Relay communication method and terminal

Abstract

This application discloses a relay communication method, apparatus, and terminal, and belongs to the field of mobile communications. The relay communication method according to an embodiment of this application includes: a step in which a first device acquires first information, where the first information includes configuration information for establishing a bearer for a first communication; and a step in which the first device establishes the bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and performs communication. The first device is one of a source terminal and a destination terminal, the second device is the other of the source terminal and the destination terminal, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the first information includes at least one of: first configuration information that is end-to-end configuration information in the bearer configuration information; and second configuration information that is hop-by-hop configuration information corresponding to a first target hop between the first device and a third device in the bearer configuration information, where the third device is a relay device connected to the first device in the first communication.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application claims the priority of a Chinese patent application filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on June 9, 2022, with the application number 202210648837.1 and the invention title "Relay Communication Method, Apparatus and Terminal", and all the contents of this application are incorporated into the present invention by reference.

[0002] This application belongs to the technical field of mobile communications. Specifically, it relates to relay communication allusion to law methods and terminals.

Background Art

[0003] In the case of sidelink relay communication between terminals (also referred to as User Equipment (UE)), at least one relay UE is included between two remote UEs. In this case, two remote UEs (i.e., the source terminal remote UE1 and the destination terminal remote UE2) transfer data transmission between remote UE1 and remote UE2 through a sidelink with the relay UE, and the relay UE plays the role of data relay.

[0004] In the case of U2U sidelink relay, it is necessary to determine the setting method at each terminal of the bearer of sidelink relay communication.

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] Embodiments of this application can provide a relay communication method and a terminal that can determine the settings at each terminal of the bearer of sidelink relay communication in the case of U2U sidelink relay. allusion to law

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] In the first aspect, the present invention provides a relay communication method applied to a first device, comprising the steps of: the first device acquiring first information, wherein the first information includes configuration information for establishing a bearer for a first communication; and the first device establishing a bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and communicating, wherein the first device is one of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the first information includes at least one of: first configuration information which is end-to-end configuration information in the bearer configuration information; and second configuration information which is hop-by-hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information corresponding to a first target hop between the first device and a third device, wherein the third device is a relay device connected to the first device in the first communication.

[0007] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a relay communication device comprising: a first transmission module for acquiring first information, wherein the first information includes configuration information for establishing a bearer for a first communication; and a first execution module for establishing a bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and for performing communication, wherein the relay communication device is one of the source terminals and destination terminals of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminals and destination terminals of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the first information includes at least one of: first configuration information which is end-to-end configuration information in the bearer configuration information; and second configuration information which is hop-by-hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information corresponding to a first target hop between the relay communication device and a third device, wherein the third device is a relay device connected to the first device in the first communication.

[0008] In the third aspect, a relay communication method applied to a fourth device, comprising the steps of: the fourth device acquiring third information, wherein the third information includes configuration information related to the fourth device in configuration information for establishing a bearer for a first communication; and the fourth device establishing a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a third target hop based on the third information, wherein the fourth device is one of the relay devices in the first communication, the second target hop is one hop between the fourth device and an upstream device, and the third target hop The relay communication method is provided, wherein the upstream device is a hop between the fourth device and the downstream device, the upstream device is a relay device or a first device for the first communication, the downstream device is a relay device or a second device for the first communication, the first device is one of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the third information includes at least one of third configuration information which is the second target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information, and fourth configuration information which is the third target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information.

[0009] In the fourth aspect, a relay communication device comprising: a second transmission module for acquiring third information, the second transmission module including configuration information related to a relay communication device in the configuration information for establishing a bearer of a first communication; and a second execution module for establishing a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a third target hop based on the third information, wherein the relay communication device is one of the relay devices in the first communication, the second target hop is one hop between the relay communication device and the upstream device, and the third target hop is The present invention provides a relay communication device, which is one hop between the relay communication device and a downstream device, wherein the upstream device is the relay device or first device of the first communication, the downstream device is the relay device or second device of the first communication, the first device is one of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the third information includes at least one of third configuration information which is the second target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information, and fourth configuration information which is the third target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information.

[0010] In the fifth aspect, a terminal is provided which includes a processor and memory, wherein the memory stores a program or command that can be executed by the processor, and when the program or command is executed by the processor, the steps of the method described in the first aspect are realized.

[0011] In the sixth aspect, a terminal is provided which includes a processor and a communication interface, wherein the processor is used to establish a bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and to perform communication, the communication interface is used to acquire the first information, and the first information includes configuration information for establishing a bearer for the first communication.

[0012] In the seventh aspect, another terminal is provided, which includes a processor and memory, wherein the memory stores a program or command that can be executed by the processor, and when the program or command is executed by the processor, the steps of the method described in the third aspect are realized.

[0013] In the eighth aspect, a terminal is provided, which includes a processor and a communication interface, wherein the processor is used to establish a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a third target hop based on the third information, the communication interface is used to acquire the third information, and the third information includes configuration information related to the fourth device in configuration information for establishing a bearer for first communication.

[0014] The ninth aspect provides a relay communication system including a first device and a fourth device, wherein the first device can be used to perform the steps of the relay communication method described in the first aspect, and the fourth device can be used to perform the steps of the relay communication method described in the third aspect.

[0015] The present invention provides a readable storage medium in which a program or command is stored on the tenth side, and when the program or command is executed by a processor, a step of the method described on the first side or a step of the method described on the third side is realized.

[0016] In the eleventh aspect, a chip is provided which includes a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface and the processor are coupled, and the processor is used to execute a program or command to realize the method described in the first aspect or the method described in the third aspect.

[0017] On the 12th aspect, there is provided a computer program / program product that is stored in a storage medium and, when executed by at least one processor, realizes the steps of the relay communication method described in the 1st aspect or the 3rd aspect.

Advantages of the Invention

[0018] In an embodiment of the present application, first information including configuration information for establishing a bearer of a first communication is obtained, and further, based on the first information, a bearer of the first communication is established with a second device to perform communication. The first information includes first configuration information for establishing an end-to-end sidelink bearer and / or second configuration information for establishing a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer. Thereby, the bearer configuration of sidelink relay communication can be quickly executed, and service data transmission on a U2U path and further a multi-hop U2U path can be realized.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0019] [Figure 1] It is a structural schematic diagram of a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of the present application is applicable. [Figure 2] It is a structural schematic diagram of a relay communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 3] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 4] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 5] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 6] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 7] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 8] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 9]It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 10] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 11] It is a structural schematic diagram of a relay communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 12] It is a flowchart of another relay communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 13] It is a structural schematic diagram of another relay communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 14] It is a structural schematic diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 15] It is a structural schematic diagram of a terminal for realizing an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 16] It is a structural schematic diagram of another terminal for realizing an embodiment of the present application.

Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0020] In the following, while referring to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly described. Naturally, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present application, not all embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments in the present application shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

[0021] The terms "first," "second," etc., in the specification and claims of this application are not intended to describe a specific order or sequence, but rather to distinguish similar subjects. These terms may be interchangeable where appropriate so that the embodiments of this application can be carried out in an order other than those illustrated or described herein, and it should be understood that the subjects distinguished by "first," "second," etc., usually belong to a single category, and the number of subjects is not limited; for example, there may be one or more first subjects. Furthermore, "and / or" in the specification and claims refers to at least one of the connected subjects, and the symbol " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following related subjects are in an "or" relationship.

[0022] It should be noted that the technologies described in the embodiments of this application are not limited to Long Term Evolution (LTE) / LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, but are also applicable to other wireless communication systems and other systems, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), and Single-carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA). The terms “system” and “network” in the embodiments of this application are generally interchangeable, and the technologies described may be used with the above-mentioned systems and radiotelegraph technologies, or with other systems and radiotelegraph technologies. However, the following description uses the New Radio (NR) system as an example, and uses NR terminology in most of the following descriptions, but these technologies are also applicable to systems other than NR systems, for example, the 6th generation (6th It can also be applied to Generation 6G communication systems.

[0023] Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a wireless communication system to which an embodiment of this application can be applied. The wireless communication system includes a terminal 11 and a network-side device 12. Here, the terminal 11 is a mobile phone, tablet personal computer, laptop computer (also called notebook computer), personal digital assistant (PDA), personal information terminal, netbook, ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), mobile internet device (MID), augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) equipment, robot, wearable device, vehicle user equipment (VUE), pedestrian user equipment (PUE), smart home (home devices with wireless communication functions such as refrigerators, televisions, washing machines or furniture), game console, personal computer (personal The terminal-side equipment may be a computer (PC), an ATM or kiosk, and the wearable device includes smartwatches, smart wristbands, smart earphones, smart glasses, smart accessories (smart bracelets, smart rings, smart necklaces, smart anklets, smart wristbands, smart wear, etc.). It should be noted that the specific type of terminal 11 is not limited in the embodiments of this application. The network-side equipment 12 may include access network equipment or core network equipment, where the access network equipment 12 may be called a wireless access network device, a radio access network (RAN), a radio access network function, or a radio access network unit.The access network equipment 12 may include a base station, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point, or a WiFi node, and the base station may also be called a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB), an access point, a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a wireless base station, a wireless transceiver, a Basic Service Set (BSS), an Extended Service Set (ESS), a home B node, a home evolved B node, a Transmitting Receiving Point (TRP), or any other appropriate term in the art, and the base station is not limited to any particular technical term as long as the same technical effect can be achieved, and although the embodiments of this application describe only base stations in NR systems as examples, it is necessary to explain that the specific type of base station is not limited.The core network equipment includes core network nodes, core network functions, Mobility Management Entity (MME), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), User Plane Function (UPF), Policy Control Function (PCF), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), Edge Application Server Discovery Function (EASDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Unified Data Repository (UDR), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Centralized network configuration (CNC), Network Repository Function (NRF), Network Exposure Function (NEF), Local NEF (or L-NEF), Binding Support Function (BSF), and Application Function (Application It may include, but is not limited to, at least one of Function, AF, etc. In the embodiments of this application, only core network equipment in an NR system is presented as an example, but it should be noted that the specific type of core network equipment is not limited.

[0024] In the following, with reference to the drawings, the relay communication method, apparatus, and terminal provided by the embodiments of this application will be described in detail by several embodiments and their application scenarios.

[0025] As shown in Figures 2 and 3, embodiments of the present application provide a relay communication method, the implementing body of the method being a first device 21, in other words, the method can be executed by software or hardware installed on the first device. The method includes the following steps S110 and S120.

[0026] In S110, the first device acquires first information, and the first information includes configuration information for establishing a bearer for the first communication.

[0027] The first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and as shown in Figure 2, the first communication refers to U2U sidelink relay communication between the first device 21 and the second device 22, where data is relayed between the first device 21 and the second device 22 via N relay devices 23, and N is a positive integer. Data is transmitted between the first device 21 and the relay devices 23, between each relay device 23, and between the relay devices 23 and the second device 22 via a sidelink interface (PC5).

[0028] The first device 21 may be one of the source terminals and destination terminals of the first communication, the second device 22 may be the other of the source terminals and destination terminals of the first communication, and the relay device 23 may be a relay UE between the source terminal and the destination terminal in the first communication.

[0029] The source terminal may be the service initiating device of the first communication, or the service flow transmitting device during the service transmission of the first communication. Accordingly, the destination terminal may be the service receiving device of the first communication, or the service flow receiving device during the service transmission of the first communication.

[0030] Configuration information for establishing a bearer for the first communication can be determined, configured and / or maintained by the first device 21. The first device 21 can be configured according to actual needs, and in one embodiment, the first device may be one of the following: the service initiating device for the sidelink relay communication, the service flow transmitting device for the sidelink relay communication, the service flow receiving device for the sidelink relay communication, and one of the source terminal and destination terminal for the sidelink relay communication.

[0031] In one embodiment, for each service or bidirectional service, the service flow initiating device can determine the bearer configuration information and lead the configuration and / or maintenance process. For example, in a one-way service, when transmitting from remote UE1 to remote UE2, the bearer configuration information corresponding to the one-way service is determined by remote UE1, designated as the first device 21, and can be configured and / or maintained for the peer remote UE2 through the sidelink radio resource control (PC5 RRC) process. Similarly, in a bidirectional service, which consists of two service flows, the bearer configuration information corresponding to the service flow transmitted from remote UE1 to remote UE2 is determined by remote UE1 and can lead the configuration and / or maintenance process, while the bearer configuration information corresponding to the reverse service flow transmitted from remote UE2 to remote UE1 is determined by remote UE2 and can lead the configuration and / or maintenance process. The advantage of this method is that, because the remote UE that generates each service has the most accurate understanding of each service or service flow in each direction, it can provide precise configuration and / or maintenance processes.

[0032] In another embodiment, for each service, or for a one-way service, the service initiating device can determine, configure, and / or maintain the bearer configuration information. For example, in a one-way service, the service initiating remote UE1 determines and leads the process of configuring and / or maintaining the bearer configuration information. Similarly, in a bidirectional service, the service initiating remote UE determines and leads the process of configuring and / or maintaining the bearer configuration information, without distinguishing between the service flow directions of bidirectional services; all directions are determined and led by remote UE1. When a bidirectional service is initiated from remote UE1, remote UE2 also has a service flow in the reverse direction, but only remote UE1 determines the bearer configuration information and leads the configuration and / or maintenance process. The advantages of this method are that it avoids configuration inconsistencies and failures, reduces the delay of signaling interactions in scenes involving relay UEs and even multiple relay UEs, and improves the efficiency of configuration and control.

[0033] In another embodiment, each service, whether unidirectional or bidirectional, determines the bearer configuration information and leads the configuration and / or maintenance process, using a source terminal and a destination terminal determined according to a defined set of rules. The defined set of rules can be configured according to actual needs.

[0034] In one embodiment, a default rule may be adopted to determine the UE that initiates the sidelink communication establishment request, for example, when remote UE1 initiates the Direct Communication Request (DCR), remote UE1 may decide and lead the setup and / or maintenance process. In another embodiment, the actual service provider UE may decide and lead the setup and / or maintenance process depending on the service status, for example, when data transmission is performed between two UEs, the data provider UE may decide and lead the setup and / or maintenance process. In yet another embodiment, one of the two UEs may be selected as the UE that makes the decision and leads the setup and / or maintenance process depending on the negotiation status of the two UEs, for example, the two UEs exchange information and tendencies regarding the determination of control rights in the PC5-S or PC5 RRC interaction process, for example, when one of the UEs is out of network coverage. As is obvious, if one UE is in Coverage (OOC) state and the other is within network coverage and RRC connected, the second UE can get more support from the network side and therefore can decide and lead the configuration and / or maintenance process.

[0035] It should be explained that when the first device that determines the bearer's configuration information and leads the configuration and / or maintenance process is not the source terminal, the first device must first obtain service-related information and / or link-related information for the first communication, which can be obtained from the source terminal by the sidelink radio resource control process, the PC5-S process, or the service layer.

[0036] The first information includes at least one of the following: first configuration information which is end-to-end configuration information in the bearer configuration information; and second configuration information which is hop-by-hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information corresponding to a first target hop between the first device and the third device, wherein the third device is a relay device connected to the first device in the first communication.

[0037] When the first device is a source terminal, the first target hop is the hop from the source terminal to the first relay terminal directly connected to it, out of the N+1 hops between the source terminal and the destination terminal, i.e., the first hop. When the first device is a destination terminal, the first target hop is the hop from the destination terminal to the Nth relay terminal directly connected to it, i.e., the N+1th hop.

[0038] In one embodiment, the first communication is one of two things: a Layer 2 (L2) sidelink relay communication, i.e., an L2 U2U scene, and a Layer 3 (L3) sidelink relay communication, i.e., an L3 U2U scene.

[0039] When the first communication is an L2 U2U scene, the first communication needs to establish an end-to-end sidelink bearer (E2E SLRB) and hop-by-hop sidelink bearers corresponding to each hop between the first and second devices. These may also be called radio link control bearers (RLC bearers) or radio link control channels (RLC channels). For simplicity, in the following embodiments, RLC bearers will be used as examples. Accordingly, the bearer configuration information for the first communication may include first configuration information corresponding to the E2E SLRB and second configuration information corresponding to the RLC bearer.

[0040] The aforementioned first configuration information mainly includes the configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer (PDCP layer) and the above layer, and includes at least one of the following: the configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer, the configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer (SDAP layer), and the End-to-End Sidelink Bearer Identifier (E2E SLRB ID).

[0041] The second configuration information in an L2 U2U scene includes at least one of the following: configuration information for the Wireless Link Control Layer (RLC layer), configuration information for the Medium Access Control Layer (MAC layer), and configuration information for the Physical Layer (PHY layer).

[0042] When the first communication is an L3 U2U scene, all hop links between the first and second devices are Layer 3 links (L3 links). Therefore, the first communication needs to establish sidelink bearers for each hop link, and the bearer configuration information for the first communication may include second configuration information corresponding to the sidelink bearers for each hop link.

[0043] The second configuration information in an L3 U2U scene includes at least one of the following: configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer, configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer, configuration information for the Wireless Link Control layer, configuration information for the Media Access Control layer, and configuration information for the Physical Layer.

[0044] In S120, the first device establishes a bearer for the first communication with the second device based on the first information and performs communication.

[0045] After determining the bearer configuration information, the first device can set the corresponding configuration information to the second device and the relay device in order to establish a bearer for the first communication, and after successful configuration, it can realize sidelink relay communication with the second device.

[0046] In an L2 U2U scene, the first device can transmit first configuration information to the second device through a sidelink radio resource control process in order to establish an E2E SLRB, and can also transmit second configuration information to an adjacent relay device through a sidelink radio resource control process in order to establish an RCL bearer with the adjacent relay device.

[0047] In an L3 U2U scene, the first device can transmit service-related information and / or link-related information for the first communication to the second device and each relay device. For example, it can transmit service-related information and / or link-related information corresponding to each hop via signaling in the PC5-S process, and the transmitting end of each hop can obtain corresponding configuration information based on the corresponding service-related information and / or link-related information and transmit it to the peer device to establish a sidelink bearer at each hop.

[0048] As can be seen from the above embodiment, for the first communication, one terminal may determine the configuration information of the bearer and lead the configuration and / or maintenance process, or two terminals may determine the configuration information for different directions of the bearer and lead the configuration and / or maintenance process for those directions, according to different directions of the service flow. The first configuration information and the second configuration information can also be determined by the same or different terminals, and the configuration and / or maintenance processes can be led by them, respectively. For simplicity, the following embodiments will all be described as examples in which one terminal determines the configuration information of the bearer and leads the configuration and / or maintenance process.

[0049] As can be seen from the technical solution of the above embodiment, the embodiment of the present application acquires first information including configuration information for establishing a bearer for a first communication, and further establishes a bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and performs communication, wherein the first information includes first configuration information for establishing an end-to-end sidelink bearer and / or second configuration information for establishing a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer, thereby enabling rapid execution of bearer configuration for sidelink relay communication and realization of service data transmission over U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths.

[0050] Based on the above embodiment, and further as shown in Figure 4, step S110 includes step S111 in which the first device receives a first message from a network-side device and obtains first information based on the first message, wherein the first message includes at least one of the following: first configuration information and / or second configuration information; a configuration table for retrieving the first configuration information and / or second configuration information and providing the corresponding first configuration information and / or second configuration information, taking into account all possible service scenarios in advance; and a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0051] The first message may be at least one of the following, depending on the network status of the first device: a dedicated signaling signal, a broadcast signaling signal, a System Information Block (SIB) signaling signal, or a pre-configured signaling signal.

[0052] In one embodiment, as shown in Figure 5, step S111 includes step S113 in which the first device receives the first signaling, which includes the first configuration information and / or second configuration information, from a network-side device, when the first device is in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection state.

[0053] The first signaling may be a dedicated signaling, that is, it directly distributes the first configuration information and / or the second configuration information from the network-side device to the first device.

[0054] The first signaling may further include a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0055] In order to obtain accurate first and / or second configuration information from the network-side device, the method further includes step S112, after receiving the first signaling from the network-side device, the first device transmits second information of the first communication to the network-side device, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0056] In one embodiment, the service-related information of the first communication includes at least one of end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) parameter information and hop-by-hop QoS parameter information.

[0057] In one embodiment, the hop-by-hop QoS parameter information includes at least one of the following: hop QoS parameter information, allocated or occupied QoS parameter information, remaining QoS parameter information excluding the allocated or occupied QoS information, and QoS partitioning information.

[0058] Here, the QoS partitioning information is used to partition the QoS parameters, and the QoS parameter values ​​for each hop are determined based on end-to-end QoS parameter information, hop-by-hop QoS parameter information, allocated or occupied QoS parameter information, and hop characteristics.

[0059] To illustrate with an example of a packet delay budget (PDB), assuming that the end-to-end PDB need for a sidelink service is 100 milliseconds (ms), when transmitting through one relay UE, the hop-by-hop PDB parameter between remote UE1 and relay UE could be set to 50ms, and the remaining hop-by-hop PDB parameter between relay UE and remote UE2 could be set to 50ms, or it could be divided between them as 40ms or 60ms. Alternatively, when transmitting through two relay UEs, relay UE1 and relay UE2, the PDB could be set to 30ms between remote UE1 and relay UE1, 35ms between relay UE1 and relay UE2, and 35ms between relay UE2 and remote UE2 (the sum of which equals the end-to-end PDB of 100ms), or the three PDBs could be set to 20ms, 40ms, and 40ms respectively. Each hop can determine only its own PDB, and retrieves its PDB parameters by referring to the end-to-end PDB and any PDBs occupied by other hops or the remaining PDBs.

[0060] In one embodiment, the link-related information of the first communication includes at least one of first relay instruction information for instructing to employ Layer 2 or Layer 3 end-to-end relay communication, and hop-by-hop relay link information, wherein the hop-by-hop relay link information includes at least one of the total number of hops and the hop number.

[0061] In another embodiment, as shown in Figure 6, step S111 includes the following steps S114 and S115.

[0062] In S114, if the first device is in an RRC idle or inactive state, the first device receives a second signaling, including the configuration table, from a network-side device.

[0063] The aforementioned configuration table includes a mapping relationship between the first information and the second information.

[0064] In S115, the first device retrieves the first information from the configuration table based on the second information of the first communication, and the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0065] The second signaling may be broadcast signaling or SIB.

[0066] The second signaling may further include a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0067] In another embodiment, as shown in Figure 7, step S111 includes the following steps S116 and S117.

[0068] In S116, if the first device is in OOC, the first device obtains preconfiguration information, including the configuration table, from the third signaling.

[0069] The configuration table includes a mapping relationship between the first information and the second information, where the third signaling may be a pre-configured signaling that can be transmitted from a network-side device to the first device when the first device is in an RRC connected state, an inactive state, or an idle state.

[0070] In S117, the first device retrieves the first information from the configuration table based on the second information of the first communication, and the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0071] The third signaling may further include a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0072] In one embodiment, step S115 or S117 includes at least one of the following steps: the first device retrieves the first setting information from the setting table based on end-to-end related information in the second information; the first device retrieves the second setting information from the setting table based on end-to-end related information and / or hop-by-hop related information in the second information; and the first device retrieves the second setting information from the setting table based on end-to-end related information and / or mapping relationships between the first setting information and the second setting information in the second information.

[0073] The end-to-end related information in the second information may include at least one of the following: end-to-end QoS parameter information, peer device information, first relay instruction information, hop-by-hop relay link information, total number of hops, etc.

[0074] The hop-by-hop related information in the second information may include at least one of the following: hop-by-hop QoS parameter information, hop QoS parameter information, allocated or occupied QoS parameter information, remaining QoS parameter information excluding allocated or occupied QoS information, QoS partitioning information, hop number, etc.

[0075] In one embodiment, the configuration table for retrieving the first configuration information and the second configuration information may be the same configuration table, or it may include a first configuration table for retrieving the first configuration information and a second configuration table for retrieving the second configuration information. The first device can obtain the first configuration table and the second configuration table from the network-side device, and further retrieve the first configuration information from the first configuration table based on the end-to-end related information in the second information, and retrieve the second configuration information from the second configuration table based on the end-to-end related information and / or hop-by-hop related information in the second information.

[0076] For simplicity, the following examples will all be explained using the first and second configuration tables as examples.

[0077] As can be seen from the technical solutions of the above embodiment, the embodiment of this application can flexibly realize bearer configuration for sidelink relay communication by acquiring first configuration information and / or second configuration information in different ways when the first device is in different network states.

[0078] Based on the above embodiment, as shown in Figure 8, the process for setting and / or maintaining the first configuration information in the L2 U2U scene includes the following steps S810 and S820.

[0079] In step S810, the first device acquires the first configuration information.

[0080] To obtain the first configuration information based on the network status of the first device, if the first device is in an RRC connection state, the first configuration information is obtained from the network-side device in steps S112 to S113. If the first device is in an RRC idle state or inactive state, the first configuration table is obtained from the second signaling received from the network-side device in steps S114 to S115, and the first configuration information is retrieved from the first configuration table based on the end-to-end related information in the second information.

[0081] If the first device is outside the network coverage area, steps S116 to S117 retrieve the first configuration table from the third signaling, and then retrieve the first configuration information from the first configuration table based on the end-to-end related information in the second information.

[0082] It should be explained that since both the second and third signaling are common signaling, the first configuration tables for the second and third signaling need to consider all possible service scenarios and provide a first configuration table corresponding to each service scenario, such as direct transmission, one-hop relay transmission, two-hop relay transmission, or N-hop relay transmission. Therefore, network-side equipment can be configured for different scenarios in the following ways.

[0083] In one embodiment, the same first configuration table is used for all service scenes without distinguishing between them. Furthermore, the corresponding first configuration information is retrieved from the first configuration table based on service-related information in end-to-end related information such as end-to-end QoS parameter information, making the processing simple and reducing signaling overhead. In another embodiment, different first configuration tables are used depending on the service scene. For example, first configuration table A1 is used for direct transmission, first configuration table A2 is used for U2U relay communication via relay, or a corresponding first configuration table is used depending on the total number of different hops. Alternatively, different scenes are grouped together, with each scene group corresponding to a different first configuration table. For example, scene group 1 corresponds to first configuration table A1, scene group 2 to first configuration table A2, ..., scene group m to first configuration table Am.

[0084] In another embodiment, the setting parameters in the first setting information are divided into common parameters and differentiating parameters. Since the common parameters are the same, a common first setting table A0 can be used. Differentiating parameters can be set individually for different scenes or different scene groups. For example, the first setting information includes a common parameter and b differentiating parameters. The a common parameter is common to each scene and can be retrieved from the common first setting table A0. The b differentiating parameters correspond to different first setting tables depending on the scene or scene group. For a specific scene, the first device can retrieve the a parameter from the common first setting table A0 based on the service-related information in the end-to-end related information, then determine the corresponding first setting table based on the scene group to which it belongs, obtain the corresponding b differentiating parameters, and finally combine the a+b parameters to obtain the complete first setting information.

[0085] Through the above process, the first device acquires first configuration information for the first communication and further sets the first configuration information for the second device, and step S120 includes step S820 in which the first device transmits a second message containing the first configuration information to the second device via the PC5 RRC process.

[0086] Since the first and second devices cannot communicate directly, they need to be relayed via a relay device. The data relayed via the relay device is an E2E Layer 2 Protocol Data Unit (PDU), which is typically an encrypted Packet Data Convergence Protocol Data Unit (PDCP PDU). The relay device cannot read the relayed data, thus ensuring security and privacy needs.

[0087] The PC5 RRC process may, specifically, be transmitted to the second device via a Sidelink RRC Reconfiguration process.

[0088] In one embodiment, when the first device receives a Reconfiguration Complete message response from the second device, it determines that the end-to-end side link bearer configuration process is complete.

[0089] In another embodiment, when the first device receives a Reconfiguration Failure message from the second device, it determines that the current configuration has failed and needs to roll back to the previous configuration and perform the next configuration based on the reason for failure, failure instruction information, etc. The reason for failure may be a configuration inconsistency between the two terminals or a failure in configuring the second terminal.

[0090] As can be seen from the technical solutions of the above embodiment, the embodiment of this application realizes end-to-end sidelink bearer configuration by acquiring first configuration information and setting it for the second device, and matches end-to-end sidelink bearers based on different service scenes and QoS parameter information, transmits different service data over U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths, and achieves assurance and improvement of communication performance and system performance such as reliability and throughput.

[0091] Based on the above embodiment, the process for setting and / or maintaining the second configuration information in the L2 U2U scene is as follows:

[0092] For end-to-end sidelink bearers, direct transmission via sidelink is not possible between the first and second devices; therefore, relaying via relay devices is necessary. The relay links include RLC Bearers from the first device to an adjacent relay device, between two adjacent relay devices, and from the adjacent relay device to the second device. In other words, each end-to-end sidelink bearer is mapped to an RLC Bearer at each hop, and transmission is performed at each hop, ultimately reaching the second device.

[0093] Any device on either side of each hop can take the lead in the process of setting and / or maintaining the second configuration information, and may be either the first device or a relay device. For example, if the first device is outside the network coverage area, it may transmit relevant information to the relay device, which may then determine the second configuration information.

[0094] In one embodiment, as shown in Figure 9, the first device performs a setting and / or maintenance process for the second setting information, which includes the following steps S910 and S920.

[0095] In step S910, the first device acquires the second configuration information.

[0096] The method for determining the first device is as described in the above embodiment. The first device may be a source terminal, destination terminal, service initiator, service flow sender, etc., and a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0097] For obtaining the second configuration information based on the network status of the first device, if the first device is in an RRC connection state, the second configuration information is obtained from the network-side device in steps S112 to S113. If the first device is in an RRC idle or inactive state, the second configuration table is obtained from the second signaling received from the network-side device in steps S114 to S115. Furthermore, the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table based on the end-to-end related information and / or hop-by-hop related information in the second information, or the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table based on the end-to-end related information and / or the mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information in the second information.

[0098] If the first device is outside the network coverage area, steps S116 to S117 retrieve the second configuration table from the third signaling, and further retrieve the second configuration information from the second configuration table based on the end-to-end related information and / or hop-by-hop related information in the second information, or retrieve the second configuration information from the second configuration table based on the end-to-end related information and / or the mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information in the second information.

[0099] It should be explained that, since both the second and third signaling are common signalings, the second configuration tables in the second and third signaling need to consider all possible service scenarios and provide a second configuration table corresponding to each service scenario. Furthermore, a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information corresponding to each service scenario may be provided.

[0100] In one embodiment, the second signaling and the third signaling may include a second configuration table corresponding to end-to-end related information in the second information, for example, a second configuration table B corresponding to end-to-end QoS parameter information, and the first device can obtain the configuration parameters of the second configuration information from the second configuration table based on the end-to-end QoS parameter information. For example, if end-to-end QoS parameter information 1 is satisfied, a set of configuration parameters 1 of the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table B; if end-to-end QoS parameter information 2 is satisfied, a set of configuration parameters 2 of the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table B; similarly, if end-to-end QoS parameter information n is satisfied, a set of configuration parameters n of the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table B; and if no end-to-end QoS parameter information that satisfies the conditions exists, the device corresponds to a default set of configuration parameters of the second configuration information.

[0101] From the above embodiment, it is clear that the first device can also retrieve the corresponding first configuration information from the first configuration table based on end-to-end QoS parameter information, and since it can retrieve the corresponding first and second configuration information based on the same end-to-end QoS parameter information, it is clear that a mapping relationship can be determined to exist between the first and second configuration information.

[0102] In one embodiment, the second signaling and / or third signaling can be further modified to include a correspondence between end-to-end QoS parameters and first and second configuration information, and a set of end-to-end QoS parameter information can be simultaneously associated with a set of first and second configuration information. In this case, regardless of the initiative of the first or relay device, two mutually mapped sets of first and second configuration information can be derived from the acquired end-to-end QoS parameter information, and the mapping relationship between the first and second configuration information can be determined.

[0103] In another embodiment, the second and third signaling may include a second configuration table corresponding to hop-by-hop related information in the second information, for example, a second configuration table B corresponding to hop-by-hop QoS parameter information, and the first device can obtain the configuration parameters of the second configuration information from the second configuration table based on the hop-by-hop QoS parameter information. For example, if hop-by-hop QoS parameter information 1 is satisfied, a set of configuration parameters 1 of the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table B; if hop-by-hop QoS parameter information 2 is satisfied, a set of configuration parameters 2 of the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table B; similarly, if hop-by-hop QoS parameter information n is satisfied, a set of configuration parameters n of the second configuration information is retrieved from the second configuration table B; and if no hop-by-hop QoS parameter information that satisfies the conditions exists, the system corresponds to a default set of configuration parameters of the second configuration information.

[0104] In one embodiment, the second signaling and / or third signaling may further include a correspondence between hop-by-hop QoS parameters and second configuration information, or this correspondence may be realized and determined by the first device.

[0105] In another embodiment, the second and third signaling may include a mapping relationship between the first and second setting information, thereby enabling the determination of the second setting information based on the first setting information. The mapping relationship between the first and second setting information may have multiple representations, and the embodiments of this application will be described using only the following two embodiments as examples.

[0106] In Embodiment 1, the second configuration information is determined based on an end-to-end sidelink bearer identifier. A global end-to-end sidelink bearer identifier mechanism is established, that is, different means such as system information block signaling, broadcast signaling, pre-configuration signaling, network-side devices, and cells must all be integrally numbered with their corresponding end-to-end sidelink bearer identifiers. In this way, the acquisition of a global end-to-end sidelink bearer identifier can be guaranteed, thereby enabling the retrieval of accurate second configuration information and the direct acquisition of the mapping relationship between the first and second configuration information.

[0107] In Embodiment 2, second configuration information is determined based on the characteristics of the end-to-end sidelink bearer, and the second configuration information is determined based on typical characteristics of the end-to-end sidelink bearer, such as RLC transmission mode (Acknowledged Mode (AM) or Unacknowledged Mode (UM)), MAC parameters, channel priority of the end-to-end sidelink bearer, service delay parameters, etc., and a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information is obtained.

[0108] In all of the above embodiments, the second configuration information is determined using QoS parameter information as an example. That is, the hop-by-hop sidelink bearer and mode can be determined based on the QoS parameter information. For example, if the reliability requirement for the QoS parameter information is high, the hop-by-hop sidelink bearer can adopt the RLC AM mode, and if the reliability requirement for the QoS parameter information is low, the RLC UM mode can be adopted. If the service priority in the QoS parameter information is high, the corresponding hop-by-hop sidelink bearer priority will also be high, and conversely, if the priority in the QoS parameter information is low, the corresponding hop-by-hop sidelink bearer priority will also be low. If the guaranteed bit rate corresponding to the QoS parameter information is x, then in order to transmit the service, the corresponding guaranteed bit rate of the hop-by-hop sidelink bearer also needs to be increased by x.

[0109] For newly added service flows, a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer may already be established as found using the method described above (i.e., another similar service or a similar service on another UE may have previously triggered its establishment). In this case, the newly added end-to-end sidelink bearer can be directly mapped to the existing hop-by-hop sidelink bearer, and the necessary interface reconfiguration can be performed on the existing hop-by-hop sidelink bearer. The reconfigured parameters may include priority adjustments and / or an increase in the guaranteed bitrate (adding the rate of the new service flow to the original guaranteed bitrate to obtain the new guaranteed bitrate).

[0110] For QoS parameters requiring splitting, the splitting method can be controlled by the network-side equipment. For example, all information may be reported to the network-side equipment, and the system may wait for configuration via the network-side equipment's dedicated signaling, or it may retrieve hop-level QoS parameter information from broadcast signaling, system information block signaling, or pre-configuration signaling according to detailed QoS information. This portion of the QoS parameters requiring splitting may also be implemented by the UE, which obtains fixed configuration parameters in the second configuration information derived from the QoS information from the network, determines the divisible configuration parameters itself, and forms the complete second configuration information.

[0111] Through the above process, the first device acquires second configuration information for the first communication and further configures the second configuration information for the third device, and step S120 includes step S920 in which the first device transmits a third message to the third device, which includes the second configuration information and / or the mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0112] The third message can be transmitted by a sidelink radio resource control process, where the third device is a relay device connected to the first device among the relay devices of the first communication.

[0113] Based on the above embodiment, in one embodiment, the implementation of the setting and / or maintenance process of the second setting information by relay equipment is as follows. As shown in Figure 10, the method includes the following steps S1010 and S1020.

[0114] In S1010, the fourth device acquires the third information, and the third information includes configuration information related to the fourth device in the configuration information for establishing a bearer for the first communication.

[0115] The fourth device is one of the relay devices in the first communication.

[0116] The third information includes at least one of the following: third configuration information which is the second target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information, wherein the second target hop is one hop between the fourth device and the relay device or first device of the first communication upstream device; and fourth configuration information which is the third target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information, wherein the third target hop is one hop between the fourth device and the relay device or second device of the first communication downstream device.

[0117] In one embodiment, step S1010 includes the following steps S1011 and S1012.

[0118] In S1011, the fourth device receives a fourth message containing the third configuration information from the upstream device, and in S1012, the fourth device acquires the fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information, that is, it can acquire the configuration information for the next hop based on the configuration information for the previous hop received by the relay device.

[0119] For the same end-to-end service flow, when transmitting through each hop, different hops can adopt the same or different hop-by-hop configuration information; that is, the fourth device can adopt the same or different third and fourth configuration information. For example, for a PC5 QoS service flow, its corresponding end-to-end QoS parameter information can be determined to adopt the same hop-by-hop configuration information, that is, the same third and fourth configuration information.

[0120] Based on the above principle, in one embodiment, after acquiring the second configuration information, the first device can transmit the second configuration information to the third device corresponding to the first hop, and the second configuration information can be directly used for the RLC Bearer settings of each hop in the simplest way possible by directly multiplexing the hop-by-hop configuration information corresponding to the second hop and subsequent hops. Similarly, for the fourth device, the third configuration information and the fourth configuration information are the same, and both are the second configuration information.

[0121] In another embodiment, the configuration information for each hop can also be adjusted according to actual needs, and step S1012 includes the step of obtaining the fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information and / or the relevant information for the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0122] Specifically, the configuration information for each hop can be adjusted based on the QoS parameter information corresponding to each hop. For QoS parameters that require segmentation, relay equipment can also be used to determine the QoS parameter information for each hop based on end-to-end QoS parameter information and allocated or occupied QoS parameter information, or the remaining QoS parameter information excluding allocated or occupied QoS information.

[0123] The fourth device can further acquire the third information by signaling from network-side devices based on the network status of the fourth device.

[0124] In one embodiment, step S1010 includes the step of the fourth device receiving the fourth signaling, which includes the third information, from a network-side device when the fourth device is in a wireless resource control connection state.

[0125] In one embodiment, before receiving the fourth signaling from the network-side device, the method further includes the step of the fourth device transmitting to the network-side device relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0126] In another embodiment, step S1010 includes the steps of: the fourth device receiving a fifth signaling from a network-side device when the fourth device is in a radio resource control idle state or inactive state; and the fourth device retrieving the third information from the fifth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0127] In another embodiment, step S1010 includes the step of the fourth device retrieving the third information from the sixth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, if the fourth device is outside the network coverage area, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0128] In S1020, the fourth device establishes a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer for the second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer for the third target hop based on the third information.

[0129] In one embodiment, step S1020 includes the step of the fourth device transmitting a fifth message to the downstream device, the fifth message including the fourth configuration information, which can be transmitted by the sidelink radio resource control process. Each relay device may transmit hop configuration information to the downstream device by the PC5 RRC process after receiving the previous hop configuration information from the upstream device.

[0130] The method by which the fourth device acquires the third information based on the network status is the same as the method by which the first device acquires the first information based on the network status in the above embodiment, and a detailed explanation of the overlapping parts is omitted here.

[0131] As can be seen from the technical solutions of the above embodiment, the embodiment of this application realizes hop-by-hop sidelink bearer configuration by acquiring second configuration information and setting it for a third device, and matches hop-by-hop sidelink bearers based on different service scenes and QoS parameter information, transmits different service data on U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths, and achieves assurance and improvement of communication performance and system performance such as reliability and throughput.

[0132] Based on the above embodiment, in an L3 U2U scene, each hop can be considered a complete protocol stack system.

[0133] In one embodiment, the end-to-end QoS parameter information can first be divided, that is, it can be divided into QoS parameter information for each subsequent hop, such as the QoS parameter information for the first hop (Hop1), the QoS parameter information for the second hop (Hop2), ..., the QoS parameter information for the Nth hop (HopN), and so on.

[0134] The above QoS parameter information segmentation process can be performed by PC5-S or the V2X higher layer (Vehicle-to-Everything higher layer, V2X higher layer).

[0135] Therefore, in the sidelink bearer configuration process in an L3 U2U scene, each hop can be configured independently, and each hop obtains its own configuration information based on its corresponding QoS parameter information and decomposes it to use for configuring the sidelink bearer at each hop. For example, Hop1 performs basic configuration with Hop1's SLRB based on Hop1's QoS parameter information, Hop2 performs basic configuration with Hop2's SLRB based on Hop2's QoS parameter information, ... HopN performs basic configuration with HopN's SLRB based on HopN's QoS parameter information. The configuration information for each hop may include SDAP layer configuration information, PDCP configuration information, RLC configuration information, MAC configuration information, and PHY configuration information, etc.

[0136] The settings for each hop can all be performed using the same process, and the settings for the sidelink bearer at each hop are determined by the transmitting equipment at that hop, thereby multiplexing the direct link process in the above embodiment as much as possible.

[0137] When the transmitting device is in an RRC connection state, the same method as in steps S112 to S113 is employed, and the transmitting device reports relevant information corresponding to each hop, such as QoS parameter information for each hop, to the network-side device, and receives a dedicated signaling from the network-side device, the dedicated signaling including configuration information for each hop.

[0138] If the transmitting device is in an RRC idle or inactive state, the same method as in steps S114 to S115 is employed, and the transmitting device retrieves the configuration information for each hop from the broadcast signaling or system message block signaling based on the QoS parameter information for each hop.

[0139] When the transmitting device is located outside the bounds of the network (OOC), the transmitting device retrieves the configuration information for each hop from the pre-configured signaling based on the QoS parameter information for each hop.

[0140] After the transmitting device obtains the configuration information for each hop, it can transmit it to the peer devices at each hop via the PC5 RRC process.

[0141] As can be seen from the technical solutions of the above embodiment, the embodiment of this application is used in an L3 U2U scene to divide the QoS parameter information of each hop, and to acquire setting information for each hop based on the network state according to the QoS parameter information of each hop, thereby realizing the setting of sidelink bearers for each hop. Furthermore, by matching sidelink bearers for each hop based on different QoS parameters, different service data can be transmitted over U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths, thereby guaranteeing and improving communication performance and system performance such as reliability and throughput.

[0142] The relay communication method provided by the embodiments of this application may have a relay communication device as the implementing entity. In the embodiments of this application, the relay communication device provided by the embodiments of this application will be described as an example in which the relay communication device performs the relay communication method.

[0143] As shown in Figure 11, the relay communication device includes a first transmission module 1101 and a first execution module 1102.

[0144] The first transmission module 1101 is used to acquire first information, the first information including configuration information for establishing a bearer for a first communication, and the first execution module 1102 is used to establish a bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and to communicate, where the relay communication device is one of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the first information includes at least one of: first configuration information which is end-to-end configuration information in the bearer configuration information, and second configuration information which is hop-by-hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information corresponding to a first target hop between the relay communication device and the third device, wherein the third device is a relay device connected to the first device in the first communication.

[0145] Selectively, the first communication is one of two types: a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication and a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication.

[0146] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication, the second configuration information includes at least one of the following: wireless link control layer configuration information, media access control layer configuration information, and physical layer configuration information.

[0147] Selectively, if the first communication is a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication, the second configuration information includes at least one of the following: configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer, configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer, configuration information for the Wireless Link Control layer, configuration information for the Media Access Control layer, and configuration information for the Physical Layer.

[0148] Selectively, the relay communication device is one of the following: the service initiating device for the sidelink relay communication, the service flow transmitting device for the sidelink relay communication, the service flow receiving device for the sidelink relay communication, and either the source terminal or the destination terminal for the sidelink relay communication.

[0149] As can be seen from the technical solution of the above embodiment, the embodiment of the present application acquires first information including configuration information for establishing a bearer for a first communication, and further establishes a bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and performs communication, wherein the first information includes first configuration information for establishing an end-to-end sidelink bearer and / or second configuration information for establishing a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer, thereby enabling rapid execution of bearer configuration for sidelink relay communication and realization of service data transmission over U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths.

[0150] Based on the above embodiment, the first transmission module 1101 is selectively used to receive a first message from a network-side device and to obtain first information based on the first message, wherein the first message includes at least one of the following: first configuration information and / or second configuration information; a configuration table for retrieving the first configuration information and / or second configuration information; and a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0151] Selectively, when in a wireless resource control connection state, the first transmission module 1101 is used to receive the first signaling, which includes the first configuration information and / or the second configuration information, from network-side equipment.

[0152] Selectively, the first signaling may further include a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0153] Selectively, the first transmission module 1101 is further used to transmit second information of the first communication to the network-side equipment, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0154] Selectively, when the wireless resource control is in an idle or inactive state, the first transmission module 1101 is used to receive a second signaling from a network-side device, which includes the configuration table, wherein the configuration table includes a mapping relationship between first information and second information, and to retrieve the first information from the configuration table based on the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0155] Selectively, the second signaling further includes a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0156] Selectively, when outside the network coverage area, the first transmission module 1101 is used to obtain preconfiguration information, including the configuration table, from the third signaling, wherein the configuration table includes a mapping relationship between first information and second information, and to retrieve the first information from the configuration table based on the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0157] Selectively, the third signaling further includes a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0158] Selectively, the service-related information of the first communication includes at least one of end-to-end QoS parameter information and hop-by-hop QoS parameter information.

[0159] Selectively, the hop-by-hop QoS parameter information includes at least one of the following: hop QoS parameter information, allocated or occupied QoS parameter information, remaining QoS parameter information excluding allocated or occupied QoS information, and QoS partitioning information.

[0160] Selectively, the link-related information of the first communication includes at least one of the following: first relay instruction information for instructing to adopt Layer 2 sidelink relay communication or Layer 3 sidelink relay communication; and hop-by-hop relay link information, wherein the hop-by-hop relay link information includes at least one of the following: the total number of hops; and the hop number.

[0161] Selectively, the first execution module 1102 is used to retrieve the first configuration information from the configuration table based on end-to-end related information in the second information; to retrieve the second configuration information from the configuration table based on end-to-end related information and / or hop-by-hop related information in the second information; and to retrieve the second configuration information from the configuration table based on end-to-end related information and / or mapping relationships between the first configuration information and the second configuration information in the second information.

[0162] Selectively, the setting table includes a first setting table for retrieving the first setting information and a second setting table for retrieving the second setting information.

[0163] Selectively, the first execution module 1102 is used for at least one of the following: the first device transmitting a second message to a second device, the second message including the first configuration information and being transmittable by a sidelink radio resource control process; and the first device transmitting a third message to a third device, the third message including the second configuration information and / or a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information and being transmittable by a sidelink radio resource control process, wherein the third device is a relay device of the first communication connected to the first device.

[0164] As can be seen from the technical solutions of the above embodiment, the embodiment of this application can flexibly realize bearer configuration for sidelink relay communication by acquiring first configuration information and / or second configuration information in different ways when the first device is in different network states.

[0165] The relay communication device in the embodiments of this application may be an electronic device, for example, an electronic device having an operating system, or a component of an electronic device, for example, an integrated circuit or a chip. The electronic device may be a terminal or other device. Exemplarily, a terminal may include, but is not limited to, the types of terminals 11 listed above, and other devices may be a server, network attached storage (NAS), etc., and are not specifically limited in the embodiments of this application.

[0166] The relay communication device provided by the embodiments of this application can implement each process realized in the method embodiments shown in Figures 2 to 10 and achieve similar technical effects. To avoid redundancy, a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0167] As shown in Figure 12, the embodiment of the present application further provides a relay communication method, in which the implementing body of the relay communication method is a fourth device, or in other words, the method can be executed by software or hardware installed on the fourth device.

[0168] In S1210, the fourth device acquires the third information, and the third information includes configuration information related to the fourth device in the configuration information for establishing a bearer for the first communication.

[0169] In S1220, the fourth device establishes a hop-by-hop side link bearer for the second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop side link bearer for the third target hop based on the third information.

[0170] Here, the fourth device is one of the relay devices in the first communication, the second target hop is one hop between the fourth device and the upstream device, the third target hop is one hop between the fourth device and the downstream device, the upstream device is a relay device or first device of the first communication, the downstream device is a relay device or second device of the first communication, the first device is one of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the third information is, The configuration information of the bearer includes at least one of the following: third configuration information which is the second target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information, and fourth configuration information which is the third target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information.

[0171] Selectively, S1210 includes the steps of: the fourth device receiving a fourth message containing the third configuration information from the upstream device; and the fourth device acquiring the fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information.

[0172] The step of selectively obtaining fourth configuration information based on third configuration information includes the step of obtaining fourth configuration information based on third configuration information and / or related information of the third target hop in second information of the first communication, wherein second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0173] Selectively, S1210 includes the step of the fourth device receiving the fourth signaling, which includes the third information, from a network-side device, when the fourth device is in a wireless resource control connection state.

[0174] Selectively, before receiving the fourth signaling from the network-side device, the method further includes the step of the fourth device transmitting to the network-side device relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0175] Selectively, S1210 includes the steps of: the fourth device receiving a fifth signaling from a network-side device when the fourth device is in a wireless resource control idle state or an inactive state; and the fourth device retrieving the third information from the fifth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0176] Selectively, S1210 includes the step of the fourth device retrieving the third information from the sixth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, if the fourth device is outside the network coverage area, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0177] Selectively, before the fourth device acquires the third information, the method further includes the step of the fourth device acquiring relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication from the upstream device.

[0178] Selectively, S1220 includes the step of the fourth device transmitting a fifth message containing the fourth configuration information to the downstream device.

[0179] Selectively, as a characteristic, the first communication is one of either a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication or a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication.

[0180] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication, the third and fourth configuration information include at least one of the following: wireless link control layer configuration information, media access control layer configuration information, and physical layer configuration information.

[0181] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication, the third and fourth configuration information include at least one of the following: configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer, configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer, configuration information for the Wireless Link Control layer, configuration information for the Media Access Control layer, and configuration information for the Physical Layer.

[0182] Steps S1210 to S1220 described above can realize the method embodiment shown in Figure 10 and achieve similar technical effects. Detailed explanations of the overlapping parts are omitted here.

[0183] As can be seen from the technical solutions of the above embodiment, the embodiment of this application acquires third information, which includes setting information related to the fourth device in the setting information for establishing a bearer for the first communication, and further establishes a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of the second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of the third target hop based on the third information, thereby realizing hop-by-hop sidelink bearer configuration. Furthermore, it is possible to match hop-by-hop sidelink bearers based on different service scenes and QoS parameter information, transmit different service data over U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths, and achieve assurance and improvement of communication performance and system performance such as reliability and throughput.

[0184] The relay communication method provided by the embodiments of this application may have a relay communication device as the implementing entity. In the embodiments of this application, the relay communication device provided by the embodiments of this application will be described as an example in which the relay communication device performs the relay communication method.

[0185] As shown in Figure 13, the relay communication device includes a second transmission module 1301 and a second execution module 1302.

[0186] The second transmission module 1301 is used to acquire third information, the third information includes configuration information related to the relay communication device in the configuration information for establishing a bearer for the first communication, the second execution module 1302 is used to establish a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer for the second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer for the third target hop based on the third information, the relay communication device is one of the relay devices in the first communication, the second target hop is one hop between the relay communication device and the upstream device, and the third target hop is The third information is one hop between the relay communication device and the downstream device, the upstream device is the relay device or first device of the first communication, the downstream device is the relay device or second device of the first communication, the first device is one of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the third information includes at least one of the third configuration information which is the second target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information, and the fourth configuration information which is the third target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information.

[0187] Selectively, the second transmission module 1301 is used to receive a fourth message containing the third configuration information from the upstream device and to acquire the fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information.

[0188] Selectively, the second transmission module 1301 is used to obtain the fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information and / or the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0189] Selectively, when in a wireless resource control connection state, the second transmission module 1301 is used to receive the fourth signaling, which includes the third information, from network-side equipment.

[0190] Selectively, the second transmission module 1301 is further used to transmit relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication to the network-side equipment, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0191] Selectively, the second transmission module 1301 is used to receive a fifth signaling from a network-side device when it is in a wireless resource control idle state or inactive state, and to retrieve the third information from the fifth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0192] Selectively, if outside the network coverage area, the second transmission module 1301 is used to retrieve the third information from the sixth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0193] Selectively, the second transmission module 1301 is further used to obtain relevant information about the third target hop in the second information of the first communication from the upstream equipment.

[0194] Selectively, the second execution module 1302 is used to transmit a fifth message containing the fourth configuration information to the downstream device.

[0195] Selectively, as a characteristic, the first communication is one of either a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication or a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication.

[0196] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication, the third and fourth configuration information include at least one of the following: wireless link control layer configuration information, media access control layer configuration information, and physical layer configuration information.

[0197] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication, the third and fourth configuration information include at least one of the following: configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer, configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer, configuration information for the Wireless Link Control layer, configuration information for the Media Access Control layer, and configuration information for the Physical Layer.

[0198] As can be seen from the technical solutions of the above embodiment, the embodiment of this application acquires third information, which includes setting information related to the relay communication device in the setting information for establishing a bearer for the first communication, and further establishes a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of the second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of the third target hop based on the third information, thereby realizing hop-by-hop sidelink bearer configuration. Furthermore, it is possible to match hop-by-hop sidelink bearers based on different service scenes and QoS parameter information, transmit different service data on U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths, and achieve assurance and improvement of communication performance and system performance such as reliability and throughput.

[0199] The relay communication device in the embodiments of this application may be an electronic device, for example, an electronic device having an operating system, or a component of an electronic device, for example, an integrated circuit or a chip. The electronic device may be a terminal or other device. Exemplarily, a terminal may include, but is not limited to, the types of terminals 11 listed above, and other devices may be a server, network attached storage (NAS), etc., and are not specifically limited in the embodiments of this application.

[0200] The relay communication device provided by the embodiments of this application can implement each process realized in the method embodiment of Figure 12 and achieve similar technical effects. To avoid redundancy, a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0201] Selectively, as shown in Figure 14, embodiments of this application further provide a communication device 1400. The communication device 1400 includes a processor 1401 and a memory 1402, the memory 1402 storing a program or command executable by the processor 1401. For example, when the communication device 1400 is a terminal, the program or command is executed by the processor 1401, thereby realizing each step of the embodiment of the relay communication method and achieving similar technical effects. When the communication device 1400 is a network-side device, the program or command is executed by the processor 1401, thereby realizing each step of the embodiment of the relay communication method and achieving similar technical effects. To avoid redundancy, a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0202] Embodiments of this application further provide a terminal. The terminal includes a processor and a communication interface, the processor being used to establish a bearer for the first communication with a second device based on the first information and to perform communication, and the communication interface being used to acquire the first information, the first information including configuration information for establishing the bearer for the first communication. The terminal embodiment corresponds to the terminal-side method embodiment described above, and each implementation process and realization form of the method embodiment can be applied to the terminal embodiment and achieve similar technical effects. Specifically, Figure 15 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a terminal realizing an embodiment of this application.

[0203] The terminal 1500 includes, but is not limited to, at least some of the following components: a high-frequency unit 1501, a network module 1502, an audio output unit 1503, an input unit 1504, a sensor 1505, a display unit 1506, a user input unit 1507, an interface unit 1508, a memory 1509, and a processor 1510.

[0204] Those skilled in the art will understand that the terminal 1500 may further include a power supply (e.g., a battery) to power each component, and that the power supply is logically connected to the processor 1510 by a power management system, and that the power management system can further implement functions such as charge / discharge management and power consumption management. The terminal structure shown in Figure 15 is not limiting to terminals, and the terminal may include more or fewer components than shown, or combinations of some components, or different component arrangements, and a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0205] In the embodiments of this application, it should be understood that the input unit 1504 may include a graphics processing unit (GPU) 15041 and a microphone 15042 that process still images or video image data acquired by an image capture device (e.g., a camera) in video capture mode or image capture mode. The display unit 1506 may include a display panel 15061, which may be in the form of a liquid crystal display, organic light-emitting diode, or the like. The user input unit 1507 includes at least one of a touch panel 15071 and other input devices 15072. The touch panel 15071 is also called a touchscreen. The touch panel 15071 may include two parts: a touch detection device and a touch controller. Other input devices 15072 may include, but are not limited to, a physical keyboard, function buttons (e.g., volume control buttons, switch buttons, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, or an operating lever, and a detailed description is omitted here.

[0206] In the embodiments of this application, the high-frequency unit 1501 can receive downlink data from network-side equipment and then transmit it to the processor 1510 for processing. The high-frequency unit 1501 can also transmit uplink data to network-side equipment. Typically, the high-frequency unit 1501 includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, amplifier, transmitter / receiver, coupler, low-noise amplifier, duplexer, etc.

[0207] Memory 1509 can be used to store software programs or commands and various data. Memory 1509 may mainly include a first storage area for storing programs or commands and a second storage area for storing data, which are capable of storing an operating system, applications or commands necessary for at least one function (e.g., audio playback function, image playback function, etc.). Memory 1509 may also include volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or it may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. Here, non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), or flash memory. The volatile memory may be Random Access Memory (RAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (DDRSDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (ESDRAM), Synch-link Dynamic Random Access Memory (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus Random Access Memory (DRRAM). The memory 1509 in the embodiments of this application includes, but is not limited to, these memories and any other suitable memories.

[0208] The processor 1510 may include one or more processing units, and optionally integrates an application processor that primarily handles operations related to the operating system, user interface, and applications, and a modem processor that primarily handles wireless communication signals, such as a baseband processor. It is understood that the modem processor does not necessarily have to be integrated into the processor 1510.

[0209] Here, the high-frequency unit 1501 is used to acquire first information, and the first information includes configuration information for establishing a bearer for first communication.

[0210] The processor 1510 is used to establish a bearer for the first communication with the second device based on the first information and to communicate, the relay communication device is one of the source terminals and destination terminals of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminals and destination terminals of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the first information is first configuration information which is end-to-end configuration information in the bearer configuration information, The bearer configuration information includes at least one of the following: second configuration information which is hop-by-hop configuration information corresponding to a first target hop between the relay communication device and the third device, wherein the third device is a relay device connected to the first device in the first communication.

[0211] Selectively, the first communication is one of two types: a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication and a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication.

[0212] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication, the second configuration information includes at least one of the following: wireless link control layer configuration information, media access control layer configuration information, and physical layer configuration information.

[0213] Selectively, if the first communication is a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication, the second configuration information includes at least one of the following: configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer, configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer, configuration information for the Wireless Link Control layer, configuration information for the Media Access Control layer, and configuration information for the Physical Layer.

[0214] Selectively, the relay communication device is one of the following: the service initiating device for the sidelink relay communication, the service flow transmitting device for the sidelink relay communication, the service flow receiving device for the sidelink relay communication, and either the source terminal or the destination terminal for the sidelink relay communication.

[0215] The embodiment of this application enables the rapid execution of bearer configuration for sidelink relay communication, thereby realizing service data transmission over U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths.

[0216] Based on the above embodiment, the high-frequency unit 1501 is selectively used to receive a first message from a network-side device and to obtain first information based on the first message, wherein the first message includes at least one of the following: first configuration information and / or second configuration information; a configuration table for retrieving the first configuration information and / or second configuration information; and a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0217] Selectively, when in a wireless resource control connection state, the high-frequency unit 1501 is used to receive the first signaling, which includes the first configuration information and / or the second configuration information, from network-side equipment.

[0218] Selectively, the first signaling may further include a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0219] Selectively, the high-frequency unit 1501 is further used to transmit second information of the first communication to the network-side equipment, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0220] Selectively, when the wireless resource control is in an idle or inactive state, the high-frequency unit 1501 is used to receive a second signaling from a network-side device, which includes the configuration table, wherein the configuration table includes a mapping relationship between first information and second information, and to retrieve the first information from the configuration table based on the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0221] Selectively, the second signaling further includes a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0222] Selectively, when outside the network coverage area, the high-frequency unit 1501 is used to obtain preconfiguration information, including the configuration table, from the third signaling, wherein the configuration table includes a mapping relationship between first information and second information, and to retrieve the first information from the configuration table based on the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0223] Selectively, the third signaling further includes a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0224] Selectively, the service-related information of the first communication includes at least one of end-to-end QoS parameter information and hop-by-hop QoS parameter information.

[0225] Selectively, the hop-by-hop QoS parameter information includes at least one of the following: hop QoS parameter information, allocated or occupied QoS parameter information, remaining QoS parameter information excluding allocated or occupied QoS information, and QoS partitioning information.

[0226] Selectively, the link-related information of the first communication includes at least one of the following: first relay instruction information for instructing to adopt Layer 2 sidelink relay communication or Layer 3 sidelink relay communication; and hop-by-hop relay link information, wherein the hop-by-hop relay link information includes at least one of the following: the total number of hops; and the hop number.

[0227] Selectively, the processor 1510 is used to retrieve the first configuration information from the configuration table based on end-to-end related information in the second information; to retrieve the second configuration information from the configuration table based on end-to-end related information and / or hop-by-hop related information in the second information; and to retrieve the second configuration information from the configuration table based on end-to-end related information and / or mapping relationships between the first configuration information and the second configuration information in the second information.

[0228] Selectively, the setting table includes a first setting table for retrieving the first setting information and a second setting table for retrieving the second setting information.

[0229] Selectively, the processor 1510 includes at least one of the following steps: the first device transmits a second message containing the first configuration information to a second device; and the first device transmits a third message containing the second configuration information and / or a mapping relationship between the first configuration information and the second configuration information to a third device, wherein the third device is a relay device of the first communication connected to the first device.

[0230] The embodiment of this application enables flexible bearer configuration for sidelink relay communication.

[0231] Embodiments of this application further provide a terminal. The terminal includes a processor and a communication interface, the processor being used to establish a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a third target hop based on the third information, the communication interface being used to acquire the third information, the third information including configuration information related to the relay communication device in configuration information for establishing a bearer of a first communication. The terminal embodiment corresponds to the terminal-side method embodiment described above, and each implementation process and realization form of the method embodiment can be applied to the terminal embodiment and achieve similar technical effects. Specifically, Figure 16 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a terminal realizing an embodiment of this application.

[0232] The terminal 1600 includes, but is not limited to, at least some of the following components: a high-frequency unit 1601, a network module 1602, an audio output unit 1603, an input unit 1604, a sensor 1605, a display unit 1606, a user input unit 1607, an interface unit 1608, a memory 1609, and a processor 1610.

[0233] Those skilled in the art will understand that the terminal 1600 may further include a power supply (e.g., a battery) to power each component, and that the power supply is logically connected to the processor 1610 by a power management system, and that the power management system can further implement functions such as charge / discharge management and power consumption management. The terminal structure shown in Figure 16 is not limiting to the terminal, and the terminal may include more or fewer components than shown, or combinations of some components, or different component arrangements, and a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0234] In the embodiments of this application, it should be understood that the input unit 1604 may include a graphics processing unit (GPU) 16041 and a microphone 16042 that process still images or video image data acquired by an image capture device (e.g., a camera) in video capture mode or image capture mode. The display unit 1606 may include a display panel 16061, which may be in the form of a liquid crystal display, organic light-emitting diode, or the like. The user input unit 1607 includes at least one of a touch panel 16071 and other input devices 16072. The touch panel 16071 is also called a touchscreen. The touch panel 16071 may include two parts: a touch detection device and a touch controller. Other input devices 16072 may include, but are not limited to, a physical keyboard, function buttons (e.g., volume control buttons, switch buttons, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, or an operating lever, and a detailed description is omitted here.

[0235] In the embodiments of this application, the high-frequency unit 1601 can receive downlink data from network-side equipment and then transmit it to the processor 1610 for processing. The high-frequency unit 1601 can also transmit uplink data to network-side equipment. Typically, the high-frequency unit 1601 includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, amplifier, transmitter / receiver, coupler, low-noise amplifier, duplexer, etc.

[0236] Memory 1609 can be used to store software programs or commands and various data. Memory 1609 may mainly include a first storage area for storing programs or commands and a second storage area for storing data, which are capable of storing an operating system, applications or commands necessary for at least one function (e.g., audio playback function, image playback function, etc.). Memory 1609 may also include volatile memory or non-volatile memory, or it may include both volatile and non-volatile memory. Here, non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), or flash memory. The volatile memory may be Random Access Memory (RAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (DDRSDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (ESDRAM), Synch-link Dynamic Random Access Memory (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus Random Access Memory (DRRAM). Memory 1609 in the embodiments of this application includes, but is not limited to, these memories and any other suitable memories.

[0237] The processor 1610 may include one or more processing units, and selectively integrates an application processor that primarily handles operations related to the operating system, user interface, and applications, and a modem processor that primarily handles wireless communication signals, such as a baseband processor. It is understood that the modem processor does not necessarily have to be integrated into the processor 1610.

[0238] Here, the high-frequency unit 1601 is used to acquire third information, and the third information includes setting information related to the relay communication device in the setting information for establishing a bearer of the first communication.

[0239] The processor 1610 is used to establish a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a second target hop and / or a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of a third target hop based on the third information, wherein the relay communication device is one of the relay devices in the first communication, the second target hop is one hop between the relay communication device and the upstream device, the third target hop is one hop between the relay communication device and the downstream device, the upstream device is a relay device or first device of the first communication, the downstream device is a relay device or second device of the first communication, the first device is one of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the third information includes at least one of third configuration information which is the second target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information, and fourth configuration information which is the third target hop configuration information in the bearer configuration information.

[0240] Selectively, the high-frequency unit 1601 is used to receive a fourth message containing the third configuration information from the upstream device and to acquire the fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information.

[0241] Selectively, the high-frequency unit 1601 is used to obtain the fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information and / or the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0242] Selectively, when in a wireless resource control connection state, the high-frequency unit 1601 is used to receive the fourth signaling, which includes the third information, from network-side equipment.

[0243] Selectively, the high-frequency unit 1601 is further used to transmit relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication to the network-side equipment, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0244] Selectively, the high-frequency unit 1601 is used to receive a fifth signaling from a network-side device when it is in a wireless resource control idle state or inactive state, and to retrieve the third information from the fifth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, wherein the second information includes service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0245] Selectively, when outside the network coverage area, the high-frequency unit 1601 is used to retrieve the third information from the sixth signaling based on the relevant information of the third target hop in the second information of the first communication, the second information including service-related information and / or link-related information of the first communication.

[0246] Selectively, the high-frequency unit 1601 is further used to acquire relevant information about the third target hop in the second information of the first communication from the upstream equipment.

[0247] Selectively, the processor 1610 is used to transmit a fifth message containing the fourth configuration information to the downstream device.

[0248] Selectively, as a characteristic, the first communication is one of either a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication or a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication.

[0249] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication, the third and fourth configuration information include at least one of the following: wireless link control layer configuration information, media access control layer configuration information, and physical layer configuration information.

[0250] Selectively, when the first communication is a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication, the third and fourth configuration information include at least one of the following: configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer, configuration information for the Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer, configuration information for the Wireless Link Control layer, configuration information for the Media Access Control layer, and configuration information for the Physical Layer.

[0251] The embodiments of this application can match hop-by-hop sidelink bearers based on different service scenes and QoS parameter information, transmit different service data over U2U paths and even multi-hop U2U paths, and achieve assurance and improvement of communication performance and system performance such as reliability and throughput.

[0252] Embodiments of this application further provide a readable storage medium. A program or command is stored in the readable storage medium, and when the program or command is executed by a processor, each process of the embodiment of the relay communication method described above is realized, and similar technical effects can be achieved. To avoid redundancy, a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0253] Here, the processor is the processor in the terminal described in the above embodiment. The readable storage medium includes, for example, a computer-readable storage medium such as a computer read-only memory ROM, a random access memory RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0254] Embodiments of this application further provide a chip, which includes a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface and the processor are coupled, and the processor is used to execute programs or commands to realize each process of the embodiment of the relay communication method described above, and can achieve similar technical effects. To avoid redundancy, a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0255] It should be understood that the chips referred to in the embodiments of this application may further be called system-level chips, system chips, chip systems, or system-on-a-chip, etc.

[0256] Embodiments of this application further provide computer programs / program products. These computer programs / program products are stored in a storage medium and, by being executed by at least one processor, can realize each process of the above-described relay communication method embodiment and achieve similar technical effects. To avoid redundancy, a detailed explanation is omitted here.

[0257] Embodiments of this application further provide a relay communication system, which includes a first device that can be used to perform the steps of the relay communication method described above, and a fourth device that can be used to perform the steps of the relay communication method described above.

[0258] It should be noted that, in this specification, the terms “including,” “consisting of,” or any other variation thereof are intended to include non-exclusive inclusion, thereby meaning that a process, method, article, or apparatus containing a set of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not explicitly stated, or elements specific to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Unless otherwise specified, an element limited by the phrase “including one…” does not preclude the existence of other identical elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus containing that element. It should also be noted that the scope of the methods and apparatus in embodiments of this application is not limited to performing functions in the order illustrated or discussed, but may also include performing functions substantially simultaneously or in reverse order depending on the function, for example, the described method may be performed in a different order than described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Furthermore, features described by reference to one example may be combined in other examples.

[0259] From the above description of the embodiments, it will be clear to those skilled in the art that the methods of the embodiments can be implemented in the form of a combination of software and a necessary common hardware platform, although they may, of course, be implemented in hardware, but in many cases the former is a more preferred embodiment. Based on this view, the technical solutions of the present application can be implemented in the form of a computer software product, which is stored in a storage medium (e.g., ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes a plurality of commands that cause a terminal (which may be a mobile phone, computer, server, air conditioner, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods of each embodiment of the present application.

[0260] Although embodiments of this application have been described above with reference to the drawings, this application is not limited to the above-described specific embodiments. The above-described specific embodiments are merely illustrative and not limiting. Many forms that a person skilled in the art could make based on the suggestions of this application without departing from the spirit of this application and the scope of protection of the claims are all within the scope of protection of this application.

Claims

1. A step in which a fourth device acquires third information, wherein the third information includes setting information related to the fourth device in setting information for establishing a bearer for first communication, The fourth device includes the step of establishing a hop-by-hop sidelink bearer of the second target hop based on the third information, The fourth device is one of the relay devices in the first communication, the second target hop is one hop between the fourth device and the upstream device, the upstream device is a relay device or first device of the first communication, the first device is either the source terminal or the destination terminal of the first communication, the first communication is a sidelink relay communication, and the third information is, A relay communication method that includes a third configuration information which is the configuration information for the second target hop in the configuration information for the bearer.

2. The step of the fourth device acquiring the third information is: The fourth device receives a fourth message containing the third configuration information from the upstream device, The relay communication method according to claim 1, comprising the step of the fourth device acquiring fourth configuration information based on the third configuration information, wherein the fourth configuration information is the configuration information for the third target hop in the bearer configuration information, the third target hop is one hop between the fourth device and a downstream device, the downstream device is a relay device or a second device of the first communication, and the second device is the other of the source terminal and destination terminal of the first communication.

3. The step of the fourth device acquiring the third information is: The relay communication method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of the fourth device receiving a fourth signaling including the third information from a network-side device when the fourth device is in a wireless resource control connection state.

4. The first communication is Layer 2 sidelink relay communication, A relay communication method according to claim 1, which is one of the Layer 3 sidelink relay communication methods.

5. When the first communication is a Layer 2 sidelink relay communication, the third setting information is: Wireless link control layer configuration information, Media access control layer configuration information, The relay communication method according to claim 4, comprising at least one of the following: physical layer configuration information.

6. When the first communication is a Layer 3 sidelink relay communication, the third setting information is: The configuration information for the Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer, Packet data convergence protocol layer configuration information, Wireless link control layer configuration information, Media access control layer configuration information, The relay communication method according to claim 4, comprising at least one of the following: physical layer configuration information.

7. A terminal comprising a processor and memory, wherein the memory stores a program or command that can be executed by the processor, and when the program or command is executed by the processor, the steps of the relay communication method described in any one of claims 1 to 6 are realized.

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