Transmission method, notification method, transmission unit, and network side device

By employing aggregated or integrated transmission methods with PDCP numbering and shared sublayers, the limitations of terminal power are overcome, enhancing uplink transmission capabilities and reliability.

JP7769056B2Active Publication Date: 2025-11-12CHINA MOBILE COMM LTD RES INST +1
View PDF 1 Cites 0 Cited by

Patent Information

Application Number
JP2024125146
Authority / Receiving Office
JP · JP
Patent Type
Patents
Current Assignee / Owner
Priority Date
2020-11-20
Filing Date
2024-07-31
Publication Date
2025-11-12
Estimated Expiration
2041-11-22

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

The maximum radiated power of communication terminals is limited, restricting uplink coverage and throughput, particularly in scenarios requiring large data uploads, leading to poor transmission performance.

Method used

Implementing aggregated or integrated transmission methods using multiple transmission units within the same cell or network equipment, utilizing PDCP numbering and ordering functions to assign global numbers and share sublayers for enhanced power utilization and error avoidance.

Benefits of technology

Breaks through power limitations, improves transmission performance by sharing power among multiple units, reduces packet loss, and enhances data transmission reliability and efficiency.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

Smart Images

  • Figure 0007769056000001
    Figure 0007769056000001
  • Figure 0007769056000002
    Figure 0007769056000002
  • Figure 0007769056000003
    Figure 0007769056000003
Patent Text Reader

Abstract

To provide a transmission method, a notification method, a transmission unit, and a network side device.SOLUTION: A transmission method is for supporting a provision of an up-link aggregation transmission or an up-link integrated transmission of a packet data convergence protocol PDCP service data unit SDU in the same cell or the same network device together one or a plurality of transmission units. The transmission unit that is different from the transmission unit supports the same network regulation. In the case where an integrated transmission, a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP ordering function are / is used, an integrated numbering to the PDCP SDU received from a higher layer is contained. In the case an aggregation transmission, by using a PDCP sub layer shared with the other transmission unit, a radio link control RLC sub layer, and an original MAC sub layer, and a physical sub layer, the PDCP SDU received from the higher layer is processed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1b
Need to check novelty before this filing date? Find Prior Art

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] (CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS) This disclosure claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed in China on November 20, 2020, with application number 202011312357.5, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a transmission method, a notification method, a transmission unit, and a network side device. [Background technology]

[0002] With the development of communication technology, the demand for uplink transmission is becoming increasingly high. For example, in a surveillance area, a surveillance terminal needs to upload a large amount of surveillance data. However, the maximum radiated power of a terminal is limited. For example, in related technologies, the maximum radiated power of a terminal is mainly 23 dBm or 26 dBm. Due to the limitations of the conventional terminal shape and size, it is difficult to exceed the maximum radiated power of the terminal, and the terminal's uplink coverage rate and uplink throughput are also limited, resulting in poor transmission performance of the terminal in applications with large amounts of uploaded data. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0003] The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a transmission method, a notification method, a transmission unit, and a network side device that can realize aggregated transmission or integrated transmission via multiple transmission units and improve the transmission capabilities of the transmission units. [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] In order to solve the above technical problems, the present disclosure is realized as follows. In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a transmission unit, the transmission unit being used to provide uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Service Data Units (SDUs) together with other transmission units having different identity identifiers (IDs) within the same cell or the same network equipment, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units supporting the same network standard, for example, both supporting a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G). th It can operate simultaneously with 5G (New Generation Mobile Communication Technology) NR (New Radio), In the case of integrated transmission, the transmission method comprises: performing a global numbering of PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer using a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP sequencing function; Or, In the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission method comprises: It involves processing PDCP SDUs received from higher layers using the PDCP and Radio Link Control (RLC) sublayers shared with other transmission units and its own Medium Access Control (MAC) and physical sublayers.

[0005] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a network side device, the transmission method comprising: This involves performing joint ordering processing for different transmission units within the same cell via PDCP Protocol Data Units (PDUs) of uplink aggregated or consolidated transmissions.

[0006] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a network side device, the network side device being used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs to at least two transmission units in the same cell; In the case of integrated transmission, the transmission method comprises: performing overall numbering of PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; aggregating and transmitting the PDCP SDUs into at least two transmission units performing aggregated transmission via at least two bearers in the same cell; In the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission method comprises: The method includes processing the PDCP SDU received from a higher layer using a shared PDCP sublayer and RLC sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, and a MAC sublayer and a physical sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, respectively.

[0007] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a transmission unit, and in the case of integrated transmission, the transmission method includes: receiving PDCP SDUs with global numbering via a network side, which are respectively transmitted by a network side device to different transmission units; performing reordering and / or merging of the PDCP SDUs; Or, In the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission method comprises: This involves processing using its own physical sublayer, MAC sublayer, and RLC and PDCP sublayers that are shared with other transmission units.

[0008] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a transmission unit, the transmission unit being used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, the transmission method comprising: receiving PDCP SDUs transmitted from a network-side device, wherein the sequence numbers (SNs) of the PDCP SDUs transmitted to a transmission unit of downlink aggregated transmission or downlink integrated transmission are assigned by the network-side device in a comprehensive manner; and transmitting the PDCP SDU to another transmission unit having a different ID.

[0009] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a notification method applied to a transmission unit, the transmission unit supporting aggregated or integrated transmission together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, the transmission unit and the other transmission units supporting the same network standard; The notification method includes: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate that transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The method includes receiving second instruction information sent by a network side device, the second instruction information being used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0010] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a notification method applied to a network side device, wherein the network side device supports at least two transmission units that support the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell together; The notification method includes: receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The method includes transmitting second indication information to the transmission units, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregated transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0011] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for transmitting an integrated bearer by multiple terminals in a cell, the method being applied to a terminal, A radio protocol that supports integrated bearers for multiple terminals located in the same cell, The radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a data radio bearer (DRB) of an integrated bearer for multiple terminals, the SN of the uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal.

[0012] In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a network side device, the transmission method comprising: The method includes performing joint ordering on PDCP SDUs that a primary terminal and a secondary terminal jointly transmit or aggregately transmit to the same cell via their respective bearers, wherein the primary terminal is used to perform joint transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0013] In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a network side device, the transmission method comprising: performing overall numbering of PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; and transmitting the PDCP SDU to a primary terminal and a secondary terminal located in the same cell via respective bearers of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal; The primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0014] In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission method applied to a primary terminal, the transmission method comprising: Receiving PDCP SDUs that are comprehensively numbered via a network side and are respectively transmitted by a network side device and a secondary terminal, wherein the primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregated transmission with the secondary terminal; and performing reordering and / or merging of the PDCP SDUs.

[0015] In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a notification method applied to a terminal, wherein a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of a plurality of terminals is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer by multiple terminals, the sequence number SN of an uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal; The notification method includes: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The method includes receiving second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0016] In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a notification method applied to a network side device, wherein the network side device supports at least two transmission units that support the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell together; The notification method includes: receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, Sending second indication information to the primary terminal, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0017] In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit supporting providing uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, the transmission unit and the other transmission units supporting the same network standard, the transmission unit including a processor and a transceiver; In the case of integrated transmission, the processor is used to perform global numbering on PDCP SDUs received from higher layers using a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP sequencing function, and in the case of aggregate transmission, the processor is used to process PDCP SDUs received from higher layers using a PDCP sublayer and a radio link control (RLC) sublayer shared with other transmission units and a unique MAC sublayer and physical sublayer.

[0018] In a fifteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, the network side device including a processor and a transceiver; The processor is used to perform joint ordering processing for different transmission units within the same cell via PDCP PDUs of uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission.

[0019] In a sixteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, wherein the network side device is used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs to at least two transmission units in the same cell; the network side device includes a processor and a transceiver; In the case of an integrated transmission, the processor is used to perform collective numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer, and the transceiver is used to aggregate and transmit the PDCP SDUs into at least two transmission units performing integrated transmission via at least two bearers in the same cell; Or, In the case of aggregate transmission, the processor is used to process PDCP SDUs received from a higher layer using a shared PDCP sublayer and RLC sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, and a MAC sublayer and a physical sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, respectively.

[0020] In a seventeenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit including a processor and a transceiver; The transceiver is used to receive PDCP SDUs, which are comprehensively numbered via a network side and respectively transmitted by a network side device to different transmission units; the processor is used to perform reordering and / or merging operations on the PDCP SDUs; Or, The processor is used to process using its own physical sublayer, media access control (MAC) sublayer, and radio link control (RLC) and PDCP sublayers shared with other transmission units.

[0021] In an eighteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit being used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) together with one or more other transmission units within a same cell or a same network equipment, the transmission unit including a processor and a transceiver; The transceiver is used to receive PDCP SDUs transmitted from a network side device, wherein the SNs of the PDCP SDUs transmitted in a transmission unit of downlink aggregated transmission or downlink integrated transmission are assigned a global number by the network side device; The transceiver is further used to transmit the PDCP SDU to other transmission units with different IDs.

[0022] In a nineteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit being used together with one or more other transmission units to provide aggregated or integrated transmission in the same cell or the same network equipment, the transmission unit and the other transmission units supporting the same network standard, the transmission unit including a processor and a transceiver; The transceiver is used to send first indication information to a network side device, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The transceiver is used to receive second instruction information transmitted by a network side device, and the second instruction information is used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0023] In a twentieth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, the network side device supporting at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell together, the network side device including: a processor and a transceiver; The transceiver is used to receive first indication information from a transmission unit, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The transceiver is used to send second indication information to the transmission units, and the second indication information is used to indicate aggregate transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0024] In a twenty-first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a terminal, wherein a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of a plurality of terminals is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer with multiple terminals, the sequence number SN of an uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal.

[0025] In a twenty-second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, the network side device including a processor and a transceiver; The processor is used to perform joint ordering on PDCP SDUs that a primary terminal and a secondary terminal jointly transmit or aggregately transmit to the same cell via their respective bearers, and the primary terminal is used to perform joint transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0026] In a twenty-third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, the network side device including a processor and a transceiver; The processor is used to perform overall numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; The transceiver is used to aggregate and transmit the PDCP SDU to a primary terminal and a secondary terminal located in the same cell via respective bearers of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal; The primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0027] In a twenty-fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a primary terminal, the primary terminal including a processor and a transceiver; The transceiver is used to receive PDCP SDUs that are comprehensively numbered via a network side and are transmitted by a network side device and a secondary terminal, respectively, and the primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal; The processor is used to perform reordering and / or merging operations on the PDCP SDUs.

[0028] In a twenty-fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a terminal, wherein a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of a plurality of terminals is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer by multiple terminals, a sequence number SN of an uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal, and the terminal includes a processor and a transceiver; the transceiver is used to transmit first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The transceiver is used to receive second indication information transmitted by a network side device, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between terminals.

[0029] In a 26th aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, the network side device supporting at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard together to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell, the network side device including: a processor and a transceiver; the transceiver is used to receive first indication information from a primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The transceiver is used to transmit second indication information to the primary terminal, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0030] In a twenty-seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit supporting providing uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, the transmission unit and the other transmission units supporting the same network standard, and in the case of consolidated transmission, the transmission unit: a first numbering module used to perform comprehensive numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer by utilizing a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP sequencing function; In the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission unit includes a first processing module used to process PDCP SDUs received from higher layers using a PDCP sublayer and a radio link control (RLC) sublayer shared with other transmission units and its own MAC and physical sublayers.

[0031] In a twenty-eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, including a first ordering module used for performing joint ordering processing on different transmission units in the same cell via a PDCP PDU of an uplink aggregated transmission or an uplink consolidated transmission.

[0032] In a 29th aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, wherein the network side device is used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs to at least two transmission units in the same cell; In the case of integrated transmission, the network side device includes: a second numbering module used for performing comprehensive numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; and a first transmission module used for integratedly transmitting the PDCP SDUs via at least two bearers in the same cell into at least two transmission units that perform integrated transmission; Or, In the case of aggregated transmission, the network side device includes a second processing module used to process PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer using a shared PDCP sublayer and an RLC sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, and a MAC sublayer and a physical sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, respectively.

[0033] In a thirtieth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, and in the case of integrated transmission, the transmission unit includes: a first receiving module used to receive PDCP SDUs that are globally numbered via a network side and that are respectively transmitted by a network side device to different transmission units; and a second ordering module used to perform reordering and / or merging processing on the PDCP SDUs; Or, In the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission unit includes a third processing module used for processing using its own physical sublayer, MAC sublayer, and RLC and PDCP sublayers shared with other transmission units.

[0034] In a 31st aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit including: a second receiving module used for receiving a PDCP SDU transmitted from a network side device; a second transmitting module used to transmit the PDCP SDU to another transmission unit having a different ID; Here, the SN of the PDCP SDU is assigned a general number by a network device.

[0035] In a 32nd aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit supporting providing aggregated or consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, the transmission unit and the other transmission units supporting the same network standard, the transmission unit including a third transmitting module or a third receiving module; the third sending module is used to send first indication information to the network side device, the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; The third receiving module is used to receive second instruction information sent by the network side equipment, and the second instruction information is used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0036] In a 33rd aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, wherein the network side device supports at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell together, the network side device including: a fourth receiving module or a fourth transmitting module; the fourth receiving module is used to receive first indication information from the transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units at least support aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; The fourth sending module is used for sending second indication information to the transmission units, and the second indication information is used for indicating aggregate transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0037] In a thirty-fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, the network side device including: a third ordering module; The third ordering module is used to perform joint ordering on PDCP SDUs that the primary terminal and the secondary terminal jointly transmit or aggregately transmit to the same cell via their respective bearers, and the primary terminal is used to perform joint transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0038] In a thirty-fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, the network side device comprising: a second numbering module used to perform overall numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; a third transmitting module for jointly transmitting the PDCP SDU to a primary terminal and a secondary terminal located in the same cell via respective bearers of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal; The primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0039] In a thirty-sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a primary terminal, the primary terminal comprising: a fifth receiving module for receiving PDCP SDUs that are comprehensively numbered via the network side and are respectively transmitted by the network side device and the secondary terminal; a fourth ordering module used to perform reordering and / or merging operations on the PDCP SDUs; The primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0040] In a 37th aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a terminal, wherein a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of a plurality of terminals is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer by multiple terminals, a sequence number SN of an uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal, and the terminal includes a sixth transmitting module or a sixth receiving module; a sixth sending module for sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The sixth receiving module is used to receive second indication information sent by the network side device, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0041] In a 38th aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, wherein the network side device supports at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell together, and the network side device includes: a seventh receiving module or a seventh transmitting module; a seventh receiving module for receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The seventh sending module is used to send second indication information to the primary terminal, where the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0042] In a thirty-ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a transmission unit, the transmission unit including a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, implementing steps of the method according to the first, fourth, fifth or sixth aspect.

[0043] In a fortieth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a terminal, the terminal including a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, implementing steps of the method according to the eighth, eleventh or twelfth aspects.

[0044] In a forty-first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network side device, comprising: a processor; a memory; and a computer program stored in the memory and executable by the processor, the computer program, when executed by the processor, realizing steps of the method according to the second, third, seventh, ninth, tenth or thirteenth aspects.

[0045] In a forty-second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program, when executed by a processor, performing steps of a method according to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth or thirteenth aspects. [Effects of the Invention]

[0046] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a transmission unit supports uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs with other transmission units having different IDs within the same cell or the same network equipment, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units can support the same network standard. Thus, uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs can be realized via multiple transmission units by using a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP ordering function to assign a global number to PDCP SDUs received from a higher layer, or by using a PDCP sublayer and a radio link control (RLC) sublayer shared with the other transmission units and a unique media access control (MAC) sublayer and a physical sublayer to process PDCP SDUs received from a higher layer. Compared to conventional methods such as aggregated transmission, the power of multiple transmission units can be shared, breaking through the power limitations of a single terminal and improving the maximum uplink transmission power of the transmission units. Furthermore, the global number assigned by the PDCP sublayer can be used to avoid shunt errors of PDCP SDUs between the multiple transmission units, thereby improving the transmission performance of the transmission units. According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, in a scenario where two associated UEs or two transmission units in one transmission device are both connected to the same cell, cooperative transmission can be performed between two originally unassociated UEs or transmission units through the above cooperative transmission mechanism, thereby improving data transmission performance.

[0047] In order to more clearly describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the following briefly describes the drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure. The drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and those skilled in the art can obtain other drawings based on these drawings without paying creative labor. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0048] [Figure 1a] 1 is a first flowchart of a first type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; [Figure 1b] 10 is a flowchart (part 2) of a first type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2a] FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of a network system to which an embodiment of the present disclosure can be applied (part 1); [Figure 2b] FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of a network system to which the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied (part 2). [Figure 2c] FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of a network system to which the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied (part 3). [Figure 3] 10 is a flowchart of a second type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 4a] 1 is a first flowchart of a third type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; [Figure 4b] 10 is a flowchart (part 2) of a third type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 5a] 1 is a first flowchart of a fourth type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; [Figure 5b] 10 is a second flowchart of a fourth type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] 10 is a flowchart of a fifth type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] 1 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting an integrated bearer by multiple terminals in a cell according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; [Figure 8] 10 is a flowchart of a sixth type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] 10 is a flowchart of a seventh type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 10] 10 is a flowchart of an eighth type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 11a] 1 is a structural diagram of a first type transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (part 1); [Figure 11b] 10 is a structural diagram of a first-class transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (part 2); FIG. [Figure 12] FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of a first-class network side device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 13a] 1 is a structural diagram of a type 2 network side device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (part 1); [Figure 13b] 10 is a structural diagram of a type 2 network side device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (part 2); FIG. [Figure 14a] 1 is a structural diagram of a second-type transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (part 1); [Figure 14b] 10 is a structural diagram of a second type transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure (part 2); FIG. [Figure 15] FIG. 10 is a structural diagram of a third-type transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 16] FIG. 10 is a structural diagram of another transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 17] FIG. 10 is a structural diagram of another type of network-side device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 18a] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating the interaction of a transmission method in a scenario where multiple UEs are aggregated according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 18b] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a transmission method in a scenario where multiple UEs are aggregated, using PDCP as a common layer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0049] Hereinafter, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, but not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative work fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0050] In the related art, the maximum radiated power of a terminal can be improved by using the method of uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission. Here, in uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission, one service flow needs to be shunt-transmitted from two terminals (User Equipment, UE). Therefore, in order to avoid shunt errors (e.g., disturbance or duplicated transmission occurring in the service flow), the following solution must be adopted:

[0051] In a service customization manner, the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the two UEs are mapped to each other through the application layer, and then the application layer controls the data flow between the two UEs based on the mapped IP addresses.

[0052] If the application layer does not map the IP addresses of the two UEs to each other, and the two UEs transmit application layer data independently without any cooperation between them, the application layer cannot determine which UE to select for transmission, so the application layer must map the IP addresses of the two UEs to each other.

[0053] Furthermore, this method has the following drawbacks: Regarding defect 1, the scope of application is small because it only applies to custom services. Regarding defect 2, in the process of controlling data flow through the application layer, the continuity of service may be deteriorated, delay jitter may be relatively large, and unnecessary retransmission may occur, etc. For example, assuming that there are 20 data packets in the application layer, and odd-numbered data packets are assigned to UE A and even-numbered data packets are assigned to UE B, the network side has no a priori information to know that it needs to ensure that UE A and UE B can be scheduled simultaneously to reduce delay, so that the scheduling interval between the two UEs is likely to be relatively large, which will reduce the continuity of service data transmission and increase the overall delay of service data. From the above, it can be seen that the related technology has drawbacks such as a complicated process for mapping the IP addresses of the two UEs to each other, a narrow scope of application, and a high probability of packet loss.

[0054] A transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is applied to provide aggregated or consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs using multiple transmission units (typically, UEs) together within the same cell or the same network equipment, to solve the problem of transmission power limitations of a single transmission unit. The transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure utilizes a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP ordering function to pre-assign global numbers to PDCP SDUs in aggregated or consolidated transmission, thereby realizing global numbering of shunt SDUs across different transmission units and facilitating comprehensive reception management on the network side. In a situation where the PDCP SDUs are transmitted via a single transmission unit, the transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure fully utilizes the transmission power of each of the multiple transmission units through aggregated or consolidated transmission, solving the problem of power limitations of a single transmission unit, and eliminating the need for customization for each service, thereby broadening its scope of use.

[0055] For a terminal that supports existing NR Dual Connectivity (DC) and Evolution Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network New Radio (EUTRA-NR, EN) DC, even if the terminal supports simultaneous connection to two base stations or two different cells (the two cells may be of different standards, for example, one cell in an EN DC is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell and the other cell is an NR cell, and the two cells may be of the same standard, for example, both cells in an NR-NR DC are NR cells), the uplink radiated power of the terminal in the two cells is either statically or dynamically allocated, but its total power still has difficulty exceeding 23 dBm or 26 dBm. This means that even if the terminal operates in two cells simultaneously, the uplink transmission power has not been exceeded, making it difficult to significantly improve uplink transmission performance. However, if the conventional assumptions can be broken, for example, a single transmission device can be configured with a combination of two UE-type transmission units (each reporting its own capability independently), each capable of supporting up to 26 dBm, and present to the network as two UEs capable of cooperative transmission. Alternatively, a single transmission device can be configured with two transmission units, each capable of supporting up to 26 dBm, but present to the network as a single UE (the capabilities of the two transmission units are jointly reported). In this way, even if this transmission device operates in only a single cell, each of the intermediate transmission units can support up to their maximum transmit power, significantly improving uplink transmission performance. In EN DC or NR-NR DC, a single UE is simultaneously connected to at least two different cells or base stations, and data is transmitted and received from a single UE through cooperation between at least two or more cells or at least two or more base stations.Compared with EN DC or NR DC, this method differs in that two associated UEs or two transmission units in one transmission equipment are both connected to the same cell, and cooperative transmission can be performed between two originally unassociated UEs or transmission units through a cooperative transmission mechanism, thereby improving data transmission performance.

[0056] At the same time, the PDCP numbering function and / or PDCP ordering function performs comprehensive numbering on PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer. Therefore, during the process of aggregated or integrated transmission by multiple transmission units, data packet loss situations can be detected in a timely manner based on the comprehensive PDCP numbering or ordering. Therefore, when data packet loss is detected, methods such as retransmitting the lost data can be adopted to overcome the data packet loss problem.

[0057] 1a and 1b, which are flowcharts of a first type of transmission method applied to a transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the transmission unit supports providing uplink aggregated transmission or uplink unified transmission of PDCP SDUs together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard.

[0058] As shown in FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b, in the case of integrated transmission, the transmission method may include the following step 101a. In step 101a, a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP sequencing function is used to perform overall numbering on the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer.

[0059] In the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission method may include the following step 101b. In step 101b, the PDCP SDU received from the upper layer is processed using the PDCP sublayer and radio link control (RLC) sublayer shared with other transmission units and its own MAC and physical sublayers.

[0060] Here, the transmission unit may be a terminal or other transmission unit, and is not particularly limited here. However, for the sake of convenience, the following embodiments will only take the transmission unit as a terminal.

[0061] In a specific embodiment of the present disclosure, the transmission units may have different IDs indicating different transmission unit devices. Furthermore, the transmission unit and other transmission units having different IDs supporting the same network standard may be understood as each transmission unit adopting the same network standard to support uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission of PDCP SDUs in the same cell.

[0062] From the above description, it can be seen that the application scenarios of the transmission method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure include the following features. It is a combination of multiple physical transmitting / receiving ends (for example, other transmission units having different permanent IDs, such as independent International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) or International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), or transmission units having different temporary IDs, such as Radio Network Temporary Identity (RNTI), and operating on the same network standard) and one receiving / transmitting end (corresponding to the same cell), and the multiple transmission units transmit using the same network standard, which is different from the existing single-terminal carrier aggregation transmission and dual connection (DC) transmission.

[0063] In a specific embodiment of the present disclosure, in the uplink direction, data from the same application or data source is first numbered comprehensively by the PDCP sublayer via multiple physically independent transmission units, whether by a shared augmented sublayer (also referred to as an entity), a PDCP numbering function and / or PDCP ordering function integrated into the PDCP sublayer, or a shared PDCP sublayer and RLC sublayer, thereby avoiding PDCP SDU shunt errors between multiple transmission units and network-side reception errors, and improving transmission performance.

[0064] At the same time, in the specific embodiment of the present disclosure, data from the same application or data source is transmitted together via multiple physically independent transmission units, which is different from single terminal dual connection (DC) and carrier aggregation in that the power of multiple transmission units can be shared for transmission, breaking through the power limitations of a single terminal, and simultaneously using originally unrelated UEs or transmission units for cooperative transmission, thereby improving data transmission performance.

[0065] At the same time, compared with the dual connection in the related art, in the specific embodiment of the present disclosure, multiple transmission units transmit data to the same network side equipment using the same network standard within the same cell, which reduces the requirements for terminal support for network standards (multi-mode terminals that support multiple network standards are not required), and originally unrelated UEs or transmission units can perform cooperative transmission, and use different transmission units to improve transmission reliability and data transmission performance. At the same time, compared with the conventional DC transmission mode, in the specific embodiment of the present disclosure, data is transmitted to the same network side equipment, which reduces the step of the network side aggregating data in the same network side equipment for processing, and reduces the complexity of data processing by the network side.

[0066] In practice, there may be an association relationship between multiple transmission units that perform the uplink aggregated transmission or uplink aggregated transmission, and the association relationship can be known to the network side, so that when the network side decides to perform intra-cell uplink aggregated transmission or intra-cell uplink aggregated transmission among multiple associated transmission units, it can coordinately plan and process the data of the associated transmission units. Meanwhile, data interaction between multiple associated transmission units can be performed through sidelink or other manners, which will not be described in detail herein.

[0067] In practice, the association relationship can be known by the network side as follows: In the first method, the association relationship is preset in the network side device. In the second method, during the registration process of a transmission unit, other transmission units that need to be associated with it can be registered on its behalf, for example, by attaching identity information indicating the association of the associated transmission units with each registration, or by binding them in advance by the network side. In the third method, each transmission unit independently registers and notifies the network side of the association relationship, which corresponds to each transmission unit independently confirming the association relationship.

[0068] The PDCP numbering function may also be understood as assigning a global number to PDCP SDUs that need to be transmitted uplink via different transmission units so that the SNs of PDCP SDUs uploaded in different transmission units do not overlap, and uploading the PDCP SDUs after global numbering in different transmission units.

[0069] For example, the SNs of the PDCP SDUs after the collective numbering include 1, 2, 3, and 4. An independent entity sends PDCP SDUs with SNs of 1, 2, and 3 to UE A and sends PDCP SDUs with SN of 4 to UE B.

[0070] In this embodiment, the duplicate transmission of the same PDCP SDU in different transmission units can be avoided, and in application scenarios with good communication quality and low packet loss probability, the transmission efficiency of PDCP SDUs can be improved and resources can be saved. Of course, in implementation, after the global numbering, PDCP SDUs with the same SN can also be transmitted via different transmission units.

[0071] For example, the SNs of PDCP SDUs after comprehensive numbering include 1, 2, 3, and 4. If an independent entity sends PDCP SDUs with SNs of 1, 2, 3, and 4 to UE A and UE B, respectively, the PDCP SDUs received by UE A and UE B will have the same SN.

[0072] In this embodiment, the same PDCP SDU can be transmitted repeatedly through different transmission units. When applied to an application scenario in which communication quality is poor and packet loss probability is high, the packet loss probability of the PDCP SDU can be reduced and the transmission reliability of the PDCP SDU can be improved.

[0073] The PDCP ordering function may be understood as receiving PDCP SDUs via multiple transmission units and comprehensively reordering the received PDCP SDUs to avoid disordering of the received PDCP SDUs during the uplink aggregate transmission process.

[0074] Specifically, the collective numbering of the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer means that multiple transmission units use a common protocol data unit entity or a common PDCP sublayer.

[0075] In an alternative embodiment, the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP sequencing function are provided in a separate entity, which is used jointly by all transmission units.

[0076] Note that the above-mentioned independent entities are described from the perspective of a protocol stack, and indicate that the entities are not physically different entity devices from other entities (e.g., PDCP entities), but are located at different layers in the protocol stack.

[0077] For example, as shown in Figure 2a, UE A and UE B are two associated terminals, and UE A and UE B commonly provide uplink aggregate transmission of PDCP SDUs to the same Generation Node-B (gNB), so that UE A and UE B can jointly use one PDCP entity 21.

[0078] The method may further include the following steps: If the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are implemented in an independent entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs are sent to the PDCP entities of the corresponding transmission units via the independent entity for processing, for example, sent to the corresponding transmission units respectively or sent to all transmission units simultaneously, as described below.

[0079] In this embodiment, a single independent entity can be shared among multiple associated transmission units, and PDCP SDUs with global numbering can be obtained from the independent entity, thereby realizing that the PDCP SDUs obtained by the multiple associated transmission units have different PDCP SDUs with different SNs. In other words, to prevent the SNs of PDCP SDUs uploaded by different transmission units from overlapping, the PDCP SDUs with global numbering can be uploaded by different transmission units, thereby avoiding duplicate transmission of PDCP SDUs with the same SN among multiple associated transmission units and improving transmission efficiency.

[0080] Of course, in actual use, if the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are provided in an independent entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs may be sent to each associated transmission unit via the independent entity, i.e., PDCP SDUs of the same SN may be uploaded via different transmission units, thereby further reducing the occurrence of packet loss.

[0081] In another alternative embodiment, the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP sequencing function are integrated into a PDCP entity.

[0082] Here, the PDCP entity may be a PDCP entity for any one or some of the associated transmission units.

[0083] For example, as shown in FIG. 2b, in the process in which UE A and UE B jointly provide uplink aggregate transmission of PDCP SDUs to the gNB, the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function can be performed using a PDCP entity in the PDCP layer of UE A.

[0084] For example, as shown in Figure 2c, in the process of UE A and UE B jointly providing uplink aggregate transmission of PDCP SDUs to the gNB, the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer can be processed using the PDCP sublayer and radio link control (RLC) sublayer shared with other transmission units and their own MAC sublayer and physical sublayer.

[0085] The method further comprises: If the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are integrated in a PDCP entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs may be sent via the PDCP entity to a PDCP entity of another transmission unit for processing, or may be processed directly via the PDCP entity in which the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are integrated.

[0086] In this embodiment, a conventional PDCP entity of one transmission unit is multiplexed among a plurality of associated transmission units, and PDCP SDUs with global numbering are respectively obtained from the PDCP entities. This makes it possible to realize that the PDCP SDUs obtained by the plurality of associated transmission units have PDCP SDUs with different PDCP SDU SNs, and to avoid duplicate transmission of PDCP SDUs with the same PDCP SDU SN among a plurality of associated transmission units.

[0087] Of course, in actual use, if the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function is provided in a PDCP entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs may be sent to each associated transmission unit via the PDCP entity, and this is not particularly limited.

[0088] In implementation, before performing aggregate transmission or integrated transmission, it is necessary to inform the network side and the associated transmission units of the execution status of aggregate transmission or integrated transmission, which can be specifically realized as follows:

[0089] In one alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate that transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The method includes receiving second instruction information sent by a network side device, the second instruction information being used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0090] Here, when the transmission unit sends the first indication information to the network side device, the information indicated by the first indication information includes capability information of the transmission unit that supports providing integrated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with other terminals in the same cell.

[0091] Of course, the first indication information may also indicate other transmission units that together provide an aggregate transmission of PDCP SDUs within the same cell.

[0092] The other transmission units (which may be regarded as master UEs) can determine which other transmission units (which may be regarded as slave UEs) with different IDs to select, thereby simultaneously providing uplink aggregated transmission or uplink unified transmission of PDCP SDUs to the same cell.

[0093] In addition, when the transmission unit receives the second indication information sent by the network side device, it can be regarded as a method set by the network side, in which the network side device selects multiple transmission units (i.e., associated terminals) that simultaneously provide uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs to the same cell, thereby mapping the service flow connected to one transmission unit to the network side and the bearer of the associated transmission units, and realizing uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission when each associated transmission unit receives the second indication information.

[0094] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a transmission unit provides uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with other transmission units having different IDs within the same cell or the same network equipment, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units can support the same network standard. In this manner, the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are used to perform global numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer, and then multiple transmission units perform uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of the commonly globally numbered PDCP SDUs. In this process, the maximum uplink transmission power of the transmission unit can be improved, and further, based on the global numbering, shunt errors of PDCP SDUs between the multiple transmission units can be avoided, thereby improving the transmission performance of the transmission unit.

[0095] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a second type of transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which is applied to a network-side device. As shown in FIG. 3, the transmission method may include the following steps: In step 301, a joint ordering process is performed for different transmission units within the same cell via PDCP PDUs of uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission.

[0096] In the specific embodiment of the present disclosure, for the transmission unit, there is a difference between integrated transmission and aggregated transmission at the protocol processing level, but there is no difference between the two for the network side.

[0097] In a specific embodiment of the present disclosure, the different transmission units may be transmission units with different IDs, and may be understood as different transmission unit devices.

[0098] From the above description, it can be seen that the application scenarios of the transmission method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure include the following features. It is a combination of multiple physical transmitting / receiving ends (e.g., other transmission units with different permanent IDs, such as independent IMEIs, IMSIs, or transmission units with different time IDs, such as RNTIs, operating under the same network standard) and one receiving / transmitting end (corresponding to the same cell), which is different from the existing single-terminal carrier aggregation transmission and dual connection (DC) transmission.

[0099] In specific implementation, the network side device may receive PDCP PDUs with overall numbers assigned thereto from the plurality of transmission units, respectively. In this case, it may be understood that the joint ordering process may reorder the PDCP PDUs received from the plurality of transmission units according to the order of their overall numbers, so as to conform to the arrangement order of the overall numbers and to ignore PDCP PDUs that are transmitted in duplicate in the plurality of transmission units.

[0100] For example, assuming that UE A and UE B together provide aggregated or joint transmission of PDCP PDUs to a gNB, the PDCP PDUs transmitted via UE A and UE B, respectively, have a collective number. Thus, when a gNB receives PDCP PDUs with SNs of 1, 2, and 4 from UE A and a PDCP PDU with SN of 3 from UE B, the gNB performs joint sequencing of the PDCP PDUs in the order of SNs 1, 2, 3, and 4.

[0101] Note that the above uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission has the same meaning as the uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission in the method embodiments shown in Figures 1a and 1b, and the PDCP PDUs may be globally numbered using the same method as the method of globally numbering PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer using the PDCP numbering function and / or PDCP ordering function, and therefore further description thereof will be omitted here.

[0102] The transmission method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to an application scenario in which multiple transmission units jointly provide uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission of PDCP SDUs to the network side device, and the network side performs integrated sequencing on the PDCP PDUs received from the multiple transmission units, thereby facilitating the network side to accurately identify and respond to the PDCP PDUs.

[0103] In one alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The method includes transmitting second indication information to the transmission units, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregated transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0104] The first and second indication information are respectively the same as the first and second indication information in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and have the same functions, so the description thereof will be omitted here.

[0105] In the transmission method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, when a plurality of transmission units perform uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of the PDCP SDUs to which a common global number is assigned, the order in which the network side device receives the PDCP PDUs may be out of order. For example, different transmission units may transmit corresponding PDCP SDUs to the network side device at different times, and the SNs of the PDCP SDUs sent by each transmission unit may not be arranged in order. The network side device may perform a consolidated ordering process on the plurality of transmission units through the PDCP PDUs of the uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission, thereby obtaining a PDCP PDU sequence that is identifiable and acknowl- edgeable on the network side. This has the same beneficial effects as the method embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and to avoid duplication, a description thereof will be omitted here.

[0106] 4a and 4b are flowcharts of a third type of transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the third type of transmission method being applied to a network side device, which is used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink integrated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) in the same cell to at least two transmission units, and the at least two transmission units support the same network standard.

[0107] As shown in FIG. 4a, in the case of integrated transmission, the transmission method includes the following steps: In step 401a, the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer are numbered. In step 402a, the PDCP SDUs are aggregated and transmitted to at least two transmission units performing aggregate transmission via at least two bearers in the same cell.

[0108] In specific implementation, in the process of performing global numbering on the PDCP SDUs, specifically, during downlink transmission by the network side, the network equipment of the access network performs global PDCP SN on the PDCP SDUs that need to be respectively transmitted to at least two transmission units (abbreviated as associated transmission units) that perform aggregate transmission or joint transmission.

[0109] It should be noted that the PDCP SDUs to be globally numbered in the specific embodiment of the present disclosure are not PDCP SDUs between unrelated transmission units, but PDCP SDUs transmitted to a transmission unit via aggregated or consolidated transmission.

[0110] In implementation, the PDCP SDUs corresponding to each transmission unit may be transmitted independently or in a consolidated manner, for example, the load of the PDCP SDUs on each bearer may be the same or different, and the transmission times of the physical layers may be the same or different.

[0111] In one alternative embodiment, aggregating and transmitting the PDCP SDUs to at least two transmission units performing aggregate transmission or aggregate transmission via the at least two bearers may be understood as transmitting only corresponding portions of the PDCP SDUs to each transmission unit in the associated transmission units, i.e., different transmission units in the associated transmission units receive PDCP SDUs of different SNs, respectively.

[0112] In this way, duplicate transmission of data packets between associated transmission units can be reduced, and network resources can be saved.

[0113] In another alternative embodiment, aggregating and transmitting the PDCP SDUs via the at least two bearers to at least two transmission units performing aggregate transmission or aggregate transmission may be understood as transmitting PDCP SDUs of the same SN to each transmission unit in the associated transmission units, respectively.

[0114] In this way, by transmitting a set of PDCP SDUs to each associated transmission unit respectively, data packet loss can be further reduced.

[0115] In specific implementation, each of the at least two transmission units performing the aggregated or integrated transmission has a bearer corresponding to the PDCP SDU between itself and a network-side configuration, and after receiving the PDCP SDU, the at least two transmission units further perform a global ordering on the PDCP SDUs received by each of the at least two transmission units, so that the PDCP SDUs after the global ordering and the PDCP SDUs after the global numbering have the same sequence order.

[0116] The third type transmission method according to this embodiment is similar to the second type transmission method shown in Figure 3, and differs from the second type transmission method shown in Figure 3 in that the second type transmission method is applied to an application scenario for uplink transmission, while the third type transmission method shown in Figure 4 is applied to an application scenario for downlink transmission.

[0117] As shown in FIG. 4b, in the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission method includes the following steps: In step 401b, the PDCP SDU received from the upper layer is processed using a shared PDCP sublayer and RLC sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, and a MAC sublayer and a physical sublayer provided for each of the at least two transmission units.

[0118] For example, in the application scenario shown in FIG. 2c, in the process of providing downlink aggregated or integrated transmission of PDCP SDUs to UE A and UE B in the same cell, the received PDCP SDUs can be processed using a shared PDCP sublayer and radio link control (RLC) sublayer provided for UE A and UE B, and a MAC sublayer and physical sublayer provided for UE A and UE B, respectively.

[0119] In this embodiment, the network side device maps the service data shunt connected to a transmission unit to a bearer between the associated transmission unit and the network side for transmission, thereby realizing shunting of the service data. By assigning a global number to the PDCP SDUs to be transmitted, when at least two associated transmission units receive the PDCP SDUs, the network side device can easily perform a global ordering process based on the global number. This global ordering process has the same meaning as the global ordering process in the method embodiment shown in Figure 3, and its description is omitted here.

[0120] In one alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The method includes transmitting second indication information to the transmission units, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregated transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0121] Here, receiving the first indication information from the transmission unit may mean receiving the first indication information from a primary transmission unit in the associated transmission unit, or receiving the first indication information from each transmission unit in the associated transmission unit, and is not particularly limited here.

[0122] Furthermore, the first and second indication information are respectively the same as the first and second indication information in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and have the same functions, so the description thereof will be omitted here.

[0123] In the transmission method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the network side device can perform comprehensive numbering on the PDCP SDUs of a service connected to one transmission unit, and then shunt-map the SDUs to a bearer between the associated transmission unit and the network side for transmission, thereby realizing shunting of the service data.

[0124] 5a and 5b are flowcharts of a fourth type of transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which is applied to a transmission unit. In the case of integrated transmission, as shown in FIG. 5a, the transmission method may include the following steps:

[0125] In step 501a, a network side device receives PDCP SDUs with global numbering via the network side, which are respectively transmitted to different transmission units. In step 502a, the PDCP SDUs are reordered and / or merged.

[0126] In the case of aggregate transmission, as shown in FIG. 5b, the transmission method may include the following steps: In step 501b, processing is performed using its own physical sublayer, MAC sublayer, and RLC and PDCP sublayers shared with other transmission units.

[0127] In specific implementation, the network side device sends the PDCP SDUs after the global numbering to transmission units having different IDs, respectively, and the transmission units having different IDs can establish an association relationship (e.g., associated transmission units), and a communication connection can be realized between the associated transmission units via a sidelink.

[0128] In one alternative embodiment, the network side device receiving PDCP SDUs to be sent to transmission units having different IDs may be understood as the network side device transmitting the PDCP SDUs to a plurality of transmission units, performing a comprehensive ordering process on the PDCP SDUs received by the plurality of transmission units via an independent entity commonly connected to the plurality of transmission units, and delivering the ordered PDCP SDUs to the transmission units that need to correspond to them.

[0129] For example, as shown in FIG. 2a, assume that the same cell aggregates and transmits PDCP SDUs to UE A and UE B via two bearers, and UE A and UE B perform aggregated transmission or aggregated transmission and are each connected to a newly added entity 21. In the downlink transmission process, the network side device transmits PDCP SDUs to UE A and UE B, respectively, and performs comprehensive re-ordering on the PDCP SDUs received by UE A and UE B via the newly added entity 21, and transmits the re-ordered PDCP SDUs to UE A, which needs to use the PDCP SDUs.

[0130] In another alternative embodiment, the reception of PDCP SDUs transmitted by the network side device to transmission units having different IDs may be understood as the network side device transmitting PDCP SDUs to a plurality of transmission units, respectively, and connecting the plurality of transmission units via side links, such that one of the transmission units receives some PDCP SDUs from the network side, and then receives other PDCP SDUs transmitted by other transmission units via side links, and then multiplexes the PDCP entities contained in the transmission unit itself to perform a comprehensive reordering process on all the received PDCP SDUs.

[0131] For example, as shown in FIG. 2b, assume that the same cell aggregates and transmits PDCP SDUs to UE A and UE B via two bearers, and UE A and UE B perform aggregated or aggregated transmission and multiplex the PDCP entity of UE A to perform PDCP SDU reordering. In the downlink transmission process, the network side device transmits PDCP SDUs to UE A and UE B, respectively, and UE B forwards the PDCP SDUs received from the network side device to UE A, so that the PDCP entity in UE A performs comprehensive reordering of the PDCP SDUs received by UE A from the network side device and UE B, respectively.

[0132] Furthermore, similar to the method embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the network side device may transmit different PDCP SDUs to different transmission units, or may transmit the same PDCP SDU to different transmission units, which is not particularly limited here.

[0133] For example, the network side device assigns overall numbers to the PDCP SDUs to be transmitted, and then obtains four PDCP SDUs with SNs 1, 2, 3, and 4. The network side device then transmits the PDCP SDUs with SNs 1, 2, and 4 to UE A and the PDCP SDU with SN 3 to UE B. UE A receives the PDCP SDUs with SNs 1, 2, and 4, and obtains the PDCP SDU with SN 3 from UE B. Then, UE A performs a reordering process on the four PDCP SDUs, arranging them in the order of SNs 1, 2, 3, and 4.

[0134] In one alternative embodiment, the transmission method further comprises: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate that transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The method includes receiving second instruction information sent by a network side device, the second instruction information being used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0135] Furthermore, the first and second indication information are respectively the same as the first and second indication information in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and have the same functions, so the description thereof will be omitted here.

[0136] In the transmission method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, a transmission unit receives PDCP SDUs with overall numbers from the network side and from other transmission units with different IDs, respectively, and reorders the PDCP SDUs to match the order of the overall numbers. This allows for timely detection of PDCP SDU packet loss or duplicate transmission based on the overall numbers, thereby improving the efficiency and reliability of PDCP SDU transmission.

[0137] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a fifth type of transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which is applied to a transmission unit, which is used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment. As shown in FIG. 6 , the transmission method may include the following steps: In step 601, a PDCP SDU transmitted from a network side device is received, and the SN of the PDCP SDU transmitted to a transmission unit of downlink aggregated transmission or downlink integrated transmission is assigned a general number by the network side device. In step 602, the PDCP SDU is sent to another transmission unit having a different ID.

[0138] This embodiment is similar to the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5, and differs in that a transmission unit applying the transmission method of this embodiment receives PDCP SDUs from a network-side device and then transmits the PDCP SDUs to the transmission unit applying the transmission method shown in FIG. 5, thereby performing comprehensive reordering processing within the transmission unit applying the transmission method shown in FIG. 5. However, both embodiments have the same beneficial effects, and therefore a description thereof will be omitted here.

[0139] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a notification method applied to the transmission unit, where the transmission unit supports providing aggregated transmission or integrated transmission together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment (e.g., aggregated transmission of PDCP SDUs), and the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard, and the notification method may include the following step 1 or step 2:

[0140] In step 1, first indication information is sent to a network side device, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell.

[0141] Step 2: receiving second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units;

[0142] In addition, in a specific application scenario, only one of the above steps 1 and 2 can be performed. Here, performing step 1 indicates that the transmission unit actively reports that it supports intra-cell aggregated transmission or integrated transmission between the transmission units, and performing step 2 indicates that the network side equipment sets up an intra-cell aggregated transmission or integrated transmission relationship between the transmission units.

[0143] In specific implementation, the first indication information and the second indication information have the same meaning as the first indication information and the second indication information in the transmission method shown in FIG. 1, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0144] This embodiment differs from the transmission method shown in Figure 1 in that the notification method of this embodiment can instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units, whether for uplink transmission or downlink transmission, and has a wider range of application.

[0145] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a notification method applicable to a network side device, where the network side device supports at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission together in the same cell, and the notification method may include the following step 1 or step 2:

[0146] In step 1, first indication information is received from a transmission unit, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell.

[0147] In step 2, second indication information is sent to the transmission units, and the second indication information is used to indicate aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within the cell between the transmission units.

[0148] The notification method applied to the network side device according to this embodiment corresponds to the notification method applied to the transmission unit according to the previous embodiment, and has the same beneficial effects, so a description thereof will be omitted here.

[0149] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting an integrated bearer by multiple terminals in a cell according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method being applied to terminals, where a radio protocol supporting the integrated bearer of multiple terminals is located in the same cell, and the radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within a cell. As shown in FIG. 7 , the method may include the following steps: In step 701, for a DRB of an integrated bearer for multiple terminals, each of which is used for common transmission of higher layers, the sequence number SN of the uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal.

[0150] In a specific implementation, the terminal may be a primary terminal, and the primary terminal may specifically be a transmission unit having a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP ordering function in the method embodiment shown in Figure 1, and the secondary terminal may be another transmission unit having a different ID in the method embodiment shown in Figure 1, and the description will be omitted here.

[0151] In addition, the PDCP SDUs after PDCP ordering and / or PDCP numbering are transmitted in a unified manner within the same cell by the primary terminal and the secondary terminal via their respective bearers, and may be in one of the following two situations: In situation 1, all PDCP SDUs are transmitted simultaneously via both the primary terminal and the secondary terminal. In situation 2, each PDCP SDU is transmitted via either the primary terminal or one of the secondary terminals.

[0152] In this embodiment, a primary terminal and a secondary terminal are distinguished, and the primary terminal is responsible for overall numbering and overall ordering of the PDCP SDUs of the integrated bearer, and the same beneficial effects as those of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 1 can be obtained, and therefore, the description thereof will be omitted here.

[0153] Optionally, the terminal has a different ID than the secondary terminal.

[0154] Optionally, the method further comprises: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The method includes receiving second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0155] Here, the first and second indication information correspond to the first and second indication information in the transmission method shown in Fig. 1, respectively, and are different in that in this embodiment, the first and second indication information are used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between a primary terminal and a secondary terminal, and to indicate which of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal is in charge of operations such as allocating or reordering SNs of PDCP SDUs. The first and second indication information in the method embodiment shown in Fig. 1 are used to indicate an association relationship between multiple transmission units, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0156] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a sixth type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which is applied to a network-side device. As shown in FIG. 8, the method may include the following steps: In step 801, a joint ordering is performed on PDCP SDUs that a primary terminal and a secondary terminal jointly transmit or aggregately transmit to the same cell via their respective bearers, and the primary terminal is used to perform joint transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0157] In a specific embodiment of the present disclosure, a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer for a plurality of terminals configured to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission is provided, the terminals being located in the same cell, The radio protocol supports common transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) arriving at higher layers using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell, and for a DRB of an integrated bearer of multiple terminals, a sequence number (SN) of an uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal.

[0158] Here, the above-mentioned integrated ordering process has the same meaning as the integrated ordering process in the method embodiment shown in Figure 3. Compared with the method embodiment shown in Figure 3, this method embodiment differs in that the multiple transmission units that perform aggregated transmission or integrated transmission are distinguished into primary terminals and secondary terminals, but both can obtain the same beneficial effects, and the explanation will be omitted here.

[0159] Optionally, the method further comprises: receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, Sending second indication information to the primary terminal, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0160] Here, the first and second indication information correspond to the first and second indication information in the transmission method shown in Fig. 1, respectively, and are different in that in this embodiment, the first and second indication information are used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between a primary terminal and a secondary terminal, and to indicate which of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal is in charge of operations such as allocating or reordering SNs of PDCP SDUs. The first and second indication information in the method embodiment shown in Fig. 1 are used to indicate an association relationship between multiple transmission units, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0161] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a seventh type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which is applied to a network-side device. As shown in FIG. 9, the method may include the following steps: In step 901, the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer are assigned with a general number. In step 902, the PDCP SDU is aggregated and transmitted to a primary terminal and a secondary terminal located in the same cell via respective bearers of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal, and the primary terminal is used to perform aggregate transmission or collective transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0162] wherein a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer for a plurality of terminals configured to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports the terminal and at least one secondary terminal using their respective bearers within one cell to jointly receive PDCP SDUs that are jointly transmitted by the network side via the respective bearers.

[0163] Here, the process of performing the above-mentioned comprehensive numbering has the same meaning as the comprehensive numbering in the method embodiment shown in Figure 4, and this method embodiment differs from the method embodiment shown in Figure 4 in that in this method embodiment, multiple transmission units performing aggregated transmission or integrated transmission are distinguished into primary terminals and secondary terminals, and both can obtain the same beneficial effects, so the description will be omitted here.

[0164] Optionally, the method further comprises: receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, Sending second indication information to the primary terminal, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0165] Here, the first and second indication information correspond to the first and second indication information in the transmission method shown in Fig. 1, respectively, and are different in that in this embodiment, the first and second indication information are used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between a primary terminal and a secondary terminal, and to indicate which of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal is in charge of operations such as allocating or reordering SNs of PDCP SDUs. The first and second indication information in the method embodiment shown in Fig. 1 are used to indicate an association relationship between multiple transmission units, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0166] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an eighth type transmission method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which is applied to a primary terminal. As shown in FIG. 10, the method may include the following steps: In step 1001, a PDCP SDU with a comprehensive numbering is received via the network side, which is sent by a network side device and a secondary terminal, respectively, and is used by the primary terminal to perform integrated transmission or aggregated transmission with the secondary terminal. In step 1002, the PDCP SDUs are reordered and / or merged.

[0167] Here, the process of receiving PDCP SDUs and the process of re-ordering PDCP SDUs have the same meaning as the process of receiving PDCP SDUs and the process of re-ordering PDCP SDUs in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5, respectively. This method embodiment differs from the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5 in that multiple transmission units for aggregated or integrated transmission are classified into a primary terminal and a secondary terminal, and PDCP SDUs are re-ordered via the primary terminal. Both methods can achieve the same beneficial effects, and therefore, further description will be omitted here.

[0168] Optionally, the method further comprises: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The method includes receiving second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0169] Here, the first and second indication information correspond to the first and second indication information in the transmission method shown in Fig. 1, respectively, and are different in that in this embodiment, the first and second indication information are used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between a primary terminal and a secondary terminal, and to indicate which of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal is in charge of operations such as allocating or reordering SNs of PDCP SDUs. The first and second indication information in the method embodiment shown in Fig. 1 are used to indicate an association relationship between multiple transmission units, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0170] Referring to Figures 18a and 18b, an embodiment of the present invention further provides another transmission method applied to a transmission unit, wherein the transmission unit supports providing uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission of data together with one or more other transmission units in the same cell or in different cells, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard.

[0171] Here, the data is a data packet, and specifically may be at least one of a PDCP SDU, a PDCP PDU, an RLC SDU, an RLC PDU, a MAC SDU, a MAC PDU, and a Transport Block (TB).

[0172] The thick solid line in FIG. 18a indicates the transmission and / or forwarding path of the aggregated data of UE1, and the three thin solid lines in FIG. 18a indicate the data transmission paths of UE2, UE3 and UE4, respectively.

[0173] As shown in FIG. 18a, in the case of integrated transmission, the transmission method may include the following steps: In step 1801, a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP ordering function may be used to perform overall numbering on the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer, and different PDCP SDUs may be transmitted to realize overall numbering for shunt transmission, or the same PDCP SDU may be transmitted to realize overall numbering for redundant transmission.

[0174] In the case of aggregate transmission, the transmission method may include the following step 1802: In step 1802, UE1 processes the received data using any sublayers shared with other transmission units, for example, UE2, UE3, and UE4 in the drawing, such as a new logical sublayer on PDCP, a PDCP sublayer and an RLC sublayer, and its own MAC sublayer and physical sublayer; Here, the processed data corresponding to the new logical sublayer on PDCP and the PDCP sublayer is PDCP SDU, the processed data corresponding to the RLC sublayer is RLC SDU, the processed data corresponding to the MAC sublayer is MAC SDU, and the processed data corresponding to the physical sublayer is TB.

[0175] Here, the transmission unit may be a terminal or other transmission unit, and is not particularly limited here. However, for the sake of convenience, the following embodiments will only take the transmission unit as a terminal.

[0176] In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the transmission units may have different IDs indicating different transmission unit devices. Furthermore, the transmission unit and other transmission units having different IDs supporting the same network standard may be understood as each transmission unit adopting the same network standard to provide uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission of data to the same cell or different cells.

[0177] From the above description, it can be seen that the application scenarios of the transmission method according to the embodiments of the present invention include the following features:

[0178] It is a combination of multiple physical transmitting / receiving ends (e.g., other transmission units with different permanent IDs, such as independent IMEIs, IMSIs, or transmission units with different time IDs, such as RNTIs, operating under the same network standard) and one receiving / transmitting end (corresponding to the same cell), and the multiple transmission units transmit using the same network standard, which is different from the conventional single-terminal carrier aggregation transmission and multiple connection (MC) transmission.

[0179] In a specific embodiment of the present invention, in the uplink direction, data from the same application or data source is first numbered comprehensively by the PDCP sublayer via multiple physically independent transmission units, whether by a shared new logical sublayer (also called an entity), by a PDCP numbering function and / or PDCP ordering function integrated into the PDCP sublayer, or by a shared PDCP sublayer and RLC sublayer, thereby avoiding PDCP SDU shunt errors between multiple transmission units and network-side reception errors, and improving transmission performance.

[0180] At the same time, in a specific embodiment of the present invention, data from the same application or data source is transmitted together via multiple physically independent transmission units, which is different from single terminal multi-connection (MC) and carrier aggregation in that the power of multiple transmission units is shared for transmission, breaking through the power limitations of a single terminal. At the same time, cooperative transmission can be performed using originally unrelated UEs or transmission units, and the use of different transmission units can improve transmission reliability and data transmission performance.

[0181] At the same time, in a specific embodiment of the present invention, multiple transmission units transmit data to the same network side equipment using the same network standard in the same cell or different cells, which reduces the terminal's support requirements for network standards (multi-mode terminals that support multiple network standards are not required) compared with multi-connection in the prior art, and enables originally unrelated UEs or transmission units to perform cooperative transmission, using different transmission units to improve transmission reliability and data transmission performance. At the same time, in a specific embodiment of the present invention, since data is transmitted to the same network side equipment, compared with the traditional MC transmission mode, the network side can reduce the steps of aggregating data in the same network side equipment for processing, thereby reducing the complexity of data processing by the network side.

[0182] In practice, there may be an association relationship between multiple transmission units that perform the uplink aggregated transmission or uplink aggregated transmission, and the association relationship can be known to the network side, so that when the network side decides to perform intra-cell uplink aggregated transmission or intra-cell uplink aggregated transmission among multiple associated transmission units, it can coordinately plan and process the data of the associated transmission units. Meanwhile, data interaction between multiple associated transmission units can be performed through sidelink or other manners, which will not be described in detail herein.

[0183] In practice, the association relationship can be known by the network side as follows:

[0184] In method 1, the association relationship, e.g., the association relationship between UE1, UE2, UE3, and UE4, is pre-configured in the network side device, e.g., included in a core network database or another server. Optionally, the association relationship includes a primary-secondary relationship between UEs, e.g., UE1 is the primary UE, i.e., the end-to-end PDU session connection of the aggregated data service is completed by UE1. Other UEs, e.g., UE2, UE3, and UE4, may share information such as UE1's network-attached storage (NAS) information, end-to-end PDU session connection NAS information, and / or user-level General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane (GTP-U) tunnel information related to the aggregated service, or the other UEs may only sense wireless access (AS) side information.

[0185] In the second method, during the registration process of a transmission unit, other transmission units that need to be associated with it can be registered on its behalf, for example, by attaching identity information indicating the association of the associated transmission units with each registration, or by binding them in advance by the network side.

[0186] In the third method, each transmission unit independently registers and notifies the network of the association relationship, i.e., each transmission unit independently checks the association relationship. In this method, the association relationship between UE1, UE2, UE3, and UE4 may be written in advance in the card information or User Service Description (USD) information of the UE, or may be communicated to the NAS layer via the upper layer of the UE.

[0187] In addition, the encrypted and / or fully protected information to be used for multiple associated UEs, e.g., UE1, UE2, UE3 and UE4, which may be similar to that used in conjunction with UE1 or may be independent, needs to be notified to the core network and / or base station, respectively.

[0188] Optionally, if the common layer of multiple associated UEs, e.g., UE1, UE2, UE3, and UE4, is the physical layer, the multiple UEs may correspond to antenna ports of the same group or different groups, but share one Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) or other RNTI. In such a case, the base station may not sense the presence of UE2, UE3, and UE4, i.e., UE2, UE3, and UE4 may not have a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection established with the base station.

[0189] The PDCP numbering function may also be understood as assigning a global number to PDCP SDUs that need to be transmitted uplink via different transmission units so that the SNs of PDCP SDUs uploaded in different transmission units do not overlap, and uploading the PDCP SDUs after global numbering in different transmission units.

[0190] For example, the SNs of the PDCP SDUs after the collective numbering include 1, 2, 3, 4, ... 8. An independent entity sends PDCP SDUs with SNs 1 and 2 to UE 1, PDCP SDUs with SNs 3 and 4 to UE 2, PDCP SDUs with SNs 5 and 6 to UE 3, and PDCP SDUs with SNs 7 and 8 to UE 4.

[0191] In this embodiment, the duplicate transmission of the same PDCP SDU in different transmission units can be avoided, and in application scenarios with good communication quality and low packet loss probability, the transmission efficiency of PDCP SDUs can be improved and resources can be saved. Of course, in implementation, after the global numbering, PDCP SDUs with the same SN can also be transmitted via different transmission units.

[0192] For example, the SNs of the PDCP SDUs after the collective numbering include 1, 2, ..., 8. If an independent entity transmits PDCP SDUs with SNs of 1, 2, ..., 8 to UE1, UE2, UE3, and UE4, respectively, the PDCP SDUs received by UE1, UE2, UE3, and UE4 will have the same SN.

[0193] In this embodiment, the same PDCP SDU can be transmitted repeatedly through different transmission units. When applied to an application scenario in which communication quality is poor and packet loss probability is high, the packet loss probability of the PDCP SDU can be reduced and the transmission reliability of the PDCP SDU can be improved.

[0194] The PDCP ordering function may be understood as receiving PDCP SDUs via multiple transmission units and comprehensively reordering the received PDCP SDUs to avoid disordering of the received PDCP SDUs during the uplink aggregate transmission process.

[0195] Specifically, the collective numbering of the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer means that multiple transmission units use a common protocol data unit entity or a common PDCP sublayer.

[0196] In an alternative embodiment, the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP sequencing function are provided in a separate entity, which is used jointly by all transmission units.

[0197] Note that the above-mentioned independent entities are described from the perspective of a protocol stack, and indicate that the entities are not physically different entity devices from other entities (e.g., PDCP entities), but are located at different layers in the protocol stack.

[0198] For example, UE1, UE2, UE3, and UE4 are four associated terminals that commonly provide uplink aggregate transmission of PDCP SDUs to the same gNB, and can jointly use one PDCP entity.

[0199] The method may further include the following steps:

[0200] If the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are implemented in an independent entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs are sent to the PDCP entities of the corresponding transmission units via the independent entity for processing, for example, sent to the corresponding transmission units respectively or sent to all transmission units simultaneously, as described below.

[0201] In this embodiment, a single independent entity can be shared among multiple associated transmission units, and PDCP SDUs with global numbering can be obtained from the independent entity, thereby realizing that the PDCP SDUs obtained by the multiple associated transmission units have different PDCP SDUs with different SNs. In other words, to prevent the SNs of PDCP SDUs uploaded by different transmission units from overlapping, the PDCP SDUs with global numbering can be uploaded by different transmission units, thereby avoiding duplicate transmission of PDCP SDUs with the same SN among multiple associated transmission units and improving transmission efficiency.

[0202] Of course, in actual use, if the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are provided in an independent entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs can be sent to each associated transmission unit via the independent entity, i.e., PDCP SDUs of the same SN can be uploaded via different transmission units, thereby further reducing the occurrence of packet loss.

[0203] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a notification method applied to a terminal, wherein a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of a plurality of terminals is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer by multiple terminals, the sequence number SN of an uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal; The notification method may include the following step 1 or step 2.

[0204] In step 1, first indication information is sent to a network side device, and the first indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0205] In step 2, second indication information sent by the network side device is received, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0206] In addition, in a specific application scenario, only one of the above steps 1 and 2 can be performed. Here, performing step 1 indicates that the primary terminal actively selects the secondary terminal and establishes a primary-secondary relationship between the secondary terminals, and performing step 2 indicates that the network side device sets up a primary-secondary relationship between the primary terminal and the secondary terminal.

[0207] In specific implementation, the first indication information and the second indication information have the same meaning as the first indication information and the second indication information in the transmission method shown in FIG. 7, and detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0208] Compared with the transmission method shown in Figure 7, this embodiment differs in that the notification method of this embodiment can indicate the primary-secondary relationship between the primary terminal and the secondary terminal, whether in uplink transmission or downlink transmission, and has a wider range of application.

[0209] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a notification method applicable to a network side device, where the network side device supports at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission together in the same cell, and the notification method may include the following step 1 or step 2:

[0210] In step 1, first indication information is received from a primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0211] In step 2, second indication information is sent to the primary terminal, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0212] The notification method applied to the network side device according to this embodiment corresponds to the notification method applied to the terminal in the previous embodiment, and has the same beneficial effects, so a description thereof will be omitted here.

[0213] 11a and 11b are structural schematic diagrams of a first type of transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which supports uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard. As shown in FIG. 11a, in the case of consolidated transmission, the first type of transmission unit 1100: The first numbering module 1101 is used to perform overall numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer using a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP sequencing function.

[0214] As shown in FIG. 11b, in the case of aggregate transmission, the first type transmission unit 1100: It includes a first processing module 1102 used to process PDCP SDUs received from higher layers using a PDCP sublayer and a radio link control (RLC) sublayer shared with other transmission units and its own MAC and physical sublayers.

[0215] Furthermore, the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP sequencing function are provided in a separate entity, which is used jointly by all transmission units; Or, The PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP sequencing function are integrated into a PDCP entity.

[0216] Furthermore, if the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are provided in an independent entity, the first-type transmission unit 1100 transmits the numbered PDCP SDUs via the independent entity to a PDCP entity of a corresponding transmission unit for processing; Or, If the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are integrated in a PDCP entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs are sent via the PDCP entity to a PDCP entity of another transmission unit for processing, or are processed directly via the PDCP entity in which the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are integrated.

[0217] In addition, the first type transmission unit 1100 further includes an eighth transmitting module or an eighth receiving module.

[0218] The eighth transmitting module is used to send first indication information to a network side device, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units at least support aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell.

[0219] The eighth receiving module is used to receive second instruction information sent by the network side device, and the second instruction information is used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0220] According to the first type transmission unit 1100 of the embodiment of the present disclosure, a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP ordering function are used to assign overall numbers to PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer, so that the PDCP SDUs after the overall numbering can be uploaded to network side devices via multiple transmission units performing uplink aggregated transmission or uplink integrated transmission, thereby improving the uplink radiated power for PDCP SDUs and the transmission performance for PDCP SDUs. This has the same beneficial effects as the method embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and to avoid duplication, a description thereof will be omitted here.

[0221] FIG. 12 is a structural diagram of a first-class network side device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 12, the first-class network side device 1200 includes: The first ordering module 1201 is used to perform joint ordering processing on different transmission units within the same cell via PDCP PDUs of uplink aggregated transmission or uplink consolidated transmission.

[0222] The first type network side device 1200 further includes a ninth receiving module or a ninth transmitting module.

[0223] The ninth receiving module is used to receive first indication information from the transmission unit, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units at least support aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network equipment, or integrated transmission within a cell.

[0224] The ninth sending module is used for sending second indication information to the transmission unit, and the second indication information is used for indicating aggregate transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0225] According to the first type network-side device 1200 of the embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible to receive PDCP PDUs from multiple transmission units that perform uplink aggregated transmission or uplink aggregated transmission, respectively, to obtain a complete PDCP PDU data flow, and perform aggregated ordering processing on the PDCP PDUs, thereby supporting the uplink aggregated transmission or uplink aggregated transmission of the transmission units shown in FIG. 12, which has the same beneficial effects as the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3, and will not be described again to avoid duplication.

[0226] 13a and 13b are structural schematic diagrams of a second type of network-side device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the network-side device being used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) to at least two transmission units in the same cell; As shown in FIG. 13a, in the case of integrated transmission, the second-type network side device 1300: a second numbering module 1301 used for performing overall numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; a first transmitting module 1302 used for aggregating and transmitting the PDCP SDU into at least two transmission units performing aggregated transmission via at least two bearers in the same cell.

[0227] As shown in FIG. 13b, in the case of aggregated transmission, the second type network side device 1300: and a second processing module 1303 used to process PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer using a shared PDCP sublayer and RLC sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, and a MAC sublayer and a physical sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, respectively.

[0228] Furthermore, the type 2 network side device 1300 further: receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, Sending second indication information to the transmission units, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregated transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0229] According to the second type network-side device 1300 of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer are subjected to comprehensive numbering and then distributed to at least two transmission units, each of which performs aggregated transmission or integrated transmission via at least two bearers, thereby realizing service-sensing-free shunting. This does not require special processing for services, has good generality, and has the same beneficial effects as the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4. To avoid duplication, the description thereof will be omitted here.

[0230] 14a and 14b are structural diagrams of a second-type transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 14a, in the case of integrated transmission, the second-type transmission unit 1400 includes: a first receiving module 1401, used for receiving PDCP SDUs with comprehensive numbering via the network side, which are respectively sent by the network side devices to different transmission units; and a second ordering module 1402 used to perform reordering and / or merging processes on the PDCP SDUs.

[0231] As shown in FIG. 14b, in the case of aggregate transmission, the second type transmission unit 1400 includes: It includes a third processing module 1403 that is used to process using its own physical sublayer, MAC sublayer, and RLC and PDCP sublayers that are shared with other transmission units.

[0232] In addition, the second type transmission unit 1400 further includes a tenth transmitting module or a tenth receiving module; a tenth sending module for sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; The tenth receiving module is used to receive second instruction information sent by the network side device, and the second instruction information is used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0233] According to the second type transmission unit 1400 of the embodiment of the present disclosure, after the network side transmits PDCP SDUs to at least two transmission units that respectively perform aggregated transmission or consolidated transmission, one of the transmission units can further receive PDCP SDUs from other transmission units that perform aggregated transmission or consolidated transmission, thereby performing reordering and / or merging processes on the PDCP SDUs within the transmission unit, which has the same beneficial effects as the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5 and will not be described again to avoid duplication.

[0234] FIG. 15 is a structural schematic diagram of a third type transmission unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 15, the transmission unit is used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink integrated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment. The third type transmission unit 1500 includes a second receiving module 1501 and a second transmitting module 1502.

[0235] The second receiving module 1501 is used to receive PDCP SDUs sent from a network side device, where the sequence number SN of the PDCP SDUs sent in a transmission unit of downlink aggregated transmission or downlink integrated transmission is assigned by the network side device in a comprehensive manner; The second sending module 1502 is used to send the PDCP SDU to another transmission unit with a different ID.

[0236] According to the third type transmission unit 1500 of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the network side transmits PDCP SDUs to at least two transmission units that respectively perform aggregate transmission or consolidated transmission, and then centrally transmits the received PDCP SDUs to one target transmission unit, thereby supporting the target transmission unit to perform reordering and / or merging of the PDCP SDUs. This has the same beneficial effects as the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6, and to avoid duplication, the description thereof will be omitted here.

[0237] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a transmission unit, wherein the transmission unit supports providing aggregated or integrated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, wherein the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard, and the transmission unit includes a third transmitting module or a third receiving module.

[0238] the third sending module is used to send first indication information to the network side device, the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; The third receiving module is used to receive second instruction information sent by the network side equipment, and the second instruction information is used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0239] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the notification method applied to the transmission unit of the present disclosure can be performed and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so in order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0240] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network side device, which supports at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell together, and the network side device includes a fourth receiving module or a fourth transmitting module.

[0241] the fourth receiving module is used to receive first indication information from the transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units at least support aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; The fourth sending module is used for sending second indication information to the transmission units, and the second indication information is used for indicating aggregate transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0242] According to the network side device of this embodiment, each step of the notification method used to indicate the association relationship between transmission units, which is applied to the network side device of the present disclosure, can be performed, and the same beneficial effects can be obtained. In order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0243] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a terminal, wherein a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of a plurality of terminals, including the terminal, is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer with multiple terminals, the sequence number SN of an uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal.

[0244] Optionally, the terminal has a different ID than the secondary terminal.

[0245] Optionally, the terminal further includes an eleventh transmitting module or an eleventh receiving module; an eleventh sending module for sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The eleventh receiving module is used to receive second indication information sent by the network side device, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0246] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 7 of the present disclosure can be realized, and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0247] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network side device, the network side device including: a third ordering module; The third ordering module is used to perform joint ordering on PDCP SDUs that the primary terminal and the secondary terminal jointly transmit or aggregately transmit to the same cell via their respective bearers, and the primary terminal is used to perform joint transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0248] Optionally, the network side device further includes a twelfth receiving module or a twelfth transmitting module; a twelfth receiving module for receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The twelfth sending module is used to send second indication information to the primary terminal, where the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0249] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8 of the present disclosure can be realized, and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0250] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network side device, the network side device comprising: a second numbering module used to perform overall numbering on PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; a fifth transmitting module used for jointly transmitting the PDCP SDU to a primary terminal and a secondary terminal located in the same cell via respective bearers of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal; The primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0251] Optionally, the network side device further includes a thirteenth receiving module or a thirteenth transmitting module; a thirteenth receiving module for receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The thirteenth sending module is used to send second indication information to the primary terminal, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0252] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 9 of the present disclosure can be realized, and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0253] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a primary terminal, the primary terminal including: a fifth receiving module and a fourth ordering module; a fifth receiving module is used to receive PDCP SDUs that are comprehensively numbered via a network side and are respectively transmitted by a network side device and a secondary terminal, and the primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal; The fourth ordering module is used to perform reordering and / or merging processing on the PDCP SDUs.

[0254] Optionally, the primary terminal further includes an eleventh transmitting module or an eleventh receiving module; an eleventh sending module for sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The eleventh receiving module is used to receive second indication information sent by the network side device, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0255] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the method embodiment shown in FIG. 10 of the present disclosure can be realized, and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0256] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a terminal, and a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of a plurality of terminals is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of PDCP SDUs arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer for multiple terminals, the sequence number SN of the uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal, and the terminal includes a sixth transmitting module or a sixth receiving module.

[0257] a sixth sending module for sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The sixth receiving module is used to receive second indication information sent by the network side device, and the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0258] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the notification method applied to the terminal of the present disclosure can be performed and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so in order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0259] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network side device, wherein the network side device supports at least two transmission units that support the same network standard to provide aggregated transmission or integrated transmission in the same cell together, and the network side device includes: a seventh receiving module or a seventh transmitting module; a seventh receiving module for receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; The seventh sending module is used to send second indication information to the primary terminal, where the second indication information is used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0260] According to the network side device of this embodiment, each process of the notification method used to indicate the primary-secondary relationship between terminals, which is applied to the network side device of the present disclosure, can be performed, and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so in order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0261] Referring to FIG. 16, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a transmission unit including a bus 1601, a transceiver 1602, an antenna 1603, a bus interface 1604, a processor 1605 and a memory 1606.

[0262] In a first type of embodiment, the transmission unit supports providing uplink aggregated or integrated transmission of PDCP SDUs together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard.

[0263] The processor 1605 is used to perform overall numbering on the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer using a PDCP numbering function and / or a PDCP sequencing function.

[0264] Furthermore, the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP sequencing function are provided in a separate entity, which is used jointly by all transmission units; Or, The PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP sequencing function are integrated into a PDCP entity.

[0265] Furthermore, the transceiver 1602 If the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are implemented in an independent entity, sending the numbered PDCP SDUs via the independent entity to a PDCP entity of a corresponding transmission unit for processing; Or, When the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are integrated into a PDCP entity, the numbered PDCP SDUs are sent via the PDCP entity to a PDCP entity of another transmission unit for processing, or the PDCP numbering function and / or the PDCP ordering function are directly processed via the integrated PDCP entity.

[0266] Furthermore, the transceiver 1602 Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate that transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The second instruction information is used to receive second instruction information sent by a network side device, the second instruction information being used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0267] The transmission unit of this embodiment can realize each step realized by the transmission unit in the method embodiment shown in Figure 1, and has the same beneficial effects, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0268] In a second embodiment, in the case of integrated transmission, the transceiver 1602 is used to receive PDCP SDUs, which are comprehensively numbered via the network side and respectively transmitted by the network side device to different transmission units; The processor 1605 is used to perform reordering and / or merging processing on the PDCP SDUs; Alternatively, in the case of aggregated transmission, the processor 1605 may be used to process using its own physical sublayer, MAC sublayer, and RLC and PDCP sublayers shared with other transmission units.

[0269] Furthermore, the transceiver 1602 further comprises: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate that transmission units support at least aggregated transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The second instruction information is used to receive second instruction information sent by a network side device, the second instruction information being used to instruct aggregated transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0270] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each process realized by the transmission unit in the method embodiment shown in Figure 5 can be realized and has the same beneficial effects, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0271] In a third embodiment, the transmission unit is used to provide downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) together with one or more other transmission units within the same cell or the same network equipment, and the transceiver 1602 is used to receive PDCP SDUs sent from a network side device, where the sequence numbers SN of the PDCP SDUs sent in the transmission units of the downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission are globally numbered by the network side device; The transceiver 1602 is further used to transmit the PDCP SDU to other transmission units with different IDs.

[0272] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each process realized by the transmission unit in the method embodiment shown in Figure 6 can be realized and has the same beneficial effects, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0273] In a fourth embodiment, the transmission unit according to this embodiment is used together with other transmission units having different IDs to provide aggregated transmission or consolidated transmission of PDCP SDUs within the same cell, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard; the transceiver 1602 is used to send first indication information to a network side device, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the transmission units at least support aggregated transmission within the cell or within the same network device, or consolidated transmission within the cell; Or, The transceiver 1602 is used to receive second instruction information sent by the network side equipment, and the second instruction information is used to instruct aggregate transmission or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units.

[0274] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the notification method applied to the transmission unit of the present disclosure can be realized and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so in order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0275] In a fifth embodiment, the transmission unit according to this embodiment is a terminal, and a radio protocol supporting an integrated bearer of multiple terminals is located in the same cell, and the radio protocol commonly transmits Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) arriving at an upper layer using the respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell, and for the DRB of the integrated bearer of multiple terminals, the sequence number (SN) of the uplink PDCP SDU of the secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal.

[0276] Optionally, the terminal has a different ID than the secondary terminal.

[0277] Optionally, the transceiver 1602 further comprises: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The second indication information is used to receive second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between terminals.

[0278] In this embodiment, the terminal can realize each step of the method for transmitting an integrated bearer by multiple terminals in a cell shown in Figure 7 of the present disclosure, and can obtain the same beneficial effects, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0279] In the sixth embodiment, the transmission unit according to this embodiment is a primary terminal.

[0280] Here, the transceiver 1602 is used to receive PDCP SDUs, which are transmitted by a network-side device and a secondary terminal, and which are subjected to comprehensive numbering via the network side, and the primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal; The processor 1605 is used to perform reordering and / or merging processes on the PDCP SDUs.

[0281] Optionally, the transceiver 1602 further comprises: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The second indication information is used to receive second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between terminals.

[0282] In this embodiment, the primary terminal can realize each step of the transmission method shown in FIG. 10 of the present disclosure and obtain the same beneficial effects, and to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0283] In a seventh embodiment, the transmission unit according to this embodiment is a terminal, and the radio protocol supporting the integrated bearer of the terminals included in the terminal is located in the same cell; The radio protocol supports common transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) arriving at an upper layer using respective bearers of the terminal and at least one secondary terminal within one cell; For a DRB of an integrated bearer by multiple terminals, the sequence number SN of the uplink PDCP SDU of a secondary terminal connected to the same cell as the terminal is assigned by the terminal, and the transceiver 1602: Sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The second indication information is used to receive second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between terminals.

[0284] According to the transmission unit of this embodiment, each step of the notification method applied to the terminal of the present disclosure can be realized and the same beneficial effects can be obtained, so in order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0285] Preferably, the embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a transmission unit, which includes a processor 1605, a memory 1606, and a computer program stored in the memory 1606 and executable by the processor 1605, and when the computer program is executed by the processor 1605, it can realize each step of the transmission method embodiments shown in Figure 1, Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figure 10 above, or realize each step of the notification method embodiments applied to the transmission unit of the present disclosure, or realize each step of the notification method embodiments applied to the terminal of the present disclosure, and can achieve the same technical effects, so description here will be omitted to avoid duplication.

[0286] Referring to FIG. 17, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network side device including a bus 1701, a transceiver 1702, an antenna 1703, a bus interface 1704, a processor 1705 and a memory 1706.

[0287] In a first type of embodiment, the processor 1705 is used to perform joint ordering processing for different transmission units within the same cell via PDCP PDUs of uplink aggregated or consolidated transmissions.

[0288] Furthermore, the transceiver 1702 receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The present invention is used to perform the following: sending second indication information to a transmission unit, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregate transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0289] In this embodiment, the network side device can implement each step implemented by the network side device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 3, and has the same beneficial effects, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0290] In a second embodiment, the network side equipment is used for providing downlink aggregated transmission or downlink consolidated transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) in the same cell to at least two transmission units; In the case of the integrated transmission, the processor 1705 is used for performing integrated numbering on the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer, and the transceiver 1702 is used for integratedly transmitting the PDCP SDUs into at least two transmission units via at least two bearers in the same cell, which perform the integrated transmission; In the case of aggregate transmission, the processor 1705 is used to process the PDCP SDUs received from the upper layer using a shared PDCP sublayer and radio link control (RLC) sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, and a media access control (MAC) sublayer and physical sublayer provided for the at least two transmission units, respectively.

[0291] Furthermore, the transceiver 1702 may further include: receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The present invention is used to perform the following: sending second indication information to a transmission unit, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregate transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0292] In this embodiment, the network-side device can implement each step implemented by the network-side device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 4, and has the same beneficial effects. To avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0293] In a third type of embodiment, the transceiver 1702 includes: receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate that the transmission units support at least aggregate transmission within a cell or within the same network device, or integrated transmission within a cell; Or, The present invention is used to perform the following: sending second indication information to a transmission unit, the second indication information being used to indicate aggregate transmission or joint transmission within a cell between the transmission units.

[0294] In this embodiment, the network side device can realize each step of the notification method used to indicate the association relationship between transmission units, which is applied to the network side device of the present disclosure, and can obtain the same beneficial effects, and in order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0295] In a fourth embodiment, the processor 1705: It is used to perform joint ordering on PDCP SDUs that the primary terminal and the secondary terminal jointly transmit or aggregately transmit to the same cell via their respective bearers, and the primary terminal is used to perform joint transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0296] Optionally, the transceiver 1702 receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The method is used to perform the following: sending second indication information to the primary terminal, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0297] In this embodiment, the network side device can implement each step implemented by the network side device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 8, and has the same beneficial effects, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0298] In a fifth embodiment, the processor 1705 is used to perform global numbering on the PDCP SDUs received from an upper layer; The transceiver 1702 is used to perform aggregate transmission of the PDCP SDU to a primary terminal and a secondary terminal located in the same cell via respective bearers of the primary terminal and the secondary terminal; The primary terminal is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the secondary terminal.

[0299] Optionally, the transceiver 1702 further comprises: receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The method is used to perform the following: sending second indication information to the primary terminal, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0300] In this embodiment, the network side device can implement each step implemented by the network side device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 9, and has the same beneficial effects, so to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0301] In a sixth embodiment, the transceiver 1702 includes: receiving first indication information from the primary terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals; Or, The method is used to perform the following: sending second indication information to the primary terminal, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the terminals.

[0302] In this embodiment, the network side device can realize each step of the notification method used to indicate the primary-secondary relationship between terminals, which is applied to the network side device of the present disclosure, and can obtain the same beneficial effects, so in order to avoid duplication, the description will be omitted here.

[0303] FIG. 17 illustrates a bus architecture (represented by bus 1701), which may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, connecting various circuits, including one or more processors, represented by processor 1705, and memory, represented by memory 1706. Bus 1701 may also couple various other circuits, such as peripherals, regulators, and power management circuits, all of which are well known to those skilled in the art and will not be further described here. Bus interface 1704 provides an interface between bus 1701 and transceiver 1702. Transceiver 1702 may be a single element or multiple elements, such as multiple receivers and transmitters, providing a unit configured to communicate with various other devices via a transmission medium. Data processed by processor 1705 is transmitted over a wireless medium via antenna 1703, which in turn receives and transmits data to processor 1705.

[0304] The processor 1705 is responsible for managing and general processing of the bus 1701 and may provide a variety of functions such as timing, peripheral interfacing, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. The memory 1706 may be used to store data used by the processor 1705.

[0305] Optionally, the processor 1705 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD).

[0306] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, realizes each step of the transmission method embodiment shown in Figure 1, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 8 or Figure 9 above, or realizes each step of the notification method embodiment applied to the transmission unit or network side device of the present disclosure, or realizes each step of the notification method embodiment applied to the terminal or network side device of the present disclosure, and can achieve the same technical effect, so description here will be omitted to avoid duplication. Here, the computer-readable storage medium is, for example, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0307] As used herein, the terms "comprise," "include," or any variation thereof, are intended to include a non-exclusive "inclusion," such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that includes a set of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or includes elements inherent in such process, method, article, or apparatus. In the absence of further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "including one of" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes that element.

[0308] Those skilled in the art will recognize that each example unit and algorithm step described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be realized in electronic hardware or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. These functions can be performed in hardware or software depending on the specific application and design constraints of the technology. Those skilled in the art will recognize that different methods can be used to realize the described functions for each specific application, and this implementation is not considered to be beyond the scope of the present disclosure.

[0309] It may be apparent to those skilled in the art that the specific operation processes of the above-described systems, devices, and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the above-described method embodiments for ease of explanation and conciseness, and will not be further described here.

[0310] In the embodiments provided herein, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be realized in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely exemplary, and the division of units is merely a division of logical functions. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components being combined or integrated into another system, or some features being ignored or not implemented. In other respects, the couplings or direct couplings or communication connections shown or discussed between each other may be indirect couplings or communication connections via some interfaces, devices, or units, and may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

[0311] The means described as the separate means may be physically separated, and the means shown as the means may not be physical means, i.e., may be located in one place or may be distributed among multiple network elements. The purpose of this embodiment can be realized by selecting some or all of the units according to actual needs.

[0312] Furthermore, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present disclosure may be integrated into a single processing unit, each unit may physically exist independently, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit.

[0313] When the above-described functions are realized as software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the present disclosure, in essence or in part contributing to existing technology, or parts of the technical solutions, can be embodied in the form of a computer software product stored in a storage medium, which includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, etc.) to execute all or some of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present disclosure. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0314] Those skilled in the art can understand that realizing all or part of the steps of the methods of the above-described embodiments can be achieved by controlling related hardware with a computer program that can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can include the steps of each of the above-described method embodiments when executed, where the storage medium can be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a ROM, a RAM, etc.

[0315] Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above using the drawings, the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which are merely illustrative and not limiting, and a person skilled in the art can take many forms that fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure under the teachings of the present disclosure without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure and the scope protected by the claims.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting an integrated bearer by a plurality of transmission units in a cell, the method being applied to a transmission unit, comprising: A radio protocol that supports the aggregated bearer of multiple transmission units located in the same cell, The radio protocol supports common transmission of Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Service Data Units (SDUs) arriving at higher layers using respective bearers of the transmission unit and at least one other transmission unit within one cell; For a data radio bearer DRB of an aggregated bearer with multiple transmission units, the sequence number SN of the uplink PDCP SDU of other transmission units connected to the same cell as the transmission unit is assigned by the transmission unit. Transmission method.

2. The transmission unit has an ID that is different from other transmission units. The transmission method according to claim 1 .

3. The transmission method further comprises: sending first indication information to a network side device, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between transmission units; Or, receiving second indication information sent by a network side device, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between transmission units; The transmission method according to claim 1 .

4. The transmission unit supports providing aggregated or integrated transmission in the same cell together with other transmission units, and the transmission unit and the other transmission units support the same network standard; The transmission method further comprises: sending first indication information to a network side device for indicating that intra-cell aggregate transmission or intra-cell integrated transmission between transmission units is supported; Or, receiving second instruction information transmitted from a network side device for instructing aggregated transmission within a cell or integrated transmission within a cell between transmission units; The transmission method according to claim 1 .

5. A transmission method applied to a network side device, The transmission method includes: The method includes performing integrated ordering on Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) service data units (SDUs) that are integrated or aggregated and transmitted by a transmission unit and other transmission units to the same cell via respective bearers, The transmission unit is used to perform integrated transmission or aggregate transmission with the other transmission units. Transmission method.

6. The transmission method further comprises: receiving first indication information from a transmission unit, the first indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the transmission units; Or, sending second indication information to the transmission units, the second indication information being used to indicate a primary-secondary relationship between the transmission units; The transmission method according to claim 5.

7. The network side equipment supports at least two transmission units supporting the same network standard to provide aggregated or integrated transmission together in the same cell; The transmission method further comprises: receiving first indication information from the transmission unit for indicating that intra-cell aggregate transmission or intra-cell integrated transmission is supported between the transmission units; Or, transmitting second indication information to the transmission units for indicating intra-cell aggregate transmission or intra-cell integrated transmission between the transmission units; The transmission method according to claim 5.

8. A transmission unit, a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable by the processor; The computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps of the transmission method according to any one of claims 1 to 4. Transmission unit.

9. A network side device, a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable by the processor; The computer program, when executed by the processor, implements the steps of the transmission method according to any one of claims 5 to 7. Network side equipment.

10. 1. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising: a computer program stored in the computer-readable storage medium; The computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the transmission method according to any one of claims 1 to 4. A computer-readable storage medium.

11. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising: a computer program stored in the computer-readable storage medium; The computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the transmission method according to any one of claims 5 to 7. A computer-readable storage medium.

Citation Information

Patent Citations

  • Data transmission method and apparatus

    US20160277154A1