Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of communications, and discloses a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: receiving first information used for indicating M groups of first components and second information used for indicating R first coefficients, and obtaining a weight matrix on the basis of the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients. Any group of first components among the M groups of first components comprise at least one first component, the number of elements comprised in each first component is the same, and the number of elements of one first component is greater than or equal to 2. In the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements of each group of first components is equal to the number of elements comprised in the weight matrix, and the sum Z of the products of the number of each group of first components and the number of elements of each group of first components is less than the number of elements of the weight matrix. In the process, the first information can indicate Z numerical values, and because Z is less than the number of elements of the weight matrix, compared with the method of indicating each element in the weight matrix, the network overhead can be reduced.

Description

Communication method and device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on November 30, 2023, with application number 202311633594.5 and application name “Communication Method and Device,” the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular to communication methods and devices. Background Art

[0003] In areas with poor network device signal coverage, when the signal transmitted via the line of sight (LOS) path from the network device to the terminal is blocked by an object, the signal sent by the network device needs to be transmitted to the terminal via a non-line of sight (NLOS) path. For example, line of sight path transmission refers to unobstructed straight-line transmission between the network device and the terminal. Because the signal energy is weakened after being transmitted through the non-line of sight path, the signal strength is weaker than the signal transmitted through the line of sight path, which is not conducive to terminal reception and processing. In the above scenario, the amplitude and phase of the signal from the receiving network device can be adjusted, for example, by changing the signal transmission path to reflect the signal to the desired receiving direction of the terminal.

[0004] One solution involves network devices sending phase information to nodes in the network, enabling the nodes to adjust the phase of signals from the network devices and reflect the signals in the desired reception direction of the terminal. The phase information includes the phases corresponding to the array elements included in the node. Because the signaling overhead for indicating phase information to nodes in the network is related to the size of the antenna array elements in the nodes, which are generally large, the signaling overhead of the network device using the above method is high.

[0005] Summary of the Invention

[0006] The communication method and apparatus provided in this application can reduce the signaling overhead of network equipment.

[0007] To achieve the above objectives, this application adopts the following technical solutions:

[0008] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be performed by a node in a network. A node in the network herein can refer to either the node itself or a processor, module, logical node, chip, or chip system in the node that implements the method. Exemplarily, the node in the network is a terminal or an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS).

[0009] The method includes: receiving first information indicating M groups of first components and second information indicating R first coefficients, and obtaining a weight matrix based on the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients. R is an integer greater than or equal to 1; any group of first components in the M groups of first components includes at least one first component; in any group of first components, each first component includes the same number of elements; the number of elements in a first component is greater than or equal to 2; in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements in the weight matrix; and the sum of the number of first components in each group and the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix.

[0010] Based on the method provided in the first aspect above, a node in the network can receive first information indicating M groups of first components and second information indicating R first coefficients, so as to obtain a weight matrix based on the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients. In the above process, the first information can indicate Z numerical values, where Z is equal to the sum of the product of the number of first components in each group and the number of elements in each group of first components. Since Z is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix, the method provided in the first aspect can reduce the signaling overhead of the network device compared to the method of indicating each element of the weight matrix. It can be understood that the product of the number of first components in each group and the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements in the M groups of first components (such as the sum of the number of elements of each first component in the M groups of first components).

[0011] In one possible implementation, a weight matrix is ​​obtained based on M groups of first components and R first coefficients, including: selecting M first components from the M groups of first components multiple times to perform component operations, multiplying the results of each component operation by the corresponding first coefficients and then adding them to obtain a weight matrix, and the first components included in each group of first components all participate in the component operation.

[0012] Based on the above possible implementations, the nodes in the network can fit the weight matrix by performing component operations on the first component multiple times.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the component operation is performed so that the product of the number of elements of each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix.

[0014] Based on the above possible implementation methods, for M groups of first components, when the product of the number of elements of each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix, it is easier to satisfy that the sum of the number of first components in each group and the product of the number of elements of each group of first components is less than the number of elements of the weight matrix (that is, the product of the number of elements of each group of first components).

[0015] In a possible implementation, at least two groups of first components among the M groups of first components include different numbers of first components.

[0016] Based on the possible implementation manner described above, it is convenient to provide more possible M groups of first components and R first coefficients for nodes in the network, so that the nodes in the network can fit the weight matrix.

[0017] In a possible implementation, at least two groups of first components among the M groups of first components include the same number of first components.

[0018] Based on the above possible implementation manner, at least two groups of first components in the M groups of first components include the same number of first components, which can simplify the calculation complexity of nodes in the network.

[0019] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: M or the number of first components included in any group of first components or the number of elements of the first components included in any group of first components.

[0020] Based on the above possible implementation methods, if the first indication information indicates M, the nodes in the network can determine the number of groups of first components; if the first indication information indicates the number of first components included in any group of first components or the number of elements of the first components included in any group of first components, the nodes in the network can determine the quantization bits corresponding to the elements of each first component when the number of elements of each first component is the same.

[0021] In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information further indicates a quantization manner of elements of the M groups of first components.

[0022] Based on the above possible implementation methods, the nodes in the network dequantize the quantization bits according to the quantization method and the quantization bits corresponding to each element included in each first component in any one of the above groups of first components, and the nodes in the network can obtain the content of each element before quantization.

[0023] In a possible implementation, the number of elements of the first component is preset.

[0024] Based on the above possible implementation manner, when the number of elements of the first component is pre-set for nodes in the network, the data to be sent by the first indication information can be reduced, further reducing the signaling overhead of the network device.

[0025] In a possible implementation, a sending period of the first information is a first period, a sending period of the second information is a second period, and the first period is greater than the second period.

[0026] Based on the above possible implementation manner, when the first period is greater than the second period, the update frequency of the first information is lower than the update frequency of the second information, which can further reduce the signaling overhead of the network device.

[0027] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be performed by a network device. The network device here can refer to the network device itself or a processor, module, logical node, chip, or chip system in the network device that implements the method.

[0028] The method includes: obtaining a weight matrix; sending first information and second information according to the weight matrix. The first information is used to indicate M groups of first components, and the second information is used to indicate R first coefficients. The M groups of first components and the R first coefficients are used to determine the weight matrix, where M and R are integers greater than or equal to 1; any group of first components in the M groups of first components includes at least one first component; in any group of first components, the number of elements included in each first component is the same; the number of elements in a first component is greater than or equal to 2; in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix; and the sum of the number of first components in each group and the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix.

[0029] Based on the method provided in the second aspect, the network device sends first information indicating M groups of first components and second information indicating R first coefficients, so that a device receiving the information, such as a node in the network, fits a weight matrix based on the information. In the above process, the network device can indicate Z values, where Z is equal to the sum of the product of the number of first components in each group of M groups of first components and the number of elements in each group of first components, and Z is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix. Therefore, compared with the method in which the network device indicates each element of the weight matrix, this method can reduce the signaling overhead of the network device.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: sending first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: M, the number of first components included in any group of first components, or the number of elements of the first components included in any group of first components.

[0031] Based on the above possible implementation methods, if the first indication information indicates M, the device that receives the first indication information, such as a node in a network, can determine the number of groups of first components; if the first indication information indicates the number of first components included in any group of first components or the number of elements of the first components included in any group of first components, the device that receives the first indication information can determine the quantization bits corresponding to the elements of each first component when the number of elements of each first component is the same.

[0032] In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information further indicates a quantization manner of elements of the M groups of first components.

[0033] Based on the above possible implementation methods, the device that receives the first indication information can dequantize the quantization bits according to the quantization method and the quantization bits corresponding to each element included in each first component in any one of the above groups of first components, and thus obtain the content of each element before quantization.

[0034] In a possible implementation, in any group of first components, at least two first components have different numbers of elements.

[0035] Based on the above possible implementation methods, in any group of first components, when the number of elements of at least two first components is different, the diversity of the first component values ​​can be increased, which helps to improve the accuracy of fitting the weight matrix through M groups of first components.

[0036] In a possible implementation, the number of elements of the first component is preset.

[0037] Based on the above possible implementation manner, if the network device pre-sets the number of elements of the first component, the data to be sent by the first indication information can be reduced, further reducing the signaling overhead of the network device.

[0038] In a possible implementation, a receiving period of the first information is a first period, a receiving period of the second information is a second period, and the first period is greater than the second period.

[0039] Based on the above possible implementation manner, when the first period is greater than the second period, the update frequency of the first information is lower than the update frequency of the second information, which can further reduce the signaling overhead of the network device.

[0040] In a third aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the above method. The communication device includes modules, units, or means corresponding to the above method. The modules, units, or means can be implemented in hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

[0041] In conjunction with the third aspect above, in one possible implementation, the communication device may include a processing module and an interface module. The processing module may be configured to implement the processing functions described in any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof. The processing module may, for example, be a processor. The interface module, also referred to as an interface unit, may be configured to implement the sending and / or receiving functions described in any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof. The interface module may be comprised of an interface circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

[0042] In combination with the third aspect above, in a possible implementation, the interface module includes a sending module and a receiving module, which are respectively used to implement the sending and receiving functions in any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof.

[0043] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a processor; the processor is configured to be coupled to a memory, and after reading an instruction in the memory, execute the method as described in any one of the above aspects according to the instruction.

[0044] In conjunction with the fourth aspect above, in one possible implementation, the communication device further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data. Optionally, the memory is integrated with the processor; or the memory is independent of the processor.

[0045] In conjunction with the fourth aspect above, in one possible implementation, the communication device is a chip or a chip system. Optionally, when the communication device is a chip system, it can be composed of a chip or include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0046] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a processor and an interface circuit; the interface circuit is used to receive a computer program or instruction and transmit it to the processor; the processor is used to execute the computer program or instruction so that the communication device executes the method described in any of the above aspects.

[0047] In conjunction with the fifth aspect above, in one possible implementation, the communication device is a chip or a chip system. Optionally, when the communication device is a chip system, it can be composed of a chip or include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0048] In a sixth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, wherein instructions are stored in the computer-readable storage medium. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer can execute the method described in any one of the above aspects.

[0049] In a seventh aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method described in any one of the above aspects.

[0050] In an eighth aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes a node in a network for executing the method described in the first aspect, and a network device for executing the method described in the second aspect.

[0051] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any possible implementation method in the third to eighth aspects can be referred to the technical effects brought about by any aspect in the first to second aspects or different possible implementation methods in any aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0052] It is understandable that, provided that the solutions are not contradictory, the solutions in each aspect can be combined. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0053] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided by this application;

[0054] FIG2A is a second schematic diagram of a communication system provided by this application;

[0055] FIG2B is a third schematic diagram of a communication system provided by this application;

[0056] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of the communication device provided in this application;

[0057] FIG4 is a flow chart of the communication method provided by this application;

[0058] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device provided in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0059] Before introducing the technical solution of this application, the relevant technical terms involved in this application are explained. It is understood that these explanations are intended to make this application easier to understand and should not be regarded as limiting the scope of protection claimed in this application.

[0060] 1. Terminal

[0061] The terminal in this application is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities. The terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors, outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water (such as ships, etc.); it can also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons and satellites, etc.). The terminal can also be called a terminal device, and the terminal device can be a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), etc., or a device for providing voice or data connectivity to users. Among them, UE includes handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, vehicle-mounted devices (such as cars, bicycles, electric vehicles, airplanes, ships, trains, high-speed railways, etc.), wearable devices (such as smart watches, smart bracelets, pedometers, etc.) or computing devices. Exemplarily, UE can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a PDA, a mobile internet device (MID), a satellite terminal or a computer with wireless transceiver capabilities. A UE may also be a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless modem, a smart point of sale (POS) machine, customer-premises equipment (CPE), an intelligent robot, a robotic arm, workshop equipment, smart home devices (e.g., refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners, electric meters, etc.), a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home, an in-vehicle terminal, a roadside unit (RSU) with terminal functions, or an aerial device (e.g., an intelligent robot, a hot air balloon, a drone, an airplane), etc. A terminal may also be other devices with terminal functions, for example, a terminal may also be a device that functions as a terminal in device-to-device (D2D) communication.

[0062] As an example and not a limitation, in this application, the terminal may be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be referred to as wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. For example, a wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also a device that achieves powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include devices that are fully functional, large in size, and can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as devices that focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0063] In the present application, the terminal may be a terminal in an Internet of Things (IoT) system. IoT is an important component of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, thereby realizing an intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and object-to-object interconnection. The terminal in the present application may be a terminal in machine type communication (MTC). The terminal of the present application may be an on-board module, on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip or on-board unit built into a vehicle as one or more components or units. The vehicle may implement the method of the present application through the built-in on-board module, on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip or on-board unit. The terminal of the present application may be a vehicle, such as a car. Therefore, the present application may be applied to Internet of Vehicles, such as vehicle to everything (V2X), long term evolution vehicle (LTE-V), vehicle to vehicle (V2V), etc.

[0064] In this application, the form of the terminal is not limited. The device used to implement the function of the terminal can be a terminal; it can also be a device that can support the terminal to implement the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the terminal or used in conjunction with the terminal.

[0065] 2. Network equipment

[0066] The network device in this application may be a device with wireless transceiver functions that can help terminals achieve wireless access. The network device in this application may also be referred to as a node in a radio access network (RAN), a RAN node, or an access network device. Network equipment includes, but is not limited to, evolved NodeBs (eNBs or e-NodeBs) in long term evolution (LTE), evolved NodeBs (ng-eNBs) in next generation LTE, gNodeBs (gNBs) in new radio (NR), transmitting points (TPs) or transmission receiving points (TRPs), base stations subsequently evolved by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), next generation NodeBs (gNBs), next generation base stations in 6th generation (6G) mobile communication systems, base stations in future mobile communication systems, satellites, access nodes in wireless fidelity (WiFi) systems, wireless relay nodes, wireless backhaul nodes, integrated access and backhaul (IAB) nodes, mobile switching centers, and non-terrestrial communication networks. A network device is a network device in a network (NTN) communication system, which can be deployed on a high-altitude platform or satellite. A base station can be a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a small station, a relay station, or a balloon station. Multiple base stations can support networks of the same technology mentioned above, or they can support networks of different technologies mentioned above. A base station can include one or more co-located or non-co-located TRPs. A network device can also be a device that functions as a base station in D2D communication, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, drone communication, and machine communication. A network device can also be a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario.A network device may also be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), a radio unit (RU), a roadside unit (RSU) with base station functionality, a wired access gateway, or a core network element. A network device may also be a server, a wearable device, a machine communication device, or an in-vehicle device. For example, a network device in V2X technology may be an RSU. The following description uses a base station as an example. The multiple network devices may be base stations of the same type or different types. A base station may communicate with a terminal or communicate with the terminal through a relay station. A terminal may communicate with multiple base stations using different technologies. For example, a terminal may communicate with a base station supporting an LTE network or a base station supporting a fifth-generation (5G) network, and may also support dual connectivity with base stations on both LTE and 5G networks.

[0067] In this application, the CU and DU may be separately configured or may be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH). It is understood that the CU may be classified as a network device in an access network, or as a network device in a core network, without limitation herein.

[0068] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an open radio access network (ORAN) system, CU may also be called O-CU (open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, CU-CP may also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be called O-CU-UP, and RU may also be called O-RU. For the convenience of description, this application takes CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples for description. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0069] It is understandable that in some scenarios, the roles of network devices and terminals are relative. For example, a helicopter or drone, which is usually configured as a terminal, can also be configured as a mobile base station, and the device that accesses the RAN via the helicopter or drone is configured as a terminal.

[0070] In this application, the form of the network device is not limited. The device used to implement the function of the network device can be a network device; it can also be a device that can support the network device to implement the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the network device or used in conjunction with the network device.

[0071] 3. Nodes in the network

[0072] In this application, a node in a network can be a device or terminal capable of reflecting wireless signals. A terminal includes a terminal equipped with an antenna array. For details, please refer to the previous description of terminals. It is understood that when a node in a network is a device capable of reflecting wireless signals, the node can reflect signals from the network device in the terminal's desired receiving direction, facilitating signal reception and processing by the terminal. When a node in a network is a terminal, the node can perform phase adjustment on the signal from the network device and then perform other processing such as demodulation.

[0073] An example of a device capable of reflecting wireless signals is an IRS. An IRS is an array consisting of multiple passive reflective elements with adjustable phases. It also integrates a module for receiving and processing network device signaling. This device receives signaling from network devices and controls the phase of the IRS elements based on this signaling, thereby adjusting the direction of the wireless signal reflected by the IRS.

[0074] Specifically, the role of IRS is mainly reflected in the following: after the IRS is deployed, the network equipment can reasonably adjust the IRS phase to build a stronger signal transmission path in the signal transmission direction of the network device-IRS-terminal. The IRS can then reflect the wireless signal from the network device to the terminal's desired receiving direction, thereby increasing the rank of the channel matrix in areas with weak wireless signal coverage and / or enhancing the channel for wireless signal transmission.

[0075] Furthermore, due to the passive nature of the IRS array elements, the IRS requires low power consumption and manufacturing costs. This application uses the IRS as an example to illustrate the function of a device that reflects wireless signals. It is understood that devices that reflect wireless signals include, but are not limited to, IRSs.

[0076] 4. Matrix Condition Number and Channel Rank Increase

[0077] It can be understood that for a matrix A, the condition number of the matrix refers to ‖A‖2‖A-1 ‖2, where ‖A‖2 represents the quadratic norm of matrix A, ‖A -1 ‖2 represents the quadratic norm of the inverse matrix of matrix A. The quadratic norm refers to A T The square root of the largest eigenvalue of matrix A. The rank of a matrix is ​​the maximum number of linearly independent rows or columns in the matrix.

[0078] In wireless communications, matrices, such as the channel matrix, are often used as mathematical models to represent the correlation between a receiver and a transmitter. Taking multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) transmission as an example, the condition number of the channel matrix can be quite large when the signal quality of multiple MIMO channels (i.e., transmission layers) varies significantly, for example, when the difference in received signal power between different transmission layers is greater than 10dB.

[0079] As can be understood, taking the channel matrix H1 for the network device directly connecting to the terminal and the channel matrix H2 for the network device, IRS, and terminal, as an example, adjusting the condition number of the channel matrix (H1 + H2) to be less than H1 can achieve the effect of increasing the channel rank, thereby enhancing the channel and improving the channel environment. For example, nodes in the network can adjust the phase of the signal from the network device to change H2, so that the condition number of the channel matrix (H1 + H2) is adjusted to be less than H1.

[0080] 5. Outer Product

[0081] The outer product operator can be used Represented by two column vectors a and b, vector a=[a1,a2,…,a M ] T , vector b=[b1,b2,…,b K ] T For example, the outer product of a and b can be shown as (1).

[0082] 6. Kronecker product (KP)

[0083] The Kronecker product operator can be used The Kronecker product can be used between vectors as well as between matrices.

[0084] Take two vectors a and b, vector a=[a1,a2,…,a M ] T , vector b=[b1,b2,…,b K ] T For example, the Kronecker product of a and b can be expressed as formula (2):

[0085] Take two matrices A and B as an example, the matrix matrix The Kronecker product of matrix A and matrix B can be expressed as formula (3):

[0086] The above-mentioned outer product or Kronecker product is a vector operation performed between vectors or between matrices. In addition to the outer product or Kronecker product, the vector operation in this application also includes other vector operations without limitation.

[0087] 7. Tensors

[0088] As you can understand, a tensor is an expansion of a vector or matrix. The following takes matrix A as an example to introduce the tensor expansion process. In this example, A can be The tensor expansion order of A is P. If the p-th order expansion form of A is recorded as [A] p ,but If p is equal to 3, [A]3 can be expressed as After expansion, it can be shown as formula (4):

[0089] It is understandable that for matrices, φ can be used x,y,z Represents the corresponding element in the 3D tensor Φ at the 3D spatial position (x, y, z).

[0090] 8. Antenna weights

[0091] Antenna weights can be parameters that support an antenna array to generate a specific beam, for example, for multi-antenna beamforming. The specific beam can be a beam with a specific direction, a specific shape, or a specific power or energy.

[0092] It is understood that antenna weights can also be referred to as beamforming matrices or weight matrices (referred to as weight matrices in this application), and each element in the weight matrix is ​​a weight, which is used to perform vector multiplication with the wireless signal received or transmitted by the antenna, also known as "weighting the antenna." In addition, the weights can also be replaced by other parameters used to implement beamforming, such as a steering vector, a precoding matrix, and the signal amplitude and phase of the antenna port, without limitation.

[0093] Network devices can control the amplitude and / or phase of the antenna arrays of network nodes (devices or terminals that reflect wireless signals) by issuing antenna weights. The following example uses an IRS node as an example, with a network device controlling the antenna weights of an IRS array element.

[0094] It can be understood that the antenna weight w of the IRS array element can be obtained according to formulas (5), (6), and (7):

[0095] Where u is the horizontal phase vector of w, and v is the vertical phase vector of w. M1 is the number of horizontal elements in the IRS array, and M2 is the number of vertical elements in the IRS array. The total number of elements in the array is M1M2. O1 is the horizontal oversampling factor of the IRS array, and O2 is the vertical oversampling factor. For an IRS array, since the weights vary with the index i or k, the number of different antenna weight values ​​is M1M2O1O2.

[0096] The oversampling multiple is positively correlated with the angular resolution. Specifically, the antenna weight of each horizontal array element is Its phase is Therefore, when M1 remains unchanged, the larger O1 is, the greater the angular resolution is, where i is the index of the array element at different positions on the IRS array surface.

[0097] Currently, IRS can reflect signals in a single beam or multiple beams.

[0098] The IRS reflects a single-beam signal, meaning all IRS elements have the same antenna weights. When the network device sends antenna weights, M1, M2, O1, and O2 are fixed values. The network device determines one of the M1, M2, O1, and O2 antenna weights and sends it to the IRS. This allows the network device to send antenna weight indexes i and k, eliminating the need to individually send all antenna weights required by the IRS or receiving devices, such as terminals.

[0099] IRS reflects multi-beam signals, that is, each element of the IRS can correspond to a different antenna weight, and the network device indicates the phase of all elements to the IRS. Specifically, the network device sends the antenna weight to the IRS. When the network device sends θ1,θ2,...θ to the IRS N .

[0100] Since the IRS reflects a single beam signal and controls the antenna weights to reflect and enhance the signal from the network device in a certain direction, it cannot reflect the signal from the network device in multiple directions, resulting in limited channel rank increase capability of the IRS.

[0101] The IRS single-beam signal reflection method has the advantage of a simple process, but it also has its limitations. Since it uses antenna weights to control the terminal to align the receiving or transmitting direction in a certain direction, it cannot achieve multi-layer transmission or reception enhancement of the signal, so it cannot meet more application scenarios.

[0102] The advantage of the IRS multi-beam signal reflection method is that it can be used to achieve channel rank increase. Network equipment needs to more finely control the phase of the IRS array elements, allowing the IRS to reflect the signal from the network equipment in multiple different directions, which can better meet the needs of different scenarios. In addition, whether in downlink or uplink transmission, by finely adjusting the antenna weights of the antenna arrays of nodes in the network, the signal can have more transmission layers and a higher signal-to-interference-noise ratio. Specifically, when applied to scenarios where more layers of signals need to be transmitted, the signal transmission rate can be improved.

[0103] The disadvantage is that, because the network device transmits the phases corresponding to all IRS elements to the IRS, this method results in higher signaling overhead for the network device compared to the method of reflecting a single-beam signal from the IRS when the IRS elements are of the same size. Table 1 shows some examples of the wireless resource overhead and number of IRS elements required for transmitting antenna weights for the network device when the transmitted signal uses QPSK modulation with a code rate of 3 / 4 (i.e., 3 / 4 of the signal bits correspond to the information to be transmitted, i.e., useful data, and the remaining 1 / 4 bits are redundant, including coding check bits), and each antenna weight uses a 4-bit code.

[0104] Table 1

[0105] The unit of radio resource overhead is the number of radio resource elements (REs) required to transmit the antenna weights corresponding to the number of elements. Table 1 shows that radio resource overhead is directly proportional to the number of IRS elements. Consequently, the larger the IRS element size, the greater the signaling overhead for network devices. Therefore, when the IRS antenna weights are distributed by the network device, how to transmit them to the IRS with minimal overhead becomes crucial to achieving this goal. Furthermore, for similar reasons, when the network device distributes antenna weights to the terminal, there's also the issue of high signaling overhead.

[0106] In order to solve the above problems, the present application provides a communication method that can be used in various communication systems. For example, the communication system can be an LTE system, a 5G communication system, a WiFi system, a 3GPP-related communication system, a future evolved communication system (such as a sixth generation (6G) communication system, etc.), or a system that integrates multiple systems, etc., without limitation. Among them, 5G can also be referred to as NR. The method provided by the present application is described below using the communication system 10 shown in Figure 1 as an example. Figure 1 is only a schematic diagram and does not constitute a limitation on the applicable scenarios of the technical solution provided by the present application.

[0107] The communication system 10 shown in FIG1 includes at least one network device 102 (only one is shown in FIG1 ), and a node 101 in a network that is communicatively connected to the network device 102 (for ease of description, nodes in the network are hereinafter referred to as nodes). For an introduction to the network device 102, reference can be made to the previous description of network devices, and a detailed description thereof will not be repeated here.

[0108] In Figure 1, node 101 is a terminal or a device capable of reflecting wireless signals. If node 101 is a terminal, it can receive signals from network device 102. If node 101 is a device capable of reflecting wireless signals (such as an IRS), it can receive signals from network device 102 and reflect them in the terminal's desired direction, facilitating reception and processing by the terminal.

[0109] In some embodiments, the communication system shown in FIG1 can be applied to the communication scenario shown in FIG2A . For example, network device 102 can be base station 2102 in FIG2A , and node 101 can be IRS 2101 in FIG2A . In FIG2A , the LOS path between terminal 2103 and network device 2102 is blocked, and network device 2102 cannot send a signal to terminal 2103 via the LOS path between terminal 2103 and network device 2102 . Therefore, network device 2102 can send a signal to IRS 2101. After receiving the signal sent by network device 2102, IRS 2101 can reflect the signal to the desired receiving direction of terminal 2103, so that terminal 2103 receives and processes the signal, thereby achieving communication between network device 2102 and terminal 2103.

[0110] In some other embodiments, the communication system shown in FIG1 can be applied to the communication scenario shown in FIG2B . For example, the network device 102 can be the base station 2202 in FIG2B , and the node 101 can be the IRS 2201 in FIG2B . In FIG2B , the LOS path between the terminal 2203 and the network device 2202 is unobstructed, but in the LOS transmission path from the network device 2202 directly to the terminal 2203, the channel condition number corresponding to the channel matrix is ​​large, and the channel is a low-rank channel. At this time, the network device 2202 can send a signal to the IRS 2201. After receiving the signal sent by the network device 2202, the IRS 2201 can forward the signal to the terminal 2203, so that the terminal 2203 receives and processes the signal. The network device can increase the rank of the channel matrix between the network device 2202 and the terminal 2203 by adjusting the rank of the channel matrix on the transmission path from the network device 2202 to the IRS 2201 to the terminal 2203.

[0111] The communication system 10 shown in FIG1 is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the technical solutions of this application. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, in a specific implementation, the communication system 10 may further include other devices, and the number of network devices and terminals may be determined based on specific needs without limitation.

[0112] Optionally, each network element or device in Figure 1 of the present application (such as node 101 or network device 102) can also be referred to as a communication device, which can be a general device or a dedicated device. This application does not make specific limitations on this.

[0113] Optionally, the relevant functions of each network element or device (e.g., node 101 or network device 102) in FIG. 1 of the present application may be implemented by a single device, or may be implemented jointly by multiple devices, or may be implemented by one or more functional modules within a single device, and this application does not impose any specific limitations on this. It is understood that the above functions may be network elements in a hardware device, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or a combination of hardware and software, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform).

[0114] In a specific implementation, each network element or device shown in Figure 1 (e.g., node 101 or network device 102) can adopt the structure shown in Figure 3, or include the components shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a communication device applicable to the present application. The communication device 30 includes at least one processor 301 and at least one communication interface 304, which are used to implement the method provided in the present application. The communication device 30 may also include a communication line 302 and a memory 303.

[0115] The processor 301 may be a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present application.

[0116] The communication link 302 may include a path for transmitting information between the above components, such as a bus.

[0117] Communication interface 304 is used to communicate with other devices or communication networks. Communication interface 304 can be any transceiver-like device, such as an Ethernet interface, a radio access network (RAN) interface, a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface, a transceiver, a pin, a bus, an interface circuit, or a transceiver circuit.

[0118] The memory 303 can be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compressed optical disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to this. The memory can be independent and coupled to the processor 301 via a communication line 302. The memory 303 can also be integrated with the processor 301. The memory provided in this application can generally be non-volatile.

[0119] Among them, the memory 303 is used to store computer-executable instructions involved in executing the solution provided by this application, and is controlled by the processor 301. The processor 301 is used to execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 303, thereby implementing the method provided by this application. Alternatively, optionally, in this application, the processor 301 can also perform the processing-related functions of the method provided below in this application, and the communication interface 304 is responsible for communicating with other devices or communication networks, which is not specifically limited in this application.

[0120] Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in this application may also be referred to as application code, which is not specifically limited in this application.

[0121] The coupling in this application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules.

[0122] As an embodiment, the processor 301 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 3 .

[0123] As an embodiment, the communication device 30 may include multiple processors, such as processor 301 and processor 307 in FIG3 . Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. The processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and / or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

[0124] As an embodiment, the communication device 30 may further include an output device 305 and / or an input device 306. The output device 305 is coupled to the processor 301 and can display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 305 can be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display device, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device, or a projector. The input device 306 is coupled to the processor 301 and can receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 306 can be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, or a sensor device.

[0125] It is understandable that the composition structure shown in Figure 3 does not constitute a limitation on the communication device. In addition to the components shown in Figure 3, the communication device may include more or fewer components than shown in the figure, or combine certain components, or arrange the components differently.

[0126] The method provided by the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Each network element in the following embodiment may include the components shown in FIG3 , which will not be described in detail.

[0127] It can be understood that the message names between network elements or the names of parameters in the messages in the following embodiments of the present application are only examples, and other names may be used in specific implementations, and the present application does not make any specific limitations on this.

[0128] It is understandable that in this application, "sending information to... (such as a node in the network)" can be understood as the destination end of the information being a node in the network. It can include sending information directly or indirectly to a node in the network. "Receiving information from... (such as a network device)" can be understood as the source end of the information being a network device, which can include receiving information directly or indirectly from a network device. The information may undergo necessary processing between the source end and the destination end of the information transmission, such as format changes, etc., 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 repeated here.

[0129] It is understood that in this application, " / " can indicate that the objects associated with each other are in an "or" relationship, for example, A / B can mean A or B; "and / or" can be used to describe that there are three relationships between the associated objects, 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 addition, expressions similar to "at least one of A, B and C" or "at least one of A, B or C" are usually used to indicate any of the following: A exists alone; B exists alone; C exists alone; A and B exist at the same time; A and C exist at the same time; B and C exist at the same time; A, B and C exist at the same time. The above uses A, B and C as an example to illustrate the optional items of the item. When there are more elements in the expression, the meaning of the expression can be obtained according to the above rules.

[0130] In order to facilitate the description of the technical solutions of the present application, in the present application, words such as "first" and "second" may be used to distinguish between technical features with the same or similar functions. The words such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and execution order, and the words such as "first" and "second" do not necessarily limit them to be different. In the present application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations or explanations. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" should not be interpreted as being more preferred or more advantageous than other embodiments or design. The use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete way for easy understanding.

[0131] It is understood that the "embodiment" mentioned throughout the specification means that the specific features, structures or characteristics related to the embodiment are included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, the various embodiments in the entire specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, these specific features, structures or characteristics can be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner. It is understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence number of each process does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the present application.

[0132] It can be understood that in the present application, "used to indicate" can include direct indication and indirect indication, and can also include explicit indication and implicit indication. When describing that a certain indication information is used to indicate A, it can include that the indication information directly indicates A or indirectly indicates A, but it does not mean that the indication information must carry A. The information indicated by a certain information (such as the first indication information described below) is called information to be indicated. In the specific implementation process, there are many ways to indicate the information to be indicated, such as but not limited to, the information to be indicated can be directly indicated, such as the information to be indicated itself or the index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated can also be indirectly indicated by indicating other information, where there is an association between the other information and the information to be indicated. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while the other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of specific information can also be achieved by means of the arrangement order of each information agreed in advance (such as specified in the protocol), thereby reducing the indication overhead to a certain extent.

[0133] It can be understood that in this application, "when...", "in the case of...", "if" and "if" all mean that corresponding processing will be taken under certain objective circumstances, and do not limit the time, nor do they require judgment actions when implementing them, nor do they mean that there are other limitations.

[0134] 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.

[0135] It is understood that some optional features in this application may, in certain scenarios, be implemented independently of other features, such as the solution on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding effects. They may also be combined with other features in certain scenarios as needed. Accordingly, the devices provided in this application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which will not be described in detail here.

[0136] It is understandable that the same step or steps or technical features with the same function in different embodiments of the present application can be referenced to each other.

[0137] It is understood that in the present application, network devices and / or nodes in the network may perform some or all of the steps in the present application. These steps are merely examples, and the present application may also perform other steps or variations of various steps. In addition, the steps may be performed in a different order than presented in the present application, and it is possible that not all of the steps in the present application need to be performed.

[0138] It is understandable that the method provided below in this application uses network devices and nodes as examples of the execution subjects of the interaction diagram to illustrate the method, but this application does not limit the execution subjects of the interaction diagram. For example, the network device in the method provided in the following embodiments of this application may also be a chip, chip system, or processor that supports the network device to implement the method, or a logical node, logic module, or software that can implement all or part of the network device functions; the node in the method provided below in this application may also be a chip, chip system, or processor that supports the node to implement the method, or a logical node, logic module, or software that can implement all or part of the node functions.

[0139] As shown in FIG4 , a communication method provided by the present application may include the following steps:

[0140] S401: The network device obtains a weight matrix.

[0141] In the present application, the network device may be the network device 102 in the communication system 10 shown in FIG. 1 .

[0142] In this application, a weight matrix can represent the antenna weights of a node. In other words, the weight matrix can be obtained by representing the antenna weights of a node in the form of a matrix or vector. Therefore, the weight matrix can indicate the antenna weight information of the antenna array of the node. The node can be node 101 in the communication system 10 shown in Figure 1.

[0143] For example, a possible weight matrix is ​​shown in formula (8). The weight matrix in formula (8) includes 6 elements, each of which corresponds to an amplitude of 1. From the first row to the second row of the weight matrix, and from left to right in each row, each element is θ1, θ2, θ3, θ4, θ5, and θ6. It can be understood that each element corresponds to an element of the node's antenna array. For example, each element can indicate the phase of the corresponding element.

[0144] The weight matrix obtained by the network device can be indicated to the node, so that the node can receive the signal sent by the network device according to the weight matrix indicated by the network device.

[0145] S402: The network device sends the first information and the second information. Correspondingly, the node receives the first information and the second information from the network device.

[0146] In the present application, the first information is used to indicate M groups of first components. The second information is used to indicate R first coefficients. Here, R is an integer greater than or equal to 1. It is understandable that the network device can expand the weight matrix into multiple components and indicate these components to the node so that the node can perform component operations on these components to fit the weight matrix. For example, the network device obtains M groups of first components and R first coefficients based on the weight matrix, and sends the first information and the second information to the node to indicate the M groups of first components and R first coefficients to the node, so that the node can fit the weight matrix based on the M groups of first components and R first coefficients. The process of the network device obtaining M groups of first components and R first coefficients is specifically explained below.

[0147] In one possible implementation, the network device performs tensor expansion on the weight matrix to obtain M groups of first components and R first coefficients, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Any group of the M groups of first components includes at least one first component.

[0148] Exemplarily, the network device expands the weight matrix Θ into any one of the forms in formula (9) to formula (10).

[0149] Optionally, formula (9) can also be replaced by formula (11).

[0150] The difference between formula (9) and formula (11) is that in formula (9), The outer product is done between them; in formula (11), The Kronecker product is made between them. It can be understood that in formula (9) and formula (11), The outer product or Kronecker product is used as an example to introduce it. In specific applications, Other component operations can also be performed between them without restriction.

[0151] A possible design, for formula (9) or formula (11), λ l (l∈(1,L)) is the first coefficient used to adjust the amplitude corresponding to the array element. For example, one first coefficient corresponds to a row of the weight matrix. Wherein, L is the number of rows in the weight matrix. In this example, L is equal to R. Formula (9) or Formula (11) corresponds to P groups of first components, where P is a positive integer greater than 1, indicating the order of component expansion. Each group of first components includes at least one first component. For example, each column vector (such as ) is a first component, for example, (Right now ) is a set of first components, (Right now ) is a set of first components, ..., (Right now ) is a set of first components. In this example, P is equal to M.

[0152] In one possible design, in any group of first components, the number of elements included in each first component is the same, and the number of elements included in the first components in different groups of first components can be the same or different. The number of elements in a first component is greater than or equal to 2. For example, for the first group of first components Each first component can be expressed as (a1,…,a x ), x is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and x can represent the number of elements of a first component in the first group of first components. Each first component can be expressed as (a1,…,a y ), y is also an integer greater than or equal to 2, and y can represent the number of elements of a first component in the second group of first components. Each first component can be expressed as (a1,…,a z ), z is also an integer greater than or equal to 2, and z can represent the number of elements in one of the first components of the Lth group of first components. At least two of z, x, or y are different, or z, x, and y are all the same. The same applies to the first components of other groups.

[0153] It is understandable that in order to enable the node to receive the signal sent by the network device, the network device can indicate the weight matrix to the node. In order to reduce the signaling overhead of the network device, it is possible to consider reducing the number of elements corresponding to the weight matrix indicated by the network device to the node. For example, for M groups of first components, the sum of the product of the number of first components in each group and the number of elements in each group of first components is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix. For details, please refer to formula (12).

[0154] L(N1+N2+…+N P ) <N=N1N2…N P (12)

[0155] Among them, N1, N2, ..., N Pare the number of elements contained in each group of first components. N is the number of elements in the weight matrix Θ. Taking the weight matrix Θ shown in formula (8) as an example, N=6. In addition, the number of elements N in the weight matrix is ​​equal to the product of the number of elements included in the M groups of first components. In other words, in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix. For example, N=N1N2…N P , so that L, N1~N p The relationship between , N can satisfy formula (12).

[0156] For example, if the total number of elements in the weight matrix is ​​N = 1024, P = 5, M = 4, L = 3, and N1, N2, N3, N4, and N5 are each equal to 4, the number of elements indicated by the network device to the node is 60 (3 × (4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4) = 60). In contrast, the prior art indicates all elements of the weight matrix to the node, which in this example requires indicating 1024 elements. Because 60 is less than 1024, the number of elements of the weight matrix indicated to the node by the network device using the method shown in FIG. 4 is less than the number of elements of the weight matrix indicated to the node by the network device in the prior art.

[0157] Optionally, formula (10) can also be replaced by formula (13).

[0158] The difference between formula (10) and formula (13) is that in formula (10), Do the outer product between them; in formula (13), It can be understood that in formula (10) and formula (13), the Kronecker product is The outer product or Kronecker product is used as an example to introduce it. In specific applications, Other component operations can also be performed between them without restriction.

[0159] One possible design, for formula (10) or formula (13), is the first coefficient, It can be a diagonal matrix used to adjust the amplitude corresponding to the array element. For example, one first coefficient corresponds to P first components. Formula (10) or Formula (13) corresponds to P groups of first components. Wherein, P is a positive integer greater than 1, representing the order of component expansion. Each group of first components includes at least one first component. For example, P groups of first components sequentially include L1 first components, L2 first components, ..., L P The first component. Among them, each column vector (such as ) is a first component. Specifically, (Right now ) is a set of first components, (Right now ) is a set of first components, ..., It is understood that in this example, P is equal to M, and R is equal to the product of the number of first components in each group, such as R = L1L2...L P .

[0160] In one possible design, in any group of first components, the number of elements included in each first component is the same, and the number of elements included in the first components in different groups of first components can be the same or different. The number of elements in a first component is greater than or equal to 2. For example, for the first group of first components Each first component can be expressed as (a1,…,a x ), x is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and x can represent the number of elements of a first component in the first group of first components. Each first component can be expressed as (a1,…,a y ), y is also an integer greater than or equal to 2, and y can represent the number of elements of a first component in the second group of first components. Each first component can be expressed as (a1,…,a z ), z is also an integer greater than or equal to 2, and z can represent the number of elements in one of the first components of the Lth group of first components. At least two of z, x, or y are different, or z, x, and y are all the same. The same applies to the first components of other groups.

[0161] It can be understood that in order to enable the node to receive the signal sent by the network device, the network device can indicate the weight matrix to the node. In order to reduce the signaling overhead of the network device, it can be considered to reduce the number of elements corresponding to the weight matrix indicated by the network device to the node. For example, for M groups of first components, the sum of the number of first components in each group and the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix. For details, please refer to formula (14). In addition, the number of elements N in the weight matrix is ​​equal to the product of the number of elements included in the M groups of first components. In other words, in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix. For example, N = N1N2…N P , so that L1~L p 、N1~N P The relationship between , N can satisfy formula (14).

[0162] L1N1+…+L P N P <N=N1N2…NP (14)

[0163] For example, taking the case where the total number of elements in the weight matrix is ​​N=1024, P=5, M=4, L1=2, L2=3, L3=3, N1=4, N2=16, and N3=16, the number of elements indicated by the network device to the node is 104 (2×4+3×16+3×16=104). In contrast, the prior art indicates all elements of the weight matrix to the node, which in this example requires indicating 1024 elements. Because 104 is less than 1024, the number of elements in the weight matrix indicated by the network device to the node using the method shown in FIG4 is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix indicated by the network device to the node in the prior art.

[0164] Optionally, at least two of the M groups of first components include the same number of first components, which can simplify the computational complexity of the node. Taking formula (9) as an example, the first group of first components Including L first components, the second group of first components The first components of the remaining groups include L first components, and the number of first components included in the remaining groups is not equal to L, or each group of first components includes L first components.

[0165] Optionally, at least two of the M groups of first components include different numbers of first components, so as to provide nodes with more possible M groups of first components and R first coefficients for fitting the weight matrix for the nodes in the network. Taking formula (10) as an example, the first group of first components Includes L1 first components, the second group of first components Including L2 first components, ..., the Pth group of first components Including L P The first component, L1~L P At least two of them are different.

[0166] It can be understood that formula (9) is formula (10) under the condition that L1=L2=…=L P =L, formula (11) is the special form of formula (13) when L1=L2=…=L P = L. In addition, when L1 = L2 = ... = L P =L, formula (12) is simplified to the form of formula (14).

[0167] In summary, if the weight matrix is ​​expanded into the form of formula (9) or formula (11), L, N1~N P The relationship between , N can satisfy formula (12). If the weight matrix is ​​expanded into the form of formula (10) or formula (13), L1~L p、N1~N P The relationship between , N may need to satisfy formula (14). It is understandable that the specific form in which the network device expands the weight matrix can be set as needed, or can be pre-set in the network device.

[0168] Optionally, the number of elements of the first component is preset, or can be set as needed.

[0169] Optionally, the modulus of the first component is 1 to simplify the complexity of network devices and nodes. For example, taking the first component as (a1, a2, a3), the elements of the first component satisfy

[0170] It is understandable that the above expansion of the weight matrix is ​​to approximate the weight matrix through multiple components. In order to reduce the error in the weight matrix fitting process and make the weight matrix obtained by fitting closer to the actual weight matrix, the error requirement can be set as needed so that the network device can determine the M groups of first components and R first coefficients that meet the corresponding error requirements. Taking formula (9) as an example, the relationship between the M groups of first components, the R first coefficients, Θ and the error requirement can satisfy formula (15). Among them, the error threshold can be set as needed. It is understandable that the larger the error threshold, the greater the difference between the weight matrix obtained by fitting and the actual weight matrix, and the smaller the error threshold, the more similar the weight matrix obtained by fitting is to the actual weight matrix.

[0171] It can be understood that for formula (10), formula (11) or formula (13), the relationship between the M groups of first components, R first coefficients, Θ and the error requirement is similar to that of formula (15) and is not repeated here.

[0172] It is understandable that in order to reduce the overhead of the network device indicating the weight matrix to the node, the network device can quantize the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients respectively to obtain the first information and the second information. Subsequently, the network device can send the first information and the second information to the node.

[0173] Optionally, the network device may quantize the M groups of first components using uniform quantization or non-uniform quantization to obtain the first information. Similarly, the network device may quantize the R first coefficients using uniform quantization or non-uniform quantization to obtain the second information.

[0174] In order to better understand the method provided in the present application, the following takes Formula (9) and Formula (10) as examples to introduce the specific process of a network device obtaining M groups of first components and R first coefficients according to a weight matrix, and quantizing the M groups of first components and R first coefficients to obtain first information and second information.

[0175] First, let's take formula (9) as an example to introduce it. For details, please refer to the following method 1.

[0176] Method 1: When the network device expands the weight matrix Θ according to the form of formula (9), it can first determine the The values ​​of each element, and the L first coefficients λ l (l=1,2,…,L), where l=1,2,…,L. Specifically, you can refer to the following process:

[0177] 1. In each component (such as ) is 1, the network device randomly generates a value for each element included in the component as the initial value.

[0178] 2. The network device performs a P-order tensor expansion on the weight matrix Θ according to formula (9), which is expressed as formula (16).

[0179] in, is the outer product operator, λ is a matrix composed of L first coefficients, which is used to control the amplitude of the array element of the node. diag(λ) represents the diagonal matrix composed of the elements of λ, that is,

[0180] If the p-th mode expansion of the weight matrix Θ is recorded as Then we can get the value of A by the following formula: 1 ,…,A p-1 ,A p+1 ,…,A P When both are constant, the optimal solution Λ of diag(λ) can be formula (17).

[0181] Among them, the symbol [] + It means to find the pseudo-inverse matrix of the matrix in the square brackets. It can be understood that if ABA=A, BAB=B, then matrix A and matrix B are pseudo-inverse matrices of each other. In order to simplify the complexity of the calculation, we can let A P 、A p+1 、A p-1 、A 1 The modulus of is 1, then formula (17) can be simplified to the following formula (18).

[0182] in, represents λ=[λ1,λ2,…,λ L ] TThe temporary value obtained by the intermediate processing is not the final result and needs to be further processed. Indicates quantity The quadratic norm of The square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of .

[0183] A in formula (17) p It can be further expressed in the form of formula (19).

[0184] in, Indicates "A p The temporary value obtained by the above processing is not the final result, and further processing is required to obtain "A p ”The final result.

[0185] 3. Substitute formula (17) and formula (19) into formula (16), and iterate according to the initial value of each first component until formula (15) is satisfied or the maximum number of iterations is reached. Stop the iteration and obtain M groups of first components. Where l = 1, 2, ..., L, and R first coefficients. The first coefficient can be expressed as λ l (l=1,2,…,L).

[0186] 4. Network device pair R first coefficient λ l and the first component of group M (l=1,2,…,L) for quantization.

[0187] In one possible implementation, the network device may quantize the amplitudes and phases of the R first coefficients to obtain R second coefficients, which may be included in the second information. For example, the network device may quantize the amplitudes of the R first coefficients in the interval (0, 1) and quantize the phases of the R first coefficients in the interval [0, 2π) to obtain R second coefficients (R is L).

[0188] For example, the network device may quantize the amplitudes of the R first coefficients in the interval (0, 1) and the phases of the R first coefficients in the interval [0, 2π) by using amplitude normalization. Taking amplitude normalization as an example, each first coefficient may be divided by the amplitude of the largest first coefficient among the R first coefficients to obtain the corresponding second coefficient. For example, for any first coefficient λ l , the corresponding second coefficient can be equal to λ l / λ max ,λ maxOptionally, the network device may further take the absolute value of the result of dividing each first coefficient by the first coefficient with the largest value among the R first coefficients, and use the result of the absolute value as the corresponding second coefficient.

[0189] Understandably, because each component (such as ) is 1, so the amplitudes of the M first components do not need to be quantized, and the phases of the M first components can be quantized. For example, the network device can quantize the M first components in the interval [0, 2π) to obtain the first information. It can be understood that the first information includes the quantized value corresponding to each first component, for example, the first information includes The value of each element of (l=1,2,…,L). for The quantized value, for The quantized value, ..., for Quantized value.

[0190] Optionally, the above quantization method can be uniform quantization or non-uniform quantization. Uniform quantization can be understood as quantization with equal intervals between the value range, such as 3-bit uniform quantization, which means quantizing each element into 3 bits. Non-uniform quantization can be understood as quantization with unequal intervals between the value range, such as when the probability of occurrence of small-amplitude signals is much greater than that of large-amplitude signals, more quantization levels are provided within the small-load signal range (i.e., the quantization step size is relatively small), and fewer quantization levels are provided within the large-amplitude signal range (i.e., the quantization step size is relatively large).

[0191] The total number of elements in the weight matrix N = 1024, the number of layers in the weight matrix L = 3, the tensor expansion order P = 5, N1, ..., N P =4, two examples of non-uniform quantization methods are given below. Tables 2 and 3 correspond to 3-bit non-uniform quantization methods (i.e., non-uniform quantization of any element can obtain a quantized value including 3 bits). Table 4 corresponds to 4-bit non-uniform quantization methods (i.e., non-uniform quantization of any element can obtain a quantized value including 4 bits).

[0192] Table 2

[0193] Table 3

[0194] Table 4

[0195] Specifically, Calculate L Sort them in ascending order and divide them into multiple intervals. Query Table 2, Table 3 or Table 4 according to the interval to find the quantization value corresponding to the index in the interval corresponding table. It can be understood that for 3-bit non-uniform quantization, the corresponding quantization value is found according to Table 2 and Table 3; for 4-bit non-uniform quantization, the corresponding quantization value is found according to Table 4. For example, a set of λ l They are 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 0.9, 1, 10. Among them, there are many data less than 1, so it is suitable for non-uniform quantization. Taking 4-bit non-uniform quantization of this group of data as an example, first find out They are: 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.06, 0.08, 0.09, 0.1, 1. The above data are sorted in ascending order. 0~1 can be divided into the following 8 intervals: (0, 0015], (0.015, 0.025], (0.025, 0.035], (0.035, 0.045], (0.045, 0.055] (0.055, 0.075], (0.075, 1], (1, 10], corresponding to index 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 respectively. Then the above λ l :0.1,0.2,0.5,0.6,0.8,0.9,1,10 are quantized into: 1.

[0196] Optionally, before quantization, the network device may also determine at least one piece of information including the number of quantization bits corresponding to each element in the first component or the total number of bits after quantization of the M groups of first components, so that the network device may perform quantization according to the determined information to obtain the first information.

[0197] In one possible implementation, the network device determines the number of quantization bits corresponding to each element in the first component based on the R first coefficients. It is understandable that, for example, the number of quantization bits corresponding to each group of first components can be the same or different, provided that each element is quantized by at least one bit.

[0198] As an example, for each first coefficient λ l (l=1,2,…,L), according to Determine the number of quantization bits corresponding to the first component corresponding to each first coefficient. For example, a weight matrix corresponds to three first coefficients, the ratios of the three first coefficients are 2:2:1, and the quantization method is uniform quantization. Then, a group of first components corresponding to the three first coefficients can be allocated to 40 bits, 40 bits, and 20 bits, respectively. Taking the allocation of 40 bits to a group of first components corresponding to the first first coefficient as an example, if this group of first components includes 5 first components, each first component includes 2 elements, then each element can be allocated to 4 bits, and the quantization method can be 4-bit uniform quantization.

[0199] In a possible implementation, the network device determines the number of quantization bits corresponding to each element in the first component according to the number of elements included in the M groups of first components.

[0200] For example, assuming that M is equal to 2, the network device expects to quantize the two groups of first components into 100 bits, each group of first components includes 5 first components, each first component includes 2 elements, and the quantization method is uniform quantization. For example, the network device can allocate 5 bits to each element.

[0201] In a possible implementation, the network device determines the number of quantization bits corresponding to a group of first components corresponding to the largest first coefficient among the R first coefficients, and determines the total number of bits of the M groups of first components after quantization based on the number of bits.

[0202] For example, the network device determines that the number of quantization bits corresponding to a group of first components corresponding to the largest first coefficient is For example, if each element is uniformly quantized using 4 bits, then N p is the number of elements included in a group of first components corresponding to the largest first coefficient, then the total number of bits after quantization of M groups of first components is

[0203] It can be understood that the number of quantization bits of a group of first components corresponding to the first coefficients other than the largest first coefficient is Among them, l p is the number of first components included in a set of first components corresponding to any first coefficient. It can be understood that when (l p ∈(1,L p When )) is not an integer, an integer can be obtained by rounding off, rounding up or rounding down, etc., which is not limited in this application.

[0204] For example, when the weight matrix includes two groups of first components, the first group of first components includes 3 elements, the second group of first components includes 7 elements, the first group corresponding to To ensure that each element is quantized using at least 1 bit, the number of quantized bits corresponding to the first group should be rounded down, and the first component of the second group corresponds to 7 bits.

[0205] Understandably, if (l p ∈(1,L p ) performs operations such as rounding, rounding up, or rounding down, and the total number of bits after quantization of the M groups of first components will change, so the network device can also update the total number of bits after quantization of the M groups of first components. For example, the network device can update the total number of bits after quantization of the M groups of first components based on the number of quantized bits corresponding to the group of first components corresponding to the largest first coefficient and the number of quantized bits corresponding to the group of first components corresponding to the first coefficients other than the largest first coefficient. For example, Among them, N ′ is the total number of bits after update.

[0206] Optionally, the network device can simulate the process of the node dequantizing the first information to avoid a large error between the M groups of first components obtained by the node through dequantization and the M groups of first components obtained by the network device through tensor expansion. For example, the network device can determine the number of bits corresponding to each element in the M groups of first components based on the first information, and verify whether the number of bits is the same as the number of bits used by the network device to quantize the M groups of first components. If they are not the same, the network device can adjust the parameters when quantizing the M groups of first components, such as the number of bits corresponding to each element, or the quantization method or the total number of bits after quantization of the M groups of first components, so that the two are as close as possible. It is understandable that if the two bit numbers are still different after multiple verifications (the number of verifications can be configured), the network device can send the first information with the best dequantization result to the node.

[0207] Next, using formula (10) as an example, we will describe the specific process of the network device obtaining M groups of first components and R first coefficients based on the weight matrix, and quantizing the M groups of first components and R first coefficients to obtain the first information and the second information. For details, please refer to the following method 2.

[0208] In method 2, the network device may expand the weight matrix Θ according to formula (10) to determine M groups of first components and R first coefficients. Specifically, the network device may use a method similar to method 1 to determine M groups of first components and R first coefficients, and quantize the M groups of first components and R first coefficients to obtain first information and second information. The differences are as follows:

[0209] 1. In method 1, the network device determines the value in formula (9) The values ​​of each element, and the L first coefficients λl (l=1,2,…,L) value, in method 2, the network device determines the R first coefficients and the first component of group M Where l = 1, 2,…, L.

[0210] 2. The relationship between the M groups of first components, the R first coefficients, Θ, and the error requirement used in Method 2 is different from that used in Method 1. For example, the relationship between the M groups of first components, the R first coefficients, Θ, and the error requirement in Method 2 can satisfy Formula (20). It is understood that the error threshold in Formula (20) can be the same as or different from the error threshold in Formula (15).

[0211] It can be understood that in addition to the method of determining M groups of first components and R first coefficients shown in Method 1, the network device can also use other methods, such as the high order singular value decomposition (HOSVD) method to perform tensor decomposition to determine M groups of first components and R first coefficients.

[0212] It is understandable that the network device can use a method similar to that of Mode 1 to expand the weight matrix into the form of Formula (11), thereby determining M groups of first components and R first coefficients, and quantizing the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients to obtain the first information and the second information, which will not be described in detail. Similarly, the network device can use a method similar to that of Mode 2 to expand the weight matrix into the form of Formula (13), thereby determining M groups of first components and R first coefficients, and quantizing the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients to obtain the first information and the second information, which will not be described in detail.

[0213] Optionally, the network device sends a first indication message to the node, and correspondingly, the node receives the first indication message from the network device. The first indication message indicates at least one of the following: the number of first components included in M ​​or any group of first components or the number of elements of the first component included in any group of first components. Optionally, the first indication message also indicates the quantization method of the elements of the M groups of first components. The quantization method of the elements of the M groups of first components can indicate the number of quantization bits of each element in the M groups of first components. In this way, the node can dequantize the first information according to the first indication message. It should be understood that the above information can also be preset and is not limited.

[0214] It is understandable that, in the present application, the information sent by the network device to the node, such as the first information, the second information, and each piece of information indicated by the first indication information, may be included in one message or in different messages. For example, the network device sends message 1 to the node, where the message 1 includes the first information and the number of first components included in any group of first components, and the network device also sends message 2 to the node, where the message 2 includes the second information. For another example, the network device sends message 1 to the node, where the message 1 includes the first information, the second information, and each piece of information indicated by the first indication information.

[0215] Optionally, the first information is sent for a first period, the second information is sent for a second period, and the first period is greater than the second period. This allows the first information to be updated less frequently than the second information, further reducing the network device's overhead in transmitting weight matrix-related information. Of course, in specific applications, the first period may also be less than or equal to the second period, without limitation.

[0216] It can be understood that after receiving the first information and the second information, the node can determine M groups of first components according to the first information and obtain R first coefficients according to the second information.

[0217] In one possible implementation, the node obtains the bits corresponding to each element in the first information based on the first information and the number of quantized bits of each element in the M groups of first components, and dequantizes these bits to obtain the M groups of first components. Dequantization refers to performing an inverse operation of quantization on the first information by the node to obtain the information before quantization.

[0218] In a possible implementation manner, the node may perform inverse quantization on the R second coefficients included in the second information to obtain R first coefficients.

[0219] It can be understood that after the node obtains R first coefficients, the R first coefficients can be arranged in order from small to large, starting from the smallest first coefficient, and calculating the corresponding value of each first coefficient in turn. This value is a set of first components corresponding to the first coefficient The corresponding number of bits in the first information. It can be understood that when If the value is not an integer, you can round it up, round it up, or round it down to get an integer, without any restrictions.

[0220] It can be understood that after the node determines the number of bits corresponding to a group of first components corresponding to each first coefficient in the first information, it can combine the number of first components included in the M groups of first components (respectively l1, l2, ..., l P ), and the number of elements of the first component in each group (respectively N1,…,N P), obtain the bit corresponding to each element of each first component, and decode the bits corresponding to all elements to obtain M groups of first components.

[0221] The present application does not limit the order in which the node dequantizes the first information and the second information. For example, the node can dequantize the first information and the second information at the same time, or the node can first dequantize the first information and then dequantize the second information, or the node can first dequantize the second information and then dequantize the first information.

[0222] S403: The node obtains a weight matrix according to the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients.

[0223] In one possible implementation, a node repeatedly selects M first components from M groups of first components to perform component operations, multiplies the results of each component operation by the corresponding first coefficient, and then adds them together to obtain a weight matrix. The first components included in each group of first components participate in the above-mentioned component operations. It can be understood that the purpose of the component operations is to make the product of the number of elements of each group of first components equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix, so as to reduce the number of elements corresponding to the weight matrix indicated by the network device to the node. Therefore, component operations that can achieve this purpose are included in the scope of the method shown in this application. This application describes the component operations as an example, including outer products or Kronecker products.

[0224] It can be understood that the process of obtaining the weight matrix by the node is essentially to fit the weight matrix through M groups of first components and R first coefficients. Therefore, the node can fit the weight matrix in a manner corresponding to the weight matrix expanded by the network device. For example, if the network device uses formula (9) to expand the weight matrix, the node uses formula (9) to fit the weight matrix; if the network device uses formula (10) to expand the weight matrix, the node uses formula (10) to fit the weight matrix; if the network device uses formula (11) to expand the weight matrix, the node uses formula (11) to fit the weight matrix; if the network device uses formula (13) to expand the weight matrix, the node uses formula (13) to fit the weight matrix. The following is a specific explanation using M equal to 3 as an example.

[0225] Example 1: Take the first component of the first group as The first component of the second group is The first component of the third group is The three first coefficients are λ1, λ2, and λ3. The fitting method is to take formula (9) as an example. Each node takes out a first component from a group of first components, and makes the outer product of the three first components. In this way, the results are added together to fit the weight matrix, as shown in formula (21).

[0226] Example 2: Take the first component of the first group as The first component of the second group is The first component of the third group is The three first coefficients are λ1, λ2, and λ3, and the fitting method is to take formula (11) as an example. Each node takes out a first component from a group of first components, and makes the Kronecker product of the three first components. After doing this, the results are added together to fit the weight matrix, as shown in formula (22).

[0227] Example 3: Take the first component of the first group as The first component of the second group is The first component of the third group is And the R first coefficients are Λ 1,1,1 ,Λ 1,1,2 ,Λ 1,2,1 ,Λ 1,2,2 ,Λ 2,1,1 ,Λ 2,1,2 ,Λ 2,2,1 ,Λ 2,2,2 , the fitting method is to take formula (10) as an example. Each node takes out a first component from a group of first components each time, and makes the outer product of the three first components taken out. The first components included in each group of first components participate in the outer product operation. In this way, the results are added together to fit the weight matrix, as shown in formula (23).

[0228] Example 4: Take the first component of the first group as The first component of the second group is The first component of the third group is And the R first coefficients are Λ 1,1,1 ,Λ 1,1,2 ,Λ 1,2,1 ,Λ 1,2,2 ,Λ 2,1,1 ,Λ 2,1,2 ,Λ 2,2,1 ,Λ 2,2,2 , the fitting method is to take formula (13) as an example. Each node takes out a first component from a group of first components each time, and makes the three taken out first components do Kronecker product. The first components included in each group of first components participate in the Kronecker product operation. After doing so, the obtained results are added to fit the weight matrix, as shown in formula (24).

[0229] Optionally, the network device may indicate to the node the method used by the network device when expanding the weight matrix, such as any form of Formula (9), Formula (10), Formula (11) or Formula (13), or a form including other component operations, so that the node fits the weight matrix according to the instruction of the network device.

[0230] It is understandable that after the node obtains the weight matrix, it can receive the signal from the network device according to the weight matrix. If the node is an IRS, the node can also forward the signal from the network device to the terminal.

[0231] Based on the method shown in Figure 4, the network device can expand the weight matrix to obtain M groups of first components and R first coefficients, quantize the M groups of first components to obtain first information, quantize the R first coefficients to obtain second information, and send the first information and second information to the node. Therefore, after the node receives the first information and the second information, it can dequantize the first information to obtain M groups of first components, dequantize the second information to obtain R first coefficients, and then fit the weight matrix based on the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients. In the above process, the network device can indicate Z values ​​to the node, where Z is equal to the sum of the product of the number of first components in each group of M groups and the number of elements in each group of first components, and Z is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix Θ. Therefore, the overhead of the network device can be effectively reduced.

[0232] For example, when the total number of elements in the weight matrix is ​​N = 1024, P = 5, M = 4, L1 = L2 = L3 = L4 = L5 = L = 3, N1, ..., N5 = 4, and 4-bit uniform quantization is used, the number of bits after quantization in this solution is 240 (4 × 3 × (4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4) = 240). In contrast, the prior art directly quantizes all elements of the weight matrix and sends them to the node. Similarly, under the condition of 4-bit uniform quantization, the number of bits after quantization is 4096 (1024 × 4 = 4096). This shows that this solution can effectively reduce the overhead caused by sending weight matrix information.

[0233] The above primarily describes the solution provided by this application from the perspective of interaction between nodes and network devices. Accordingly, this application also provides a communication device, which may be a node in the above-described method embodiments, or a device comprising such a node, or a component usable for a node; alternatively, the communication device may be a network device in the above-described method embodiments, or a device comprising such a network device, or a component usable for a network device. It will be understood that, in order to implement the above-described functions, the above-described nodes or network devices, etc., include hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the respective functions. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that, in conjunction with the various exemplary units and algorithmic operations described in the embodiments disclosed herein, this application can be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented in hardware or by computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professionals and technicians may use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0234] The present application can divide nodes and network devices into functional modules based on the above method examples. 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 integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. It is understood that the division of modules in this application is schematic and is only a logical functional division. In actual implementation, other division methods may be used.

[0235] For example, FIG5 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device 50, where the functional modules are divided in an integrated manner. Communication device 50 includes an interface module 501 and a processing module 502. Interface module 501, also known as an interface unit, is configured to perform transceiver operations and may be, for example, an interface circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver, or a communication interface. Processing module 502, also known as a processing unit, is configured to perform operations other than transceiver operations and may be, for example, a processing circuit or a processor.

[0236] In some embodiments, the communication device 50 may further include a storage module (not shown in FIG. 5 ) for storing program instructions and data.

[0237] Exemplarily, the communication device 50 is used to implement the function of a node. The communication device 50 is, for example, the node of the embodiment shown in FIG4 .

[0238] The interface module 501 is configured to receive first information and second information. The first information is configured to indicate M groups of first components, and the second information is configured to indicate R first coefficients, where R is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Any group of first components in the M groups of first components includes at least one first component; in any group of first components, each first component includes the same number of elements; the number of elements in a first component is greater than or equal to 2; in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements in the weight matrix; and the sum of the number of first components in each group and the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix. For example, the interface module 501 can be configured to execute S402.

[0239] The processing module 502 is configured to obtain a weight matrix according to the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients. For example, the processing module 502 may be configured to execute S403.

[0240] In one possible implementation, the processing module 502 is specifically used to select M first components from M groups of first components for component operations multiple times, multiply the results of each component operation by the corresponding first coefficient and then add them to obtain a weight matrix, and the first components included in each group of first components all participate in the component operation.

[0241] In a possible implementation, the component operation is performed so that the product of the number of elements of each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix.

[0242] In a possible implementation, at least two groups of first components among the M groups of first components include different numbers of first components.

[0243] In a possible implementation, at least two groups of first components among the M groups of first components include the same number of first components.

[0244] In a possible implementation, the interface module 501 is further used to receive first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: M or the number of first components included in any group of first components or the number of elements of the first components included in any group of first components.

[0245] In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information further indicates a quantization manner of elements of the M groups of first components.

[0246] In a possible implementation, the number of elements of the first component is preset.

[0247] In a possible implementation, a sending period of the first information is a first period, a sending period of the second information is a second period, and the first period is greater than the second period.

[0248] When used to implement the function of a node, for other functions that the communication device 50 can implement, reference can be made to the relevant introduction of the embodiment shown in FIG4 , and no further details will be given.

[0249] Alternatively, illustratively, the communication device 50 is used to implement the functions of a network device. The communication device 50 is, for example, the network device of the embodiment shown in FIG4 .

[0250] The processing module 502 is used to obtain a weight matrix; for example, the processing module 502 can be used to execute S401.

[0251] The processing module 502 is further configured to send the first information and the second information according to the weight matrix control interface module 501. The first information is used to indicate M groups of first components, and the second information is used to indicate R first coefficients. The M groups of first components and the R first coefficients are used to determine the weight matrix, where M and R are integers greater than or equal to 1. Any group of first components in the M groups of first components includes at least one first component; in any group of first components, each first component includes the same number of elements; the number of elements in a first component is greater than or equal to 2; in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements in the weight matrix; and the sum of the number of first components in each group and the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix. For example, the processing module 502 can be configured to execute S402.

[0252] In a possible implementation, the interface module 501 is further used to send first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: M, the number of first components included in any group of first components, or the number of elements of the first components included in any group of first components.

[0253] In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information further indicates a quantization manner of elements of the M groups of first components.

[0254] In a possible implementation, in any group of first components, at least two first components have different numbers of elements.

[0255] In a possible implementation, the number of elements of the first component is preset.

[0256] In a possible implementation, a receiving period of the first information is a first period, a receiving period of the second information is a second period, and the first period is greater than the second period.

[0257] When used to implement the functions of a network device, for other functions that the communication device 50 can implement, reference can be made to the relevant introduction of the embodiment shown in FIG4 , and no further details will be given.

[0258] In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art may conceive that the communication device 50 may be in the form shown in Figure 3. For example, the processor 301 in Figure 3 may call computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 303 to enable the communication device 50 to execute the method in the above embodiment.

[0259] Exemplarily, the functions / implementation processes of the interface module 501 and the processing module 502 in FIG5 can be implemented by the processor 301 in FIG3 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 303. Alternatively, the functions / implementation processes of the processing module 502 in FIG5 can be implemented by the processor 301 in FIG3 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 303, and the functions / implementation processes of the interface module 501 in FIG5 can be implemented by the communication interface 304 in FIG3.

[0260] It is understood that one or more of the above modules or units can be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of the two. When any of the above modules or units is implemented in software, the software exists in the form of computer program instructions and is stored in a memory, and a processor can be used to execute the program instructions and implement the above method flow. The processor can be built into an SoC (system on chip) or an ASIC, or it can be an independent semiconductor chip. In addition to the core used to execute software instructions to perform calculations or processing within the processor, it can further include necessary hardware accelerators, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), PLDs (programmable logic devices), or logic circuits that implement dedicated logic operations.

[0261] When the above modules or units are implemented in hardware, the hardware can be any one or any combination of a CPU, a microprocessor, a digital signal processing (DSP) chip, a microcontroller unit (MCU), an artificial intelligence processor, an ASIC, a SoC, an FPGA, a PLD, a dedicated digital circuit, a hardware accelerator or a non-integrated discrete device, which can run the necessary software or not rely on the software to execute the above method flow.

[0262] Optionally, the present application also provides a chip system, comprising: at least one processor and an interface, wherein the at least one processor is coupled to a memory via the interface, and when the at least one processor executes a computer program or instruction in the memory, the method in any of the above method embodiments is executed. In one possible implementation, the chip system also includes a memory. Optionally, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices, which is not specifically limited in this application.

[0263] Optionally, the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium. All or part of the processes in the above-mentioned method embodiments can be completed by a computer program to instruct the relevant hardware. The program can be stored in the above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium. When the program is executed, it can include the processes of the above-mentioned method embodiments. The computer-readable storage medium can be an internal storage unit of the communication device of any of the above-mentioned embodiments, such as a hard disk or memory of the communication device. The above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium can also be an external storage device of the above-mentioned communication device, such as a plug-in hard disk, a smart memory card (smart media card, SMC), a secure digital (secure digital, SD) card, a flash card (flash card), etc. equipped on the above-mentioned communication device. Furthermore, the above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium can also include both the internal storage unit of the above-mentioned communication device and an external storage device. The above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium is used to store the above-mentioned computer program and other programs and data required by the above-mentioned communication device. The above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium can also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

[0264] Optionally, the present application also provides a computer program product. All or part of the processes in the above method embodiments may be completed by a computer program instructing related hardware. The program may be stored in the above computer program product, and when executed, the program may include the processes in the above method embodiments.

[0265] Optionally, the present application also provides a computer instruction. All or part of the process in the above method embodiment can be completed by the computer instruction to instruct the relevant hardware (such as a computer, processor, node or network device, etc.). The program can be stored in the above computer-readable storage medium or in the above computer program product.

[0266] Optionally, the present application also provides a communication system, including: the nodes and network devices in the above embodiments.

[0267] Through the description of the above implementation methods, technical personnel in the relevant field can clearly understand that for the convenience and simplicity of description, only the division of the above-mentioned functional modules is used as an example. In actual applications, the above-mentioned functions can be assigned to different functional modules as needed, that is, the internal structure of the device can be divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the functions described above.

[0268] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of modules or 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 device, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0269] Units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and components shown as units may be one physical unit or multiple physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed in multiple places. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the present embodiment.

[0270] 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.

[0271] The above are only specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in this application should be included in the scope of protection of the present application. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Receive first information and second information, wherein the first information is used to indicate M groups of first components, and the second information is used to indicate R first coefficients, where R is an integer greater than or equal to 1; any group of first components in the M groups of first components includes at least one first component; in any group of first components, the number of elements included in each first component is the same; the number of elements in a first component is greater than or equal to 2; in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in a weight matrix; and the sum of the number of each group of first components and the product of the number of elements in each group of first components is less than the number of elements in the weight matrix; The weight matrix is ​​obtained according to the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The step of obtaining the weight matrix according to the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients includes: Multiple times, M first components are selected from the M groups of first components to perform component operations, and the results of each component operation are multiplied by the corresponding first coefficients and then added to obtain the weight matrix. The first components included in each group of first components participate in the component operation.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The component operation makes the product of the number of elements of each group of first components equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that: At least two of the M groups of first components include different numbers of first components.

5. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that: At least two of the M groups of first components include the same number of first components.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The method further comprises: First indication information is received, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: the number of first components included in the M or any group of first components or the number of elements of the first components included in the any group of first components.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The first indication information further indicates a quantization method of the elements of the M groups of first components.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The number of elements of the first component is preset.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that The sending period of the first information is a first period, the sending period of the second information is a second period, and the first period is greater than the second period.

10. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Get the weight matrix; The first information and the second information are sent according to the weight matrix, wherein the first information is used to indicate M groups of first components, and the second information is used to indicate R first coefficients, the M groups of first components and the R first coefficients are used to determine the weight matrix, and the M and the R are integers greater than or equal to 1; wherein, any group of first components in the M groups of first components includes at least one first component; in any group of first components, the number of elements included in each first component is the same; the number of elements of a first component is greater than or equal to 2; in the M groups of first components, the product of the number of elements of each group of first components is equal to the number of elements included in the weight matrix; and the sum of the number of each group of first components and the product of the number of elements of each group of first components is less than the number of elements of the weight matrix.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: First indication information is sent, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: the M, the number of first components included in any group of first components, or the number of elements of the first components included in any group of first components.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The first indication information further indicates a quantization method of the elements of the M groups of first components.

13. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that: In any set of first components, at least two first components have different numbers of elements.

14. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, characterized in that: The number of elements of the first component is preset.

15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, characterized in that The receiving period of the first information is a first period, the receiving period of the second information is a second period, and the first period is greater than the second period.

16. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a unit or module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or comprises a unit or module for executing the method according to any one of claims 10 to 15.

17. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, the memory is used to store programs or instructions, when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the device executes the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, or executes the method as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 15.

18. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program or instruction stored thereon, characterized in that: When the computer program or instructions are executed, the computer performs the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 15.

19. A computer program product, comprising computer program code, characterized in that: When the computer program code is executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 15.

20. A communication system, characterized in that: include: An apparatus for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, and / or an apparatus for executing the method according to any one of claims 10 to 15.

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