Communication method and communication apparatus

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and a communication apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal receives downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, wherein the DCI is used for scheduling M physical shared channels on a plurality of cells, a first cell is one of the plurality of cells, the first cell comprises N physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI, N is an integer greater than 1, and M is an integer greater than N; and further, the terminal transmits the M physical shared channels on the basis of the DCI. By means of the method, when one DCI jointly schedules the physical shared channels on the plurality of cells, the plurality of physical shared channels on the same cell can be scheduled by the same DCI, thereby facilitating the improvement of the efficiency of a DCI scheduling physical shared channels.

Description

Communication method and communication device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application with application number 202311438718.4 filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on October 31, 2023, and priority to the Chinese patent application with the invention name “A Communication Method and Communication Device”, 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 and a communication device. Background Art

[0003] Carrier aggregation (CA) is a technology that aggregates multiple carrier components (CCs) to support a larger transmission bandwidth. CA supports aggregation between CCs with the same or different sub-carrier spacing (SCS). For example, CC 1 with a 15kHz SCS, CC 2 with a 15kHz SCS, and CC 3 with a 60kHz SCS can be aggregated.

[0004] When multiple CCs in a CA scenario are scheduled through downlink control information (DCI), the DCI can only schedule one physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or one physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on each CC.

[0005] That is to say, in a CA scenario, when multiple PDSCHs / PUSCHs need to be scheduled on certain CCs, scheduling needs to be performed through multiple DCIs, resulting in low scheduling efficiency.

[0006] Summary of the Invention

[0007] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and a communication device, which are conducive to improving the efficiency of DCI scheduling PDSCH / PUSCH.

[0008] In the first aspect, the present application provides a communication method. Taking the terminal executing the method as an example, the method includes: the terminal receives downlink control information DCI from a network device, and the DCI is used to schedule M physical shared channels on multiple cells. The first cell is one of the multiple cells, and the first cell includes N physical shared channels scheduled by DCI, where N is an integer greater than 1, and M is an integer greater than N; further, the terminal transmits the M physical shared channels based on the DCI.

[0009] In the method described in the first aspect, one DCI can jointly schedule the physical shared channels of multiple cells, and multiple physical shared channels on the same cell can be jointly scheduled by the DCI. Compared with the method in which only one physical shared channel on the same cell can be scheduled by DCI, it is beneficial to improve the scheduling efficiency of the physical shared channels on the DCI-scheduled cell.

[0010] In one possible implementation, the DCI includes a first field, the first field including a first subfield and a second subfield, the first subfield applies to N physical shared channels in a first cell, and the second subfield applies to a physical shared channel in a second cell, where the second cell is one of the multiple cells different from the first cell. By implementing this possible implementation, the same subfield can be used to indicate the same information for all physical shared channels in the same cell, which helps to reduce the DCI payload size.

[0011] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a second field, and the value of the second field of the M physical shared channels is the same.

[0012] In one possible implementation, the second field is a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field. The TDRA field is used to indicate a first index value, the first index value is used to indicate a second index value group, the second index value in the second index value group corresponds one-to-one to a cell in the plurality of cells, and the second index value is used to indicate a time domain resource set, the time domain resource set including time domain resources of different physical shared channels in the cell corresponding to the second index value. By implementing this possible implementation, the time domain resources of each physical shared channel can be determined separately using a piece of information indicated by the TDRA field, which helps to reduce the payload size of the DCI.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a third field, the third field includes M subfields, and the M subfields are respectively applied to M physical shared channels.

[0014] In one possible implementation, the physical shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel, and the terminal sends HARQ feedback information to the network device. The number of bits of the HARQ feedback information is the number of transport blocks carried in the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be scheduled in the multiple cells.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the HARQ feedback information includes multiple groups of bit groups, where the bit groups in the multiple groups of bit groups correspond one-to-one to cells in multiple cells, and the bits in the bit groups correspond one-to-one to the transport blocks of the physical downlink shared channel on the cells corresponding to the bit groups. The bits in the bit groups are used to indicate whether the transport block corresponding to the bits is successfully received.

[0016] In a possible implementation, the terminal sends first capability information and second capability information to the network device, where the first capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling, and the second capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multiple physical shared channel scheduling on the same cell.

[0017] In a possible implementation, a terminal receives first configuration information from a network device, where the first configuration information is used to configure a maximum number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled in each of a plurality of cells.

[0018] In the second aspect, the present application provides a communication method. Taking a network device executing the method as an example, the method includes: the network device sends downlink control information DCI to the terminal, and the DCI is used to schedule M physical shared channels on multiple cells. The first cell is one of the multiple cells, and the first cell includes N physical shared channels scheduled by DCI, where N is an integer greater than 1, and M is an integer greater than N; further, the network device transmits the M physical shared channels based on the DCI.

[0019] For the beneficial effects obtained by the method described in the second aspect, reference may be made to the description of the beneficial effects obtained by the method described in the first aspect.

[0020] In one possible implementation, the DCI includes a first field, which includes a first subfield and a second subfield. The first subfield is applied to N physical shared channels on a first cell, and the second subfield is applied to a physical shared channel on a second cell, where the second cell is one of multiple cells different from the first cell.

[0021] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a second field, and the second field of the M physical shared channels has the same value.

[0022] In one possible implementation, the second field is a time domain resource allocation TDRA field, which is used to indicate a first index value, and the first index value is used to indicate a second index value group, and the second index value in the second index value group corresponds one-to-one to a cell in a plurality of cells, and the second index value is used to indicate a time domain resource set, which includes time domain resources of different physical shared channels on the cell corresponding to the second index value.

[0023] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a third field, the third field includes M subfields, and the M subfields are respectively applied to M physical shared channels.

[0024] In one possible implementation, the physical shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel, and the network device receives HARQ feedback information from the terminal. The number of bits of the HARQ feedback information is the number of transport blocks carried in the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be scheduled in the multiple cells.

[0025] In one possible implementation, the HARQ feedback information includes multiple groups of bit groups, where the bit groups in the multiple groups of bit groups correspond one-to-one to cells in multiple cells, and the bits in the bit groups correspond one-to-one to the transport blocks of the physical downlink shared channel on the cells corresponding to the bit groups. The bits in the bit groups are used to indicate whether the transport block corresponding to the bits is successfully received.

[0026] In a possible implementation, the network device receives first capability information and second capability information from the terminal, where the first capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling, and the second capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multiple physical shared channel scheduling on the same cell.

[0027] In a possible implementation, the network device sends first configuration information to the terminal, where the first configuration information is used to configure a maximum number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled in each cell among multiple cells.

[0028] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a terminal, a device in a terminal, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a terminal. The communication device may also be a chip system. The communication device may execute the method described in the first aspect. The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions. The units or modules may be software and / or hardware. The operations and beneficial effects performed by the communication device may refer to the method and beneficial effects described in the first aspect above.

[0029] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a network device, a device in a network device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a network device. The communication device may also be a chip system. The communication device may execute the method described in the second aspect. The functions of the communication device may be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions. The units or modules may be software and / or hardware. The operations and beneficial effects performed by the communication device may refer to the method and beneficial effects described in the second aspect above.

[0030] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method as described in the first aspect through a logic circuit or executing code instructions, or the processor is used to implement the method as described in the second aspect through a logic circuit or executing code instructions.

[0031] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the method described in the first aspect or the method described in the second aspect is implemented.

[0032] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when a communication device reads and executes the instructions, causes the communication device to execute the method as described in the first aspect, or causes the communication device to execute the method as described in the second aspect.

[0033] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, comprising a communication device for executing the method described in the first aspect above, and a communication device for executing the method described in the second aspect above. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0034] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of carrier aggregation provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0036] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of several DCI-scheduled physical shared channels provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a DCI scheduling PDSCH provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] FIG5 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of determining time domain resources of each physical shared channel based on the TDRA field provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of a maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled by a DCI according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] FIG8 is a schematic diagram of a PDSCH actually scheduled by a DCI according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] FIG9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0043] FIG10 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] In order to facilitate a detailed understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the system architecture involved in the embodiments of the present application is first introduced below.

[0045] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system 1000 used in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG1 , the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in FIG1 , collectively referred to as 110), and may also include at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in FIG1 , collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG1 ). The terminal 120 is wirelessly connected to the RAN node 110, and the RAN node 110 is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the core network 200. The core network devices in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 may be independent and different physical devices, or they may be the same physical device that integrates the logical functions of the core network devices and the logical functions of the RAN nodes. Terminals and RAN nodes may be connected to each other via wired or wireless means. It should be noted that the RAN node 110 may also be referred to as a network device 110 in the following text.

[0046] RAN100 may be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, or a future radio access system defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). RAN100 may also include two or more of the aforementioned different radio access systems. RAN100 may also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0047] A RAN node, also known as a radio access network device, RAN entity, or access node, facilitates wireless access to a communication system by a terminal. In one application scenario, a RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next-generation NodeB (gNB) in a fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next-generation base station in a sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. A RAN node can be a macro base station (such as 110a in Figure 1), a micro base station, an indoor station (such as 110b in Figure 1), a relay node, or a donor node.

[0048] In another application scenario, multiple RAN nodes can collaborate to help terminals achieve wireless access, with different RAN nodes implementing portions of the base station's functions. For example, a RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU). The CU implements the base station's radio resource control protocol and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) functions, as well as the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) functions. The DU implements the base station's radio link control layer and medium access control (MAC) layer functions, as well as some or all of the physical layer functions. For detailed descriptions of each of the above protocol layers, please refer to the relevant 3GPP technical specifications. The RU can be used to implement the transmission and reception of radio frequency signals. The CU and DU can be two independent RAN nodes, or they can be integrated into the same RAN node, such as in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in radio frequency equipment, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU can be further divided into two types of RAN nodes: CU-control plane and CU-user plane.

[0049] In different systems, RAN nodes may have different names. For example, in an O-RAN system, the CU may be called an open CU (O-CU), the DU may be called an open DU (O-DU), and the RU may be called an open RU (O-RU). The RAN nodes in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by software modules, hardware modules, or a combination of software modules and hardware modules. For example, the RAN node may be a server loaded with the corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the RAN node. For ease of description, the following description uses a base station as an example of a RAN node.

[0050] A terminal is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities that can send signals to a base station or receive signals from a base station. A terminal may also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. Terminals can be widely used in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, etc. A terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver capabilities, wearable device, vehicle, airplane, ship, robot, robotic arm, smart home device, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal.

[0051] Base stations and terminals can be fixed or mobile. They can be deployed on land, indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; on water; or on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminals.

[0052] The roles of base stations and terminals can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 1 can be configured as a mobile base station. To terminals 120j accessing the wireless access network 100 via 120i, terminal 120i is a base station. However, to base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, meaning that communication between 110a and 120i occurs via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, communication between 110a and 120i can also occur via a base station-to-base station interface protocol. In this case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, base stations and terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be referred to as communication devices with base station functionality, while 120a-120j in Figure 1 can be referred to as communication devices with terminal functionality.

[0053] Communication between base stations and terminals, between base stations, and between terminals can be carried out through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both; communication can be carried out through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), spectrum above 6 GHz, or spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0054] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station may also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem that includes the base station functions. The control subsystem that includes the base station functions here may be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, smart transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or modem) in the terminal, or by a device that includes the terminal functions.

[0055] In this application, a base station sends downlink signals or downlink information to a terminal, and the downlink information is carried on a downlink channel; the terminal sends uplink signals or uplink information to the base station, and the uplink information is carried on an uplink channel. In order to communicate with the base station, the terminal needs to establish a wireless connection with the cell controlled by the base station. The cell with which the terminal has established a wireless connection is called the serving cell of the terminal. When the terminal communicates with the serving cell, it will also be subject to interference from signals in neighboring cells.

[0056] It can be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, PDSCH, PDCCH and PUSCH are merely examples of downlink data channels, downlink control channels and uplink data channels, respectively. In different systems and different scenarios, data channels and control channels may have different names, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0057] In order to facilitate understanding of the relevant contents of the embodiments of the present application, some of the terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are explained below. This part is only for ease of understanding and cannot be regarded as a disclosure or specific limitation of the technical solution of the present application.

[0058] 1. Cell

[0059] A cell is a set of resources managed by a base station, including frequency domain resources and spatial domain resources. The frequency domain resources of a cell include uplink frequency domain resources and / or downlink frequency domain resources; the spatial domain resources of a cell can be the spatial domain resources corresponding to a beam or a group of beams, and can also be understood as a cell corresponding to a specific physical coverage area. In an embodiment of the present application, different cells can be managed by different base stations. For example, cell #1 and cell #2 can be managed by different base stations. In this case, it can be said that cell #1 and cell #2 do not share the same site. Cell #1 and cell #2 can also be managed by the same base station and have the same baseband processing unit and / or radio frequency processing unit. This application does not specifically limit this.

[0060] Depending on the frequency band range in which the cell is located (or understood to correspond to), a cell in the 450MHz-6000MHz range can be referred to as a cell in frequency range (FR) 1 or a low-frequency cell, and a cell in the 24250MHz-52600MHz range can be referred to as a cell in FR2 or a high-frequency cell. It should be noted that there is a one-to-one correspondence between cells and carriers. In the absence of logical conflicts, cells and carriers can be used interchangeably. In other words, the frequency band in which a cell is located can be understood as the frequency band in which the frequency of the cell's corresponding carrier is located, and can also be referred to as the cell's operating frequency band or the frequency band in which the cell is located.

[0061] 2. CA

[0062] As shown in Figure 2, CA technology aggregates two or more CCs to support greater transmission bandwidth. In other words, CA can achieve spectrum resource integration, aggregating spectrum resources in the same or different frequency bands for terminals to use, thereby improving overall network resource utilization.

[0063] When CA is configured for a terminal, the terminal may have multiple service cells, including a primary cell (PCell) and at least one SCell. PCell is the cell where the terminal and the network device perform initial connection establishment, or the cell where the terminal performs radio resource control (RRC) connection reestablishment. PCell is responsible for radio resource control RRC communication with the terminal, and the CC corresponding to PCell is called primary component carrier (PCC). SCell is added / modified / released through the RRC connection reconfiguration message after the initial security activation procedure; SCell is used to provide additional radio resources, and there is no RRC communication between SCell and the terminal. It should be noted that in the CA scenario, aggregation of cells of the same SCS can be supported, and aggregation of cells of different SCS can also be supported.

[0064] 3. DCI

[0065] The network device sends DCI to the terminal via the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The DCI includes scheduling information for the physical shared channel. In one possible implementation, the DCI includes: control information related to data transmission, such as resource allocation information for data transmission, format information for uplink / downlink resources within a time slot, and power control information for the physical shared channel and signal; information on dynamic time slot configuration; resource preemption information, etc. Furthermore, after the terminal detects the DCI, it transmits the physical shared channel according to the DCI. It should be noted that the physical shared channel mentioned in this application includes PDSCH and PUSCH. Unless otherwise specified, the physical shared channel can be PDSCH or PUSCH. It should be noted that in this application, "transmission" includes "sending" and "receiving". If the execution subject of "transmission" is the sending end, then "transmission" is equivalent to "sending"; if the execution subject of "transmission" is the receiving end, then "transmission" is equivalent to "receiving". For example, "terminal transmits PDSCH" is equivalent to "terminal receives PDSCH", and "terminal transmits PUSCH" is equivalent to "terminal sends PUSCH".

[0066] Based on the relationship between the carrier sending DCI and the scheduled physical shared channel, DCI can be divided into the following three types:

[0067] ①. DCI scheduled by the self-carrier; for example, as shown in 3a of Figure 3, the DCI used to schedule the physical shared channel on CC 1 is sent on CC 1, and the DCI used to schedule the physical shared channel on CC 2 is also sent on CC 2; wherein the DCI format of the DCI can be DCI format 0_0, DCI format 1_0, DCI format 0_1, DCI format 1_1, DCI format 0_2, or DCI format 1_2.

[0068] ②. DCI for cross-carrier scheduling; for example, as shown in 3b of Figure 3, the DCI for scheduling the physical shared channel on CC 2 is sent on CC 1; wherein the DCI format of the DCI can be DCI format 0_1, DCI format 1_1, DCI format 0_2 or DCI format 1_2.

[0069] ③. Multi-carrier scheduled DCI, also known as multi-cell scheduled DCI or single DCI; as shown in 3c of Figure 3, the DCI used to schedule the physical shared channel on CC 1 and the DCI used to schedule the physical shared channel on CC 2 are the same DCI (i.e., the single DCI in Figure 3), and the single DCI is sent on CC 1. The DCI format of the single DCI can be DCI format 0_3 or DCI format 1_3. It should be noted that the multiple CCs scheduled by the multi-carrier scheduled DCI usually correspond to the same SCS; and, for a certain CC scheduled by the multi-carrier scheduled DCI, the number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled by the DCI on the CC is usually 1.

[0070] 4. Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback information

[0071] In wireless communication systems, HARQ technology is often used between senders and receivers to improve data transmission reliability. The sender sends a transport block (TB) to the receiver. If the receiver successfully receives the TB, the receiver provides an acknowledgment (ACK) to the sender. If the receiver fails to receive the TB, the receiver provides a negative acknowledgment (NACK) to the sender. After receiving the NACK, the sender retransmits the TB. HARQ feedback information is used to provide feedback on PDSCH reception, semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH reception, and SPS PDSCH release reception. HARQ feedback information can be carried on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or the PUSCH.

[0072] For example, as shown in Figure 4, the network device sends a DCI for scheduling PDSCH in time slot (slot) n. The DCI instructs the terminal to receive PDSCH in slot n+K0 and to feed back the HARQ feedback information corresponding to the PDSCH on the PUCCH in slot n+K0+K1. The DCI includes the value of K0, the value of K1, and indication information for indicating the PUCCH resource information. K0 can be understood as the offset between the time slot where the DCI is located and the time slot where the PDSCH is located; K1 can be understood as the offset between the time slot where the PDSCH is located and the time slot where the HARQ feedback information is located.

[0073] In one possible implementation, the terminal may feedback multiple HARQ feedback information through a HARQ codebook in an uplink timeslot, and one bit in the HARQ codebook may be used to indicate the HARQ feedback information of a TB or the HARQ feedback information of a HARQ process. Typically, the HARQ codebook includes a semi-static codebook (also referred to as a type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook or a type 1 semi-static codebook) and a dynamic codebook (also referred to as a type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook or a type 2 dynamic codebook). The network device may instruct the terminal to generate the type of HARQ-ACK codebook through an RRC parameter (e.g., a pdsch-HARQ-ACK-Codebook parameter).

[0074] Among them, the type 2 dynamic codebook is a codebook generation mode that changes dynamically according to the actual data scheduling situation. The dynamic codebook is generated based on the cumulative count and total count of the {Serving Cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion}-pair. Among them, the cumulative count is indicated by the counter downlink assignment index (C-DAI), and the total count is indicated by the total downlink assignment index (T-DAI). The C-DAI is included in the DCI and indicates the {Serving Cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion}-pair with the smallest corresponding cell index value in the PDSCH jointly scheduled by the DCI, until the cumulative number of the current serving cell and the current PDCCH monitoring occasion. The order of accumulation is first according to the serving cell index and then according to the PDCCH monitoring occasion index. The T-DAI is included in the DCI and represents the total number of PDCCH monitoring opportunities up to the current one, for the PDSCH with the smallest cell index among the PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI. This total is updated at each PDCCH monitoring opportunity. In this application, the downlink allocation index and downlink allocation indication have the same meaning.

[0075] In summary, in a CA scenario, when multiple physical shared channels need to be scheduled in certain cells, scheduling requires multiple DCIs, resulting in low scheduling efficiency. To improve the efficiency of DCI scheduling of physical shared channels, this application provides a communication method and communication device. The following describes in detail the communication method and communication device provided in embodiments of this application, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0076] Please refer to Figure 5, which is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, the communication method includes the following steps S501 to S502. The execution subject of the method shown in Figure 5 is illustrated by taking the terminal and the network device as an example. It can be understood that the execution subject of the method shown in Figure 5 can also be a module in the terminal (for example, a chip) and a module in the network device (for example, a chip, or a CU, or a DU). Among them:

[0077] S501: A network device sends DCI to a terminal. The DCI is used to schedule M physical shared channels across multiple cells. The multiple cells scheduled by the DCI include a first cell. The first cell includes N physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI, where N is an integer greater than 1 and M is an integer greater than N. Accordingly, the terminal receives the DCI from the network device.

[0078] When M physical shared channels need to be scheduled on multiple cells, the network device sends a DCI to the terminal. The DCI is a single DCI, which indicates the time domain resource allocation information and frequency domain resource allocation information of the M scheduled physical shared channels. At least one cell (e.g., the first cell) among the multiple cells has multiple physical shared channels jointly scheduled by the DCI. The multiple cells may correspond to one SCS, that is, the SCSs of the multiple cells are the same; or the multiple cells may correspond to at least two SCSs.

[0079] Before the network device sends DCI to the terminal, the terminal may send first capability information and second capability information to the network device, where the first capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling, and the second capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports scheduling of multiple physical shared channels in the same cell. In other words, if the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling and supports scheduling of multiple physical shared channels in the same cell, the network device sends the DCI in S501 to the terminal.

[0080] In a possible implementation, in order to avoid resource conflicts, the communication protocol may constrain the following information: the terminal does not expect the same cell to be configured to support multi-cell joint scheduling and repetition transmission of the physical shared channel of the cell.

[0081] The DCI mentioned in S501 is described in detail below. For the convenience of description, the number of cells scheduled by the DCI is denoted as P in the following text, where P is an integer greater than 1.

[0082] The DCI includes one or more of the following three fields: a first field, a second field, and a third field. The following describes the three fields:

[0083] 1. The first field includes a first subfield and a second subfield. The first subfield applies to N physical shared channels on a first cell, and the second subfield applies to one physical shared channel on a second cell. The second cell is one of the multiple cells scheduled by the DCI, different from the first cell. The first cell is any one of the P cells that has multiple physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI, and the second cell is any one of the P cells that has only one physical shared channel scheduled by the DCI.

[0084] It can be understood that the number of subfields in the first field is P, and the subfields in the first field correspond one-to-one to the cells in the P cells, that is, P pieces of information can be configured for the P cells through the P subfields in the first field. The subfields in the first field are applied to all physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI on the cell corresponding to the subfield, that is, the subfields in the first field are used to configure information for the physical shared channels on the cell corresponding to the subfield. In other words, when there are multiple physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI on a cell among the P cells (such as the first cell mentioned in this application), the subfield corresponding to the cell is used to configure the same information for all physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI on the cell.

[0085] Among them, the first field can be a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field or a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field. It should be noted that the first field mentioned in this application can be understood as any one of a certain type of field (for ease of distinction, it can be referred to as the first type of field), and the DCI can include multiple fields of the first type of field. For example, when the DCI includes an FDRA field and an MCS field, the FDRA field can be referred to as the first field mentioned in this application, and the MCS field can also be referred to as the first field mentioned in this application. Similarly, the second field mentioned in this application can be understood as any one of the second type of fields; the third field mentioned in this application can be understood as any one of the third type of fields. It should also be noted that in this application, a field of the first type of field can indicate different information for physical shared channels on different cells, and indicate the same information for different physical shared channels on the same cell. A field of the second type of field can indicate the same information for different physical shared channels. A field of the third type of field can indicate different information for different physical shared channels.

[0086] Exemplarily, DCI 1 is used to schedule cell 1 and cell 2, wherein PDSCH 1 and PDSCH 2 on cell 1 are scheduled by DCI 1, and PDSCH 3 on cell 2 is scheduled by DCI 1. DCI 1 includes an MCS field, and the MCS field includes subfield #1 and subfield #2, where subfield #1 is used to indicate the MCS corresponding to cell 1 (i.e., PDSCH 1 and PDSCH 2 on cell 1 correspond to the same MCS), and subfield #2 is used to indicate the MCS corresponding to cell 2 (i.e., the MCS corresponding to PDSCH 3 on cell 2).

[0087] Before the network device sends DCI to the terminal, the network device may also send second configuration information to the terminal. The second configuration information is used to configure whether the subfield in the first field is configured with the same information for all physical shared channels scheduled by DCI on the cell corresponding to the subfield. Alternatively, the network device may indicate, through the second configuration information, whether the information configured by the subfield in the first field is applied to all physical shared channels scheduled by DCI on the cell corresponding to the subfield. The second configuration information may be carried in RRC signaling.

[0088] Exemplarily, the cells that need to be jointly scheduled include cell 1 and cell 2. Cell 1 is an FR1 cell, and the time slot interval corresponding to cell 1 is generally longer. The channel quality conditions in adjacent time slots may vary, and the corresponding MCS requirements may be different; cell 2 is an FR2 cell, and the time slot interval corresponding to cell 2 is generally shorter. The channel quality conditions in adjacent time slots are relatively close, and the corresponding MCS requirements may be the same. In this case, before sending DCI 1 to schedule cell 1 and cell 2, the network device sends second configuration information to the terminal, where the second configuration information indicates subfield #1 in the MCS field corresponding to cell 1, and is used to indicate different MCSs for different physical shared channels on cell 1, that is, subfield #1 of the MCS field in the subsequent DCI 1 carries multiple copies of information indicating MCS, and the multiple copies of information indicating MCS correspond one-to-one to the physical shared channels on cell 1; the second configuration information indicates subfield #2 in the MCS field corresponding to cell 2, and is used to indicate the same MCS for different physical shared channels on cell 2, that is, subfield #2 of the MCS field in the subsequent DCI 1 carries only one copy of information indicating MCS, and this copy of information indicating MCS is applied to all physical shared channels scheduled by DCI 1 on cell 1.

[0089] 2. The second field is applied to the M physical shared channels on the P cells, and the values ​​of the second fields of the M physical shared channels are the same.

[0090] It can be understood that the same information is configured for the M physical shared channels through the second field, that is, the information configured in the second field is applied to the M physical shared channels. It can also be understood that the values ​​of the second fields corresponding to the M physical shared channels are the same.

[0091] When the physical shared channel is a PDSCH, the second field may be any one of the following: a DCI format identifier (identifier for DCI formants) field, a bandwidth part (BWP) indication field, a time domain resource assignment (TDRA) field, a virtual physical resource block to physical resource block mapping (VRB-to-PRB mapping) field, a physical resource block (PRB) bundling size indication field, a rate matching indication field, a zero-power channel state information reference signal trigger field, a downlink assignment index field, a transmission power control command for scheduled PUCCH (TPC command for scheduled PUCCH) field, a PUCCH resource indication field, a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing indicator field, and a one-shot HARQ feedback information request (One-shot HARQ-ACK) field. request) field, enhanced Type-3 codebook indication field, HARQ-ACK retransmission indication field, transmission configuration indication field, sounding reference signal (SRS) request field, SRS offset indication field, demodulation reference signal sequence initialization indication field or priority indication field.

[0092] When the physical shared channel is PUSCH, the second field can be any one of the following: identifier for DCI formants field, BWP indication field, TDRA field, frequency hopping flag field, downlink assignment index field, SRS request field, SRS offset indication field, channel state information (CSI) request field, demodulation reference signal sequence initialization indication field or priority indication field.

[0093] It should be noted that different physical shared channels in the same cell have different time domain resources. The following is an example description using the second field being the TDRA field.

[0094] In one possible implementation, the TDRA field indicates a first index value (or the value of the TDRA field is the first index value), the first index value indicates a second index value group, the second index value in the second index value group corresponds one-to-one to a cell in a plurality of cells, and the second index value is used to indicate a time domain resource set, which includes time domain resources of different physical shared channels on the cell corresponding to the second index value. The time domain resources include one or more of the following information: the value of K0, the starting symbol of the physical shared channel, the number of time domain symbols of the physical shared channel, and mapping type information. The starting symbol of the physical shared channel and the number of time domain symbols of the physical shared channel can be indicated by a start and length indicator value (SLIV).

[0095] Exemplarily, the multiple cells scheduled by the DCI include cells 1 to 4, and four physical shared channels can be scheduled by the DCI in each cell. The correspondence between the first index value and the second index value group can be as shown in Table 1 in Figure 6, where each first index value corresponds to a second index value group (i.e., a row in Table 1 in Figure 6), and each second index value group includes four second index values ​​(#0, #1, #2, and #3). The four second index values ​​in each second index value group correspond one to one with cells 1 to 4, respectively. The correspondence between the second index value and the time domain resource set can be as shown in Table 2 in Figure 6, where each second index value indicates a time domain resource set (i.e., a row in Table 2 in Figure 6), and the time domain resource set in each row includes the time domain resources of the physical shared channels scheduled on the cell. The number of columns of physical shared channels in Table 2 is the number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled on a cell. In this case, if the TDRA field in the DCI indicates that the first index value is 1, the multiple second index values ​​included in the second index value group #1 are determined based on the first index value: the second index value of cell 1 is 2, the second index value of cell 2 is 2, the second index value of cell 3 is 3, and the second index value of cell 4 is 3. The following example uses the determination of the time domain resources of cell 1 based on the second index value of cell 1 as an example. The same method can be used to determine the time domain resources of corresponding cells based on the second index values ​​of other cells. The second index value corresponding to cell 1 is 2, which indicates that the time domain resource set #2 corresponding to cell 1 includes: the time domain resources corresponding to the physical shared channel 1 on cell 1 are [K0 21 SLIV 21 、mappingType 21 ], the time domain resource corresponding to the physical shared channel 2 on cell 1 is [K0 22 SLIV 22 、mappingType 22 ], the time domain resource corresponding to the physical shared channel 3 on cell 1 is [K0 23 SLIV 23 、mappingType 23 ], the time domain resource corresponding to the physical shared channel 4 on cell 1 is [K0 24 SLIV 24 、mappingType 24 ].

[0096] It should be noted that the number of time domain resources included in the time domain resource set corresponding to the second index value is one or more. For example, when DCI schedules multiple physical shared channels in the aforementioned first cell and one physical shared channel on the second cell, and the second index value #1 corresponding to the first cell and the second index value #2 corresponding to the second cell are determined according to the TDRA field in the DCI, the second index value #1 indicates a time domain resource set, which includes the time domain resources of the multiple physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI in the first cell, and the second index value #2 indicates a time domain resource set, which is the time domain resource of the physical shared channel scheduled by the DCI on the second cell.

[0097] Before sending the DCI to the terminal, the network device may also send third configuration information to the terminal, where the third configuration information is used to configure the correspondence between the first index value and the second index value group, and the correspondence between the second index value and the time domain resource set. The third configuration information may be carried in RRC signaling.

[0098] It can be understood that the third configuration information can also implicitly indicate the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled on the cell. When the actual scheduling is subsequently performed through DCI, the actual number of physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI may be less than or equal to the maximum number. For example, the third configuration information is used to configure the correspondence between the second index value and the time domain resource set shown in Table 2 in Figure 6. In Table 2, the time domain resources corresponding to the physical shared channel 3 in the time domain resource set #1 are empty. In this case, the third configuration information implicitly indicates that the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled on the cell is 4. Subsequently, in actual scheduling, if the TDRA field indicates that the time domain resource set of the cell is time domain resource set #1, the actual number of physical shared channels scheduled on the cell by the DCI is 3, that is, the physical shared channel 3 on the cell is not scheduled.

[0099] It should be noted that the same cell supports joint scheduling of multiple physical shared channels transmitted in consecutive time slots, and / or supports joint scheduling of multiple physical shared channels transmitted in non-contiguous time slots. When the third configuration information indicates that a physical shared channel on the cell is not actually scheduled, in the DCI group bit, the position of the TDRA field is before the position of the FDRA field.

[0100] Before the network device sends DCI to the terminal, the network device may also send first configuration information to the terminal, and the first configuration information is used to indicate the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on each cell. When the actual scheduling is subsequently performed through DCI, the actual number of physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI may be less than or equal to the maximum number. Optionally, the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on each cell and the maximum number of PUSCHs that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on each cell may be indicated by the same first configuration information or by different first configuration information. It should be noted that the first to third configuration information mentioned in this application may be carried in the same RRC message or in different RRC messages.

[0101] Among them, the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on each cell can be a predefined value, and the predefined value can be adjusted according to the specific application scenario. The present application does not limit its specific numerical value. For example, the predefined maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on each cell is 8. Alternatively, the maximum number can also be determined based on the SCS of each cell; in one possible implementation, the larger the SCS of the cell, the larger the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled on the cell; for example, the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on a cell with an SCS of 30kHz is 2, the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on a cell with an SCS of 60kHz is 4, and the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on a cell with an SCS of 120kHz is 8. Alternatively, the maximum number can also be determined based on the third capability information of the terminal, which indicates that the terminal supports the maximum number of physical shared channels that can be jointly scheduled by DCI on the same cell; that is, before the network device sends DCI to the terminal, the terminal sends the third capability information to the network device, and the third capability information can be carried in the same message as the aforementioned first capability information and second capability information, or can be carried in different messages.

[0102] 3. The third field includes M subfields, and the M subfields are respectively applied to M physical shared channels.

[0103] It can be understood that the subfields in the third field correspond one-to-one to the M physical shared channels. That is, M pieces of information can be configured for the M physical shared channels using the M subfields in the third field. In other words, the number of subfields included in the third field is determined based on the number of physical shared channels actually scheduled.

[0104] The third field may be a redundancy version (RV) indication field, a new data indication (NDI) field, or a HARQ process number (HARQ process number) field.

[0105] For example, the third field is a HARQ process number field, and the HARQ process number of a physical shared channel is indicated by 4 bits. Therefore, the third field requires 4M bits to indicate the HARQ process numbers of the M physical shared channels.

[0106] When the third field is included in the DCI, the size of the DCI may be different due to the different numbers of physical shared channels actually scheduled. In order to avoid inconsistent understanding of the DCI size between the terminal and the network device, the size of the DCI needs to be aligned. According to the different values ​​of the TDRA field configured by the RRC signaling, the maximum value of the corresponding DCI size is determined (set to Smax). When the network device determines the DCI size, the size of the DCI is aligned to Smax, that is, when the actual DCI size is less than Smax, zeros are padded at the end of the DCI until the DCI size is equal to Smax. For the terminal, the maximum value of the corresponding DCI size (set to Smax) can also be determined according to the different values ​​of the TDRA field configured by the RRC signaling. When the terminal performs blind detection, it performs blind detection according to Smax as the size of the DCI. For example, in Table 1 of Figure 6, when the first index value is 0, the corresponding DCI size is S1; when the first index value is 1, the corresponding DCI size is S2; when the first index value is 2, the corresponding DCI size is S3; when the first index value is 3, the corresponding DCI size is S4; if S1 is the maximum value among S1 to S4, the network device aligns the DCI size according to S1, and the terminal blindly detects DCI according to the DCI size of S1.

[0107] In addition, the number of subfields included in the third field may also be determined based on the maximum number of cells that can be scheduled by the DCI in one scheduling and the maximum number of physical shared channels within a cell that can be scheduled in one scheduling, as configured by RRC signaling. For example, if the DCI can schedule a maximum of Pmax cells at one time and the DCI can schedule a maximum of Nmax physical shared channels within a cell at one time, then the third field includes Pmax*Nmax subfields.

[0108] S502: The terminal and the network device transmit the M physical shared channels.

[0109] When the physical shared channel is a PUSCH, the terminal sends the M PUSCHs scheduled by the DCI to the network device; accordingly, the network device receives the M PUSCHs scheduled by the DCI from the terminal. When the physical shared channel is a PDSCH, the network device sends the M PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI to the terminal; accordingly, the terminal receives the M PDSCHs scheduled by the DCI from the network device.

[0110] When the physical shared channel is the PDSCH, after the terminal receives M PDSCHs from the network device, it sends HARQ feedback information to the network device. The number of bits in this HARQ feedback information is equal to the number of TBs carried by the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled in the P cells. Alternatively, the sum of the number of TBs carried by the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be jointly scheduled in each of the P cells is the number of bits in this HARQ feedback information.

[0111] It should be noted that the number of TBs carried by the PDSCH in this application is one or more; and the number of TBs carried by each PDSCH in this application can be different or the same. In the following text, only for the convenience of description, each PDSCH carrying one TB is used as an example for schematic illustration, and should not be regarded as a specific limitation of this application.

[0112] In Example 1, a network device sends an RRC message to a terminal. As shown in Figure 7, the RRC message configures that the cell set scheduled by DCI 1 includes cells 0 to 2, and the cell set scheduled by DCI 2 includes cells 3 to 5. The maximum number of PDSCHs that can be jointly scheduled on CC0 and CC 3 is 1, and the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be jointly scheduled on CC 1, CC 2, CC 4, and CC 5 is 4. Each PDSCH is configured with only one TB. The number of bits of the HARQ feedback information corresponding to DCI 1 is the number of TBs of the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled on cells 0 to 2 (i.e., 9 TBs), i.e., 9 bits; the number of bits of the HARQ feedback information corresponding to DCI 2 is the number of TBs of the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled on cells 3 to 5 (i.e., 9 TBs), i.e., 9 bits.

[0113] During the actual scheduling process, the actual number of PDSCHs actually scheduled on a cell is less than or equal to the maximum number of PDSCHs that can be scheduled on the cell. Based on this, the HARQ feedback information can be designed to include multiple groups of bit groups, each of which corresponds one-to-one to a cell in the multiple cells, and each bit in the bit group corresponds one-to-one to a TB of a physical downlink shared channel on the cell corresponding to the bit group. The bits in the bit group are used to indicate whether the TB corresponding to the bit is successfully received. When a bit indicates that the TB corresponding to the bit is not successfully received, the PDSCH carrying the TB may have failed to be sent or may not have been scheduled.

[0114] Continuing with Example 1 above, the monitoring timing configuration of cell 0 is the same as the monitoring timing configuration of cell 3. The terminal receives DCI 1 at the monitoring timing of cell 0, and receives DCI 2 at the monitoring timing of cell 3. In addition, in the actual scheduling process shown in 8a of Figure 8, DCI 1 actually schedules 7 PDSCHs on cells 0 to 2, and DCI 2 actually schedules 6 PDSCHs in cells 3 to 5. The C-DAI in DCI 1 is 1 and the T-DAI is 2; the C-DAI in DCI 2 is 2 and the T-DAI is 2. Based on DCI 1 and DCI 2, the terminal receives the 13 PDSCHs and generates HAQR feedback information as shown in 8b of Figure 8 for the received PDSCH. Among them, the information bit corresponding to each cell in the HARQ bit information (that is, the bit group mentioned in this application) is used to indicate whether the TB carried on the PDSCH in each cell is successfully received.

[0115] It should be noted that when the HARQ codebook includes both the HARQ feedback information corresponding to the DCI for scheduling a single cell and the HARQ feedback information corresponding to the DCI for scheduling multiple cells, the HARQ codebook includes a first-level sub-codebook and a second-level sub-codebook, the first-level sub-codebook is the HARQ feedback information corresponding to the DCI for scheduling a single cell, and the second-level sub-codebook is the HARQ feedback information corresponding to the DCI for scheduling multiple cells. The two sub-codebooks are cascaded, and the second-level sub-codebook is located behind the first-level sub-codebook. The HARQ feedback information corresponding to the DCI in this application is located in the second-level sub-codebook. In the second-level sub-codebook, the order of the HARQ feedback information corresponding to multiple DCIs is determined according to the C-DAI indication carried in each DCI; for example, in Figure 8, the C-DAI of DCI 1 is less than the C-DAI of DCI 2. In the HARQ feedback information, the PDSCH scheduled by DCI 1 is fed back first, and the PDSCH scheduled by DCI 2 is fed back first. In the second-level sub-codebook, the feedback order of multiple PDSCHs scheduled by the same DCI is determined by the order of the time units used by the network device to send the PDSCHs. For example, in Figure 8, the PDSCHs sent in the earlier time slots (i.e., the positions farther to the left) are fed back first, and the PDSCHs sent in the later time slots (i.e., the positions farther to the right) are fed back later.

[0116] In one possible implementation, to avoid PDSCH processing overlap and reduce the complexity of PDSCH decoding, the communication protocol can also implement scheduling constraints, such that the earliest time unit (e.g., time slot) for sending PDSCH scheduled by the first DCI must not be earlier than the latest time unit for sending PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI, where the time unit for sending the first DCI is later than the time unit for sending the second DCI. This implementation helps avoid out-of-order scheduling of PDSCHs.

[0117] In summary, in scenarios where a single DCI schedules physical shared channels across multiple cells, each cell can have one or more physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI. This improves the scheduling efficiency of DCI-scheduled physical shared channels compared to a scenario where only one physical shared channel can be scheduled by DCI on the same cell. For example, in a scenario where cell 1 and cell 2 can be jointly scheduled by DCI, physical shared channels 1 and 2 on cell 1 need to be scheduled, and physical shared channels 3 and 4 on cell 2 need to be scheduled, if only one physical shared channel on the same cell can be scheduled by DCI, at least two DCIs are required. However, through the communication method provided in FIG5 , physical shared channels 1 to 4 can be scheduled via a single DCI, improving the scheduling efficiency of DCI-scheduled physical shared channels.

[0118] It is understandable that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the terminal includes hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that, in combination with the units and method steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in hardware or by computer software transceiver components driving hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0119] Figures 9 and 10 are schematic diagrams of the structures of possible communication devices provided in the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the terminal in the above-mentioned method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above-mentioned method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be the terminal 120 as shown in Figure 1, or a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal, or the communication device can be the network device 110 as shown in Figure 1, or a module (such as a chip) applied to the network device.

[0120] As shown in Figure 9 , a communication device 900 includes a processing unit 910 and a transceiver unit 920. The communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of the terminal in the method embodiment shown in Figure 5 . When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of the terminal in the method embodiment shown in Figure 5 : the transceiver unit 920 is used to receive downlink control information (DCI) from a network device, where the DCI is used to schedule M physical shared channels on multiple cells, where a first cell is one of the multiple cells, and where N physical shared channels are scheduled by the DCI, where N is an integer greater than 1 and M is an integer greater than N; and the transceiver unit 920 is further used to transmit the M physical shared channels based on the DCI.

[0121] In one possible implementation, the DCI includes a first field, which includes a first subfield and a second subfield, the first subfield is applied to N physical shared channels on a first cell, and the second subfield is applied to a physical shared channel on a second cell, which is one of multiple cells different from the first cell.

[0122] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a second field, and the value of the second field of the M physical shared channels is the same.

[0123] In one possible implementation, the second field is a time domain resource allocation TDRA field, which is used to indicate a first index value, and the first index value is used to indicate a second index value group, and the second index value in the second index value group corresponds one-to-one to a cell in a plurality of cells, and the second index value is used to indicate a time domain resource set, which includes time domain resources of different physical shared channels on the cell corresponding to the second index value.

[0124] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a third field, where the third field includes M subfields, and the M subfields are respectively applied to M physical shared channels.

[0125] In one possible implementation, the physical shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel, and the transceiver unit 920 is further used to send HARQ feedback information to the network device, where the number of bits of the HARQ feedback information is the number of transport blocks carried in the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be scheduled in the multiple cells.

[0126] In one possible implementation, the HARQ feedback information includes multiple groups of bit groups, where the bit groups in the multiple groups of bit groups correspond one-to-one to cells in multiple cells, and the bits in the bit groups correspond one-to-one to the transport blocks of the physical downlink shared channel on the cells corresponding to the bit groups. The bits in the bit groups are used to indicate whether the transport block corresponding to the bits is successfully received.

[0127] In one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 920 is further used to send first capability information and second capability information to the network device, where the first capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling, and the second capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multiple physical shared channel scheduling on the same cell.

[0128] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit 920 is further configured to receive first configuration information from a network device, where the first configuration information is used to configure a maximum number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled in each of the multiple cells.

[0129] For a more detailed description of the transceiver unit 920 and the processing unit 910 , reference may be made to the relevant description of the terminal in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5 .

[0130] As shown in Figure 9 , a communication device 900 includes a processing unit 910 and a transceiver unit 920. The communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 5 . When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 5 : the transceiver unit 920 is used to send downlink control information (DCI) to a terminal, where the DCI is used to schedule M physical shared channels in multiple cells, where a first cell is one of the multiple cells, and the first cell includes N physical shared channels scheduled by the DCI, where N is an integer greater than 1 and M is an integer greater than N; the transceiver unit 920 is also used to transmit the M physical shared channels based on the DCI.

[0131] In one possible implementation, the DCI includes a first field, which includes a first subfield and a second subfield, the first subfield is applied to N physical shared channels on a first cell, and the second subfield is applied to a physical shared channel on a second cell, which is one of multiple cells different from the first cell.

[0132] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a second field, and the value of the second field of the M physical shared channels is the same.

[0133] In one possible implementation, the second field is a time domain resource allocation TDRA field, which is used to indicate a first index value, and the first index value is used to indicate a second index value group, and the second index value in the second index value group corresponds one-to-one to a cell in a plurality of cells, and the second index value is used to indicate a time domain resource set, which includes time domain resources of different physical shared channels on the cell corresponding to the second index value.

[0134] In a possible implementation, the DCI includes a third field, where the third field includes M subfields, and the M subfields are respectively applied to M physical shared channels.

[0135] In one possible implementation, the physical shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel, and the transceiver unit 920 is further used to receive HARQ feedback information from the terminal, and the number of bits of the HARQ feedback information is the number of transport blocks carried in the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be scheduled in the multiple cells.

[0136] In one possible implementation, the HARQ feedback information includes multiple groups of bit groups, where the bit groups in the multiple groups of bit groups correspond one-to-one to cells in multiple cells, and the bits in the bit groups correspond one-to-one to the transport blocks of the physical downlink shared channel on the cells corresponding to the bit groups. The bits in the bit groups are used to indicate whether the transport block corresponding to the bits is successfully received.

[0137] In one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 920 is further used to receive first capability information and second capability information from the terminal, where the first capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling, and the second capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multiple physical shared channel scheduling on the same cell.

[0138] In a possible implementation, the transceiver unit 920 is further configured to send first configuration information to the terminal, where the first configuration information is used to configure a maximum number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled in each cell among the multiple cells.

[0139] For a more detailed description of the transceiver unit 920 and the processing unit 910 , reference may be made to the relevant description of the network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5 .

[0140] As shown in Figure 10, the communication device 1000 includes a processor 1010 and an interface circuit 1020. The processor 1010 and the interface circuit 1020 are coupled to each other. It will be understood that the interface circuit 1020 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further include a memory 1030 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1010, or storing input data required by the processor 1010 to execute instructions, or storing data generated after the processor 1010 executes instructions. When the communication device 1000 is used to implement the method shown in Figure 5, the processor 1010 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 910 described above, and the interface circuit 1020 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 920 described above.

[0141] When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The terminal chip receives information from the base station, which can be understood as the information being first received by other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal chip by these modules. The terminal chip sends information to the base station, which can be understood as the information being first sent to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the base station by these modules. When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a network device, the network device chip implements the functions of the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The network device chip receives information from the terminal, which can be understood as the information being first received by other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the network device chip by these modules. The network device chip sends information to the terminal, which can be understood as the information being sent to other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal by these modules.

[0142] In this application, when entity A sends information to entity B, it can be done directly from A to B or indirectly through another entity. Similarly, when entity B receives information from entity A, it can be done directly from entity B or indirectly through another entity. Entities A and B herein can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules within a RAN node or terminal. The sending and receiving of information can be information exchange between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between two RAN nodes, for example, between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between different modules within a device, for example, between a terminal chip and other modules in the terminal, or between a base station chip and other modules within the base station.

[0143] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0144] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions that can be executed by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, registers, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and storage medium can also exist in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

[0145] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. A computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions of the embodiments of the present application are performed. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer program or instructions may be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available media may be magnetic media, such as floppy disks, hard disks, or magnetic tapes; optical media, such as digital video disks; or semiconductor media, such as solid-state drives. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

[0146] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or there is a logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced by each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

[0147] In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In the text description of this application, the character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formula of this application, the character " / " indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in a "division" relationship. "Including at least one of A, B and C" can mean: including A; including B; including C; including A and B; including A and C; including B and C; including A, B and C.

[0148] It is understood that the various numbers used in the embodiments of this application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The order of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not necessarily imply a specific order of execution; the order of execution of the processes should be determined by their functions and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: receiving downlink control information DCI from a network device, where the DCI is used to schedule M physical shared channels on multiple cells, where a first cell is one of the multiple cells, where N physical shared channels on the first cell are scheduled by the DCI, where N is an integer greater than 1, and M is an integer greater than N; The M physical shared channels are transmitted based on the DCI.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The DCI includes a first field, the first field includes a first subfield and a second subfield, the first subfield is applied to N physical shared channels on the first cell, the second subfield is applied to a physical shared channel on a second cell, and the second cell is one of the multiple cells different from the first cell.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The DCI includes a second field, and the second field of the M physical shared channels has the same value.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that: The second field is a time domain resource allocation TDRA field, the TDRA field is used to indicate a first index value, the first index value is used to indicate a second index value group, the second index values ​​in the second index value group correspond one-to-one to a cell in the multiple cells, the second index value is used to indicate a time domain resource set, and the time domain resource set includes time domain resources of different physical shared channels on the cell corresponding to the second index value.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The DCI includes a third field, the third field includes M subfields, and the M subfields are respectively applied to the M physical shared channels.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The physical shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel, and the method further includes: HARQ feedback information is sent to the network device, where the number of bits of the HARQ feedback information is the number of transport blocks carried in the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be scheduled in the multiple cells.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that: The HARQ feedback information includes multiple groups of bit groups, the bit groups in the multiple groups of bit groups correspond one-to-one to the cells in the multiple cells, the bits in the bit groups correspond one-to-one to the transmission blocks of the physical downlink shared channel in the cells corresponding to the bit groups, and the bits in the bit groups are used to indicate whether the transmission blocks corresponding to the bits are successfully received.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that: The method further comprises: First capability information and second capability information are sent to the network device, where the first capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling, and the second capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multiple physical shared channel scheduling on the same cell.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that: The method further comprises: First configuration information is received from the network device, where the first configuration information is used to configure a maximum number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled on each of the multiple cells.

10. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Sending downlink control information DCI to a terminal, where the DCI is used to schedule M physical shared channels on multiple cells, where a first cell is one of the multiple cells, and where N physical shared channels on the first cell are scheduled by the DCI, where N is an integer greater than 1, and M is an integer greater than N; The M physical shared channels are transmitted based on the DCI.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that: The DCI includes a first field, the first field includes a first subfield and a second subfield, the first subfield is applied to N physical shared channels on the first cell, the second subfield is applied to a physical shared channel on a second cell, and the second cell is one of the multiple cells different from the first cell.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that: The DCI includes a second field, and the second field of the M physical shared channels has the same value.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that: The second field is a time domain resource allocation TDRA field, the TDRA field is used to indicate a first index value, the first index value is used to indicate a second index value group, the second index values ​​in the second index value group correspond one-to-one to a cell in the multiple cells, the second index value is used to indicate a time domain resource set, and the time domain resource set includes time domain resources of different physical shared channels on the cell corresponding to the second index value.

14. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, characterized in that: The DCI includes a third field, the third field includes M subfields, and the M subfields are respectively applied to the M physical shared channels.

15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, characterized in that: The physical shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel, and the method further includes: HARQ feedback information is received from the terminal, where the number of bits of the HARQ feedback information is the number of transport blocks carried in the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be scheduled in the multiple cells.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that: The HARQ feedback information includes multiple groups of bit groups, the bit groups in the multiple groups of bit groups correspond one-to-one to the cells in the multiple cells, the bits in the bit groups correspond one-to-one to the transmission blocks of the physical downlink shared channel in the cells corresponding to the bit groups, and the bits in the bit groups are used to indicate whether the transmission blocks corresponding to the bits are successfully received.

17. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 16, characterized in that: The method further comprises: First capability information and second capability information are received from the terminal, wherein the first capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multi-cell scheduling, and the second capability information is used to indicate that the terminal supports multiple physical shared channel scheduling on the same cell.

18. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, characterized in that: The method further comprises: First configuration information is sent to the terminal, where the first configuration information is used to configure a maximum number of physical shared channels that can be scheduled on each of the multiple cells.

19. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or comprises a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 10 to 18.

20. A communication device, characterized in that: It includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 9 through a logic circuit or by executing code instructions, or the processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 10 to 18 through a logic circuit or by executing code instructions.

21. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The storage medium stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by the communication device, the communication device implements the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 9, or implements the method as described in any one of claims 10 to 18.

22. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product includes a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are executed by a communication device, the communication device implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or implements the method according to any one of claims 10 to 18.

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