Communication methods, network devices, and terminal devices

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method, including: a first terminal device receives first downlink data from a network device through a first link; and after decoding the first downlink data to obtain a first decoding result, the first terminal device sends first information to a second terminal device through a second link, the first information including first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ-ACK) information, where the first HARQ-ACK information indicates the first decoding result. The first link is a link between the first terminal device and the network device, and the second link is a link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device. The first terminal device feeds back the HARQ-ACK information of the downlink data to the second terminal device. In this way, the first terminal device is prevented from directly feeding back the HARQ-ACK information of the downlink data to the network device, thereby reducing the uplink communication overhead of the first terminal device.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] This application relates to the field of communications, and more specifically to communications methods, network devices, and terminal devices. [Background technology]

[0002] This application claims priority to China Patent Application No. 202310208329.6, titled "XR TRANSMISSION METHOD, TERMINAL DEVICE, NETWORK DEVICE, AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on 20 January 2023, and China Patent Application No. 202310260750.1, titled "COMMUNICATION METHOD, NETWORK DEVICE, AND TERMINAL DEVICE," filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on 10 March 2023, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

[0003] In scenarios where an Extended Reality (XR) device is connected to a network device, the XR device needs to communicate with a server through the network device. Specifically, the XR device sends uplink data to the server through the network device (for example, pose information, audio data, and video data captured by the XR device's camera). After receiving the data, the server generates corresponding downlink data (for example, video to be displayed on the XR device) and sends the downlink data back to the XR device through the network device.

[0004] Network devices are typically located far from XR devices. To ensure uplink transmission quality, XR devices must perform power amplification on data signals before sending uplink data. As a result, the power consumption overhead of uplink transmission is high. In addition, XR devices have small battery capacities. If XR devices send uplink data directly to network devices, the battery life of the XR devices is affected. Currently, the following method is used to reduce the uplink communication power consumption of XR devices: XR devices send uplink data to network devices through terminal devices.

[0005] While the configuration where the terminal device acts as a relay avoids the XR device directly sending uplink data to the network device, when the XR device receives data scheduled by the network device, it needs to feed back hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) information to the network device. A pressing issue that needs to be addressed is how to reduce the power consumption overhead caused by the uplink HARQ-ACK information feedback performed by the XR device. [Overview of the project]

[0006] To solve the above technical problems, this application provides a communication method. In this method, a first terminal device indirectly feeds back HARQ-ACK information of downlink data to a network device through a second terminal device, thereby reducing the uplink communication overhead of the first terminal device.

[0007] According to a first embodiment, a communication method is provided. This method may be implemented by a first terminal device or by a component of the first terminal device (e.g., a chip or circuit). This is not limited to the present application. For ease of explanation, the following description will use an example in which the first terminal device implements the method.

[0008] The communication method includes the following: A first terminal device receives first downlink data from a network device via a first link; the first terminal device decodes the first downlink data to obtain a first decoded result; the first terminal device sends first information to a second terminal device via a second link; the first information includes first hybrid automatic retransmission request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) information; the first HARQ-ACK information indicates the first decoded result; the first link is a transmission link between the first terminal device and the network device; and the second link is a transmission link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0009] Based on the above technical solution, after receiving the first downlink data and decoding the first downlink data to obtain the first decoding result, the first terminal device sends the first information, including the first HARQ-ACK information, to the second terminal device via the second link, and the first HARQ-ACK information indicates the first decoding result. In this technical solution, the first terminal device no longer directly feeds back the HARQ-ACK information of the downlink data to the network device, but first feeds back the HARQ-ACK information of the downlink data to the second terminal device via the second link, and the second terminal device forwards the HARQ-ACK information of the downlink data to the network device. This prevents the first terminal device from directly feeding back the HARQ-ACK information of the downlink data to the network device, thereby reducing the uplink communication overhead of the first terminal device.

[0010] It should be noted that in this technical solution, the second terminal device is for downlink data and is configured to transfer HARQ-ACK information received from the first terminal device to the network device. The second terminal device is a terminal device that establishes communication connections to the first terminal device and the network device, respectively. This application does not limit how the second terminal device knows that it can transfer HARQ-ACK information for downlink data for the first terminal device, and includes, but is not limited to, indicating to the second terminal device that it can transfer HARQ-ACK information for downlink data for the first terminal device, either in a pre-configured manner or otherwise.

[0011] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, before the first terminal device sends the first information to the second terminal device through the second link, the method further includes: The first terminal device determines the first time unit in which the first terminal device sends the first information.

[0012] Based on the above technical solution, before sending the first information to the second terminal device, the first terminal device needs to determine a first time unit for sending the first information in order to avoid the second terminal device failing to receive the information if the first terminal device feeds it back in an inappropriate time unit.

[0013] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the determination of a first time unit in which first information is sent by a first terminal device includes: the first terminal device determines a first time unit in which the first time gap is less than or equal to the time gap between the first time unit and the second time unit, the first terminal device determines a first time unit in which the first time unit and the second time unit are the time unit in which the first terminal device receives first downlink data or the time unit in which the first terminal device receives first control information, the first control information being used to schedule the first downlink data.

[0014] Based on the above technical solution, the first terminal device can determine a first time unit for sending first information by using a first time gap, the first time gap being less than or equal to the time gap between the first time unit and the second time unit, and the second time unit being a time unit known to the first terminal device (for example, the time unit in which the first terminal device receives first downlink data, or the time unit in which the first terminal device receives first control information). Therefore, the first terminal device can quickly and accurately determine the first time unit based on the first time gap when the second time unit is known.

[0015] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the determination of the first time gap by the first terminal device includes: before the first terminal device receives first control information from the network device which indicates the first time gap or first downlink data, the first terminal device receives first configuration information from the network device and determines the first time gap based on the first configuration information.

[0016] Based on the above technical solution, the network device can indicate the first time gap to the first terminal device through dynamic indication (e.g., delivering first control information) or a semi-static configuration manner (e.g., delivering first configuration information), so that the first terminal device can obtain the first time gap in different manners, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0017] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, before the first terminal device receives the first control information from the network device, the method further includes the following. The first terminal device receives second configuration information from the network device, the second configuration information is used to configure a time gap set, and the first time gap is one time gap in the time gap set.

[0018] Based on the above technical solution, before indicating the first time gap, the network device can configure, for the first terminal device by using the second configuration information, a time gap set including a plurality of time gaps. When a specific time gap needs to be indicated, the time gap can be indicated by indicating a time gap index. When the network device needs to indicate different time gaps, different time gap indexes may be indicated for implementation, whereby signaling overhead can be reduced.

[0019] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, when the first time gap is measured in a slot, the determining of the first time gap by the first terminal device further includes the following. The first terminal device determines that a subcarrier spacing (SCS) referenced by the first time gap is a first SCS or a second SCS, the first SCS is an SCS corresponding to a first link, the second SCS is an SCS corresponding to a second link, and the first link is different from the second link.

[0020] Based on the above technical solution, when the first time gap is measured in a slot, in order to prevent the first terminal device from misunderstanding a specific gap duration of the first time gap, the first terminal device can determine the SCS referenced by the first time gap.

[0021] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first terminal device determining that the SCS referenced by the first time gap is the first SCS or the second SCS comprises: the first terminal device determines, based on a first parameter, that the SCS referenced by the first time gap is the first SCS or the second SCS, wherein the first parameter indicates the first SCS or the second SCS, the first parameter is configured by a network device, or the first parameter is determined through negotiation by the first terminal device and the network device, or the first parameter is pre-programmed in the first terminal device.

[0022] Based on the above technical solution, the first terminal device can determine the SCS referenced by the first time gap based on the first parameter, and the first parameter can be obtained in different manners, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0023] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further comprises: the first terminal device determines a first transmission resource, the first transmission resource is used for transmitting first information, the first transmission resource comprises a first time domain resource and a first frequency domain resource, and the first time domain resource is in a first time unit.

[0024] Based on the above technical solution, the first terminal device can determine a first transmission resource for transmitting first information, thereby sending the first information to the second terminal device via the second link. This prevents the first terminal device from directly feeding back HARQ-ACK information of downlink data to the network device, thereby reducing the uplink communication overhead of the first terminal device.

[0025] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the first transmission resource is a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and the determination of the first transmission resource by the first terminal device includes: the first terminal device receives first control information from a network device, the first control information includes second information, the second information indicates a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource, and the first terminal device determines the first transmission resource based on the second information.

[0026] Alternatively, the first terminal device determines a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource based on third configuration information, the third configuration information being information received by the first terminal device from a network device before the first terminal device receives the first downlink data.

[0027] Based on the above technical solution, when the first transmission resource is a PSSCH, the network device can indicate the first transmission resource to the first terminal device using dynamic indication (e.g., distributing first control information) or a semi-static configuration method (e.g., distributing third configuration information). Thus, the first terminal device can learn of the first transmission resource in different ways, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0028] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the second information includes a first field and a second field, where the first field indicates a time resource allocation and the second field indicates a frequency resource allocation.

[0029] Based on the technical solution described above, when a network device indicates a first transmit resource using a dynamic indication method, an existing field is reused to indicate the first transmit resource, thereby improving the backward compatibility of the solution.

[0030] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the third configuration information includes information indicating the number of subchannels, information indicating the subchannel size, information indicating the starting resource block of the subchannels, information indicating the starting symbol of the first time domain resource in the first time unit, and information indicating the number of symbols occupied by the first time domain resource.

[0031] Based on the above technical solution, when a network device configures the first transmission resource in a semi-static manner, the existing resource pre-configuration method can be reused, thereby improving the backward compatibility of the solution.

[0032] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first information is a media access control-control element (MAC CE).

[0033] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the first frequency domain resource is a resource block occupied by a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), and the determination of the first transmission resource by the first terminal device includes: the first terminal device receives first control information from a network device, the first control information includes third information, the third information indicates the first frequency domain resource, and the first terminal device determines the first frequency domain resource based on the third information.

[0034] As an alternative, The first terminal device determines a first quantity M of downlink data in a first downlink dataset, where the first downlink data is one of M downlink data, and all M HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the M downlink data are transmitted over the PSFCH, where M is a positive integer. The first terminal device determines a second resource block quantity based on the first quantity and the first resource block quantity, where the first resource block quantity is the quantity of resource blocks included in the PSFCH, and the second resource block quantity is the quantity of resource blocks included in the first frequency domain resource. The first terminal device determines the position of the second resource block quantity within the first resource block quantity based on the position of the first downlink data in the downlink dataset.

[0035] Based on the above technical solution, when the first transmission resource is a PSFCH, the first terminal device may determine the resource blocks required to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for the first downlink data based on an indication of a network device (e.g., receiving first control information), or it may determine the resource blocks required to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for the first downlink data based on a set of opportunities to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for the downlink data (e.g., a first quantity M of downlink data in the first downlink dataset). Thus, the first terminal device can determine the transmission resources in different ways based on the actual situation, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0036] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first transmission resource is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data.

[0037] Based on the technical solution described above, the first transmission resource may be a separate resource for transmitting HARQ-ACK information for downlink data; that is, the transmission resource may be configured separately for transmitting HARQ-ACK information for downlink data to avoid confusion with resources for other functions.

[0038] When the first transmission resource is a separate resource for transmitting HARQ-ACK information for downlink data, M, the quantity of the first resource block, and the quantity of the second resource block satisfy the following relationship:

[0039]

number

[0040] N represents the quantity of the second resource block, and K represents the quantity of the first resource block.

[0041]

number

[0042] This represents a floor operation, where the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among M downlink data are resource blocks among K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or M, the quantity of the first resource block, and the quantity of the second resource block satisfy the following relationship:

[0043]

number

[0044] K teeth M If it is divisible by , then the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks among the K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1, or If M1 > 0, then when m is any integer from 1 to M1, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks with indices from (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1 among the K resource blocks, or when m is any integer from M1 to M, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, or When M1=0, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are the resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks. K1 is

[0045]

number

[0046] And K2 is

[0047]

number

[0048] And M1 is

[0049]

number

[0050] It is the remainder of,

[0051]

number

[0052] This represents a ceiling operation.

[0053] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first transmission resource is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data and HARQ-ACK information for sidelink data.

[0054] Based on the technical solution described above, the first transmission resource can be used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data and HARQ-ACK information for sidelink data. In other words, the configured transmission resource can be shared for HARQ-ACK information for downlink data and HARQ-ACK information for sidelink data.

[0055] When the first transmission resource is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data and HARQ-ACK information for sidelink data, M, the quantity of the first resource block, the quantity of the second resource block, and the second quantity satisfy the following relationship:

[0056]

number

[0057] N represents the quantity of the second resource block, K represents the quantity of the first resource block, and A represents the second quantity, which is the sidelink data and is the quantity of HARQ-ACK information transmitted over PSFCH.

[0058]

number

[0059] This represents a floor operation, where the N resource blocks corresponding to the mth downlink data among M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks among K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or M, the quantity of the first resource block, the quantity of the second resource block, and the second quantity satisfy the following relationship:

[0060]

number

[0061] K teeth M+A Divisible by, the N resource blocks corresponding to the mth downlink data among M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks among K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1, or If M1 > 0, when m is any integer from 1 to M1, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks with indices from (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1 among the K resource blocks, or when m is any integer from M1 to M, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, or When M1=0, the N resource blocks corresponding to the mth downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are the resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks. K1 is

[0062]

number

[0063] And K2 is

[0064]

number

[0065] And M1 is

[0066]

number

[0067] It is the remainder of,

[0068]

number

[0069] This represents a ceiling operation.

[0070] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the determination of a first quantity by a first terminal device includes: the first terminal device receives fourth information from a network device, the fourth information indicating a first quantity, or the first terminal device determines a first quantity based on at least one of the following pieces of information: a time gap set, a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) for a first link, a subcarrier interval for a first link, a subcarrier interval for a second link, a duration for a first transmit resource, or a first time unit, the first time unit being one time gap in the time gap set.

[0071] Based on the above technical solution, the first terminal device can determine the value of the first quantity in a different manner, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0072] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, when the first terminal device does not receive the second downlink data in the downlink dataset, the method further includes: the first terminal device either does not send HARQ-ACK information on the second transmission resource corresponding to the second downlink data, or feeds back a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) on the second transmission resource.

[0073] Based on the above technical solution, the first terminal device may not send HARQ-ACK information for received downlink data, or it may send and feed back a negative response (NACK).

[0074] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, when the first terminal device is one of several terminal devices that feed back HARQ-ACK information through the second terminal device, the method further includes the following: The first terminal device sends first HARQ-ACK information to the second terminal device on the first transmission resource using a code division multiplexing scheme.

[0075] Based on the technical solutions described above, in a scenario where multiple first terminal devices transmit HARQ-ACK information by using transmission resources on the same frequency band, resource multiplexing can be implemented using a code division multiplexing scheme to avoid interference between different terminal devices.

[0076] With respect to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, before receiving first downlink data from a network device, the method further includes: the first terminal device receives fourth configuration information from the network device, the fourth configuration information is used to configure R resource pools, and the first transmitted resource is a resource in one of the R resource pools, where R is a positive integer.

[0077] With respect to the first embodiment, in some implementations of the first embodiment, the first downlink data includes a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, the first link is a link for communication based on a first communication interface, the second link is a link for communication based on a second communication interface, the first communication interface is a first Uu interface (or cellular network interface), the second communication interface is a PC5 interface (or sidelink interface), the first terminal device includes an Extended Reality XR device, and the second terminal device includes a mobile terminal.

[0078] According to a second aspect, a communication method is provided. This method may be implemented by a network device or by a component of a network device (e.g., a chip or circuit). This is not limited to the present application. For ease of explanation, the following description will use an example in which a network device implements the method.

[0079] The communication method includes the following: A network device sends first downlink data to a first terminal device via a first link; the network device receives fifth information from a second terminal device via a third link, the fifth information includes first hybrid automatic retransmission request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) information, the first HARQ-ACK information indicates first decoded results corresponding to the first downlink data; the first link is a transmission link between the first terminal device and the network device; and the third link is a transmission link between the second terminal device and the network device.

[0080] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: a network device configures a first transmit resource for a first terminal device through a first link, the first transmit resource is used by the first terminal device to send first information to the second terminal device through a second link, the first information includes first HARQ-ACK information, and the second link is a transmit link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0081] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first transmission resource includes a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource, the first time-domain resource being in a first time unit, and the method further includes: before the network device sends first control information to a first terminal device, the first control information indicating a first time gap or sending first downlink data to the first terminal device, the network device sends first configuration information to the first terminal device, the first configuration information indicating a first time gap, the first time gap being less than or equal to the time gap between a first time unit and a second time unit, the second time unit being a time unit in which the first terminal device receives first downlink data or a time unit in which the first terminal device receives first control information, and the first control information is further used to schedule the first downlink data.

[0082] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, before the network device sends first control information to the first terminal device, the method further includes: the network device sends second configuration information to the first terminal device, the second configuration information is used to configure a time gap set, the first time gap being one of the time gaps in the time gap set.

[0083] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, when the first time gap is measured in a slot, the method further includes: a network device sends a first parameter to a first terminal device, the first parameter indicating that the subcarrier interval (SCS) referenced by the first time gap is either a first SCS or a second SCS, where the first SCS is the SCS corresponding to a first link, the second SCS is the SCS corresponding to a second link, and the first link is different from the second link.

[0084] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first transmission resource is a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and the method further includes: before sending first downlink data to the first terminal device, the network device sends first control information to the first terminal device, which includes second information, the second information indicating a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource, or before sending first downlink data to the first terminal device, the network device sends third configuration information to the first terminal device, the third configuration information indicating a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource.

[0085] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the second information includes a first field and a second field, the first field indicating a time resource allocation and the second field indicating a frequency resource allocation.

[0086] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the third configuration information includes information indicating the number of subchannels, information indicating the subchannel size, information indicating the starting resource block of the subchannels, information indicating the starting symbol of the first time domain resource in the first time unit, and information indicating the number of symbols occupied by the first time domain resource.

[0087] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first information is a media access control element (MAC CE).

[0088] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first frequency domain resource is a resource block occupied by a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), and the method further includes: a network device sends first control information to a first terminal device, the first control information includes third information, the third information indicating the first frequency domain resource, or the network device sends fourth information to the first terminal device, the fourth information indicating a first quantity M of downlink data in a first downlink dataset, the first quantity used to determine the first frequency domain resource, the first downlink data being one of M downlink data, all M HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the M downlink data are transmitted over the PSFCH, and M is a positive integer.

[0089] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first transmission resource is the resource used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data. In particular, for the relationship between M and the first resource block quantity and the second resource block quantity, please refer to the description in the first aspect. Further details will not be described herein.

[0090] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first transmitting resource is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data and HARQ-ACK information for sidelink data. In particular, the relationship between M, the first resource block quantity, the second resource block quantity, and the second quantity should be referred to in the description of the first aspect. Further details are not described herein.

[0091] With respect to the second aspect, some implementations of the second aspect further include the following: A network device sends a fourth configuration to a first terminal device, the fourth configuration is used to configure R resource pools, and the first transmitted resource is a resource in one of the R resource pools, where R is a positive integer.

[0092] With respect to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first downlink data includes a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), the first link is a link for communication based on a first communication interface, the second link is a link for communication based on a second communication interface, the third link is a link for communication based on a third communication interface, the first communication interface is a first Uu interface, the second communication interface is a PC5 interface, and the third communication interface is a second Uu interface.

[0093] For the technical effects of the methods shown in the second aspect and the possible designs of the second aspect, please refer to the technical effects in the first aspect and the possible designs of the first aspect.

[0094] According to a third aspect, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device is configured to implement either the first aspect or an implementation of the first aspect. In particular, the terminal device includes a processor and memory. The memory is configured to store computer programs. The processor is configured to call computer programs from memory and run computer programs, thereby the terminal device implements either the first aspect or an implementation of the first aspect.

[0095] According to a fourth aspect, a network device is provided. The network device is configured to implement either the second aspect or an implementation of the second aspect. In particular, the network device includes a processor and memory. The memory is configured to store computer programs. The processor is configured to call computer programs from memory and run computer programs, thereby the network device implements either the second aspect or an implementation of the second aspect.

[0096] According to a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is configured to implement the methods provided in any one of the first and second aspects and implementations of the first and second aspects. In particular, the communication device may include units and / or modules (e.g., processing units and transceiver units) configured to implement the methods provided in any one of the first and second aspects and implementations of the first and second aspects.

[0097] In the implementation, the communication device is a terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal device, the transceiver unit may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. The processing unit may be at least one processor. Optionally, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0098] In another implementation, the communication device may be a chip, chip system, or circuit within a terminal device. In this case, the transceiver unit may be an input / output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin, related circuit, etc., on the chip, chip system, or circuit, and the processing unit may be at least one processor, processing circuit, logic circuit, etc.

[0099] According to a sixth aspect, the present application provides a processor configured to carry out the methods provided in the first and second aspects.

[0100] Unless otherwise specified, or unless such operations are inconsistent with the actual function or internal logic of the operations described herein, the send and receive / receive operations of the processor may be understood as the outputs and receive or inputs of the processor, or as the send and receive operations performed by radio frequency circuits and antennas. This is not limited to the present application.

[0101] According to the seventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program. When the computer program is running on a communication device, the communication device can implement a method according to either the implementation of the first or second aspect.

[0102] According to the eighth aspect, a computer program product including instructions is provided. When the computer program product is run on a computer, the computer becomes capable of implementing either one of the implementations of the first or second aspect.

[0103] According to the ninth aspect, a chip is provided. The chip includes a processor and a communication interface. The processor reads instructions through the communication interface and implements a method according to either the first or second aspect of the implementation.

[0104] Optionally, in the implementation, the chip further includes memory. The memory stores computer programs or instructions. The processor is configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in memory. When a computer program or instruction is executed, the processor is configured to perform a method according to either the first or second embodiment of the implementation.

[0105] According to the tenth aspect, a communication system is provided that includes a terminal device in the third aspect and a network device in the fourth aspect. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0106] [Figure 1] This is a diagram of a communication architecture according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 2] This diagram illustrates a scenario in which XR glasses communicate with a network device via a mobile phone, according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 3] This is a diagram showing the structure of a slot according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 4] This is a diagram illustrating the time relationship between PSSCH and PSFCH according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 5] This diagram shows the frequency domain relationship between the HARQ-ACK information of PSSCH and the HARQ-ACK information of PSFCH according to the embodiment of this application. [Figure 6] This is a diagram of code division multiplexing (CDM) according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 7] This is a schematic flowchart of the communication method according to the embodiment of this application. [Figure 8] This is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 9] This is a diagram of the first time gap according to this application. [Figure 10] This is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 11] This is a diagram of another first time gap according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 12] This is a diagram of another first time gap according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 13] This is a diagram of another first time gap according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 14] This is a diagram of a PDSCH transmission equipment set according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 15] This is a diagram of another PDSCH transmission opportunity set according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 16] This is a diagram of another PDSCH transmission opportunity set according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 17] This is a diagram showing the allocation of PRBs in PSFCH according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 18] This is another diagram illustrating the allocation of PRBs in PSFCH according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 19] This is another diagram illustrating the allocation of PRBs in PSFCH according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 20]This is another diagram illustrating the allocation of PRBs in PSFCH according to an embodiment of this application. [Figure 21] This is a block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 22] This is a diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. [Figure 23] This is a diagram of a chip system according to an embodiment of the present application. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0107] The technical solutions in the embodiments of this application will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings.

[0108] The technical solutions in the embodiments of this application may be applied to various communication systems, such as fifth-generation (5G) systems or new radio (NR) systems, long-term evolution (LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, and LTE time division duplex (TDD) systems. The technical solutions provided in this application may be further applied to future communication systems, such as sixth-generation mobile communication systems.

[0109] The Real-time broadband communication (RTBC) scenario in the new 5G vision aims to support high bandwidth and low interaction latency. The goal is to improve bandwidth under given latency and specific reliability requirements, creating immersive experiences during interaction between people and the virtual world. XR services with ultra-high bandwidth and ultra-low latency requirements present a more challenging task for current 5G. XR services include multiple types of data, such as video, audio, and other control signals. Video data typically includes several ultra-high-definition images. Each image undergoes compression coding, for example, high-efficiency video coding (HEVC). After coding, larger data blocks are generated. Higher resolution in video typically indicates larger data blocks.

[0110] In a scenario where an XR device is connected to a base station, the XR device needs to communicate with a server through the base station; that is, the XR device sends uplink data, such as the XR device's pose information, audio data, and video data captured by the XR device's camera, to the server through the base station. After receiving the data, the server generates corresponding downlink data, such as the video to be displayed on the XR device, and sends the downlink data back to the XR device through the base station. In cellular communication, since the base station is usually far away from the terminal device, the terminal device needs to perform power amplification on the data signal before sending the data in order to guarantee the quality of the uplink transmission. As a result, the power consumption overhead of uplink transmission is relatively high. In XR devices, being lightweight leads to limitations in battery capacity, ultimately affecting the battery life of the XR device. Therefore, reducing power consumption is currently a difficult direction to take in improving the XR device experience. An architecture is proposed to reduce the power consumption overhead of uplink communication. Specifically, the XR device can send uplink information to the base station through the terminal device. For ease of understanding, the communication architecture for reducing the power consumption overhead of uplink communication in this application will be briefly described below with reference to Figures 1 and 2.

[0111] Figure 1 is a diagram of a communication architecture according to an embodiment of the present application. This communication architecture includes network devices, relay devices, and terminal devices.

[0112] In embodiments of this application, a terminal device (terminal equipment) may be an access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, relay station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, user equipment (UE), terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device. Alternatively, a terminal device may be a cellular phone, cordless phone, session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, wireless local loop (WLL) station, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, computing device, another processing device connected to a wireless modem, in-vehicle device, wearable device, terminal device in a 5G network, terminal device in a future advanced public land mobile network (PLMN), terminal device in a future vehicle internet, etc. This is not limited to embodiments of this application.

[0113] For example, in embodiments of this application, wearable devices may also be called wearable intelligent devices, and are a general term for wearable devices intelligently designed and developed for everyday wear by using wearable technology, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothing or accessories. A wearable device is not only a hardware device but also implements powerful functionality through software support, data exchange, and cloud interaction. In a broad sense, a wearable intelligent device includes a fully functional device that can implement full or partial functionality without relying on a smartphone, such as a smartwatch or smart glasses. In addition, the device may, as an alternative, be a portable device that is specific to only one type of application function and needs to be used in conjunction with another device such as a smartphone, such as various smart bands or smart jewelry for monitoring physical signs.

[0114] In addition, in the embodiments of this application, the terminal device may, alternatively, be a terminal device in an IoT system. IoT is an important part of future information technology development. The main technical feature of IoT is that by using communication technology, items are connected to a network, and an intelligent network of interconnections between humans and machines and between things is implemented. In the embodiments of this application, IoT technology can implement large-scale connectivity, deep coverage, and terminal power savings by, for example, using narrow-band (NB) technology.

[0115] In addition, in the embodiments of this application, the terminal device may alternatively include a sensor. The main functions include collecting data (of several terminal devices), receiving control information and downlink data from a network device, transmitting electromagnetic waves, and transmitting uplink data to a network device.

[0116] The relay device (relay equipment) in the embodiments of this application may be a terminal device. See the above description of a terminal device. In other words, the relay device and terminal device in this application may be two different terminal devices that can communicate directly with each other. For example, direct communication between terminal devices can be implemented by using device-to-device (D2D) technology. The relay device can relay information between a terminal device and a network device.

[0117] The network device in the embodiments of this application may be any communication device having wireless transmission and reception capabilities and configured to communicate with a terminal device. The devices may include, but are not limited to, evolved NodeB (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), NodeB (NB), home evolved NodeB (HeNB), or home NodeB (HNB), baseband unit (BBU), or access point (AP), wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, transmission point (TP), or transmission and reception point (TRP) in a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, or a gNB or transmission point (TRP or TP) in a 5G system such as an NR system, or one antenna panel or a group of antenna panels (including multiple antenna panels) of a base station in a 5G system, or a network node forming a gNB or transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU) or distributed unit (DU).

[0118] Network devices and terminal devices may be deployed on land, including indoor or outdoor devices, handheld devices, or in-vehicle devices; they may be deployed on water; or they may be deployed in the air on airplanes, balloons, or satellites. The scenarios in which network devices and terminal devices are deployed are not limited to the embodiments of this application.

[0119] In embodiments of this application, a terminal device or network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit, a memory management unit (MMU), and memory (also called main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement service processing through processes, such as the Linux® operating system, Unix® operating system, Android® operating system, iOS® operating system, or Windows® operating system. The application layer includes applications such as a browser, address book, word processing software, and instant communication software.

[0120] In addition, aspects or features of this application may be implemented as methods, apparatus, or products using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. As used in this application, the term “product” covers computer programs that can be accessed from any computer-readable component, carrier, or medium. For example, computer-readable mediums include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage components (e.g., hard disk drives, floppy disks, or magnetic tapes), optical discs (e.g., compact discs (CDs) or digital versatile discs (DVDs)), smart cards, and flash memory components (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMs), cards, sticks, or key drives). In addition, the various storage media described herein may refer to one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media configured to store information. The term “machine-readable storage medium” may include, but are not limited to, wireless channels that can store, contain, and / or carry instructions and / or data, as well as various other media.

[0121] Figure 1 should be understood as merely a simplified example for ease of understanding. The communication system 100 may further include other network devices (not shown in Figure 1) or other terminal devices. For example, the communication system 100 may further include a core network device. The access network device may provide a wireless access connection to the terminal device and send data to or receive data sent by the terminal device. In addition, the access network device may also be connected to the core network device and may forward data received from the terminal device to the core network or receive data from the core network that needs to be sent to the terminal device.

[0122] For example, using an example where the relay device shown in Figure 1 is a mobile phone and the terminal device is XR glasses, we will explain how to reduce the power consumption overhead of the XR glasses' uplink communication, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating a scenario in which XR glasses communicate with a network device through a mobile phone, according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0123] From Figure 2, it can be seen that the network device and the XR glasses can communicate with each other using a multipath method. Multipath communication includes: (1) The XR glasses communicate directly with the network device through a communication interface (e.g., Uu#2). (2) The XR glasses communicate with the mobile phone over a short distance (e.g., a sidelink (SL)), and the mobile phone communicates with the network device through a communication interface (e.g., Uu#1).

[0124] Specifically, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer of the network device is split into two bearers. One bearer (hereinafter referred to as bearer #1) is from the XR glasses to the network device and is used to establish a link in which the mobile phone is used as a relay, while the other bearer (hereinafter referred to as bearer #2) is the direct link between the XR glasses and the network device.

[0125] Regarding Bearer #1, in downlink transmission (i.e., transmission from the network device to the XR glasses), Bearer #1 forwards the data with the added PDCP header to the sidelink relay adaptation protocol (SRAP) layer. After adding the corresponding header, the SRAP layer delivers the data to the corresponding radio link control (RLC) layer. The data is then forwarded to the media access control (MAC) layer after the header has been added. The data is then transmitted to the mobile phone through the physical (PHY) layer (e.g., PHY#1 shown in Figure 2). The mobile phone then transmits the data to the XR glasses via short-range communication (e.g., SL).

[0126] Similarly, with respect to Bearer #1, in the uplink, the XR glasses transmit data from the application layer through the SL to the mobile phone, which then transmits the data to the network device. This process is the reverse of the downlink transmission process described above and will not be explained in detail again.

[0127] Regarding Bearer #2, since downlink transmission (i.e., transmission from the network device to the XR glasses) does not require relaying via the mobile phone, Bearer #2's protocol stack does not have an SRAP layer. PDCP distributes the data to the RLC, and then the MAC transmits the data to the XR glasses through the physical layer (e.g., PHY#2 shown in Figure 2).

[0128] Similarly, with respect to Bearer #2, in the uplink, the XR glasses transmit data directly from the application layer to the network device.

[0129] Uu#1 is the physical connection between the mobile phone and the base station, and Uu#2 is the physical connection between the glasses and the base station. Uu#1 and Uu#2 may be in the same frequency band or in different frequency bands. Furthermore, the mobile phone and XR glasses establish an SL connection through the PC5 interface, and the frequency band of PC5 may be the same as or different from that of Uu#1 or Uu#2.

[0130] To reduce the uplink transmission power consumption of the XR glasses, the XR glasses may transmit uplink data (e.g., XR device pose information, audio data, and video data captured by the XR device's camera) to the mobile phone, which then transmits the data via Uu#1. Since the XR glasses and mobile phone typically communicate with each other over short distances, the distance from the XR glasses to the mobile phone is much smaller than the distance from the XR glasses to the base station. Therefore, XR The uplink transmission power consumption of the glasses is effectively reduced. In downlink communication, as shown in Figure 2, data from the server can be sent to the XR glasses through two links (e.g., link #1 for transmission via Uu#1 and PC5, and link #2 for transmission via Uu#2). When Uu#1 and Uu#2 are in different frequency bands, using these two links is equivalent to increasing the link bandwidth, and therefore the transmission rate can be effectively improved.

[0131] To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of this application, several fundamental concepts are briefly described. These concepts are explained below by using, for example, the concepts specified in the NR protocol; however, it should be understood that the embodiments of this application are not limited to those applicable only to NR systems. Therefore, all standard names appearing when NR systems are used as illustrative examples are functional descriptions; specific names are not limiting, indicate only the function of the device, and may be extended to accommodate other future systems.

[0132] 1. HARQ-ACK information feedback in cellular networks: In cellular networks, after a network device schedules a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for a terminal device using downlink control information (DCI), the terminal device determines the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH based on the indication information in the DCI.

[0133] In particular, in addition to indicating the PDSCH, the DCI also carries a field indicating the PUCCH that carries the HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the PDSCH. For example, the k1 value, i.e., the offset time between the PDSCH and the PUCCH, is indicated by using the PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator field. Note that the offset time indicated in the DCI is an index, and this index points to one of a group of offset times.

[0134] In particular, network devices configure groups of k1 values ​​for terminal devices by using higher-layer signaling, such as radio resource control (RRC) messages. When scheduling a PDSCH using DCI, the network device indicates one k1 in the DCI, and this k1 is one of the groups of k1 values ​​mentioned above. In addition, DCI also indicates the PUCCH resource that carries HARQ-ACK information. For example, DCI indicates the index of the PUCCH resource being used by using PUCCH resource indication information (PUCCH resource indicator).

[0135] For ease of understanding, the feedback of HARQ-ACK information in the PDSCH will be explained in detail with reference to Figure 3. A carrier with a time division duplex (TDD) configuration of 4:1 can be seen in Figure 3. Specifically, each TDD cycle has four downlink slots (for example, D0, D1, D2, and D3 in the TDD cycle shown in Figure 3, and D4, D5, D6, and D7 in another TDD cycle) and one uplink slot (for example, U0 in the TDD cycle shown in Figure 3 and U1 in another TDD cycle).

[0136] Network devices configure groups of k1 values ​​or PDSCH reception candidates (candidate PDSCH receptions) for terminal devices by using indication information (e.g., dl-DataToUL-ACK-r16) in the PUCCH configuration (PUCCH-Config) of higher layer signaling such as RRC messages, where the number typically does not exceed 8. For example, dl-DataToUL-ACK-r16={2,3,4,5,6,7}. In this case, for any uplink slot, e.g., U1 in Figure 3, all {2,3,4,5,6,7} previous slots' HARQ-ACK information that could be used to transmit PDSCH can be fed back in U1.

[0137] In particular, U1 in Figure 3 is still used as an example. Before U1, the second slot is D6, the third slot is D5, the fourth slot is D4, the fifth slot is U0 (which cannot be used to transmit PDSCH, and therefore the HARQ codebook does not need to be calculated), the sixth slot is D3, and the seventh slot is D2. All HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH scheduled in D2 through D6 can be fed back in U1.

[0138] For example, a network device schedules a PDSCH in slot D2 by using DCI, which further indicates the k1 index. For example, if PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator='000' (since dl-DataToUL-ACK-r16 contains 6 values, this indication field contains ceil(log2(quantity in dl-DataToUL-ACK-r16))=3 bits), it indicates that the first value in dl-DataToUL-ACK-r16, i.e., 2, is indicated. In other words, the HARQ of the PDSCH in D2 is fed back in U0. If PDSCH-to-HARQ_feedback timing indicator='101', i.e., the 6th value, i.e., 7, the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH in D2 is fed back in U1.

[0139] 2. PDSCH transmission opportunities: In this application, a PDSCH transmission opportunity refers to the quantity of HARQ-ACK information that can be transmitted on a PDSCH time-frequency resource, and multiple PDSCH transmission opportunities may be referred to as a PDSCH transmission opportunity set. For example, if the quantity of HARQ-ACK information that can be transmitted on a PDSCH time-frequency resource #1 (e.g., PSSCH, PSFCH, or PUCCH) is 2, then there are 2 PDSCH transmission opportunities.

[0140] 3. Semi-static codebooks: HARQ-ACK information feedback on PUCCH is typically classified into two forms: semi-static codebooks (also called type 1) and dynamic codebooks (type 2).

[0141] The number of bits in the semi-static codebook for PUCCH must consider all PDSCH transmission opportunities that can correspond to PUCCH. As shown in Figure 3, the PUCCH codebook in U1 must consider the receiving candidates for PDSCH transmitted in D2 through D6. Since mini-slot scheduling exists (for example, one slot contains 14 symbols, each PDSCH occupies only a few symbols, and multiple PDSCH transmission opportunities can exist within a single slot), it should be understood that the number of candidate PDSCHs transmitted in D2 through D6 is not necessarily 5, but can be greater than 5. For details, see the PDSCH-time domain resource allocation list constructed using upper-layer messages. Table 1 shows the time domain indication scheme for time domain resource allocation (TDRA).

[0142] [Table 1]

[0143] In particular, Table 1 contains 16 rows, each further divided into information such as row index, demodulation reference signal (DMRS) position (dmrs-TypeA-Position), PDSCH mapping type, k0, S, and L. The DMRS is the demodulation reference channel, used by the receiving end to evaluate the channel and facilitate signal demodulation. dmrs-TypeA-Position is for when the PDSCH mapping type is type A, where 2 or 3 indicates that the DMRS signal is on the second or third symbol in the slot where the PDSCH is located. The PDSCH mapping type indicates the mapping type of the PDSCH. When the mapping type is type A, the starting symbol of the PDSCH is one of symbols 0 through 3, i.e., symbols 1 through 4. When the mapping type is type B, the starting symbol of the PDSCH is one of symbols 0 through 12, i.e., symbols 1 through 13. k0 represents the time offset of the PDSCH relative to the corresponding DCI and is measured within the slot. S represents the starting symbol position of the PDSCH and is counted from 0. L represents the total number of symbols occupied by the PDSCH and is counted from 1.

[0144] For example, when mapping type B is configured for a terminal device, according to Table 1, when the row index is 8, the corresponding PDSCH occupies seven symbols starting from the 5th symbol in one slot, i.e., symbols 5 through 11, or when the row index is 11, the corresponding PDSCH occupies two symbols starting from the 12th symbol in one slot, i.e., symbols 12 and 13. It can be known that the PDSCHs corresponding to row index 8 and row index 11 do not overlap in one slot. Therefore, multiple PDSCHs can exist in one slot. Accordingly, for the number of PDSCH candidates contained in one PUCCH with respect to the semi-static codebook, please refer to the K1 set and the TDRA list together.

[0145] For simplicity, an example is used in Table 1 where only mapping type A exists. In this case, one PUCCH semi-static codebook contains 5 bits, each corresponding to a PDSCH in D2 through D6. When the DCI and the corresponding PDSCH are received in the corresponding slot, the HARQ-ACK information bits are mapped based on the data channel decoding result of the PDSCH. If the DCI is not detected in the slot, a NACK is fed back at the corresponding bit position.

[0146] 4. Dynamic Codebook: The drawback of the semi-static codebook described above is that the codebook is fixed, which can lead to resource waste. Therefore, a dynamic codebook is further proposed, which implements on-demand feedback based on the actual quantity of data received. However, since terminal devices may miss detecting DCI, a 2-bit downlink assignment index is usually needed to be added to the DCI to enable the dynamic codebook to detect the quantity of DCI received by the terminal device.

[0147] For example, see the feedback state shown in Figure 3. The network device schedules three PDSCHs in slots D4, D5, and D6 respectively by using three DCIs, with the corresponding downlink assignment indices (DAIs) being "01", "10", and "11", respectively. The terminal device receives a DCI in D4 in Figure 3, and the corresponding DAI index is "01". The terminal device misses detecting a DCI in D5, and then receives a DCI in D6, with the corresponding index being "11". In this case, the terminal device indicates that the DCI was missed in detection between D4 and D6, and therefore feeds back 3 bits of HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the PDSCHs in D4, D5, and D6. Since the DCI was missed in detection in D5, the terminal device feeds back a NACK in the corresponding bits.

[0148] 5. HARQ-ACK Information Feedback on Sidelinks: In sidelink scenarios (i.e., communication between terminal devices), for example, in the communication between a relay device and a terminal device shown in Figure 1 or the communication between XR glasses and a mobile phone shown in Figure 2, the sending terminal device may transmit data to the peer end via a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and receive the decoded result fed back by the terminal device on a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH). The PSFCH is constructed using upper-layer signaling and has periodicity, and the periodicity value of the PSFCH

[0149]

number

[0150] This is possible. 0 represents the absence of a PSFCH. In addition, one PSFCH is included in every one, two, or four slots, and the PSFCH occupies the second-to-last symbol in the slot. Since the received power of the terminal device may vary on the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol on which the PSFCH is located, the third-to-last symbol in the slot is also used to send the PSFCH to help the receiving terminal device perform automatic gain control (AGC) adjustments. In addition, the terminal devices sending PSSCH and PSFCH are different. Therefore, an additional symbol (i.e., the fourth-to-last symbol) is used for the send / receive conversion of the terminal device. PSFCH It needs to be added before that.

[0151] Figure 4 shows the time relationship between PSSCH and PSFCH, and the PSFCH period.

[0152]

number

[0153] Since is 4, that is, one PSFCH appears for every four PSSCHs, and the PSFCH and PSSCH share 14 symbols in one slot. In addition, considering that terminal devices require processing time after receiving data, for example, from decoding after receiving a PSSCH to generating information such as the corresponding HARQ, in this case, upper-layer signaling indicates the minimum slot offset of the PSFCH that carries the HARQ-ACK information of the PSSCH by using the minimum slot offset of the sidelink PSFCH (sl-minTimeGapPSFCH) parameter. That is, the HARQ-ACK information of the PSSCH needs to be fed back on the PSFCH in at least the slot after sl-minTimeGapPSFCH. As shown in Figure 4, when sl-minTimeGapPSFCH=2, the HARQ-ACK information feedback of the PSSCH in S0 and S1 may be transmitted through the first PSFCH, and the HARQ-ACK information feedback of the PSSCH in S2 to S5 may be transmitted through the second PSFCH. The quantity of PSSCH corresponding to each PSFCH is usually determined during the PSFCH period.

[0154]

number

[0155] This is determined by [the specified method]. However, there may be cases where no PSFCH exists. For example, if a sidelink synchronization signal block (S-SSB) is sent in the slot, or if sidelink control information (SCI) indicates that the PSFCH is canceled, the PSFCH duration is lost. In this case, one PSFCH may correspond to more than four PSSCH HARQs. The specific quantity depends on the number of PSSCHs that satisfy sl-minTimeGapPSFCH.

[0156] For example, if the first PSFCH in Figure 4 does not exist for a specific reason, all HARQ-ACK information feedback corresponding to the PSSCH in S0 to S5 is transmitted over the second PSFCH.

[0157] Figure 4 shows the time-domain relationship between the HARQ of a PSSCH and the HARQ of a PSFCH. Furthermore, Figure 5 shows the frequency-domain relationship between the HARQ-ACK information of a PSSCH and the HARQ-ACK information of a PSFCH, that is, the HARQ bit of a PSSCH is transmitted through a specific frequency-domain resource of a PSFCH, such as a physical resource block (PRB) (hereinafter also sometimes referred to as a resource block (RB)). As shown in Figure 5, one PSFCH PRB set contains 16 PRBs, and this parameter can be configured by using higher-layer signaling. For example, the Sidelink Resource Pool Configuration (SL-PSFCH-Config-r16) parameter in the Sidelink Resource Pool (SL-ResourcePool) signaling in an RRC message is used to configure the number of PRBs in a PSFCH. In particular, the PSFCH transmission resource set is divided into multiple subsets based on the PSFCH duration parameter in the resource pool configuration information and the number of subchannels that can be used for PSSCH transmission, with each PSFCH transmission resource in a subset corresponding to a PSSCH transmission in one slot and one subchannel.

[0158] For example, the PSFCH period

[0159]

number

[0160] And the resource pool is N (configured by using upper-layer signaling). subch The number of subchannels included and the number of PRBs of PSFCH

[0161]

number

[0162] In that case, the number of PRBs in the PSFCH corresponding to one PSSCH subchannel in one slot is

[0163]

number

[0164] Therefore, for a PSSCH sent on the j-th subchannel in the i-th slot, the available PRB for the PSFCH corresponding to the PSSCH is:

[0165]

number

[0166] These PRBs form a PSFCH transmission resource subset. As shown in Figure 5, the PSFCH period consists of four slots, i.e., one PSFCH slot corresponds to four PSSCH slots, and the resource pool includes two subchannels, with the resource pool configuration information constituting 16 PRBs for transmitting the PSFCH. Thus, one subchannel corresponds to two PSFCH PRBs, and the correspondence between PSSCH subchannels and PSFCH PRBs is first in the time-domain sequence and then in the frequency-domain sequence. As shown in Figure 5, subchannel 0 in slot 0 corresponds to PSFCH PRB0 and PRB1, subchannel 0 in slot 1 corresponds to PSFCH PRB2 and PRB3, and so on.

[0167] In addition, for the PRB of a PSFCH, the feedback results of multiple UEs' PSSCHs may be multiplexed into the PRB of the PSFCH using a code division multiplexing (CDM) method. The number of PSFCHs available for CDM in a single PRB is determined by the parameter

[0168]

number

[0169] This is determined by and this parameter can be configured by using higher-layer signaling. The transmit resource set of PSFCH corresponding to PSSCH is,

[0170]

number

[0171] Therefore, when the PSFCH transmission resource is determined based on the index of the starting subchannel occupied by the PSSCH,

[0172]

number

[0173] For example, when PSSCH occupies slot 0, the transmit resources of the PSFCH corresponding to PSSCH are PRB0 and PRB1, regardless of whether PSSCH occupies subchannel 0 or subchannels 0 and 1. When the transmit resources of the PSFCH are determined based on the index of all subchannels occupied by PSSCH,

[0174]

number

[0175] And,

[0176]

number

[0177] This is the number of subchannels occupied by the PSSCH. For example, if the PSSCH occupies subchannel 0 in slot 0, the PSFCH corresponding to the PSSCH is PRB0 and PRB1. If the PSSCH occupies subchannels 0 and subchannel 1 in slot 0, the transmit resources of the corresponding PSFCH are PRB0, PRB1, PRB8, and PRB9. One PSFCH is,

[0178]

number

[0179] It corresponds to a PSFCH transmission resource. The terminal, in the PSFCH transmission resource set, has a transmission resource corresponding to the PSFCH according to the following formula.

[0180]

number

[0181] Determine P ID This indicates the ID information of the UE sending PSSCH, i.e., the source ID carried in SCI format 2-A or 2-B, and M ID This indicates the ID of the receiving UE in the communication group and can be determined by using the destination ID in SCI format 2-A or 2-B. In unicast or the second feedback scheme described above (where the PSFCH transmission resource is determined based on the index of all subchannels occupied by the PSSCH), M ID = 0. Therefore, the receiving end in the group can determine a different PSFCH transmission resource according to the ID.

[0182] As shown in Figure 6, a PSFCH corresponding to one PSSCH subchannel occupies four PRBs, and each PRB is...

[0183]

number

[0184] It includes cyclic shift pairs. The UE is first in the frequency domain and then in the code domain.

[0185]

number

[0186] Based on the results, the PRB and cyclic shift pair for transmission can be determined. For example,

[0187]

number

[0188] In this case, the fifth PRB, i.e., PRB1, which is based first on the frequency domain and then on the code domain (calculated from 0), is used to transmit the PSFCH.

[0189] 6. Sidelink Scheduling: Currently, sidelink scheduling is classified into two modes: Mode 1 and Mode 2. Mode 1 is when a network device controls the transmission of the Sidelink (SL), that is, when a network device indicates to a sending terminal device (txUE) that it will send data to a receiving terminal device (rxUE) via a PSSCH by using DCI. In particular, in 5G new radio (NR) sidelinks, the network device indicates the txUE to send by using DCI format 3_0. In long-term evolution (LTE) sidelinks, the network device indicates the txUE to send by using DCI format 3_1. Each DCI can indicate the send of N (usually 3 or less) PSSCHs at once. Using NR as an example, the indication field of DCI format 3_0 includes the following:

[0190] (1) Resource pool index: A network device may configure multiple resource pools and corresponding indices for terminal devices. When scheduling side-transmit resources using DCI, the network device must indicate resource pool index information in DCI. Based on the resource pool index information, terminal devices determine which resource pool the scheduled side-transmit resources belong to using DCI. Different parameters, such as the number of subchannels and subchannel sizes, may be configured for different resource pools.

[0191] (2) Time gap: Used to determine the time gap between the first sidelink transmission resource and the slot in which the DCI is located. The time domain location of the first sidelink transmission resource may be determined based on such information and the time domain location of the DCI received by the txUE.

[0192] (3) Time resource assignment: The way in which this information field indicates the time domain is the same as in SCI format 1-A, and this parameter is used to determine the slot gap between the first sidelink transmission resource and the N-1 other sidelink transmission resources.

[0193] (4) Frequency Domain Start Subchannel Indicator for Initial Transmission (Lower Index of Subchannel Allocation for Initial Transmission): Indicates the lowest index of the subchannel occupied by the first sidelink transmission resource. The frequency domain start positions of PSCCH and PSSCH are aligned. Thus, the frequency domain start positions of PSCCH and PSSCH can be determined based on such information.

[0194] (5) Frequency resource assignment: The way in which such information indicates frequency domain resources is the same as in SCI format 1-A, and this parameter is used to determine the frequency domain resource size (number of subchannels) of the sidelink transmit resource and the frequency domain start positions of the N-1 sidelink transmit resources other than the first sidelink transmit resource.

[0195] (6) PUCCH resource indicator: The base station configures the PUCCH resource set and corresponding index by using upper layer signaling, and the PUCCH transmit resource is determined in the resource set by using this information field in the DCI.

[0196] (7) Slot gap between PSFCH and PUCCH (PSFCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator): Used to determine the time gap between PSFCH and PUCCH. PSFCH is used to carry the HARQ-ACK information feedback of PSFCH as indicated by DCI. If the sidelink transmit resources allocated by the base station (network device) correspond to at least one PSFCH, the slot gap indicates the slot gap between the transmit resource of the last PSFCH and the transmit resource of the PUCCH.

[0197] (8) HARQ process number: Indicates the HARQ process number corresponding to the sidelink transmission resource assigned to the terminal by the network.

[0198] (9) New data indicator (NDI): Indicates whether new sidelink data scheduled by DCI is being sent. The NDI is toggled when new sidelink data scheduled in DCI format 3_0 is being sent; otherwise, the NDI is not toggled.

[0199] (10) Configuration Index: When a Sidelink Configuration Scheduling Radio Network Temporary Identifier (SL-CS-RNTI) is configured for a terminal, DCI format 3_0 may be used to activate or release Type 2 sidelink configured grants. A network may have multiple Type 2 sidelink configured grants. The configuration index indicates which sidelink configured grant is activated or released by the DCI. When an SL-CS-RNTI is not configured for a UE, this field (information field) is either absent or has 0 bits.

[0200] (11) Counter sidelink assignment index: The counter sidelink assignment index indicates the number of DCIs that are sent cumulatively by the network and used to schedule sidelink transmission resources, and the terminal determines the number of information bits in the generation of the HARQ-ACK codebook based on such information.

[0201] When a terminal device receives DCI format 3_0, PSSCH is scheduled via PSCCH on the time-frequency domain resources indicated by DCI (for example, in SCI format 1-A). The same information fields in DCI format 3_0 can be used for time resource allocation and frequency resource allocation in SCI.

[0202] In addition, the following explanation is provided to facilitate understanding of the embodiments of this application.

[0203] Firstly, in this application, "indicate" may include "directly indicate" and "indirectly indicate." When indication information is described as indicating A, the indication information may directly indicate A or indirectly indicate A, but this does not mean that the indication information necessarily includes A.

[0204] Information indicated by indication information is called information to be indicated. In a particular implementation, there are multiple ways of indicating information to be indicated. Information to be indicated may be sent as a whole or divided into multiple sub-informations and sent separately. In addition, the transmission period and / or transmission opportunity of the sub-informations may be the same or different. The specific transmission method is not limited in this application. The transmission period and / or transmission opportunity of the sub-informations may be predefined, for example according to a protocol, or configured by the transmitting end device by sending configuration information to the receiving end device. The configuration information may include, but is not limited to, one of radio resource control signaling, MAC layer signaling, and physical layer signaling, or at least two of these in combination. Radio resource control signaling includes, for example, RRC signaling, MAC layer signaling includes, for example, MAC CE, and physical layer signaling includes, for example, DCI.

[0205] Secondly, “at least one” as used in this application means one or more, and “multiple” means two or more. In addition, in the embodiments of this application, “first,” “second,” and various numerical numbers (e.g., “#1” and “#2”) are used merely for distinction for ease of explanation and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The sequence numbers of the following processes do not mean a sequence of execution. The sequence of execution of a process should be determined according to the function and internal logic of the process and should not be any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of this application. Subjects described in such a manner should be understood to be interchangeable where appropriate to describe solutions other than the embodiments of this application. In addition, in the embodiments of this application, words such as “710” and “720” are merely identifiers for ease of explanation and are not used to limit the sequence in which the steps are performed.

[0206] Thirdly, in this application, words such as “example” or “for example” are used to indicate that an example, illustration, or explanation is being given. No embodiment or design solution described as “example” or “for example” in this application should be construed as being preferable or advantageous to other embodiments or design solutions. In particular, words such as “example” or “for example” are used to present the concepts concerned in a particular manner.

[0207] Fourth, “storage” in the embodiments of this application may be storage in one or more memories. One or more memories may be separately arranged or may be integrated into an encoder or decoder, processor or communication device. Alternatively, some of the memories may be separately arranged, and some of the memories may be integrated into a decoder, processor or communication device. The type of memory may be any form of storage medium; this is not limited to this application.

[0208] Fifth, the “protocol” in the embodiments of this application may be a standard protocol in the field of communications, and may include, for example, the LTE protocol, the NR protocol, and related protocols applicable to future communications systems. This is not limited to this application.

[0209] Sixth, in the embodiments of this application, “case,” “when,” and “situation” are sometimes used interchangeably. Note that when their differences are not emphasized, the meaning to be expressed is consistent.

[0210] Seventh, in the embodiments of this application, all terms, English acronyms, and abbreviations, such as Radio Resource Control (RRC), are provided as illustrative examples for ease of explanation and should not be considered as limitations to this application. This application does not preclude the possibility of defining other terms that may implement the same or similar functions in existing or future protocols.

[0211] Eighth, the term “and / or” as used herein simply indicates a relational relationship between the related objects, and three such relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B could refer to three cases: A alone exists, both A and B exist, and B alone exists. In addition, the letter “ / ” as used herein typically indicates an “or” relationship between the related objects.

[0212] Referring to Figure 1, the above briefly describes scenarios to which the communication method provided in the embodiments of this application may be applied, explains the basic concepts that may be used in the embodiments of this application, and describes the sidelink HARQ-ACK information feedback and the cellular network HARQ-ACK information feedback in the basic concepts. Currently, after receiving a PDSCH, a terminal device feeds back HARQ-ACK information to the network device through a communication interface (e.g., Uu) between the terminal device and the network device, causing high uplink power consumption overhead. To reduce the uplink power consumption overhead of the terminal device, this application provides a communication method to which, after receiving a PDSCH, the terminal device may feed back HARQ-ACK information to the network device through a relay device.

[0213] It should be understood that the communication method provided in the embodiments of this application may be applied to a system in which communication is performed by using multi-antenna technology, for example, the communication system 100 shown in Figure 1. The communication system may include at least one network device, at least one terminal device, and at least one relay device.

[0214] It should be further understood that the particular structure of the execution body of the method provided in the embodiments of this application is not particularly limited in the embodiments shown below, provided that a program for recording code for the method provided in the embodiments of this application is run and communication can be performed in accordance with the method provided in the embodiments of this application. For example, the method provided in the embodiments of this application may be implemented by a terminal device or by a functional module located in a terminal device that can call and execute a program.

[0215] Figure 7 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method according to this application. This method includes the following steps.

[0216] S710: The network device sends first downlink data to the first terminal device via the first link. In other words, the first terminal device receives first downlink data from the network device via the first link.

[0217] For example, the first downlink data may be the PDSCH described above, or other downlink data (e.g., PDCCH) sent by the network device to the first terminal device. The specific format of the first downlink data is not limited in this embodiment. For ease of explanation, an example in which the first downlink data is PDSCH#1 is used below.

[0218] In particular, the first terminal device may be any terminal device that communicates with a network device. For example, in this embodiment, the first terminal device may be the terminal device shown in Figure 1 above, or the XR glasses shown in Figure 2 above.

[0219] The first link is a communication link between a first terminal device and a network device. For example, the first link is a link for communication based on communication interface #1 (e.g., Uu#2), and may also be referred to as a first communication channel. The first channel or the like is used to describe a communication channel for direct communication between the first terminal device and the network device.

[0220] In a possible implementation, in this embodiment, that the network device sends PDSCH #1 to the first terminal device via the first link may be understood as follows. The network device sends DCI #1 to the first terminal device via the first link, and DCI #1 is used to schedule PDSCH #1 for the terminal device.

[0221] Further, after receiving PDSCH #1, the terminal device may decode PDSCH #1 to obtain a first decoding result. The method procedure shown in Figure 7 further includes the following steps.

[0222] S720: The first terminal device decodes first downlink data to obtain a first decoding result.

[0223] In particular, in this embodiment, the process of how the first terminal device decodes PDSCH #1 to obtain the first decoding result is not described in detail. For details, reference is made to the description in the current related art, where a terminal device performs decoding to obtain a decoding result after receiving a PDSCH scheduled by a network device, and details are not described herein.

[0224] In this embodiment, the first terminal device obtains a first decoding result, and generates first HARQ-ACK information based on the first decoding result (for example, generates an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK)). After the first HARQ-ACK information is generated, in this embodiment, the first terminal device does not need to directly feed back the first HARQ-ACK information to the network device, but sends the first HARQ-ACK information to the second terminal device, and the second terminal device forwards the first HARQ-ACK information to the network device, whereby the power consumption required for feeding back the first HARQ-ACK information by the first terminal device can be reduced. The method procedure shown in FIG. 7 further includes the following steps.

[0225] S730: the first terminal device sends first information to the second terminal device through a second link. In other words, the second terminal device receives the first information from the first terminal device through the second link. The first information includes the first HARQ-ACK information.

[0226] In particular, the second terminal device may be any terminal device that establishes communication with the network device and the first terminal device. For example, in this embodiment, the second terminal device may be the relay device shown in the above-mentioned FIG. 1, or may be the mobile phone shown in the above-mentioned FIG. 2.

[0227] The second link is a communication link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device. For example, the second link is a link for communication based on communication interface #2 (for example, PC5), and may also be referred to as a second communication channel. The second channel or the like is used to describe a communication channel for direct communication between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0228] Furthermore, in this embodiment, after receiving the first HARQ-ACK information from the first terminal device to PDSCH#1, the second terminal device forwards the first HARQ-ACK information to the network device. The method procedure shown in Figure 7 further includes the following steps.

[0229] S740: The second terminal device sends fifth information to the network device via the third link. In other words, the network device receives fifth information from the second terminal device via the third link. The fifth information includes the first HARQ-ACK information.

[0230] The third link is a communication link between the second terminal device and the network device. For example, the third link is a link for communication based on communication interface #3 (e.g., Uu#1), and may also be called the third communication channel. The term "third channel, etc." is used to describe a communication channel for direct communication between the second terminal device and the network device.

[0231] In this embodiment, how the second terminal device forwards the first HARQ-ACK information to the network device for the first terminal device is not limited, and the first HARQ-ACK information may be forwarded over a transmission resource allocated to the second terminal device by the network device. In this embodiment, how the network device configures the transmission resource for forwarding the first HARQ-ACK information is not limited, and a transmission resource allocated to the second terminal device may be reused, or a transmission resource may be configured separately for the first HARQ-ACK information.

[0232] In this embodiment, it should be understood that a prerequisite for the first terminal device to send first HARQ-ACK information to the second terminal device via the second link is that the first terminal device knows of a first transmission resource that can be used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information over the second link. In this embodiment, the first terminal device can know of the first transmission resource used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information over the second link in the following two ways:

[0233] Method 1.1: The network device indicates the first transmission resource using a dynamic indication method. Referring to Figure 8, the following describes in detail how the first terminal device obtains the first transmission resource in the case described in Method 1.1.

[0234] Method 1.2: The network device indicates the first transmission resource in a semi-static manner. Referring to Figure 10, the following will explain in detail how the first terminal device obtains the first transmission resource in the case described in Method 1.2.

[0235] The above methods 1.1 and 1.2 are merely examples illustrating how a first terminal device determines a first transmission resource for transmitting first HARQ-ACK information over a second link, and should not be understood as any limitation to the scope of protection of this application. The first transmission resource may be an unlicensed spectral resource. In this application, the primary consideration is that the first terminal device learns the first transmission resource based on indications from a network device.

[0236] In the communication method shown in Figure 7, after receiving the PDSCH, the first terminal device transmits the corresponding HARQ-ACK information to the second terminal device via the second link (e.g., PC5), and the second terminal device then transmits the HARQ-ACK information to the network device. This prevents the first terminal device from directly sending the HARQ-ACK information to the network device, thereby reducing the power consumption overhead caused by uplink HARQ-ACK information feedback performed by the first terminal device.

[0237] Figure 8 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to this application. This method includes the following steps.

[0238] S810: The network device sends the first control information to the first terminal device. In other words, the first terminal device receives the first control information from the network device.

[0239] In particular, determining a first transmission resource for the first terminal device to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information includes determining a specific time for transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information. For example, the first terminal device determines a first time unit in which the first terminal device transmits the first information through a second link.

[0240] The first time unit determined by the first terminal device should be understood as the time unit for sending the first information and the first HARQ-ACK information. The first terminal device may also be understood as determining that the time unit for sending the first HARQ-ACK information is the first time unit. For example, if the first terminal device decides to send the first HARQ-ACK information in a slot, the first terminal device sends the first information carrying the first HARQ-ACK information in that slot.

[0241] For example, a first terminal device may determine a first time unit by determining a first time gap, the first time gap being less than or equal to the time gap between a first time unit and a second time unit, the second time unit being a time unit in which the first terminal device receives first downlink data or a time unit in which the first terminal device receives first control information, the first control information may be further used to schedule the first downlink data.

[0242] In a possible implementation, the first time gap is the time offset between the first time unit and the second time unit. In this implementation, the first time unit is the first time unit that occurs after the time offset relative to the second time unit. The time gap between the first time unit and the second time unit may be understood as being equal to the time offset.

[0243] In another possible implementation, the first time gap is the minimum time gap (minTime Gap) between the first time unit and the second time unit. In this implementation, the time gap between the first time unit and the second time unit is greater than or equal to the minimum time gap.

[0244] In the embodiment shown in Figure 8, the network device may dynamically indicate the size of the first time gap by using first control information. The first time gap is either the time gap between the first time unit in which the first terminal device sends the first HARQ-ACK information and the time unit in which the first terminal device receives PDSCH#1, or the first time gap is the time gap between the first time unit in which the first terminal device sends the first HARQ-ACK information and the time unit in which the first terminal device receives information for scheduling PDSCH#1 (e.g., DCI#1). For ease of explanation, the following example will use DCI#1 as the first control information, where DCI#1 indicates the time gap between the first time unit and the time unit in which DCI#1 is received.

[0245] For example, the first control information is DCI#1 in the communication method shown in Figure 7. DCI#1 is used to schedule PDSCH#1 and further indicates a first time gap (or first time-domain offset) between the time-domain location of the SL resource (e.g., PSSCH or PSFCH) that carries the first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1 and the time-domain location where DCI#1 is received.

[0246] In a possible implementation, in this embodiment, DCI#1 comprises a field used to indicate a time offset between a time unit for receiving PDSCH#1 and an SL resource carrying first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1. For example, DCI#1 comprises a PDSCH-to-HARQ-feedback-on-PSSCH timing indicator field or a PDSCH-to-HARQ-feedback-on-PSFCH timing indicator field. This newly added field indicates a first time gap between a time domain position of a resource for receiving PDSCH#1 and a time domain position of an SL resource carrying first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1.

[0247] In another possible implementation, in this embodiment, the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback indicator field in downlink DCI format 1_0 or format 1_1 is reused to indicate the first time gap between a time domain position of a resource for receiving PDSCH#1 and a time domain position of an SL resource carrying first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1.

[0248] Optionally, the above field (newly added or reused) that indicates the first time gap may be used together with higher layer signaling to indicate the first time gap. For example, before a network device sends first control information to a first terminal device, the network device sends second configuration information to the first terminal device, where the second configuration information is used to configure a time gap set, and the first time gap is a time gap in the time gap set. The method procedure shown in Figure 8 further comprises the following steps.

[0249] S811: The network device sends the second configuration information to the first terminal device. In other words, the first terminal device receives the second configuration information from the network device.

[0250] The second configuration information may be upper-layer signaling (e.g., RRC messages). For example, the upper-layer signaling may constitute multiple time gap candidates for the first terminal device (for example, a network device may constitute a total of four time gap candidates {3, 4, 5, 8} for the first terminal device, and the units are slots).

[0251] Optionally, when the first control information reuses the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback indicator field in DCI format 1_0 or format 1_1, the bit width of the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback indicator field may be ceil(log24) = 2 bits, where ceil(·) is the ceiling (, or

[0252]

number

[0253] It can be replaced with,

[0254]

number

[0255] 'n' indicates the ceiling operation, and '4' indicates the number of time gap candidates that have been constructed (for example, a total of 4 time gap candidates {3, 4, 5, 8} are constructed above).

[0256] For example, the PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback indicator field may be an index, which corresponds to a value among the time gap candidates mentioned above. For instance, index "00" represents the first value, which is "3," meaning the first time gap is 3 slots, and the first HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#1 is fed back 3 slots after PDSCH#1 is received.

[0257] It should be noted that the implementations listed above are merely examples illustrating how the first time gap may be indicated by using the first control information, and do not constitute any limitation to the scope of protection of this application. The first time gap may, alternatively, be indicated dynamically in another manner, for example, by adding signaling, or by a pre-set method (described below with reference to Figure 10). Examples are not described herein.

[0258] To make it easier to understand, we will briefly explain how the first control information indicates the first time gap, referring to Figures 9(a) and (b).

[0259] From Figure 9(a), it can be seen that the first terminal device receives DCI#1 and the corresponding PDSCH#1 in slot D1. DCI#1 indicates that the first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1 is transmitted on PSSCH after the two slots.

[0260] From Figure 9(b), it can be seen that the first terminal device receives DCI#1 and the corresponding PDSCH#1 in slot D1. DCI#1 indicates that the first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1 is transmitted on the PSFCH after the two slots.

[0261] Furthermore, when the first time gap is measured within a slot, the subcarrier spacing (SCS) corresponding to the number of slots in the first time gap must be further determined. For example, the SCS for a second link is different from that for a first link. Therefore, the duration of each slot on the second link is different from the duration of each slot on the first link. For example, the SCS for the first link is 15 kHz, and the duration of each uplink or downlink slot is 1 ms, while the SCS for the second link is 30 kHz, and the duration of each slot on the second link is 0.5 ms. Therefore, when the first time gap is measured within a slot, it must be specified whether the first time gap indicated by the first control information is a slot on the second link or a slot on the first link.

[0262] For example, the first terminal device determines, based on the first parameter, that the SCS referenced by the first time gap is either the SCS corresponding to the first link or the SCS corresponding to the second link.

[0263] Optionally, the first parameter is configured by a network device. For example, the first parameter could be a single bit of information newly added to DCI#1. For instance, a single bit field might be added to DCI#1 to indicate that the SCS indicated by DCI#1 and referenced by the first time gap is either the SCS corresponding to the first link or the SCS corresponding to the second link. In another example, the first parameter could be configured by using higher-layer signaling. For example, an RRC message might indicate the first parameter, which is used to configure the SCS indicated by DCI#1 and referenced by the first time gap as either the SCS corresponding to the first link or the SCS corresponding to the second link.

[0264] Optionally, the first parameter is pre-programmed in the first terminal device. It can be understood that the first parameter is pre-configured in the first terminal device before delivery.

[0265] For example, the first parameter can be pre-configured, indicated by DCI#1, and it can be pre-configured, i.e., before delivery, that the SCS referenced by the first time gap is the SCS corresponding to the first link or the SCS corresponding to the second link.

[0266] Optionally, the first parameter is determined through negotiation between the first terminal device and the network device.

[0267] Note that if the first time gap is not measured in the slot but is measured in absolute time (for example, in units of milliseconds (ms)), no additional first parameter is required to indicate that the SCS referenced by the first time gap is the SCS corresponding to the first link or the SCS corresponding to the second link.

[0268] Furthermore, after determining the first time unit, the first terminal device needs to further determine a first transmission resource specifically used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information. The first transmission resource includes a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource, the first time-domain resource being the time-domain resource of the first time unit.

[0269] Referring to Methods 2.1 and 2.2, the following describes in detail how the first terminal device determines the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource when the first transmission resources are PSSCH and PSFCH.

[0270] Method 2.1: The first transmission resource is PSSCH (as shown in Figure 9(a)). In this implementation, the first terminal device determining the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource includes the following:

[0271] S821: The network device sends the second piece of information to the first terminal device. In other words, the first terminal device receives the second piece of information from the network device.

[0272] In particular, the second information indicates the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource. For example, if the second information is information included in the first control information, then steps S810 and S821 are one step, or the second information is different from the first control information. For the sake of clarity, an example in which the second information is included in the first control information is used below for illustrative purposes.

[0273] For example, the second piece of information is the information contained in DCI#1 of the communication method shown in Figure 7. DCI#1 is used to schedule PDSCH#1 and further indicates the PSSCH that will carry the first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1. Based on the indication in DCI#1, the first terminal device may determine the PSSCH to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information.

[0274] For example, a network device configures one or more resource pools for a first terminal device by using higher-layer signaling such as RRC messages, and each resource pool has a corresponding resource pool index. The indication field #1 of DCI#1 uses the index to indicate that the resource transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information is one of these resource pools. The resource pools in this embodiment may be separate resource pools for transmitting PDSCH HARQ-ACK information, or they may be the same as an existing PSSCH resource pool.

[0275] For example, a resource pool may be configured by using the SL-ResourcePool field in an existing RRC message. For instance, a network device may configure several SL resource pools and corresponding indices for a first terminal device and a second terminal device, and DCI#1 may indicate the resource pool to which the PSSCH carrying the first HARQ-ACK information belongs by indicating the index.

[0276] In another example, a network device may configure separate resource pools and corresponding indices for carrying PDSCH HARQ-ACK information by using signaling from other higher layers. For example, multiple resource pools (sl-PDSCH-HARQ-Pool) may be configured, each sl-PDSCH-HARQ-Pool corresponding to one index. Indication field #1 of DCI#1 indicates the index, thereby indicating the resource pool to which the PSSCH belongs for sending the first HARQ-ACK information by the first terminal device.

[0277] As shown in Method 2.1, after indication field #1 of DCI#1 indicates the resource pool to which the PSSCH for transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information belongs, DCI#1 may further indicate the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource corresponding to the PSSCH in the resource pool. For example, second information may be added to DCI#1, which indicates the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource.

[0278] Optionally, the second piece of information includes the first field and the second field, where the first field is a time resource assignment field and the second field is a frequency resource assignment field.

[0279] Optionally, fields indicating time resource allocation and frequency resource allocation in DCI#1 may be further added to the SCI format 1A of the PSSCH to allow a second terminal device to determine a specific location for the PSSCH to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information.

[0280] Furthermore, in the case shown in Method 2.1, the sending of the first HARQ-ACK information from the first terminal device to the second terminal device via the second link includes the following:

[0281] The first terminal device sends a MAC CE to the second terminal device over the first transmission resource on the second link, and the MAC CE includes first HARQ-ACK information. In other words, the first information in the embodiment shown in Figure 7 may be a MAC CE.

[0282] For example, after decoding PDSCH#1, the first terminal device may transmit the first HARQ-ACK information in the manner of MAC CE on the PSSCH indicated by DCI#1. MAC CE includes a 6-bit logical channel identifier (LCID), with several additional bits used to carry the first HARQ-ACK information. The LCID is present in the MAC CE subheader and indicates that the function of MAC CE is to carry the first HARQ-ACK information.

[0283] For example, the decimal values ​​of a 6-bit LCD are from 0 to 63. Considering that some LCD values ​​are defined as other functions and that 20 to 55 are currently undefined, when the LCD is X (where X is any value from 20 to 55), the LCD indicates that the MAC CE is indicating HARQ-ACK information for the first terminal device, and the HARQ-ACK information carried in the MAC CE contains 1 bit of information (e.g., ACK or NACK).

[0284] Optionally, as shown in Method 2.1, the first terminal device may feed back HARQ-ACK information by using MAC CE. If the first terminal device fails to detect a DCI (for example, if a network device sends DCI#1 and DCI#2 to the first terminal device, and the first terminal device receives DCI#1 but not DCI#2), the first terminal device may not send the second HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#2 corresponding to the DCI#2 that was missing during detection. For example, the first terminal device may not send the MAC CE corresponding to the second HARQ-ACK information to the second terminal device. In this case, confusion may occur when the second terminal device receives and feeds back the HARQ-ACK information.

[0285] For example, a network device may send two PDSCHs, but the first terminal device may detect only one DCI and feed back only one HARQ-ACK (one MAC CE). During reception, the second terminal device may generate an inaccurate HARQ codebook. To prevent the second terminal device from generating an inaccurate HARQ codebook, the first terminal device may, as shown in Scheme 2.1, indicate whether a DCI is missing during detection.

[0286] In possible implementations, the MAC CE sent by the first terminal device to the second terminal device further carries the HARQ processing number to notify the second terminal device of the HARQ processing whose feedback result is MAC CE.

[0287] In another possible implementation, the first terminal device may determine the quantity of PDSCHs corresponding to the HARQ-ACK information transmitted on the PSSCH and generate the corresponding quantity of MAC CEs. Upon receiving a PDSCH at the corresponding slot position, the first terminal device feeds back the HARQ-ACK information on the corresponding MAC CE. If no PDSCH is received, an unreceived indication is fed back.

[0288] For example, if the number of PDSCHs corresponding to the HARQ-ACK information transmitted on the PSSCH represents four PDSCHs, PDSCH#0, PDSCH#1, PDSCH#2, and PDSCH#3, the first terminal device sends four MAC CEs, MAC CE#0, MAC CE#1, MAC CE#2, and MAC CE#3, on the PSSCH. When the first terminal device receives PDSCHs only at the slot positions corresponding to PDSCH#2 and PDSCH#3, PDSCH#2 is decoded successfully, PDSCH#3 fails to decode (because no PDSCH is received), the NACK is fed back in MAC CE#0 and MAC CE#1, the ACK is fed back in MAC CE#2, and the NACK is fed back in MAC CE#3 (decoding fails).

[0289] Alternatively, a discontinuous transmission (DTX) is fed back in MAC CE#0 and MAC CE#1 to indicate that PDSCH is not received, ACK is fed back in MAC CE#2, and NACK is fed back in MAC CE#3. In this case, one bit of feedback is insufficient and must be extended to two bits, for example, 00-DTX, 01-ACK, 10-NACK, and 11-reserved.

[0290] Method 2.2: The first transmission resource is a PSFCH (as shown in Figure 9(b)). In this implementation, the first terminal device determining the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource includes the following:

[0291] S822: The network device sends third information to the first terminal device. In other words, the first terminal device receives third information from the network device.

[0292] In particular, the third information indicates the first frequency domain resource. For example, if the third information is information included in the first control information, then steps S810 and S822 are one step, or the third information is different from the first control information. For the sake of clarity, an example in which the third information is included in the first control information is used below for illustrative purposes.

[0293] For example, a network device adds an indication field (i.e., third information) to DCI#1 to indicate a PSFCH for transmitting first HARQ-ACK information. A first terminal device may determine a PSFCH for transmitting first HARQ-ACK information based on the indication in DCI#1.

[0294] For example, a network device configures one or more resource pools for a first terminal device by using higher-layer signaling (such as RRC messages), and each resource pool has a corresponding resource pool index. The indication field of DCI#1 uses the index to indicate that the resource sending the first HARQ-ACK information is one of these resource pools. The resource pools in this embodiment may be separate resource pools for sending PDSCH HARQ-ACK information, or they may be the same as an existing PSFCH resource pool.

[0295] For example, a resource pool may be configured by using the SL-ResourcePool field in an existing RRC message. For example, a network device may configure several SL resource pools and corresponding indices for a first terminal device and a second terminal device, and each SL-ResourcePool may configure a PSFCH for the first terminal device and the second terminal device by using sl-PSFCH-Config-r16. The indication field #2 of DCI#1 indicates the index and shows the resource pool to which the PSFCH belongs for sending the first HARQ-ACK information by the first terminal device.

[0296] In another example, a network device may configure separate resource pools and corresponding indices for carrying PDSCH HARQ-ACK information by using signaling from other higher layers. For example, multiple resource pools (sl-PDSCH-HARQ-Pool) may be configured, each sl-PDSCH-HARQ-Pool corresponding to one index. Indication field #2 of DCI#1 indicates the index, thereby indicating the resource pool to which the PSFCH belongs for sending the first HARQ-ACK information by the first terminal device.

[0297] In the case shown in Method 2.2, when HARQ-ACK information for multiple PDSCHs is transmitted in the same slot, for example, DCI#0 indicates that PDSCH#0 is scheduled in slot D1 and that HARQ-ACK information feedback is performed on the PSFCH in the fourth slot, and DCI#1 indicates that PDSCH#1 is scheduled in slot D2 and that HARQ-ACK information feedback is also performed on the PSFCH in the fourth slot. In this case, the PSFCHs indicated by DCI#0 and DCI#1 may be the same PSFCH or may be different PSFCHs. For example, DCI#0 indicates resource pool index 0 (or individual resource pool 0), and DCI#1 indicates resource pool index 1 (or individual resource pool 1). In this case, different PSFCHs are indicated by using DCI, and therefore, HARQ-ACK information for multiple PDSCHs can be transmitted in a single slot.

[0298] Optionally, HARQ-ACK information from multiple PDSCHs may be transmitted on the same PSFCH as an alternative. For example, DCI#0 and DCI#1 schedule PDSCH#0 and PDSCH#1 respectively, but DCI#0 and DCI#1 refer to the same PSFCH. In this case, the PRB of the PSFCH may be divided into a corresponding subset of quantities based on the amount of HARQ-ACK information that needs to be carried (e.g., 2).

[0299] For example, if 20 PRBs are configured for one PSFCH by using upper-layer signaling, when two PDSCHs are received, the 20 PRBs are divided into two PSFCH sets, for example, uniformly into two PSFCH subsets, each PSFCH subset containing 10 PRBs, and each PSFCH is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information to PDSCH#0 and PDSCH#1, respectively.

[0300] Furthermore, if HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#0, PDSCH#1, PDSCH#2, and PDSCH#3 is fed back in the same slot, but DCI indicates that PDSCH#0 and PDSCH#1 are transmitted by the same PSFCH#0, and PDSCH#2 and PDSCH#3 are transmitted by PDSCH#1, then the PRB of PSFCH#0 may be grouped to carry the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#0 and PDSCH#1, and the PRB of PSFCH#1 may be grouped to carry the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#2 and PDSCH#3.

[0301] Optionally, as shown in Scheme 2.2, if the first terminal device fails to detect a DCI, the first terminal device cannot receive the PDSCH scheduled by using the DCI. This can cause problems with the allocation of resource blocks in the PSFCH. For example, a network device sends two DCIs (DCI#1 and DCI#2), and both DCIs point to the same PSFCH. However, the first terminal device successfully decodes only one DCI. In this case, the PSFCH is not segmented. This results in a mismatch between the receiving and transmitting ends, affecting the second terminal device when decoding the PSFCH. As shown in Scheme 2.2, the first terminal device may indicate whether a DCI is missing during detection in the following possible implementations:

[0302] In possible implementations, indication information #1 is added to DCI to indicate the quantity of PDSCH or that the PDSCH is a specific PDSCH.

[0303] For example, indication information #1 could be the relay-downlink assignment index (R-DAI), used to indicate the cumulative index of the PDSCH indicated by DCI. When the indication field is x bits, the values ​​of the cumulative index that can be indicated by the indication field are [0, 2 x -1]. It should be understood that this does not represent the actual number of scheduling DCIs. For example, when x = 2 bits, the range of index values ​​is from 0 to 3. When a network device sends 6 DCIs, the R-DAIs of the DCIs are 00, 01, 10, 11, 00, and 01, respectively, and the corresponding decimal R-DAIs are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

[0304] Table 2 shows the mapping relationship between the R-DAI value and the number of PDCCH transmission opportunities (Y) for scheduling PDSCH.

[0305] [Table 2]

[0306] Table 2 can be understood as follows: When the R-DAI value is 1, the corresponding PDCCH monitoring opportunities are 1, 5, and 9, or when the R-DAI value is 2, the corresponding PDCCH monitoring opportunities are 2, 6, and 10, and so on.

[0307] Therefore, the second terminal device can determine, based on the R-DAI parameter, the number of PDSCHs on which HARQ-ACK information is transmitted on a single PUCCH, i.e., the size of the HARQ codebook and whether a DCI will miss detection. For example, if the second terminal device detects that the two DCIs indicate R-DAI values ​​of "01" and "11" respectively, the second terminal device may determine that a detection miss occurs in the DCI indicating R-DAI is "10", and thereby determine that the size of the HARQ-ACK information codebook is 3 bits.

[0308] In the communication method shown in Figure 8, the network device indicates the SL resource (e.g., PSSCH or PSFCH as shown above) used to transmit HARQ-ACK information using a dynamic indication scheme. This application further provides another method for determining the SL resource used to transmit HARQ-ACK information. The following provides a detailed description of Figure 10.

[0309] Figure 10 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method according to this application. This method includes the following steps.

[0310] S1010: The network device sends first configuration information to the first terminal device. In other words, the first terminal device receives first configuration information from the network device. Before sending PDSCH#1 to the first terminal device, the network device sends first configuration information to the first terminal device, where first configuration information indicates the first time gap.

[0311] In particular, determining a first transmission resource for the first terminal device to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information includes determining a specific time for transmitting the first HARQ-ACK information. For example, the first terminal device determines a first time unit in which the first terminal device transmits the first information through a second link.

[0312] It should be understood that the first time unit determined by the first terminal device is the time unit for sending the first information and the first HARQ-ACK information. It can be understood that the first terminal device determines that the time unit for sending the first HARQ-ACK information is the first time unit. For example, if the first terminal device decides to send the first HARQ-ACK information in a slot, the first terminal device sends the first information carrying the first HARQ-ACK information in the slot.

[0313] For example, a first terminal device may determine a first time unit by determining a first time gap, the first time gap being less than or equal to the time gap between a first time unit and a second time unit, the second time unit being a time unit in which the first terminal device receives first downlink data or a time unit in which the first terminal device receives first control information, the first control information may be further used to schedule the first downlink data.

[0314] In a possible implementation, the first time gap is the time offset between the first time unit and the second time unit. In this implementation, the first time unit is the first time unit that is later than the second time unit. It can be understood that the time gap between the first time unit and the second time unit is equal to the time offset.

[0315] In another possible implementation, the first time gap is the minimum time gap (minTime Gap) between the first time unit and the second time unit. In this implementation, it can be understood that the time gap between the first time unit and the second time unit is greater than or equal to the minimum time gap.

[0316] In the embodiment shown in Figure 10, a network device may statically configure a first time gap by using first configuration information. The first time gap is either the time gap between a first time unit in which the first terminal device sends first HARQ-ACK information and a time unit in which the first terminal device receives PDSCH#1, or the first time gap is the time gap between a first time unit in which the first terminal device sends first HARQ-ACK information and a time unit in which the first terminal device receives information (e.g., DCI#1) for scheduling PDSCH#1. For the sake of clarity, an example in which the first configuration information is used to configure a time gap between a first time unit and a time unit for receiving DCI#1 is used below for illustrative purposes.

[0317] For example, if the first transmitting resource is a PSSCH, the first configuration information may be used to configure a first time gap between DCI#1 and the PSSCH used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information. For example, a network device configures the first time gap by sending higher-layer signaling (e.g., an RRC message). The first time gap may be measured in a slot or may be in units of milliseconds.

[0318] For example, the time gap between DCI#1 and the first time unit is called timeGap, and when the first terminal device receives PSSCH in the timeGap-th slot after DCI#1, it sends first HARQ-ACK information corresponding to PDSCH#1 scheduled by DCI#1. For example, the first HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#1 scheduled by DCI#1 received in D0 is sent on PSSCH in the second slot (i.e., the third S slot) after D0.

[0319] When timeGap is measured in slots, the subcarrier spacing (SCS) corresponding to the number of slots in the first time gap needs to be further determined. For example, the SCS for a second link may be different from the SCS for the first link. As a result, the duration of each slot on the second link will be different from the duration of each slot on the first link. For example, the SCS for the first link is 15 kHz, and the duration of each uplink or downlink slot is 1 ms, while the SCS for the second link is 30 kHz, and the duration of each slot on the second link is 0.5 ms. Therefore, when the offset of the first time gap is a slot, it needs to be specified whether the time gap indicated by DCI#1 refers to a slot on the second link or a slot on the first link.

[0320] Optionally, first configuration information indicating a first time gap may be used in conjunction with higher-layer signaling to indicate the first time gap. For example, before the network device sends first configuration information to a first terminal device, the network device sends second configuration information to the first terminal device, and the second configuration information is used to configure a time gap set, where the first time gap is one of the time gaps in the time gap set.

[0321] To facilitate understanding, we will briefly explain how the first configuration information constitutes the first time gap between DCI#1 and the PSSCH used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information, referring to Figures 11(a) through (c).

[0322] From Figure 11(a), it can be seen that when the time gap timeGap between DCI#1 and PSSCH is equal to 2, and the first terminal device receives PSSCH in the second slot after DCI#1, the first terminal device sends the first HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the scheduled PDSCH#1 by using DCI#1.

[0323] From Figure 11(b), it can be seen that the SCS of the first link is 15 kHz and the duration of each slot is 1 ms, and the SCS of the second link is 30 kHz and the duration of each slot is 0.5 ms. If timeGap = 2 slots and the SCS of the second link is used as a reference for timeGap, then after PDSCH is received in D1, transmission takes place on PSSCH (i.e., the sixth S slot) which is 2 slots away from D1 on the second link.

[0324] From Figure 11(c), if the SCS of the first link is used as a reference for timeGap, i.e., timeGap = two slots on the first link, then after receiving a PDSCH in slot D0 on the first link, the first terminal device can be known to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH on a PSSCH in a slot on the second link that is two slots away from D0 on the first link. As shown in Figure 11(c), the slots separated from D0 by only two slots on the first link, i.e., slot D2, correspond to the two slots on the second link. For example, in this scenario, the first slot on the second link corresponding to D2 is used to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH.

[0325] It should be noted that slots on the first link may not be aligned with slots on the second link, as shown in the figure. For example, the first S slot in Figure 11 may be slightly later than slot D0. In this case, a terminal device (e.g., the first or second terminal device) can report a timing alignment quantity to the network device to determine the difference between the slots on the second and first links, and thus the network device and terminal device will be synchronized in the slots on the first and second links.

[0326] Furthermore, timeGap may reuse the existing sl-minTimeGapPSFCH (typically the minimum gap between a PSFCH and its associated PSSCH, which is usually two or three slots). When this parameter is reused, it no longer indicates the slot gap between the PSFCH and PSSCH, but can be used to indicate the minimum slot gap between the PSSCH and PDSCH (or DCI or PDCCH). That is, the PSSCH carrying the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH can be determined using the PDSCH (or DCI) and the sl-minTimeGapPSFCH parameter.

[0327] For example, if the first transmitting resource is a PSFCH, the first configuration information may be used to configure a first time gap between DCI#1 and the PSFCH used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information. For example, a network device may configure the first time gap by sending higher-layer signaling (e.g., an RRC message). The first time gap may be measured in a slot or may be in units of milliseconds.

[0328] After receiving PDSCH#1, the first terminal device may also transmit the first HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#1 by using PSFCH. This is the same as PSSCH described above. When the first HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH#1 is transmitted by using PSFCH, the resource and the slot location of PSFCH must also be indicated.

[0329] Firstly, the network device semi-statically configures the time gap between the PSFCH and PDSCH#1, which carry the first HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH#1, by using higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC messages). For example, a new parameter, timeGap, is introduced into the higher-layer signaling (RRC messages) to determine the time gap between the PSFCH and PDSCH#1 (or DCI#1). The unit may be a slot, etc.

[0330] Alternatively, the network device may reuse the sl-minTimeGapPSFCH in the existing PSFCH configuration during upper-layer signaling. In this case, the sl-minTimeGapPSFCH indicates the minimum gap between the PSFCH and PDSCH#1 (or DCI#1).

[0331] To facilitate understanding, we will briefly explain, with reference to Figure 12, how the first configuration information constitutes the first time gap between DCI#1 and the PSFCH used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information. From Figure 12, it can be seen that timeGap = 2 slots.

[0332] In this implementation, as described above, the unit of timeGap may, alternatively, be another time unit, e.g., milliseconds, as the first transmission resource is a PSSCH. When the first time gap is measured in slots, the subcarrier spacing (SCS) corresponding to the number of slots in the first time gap must be further determined. timeGap may use the SCS of the first link as a reference, or it may use the SCS of the second link as a reference. In Figure 12, the SCS of the first and second links are the same, for example, both are 30 kHz, timeGap = 2 slots, and the PSFCH period is also 2 slots. Therefore, the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH transmitted in D0 and D1 may be on a first PSFCH that is at least 2 slots away, i.e., a PSFCH in the fourth slot. For D2 and D3, the transmission is performed on a first PSFCH that is at least 2 slots away, i.e., a PSFCH in the sixth slot.

[0333] Furthermore, after determining the first time gap, the first terminal device needs to further determine a first transmission resource specifically used to transmit the first HARQ-ACK information. The first transmission resource includes a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource, the first time-domain resource being a time-domain resource of a first time unit.

[0334] Referring to Methods 3.1 and 3.2, the following describes in detail how the first terminal device determines the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource in this embodiment when the first transmission resources are PSSCH and PSFCH.

[0335] Method 3.1: The first transmission resource is PSSCH (as shown in Figures 11(a) to (c)). In this implementation, the first terminal device determining the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource includes the following:

[0336] S1021: The network device sends third configuration information to the first terminal device. In other words, the first terminal device receives third configuration information from the network device. Before sending PDSCH#1 to the first terminal device, the network device sends third configuration information to the first terminal device, which indicates the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource.

[0337] In particular, the third configuration information is used to configure the PSSCH. For example, a frequency domain resource configured using the third configuration information may include the number of subchannels (sl-NumSubchannel), the number of consecutive PRBs contained within a single subchannel (sl-SubchannelSize), the subchannel start RB index (sl-StartRB-Subchannel), the starting PRB index of the first subchannel in the resource pool, and the frequency domain resource of the PSCCH corresponding to the PSSCH, for example, the PSCCH frequency domain resource indicator (sl-FreqResourcePSCCH), which indicates the size of the frequency domain resource of the PSCCH. For example, the range of values ​​is {10, 12, 15, 20, 25}PRBs.

[0338] For example, a frequency domain resource configured using a third configuration information includes at least the start symbol (sl-StartSymbol) and the number of symbols (sl-LengthSymbols) of the PSCCH in the PC5 slot. Optionally, the third configuration information may further constitute a time domain resource (sl-TimeResourcePSCCH) of the PSCCH, indicating the number of symbols occupied by the PSCCH.

[0339] Optionally, the third configuration information is an RRC message.

[0340] Furthermore, in the case shown in Method 3.1, the sending of the first HARQ-ACK information from the first terminal device to the second terminal device via the second link includes the following:

[0341] The first terminal device sends a MAC CE to the second terminal device over the first transmission resource on the second link, and the MAC CE includes the first HARQ-ACK information. For a specific implementation, see the embodiment shown in Figure 8 in which the first terminal device sends a MAC CE to the second terminal device. Details are not described again here.

[0342] Method 3.2: The first transmission resource is a PSFCH (as shown in Figure 12). In this implementation, the first terminal device determining the first time-domain resource and the first frequency-domain resource includes the following:

[0343] S1022: The first terminal device determines a first frequency domain resource based on a first quantity. The first quantity is the number M of downlink data contained in the first downlink dataset to which the first downlink data belongs, where M HARQ-ACK information corresponding to M downlink data is all transmitted over the PSFCH, and M is a positive integer.

[0344] In this application, please understand that the example in which one downlink data corresponds to one HARQ-ACK information is used primarily for illustrative purposes. In some cases, one downlink data may correspond to multiple HARQ-ACK information. In other words, M downlink data may correspond to L HARQ-ACK information, where L is a positive integer greater than or equal to M. When one downlink data corresponds to multiple HARQ-ACK information, the first quantity in this embodiment must be replaced with L.

[0345] As shown in Figure 12, each PSFCH may transmit HARQ-ACK information for two or more PDSCHs. Therefore, the problem of how to allocate PRBs within a single PSFCH to transmit HARQ-ACK information for multiple PDSCHs needs to be further addressed.

[0346] It should be understood that a prerequisite for determining how to allocate PRBs in a single PSFCH to transmit HARQ-ACK information for multiple PDSCHs is to determine the amount of HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs that can be transmitted through a single PSFCH. In particular, in this embodiment, the following methods (methods 3.2.1, 3.2.2, and 3.2.3 below) are provided for determining the amount of HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs transmitted through a single PSFCH.

[0347] Method 3.2.1: The quantity of HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs that may be transmitted over each PSFCH (referred to as the PDSCH transmission opportunity set or the quantity of PDSCH transmission opportunities) is determined based on the PSFCH duration and the SCS between the first and second links.

[0348] In the case shown in Method 3.2.1, the amount of HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH that can be transported in each PSFCH depends on the PSFCH duration and the SCS between the first and second links. In particular, the following steps are included:

[0349] Step 1: Based on the first time gap (timeGap or sl-minTimeGapPSFCH), determine the slot position of the PDSCH corresponding to one PSFCH. Using Figure 12 as an example, if timeGap = 2 slots, then the PDSCH corresponding to one PSFCH is at least 2 slots away from the PSFCH. For example, the earliest slot of the PDSCH corresponding to the second PSFCH is D1 (in other words, the PSFCH carries the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH transmitted in and before slot D1), and the third PSFCH carries the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH transmitted in and before slot D3.

[0350] Step 2: Duration of PSFCH

[0351]

number

[0352] Accordingly, a first quantity M of HARQ-ACK information of PDSCH transmitted over PSFCH can be determined, which is the PDSCH transmission opportunity set (indicated as M below).

[0353]

number

[0354] It is sometimes called this. Using Figure 12 as an example, according to step 1, the slot corresponding to the second PSFCH may be determined to be calculated before D1, and then, according to the PSFCH period of 2, the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH in the slot of the first link corresponding to the two second link slots may be determined to be transmitted on the PSFCH, that is, the set of PDSCH transmission opportunities corresponding to one PSFCH in Figure 12 is

[0355]

number

[0356] That is the case.

[0357] Furthermore, since the SCS of the first link and the second link may differ, the PDSCH corresponding to the PSFCH may not be equal to the PSFCH period.

[0358] For example, as shown in Figure 13(a), the SCS of the first link is half that of the second link. For example, the SCS of the first link is 30 kHz The SCS of the second link is 60kHz. When timeGap is two slots of the second link and the PSFCH period is 2, one PSFCH corresponds to a transmit opportunity in only one downlink slot. Alternatively, when timeGap is two PC5 slots and the PSFCH period is 4, one PSFCH corresponds to a transmit opportunity in two downlink slots.

[0359] For example, as shown in Figure 13(b), the SCS of the first link is twice that of the second link. For example, the SCS of the first link is 60 kHz and the SCS of the second link is 30 kHz. The timeGap is still used as an example, where the two slots of the second link correspond to one PSFCH and the four PDSCH transmission opportunities in the downlink slots.

[0360] It should be understood that the number of downlink slots corresponding to one PSFCH does not represent the set of PDSCH transmission opportunities. Referring to the relevant explanation in Table 1, there can be two or more PDSCHs in a single slot. Therefore, the number of downlink slots corresponding to one PSFCH may not be exactly equal to the size of the PDSCH transmission candidate set M. Using Figure 13(b) as an example, when multiple PDSCHs, for example, X=2, can be transmitted in a single downlink slot, the size of the PDSCH transmission candidates for one PSFCH is:

[0361]

number

[0362] It can be equal to this. Furthermore, since configurations such as uplink slots and flexible slots exist in Uu, we can see in Figure 13(b) that the third PSFCH corresponds to only three downlink slots. In this case, the PSFCH can construct a HARQ codebook for transmitting PDSCH only for three downlink slots. It should be understood that each PSFCH can correspond to a different number of PDSCH transmission candidates.

[0363] In some cases, for example, when each DCI schedules only one PDSCH, the set of PDSCH transmission opportunities corresponding to each PSFCH is expressed as follows:

[0364]

number

[0365] This can be obtained by using, where X represents the number of PDSCHs that can be transmitted in each slot. For example, when only type A PDSCH mapping schemes are supported, X=1. Furthermore, u PC5 and u Uu As shown in Table 3, this represents the subcarrier configurations of PC5 and Uu2, respectively.

[0366] [Table 3]

[0367] Method 3.2.2: The HARQ-ACK information of PDSCHs that may be transmitted on each PSFCH is determined based on the configuration of the upper layer signaling.

[0368] In the case shown in Method 3.2.2, the quantity of HARQ-ACK information of PDSCHs carried within each PSFCH depends on the configuration of the signaling in the upper layer. In particular, the basic concepts above explain that, in the case of PUCCH, the quantity of PDSCHs that can be transmitted by PUCCH depends on the signaling in the upper layer, e.g., dl-DataToULACKr16. This parameter typically includes several slot offsets and is used to determine the time gap between PUCCH and PDSCH.

[0369] In particular, in this embodiment, the network device configures a time gap set for a first terminal device, including a first time gap, by using upper-layer signaling. The time gap set includes at least one element, each element being a positive integer, corresponding to one time gap. The unit may be a slot. Thus, the amount of HARQ-ACK information of a PDSCH that can be transmitted over the PSFCH can be determined based on the slot location of the PSFCH and the above time gap set.

[0370] For example, the PDSCH-to-PSFCH time gap list includes three elements: {2,3,5}. In the case of PSFCH, as shown in Figure 14, the PDSCHs corresponding to the second, third, and fifth slots preceding the slot in which the PSFCH is located form the PDSCH transmission opportunity set.

[0371] In Figure 14, based on the PDSCH-to-PSFCH time gap set, the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs that can be transmitted on the third PSFCH is the PDSCHs received in D0, D2, and D3, and the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs that can be transmitted on the fourth PSFCH is the PDSCHs received in D2, U, and D4. Since U is an uplink slot and cannot transmit PDSCHs, U may not be included in the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs that can be transmitted on the fourth PSFCH.

[0372] Method 3.2.3: The network device sends fourth information to the first terminal device, the fourth information indicating the first quantity M of downlink data in the first downlink dataset, which is the PDSCH transmission opportunity set

[0373]

number

[0374] It is sometimes called [this]. The first terminal device determines the amount of HARQ-ACK information for each PDSCH that can be transmitted on each PSFCH based on the fourth information. For example, a network device explicitly indicates the DAI by using DCI. For the transmission opportunity index, refer to the DAI information in DCI, and the DAI can be directly reused as the PDSCH transmission opportunity index.

[0375] After the number of PDSCH transmission opportunities is determined, the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information can be fed back in a dynamic or semi-static codebook manner.

[0376] In possible implementations, the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH may be transmitted over the second link in a dynamic codebook manner, or the PRB allocation scheme for the PSFCH may be determined based on the DCI indication information when the DCI explicitly indicates the cumulative index of each DCI (or PDSCH). Figure 14 is used as an example. A set of PDSCH transmissions corresponding to one PSFCH includes three candidates. However, if the first terminal device determines, based on the DCI indication information, that two DCIs (or PDSCHs) are received, the PRB of the PSFCH may be divided based on the actual situation, i.e., the two PDSCHs.

[0377] In another possible implementation, the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs may be transmitted over a second link in a semi-static codebook manner. For example, when DCI does not explicitly indicate the cumulative index of each DCI, the PRB of PSFCHs needs to be divided based on the number of PDSCH candidates. For example, in Figure 14, the third PSFCH contains three PDSCH transmission opportunities and is therefore used for the HARQ of three PDSCHs, and the fourth PSFCH contains two PDSCH transmission opportunities and is therefore used for the HARQ-ACK information transmission of two PDSCHs.

[0378] In the case of two PSFCHs, note that the PDSCH in slot D2 is used as the transmission opportunity. In this case, the two PSFCHs must reserve a feedback PRB for the transmission opportunity in their slots. After decoding the PDSCH in slot D2, the first terminal device may perform feedback simultaneously on both PSFCHs. Alternatively, the DCI explicitly indicates the time gap from the PDSCH to the PSFCH. For example, if the DCI for scheduling the PDSCH in D2 indicates a time gap of 3, the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH in D2 is transmitted on the third PSFCH, and the NACK is fed back on the PSFCH PRB reserved for the slot on the fourth PSFCH.

[0379] Furthermore, note that the SCS of the first and second links in Figure 14 are the same. However, there may be cases where the SCS of the first and second links are different. When the SCSs are different, there is no effect on the time gap if it is in time units such as ms. However, if the time gap is still measured in the slot, it is necessary to specify whether the slot on the first link or the slot on the second link is used when the first time gap is measured in the slot.

[0380] When the first time gap uses the first link as a reference, taking FIG. 15 (a) as an example, if the SCS of the second link is larger than the SCS of the first link, the slot on the first link corresponding to the last PSFCH is n sl , for example, in the case of D4, the PDSCH transmission opportunity slots corresponding to the slot are n corresponding to D0, D2, and D3, respectively sl -2, n sl -3, and n sl -5. n sl -2 can be understood as a forward offset of two slots by using n sl as the starting point. Similarly, n sl -3 can be understood as a forward offset of three slots by using n sl as the starting point, and n sl -5 can be understood as a forward offset of five slots by using n sl as the starting point. Taking FIG. 15 (b) as an example, the SCS of the second link is smaller than the SCS of the first link, and the slot on the first link corresponding to the last PSFCH is n sl , for example, D8, and the PDSCH transmission opportunity slots corresponding to the slot are n corresponding to D5, D7, and U, respectively sl -2, n sl -3, and n sl -5, wherein U is an uplink slot and may not be included in the PDSCH transmission opportunity.

[0381] When the second link is used as a reference for the first time gap, the time gap list being {2,3,5} is still used as an example, as shown in Figure 16(a) (where the SCS of the second link is greater than the SCS of the first link) and Figure 16(b) (where the SCS of the second link is less than the SCS of the first link). In Figure 16(a), using the last PSFCH as an example, the PDSCH slots corresponding to the last PSFCH are U (when the gap is 2 or 3) and D3 (when the gap is 5). In Figure 16(b), the PDSCH slots corresponding to the last PSFCH are D5 and D6 (when the gap is 2), D4 and U (when the gap is 3), and D0 and D1 (when the gap is 5). Thus, when PC5 is used as a reference, the number of slots corresponding to the PDSCH time gap list candidates corresponding to each PSFCH is:

[0382]

number

[0383] For example, in Figure 16(a), using an example where Uu SCS is 15kHz (uUL=0) and PC5 SCS is 30kHz (uSL=1), each candidate in the time gap list corresponds to one slot. In Figure 16(b), using an example where Uu SCS is 30kHz (uUL=1) and PC5 SCS is 15kHz (uSL=0), the PDSCH time gap list candidates corresponding to each PSFCH are:

[0384]

number

[0385] That is the case.

[0386] After the HARQ codebook size is determined for the PSFCH, the frequency domain resources for the HARQ-ACK information of each PDSCH need to be further determined. For example, the PSFCH PRB used to transmit the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH may be configured separately or shared with the PSSCH, including the following two methods (methods 4.1 and 4.2 below).

[0387] Method 4.1: The PSFCH PRB used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH is configured separately. That is, the first transmission resource is dedicated to transmitting HARQ-ACK information for downlink data.

[0388] In particular, network devices configure frequency domain resources, such as PRB resources, used to carry PDSCH by using higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC messages). For example, parameter #1, such as the sl-PSFCH-RB-Set-PDSCH parameter, is added to the higher-layer signaling to the resource (indicated as K below).

[0389]

number

[0390] This shows the PRB for transmitting the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH, which is shown as follows.

[0391] In possible implementations, parameter #1 may be in the form of a bitmap, as shown below. sl-PSFCH-RB-Set-PDSCH BIT STRING(SIZE(10...275))

[0392] A bit string represents a bitmap, and the length of the bit string can range from 10 to 275 bits. Each bit represents whether the PRB at the corresponding position is available for PSFCH, and the calculation starts from the least significant bit RB index of the resource pool. A bit "0" indicates that the corresponding PRB is not used for PSFCH, and a bit "1" indicates that the corresponding PRB is used for PSFCH.

[0393] For example, the parameter includes 10 bits, meaning that an individual PSFCH may include 10 consecutive PRBs calculated from the least significant bit PRB index of the resource pool where the PSFCH is located, but not all PRBs may be available for use by the PSFCH. For example, when the 10 bits are "1100111000", it indicates that the 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th, and 10th PRBs among the 10 consecutive PRBs calculated from the least significant bit PRB index of the resource pool where the PSFCH is located are either not available for use by the PSFCH, or the PSFCH does not include these PRBs.

[0394] For example, the leftmost bit (or most significant bit, MSB) in a bit sequence corresponds to the index of the smallest PRB in the resource pool. The resource pool in which the PSFCH is located can be determined by using another parameter, for example, by using the sl-ResourcePool signaling in the base station's RRC message, where sl-PSFCH-RB-Set-PDSCH can be used as a parameter for the signaling.

[0395] Compared to the PSFCH index depending on the smallest RB index in the resource pool, the RB index of an independently configured PSFCH can also be calculated starting from the largest RB index of an existing PSFCH resource, i.e., in the frequency domain, the smallest RB index of the PRB of the PSFCH used to transmit the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH is greater than the largest RB index of the PSFCH used to carry the HARQ-ACK information of the PSSCH.

[0396] For example, the smallest RB index of the PRB of a PSFCH for transmitting HARQ-ACK information for a PDSCH is the next adjacent index to the largest RB index of an existing PSFCH for carrying HARQ-ACK information for a PSSCH. For example, if the number of RBs allocated to an existing PSFCH is 100, i.e., 100 bits are used to represent the RB indices of the PSFCH, e.g., 0 to 99. The index used to carry HARQ-ACK information for a PDSCH may start from the RB with index 100. In this case, the PSFCH carrying HARQ-ACK information for a PDSCH may also use the bitmap form described above, but the starting reference position of the index is changed. In this case, the PRB of the PSFCH may be discontinuous.

[0397] In another possible implementation, the PSFCH carrying the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH is configured as a group of consecutive PRBs, as shown below. sl-PSFCH-RB-Set-PDSCH ENUMERATED{10,20,30,40,50,60,70,...} OPTIONAL

[0398] 10, 20, etc., represent the quantity of RBs available for PSFCH, and may indicate a segment of consecutive RBs. The starting index of an RB is the next largest index of the PSFCH's RBs for sending PSFCH HARQs (if configured), or it is calculated starting from the smallest index in the resource pool, for example, 0.

[0399] After the PRB resource for the PSFCH has been determined, the PRB resource corresponding to each PDSCH in the PDSCH, through which HARQ-ACK information is transmitted via the same PSFCH, may be further determined, including the following steps.

[0400] Step 1: As described above, for each PSFCH used to carry the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH, a PDSCH transmission opportunity set M corresponding to the PSFCH may be obtained (for example, the transmission opportunity set M is determined by method 3.2.1, method 3.2.2, or method 3.2.3 above).

[0401] Step 2: The PSFCH resource (PRB)K is divided into multiple PRB subsets based on the PDSCH transmission opportunity set, and each PRB subset is used to transmit the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information within one PDSCH set.

[0402] Step 3: PRB subsets occupied by each PDSCH (indicated as N below)

[0403]

number

[0404] is, formula

[0405]

number

[0406] This can be obtained by using, where,

[0407]

number

[0408] This is a floor operation.

[0409] For example, as shown in Figure 17, if the total number of PRBs in the PSFCH for transmitting HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH is configured as K=10 according to the signaling of the upper layer, and the set of PDSCH transmission opportunities is M=2, then each PDSCH transmission opportunity may correspond to 5 PRBs. Alternatively, rounding may not be performed, and N=K / M. In this case, K but M It is necessary that it be divisible by a certain factor.

[0410] Since only one PRB is required to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for a PDSCH, when multiple PRBs of a PSFCH are used to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for a single PDSCH, the PRB where the 1-bit HARQ-ACK information resides is specified.

[0411] In possible implementations, it may be specified that the HARQ-ACK information for a PDSCH resides in the PRB with the smallest index number in the PRB subset. For example, the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH 0 is transmitted on PRB 0, and the HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH 1 is transmitted on PRB 5. In this way, PRB 0 and PRB 5 are separated by four PRBs, thereby effectively avoiding interference with PSFCH decoding caused by in-band leakage.

[0412] In another possible implementation, the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH could, alternatively, be in the PRB with the largest index number among the PRB subsets.

[0413] In another possible implementation, the HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH could, alternatively, be found in a random PRB within each PRB subset. In this case, the receiving end would need to blind-detect each PRB within each PSFCH PRB subset to determine whether or not HARQ-ACK information is present.

[0414] Optionally, in step 3, N may be obtained in a different manner. For example, M is a set of PDSCH transmission opportunities, K is a set of PRBs for transmitting HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH, and the remainder of M1 = K / M is defined, where K1 is ceil(K / M2), K2 is floor(K / M2), and M2 = min(M,K).

[0415] For the m-th PDSCH transmission opportunity, if M1 > 0, and m is an integer from 1 to M1, then the PRB index numbers corresponding to the HARQ-ACK information of the m-th PDSCH are from (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1. Please understand that these index numbers are relative index numbers within the PRB set.

[0416] When the value of m is any integer in M ​​from M1+1, the PRB index number for HARQ feedback in the m-th PDSCH transmission opportunity is M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+k2 (where the value of k2 is an integer from 0 to K2-1), i.e., M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2 to M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1.

[0417] For example, if M=3 and K=11 are used as an example, then M2=3, M1=2, K1=4, and K2=3. Since M1>0, for the 1st to M1th PDSCH transmission opportunities, the corresponding PRB relative index numbers are (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1. For example, for the (m=1)th PDSCH, the PRB relative index numbers are 0 to 3. For m=2, the PRB index numbers are 4 to 7. For m=3, the PRB relative index numbers are M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2 to M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1, i.e., 8 to 10.

[0418] It should be noted that the index may be a relative index value, not an absolute index value of the PRB. For example, when the constructed PSFCH PRB index includes 11 PRBs, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 25, 35, 54, 76, and 99, then index 0 in the above formula can be understood here as 10, index 5 in the above formula can be understood here as 17, that is, the PRBs of the first PDSCH are 10, 11, 12, and 15 and so on.

[0419] Optionally, if M2=M, then min(M,K)=M. In the case shown in Method 4.1, M, the first resource block quantity, and the second resource block quantity satisfy the following relationships and the following concluded possible implementations.

[0420] In possible implementations, M, the first resource block quantity, and the second resource block quantity satisfy the following relationship:

[0421]

number

[0422] Here, N represents the quantity of the second resource block, and K represents the quantity of the first resource block.

[0423]

number

[0424] This represents a floor operation, where the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among M downlink data are resource blocks among K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or The following relationship is satisfied between M, the quantity of the first resource block, and the quantity of the second resource block.

[0425]

number

[0426] Here, K teeth, M If it is divisible by , then the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks among the K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1, or If M1 > 0, then when m is any integer from 1 to M1, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks with indices from (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1 among the K resource blocks, or when m is any integer from M1 to M, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, or When M1=0, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are the resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, where, K1 is

[0427]

number

[0428] And K2 is,

[0429]

number

[0430] And M1 is,

[0431]

number

[0432] It is the remainder of,

[0433]

number

[0434] This is a ceiling operation.

[0435] The PSFCH PRB corresponding to each PDSCH transmission opportunity can be determined using the steps described above. However, it should be understood that a PDSCH transmission opportunity does not necessarily indicate that network devices will perform scheduling at these times. Therefore, there may be cases where a PDSCH does not appear during some PDSCH transmission opportunities (e.g., DCI is not detected, the network device does not send a DCI, or the first terminal device misses detecting a DCI). If the first terminal device correctly decodes the PDSCH during a PDSCH transmission opportunity, the first terminal device sends an ACK on the corresponding PSFCH PRB; otherwise, if the first terminal device does not correctly decode the PDSCH during a PDSCH transmission opportunity (e.g., the DCI is not received, or the PDSCH fails to decode), the first terminal device sends a NACK on the corresponding PSFCH PRB.

[0436] Method 4.2: The shared PSFCH is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH and HARQ-ACK information for the PSSCH. That is, the first transmission resource is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data and HARQ-ACK information for sidelink data.

[0437] In this implementation, the PSFCH carrying the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH can be directly multiplexed with the resource pool of the PSSCH, meaning that the PSFCH and PSSCH share a resource pool. In other words, in the case of the PRB of the PSFCH, the PRB is allocated to the PDSCH and PSSCH according to the PDSCH and PSSCH transmission opportunity sets.

[0438] Step 1: Number of subchannels corresponding to one PSFCH slot

[0439]

number

[0440] To decide.

[0441] Step 2: Set up a PDSCH transmit opportunity (which may be indicated as M below) corresponding to one PSFCH slot.

[0442]

number

[0443] To decide.

[0444] Therefore, each PSSCH subchannel / PDSCH transmission opportunity is,

[0445]

number

[0446] Corresponding to this, here,

[0447]

number

[0448] This is the number of configured PSFCH PRBs (indicated as K below), or each PSSCH subchannel / PDSCH transmission opportunity is

[0449]

number

[0450] Corresponding to this, in this case,

[0451]

number

[0452] teeth,

[0453]

number

[0454] It is necessary that it be divisible by a certain factor.

[0455] Step 3: Allocate PRBs from low index to high index in the sequence of the first PSSCH, then PDSCH (or the first PDSCH, then PSSCH). For example, a PSFCH PRB set contains 12 PRBs corresponding to two PSSCH subchannels and two PDSCH transmit opportunities. As shown in Figure 18, each PSSCH subchannel / PDSCH transmit opportunity corresponds to three PRBs, with PRBs 0 through 5 used to transmit the HARQ-ACK information for the PSSCH and PRBs 6 through 11 used to transmit the HARQ for the PDSCH.

[0456] In the case of the optional method shown in 4.2, the following relationship is satisfied between M, the first resource block quantity, the second resource block quantity, and the second quantity.

[0457]

number

[0458] Here, N represents the quantity of the second resource block, K represents the quantity of the first resource block, and A represents the second quantity, which is the sidelink data and is the quantity of HARQ-ACK information transmitted over PSFCH.

[0459]

number

[0460] This represents a floor operation, where the N resource blocks corresponding to the mth downlink data among M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks among K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or The following relationship is satisfied between M, the first resource block quantity, the second resource block quantity, and the second quantity.

[0461]

number

[0462] Here, K teeth, M+A Divisible by, the N resource blocks corresponding to the mth downlink data among M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks among K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1, or If M1 > 0, then when m is any integer from 1 to M1, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks with indices from (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1 among the K resource blocks, or when m is any integer from M1 to M, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, or When M1=0, the N resource blocks corresponding to the mth downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are the resource blocks from the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1+(m-M1-1)*K2+K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, where, K1 is

[0463]

number

[0464] And K2 is,

[0465]

number

[0466] And M1 is,

[0467]

number

[0468] It is the remainder of,

[0469]

number

[0470] This is a ceiling operation.

[0471] In the resource configuration schemes shown in Figures 8 and 10, the case where the first terminal device transmits PDSCH HARQ-ACK information to the second terminal device via PC 5 is primarily considered. For example, only one pair of XR glasses transmits PDSCH HARQ-ACK information via PC 5.

[0472] Furthermore, in a scenario where multiple first terminal devices are located within a specific range and need to transfer PDSCH HARQ-ACK information through PC5, the network device may schedule PDSCH separately for multiple first terminal devices in the same slot through the first link, and multiple first terminal devices may perform PSFCH transmissions to the same PRB in the same PSFCH subset. Thus, interference occurs, and the receiving end cannot recover the information sent by any of the first terminal devices. Transmission interference between multiple first terminal devices can be avoided in the following ways.

[0473] In possible implementations, the network device configures a different, separate PSFCH PRB for each of several first terminal devices, and the PSFCH PRBs are independent of each other. As the number of first terminal devices that require a PC5 to send PDSCH HARQ-ACK information increases, the number of PRBs required also increases, which can lead to a waste of PRB resources.

[0474] In another possible implementation, the network device semi-statically configures a PRB index for each first terminal device by using higher-layer signaling to indicate the PRBs in the PSFCH PRB subset from which the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information is transmitted by the first terminal device. For example, in Figure 17, the network device schedules PDSCHs separately for UE#0 and UE#1 during slot D0. If the PRB index for UE#0 is configured as 0 and the PRB index for UE#1 is configured as 2 by using higher-layer signaling, then based on the PRB index, it is determined that the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information for UE0 is transmitted on PRB0 and the PDSCH HARQ-ACK information for UE#1 is transmitted on PRB2.

[0475] In another possible implementation, HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs of multiple first terminal devices can be transmitted by using a group of PRBs in a code division multiplexing scheme. The SCI for sending the PSSCH indicates the PID and MID, which indicate the IDs of the transmitting UE and receiving UE, respectively. The PRB index is given by the expression

[0476]

number

[0477] This is obtained according to the method used to determine the location of the PRB corresponding to the HARQ-ACK information of the PSSCH.

[0478] However, since there is no SCI when the PSFCH corresponding to the PDSCH is sent, the PID and MID cannot be determined according to conventional technology.

[0479]

number

[0480] This cannot be obtained. Therefore, the method needs to be changed. For example, compared to the method of obtaining the PRB index by using an expression, higher-layer signaling could semi-statically configure a PRB index for each first terminal device, and the index could directly indicate the PRB to which the UE's PDSCH HARQ-ACK information is transmitted.

[0481] For example, a network device adds a parameter indicating the PSFCH PRB index for a first terminal device, e.g., sl-PDSCH-to-PSFCH-PRB-Index, by using higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling), and the fifth PRB in the PRB set is first in the frequency domain and then in the code domain. XR It is determined that this will be used to carry the HARQ-ACK information feedback of the PDSCH in the glass.

[0482] For example, Figure 19 is used as an example. When sl-PDSCH-to-PSFCH-PRB-Index=5, the PRB with index 5 (i.e., PRB 01) is used to transmit the HARQ-ACK information of the PDSCH in a sequence of first the frequency domain and then the code domain. Furthermore, the code domain size in Figure 19

[0483]

number

[0484] This can also be understood as the number of shift pairs, and this parameter can be configured by network devices using signaling from higher layers. In this way, the PRB of the PSFCH can be multiplexed to multiple first terminal devices.

[0485] When sl-PDSCH-to-PSFCH-PRB-Index is also configured for a second terminal device, the second terminal device may determine, based on the parameters, which PSFCH PRBs will be detected, thereby preventing the second terminal device from blindly detecting all PRBs. Since there may be a scenario in which one second terminal device forwards HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs of multiple first terminal devices, sl-PDSCH-to-PSFCH-PRB-IndexList may be configured for a second terminal device to indicate multiple PRB indices, and the second terminal device may determine, based on the indications in the list, which PRBs to send HARQ-ACK information for PDSCHs to.

[0486] In another possible implementation, the HARQ-ACK information from the UE's PDSCH is multiplexed into the same group of PSFCHs using the CDM method.

[0487] First, the network device uses higher-layer signaling to transmit PSFCH resources for the first terminal device.

[0488]

number

[0489] and cyclic shift pair

[0490]

number

[0491] This configures the PSFCH transmission resource set

[0492]

number

[0493] That is, determine the total quantity of available PRB resources. As shown in Figure 20,

[0494]

number

[0495] Each PRB is configured for one PSFCH to transmit HARQ data from the PDSCH, and the number of cyclic shift pairs

[0496]

number

[0497] This is constructed by using signaling from higher layers. Therefore, the total can be used to send HARQ-ACK information for PDSCH.

[0498]

number

[0499] There are n transmission resources, each corresponding to a PRB index number from 0 to 29. For example, sorting is performed first in the frequency domain, and then in the time domain.

[0500] For example, a network device configures an index for each first terminal device and sends HARQ-ACK information for the PDSCH, and the PDSCH of the first terminal device is sent on the PRB corresponding to the index.

[0501] Alternatively, considering that one PSFCH corresponds to multiple PDSCH transmission opportunities, a group of indices or a list of indices may be constructed, the number of elements in the list may correspond to the number of elements in the set of PDSCH transmission opportunities, and thus each PDSCH has a corresponding PRB index.

[0502] Alternatively, the number of elements in the list is not limited, and each PDSCH transmission opportunity corresponds to an index in the list. For example, if the number of PDSCH transmission opportunities is 3, and the index list contains 2 indices, then the first PDSCH transmission opportunity corresponds to the first index in the index list, the second PDSCH corresponds to the second index, and so on, until the third PDSCH corresponds to the third index.

[0503] Alternatively, the PRB corresponding to each PDSCH transmission opportunity is determined based on information such as the transmitting UE ID and receiving UE ID. Each PSFCH may correspond to multiple PDSCH transmission opportunities. Therefore, PDSCH transmission opportunities must also be considered in the PRB selection.

[0504] In the scenario shown in Figure 2, the PRB corresponding to a PDSCH transmission opportunity for any XR glasses is determined by the ID of the XR glasses, the ID of the mobile phone, and the PDSCH transmission opportunity.

[0505] In particular, PDSCH transmission opportunities may be determined by the semi-static method shown in Method 3.2.1 above. For example, after the PDSCH transmission opportunity set is determined according to the PSFCH period and the SCS of Uu and PC5, sorting is performed based on a sequence (e.g., a time sequence which may be in descending or ascending order of time gaps from PSFCH) and corresponding indices are assigned.

[0506] Alternatively, PDSCH transmission opportunities may be determined based on higher-layer signaling, as shown in Scheme 3.2.2 above. For example, after the PDSCH transmission opportunity set is determined based on the time gap between PDSCH and PSFCH, a corresponding index is assigned.

[0507] Alternatively, PDSCH transmission opportunities may be indicated by network devices using the fourth piece of information shown in Method 3.2.3 above. For example, when DCI explicitly indicates DAI, the transmission opportunity index may refer to the DAI information in DCI. For example, DAI is directly reused as the PDSCH transmission opportunity index.

[0508] XR Glasses TID (T ID (As shown) ID and mobile phone (R ID The ID (as shown) can be obtained by using higher-layer signaling. For example, a network device may configure separate IDs for XR glasses and mobile phones by using higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC messages), and the PRB index corresponding to the PDSCH is given by the expression (T ID +R ID +i PDSCH )mod

[0509]

number

[0510] It can be obtained according to, where i PDSCH This can be understood as a sequence number in the PDSCH transmission set.

[0511] It should be understood that the sequence numbers of the above processes do not represent the sequence of execution. The sequence of execution of the processes should be determined according to the function and internal logic of the processes and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation processes of the embodiments of this application.

[0512] Furthermore, in the embodiments of this application, unless otherwise specified or there is a logical conflict, the terminology and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be mutually referenced, and technical features in different embodiments can be combined into new embodiments based on their internal logical relationships.

[0513] Furthermore, it should be understood that in some of the embodiments described above, devices in existing network architectures are used primarily as examples (e.g., network devices or terminal devices) for illustrative purposes. It should be understood that the specific form of the device is not limited to the embodiments of this application. For example, all devices that may implement the same functionality in the future are applicable to the embodiments of this application.

[0514] In the above embodiment of the method, it can be understood that the methods and operations implemented by a device (e.g., a network device or a terminal device) may also be implemented by components of the device (e.g., a chip or circuit).

[0515] A communication method provided in the embodiments of this application has been described in detail above with reference to Figures 7 to 20. The above communication method will be described primarily in terms of interaction between a terminal device and a network device. To implement the above functions, it can be understood that the terminal device and the network device include corresponding hardware structures and / or software modules for performing the functions.

[0516] Those skilled in the art should recognize that, with respect to the exemplary units and algorithmic steps described in the embodiments disclosed herein, this application may be implemented in hardware or in combination of hardware and computer software. Whether the functions are implemented by hardware or by hardware driven by computer software depends on the specific application and the design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the functions described for each specific application, but such implementations should not be considered to exceed the scope of this application.

[0517] The communication device provided in this application will be described in detail below with reference to Figures 21 and 23. Please understand that the description of the device embodiment corresponds to the description of the method embodiment. Therefore, for content not described in detail, please refer to the method embodiment described above. For the sake of brevity, some content will not be described again.

[0518] In embodiments of this application, a transmitting end device or a receiving end device may be divided into functional modules according to the above-described method example. For example, each functional module may be obtained through division based on its respective corresponding function, or two or more functions may be integrated into a single processing module. The integrated module may be implemented in hardware form or in the form of a software functional module. Note that the division into modules in embodiments of this application is merely an example and represents only a logical functional division. Other division methods may exist in actual implementation. An example in which each functional module is obtained through division based on its respective corresponding function is used below for illustrative purposes.

[0519] Figure 21 is a block diagram of a communication device 10 according to one embodiment of the present application. The device 10 includes a transceiver module 11 and a processing module 12. The transceiver module 11 may implement corresponding communication functions. The processing module 12 is configured to perform data processing. In other words, the transceiver module 11 is configured to perform operations related to transmission and reception. The processing module 12 is configured to perform operations other than transmission and reception. The transceiver module 11 is sometimes referred to as a communication interface or communication unit.

[0520] Optionally, the device 10 may further include a storage module 13. The storage module 13 may be configured to store instructions and / or data. The processing module 12 may read instructions and / or data from the storage module, and thus the device implements the actions of the device in the method embodiment described above.

[0521] In the design, the device 10 may correspond to the first terminal device in the above-described method embodiment, or it may be a component of the first terminal device (for example, a chip).

[0522] The apparatus 10 may implement the corresponding steps or procedures performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The transceiver module 11 may be configured to perform operations related to the transmission and reception of the first terminal device in the above method embodiment. The processing module 12 may be configured to perform operations related to the processing of the first terminal device in the above method embodiment.

[0523] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 11 is configured to receive first downlink data from a network device over a first link, the processing module 12 is configured to decode the first downlink data to obtain a first decoding result, and the transceiver module 11 is further configured to send first information to a second terminal device over a second link, the first information including first hybrid autoretransmission request acknowledgment HARQ-ACK information, the first HARQ-ACK information indicating the first decoding result. The first link is a transmission link between the first terminal device and the network device, and the second link is a transmission link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0524] When the apparatus 10 is configured to carry out the method shown in Figure 7, the transceiver module 11 may be configured to carry out steps of sending and receiving information in the method, for example, steps S710 and S730, and the processing module 12 may be configured to carry out processing steps in the method, for example, step S720.

[0525] When the apparatus 10 is configured to carry out the method shown in Figure 8, the transceiver module 11 may be configured to carry out steps of sending and receiving information in the method, for example, steps S811, S810, S821, and S822, and the processing module 12 may be configured to carry out processing steps in the method.

[0526] When the apparatus 10 is configured to carry out the method shown in Figure 10, the transceiver module 11 may be configured to carry out steps of sending and receiving information in the method, for example, steps S1010 and S1021, and the processing module 12 may be configured to carry out processing steps in the method, for example, step S1022.

[0527] In an alternative design, the device 10 may correspond to the network device in the above-described method embodiment, or it may be a component of the network device (for example, a chip).

[0528] The device 10 may implement the corresponding steps or procedures performed by the network device in the above-described method embodiment. The transceiver module 11 may be configured to perform operations related to the transmission and reception of the network device in the above-described method embodiment. The processing module 12 may be configured to perform operations related to the processing of the network device in the above-described method embodiment.

[0529] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module 11 is configured to send first downlink data to a first terminal device over a first link, and the transceiver module 11 is configured to receive fifth information from a second terminal device over a third link, the fifth information including first hybrid autoretransmission request acknowledgment HARQ-ACK information, the first HARQ-ACK information indicating a first decoded result corresponding to the first downlink data.

[0530] When the apparatus 10 is configured to carry out the method shown in Figure 7, the transceiver module 11 may be configured to carry out steps of sending and receiving information in the method, for example, steps S710 and S740, and the processing module 12 may be configured to carry out processing steps in the method.

[0531] When the apparatus 10 is configured to carry out the method shown in Figure 8, the transceiver module 11 may be configured to carry out steps of sending and receiving information in the method, for example, steps S811, S810, S821, and S822, and the processing module 12 may be configured to carry out processing steps in the method.

[0532] When the apparatus 10 is configured to carry out the method shown in Figure 10, the transceiver module 11 may be configured to carry out steps of sending and receiving information in the method, for example, steps S1010 and S1021, and the processing module 12 may be configured to carry out processing steps in the method.

[0533] It should be understood that the specific processes by which the unit performs the corresponding steps described above are described in detail in the above method embodiments. For the sake of brevity, details are not described herein.

[0534] It should be understood that the apparatus 10 described herein is implemented in the form of a functional module. The term “module” as used herein may mean an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), electronic circuitry, memory, a processor (such as a shared processor, a dedicated processor, or a group of processors) configured to run one or more software or firmware programs, a combination of logic circuits, and / or other suitable components that support the described function. In an optional example, those skilled in the art will understand that the apparatus 10 may, in particular, be a mobility management network element in the above embodiments and may be configured to perform procedures and / or steps corresponding to the mobility management network element in the above method embodiments. Alternatively, the apparatus 10 may, in particular, be a terminal device in the above embodiments and may be configured to perform procedures and / or steps corresponding to the terminal device in the above method embodiments. To avoid repetition, details are not described again herein.

[0535] The apparatus 10 in the above solution has the function of implementing the corresponding steps performed by a device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) in the above method. The function may be implemented by using hardware or by using hardware that runs the corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the function described above. For example, to perform the transmit / receive operation and associated processing operation in the method embodiment, respectively, a transceiver module may be replaced with a transceiver (e.g., a transmitting unit in a transceiver module may be replaced with a transmitter, and a receiving unit in a transceiver module may be replaced with a receiver), and another unit such as a processing module may be replaced with a processor.

[0536] Furthermore, the transceiver module 11 may, alternatively, be a transceiver circuit (for example, a transceiver circuit may include a receiver circuit and a transmitter circuit), and the processing module may be a processing circuit.

[0537] Figure 22 is a diagram of another communication device 20 according to one embodiment of the present application. The device 20 includes a processor 21. The processor 21 is configured to perform the method in the above-described embodiment by executing computer programs or instructions stored in memory 22, or by reading data / signaling stored in memory 22. Optionally, there may be one or more processors 21.

[0538] Optionally, the device 20 further includes a memory 22, as shown in Figure 22. The memory 22 is configured to store computer programs or instructions and / or data. The memory 22 and the processor 21 may be integrated together or disposed separately. Optionally, there may be one or more memories 22.

[0539] Optionally, the device 20 may further include a transceiver 23, as shown in Figure 22. The transceiver 23 is configured to receive and / or transmit signals. For example, the processor 21 is configured to control the transceiver 23 to receive and / or transmit signals.

[0540] In the solution, the device 20 is configured to implement the operations performed by the terminal device in the above-described embodiment of the method.

[0541] It should be understood that the processor in the embodiments of this application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be another general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or another programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, a discrete hardware component, etc. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or the processor may be any conventional processor, etc.

[0542] Furthermore, it should be understood that the memory referred to in the embodiments of this application may be volatile memory and / or non-volatile memory. Non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory may be random access memory (RAM). For example, RAM may be used as an external cache. Rather than being limited, RAM includes multiple forms such as static random access memory (static RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double data rate SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchlink dynamic random access memory (synchlink DRAM, SLDRAM), and direct rambus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM).

[0543] Note that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, or discrete hardware component, memory (storage module) may be integrated into the processor.

[0544] It should be further noted that the memories described herein are intended to include, but are not limited to, these memories and any other suitable type of memory.

[0545] Figure 23 is a diagram of a chip system 30 according to one embodiment of the present application. The chip system 30 (sometimes called a processing system) includes a logic circuit 31 and an input / output interface 32.

[0546] The logic circuit 31 may be a processing circuit in the chip system 30. The logic circuit 31 is coupled to a memory unit and calls instructions in the memory unit, and thus the chip system 30 can implement the methods and functions in the embodiments of this application. The input / output interface 32 may be an input / output circuit in the chip system 30 that outputs information processed by the chip system 30 or inputs data or signaling information to be processed by the chip system 30 for processing.

[0547] In the solution, the chip system 30 is configured to implement the operations performed by the terminal device in the above-described embodiment of the method.

[0548] For example, the logic circuit 31 is configured to implement operations related to processing performed by the terminal device in the above-described embodiment of the method, and the input / output interface 32 is configured to implement operations related to receiving performed by the terminal device in the above-described embodiment of the method.

[0549] One embodiment of this application further provides a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions used to implement the method performed by the device in the above-described method embodiment. For example, when a computer program is executed by a computer, the computer can implement the method performed by the terminal device or network device in the above-described method embodiment.

[0550] One embodiment of this application further provides a computer program product including instructions. When the instructions are executed by a computer, the method implemented by a terminal device or network device in the above-described embodiment of the method is implemented.

[0551] One embodiment of this application further provides a communication system including the above-mentioned terminal device and network device.

[0552] For a description of any one of the devices provided above, including its relevant features and beneficial effects, please refer to the corresponding method embodiment provided above. Further details will not be provided here.

[0553] In some embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and methods may be implemented in other ways. For example, the described apparatus embodiments are merely examples. For example, the division into units is merely a logical functional division. In actual implementation, other division methods may exist. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not implemented. Furthermore, the mutual coupling, direct coupling, or communication connection shown or described may be implemented through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatus or units may be implemented in electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

[0554] All or part of the above embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When software is used to implement an embodiment, all or part of the embodiment may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. A computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. Ta lifeWhen the instructions are loaded onto a computer and executed, all or part of the procedures or functions according to the embodiments of this application are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. For example, the computer may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device. Computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, or digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, radio, or microwave). The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium accessible by a computer or data storage device, such as a server or data center, integrating one or more available media. Available media may be magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, or magnetic tapes), optical media (e.g., DVDs), semiconductor media (e.g., solid-state disks, SSDs), etc. For example, usable media include, but are not limited to, any media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, removable hard disks, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0555] The above description is merely a specific implementation of the present application. However, the scope of protection of this application is not limited thereto. Any modification or substitution that is readily conceivable by a person skilled in the art within the scope of the technical scope disclosed in this application shall also fall within the scope of protection of this application. Accordingly, the scope of protection of this application shall be subject to the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method implemented by a first terminal device or a chip in the first terminal device, The steps include receiving first downlink data from a network device through a first link, The steps include decoding the first downlink data and obtaining a first decoding result, The steps include: sending first information to a second terminal device over a first transmission resource via a second link, wherein the first information includes first hybrid automatic retransmission request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) information, the first HARQ-ACK information indicates the first decoding result, the first transmission resource includes a first time-domain resource and a first frequency-domain resource, and the first frequency-domain resource is a resource block included in a physical side-link feedback channel (PSFCH); The first link is a transmission link between the first terminal device and the network device, and the second link is a transmission link between the first terminal device and the second terminal device. The first frequency domain resource is, A step of determining a second resource block quantity based on a first quantity and a first resource block quantity, wherein M is a first quantity of downlink data in a first downlink dataset, the first downlink data is one of M downlink data, all M HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the M downlink data are transmitted on the PSFCH, M is a positive integer, the first resource block quantity is the quantity of resource blocks included in the PSFCH, and the second resource block quantity is the quantity of resource blocks included in the first frequency domain resource, A step of determining the position of the second resource block quantity in the first resource block quantity based on the position of the first downlink data in the downlink dataset. Determined based on method.

2. M, the quantity of the first resource block, and the quantity of the second resource block satisfy the following relationship: [Math 1] N represents the quantity of the second resource block, and K represents the quantity of the first resource block. [Math 2] This represents a floor operation, where the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks among the K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or M, the quantity of the first resource block, and the quantity of the second resource block satisfy the following relationship: [Math 3] K is divisible by M, and the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks among the K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or If M1 > 0, when m is any integer from 1 to M1, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks with indices from (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1 among the K resource blocks, or when m is any integer from M1 to M, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks from the [M1*K1 + (m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1 + (m-M1-1)*K2 + K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, or When M1 = 0, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are the resource blocks from the [M1 * K1 + (m - M1 - 1) * K2]th resource block to the [M1 * K1 + (m - M1 - 1) * K2 + K2 - 1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, K1 is [Math 4] And K2 is [Math 5] And M1 is [Math 6] It is the remainder of, [Number 7] This represents the ceiling operation. The method according to claim 1.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first transmission resource is used to transmit HARQ-ACK information for downlink data and HARQ-ACK information for sidelink data.

4. M, the quantity of the first resource block, the quantity of the second resource block, and the second quantity satisfy the following relationship: [Number 8] N represents the second resource block quantity, K represents the first resource block quantity, A represents the second quantity, the second quantity is the sidelink data, and is the quantity of HARQ-ACK information transmitted on the PSFCH. [Number 9] This represents a floor operation, where the N resource blocks corresponding to the mth downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks among the K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or M, the quantity of the first resource block, the quantity of the second resource block, and the second quantity satisfy the following relationship: [Number 10] K is divisible by M + A, and the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks among the K resource blocks whose index is from (m-1)*N to m*N-1. or If M1 > 0, when m is any integer from 1 to M1, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are resource blocks with indices from (m-1)*K1 to m*K1-1 among the K resource blocks, or when m is any integer from M1 to M, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data are resource blocks from the [M1*K1 + (m-M1-1)*K2]th resource block to the [M1*K1 + (m-M1-1)*K2 + K2-1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, or When M1 = 0, the N resource blocks corresponding to the m-th downlink data among the M downlink data and A sidelink data are the resource blocks from the [M1 * K1 + (m - M1 - 1) * K2]th resource block to the [M1 * K1 + (m - M1 - 1) * K2 + K2 - 1]th resource block among the K resource blocks, K1 is [Math 11] And K2 is [Math 12] And M1 is [Number 13] It is the remainder of, [Number 14] This represents the ceiling operation. The method according to claim 3.

5. M A step of receiving a fourth piece of information from the network device, wherein the fourth piece of information indicates the first quantity, or A time gap set, a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) of the first link, a subcarrier interval of the first link, a subcarrier interval of the second link, the duration of the first transmission resource, or a first time resource, wherein the first time resource is one of the time gaps in the time gap set. The step of determining the first quantity based on at least one of the pieces of information. The method according to claim 4, determined based on the above.

6. Prior to the step of sending the first information to the second terminal device on the first transmission resource via the second link, the method: The first terminal device determines a first time resource from which to send the first information. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

7. The step of determining the first time resource on which the first terminal device sends the first information is: A step of determining a first time gap, wherein the first time gap is less than or equal to the time gap between the first time resource and the second time resource. The process includes the step of determining the first time resource based on the first time gap and the second time resource, The second time resource is a time resource in which the first terminal device receives the first downlink data or a time resource in which the first terminal device receives first control information, and the first control information is used to schedule the first downlink data. The method according to claim 6.

8. The first step in determining the time gap is: A step of receiving the first control information from the network device, wherein the first control information further indicates the first time gap, or Prior to the step of receiving the first downlink data, the steps include receiving first configuration information from the network device and determining the first time gap based on the first configuration information. The method according to claim 7, including the method described in claim 7.

9. Before the step of receiving the first control information from the network device, the method: Steps include receiving second configuration information from the network device, wherein the second configuration information is used to configure a time gap set, and the first time gap is one of the time gaps in the time gap set. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

10. When the first time gap is measured in the slot, the step of determining the first time gap is: A step of determining that the subcarrier interval (SCS) referenced by the first time gap is a first SCS or a second SCS, wherein the first SCS is an SCS corresponding to the first link, the second SCS is an SCS corresponding to the second link, and the first link is different from the second link. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

11. The step of determining whether the SCS referenced by the first time gap is the first SCS or the second SCS is: A step of determining, based on a first parameter, that the SCS referenced by the first time gap is the first SCS or the second SCS, wherein the first parameter indicates the first SCS or the second SCS, The first parameter is configured by the network device, or the first parameter is determined through negotiation between the first terminal device and the network device, or the first parameter is pre-programmed in the first terminal device. The method according to claim 10.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the first information is a media access control control element MAC CE.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the first downlink data includes a physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, the first link is a link for communication based on a first communication interface, the second link is a link for communication based on a second communication interface, the first communication interface is a Uu interface, the second communication interface is a PC5 interface, the first terminal device includes an Extended Reality, XR, device, and the second terminal device includes a mobile terminal.

14. A communication device comprising a processor and memory, wherein the processor is coupled to the memory, the memory is configured to store a computer program, and when the computer program is executed, the communication device implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

15. A computer program including instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed on a computer, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13 is implemented.

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