Communication method and apparatus, and readable storage medium

Abstract

The present application relates to the field of mobile communications, can be applied to protocol frameworks, e.g., NR or 6G, and particularly relates to a communication method and apparatus, and a readable storage medium. The method comprises: a UE obtaining N pieces of channel information, and sending first information to a base station, wherein the first information is used for indicating a compression feedback mode for the N pieces of channel information, and the compression feedback mode comprises one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback quantities, or the correspondence between the channel feedback quantities and the channel information, one piece of channel information corresponding to one or more channel feedback quantities. By means of the embodiments of the present application, the flexibility of channel information feedback can be improved.

Description

Communication method, device and readable storage medium

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on September 28, 2023, with application number 202311281404.8, and priority to the Chinese patent application entitled “Communication Method, Device and Readable Storage Medium”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method, device, and readable storage medium. Background Art

[0003] The development of massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems has led to an increasing number of supported services, placing higher demands on communication systems in terms of system capacity, communication latency, and other indicators. By enabling multiple base stations to collaboratively serve users, or by using channels in multiple frequency bands, the number of simultaneously supported data streams can be increased, thereby boosting data rates.

[0004] To achieve coordinated transmission between base stations or multi-band data transmission, the base station needs to obtain channel state information (CSI) of the downlink channels of multiple stations or multiple frequency bands, and then determine the precoding matrix and user scheduling based on the CSI. However, in the currently widely used frequency division duplex (FDD)-based communication systems, the uplink and downlink channels are not mutually exclusive, and the base station needs the user equipment (UE) to obtain the CSI of the downlink channel through uplink feedback. For example, the base station sends a downlink reference signal to the UE, and the UE receives the downlink reference signal. Because the UE knows the transmission information of the downlink reference signal, it can estimate (measure) the downlink channel traversed by the downlink reference signal based on the received downlink reference signal. The UE can then generate CSI based on the measured downlink channel matrix and feed this CSI back to the base station.

[0005] Currently, a key component of CSI feedback is the precoding matrix indicator (PMI), which uses "0" and "1" bits to quantize the channel matrix or precoding matrix. PMI design (also known as codebook design) is a fundamental issue in mobile communication systems. Traditional codebook design methods predefine (or agree upon) a series of precoding matrices and their corresponding numbers in the protocol. These precoding matrices are also called codewords. The channel matrix or precoding matrix can be approximated using predefined codewords or linear combinations of multiple codewords. Therefore, the UE can use the PMI to feedback the corresponding codeword number and one or more weighting coefficients to the base station, which the base station uses to recover the channel matrix or precoding matrix. Traditional methods require predefined codebook designs for each CSI feedback scenario, such as predefining a codebook for feedback of channel information from multiple stations and a codebook for feedback of channel information from multiple frequency points. As scenarios continue to expand, the number of predefined codebooks continues to increase, resulting in a lack of flexibility in CSI feedback.

[0006] Summary of the Invention

[0007] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, apparatus, and readable storage medium to improve the flexibility of channel information feedback, and to improve feedback accuracy while reducing feedback overhead.

[0008] The present application is introduced below from different aspects. It should be understood that the implementation methods and beneficial effects of the following different aspects can be referenced to each other.

[0009] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a second communication device, such as a UE, or a component for the second communication device, such as a circuit or chip. The method includes: obtaining N channel information and sending first information, where the first information indicates a compressed feedback method for the N channel information. The compressed feedback method may include one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information. In other words, the first information may indicate one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information. It will be understood that when the first information indicates either the number of channel feedback amounts or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information, the other may be predefined or preconfigured. For example, if the first information indicates the number of channel feedback amounts, then the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information may be predefined or preconfigured. In other words, the first information may be used to determine the compressed feedback method for the N channel information.

[0010] Wherein, one channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback quantities. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0011] The term "compression feedback method" in this application can be understood as a feedback method of compression amount, which will not be described in detail below.

[0012] The channel information in this application can be used to characterize the channel. The channel information can be full channel information, such as a channel response (e.g., a complex matrix with dimensions of the number of receive antenna ports × the number of transmit antenna ports × the number of subbands), or an eigenvector obtained after singular value decomposition (SVD) of the channel response or a characteristic matrix composed of multiple eigenvectors. The channel information can be obtained by performing channel measurement on a reference signal by a communication device.

[0013] The channel feedback amount in this application can be obtained by compressing the channel information through an artificial intelligence (AI) model. The corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amount and the channel information in this application can also be understood as the corresponding relationship between the output and input of the AI ​​model.

[0014] This application uses the first information to indicate which compression feedback method to use, which can improve the flexibility of channel information feedback. In addition, this application can also use AI models to compress channel information, which can reduce feedback overhead while improving feedback accuracy.

[0015] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation, after sending the first information, the method further includes: sending third information, where the third information includes the channel feedback amount of the above-mentioned N channel information after being processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the above-mentioned first information.

[0016] With reference to the first aspect, in one possible implementation, obtaining N channel information includes: receiving N reference signals; and performing channel measurement based on the N reference signals to obtain the N channel information. All or some of the N reference signals may come from the same communication device, or from different communication devices. The transmission frequency bands of the N reference signals may be the same, partially the same, or different, and this application does not impose any limitation thereto.

[0017] This application targets scenarios where the UE feeds back multiple channel information, such as coordinated transmission of multiple base stations and multiple frequency bands, and can also achieve a unified compressed feedback method.

[0018] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a first communication device, such as a base station or a portion of a base station. The method includes: receiving first information indicating a compressed feedback method for N channel information; and determining the compressed feedback method based on the first information, wherein the compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information. In other words, the first information may indicate one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information. It is understood that when the first information indicates either the number of channel feedback amounts or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information, the other may be predefined or preconfigured. For example, if the first information indicates the number of channel feedback amounts, then the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information may be predefined or preconfigured. In other words, the first information may be used to determine the compressed feedback method for the N channel information.

[0019] Wherein, one channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback quantities. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0020] In conjunction with the second aspect, in one possible implementation, after receiving the first information, the method further includes: receiving third information, the third information including channel feedback amounts after the N channel information are processed using the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information; and recovering one or more channel information based on the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information and the at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information. The number of channel feedback amounts included in the third information is related to the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information. For details, see the description of the embodiments below and are not detailed here.

[0021] In combination with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before receiving the first information, the method further includes: sending one or more reference signals, where the reference signals are used to determine channel information.

[0022] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which is used to execute the steps or functions performed by a second communication device, and the communication device includes: a processing unit, used to obtain N channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; a transceiver unit, used to send first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method of the N channel information, and the compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amount and the channel information; where one channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0023] In combination with the third aspect, in a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send third information, where the third information includes the channel feedback amount of the N channel information after being processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information.

[0024] In conjunction with the third aspect, in one possible implementation, the processing unit is specifically configured to control the transceiver unit to receive N reference signals, and perform channel measurement based on the N reference signals to obtain N channel information. All or part of the N reference signals may come from the same communication device, or from different communication devices. The transmission frequency bands of the N reference signals may be the same, partially the same, or different, and this application does not impose any restrictions.

[0025] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which is used to execute the steps or functions performed by a first communication device, and the communication device includes: a transceiver unit, used to receive first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback mode of N channel information, where the compressed feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amount and the channel information; one of the channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; and a processing unit, used to determine the compressed feedback mode based on the first information.

[0026] In conjunction with the fourth aspect, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive third information, the third information including channel feedback amounts after the N channel information are processed using the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information; and the processing unit is further configured to restore one or more channel information based on the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information and the at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information. The number of channel feedback amounts included in the third information is related to the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information. For details, see the description of the embodiments below and are not detailed here.

[0027] In combination with the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send one or more reference signals, where the reference signals are used to determine channel information.

[0028] In combination with any of the first to fourth aspects, in one possible implementation, the compression feedback method for the N channel information is determined based on a correlation between at least two pieces of channel information among the N channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not further described here.

[0029] The present application can flexibly select an appropriate compression feedback method according to the similarity between channel information, thereby reducing the complexity of channel compression feedback and improving the compression ratio of channel information.

[0030] In combination with any one of the first to fourth aspects, in one possible implementation, the compressed feedback method for the N channel information includes: the N channel information corresponds to (M+K) channel feedback amounts, one channel feedback amount among the K channel feedback amounts is used to represent common information of at least two channel information subsets among the M channel information subsets, one channel information subset includes one or more channel information among the N channel information, the union of the M channel information subsets is equal to the N channel information, one channel feedback amount among the M channel feedback amounts is used to represent specific information of one channel information subset, and M and K are both positive integers less than N.

[0031] Exemplarily, at least two of the M channel information subsets are processed by a first encoder (e.g., extracting common features and compressing, etc.) to obtain a channel feedback amount, and the first encoder can be implemented using an AI model. A channel information subset and the public information corresponding to the channel information subset are processed by a second encoder (e.g., extracting specific features and compressing, etc.) to obtain a channel feedback amount, and the second encoder can be implemented using an AI model. The first encoder and the second encoder are different.

[0032] Exemplarily, the M channel information subsets are determined based on the correlation between the N channel information. For example, a clustering algorithm can be used to divide the N channel information into M channel information subsets, wherein the distance between sample objects in the clustering algorithm is determined by the correlation between the channel information (such as the inner product between vectors), for example, the distance between sample objects is (1-correlation between channel information), or exp(-correlation between channels). Wherein, exp() represents an exponential function with the natural constant e as the base, which will not be repeated below. It can be understood that the higher the correlation between channel information, the smaller the distance between sample objects corresponding to the channel information.

[0033] Exemplarily, the N channel information corresponds to N reference signal resources, and these N reference signal resources belong to one or more reference signal resource sets. The M channel information subsets can also be determined based on the reference signal resource set. For example, the channel information corresponding to reference signal resources belonging to the same reference signal resource set is divided into a channel information subset. In other words, the reference signal resources corresponding to the channel information in a channel information subset all belong to the same reference signal resource set.

[0034] The compression feedback method provided in this application jointly compresses the common features of multiple channel information into one channel feedback amount, which can fully utilize the similarities between multiple channel information, has a high degree of compression, and has low complexity. It is suitable for scenarios where the correlation between these N channel information is moderate.

[0035] In combination with any of the first to fourth aspects, in one possible implementation, the compressed feedback method for the N channel information includes: the N channel information corresponds to M channel feedback amounts, where one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of a channel information subset. A channel information subset includes one or more channel information from the N channel information. The union of the M channel information subsets is equal to the N channel information, and the intersection of any two channel information subsets from the M channel information subsets is an empty set. M is a positive integer less than N.

[0036] Exemplarily, a channel information subset among the above-mentioned M channel information subsets can obtain a channel feedback amount after being processed by an encoder (such as compression), and the encoder can be implemented using an AI model.

[0037] Exemplarily, the M channel information subsets are determined based on the correlation between the N channel information. For example, a clustering algorithm can be used to divide the N channel information into the M channel information subsets, wherein the distance between sample objects in the clustering algorithm is determined by the correlation between the channel information (such as the inner product between vectors), for example, the distance between sample objects is (1-correlation between channel information) or exp(-correlation between channels).

[0038] Exemplarily, the N channel information corresponds to N reference signal resources, and these N reference signal resources belong to one or more reference signal resource sets. The M channel information subsets can also be determined based on the reference signal resource set. For example, the channel information corresponding to reference signal resources belonging to the same reference signal resource set is divided into a channel information subset. In other words, the reference signal resources corresponding to all channel information in a channel information subset belong to the same reference signal resource set.

[0039] The compression feedback method provided in this application jointly compresses multiple channel information into one channel feedback amount, which can fully utilize the similarity between multiple channel information and has a high degree of compression. It is suitable for scenarios where the correlation between these N channel information is high.

[0040] In combination with any one of the first to fourth aspects, in a possible implementation, the compressed feedback method of the above-mentioned N channel information includes: the N channel information corresponds to N channel feedback amounts, and one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of a channel information.

[0041] For example, a channel information can be processed by an encoder (such as compression) to obtain a channel feedback amount, and the encoder can be implemented using an AI model.

[0042] The compressed feedback method provided in this application uses an AI model to compress channel information, which can reduce feedback overhead and improve feedback accuracy.

[0043] In combination with any one of the first to fourth aspects, in a possible implementation, the first information includes an identifier of a compression feedback method. Exemplarily, several compression feedback methods can be predefined, and each predefined compression feedback method includes the number of channel feedback amounts and the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amount and the channel information. For example, the three compression feedback methods mentioned above: (1) N channel information corresponds to (M+K) channel feedback amounts, one of the K channel feedback amounts is used to represent the common information of at least two channel information subsets in the M channel information subsets, and one of the M channel feedback amounts is used to represent the specific information of a channel information subset; (2) N channel information corresponds to M channel feedback amounts, one of which is used to represent the content of a channel information subset; (3) N channel information corresponds to N channel feedback amounts, one of which is used to represent the content of a channel information. Then, a unique identifier is set for each predefined compression feedback method. This application does not limit the specific setting method. It is only necessary for the sender and receiver to reach an agreement on the corresponding relationship between the predefined compression feedback method and the identifier; thus, the compression feedback method of the above-mentioned N channel information can be determined by carrying the identifier of the compression feedback method in the first information. It will be appreciated that the compression feedback methods described here are merely examples. In actual applications, more or fewer compression feedback methods may be predefined, and this application does not impose any limitations thereon. It will also be appreciated that different numbers of channel feedback amounts may correspond to different compression feedback methods, which may use different identifiers. Of course, different correspondences between channel feedback amounts and channel information may also correspond to different compression feedback methods, which may use different identifiers.

[0044] Alternatively, the first information includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts corresponding to the N channel information, or the correspondence between each channel feedback amount and one or more of the N channel information. Exemplarily, a 0 / 1 matrix can be used to indicate the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the N channel information. The rows of the 0 / 1 matrix represent the channel information, and the columns represent the channel feedback amounts. The number of columns in the 0 / 1 matrix is ​​the number of channel feedback amounts. If the element in the i-th row and j-th column is 1, it indicates that the j-th channel feedback amount corresponds to the i-th channel information. If the element in the i-th row and j-th column is 0, it indicates that there is no correspondence between the j-th channel feedback amount and the i-th channel information. Furthermore, a list can be used to indicate the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between each channel feedback amount and the channel information. A row of the list represents a channel feedback amount and its corresponding channel information. The number of rows in the list represents the number of channel feedback amounts.

[0045] It is understood that the present application does not limit the specific form of the first information, or in other words, the present application does not limit the signaling form of the first information. Any signaling indication method that can express the content of the first information is within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0046] This application provides two methods for indicating compressed feedback modes to align the understanding of the channel feedback amount between the UE and the base station, so as to facilitate the base station to recover the channel information.

[0047] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a first communication device, such as a base station or a portion of a base station. The method includes: determining a compression feedback method for N first channel information, and transmitting first information, where the first information is used to indicate the compression feedback method for the N first channel information. The compression feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information. In other words, the first information can be used to indicate one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information. It is understood that when the first information indicates either the number of channel feedback amounts or the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information, the other may be predefined or preconfigured. For example, if the first information indicates the number of channel feedback amounts, then the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information may be predefined or preconfigured. In other words, the first information can be used to determine the compression feedback method for the N first channel information.

[0048] Wherein, one piece of first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0049] In the present application, the first channel information may be downlink channel information.

[0050] This application uses the first information to indicate which compression feedback method to use, which can improve the flexibility of channel information feedback. In addition, this application can also use AI models to compress channel information, which can reduce feedback overhead while improving feedback accuracy.

[0051] In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in one possible implementation, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving third information, the third information including channel feedback amounts for the N first channel information after processing using the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information; and the first communication device recovering one or more first channel information based on the compressed feedback method and at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information. The number of channel feedback amounts included in the third information is related to the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information. For details, refer to the description of the embodiments below and are not detailed here.

[0052] In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in one possible implementation, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving second information, where the second information includes a correlation between at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information. The correlation between the at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information can be used to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here.

[0053] The UE of the present application informs the base station of the correlation between channel information through the second information, and the base station flexibly selects an appropriate compression feedback method based on the correlation between the channel information, which can reduce the complexity of channel compression feedback and improve the compression ratio of the channel information.

[0054] In conjunction with the fifth aspect, in one possible implementation, the first channel information is determined based on a first reference signal. N pieces of first channel information may be determined based on N first reference signals. All or part of these N first reference signals may come from the same communication device, or from different communication devices. The transmission frequency bands of these N first reference signals may be the same, partially the same, or different, and this application does not impose any restrictions. Exemplarily, the first reference signal is an uplink reference signal.

[0055] This application targets scenarios where the UE feeds back multiple channel information, such as coordinated transmission of multiple base stations and multiple frequency bands, and can also achieve a unified compressed feedback method.

[0056] The method further includes: a first communication device receiving one or more second reference signals, the second reference signals being used to determine second channel information; the first communication device obtaining a correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information, and using the correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here. L is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0057] In the present application, the second channel information may be uplink channel information, and the second reference signal may be an uplink reference signal.

[0058] The base station of the present application uses the correlation between uplink channel information (i.e., second channel information) to determine the compression feedback method of downlink channel information (i.e., first channel information). It can be applied to scenarios where there is reciprocity between uplink and downlink channels, or where uplink channel aging is not serious. It can also flexibly select an appropriate compression feedback method to reduce the complexity of channel compression feedback and improve the compression ratio of channel information.

[0059] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a second communication device, such as a UE. The method includes: obtaining N first channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; and receiving first information, the first information indicating a compressed feedback method for the N first channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, and the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information. In other words, the first information may indicate one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information. It is understood that when the first information indicates either the number of channel feedback amounts or the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information, the other may be predefined or preconfigured. For example, if the first information indicates the number of channel feedback amounts, then the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information may be predefined or preconfigured. In other words, the first information may be used to determine the compressed feedback method for the N first channel information.

[0060] Wherein, one piece of first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0061] In combination with the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation, the method further includes: the second communication device sends third information, and the third information includes the channel feedback amount of the above-mentioned N first channel information after being processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the above-mentioned first information.

[0062] In conjunction with the sixth aspect, in one possible implementation, the method further includes: a second communication device sending second information, where the second information includes a correlation between at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information. The correlation between at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information can be used to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here.

[0063] In conjunction with the sixth aspect, in one possible implementation, the first channel information is determined based on a first reference signal received by the second communication device. The method further includes: the second communication device transmitting one or more second reference signals, the second reference signals being used to determine the second channel information, wherein correlation between the second channel information is used to determine a compression feedback method for the N first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here.

[0064] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which is used to execute the steps or functions performed by a first communication device, and the communication device includes: a processing unit, used to determine the compression feedback method of N first channel information; a transceiver unit, used to send first information, where the first information is used to indicate the compression feedback method of the N first channel information, and the compression feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amount and the first channel information; one of the first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0065] In conjunction with the seventh aspect, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive third information, the third information including channel feedback amounts of the N first channel information after being processed using the compression feedback method indicated by the first information; and the processing unit is further configured to restore one or more first channel information based on the compression feedback method and at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information. The number of channel feedback amounts included in the third information is related to the compression feedback method indicated by the first information. For details, refer to the description of the embodiments below and are not detailed here.

[0066] In conjunction with the seventh aspect, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to receive second information, where the second information includes a correlation between at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information. The correlation between at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information can be used to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here.

[0067] In conjunction with the seventh aspect, in one possible implementation, the first channel information is determined based on a first reference signal. N pieces of first channel information may be determined based on N first reference signals. All or part of these N first reference signals may come from the same communication device, or from different communication devices. The transmission frequency bands of these N first reference signals may be the same, partially the same, or different, and this application does not impose any restrictions. Exemplarily, the first reference signal is an uplink reference signal.

[0068] The transceiver unit is further configured to receive one or more second reference signals, where the second reference signals are used to determine the second channel information. The processing unit is further configured to obtain a correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information, where the correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information is used to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here. L is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0069] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which is used to execute the steps or functions performed by a second communication device, and the communication device includes: a processing unit, used to obtain N first channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; a transceiver unit, used to receive first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method of the N first channel information, and the compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the relationship between the channel feedback amount and the first channel information, where one first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0070] In combination with the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further used to send third information, where the third information includes the channel feedback amount of the above-mentioned N first channel information after being processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the above-mentioned first information.

[0071] In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in one possible implementation, the transceiver unit is further configured to send second information, where the second information includes a correlation between at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information. The correlation between at least two pieces of first channel information among the N pieces of first channel information can be used to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here.

[0072] In conjunction with the eighth aspect, in one possible implementation, the first channel information is determined based on a first reference signal received by the second communication device. The transceiver unit is further configured to transmit one or more second reference signals, where the second reference signals are used to determine the second channel information, wherein correlation between the second channel information is used to determine a compression feedback method for the N first channel information. The specific determination method can be found in the description of the embodiments below and is not detailed here.

[0073] In combination with any of the fifth to eighth aspects, in one possible implementation, the compressed feedback method for the N first channel information includes: the N first channel information corresponds to (M+K) channel feedback amounts, one channel feedback amount among the K channel feedback amounts is used to represent common information of at least two channel information subsets among the M channel information subsets, one channel information subset includes one or more first channel information among the N channel information subsets, and the union of the M channel information subsets is equal to the N first channel information. One channel feedback amount among the M channel feedback amounts is used to represent specific information of a channel information subset, and M and K are both positive integers less than N. It can be understood that in this compressed feedback method, all information of a channel information subset can be represented by two channel feedback amounts.

[0074] Exemplarily, at least two of the M channel information subsets are processed by a first encoder (e.g., extracting common features and compressing, etc.) to obtain a channel feedback amount, and the first encoder can be implemented using an AI model. A channel information subset and the public information corresponding to the channel information subset are processed by a second encoder (e.g., extracting specific features and compressing, etc.) to obtain a channel feedback amount, and the second encoder can be implemented using an AI model. The first encoder and the second encoder are different.

[0075] Exemplarily, the M channel information subsets are determined based on the correlation between the N first channel information. For example, a clustering algorithm can be used to divide the N first channel information into the M channel information subsets, wherein the distance between sample objects in the clustering algorithm is determined by the correlation between the first channel information (such as the inner product between vectors), for example, the distance between sample objects is (1-correlation between channel information) or exp(-correlation between channels).

[0076] Exemplarily, the N first channel information correspond to N reference signal resources, and these N reference signal resources belong to one or more reference signal resource sets. The M channel information subsets may also be determined based on the reference signal resource set. For example, the first channel information corresponding to reference signal resources belonging to the same reference signal resource set is divided into a channel information subset. In other words, the reference signal resources corresponding to the first channel information in a channel information subset all belong to the same reference signal resource set.

[0077] The compression feedback method provided in the present application jointly compresses the common features of multiple first channel information into one channel feedback amount, which can fully utilize the similarities between multiple first channel information, has a high degree of compression, and has low complexity. It is suitable for scenarios where the correlation between these N first channel information is moderate.

[0078] In combination with any of the fifth to eighth aspects, in one possible implementation, the compressed feedback method for the N first channel information includes: the N first channel information corresponds to M channel feedback amounts, where one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of a channel information subset. A channel information subset includes one or more first channel information from the N first channel information. The union of the M channel information subsets is equal to the N first channel information, and the intersection of any two channel information subsets from the M channel information subsets is an empty set. M is a positive integer less than N.

[0079] Exemplarily, a channel information subset among the above-mentioned M channel information subsets can obtain a channel feedback amount after being processed by an encoder (such as compression), and the encoder can be implemented using an AI model.

[0080] Exemplarily, the M channel information subsets are determined based on the correlation between the N first channel information. For example, a clustering algorithm can be used to divide the N first channel information into the M channel information subsets, wherein the distance between sample objects in the clustering algorithm is determined by the correlation between the first channel information (such as the inner product between vectors), for example, the distance between sample objects is (1-correlation between channel information) or exp(-correlation between channels).

[0081] Exemplarily, the N first channel information correspond to N reference signal resources, and these N reference signal resources belong to one or more reference signal resource sets. The M channel information subsets may also be determined based on the reference signal resource set. For example, the first channel information corresponding to reference signal resources belonging to the same reference signal resource set is divided into a channel information subset. In other words, the reference signal resources corresponding to all first channel information in a channel information subset belong to the same reference signal resource set.

[0082] The compression feedback method provided in the present application jointly compresses multiple first channel information into one channel feedback amount, which can fully utilize the similarity between multiple first channel information and has a high degree of compression. It is suitable for scenarios where the correlation between these N first channel information is high.

[0083] In combination with any aspect from the fifth aspect to the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation method, the compressed feedback method of the above-mentioned N first channel information includes: these N first channel information correspond to N channel feedback amounts, and one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of one first channel information.

[0084] Exemplarily, a first channel information can be processed (such as compressed) by an encoder to obtain a channel feedback amount, and the encoder can be implemented using an AI model.

[0085] The compressed feedback method provided in this application uses an AI model to compress the first channel information, which can reduce feedback overhead and improve feedback accuracy.

[0086] In combination with any of the fifth to eighth aspects, in one possible implementation, the first information includes an identifier of a compressed feedback mode. Alternatively, the first information includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts corresponding to the N first channel information, or a correspondence between each channel feedback amount and one or more of the N first channel information.

[0087] This application provides two methods for indicating compressed feedback modes to align the understanding of the channel feedback amount between the UE and the base station, so as to facilitate the base station to recover the channel information.

[0088] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may include a processing circuit and a transceiver circuit, and the processing circuit is connected to the transceiver circuit. The transceiver circuit is used to interact (or receive and send or input and output) information or data, and the processing circuit is used to run program instructions so that the communication device executes the method described in any possible implementation of the first aspect, the second aspect, the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, or any of the aspects above. The transceiver circuit may be a communication interface, an input / output interface, or a transceiver. The transceiver may be a radio frequency module in a communication device, or a combination of a radio frequency module and an antenna. The transceiver circuit may be an input / output interface of a chip or circuit.

[0089] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising a processor configured to execute the method described in the first aspect, the second aspect, the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, or any possible implementation thereof. Alternatively, the processor is configured to execute a program stored in a memory, and when the program is executed, the method described in the second aspect, the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, or any possible implementation thereof is executed.

[0090] In combination with the tenth aspect, in a possible implementation, the memory is located outside the above-mentioned communication device.

[0091] In combination with the tenth aspect, in a possible implementation, the memory is located within the above-mentioned communication device.

[0092] In conjunction with the tenth aspect, in a possible implementation, the processor and the memory may also be integrated into one device, that is, the processor and the memory may also be integrated together. Exemplarily, the communication device may be a chip.

[0093] In conjunction with the tenth aspect, in one possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver, configured to receive the first information or transmit the first information. Exemplarily, the transceiver may also be configured to receive a reference signal or transmit a reference signal. Exemplarily, the communication device may be a terminal device or a network device.

[0094] In the eleventh aspect, the present application provides a readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method described in the first aspect, or the second aspect, or the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect, or any possible implementation of any one of the aspects.

[0095] In the twelfth aspect, the present application provides a program product comprising program instructions, which, when executed, enables the method described in the first aspect, or the second aspect, or the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect, or any possible implementation of any one of the aspects to be executed.

[0096] In a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a device, which can be implemented in the form of a chip or in the form of a device, and the device includes a processing circuit. The processing circuit is used to read and execute a program stored in a memory to execute one or more of the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, fifth aspect, and sixth aspect, or one or more of any possible implementation methods of any aspect thereof. Optionally, the device also includes a memory, which is connected to the processing circuit through a circuit. Further optionally, the device also includes a communication interface, and the processing circuit is connected to the communication interface. The communication interface is used to receive information to be processed, and the processing circuit obtains the information from the communication interface, processes the information, and outputs the processing results through the communication interface. The communication interface can be an input and output interface.

[0097] Optionally, the processing circuit and memory may be physically independent units, or the memory may be integrated with the processing circuit.

[0098] In the fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device; the first communication device is used to execute the method described in the above-mentioned second aspect, the above-mentioned fifth aspect, or any possible implementation method of any aspect therein, and the second communication device is used to execute the method described in the above-mentioned first aspect, the above-mentioned sixth aspect, or any possible implementation method of any aspect therein.

[0099] The technical effects achieved in the above-mentioned aspects can be referred to each other or to the beneficial effects in the method embodiments shown below, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0100] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a neural network provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0101] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a neuron provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0102] FIG3 is a simplified schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0103] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a possible application architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0104] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of another possible application architecture of the communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0105] FIG6 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0106] FIG7a is a schematic diagram of a channel information compression feedback method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0107] FIG7b is another schematic diagram of a channel information compression feedback method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0108] FIG7c is another schematic diagram of a channel information compression feedback method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0109] FIG7 d is yet another schematic diagram of a channel information compression feedback method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0110] FIG8a is a schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0111] FIG8b is another schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0112] FIG8c is another schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0113] FIG8 d is yet another schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0114] FIG9 is another schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0115] FIG10 is another schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0116] FIG11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0117] FIG12 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0118] FIG13 is another structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0119] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

[0120] In the description of this application, words such as "first" and "second" are used only to distinguish different objects and do not limit the quantity or execution order. Moreover, words such as "first" and "second" do not necessarily mean different. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but may optionally include steps or units that are not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units inherent to the process, method, product, or device.

[0121] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, " / " means "or", for example, A / B can mean A or B. "And / or" in this article is merely a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, "at least one (item)", "the following one (item) or more (items)" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items (items). For example, at least one item (item) of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c; a and b; a and c; b and c; or a, b, and c. Among them, a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0122] In the description of this application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate an example, illustration, or description. Any embodiment or design described in this application as "exemplary," "for example," or "for example" should not be construed as being preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary," "for example," or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete way.

[0123] It can be understood that in the description of this application, "when", "if" and "if" all mean that the device will perform corresponding processing under certain objective circumstances, and do not limit the time. It does not require that the device must perform a judgment action when it is implemented, nor does it mean that there are other limitations.

[0124] The term "simultaneously" in this application may be understood as at the same time point, within a period of time, or within the same cycle, and may be understood in conjunction with the context.

[0125] Elements used in the singular herein are intended to mean "one or more" rather than "one and only one" unless specifically stated otherwise.

[0126] Additionally, the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein.

[0127] It is understood that in each embodiment of the present application, "A corresponds to B", "A corresponds to B", or similar expressions, means that B is associated with A, or that B can be determined according to A. However, it should also be understood that determining B according to (or based on) A does not mean that B is determined only according to (or based on) A, and B can also be determined according to (or based on) A and / or other information.

[0128] The following is a brief introduction to artificial intelligence (AI).

[0129] Artificial intelligence (AI) can imbue machines with human-like intelligence, for example, by enabling them to simulate certain intelligent human behaviors using computer hardware and software. AI generally refers to technologies that represent human intelligence through ordinary computer programs. AI can be defined as machines or computers that mimic humans and possess cognitive functions associated with human thinking, such as learning and problem-solving. AI is able to learn from past experiences, make rational decisions, and respond quickly. The goal of AI is to understand intelligence by constructing computer programs that can perform symbolic reasoning or deduction.

[0130] Machine learning is a key technological approach to achieving artificial intelligence (AI), using machine learning to solve AI problems. Machine learning theory primarily involves the design and analysis of algorithms that enable computers to "learn" automatically. Machine learning algorithms automatically analyze data to identify patterns and use these patterns to make predictions about unknown data. Because machine learning algorithms involve extensive statistical theory, they are particularly closely linked to inferential statistics, also known as statistical learning theory. Machine learning can be categorized into supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning.

[0131] An AI model is an algorithm or computer program that implements AI functions. It represents the mapping relationship or function between the model's input and output. An AI model can be used for inference (or prediction), meaning it can be used to predict the output corresponding to a given input. This output can also be referred to as an inference result. An AI model can be a neural network or other machine learning model.

[0132] A neural network (NN) is a specific implementation of machine learning. It is a mathematical model that mimics the behavioral characteristics of animal neural networks to process information. According to the universal approximation theorem, neural networks can theoretically approximate any continuous function, enabling them to learn arbitrary mappings. Therefore, neural networks can accurately abstractly model complex, high-dimensional problems. Traditional communication systems require extensive expert knowledge to design communication modules. However, communication systems based on deep neural networks (DNNs) can discover implicit patterns in massive data sets and establish mapping relationships between data, achieving performance superior to traditional modeling methods.

[0133] A neural network generally includes a multi-layer structure, and each layer may include one or more logic judgment units, which are called neurons. Increasing the depth and / or width of a neural network can improve the expressive power of the neural network and provide more powerful information extraction and abstract modeling capabilities for complex systems. Among them, the depth of a neural network can be understood as the number of layers included in the neural network, and the number of neurons included in each layer can be called the width of the layer. Referring to Figure 1, Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a neural network provided in an embodiment of the present application. In one implementation, the neural network includes an input layer and an output layer. The input layer of the neural network processes the input received by the neurons and passes the result to the output layer, and the output layer obtains the output result of the neural network. In another implementation, the neural network includes an input layer, a hidden layer, and an output layer. The input layer of the neural network processes the input received by the neurons and passes the result to the middle hidden layer, which then passes the calculation result to the output layer or an adjacent hidden layer, and finally the output layer obtains the output result of the neural network. A neural network may include one or more hidden layers connected in sequence, and this application does not limit the number of hidden layers in the neural network. DNNs typically include multiple hidden layers, which often affect the ability to extract information and fit functions. Increasing the number of hidden layers or increasing the width of each layer can improve the DNN's function fitting ability. The neural network shown in Figure 1 includes one input layer, one hidden layer, and one output layer. The input layer has three neurons, the hidden layer has four neurons, and the output layer has two neurons. It should be understood that the number of layers and the number of neural network elements in each layer shown in Figure 1 are only examples.

[0134] Each connection between neurons is associated with a weight (called a value), which can be updated through training. Each neuron is also associated with a bias value, which can be updated through training. Updating a neural network involves updating these weights and biases. Understanding the structure of a neural network—that is, how the output of previous neurons is fed into subsequent neurons, as well as the weights and biases—provides a comprehensive understanding of the neural network.

[0135] As shown in Figure 1, a neuron may have multiple input connections, and each neuron calculates its output based on its input. For example, each neuron performs a weighted summation on its input values ​​and passes the weighted summation result through an activation function to produce its output. A neuron may also have multiple output connections, with the output of one neuron serving as the input to the next. It should be understood that the input layer only has output connections. Each neuron in the input layer is the value input into the neural network, and each neuron's value serves as the input to all output connections. The output layer only has input connections.

[0136] See Figure 2, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a neuron provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, assuming that the input of the neuron is x = [x0, x1, ..., x m ], and the weights corresponding to each input are w=[w0,w1,...,w m ]. Where m is a positive integer, w i and x i It can be a decimal, an integer (such as 0, a positive integer or a negative integer, etc.), or a complex number. i As x i The weight of x i The bias value of the weighted sum of the input values ​​according to the weight is b. Assuming that the activation function is represented by f(z), the output y of the neuron shown in Figure 2 is:

[0137] The bias value b can be a decimal, an integer (0, a positive integer or a negative integer), a complex number, etc. The activation functions of different neurons in a neural network can be the same or different.

[0138] The activation function f(z) can be diversified. Assuming that the activation function of a neuron f(z) = max(0,z), the output of the neuron is For example, if the activation function of a neuron is f(z)=z, then the output of the neuron is This application does not limit the form of the activation function.

[0139] During the training process of a neural network, a loss function can be defined. The loss function describes the gap or difference between the output of the neural network and the target data. The smaller the loss function, the better the output of the neural network fits the target data. An example using mean squared error as a loss function is as follows:

[0140] loss=(y out -y target ) 2 ……… ...

[0141] Among them, y out represents the output of the neural network, y target Represents the target data, minimizing the loss function (i.e., the loss in formula (1-2)) means minimizing both (i.e., y out and y target ) numerical differences. It should be understood that in addition to the mean square error loss function, the loss function can also be a cross entropy loss function, an absolute value loss function, etc., and this application does not limit the type of loss function. The training process of a neural network is to adjust some or all of the parameters of the neural network, such as the number of layers, width, weights of neurons, or parameters in the activation function of neurons, so that the value of the loss function is less than a threshold value or meets the target requirements.

[0142] The system architecture of the embodiment of the present application is described below.

[0143] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: long term evolution (LTE) systems, fifth generation (5G) systems, such as new radio access technology (NR), networks that integrate multiple systems, Internet of Things systems, Internet of Vehicles systems, open radio access networks (O-RAN) systems, and future communication systems such as sixth generation (6G) systems.

[0144] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to other communication systems, for example: in the communication system, there is a first entity that sends configuration information to the second entity, and sends data to the second entity, or receives data sent by the second entity; the second entity receives the configuration information, and sends data to the first entity according to the configuration information, or receives data sent by the first entity. When the first entity is a base station and the second entity is a terminal device (such as a UE), the base station and the UE can form a communication system. In this communication system, the UE can send uplink data to the base station, and the base station receives the uplink data sent by the UE. The base station can also send configuration information to the UE. Different UEs can also form a communication system, in which case the first entity and the second entity are both UEs. For example, in a vehicle networking system, UE1 sends configuration information to UE2 and receives data sent by UE2; and UE2 receives the configuration information sent by UE1 and sends data to UE1.

[0145] In one possible implementation, a communication system includes communication devices, which can communicate wirelessly using air interface resources. The communication devices may include network devices and terminal devices, and network devices may also be referred to as base station devices. Air interface resources may include at least one of time domain resources, frequency domain resources, code resources, and space resources. In this application, "at least one" may also be described as "one or more," and "many" may be two, three, four, or more, without limitation.

[0146] It should be understood that the system architecture described in the embodiments of the present application is intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. A person skilled in the art will know that with the evolution of the system architecture, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0147] Referring to Figure 3, Figure 3 is a simplified schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 3, the communication system includes a wireless access network 100. The wireless access network 100 can be a next-generation (e.g., 6G or higher) wireless access network, or a traditional (e.g., 5G, 4G, 3G, or 2G) wireless access network. One or more terminal devices (120a-120j, collectively referred to as 120) can be connected to each other or to one or more network devices (110a, 110b, collectively referred to as 110) in the wireless access network 100. Optionally, Figure 3 is only a schematic diagram, and the communication system may also include other devices, such as core network devices, wireless relay devices, and / or wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in Figure 3.

[0148] In actual applications, the communication system may include multiple network devices (also called access network devices) at the same time, and may also include multiple terminal devices at the same time. A network device can serve one or more terminal devices at the same time. A terminal device can also access one or more network devices at the same time. Multiple network devices can collaboratively serve one terminal device, or a network device can use channels of multiple frequency bands to serve one terminal device. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of terminal devices and network devices included in the communication system.

[0149] Terminal devices can be called terminals, user equipment (UE), mobile stations (MS), or mobile terminals (MT). They are devices with wireless transceiver capabilities. They can be deployed on land, indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; on water (such as ships); or in the air (such as airplanes, balloons, and satellites). Terminal devices can be used to connect people, objects, and machines. The terminal device 120 can be widely used in various scenarios, such as cellular communication, device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), peer to peer (P2P), machine to machine (M2M), machine type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, smart home, drones, robots, remote sensing, passive sensing, positioning, navigation and tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility, etc. The terminal device 120 may be a user equipment (UE) conforming to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard, a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device, a wearable device, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal computer, a smart book, a vehicle, a satellite, a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, a target tracking device, a drone, a helicopter, an aircraft, a ship, a remote control device, a smart home device, or an industrial device. The terminal device may also be a communication device in a future wireless communication system.

[0150] In the embodiment of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal may be a terminal; or it may be a device that can support the terminal to realize the function, such as a chip system, or a communication module, or a modem, etc., which may be installed in the terminal. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal is a terminal, and the terminal is a UE as an example to describe the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal device.

[0151] In one possible implementation, a UE can function as a base station. For example, a UE can act as a scheduling entity, providing sidelink signals between UEs in V2X, D2D, or P2P scenarios. As shown in Figure 3, a cell phone 120a and a car 120b communicate with each other using sidelink signals. Cell phone 120a and smart home device 120d communicate without relaying the communication signals through base station 110a.

[0152] In one possible implementation, the UE may also be used to act as a relay node. For example, the UE may act as a relay device or an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node to provide wireless backhaul services for terminal devices.

[0153] A network device may be an entity on the network side for transmitting or receiving signals, such as a base station (BS). A BS may be a device deployed in a wireless access network that can communicate wirelessly with a terminal. Base stations may have various forms, such as macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, and access points. For example, the base stations involved in the embodiments of the present application may be base stations in 5G, base stations in sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication systems, access network devices or modules of access network devices in open radio access networks (O-RAN) systems, base stations in future mobile communication systems, or access nodes in WiFi systems, or evolved base stations (evolved node B, eNB) in LTE, etc. Among them, the base station in 5G can also be called a transmission reception point (TRP) or a 5G base station (next-generation node B, gNB). Base station can also be replaced with the following names, such as: wireless access point, node B (nodeB), transmitting point (TP), master station MeNB, secondary station SeNB, multi-standard radio (MSR) node, home base station, network controller, access node, wireless node, access point (AP), transmission node, transceiver node, baseband unit (BBU), remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), remote radio head (RRH), centralized unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), positioning node, IAB donor, etc.

[0154] A base station (BS) can be fixed or mobile. For example, base stations 110a and 110b are stationary and are responsible for wireless transmission and reception in one or more cells from a terminal device 120. The helicopter or drone 120i shown in FIG3 can be configured to act as a mobile base station, and one or more cells can move according to the location of the mobile base station 120i. In other examples, the helicopter or drone (120i) can be configured to act as a terminal device communicating with the base station 110a.

[0155] The network device in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated base station, or may be a base station including a centralized unit (CU) and / or a distributed unit (DU). A base station including both a CU and a DU may also be referred to as a base station with separate CU and DU, such as a base station including a gNB-CU and a gNB-DU. The CU may also be separated into a CU control plane (CU-CP) and a CU user plane (CU-UP), such as a base station including a gNB-CU-CP, a gNB-CU-UP, and a gNB-DU. Alternatively, the network device in the embodiments of the present application may also be an antenna unit (RU). Alternatively, the network device in the embodiments of the present application may also be an open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific deployment method of the network device. For example, when the network device is an O-RAN architecture, the network device shown in the embodiments of the present application may be an access network device in the O-RAN, such as a combination of one or more of a CU, DU, or RU, or a module in the access network device. In the ORAN system, CU may also be referred to as open (O)-CU, CU-CP may also be referred to as O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be referred to as O-CU-UP, DU may also be referred to as O-DU, and RU may also be referred to as O-RU.

[0156] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the network device may be a network device; or it may be a device capable of supporting the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, a communication module, or a modem, etc., which may be installed in the network device. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the network device is a network device, and the network device is a base station as an example to describe the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. The base station may support networks with the same or different access technologies. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network device.

[0157] The network device and / or terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface; it can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons and satellites in the air. The embodiments of this application do not limit the scenarios in which the network device and the terminal device are located. In addition, the terminal device and the network device can be hardware devices, or they can be software functions running on dedicated hardware, or software functions running on general-purpose hardware, such as virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform), or entities including dedicated or general-purpose hardware devices and software functions. This application does not limit the specific forms of the terminal device and the network device.

[0158] In one possible implementation, in order to support machine learning functions in a wireless network, an AI network element may be introduced into the communication system provided in the present application to implement some or all AI-related operations. The AI ​​network element may also be referred to as an AI node, AI device, AI entity, AI module, AI model, or AI unit, etc. The AI ​​network element may be a network element built into a communication system, or it may be an independently set network element. For example, the AI ​​network element may be an AI module built into: an access network device, a core network device, a cloud server, or a network management (OAM) to implement AI-related functions. Among them, OAM may be a network management as a core network device and / or a network management as an access network device. In one possible implementation, the terminal or the chip built into the terminal may also include an AI entity to implement AI-related functions. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific implementation of the AI ​​network element.

[0159] In one possible implementation, the AI ​​network element is deployed in a server or cloud device in an over-the-top (OTT) system. Optionally, the cloud device is located on one or more of the following: the terminal device side, the network device side, or the core network side.

[0160] It is understood that this application does not limit the number of AI nodes. For example, when there are multiple AI nodes, the multiple AI nodes can be divided based on function, such as different AI nodes are responsible for different functions.

[0161] It can also be understood that AI nodes can be independent devices, or they can be integrated into the same device to implement different functions, or they can be network elements in hardware devices, or they can be software functions running on dedicated hardware, or they can be virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (for example, a cloud platform). This application does not limit the specific form of the above-mentioned AI nodes.

[0162] Refer to Figure 4, which is a schematic diagram of a possible application architecture of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4, the network elements of the communication system are connected through interfaces (such as NG interfaces, Xn interfaces, F1 interfaces, etc.) or air interfaces. One or more AI modules are provided in one or more devices of these network element nodes, such as core network equipment, access network nodes (RAN nodes), terminals or OAM (for the sake of clarity, only one is shown in Figure 4). Among them, the access network node can be a separate RAN node, or it can include multiple RAN nodes, for example, including CU and DU. The CU and / or DU can also be provided with one or more AI modules. Optionally, the CU can also be split into CU-CP and CU-UP. One or more AI models are provided in the CU-CP and / or CU-UP.

[0163] The above-mentioned AI module can be used to implement corresponding AI functions. The AI ​​modules deployed in different network elements can be the same or different. The model of the AI ​​module can implement different functions according to different parameter configurations. The model of the AI ​​module can be configured based on one or more of the following parameters: structural parameters (such as the number of neural network layers, the width of the neural network, the connection relationship between layers, the weight of the neuron, the activation function of the neuron, or at least one of the bias value in the activation function, etc.), input parameters (such as the type of input parameters and / or the dimension of the input parameters), or output parameters (such as the type of output parameters and / or the dimension of the output parameters).

[0164] An AI module can have one or more models. A model can be inferred to obtain an output, which includes one or more parameters. The learning process, training process, or inference process of different models can be deployed in different nodes or devices, or can be deployed in the same node or device. This application mainly focuses on the case where AI modules are set up in both terminals and access network nodes.

[0165] Referring to Figure 5, Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of another possible application architecture of the communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, the communication system includes a RAN intelligent controller (RIC). For example, the RIC can be an AI module for implementing AI-related functions. The RIC can include a near-real time RIC (near-real time RIC, near-RT RIC) and a non-real time RIC (non-real time RIC, non-RT RIC).

[0166] Among them, near real-time RIC can be used for model training and reasoning. For example, it is used to train an AI model and use the AI ​​model for reasoning. Near real-time RIC can obtain network-side and / or terminal-side information from RAN nodes (such as CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and / or RU) and / or terminals. This information can be used as training data or reasoning data. Optionally, near real-time RIC can submit the reasoning results to the RAN node and / or terminal. Optionally, the reasoning results can be exchanged between the CU and DU, and / or between the DU and RU. For example, the near real-time RIC submits the reasoning results to the DU, and the DU sends it to the RU.

[0167] Non-real-time RIC can also be used for model training and reasoning. For example, it is used to train an AI model and use the AI ​​model for reasoning. Non-real-time RIC can obtain network-side and / or terminal-side information from RAN nodes (such as CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and / or RU) and / or terminals. This information can be used as training data or reasoning data, and the reasoning results can be submitted to the RAN node and / or terminal. Optionally, the reasoning results can be exchanged between the CU and the DU, and / or between the DU and the RU. For example, the non-real-time RIC submits the reasoning results to the DU, and the DU sends it to the RU.

[0168] The near-real-time RIC and non-real-time RIC can also be set up as separate network elements. Optionally, the near-real-time RIC and / or non-real-time RIC can also be part of other devices. For example, the near-real-time RIC is set up in a RAN node (e.g., a CU and / or DU), while the non-real-time RIC is set up in an OAM, a cloud server, a core network device, or other network devices.

[0169] To support coordinated transmission across multiple base stations or multiple frequency bands (i.e., multiple base stations collaboratively serving a single user, or using channels across multiple frequency bands to serve a single user), the UE needs to provide feedback on channel information from multiple base stations or frequency bands. However, in currently widely used frequency division duplex (FDD) communication systems, a key component of channel information feedback (such as channel state information (CSI) feedback) is the precoding matrix indicator (PMI), which uses "0" and "1" bits to quantize the channel matrix or precoding matrix. PMI design (also known as codebook design) is a fundamental issue in mobile communication systems. Traditional codebook design methods predefine (or agree upon) a series of precoding matrices and their corresponding numbers in the protocol. These precoding matrices are also called codewords. The channel matrix or precoding matrix can be approximated using predefined codewords or linear combinations of multiple codewords. Therefore, the UE can use the PMI to provide feedback to the base station, including the codeword's corresponding number and one or more weighting coefficients, for the base station to use in recovering the channel matrix or precoding matrix. For example, the base station may perform weighted summation based on the fed-back codewords and weighting coefficients to restore the channel matrix or precoding matrix. Therefore, it can be seen that existing channel information feedback is all performed by feeding back predefined (or agreed) codewords and / or weighting coefficients to restore the channel matrix or precoding matrix.

[0170] It can be understood that the higher the accuracy of the CSI fed back by the UE, the richer the information, the more accurate the channel information recovered by the base station based on the CSI, and thus the more accurate the precoding matrix determined by the base station, resulting in better downlink spatial division multiplexing performance, a higher UE received signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and higher system capacity.

[0171] However, as the size of the antenna array in the system increases, the number of supported antenna ports increases. The size of the channel matrix is ​​proportional to the number of antenna ports. In a massive MIMO system, feeding back the channel matrix to the base station via CSI means huge feedback overhead. Especially in the scenario of coordinated transmission with multiple base stations or multiple frequency bands, the UE needs to feed back multiple sets of codeword numbers and weighting coefficients to recover the channel information between the UE and multiple base stations, or to recover the channel information of multiple frequency bands. Therefore, the feedback overhead of channel information increases significantly with the increase in the number of base stations or frequency bands, affecting the data transmission efficiency of the uplink communication link. This is because the capacity of the uplink is limited. If the feedback channel information occupies more resources, then the resources available for transmitting uplink data will be reduced.

[0172] The problem of high feedback overhead becomes increasingly severe in scenarios where the UE feeds back multiple channel information, such as when multiple base stations and multiple frequency bands are coordinated for transmission. To minimize feedback overhead, traditional codebook-based channel feedback methods require predefined codebook designs tailored to the channel characteristics of each CSI feedback scenario. For example, one codebook might be predefined for channel information feedback from multiple stations, and another for channel information feedback from multiple frequencies. As these scenarios continue to expand, the number of predefined codebooks continues to increase, resulting in inflexible CSI feedback and increasing the complexity of implementation and protocol design.

[0173] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, device, and readable storage medium, which can improve the flexibility of channel information feedback, improve feedback accuracy while reducing feedback overhead, and achieve a unified feedback method. That is, for scenarios where a UE feeds back multiple channel information, such as collaborative transmission of multiple base stations and multiple frequency bands, a unified feedback method can be designed.

[0174] The technical solution provided by this application is described in detail below.

[0175] In order to facilitate the clear description of the technical solution of the present application, the present application is described through a plurality of embodiments, and specifically refer to the description of each embodiment below. In the present application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between each embodiment or implementation method can refer to each other. In the various embodiments of the present application, and each implementation method / implementation method / implementation method in each embodiment, if there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments and each implementation method / implementation method / implementation method in each embodiment are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different embodiments and each implementation method / implementation method / implementation method in each embodiment can be combined to form new embodiments, implementation methods, implementation methods, or implementation methods according to their inherent logical relationships. The implementation methods of the present application described below do not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of the present application. It will be understood that the order of the embodiments below does not represent the degree of importance.

[0176] It should be understood that, in this application, indication includes direct indication (also known as explicit indication) and implicit indication. Direct indication of information A refers to including information A; implicit indication of information A refers to indicating information A through the correspondence between information A and information B and the direct indication of information B. The correspondence between information A and information B can be predefined, pre-stored, pre-burned, or pre-configured.

[0177] It should be understood that, in this application, information C is used to determine information D, which includes both information D being determined solely based on information C and information D being determined based on information C and other information. Furthermore, information C is used to determine information D, which may also include indirect determination, such as information D being determined based on information E, and information E being determined based on information C.

[0178] In addition, in each embodiment of the present application, "network element A sends information A to network element B" can be understood as the destination end of the information A or the intermediate network element in the transmission path between the destination end and the network element B, which may include directly or indirectly sending information to network element B. "Network element B receives information A from network element A" can be understood as the source end of the information A or the intermediate network element in the transmission path between the source end and the network element A, which may include directly or indirectly receiving information from network element A. The information may be processed as necessary between the source end and the destination end of the information transmission, such as format changes, but the destination end can understand the valid information from the source end. Similar expressions in this application can be understood similarly and will not be elaborated here.

[0179] The method provided in the present application can be applied to the network devices shown above, such as base stations, and of course can also be applied to the terminal devices shown above, such as UE. The first communication device in the present application can be a network device, such as a base station, CU, DU, RU, O-CU, O-DU, or O-RU, etc.; correspondingly, the second communication device can be a terminal device, such as a UE or a chip in the UE. Alternatively, the first communication device is a terminal device, such as a UE; the second communication device is a network device, such as a base station. Of course, the first communication device and the second communication device can also both be network devices, such as 110a and 110b in Figure 3 above; or both can be terminal devices, such as 120a and 120b in Figure 3 above. The present application does not limit the specific implementation forms of the first communication device and the second communication device.

[0180] The module used to implement the AI ​​model (or AI function) in this application (referred to as the AI ​​module in this application) can be deployed in the first communication device and the second communication device, or it can be deployed outside the first communication device and / or the second communication device, such as in a core network device, a server or a cloud device. This application does not impose any restrictions.

[0181] The encoder and decoder in this application can be implemented using an AI model. Please refer to the description below for details, which will not be described in detail here. The encoder can be used to compress and quantize channel information, and the decoder can be used to recover the corresponding channel information. In the scenario of channel information feedback, the encoder can also be called a channel information generator, and the decoder can also be called a channel information recoverer. The channel information generator can also include a quantizer, and the channel information recoverer can also include a dequantizer.

[0182] Before introducing the communication method provided by the present application, the reference signal and channel information in the method are briefly described. The reference signal in the method may be one or more of the following: channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), synchronization signal block / physical broadcast channel block (SS / PBCH block, SSB), sounding reference signal (SRS), demodulation reference signal (DMRS). Among them, CSI-RS, SSB and DMRS can be used for channel measurement to obtain downlink channel information, and SRS and DMRS can be used for channel measurement to obtain uplink channel information. For uplink channel information, the measured channel may be a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), etc. For downlink channel information, the measured channel may be a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PDCCH).

[0183] The channel information in this method can be used to characterize the channel. This channel information can be full channel information, such as a channel response (e.g., a complex matrix with dimensions of the number of receive antenna ports × the number of transmit antenna ports × the number of subbands), or an eigenvector or a eigenmatrix composed of multiple eigenvectors obtained after singular value decomposition (SVD) of the channel response. This channel information can be obtained based on channel measurements performed by the communication device on a reference signal.

[0184] The term "compression feedback method" in this application can be understood as a feedback method of the compression amount.

[0185] Referring to Figure 6, Figure 6 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method mainly introduces that the UE selects an appropriate compression feedback mode and notifies the base station through indication information (i.e., the first information in the embodiment of the present application) so that the base station can recover channel information based on the channel feedback amount fed back by the UE.

[0186] As shown in FIG6 , the communication method includes but is not limited to the following steps:

[0187] S101: A first communication device (such as a base station or a part of a base station) sends one or more reference signals to a second communication device (such as a UE).

[0188] S102: A second communication device (such as a UE) receives N reference signals, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0189] S103: The second communication device (such as UE) performs channel measurement based on the N reference signals to obtain N channel information.

[0190] In one possible implementation, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to a compressed feedback scenario of multiple channel information. For example, "multiple channel information" can be understood as the channel information corresponding to a single frequency band of multiple base stations (referred to as multi-station single frequency), or the channel information corresponding to multiple frequency bands of a single base station (referred to as single-station multi-frequency), or the channel information corresponding to multiple frequency bands of multiple base stations (referred to as multi-station multi-frequency), or the channel information corresponding to multiple reference signals of a single frequency band of a single base station, etc. "Multi-frequency" can also be understood as multi-carrier.

[0191] In one possible implementation, a first communication device may transmit one or more reference signals, and a second communication device may receive N reference signals. These N reference signals may all come from the first communication device, or some may come from the first communication device. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2. For example, in a multi-station single-frequency scenario, N may represent the number of cooperating base stations. The first communication device may be any base station (or a portion of any base station) or a master station (or a portion of a master station) participating in multi-station coordinated transmission. In this case, the first communication device may transmit one reference signal. In other words, in a multi-station single-frequency scenario, some (e.g., one reference signal) of the N reference signals received by the second communication device may come from the first communication device, and the remaining portion may come from other communication devices. For another example, in a single-station multi-frequency scenario, N may represent the number of frequency bands. The first communication device may use N frequency bands to transmit N reference signals, with one reference signal being transmitted on one frequency band. In other words, in a single-station multi-frequency scenario, all of the N reference signals received by the second communication device come from the first communication device. For another example, for a multi-station multi-frequency scenario, assuming that the number of frequency bands of each base station is the same, N can be equal to the product of N1 and N2, where N1 represents the number of cooperating base stations, and N2 represents the number of frequency bands. The first communication device can be any base station (or a part of any base station) or a master station (or a part of a master station) participating in multi-station cooperative transmission. The first communication device can use N2 frequency bands to send N2 reference signals, and one reference signal can be sent on one frequency band. In other words, in a multi-station multi-frequency scenario, part of the N reference signals received by the second communication device (such as N2 reference signals) comes from the first communication device, and the remaining part comes from other communication devices. It can be understood that for the sake of clarity in the embodiments of the present application, the above takes sending a reference signal on a frequency band or sending a reference signal on a station as an example, but in actual applications, multiple reference signals can also be sent on a frequency band or a station, and this application does not limit this.

[0192] In another possible implementation, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to a channel information compression feedback scenario of a single base station and a single frequency band (referred to as single-station single-frequency). In the single-station single-frequency scenario, the first communication device can send N reference signals (on one frequency band), and these N reference signals can be sent at different times. Correspondingly, the second communication device can receive the N reference signals.

[0193] In one possible implementation, after receiving a reference signal, the second communications device may perform a channel measurement based on the reference signal to obtain channel information. For example, the second communications device may perform a channel measurement upon receiving one reference signal, or may perform channel measurements on each of the multiple reference signals after receiving them. If performing a channel measurement on one reference signal yields one piece of channel information, then performing channel measurements on N reference signals yields N pieces of channel information.

[0194] In one possible implementation, before the first communication device sends a reference signal, that is, before step S101, the first communication device may configure a reference signal resource (RS resource) for the second communication device. For example, the first communication device sends resource configuration information, which may include one or more reference signal resources. One reference signal resource may be used to carry one reference signal. In other words, the number of reference signals sent by the first communication device may be equal to the number of reference signal resources configured by the first communication device. The second communication device may then determine N reference signal resources based on the resource configuration information sent by the first communication device, or based on the resource configuration information sent by the first communication device and other communication devices. These N reference signal resources may belong to one or more reference signal resource sets (RS resource set(s)). The second communication device may receive (or obtain) N reference signals on these N reference signal resources, and then perform channel measurement based on these N reference signals to obtain N channel information. Therefore, one piece of channel information may correspond to one reference signal resource, for example, to one reference signal resource identifier, and N pieces of channel information may correspond to these N reference signal resources (resource identifiers).

[0195] For example, take the reference signal as CSI-RS. In a multi-station scenario (including multi-station single-frequency and multi-station multi-frequency), one or more CSI-RSresources corresponding to base station 1 are configured, and one or more CSI-RSresources corresponding to base station 2 are configured, that is, a total of N CSI-RSresources corresponding to base station 1 and base station 2 are configured, and these N CSI-RSresources belong to one or more CSI-RSresource set(s). Among them, the above configuration can be completed by a single base station, such as all completed by base station 1, or by multiple base stations, such as completed by base station 1 and base station 2 respectively. Base station 1 and base station 2 respectively send CSI-RS on the corresponding CSI-RSresource, and the UE receives CSI-RS on these N CSI-RSresources, and performs channel measurement to obtain channel information. In the single-station scenario (including single-station single-frequency and single-station multi-frequency), the differences from the aforementioned multi-station scenario include: N CSI-RS resources are all configured by the same base station, and this base station sends N reference signals on these N CSI-RS resources, which are not described in detail in the embodiments of this application.

[0196] S104: A second communication device (e.g., a UE) sends first information to a first communication device (e.g., a base station or a portion of the base station). The first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method for the N channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between channel feedback amounts and channel information. One piece of channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0197] Accordingly, the first communication device (eg, a base station or a part of a base station) receives the first information.

[0198] S105: The first communication device (such as a base station or a part of the base station) determines a compression feedback method for the N channel information based on the first information.

[0199] In one possible implementation, after the second communication device obtains the above-mentioned N channel information, it can calculate the correlation between at least two channel information in the N channel information. Exemplarily, the second communication device can calculate the correlation between any two channel information in the N channel information to determine the similarity between the N channels corresponding to the N channel information. For example, if the channel information is the eigenvector obtained after the channel response undergoes singular value decomposition (SVD), the inner product between the eigenvectors can be used to characterize the correlation between the channel information. For another example, if the channel information is the channel response (expressed in matrix form), the channel response can be converted into a vector, and the correlation between the channel information can be characterized by the inner product between the vectors. For example, the larger the inner product value between the vectors, the higher the correlation between the channel information, which also means that the similarity between the channels is greater.

[0200] In one possible implementation, the second communication device may determine a compression feedback mode for the N channel information based on a correlation between at least two pieces of channel information among the N channel information. For example, several compression feedback modes may be predefined, and the second communication device may select one of the predefined compression feedback modes as the compression feedback mode for the N channel information based on the correlation between the N channel information. The compression feedback mode may be characterized by the number of channel feedback amounts and the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information.

[0201] (a) Predefined compression feedback method 1: One channel information corresponds to one channel feedback metric. In other words, one channel feedback metric is used to represent the content of one channel information. Therefore, N channel information corresponds to N channel feedback metric. In other words, one channel information is processed (e.g., compressed) by an encoder to obtain one channel feedback metric. This encoder can be implemented using an AI model.

[0202] See FIG7a, which is a schematic diagram of a channel information compression feedback method provided by an embodiment of the present application. N}, compressing the N channel information can obtain N channel feedback quantities, which are recorded as {c1,c2,...,c N}, where the channel feedback amount c i Used to represent channel information H i As shown in Figure 7a, N channel information is input into N encoders for processing, and the corresponding N channel feedback quantities are obtained, such as channel information H i After the input encoder is processed, the channel feedback amount c is obtained i. Among them, these N encoders can be N implementations of the same AI model, or these N encoders are N different AI models, or these N encoders are P (P is less than N) AI models, some of which use the same AI model; this embodiment of the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0203] It can be understood that the N channel feedback amounts in the above-mentioned compression feedback mode 1 respectively represent N channel information. The compression process can be performed in parallel on these N channel information (as shown in Figure 7a). This has low complexity and high parallelism, and is suitable for scenarios where the correlation between these N channel information is low. In one possible implementation, when the correlation between any two pieces of channel information in the N channel information obtained by the second communication device is less than a preset threshold, the second communication device determines that the compression feedback mode for these N channel information is the predefined compression feedback mode 1.

[0204] It can be understood that the AI ​​model has a strong nonlinear feature extraction capability. Compared with the traditional channel information compression feedback scheme, the channel information compression feedback scheme using the AI ​​model can include more channel information in the feedback of the same scale, thereby reducing the information loss of the channel compression feedback and improving the accuracy of the base station side channel recovery; or, compared with the traditional channel information feedback scheme, it can use less feedback to represent the same scale of channel information, thereby further reducing the feedback overhead. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application uses the AI ​​model to compress channel information, which can reduce feedback overhead and improve feedback accuracy.

[0205] (b) Predefined compression feedback mode 2: One channel information corresponds to one channel feedback amount, but one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of one or more channel information. Exemplarily, N channel information corresponds to M channel feedback amounts, and one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of a channel information subset. In other words, a channel information subset can obtain a channel feedback amount after being processed by an encoder (such as compression), and the encoder can be implemented using an AI model. A channel information subset includes one or more channel information among the N channel information, and the union of the M channel information subsets is the N channel information. The intersection of any two channel information subsets in the M channel information subsets is an empty set. Where M is a positive integer less than N.

[0206] In one possible implementation, the above-mentioned channel information subset can be determined based on the correlation between the channel information. For example, a clustering algorithm (such as a K-means clustering algorithm, or a density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN), etc.) can be used to divide the N channel information obtained by the second communication device into M channel information subsets, wherein the distance between the sample objects in the clustering algorithm is determined by the correlation between the channel information (such as the inner product between vectors), for example, the distance between the sample objects is (1-correlation between channel information), or exp(-correlation between channels).

[0207] In another possible implementation, the above-mentioned channel information subset can also be determined based on a reference signal resource set. As mentioned above, one channel information corresponds to one reference signal resource, so N channel information corresponds to N reference signal resources, and these N reference signal resources can belong to multiple reference signal resource sets. Therefore, the channel information corresponding to the reference signal resources belonging to the same reference signal resource set can be divided into a channel information subset. In other words, the reference signal resources corresponding to all channel information in a channel information subset belong to the same reference signal resource set. Of course, if these N reference signal resources belong to a reference signal resource set, the above-mentioned channel information subset can be determined based on the correlation between the channel information, rather than using a method based on the reference signal resource set.

[0208] See FIG7b, which is another schematic diagram of the channel information compression feedback method provided by the embodiment of the present application. N}, compressing the N channel information can obtain M channel feedback quantities, which are recorded as {c1,c2,...,c M}, where the channel feedback amount c i Used to represent a subset of channel information The union of M channel information subsets And any two channel information subsets among these M channel information subsets and As shown in Figure 7b, M channel information subsets are input into M encoders for processing, and the corresponding M channel feedback quantities are obtained, such as channel information subsets After the input encoder is processed, the channel feedback amount c is obtained iThe M encoders may be M implementations of the same AI model, or the M encoders may be M different AI models, or the M encoders may be P (P is less than M) AI models, some of which use the same AI model; this embodiment of the present application does not impose any restrictions on this. As shown in FIG7b , assuming that the channel information subset Including channel information H1 and H2, channel information subset Including channel information H3 and H4, channel information H1 and H2 are input into an encoder for processing to obtain corresponding channel feedback amount c1, and channel information H3 and H4 are input into another encoder for processing to obtain corresponding channel feedback amount c2.

[0209] It can be understood that the above-mentioned compression feedback mode 2 jointly compresses multiple channel information into a channel feedback amount (as shown in Figure 7b), which can fully utilize the similarity between multiple channel information, has a high degree of compression, and is suitable for scenarios where the correlation between the N channel information is high. In one possible implementation, when the correlation between at least T1 (T1 is less than or equal to N) channel information pairs among the correlations between two channel information in the N channel information obtained by the second communication device is greater than a threshold, and one channel information is selected from each of any two channel information subsets of the M channel information subsets obtained by clustering, and the correlation between the two channel information is lower than a threshold, the second communication device determines that the compression feedback mode for the N channel information is the predefined compression feedback mode 2.

[0210] (c) Predefined compression feedback mode 3: One channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback quantities. For example, assuming that N channel information can be divided into M channel information subsets, these N channel information correspond to (M+K) channel feedback quantities, and one channel feedback quantity among these K channel feedback quantities is used to represent the common information of at least two channel information subsets in these M channel information subsets. In other words, after at least two channel information subsets are processed by the first encoder (such as extracting common features and compressing, etc.), a channel feedback quantity s can be obtained. j , the first encoder can be implemented with an AI model. One of the M channel feedback quantities is used to represent specific information of a channel information subset. In other words, a channel information subset and the public information corresponding to the channel information subset are processed by the second encoder (such as extracting specific features and compressing, etc.) to obtain a channel feedback quantity c i, the second encoder can be implemented using an AI model. A channel information subset includes one or more channel information from the N channel information. The union of the M channel information subsets is the N channel information. The intersection of any two channel information subsets from the M channel information subsets may or may not be an empty set. The first encoder and the second encoder are different. M and K are both positive integers less than N, and K is less than M.

[0211] In one possible implementation, the channel information subset may be determined based on the correlation between the channel information. For details, see the previous description and will not be repeated here. In another possible implementation, the channel information subset may also be determined based on a reference signal resource set. For details, see the previous description and will not be repeated here.

[0212] See FIG7c, which is another schematic diagram of a channel information compression feedback method provided by an embodiment of the present application. N}, the N channel information is divided into M channel information subsets, and the union of these M channel information subsets And the intersection of any two channel information subsets among these M channel information subsets is an empty set. As shown in Figure 7c, the M channel information subsets are input into K first encoders for processing (such as extracting common features and compression), and K channel feedback quantities are obtained, which are recorded as {s1, s2, ..., s K}, the input of a first encoder is at least two channel information subsets; M channel information subsets and their corresponding public information (i.e. {s1, s2, ..., s K}) are input into M second encoders for processing (such as extracting specific features and compression), and the corresponding M channel feedback quantities are obtained, which are recorded as {c1, c2, ..., c M}, the input of a second encoder is a channel information subset and the public information corresponding thereto. The first encoder and the second encoder are implemented using different AI models. The K first encoders can be K implementations of the same AI model, or the K first encoders are K different AI models, or the K first encoders are Q (Q is less than K) AI models, where some of the first encoders use the same AI model; the embodiments of the present application do not limit this. Similarly, the M second encoders can be M implementations of the same AI model, or the M second encoders are M different AI models, or the M second encoders are P (P is less than M) AI models, where some of the second encoders use the same AI model; the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0213] As shown in Figure 7c, the channel information subset and channel information subset Input encoder A extracts common features and compresses to obtain channel feedback s1, channel information subset Together with the corresponding public information (i.e., channel feedback amount s1), it is input into encoder B for processing to obtain the corresponding channel feedback amount c1. The channel information subset Together with the corresponding public information (i.e., channel feedback amount s1), it is input into encoder B for processing to obtain the corresponding channel feedback amount c2. Here, the channel feedback amount s1 can represent the channel information subset and channel information subset The public information of the channel feedback amount c1 can represent the channel information subset The channel feedback amount c2 can represent the channel information subset specific information.

[0214] It can be understood that the above-mentioned compression feedback mode 3 jointly compresses the common features of multiple channel information into a channel feedback amount (as shown in Figure 7c), which can fully utilize the similarity between multiple channel information, has a high degree of compression, and has a lower complexity than the above-mentioned compression feedback mode 2, and is suitable for scenarios where the correlation between the N channel information is moderate. In one possible implementation, when the correlation between the two channel information in the N channel information obtained by the second communication device is greater than a threshold value, and there are two channel subsets after clustering, one channel information is selected from each of the two channel information subsets, and the correlation between the two channel information is higher than a threshold value, the second communication device determines that the compression feedback mode of the N channel information is the predefined compression feedback mode 3. Among them, T2 can be the same as T1 or different, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

[0215] It can be understood that from the above three compression feedback methods, the embodiment of the present application can flexibly select a suitable compression feedback method according to the similarity between the above N channel information, thereby achieving compression of N channel information with the lowest possible complexity and high compression ratio.

[0216] In a possible implementation, the embodiment of the present application may also predefine more compression feedback methods, such as a combination of at least two of the above three compression feedback methods, which are not described in detail here. Referring to FIG. 7d, FIG. 7d is another schematic diagram of a channel information compression feedback method provided by an embodiment of the present application. FIG. 7d shows a combination of the above compression feedback method 2 and the above compression feedback method 3. Wherein, N channel information is recorded as {H1, H2, ..., H N}, the N channel information is divided into M channel information subsets, each channel information subset includes one or more channel information, the union of these M channel information subsets As shown in Figure 7d, assuming that M is equal to 3, the channel information subset Including channel information H1 and H2, the channel information subset Input encoder C is processed to obtain the corresponding channel feedback amount c1, channel information subset and channel information subset Input encoder A extracts common features and compresses to obtain channel feedback s2, channel information subset Together with the corresponding public information (i.e., channel feedback amount s2), it is input into encoder B for processing to obtain the corresponding channel feedback amount c3. The channel information subset The corresponding public information (i.e., channel feedback amount s2) is input into encoder B for processing to obtain the corresponding channel feedback amount c4. Here, the channel feedback amount c1 can represent the channel information subset The channel feedback amount s2 can represent the channel information subset and channel information subset The public information of the channel feedback amount c3 can represent the channel information subset The channel feedback amount c4 can represent the channel information subset Specific information of the encoder. Among them, encoder A, encoder B and encoder C can be different.

[0217] In a possible implementation, after determining the compression feedback mode of the N channel information, the second communication device may send first information to the first communication device, where the first information may be used to indicate the compression feedback mode of the N channel information.

[0218] In one possible implementation, a unique identifier can be set for a predefined compression feedback method, and the compression feedback method of the N channel information can be determined by carrying the identifier of the compression feedback method in the first information. The correspondence between the compression feedback method and the identifier can be predefined, preconfigured, or determined through negotiation, etc., and is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. It is only necessary for the sender and receiver to reach an agreement. Then, after receiving the first information, the first communication device can obtain the compression feedback method of the N channel information based on the identifier carried by the first information and the correspondence between the compression feedback method and the identifier, so as to facilitate the subsequent recovery of the channel information based on the compression feedback method and the channel feedback amount sent by the second communication device.

[0219] For example, assuming that the identifier of the compression feedback mode shown in FIG7a is ID1, the identifier of the compression feedback mode shown in FIG7b is ID2, the identifier of the compression feedback mode shown in FIG7c is ID3, and the identifier of the compression feedback mode shown in FIG7d is ID4. Assuming that the first information carries ID4, indicating that the compression feedback mode is as shown in FIG7d, the channel feedback amount c1 can represent the channel information subset (including the entire content of channel information H1 and H2), the channel feedback amount s2 can represent a subset of channel information and channel information subset The public information of the channel feedback amount c3 can represent the channel information subset The channel feedback amount c4 can represent the channel information subset Therefore, the UE uses 4 encoders to generate 4 channel feedback quantities.

[0220] In another possible implementation, the first information includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts corresponding to the N channel information, or the correspondence between each channel feedback amount and one or more channel information in the N channel information. It is understood that because the compression feedback mode can be characterized by the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between each channel feedback amount and the channel information, the first information can carry content characterizing the compression feedback mode to determine the compression feedback mode of the N channel information. It is also understood that when part of the content characterizing the compression feedback mode (such as the number of channel feedback amounts) is predefined, the first information can carry other part of the content characterizing the compression feedback mode (such as the correspondence between each channel feedback amount and one or more channel information in the N channel information). Upon receiving the first information, the first communication device can determine the compression feedback mode of the N channel information based on the content carried by the first information and the predefined content characterizing the compression feedback mode, so as to facilitate subsequent recovery of the channel information based on the compression feedback mode and the channel feedback amount sent by the second communication device.

[0221] For example, N is equal to 4, and the first information indicates that the number of channel feedback amounts corresponding to the four channel information is 6, where the first channel feedback amount c1 corresponds to the channel information H1 and is used to represent specific information of the channel information H1. The second channel feedback amount c2 corresponds to the channel information H2 and is used to represent specific information of the channel information H2. The third channel feedback amount s3 corresponds to the channel information H1 and H2 and is used to represent common information of the channel information H1 and the channel information H2. The fourth channel feedback amount c4 corresponds to the channel information H3 and is used to represent specific information of the channel information H3. The fifth channel feedback amount c5 corresponds to the channel information H4 and is used to represent specific information of the channel information H4. The sixth channel feedback amount s6 corresponds to the channel information H3 and H4 and is used to represent common information of the channel information H3 and the channel information H4. Therefore, the UE can determine 6 encoders, which are used to generate these 6 feedback amounts respectively, where encoder 1 is used to generate c1, and the input of encoder 1 includes channel information H1 and channel feedback amount s3; encoder 2 is used to generate c2, and the input of encoder 2 includes channel information H2 and channel feedback amount s3; encoder 3 is used to generate s3, and the input of encoder 3 includes channel information H1 and H2; encoder 4 is used to generate c4, and the input of encoder 4 includes channel information H3 and channel feedback amount s6; encoder 5 is used to generate c5, and the input of encoder 5 includes channel information H4 and channel feedback amount s6; encoder 6 is used to generate s6, and the input of encoder 6 includes channel information H3 and H4.

[0222] In one possible implementation, a 0 / 1 matrix may be used to indicate the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the N channel information. For the example in the previous paragraph, the 0 / 1 matrix may be:

[0223] The rows of the 0 / 1 matrix represent channel information, and the columns represent channel feedback quantities. A 1 in the i-th row and j-th column indicates that the j-th channel feedback quantity corresponds to the i-th channel information, or that the j-th channel feedback quantity is obtained based on the i-th channel information, or that the j-th channel feedback quantity contains all or part of the characteristics of the i-th channel information. A 0 in the i-th row and j-th column indicates that there is no corresponding relationship between the j-th channel feedback quantity and the i-th channel information, or that the j-th channel feedback quantity does not contain any characteristics of the i-th channel information.

[0224] In another possible implementation, a 0 / 1 matrix can be used to indicate the number of channel feedback amounts and the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amounts and the N channel information. The 0 / 1 matrix in the previous section can be expressed as shown in Table 1 below.

[0225] Table 1

[0226] A row in Table 1 represents a channel feedback amount and its corresponding channel information. The number of rows in Table 1 is the number of channel feedback amounts. The first column in Table 1 represents the channel feedback amount, and the second column represents the channel information corresponding to the channel feedback amount in the first column.

[0227] It is understood that the present application does not limit the specific form of expression of the first information, or in other words, the present application does not limit the signaling form of the first information. Any signaling indication method that can express the content of the above-mentioned first information is within the scope of protection of this application. In one possible implementation, through the indication of the above-mentioned first information, the first communication device and the second communication device can reach an agreement on the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information. However, the first communication device and the second communication device can also reach an agreement on the AI ​​model used by the encoder to generate each channel feedback amount. In one implementation, the first communication device determines the identifier of the AI ​​model used by the encoder to generate each channel feedback amount and indicates it to the second communication device. In another implementation, the second communication device determines the identifier of the AI ​​model used by the encoder to generate each channel feedback amount and indicates it to the first communication device. In yet another implementation, the first communication device indicates a set of candidate AI models, and the second communication device determines the identifier of the AI ​​model used by the encoder to generate each channel feedback amount from the candidate AI model set and indicates it to the first communication device. It is understood that in the same compression feedback mode, multiple encoders can use the same AI model. Of course, these multiple encoders can also use different AI models, or some of these multiple encoders can reuse the same AI model; this embodiment of the application does not limit this. In different compression feedback modes, some encoders can also use the same AI model, which is not limited in the embodiment of the application.

[0228] The embodiments of the present application provide multiple compressed feedback methods for channel information, and indicate which compressed feedback method to use through the first information, thereby improving the flexibility of channel information feedback. In the compressed feedback method, the embodiments of the present application use an AI model to compress channel information, which can reduce feedback overhead while improving feedback accuracy. In addition, for multi-station and multi-frequency scenarios, the embodiments of the present application do not need to design compressed feedback methods separately, and can achieve the unification of channel compression feedback methods.

[0229] In a possible implementation, after step S104, the communication method shown in FIG6 may further include:

[0230] S106, the second communication device (such as UE) sends third information to the first communication device (such as a base station or a part of the base station), where the third information includes the channel feedback amount of the above N channel information after being processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the above first information.

[0231] Correspondingly, the first communication device (such as the base station or a part of the base station) receives the third information.

[0232] S107: The first communication device (such as a base station or a part of the base station) restores one or more channel information based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and the at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information.

[0233] In one possible implementation, after step S104, the second communication device may process (e.g., compress) the N channel information obtained in step S103 using the compression feedback method indicated by the first information in step S104 to obtain multiple channel feedback amounts. The second communication device may then feedback these multiple channel feedback amounts to the first communication device, for example, the second communication device sends third information to the first communication device, where the third information includes these multiple channel feedback amounts. It is understood that in a multi-station scenario (e.g., multi-station multi-frequency or multi-station single-frequency), the second communication device may send the third information to multiple first communication devices participating in multi-station coordinated transmission (the multiple first communication devices here may refer to all or part of the first communication devices participating in the multi-station coordinated transmission) so that each first communication device can recover its own channel information based on the third information. Of course, the second communication device may also send the third information to a first communication device participating in the multi-station coordinated transmission (e.g., a master station or any base station) so that the first communication device can recover one or more channel information based on the third information.

[0234] Exemplarily, the third information may be a CSI report (CSI report), and the second communication device may feed back the multiple channel feedback quantities to the first communication device via one or more CSI reports.

[0235] It can be understood that the number of channel feedback amounts after the N channel information is processed using the compression feedback method indicated by the first information is related to the compression feedback method. For example, if the compression feedback method indicated by the first information is compression feedback method 1, then the N channel information is processed using compression feedback method 1 to obtain N compression feedback amounts; if the compression feedback method indicated by the first information is compression feedback method 2, then the N channel information is processed using compression feedback method 2 to obtain M (M is less than N) compression feedback amounts; if the compression feedback method indicated by the first information is compression feedback method 3, then the N channel information is processed using compression feedback method 3 to obtain (M+K) compression feedback amounts.

[0236] In one possible implementation, after obtaining the third information, the first communication device may restore one or more channel information based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information. In a single-station multi-frequency scenario, the first communication device may restore N channel information based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and all channel feedback amounts included in the third information. In a multi-station single-frequency scenario, the first communication device may restore one channel information of its own based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and the partial channel feedback amount included in the third information. In a multi-station multi-frequency scenario, the first communication device (assuming there are N2 frequency bands) may restore its own N2 channel information based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and the partial channel feedback amount included in the third information. It can be understood that in order for the first communications device to determine which channel feedback quantities are relevant to itself, the third information, in addition to including the multiple channel feedback quantities, may also include a reference signal resource indicator corresponding to each channel feedback quantity (e.g., a reference signal resource ID or information about a reference signal antenna port or port group). Upon receiving the third information, the first communications device may determine the channel feedback quantity relevant to itself based on the reference signal resource indicator corresponding to each channel feedback quantity (e.g., a reference signal resource ID or information about a reference signal antenna port or port group). The first communications device may then recover one or more channel information items related to itself based on the compressed feedback mode indicated in the first information and the one or more channel feedback quantities related to itself in the third information. Because one channel feedback quantity corresponds to one or more channel information items, and one channel information item corresponds to one reference signal resource, one channel feedback quantity may correspond to one or more reference signal resources. Reference signal resources can be configured by the first communications device. Therefore, the first communications device may determine which reference signal resources belong to itself. The channel feedback quantities corresponding to these reference signal resources are therefore relevant to the first communications device and are used by the first communications device to recover the channel information.

[0237] In one possible implementation, the process of recovering the channel information by the first communication device is the inverse process of compressing the channel information by the second communication device. The following discusses the method of recovering the channel information under different compression feedback methods. It can be understood that the channel information obtained by the second communication device in the aforementioned step S103 is not exactly the same as the channel information recovered by the first communication device in step S107, but the two are similar. When the accuracy of the channel feedback amount is higher, the channel information recovered in step S107 is more similar to the channel information obtained in step S103. For the convenience of description below, the channel information obtained in the aforementioned step S103 is recorded as H i The channel information recovered in step S107 is recorded as H i ′.

[0238] (1) The compression feedback mode indicated by the first information is the aforementioned compression feedback mode 1

[0239] Refer to Figure 8a, which is a schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 8a can be understood as the reverse process of Figure 7a, which shows a schematic diagram of channel information recovery when the channel information is compressed using compression feedback mode 1. When the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information is the compression feedback mode 1, the third information includes N channel feedback amounts, which are recorded as {c1, c2, ..., c N}, where the channel feedback amount c i Used to represent channel information H i As shown in Figure 8a, N channel feedback quantities are input into N decoders for processing to recover N channel information, which is recorded as {H1′, H2′, ..., H N '}. Of course, a more complex decoder can also be used to jointly process these N channel feedback amounts, and this embodiment of the present application does not limit this. Among them, these N decoders can be N implementations of the same AI model, or these N decoders are N different AI models, or these N decoders are P (P is less than N) AI models, among which some decoders use the same AI model; this embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0240] (2) The compression feedback mode indicated by the first information is the aforementioned compression feedback mode 2

[0241] Refer to Figure 8b, which is another schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 8b can be understood as the reverse process of Figure 7b, which shows a schematic diagram of channel information recovery when channel information is compressed using compression feedback mode 2. When the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information is the compression feedback mode 2, the third information includes M channel feedback amounts, recorded as {c1, c2, ..., c M}, where the channel feedback amount c i Used to represent a subset of channel information As shown in FIG8b, M channel feedback quantities are input into M decoders for processing to recover M channel information subsets. The union of these M channel information subsets is N channel information, denoted as {H1′, H2′, ..., H N '},Right now And the intersection of any two channel information subsets in these M channel information subsets is an empty set. Of course, a more complex decoder can also be used to jointly process these M channel feedback amounts, and this embodiment of the present application does not limit this. Among them, these M decoders can be M implementations of the same AI model, or these M decoders are M different AI models, or these M decoders are P (P is less than M) AI models, where some decoders use the same AI model; this embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0242] For example, as shown in FIG8b, the channel feedback amount c1 is input into the decoder for processing to obtain the channel information subset The channel information subset Including channel information H1' and H2'; the channel feedback amount c2 is input into another decoder for processing to obtain a channel information subset The channel information subset Includes channel information H3' and H4'.

[0243] (3) The compression feedback mode indicated by the first information is the aforementioned compression feedback mode 3

[0244] Refer to Figure 8c, which is another schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 8c can be understood as the reverse process of Figure 7c, which shows a schematic diagram of channel information recovery when channel information is compressed using compression feedback mode 3. When the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information is the compression feedback mode 3, the third information includes (M+K) channel feedback quantities, recorded as {c1, c2, ..., c M ,s1,s2,...,s K}, where the channel feedback amount c i Used to represent a subset of channel information Specific information of the channel feedback amount s i Represents the common information of at least two channel information subsets. As shown in Figure 8c, the channel feedback amount related to each channel information subset is input into the decoder for processing to recover the channel information of each channel information subset. Channel feedback amount c of specific information i and is used to represent the channel information subset Channel feedback amount s of public information l The input decoder is processed to recover the corresponding channel information. Of course, a more complex decoder can also be used to jointly process the (M+K) channel feedback amounts, and this embodiment of the present application does not limit this. As shown in Figure 8c, a total of M decoders can be used to recover N channel information. These M decoders can be M implementations of the same AI model, or these M decoders are M different AI models, or these M decoders are P (P is less than M) AI models, where some decoders use the same AI model; this embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0245] For example, as shown in FIG8c, the channel feedback amount c1 and the channel feedback amount s1 are input into the decoder for processing to obtain the channel information subset The channel feedback amount c2 and the channel feedback amount s1 are input into another decoder for processing to obtain the channel information subset in, H i ' represents the recovered channel information.

[0246] In one possible implementation, the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information may be a combination of at least two of the three compression feedback modes (compression feedback mode 1, compression feedback mode 2, and compression feedback mode 3) mentioned above. Referring to Figure 8d, Figure 8d is another schematic diagram of channel information recovery provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 8d can be understood as the inverse process of the aforementioned Figure 7d, which shows a schematic diagram of channel information recovery when the compression feedback mode used by the second communication device is a combination of compression feedback modes 2 and 3. As shown in Figure 8d, the channel feedback amount c1 is input to decoder 1 for processing to obtain a channel information subset The channel information subset Including channel information H1' and H2'; channel feedback amount s2 and channel feedback amount c3 are input into decoder 2 for processing to obtain a channel information subset The channel feedback amount s2 and the channel feedback amount c4 are input to the decoder 3 for processing to obtain the channel information subset It can be understood that the channel feedback amount c1 represents the channel information subset The channel feedback amount s2 can represent the channel information subset and channel information subset The public information of the channel feedback amount c3 can represent the channel information subset The channel feedback amount c4 can represent the channel information subset Decoder 1 is different from decoder 2 and decoder 3. Decoder 2 and decoder 3 may be the same or different, and this embodiment of the application does not limit this.

[0247] In a possible implementation, the first information uses a 0 / 1 matrix to indicate the number of channel feedback amounts and the corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amounts and the N channel information. Assume that the 0 / 1 matrix is:

[0248] The rows of the 0 / 1 matrix represent channel information, and the columns represent channel feedback quantities. A 1 in the i-th row and j-th column indicates that the j-th channel feedback quantity corresponds to the i-th channel information, or that the j-th channel feedback quantity is obtained based on the i-th channel information, or that the j-th channel feedback quantity contains all or part of the characteristics of the i-th channel information. A 0 in the i-th row and j-th column indicates that there is no corresponding relationship between the j-th channel feedback quantity and the i-th channel information, or that the j-th channel feedback quantity does not contain any characteristics of the i-th channel information. According to the 0 / 1 matrix, the first and third channel feedback amounts correspond to channel information H1. Therefore, the first and third channel feedback amounts can be input into decoder 1 for processing to obtain channel information H1′. The second and third channel feedback amounts correspond to channel information H2. Therefore, the second and third channel feedback amounts can be input into decoder 2 for processing to obtain channel information H2′. The fourth and fourth channel feedback amounts correspond to channel information H3. Therefore, the fourth and sixth channel feedback amounts can be input into decoder 3 for processing to obtain channel information H3′. The fifth and sixth channel feedback amounts correspond to channel information H4. Therefore, the fifth and sixth channel feedback amounts can be input into decoder 4 for processing to obtain channel information H4′.

[0249] It can be understood that the first information uses a list to indicate the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the N channel information. This is similar to the use of a 0 / 1 matrix to indicate the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the N channel information. The processing at the receiving end is similar and will not be described in detail here.

[0250] In the embodiments of the present application, the second communication device flexibly selects an appropriate compression feedback method based on the similarity between the channel information, thereby reducing the complexity of the channel compression feedback and improving the compression ratio of the channel information. The determined compression feedback method is then communicated to the first communication device via the first information, aligning both parties' understanding of the channel feedback amount and facilitating the first communication device's recovery of the channel information. Furthermore, for multi-station and multi-frequency scenarios, the embodiments of the present application eliminate the need to design separate compression feedback methods, achieving a unified channel compression feedback method.

[0251] Referring to Figure 9, Figure 9 is another flow diagram of the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method mainly introduces that the base station selects an appropriate compression feedback mode and notifies the UE through indication information (i.e., the first information in the embodiment of the present application), so that the UE processes the channel information according to the compression feedback mode indicated by the base station and feeds back the processed compression feedback amount to the base station.

[0252] As shown in FIG9 , the communication method includes but is not limited to the following steps:

[0253] S201: A first communication device (such as a base station or a part of a base station) sends one or more reference signals to a second communication device (such as a UE).

[0254] S202: A second communication device (eg, UE) receives N reference signals, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0255] S203: The second communication device (such as UE) performs channel measurement based on the N reference signals to obtain N channel information.

[0256] In one possible implementation, the implementation of steps S201 to S203 in the embodiment of the present application can refer to the implementation of steps 101 to S103 in the embodiment shown in Figure 6 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0257] S204: The second communication device (e.g., UE) sends second information to the first communication device (e.g., base station or a portion of the base station). The second information includes a correlation between at least two pieces of channel information among the N pieces of channel information. The second information is used to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of channel information.

[0258] Accordingly, the first communication device (eg, a base station or a part of a base station) receives the second information.

[0259] S205: The first communication device (such as a base station or a part of the base station) determines a compression feedback method for the N channel information based on the second information.

[0260] In one possible implementation, after obtaining the N channel information, the second communication device may calculate the correlation between at least two of the N channel information. Exemplarily, the second communication device may calculate the correlation between any two of the N channel information to determine the degree of similarity between the N channels corresponding to the N channel information. The second communication device may then send second information to the first communication device, where the second information includes the correlation between any two of the N channel information. For example, if the channel information is an eigenvector obtained after singular value decomposition (SVD) of the channel response, the inner product between the eigenvectors may be used to characterize the correlation between the channel information. For another example, if the channel information is a channel response (expressed in matrix form), the channel response may be converted into a vector, and the inner product between the vectors may be used to characterize the correlation between the channel information. For example, the larger the inner product value between the vectors, the higher the correlation between the channel information, which also indicates that the degree of similarity between the channels is greater.

[0261] Exemplarily, the second communication device may carry the correlation between each pair of channel information in the N channel information (such as the inner product value between vectors) in the second information and send it to the first communication device. Alternatively, the second communication device quantizes or normalizes the correlation between each pair of channel information in the N channel information (such as the inner product value between vectors) and carries it in the second information to send it to the first communication device. In one possible implementation, the second communication device may convert the correlation between each pair of channel information in the N channel information (such as the inner product value between vectors) into the form of a vector or matrix and carry it in the second information to send it to the first communication device.

[0262] It is understood that in a multi-station scenario (such as multi-station multi-frequency or multi-station single-frequency), the second communication device can send second information to a first communication device (such as a master station or any base station) participating in the multi-station coordinated transmission, so that the first communication device can determine the compression feedback method of the N channel information based on the content of the second information. Of course, the second communication device can also send second information to multiple first communication devices participating in the multi-station coordinated transmission, but only a designated first communication device can reply to the first information, or the second communication device can only receive the first information replied by a certain first communication device.

[0263] In one possible implementation, after receiving the second information, the first communication device may determine a compression feedback mode for the N channel information based on a correlation between at least two pieces of channel information among the N channel information. The method for determining the compression feedback mode by the first communication device may refer to the method for determining the compression feedback mode by the second communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , and will not be further described here.

[0264] S206: The first communication device (e.g., a base station or a portion of the base station) sends first information to the second communication device (e.g., a UE). The first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method for the N channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between channel feedback amounts and channel information. One piece of channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0265] Correspondingly, the second communication device (such as UE) receives the first information. The second communication device (such as UE) may also determine a compression feedback method for the N channel information based on the first information.

[0266] In one possible implementation, after determining the compression feedback mode for the N channel information, the first communication device may send first information to the second communication device. This first information may be used to indicate the compression feedback mode for the N channel information. The compression feedback mode may be characterized by the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information. Regarding the implementation of the first information, reference may be made to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , and will not be repeated here.

[0267] In one possible implementation, the first communication device and the second communication device may reach an agreement on the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information, as indicated by the first information. However, the first communication device and the second communication device may also reach an agreement on the AI ​​model used by the encoder that generates each channel feedback amount. For specific implementations, see the relevant description in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , and will not be further elaborated here.

[0268] In a possible implementation, after step S206, the communication method shown in FIG9 further includes:

[0269] S207, the second communication device (such as UE) sends third information to the first communication device (such as a base station or a part of the base station), where the third information includes the channel feedback amount of the above N channel information after being processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the above first information.

[0270] Correspondingly, the first communication device (such as the base station or a part of the base station) receives the third information.

[0271] S208: The first communication device (eg, a base station or a portion of the base station) restores one or more channel information based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and the at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information.

[0272] In one possible implementation, the implementation of step S207 and step S208 in the embodiment of the present application can refer to the implementation of step S106 and step S107 in the embodiment shown in Figure 6 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0273] In the embodiment of the present application, the second communication device informs the first communication device of the correlation between the channel information through the second information. The first communication device flexibly selects an appropriate compression feedback method based on the correlation between the channel information, which can reduce the complexity of the channel compression feedback and improve the compression ratio of the channel information. The determined compression feedback method is then notified to the second communication device through the first information to align the two parties' understanding of the channel feedback amount, making it easier for the second communication device to compress the channel information. In addition, for multi-station and multi-frequency scenarios, the embodiment of the present application does not need to design compression feedback methods separately, and can achieve a unified channel compression feedback method.

[0274] Refer to Figure 10, which is another flow chart of the communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method mainly introduces that the base station determines the compression feedback method of the downlink channel information (i.e., the first channel information of the embodiment of the present application) based on the correlation between the uplink channel information (i.e., the second channel information of the embodiment of the present application), and informs the UE through the indication information (i.e., the first information in the embodiment of the present application) so that the UE processes the downlink channel information according to the compression feedback method indicated by the base station, and feeds back the processed compression feedback amount to the base station. This method can be applied to scenarios where there is reciprocity between the uplink and downlink channels and the uplink channel aging is not serious.

[0275] As shown in FIG10 , the communication method includes but is not limited to the following steps:

[0276] S301: A second communication device (such as a UE) sends one or more second reference signals.

[0277] Accordingly, the first communication device (e.g., a base station or a portion of a base station) receives one or more second reference signals and performs channel measurement based on the received second reference signals to obtain one or more second channel information. One second reference signal is subjected to channel measurement to obtain one second channel information.

[0278] S302: A first communication device (eg, a base station or a portion of a base station) obtains L second channel information, where the second channel information is determined based on the second reference signal, where L is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0279] In one possible implementation, the second reference signal of the embodiment of the present application is an uplink reference signal, such as SRS or DMRS; correspondingly, the second channel information is uplink channel information, such as an uplink channel response, or an eigenvector or a eigenmatrix composed of multiple eigenvectors obtained after singular value decomposition (SVD) of the uplink channel response.

[0280] In one possible implementation, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to a compressed feedback scenario of multiple channel information. Among them, "multiple channel information" can be understood as the channel information corresponding to a single frequency band of multiple base stations (referred to as multi-station single frequency), or the channel information corresponding to multiple frequency bands of a single base station (referred to as single-station multi-frequency), or the channel information corresponding to multiple frequency bands of multiple base stations (referred to as multi-station multi-frequency), or the channel information corresponding to multiple reference signals of a single frequency band of a single base station, etc. "Multi-frequency" can also be understood as multi-carrier.

[0281] In one possible implementation, the second communication device transmits one or more second reference signals, and the first communication device may receive one or more of the second reference signals. For example, in a multi-station single-frequency scenario, the second communication device transmits one second reference signal, and the first communication device receives the second reference signal. In a multi-station multi-frequency scenario, the second communication device transmits multiple second reference signals, and the first communication device receives the multiple second reference signals. In a single-station multi-frequency scenario, the second communication device transmits L second reference signals, and the first communication device receives the L second reference signals. In short, in a multi-station single-frequency scenario, the first communication device may receive all of the second reference signals transmitted by the second communication device, and other communication devices may also receive the second reference signals. In a multi-station multi-frequency scenario, the first communication device may receive all of the multiple second reference signals transmitted by the second communication device, and other communication devices may also receive the multiple second reference signals. In a single-station multi-frequency scenario, all of the L second reference signals transmitted by the second communication device are sent to the first communication device. The transmission frequency bands of the multiple second reference signals sent by the second communication device may be different, partially the same, or all the same, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0282] In another possible implementation, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to a channel information compression feedback scenario of a single base station and a single frequency band (referred to as single-station single-frequency). In the single-station single-frequency scenario, the second communication device can send L second reference signals (on one frequency band), and these L second reference signals can be sent at different times. Correspondingly, the first communication device can receive the L second reference signals.

[0283] In one possible implementation, after receiving the second reference signal, the first communications device may perform channel measurement based on the second reference signal to obtain second channel information. For example, the first communications device may perform a channel measurement upon receiving one second reference signal, or may perform channel measurement on each of the multiple second reference signals after receiving them. Performing a channel measurement on one second reference signal may yield one piece of second channel information.

[0284] In one possible implementation, if the first communication device receives L second reference signals, channel measurement is performed based on the L second reference signals to obtain L second channel information. In another possible implementation, if the first communication device receives W (W is a positive integer less than L) second reference signals, channel measurement is performed based on the W second reference signals to obtain W second channel information; the remaining (LW) second channel information may come from other communication devices. In other words, the first communication device performs channel measurement based on the received second reference signal to obtain W second channel information, and then receives the second channel information sent by the other communication device to obtain (LW) second channel information, thereby obtaining L second channel information. The (LW) second channel information sent by the other communication device may be compressed and fed back according to a traditional codebook, or may be compressed and fed back using the compression feedback method provided in this application (such as compression feedback method 1, compression feedback method 2, or compression feedback method 3 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 ); this embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0285] S303: The first communication device (eg, a base station or a part of the base station) determines a compression feedback method for the N first channel information based on a correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information.

[0286] In one possible implementation, after the first communication device obtains the above-mentioned L second channel information, it can calculate the correlation between at least two second channel information in the L second channel information. Exemplarily, the second communication device can calculate the correlation between the two second channel information in the L second channel information to determine the similarity between the L channels corresponding to the L second channel information. For example, the channel information is the eigenvector obtained after the channel response is subjected to singular value decomposition (SVD), and the inner product between the eigenvectors can be used to characterize the correlation between the channel information. For another example, the channel information is the channel response (expressed in matrix form), and the channel response can be converted into a vector, and the correlation between the channel information can be characterized by the inner product between the vectors. For example, the larger the inner product value between the vectors, the higher the correlation between the channel information, which also means that the similarity between the channels is greater.

[0287] In one possible implementation, the first communication device may determine a compression feedback mode for the N pieces of first channel information based on a correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information. The method for determining the compression feedback mode by the first communication device may refer to the method for determining the compression feedback mode by the second communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , and will not be further described here.

[0288] S304: A first communication device (e.g., a base station or a portion of a base station) sends first information to a second communication device (e.g., a UE). The first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method for the N first channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information. One piece of first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0289] Correspondingly, the second communication device (such as UE) receives the first information. The second communication device (such as UE) may also determine a compression feedback mode for the N first channel information based on the first information.

[0290] In one possible implementation, after determining the compression feedback mode for the N first channel information, the first communication device may send first information to the second communication device. This first information may be used to indicate the compression feedback mode for the N first channel information. The compression feedback mode may be characterized by the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information. Regarding the implementation mode of the first information, reference may be made to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , and will not be repeated here.

[0291] In one possible implementation, the first communication device and the second communication device may reach an agreement on the number of channel feedback amounts and the correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the first channel information, as indicated by the first information. However, the first communication device and the second communication device may also reach an agreement on the AI ​​model used by the encoder that generates each channel feedback amount. For specific implementations, refer to the relevant description in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , and will not be further elaborated here.

[0292] In a possible implementation, after step S304, the communication method shown in FIG10 further includes:

[0293] S305: A first communication device (eg, a base station or a part of a base station) sends one or more first reference signals to a second communication device (eg, a UE).

[0294] S306: The second communication device (eg, UE) receives N first reference signals, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0295] S307: The second communication device (such as UE) performs channel measurement based on the N first reference signals to obtain N first channel information.

[0296] In one possible implementation, the implementation of steps S305 to S307 in the embodiment of the present application can refer to the implementation of steps 101 to S103 in the embodiment shown in Figure 6 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0297] In one possible implementation, the first reference signal of an embodiment of the present application is a downlink reference signal, such as CSI-RS, SSB, or DMRS; correspondingly, the first channel information is downlink channel information, such as a downlink channel response, or a characteristic vector or a characteristic matrix composed of multiple eigenvectors obtained after singular value decomposition (SVD) of the downlink channel response.

[0298] S308, the second communication device (such as UE) sends third information to the first communication device (such as a base station or a part of the base station), where the third information includes the channel feedback amount of the above N first channel information after being processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the above first information.

[0299] S309: The first communication device (such as a base station or a part of the base station) restores one or more first channel information based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and the at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information.

[0300] In one possible implementation, the implementation of step S308 and step S309 in the embodiment of the present application can refer to the implementation of step 106 and step S107 in the embodiment shown in Figure 6 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0301] The first communication device of the embodiment of the present application uses the correlation between the uplink channel information (i.e., the second channel information) to determine the compression feedback method of the downlink channel information (i.e., the first channel information), which can be applied to the scenario where there is reciprocity between the uplink and downlink channels, or the uplink channel is not severely aged; the first communication device also informs the second communication device of which compression feedback method to use through indication information (i.e., the first information), so that the second communication device processes the downlink channel information according to the compression feedback method indicated by the first communication device, and feeds back the processed compression feedback amount to the first communication device, which can improve the flexibility of channel information feedback and improve feedback accuracy while reducing feedback overhead. In addition, for multi-station and multi-frequency scenarios, the embodiment of the present application does not need to design compression feedback methods separately, and can achieve the unification of channel compression feedback methods.

[0302] The above content elaborates on the method provided by the present application. In order to facilitate the implementation of the above scheme of the embodiment of the present application, the embodiment of the present application also provides corresponding devices or equipment.

[0303] The present application divides the functional modules of the communication device according to the above-mentioned method embodiment. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in this application is schematic and is only a logical functional division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. The communication device of the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to Figures 11 to 13.

[0304] 11 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG11 , the communication device may include a transceiver unit 10 and a processing unit 20 .

[0305] In some embodiments of the present application, the communication device may be the first communication device shown above or a chip or circuit provided in the first communication device. That is, the communication device may be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the first communication device in the above method embodiments.

[0306] In one design, a transceiver unit 10 is configured to receive first information indicating a compressed feedback mode for N channel information. The compressed feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between channel feedback amounts and channel information; and one or more channel feedback amounts corresponding to one or more channel information. A processing unit 20 is configured to determine the compressed feedback mode based on the first information. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0307] In the embodiment of the present application, the description of the first information, the compression feedback method of N channel information, etc. can be referred to the introduction in the method embodiment shown in Figure 6 above, and will not be described in detail here.

[0308] It is understood that the specific descriptions of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiment of the present application are merely examples. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the method embodiment shown in FIG6 above, and no further details will be given here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiment of the present application refer to the technical effects of the method embodiment shown in FIG6 above, and for the sake of brevity, no further details will be given here.

[0309] In another design, the processing unit 20 is configured to determine a compression feedback mode for N pieces of first channel information; the transceiver unit 10 is configured to send first information, where the first information is configured to indicate a compression feedback mode for the N pieces of first channel information. The compression feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between channel feedback amounts and the first channel information; where one piece of first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0310] Exemplarily, the transceiver unit 10 is also used to receive second information, where the second information includes a correlation between at least two first channel information among N first channel information, and the correlation between at least two first channel information among the N first channel information is used to determine a compression feedback method for the N first channel information.

[0311] Exemplarily, the first channel information is determined based on a first reference signal. The transceiver unit 10 is further configured to receive one or more second reference signals, where the second reference signals are used to determine the second channel information. The processing unit 20 is configured to obtain a correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information, where the correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information is used to determine a compression feedback method for the N pieces of first channel information. L is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0312] In the embodiment of the present application, the description of the first information, the second information, the compression feedback method of N first channel information, etc. can be referred to the introduction in the method embodiment shown in Figure 9 or Figure 10 above, and will not be described in detail here.

[0313] It is understood that the specific descriptions of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiments of the present application are merely examples. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the method embodiments shown in Figures 9 or 10 above, and no further details will be given here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiments of the present application refer to the technical effects of the method embodiments shown in Figures 9 or 10 above, and for the sake of brevity, no further details will be given here.

[0314] Using Figure 11 , in some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device may be the second communication device shown above or a chip or circuit disposed in the second communication device. That is, the communication device may be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the second communication device in the above method embodiments.

[0315] In one design, the processing unit 20 is used for N channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; the transceiver unit 10 is used to send first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method for the N channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amount and the channel information; where one channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0316] In the embodiment of the present application, the description of the first information, the compression feedback method of N channel information, etc. can be referred to the introduction in the method embodiment shown in Figure 6 above, and will not be described in detail here.

[0317] It is understood that the specific descriptions of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiment of the present application are merely examples. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the method embodiment shown in FIG6 above, and no further details will be given here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiment of the present application refer to the technical effects of the method embodiment shown in FIG6 above, and for the sake of brevity, no further details will be given here.

[0318] In another design, the processing unit 20 is used to obtain N first channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; the transceiver unit 10 is used to receive the first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method for the N first channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the relationship between the channel feedback amount and the first channel information, where one first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0319] Exemplarily, the transceiver unit 10 is also used to send second information, where the second information includes the correlation between at least two first channel information among the N first channel information, and the correlation between at least two first channel information among the N first channel information is used to determine the compression feedback method of the N first channel information.

[0320] Exemplarily, the first channel information is determined based on a first reference signal received by the transceiver unit 10. The transceiver unit 10 is further configured to send one or more second reference signals, where the second reference signals are used to determine the second channel information, wherein the correlation between the second channel information is used to determine a compression feedback method for the N first channel information.

[0321] In the embodiment of the present application, the description of the first information, the second information, the compression feedback method of N first channel information, etc. can be referred to the introduction in the method embodiment shown in Figure 9 or Figure 10 above, and will not be described in detail here.

[0322] It is understood that the specific descriptions of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiments of the present application are merely examples. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the method embodiments shown in Figures 9 or 10 above, and no further details will be given here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiments of the present application refer to the technical effects of the method embodiments shown in Figures 9 or 10 above, and for the sake of brevity, no further details will be given here.

[0323] The above describes the communication device according to the embodiment of the present application. The following describes possible product forms of the communication device. It should be understood that any product having the functions of the communication device described in FIG. 11 falls within the scope of protection of the embodiment of the present application. It should also be understood that the following description is merely illustrative and does not limit the product forms of the communication device according to the embodiment of the present application to these examples.

[0324] In one possible implementation, in the communication device shown in FIG11 , the processing unit 20 may be one or more processing circuits, the transceiver unit 10 may be a transceiver circuit, or the transceiver unit 10 may be a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, the transmitting unit may be a transmitting circuit, and the receiving unit may be a receiving circuit, wherein the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are integrated into a single device, such as a transceiver circuit. In the embodiments of the present application, the processing circuit and the transceiver circuit may be coupled, etc., and the embodiments of the present application do not limit the connection method between the processing circuit and the transceiver circuit. During the execution of the above-mentioned method, the process of sending information in the above-mentioned method can be understood as the process of the processing circuit outputting the above-mentioned information. When outputting the above-mentioned information, the processing circuit outputs the above-mentioned information to the transceiver circuit for transmission by the transceiver circuit. After being output by the processing circuit, the above-mentioned information may also need to undergo further processing before reaching the transceiver circuit. Similarly, the process of receiving information in the above-mentioned method can be understood as the process of the processing circuit receiving the above-mentioned input information. When the processing circuit receives the input information, the transceiver circuit receives the above-mentioned information and inputs it into the processing circuit. Furthermore, after the transceiver circuit receives the above information, the above information may need to be processed further before being input into the processing circuit.

[0325] Referring to Figure 12, Figure 12 is another structural diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 12, the communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application can be used to implement the method described in the above method embodiment, and reference can be made to the description in the above method embodiment. The communication device can be a first communication device, or a second communication device, or a chip therein. Exemplarily, the communication device includes one or more processing circuits 1001 and a transceiver circuit 1002. The communication device may further include a storage circuit 1003. In one implementation, the communication device also includes an input and output device (such as a touch screen, a display screen, a keyboard, etc., which are mainly used to receive data input by a user and output data to the user, not shown in the figure).

[0326] Processing circuit 1001 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process software program data. Storage circuit 1003 is primarily used to store software programs and data. Transceiver circuit 1002 may include a control circuit and an antenna. The control circuit is primarily used to convert baseband signals into radio frequency signals and process radio frequency signals. The antenna is primarily used to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves.

[0327] When the communication device is powered on, the processing circuit 1001 can read the software program in the storage circuit 1003, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be transmitted wirelessly, the processing circuit 1001 performs baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and transmits the radio frequency signal to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves via the antenna. When data is sent to the communication device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal via the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processing circuit 1001. The processing circuit 1001 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0328] In another implementation, the RF circuit and antenna may be arranged independently of the processing circuit for baseband processing. For example, in a distributed scenario, the RF circuit and antenna may be arranged remotely from the communication device.

[0329] The processing circuit 1001 , the transceiver circuit 1002 , and the storage circuit 1003 may be connected via a communication bus.

[0330] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the first communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 above, the processing circuit 1001 can be used to execute steps S105 and S107 in FIG. 6 , and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver circuit 1002 can be used to execute step S101 in FIG. 6 , and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein.

[0331] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the second communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 above, the processing circuit 1001 can be used to execute steps S102 and S103 in FIG. 6 , and / or for executing other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver circuit 1002 can be used to execute steps S104 and S106 in FIG. 6 , and / or for other processes of the technology described herein.

[0332] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the first communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 above, the processing circuit 1001 can be used to execute steps S205 and S208 in FIG. 9 , and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver circuit 1002 can be used to execute steps S201 and S206 in FIG. 9 , and / or to execute other processes of the technology described herein.

[0333] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the second communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 above, the processing circuit 1001 can be used to execute steps S202 and S203 in FIG. 9 , and / or for executing other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver circuit 1002 can be used to execute steps S204 and S207 in FIG. 9 , and / or for other processes of the technology described herein.

[0334] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the first communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 above, the processing circuit 1001 can be used to execute steps S302, S303, and S309 in FIG. 10 , and / or for executing other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver circuit 1002 can be used to execute steps S304 and S305 in FIG. 10 , and / or for other processes of the technology described herein.

[0335] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the second communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 above, the processing circuit 1001 can be used to execute steps S306 and S307 in FIG. 10 , and / or for executing other processes of the technology described herein; the transceiver circuit 1002 can be used to execute steps S301 and S308 in FIG. 10 , and / or for other processes of the technology described herein.

[0336] In any of the above implementations, the transceiver circuit 1002 may include a transceiver or interface circuit for implementing receiving and transmitting functions. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit for implementing the receiving and transmitting functions may be separate or integrated. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit may be used for reading and writing code / data, or may be used for transmitting or delivering signals.

[0337] In any of the above implementations, the processing circuit 1001 may be included in a processor, which may store instructions, which may be computer programs. The computer programs, when executed on the processing circuit 1001, may cause the communication device to perform the methods described in the above method embodiments. The computer programs may be embedded in the processing circuit 1001, in which case the processing circuit 1001 may be implemented by hardware.

[0338] The processing circuit and transceiver circuit described in the present application may be included in a chip, such as an integrated circuit (IC), an analog IC, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), a mixed-signal IC, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a printed circuit board (PCB), an electronic device, etc. The processing circuit and the transceiver circuit may also be manufactured using various IC process technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), positive channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

[0339] It is understood that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application may also have more components than those in Figure 12, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this. The methods performed by the processing circuit and transceiver circuit shown above are only examples. For the specific steps performed by the processing circuit and transceiver circuit, please refer to the description of the method embodiment above.

[0340] In another possible implementation, in the communication device shown in Figure 11, the processing unit 20 can be one or more logic circuits or processing circuits, and the transceiver unit 10 can be an input / output interface, or also called a communication interface, or an interface circuit, or an interface, etc. Or the transceiver unit 10 can also be a sending unit and a receiving unit, the sending unit can be an output interface, and the receiving unit can be an input interface, and the sending unit and the receiving unit are integrated into one unit, such as an input / output interface. Referring to Figure 13, Figure 13 is another structural diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 13, the communication device shown in Figure 13 includes a logic circuit 901 and an interface 902. That is, the above-mentioned processing unit 20 can be implemented with a logic circuit 901, and the transceiver unit 10 can be implemented with an interface 902. Among them, the logic circuit (or processing circuit) 901 can be a chip, such as an integrated circuit or a system on chip (SoC) chip, or a processing part in a chip, etc., and the interface 902 can be a communication interface, an input / output interface, a pin, etc. Exemplarily, FIG13 shows the communication device as a chip as an example. The chip includes a logic circuit 901 (or a processing circuit) and an interface 902 .

[0341] In the embodiment of the present application, the logic circuit (or processing circuit) and the interface may also be coupled to each other. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific connection method between the logic circuit (or processing circuit) and the interface.

[0342] Illustratively, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the first communication device in the above-described method embodiment, interface 902 is configured to receive first information indicating a compression feedback mode for N channel information, where the compression feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between channel feedback amounts and channel information; one channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts; and logic circuit 901 is configured to determine the compression feedback mode based on the first information. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0343] Illustratively, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the second communication device in the foregoing method embodiment, the logic circuit 901 is used to obtain N channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; and the interface 902 is used to send first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method for the N channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between the channel feedback amount and the channel information; where one piece of channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0344] In the embodiment of the present application, the description of the first information, the compressed feedback method of the N channel information, etc. can be referred to the description of the method embodiment shown in FIG6 above, and will not be described in detail here. It is understood that the specific description of the logic circuit 901 and the interface 902 can also be referred to the description of the processing unit and the transceiver unit shown in FIG11, and will not be repeated here.

[0345] Illustratively, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the first communication device in the above method embodiment, logic circuit 901 is used to determine a compression feedback mode for N pieces of first channel information; and interface 902 is used to send first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compression feedback mode for the N pieces of first channel information. The compression feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between channel feedback amounts and first channel information; where one piece of first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0346] Exemplarily, when the communication device is used to execute the steps, methods, or functions performed by the second communication device in the above method embodiment, the logic circuit (or processing circuit) 901 is used to obtain N first channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; and the interface 902 is used to receive first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compressed feedback method for the N first channel information. The compressed feedback method includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the relationship between the channel feedback amount and the first channel information, where one piece of first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

[0347] In the embodiments of the present application, the description of the first information, the second information, the compressed feedback method of the N first channel information, etc. can be referred to the description of the method embodiment shown in Figures 9 or 10 above, and will not be described in detail here. It is understood that the specific description of the logic circuit 901 and the interface 902 can also be referred to the description of the processing unit and the transceiver unit shown in Figure 11, and will not be repeated here.

[0348] It can be understood that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application can implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in the form of hardware, or can implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in the form of software, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this.

[0349] For the specific implementation of each embodiment shown in FIG13 , reference may also be made to the above embodiments, which will not be described in detail here.

[0350] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device. The first communication device and the second communication device can be used to execute the method in any of the aforementioned method embodiments (Figure 6, or Figure 9, or Figure 10).

[0351] In addition, the present application also provides a computer program, which is used to implement the operations and / or processing performed by the first communication device in the method provided by the present application.

[0352] The present application also provides a computer program, which is used to implement the operations and / or processing performed by the second communication device in the method provided by the present application.

[0353] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores computer code. When the computer code runs on a computer, the computer executes the operations and / or processing performed by the first communication device in the method provided by the present application.

[0354] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having computer code stored therein. When the computer code is run on a computer, the computer executes the operations and / or processing performed by the second communication device in the method provided in the present application.

[0355] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes computer code or computer program. When the computer code or computer program is run on a computer, the operations and / or processing performed by the first communication device in the method provided by the present application are executed.

[0356] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes computer code or computer program. When the computer code or computer program is run on a computer, the operations and / or processing performed by the second communication device in the method provided by the present application are executed.

[0357] 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 only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only 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. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, or can be electrical, mechanical or other forms of connection.

[0358] 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 the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the technical effects of the solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application.

[0359] In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into a single processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit. The aforementioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional units.

[0360] If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a readable storage medium, including 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 readable storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk, and other media that can store program code.

[0361] 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 communication method, characterized in that: include: Obtaining N channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; Sending first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compression feedback mode of the N channel information, where the compression feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the correspondence between the channel feedback amount and the channel information; where one channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that After sending the first information, the method further includes: Sending third information, where the third information includes channel feedback amounts of the N channel information after being processed in a compressed feedback manner indicated by the first information.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The obtaining of N channel information includes: Receiving N reference signals; Channel measurement is performed based on the N reference signals to obtain N channel information.

4. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: receiving first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compression feedback mode of N channel information, where the compression feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a correspondence between the channel feedback amounts and the channel information; one channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; The compression feedback mode is determined based on the first information.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that After receiving the first information, the method further includes: receiving third information, wherein the third information includes channel feedback amounts of the N channel information after being processed in a compressed feedback manner indicated by the first information; Based on the compression feedback mode indicated by the first information and at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information, one or more channel information are restored.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that: Before receiving the first information, the method further includes: One or more reference signals are sent, the reference signals being used to determine channel information.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that The compression feedback method of the N channel information includes: The N channel information corresponds to (M+K) channel feedback amounts, one channel feedback amount among the K channel feedback amounts is used to represent common information of at least two channel information subsets among the M channel information subsets, one channel information subset includes one or more channel information among the N channel information, and the union of the M channel information subsets is the N channel information; one channel feedback amount among the M channel feedback amounts is used to represent specific information of a channel information subset, and M and K are both positive integers less than N.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that The compression feedback method of the N channel information includes: The N channel information corresponds to M channel feedback amounts, where one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of a channel information subset; a channel information subset includes one or more channel information among the N channel information, the union of the M channel information subsets is the N channel information, and the intersection of any two channel information subsets among the M channel information subsets is an empty set; M is a positive integer less than N.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that: The M channel information subsets are determined based on correlations between the N channel information.

10. The method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized in that The reference signal resources corresponding to the channel information in a channel information subset belong to a reference signal resource set.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that The compression feedback method of the N channel information includes: The N channel information correspond to N channel feedback quantities, and one channel feedback quantity is used to represent the content of one channel information.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that The first information includes an identifier of the compression feedback mode; Alternatively, the first information includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts corresponding to the N channel information, or a corresponding relationship between each channel feedback amount and one or more channel information in the N channel information.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that The compression feedback mode of the N channel information is determined based on the correlation between at least two channel information among the N channel information.

14. A communication method, characterized in that: The method is performed by a first communication device or a chip used for the first communication device, and includes: Determining a compression feedback mode of N first channel information; Sending first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compression feedback mode of the N first channel information, where the compression feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or a corresponding relationship between the channel feedback amount and the first channel information; one of the first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The method further comprises: receiving third information, wherein the third information includes channel feedback amounts of the N first channel information after being processed in a compressed feedback manner indicated by the first information; Based on the compression feedback mode and at least one channel feedback amount included in the third information, one or more first channel information are restored.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that Before determining the compression feedback mode of the N first channel information, the method further includes: Second information is received, where the second information includes a correlation between at least two first channel information among N first channel information, and the correlation between at least two first channel information among the N first channel information is used to determine a compression feedback mode of the N first channel information.

17. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that The first channel information is determined based on a first reference signal; Before determining the compression feedback mode of the N first channel information, the method further includes: receiving one or more second reference signals, wherein the second reference signals are used to determine second channel information; A correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among L pieces of second channel information is obtained, wherein the correlation between at least two pieces of second channel information among the L pieces of second channel information is used to determine a compression feedback mode of the N pieces of first channel information, where L is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

18. A communication method, characterized in that: The method is performed by a second communication device or a chip for a second communication device, and includes: Obtaining N first channel information, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; Receive first information, where the first information is used to indicate a compression feedback mode of the N first channel information, where the compression feedback mode includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts, or the relationship between the channel feedback amount and the first channel information, where one first channel information corresponds to one or more channel feedback amounts.

19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that The method further comprises: Sending third information, where the third information includes channel feedback amounts of the N first channel information processed by the compressed feedback method indicated by the first information.

20. The method according to claim 18 or 19, characterized in that After obtaining the N first channel information, the method further includes: Sending second information, where the second information includes a correlation between at least two of the N first channel information, and the correlation between at least two of the N first channel information is used to determine a compression feedback mode of the N first channel information.

21. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 20, characterized in that The first channel information is determined based on a received first reference signal; Before obtaining the N first channel information, the method further includes: One or more second reference signals are sent, where the second reference signals are used to determine second channel information, wherein correlation between the second channel information is used to determine a compression feedback mode of the N first channel information.

22. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 21, characterized in that The compression feedback mode of the N first channel information includes: The N first channel information corresponds to (M+K) channel feedback amounts, one channel feedback amount among the K channel feedback amounts is used to represent common information of at least two channel information subsets among the M channel information subsets, one channel information subset includes one or more first channel information among the N first channel information, and the union of the M channel information subsets is the N first channel information; one channel feedback amount among the M channel feedback amounts is used to represent specific information of a channel information subset, and M and K are both positive integers less than N.

23. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 21, characterized in that The compression feedback mode of the N first channel information includes: The N first channel information correspond to M channel feedback amounts, where one channel feedback amount is used to represent the content of a channel information subset, a channel information subset includes one or more first channel information among the N first channel information, and the union of the M channel information subsets is the N first channel information; the intersection of any two channel information subsets among the M channel information subsets is an empty set, and M is a positive integer less than N.

24. The method according to claim 22 or 23, characterized in that The M channel information subsets are determined based on correlations between the N first channel information.

25. The method according to any one of claims 22 to 24, characterized in that The reference signal resource corresponding to the first channel information in a channel information subset belongs to a reference signal resource set.

26. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 21, characterized in that The compression feedback mode of the N first channel information includes: The N first channel information correspond to N channel feedback quantities, and one channel feedback quantity is used to represent the content of one first channel information.

27. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 26, characterized in that The first information includes an identifier of the compression feedback mode; Alternatively, the first information includes one or more of the following: the number of channel feedback amounts corresponding to the N first channel information, or the corresponding relationship between each channel feedback amount and one or more first channel information among the N first channel information.

28. A communication device, characterized in that: Comprising modules or units for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 27.

29. A communication device, characterized in that: It includes a processing circuit and a transceiver circuit, the transceiver circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices and transmit them to the processing circuit or send signals from the processing circuit to other communication devices, and the processing circuit is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 27 through a logic circuit or executing code instructions.

30. A communication system, characterized in that: include: An apparatus for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 3 and 7 to 13, and an apparatus for performing the method of any one of claims 4 to 13; Alternatively, an apparatus for the method described in any one of claims 14-17, 22-27, and an apparatus for executing the method described in any one of claims 18-27.

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