Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal device receives a downlink reference signal by means of M digital ports, and then the terminal device sends first information, wherein the first information can be used for indicating a connection relationship between the M digital ports and N analog ports, the first information is related to the downlink reference signal, M and N are both positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M. The terminal device dynamically adjusts the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports on the basis of the received downlink reference signal, and reports the adjusted connection relationship by means of the first information, so that the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports can be adaptively changed on the basis of a channel environment, thereby solving the problem in the prior art of some digital ports of the terminal device being unavailable as a result of the receiving power of said digital ports being too low due to the influence of hand shielding / channel multi-path polarization and the like.

Description

Communication method and device

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on December 20, 2023, with application number 202311763784.9 and application name "A Communication Method and Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0003] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and device. Background Art

[0004] Due to the scarcity of spectrum resources, mobile communication frequency bands will evolve to higher frequencies in the future. As the frequency band increases, signal propagation loss also increases, leading to deterioration in network coverage. To improve uplink and downlink coverage, one possible implementation approach is to deploy more antennas on the terminal device side to form a directional beam with higher gain. However, given that terminal devices are generally sensitive to the cost, complexity, and power consumption of communication modules, a hybrid analog and digital beamforming (HBF) architecture is generally deployed on the terminal device side. The core concept of the HBF architecture is to use a small number of digital ports to connect more antenna elements through an analog phase-shifted feed network. This allows for the beam gain provided by a large array without increasing the number of digital ports. Consequently, there is no significant change in the power consumption of the communication module or the complexity of baseband processing.

[0005] At this stage, under the current HBF architecture, the connection relationship between the multiple digital ports of a terminal device and the multiple phase-shift ports (or analog ports) is fixed. The terminal device reports the fixed connection relationship between its multiple digital ports and the multiple phase-shift ports to the network device. Based on the fixed connection relationship between the multiple digital ports and the multiple phase-shift ports, the network device determines the analog weights corresponding to the multiple digital ports and sends the analog weights corresponding to the multiple digital ports to the terminal device. The analog weights corresponding to the multiple digital ports are used by the terminal device for uplink and downlink data transmission (such as sending uplink data or receiving downlink data).

[0006] However, in actual communication scenarios, due to hand obstruction by the terminal user and the polarization influence of channel multipath, the channel quality of each array element / phase-shifted port of the terminal device may vary greatly, resulting in an imbalance in the final received power of each digital port of the terminal device, which in turn affects the multi-stream pairing of the terminal device.

[0007] Summary of the Invention

[0008] The present application provides a communication method and apparatus to solve the problem in the prior art that the receiving power of certain digital ports of a terminal device is too low due to influences such as hand occlusion / channel multipath polarization, resulting in the unavailability of these digital ports.

[0009] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be performed by a first communication device. Optionally, the first communication device can be a terminal device or a module of the terminal device (such as a processor, a processing unit, a chip, a chip system or a circuit, etc.). The method can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device. Exemplarily, the following takes the execution of the communication method by a terminal device as an example. The method may include the following steps: the terminal device receives a downlink reference signal through M digital ports, and then the terminal device sends a first information, wherein the first information can be used to indicate the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports, and the first information is related to the downlink reference signal, M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M.

[0010] In this method, the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports is dynamically adjusted (or adaptively adjusted) based on the received downlink reference signal, and the adjusted connection relationship is reported through the first information. In this way, the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports can be adaptively changed according to the channel environment (or the reception quality of the downlink reference signal received by the M digital ports), thereby solving the problem in the prior art that the receiving power of some digital ports of the terminal device is too low due to the influence of hand occlusion / channel multipath polarization, etc., making these digital ports unusable.

[0011] Accordingly, in a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be performed by a second communication device. Optionally, the second communication device can be a network device or a module of a network device (such as a processor, a processing unit, a chip, a chip system or a circuit, etc.). The method can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device. Exemplarily, the following takes the network device executing the communication method as an example. The method may include the following steps: the network device sends a downlink reference signal, after which the network device receives first information, wherein the first information can be used to indicate the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports, the first information is related to the downlink reference signal, M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M.

[0012] The technical effects that can be achieved in the second aspect can be referred to the technical effects that can be achieved in the first aspect mentioned above, and will not be repeated here.

[0013] In a possible implementation manner provided by the first aspect or the second aspect, the first information is associated with a resource identifier of a downlink reference signal.

[0014] In the above implementation, by associating the first information with the resource identifier of the downlink reference signal, it is possible to facilitate the terminal device to subsequently accurately establish a correspondence between the analog weights corresponding to the M received digital ports and the resource identifier of the downlink reference signal. In addition, the method is also intended to allow the second communication device to know which downlink reference signal resource identifier the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports indicated by the first information specifically corresponds to. This allows the second communication device to accurately perform uplink and downlink data transmission with the first communication device based on the resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

[0015] In a possible implementation provided in the first aspect or the second aspect, the method further includes: the terminal device sends second information, and accordingly, the network device receives the second information, wherein the second information is used to indicate a connection relationship that has changed compared to a current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports.

[0016] In the above implementation method, after the terminal device sends the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports through the first information, it subsequently determines the new connection relationship based on the received downlink reference signal. It only needs to report the connection relationship that is different (or distinguished) from the connection relationship determined last time. This can reduce the uplink signaling overhead caused by the terminal device frequently reporting the first information.

[0017] In a possible implementation provided by the first aspect or the second aspect, the second information also includes at least one of the following: identification information of the changed digital port, identification information of the analog port corresponding to the changed digital port, or indication information, etc., wherein the indication information is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports has changed.

[0018] In the above implementation, by including the indication information in the second information, the second communication device can promptly learn whether the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports has changed. By including the identification information of the changed digital port in the second information, the second communication device can promptly learn which digital port's connection relationship has changed. By including the identification information of the analog port corresponding to the changed digital port in the second information, the second communication device can promptly learn which analog ports are connected to the changed digital port.

[0019] In a possible implementation provided in the first aspect or the second aspect, the first information includes a first matrix, the dimension of the first matrix is ​​N*M, the N*M elements in the first matrix are binary values, and the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column is used to characterize the connection relationship between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port, where i and j are both positive integers, 1≤i≤N, 1≤j≤M.

[0020] The above implementation method can intuitively represent the connection relationship between the jth digital port and the ith analog port by the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column. This also facilitates the second communication device to promptly and effectively determine the specific number of analog ports connected to each digital port. For example, the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports can also be represented by other methods (such as a bitmap).

[0021] In a possible implementation manner provided by the first aspect or the second aspect, the number of elements whose values ​​are the first value contained in the j-th column of the first matrix is ​​equal to the analog weight dimension corresponding to the j-th digital port.

[0022] In the above implementation, when the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports is represented by a first matrix, the analog weight dimension corresponding to the jth digital port can be obtained by calculating the number of elements whose values ​​are the first value included in the jth column of the first matrix. In this way, the first communication device can obtain the analog weight dimension corresponding to each digital port in a timely manner.

[0023] In a possible implementation provided in the first aspect or the second aspect, the network device sends third information, and accordingly, the terminal device receives the third information, wherein the third information may include analog weights corresponding to M digital ports respectively, the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively being used for uplink and downlink data transmission, the analog weight dimension corresponding to the first digital port included in the M digital ports being equal to the number of analog ports connected to the first digital port, and the first digital port being one of the M digital ports.

[0024] In the above implementation, the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports are notified to the terminal device through the third information, so that the terminal device can effectively perform uplink and downlink data transmission with the network device according to the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports. In this way, the uplink and downlink data transmission of the terminal device can be more accurate and more in line with the actual situation (or actual scenario) of the terminal device.

[0025] In a possible implementation manner provided by the first aspect or the second aspect, the first information may further include a resource identifier of a downlink reference signal.

[0026] In the above implementation method, by carrying the resource identifier of the downlink reference signal in the first information, the second communication device can be promptly notified of which downlink reference signal resource identifier the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports indicated by the first information corresponds to. This makes it convenient for the second communication device to accurately perform uplink and downlink data transmission with the first communication device based on the resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

[0027] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device. Optionally, the communication device may be a communication device (such as a first communication device or a second communication device) or a module (such as a processor, processing unit, chip, chip system or circuit, etc.) required to support the communication device to implement the communication method. For example, the first communication device may be a terminal device or a module of a terminal device (such as a processor, processing unit, chip, chip system or circuit, etc.), or it may also be a logical node, logic module or software that can implement all or part of the terminal functions. The second communication device may be a network device or a module of a network device (such as a processor, processing unit, chip, chip system or circuit, etc.), or it may also be a logical node, logic module or software that can implement all or part of the network device functions. When the communication device is a chip provided in the first communication device (or the second communication device), the communication device includes an interface circuit and a processor, but does not include a memory. The interface circuit exists as an input and output interface, and the input and output interface is used for the chip to implement the transmission and reception of the communication device. The input and output interface may include an input interface and / or an output interface, the input interface can implement the reception of the communication device, and the output interface can be used to implement the transmission of the communication device. The processor is used to read and execute the corresponding computer program or instruction so that the corresponding function of the first communication device (or the second communication device) is implemented. Optionally, when the chip implements the corresponding function of the first communication device (or the second communication device) in the communication method embodiment provided by the present application, the input and output interface can implement the transceiver operation performed by the first communication device (or the second communication device) in the communication method embodiment provided by the present application; the processor can implement other operations other than the transceiver operation performed by the first communication device (or the second communication device) in the communication method embodiment provided by the present application.

[0028] In one possible implementation, the communication device has the function of implementing the behavior in the method example of the first aspect or the second aspect above. The beneficial effects can be found in the relevant descriptions of the first aspect to the second aspect, and will not be repeated here. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing the corresponding software implementation. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions. For example, the communication device can be the terminal device in the first aspect, or the communication device can be the network device in the second aspect. Exemplarily, the communication device includes corresponding means (means) or modules for executing the method of the first aspect or the second aspect. For example, the communication device includes a processing module (or can be called a processing unit) and / or a transceiver module (or can be called a communication unit, communication module or transceiver unit, for sending and receiving data). The transceiver module can implement the sending function and the receiving function. When the transceiver module implements the sending function, it can be called a sending unit (or can be called a sending module), and when the transceiver module implements the receiving function, it can be called a receiving unit (or can be called a receiving module). The sending unit and the receiving unit can be the same functional unit, referred to as a transceiver module, which can implement both the sending and receiving functions; alternatively, the sending unit and the receiving unit can be different functional units, with the transceiver module being a general term for these functional units. These modules (units) can perform the corresponding functions described in the method examples of the first or second aspects above. For details, please refer to the detailed description of the method examples and will not be repeated here.

[0029] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which may be a communication device (such as a first communication device or a second communication device) required to execute the communication method provided by the present application, or may be a device that includes a communication device required to execute the communication method provided by the present application, or may be a device having the functions required to implement the communication method. The communication device may include an interface circuit and a processor. Optionally, the communication device may also include a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs or instructions, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the interface circuit. When the processor executes the computer program or instruction, the communication device executes the method in any possible implementation of the first aspect or the method in any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0030] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which may include the first communication device (such as a terminal device) and the second communication device (such as a network device) mentioned in the first or second aspect above. The relevant functional implementation of the first communication device or the second communication device can refer to the relevant description mentioned in the first or second aspect above, and will not be repeated here.

[0031] Exemplarily, the communication system may include one or more first communication devices and one or more second communication devices.

[0032] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer executes the method in any possible implementation of the first aspect or the method in any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0033] In the seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a computer, the computer executes the method in any possible implementation of the first aspect or the method in any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0034] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a chip, which may include a processor and may also include a memory (or the chip is coupled to the memory), wherein the chip executes program instructions in the memory to perform the method in any possible implementation of the first aspect or the method in any possible implementation of the second aspect. "Coupled" refers to the direct or indirect connection of two components to each other, such as coupling may refer to an electrical connection between two components.

[0035] In a ninth aspect, the present application further provides a chip system, which includes a processor for supporting a computer device to implement the method in any possible implementation of the first aspect or the method in any possible implementation of the second aspect. In one possible implementation, the chip system also includes a memory for storing programs and data necessary for the computer device. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0036] Based on the implementation methods provided in the above aspects, this application can also be further combined to provide more implementation methods. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] FIG1 exemplarily shows a schematic diagram of a possible communication system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] FIG2 exemplarily shows a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] FIG3 exemplarily shows a schematic diagram of a connection relationship between four digital ports and 16 analog ports provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] FIG4 exemplarily shows a schematic diagram of a terminal device differentially reporting connection relationships corresponding to the three measurement cycles provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] FIG5 exemplarily shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] FIG6 exemplarily shows a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] Before introducing the technical solution provided by this application, some of the terms involved in this application are first explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0044] (1) Synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block (SSB): The SSB consists of three parts: the primary synchronization signal (PSS), the secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and the PBCH. Both the PSS and SSS are synchronization signals. The PSS can be used to transmit the cell ID, and the SSS can be used to transmit the cell group ID. The cell ID and the cell group ID together determine the multiple physical cell identities (PCIs) in the communication system. The PBCH can be used by terminal devices to obtain information about the cell they are accessing.

[0045] (2) Signal quality (or signal reception quality): In the embodiment of the present application, the signal quality may be signal strength. The parameters used to reflect or represent the signal strength may include, but are not limited to, at least one of the following: reference signal receiving power (RSRP), reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ), or received signal strength indication (RSSI).

[0046] It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present application, "sending information" can be understood as one device sending information to another device, or it can also be understood as one logic module within a device sending information to another logic module. For example, "a network device sending information" can be understood as the network device sending information to another device (such as a terminal device), or it can be understood as logic module 1 in the network device sending information to logic module 2 in the terminal device.

[0047] In the embodiments of the present application, "receiving information" can be understood as one device receiving information from another device, or as a logic module within a device receiving information from another logic module. For example, "a network device receiving information" can be understood as the network device receiving information from another device (such as a terminal device), or as logic module 1 in the network device receiving information from logic module 2 in the terminal device.

[0048] In the embodiments of the present application, "sending information to a terminal device" can be understood as the destination of the information being the terminal. This can include sending information to the terminal directly or indirectly. "Receiving information from a terminal" can be understood as the source of the information being the terminal, which can include receiving information from the terminal directly or indirectly. The information may undergo necessary processing between the source and destination of the information, such as format changes, but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in the embodiments of the present application can be understood similarly and will not be repeated here.

[0049] The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0050] The following describes the communication system architecture to which the communication method provided in this application is applicable. It should be noted that these descriptions are for the purpose of facilitating understanding by those skilled in the art and do not limit the scope of protection claimed in this application.

[0051] FIG1 exemplarily shows a schematic diagram of a possible communication system architecture applicable to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG1 , the communication system architecture 10 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network (CN) 200. Optionally, the communication system architecture 10 may also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (such as 110a and 110b in FIG1 , collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal device (such as 120a-120j in FIG1 , collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG1 ). The terminal device 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 wirelessly. The RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 wirelessly or wiredly. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 can be different physical devices, or the same physical device that integrates the core network logical functions and the wireless access network logical functions, or a physical device that integrates part of the core network logical functions and part of the wireless access network logical functions.

[0052] The RAN 100 may be a cellular system related to the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as a 4G or 5G mobile communication system, or a future-oriented evolutionary system (such as a 6G mobile communication system). The RAN 100 may also be an open access network (O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), or a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system. The RAN 100 may also be a communication system that integrates two or more of the above systems.

[0053] RAN node 110, sometimes also referred to as access network equipment, RAN entities, network equipment, or access nodes, constitutes part of the communication system and facilitates wireless access for terminal devices. Multiple RAN nodes 110 in the communication system 10 can be of the same type or different types. In some scenarios, the roles of RAN node 110 and terminal device 120 are relative. For example, network element 120i in Figure 1 can be a helicopter or drone, which can be configured as a mobile base station. For terminal device 120j accessing RAN 100 via network element 120i, network element 120i is a base station; however, for base station 110a, network element 120i is a terminal device. RAN node 110 and terminal device 120 are sometimes referred to as communication devices. For example, network elements 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be understood as communication devices with base station functionality, and network elements 120a-120j can be understood as communication devices with terminal device functionality. Optionally, the RAN node 110 can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface; it can also be deployed on aircraft, drones, balloons and satellites in the air. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the RAN node.

[0054] In one possible scenario, a RAN node may be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), an access point (AP), a transmission reception point (TRP), a new radio (NR), a next-generation NodeB (gNB), or a next-generation base station in a sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system. A RAN node may be a macro base station (such as 110a in FIG1 ), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in FIG1 ), a relay node or a donor node, or a wireless controller in a CRAN scenario. Optionally, a RAN node may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle, or an onboard device. For example, an access network device in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology may be a road side unit (RSU). All or part of the functions of the RAN node in this application may also be implemented by software functions running on hardware, or by virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (such as a cloud platform). The RAN node in this application may also be a logical node, a logical module or software that can implement all or part of the RAN node functions.

[0055] In another possible scenario, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist terminal devices in achieving wireless access, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and DU can be set separately, or they can also be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can 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). In this network architecture, the signaling generated by the CU can be sent to the terminal device through the DU, or the signaling generated by the terminal device can be sent to the CU through the DU. The DU can directly encapsulate the signaling through the protocol layer and transparently transmit it to the terminal device or CU without parsing it. In this network architecture, the CU is divided into a network device on the wireless access network side. In addition, the CU can also be divided into a network device on the core network side, and this application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0056] 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 the 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 uses 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.

[0057] The terminal device may also be referred to as a terminal, user equipment (UE), access terminal device, vehicle-mounted terminal, industrial control terminal, UE unit, UE station, mobile station, mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), remote station, remote terminal device, mobile device, UE terminal device, terminal device, wireless communication device, UE agent or UE device, etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be fixed or mobile, and the implementation of the present application does not limit this. For example, the terminal device may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld, wearable or vehicle-mounted, or may be deployed on water (such as a ship, etc.), or may be deployed in the air (such as an airplane, a balloon or a satellite, etc.).

[0058] For example, the terminal device can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, customer-premises equipment (CPE), a subscriber unit, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a wireless data card, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a head mounted display (HMD), a wireless terminal in industrial control, an in-vehicle terminal device, a wireless terminal in self-driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical, 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, a wearable terminal device, a vehicle, a drone, a helicopter, an airplane, factory machinery / equipment, a machine type communication (MTC), etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal device.

[0059] It is understandable that the RAN node and the terminal device can communicate through the licensed spectrum (licensed spectrum), can also communicate through the unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed spectrum), or can communicate through both the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum. The network device and the terminal device can communicate through the spectrum below the sixth generation mobile communication system (6th generation mobile networks or 6th generation wireless systems, 6G), can also communicate through the spectrum above 6G, and can also use the spectrum below 6G and the spectrum above 6G at the same time. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the spectrum resources used between the RAN node and the terminal device.

[0060] For example, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applicable to the scenario where the air-fed HBF architecture is configured on the terminal device side, and can also be applicable to other scenarios (such as the scenario where the connection relationship between the digital port and the analog port can be dynamically adjusted).

[0061] Optionally, the communication system shown in Figure 1 can be various communication systems, for example, it can be an Internet of Things (IoT) system, a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) system, a long term evolution (LTE) system, or a fifth generation mobile communication system (5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems, 5G), or a hybrid architecture of LTE and 5G, or a 5G new radio (NR) system, and a new communication system that will emerge in 6G or future communication development, etc., and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this. The 5G communication system described in the present application may include at least one of a non-standalone (NSA) 5G communication system and a standalone (SA) 5G communication system. The communication system may also be a machine to machine (M2M) network or other network. In addition, the communication system architecture shown in Figure 1 is intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application. Ordinary technicians in this field can know that with the evolution of the communication system architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0062] The following is a detailed introduction to the specific implementation of the communication method in the embodiment of the present application based on the communication system architecture shown in Figure 1 and in combination with the accompanying drawings. It can be understood that the present application uses the network device and the terminal device as an example to illustrate the execution subject of the interactive diagram, but the present application does not limit the execution subject of the interactive diagram. For example, the method executed by the network device in the present application can also be executed by a module (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor) applied to the network device, and can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the network device; the method executed by the terminal device in the present application can also be executed by a module (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor) applied to the terminal device, and can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the terminal device.

[0063] FIG2 exemplarily illustrates a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method is applicable to the communication system architecture shown in FIG1 . As shown in FIG2 , the method includes:

[0064] Step 201: The network device sends a downlink reference signal. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the downlink reference signal through M digital ports.

[0065] Optionally, in an embodiment of the present application, if the terminal device is replaced by a functional module such as a chip system, the functional module may not be aware of which device the received information comes from; if the network device is replaced by a functional module such as a chip system, the functional module may not be aware of which device the sent information is sent to.

[0066] For example, if the network device has a distributed architecture, e.g., the network device includes a CU and / or a DU, or includes one or more of a CU-CP, a CU-UP, or a DU, when the network device includes a DU, the network device sends a downlink reference signal. Specifically, the DU included in the network device may send a downlink reference signal. Optionally, the network device including a DU may further include a CU; or the network device including a DU may further include a CU-CP and / or a CU-UP.

[0067] For example, the network device may periodically send a downlink reference signal. For example, the network device may send a downlink reference signal in multiple measurement periods. Optionally, the network device may trigger the sending of a downlink reference signal through downlink control information (DCI).

[0068] Exemplarily, the downlink reference signal may be an SSB, a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), or a tracking reference signal (or tracking reference signal, TRS), etc.

[0069] Step 202: The terminal device sends the first information. Correspondingly, the network device receives the first information.

[0070] Exemplarily, the first information can be used to indicate the connection relationship (or mapping relationship) between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the current terminal device. Wherein, M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M. For example, take 2 digital ports (such as digital port a1 and digital port a2) and 5 analog ports (such as analog port b1, analog port b2, analog port b3, analog port b4, and analog port b5) as an example. Digital port a1 is connected to 2 analog ports (such as analog port b1 and analog port b2), that is, digital port a1 is connected to analog port b1 and analog port b2 respectively. Digital port a2 is connected to 3 analog ports (such as analog port b3, analog port b4, and analog port b5), that is, digital port a2 is connected to analog port b3, analog port b4, and analog port b5 respectively.

[0071] It should be understood that the first information is related to the downlink reference signal. That is, it can be understood that the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the current terminal device is related to the downlink reference signal currently received by the terminal device. It is understood that the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the terminal device can be dynamically adjusted based on the downlink reference signal received by the terminal device.

[0072] For example, consider a downlink reference signal received by a terminal device. The terminal device can receive the downlink reference signal through M digital ports, measure the downlink reference signal received by each of the M digital ports, and obtain the signal quality corresponding to each of the M digital ports. The terminal device can then determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports corresponding to the downlink reference signal and the N analog ports based on the signal quality corresponding to the M digital ports.

[0073] By way of example, the following describes the implementation process of a terminal device reporting the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports through the following possible implementation methods.

[0074] Method 1: The terminal device may implicitly (or may be understood as not explicitly) report the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports to the network device, but rather implicitly express the connection relationship by associating multiple groups of reference channels.

[0075] For example, the terminal device can indicate that each of the M digital ports is associated with several uplink reference signal resources (each uplink reference resource represents a resource corresponding to a time-frequency code). The network device can determine the number of analog ports connected to each digital port based on the number of uplink reference signal resources associated with each digital port, and can determine the analog weight corresponding to each digital port based on the number of analog ports connected to each digital port. Afterwards, the terminal device can send the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports to the terminal device (such as a transmit precoding matrix indicator (TPMI)). It should be understood that the network device does not need to know which analog port each digital port of the terminal device is specifically connected to, but only needs to know the number of analog ports connected to each digital port.

[0076] Method 2: The terminal device may explicitly report the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports to the network device. For example, the terminal device may explicitly report the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports by sending first information to the network device.

[0077] For example, the downlink reference signal is CSI-RS, the signal quality is RSRP, there are 2 digital ports (such as digital port 1 and digital port 2), and 8 analog ports (such as analog port 1, analog port 2, analog port 3, analog port 4, analog port 5, analog port 6, analog port 7, and analog port 8). After the terminal device receives the CSI-RS through digital port 1 and digital port 2 respectively, it can measure the CSI-RS received by digital port 1 and the CSI-RS received by digital port 2 respectively to obtain the signal quality RSRP1 corresponding to digital port 1 and the signal quality RSRP2 corresponding to digital port 2. Afterwards, the terminal device can determine the number N1 of analog ports connected to digital port 1 and the number N2 of analog ports connected to digital port 2 based on the signal quality RSRP1 corresponding to digital port 1, the signal quality RSRP2 corresponding to digital port 2, and the total number of analog ports. In this way, the terminal device can determine how many analog ports are connected to digital port 1 and how many analog ports are connected to digital port 2, thereby determining which analog ports are connected to digital port 1 and which analog ports are connected to digital port 2. In this way, through this method, when the terminal device determines that the signal quality corresponding to one or several digital ports is less than the signal quality threshold, the terminal device can allocate more analog ports (or can be understood as array elements) to the one or several digital ports, so that the signal quality corresponding to the M digital ports of the terminal device is more balanced, thereby enabling the terminal device to adaptively adjust the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports according to the signal quality corresponding to the M digital ports (or the channel environment between the terminal device and the network device).

[0078] For example, the terminal device can determine the number N1 of analog ports connected to digital port 1 and the number N2 of analog ports connected to digital port 2 by the following formula (1):

[0079] Where N is used to represent the total number of analog ports.

[0080] Assume that the terminal device determines, through the above formula (1), that the number N1 of analog ports connected to digital port 1 is 3, and the number N2 of analog ports connected to digital port 2 is 5. In this way, the terminal device can assign 3 analog ports (e.g., analog port 1, analog port 2, and analog port 3) out of the 8 analog ports to digital port 1, and assign the remaining 5 analog ports (e.g., analog port 4, analog port 5, analog port 6, analog port 7, and analog port 8) out of the 8 analog ports to digital port 2. Afterwards, the terminal device can determine that digital port 1 is connected to analog port 1, analog port 2, and analog port 3, respectively, and that digital port 2 is connected to analog port 4, analog port 5, analog port 6, analog port 7, and analog port 8, respectively.

[0081] By way of example, the reporting form of the first information is introduced below through the following possible implementation methods.

[0082] Implementation method 1: The connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports is represented by a first matrix, and the first information includes the first matrix.

[0083] In the embodiment of the present application, the dimension of the first matrix is ​​N*M. N is used to represent the total number of analog ports, and M is used to represent the total number of digital ports. The element in the i-th row and j-th column of the first matrix (e.g., a ij ) is used to represent the connection relationship between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port. Where i and j are both positive integers, 1≤i≤N, 1≤j≤M.

[0084] For example, the N*M elements in the first matrix may have binary values, such as 1 or 0. If the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column of the first matrix is ​​1, it may indicate that there is a connection between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port. If the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column of the first matrix is ​​0, it may indicate that there is no connection between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port.

[0085] Optionally, each row of the first matrix may have at most one element with a value of 1, and all other elements in the row may have values ​​of 0. This constrains each analog port to be connected to at most one digital port. Of course, if an analog port is blocked, it will not be connected to any digital port.

[0086] For example, the following describes the connection relationship between digital ports and analog ports using the following possible examples, taking the first matrix as matrix A, where the dimension of matrix A is 16*4. Here, 16 represents the total number of analog ports, such as analog port 1, analog port 2, analog port 3, analog port 4, analog port 5, analog port 6, analog port 7, analog port 8, analog port 9, analog port 10, analog port 11, analog port 12, analog port 13, analog port 14, analog port 15, and analog port 16; and 4 represents the total number of digital ports, such as digital port 1, digital port 2, digital port 3, and digital port 4.

[0087] Example 1: When the signal reception quality of the 16 analog ports is relatively good, the connection relationship between the 4 digital ports and the 16 analog ports can be represented by the matrix A1. For example, the matrix A1 can satisfy the following form:

[0088] As can be seen from the above matrix A1, each of the four digital ports is assigned to connect to four analog ports. Accordingly, the connection relationship between the four digital ports and the 16 analog ports presented in Example 1 can be seen in Figure 3(a). In Figure 3, the thick solid line × symbol indicates an analog port connected to digital port 1, the thin solid line × symbol indicates an analog port connected to digital port 2, the thick dashed line × symbol indicates an analog port connected to digital port 3, the thin dashed line × symbol indicates an analog port connected to digital port 4, and the dot-dash line × symbol indicates an analog port with poor received signal quality. As shown in (a) in Figure 3, digital port 1 is connected to four analog ports (such as analog port 1 and analog port 2 in the first row from left to right among the four analog ports, and analog port 3 and analog port 4 in the second row from left to right among the four analog ports), digital port 2 is connected to four analog ports (such as analog port 5 and analog port 6 in the first row from left to right among the four analog ports, and analog port 7 and analog port 8 in the second row from left to right among the four analog ports), digital port 3 is connected to four analog ports (such as analog port 9 and analog port 10 in the first row from left to right among the four analog ports, and analog port 11 and analog port 12 in the second row from left to right among the four analog ports), and digital port 4 is connected to four analog ports (such as analog port 13 and analog port 14 in the first row from left to right among the four analog ports, and analog port 15 and analog port 16 in the second row from left to right among the four analog ports).

[0089] Example 2: When the received signal quality of four analog ports (e.g., analog port 13, analog port 14, analog port 15, and analog port 16) is very poor due to obstruction or other reasons, the connection relationship between the four digital ports and the 16 analog ports can be represented by matrix A2. For example, matrix A2 can satisfy the following form:

[0090] From the above matrix A2, it can be seen that digital port 1 is assigned four analog ports (such as analog port 1, analog port 2, analog port 3, and analog port 4) for connection. Digital port 2 is assigned four analog ports (such as analog port 5, analog port 6, analog port 7, and analog port 8) for connection. Due to obstruction and other reasons, the received signal quality of analog ports 13, analog port 14, analog port 15, and analog port 16 is very poor. Therefore, analog ports 13, analog port 14, analog port 15, and analog port 16 are no longer connected to digital port 4. At this time, digital port 3 is assigned two analog ports (such as analog port 9 and analog port 11) for connection, and digital port 4 is assigned two analog ports (such as analog port 10 and analog port 12) for connection. Accordingly, the connection relationship between the four digital ports and the 16 analog ports presented in the above example 2 can be seen in Figure 3 (b). As shown in Figure 3(b), digital port 1 is connected to four analog ports (e.g., analog port 1, analog port 2, analog port 3, and analog port 4), digital port 2 is connected to four analog ports (e.g., analog port 5, analog port 6, analog port 7, and analog port 8), digital port 3 is connected to two analog ports (e.g., analog port 9 and analog port 11), and digital port 4 is connected to two analog ports (e.g., analog port 10 and analog port 12).

[0091] Example 3: When the received signal quality of four analog ports (e.g., analog port 6, analog port 8, analog port 14, and analog port 16) is very poor due to obstruction or other reasons, the connection relationship between the four digital ports and the 16 analog ports can be represented by matrix A3. For example, matrix A3 can satisfy the following form:

[0092] From the above matrix A3, it can be seen that digital port 1 is assigned four analog ports (e.g., analog port 1, analog port 2, analog port 3, and analog port 4) for connection. Due to occlusion or other reasons, the received signal quality of analog port 6 and analog port 8 is very poor. Therefore, analog port 6 and analog port 8 are no longer connected to digital port 2. At this time, digital port 2 is assigned two analog ports (e.g., analog port 5 and analog port 7) for connection. Digital port 3 is assigned four analog ports (e.g., analog port 9, analog port 10, analog port 11, and analog port 12) for connection. Due to occlusion or other reasons, the received signal quality of analog port 14 and analog port 16 is very poor. Therefore, analog port 14 and analog port 16 are no longer connected to digital port 4. At this time, digital port 4 is assigned two analog ports (e.g., analog port 13 and analog port 15) for connection. Accordingly, the connection relationship between the four digital ports and the 16 analog ports presented in the above example three can be seen in (c) of Figure 3. As shown in Figure 3(c), digital port 1 is connected to four analog ports (e.g., analog port 1, analog port 2, analog port 3, and analog port 4). Digital port 2 is connected to two analog ports (e.g., analog port 5 and analog port 7). Digital port 3 is connected to four analog ports (e.g., analog port 9, analog port 10, analog port 11, and analog port 12). Digital port 4 is connected to two analog ports (e.g., analog port 13 and analog port 15).

[0093] Example 4: When the received signal quality of eight analog ports (e.g., analog port 1, analog port 3, analog port 6, analog port 8, analog port 9, analog port 11, analog port 14, and analog port 16) is very poor due to obstruction or other reasons, the connection relationship between the four digital ports and the 16 analog ports can be represented by matrix A4. For example, matrix A4 can satisfy the following form:

[0094] Matrix A4 shows that due to occlusion and other factors, the received signal quality of analog ports 1 and 3 is very poor. Therefore, analog ports 1 and 3 are no longer connected to digital port 1. Digital port 1 is now assigned two analog ports (such as analog ports 2 and 4) for connection. Due to occlusion and other factors, the received signal quality of analog ports 6 and 8 is also very poor. Therefore, analog ports 6 and 8 are no longer connected to digital port 2. Digital port 2 is now assigned two analog ports (such as analog ports 5 and 7) for connection. Due to occlusion and other factors, the received signal quality of analog ports 9 and 11 is also very poor. Therefore, analog ports 9 and 11 are no longer connected to digital port 3. Digital port 3 is now assigned two analog ports (such as analog ports 10 and 12) for connection. Due to obstruction and other reasons, the received signal quality of analog port 14 and analog port 16 is very poor. Therefore, analog port 14 and analog port 16 are not connected to digital port 4. Digital port 4 is assigned two analog ports (such as analog port 13 and analog port 15) for connection. Accordingly, the connection relationship between the four digital ports and the 16 analog ports presented in Example 4 above can be seen in (d) of Figure 3. As shown in (d) of Figure 3, digital port 1 is connected to two analog ports (such as analog port 2 and analog port 4), digital port 2 is connected to two analog ports (such as analog port 5 and analog port 7), digital port 3 is connected to two analog ports (such as analog port 10 and analog port 12), and digital port 4 is connected to two analog ports (such as analog port 13 and analog port 15).

[0095] Implementation method 2: The connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports is represented by a bitmap, and the first information includes the bitmap.

[0096] It should be understood that the above content is only an example of several possible reporting forms of the first information. The terminal device can also use other reporting forms to report the first information, which will not be listed one by one here.

[0097] In an embodiment of the present application, after determining the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports, the terminal device can associate the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports with the resource indicator (resource indicator) of the downlink reference signal received by the terminal device this time (or can be called binding). That is, it can be understood that the terminal device can associate the first information with the resource indicator of the downlink reference signal received by the terminal device this time. Optionally, the terminal device can carry the resource indicator of the downlink reference signal in the first information, so that the network device can promptly know the association relationship (or can be called binding relationship or corresponding relationship or mapping relationship) between the connection relationship determined by the terminal device and the resource indicator of the downlink reference signal.

[0098] Exemplarily, the resource identifier of the downlink reference signal may refer to a time-frequency resource identifier used to carry the downlink reference signal received by the terminal device. When the network device sends (or broadcasts) the downlink reference signal, it will superimpose beamforming and can send the downlink reference signal through different beams according to different weights. Each beam corresponds to a weight. It should be understood that the network device does not perceive which beam carries the SSB received by which terminal device.

[0099] Among them, when sending SSB through different beams, the time-frequency resources used are also different, so the corresponding channels are also different. In this way, if the same terminal device receives SSBs carried by different beams respectively, the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports determined by the terminal device is also different. In order to let the network device know which connection relationship corresponds to which beam-carried SSB, a certain terminal device needs to associate the connection relationship determined based on the received SSB carried by a certain beam with the resource identifier corresponding to the beam. Among them, the terminal device can also report the association relationship between the connection relationship and the resource identifier corresponding to the beam to the network device, so that the network device can accurately perform uplink and downlink data transmission (such as sending downlink data or receiving uplink data) with the terminal device based on the resource identifier corresponding to the beam.

[0100] For example, consider a downlink reference signal (SSB), three beams (e.g., beam 1, beam 2, and beam 3), a terminal device (UE1), a network device (gNB), and the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports represented by a first matrix. Beam 1 corresponds to a weight of 1, beam 2 corresponds to a weight of 2, and beam 3 corresponds to a weight of 3. The resource identifier of the time-frequency resource used to transmit the SSB via beam 1 is 1, the resource identifier of the time-frequency resource used to transmit the SSB via beam 2 is 2, and the resource identifier of the time-frequency resource used to transmit the SSB via beam 3 is 3. When transmitting the SSB, the gNB may carry the SSB on beam 1 based on weight 1, on beam 2 based on weight 2, and on beam 3 based on weight 3.

[0101] For example, consider the case where the SSB carried on beam 1 is received by UE1. UE1 receives the SSB carried by beam 1 through M digital ports and measures the SSBs received by each of the M digital ports to obtain the signal quality corresponding to each of the M digital ports. The terminal device can then determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports based on the signal quality corresponding to each of the M digital ports. This connection relationship is represented by matrix A. The terminal device can then associate matrix A with resource identifier 1 and report the association between matrix A and resource identifier 1 to the gNB. This allows the gNB to accurately perform uplink and downlink data transmission with UE1 based on weight 1 corresponding to resource identifier 1 (or, alternatively, to use the time-frequency resources corresponding to resource identifier 1).

[0102] In an embodiment of the present application, when a network device periodically transmits a downlink reference signal or the network device triggers the transmission of a downlink reference signal via multiple DCIs, the terminal device may determine, based on each downlink reference signal received from the network device, the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to each received downlink reference signal. The terminal device may then transmit the determined connection relationship to the network device.

[0103] By way of example, the following describes the implementation process of the terminal device sending each determined connection relationship to the network device through the following possible implementation methods.

[0104] Method 1: Considering that the effects of obstruction or channel multipath polarization usually last for a period of time rather than changing independently in each transmission time interval (TTI), the terminal device can report the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports to the network device in a differential manner, thereby reducing the uplink signaling overhead caused by the terminal device frequently reporting the first information.

[0105] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may first send a first information to the network device. Afterwards, the terminal device may determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to the downlink reference signal received this time based on the downlink reference signal received each time after receiving the downlink reference signal from the network device. Then, the terminal device may determine the connection relationship change between the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to the downlink reference signal received this time and the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to the downlink reference signal received last time, determine the second information based on the connection relationship change, and may send the second information to the network device. The second information is used to indicate a connection relationship that has changed compared to the current connection relationship (or can be understood as the original connection relationship or the existing connection relationship or the current connection relationship) between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the terminal device.

[0106] Exemplarily, the second information may include at least one of the following: identification information of the changed digital port, identification information of the analog port corresponding to the changed digital port, or indication information, etc. The indication information is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the terminal device has changed. For example, the indication information can implement the corresponding indication content by using 1 bit. The indication parameter carried by the indication information has two different parameter values ​​(or can be understood as bit values, such as 0 and 1) for representing different indication contents. It can be understood that in some cases, the indication parameter can also be understood as indication information. For example, when the parameter value of the indication parameter is 0, the indication parameter is used to indicate that the current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the terminal device has not changed. When the parameter value of the indication parameter is 1, the indication parameter is used to indicate that the current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the terminal device has changed.

[0107] For example, a network device sends downlink reference signals in three continuous measurement cycles (such as measurement cycle 1, measurement cycle 2, and measurement cycle 3), and the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports is represented by a first matrix (such as matrix A). Among them, measurement cycle 2 is located after measurement cycle 1, and measurement cycle 3 is located after measurement cycle 2. Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device differentially reporting the connection relationship corresponding to the three measurement cycles provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0108] As shown in Figure 4 , for measurement cycle 1, after receiving the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 1, the terminal device can determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to measurement cycle 1, such as matrix A1, based on the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 1. The terminal device can then send matrix A1 to the network device.

[0109] For measurement period 2, after receiving the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement period 2, the terminal device can determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to measurement period 2 according to the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement period 2, such as matrix A2, and can determine the difference change between matrix A2 and matrix A1, such as δ A '. Afterwards, the terminal device can send δ to the network device A ′. For example, δ A ' can be carried in an uplink information (such as uplink control information (UCI)). Optionally, δ A ' may include an indication parameter, which is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports (such as the matrix A1) has changed. For example, when the parameter value of the indication parameter is 1, the indication parameter is used to indicate that the matrix A1 has changed. At this time, the δ A ' can also include the column number of the changed column in the matrix A1 and the position of the element with the value 1 in the column where the column number of the changed column in the matrix A1 is located. By comparing the matrix A1 described in the above example 1 with the matrix A2 described in the example 2, it can be seen that the δ A ′ may include an indicator parameter with a parameter value of 1, column numbers 3 and 4 that have changed in matrix A1, positions of elements with values ​​of 1 in column 3 at {9, 11}, and positions of elements with values ​​of 1 in column 4 at {10, 12}.

[0110] For measurement period 3, after receiving the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement period 3, the terminal device can determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to measurement period 3 according to the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement period 3, such as matrix A3, and can determine the difference change between matrix A3 and matrix A2, such as δ A ″. Afterwards, the terminal device can send δ to the network device A ″. For example, δ A " can be carried in an uplink information (such as UCI). Optionally, δ A" may include an indication parameter, which is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports (such as the matrix A2) has changed. For example, when the parameter value of the indication parameter is 1, the indication parameter is used to indicate that the matrix A2 has changed. At this time, the δ A ″ can also include the column number of the changed column in the matrix A2 and the position of the element with the value 1 in the column where the column number of the changed column in the matrix A2 is located. By comparing the matrix A2 described in the above example 2 with the matrix A3 described in the example 3, it can be seen that the δ A ″ may include an indicator parameter with a parameter value of 1, column numbers 2, 3, and 4 that change in matrix A2, positions of elements with values ​​of 1 in column 2 at {5, 7}, positions of elements with values ​​of 1 in column 3 at {9, 10, 11, 12}, and positions of elements with values ​​of 1 in column 4 at {13, 15}.

[0111] Method 2: The terminal device sends the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to each received downlink reference signal to the network device.

[0112] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may determine, based on each downlink reference signal received from the network device, a connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to the downlink reference signal received. The terminal device may then send the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to the downlink reference signal received to the network device.

[0113] For example, let's continue with the example of a network device sending downlink reference signals in three consecutive measurement cycles (such as measurement cycle 1, measurement cycle 2, and measurement cycle 3), and the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports being represented by a first matrix (such as matrix A). Among them, measurement cycle 2 is located after measurement cycle 1, and measurement cycle 3 is located after measurement cycle 2. For measurement cycle 1, after receiving the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 1, the terminal device can determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports corresponding to measurement cycle 1 and the N analog ports, such as matrix A1, based on the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 1. Afterwards, the terminal device can send matrix A1 to the network device. For measurement cycle 2, after receiving the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 2, the terminal device can determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports corresponding to measurement cycle 2 and the N analog ports, such as matrix A2, based on the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 2. Afterwards, the terminal device can send matrix A2 to the network device. For measurement cycle 3, after receiving the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 3, the terminal device can determine the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports corresponding to measurement cycle 3 based on the downlink reference signal corresponding to measurement cycle 3, such as matrix A3. The terminal device can then send matrix A3 to the network device.

[0114] Step 203: The network device sends the third information, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third information.

[0115] The above step 203 is an optional step.

[0116] For example, the third information may include analog weights corresponding to M digital ports. The analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports can be used for uplink and downlink data transmission between the terminal device and the network device. The dimension of the analog weight corresponding to each of the M digital ports (e.g., the first digital port) is equal to the number of analog ports connected to the digital port, and the first digital port is one of the M digital ports. It is understood that the value of each analog weight is a constant modulus element (i.e., only phase shifting is performed).

[0117] For example, the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports is represented by a first matrix. The dimension of the first matrix is ​​N*M. Thus, the number of elements whose values ​​are the first value (e.g., 1) contained in the j-th column of the first matrix can be used as the analog weight dimension corresponding to the j-th digital port.

[0118] In an embodiment of the present application, after receiving the first information, the network device may determine the analog weight dimension corresponding to each digital port (e.g., the first digital port) in the M digital ports based on the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports. For each digital port, the network device may determine a precoding codebook that matches the analog weight dimension corresponding to the digital port based on the analog weight dimension corresponding to the digital port. Thereafter, the network device may determine the analog weight corresponding to the digital port based on the precoding codebook and the channel matrix corresponding to the digital port. The network device may then carry the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports in a third information message and send it to the terminal device. After receiving the third information, the terminal device may perform uplink and downlink data transmission (e.g., sending uplink data or receiving downlink data) with the network device based on the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports. In this way, when the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports changes, the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports will also change accordingly. In this way, the terminal device can use the new analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports for uplink and downlink data transmission, thereby enabling the terminal device to dynamically perform uplink and downlink data transmission based on the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports. Accordingly, since the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports is associated with the resource identifier of the downlink reference signal received by the terminal device from the network device, the network device will also adopt the weight corresponding to the resource identifier to perform uplink and downlink data transmission with the terminal device (such as receiving uplink data or sending downlink data). Among them, the channel matrix corresponding to the digital port is determined by the network device performing channel estimation on the uplink reference signal sent by the terminal device through the digital port. It should be understood that the terminal device sends the uplink reference signal according to the currently determined connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports. For example, the uplink reference signal can be a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0119] For example, the uplink reference signal is an SRS, the terminal device is UE1, the network device is a gNB, and the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports is represented by a first matrix. After determining the first matrix based on the downlink reference signal from the gNB, UE1 may send the first matrix to the gNB. Optionally, after sending the first matrix to the gNB, UE1 may also send SRSs to the gNB via the M digital ports based on the first matrix. After receiving the SRSs from the M digital ports of UE1, the gNB may perform channel estimation based on the SRSs of each of the M digital ports to obtain a channel matrix corresponding to each digital port. After receiving the first matrix from UE1, the gNB may determine the number of elements in a first column of the first matrix that have a first value (e.g., a value of 1), and may use the number of elements in the first column that have the first value as the analog weight dimension for the digital port corresponding to the first column. The first column is one of the multiple columns of the first matrix.

[0120] For example, the analog weight dimension of the j-th digital port corresponding to the j-th column in the first matrix can be expressed as K j *1 vector. Among them, K j The following formula (2) can be satisfied.

[0121] K j =∑ i a ij Formula (2)

[0122] Among them, a ij Used to represent the element in the i-th row and j-th column of the first matrix. The value is 0 or 1. Both i and j are positive integers, 1≤i≤N, 1≤j≤M.

[0123] For each digital port, the gNB may then determine a precoding codebook that matches the analog weight dimension corresponding to the digital port, and may determine the analog weight corresponding to the digital port based on the precoding codebook and channel matrix corresponding to the digital port. In a specific implementation, the gNB may determine an objective function for calculating the analog weight corresponding to the digital port based on the precoding codebook and channel matrix corresponding to the digital port. The gNB may then search the predefined precoding codebook for a codeword that maximizes the objective function value, using that codeword as the analog weight corresponding to the digital port.

[0124] For example, a precoding codebook for a certain digital port (e.g., digital port 1) is a TPMI codebook. In one example, the gNB determines that the analog weight dimension corresponding to digital port 1 is 4, that is, digital port 1 is connected to 4 analog ports. In this case, when determining the analog weight corresponding to digital port 1, the gNB can use the NR 4-antenna TPMI codebook. The 4-antenna TPMI codebook satisfies the following form:

[0125] Each column in the 4-antenna TPMI codebook is a codeword, corresponding to an analog weight with a dimension of 4×1.

[0126] In another example, the gNB determines that the analog weight dimension corresponding to digital port 1 is 2, that is, digital port 1 is connected to two analog ports. In this case, the gNB can use the NR 2-antenna TPMI codebook when determining the analog weight corresponding to digital port 1. The 2-antenna TPMI codebook satisfies the following form:

[0127] Each column in the 2-antenna TPMI codebook corresponds to an analog weight with a dimension of 2×1.

[0128] For example, the objective function of the analog weight corresponding to a certain digital port (such as digital port 1) satisfies the following formula (3).

[0129] Among them, p * It is used to represent the variable value combination corresponding to the maximum value of the objective function corresponding to a certain digital port. The simulation weight corresponding to the digital port is included in the variable value combination. i It is used to represent the analog weight corresponding to the i-th column in the TPMI codebook (such as a 2-antenna TPMI codebook or a 4-antenna TPMI codebook) corresponding to the digital port, and H is used to represent the channel matrix corresponding to the digital port.

[0130] It can be seen from the above steps 201 to 203 that the terminal device can dynamically adjust the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports based on the received downlink reference signal, and report the connection relationship to the network device through the first information, so that the network device can promptly and accurately determine the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports based on the connection relationship, and send the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports to the terminal device. In this way, the terminal device can effectively transmit data with the network device based on the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports. In this way, the method can realize that the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports of the terminal device can be adaptively changed according to the channel environment, thereby solving the problem in the prior art that the receiving power of some digital ports of the terminal device is too low due to the influence of hand occlusion / channel multipath polarization, etc., resulting in the unavailability of these digital ports.

[0131] It should be noted that in the description of this application, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "plurality" refers to two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: the existence of A alone, the existence of A and B at the same time, and the existence of B alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, "at least one of A, B and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first", "second", and "third" mentioned in the embodiments of this application are used to distinguish multiple objects and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects. In addition, the terms "including", "comprising", "having" and their variations appearing in this application all mean "including but not limited to" unless otherwise specifically emphasized.

[0132] In addition, it should be noted that each step involved in the above embodiments can be performed by a corresponding device, or by a component such as a chip, processor, or chip system within the device, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this. The above embodiments are described only as examples of execution by corresponding devices.

[0133] It should be noted that in each of the above embodiments, some steps may be selected for implementation, and the order of the steps in the diagrams may be adjusted for implementation, and this application does not limit this. It should be understood that executing some of the steps in the diagrams, adjusting the order of the steps, or combining them for specific implementation all fall within the scope of protection of this application.

[0134] It is understandable that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the various devices involved in the above embodiments include hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that, in combination with the units and method steps of the various examples described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0135] It should be understood that the "steps" in the embodiments of this application are merely illustrative, a method of expression used to better understand the embodiments, and do not constitute a substantive limitation on the implementation of the solutions of this application. For example, the "steps" can also be understood as "features." Furthermore, the steps do not constitute any limitation on the execution order of the solutions of this application. Any changes in the order of steps, or any operations such as step merging or step splitting that do not affect the implementation of the overall solution, resulting in new technical solutions, are also within the scope of this application.

[0136] Based on the same concept, an embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device, which is applicable to the communication system architecture shown in Figure 1. Optionally, the communication device can be a communication device (such as a first communication device or a second communication device) or a module (such as a processor, a processing unit, a chip, a chip system or a circuit, etc.) required to support the communication device to implement the communication method. For example, the first communication device can be a terminal device or a module of a terminal device (such as a processor, a processing unit, a chip, a chip system or a circuit, etc.), or it can also be a logical node, a logical module or software that can implement all or part of the terminal function. The second communication device can be a network device or a module of a network device (such as a processor, a processing unit, a chip, a chip system or a circuit, etc.), or it can also be a logical node, a logical module or software that can implement all or part of the network device function. In one example, when the communication device is a first communication device (such as a terminal device), the communication device is used to implement the technical solution involved in the first communication device in the above embodiment, or the module (such as a chip) of the communication device is used to implement the technical solution involved in the first communication device in the above embodiment, and therefore the beneficial effects possessed by the first communication device in the above embodiment can also be achieved. For example, the terminal device may be the terminal device 120 (e.g., terminal device 120a) shown in FIG1 . For example, taking the communication device as a chip provided in the first communication device, when the communication device is a chip, the communication device includes an interface circuit and a processor, but does not include a memory. The interface circuit exists as an input / output interface, and the input / output interface is used by the chip to implement transceiver functions of the first communication device. The input / output interface may include an input interface and / or an output interface, the input interface can implement reception by the first communication device, and the output interface can be used to implement transmission by the first communication device. The processor is used to read and execute corresponding computer programs or instructions so that the corresponding functions of the first communication device are implemented. Optionally, when the chip implements the corresponding functions of the first communication device in the above-mentioned embodiment, the input / output interface can implement the transceiver operations performed by the first communication device in the above-mentioned embodiment; and the processor can implement other operations other than the transceiver operations performed by the first communication device in the above-mentioned embodiment. For specific related descriptions, please refer to the relevant description of the first communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG2 above, and will not be described in detail here.

[0137] In another example, when the communication device is a second communication device (such as a network device), the communication device is used to implement the technical solutions involved in the second communication device in the above embodiments, or a module (such as a chip) of the communication device is used to implement the technical solutions involved in the second communication device in the above embodiments, thereby also achieving the beneficial effects of the second communication device in the above embodiments. For example, the network device may be the RAN node 110 (such as RAN node 110a) shown in Figure 1. For example, taking the communication device as a chip provided in the second communication device, when the communication device is a chip, the communication device includes an interface circuit and a processor, but does not include a memory. The interface circuit is present as an input / output interface, and the input / output interface is used by the chip to implement transmission and reception of the second communication device. The input / output interface may include an input interface and / or an output interface. The input interface can implement reception by the second communication device, and the output interface can implement transmission by the second communication device. The processor is used to read and execute corresponding computer programs or instructions to implement the corresponding functions of the second communication device. Optionally, when the chip implements the corresponding functions of the second communication device in the above embodiment, the input and output interfaces may implement the transceiver operations performed by the second communication device in the above embodiment; and the processor may implement other operations performed by the second communication device in the above embodiment in addition to the transceiver operations. For specific details, please refer to the description of the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in FIG2 above, and will not be described in detail here.

[0138] Referring to FIG5 , a communication device 500 includes a transceiver module 501 (or a communication module, a transceiver unit, or a communication unit, configured to transmit and receive data) and a processing module 502 (or a processing unit). The communication device 500 is configured to implement the functions of the first communication device (e.g., a terminal device) or the second communication device (e.g., a network device) in the method embodiment shown in FIG2 .

[0139] Optionally, the transceiver module 501 may include a receiving module and / or a transmitting module. The receiving module may be used by the communication device 500 to receive signals (information or data, etc.); the transmitting module may be used by the communication device 500 to transmit signals (information or data, etc.). The transmitting module may transmit signals (information or data, etc.) under the control of the processing module 502, and the receiving module may receive signals (information or data, etc.) under the control of the processing module 502.

[0140] When the communication device 500 is used to implement the functions of the first communication device (e.g., a terminal device) in the method embodiment shown in FIG2 : the transceiver module 501 is configured to receive a downlink reference signal via M digital ports. The transceiver module 501 is further configured to send first information. The first information can be used to indicate a connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports, and the first information is related to the downlink reference signal. M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M. The processing module 502 is configured to perform corresponding processing operations, such as determining the connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports based on the received downlink reference signal.

[0141] When the communication device 500 is used to implement the functions of the second communication device (e.g., a network device) in the method embodiment shown in FIG2 , the transceiver module 501 is configured to transmit a downlink reference signal. The transceiver module 501 is further configured to receive first information. The first information may be used to indicate the connection relationship between M digital ports and N analog ports, and the first information is related to the downlink reference signal. M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M. The processing module 502 is configured to perform corresponding processing operations, such as determining third information based on the first information.

[0142] Among them, when the communication device 500 is used to implement the function of the first communication device or the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2, for a more detailed description of the transceiver module 501 and the processing module 502, please refer to the relevant description of the first communication device or the second communication device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0143] It should be understood that the transceiver module 501 in the embodiment of the present application can be implemented by an interface circuit, and the processing module 502 can be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit components. It should be understood that the interface circuit can be a transceiver or an input / output interface.

[0144] It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiments of the present application is illustrative and is merely a logical functional division. In actual implementation, other division methods may be used. Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into a single processing unit, or 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.

[0145] If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including a number of instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, or a server, etc.) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the various embodiments 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.

[0146] Based on the same concept, an embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device, which is applicable to the communication system architecture shown in Figure 1. Exemplarily, the communication device may be a device (such as a first communication device or a second communication device) required for executing the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application, or may be a device comprising a device required for executing the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the communication device may also be provided in a chip in the first communication device (or the second communication device). When the communication device is a chip provided in the first communication device (or the second communication device), the communication device includes an interface circuit and a processor, but does not include a memory. Wherein, the interface circuit exists as an input and output interface, and the input and output interface is used for the chip to implement the transceiver of the communication device. The input and output interface may include an input interface and / or an output interface, the input interface can implement the reception of the communication device, and the output interface can be used to implement the transmission of the communication device. The processor is used to read and execute corresponding computer programs or instructions so that the corresponding functions of the first communication device (or the second communication device) are implemented. Optionally, when the chip implements the corresponding functions of the first communication device (or the second communication device) in the above embodiment, the input and output interface can implement the transceiver operations performed by the first communication device (or the second communication device) in the above embodiment; the processor can implement other operations other than the transceiver operations performed by the first communication device (or the second communication device) in the above embodiment. For specific related descriptions, please refer to the relevant descriptions in the above embodiments, which will not be described in detail here. For example, taking the communication device as a first communication device (such as a terminal device) or a second communication device (such as a network device) as an example, when the communication device is used to implement the technical solution involved in the first communication device in the above embodiment, it can also achieve the beneficial effects of the first communication device in the above method embodiment; when the communication device is used to implement the technical solution involved in the second communication device in the above embodiment, it can also achieve the beneficial effects of the second communication device in the above method embodiment; when the communication device is used to implement the technical solution involved in the network device in the above embodiment, it can also achieve the beneficial effects of the network device in the above method embodiment.

[0147] 6 , the communication device 600 includes: an interface circuit 601 and a processor 602. Optionally, the communication device 600 further includes a memory 603. The interface circuit 601, the processor 602 and the memory 603 are interconnected. When the communication device 600 is used to implement the technical solution involved in the first communication device (such as a terminal device) provided in the above embodiment, the interface circuit 601 can be used to implement the function of the above-mentioned transceiver module 501 when executing the technical solution involved in the first communication device, and the processor 602 is used to implement the function of the above-mentioned processing module 502 when executing the technical solution involved in the first communication device. When the communication device 600 is used to implement the technical solution involved in the second communication device (such as a network device) provided in the above embodiment, the interface circuit 601 can be used to implement the function of the above-mentioned transceiver module 501 when executing the technical solution involved in the second communication device, and the processor 602 is used to implement the function of the above-mentioned processing module 502 when executing the technical solution involved in the second communication device.

[0148] Optionally, the interface circuit 601, processor 602, and memory 603 are interconnected via a bus 604. Bus 604 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus. Buses can be categorized as address buses, data buses, control buses, and the like. For ease of illustration, FIG6 shows only one thick line, but this does not imply that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0149] The interface circuit 601 is used to receive and transmit data. For example, when the communication device 600 is the terminal device 120a shown in FIG1 , the interface circuit 601 can communicate with the RAN node 110a shown in FIG1 , or can also communicate with the terminal device 120b shown in FIG1 , or can also communicate with other devices outside the communication system architecture shown in FIG1 (such as other terminal devices or servers). In one example, the interface circuit can be a transceiver device with integrated data transceiver functions. In another example, the interface circuit can also be composed of a transmitter and a receiver, wherein the transmitter is used to transmit data and the receiver is used to receive data.

[0150] Optionally, the interface circuit 601 may include a transmitter and / or a receiver. The transmitter is used to transmit signals, messages, information, or data. The receiver is used to receive signals, messages, information, or data. For example, the transmitter transmits signals, messages, information, or data under the control of the processor 602. The receiver receives signals, messages, information, or data under the control of the processor 602.

[0151] The functions of processor 602 can refer to the description of the corresponding functions involved in the first communication device or the second communication device in the above embodiments and will not be repeated here. Processor 602 can be a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP, etc. Processor 602 can further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip can be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD can be a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a generic array logic (GAL), or any combination thereof. When implementing the above functions, processor 602 can be implemented through hardware, or it can also execute corresponding software implementations through hardware.

[0152] Memory 603 is used to store program instructions, etc. Specifically, program instructions may include program code, which includes computer operating instructions. Memory 603 may include random access memory (RAM) or non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk drive. Processor 602 executes the program instructions stored in memory 603 to implement the above functions, thereby performing the method steps required to be executed by the first communication device or the second communication device in the above embodiments.

[0153] Based on the same concept, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which includes a first communication device (e.g., a terminal device) and a second communication device (e.g., a network device). The first communication device can be used to implement the technical solution involved in the first communication device in the above embodiment, and the second communication device can be used to implement the technical solution involved in the second communication device in the above embodiment.

[0154] Based on the same concept, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer executes the method provided in the above embodiment.

[0155] Based on the same concept, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a computer, the computer executes the method provided in the above embodiment.

[0156] The storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example and not limitation, computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, 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.

[0157] Based on the same concept, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, which may include a processor and a memory (or the chip is coupled to the memory), and the chip executes program instructions in the memory to perform the method provided in the above embodiment. Wherein, "coupling" refers to the direct or indirect connection between two components, such as coupling can refer to the electrical connection between two components.

[0158] Based on the same concept, an embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system, which includes a processor for supporting a computer device to implement the functions involved in the first communication device (such as a terminal device) or the second communication device (such as a network device) in the above embodiment. In one possible implementation, the chip system also includes a memory, which is used to store the necessary programs and data for the computer device. The chip system can be composed of chips, or it can include chips and other discrete devices.

[0159] The methods provided in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, they can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiments of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated therein. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a high-density digital video disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state drive (SSD)).

[0160] The steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application can be directly embedded in hardware, software units executed by a processor, or a combination of the two. The software units can be stored in RAM, ROM, EEPROM, registers, hard disks, removable disks, CD-ROMs, or other storage media in any form known in the art. Exemplarily, the storage medium can be connected to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium can also be integrated into the processor. The processor and storage medium can be arranged in an ASIC.

[0161] The present application is described with reference to the flowcharts and / or block diagrams of the methods, devices (systems), and computer program products according to the present application. It should be understood that each flow and / or box in the flow chart and / or block diagram, as well as the combination of the flow chart and / or box in the flow chart and / or block diagram, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce a device for implementing the functions specified in one or more flow charts and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0162] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, so that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0163] Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various changes and modifications to this application without departing from the spirit and scope of this application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of this application fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalents, this application is intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: include: receiving a downlink reference signal via M digital ports; Sending first information, where the first information is used to indicate a connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports, and the first information is related to the downlink reference signal; Wherein, M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first information is associated with a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The method further comprises: Second information is sent, where the second information is used to indicate a connection relationship that has changed compared to a current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The second information further includes at least one of the following: identification information of the changed digital port, identification information of the analog port corresponding to the changed digital port, or indication information, wherein the indication information is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship has changed.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The first information includes a first matrix, the dimension of the first matrix is ​​N*M, the N*M elements in the first matrix are binary values, and the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column is used to characterize the connection relationship between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port, wherein i and j are both positive integers, 1≤i≤N, 1≤j≤M.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The number of elements whose values ​​are first contained in the j-th column of the first matrix is ​​equal to the analog weight dimension corresponding to the j-th digital port.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Receive third information, the third information including analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively, the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively being used for uplink and downlink data transmission, wherein a dimension of analog weight corresponding to a first digital port included in the M digital ports is equal to the number of analog ports connected to the first digital port, and the first digital port is one of the M digital ports.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that: The first information also includes a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

9. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Sending a downlink reference signal; receiving first information, where the first information is used to indicate a connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports, and the first information is related to the downlink reference signal; Wherein, M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The first information is associated with a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: Second information is received, where the second information is used to indicate a connection relationship that has changed compared to a current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The second information further includes at least one of the following: identification information of the changed digital port, identification information of the analog port corresponding to the changed digital port, or indication information, wherein the indication information is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship has changed.

13. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that: The first information includes a first matrix, the dimension of the first matrix is ​​N*M, the N*M elements in the first matrix are binary values, and the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column is used to characterize the connection relationship between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port, wherein i and j are both positive integers, 1≤i≤N, 1≤j≤M.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The number of elements whose values ​​are first contained in the j-th column of the first matrix is ​​equal to the analog weight dimension corresponding to the j-th digital port.

15. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 14, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Send third information, wherein the third information includes analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively, and the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively are used for uplink and downlink data transmission, wherein the dimension of the analog weight corresponding to a first digital port included in the M digital ports is equal to the number of analog ports connected to the first digital port, and the first digital port is one of the M digital ports.

16. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 15, characterized in that: The first information also includes a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

17. A communication device, characterized in that: Including transceiver module; The transceiver module is used to receive downlink reference signals through M digital ports; The transceiver module is further used to send first information, where the first information is used to indicate a connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports, and the first information is related to the downlink reference signal; Wherein, M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M.

18. The device according to claim 17, characterized in that The first information is associated with a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

19. The device according to claim 17 or 18, characterized in that The transceiver module is also used for: Second information is sent, where the second information is used to indicate a connection relationship that has changed compared to a current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports.

20. The device according to claim 19, characterized in that The second information further includes at least one of the following: identification information of the changed digital port, identification information of the analog port corresponding to the changed digital port, or indication information, wherein the indication information is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship has changed.

21. The device according to any one of claims 17 to 20, characterized in that The first information includes a first matrix, the dimension of the first matrix is ​​N*M, the N*M elements in the first matrix are binary values, and the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column is used to characterize the connection relationship between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port, wherein i and j are both positive integers, 1≤i≤N, 1≤j≤M.

22. The device according to claim 21, characterized in that The number of elements whose values ​​are first contained in the j-th column of the first matrix is ​​equal to the analog weight dimension corresponding to the j-th digital port.

23. The device according to any one of claims 17 to 22, characterized in that The transceiver module is also used for: Receive third information, the third information including analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively, the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively being used for uplink and downlink data transmission, wherein a dimension of analog weight corresponding to a first digital port included in the M digital ports is equal to the number of analog ports connected to the first digital port, and the first digital port is one of the M digital ports.

24. The device according to any one of claims 17 to 23, characterized in that The first information also includes a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

25. A communication device, characterized in that: Including transceiver module; The transceiver module is used to send a downlink reference signal; The transceiver module is further used to receive first information, where the first information is used to indicate a connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports, and the first information is related to the downlink reference signal; Wherein, M and N are positive integers, and N is greater than or equal to M.

26. The device according to claim 25, characterized in that The first information is associated with a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

27. The device according to claim 25 or 26, characterized in that The transceiver module is also used for: Second information is received, where the second information is used to indicate a connection relationship that has changed compared to a current connection relationship between the M digital ports and the N analog ports.

28. The device according to claim 27, characterized in that The second information further includes at least one of the following: identification information of the changed digital port, identification information of the analog port corresponding to the changed digital port, or indication information, wherein the indication information is used to indicate whether the current connection relationship has changed.

29. The device according to any one of claims 25 to 28, characterized in that The first information includes a first matrix, the dimension of the first matrix is ​​N*M, the N*M elements in the first matrix are binary values, and the value of the element in the i-th row and j-th column is used to characterize the connection relationship between the j-th digital port and the i-th analog port, wherein i and j are both positive integers, 1≤i≤N, 1≤j≤M.

30. The device according to claim 29, characterized in that The number of elements whose values ​​are first contained in the j-th column of the first matrix is ​​equal to the analog weight dimension corresponding to the j-th digital port.

31. The device according to any one of claims 25 to 30, characterized in that The transceiver module is also used for: Send third information, wherein the third information includes analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively, and the analog weights corresponding to the M digital ports respectively are used for uplink and downlink data transmission, wherein the dimension of the analog weight corresponding to a first digital port included in the M digital ports is equal to the number of analog ports connected to the first digital port, and the first digital port is one of the M digital ports.

32. The device according to any one of claims 25 to 31, characterized in that The first information also includes a resource identifier of the downlink reference signal.

33. A communication device, characterized in that: include: Interface circuit for receiving and sending data; Memory for storing computer program instructions and data; A processor is used to execute and call the computer program instructions and data in the memory so that the communication device performs the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8 or the method as described in any one of claims 9 to 16.

34. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a computer, the computer executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 or the method according to any one of claims 9 to 16.

35. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises a computer program or instructions, and when the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 or the method according to any one of claims 9 to 16.

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