 3 and the control field of Example 5, or may be scheduling information including the scheduling list field of Example 4 and the control field of Example 5. It can be seen from Table 21 that compared with those of Prior Art 1 and Prior Art 2, the scheduling information provided in the present application can significantly reduce message size overhead.

[0251] It should be noted that the scheduling information provided in the embodiments of the present application (hereinafter referred to as the newly designed scheduling IE) can be identified and processed by a device (anchor or tag) that needs to perform ranging or sensing functions. In one possible implementation, the corresponding method for identifying and processing the newly designed scheduling IE is similar to the method for identifying and processing a nested IE (e.g., RDM IE) specified in the existing protocol 802.15.4z. For details, please refer to the method for identifying and processing a nested IE in the existing protocol 802.15.4z. For example, the protocol upper layer of the transmitting end device configures the scheduling IE and forwards the scheduling IE to the medium access control (MAC) layer of the transmitting end device. As another example, the MAC layer of the receiving end device forwards the received scheduling IE to the upper protocol layer of the receiving end device, and the protocol upper layer performs identification and processing on the scheduling IE.

[0252] In one possible implementation, the newly designed scheduling IE may be transmitted in a narrowband frequency band.

[0253] In another possible implementation, the newly designed scheduling IE may instead be transmitted in the UWB frequency band.

[0254] For ease of understanding, the newly designed scheduling IE will be described in detail below with reference to Table 22.

[0255] Table 22 below is an expansion and extension of Tables 7-18 of the existing 802.15.4z protocol. For brevity, the existing definitions in Tables 7-18 of this protocol are not reflected in Table 22 below. Specifically, it can be seen from Table 22 below that the newly designed scheduling IE may be added to the nested IE list defined in Tables 7-18 of the existing 802.15.4z protocol and used as a newly added IE in the 802.15.4ab protocol or later versions of the protocol. Specifically, a reserved Sub-ID value in the nested IE list defined in Tables 7-18 of the existing 802.15.4z protocol may indicate the newly designed scheduling IE.

[0256] [Table 22]

[0257] T in Table 22 may be one or more of the values ​​0x5d to 0x7f. Table 22 may be an extension and expansion of the nested IE list defined in Tables 7 to 18 of the existing 802.15.4z protocol. X in Table 22 indicates that the newly designed scheduling IE is a Data type IE.

[0258] The following describes the structure of a communication device that can implement the scheduling method provided in the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0259] FIG. 18 is a structural diagram of a communication device 1800 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1800 may correspondingly implement the functions or steps performed by the transmitting end in the aforementioned method embodiments, or may correspondingly implement the functions or steps performed by the receiving end in the aforementioned method embodiments. The communication device 1800 may include a processing module 1810 and a transceiver module 1820. In one possible implementation, the device may further include a storage unit. The storage unit may be configured to store instructions (code or program) and / or data. The processing module 1810 and the transceiver module 1820 may be coupled to the storage unit. For example, the processing module 1810 may read the instructions (code or program) and / or data in the storage unit to implement the corresponding method. The aforementioned units may be independently located or may be partially or fully integrated. For example, the transceiver module 1820 may include a transmitting module and a receiving module. The transmitting module may be a transmitter, and the receiving module may be a receiver. The entity corresponding to the transceiver module 1820 may be a transceiver or a communication interface.

[0260] In some possible implementations, the communication device 1800 can correspondingly implement the behavior and functions of the transmitting end in the aforementioned method embodiments. For example, the communication device 1800 may be the transmitting end or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used within the transmitting end. The transceiver module 1820 may be configured to perform, for example, all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the transmitting end in the embodiments of FIGS. 6 and 7, e.g., step 602 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 and steps 701 and 702 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, and / or to support other processes of the techniques described herein. The processing module 1810 is configured to perform all operations other than the transmitting and receiving operations performed by the transmitting end in the embodiments of FIGS. 6 and 7, e.g., step 601 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6.

[0261] In some possible implementations, the communication device 1800 can correspondingly implement the behavior and functions of the receiving end in the aforementioned method embodiments. For example, the communication device 1800 may be the receiving end or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used within the receiving end. The transceiver module 1820 may be configured to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the receiving end in the embodiments of FIGS. 6 and 7, e.g., step 602 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 and steps 701 and 702 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, and / or to support other processes of the techniques described herein. The processing module 1810 is configured to perform all operations other than transmitting and receiving operations performed by the receiving end, e.g., step 603 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 and step 703 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7.

[0262] 19 is a diagram of the structure of another communication device 190 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device in FIG. 19 may be a transmitting end or a receiving end.

[0263] As shown in FIG. 19, the communications device 190 includes at least one processor 1910 and a transceiver 1920 .

[0264] In some embodiments of the present application, the processor 1910 and the transceiver 1920 may be configured to perform functions, tasks, etc. performed by a transmitting end. The transceiver 1920, for example, performs all receiving or transmitting tasks performed by a transmitting end in the embodiments of Figures 6 and 7. The processor 1910, for example, is configured to perform all tasks other than transmitting and receiving tasks performed by a transmitting end in the embodiments of Figures 6 and 7.

[0265] In some embodiments of the present application, the processor 1910 and the transceiver 1920 may be configured to perform functions, tasks, etc. performed by the receiving end. The transceiver 1920, for example, performs all receiving or transmitting tasks performed by the receiving end in the embodiments of Figures 6 and 7. The processor 1910 is configured to perform all tasks other than transmitting and receiving tasks performed by the receiving end.

[0266] The transceiver 1920 is configured to communicate with another device / apparatus over a transmission medium. The processor 1910 is configured to receive and transmit data and / or signaling via the transceiver 1920 and to implement the method of the above-described method embodiments. The processor 1910 can implement the functions of the processing module 1810, and the transceiver 1920 can implement the functions of the transceiver module 1820.

[0267] Optionally, the transceiver 1920 may include a radio frequency circuit and an antenna. The radio frequency circuit is primarily configured to convert between baseband and radio frequency signals and process the radio frequency signals. The antenna is primarily configured to receive and transmit radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. The input / output device, such as a touchscreen, display, or keyboard, is primarily configured to receive data entered by a user and output data to a user.

[0268] Optionally, the communication device 190 may further include at least one memory 1930 configured to store program instructions and / or data. The memory 1930 is coupled to the processor 1910. The coupling in this embodiment of the present application may be an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules in an electrical, mechanical, or other form, used for exchanging information between the devices, units, or modules. The processor 1910 may cooperate with the memory 1930. The processor 1910 may execute program instructions stored in the memory 1930. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

[0269] The processor 1910 can read the software program in the memory 1930, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process data of the software program. When data needs to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor 1910 performs baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and then outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits the radio frequency signal in the form of electromagnetic waves through an antenna. When data is to be transmitted to a communication device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 1910. The processor 1910 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0270] In another implementation, the radio frequency circuitry and antenna may be located independently from the processor performing the baseband processing, e.g., in a distributed scenario, the radio frequency circuitry and antenna may be located independently and remotely from the communication device.

[0271] In this embodiment of the present application, the specific connection medium between the transceiver 1920, the processor 1910, and the memory 1930 is not limited. In this embodiment of the present application, in FIG. 19, the memory 1930, the processor 1910, and the transceiver 1920 are connected to each other through a bus 1940. The bus is indicated by a bold line in FIG. 19. The connection manner between other components is only described schematically and is not used as a limitation. The bus may be classified as an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of indication, the bus is indicated by only one bold line in FIG. 19, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0272] In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, which is capable of implementing or executing the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the methods disclosed with reference to the embodiments of the present application may be performed directly by a hardware processor, or may be performed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

[0273] FIG. 20 is a structural diagram of another communication device 200 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 20, the communication device shown in FIG. 20 includes a logic circuit 2001 and an interface 2002. The processing module 1810 of FIG. 18 may be implemented using the logic circuit 2001, and the transceiver module 1820 of FIG. 18 may be implemented using the interface 2002. The logic circuit 2001 may be a chip, a processing circuit, an integrated circuit, a system on chip (SoC), or the like. The interface 2002 may be a communication interface or an input / output interface, or the like. In this embodiment of the present application, the logic circuit and the interface may be coupled to each other. The specific connection manner between the logic circuit and the interface is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0274] In some embodiments of the present application, the logic circuitry and interface may be configured to perform functions, tasks, etc. performed by the transmitting end.

[0275] In some embodiments of the present application, the logic and interface may be configured to perform functions, tasks, etc. performed by the receiving end.

[0276] The present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enable the computer to perform the method of the aforementioned embodiments.

[0277] The present application further provides a computer program product, which includes instructions or a computer program, which, when run on a computer, performs the methods of the aforementioned embodiments.

[0278] The present application further provides a communication system including a transmitting end and a receiving end.

[0279] The present application further provides a chip, the chip including a communication interface and a processor, the communication interface configured to receive and transmit signals of the chip, and the processor configured to execute computer program instructions such that a communication device including the chip performs the method of the aforementioned embodiment.

[0280] All or part of the above-described embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When software is used to implement the embodiments, all or some of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer programs or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the procedures or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, user equipment, or another programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer program or instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired or wireless method. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium accessible by a computer, or may be a data storage device, such as a server or data center, that integrates one or more available media. The available media may be magnetic media such as floppy disks, hard disks, or magnetic tape, optical media such as digital video disks, or semiconductor media such as solid state drives. The computer readable storage medium may be volatile or nonvolatile storage media, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile storage media.

[0281] In the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise stated or there is no logical contradiction, the terms and / or descriptions of different embodiments are consistent and may be cross-referenced, and the technical features of different embodiments may be combined based on their internal logical relationships to form new embodiments. [Explanation of symbols]

[0282] 1800 Communication Equipment 1810 Processing Module 1820 Transceiver Module 190 Communication Equipment 1910 processor 1920 transceiver 1930 memory 1940 Bus 200 Communication Equipment 2001 Logic Circuits 2002 Interface

Claims

1. A scheduling method for ultra-wideband (UWB), comprising: generating scheduling information, the scheduling information including a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time unit in which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal, and the second field indicating a scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal; transmitting the scheduling information; A method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling information further comprises a third field, the third field indicating a number of repetitions for transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the scheduling information further includes a fourth field, the fourth field instructing the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal periodically.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the scheduling information further comprises an address of the UWB device, the address of the UWB device being 2 bytes or 8 bytes in length.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the time unit is a time unit for transmitting the UWB signal in a first scheduling period.

6. the first field is a time unit bitmap, the time unit bitmap indicating whether a time unit is used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal; the scheduling information further includes a bitmap offset, the bitmap offset being used to determine a start time unit within one measurement period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal; and the time unit corresponding to a first bit of the time unit bitmap is the start time unit.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the scheduling information further comprises a field indicating a length of the time unit bitmap.

8. 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within the one measurement period.

9. 9. The method of claim 6, wherein the time unit bitmap includes K bits, where K is an integer greater than 0, and when one of the K bits is set to a specified value, the specified value indicates that the time unit corresponding to the bit is to be used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal.

10. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling information further comprises a fifth field, the fifth field indicating an address type of the UWB device, the address type of the UWB device comprising a short address and an extended address.

11. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the scheduling information further includes a sixth field and a scheduling list, the sixth field indicating the number of list elements in the scheduling list, one list element in the scheduling list being used to schedule one UWB device, and the first field and the second field corresponding to one list element in the scheduling list.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the time unit is either a slot or a ranging scheduling time unit RSTU.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method is applied in a ranging, sensing or positioning scenario.

14. A scheduling method for UWB, comprising: receiving first scheduling information, the first scheduling information including a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time unit in which a UWB device transmits a UWB signal, and the second field indicating a scheduling period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal; transmitting the UWB signal based on the first scheduling information; A method comprising:

15. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first scheduling information further includes a third field, the third field indicating a number of repetitions of transmitting the UWB signal by the UWB device.

16. 16. The method of claim 14 or 15, wherein the first scheduling information further includes a fourth field, the fourth field instructing the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal periodically.

17. 17. The method of claim 14, wherein the first scheduling information further includes an address of the UWB device, and the address of the UWB device is 2 bytes or 8 bytes in length.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the time unit is a time unit for transmitting the UWB signal in a first scheduling period.

19. 19. The method of claim 14, wherein the first field is a time unit bitmap, the time unit bitmap indicating whether a time unit is used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal, the first scheduling information further including a bitmap offset, the bitmap offset being used to determine a start time unit within one measurement period in which the UWB device transmits the UWB signal, and a time unit corresponding to a first bit of the time unit bitmap is the start time unit.

20. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first field further includes a field indicating a length of the time unit bitmap.

21. 20. The method of claim 18 or 19, wherein the value of the bitmap offset is the number of time units before the start time unit within the one measurement period.

22. 22. The method of claim 19, wherein the time unit bitmap includes K bits, where K is an integer greater than 0, and when one of the K bits is set to a specified value, the specified value indicates that the time unit corresponding to the bit is to be used by the UWB device to transmit the UWB signal.

23. 23. The method of claim 14, wherein the first scheduling information further includes a fifth field, the fifth field indicating an address type of the UWB device, the address type of the UWB device including a short address and an extended address.

24. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first scheduling information further includes a sixth field and a scheduling list, the sixth field indicating the number of list elements in the scheduling list, one list element in the scheduling list being used to schedule one UWB device, and the first field and the second field corresponding to one list element in the scheduling list.

25. 25. The method of claim 14, wherein the time unit is either a slot or a ranging scheduling time unit RSTU.

26. 26. The method of any one of claims 14 to 25, wherein the method is applied in a ranging, sensing or positioning scenario.

27. The method comprises: receiving second scheduling information, the format of the second scheduling information being different from the format of the first scheduling information; further comprising The step of transmitting the UWB signal based on the first scheduling information includes: transmitting the UWB signal based on the order in which the first scheduling information and the second scheduling information are received and the first scheduling information; 27. The method of any one of claims 14 to 26, comprising:

28. A communication device comprising a module or unit configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

29. A communication device comprising a module or unit configured to perform the method of any one of claims 14 to 27.

30. 28. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed, enable a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 27.

31. 28. A communications device comprising a processor, the processor coupled to a memory, the memory storing computer program instructions, the processor configured to execute the computer program instructions such that the communications device performs the method of any one of claims 1 to 27.

32. A chip, a communication interface configured to receive and transmit signals from the chip; a processor configured to execute computer program instructions such that a communications device comprising said chip performs the method of any one of claims 1 to 27; A chip comprising:

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