Data packet processing method and communication apparatus

Abstract

The present application provides a data packet processing method and a communication apparatus, which enable network devices to give reasonable packet loss instructions to terminal devices during uplink data transmission, thus not only improving the reliability of data transmission, but also enhancing user experience. The method comprises: a terminal device acquires first protocol data unit set importance (PSI) information corresponding to an uplink data packet, and the proportion of a data volume corresponding to each piece of the first PSI information, the proportion of the data volume corresponding to each piece of the first PSI information being the proportion of the data volume corresponding to each piece of the first PSI information to the total data volume corresponding to the uplink data packet; and the terminal device sends first information of the uplink data packet to a network device, the first information being used for the network device to perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet, the first information of the uplink data packet comprising the first PSI information and the proportion of the data volume corresponding to each piece of the first PSI information, or the proportion of the data volumes corresponding to some of the first PSI information.

Description

Data packet processing method and communication device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on August 9, 2023, application number 202311004795.9, and application name “Data Packet Processing Method and Communication Device”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a method for processing data packets and a communication device. Background Art

[0003] The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines that a quality of service (QoS) flow for an extended reality (XR) service can contain sets of protocol data units (PDUs) of varying importance, identified by PDU set importance (PSI). When network congestion occurs, priority should be given to the transmission of high-importance data. Therefore, 3GPP proposes that when network congestion occurs, the transmission of low-importance data packets can be given priority. In downlink data transmission, the base station can proactively discard some low-importance data upon detecting congestion; in uplink data transmission, the base station needs to instruct the user equipment (UE) to discard less important data to alleviate pressure on transmission resources.

[0004] However, during uplink transmission, the base station does not know which data in the uplink data will affect the user experience. Therefore, it is difficult for the base station to make a reasonable decision to instruct the UE to drop packets. In addition, since there are many types of users in the network, some users' service flows may not contain unimportant data packets. If the base station instructs such users to drop packets, the users may not follow the instructions, resulting in network congestion not being alleviated. In addition, if the base station instructs the UE to discard data with a PSI higher than a certain threshold, and there is no data above the threshold in the uplink data, network congestion will not be alleviated. Therefore, how to ensure the transmission of high-importance data packets while enabling the base station to make a reasonable decision to instruct the UE to drop packets is a problem that needs to be solved.

[0005] Summary of the Invention

[0006] The present application provides a data packet processing method and a communication device, which can enable a network device to make reasonable packet loss indications to a terminal device during uplink data transmission, thereby improving not only the reliability of data transmission but also the user experience.

[0007] In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for processing a data packet. The method can be executed by a terminal device, or by a component of the terminal device (such as a chip or circuit). This application does not limit this. For the sake of ease of description, the following is an example of execution by a terminal device. The method includes: the terminal device obtains the first protocol data unit set importance PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information, the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information is the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information to the total data volume corresponding to the uplink data packet; the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, wherein the first information of the uplink data packet includes the ratio of the first PSI information and the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information, or the ratio of the data volume corresponding to part of the first PSI information, and the first information is used by the network device to perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet.

[0008] Based on the above solution, whether the terminal device reports all the PSI information corresponding to the data packet to the network device, and the data volume ratio corresponding to each PSI information, or the terminal device reports the data volume ratio corresponding to part of the PSI to the network device, the network device can more clearly understand the importance and proportion of the data contained in the uplink data, so that when the network is congested, it can make more reasonable packet loss management. This solution improves the performance of the network device in packet loss management, improves the stability of the network in the event of congestion, and thus improves the user experience. In addition, when the terminal device reports the data volume ratio corresponding to part of the PSI to the network device, it can also improve the reporting efficiency and save uplink resources.

[0009] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device, the configuration information includes an identifier corresponding to the uplink data packet, and the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier.

[0010] Based on the above solution, the terminal device quickly determines the ratio of the first PSI information of the data packet corresponding to the identifier that needs to be obtained and the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information through configuration information, thereby generating the first information that needs to be reported. This can improve the efficiency of the terminal device in generating the first information and avoid the waste of resources caused by the terminal device obtaining and generating the first information of all uplink data packets.

[0011] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the identifier is the flow identifier of the quality of service QoS flow corresponding to the uplink data packet, or the identifier of the logical channel LCH corresponding to the uplink data packet, or the identifier of the data radio bearer DRB corresponding to the uplink data packet.

[0012] Based on the above solution, by using a universal QoS flow identifier, an LCH identifier, or a DRB identifier to identify uplink data packets, the reliability of the solution is improved.

[0013] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device receives indication information from the network device, the indication information instructing the terminal device to discard part of the data packets corresponding to the first PSI information, or the indication information instructs the terminal device to discard data packets in the uplink data packets other than the data packets corresponding to the part of the first PSI information.

[0014] Based on the above scheme, when the terminal device reports the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to a partially important or partially unimportant PSI in the first information sent, the network device can only instruct to discard the corresponding unimportant data packets. For example, if the terminal device reports the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to some important PSIs, the indication information sent by the network device does not need to carry PSI information, but only needs to instruct to discard the data packets corresponding to the unreported PSI, that is, to instruct to discard unimportant data packets; if the terminal device reports the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to some unimportant PSIs, the indication information sent by the network device also does not need to carry PSI information, but only needs to instruct to discard. This scheme can improve the efficiency of network device indications and save resources that carry indication information.

[0015] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the proportion of the data volume corresponding to the portion of the first PSI information is determined by the terminal device based on a preset first threshold.

[0016] Based on this solution, the terminal device can report the corresponding data volume when the first PSI information is lower than the preset first threshold or the first PSI information is higher than the preset first threshold to the network device, so that the terminal device only counts the proportion of the data volume corresponding to part of the first PSI information, thereby simplifying the operation of the terminal device.

[0017] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device updates the ratio of the data volume corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information to the ratio of the data volume corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information; the terminal device sends the second information of the uplink data packet to the network device, wherein the second information of the uplink data packet includes the ratio of the data volume corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information, or the ratio of the data volume corresponding to part of the second PSI information, and the second information is used by the network device to perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet.

[0018] Based on this solution, updating PSI information and ratios can further improve the accuracy of network device management data packets, thereby improving network device performance and user experience.

[0019] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the terminal device updates the ratio of the data amount corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information to the ratio of the data amount corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information, including: when the terminal device determines that the change in the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the first PSI information exceeds a preset second threshold, the terminal device updates the ratio of the data amount corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information to the ratio of the data amount corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information.

[0020] Based on this solution, the terminal device updates the PSI information and the corresponding ratio only when the change in the ratio of the data volume corresponding to the first PSI information exceeds a preset second threshold, thereby improving the update efficiency of the terminal device and avoiding waste of resources.

[0021] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, including: the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the first network device, so that the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the F1 interface, wherein the first network device is a distributed unit DU and the second network device is a centralized unit CU.

[0022] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, including: the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the first network device, so that the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the F1 interface, wherein the first network device is a CU and the second network device is a DU.

[0023] It should be noted that in distributed network equipment, DU has a clearer understanding of network congestion conditions. Therefore, the first information can be sent to CU through the terminal device first, so that CU parses the first information and then sends it to DU, which can improve the rationality of DU's indication of packet loss.

[0024] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, including: the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the first network device, so that the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the Xn interface, wherein the first network device is the source base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario, and the second network device is the target base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario.

[0025] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, including: the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the first network device, so that the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the Xn interface, wherein the first network device is the source base station in a dual connectivity (DC) scenario, and the second network device is the auxiliary base station in the DC scenario.

[0026] The first information is transmitted on the F1 interface and the Xn interface to ensure that in the CU-DU separation scenario, switching scenario and DC scenario, the first PSI information in the first information reported by the terminal device can be fully utilized by the network device, thereby ensuring the application scenario of this solution.

[0027] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the configuration information is also used to instruct the terminal device to send first jitter information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier, and the method also includes: the terminal device obtains the first jitter information, and the first jitter information is calculated by the duration of the time slot corresponding to the first reference subcarrier spacing SCS; the terminal device sends the first jitter information to the network device.

[0028] Jitter information enables network devices to consider not only PSI information but also packet jitter when making packet loss decisions. This enables network devices to make reasonable scheduling strategies based on jitter information and adjust the scheduling decisions to improve the rationality of packet scheduling by network devices, thereby improving user experience.

[0029] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device updates the first jitter information to second jitter information, and the second jitter information is calculated based on the duration of the time slot corresponding to the first reference SCS or the second reference SCS; the terminal device sends the second jitter information to the network device.

[0030] Based on this solution, updating jitter information can further improve the timing of data packet scheduling by network devices, enabling network devices to make more reasonable scheduling decisions.

[0031] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the terminal device updates the first jitter information to the second jitter information, including: the terminal device determines that the change of the first jitter information exceeds a preset third threshold, or the terminal device determines that the first reference SCS changes, the terminal device updates the first jitter information to the second jitter information.

[0032] Based on this solution, when the change in the first jitter information exceeds a preset third threshold, the terminal device is updated, thereby improving the efficiency of terminal device updates and avoiding waste of resources.

[0033] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first PSI information is a PSI level or a range of PSI levels.

[0034] In the second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for processing a data packet. The method can be executed by a network device, or by a component of the network device (such as a chip or circuit). This application does not limit this. For the sake of ease of description, the following is an illustration of the execution of a network device. The method includes: the network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, the first information of the uplink data packet includes the first protocol data unit importance PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information, or the ratio of the data volume corresponding to the part of the first PSI information, wherein the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information is the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information to the total data volume corresponding to the uplink data packet; the network device performs packet loss management on the uplink data packet according to the first information.

[0035] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the network device sends configuration information to the terminal device, the configuration information includes an identifier corresponding to the uplink data packet, and the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier.

[0036] Specifically, for descriptions related to the identifier, please refer to the description of the identifier in the first aspect above, which will not be repeated here.

[0037] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the network device sends an indication message to the terminal device, the indication message instructing the terminal device to discard part of the data packets corresponding to the first PSI information, or the indication message instructs the terminal device to discard data packets in the uplink data packets other than the data packets corresponding to the part of the first PSI information.

[0038] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the proportion of the data volume corresponding to the portion of the first PSI information is determined by the terminal device based on a preset first threshold.

[0039] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: the network device receives second information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device, wherein the second information of the uplink data packet includes the ratio of the second PSI information and the data amount corresponding to each second PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the second PSI information; and the network device performs packet loss management on the uplink data packet according to the second information.

[0040] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the network device receives the second information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device, including: when the change in the proportion of the data volume corresponding to the first PSI information exceeds a preset second threshold, the network device receives the second information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device.

[0041] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, including: the first network device receives the first information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device; the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the F1 interface, wherein the first network device is a distributed unit DU and the second network device is a centralized unit CU.

[0042] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, including: the first network device receives the first information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device; the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the F1 interface, wherein the first network device is a CU and the second network device is a DU.

[0043] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, including: the first network device receives the first information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device; the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the Xn interface, wherein the first network device is the source base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario, and the second network device is the target base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario.

[0044] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the network device is a first network device, and the network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, including: the first network device receives the first information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device; the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the Xn interface, wherein the first network device is a main base station in a DC scenario, and the second network device is an auxiliary base station in the DC scenario. In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the configuration information is also used to instruct the terminal device to send first jitter information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier, and the method further includes: the network device receives first jitter information from the terminal device, and the first jitter information is calculated by the duration of the time slot corresponding to the first reference subcarrier spacing SCS.

[0045] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the method also includes: the network device receives second jitter information from the terminal device, and the second jitter information is calculated based on the duration of the time slot corresponding to the first reference SCS or the second reference SCS.

[0046] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the network device receives the second jitter information from the terminal device, including: when the change of the first jitter information exceeds a preset third threshold, or the first reference SCS changes, the network device receives the second jitter information from the terminal device.

[0047] Specifically, the description related to the first PSI information can refer to the description of the first PSI information in the first aspect above, which will not be repeated here.

[0048] In a third aspect, a first communication device is provided. The first communication device is configured to execute the first aspect and any one of its embodiments. Specifically, the first communication device includes a processor and a memory, the memory being configured to store a computer program; the processor being configured to retrieve and execute the computer program from the memory, so that the first communication device executes the first aspect and any one of its embodiments.

[0049] In a fourth aspect, a second communication device is provided. The second communication device is configured to perform the second aspect and any one of its embodiments. Specifically, the second communication device includes a processor and a memory, the memory being configured to store a computer program; the processor being configured to retrieve and execute the computer program from the memory, so that the second communication device performs the second aspect and any one of its embodiments.

[0050] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is used to perform the method provided in the first aspect and any one of its embodiments. Specifically, the communication device may include units and / or modules (e.g., processing units, transceiver units) for performing the method provided in the first aspect and any one of its embodiments.

[0051] In one 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. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0052] In another implementation, the communication device may be a chip, chip system, or circuit in a terminal device. In this case, the transceiver unit may be an input / output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin, or related circuit on the chip, chip system, or circuit; and the processing unit may be at least one processor, processing circuit, or logic circuit.

[0053] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is configured to execute the method provided in the second aspect and any one of its embodiments. Specifically, the communication device may include units and / or modules (e.g., a processing unit, a transceiver unit) configured to execute the method provided in the second aspect and any one of its embodiments.

[0054] In one implementation, the communication device is a network device. When the communication device is a network device, the transceiver unit may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. The processing unit may be at least one processor. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0055] In another implementation, the communication device may be a chip, chip system, or circuit in a network device. In this case, the transceiver unit may be an input / output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin, or related circuit on the chip, chip system, or circuit; and the processing unit may be at least one processor, processing circuit, or logic circuit.

[0056] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a processor for executing the method provided in the first aspect and / or the second aspect above.

[0057] For the operations such as sending and acquiring / receiving involved in the processor, unless otherwise specified, or if they do not conflict with their actual functions or internal logic in the relevant descriptions, they can be understood as processor output, reception, input and other operations, and can also be understood as sending and receiving operations performed by the radio frequency circuit and antenna. This application does not limit this.

[0058] In an eighth aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided. When the computer program product is run on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method provided in any one of the implementations of the first and / or second aspects.

[0059] In a ninth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, which, when executed on a communication device, causes the communication device to execute a method according to any one of the implementations of the first and / or second aspects.

[0060] In a tenth aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising the first communication device of the third aspect and the second communication device of the fourth aspect.

[0061] In the eleventh aspect, a chip is provided, which includes a processor and a communication interface. The processor reads instructions through the communication interface and executes the method provided by any implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect.

[0062] Optionally, as an implementation method, the chip also includes a memory, the memory stores a computer program or instructions, and the processor is used to execute the computer program or instructions stored in the memory. When the computer program or instructions are executed, the processor is used to execute the method provided in any one of the implementation methods of the first aspect and / or the second aspect above.

[0063] The technical effects of the above second to eleventh aspects can refer to the technical effects of the first aspect and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0064] FIG1 shows a communication system to which an embodiment of the present application can be applied.

[0065] FIG2 shows a schematic diagram of an XR downlink service model provided by 3GPP.

[0066] FIG3 shows a schematic diagram of a video coding model applicable to an embodiment of the present application.

[0067] FIG4 shows a schematic flowchart of a first data packet processing method 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0068] FIG5 shows a schematic flowchart of a second data packet processing method 500 provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0069] FIG6 shows a schematic flowchart of a third data packet processing method 600 provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0070] FIG7 shows a schematic flowchart of a fourth data packet processing method 700 provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0071] FIG8 shows a schematic flowchart of a fifth data packet processing method 800 provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0072] FIG9 shows a schematic flowchart of a data packet processing method 900 provided in an embodiment of the present application when the network device is a CU-DU separation architecture.

[0073] FIG10 shows a schematic flowchart of a method 1000 for processing a data packet provided in an embodiment of the present application when applied to a switching scenario.

[0074] FIG11 shows a schematic flowchart of a method 1000 for processing a data packet provided in an embodiment of the present application when applied to a DC scenario.

[0075] FIG12 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1200 provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0076] FIG13 shows another possible structural diagram of the communication device involved in the above embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0077] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0078] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as satellite communication systems, high altitude platform station (HAPS) communications, non-terrestrial network (NTN) systems such as drones, integrated communication and navigation (ICAN) systems, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and ultra-dense low-orbit satellite communication systems, long-term evolution (LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (TDD) systems, universal mobile telecommunication systems (UMTS), 5G systems or communication systems evolved after 5G, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X), where V2X may include vehicle to network (V2N), vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle to pedestrian (V2P). pedestrian (V2P), long term evolution-vehicle (LTE-V), Internet of Vehicles, machine type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), long term evolution-machine (LTE-M), machine to machine (M2M), etc.

[0079] The terminal device in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device.

[0080] As an example, some terminals are exemplified as: virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, terminal devices in the fifth generation (5G) network, or terminal devices in the future evolved public land mobile communication network (PLMN), etc., which are not limited to the embodiments of the present application.

[0081] As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be called wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, 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 clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include full-featured, large-sized, and independent of smartphones to achieve complete or partial functions, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as devices that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0082] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device can be the terminal device, or it can be a device that can support the terminal device to implement the function, such as a chip system or chip, which can be installed in the terminal device. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0083] The network device in the embodiment of the present application can be any communication device with wireless transceiver function for communicating with a terminal device, and can be an access network (RAN) device deployed on a satellite, or an access network device deployed on the ground. The access network equipment includes but is not limited to: evolved Node B (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), Node B (NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), home evolved NodeB (HeNB, or home Node B, HNB), baseband unit (BBU), access point (AP) in wireless fidelity (WIFI) system, wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, transmission point (TP) or transmission and reception point (TRP), etc., and can also be 5G, such as gNB in ​​NR system, one or a group of (including multiple antenna panels) antenna panels of a base station in 5G system, or it can also be a network node constituting a gNB or transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU) or a distributed unit (DU), etc.

[0084] In some deployments, the gNB may include a centralized unit (CU) and a DU, with or without a CU-DU split architecture. The gNB may also include an active antenna unit (AAU).

[0085] For example, Figure 1 shows a communication system to which embodiments of the present application can be applied. Specifically, embodiments of the present application can be used for information exchange between a terminal device and a base station, between a base station and a core network, or between base stations.

[0086] It should be understood that Figure 1 is merely an example and does not limit the application scenarios of this application. Specifically, the network elements involved in the embodiments of this application include at least one of user equipment, augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) / extended reality (XR) devices, wearable devices, smart home appliances, terminal devices and communication modules of terminal devices, mobile phones and communication modules in mobile phones, vehicles and communication modules in vehicles, information processing devices, display devices, network devices (including core network devices), base stations, TRPs, customer premise equipment (CPE), routers, network access devices, etc. Among them, core network devices refer to devices in the core network (CN) that provide service support for terminals. Currently, some examples of core network devices include: access and mobility management function (AMF) entity, session management function (SMF) entity, user plane function (UPF) entity, etc., which are not listed here one by one. Among them, the AMF entity can be responsible for terminal access management and mobility management; the SMF entity can be responsible for session management, such as user session establishment; the UPF entity can be a functional entity of the user plane, mainly responsible for connecting to the external network. It should be noted that in this application, the entity can also be referred to as a network element or a functional entity. For example, the AMF entity can also be referred to as an AMF network element or an AMF functional entity. For example, the SMF entity can also be referred to as an SMF network element or an SMF functional entity.

[0087] Considering Uu (UTRAN-to-terminal equipment) air interface transmission, both parties in wireless communication include the network device and the user communication device. Considering SL air interface transmission, both the transmitting and receiving ends of wireless communication are user communication devices. In the system architecture diagram shown in Figure 1, the network device can be a traditional macro base station (eNB) in traditional UMTS / LTE wireless communication systems, a micro base station (eNB) in heterogeneous network (HetNet) scenarios, a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote radio unit (RRU) in distributed base station scenarios, a baseband pool (BBU pool) and a radio frequency unit (RRU) in CRAN scenarios, and a gNB in ​​future wireless communication systems. When the network device is a gNB, a CU-DU split architecture can be adopted or not. The user device can be an in-vehicle communication module or other embedded communication module, or a user handheld communication device, including a mobile phone, tablet, or XR device. Sidelink (SL) communication can be performed between user communication devices (e.g., XR devices) and other user communication devices (e.g., XR devices).

[0088] To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, first, a brief introduction to the concepts and technologies involved in the embodiments of the application is given.

[0089] 1. XR: XR refers to a combination of real and virtual environments, as well as human-machine interactions, generated by computing technology and wearable devices. It includes the following typical forms: VR, AR, and MR. XR is one of the 5G multimedia applications currently being considered by the industrial sector. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Rel-17 modeled and analyzed the service characteristics of XR. Typically, XR services periodically generate data frames at a certain frame rate. Among them, AR or XR services can have the following main service characteristics:

[0090] (1) Frame rate: The frame rate can be 60 frames per second (fps), i.e., 60 video frames are generated per second, with one video frame appearing approximately every 16.67 ms, and the transmission rate can be 20 megabits per second (Mbps) or 45 Mbps, etc. The frame rate can also be 120 fps, i.e., 120 video frames per second, with one video frame appearing approximately every 8.33 ms, but this application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0091] (2) Jitter: The encoding of data frames may have a certain delay, which will cause jitter in the time it takes for the data frames to arrive at the air interface. Generally, jitter can be considered to follow a truncated Gaussian distribution, with the truncation range being approximately [-4, 4] ms. That is, the arrival time of each cycle data may be advanced or delayed by up to 4 ms in the cycle time. As shown in Figure 2, it can be seen that the size of XR service data packets follows a certain probability distribution. Data packets arrive at the base station side at an average period of 1 / fps, and the jitter of the data packet arrival time follows a certain probability distribution.

[0092] (3) Frame size fluctuation: The size of a data frame is not fixed and usually follows a truncated Gaussian distribution. The mean can be expressed as mean = R × 1e6 / F / 8, where F is the frame rate and R is the data rate. For example, if F = 60 fps and R = 20 Mbps, mean = 41.67 KBytes. The size of a data frame is usually between 0.5*mean and 1.5*mean.

[0093] 2. XR service data packet: refers to the data packet belonging to the XR service. XR services can generate data periodically. For example, uplink AR services periodically generate data frames. Data frames can be transmitted by multiple data packets at the access layer. These data packets can form one or more protocol data unit (PDU) sets. Usually, the network has certain requirements for the transmission delay of each PDU set. For example, the transmission delay requirement for the PDU set is the PDU set delay budget (PSDB). PSDB is only an example and this application does not limit it.

[0094] It is understood that a PDU set can correspond to one or more data packets. A PDU set contains the data corresponding to an application layer information unit (ALU). An ALU is the smallest granularity of application layer codecs, such as a video frame, a video coding slice, or a video coding block. If a PDU set corresponds to multiple data packets, these packets can be transmitted sequentially at the access layer using the data packet granularity.

[0095] For example, a PDU set may consist of one or more PDUs that carry the payload of an information unit generated at the application level, such as a frame or video slice for an XR service. In some implementations, the application layer requires all PDUs in the PDU set to use the corresponding information unit. In some implementations, when some PDUs are missing, the application layer can restore the corresponding information unit.

[0096] Specifically, in XR services, data of different importance may appear in the same data stream. This is caused by the encoding method of the application. Taking the XR video service as an example, the application may use inter-frame prediction encoding for some video frames when encoding data, thereby compressing the amount of data to be transmitted. Simply put, this type of encoding method takes advantage of the fact that most of the content in adjacent video screens has not changed, and only transmits the data of the changed part of the screen. The part that has not changed directly uses the previous data. For example, in a live broadcast screen, the background usually does not change, so only the complete data needs to be transmitted when transmitting the first frame of video. Subsequent video frames only need to transmit the data of the changes in the foreground characters. There is no need to transmit the background data again. The receiving player can directly use the background data of the first frame to generate the screen of the subsequent video frames.

[0097] Figure 3 illustrates a coding scheme with these characteristics. A classic example is group of picture (GOP)-based coding. In this scheme, a GOP consists of several consecutive video frames. The first frame, called an intra-coded picture (I) frame, uses intra-coding, contains complete image information, and can be independently encoded or decoded. The remaining frames, called predictive-coded pictures (P) frames, use predictive coding, contain only partial image information, and require the support of previous frames for encoding or decoding.

[0098] In a similar encoding method, a video frame is divided into multiple video slices, some of which are intra-coded and some predictively coded. These slices are called I-slices and P-slices, respectively. The encoding and decoding of the P-slice in the subsequent frame depends on the corresponding I-slice in the previous frame.

[0099] A frame or a slice may correspond to one or more PDU sets when transmitted in a wireless network.

[0100] The XR video encoding model reflects the unequal importance of data. Because the correct decoding of P frames and P-slices depends on the correct decoding of I frames and I-slices, I-frames and I-slices are more important during data transmission. In times of network congestion, reliable transmission of I frames and I-slices should be prioritized to ensure a better service experience.

[0101] In order to distinguish the different importance of different data in the same data stream, 3GPP proposed the concept of PDU set importance. According to the provisions of 3GPP protocol 23.700, the quality of service (QoS) stream of an XR service can contain PDU sets of different importance, and they are identified by PDU set importance (PSI). For example, in an XR video stream, the PSI of the PDU set corresponding to the I frame / I-slice may be stronger than the PSI of the PDU set corresponding to the P frame / P-slice. This is because the encoding and decoding of the P frame / P-slice needs to rely on the I frame / I-slice. Therefore, the I frame / I-slice data has higher importance.

[0102] According to the 3GPP definition, PSI has 16 levels, ranging from 0 to 15. Lower PSI values ​​indicate a higher importance for the PDU set. For downlink traffic, the core network provides the PSI for each PDU set to the access network. For uplink traffic, the PSI is identified by the UE itself.

[0103] Since there are data of different importance in the XR data stream, when the network is congested, the transmission of high-importance data should be prioritized. Therefore, the protocol proposes that when the network is congested, the transmission of low-importance data packets can be given priority. For downlink, the network equipment can implement it autonomously, that is, the network equipment can actively discard some low-importance data after detecting congestion; and for uplink, the network equipment can instruct the terminal device (such as UE) to discard low-importance data when congestion is detected, thereby alleviating the pressure on transmission resources and enabling more resources to be used to transmit high-importance data, thereby trying to ensure user experience.

[0104] In the above mechanism, the downlink portion only needs to be executed by the network device itself, which is a relatively simple scenario. However, the uplink portion requires the network device to issue instructions to the terminal device to control packet loss accordingly. One possible implementation is for the network device to instruct the terminal device to discard data with a PSI exceeding a certain threshold when network congestion occurs.

[0105] However, it's understandable that because the PSI of uplink data is identified and determined by the terminal device and isn't transmitted to the network device via the packet header, in uplink traffic, the network device can't know in advance what PSI levels are present in the data packets transmitted by the terminal device. This makes it difficult for the network device to accurately and appropriately indicate packet loss during network congestion, allowing the appropriate terminal device to discard the appropriate data and alleviate network congestion.

[0106] In actual application scenarios, when a network device detects network congestion, it first needs to decide which users to instruct to drop packets. Because there are multiple types of users in the network, some users' service flows may not contain unimportant data packets, for example, when some users do not use inter-frame dependent encoding. If the network device instructs such users to drop packets, but they do not have any low-importance data, these users may not drop any packets, resulting in network congestion not being alleviated as expected. Even if these users are forced to drop some data, since all data has the same importance to the user, the dropped data may have a significant impact on their user experience. Since the network device does not know the PSI information of each user, it cannot identify which users have low-importance data, making the above situation difficult to avoid.

[0107] Secondly, the network device needs to instruct the user who is about to drop packets to specifically discard data corresponding to the PSI level. For example, if a user's data stream contains data with PSI = 5 and PSI = 8, but the network device instructs the user to discard data with a PSI greater than 10, the user will not discard any data, and network congestion will not be alleviated as expected. This situation is also possible because the network device does not know the user's PSI information.

[0108] In summary, since the network device does not have any information about the uplink PSI of the terminal device, it is difficult for the network device to make a reasonable decision to instruct the terminal device to drop data packets to relieve congestion when the network is congested.

[0109] In view of this, the present application provides a data packet processing method and communication device, which can enable the network device to reasonably indicate to the terminal device which data packets need to be discarded when network congestion occurs during the transmission of uplink data packets, thereby alleviating network congestion while ensuring the transmission of high-importance data packets.

[0110] Figure 4 is a schematic flow chart of a first data packet processing method 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4 , this schematic flow chart illustrates the interaction between a network device and a terminal device. The steps performed by the terminal device and / or the network device may be performed by modules or units within the terminal device and / or the network device, for example, by a chip within the terminal device or the network device. Specifically, the method includes the following steps.

[0111] S401, the terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information.

[0112] Specifically, when the terminal device needs to send an uplink data packet to the network device, the terminal device first obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet to be sent and the proportion of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information. Wherein, the proportion of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information is the proportion of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information in the total data volume corresponding to the uplink data packet.

[0113] In some embodiments, the first PSI information may be a PSI level. For example, when the data belonging to QoS flow #1 sent by the terminal device contains 5 data packets, the PSI levels corresponding to the 5 data packets obtained by the terminal device and the data volume of each data packet may be: Packet #1 (PSI = 1, size is 1000 bytes), Packet #2 (PSI = 2, size is 500 bytes), Packet #3 (PSI = 2, size is 500 bytes), Packet #4 (PSI = 3, size is 1000 bytes), Packet #5 (PSI = 1, size is 1000 bytes). At this time, the proportion of each first PSI information and the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information obtained by the terminal device are respectively: the proportion of data with PSI = z is 50%; the proportion of data with PSI = 2 is 25%; the proportion of data with PSI = 3 is 25%.

[0114] In some other embodiments, the first PSI information may be a range of PSI levels. For example, for the PSI data existing in QoS flow #1 sent by the terminal device: the proportion of data with PSI = 1 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 2 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 3 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 4 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 5 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 6 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 7 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 8 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 9 is 1o%, the proportion of data with PSI = 10 is 1o%. At this time, when the terminal device counts this QoS flow #1, it can respectively obtain the proportion of data located in 0 < PSI ≤ 3 in the total data volume, the proportion of data located in 3 < PSI ≤ 6 in the total data volume, and the proportion of data located in 7 < PSI ≤ 10 in the total data volume. At this time, the proportion of each first PSI information and the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information obtained by the terminal device are respectively: the proportion of data located in 0 < PSI ≤ 3 in the total data volume is 30%; the proportion of data located in 3 < PSI ≤ 6 in the total data volume is 30%; the proportion of data located in 7 < PSI ≤ 10 in the total data volume is 40%.

[0115] It should be noted that there is an error in the original text where "the proportion of data with PSI = z is 50%" should be "the proportion of data with PSI = 1 is 50%". The above translation has been corrected accordingly.It is understandable that the terminal device can divide the PSI level according to the preset first threshold. For example, in the above example, the first threshold selected by the terminal device when dividing the range of the PSI level is 3 or 7. It should be noted that the first threshold for the terminal device to divide the PSI level can be pre-configured to the terminal device by the network device, for example, through configuration information (such as the first configuration information for configuring the data packet identifier in S501 in the method shown in Figure 5 below, or the configuration information for configuring the first reference SCS or the ID of the BWP corresponding to the first reference SCS in Figure 8 below, or other network devices sent to the terminal device, etc.) The first threshold for dividing the level (such as the above-mentioned 3 or 7) is sent to the terminal device, so that after the terminal device receives the first threshold, it divides the obtained PSI level into different level ranges according to the first threshold. Alternatively, the first threshold for PSI level division can also be determined by the terminal device itself, or pre-defined by the protocol, and this application does not limit this. In addition, there can be one or more first thresholds.

[0116] It should be noted that, in the present application, the PSI information corresponding to the data packet corresponds to the PSI information of the PDU set. For example, when the PSI of a PDU set is x, the PSI of all data packets in the PDU set is x. It is understandable that a QoS flow, a logical channel (LCH) or a data radio bearer (DRB) may contain one or more PDU sets, so a QoS flow, an LCH or a DRB may correspond to one or more PSI information. Therefore, in the present application, the first PSI information obtained by the terminal device may be one or more, and this application does not limit it.

[0117] In some embodiments, the terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information through statistics. For example, when the terminal device counts 5 data packets (for example, belonging to the same QoS flow) within a statistical time length, they are data packet #1 (PSI=1, size is 1000 bytes), data packet #2 (PSI=2, size is 500 bytes), data packet #3 (PSI=2, size is 500 bytes), data packet #4 (PSI=3, size is 1000 bytes), and data packet #5 (PSI=1, size is 1000 bytes). The statistical result is: the data of PSI=1 is 2000 bytes, the data of PSI=2 is 1000 bytes, and the data of PSI=3 is 1000 bytes. Thus, the terminal device can obtain that there are three PSI levels in the data, namely levels 1, 2, and 3, and the ratios of the data volumes corresponding to PSI=1, PSI=2, and PSI=3 are 50%:25%:25% respectively. Optionally, the terminal device may autonomously determine the statistical duration. When the terminal device determines that the statistical duration is long enough and the statistical results are representative (for example, the terminal device believes that the statistical PSI level and the corresponding ratio are representative of the entire QoS flow), the terminal device stops the statistical operation. For example, the statistical duration of the terminal device may cover the time of one GOP.

[0118] In other embodiments, the terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the data volume ratio corresponding to each first PSI information directly from the application layer of the terminal device. For example, for a video application, the application layer of the terminal device (e.g., application software) can determine the importance of the data and the proportion of different data based on the encoding method, and transmit this information to the processing device of the terminal device through cross-layer interaction.

[0119] S402: The terminal device sends first information of an uplink data packet to the network device.

[0120] Specifically, after the terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information, the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, and the network device receives the first information accordingly. The first information includes the first PSI information and the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the first PSI information.

[0121] In some embodiments, if the number of first PSI levels corresponding to the uplink data packet acquired by the terminal device is small, for example, it only includes PSI = 1 or only includes data of PSI = 1 and PSI = 2. Or, the range of the first PSI level corresponding to the uplink data packet acquired by the terminal device is small, for example, the range of the first PSI level corresponding to the uplink data packet is only 0 < PSI ≤ 3. At this time, the terminal device can send all the first PSI information to the network device, so that the network device can clearly know the importance degree of the data included in the uplink data packet and the proportional relationship of each data with different importance degrees.

[0122] In some other embodiments, if the number of first PSI levels corresponding to the uplink data packet acquired by the terminal device is large, or the range of the first PSI level is large, etc., in order to reduce the reported information and thus reduce the resource occupancy. At this time, the terminal device can only report the proportion of the data volume corresponding to some of the first PSI information. This process can be understood as that the terminal device divides the data in the data packet into important data and unimportant data by itself, and sends the proportion of the important data or unimportant data in the total data to the network device, so that the network can know the proportion of the important data or unimportant data. Among them, the terminal device can determine the data packets that can still ensure the basic experience of the user even if some data packets are lost as unimportant data packets. And for the data that will definitely affect the user experience or even cannot implement the service function if lost, it is determined as important data. It can be understood that in this scenario, the network device does not need to clearly know the PSI level corresponding to the data packet, but determines the proportion of the two types of data through the proportion reported by the terminal device. For example, when the terminal device reports the proportion of the important data, if network congestion occurs, the network device can determine whether the currently available resources can carry the important data according to the size of the data proportion, and determine whether to discard or receive the unimportant data packets corresponding to the important data (for example, by instructing the terminal device to discard packets or continue to send). Or, when the terminal device reports the proportion of the unimportant data, if system congestion occurs, the network device can determine whether to discard this part of the unimportant data packets if discarding this part of the data can relieve network congestion. It can be understood that the terminal device can also send the proportion of the important data and the unimportant data to the network device at the same time. Although this solution will occupy some uplink resources compared with only sending the proportion of one type of data, compared with sending all the PSI levels, sending the proportion of the two types of data still has the advantage of saving resources, and there is no need for the network device to calculate the proportion of the other type of data, so it is also within the protection scope of this application.

[0123] In some other embodiments, when the terminal device sends the proportion of the data volume corresponding to part of the first PSI information to the network device, the terminal device can also send the part of the first PSI information corresponding to the reported proportion of the data volume to the network device at the same time. For example, if the terminal device determines to send the proportion corresponding to unimportant data to the network device, assuming that the terminal device determines that the first PSI level is greater than 7 and is unimportant data and the corresponding data volume is 60%, the terminal device can send the 60% to the network device while reporting that the range of the first PSI level corresponding to the 60% data is between 7 and 8. <PSI≤15。

[0124] Optionally, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device via a medium access control element (MAC CE), a radio resource control (RRC) message or other message, which is not limited in this application.

[0125] In one feasible manner, when the terminal device carries the first information through an RRC message, it can report to the network device through the following three forms of codes.

[0126] (1) The terminal device sends the first PSI level

[0127] (2) The range of the first PSI level sent by the terminal device

[0128] (3) The range of the first PSI level sent by the terminal device

[0129] Based on the above scheme, this application sends the first information to the network device through the terminal device, so that the network device can understand the distribution of data in the uplink data packet, so that it can reasonably manage the uplink data packet when network congestion occurs, thereby improving the performance of the network device and ensuring the stability of data transmission.

[0130] According to the above introduction to Figure 3, only data flows implemented in a specific application can use the PSI level to identify the importance of the data. Therefore, in order to improve the efficiency of the terminal device in obtaining the first PSI information, the terminal device needs to determine which QoS flows or LCHs or DRBs need to obtain the first PSI information and the corresponding ratio of each first PSI information before obtaining the first PSI information. In view of this, Figure 5 shows a schematic flow chart of a second data packet processing method 500 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, the schematic flow chart is shown in terms of the interaction between a network device and a terminal device, wherein the steps performed by the terminal device and / or the network device can be performed by a module or unit in the terminal device and / or the network device, for example, by a chip in the terminal device or the network device. Specifically, the method includes the following multiple steps.

[0131] S501: A network device sends first configuration information to a terminal device.

[0132] Specifically, when the network device needs to obtain the first information of the uplink data packet, the network device sends first configuration information to the terminal device. The first configuration information includes an identifier corresponding to the uplink data packet. The first configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier.

[0133] Optionally, the identifier corresponding to the uplink data packet is the flow identifier of the QoS flow, or the identifier of the LCH, or the identifier of the DRB, etc., which is not limited in this application. It can be understood that the first configuration information sent by the network device can include one or more identifiers. When multiple identifiers are included, the terminal device can respectively obtain the first PSI information of the uplink data packets corresponding to the multiple identifiers and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information, and report the first information of the data packets corresponding to each identifier to the network device.

[0134] Optionally, the first configuration information is carried in a MAC CE; or carried in an RRC message, or other messages, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In addition, the first configuration information can be sent in one message / information, or in several messages / information.

[0135] S502: The terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information. For the relevant description of this step, please refer to the above S401 and will not be repeated here.

[0136] S503: The terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device. For the relevant description of this step, please refer to the above S402, which will not be repeated here.

[0137] Based on the above solution, the network device instructs the terminal device to obtain the first PSI information of a specific data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information through configuration information, thereby avoiding the terminal device from obtaining the first PSI information of all uplink data packets, simplifying the terminal device's acquisition process, and improving the terminal device's acquisition efficiency.

[0138] When network congestion occurs, the network device needs to instruct the terminal device to discard data packets to alleviate network congestion. For this scenario, Figure 6 shows a schematic flow chart of a third data packet processing method 600 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 6, the schematic flow chart is shown in terms of the interaction between the network device and the terminal device, wherein the steps performed by the terminal device and / or the network device can be performed by a module or unit in the terminal device and / or the network device, for example, by a chip in the terminal device or the network device. Specifically, the method includes the following steps.

[0139] S601: The terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information. For the relevant description of this step, please refer to the above S401 and will not be repeated here.

[0140] S602: The terminal device sends first information of an uplink data packet to the network device. For the relevant description of this step, please refer to the above S402, which will not be repeated here.

[0141] S603: The network device sends first indication information to the terminal device.

[0142] When the network device determines that congestion occurs in the current network, the network device sends a first indication message to the terminal device, and the first indication message instructs the terminal device to discard some of the data packets corresponding to the first PSI information, or the first indication message instructs the terminal device to discard data packets in the uplink data packets except for some of the data packets corresponding to the first PSI information.

[0143] In some embodiments, if the terminal device sends the first PSI information of the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information to the network device in S602, the first indication information sent by the network device to the terminal device may carry part of the first PSI information (including part of the first PSI level or part of the first PSI level range). After receiving the first indication information, the terminal device discards the data packet corresponding to the part of the first PSI information according to the part of the first PSI information carried in the first indication information.

[0144] In other embodiments, if the terminal device sends to the network device in S602 the proportion of the data volume corresponding to part of the first PSI information of the uplink data packet, the first indication information sent by the network device to the terminal device may carry an indication to discard the data packet corresponding to part of the first PSI information, or an indication to discard the data packets in the uplink data packet except for the data packets corresponding to part of the first PSI information. It is understandable that when the data packet corresponding to part of the first PSI information reported by the terminal device is non-important data, the first indication information indicates to discard the data packet corresponding to part of the first PSI information. When the data packet corresponding to part of the first PSI information reported by the terminal device is important data, the first indication information indicates to discard the data packets in the uplink data packet except for the data packet corresponding to the part of the first PSI information.

[0145] Based on the above scheme, the network device determines the content of the first indication information according to the first information reported by the terminal device, and instructs the terminal device to discard some data packets through the first indication information, which can ensure the reliability of the network device's data packet management and improve the performance of the network device's data packet management.

[0146] It is understandable that the ratio of the first PSI information and the amount of data corresponding to the first PSI information may change. At this time, the terminal device can send the updated second PSI information and the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the second PSI information to the network device. Specifically, as shown in Figure 7, a schematic flow chart of a fourth data packet processing method 700 provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. Similarly, the schematic flow chart is shown as an interaction between a network device and a terminal device, wherein the steps performed by the terminal device and / or the network device can be performed by a module or unit in the terminal device and / or the network device, for example, by a chip in the terminal device or the network device. Specifically, the method includes the following multiple steps, wherein S701 and S702 can refer to the above-mentioned S401 and S402 respectively. Optionally, the method 700 can also include S703. The relevant description of S703 can refer to the above-mentioned S603 and will not be repeated here.

[0147] S704: The terminal device updates the ratio of the first PSI information and the amount of data corresponding to each piece of first PSI information to the ratio of the second PSI information and the amount of data corresponding to each piece of second PSI information.

[0148] Specifically, after the terminal device reports the first PSI information to the network device, the terminal device may continue to obtain the PSI information, for example, by continuing to collect statistics or continuously obtaining the information from the application layer.

[0149] In some embodiments, when the terminal device determines that the acquired PSI information has changed relative to the first PSI information (including the first PSI information changing, or the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to one or more first PSI information changing), the terminal device updates the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information to the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information. For example, if the ratios of the amount of data corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information are (PSI=1, 50%), (PSI=2, 25%), and (PSI=3, 25%), respectively. When the terminal device continues to count or obtain from the application layer, it is found that the proportion of data corresponding to PSI=1 is reduced to 40%, and there is still data with PSI=4, accounting for 10%. At this time, the terminal device updates the ratio of the first PSI information and the amount of data corresponding to each first PSI information to the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information, that is, (PSI=1, 50%), (PSI=2, 25%) and (PSI=3, 25%) are updated to (PSI=1, 40%), (PSI=2, 25%), (PSI=3, 25%) and (PSI=4, 10%). It should be understood that the above-mentioned change in the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information is only an example and does not limit the scope of protection of this application. For example, the first PSI information may remain unchanged, but the ratio corresponding to each first PSI information changes. In this case, the terminal device will also replace the PSI information and the corresponding ratio before the change with the changed PSI information and ratio.

[0150] In other embodiments, when the terminal device determines that the change in the proportion of data corresponding to one or more first PSI information exceeds a second preset threshold, the terminal device updates the ratio of the first PSI information and the amount of data corresponding to each first PSI information to the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information. For example, assuming that the second threshold adopted by the terminal device is 15%, if the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information is (PSI=1, 50%), (PSI=2, 25%) and (PSI=3, 25%) respectively. When the terminal device continues to count or continues to obtain from the application layer, only when one or more of the ratios of PSI=1, PSI=2 or PSI=3 change by more than 15%, the PSI information and the corresponding ratio before the change are replaced by the changed PSI information and the ratio.

[0151] Optionally, the second threshold is pre-configured by the network device to the terminal device. In an implementable manner, the second threshold may be carried in the configuration information sent by the network device to the terminal device, for example, the above-mentioned first configuration information or the following second configuration information or other configuration information. Exemplarily, if the second threshold is carried in the first configuration information, the first configuration information, in addition to indicating the identifier corresponding to the uplink data packet, also indicates that when the proportion of the amount of data corresponding to part of the first PSI information obtained by the terminal device changes by more than the second threshold, the terminal device updates the first PSI information and each first PSI information, and reports the updated second information. Alternatively, exemplarily, the configuration information carrying the second threshold may be different from the first configuration information. In this case, the network device will send multiple configuration information to respectively configure the second threshold and the identifier of the uplink data packet, which is not limited in this application. Optionally, the second threshold is set by the terminal device itself, or is pre-defined by the protocol, which is not limited in this application.

[0152] S705: The terminal device sends second information of the uplink data packet to the network device.

[0153] Specifically, after the terminal device updates the ratio of the first PSI information to the data amount corresponding to each piece of first PSI information, the terminal device sends second information of the uplink data packet to the network device, and the network device receives the second information accordingly. The second information includes the ratio of the second PSI information to the data amount corresponding to each piece of second PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the second PSI information.

[0154] It can be understood that the process of the terminal device sending the second information of the uplink data packet to the network device is the same as the process of sending the first information, except that the content reported by the terminal device to the network device has changed. Therefore, S705 can refer to the relevant instructions of the above S402 and will not be repeated here.

[0155] Optionally, method 700 further includes S706, where the network device sends second indication information to the terminal device. That is, after the first information is updated to the second information, if network congestion occurs, the network device may perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet based on the second information and through the second indication information. It is understandable that the process of the network device sending the second indication information to the terminal device is the same as the process of the network device sending the first indication information to the terminal device. The content of the second indication information may also vary depending on the content of the second information reported by the terminal device. For details, please refer to the relevant description of S603, which will not be repeated here.

[0156] It is understandable that Figure 7 only illustrates the technical solution provided by this application by taking the terminal device updating the first information once as an example. In other embodiments, the terminal device may continue to update the second information and report it to the network device, which is not limited in this application.

[0157] In addition to PSI information, there is currently some information that may affect packet loss and scheduling decisions of network devices during congestion, such as jitter information of uplink data.

[0158] For example, consider a network with three users simultaneously performing uplink XR services. The service data arrives periodically at the network device, and the amount of data arriving each time is equal for each user. Assume that the uplink data period for all three services is 20ms, and the service starts at the same time, denoted as 0ms. If data jitter is not considered, uplink data from all three users arrives at the network device at times of 20ms, 40ms, and 60ms, respectively. The network device must schedule all three users' data within 5ms to ensure a satisfactory experience for all users. However, due to network congestion and limited uplink resources, assuming the network device can only schedule the data for one user within 5ms, if packet loss is not indicated, it is likely that all three user devices will only be scheduled with a portion of the data, but not the entire data, resulting in dissatisfaction for all three users. In this case, the network can indicate packet loss for two of the users, ensuring that one user remains satisfied. However, if the network device can fully consider the jitter of user data arrival when making packet loss decisions, the data scheduling process can be optimized. Continuing with the three users mentioned above, let's assume that one user, User A, has jitter in the range of [-5, 5] ms. This means that data may arrive up to 5 ms earlier or later than the periodic time. This means that data for this user may arrive within 15-25 ms, 35-45 ms, or 55-65 ms. In this case, User A's data is likely to be staggered with the data of the other two users. Therefore, even if the network does not discard User A's data, it will not affect the data transmission of the other two users. In this case, the network only needs to instruct one of the two users without jitter to discard data, ultimately ensuring that there are two satisfied users. Compared to ignoring data jitter, considering uplink data jitter can improve the rationality of packet loss indication by network devices.

[0159] Based on this, Figure 8 shows a schematic flow chart of a fifth data packet processing method 800 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 8, this schematic flow chart illustrates the interaction between a network device and a terminal device. The steps performed by the terminal device and / or the network device can be performed by a module or unit within the terminal device and / or the network device, for example, by a chip within the terminal device or the network device. Specifically, the method includes the following steps.

[0160] S801: The terminal device obtains first jitter information.

[0161] Specifically, the first jitter information is calculated by the duration of the time slot corresponding to the first reference subcarrier spacing (SCS). Since the duration of a time slot is related to the uplink SCS, for example, when the SCS is 15kHz, the length of a slot is 1ms, when the SCS is 30kHz, the length of a slot is 0.5ms, and so on. When the SCS is 960kHz, the length of a slot is 1 / 64ms. Therefore, when the terminal device obtains the first jitter information, it is necessary to determine the first reference SCS. At the same time, in order for the network device to accurately obtain the first jitter information, the terminal device and the network device need to unify the first reference SCS.

[0162] This embodiment of the present application provides several possible methods for determining the first reference SCS, as shown below:

[0163] (1) The network device uses the SCS of the default bandwidth part (BWP) of the serving cell where the current terminal device is located as the first reference SCS.

[0164] (2) The network device uses the SCS of the activated BWP where the current terminal device is located as the first reference SCS.

[0165] (3) The terminal device sends the first jitter information to the network device and instructs the network device to use the SCS of a BWP in the current serving cell as the first reference SCS. For example, when the terminal device reports the first jitter information to the network device, it also carries a BWP ID.

[0166] (4) The terminal device sends the first jitter information to the network device and instructs the network device to use the SCS of a BWP in a certain serving cell as the first reference SCS. For example, when the terminal device reports the first jitter information to the network device, it carries a serving cell ID and a BWP ID.

[0167] (5) When the terminal device sends the first jitter information to the network device, it explicitly indicates an SCS to the network device. For example, when the terminal device reports the first jitter information to the network device, it reports the first reference SCS as 15kHz.

[0168] In the solution of the present application, if the first reference SCS is determined by the network device, the first reference SCS can be carried in the configuration information sent by the network device to the terminal device (such as the first configuration information of S501 in Figure 5 above, or the second configuration information of S803 in Figure 8, or other configuration information sent by the network device to the terminal device). If the first reference SCS is determined by the terminal device, the first reference SCS can be carried in the following S802. It can be understood that the above-mentioned several possible ways of determining the first reference SCS are only examples and do not limit the scope of protection of this application.

[0169] In some embodiments, the first jitter information may be a jitter interval of an uplink data packet, for example, the first jitter information may be [-5, 5] ms. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the first jitter information may be a jitter value, for example, the first jitter information may be 5 ms. Since the range of jitter information is generally symmetrical around 0, that is, it appears in the form of [-x, x], when the network device receives the jitter value, the network device may know that the first jitter information reported by the terminal device is [-5, 5] ms.

[0170] S802: The terminal device sends first jitter information to the network device.

[0171] In some embodiments, the first jitter information reported by the terminal device to the network device is in slot units, for example, the first jitter information is [-5, 5] slot, or 5 slots. In other embodiments, the first jitter information reported by the terminal device to the network device is in the form of an absolute time length, for example, in ms or us or ns, where the reported value is converted from a value in slot units. For example, when the first jitter information is [-5, 5] slot and the first reference SCS is 15 kHz, the converted first jitter information is [-5, 5] ms.

[0172] It should be noted that the first jitter information can be carried in the RRC message, MAC CE or other message sent by the terminal device to the network device, and this application does not limit it.

[0173] It can be understood that when the first reference SCS is determined by the terminal device, the first reference SCS determined by the terminal device can be sent to the network device through a message carrying the first jitter information.

[0174] Optionally, if the first reference SCS is configured by the network device to the terminal device, or the network device instructs the terminal device to report first jitter information of certain uplink data packets, method 800 also includes the following S803.

[0175] S803: The network device sends second configuration information to the terminal device.

[0176] Specifically, the second configuration information may include the size of the first reference SCS, or the second configuration information may include the ID of the BWP corresponding to the first reference SCS, etc. The second configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first jitter information calculated with the first reference SCS.

[0177] The second configuration information can be carried in MAC CE, RRC message or other messages, which is not limited in this application.

[0178] It can be understood that if the first configuration information (configuration information for configuring the uplink data packet identifier) ​​sent by the network device to the terminal device also carries the first reference SCS, the network device may no longer send the second configuration information to the terminal device.

[0179] Optionally, to ensure the accuracy and rationality of data scheduling, the terminal device may report jitter information to the network device multiple times. In some embodiments, when the terminal device detects a change in the range of the first jitter information, the terminal device may report it to the network device. In other embodiments, when the terminal device detects a change in the range of the first jitter information exceeding a third preset threshold, the terminal device reports new jitter information to the network device.

[0180] Specifically, with respect to the change in jitter information, the method 800 may further include the following steps.

[0181] S804: The terminal device updates the first jitter information to the second jitter information.

[0182] It is understandable that the terminal device can update the first jitter information to the second jitter information when the first jitter information changes. Alternatively, in order to save reporting resources, the terminal device can update the first jitter information to the second jitter information when the range of the first jitter information change is greater than or equal to the third threshold. For example, if the third threshold is 1ms, when the range of the first jitter information changes from [-3, 3]ms to [-4, 4]ms, or a larger range, the terminal device updates the first jitter information to the second jitter information.

[0183] It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the third threshold value may be pre-configured by the network, determined by the terminal device itself, or pre-defined by the protocol, which is not limited in this application. In addition, the third threshold value may be sent to the terminal device via the first configuration information, the second configuration information, or other information sent to the terminal device by the network device, which is not limited in this application.

[0184] S805: The terminal device sends the second jitter information to the network device. This process can refer to the relevant description in the above S802 and will not be repeated here.

[0185] Based on this solution, through jitter information, the network device can understand the probability of data collisions for different users, so that it can be more fully considered when indicating packet loss, and maximize the guarantee that more users can get satisfactory services. At the same time, because in the solution of this application, the granularity of the jitter information is related to the SCS, it can be matched with the network scheduling timing through slot calculation. For example, for the three user devices mentioned above, the network device can start trying to schedule users at times such as 15ms and 35ms, instead of waiting until periodic moments such as 20ms and 40ms. While scheduling data as early as possible and avoiding the risk of timeouts, it can also avoid the risk of poor user experience caused by the network device being unable to schedule all user data in a short time.

[0186] According to the embodiments of Figures 4 to 7 above, to improve the rationality of data packet management by the network device, the PSI information and corresponding ratio of the uplink data packet are reported to the network device at least once by the terminal device. Therefore, to further optimize the management of uplink data packets by the network device, the network device can also make more reasonable decisions on uplink data packet loss management based on the PSI information and corresponding ratio of the uplink data packet, as well as jitter information. Therefore, method 800 can also include the following multiple steps.

[0187] S806: The terminal device obtains the ratio of the first PSI information to the amount of data corresponding to each piece of first PSI information. For the relevant description of this step, please refer to S401 in FIG4 above, which will not be repeated here.

[0188] S807: The terminal device sends the first information to the network device. For this process, please refer to the relevant description of S402 in Figure 4, which will not be repeated here.

[0189] Optionally, when network congestion occurs, when the network device determines that it needs to instruct the terminal device to drop packets based on the first jitter information and the first information, the method 800 further includes the following S805.

[0190] S808: The network device sends third indication information to the terminal device.

[0191] Specifically, the network device sends the third indication information to the terminal device to indicate packet loss to the terminal device. The third indication information instructs the terminal device to discard some of the data packets corresponding to the first PSI information, or the first indication information instructs the terminal device to discard data packets in the uplink data packets except for some of the data packets corresponding to the first PSI information. Among them, the description of the network device instructing the terminal device on packet loss can be referred to S603 in Figure 6, and will not be repeated here.

[0192] It is understood that FIG8 illustrates only an example in which the terminal device reports the first information once. In other embodiments, when the first information changes, the terminal device may report the PSI information and the corresponding ratios to the network device multiple times. Of course, the terminal device may also continue to update the second jitter information and report it to the network device, which is not limited in this application.

[0193] In addition, when the terminal device reports both jitter information and PSI information, this application does not limit the order of reporting. The jitter information can be reported first, as shown in Figure 8, or the PSI information can be reported first, or both can be reported at the same time.

[0194] It should be understood that the embodiments shown in Figures 4 to 8 of the embodiments of the present application provided above are merely illustrative and should not constitute any limitation on the scope of protection of the present application. The schemes of the above-mentioned various embodiments can be reasonably combined and used, and the explanations or descriptions of the various terms appearing in the embodiments can be referenced or explained in each embodiment without limitation. For example, the embodiments of Figures 5 and 6 can be combined with each other, the embodiments of Figures 5 and 7 can be combined with each other, the embodiments of Figures 5 and 8 can be combined with each other, and the embodiments of Figures 7 and 8 can be combined with each other, etc. In addition, the schematic diagrams in the figures do not limit the execution order. Based on the examples in the figures, those skilled in the art can flexibly adjust the order of execution between the various steps. Furthermore, the size of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic. In addition, the above-mentioned steps are not mandatory steps. If the problem to be solved by the present application can be solved even if one or more of the steps are missing, then the corresponding technical solutions are also within the scope of the disclosure of the present application. The various numbers or sequence numbers involved in the above-mentioned processes are only for the convenience of description and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0195] It should be noted that the network device in the above embodiment can be a centralized network device, such as a centralized base station, or a network device with a separated architecture, such as a base station with a CU-DU separated architecture. When the method provided in the embodiment of the present application is applied to a network device adopting a CU-DU separated architecture, the PSI information and / or jitter information (including the first PSI information, the second PSI information, the first jitter information and the second jitter information mentioned above) reported by the terminal device is first transmitted to the DU side through the air interface. In one scenario, the PSI information and / or jitter information is carried in a protocol layer message on the DU side, such as carried in a MAC CE. If the packet loss operation is controlled by the CU side, such as by the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, then the DU can further forward the PSI information and / or jitter information to the CU through the F1 interface. In another scenario, the PSI information and / or jitter information is carried in the protocol layer message on the CU side, such as in the RRC message. The CU is required to parse the PSI information and / or jitter information. If the packet loss operation is controlled by the DU side, such as by the media access control (MAC) layer, the DU can forward the PSI information and / or jitter information to the CU through the F1 interface. After parsing, the CU sends the parsed PSI information and / or jitter information back to the DU through the F1 interface.

[0196] Specifically, Figure 9 shows a schematic flowchart of a sixth data packet processing method 900 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 9, the schematic flowchart is shown as the interaction between a base station with a CU-DU separation architecture and a terminal device, wherein the steps performed by the terminal device and / or the base station with a CU-DU separation architecture can be performed by a module or unit in the terminal device and / or the base station with a CU-DU separation architecture, for example, by a chip of the terminal device or the base station with a CU-DU separation architecture. Specifically, the method includes multiple steps.

[0197] S901: The terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information. This process can be referred to S401 in Figure 4 above and will not be repeated here.

[0198] S902, the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the DU.

[0199] Specifically, after S901, the terminal device sends the first information of the data packet to the DU via the Uu interface, and accordingly, the DU receives the first information via the Uu interface.

[0200] It is understandable that if the packet loss operation is controlled by the DU side and the first information is carried in the protocol layer message on the DU side, if network congestion occurs, the DU can directly send an indication message to the terminal device, instructing the terminal device to discard some data packets.

[0201] Optionally, if the packet loss operation is controlled by the CU side (regardless of whether the first information is carried in the CU protocol layer message or the first information is carried in the protocol layer message on the DU side), or the first information is carried in the CU protocol layer message, the method 900 also includes the following S903.

[0202] S903: The DU sends first information of an uplink data packet to the CU.

[0203] Specifically, in some embodiments, if the first information is carried in a protocol layer message on the DU side, the DU parses the first information and sends the first information to the CU through the F1 interface. In other embodiments, if the first information is carried in a CU protocol layer message, the DU forwards the first information to the CU through the F1 interface. Among them, the DU can carry the first information sent or forwarded to the CU through a control plane message or a user plane message. At this time, if the network is congested, the CU can send an indication message to the terminal device, instructing the terminal device to discard some data packets.

[0204] Optionally, if the packet loss operation is controlled by the DU side, the method 900 further includes the following S904.

[0205] S904: The CU sends first information of the processed uplink data packet to the DU.

[0206] Specifically, the CU parses and processes the received first information and sends the processed first information to the DU via the F1 interface. For example, the CU may carry the first information via a control plane message and send the first information to the DU. If network congestion occurs, the CU may send an indication message to the terminal device, instructing the terminal device to discard some data packets.

[0207] It should be noted that Figure 9 is only an exemplary description relative to the embodiment shown in Figure 4 and does not impose any limitation on the scope of protection of this application. It is understandable that the network devices in Figures 5 to 8 above can be replaced by the network devices with a separation architecture shown in Figure 9. For example, the terminal device reports the second information and / or jitter information to the DU, and the DU transmits the second information and / or jitter information to the CU through the F1 interface. In addition, other unexplained combination embodiments of Figures 5 to 8 above are still applicable to the network devices with a separation architecture shown in Figure 9.

[0208] Based on the above solution, by transmitting PSI information (including first information and second information) and / or jitter information on the F1 interface, it is ensured that in the CU-DU separation scenario, the PSI information reported by the terminal device can be fully utilized by the network device.

[0209] In addition, it should be noted that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to handover scenarios. The following description takes the switching of the source base station to the target base station as an example. Specifically, as shown in Figure 10, the schematic flowchart is shown in terms of the interaction between the source base station, the target base station and the terminal device, wherein the steps performed by the source base station, the target base station and the terminal device can be performed by modules or units in the source base station, the destination base station and the terminal device, for example, by chips of the source base station, the target base station and the terminal device. Specifically, the method includes the following multiple steps.

[0210] S1001: The terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information. This process can be referred to S401 in Figure 4 above and will not be repeated here.

[0211] S1002, the terminal device sends first information of an uplink data packet to the source base station.

[0212] Specifically, after S1001, the terminal device sends the first information of the data packet to the source base station via the Uu interface. Correspondingly, the source base station receives the first information via the Uu interface. For the relevant description of the first information, please refer to S402 above and will not be repeated here.

[0213] S1003: The source base station sends first information of an uplink data packet to the target base station.

[0214] Specifically, the source base station sends the first information to the target base station via an Xn interface. Exemplarily, the source base station may carry the first information via an RRC message and send the first information to the target base station.

[0215] It should be noted that Figure 10 is only an exemplary description relative to the embodiment shown in Figure 4 and does not limit the scope of protection of this application. It is understandable that the embodiments of Figures 5 to 8 above can still be applied to the switching scenario shown in Figure 10. For example, the terminal device reports the second information and / or jitter information to the source base station, and the source base station transmits the second information and / or jitter information to the target base station via the Xn interface. In addition, other unexplained combined embodiments of Figures 5 to 8 above are still applicable to the switching scenario shown in Figure 10.

[0216] Based on the above solution, by transmitting PSI information (including first information and second information) and / or jitter information on the Xn interface, it is ensured that in a switching scenario, the PSI information reported by the terminal device can be fully utilized by the network device.

[0217] In addition, the technical solution of the present application can also be applied to DC scenarios. Specifically, as shown in Figure 11 below, the schematic flowchart shows the interaction between the primary base station, the secondary base station, and the terminal device, wherein the steps performed by the primary base station, the secondary base station, and the terminal device can be performed by modules or units in the primary base station, the secondary base station, and the terminal device, for example, by chips of the primary base station, the secondary base station, and the terminal device. Specifically, the method includes the following steps.

[0218] S1101: The terminal device obtains the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information. This process can be referred to S401 in Figure 4 above and will not be repeated here.

[0219] S1102, the terminal device sends first information of an uplink data packet to the main base station.

[0220] Specifically, after S1101, the terminal device sends the first information of the data packet to the main base station via the Uu interface. Correspondingly, the main base station receives the first information via the Uu interface. For the relevant description of the first information, please refer to the above S402 and will not be repeated here.

[0221] S1003: The primary base station sends first information of an uplink data packet to the secondary base station.

[0222] S1103: Specifically, the primary base station sends first information to the secondary base station via an Xn interface. Exemplarily, the primary base station may carry the first information via an RRC message and send the first information to the secondary base station.

[0223] It should be noted that Figure 11 is merely an exemplary description relative to the embodiment shown in Figure 4 and does not limit the scope of protection of this application. It is understandable that the embodiments of Figures 5 to 8 above can still be applied to the DC scenario shown in Figure 11. For example, the terminal device reports the second information and / or jitter information to the primary base station, and the primary base station transmits the second information and / or jitter information to the secondary base station via the Xn interface. In addition, other unexplained combined embodiments of Figures 5 to 8 above are still applicable to the DC scenario shown in Figure 11.

[0224] Based on the above scheme, by transmitting PSI information (including the first information and the second information) and / or jitter information on the Xn interface, it is ensured that in the DC scenario, the information reported by the terminal device can be fully utilized by the network device. It should be understood that the embodiments in Figures 4 to 11 of the embodiments of the present application are only exemplary descriptions, and the illustrations in the figures do not limit the execution order. Based on the examples in the figures, those skilled in the art can flexibly adjust the sequence between the various steps. In addition, the size of the serial number of each of the above processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic. In addition, the above steps are not mandatory steps. When one or more steps are missing, the problem to be solved in this application can be solved, and the corresponding technical solution is also within the scope disclosed in this application. The various digital numbers or serial numbers involved in the above processes are only for the convenience of description and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0225] It is understandable that some optional features in the embodiments of the present application may, in certain scenarios, be implemented independently of other features, such as the solution on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding effects. They may also be combined with other features in certain scenarios as needed. Accordingly, the devices provided in the embodiments of the present application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which will not be described in detail here.

[0226] In addition, the various schemes of the embodiments of the present application can be reasonably combined and used, and the explanations or descriptions of the various terms appearing in the embodiments can be mutually referenced or explained in the various embodiments, without limitation.

[0227] In the embodiments provided in the present application above, each scheme of the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced from the perspective of each device / network element itself and from the perspective of the interaction between each device / network element. It can be understood that in order to implement the above functions, each network element and device includes a hardware structure and / or software module corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be easily appreciated by those skilled in the art that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of the present application.

[0228] Figure 12 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1200 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The device 1200 includes a receiving module 1201, which can be used to implement corresponding receiving functions. The receiving module 1201 can also be called a receiving unit.

[0229] The apparatus 1200 further includes a processing module 1202 , which can be used to implement corresponding processing functions.

[0230] The device 1200 further includes a sending module 1203 , which can be used to implement a corresponding sending function. The sending module 1203 can also be referred to as a sending unit.

[0231] Optionally, the device 1200 also includes a storage unit, which can be used to store instructions and / or data. The processing unit 1202 can read the instructions and / or data in the storage unit so that the device implements the actions of the relevant devices in the aforementioned method embodiments.

[0232] The device 1200 can be used to execute the actions performed by the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments. In this case, the device 1200 can be a component of the terminal device or network device, the receiving module 1201 is used to execute the reception-related operations of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments, the processing module 1202 is used to execute the processing-related operations of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments, and the sending module 1203 is used to execute the sending-related operations of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments.

[0233] As a design, the apparatus 1200 is used to perform the actions performed by any network element or any device in the above method embodiments. In one embodiment, the communication apparatus can be used to perform the operations of the terminal device in Figures 4 to 11 above. For example:

[0234] The receiving module 1201 is used to receive configuration information, where the configuration information includes an identifier corresponding to an uplink data packet, and the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier.

[0235] The processing module 1202 is configured to obtain the ratio of the first PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet to the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information, wherein the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information is the ratio of the data volume corresponding to each first PSI information to the total data volume corresponding to the uplink data packet.

[0236] The sending module 1203 is used to send the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, wherein the first information of the uplink data packet includes the first PSI information and the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the first PSI information, and the first information is used by the network device to perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet.

[0237] It should be understood that the specific process of each module executing the above corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiment, and for the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0238] In addition, the receiving module 1201, the processing module 1202 and the sending module 1203 in the communication device can also implement other operations or functions of the terminal device in the above method, which will not be repeated here.

[0239] In another embodiment, the communication device may be used to perform the operations of the network devices in Figures 4 to 11 above. For example:

[0240] The receiving module 1201 is used to receive the first information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device, wherein the first information of the uplink data packet includes the first PSI information and the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the first PSI information.

[0241] The processing module 1202 is configured to perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet according to the first information.

[0242] The sending module 1203 is used to send configuration information, where the configuration information includes an identifier corresponding to an uplink data packet, and the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report first information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier.

[0243] The receiving module 1201, the processing module 1202 and the sending module 1203 in the communication device can also implement other operations or functions of the network device in the above method, which will not be repeated here.

[0244] It should be understood that the specific process of each module executing the above corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiment, and for the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0245] Figure 13 shows another possible structural diagram of the communication device involved in the above-mentioned embodiment. The communication device includes a processor 1301. As shown in Figure 13, the communication device may also include at least one memory 1302 for storing program instructions and / or data. The memory 1302 is coupled to the processor 1301. The coupling in the embodiment of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms for information exchange between devices, units or modules. The processor 1301 may operate in conjunction with the memory 1302. The processor 1301 may execute program instructions stored in the memory 1302. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

[0246] The communication device may also include a transceiver 1303 for communicating with other devices via a transmission medium, thereby enabling the device to communicate with other devices. Optionally, the transceiver 1303 may be an interface, a bus, a circuit, or a device capable of performing transceiver functions. Optionally, the transceiver 1303 may include a receiver and a transmitter.

[0247] The specific connection medium between the processor 1301, memory 1302, and transceiver 1303 is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In Figure 13, the processor 1301, memory 1302, and transceiver 1303 are connected via bus 1304. The bus is represented by a bold line in Figure 13. The connection between other components is only for illustrative purposes and is not intended to be limiting. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, Figure 13 only uses a single bold line, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0248] For example, in one embodiment, the processor 1301 is configured to perform other operations or functions of the terminal device. The transceiver 1303 is used to implement communication between the communication device and other network elements / devices (e.g., gNB / DU).

[0249] In another embodiment, the processor 1301 is configured to perform other operations or functions of the network device. The transceiver 1303 is used to implement communication between the communication device and other network elements / devices (eg, UE / CU).

[0250] One or more of the above modules or units can be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of the two. When any of the above modules or units is implemented by software, the software exists in the form of computer program instructions and is stored in a memory, and a processor can be used to execute the program instructions and implement the above method flow. The processor may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller unit (MCU), or an artificial intelligence processor, etc., various types of computing devices that run software, each of which may include one or more cores for executing software instructions to perform calculations or processing. The processor may be built into a system-on-a-chip (SoC) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or it may be an independent semiconductor chip. In addition to the core for executing software instructions to perform calculations or processing within the processor, it may further include necessary hardware accelerators, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a logic circuit that implements dedicated logic operations.

[0251] When the above modules or units are implemented in hardware, the hardware can be any one or any combination of a CPU, a microprocessor, a DSP, an MCU, an artificial intelligence processor, an ASIC, a SoC, an FPGA, a PLD, a dedicated digital circuit, a hardware accelerator or a non-integrated discrete device, which can run the necessary software or not rely on the software to execute the above method flow.

[0252] When the above modules or units are implemented using software, they can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server or data center to another website, computer, server or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated. The available medium can be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape), an optical medium (e.g., a digital video disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid state drive (SSD)).

[0253] The specific implementation methods described above further illustrate the purpose, technical solutions and beneficial effects of this application. It should be understood that the above description is only the specific implementation methods of this application and is not intended to limit the scope of protection of this application. Any modifications, equivalent replacements, improvements, etc. made on the basis of the technical solutions of this application should be included in the scope of protection of this application.

[0254] According to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the present application also provides a computer program product, which includes: computer program code, when the computer program code is run on a computer, it enables the computer to execute the method on the terminal device side in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0255] According to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the present application also provides a computer program product, which includes: computer program code, when the computer program code is run on a computer, it enables the computer to execute the method on the network device side in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0256] According to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the present application also provides a computer-readable medium, which stores program code. When the program code runs on a computer, the computer executes the method on the terminal device side in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0257] According to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, the present application also provides a computer-readable medium, which stores program code. When the program code runs on a computer, the computer executes the method on the network device side in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0258] An embodiment of the present application further provides a processing device, including a processor and an interface; the processor is used to execute the communication method in any of the above method embodiments.

[0259] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0260] Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0261] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0262] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of these units may be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0263] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0264] If the functions are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application, or the part that contributes or the part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes a number of instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

[0265] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this application should be included in the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of this application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for processing a data packet, characterized in that: include: The terminal device obtains the first protocol data unit set importance PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information, where the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information is the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information to the total data amount corresponding to the uplink data packet; The terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, wherein the first information of the uplink data packet includes the ratio of the first PSI information to the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the first PSI information, and the first information is used by the network device to perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: The terminal device receives configuration information from the network device, the configuration information including an identifier corresponding to the uplink data packet, and the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The identifier is a flow identifier of a quality of service QoS flow corresponding to the uplink data packet, or an identifier of a logical channel LCH corresponding to the uplink data packet, or an identifier of a data radio bearer DRB corresponding to the uplink data packet.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The method further comprises: The terminal device receives indication information from the network device, and the indication information instructs the terminal device to discard some data packets corresponding to the first PSI information, or the indication information instructs the terminal device to discard data packets in the uplink data packets except the data packets corresponding to the part of the first PSI information.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that The proportion of the data volume corresponding to the part of the first PSI information is determined by the terminal device according to a preset first threshold.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The method further comprises: The terminal device updates the ratio of the first PSI information to the data amount corresponding to each of the first PSI information to the ratio of the second PSI information to the data amount corresponding to each of the second PSI information; The terminal device sends the second information of the uplink data packet to the network device, wherein the second information of the uplink data packet includes the ratio of the second PSI information to the data amount corresponding to each second PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to part of the second PSI information, and the second information is used by the network device to perform packet loss management on the uplink data packet.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The terminal device updates the ratio of the data amount corresponding to the first PSI information and each piece of first PSI information to the ratio of the data amount corresponding to the second PSI information and each piece of second PSI information, including: When the terminal device determines that the change in the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to part of the first PSI information exceeds a preset second threshold, the terminal device updates the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the first PSI information and each first PSI information to the ratio of the amount of data corresponding to the second PSI information and each second PSI information.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The network device is a first network device, and the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, including: the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the first network device, so that the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the F1 interface, wherein the first network device is a distributed unit DU and the second network device is a centralized unit CU, or the first network device is a CU and the second network device is a DU.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The network device is a first network device, and the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the network device, including: the terminal device sends the first information of the uplink data packet to the first network device, so that the first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the Xn interface, wherein the first network device is the source base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario, and the second network device is the target base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario, or the first network device is the main base station in a dual-connection DC scenario, and the second network device is the auxiliary base station in the DC scenario.

10. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 9, characterized in that The configuration information is further used to instruct the terminal device to send first jitter information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier, and the method further includes: The terminal device obtains the first jitter information, where the first jitter information is calculated by the duration of a time slot corresponding to a first reference subcarrier spacing SCS; The terminal device sends the first jitter information to the network device.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: The terminal device updates the first jitter information to second jitter information, where the second jitter information is calculated by the duration of the time slot corresponding to the first reference SCS or the second reference SCS; The terminal device sends the second jitter information to the network device.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The terminal device updates the first jitter information to the second jitter information, including: when the terminal device determines that the change of the first jitter information exceeds a preset third threshold, or when the terminal device determines that the first reference SCS changes, the terminal device updates the first jitter information to the second jitter information.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that The first PSI information is a PSI level or a range of PSI levels.

14. A method for processing a data packet, characterized in that: include: The network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, wherein the first information of the uplink data packet includes the first protocol data unit importance PSI information corresponding to the uplink data packet and the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information, or the ratio of the data amount corresponding to the part of the first PSI information, wherein the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information is the ratio of the data amount corresponding to each first PSI information to the total data amount corresponding to the uplink data packet; The network device performs packet loss management on the uplink data packet according to the first information.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The method further comprises: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device, where the configuration information includes an identifier corresponding to the uplink data packet, and the configuration information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that The identifier is a flow identifier of a quality of service QoS flow corresponding to the uplink data packet, or an identifier of a logical channel LCH corresponding to the uplink data packet, or an identifier of a data radio bearer DRB corresponding to the uplink data packet.

17. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that The method further comprises: The network device sends indication information to the terminal device, wherein the indication information instructs the terminal device to discard some of the data packets corresponding to the first PSI information, or the indication information instructs the terminal device to discard data packets in the uplink data packets except for the data packets corresponding to the part of the first PSI information.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that The proportion of the data volume corresponding to the part of the first PSI information is determined by the terminal device according to a preset first threshold.

19. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 18, characterized in that The method further comprises: The network device receives second information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device, wherein the second information of the uplink data packet includes a ratio of the second PSI information to the amount of data corresponding to each of the second PSI information, or a ratio of the amount of data corresponding to part of the second PSI information; The network device performs packet loss management on the uplink data packet according to the second information.

20. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that The network device receives the second information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device, including: when the change in the proportion of the data volume corresponding to the first PSI information exceeds a preset second threshold, the network device receives the second information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device.

21. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 20, characterized in that The network device is a first network device, and the network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, including: The first network device receives the first information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device; The first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the F1 interface, wherein the first network device is a distributed unit DU and the second network device is a centralized unit CU, or the first network device is a CU and the second network device is a DU.

22. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 20, characterized in that The network device is a first network device, and the network device receives first information of an uplink data packet from a terminal device, including: The first network device receives the first information of the uplink data packet from the terminal device; The first network device sends the first information to the second network device through the Xn interface, wherein the first network device is the source base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario, and the second network device is the target base station of the terminal device in the switching scenario, or the first network device is the main base station in a dual-connection DC scenario, and the second network device is the auxiliary base station in the DC scenario.

23. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 22, characterized in that The configuration information is further used to instruct the terminal device to send first jitter information of the uplink data packet corresponding to the identifier, and the method further includes: The network device receives first jitter information from the terminal device, where the first jitter information is calculated using the duration of a time slot corresponding to a first reference subcarrier spacing SCS.

24. The method according to claim 23, characterized in that The method further comprises: The network device receives second jitter information from the terminal device, and the second jitter information is calculated by the length of the time slot corresponding to the first reference SCS or the second reference SCS.

25. The method according to claim 24, characterized in that The network device receives the second jitter information from the terminal device, including: when a change in the first jitter information exceeds a preset third threshold, or the first reference SCS changes, the network device receives the second jitter information from the terminal device.

26. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 25, characterized in that The first PSI information is a PSI level or a range of PSI levels.

27. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A unit or module for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or, A unit or module for implementing the method according to any one of claims 14 to 26.

28. A communication system, characterized in that: include: a first communication device and a second communication device; The first communication device is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13; The second communication device is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 14 to 26.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, which, when executed on a first communication device, cause the first communication device to execute a method as described in any one of claims 1 to 13; or, when executed on a second communication device, cause the second communication device to execute a method as described in any one of claims 14 to 26.

30. A chip system, characterized in that: include: The chip includes a processor and a communication interface, and the processor reads and runs instructions through the communication interface. When the chip is installed in a first communication device, the first communication device executes the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 13; or, when the chip is installed in a second communication device, the second communication device executes the method as described in any one of claims 14 to 26.

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