Method for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling and related apparatus

Abstract

The present application provides a method for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) and a related apparatus, which are beneficial to a network device keeping, in a timely manner, consistent with a terminal device in terms of SPS state, such that the problem of the terminal device losing data packets can be avoided. The method comprises: a network device activating downlink SPS; and when the number of instances of DTX feedback is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS, the network device deactivating the downlink SPS.

Description

Method and related device for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on November 30, 2023, with application number 202311631107.1 and application name “Method and Related Device for Deactivating Downlink Semi-Continuous Scheduling”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a method for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling and related devices. Background Art

[0003] Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) allows the base station to semi-persistently / semi-statically configure radio resources. After a single configuration, the terminal device can periodically use the radio resources without requiring the base station to send a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to indicate the radio resources to the terminal device in every transmission time interval (TTI), thereby reducing PDCCH resource overhead. During downlink SPS, the base station can specify the number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) channels for the downlink SPS. At the scheduling moment, the terminal device determines the index number of the currently used HARQ channel based on the current frame number and subframe number.

[0004] After the terminal device enters the downlink SPS normally, if the terminal device unilaterally exits the downlink SPS due to some reasons (for example, erroneous detection of semi-static deactivation of downlink control information (DCI)), the downlink SPS states of the terminal device and the base station will be inconsistent, that is, the terminal device has exited the downlink SPS, but the base station has not exited the downlink SPS. In this case, when the base station sends an SPS data packet to the terminal device, the terminal device has no feedback, and the base station performs retransmission processing according to discontinuous transmission (DTX) feedback. Taking the number of HARQ channels as M as an example, when the number of DTX feedback for the SPS data packet reaches M+1 times, which exceeds the number of HARQ channels M, it means that the base station has used M HARQ channels for M retransmissions. In the subsequent M+1th retransmission process, the base station reuses the HARQ channel used for the first retransmission in the previous M retransmissions to retransmit the SPS data packet.

[0005] Since the index number of the HARQ channel used for the M+1th retransmission is the same as the index number of the HARQ channel used for the first retransmission, and the new data indication (NDI) of the M+1th retransmission is also the same as that of the first retransmission, the terminal device will think that these two retransmissions are the same data packet, and will discard the data packet of the M+1th retransmission, resulting in data packet loss.

[0006] Therefore, how to make the base station keep consistent with the SPS status of the terminal device in a timely manner to avoid the terminal device from losing data packets is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0007] The present application provides a method and related apparatus for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling, which helps the base station to keep consistent with the SPS status of the terminal device in a timely manner, thereby avoiding the problem of data packet loss in the terminal device.

[0008] In a first aspect, a method for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling is provided. The method can be performed by a first communication device. The first communication device can be a network device, a component configured in the network device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the first communication device. This application is not limited to this. The following describes the solution of this application using the first communication device as an example.

[0009] The method includes: activating a downlink SPS; and deactivating the downlink SPS when the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS.

[0010] In the present application, after the network device and the terminal device enter the downlink SPS, the terminal device may not successfully receive the SPS data packet sent by the network device due to exiting the downlink SPS. The network device retransmits the SPS data packet based on the DTX feedback of the terminal device for the SPS data packet. In order to avoid the problem of packet loss in the terminal device when the network device retransmits the SPS data packet using the multiplexing HARQ channel, based on the technical solution of the present application, the network device can timely deactivate the downlink SPS when the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS. This allows the network device to be consistent with the SPS status of the terminal device in a timely manner, thereby avoiding the problem of packet loss in the terminal device.

[0011] In conjunction with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, before deactivating the downlink SPS, the method further includes: sending a deactivation DCI to the terminal device, where the deactivation DCI is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the downlink SPS; and receiving an acknowledgment feedback (ACK) for the deactivation DCI from the terminal device, where the acknowledgment feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device successfully received the deactivation DCI. Deactivating the downlink SPS includes: deactivating the downlink SPS based on the acknowledgment feedback.

[0012] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the number of HARQ channels is preconfigured.

[0013] With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the DTX feedback is determined when it is detected that energy of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) is lower than a preset threshold.

[0014] In a second aspect, a method for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling is provided. This method can be performed by a second communication device. The second communication device can be a terminal device, a component configured in the terminal device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the second communication device. This application does not limit this. The following describes the solution of this application using the second communication device as an example.

[0015] The method includes: receiving a deactivation DCI from a network device, where the deactivation DCI is used to instruct a terminal device to deactivate downlink semi-persistent scheduling SPS; and sending confirmation feedback for the deactivation DCI to the network device.

[0016] In the present application, after the network device and the terminal device enter the downlink SPS, the terminal device may fail to successfully receive the SPS data packet sent by the network device due to exiting the downlink SPS.

[0017] If the terminal device fails to successfully receive an SPS data packet sent by the network device, it will not provide feedback to the network device. If the number of times the terminal device fails to provide feedback is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured by the network device for downlink SPS, the terminal device will receive a deactivation DCI from the network device. In this way, after the terminal device sends confirmation feedback regarding the deactivation DCI to the network device, the network device can promptly exit the downlink SPS, which helps to maintain the consistency of the SPS status of the network device and the terminal device, thereby avoiding the problem of terminal device losing data packets.

[0018] In a third aspect, a communication device is provided, including: a module for executing the method in any possible implementation of any of the above aspects. Specifically, the device includes a module for executing the method in any possible implementation of any of the above aspects.

[0019] In one design, the device may include a module corresponding to each of the methods / operations / steps / actions described in any of the above aspects. The module may be a hardware circuit, software, or a combination of hardware circuit and software.

[0020] In another design, the device is a communication chip, which may include an input circuit or interface for sending information or data, and an output circuit or interface for receiving information or data.

[0021] In another design, the apparatus is a network device or a terminal device, which may include a transmitter for sending information or data and a receiver for receiving information or data.

[0022] In another design, the apparatus is used to execute the method in any possible implementation of any of the above aspects, and the apparatus can be configured in a network device or a terminal device.

[0023] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a processor configured to call and run a computer program from a memory, so that the device executes a method in any possible implementation of any of the above aspects.

[0024] Optionally, the device further comprises a memory, which can be used to store instructions and data. The memory is coupled to the processor, and when the processor executes the instructions stored in the memory, the method described in the above aspects can be implemented.

[0025] Optionally, the device further includes: a transmitter (emitter) and a receiver (receiver), and the transmitter and the receiver can be separately provided or integrated together, and are referred to as a transceiver (transceiver).

[0026] In a fifth aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions), which, when executed, enables a computer to execute a method in any possible implementation of any of the above aspects.

[0027] In a sixth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions) which, when run on a computer, enables the computer to execute a method in any possible implementation of any of the above aspects.

[0028] In the seventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes at least one processor for supporting the implementation of the functions involved in any of the above aspects, such as receiving or processing the data involved in the above method.

[0029] In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory, which is used to store program instructions and data, and the memory is located inside or outside the processor.

[0030] Optionally, the chip system may consist of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0031] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a base station and a terminal device transmitting an SPS data packet;

[0032] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a communication scenario applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

[0033] 3 and 4 are schematic flow charts of a method for deactivating a downlink SPS according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] 5 is a schematic diagram of a network device and a terminal device transmitting an SPS data packet according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] 6 to 8 are schematic block diagrams of communication devices according to embodiments of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] The technical solution in this application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0037] Before introducing the method and related apparatus for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling provided in the embodiments of the present application, the following points are explained.

[0038] First, in the embodiments described below, various terms and abbreviations, such as SPS, DTX, and Activate DCI, are provided for ease of description and should not limit this application in any way. This application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms in existing or future protocols that can achieve the same or similar functions.

[0039] Second, the first, second and various numerical numbers in the embodiments shown below are only used for the convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0040] Third, "at least one" means one or more, and "more" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following items" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b and c can mean: a, or b, or c, or a and b, or a and c, or b and c, or a, b and c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0041] Fourth, “sending” and “receiving” in this application indicate the direction of signal transmission. For example, “sending a deactivation DCI to a terminal device” can be understood as the destination end of the deactivation DCI being the terminal device, which can include direct sending through the air interface, and also includes indirect sending through the air interface by other units or modules. “Receiving a deactivation DCI from a network device” can be understood as the source end of the deactivation DCI being the network device, which can include direct receiving from the network device through the air interface, and also includes indirect receiving from the network device through the air interface from other units or modules. “Sending” can also be understood as the “output” of the chip interface, and “receiving” can also be understood as the “input” of the chip interface.

[0042] In other words, sending and receiving can be carried out between devices, for example, between a terminal device and a network device; or it can be carried out within a device, for example, sending or receiving between components, modules, chips, software modules or hardware modules within the device through a bus, wiring or interface.

[0043] The following is an introduction to the relevant technologies and concepts involved in this application.

[0044] 1. Semi-continuous scheduling

[0045] Semi-persistent scheduling can also be called semi-static scheduling. Unlike dynamic scheduling, which allocates radio resources to terminal devices once per TTI, SPS allows the base station to indicate several (persistent) physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) or PUSCH through a DCI or radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message. After receiving a specific DCI or RRC reconfiguration message, the terminal device can periodically transmit data on PDSCH and PUSCH until this persistent scheduling ends. During this persistent scheduling period, the terminal device no longer needs to detect DCI. Compared with dynamic scheduling, SPS can reduce PDCCH overhead, reduce the number of blind detections of DCI, and reduce the latency and power consumption of the terminal device.

[0046] The following describes SPS configuration using downlink SPS as an example. SPS can be configured using information elements in an RRC reconfiguration message. SPS configuration includes, but is not limited to, the number of HARQ channels used by SPS, the offset of the HARQ channel index, and the SPS period.

[0047] Downlink SPS is first configured via an RRC reconfiguration message and then activated via the PDCCH. Activating downlink SPS via the PDCCH includes, but is not limited to: the PDCCH is scrambled by the configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI), which is different from the dynamically scheduled cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI); and both the NDI and downlink feedback information (DFI) are set to 0.

[0048] After the base station configures SPS resources for the terminal device, it can send NDI while sending new data to the terminal device. The terminal device can determine whether the data sent is new data or retransmitted data based on the changes in NDI. NDI is only 1 bit and indicates whether it is new data or retransmitted data by flipping. For example, "0" indicates new data, flipping to "1" indicates retransmitted data, and flipping back to "0" indicates new data. The base station can carry NDI in the uplink grant message and send it to the terminal device.

[0049] 2. HARQ

[0050] HARQ is a technology that combines forward error correction (FEC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ). HARQ retransmissions are based on acknowledgment feedback or negative acknowledgment (NACK). In other words, the data transmitter decides whether to retransmit the data based on the ACK or NACK feedback from the receiver. Acknowledgment feedback can also be called positive response or positive feedback, and negative feedback can also be called negative acknowledgment.

[0051] HARQ retransmits each transport block (TB). If the data receiver fails to successfully decode the TB sent by the data transmitter the first time, the data transmitter can reduce the channel coding rate by retransmitting the TB along with more redundant bits, thereby improving the decoding success rate.

[0052] Taking a downlink data transmission as an example, the base station first sends a TB at time 0. The terminal device monitors the PDCCH and decodes the PDCCH. If the decoding fails, the terminal device sends a NACK to the base station on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) at time 4. The base station demodulates and processes the NACK in the PUCCH and then schedules the TB that needs to be retransmitted based on the downlink resource allocation. There is no fixed scheduling time at this time, and the base station can schedule it according to the situation. Suppose the base station retransmits the TB on the PDSCH at time 6. If the terminal device successfully decodes the retransmitted TB, then the terminal device sends an ACK to the base station at time 10, and the transmission of such a TB is completed.

[0053] 3. DTX Feedback

[0054] In a wireless communication system, such as a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) communication system or a long term evolution (LTE) communication system, a terminal device uses the PUCCH to send uplink scheduling signaling, HARQ response (HARQ-ACK) of the PDSCH, or channel quality information (CQI) to the base station. When the terminal device carries the HARQ-ACK of the PDSCH on the PUCCH, the terminal device first needs to decode the PDCCH. If the terminal device cannot correctly decode the PDCCH (PDCCH missed detection or misdetection), the terminal device will believe that the base station has not allocated resources to the terminal device, or the terminal device has not correctly obtained the resources allocated by the base station. In this way, the terminal device will not decode the corresponding PDSCH and will not feedback the HARQ-ACK to the base station. The base station side needs to detect the DTX state to determine whether the terminal device has fed back DTX. When the base station detects that the energy of the PUSCH is lower than the preset threshold, it believes that the terminal device has fed back DTX. The terminal device feeds back DTX to the base station, which can also be described as the terminal device sending DTX feedback to the base station. Among them, HARQ-ACK is ACK or NACK.

[0055] In this application, the terminal device unilaterally exits the SPS, resulting in a PDCCH miss detection. Therefore, the terminal device cannot decode the corresponding PDSCH to obtain the SPS data packet, and thus will not feedback HARQ-ACK to the network device. In this case, the network device confirms the DTX feedback of the terminal device for the SPS data packet through DTX detection at the moment of receiving the HARQ-ACK.

[0056] It should be noted that the SPS data packet in this application can be a transmission block scheduled by the network device at the SPS transmission time, and therefore can also be called an SPS transmission block (SPS TB).

[0057] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an SPS data packet transmission between a base station and a terminal device. In Figure 1, N represents the SPS period, and M represents the number of HARQ channels configured for downlink SPS. At time n, the terminal device receives an activation DCI sent by the base station. This activation DCI is used to activate the terminal device's downlink SPS. Based on this activation DCI, the terminal device enters downlink semi-persistent scheduling and sends an ACK to the base station at time n+4. Subsequently, if the terminal device unilaterally exits downlink semi-persistent scheduling for some reason, such as an erroneous detection (also known as a false detection) of a semi-persistent deactivation DCI or poor channel quality, when the semi-persistent scheduling time (time n+N) arrives, due to the inconsistency between the semi-persistent states of the terminal device and the base station, the terminal device does not provide any feedback, such as an ACK or NACK, for the SPS data packet. At time n+N+4, the base station does not receive any feedback and performs retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. Specifically, at time n+N+8, the base station scrambles the SPS data packet using the C-RNTI and retransmits the SPS data packet using HARQ channel 0. The terminal device can normally receive and parse the retransmitted SPS data packet.

[0058] At subsequent semi-static scheduling moments, since the semi-static states of the terminal device and the base station are inconsistent, the terminal device never provides any feedback on the SPS data packets transmitted by the base station at each semi-static scheduling moment, and the base station performs retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. When the semi-static scheduling moment (n+(M+1)*N moment) arrives, the base station sends an SPS data packet to the terminal device. At n+(M+1)*N+4 moment, the terminal device similarly does not provide any feedback on the SPS data packet, and the base station continues to perform retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. At this point, the base station has detected M+1 consecutive DTX feedbacks, which exceeds the number M of HARQ channels configured for downlink SPS.

[0059] At time n+(M+1)*N+8, since the SPS data packets retransmitted using M HARQ channels have all received ACK, these M HARQ channels are in a state where they can be used again, so the base station can reuse the HARQ channels. For example, the base station continues to use HARQ channel No. 0 to retransmit the SPS data packet encrypted by C-RNTI. After receiving the retransmitted SPS data packet, the terminal device finds that the index number of the HARQ channel used for this transmission of the SPS data packet is the same as the index number of the HARQ channel used for the first transmission of the SPS data packet (both are HARQ channel No. 0 in Figure 1), and the NDI of the two transmissions is also the same (because the retransmission NDI of SPS is fixed to 1). Therefore, the terminal device will mistakenly believe that the two retransmissions are the same data packet, and then the terminal device will discard the SPS data packet received this time, which will cause data packet loss and reduce communication quality. An example for Figure 1 is shown in Table 1.

[0060] Table 1

[0061] In Table 1, the number of HARQ channels M=3, and the index numbers of the three HARQ channels are |"2", "1", and "0" respectively. The SPS period N=20TTI (20ms). Among them, 0TTI, 20TTI, 40TTI, and 60TTI are SPS transmission moments, such as the n+N moment and the n+(M+1)*N moment in Figure 1. 8TTI, 28TTI, 48TTI, and 68TTI are the retransmission moments of the SPS data packets, such as the n+N+8 moment and the n+(M+1)*N+8 moment in Figure 1. The SPS data packet transmitted at an SPS transmission moment can also be called the SPS initial transmission data packet at that moment, and the SPS data packet transmitted at the retransmission moment corresponding to the SPS transmission moment is called the SPS retransmission data packet at that moment. The SPS transmission moment and the retransmission moment are separated by 8 TTIs.

[0062] In Table 1, the terminal device did not successfully receive the SPS data packet (i.e., the SPS initial transmission data packet) sent by the network device in 0 TTI. Therefore, the terminal device did not provide any feedback to the network device. The network device performs retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. Specifically, the network device uses the HARQ channel with index number "2" to retransmit the SPS data packet sent in 0 TTI (i.e., the SPS retransmission data packet) in 8 TTI.

[0063] Similarly, the terminal device fails to successfully receive the SPS data packet sent by the network device at 20 TTI, and therefore does not provide any feedback to the network device. The network device performs retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. Specifically, the network device retransmits the SPS data packet sent at 20 TTI using the HARQ channel indexed as "1" at 28 TTI.

[0064] Similarly, the terminal device fails to receive the SPS data packet sent by the network device at 40 TTI, and therefore does not provide any feedback to the network device. The network device performs retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. Specifically, the network device retransmits the SPS data packet sent at 0 TTI using the HARQ channel indexed as "0" at 48 TTI.

[0065] Similarly, the terminal device failed to receive the SPS data packet sent by the network device in 60TTI, so the terminal device did not provide any feedback to the network device. The network device performs retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. Specifically, the network device retransmits the SPS data packet sent in 0TTI by multiplexing the HARQ channel with index number "2" in 68TTI. The index number of the HARQ channel used by the network device to retransmit the SPS data packet in 68TTI is the same as the index number of the HARQ channel used to retransmit the SPS data packet in 8TTI, and the NDI is not flipped and is still 1. Therefore, the terminal device believes that the data packet scheduled this time and the data packet scheduled in 8TTI are the same data packet, and then the terminal device discards the retransmitted SPS data packet according to the duplicate packet processing.

[0066] It should be noted that at each retransmission time, the network device uses dynamic scheduling to scramble the SPS data packet using the C-RNTI for retransmission. For the terminal device, this is the first time it has received this SPS data packet. This is because the terminal device has exited the SPS and failed to receive the SPS data packet scrambled using the CS-RNTI at the SPS transmission time.

[0067] It should be noted that the SPS data packets transmitted by the network device at multiple SPS transmission moments are different. For example, in Table 1, the SPS data packets transmitted by the network device at 0 TTI, 20 TTI, 40 TTI, and 60 TTI are different.

[0068] In view of the problem of data packet loss that occurs when the above-mentioned network device reuses the HARQ channel to retransmit SPS data packets, an embodiment of the present application provides a method and related apparatus for deactivating downlink semi-continuous scheduling. When the network device continuously detects DTX feedback due to the terminal device unilaterally exiting the downlink SPS, the network device can adjust the threshold for sending deactivation DCI based on the number of HARQ channels available for the downlink SPS, which is beneficial to avoiding the problem of terminal device losing data packets when the network device reuses the HARQ channel to retransmit SPS data packets, thereby improving communication quality.

[0069] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication scenario 200 applicable to embodiments of the present application. As shown in Figure 2 , communication scenario 200 may include a network device 210 and a terminal device 220. Figure 2 is merely a schematic diagram, and communication scenario 200 may also include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in Figure 2 . The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of network devices and terminal devices included in communication scenario 200.

[0070] Terminal devices connect wirelessly to network devices, which in turn connect wirelessly or wiredly to core network devices. Core network devices and network devices can be separate physical devices, or they can integrate the core network device's functions and the network device's logical functions into the same physical device. Alternatively, a single physical device can combine some core network device functions and some network device functions. Terminal devices can be fixed or mobile.

[0071] The network device provided in the embodiment of the present application can be a base station, a node B, an evolved node B (eNodeB or eNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation node B (gNB) in 5G, a network device in an open radio access network (O-RAN or open RAN), and a next generation base station in the sixth generation mobile communication technology (6G). Alternatively, the network device can also be a satellite base station in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication network, or a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system. Alternatively, the network device can also be a module or unit that performs part of the functions of a base station, for example, a centralized unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU), and the functions of the CU can be implemented by one entity or by different entities. For example, the functions of the CU can be further divided, for example, the control plane (CP) and the user plane (UP) can be separated, that is, the control plane of the CU (CU-CP) and the user plane of the CU (CU-UP). The network device can be a satellite base station or a macro base station. The network device can also be a micro base station or an indoor station, or a relay node or a host node. The specific technology and specific device form used by the network device are not limited in this application.

[0072] The terminal device provided in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as a terminal, user equipment (UE), mobile station, or mobile terminal. The terminal device can be widely used in various scenarios for communication. Such scenarios include, but are not limited to, at least one of the following: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), massive machine-type communications (mMTC), device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, or smart city. The terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, wearable device, vehicle, helicopter, airplane, drone, ship, robot, robotic arm, or smart home device. This application does not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the terminal device.

[0073] The network device and / or the terminal device can be fixed or movable. The network device and / or the terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; or can be deployed on the water surface; or can be deployed on aircraft, balloons and artificial satellites in the air. This application does not limit the environment / scenario in which the network device and the terminal device are located. The network device and the terminal device can be deployed in the same or different environments / scenarios, for example, the network device and the terminal device are deployed on land at the same time; or, the network device is deployed on land and the terminal device is deployed on the water surface, etc., and examples are not given one by one here. This application does not limit the communication method between the network device and the terminal device.

[0074] In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal devices and network devices may be hardware devices, or software functions running on dedicated hardware, or software functions running on general-purpose hardware, such as virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform), or entities including dedicated or general-purpose hardware devices and software functions. The present application does not limit the specific forms of the terminal devices and network devices.

[0075] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: LTE system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD) system, universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, 5G mobile communication system or future evolved communication system, vehicle-to-X (V2X), where V2X may include vehicle to network (V2N), vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to infrastructure (V2I), vehicle to pedestrian (V2P), etc., long term evolution-vehicle (LTE-V), Internet of Vehicles, machine type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), long term evolution-machine (LTE-M), machine to machine (LTE-M), etc. machine (M2M), device to device (D2D), etc.

[0076] Figure 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method 300 for deactivating a downlink SPS according to an embodiment of the present application. The steps of method 300 may be executed by a network device, such as a base station. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific form of the network device.

[0077] Method 300 includes S301 and S302, and the specific steps are as follows:

[0078] S301: Activate downlink SPS.

[0079] The activation of the downlink SPS by the network device involves an interactive process with the terminal device. Specifically, the network device sends an activation DCI to the terminal device, and the activation DCI is used to instruct the terminal device to activate the downlink SPS. The terminal device activates the downlink SPS based on the activation DCI, and sends a confirmation feedback for the activation DCI to the network device, and the confirmation feedback for the activation DCI is used to indicate that the terminal device has successfully received the activation DCI. The network device activates the downlink SPS based on the confirmation feedback for the activation DCI. In other words, after the network device receives the confirmation feedback for the activation DCI, it determines that the terminal device has successfully received the activation DCI, so the network device can activate the DCI to keep it consistent with the SPS state of the terminal device, so that data can be transmitted in the SPS manner. For the specific introduction to activating the downlink SPS, please refer to the description above and will not be repeated here.

[0080] S302: When the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS, deactivate the downlink SPS.

[0081] In this step, the DTX feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device has not successfully received the SPS data packet. Deactivating the downlink SPS may include releasing SPS resources. After deactivating the SPS, the network device transmits data using dynamic scheduling.

[0082] Optionally, the number of HARQ channels is preconfigured by the network device. The network device may send information such as the number of HARQ channels and the index number of the HARQ channels to the terminal device via an RRC reconfiguration message.

[0083] It should be understood that after entering the downlink SPS, the terminal device may exit the downlink SPS for some reasons, but the network device is not aware of it. After exiting the downlink SPS, the terminal device did not decode the PDCCH at the reception time of the SPS data packet indicated by the SPS configuration, resulting in missed detection of the PDCCH, and thus failed to successfully receive the SPS data packet sent by the network device. Therefore, the terminal device did not provide any feedback for the SPS data packet. When the network device detected that the energy of the PUSCH was lower than the preset threshold, it believed that the terminal device had made DTX feedback for the SPS data packet, and the network device retransmitted the SPS data packet based on the DTX feedback.

[0084] When a semi-static scheduling moment arrives, the network device sends an SPS data packet encrypted with CS-RNTI to the terminal device. The SPS data packet is a new transmission data packet, that is, the SPS data packet is transmitted for the first time. In the process of retransmitting the SPS data packet, the network device uses dynamic scheduling to send an SPS data packet encrypted with C-RNTI to the terminal device. After successfully receiving the retransmitted SPS data packet, the terminal device sends an ACK to the network device, and the network device can continue to send SPS data packets encrypted with CS-RNTI when the next semi-static scheduling moment arrives. The specific process of the network device and the terminal device transmitting SPS can be found in the description of Figure 5 below.

[0085] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device deactivates the downlink SPS when the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS. In this way, the network device can promptly maintain consistency with the SPS state of the terminal device, which helps to avoid the problem of terminal device losing data packets caused by retransmitting data packets using multiple HARQ channels, thereby improving communication quality. The SPS state can be an activated state or a deactivated state.

[0086] Figure 4 is a schematic flow chart of another method 400 for deactivating downlink SPS provided in an embodiment of the present application. The steps of method 400 can be interactively executed by a network device and a terminal device, where the network device can be, for example, a base station and the terminal device can be, for example, a mobile phone. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific forms of the network device and the terminal device.

[0087] Method 400 includes S401 to S404, and the specific steps are as follows:

[0088] S401: The network device activates a downlink SPS.

[0089] For an introduction to this step, please refer to the description of S301 above, which will not be repeated here.

[0090] S402: When the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for downlink SPS, the network device sends a deactivation DCI to the terminal device, where the deactivation DCI is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the downlink SPS. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the deactivation DCI.

[0091] In this step, the reason why the network device detects DTX feedback can be found in the description of S302 above and will not be repeated here. When the network device determines that the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS, the network device believes that the downlink SPS of the terminal device may be abnormal, but the network device does not know that the terminal device has exited the SPS, or in other words, the behavior of the terminal device exiting the downlink SPS is unknown to the network device. Therefore, after determining that the downlink SPS needs to be deactivated, the network device sends a deactivation DCI to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the downlink SPS. This is to keep the SPS status of the network device and the terminal device consistent.

[0092] S403: The terminal device sends a confirmation feedback for deactivating the DCI to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the confirmation feedback for deactivating the DCI.

[0093] In this step, the confirmation feedback of the deactivation DCI is used to indicate that the terminal device has successfully received the deactivation DCI.

[0094] S404: The network device deactivates the downlink SPS based on the confirmation feedback for the deactivation DCI.

[0095] In this step, the network device can confirm that the terminal device has successfully received the deactivation DCI based on the confirmation feedback for the deactivation DCI, so the network device can deactivate the downlink SPS. Deactivating the downlink SPS can also be described as exiting the downlink SPS. Deactivating the downlink SPS can include releasing downlink SPS resources.

[0096] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a network device and a terminal device transmitting an SPS data packet according to an embodiment of the present application. In Figure 5, N represents the SPS period, and M represents the number of HARQ channels configured for downlink SPS.

[0097] As shown in Figure 5, the terminal device receives the activation DCI sent by the network device at time n, and the activation DCI is used to activate the downlink SPS of the terminal device. The terminal device enters the downlink semi-static scheduling based on the activation DCI, and sends an ACK for the activation DCI to the network device at time n+4. Afterwards, if the terminal device unilaterally exits the downlink semi-static scheduling, when the semi-static scheduling moment (n+N moment) arrives, due to the inconsistency of the semi-static states of the terminal device and the network device, the terminal device has no feedback on the SPS data packet, such as ACK or NACK. At time n+N+4, the network device did not receive any feedback and performed retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. Specifically, the network device uses C-RNTI to scramble the SPS data packet at the subsequent time n+N+8, and uses HARQ channel No. 0 to retransmit the SPS data packet. The terminal device can normally receive and parse the retransmitted SPS data packet.

[0098] At the subsequent semi-static scheduling moments, since the semi-static states of the terminal device and the network device are inconsistent, the terminal device always has no feedback on the SPS data packets transmitted by the network device at each semi-static scheduling moment, and the network device performs retransmission processing according to the DTX feedback. As shown in Figure 5, when the number of DTX feedbacks detected by the network device is equal to the number M of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS, the network device sends a deactivation DCI to the terminal device when the semi-static scheduling moment (n+(M+1)*N moment) arrives. The deactivation DCI is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the downlink SPS. After receiving the deactivation DCI, the terminal device sends an ACK for the deactivation DCI to the network device. After receiving the ACK at n+(M+1)*N+4 moment, the network device deactivates the downlink SPS. In this way, the downlink SPS states of the network device and the terminal device remain consistent. After that, the network device can send data to the terminal device through dynamic scheduling. An example for Figure 5 is shown in Table 2.

[0099] Table 2

[0100] In Table 2, the number of HARQ channels M = 3, and the index numbers of the three HARQ channels are | "2", "1", and "0", respectively. The SPS period N = 20 TTI (20 ms). Among them, 0 TTI, 20 TTI, and 40 TTI are SPS transmission times, such as time n+N and time n+M*N in Figure 5. 8 TTI, 28 TTI, and 48 TTI are SPS data packet retransmission times, such as time n+N+8 and time n+(M)*N+8 in Figure 5. The SPS transmission time and retransmission time are separated by 8 TTIs.

[0101] The introduction to Table 2 refers to the description of Table 1 above. The difference is that when the number of DTX feedbacks is 3, that is, the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels, the network device no longer reuses the HARQ channel for retransmission. Instead, it sends a deactivation DCI to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the downlink SPS. After receiving an ACK from the terminal device for the deactivation DCI, the network device deactivates the downlink SPS.

[0102] It should be understood that the size of the serial numbers of the above processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0103] The method for deactivating downlink SPS according to an embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG. 5 . The communication device according to an embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 6 to FIG. 8 .

[0104] FIG6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The device 600 includes an activation module 610 and a deactivation module 620 .

[0105] The activation module 610 is used to activate the downlink SPS. The deactivation module 620 is used to deactivate the downlink SPS when the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS. The DTX feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device has not successfully received the SPS data packet.

[0106] Optionally, the apparatus 600 further includes a transceiver module configured to: send a deactivation DCI to a terminal device, the deactivation DCI being used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate a downlink SPS; and receive confirmation feedback from the terminal device regarding the deactivation DCI, the confirmation feedback being used to indicate that the terminal device has successfully received the deactivation DCI. The deactivation module 620 is configured to: deactivate the downlink SPS based on the confirmation feedback.

[0107] Optionally, the number of HARQ channels is preconfigured.

[0108] Optionally, the DTX feedback is determined when it is detected that the energy of the PUSCH is lower than a preset threshold.

[0109] In an optional example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that apparatus 600 may be specifically a network device in the above-described embodiments, or the functions of the network device in the above-described embodiments may be integrated into apparatus 600. The above-described functions may be implemented via hardware, or may be implemented via hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software may include one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. For example, the transceiver module may be a communication interface, such as a transceiver interface. Apparatus 600 may be used to execute the various processes and / or steps corresponding to the network device in the above-described method embodiments.

[0110] FIG7 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 700 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The device 700 includes a receiving module 710 and a sending module 720 .

[0111] The receiving module 710 is configured to receive a deactivation DCI from a network device, the deactivation DCI being used to instruct deactivation of a downlink SPS, and the sending module 720 is configured to send a confirmation feedback for the deactivation DCI to the network device, the confirmation feedback being used to indicate successful receipt of the deactivation DCI.

[0112] In an optional example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that apparatus 700 may be specifically the terminal device described in the above embodiments, or the functions of the terminal device described in the above embodiments may be integrated into apparatus 700. The above functions may be implemented via hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software may include one or more modules corresponding to the above functions. For example, the receiving module 710 may be a communication interface, such as a transceiver interface. Apparatus 700 may be used to execute the various processes and / or steps corresponding to the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

[0113] It should be understood that the apparatus 600 and the apparatus 700 herein are embodied in the form of functional modules. The term "module" herein may refer to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (e.g., a shared processor, a dedicated processor, or a group processor, etc.) and memory for executing one or more software or firmware programs, combined logic circuits, and / or other suitable components that support the described functionality.

[0114] In the embodiments of the present application, the apparatus 600 and the apparatus 700 may also be a chip or a chip system, such as a system on chip (SoC). Correspondingly, the transceiver module may be a transceiver circuit of the chip, which is not limited here.

[0115] Figure 8 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device 800 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The device 800 includes a processor 810, a transceiver 820, and a memory 830. The processor 810, the transceiver 820, and the memory 830 communicate with each other via an internal connection path. The memory 830 is used to store instructions, and the processor 810 is used to execute the instructions stored in the memory 830 to control the transceiver 820 to send and / or receive signals.

[0116] It should be understood that the device 800 can be specifically a network device or terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiments, or the functions of the network device or terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiments can be integrated into the device 800, and the device 800 can be used to execute the various steps and / or processes corresponding to the network device or terminal device in the above-mentioned method embodiments. Optionally, the memory 830 may include a read-only memory and a random access memory, and provide instructions and data to the processor. A portion of the memory may also include a non-volatile random access memory. For example, the memory may also store device type information. The processor 810 can be used to execute instructions stored in the memory, and when the processor executes the instructions, the processor 810 can execute the various steps and / or processes corresponding to the network device or terminal device in the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0117] It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc.

[0118] During implementation, each step of the above method can be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor or by instructions in the form of software. The steps of the method disclosed in conjunction with the embodiments of the present application can be directly embodied as being executed by a hardware processor, or can be executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor. The software module can be located in a storage medium mature in the art, such as a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, or an electrically erasable programmable memory, a register, etc. The storage medium is located in a memory, and the processor executes the instructions in the memory, and completes the steps of the above method in conjunction with its hardware. To avoid repetition, it will not be described in detail here.

[0119] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the modules and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0120] Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and modules described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0121] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the modules is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple modules or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or modules, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0122] The modules described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as modules may or may not be physical modules, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network modules. Some or all of the modules may be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0123] In addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing module, or each module may exist physically separately, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module.

[0124] If the functions are implemented in the form of software function modules and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media that can store program codes, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

[0125] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this application should be included in the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of this application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling, characterized in that: include: Activate downlink semi-persistent scheduling SPS; When the number of discontinuous transmission DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS, the downlink SPS is deactivated, and the DTX feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device has not successfully received the SPS data packet.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Before deactivating the downlink SPS, the method further includes: Sending deactivation downlink control information DCI to the terminal device, where the deactivation DCI is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the downlink SPS; Receiving a confirmation feedback of the deactivation DCI from the terminal device, wherein the confirmation feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device has successfully received the deactivation DCI; The deactivating the downlink SPS includes: Based on the confirmation feedback, the downlink SPS is deactivated.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The number of HARQ channels is preconfigured.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The DTX feedback is determined when it is detected that the energy of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH is lower than a preset threshold.

5. A method for deactivating downlink semi-persistent scheduling, characterized in that: include: Receiving a deactivation DCI from a network device, where the deactivation DCI is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate downlink semi-persistent scheduling SPS; Sending confirmation feedback for the deactivation DCI to the network device, wherein the confirmation feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device has successfully received the deactivation DCI.

6. A communication device, characterized in that: including an activation module and a deactivation module; The activation module is used to: activate downlink semi-persistent scheduling SPS; The deactivation module is used to deactivate the downlink SPS when the number of DTX feedbacks is equal to the number of HARQ channels configured for the downlink SPS, and the DTX feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device has not successfully received the SPS data packet.

7. The device according to claim 6, characterized in that The device further comprises a transceiver module, wherein the transceiver module is used for: Sending a deactivation DCI to the terminal device, where the deactivation DCI is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the downlink SPS; Receiving a confirmation feedback of the deactivation DCI from the terminal device, wherein the confirmation feedback is used to indicate that the terminal device has successfully received the deactivation DCI; The deactivation module is used for: Based on the confirmation feedback, the downlink SPS is deactivated.

8. A communication device, characterized in that: It includes a receiving module and a sending module; The receiving module is used to: receive a deactivation DCI from a network device, where the deactivation DCI is used to indicate deactivation of downlink semi-persistent scheduling SPS; The sending module is used to send a confirmation feedback for the deactivation DCI to the network device, where the confirmation feedback is used to indicate that the deactivation DCI is successfully received.

9. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is used to store programs or instructions. When the programs or instructions are executed by the processor, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 is executed, or the method according to claim 5 is executed.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: Used to store a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, causes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 to be executed, or causes the method according to claim 5 to be executed.

11. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises instructions, and when the computer program is executed, the computer executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 or the method according to claim 5.

12. A device, characterized in that: The method comprises a unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 or a unit for executing the method according to claim 5.

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