Communication method, system, and related device

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, a system, and a related device. The method comprises: a UE determines a plurality of CG configurations, each CG configuration among the plurality of CG configurations comprising at least one TO; and then the UE sends a first notification message to a network element, the first notification message being used for notifying the network element of at least one of a first TO and a second TO comprised in each CG configuration among the plurality of CG configurations, wherein the first TO refers to a TO that is not used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO refers to a TO that is used by the UE in the future time period. In this way, the network element can in a timely manner know the first TO that is not used by the UE in the future time period. Thus, the network element can schedule the first TO to other UEs for use, so that the number of UEs served by the network element is increased, and the utilization rate of wireless resources is improved. Moreover, the UE can use a first notification message to notify the network element of the use situations of TOs in the plurality of CG configurations, which can effectively reduce the resource consumption caused by the UE notifying the network element of the first TO.

Description

Communication method, system and related equipment

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on December 29, 2023, with application number 202311872393.0 and application name “Communication Methods, Systems and Related Equipment”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method, system and related equipment. Background Art

[0003] Extended reality (XR) uses hardware devices combined with various technologies to create a virtual environment for human-computer interaction by integrating virtual content with real scenes. It integrates multiple technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). Because communication frames in XR service scenarios are periodic, network elements (such as base stations) can configure the wireless resources used by the UE during each data transmission cycle. This allows user equipment (UE) to communicate with the network element based on the configured wireless resources during each data transmission cycle, thereby supporting the UE to transmit communication frames in XR service scenarios to the network element.

[0004] However, based on the current resource configuration method, the problem of low utilization of network element radio resources may easily occur, such as part of the radio resources allocated by the network element to the UE being wasted.

[0005] Summary of the Invention

[0006] The present application provides a communication method, system and related equipment, the purpose of which is to improve the quality of services running on terminal devices, thereby improving the user experience provided by the services.

[0007] In order to achieve the above objectives, this application provides the following technical solutions:

[0008] In the first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a user equipment UE. Specifically, the UE determines multiple CG configurations for the UE, and each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations includes at least one TO (transmission opportunity); then, the UE sends a first notification message, such as sending the first notification message to a network element, and the first notification message is used to notify the network element that each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations includes at least one of a first TO and a second TO, wherein the first TO refers to a TO that will not be used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO refers to a TO that will be used by the UE in a future time period.

[0009] Since the UE can notify the network element of the TOs that will not be used (i.e., the first TO) and / or the TOs that will be used (i.e., the second TO) in the future, the network element can promptly learn the first TO that will not be used by the UE in the future time period and schedule the first TO to other UEs for use, thereby enabling the network element to use limited wireless resources to support more UEs to send data, thereby increasing the number of UEs that the network element can serve and improving the utilization rate of the network element's wireless resources. In addition, the UE can use a first notification message to notify the network element of the TO usage in multiple CG configurations, without having to send a notification message separately for each CG configuration, which can effectively reduce the resource consumption generated by the UE notifying the network element of the first TO. Moreover, when the wireless resources included in the first part of the CG configuration are relatively small, the first notification message can be sent to the network element using the wireless resources included in the second part of the CG configuration, thereby avoiding the first TO (future time) in the first part of the CG configuration not being notified to the network element due to the small number of wireless resources included in the first part of the CG (at the current moment), or reducing the significant impact of the first part of the CG configuration on the transmission of service data due to the upload notification message.

[0010] In one possible implementation, multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration. In this case, the first notification message sent by the UE includes multiple bits, and the consecutive first bits in the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and the consecutive second bits in the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration. In this way, the UE can use the multiple bits in the first notification message to indicate the TO usage in each CG configuration, so that the network element can promptly know the first TO that will not be used by the UE in the future time period.

[0011] In one possible implementation, the multiple CG configurations further include at least one third CG configuration, and the multiple bits further include a continuous third bit, wherein the third bit is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration. In this way, the UE can use a notification message to indicate the TO usage in multiple CG configurations, thereby effectively reducing the resource consumption generated by the UE notifying the network element of the first TO.

[0012] In a possible implementation, before sending the first notification message, the UE may also obtain a first control message, such as the first control message may be issued by a network element, etc. The first control message may be, for example, an RRC message, which may include an identifier of each CG configuration in a plurality of CG configurations, and length indication information of bits corresponding to each CG configuration in a plurality of CG configurations, wherein the bits corresponding to each CG configuration are part of the plurality of bits, and the first control message is used to configure the length indication information of bits corresponding to each CG configuration. In this way, the UE can use bits of a specified length to indicate the TO usage in each CG configuration under the configuration of the network element.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the number of resource elements (REs) used to transmit the first bit is determined based on a first offset factor, and the number of REs used to transmit the second bit is determined based on a second offset factor; alternatively, the number of REs used to transmit multiple bits is determined based on a third offset factor. Thus, based on actual application requirements, one or more offset factors can be used to determine the number of REs used to transmit multiple bits indicating TO usage.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the UE may also send a second notification message, in which the first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and the second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the target information, which may be, for example, HARQ information, etc. The priority of the target information indicated by the second bit is higher than the priority of the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration indicated by the second bit, and the first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs. In this way, the UE can ensure that high-priority information is transmitted to the network element by shortening the bit used to indicate the usage of TO in part of the CG configuration in the notification message, thereby meeting the transmission requirements for high-priority information in actual application scenarios.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the first notification message includes multiple bits, each of which is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the multiple CG configurations in chronological order. In this way, the UE can use the multiple bits in the first notification message to indicate the TO usage in the multiple CG configurations, so that the network element can promptly know the first TO that will not be used by the UE in the future time period.

[0016] In one possible implementation, the first notification message is sent through the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; wherein, when the number of target bits in the PUSCH is lower than a threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some of the CG configurations in multiple CG configurations, or the first notification message does not include the first TO and the second TO in multiple CG configurations, wherein the target bit is used to carry indication information of the first TO or the second TO. In this way, the UE can ensure that high-priority information is transmitted to the network element by shortening the bits used to indicate the usage of TO in some CG configurations in the notification message, thereby meeting the transmission requirements for high-priority information in actual application scenarios.

[0017] In one possible implementation, the first notification message is further used to notify the network element that the target TO is a second TO, where the target TO is the TO used to send the first notification message. In this way, the UE can report the current TO usage and the TO usage in the future time period to the network element, so that the network element can be informed of the UE's TO usage.

[0018] In a possible implementation, one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs; or one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes one TO; or one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs. In this way, the UE can support both the TO usage of the CG configuration with a single TO and the TO usage of the CG configuration with multiple TOs.

[0019] In a possible implementation, multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of wireless resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold; then, the UE may also obtain a second control message, the second control message including an identifier of the first CG configuration and an identifier of the second CG configuration, and the second control message is used to configure the UE to send a first notification message using the TO in the first CG configuration or the TO in the second CG configuration. In this way, the network element can specify the CG configuration to which the TO used by the UE to send the notification message belongs, so that on the basis of using one notification message to report the TO usage in multiple CG configurations, when the third CG configuration includes fewer wireless resources, the first notification message can be sent to the network element using the wireless resources included in other CG configurations, thereby avoiding the first TO in the third CG configuration not being notified to the network element due to the fewer wireless resources included in the third CG, or reducing the third CG configuration from having a greater impact on the transmission of service data due to uploading notification messages.

[0020] In a possible implementation, TO is used to instruct the UE to use the time-frequency resources of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG configuration.

[0021] In a possible implementation, the time-frequency resources include time domain resources and frequency domain resources. The time domain resources include multiple consecutive symbols in a time slot, and the frequency domain resources include multiple resource elements RE or multiple resource blocks RB.

[0022] In a possible implementation, the first notification message is a UTO-UCI message. Exemplarily, the UTO-UCI message may be a UCI message newly defined in the standard.

[0023] In a possible implementation manner, multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and the first TO and the second TO are both valid TOs.

[0024] In one possible implementation, the plurality of CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

[0025] On the second aspect, the present application also provides a communication method, which is applied to a network element. Specifically, the network element obtains a first notification message, and the first notification message is used to indicate a first TO and at least one of a second TO included in each of multiple configuration authorization CG configurations for a user equipment UE. The first TO is a TO that will not be used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO is a TO that will be used by the UE in a future time period; the first TO is managed according to the first notification message.

[0026] In one possible embodiment, multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration; the first notification message includes multiple bits, consecutive first bits among the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and second TO included in the first CG configuration, and consecutive second bits among the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and second TO included in the second CG configuration.

[0027] In one possible embodiment, the multiple CG configurations further include at least one third CG configuration, and the multiple bits further include a consecutive third bit, where the third bit is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration.

[0028] In a possible implementation, the network element may also send a first control message, the first control message including an identifier of each CG configuration among multiple CG configurations, and length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration among multiple CG configurations, the bits corresponding to each CG configuration are part of the multiple bits, and the first control message is used to configure the length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration.

[0029] In one possible embodiment, the number of resource elements RE used to transmit the first bit is determined according to a first offset factor, and the number of RE used to transmit the second bit is determined according to a second offset factor; or, the number of RE used to transmit multiple bits is determined according to a third offset factor.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the network element may also obtain a second notification message, wherein the first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and the second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the target information, and the priority of the target information indicated by the second bit is higher than the priority of the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration indicated by the second bit, and the first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs; and the first TO indicated by the second notification message is managed.

[0031] In a possible implementation, the first notification message includes multiple bits, and each bit in the multiple bits is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the multiple CG configurations in sequence in chronological order.

[0032] In one possible embodiment, the first notification message is sent through the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; when the number of target bits in the PUSCH is lower than the threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some of the CG configurations in multiple CG configurations, or the first notification message does not include the first TO and the second TO in multiple CG configurations, and the target bit is used to carry indication information of the first TO or the second TO.

[0033] In a possible implementation manner, the first notification message is further used to indicate that the target TO is a second TO, where the target TO is the TO used by the UE to send the first notification message.

[0034] In one possible embodiment, one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs; or, one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes one TO; or, one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs.

[0035] In one possible implementation, multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of wireless resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold; at this time, the network element can also send a second control message, the second control message includes an identifier of the first CG configuration and an identifier of the second CG configuration, and the control message is used to configure the UE to send a first notification message using the TO in the first CG configuration or the TO in the second CG configuration.

[0036] In a possible implementation, TO is used to instruct the UE to use the time-frequency resources of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG.

[0037] In a possible implementation, the time-frequency resources include time domain resources and frequency domain resources. The time domain resources include multiple consecutive symbols in a time slot, and the frequency domain resources include multiple resource elements RE or multiple resource blocks RB.

[0038] In a possible implementation manner, the first notification message is a UTO-UCI message.

[0039] In a possible implementation manner, multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and the first TO is a valid TO.

[0040] In one possible implementation, the plurality of CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

[0041] In a possible implementation, when managing the first TO, specifically the first TO is scheduled to the second UE.

[0042] It should be noted that the communication method provided in the second aspect corresponds to the communication method provided in the first aspect. Therefore, the various implementation methods of the second aspect and the technical effects thereof can be found in the relevant descriptions of the corresponding implementation methods and their technical effects in the first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0043] In a third aspect, the present application provides a UE comprising a transceiver and a processor; wherein the transceiver is used to perform the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method described in the first aspect or any embodiment of the first aspect; and the processor is used to perform other operations except the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method described in the first aspect or any embodiment of the first aspect.

[0044] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a network element comprising a transceiver and a processor; wherein the transceiver is used to perform the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method described in the second aspect or any embodiment of the second aspect; and the processor is used to perform other operations except the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method described in the second aspect or any embodiment of the second aspect.

[0045] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes a UE and a network element, wherein the UE is used to execute the method described in the first aspect or any embodiment of the first aspect; the network element is used to execute the method described in the second aspect or any embodiment of the second aspect.

[0046] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a computer storage medium for storing a computer program. When the computer program is executed, it is used to implement the communication method provided in any one of the first to second aspects of the present application.

[0047] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one computing device, enables the at least one computing device to implement the communication method provided in any one of the first to second aspects of the present application. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0048] FIG1 is a structural diagram of an exemplary communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0049] FIG2a is a schematic diagram of a communication frame in an XR service scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] FIG2 b is a schematic diagram of a CG configuration including a TO provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] FIG2 c is a schematic diagram of a CG configuration including multiple TOs provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] FIG2 d is a schematic diagram showing that network element 1 schedules the unused TO reported by UE1 to UE2;

[0053] FIG2e is a schematic diagram of TOs not used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] FIG3 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of sending service data and notification message 1 using wireless resources;

[0056] FIG5a is a schematic diagram showing a method of using 5 bits to indicate TO usage in multiple CU configurations in chronological order;

[0057] FIG5 b is a schematic diagram of sending notification messages to multiple TOs respectively;

[0058] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a configuration field in an exemplary control message sent by network element 1 to UE1;

[0059] FIG7 a is a schematic diagram showing a method of using at least one continuous bit to indicate TO usage in a CG configuration;

[0060] FIG7 b is a schematic diagram of another method of sending notification messages to multiple TOs respectively;

[0061] FIG8 is a schematic diagram of another exemplary configuration field in a control message sent by network element 1 to UE1;

[0062] FIG9 a is a schematic diagram of reporting TO usage when CG configuration 2 includes an invalid TO;

[0063] FIG9 b is a schematic diagram of another method for reporting TO usage when CG configuration 1 includes an invalid TO;

[0064] FIG10 is a flow chart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0065] FIG11 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network element provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0066] FIG12 is a schematic structural diagram of a UE provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0067] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. The terms used in the following embodiments are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to be limiting of the present application. As used in the specification and appended claims of the present application, the singular expressions "one", "a kind of", "said", "above", "the" and "this" are intended to also include expressions such as "one or more", unless there is a clear contrary indication in the context. It should also be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, "one or more" refers to one, two or more; "and / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist; for example, A and / or B can 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 related objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0068] References to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" in this specification mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in conjunction with that embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the present application. Thus, phrases such as "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," and "in yet other embodiments" appearing in various places in this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, but rather mean "one or more but not all embodiments," unless otherwise specifically emphasized. The terms "including," "comprising," "having," and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to," unless otherwise specifically emphasized.

[0069] The "multiple" involved in the embodiments of the present application means greater than or equal to two. It should be noted that in the description of the embodiments of the present application, the words "first" and "second" are only used for the purpose of distinguishing the description and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or order.

[0070] The embodiments of the present application are applied to a communication system, which may be a fifth-generation (5G) communication system, or a hybrid architecture of LTE and 5G, or a 5G New Radio (5G NR) system, as well as new communication systems that will emerge in future communication developments.

[0071] An example of a communication system is shown in FIG1 , which includes a network element 1 , UE1 and UE2 .

[0072] In the embodiments provided in the present application, network element 1 can be any device located on the network side and having wireless transceiver functions, including but not limited to: a base station (gNodeB or gNB) or a transmission receiving point (transmission receiving point / transmission reception point, TRP) in new radio (NR), etc. Network element 1 can be: a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a small station, a relay station, or a balloon station, etc. Network element 1 can include one or more co-site or non-co-site transmission points (Transmission Reception Point, TRP). Network element 1 can also be a wireless controller, a centralized unit (CU), and / or a distributed unit (DU) in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario. Network element 1 can communicate with a terminal device, or communicate with a terminal device through a relay station.

[0073] UE1 can communicate with multiple network elements of different technologies. For example, UE1 can communicate with network elements that support LTE networks, network elements that support 5G networks, and can also establish dual connections with network elements that support LTE networks and network elements of 5G networks.

[0074] In the embodiments provided in the present application, UE1 can be in various forms, for example, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a vehicle-mounted 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, etc. UE can sometimes also be referred to as a terminal device, an access terminal device, a vehicle-mounted terminal, an industrial control terminal, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal device, a mobile device, a UE terminal device, a terminal device, a wireless communication device, a UE agent or a UE device, etc. The terminal can also be a fixed terminal or a mobile terminal. The implementation method of UE2 is similar to that of UE1, and will not be repeated here.

[0075] The above description uses an example in which a communication system includes network element 1, UE1, and UE2. In other possible implementations, the communication system may include a larger number of UEs or a larger number of network elements. Alternatively, in other possible implementations, network element 1 in the communication system may be replaced with other network elements, without limitation. For ease of understanding, the following description still uses the interaction between UE1 and network element 1 as an example.

[0076] In XR service scenarios, the communication frames sent during data exchange between network element 1 and UE1 have periodic characteristics. As shown in Figure 2a, UE1 can periodically send I frames (intra-coded frames, also known as key frames), P frames (predicted frames), and B frames (bidirectional frames) to network element 1. The frame rate and period in XR service scenarios can be shown in Table 1.

[0077] Table 1

[0078] When data is exchanged between network element 1 and UE1, I frames may be sent in the first cycle, P frames may be sent in the second cycle, B frames may be sent in the third cycle, I frames may be sent in the fourth cycle, and so on.

[0079] In actual applications, the frame rate and period in XR business scenarios can also be achieved in other ways. For example, the frame rate can be 144fps, etc., and there is no limitation on this.

[0080] The network element 1 may pre-configure uplink radio resources for the UE 1. For example, there may be the following scheduling schemes without dynamic grant, the main difference between which lies in the different activation methods.

[0081] In the first scheduling scheme, called configured grant type 1 (CG1), network element 1 sends a radio resource control (RRC) message to UE 1, which configures all uplink resource parameters and activates uplink transmission. This allows UE 1 to transmit data on the configured periodic uplink resources without sending downlink control information (DCI) for activation, as long as network element 1 successfully completes RRC configuration.

[0082] In the second scheduling scheme, which can be called configured grant type 2 (CG2), similar to the downlink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) method, network element 1 will first configure the data transmission period for UE1 through an RRC message, and then use the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) encrypted with the configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) to activate or release the uplink CG2, and specify the wireless resources used by the uplink CG2. Then, in each period, the UE can use the CG2 resources to send uplink data. Among them, in semi-persistent scheduling, the network element can configure CG2 in the RRC message, such as defining the "ConfiguredGrantConfigIndex-r16" field in the RRC message to configure CG2.

[0083] In other implementations, the network element 1 may also instruct the UE1 to use radio resources to send uplink data to the network element 1 by sending other types of control messages to the UE1 or by other means, and this is not limited.

[0084] For ease of understanding and explanation, the following takes the configuration of UE1 based on the CG2 type as an example.

[0085] Among them, the CG configuration (CG configuration) configured by network element 1 for UE1 can be shown in Figure 2b. In each data transmission cycle in the CG configuration, only one TO can be included. TO is used to support UE1 to send uplink data of CG. Among them, TO indicates the time-frequency resources used when UE1 sends CG uplink data. The time-frequency resources include time domain resources and frequency domain resources. The time domain resources are multiple continuous symbols in a time slot (slot) indicated by messages such as radio resource control (RRC) messages or downlink control information (DCI). The frequency domain resources include multiple resource blocks (RB) and / or resource elements (RE) indicated by RRC or DCI. Exemplarily, the first uplink channel used by UE1 to send uplink data to network element 1 using TO may be, for example, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or a physical random access channel (PRACH), or may be other types of uplink channels.

[0086] Different UEs can use different uplink channels to send uplink data to network element 1. For example, in the communication system shown in Figure 1, UE2 can use a second uplink channel to send uplink data to network element 1. The second uplink channel can be PUSCH, PUCCH, or PRACH, or other types of channels, which are not limited to this.

[0087] Currently, UE1 can periodically transmit uplink data based on the configured CG, without requiring dynamic scheduling each time, which is well-suited to the characteristics of XR services. However, XR services, especially those targeting mixed reality (MR) scenarios, require uplink transmission of video services, which consume large amounts of data and consume a lot of resources. However, the amount of uplink data UE1 sends to network element 1 varies during different data transmission cycles. For example, UE1 sends I frames with a large amount of data in the first data transmission cycle, P frames with a relatively small amount of data in the second data transmission cycle, and B frames with the smallest amount of data in the third data transmission cycle, periodically transmitting I, P, and B frames. If CG resources within a cycle are reserved for each UE based on the maximum service volume, such as I frame data volume, the system capacity of network element 1 will be severely limited. Actual simulation tests have shown that network element 1 can only support approximately 10 UEs in XR scenarios. Therefore, to increase the capacity of network element 1, the CG design can be enhanced.

[0088] Among them, when enhancing the design of CG, two aspects can be included.

[0089] In the first aspect, as shown in FIG2c , for a CG configuration of UE1, network element 1 may configure multiple transmission occasions (TOs) in the CG configuration, and UE1 may use corresponding wireless resources to send uplink data to network element 1 in each TO.

[0090] In the second aspect, for a CG configuration configured for UE1, when UE1 only uses part of the TOs within a data transmission cycle in the CG configuration, UE1 can report the TOs that are not used (unused) by UE1 within the data transmission cycle to network element 1. In this way, after learning that UE1 does not use the TOs, network element 1 can dynamically schedule the wireless resources corresponding to these part of the TOs to other UEs. As shown in Figure 2d, when UE1 reports to network element 1 that UE1 does not use the second and fourth TOs, network element 1 can schedule the wireless resources corresponding to the second and fourth TOs to UE2 for use, thereby increasing the capacity of network element 1, that is, network element 1 can support more UEs to access simultaneously.

[0091] In actual application, network element 1 can configure one CG configuration for UE1, or network element 1 can configure multiple CG configurations for UE1. For example, as shown in Figure 2e, network element 1 can configure CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 for UE1, wherein each data transmission cycle in CG configuration 1 can include only one TO, and each data transmission cycle in CG configuration 2 can include multiple TOs, such as five TOs. The TOs included in different CG configurations and the number of TOs can be different. For example, network element 1 can configure CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 for UE1 for I frames, P frames, and B frames in XR services, respectively. CG configuration 1 includes the largest number of TOs (such as five TOs) and each TO supports the largest amount of uplink data sent by the UE, and is used to support UE1 sending I frames to network element 1; CG configuration 3 includes the smallest number of TOs (such as one TO) and each TO supports the smallest amount of uplink data sent by the UE, and is used to support UE1 sending B frames to network element 1; one or more TOs (such as three TOs) in CG configuration 2 are used to support UE1 sending P frames to network element 1.

[0092] In actual application scenarios, it often happens that some TOs included in the CG configuration of UE1 do not send data to network element 1. As shown in Figure 2e, both CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 configured for UE1 include TOs that are not used by UE1. When the number of TOs in some CG configurations is small, or the number of wireless resources corresponding to the TOs included in some CG configurations is small, when UE1 uses the TOs included in the part of the CG configuration to send data to network element 1, it is difficult to have sufficient resources and at the same time indicate to network element 1 the usage of TOs by UE1 in the future time period, that is, which TOs are used by UE1 and which TOs are not used by UE1. As a result, the TOs included in the part of the CG configuration that are not used by UE1 are not notified to network element 1, so that the time-frequency resources corresponding to the TOs remain idle, resulting in a waste of resources and a low resource utilization rate of network element 1.

[0093] An embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which reports to network element 1 the TO that is not used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations, or reports the TO that is used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations, or reports the TO used by UE1 and the TO that is not used by UE1 at the same time, so that network element 1 can promptly schedule the TO that is not used by UE1 to other UEs (such as UE1) for use, thereby reducing wireless resource waste and improving wireless resource utilization of network element 1.

[0094] Referring to FIG3 , a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application is shown. As shown in FIG3 , the process of the communication method includes the following steps:

[0095] S301: UE1 determines multiple CG configurations for UE1, each of the multiple CG configurations includes at least one TO.

[0096] The TO included in each CG configuration is used to support the UE to send uplink data of the CG. The TO in the CG configuration may include a valid TO and an invalid TO. The reason why the TO is invalid may be, for example, that within the time period corresponding to the part of the TO, the network element 1 will send downlink data to the UE1, so that the UE1 will not send uplink data to the network element 1 within the time period, then the TO is an invalid TO. The valid TO may include a first TO and a second TO. The first TO is a TO that is not used by the UE, and the second TO is a TO that is used by the UE.

[0097] In actual application, network element 1 can configure multiple corresponding CG configurations for UE1 based on the number of services of periodically interacting service data with UE1, and each CG configuration is used to support UE1 to transmit data under a communication service to network element 1. For example, for I frame data, P frame data, and B frame data exchanged between network element 1 and UE1, network element 1 can configure UE1 with three different CG configurations, and each CG configuration is used to support UE1 to transmit a type of frame data.

[0098] In a possible implementation, network element 1 may configure multiple CG configurations for UE1 by sending multiple control messages to UE1 in advance.

[0099] Specifically, as shown in Figure 3, network element 1 can first send a control message 1 to UE1, and the control message 1 may include identifiers of multiple CG configurations, TO included in each CG configuration for supporting UE1 to send CG uplink data, and the data transmission period of each CG configuration. Among them, TO indicates the time-frequency resources used when the UE sends CG uplink data. The time domain resources in the time-frequency resources are multiple continuous symbols in a slot, and the frequency domain resources in the time-frequency resources are multiple RBs and / or REs.

[0100] Among them, the time-frequency resources of TO included in different CG configurations do not overlap in the time domain or frequency domain. Taking the example of network element 1 configuring CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 for UE1, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 may be different in the frequency domain. In this case, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 may overlap in the time domain, or may not overlap in the time domain. Alternatively, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 may be the same in the frequency domain. In this case, the TO in CG configuration 1 and the TO in CG configuration 2 do not overlap in the time domain.

[0101] Furthermore, each CG configuration configured by network element 1 for UE1 may include one or more TOs in one data transmission cycle. Taking the case where network element 1 configures CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 for UE1 as an example, CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 may each include one TO in one data transmission cycle; or, CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 may each include multiple TOs in one data transmission cycle; or, CG configuration 1 may include one TO in one data transmission cycle, while CG configuration 2 may include multiple TOs in one data transmission cycle.

[0102] Normally, after UE1 obtains the CG configuration, the TO in the CG configuration is in an unactivated state. At this time, it is difficult for UE1 to use the TO to send data to network element 1. Therefore, network element 1 can continue to send one or more control messages 2 to UE1, and the control message 2 is used to activate the TO in the CG configuration, as shown in Figure 3. Among them, network element 1 can use one control message 2 to activate TOs in multiple CG configurations in sequence; or, network element 1 can send a control message 2 to each CG configuration in multiple CG configurations to activate the TO in the CG configuration, and there is no limitation on this. In this way, for each activated TO in the CG configuration, UE1 can use the TO to send corresponding service data to network element 1.

[0103] Exemplarily, the control message (such as control message 1 or control message 2) sent by network element 1 may be, for example, a radio resource control (RRC) message or a downlink control information (DCI) message, or may be other applicable messages.

[0104] In actual application scenarios, UE1's use of TOs in various CG configurations may change dynamically. For example, in time period a, UE1 can use all TOs in the CG configuration to send data to network element 1. In time period b, UE1 may use part of the TOs in the CG configuration to complete the transmission of all data. At this time, the remaining TOs allocated to UE1 in the CG configuration will be idle, which may easily lead to waste of this part of the TOs. To this end, in this embodiment, UE1 may continue to perform the following steps to notify network element 1 of the TOs that will not be used by UE1.

[0105] S302: UE1 sends notification message 1 to network element 1, which is used to notify network element 1 of the first TO and the second TO included in each of the multiple CG configurations, wherein the first TO refers to the TO that is not used by UE1 in the future time period 1, and the second TO refers to the TO that is used by UE1 in the future time period 1.

[0106] S303: Network element 1 manages the first TO according to notification message 1.

[0107] In this embodiment, for the TO in each CG configuration, UE1 can notify the network element 1 of the usage of the TO in the CG configuration within a period of time in the future, so that the network element 1 can avoid wasting this part of the TO (corresponding wireless resources) as much as possible by timely rescheduling UE1 not to use the TO.

[0108] In specific implementation, for each CG configuration, taking CG configuration 1 as an example, UE1 can predict the data to be transmitted using the TO in the CG configuration 1 in the future time period 1, and based on the amount of the data and the amount of data that can be transmitted by each TO included in the CG configuration 1, determine the number of TOs required for UE1 to complete the transmission of all data, that is, determine the TO used by UE1 in the future time period 1.

[0109] When the number of TOs required for UE1 to complete all data transmission is the same as the number of TOs included in CG configuration 1 in the future time period 1, it represents that all TOs in CG configuration 1 are used to support UE1 to send data to network element 1.

[0110] When the number of TOs required for UE1 to complete all data transmission is less than the number of TOs included in CG configuration 1 in the future time period 1, it indicates that some TOs in CG configuration 1 are not used by UE1. Therefore, after UE1 sends all data in the time period 1, these TOs are idle because they are not used by UE1, resulting in resource waste. At this time, UE1 can determine the TOs used by UE1 and the TOs not used by UE1 in CG configuration 1 in the future time period 1 based on the current amount of data to be transmitted. For the sake of distinction and description, in this embodiment, the TOs not used by UE1 are referred to as first TOs, and the TOs to be used by UE1 are referred to as second TOs.

[0111] For example, in an XR service scenario, network element 1 configures TOs in CG configuration 1 for UE1 to support UE1 in transmitting I-frame data to network element 1. Assume that in time period 1, CG configuration 1 includes four TOs, namely TO1, TO2, TO3, and TO4, and UE1 can predict, based on the amount of I-frame data to be transmitted, that three TOs will be needed to transmit the I-frame data in time period 1. Then, UE1 can determine that the second TOs used by UE1 in CG configuration 1 include TO1, TO2, and TO3, and the first TO not used by UE1 includes TO4.

[0112] In this way, UE1 can determine the first TO included in each CG configuration and the second TO used by UE1 in the future time period 1 by referring to the above method. The future time period 1 can be determined according to the length of the time window. For example, when UE1 needs to report the usage of multiple TOs within a time window of 200 milliseconds, the future time period 1 can specifically be the time period between the current moment and the moment after 200 milliseconds. The length of the time window can be determined by UE1 itself, or it can be pre-configured for UE1 by network element 1. In addition, the length of the time window can be greater than the length of the data transmission period of any CG configuration, that is, UE1 can report the usage of TO for multiple CG configurations in multiple data transmission periods; or, the length of the time window can be the maximum value among the lengths of the data transmission periods of multiple CG configurations. This application does not limit the setting of the length of the time window.

[0113] Then, UE1 can generate a notification message 1 according to the first TO included in each CG configuration, and send the notification message 1 to the network element 1, so that the network element 1 manages the first TO not used by UE1 according to the notification message 1, such as timely scheduling the first TO not used by UE1 to other UEs for use. Exemplarily, the generated notification message 1 may include multiple bits, and each of the multiple bits can be used to indicate whether a TO is used. For example, for each bit, when the value of the bit is a first value (such as 0, etc.), it is used to indicate that the TO corresponding to the bit is used by UE1; when the value of the bit is a second value (such as 1, etc.), it is used to indicate that the TO corresponding to the bit is not used by UE1. The first value can be 0 and the second value can be 1; or the first value can be 1 and the second value can be 0. For ease of understanding, in this embodiment, the first value is 0 to indicate that the TO is used by UE1, and the second value is 1 to indicate that the TO is not used by UE1.

[0114] In this embodiment, when UE1 sends notification message 1, it may specifically use the TO currently used to send service data to send the service data and notification message 1 together to network element 1. For example, as shown in Figure 4, assuming that UE1 currently uses TO1 in CG configuration 1 to send service data, then, while using the TO to send service data, UE1 may occupy part of the resources in the TO (i.e., the wireless resources shown by the black square in Figure 4) to send notification message 1. Similarly, UE1 may use TOs in other CG configurations to send service data and notification messages together to network element 1.

[0115] Among them, when UE1 uses part of the radio resources in TO to send notification message 1, the number of REs in the radio resources used to transmit data (bits) representing TO usage can be determined by a predefined offset factor, and the offset factor can be, for example, a beta offset factor (beta-offset), etc. Exemplarily, the offset factor can be pre-configured to UE1 by network element 1, so that UE1 can fill in multiple bits of value in the corresponding frequency domain interval (i.e., the corresponding RE) according to the offset factor, and the multiple bits of value are used to indicate data of TO usage.

[0116] Accordingly, when the first TO (unused TO) in each CG configuration is reached at the current moment, UE1 may not need to generate and send a notification message. For example, UE1 may not need to generate and send a notification message when reaching the above-mentioned TO4.

[0117] Exemplarily, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may be an uplink control information (UCI), specifically a UCI (UCI that provides information about unused CG PUSCH transmission occasions, UTO-UCI) message. The UTO-UCI message may be a newly defined UCI message (such as one that may be defined in a standard), which may indicate a first TO that is not used by UE1 in a CG configuration, and may also indicate a second TO that is used by UE1 in a CG configuration.

[0118] In other embodiments, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may also be other types of messages, such as UE assistance information (UAI) message or medium access control layer control element (MAC-CE) message, etc., and this is not limited.

[0119] In this embodiment, there are multiple implementations of how to encode the data for indicating TO usage in multiple CG configurations in the notification message 1.

[0120] In a first implementation, for multiple CG configurations, UE1 can use multiple bits in the notification message 1 to indicate in chronological order the second TO used by UE1 in multiple CG configurations in the future time period 1, and the first TO not used by UE1, and each of the multiple bits is used to indicate the usage of a TO. Furthermore, UE1 can also use the notification message 1 to indicate that the TO currently used to send the first notification message (hereinafter referred to as the target TO) is used by UE1, that is, the target TO is the TO used by UE1 (for sending service data and the notification message).

[0121] For example, as shown in Figure 5a, assuming that UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may include "00101", which is used to indicate that TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, TO3 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO4 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, and TO5 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1 within the current moment and future time period 1. When the value of the bit is "0", it indicates that TO is used by UE1; when the value of the bit is "1", it indicates that TO is not used by UE1. In addition, UE1 can send notification message 1 to network element 1 at TO1.

[0122] It should be noted that Figure 5a only shows the use of multiple bits in the notification message 1 to indicate the usage of TO in the two CG configurations configured for UE1. In actual application, UE1 can be configured with more than 3 (including 3) CG configurations. The multiple bits in the notification message 1 generated by UE1 can be used to indicate the second TO used by UE1 in the more than 3 CG configurations in the future time period 1, and the first TO not used by UE1 in chronological order. The specific implementation method is similar to the method shown in Figure 5a above, and will not be repeated here.

[0123] Accordingly, when the TO used in CG configuration 1 is reached at the current moment, UE1 can use the TO to send notification message 1 to network element 1 to notify network element 1 of the usage of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 by UE1 at the current moment and in the future time period 1. Moreover, as time goes by, when the TO used in CG configuration 2 is further reached at the current moment, UE1 can use the TO in CG configuration 2 to send notification message 2 to network element 1 to notify network element 1 of the usage of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 by UE1 in the future time period 2 (time window passage).

[0124] When multiple bits are used to indicate the TO usage in multiple CG configurations in a future time period 1 in chronological order, as shown in FIG5b , UE1 can send a notification message 1 to TO1 (i.e., the target TO) in CG configuration 2. The notification message 1 includes 5 bits, and the values ​​of the 5 bits are "00101", which can indicate the usage of TO1 to TO5 by UE1 in sequence. As time goes by, when TO2 used in CG configuration 1 is reached at the current moment, UE1 can send a notification message 2 to TO2 in CG configuration 1. The notification message 2 includes 5 bits, and the values ​​of the 5 bits are "01011", which indicates the usage of TO2 to TO6 in sequence.

[0125] The network element 1 may pre-specify the total length of multiple bits used to indicate TO usage in the notification message 1.

[0126] In specific implementation, network element 1 may send a control message to UE1 in advance, such as the aforementioned control message 1 or control message 2, and the control message may include identifiers of multiple CG configurations and the total length of multiple bits used to indicate TO usage. For example, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 may include the configuration field shown in Figure 6, including "targetCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2, cg3}, nrof_UTO_UCI". Among them, "targetCgConfigIndex" is a field used to configure which CG configurations UE1 reports TO usage. "cg1, cg2, cg3" are identifiers of multiple CG configurations, which are used to indicate different CG configurations respectively. That is, "targetCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2, cg3}" is used to instruct UE1 to report TO usage in the CG configurations identified by cg1, cg2, and cg3 respectively. "nrof_UTO_UCI" is the length indication information used to indicate the usage of multiple TOs of multiple CG configurations, which can indicate the total length of multiple bits. In this way, UE1 is configured to use the multiple bits indicated by "nrof_UTO_UCI" in the notification message to indicate the TO usage in the three CG configurations "cg1, cg2, cg3".

[0127] In this way, when generating notification message 1, UE1 can first determine the usage of each TO in multiple CG configurations in chronological order, and then determine the values ​​of multiple bits based on this, and add the values ​​of the multiple bits to notification message 1.

[0128] At this time, UE1 can use a predefined offset factor to determine the number of REs occupied by the multiple bits on the CG PUSCH of TO when using TO to send data to network element 1, and fill in the values ​​of multiple bits in this number of REs. The values ​​of the multiple bits are used to indicate the usage of TO in multiple CG configurations in chronological order.

[0129] In a second implementation, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may include multiple bits for indicating TO usage in multiple CG configurations. For each CG configuration, UE1 may use a continuous portion of the multiple bits to indicate the second TO used by UE1 in the CG configuration at the current moment and in the future time period 1, and the first TO not used by UE1.

[0130] For example, as shown in Figure 7a, assuming that UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may include "01", which is used to indicate that at the current moment and in the future time period 1, TO1 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, and TO2 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1. The notification message generated by UE1 may also include "01010", which is used to indicate that at the current moment and in the future time period 1, TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 is not used by UE1, TO3 is used by UE1, TO4 is not used by UE1, and TO5 is used by UE1. When the value of the bit is "0", it indicates that TO is used by UE1; when the value of the bit is "1", it indicates that TO is not used by UE1.

[0131] It should be noted that Figure 7a only shows the use of multiple bits in the notification message 1 to indicate the usage of TO in the two CG configurations configured for UE1. In actual application, UE1 can be configured with more than 3 (including 3) CG configurations. The multiple bits in the notification message 1 generated by UE1 include at least one bit corresponding to each of the 3 CG configurations, and at least one bit corresponding to each CG configuration is used to indicate the second TO used by UE1 in the CG configuration, and the first TO not used by UE1. The specific implementation method is similar to the method shown in Figure 6 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0132] Among them, at least one bit corresponding to each CG configuration for indicating the usage of TO can be spliced ​​in the notification message 1. Taking CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 shown in Figure 7a as an example, the bit used to indicate the usage of TO in CG configuration 1 is "01", and the bit used to indicate the usage of TO in CG configuration 2 is "01010". Then, UE1 can splice the bits corresponding to multiple CG configurations into "01 01010" (i.e., "01" + "01010") in the generated notification message 1, or can splice them into "01010 01" (i.e., "01010" + "01").

[0133] Exemplarily, UE1 may use the identification sequence of the CG configuration as the sequence for splicing the bits corresponding to multiple CG configurations, such as splicing the bits corresponding to the above-mentioned CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 into the above-mentioned "0101010". Alternatively, UE1 may add the bits corresponding to other CG configurations to the end of the bits corresponding to the CG configuration according to the CG configuration to which the TO occupied when sending the notification message belongs. For example, when UE1 sends a notification message using the TO in CG configuration 2, it may splice the bits corresponding to the above-mentioned CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 into the above-mentioned "0101001".

[0134] Accordingly, when the TO used in CG configuration 1 is reached at the current moment, UE1 can use the TO to send notification message 1 to network element 1 to notify network element 1 of the usage of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 by UE1 at the current moment and in the future time period 1. Moreover, as time goes by, when the TO used in CG configuration 2 is further reached at the current moment, UE1 can use the TO in CG configuration 2 to send notification message 2 to network element 1 to notify network element 1 of the usage of each TO in CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 by UE1 in the future time period 2 (time window passage).

[0135] When the TO usage in each CG configuration of notification message 1 is indicated using multiple consecutive bits, as shown in Figure 7b, UE1 can send notification message 1 in TO1 in CG configuration 2, where the notification message 1 includes 7 bits, and the values ​​of the 7 bits are "01010 01", which sequentially indicate the usage of TO1 to TO5 in CG configuration 2 and the usage of TO1 to TO2 in CG configuration 1 by UE1. As time goes by, when the current moment reaches the TO1 used in CG configuration 1, UE1 can send notification message 2 in TO1 in CG configuration 1, where the notification message 2 includes 7 bits, and the values ​​of the 7 bits are "01 10100", which sequentially indicate the usage of TO1 to TO2 in CG configuration 1 and the usage of TO2 to TO6 in CG configuration 1 by UE1.

[0136] Among them, network element 1 can pre-specify the number of bits in notification message 1 used to indicate TO usage in each CG configuration.

[0137] In specific implementation, network element 1 may send a control message to UE1 in advance, such as the aforementioned control message 1 or control message 2, and the control message may include identifiers of multiple CG configurations and length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration. Among them, the length indication information is used to indicate the length of the bit, that is, the number of bits. Thus, UE1 can carry the corresponding number of bits in the notification message 1 to indicate the TO usage in the CG configuration according to the length indication information corresponding to each CG configuration configured in the control message 1.

[0138] For example, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 may include the configuration field shown in Figure 8, including "targetCgConfigIndex{{cg1:nrof_UTO_UCI_1}, {cg2:nrof_UTO_UCI_2}, {cg3:nrof_UTO_UCI_3}}". Among them, "targetCgConfigIndex" is a field used to configure which CG configurations UE1 reports the TO usage. "cg1", "cg2", and "cg3" are identifiers of multiple CG configurations, which are used to indicate different CG configurations respectively. "nrof_UTO_UCI_1" is the length indication information corresponding to cg1; when the value of "nrof_UTO_UCI_1" is 3, it represents the use of 3 bits to indicate the usage of 3 TOs in cg1. Similarly, "nrof_UTO_UCI_2" is the length indication information corresponding to cg2; "nrof_UTO_UCI_3" is the length indication information corresponding to cg3. In this way, under the configuration of network element 1, UE1 can use at least one bit indicated by "nrof_UTO_UCI_1" to indicate the usage of at least one TO in CG configuration 1, use at least one bit indicated by "nrof_UTO_UCI_2" to indicate the usage of at least one TO in CG configuration 2, and use at least one bit indicated by "nrof_UTO_UCI_3" to indicate the usage of at least one TO in CG configuration 3 in the generated notification message 1.

[0139] Among them, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 may include a configuration area for each CG and an overall configuration area independent of each CG. Network element 1 can add the length indication information corresponding to the CG configuration in the configuration area of ​​each CG, or can define the length indication information corresponding to each CG configuration in the overall configuration area.

[0140] At this time, UE1 can use multiple predefined offset factors, each of which is used to determine the number of REs occupied by at least one bit corresponding to the CG configuration on the CG PUSCH of the TO, and fill in the value of at least one bit corresponding to the CG configuration in the number of REs to indicate the usage of at least one TO in the CG configuration. For example, assuming that the multiple offset factors include offset factor 1 and offset factor 2, offset factor 1 can be used to indicate the number of REs occupied by at least one bit corresponding to CG configuration 1 on the CG PUSCH of the TO, and offset factor 2 can be used to indicate the number of REs occupied by at least one bit corresponding to CG configuration 2 on the CG PUSCH of the TO.

[0141] In actual application, due to the possible differences in the number of TOs included in different CG configurations or the time-frequency resources corresponding to each TO, such as some CG configurations include fewer TOs, while other CG configurations include more TOs, or some CG configurations include more time-frequency resources corresponding to TOs, while other CG configurations include fewer time-frequency resources corresponding to TOs. Therefore, UE1 can use the TOs in some CG configurations to send notification message 1 to network element 1 (the number of TOs included in this part of the CG configuration is larger), that is, the TOs in the other part of the CG do not send notification messages for indicating TO usage.

[0142] In a further possible implementation, network element 1 may send a control message to UE1 (before activating multiple CG configurations) so as to use the control message to instruct UE1 which TOs in which CG configurations to use to send notification messages, as shown in FIG3 .

[0143] Among them, the control message sent by network element 1 can be, for example, the above-mentioned control message 1 or control message 2, and the control message can carry one or more CG configuration identifiers, and the one or more CG configurations indicated by the identifier can be part of the multiple CG configurations configured for UE1. In actual application, the CG configuration indicated by the identifier in the control message is a CG configuration with a large number of TOs (such as greater than a threshold, etc.). In this way, UE1 can send a notification message to the TO in the CG configuration specified by network element 1.

[0144] For example, it is assumed that network element 1 pre-configures CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3 for UE1, and network element 1 can determine that the number of TOs in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 is larger (or the number of wireless resources corresponding to a single TO is larger), and the number of TOs in CG configuration 3 is smaller (or the number of wireless resources corresponding to a single TO is smaller). At this time, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 can carry the identifier of CG configuration 1, the identifier of CG configuration 2, and the indication field for sending notification messages to indicate that notification messages are sent using TOs in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2. For example, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 may include the configuration field shown in Figure 6 or Figure 8, including "reportCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2}", wherein the "reportCgConfigIndex" field is used to indicate which TO or which CG configurations UE1 uses to send notification messages, "cg1" is the identifier of CG configuration 1, and "cg2" is the identifier of CG configuration 2. In this way, UE1 can determine to use TO in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2 to send a notification message to network element 1 according to "reportCgConfigIndex{cg1, cg2}".

[0145] Furthermore, when there are multiple TOs in CG configurations that overlap in the time domain (not in the frequency domain), such as UE1 currently using TOs in CG configuration 1 at the same time m Send service data 1 to network element 1, and use the TO in CG configuration 2 n Send service data 2 to network element 1. Then, UE1 can m and TO n Send a notification message to network element 1. At this time, network element 1 can receive two notification messages at the same time. Alternatively, when TOs in different CG configurations overlap (as long as there is an overlapping time period in the time domain, it is an overlap, and the overlap can be 50%), UE1 can send a notification message only in one of the TOs. At this time, network element 1 can only receive one notification message. In actual application, when TOs in different CG configurations overlap, whether UE1 sends one notification message or two notification messages to network element 1 can be pre-configured by network element 1, such as using the above-mentioned control message 1 or control message 2 to configure this. For example, the control message sent by network element 1 to UE1 may include the configuration fields shown in Figure 6 or Figure 8, including "simultaneousPusch ENUMERATED{true}, simultaneousReport ENUMERATED{true}", wherein the "simultaneousPusch ENUMERATED" field is used to indicate whether UE1 is allowed to send notification messages to multiple overlapping TOs (belonging to different CG configurations). When the value of the field is "true", it indicates that simultaneous sending is allowed; when the value of the field is "false", it indicates that simultaneous sending is not allowed. The "simultaneousReport ENUMERATED{true}" field is used to configure whether to send notification messages to multiple overlapping TOs. When the value of the field is "true", it indicates that UE1 is configured to send notification messages to multiple TOs at the same time; when the value of the field is "false", it indicates that UE1 is configured to send notification messages to multiple TOs at different times. Among them, when the value of the "simultaneousPusch ENUMERATED" field is "false", the value of "simultaneousReport ENUMERATED{false}" is also "false", that is, when network element 1 does not allow UE1 to send notification messages in multiple overlapping TOs, network element 1 will also configure UE1 not to send notification messages in multiple overlapping TOs.

[0146] It should be noted that the TO usage in multiple CG configurations reported by UE1 using notification message 1 may be the TO usage in all CG configurations configured for UE1. Alternatively, UE1 may also use the notification message to report the TO usage in some CG configurations. For example, if UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1, CG configuration 2, and CG configuration 3, UE1 may only report the TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2.

[0147] In one possible implementation, the notification message 1, for example, may be a UTO-UCI message, including information of multiple different priorities, such as higher-priority hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information. UE1 may then preferentially add higher-priority information to the notification message 1, and when the remaining bits in the notification message 1 that can be used to carry data are insufficient to carry TO usage data of all CG configurations, the remaining bits in the notification message 1 may be used to carry TO usage data of some CG configurations, i.e., the bits used to indicate TO usage data of the remaining CG configurations may be truncated based on the CG configuration granularity.

[0148] For example, assume that UE1 is configured with CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, and the bits used to indicate the TO usage of CG configuration 1 in the future time period 1 are "01", and the bits used to indicate the TO usage of CG configuration 2 in the future time period 1 are "01010". When the number of bits remaining in notification message 1 that can be used to carry data is greater than or equal to 7, UE1 can use 7 bits in the generated notification message 1 to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2. When the number of bits remaining in notification message 1 that can be used to carry data is less than 7 and greater than 4, the remaining bits cannot carry the TO usage in all CG configurations. In this case, 5 bits can be used in the notification message 1 generated by UE1 to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 2. At this time, the notification message 1 may not carry the TO usage in CG configuration 1. That is, the 2 bits originally used to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 can be used to participate in indicating higher priority target information, such as the above-mentioned HARQ information. Furthermore, when all bits in the notification message 1 are used to carry information with a higher priority, the notification message 1 generated by UE1 may not carry the TO usage in the CG configuration.

[0149] For example, in the notification message 1 sent by the first TO, UE1 can use multiple 7 bits to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, and in the notification message 2 sent by the second TO, it can use 5 bits to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 2. At this time, the 2 bits of notification message 2 originally used to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 can be used to indicate information with higher priority.

[0150] In other possible embodiments, when multiple bits carried in the notification message are used to indicate the TOs of the TOs used in multiple CU configurations and the first TO of the TOs not used in chronological order, the bits used to indicate the usage of TOs in multiple CG configurations can be truncated with TO as the granularity.

[0151] Taking the multiple CG configurations shown in Figure 5a as an example, when there are sufficient bits in the notification message that can be used to carry the TO usage status in the CG configuration, the value of the 5 bits in the notification message can be "00101", which is used to sequentially indicate the usage status of multiple TOs arranged in chronological order in the multiple CG configurations. When the number of bits remaining in the notification message for carrying the TO usage status is 3, the value of the 3 bits in the notification message can be "001", indicating that TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, and TO3 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, that is, it can carry information that the first 3 TOs in chronological order are used.

[0152] In actual application scenarios, since UE1 not only sends data to network element 1, but also receives data sent by network element 1, some TOs in the CG configuration configured by UE1 may be invalid, such as the invalid TOs shown in Figures 9a and 9b.

[0153] To this end, when UE1 notifies the TO usage in multiple CG configurations through notification message 1, it can skip the invalid TO. For example, assuming that multiple bits are used in notification message 1 to report the TO usage in multiple CG configurations in chronological order, the TO indicated by the multiple bits does not include invalid TO. As shown in Figure 9a, assuming that 5 bits are used in notification message 1 to indicate the TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, the 5 bits indicate in sequence that TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 1 is used by UE1, TO3 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO4 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1, and TO5 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1. Accordingly, the 5 bits in notification message 1 are "00110" respectively, skipping the invalid TO in CG configuration 2. As shown in Figure 9b, assuming that 7 bits are used in notification message 1 to indicate TO usage in CG configuration 1 and CG configuration 2, the 7 bits sequentially indicate that TO1 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO2 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO3 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO4 in CG configuration 2 is not used by UE1, TO5 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1, TO1 in CG configuration 1 is not used by UE1, and TO2 in CG configuration 2 is used by UE1. Accordingly, the 7 bits in notification message 1 are "01010 01", respectively, skipping the invalid TO in CG configuration 1.

[0154] It is understandable that since UE1 will not use the first TO, that is, UE1 will not use the first TO to send data to network element 1, therefore, in one possible implementation, when managing the first TO, network element 1 may specifically determine the first TO based on notification message 1 and then not search the first TO to determine whether UE1 sends data. Furthermore, network element 1 may also dynamically schedule the first TO to UE2, as shown in FIG10 .

[0155] In this way, the first TO can be used by UE2, thereby avoiding the first TO from being idle, that is, avoiding the waste of the wireless resources corresponding to the first TO, so that network element 1 can timely schedule the TO of the first TO to UE2 for use, so that network element 1 can use limited TO to support more UEs to send data, thereby increasing the number of UEs that network element 1 can serve and improving the utilization rate of the wireless resources of network element 1. It should be noted that after network element 1 dynamically schedules the first TO of the N TOs included in the CG configuration to UE2, the CG configuration of UE1 remains unchanged, that is, in the subsequent time period of time period 1, within a data transmission cycle of the CG configuration, UE1 can still send data to network element 1 in N TOs.

[0156] Moreover, UE1 can use one notification message to notify network element 1 of the first TO in multiple CG configurations, without having to send a separate notification message for each CG configuration, which can effectively reduce the resource consumption generated by UE1 notifying network element 1 of the first TO in each CG configuration. Moreover, when the first part of the CG configuration includes fewer TOs or the wireless resources corresponding to the TO included in the first part of the CG configuration are fewer, UE1 can use the TO included in the second part of the CG configuration to send the notification message to network element 1, so as to avoid the situation where the first part of the CG configuration includes fewer TOs (at the current moment) and the first TO in the first part of the CG configuration (at a future moment) is not notified to network element 1, or it can avoid the situation where the service data transmission is greatly affected by uploading the notification message using the TO included in the first part of the CG configuration (i.e., the transmission notification message occupies too many wireless resources in the TO for transmitting service data).

[0157] In actual application, in addition to scheduling the first TO that is not used by UE1 to other UEs, network element 1 can also manage the first TO in other ways, such as using the first TO as a reserve resource to provide accelerated data transmission services for specific UEs under specific circumstances.

[0158] Moreover, after UE1 sends a notification message to network element 1 to inform UE1 of the non-use of the first TO in multiple CG configurations in a future time period, network element 1 may no longer schedule the first TO for UE1 to use before the first TO is reached, that is, when the starting moment of the first TO is reached, UE1 cannot use the first TO even if there is uplink data that needs to be sent to network element 1, such as the wireless resources corresponding to the first TO have been scheduled by network element 1 to other UEs (such as UE2, etc.) for use. That is, after UE1 notifies network element 1 of the use of the first TO, it is not allowed to re-notify network element 1 that it needs to use the first TO in a future time period (that is, UE1 is not allowed to go back on its word).

[0159] Alternatively, after UE1 sends a notification message to network element 1 to inform UE1 of the non-use of the first TO in multiple CG configurations in a future time period, before reaching the first TO, UE1 may also notify network element 1 that UE1 needs to reuse the first TO by re-sending a notification message to network element 1, so that UE1 can use the first TO to support UE1 in sending the uplink data to network element 1 when there is a sudden demand to send uplink data (that is, allowing UE1 to go back on its word).

[0160] It should be noted that in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 above, the notification message 1 reported by UE1 includes both a first TO not to be used by UE1 in the future time period and a second TO to be used by UE1 (as well as a target TO). In other embodiments, the notification message 1 sent by UE1 to network element 1 may also include only relevant information indicating that the first TO will not be used by UE1 in the future time period, such as the index of the first TO, so that network element 1 can determine the TOs not to be used by UE1 in each CG configuration based on the notification message 1. Alternatively, the notification message 1 sent by UE1 to network element 1 may also include only relevant information indicating that the second TO will be used by UE1 in the future time period, such as the index of the second TO, so that network element 1 can determine the first TO not to be used by UE1 based on the relevant information of the second TO and manage the first TO. The specific implementation of UE1 using notification message 1 to indicate only the first TO not to be used by UE1 in the future time period, and the specific implementation of UE1 using notification message 1 to indicate only the second TO to be used by UE1 in the future time period, can be found in the relevant description of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0161] Furthermore, in the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 10 above, the use of multiple bits in the notification message 1 to indicate the usage of multiple CG configurations for TO in future time periods and at the current moment is introduced in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, that is, the notification message 1 indicates that the target TO used for sending the notification message currently belongs to the second TO. In other embodiments, the notification message sent by UE1 to network element 1 may also only indicate the usage of multiple CG configurations for TO in future time periods, that is, it may not indicate the usage of the target TO for sending the notification message, and this application does not limit this.

[0162] 11 and 12 , the hardware implementation of the network element and the UE will be further described.

[0163] Referring to Figure 11, a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a network element is shown. The network element shown in Figure 11 includes at least one processor 111, at least one memory 112, at least one transceiver 113, at least one network interface 114 and one or more antennas 115. The processor 111, the memory 112, the transceiver 113 and the network interface 114 are connected, for example, via a bus. In the embodiment of the present application, the connection may include various interfaces, transmission lines or buses, etc., which are not limited in this embodiment. The antenna 115 is connected to the transceiver 113. The network interface 114 is used to connect the network element to other communication devices through a communication link. For example, the network interface 114 may include a network interface between the network element and the network element in the core network, such as an S1 interface. The network interface may include a network interface between the network element and other network elements, such as an X2 or Xn interface.

[0164] Among them, the processor 111 shown in Figure 11 can specifically complete the network element processing actions in the above method, the memory 112 can complete the storage actions in the above method, the transceiver 113 and the antenna 115 can perform the sending and receiving actions on the air interface in the above method, and the network interface 114 can complete the actions of interacting with the network element or other network elements in the above method.

[0165] The processor in the embodiments of the present application, such as processor 111, may include but is not limited to at least one of the following: a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller unit (MCU), or an artificial intelligence processor, etc., which are various types of computing devices that run software. Each computing device may include one or more cores for executing software instructions to perform operations or processing. The processor can be a separate semiconductor chip or integrated into a semiconductor chip together with other circuits. For example, it can form an SoC (system on chip) with other circuits (such as a codec circuit, a hardware acceleration circuit, or various bus and interface circuits), or it can be integrated into the ASIC as a built-in processor of the ASIC. The ASIC with the integrated processor can be packaged separately or with other circuits. In addition to the core for executing software instructions to perform operations or processing, the processor may further include necessary hardware accelerators, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a PLD (programmable logic device), or a logic circuit that implements dedicated logic operations.

[0166] The memory in the embodiments of the present application may include at least one of the following types: read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). In some scenarios, the memory may also be a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to this.

[0167] The memory 112 can be independent and connected to the processor 111. Optionally, the memory 112 can be integrated with the processor 111, for example, integrated into a single chip. The memory 112 can store program codes for executing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 111. The various computer program codes executed can also be regarded as drivers for the processor 111. For example, the processor 111 is used to execute the computer program codes stored in the memory 112, thereby implementing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

[0168] The transceiver 113 can be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency signals between the network element and other devices. The transceiver 113 can be connected to the antenna 115. The transceiver 113 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, one or more antennas 115 can receive radio frequency signals. The receiver Rx of the transceiver 113 is used to receive the radio frequency signal from the antenna, convert the radio frequency signal into a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal, and provide the digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal to the processor 111 so that the processor 111 can further process the digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal, such as demodulation and decoding. In addition, the transmitter Tx in the transceiver 113 is also used to receive a modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal from the processor 111, convert the modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal into a radio frequency signal, and send the radio frequency signal through one or more antennas 115. Specifically, the receiver Rx can selectively perform one or more stages of down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion on the RF signal to obtain a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal. The order of the down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion processes is adjustable. The transmitter Tx can selectively perform one or more stages of up-mixing and digital-to-analog conversion on the modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal to obtain a RF signal. The order of the up-mixing and digital-to-analog conversion processes is adjustable. The digital baseband signal and the digital intermediate frequency signal may be collectively referred to as digital signals.

[0169] Figure 12 shows an example of the components of a UE provided in an embodiment of the present application. The UE may be, for example, a mobile phone, a smart wearable device (such as a smartwatch), etc. Taking a mobile phone as an example, the UE may include a processor 310, an external memory interface 320, an internal memory 321, a display 330, a camera 340, antenna 1, antenna 2, a mobile communication module 350, and a wireless communication module 360.

[0170] It should be understood that the structure illustrated in this embodiment does not constitute a specific limitation on the UE. In other embodiments, the UE may include more or fewer components than shown, or some components may be combined or separated, or arranged differently. The illustrated components may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0171] The processor 310 may include one or more processing units. For example, the processor 310 may include an application processor (AP), a modem processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), an image signal processor (ISP), a controller, a video codec, a digital signal processor (DSP), a baseband processor, and / or a neural-network processing unit (NPU). The different processing units may be independent devices or integrated into one or more processors.

[0172] It is understood that the interface connection relationship between the modules illustrated in this embodiment is only for illustrative purposes and does not constitute a structural limitation on the UE. In other embodiments of the present application, the UE may also adopt different interface connection methods in the above embodiments, or a combination of multiple interface connection methods.

[0173] The external memory interface 320 can be used to connect an external memory card, such as a Micro SD card, to expand the UE's storage capacity. The external memory card communicates with the processor 310 via the external memory interface 320 to implement data storage. For example, files such as music and videos can be stored on the external memory card.

[0174] The internal memory 321 can be used to store computer executable program codes, and the executable program codes include instructions. The processor 310 executes various functional applications and data processing of the UE by running the instructions stored in the internal memory 321. The internal memory 321 may include a program storage area and a data storage area. Among them, the program storage area may store an operating system, an application required for at least one function (such as a sound playback function, an image playback function, etc.), etc. The data storage area may store data created during the use of the UE (such as video stream data), etc. In addition, the internal memory 321 may include a high-speed random access memory, and may also include a non-volatile memory, such as at least one disk storage device, a flash memory device, a universal flash storage (UFS), etc. The processor 310 executes various functions and data processing of the UE by running the instructions stored in the internal memory 321, and / or the instructions stored in the memory provided in the processor.

[0175] The wireless communication function of the UE can be implemented through antenna 1, antenna 2, mobile communication module 350, wireless communication module 360, modem processor and baseband processor.

[0176] Antenna 1 and Antenna 2 are used to transmit and receive electromagnetic wave signals. Each antenna in the UE can be used to cover a single or multiple communication frequency bands. Different antennas can also be reused to improve antenna utilization. For example, antenna 1 can be reused as a diversity antenna for a wireless local area network. In other embodiments, the antennas can be used in conjunction with a tuning switch.

[0177] The mobile communication module 350 can provide solutions for wireless communications including 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G applied on the UE. The mobile communication module 350 may include at least one filter, a switch, a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier (LNA), etc. The mobile communication module 350 can receive electromagnetic waves from the antenna 1, and filter, amplify, and process the received electromagnetic waves, and transmit them to the modulation and demodulation processor for demodulation. The mobile communication module 350 can also amplify the signal modulated by the modulation and demodulation processor, and convert it into electromagnetic waves for radiation through the antenna 1. In some embodiments, at least some of the functional modules of the mobile communication module 350 can be set in the processor 310. In some embodiments, at least some of the functional modules of the mobile communication module 350 can be set in the same device as at least some of the modules of the processor 310.

[0178] In some embodiments, the UE initiates or receives a call request via the mobile communication module 350 and the antenna 1 .

[0179] Furthermore, an operating system runs on the above-mentioned components. Examples include the iOS operating system, the Android operating system, and the Windows operating system. Applications can be installed and run on the operating system. Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for ease of description and brevity, the explanation and beneficial effects of the relevant contents of any of the above-mentioned UEs can be referred to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and will not be further elaborated here.

[0180] In addition, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores instructions. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on one or more computing devices, the one or more computing devices execute the communication method described in the above embodiment.

[0181] In addition, embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product. When the computer program product is executed by one or more computing devices, the one or more computing devices perform any of the aforementioned communication methods. The computer program product may be a software installation package. When any of the aforementioned communication methods is required, the computer program product may be downloaded and executed on a computer.

[0182] Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the present application can be implemented by means of software plus necessary general hardware, and of course can also be implemented by special hardware including application-specific integrated circuits, special CPUs, special memories, special components, etc. In general, all functions performed by computer programs can be easily implemented with corresponding hardware, and the specific hardware structures used to implement the same function can also be diverse, such as analog circuits, digital circuits or special circuits, etc. However, for the present application, software program implementation is a better implementation method in most cases. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a readable storage medium, such as a computer's floppy disk, USB flash drive, mobile hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk, etc., and includes a number of instructions to enable a computer device (which can be a personal computer, training equipment, or network equipment, etc.) to execute the methods described in each embodiment of the present application.

[0183] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product.

[0184] The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment 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 devices. 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 a website, a computer, a training device or a data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode to another website, a computer, a training device or a data center. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can store or a data storage device such as a training device, a data center, etc. that includes one or more available media integrations. The available medium can be a magnetic medium, (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state drive (SSD)).

[0185] The system architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of the present application are intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. Ordinary technicians in this field will know that with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: The method is applied to user equipment UE, and the method includes: Determining a plurality of configuration authorization CG configurations for the UE, each CG configuration in the plurality of CG configurations including at least one transmission opportunity TO; Send a first notification message, where the first notification message is used to notify the network element that each of the multiple CG configurations includes at least one of a first TO and a second TO, where the first TO is a TO that will not be used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO is a TO that will be used by the UE in a future time period.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration; The first notification message includes multiple bits, the consecutive first bits of the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and the consecutive second bits of the multiple bits are used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations also include at least one third CG configuration, and the multiple bits also include a consecutive third bit, and the third bit is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that Before sending the first notification message, the method further includes: Obtain a first control message, which includes an identifier of each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations and length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration in the multiple CG configurations, where the bits corresponding to each CG configuration are part of the multiple bits, and the first control message is used to configure the length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration.

5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that The number of resource elements (REs) used to transmit the first bit is determined according to a first offset factor, and the number of REs used to transmit the second bit is determined according to a second offset factor; Alternatively, the number of REs used to transmit the plurality of bits is determined according to a third offset factor.

6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that The method further comprises: A second notification message is sent, where the first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, and the second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate target information. The priority of the target information indicated by the second bit is higher than the priority of the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration indicated by the second bit. The first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first notification message includes multiple bits, and each bit of the multiple bits is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the multiple CG configurations in sequence in chronological order.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The first notification message is sent through the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; When the target number of bits in the PUSCH is lower than a threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some CG configurations in the multiple CG configurations, or the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some CG configurations in the multiple CG configurations. The message does not include the first TO and the second TO in the multiple CG configurations, and the target bit is used to carry indication information of the first TO or the second TO.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that The first notification message is further used to notify the network element that the target TO is the second TO, and the target TO is the TO used to send the first notification message.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that One data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs; Alternatively, one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes one TO; Alternatively, the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs in one data transmission cycle, and the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs in one data transmission cycle.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of radio resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold; The method further comprises: Obtain a second control message, the second control message includes the identifier of the first CG configuration and the identifier of the second CG configuration, and the second control message is used to configure the UE to send the first notification message using the TO within the first CG configuration or the TO within the second CG configuration.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that The TO is used to instruct the UE to use the time-frequency resources of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG configuration.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The time-frequency resources include time domain resources and frequency domain resources. The time domain resources include multiple continuous symbols in a time slot, and the frequency domain resources include multiple resource elements RE or multiple resource blocks RB.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that The first notification message is a UTO-UCI message.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and the first TO and the second TO are both valid TOs.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

17. A communication method, characterized in that: The method is applied to a network element, and the method includes: Obtain a first notification message, where the first notification message is used to indicate at least one of a first TO and a second TO included in each of multiple configuration authorization CG configurations for a user equipment UE, where the first TO is a TO that is not used by the UE in a future time period, and the second TO is a TO that is used by the UE in a future time period; The first TO is managed according to the first notification message.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration and a second CG configuration; The first notification message includes multiple bits, and the first consecutive bits in the multiple bits are used to indicate the first The CG configuration includes the first TO and the second TO, and the second consecutive bit among the multiple bits is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration.

19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations also include at least one third CG configuration, and the multiple bits also include a consecutive third bit, and the third bit is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the at least one third CG configuration.

20. The method according to claim 18 or 19, characterized in that The method further comprises: A first control message is sent, wherein the first control message includes an identifier of each CG configuration among the multiple CG configurations and length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration among the multiple CG configurations, the bits corresponding to each CG configuration are part of the multiple bits, and the first control message is used to configure the length indication information of the bits corresponding to each CG configuration.

21. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 20, characterized in that The number of resource elements (REs) used to transmit the first bit is determined according to a first offset factor, and the number of REs used to transmit the second bit is determined according to a second offset factor; Alternatively, the number of REs used to transmit the plurality of bits is determined according to a third offset factor.

22. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 21, characterized in that The method further comprises: Obtain a second notification message, where the first bit in the second notification message is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the first CG configuration, the second bit in the second notification message is used to indicate target information, the priority of the target information indicated by the second bit is higher than the priority of the first TO and the second TO included in the second CG configuration indicated by the second bit, and the first notification message and the second notification message are sent based on different TOs; Manage the first TO indicated by the second notification message.

23. The method according to claim 17, wherein The first notification message includes multiple bits, and each bit of the multiple bits is used to indicate the first TO and the second TO included in the multiple CG configurations in sequence in chronological order.

24. The method according to claims 17 to 23, characterized in that The first notification message is sent through the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH corresponding to the TO in the CG configuration; When the number of target bits in the PUSCH is lower than a threshold, the first notification message includes at least one of the first TO and the second TO in some of the CG configurations in the multiple CG configurations, or the first notification message does not include the first TO and the second TO in the multiple CG configurations, and the target bit is used to carry indication information of the first TO or the second TO.

25. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 24, characterized in that The first notification message is further used to indicate that the target TO is the second TO, and the target TO is the TO used by the UE to send the first notification message.

26. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 25, characterized in that One data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs; Alternatively, one data transmission cycle of the first CG configuration includes one TO, and one data transmission cycle of the second CG configuration includes one TO; Alternatively, the first CG configuration includes multiple TOs in one data transmission cycle, and the second CG configuration includes multiple TOs in one data transmission cycle.

27. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 26, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations include a first CG configuration, a second CG configuration, and a third CG configuration, and the number of radio resources included in the third CG configuration is less than a threshold; The method further comprises: Send a second control message, which includes the identifier of the first CG configuration and the identifier of the second CG configuration. The control message is used to configure the UE to send the first notification message using the TO in the first CG configuration or the TO in the second CG configuration.

28. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 27, characterized in that The TO is used to instruct the UE to use the time-frequency resources of the physical uplink shared channel PUSCH in the CG.

29. The method according to claim 28, characterized in that The time-frequency resources include time domain resources and frequency domain resources. The time domain resources include multiple continuous symbols in a time slot, and the frequency domain resources include multiple resource elements RE or multiple resource blocks RB.

30. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 29, characterized in that The first notification message is a UTO-UCI message.

31. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 30, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations include invalid TOs, and the first TO is a valid TO.

32. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 31, characterized in that The multiple CG configurations are activated CG configurations.

33. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 32, characterized in that The managing the first TO includes: Schedule the first TO to the second UE.

34. A user equipment UE, characterized in that include: A transceiver, configured to perform the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16; A processor, configured to perform other operations except the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.

35. A network element, characterized in that: include: A transceiver, configured to perform the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method according to any one of claims 17 to 33; A processor, configured to perform other operations except the receiving operation and the sending operation in the method described in any one of claims 17 to 33.

36. A communication system, characterized in that: The method comprises a user equipment UE and a network element, wherein the UE is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16, and the network element is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 17 to 33.

37. A computer storage medium for storing a computer program, wherein when the computer program is executed, it is used to implement the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 33.

Images