Beam measurement method and apparatus

Abstract

The present application can be applied to support an RIS-based communication enhancement scenario. Disclosed in the present application are a beam measurement method and apparatus. The method comprises: receiving a plurality of beam measurement reference signals sent by a sending end via an RIS; on the basis of a reference beam direction, determining a first beam corresponding to the plurality of beam measurement reference signals, wherein the reference beam direction is determined on the basis of the relative position and / or the relative direction between the sending end and the RIS; and sending a beam measurement result to the sending end, wherein the beam measurement result is used for determining two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of a second beam and the reference beam direction. In the embodiments of the present application, a receiving end can determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam and the reference beam direction on the basis of the beam measurement result, so that the sending end can better perform scheduling and interference management, thereby improving the interference management and scheduling performance of a base station.

Description

Beam measurement method and device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application with application number 202311830163.8 filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on December 27, 2023, and priority to the Chinese patent application with the invention name “Beam Measurement Method and Device”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a beam measurement method and device. Background Art

[0003] Throughout the evolution of wireless communication systems, high throughput and massive connectivity have always been core challenges and goals. To address these challenges, various technological innovations have emerged. However, increasingly complex systems face challenges in achieving both complexity and energy efficiency, as well as enhancing the utilization and control of spatial channels.

[0004] To address these challenges, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), also known as intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) or large intelligent surfaces (LIS), have been widely researched as a technology with significant potential. RIS are subwavelength artificial two-dimensional materials typically composed of metals, dielectrics, and tunable elements, and can be represented as equivalent to a resistor-inductor-capacitor (RLC) circuit. Specifically, RIS is a smart panel consisting of multiple arrays, each of which is a low-cost passive reflector. By flexibly configuring the amplitude and phase of each array, wireless channel fading can be controlled and a desired directional beam can be formed. RIS can be mounted on large surfaces (such as indoor walls or ceilings, outdoor buildings, or signs) to reflect radio frequency (RF) energy around obstacles and create a virtual line-of-sight path between the communication source and target.

[0005] Beam scanning is a fundamental requirement for wireless mobile communications and radar. Engineers often seek low-cost, simple designs to meet performance requirements. RIS (Reconfigurable Infrared Radiation Response) (RIS) can achieve beam scanning performance through reconfigurable phase distribution. As the simplest form of phase compensation, a 1-bit phase-compensated RIS unit (i.e., array) requires only two switchable states (typically a 180° phase difference) to achieve beamforming of electromagnetic waves. Compared to RIS units with 2-bit or higher compensation, a 1-bit RIS unit has a simpler structure, requiring only a small number of switches (such as switching diodes) to switch between RIS unit states, and minimizes the complexity of control wiring layout. Therefore, a 1-bit RIS (i.e., one using 1-bit phase-compensated RIS units) can significantly reduce the cost and losses associated with switches and greatly simplify the design of control circuits. However, using a 1-bit RIS comes with a trade-off: its adjustable phase freedom is very limited, which can introduce very high sidelobes during beam scanning, or even beams that are symmetrical with the mainlobe. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The present application discloses a beam measurement method and device, which can feed back two or more beams corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals during the beam measurement process, thereby avoiding the impact of beams corresponding to erroneous feedback side lobes on performance and improving the interference management and scheduling performance of the base station.

[0007] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a beam measurement method, the method comprising: receiving multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by a transmitter through a reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS); determining a first beam based on a reference beam direction and measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, wherein the reference beam direction is determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitter and the RIS; and transmitting a beam measurement result, wherein the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, wherein the angle between the direction of the first beam and the direction of the reference beam is equal to the angle between the direction of the second beam and the direction of the reference beam, or the difference between the angle between the direction of the first beam and the direction of the reference beam and the angle between the direction of the second beam and the direction of the reference beam is less than or equal to a first preset value, or the direction of the first beam and the direction of the second beam are symmetrical with respect to the reference beam direction. Optionally, the first beam is a beam that the receiver needs to report to the transmitter. In the present application, receiving multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by the transmitting end through the RIS can be replaced by: receiving multiple beam measurement reference signals from the transmitting end through the RIS.

[0008] In an embodiment of the present application, a beam measurement result is sent to the transmitting end, and the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, rather than only carrying the beam information corresponding to the beam with the highest power. The receiving end can determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam based on the beam measurement result, that is, the receiving end can distinguish multiple beams corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals (for example, including main lobe beams and side lobe beams) based on the beam measurement result, thereby avoiding the problem of using side lobe beams corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals as main lobe beams, that is, avoiding the beam selection mismatch problem, thereby avoiding the impact of erroneous feedback of beams corresponding to side lobes on performance. In addition, the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, so that the receiving end can better perform scheduling and interference management based on two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, thereby improving the interference management and scheduling performance of the base station.

[0009] In one possible implementation, the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS is equal to the angle between the incident beam direction of the transmit beam of the transmitter (hereinafter referred to as the incident direction, also referred to as the transmit beam direction) and the normal direction of the RIS; or, the difference between the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS and the angle between the incident beam direction of the transmit beam of the transmitter and the normal direction of the RIS is less than or equal to a second preset value; or, the reference beam direction and the incident beam direction of the transmit beam of the transmitter are symmetrical with respect to the normal direction of the RIS.

[0010] In a possible implementation manner, one of the first beam and the second beam is a mainlobe beam, and the other is a sidelobe beam.

[0011] In this implementation, the receiving end can determine at least one of the main lobe beam and the side lobe beam corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals, and then select the optimal beam direction.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the angle between the direction of the first beam and the direction of the reference beam is equal to the angle between the direction of the second beam and the direction of the reference beam. Exemplarily, the first beam is a main lobe beam, and the second beam is a side lobe beam.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the first beam is a mainlobe beam, and the beam measurement result includes a first set of beam information associated with the first beam, and the first set of beam information includes a result obtained by measuring a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the first beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals. Exemplarily, the first set of beam information includes a reference signal receiving power (RSRP) or a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the first beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals. Optionally, the second beam is a sidelobe beam, and the beam measurement result also includes a second set of beam information associated with the second beam, and the second set of beam information includes a result obtained by measuring a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the second beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals. Optionally, the reference beam direction is the direction of a mirror beam, and the beam measurement result also includes a third set of beam information associated with the mirror beam, and the third set of beam information includes a result obtained by measuring a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the mirror beam in the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0014] In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes two or more of a first set of beam information, a second set of beam information, and a third set of beam information, wherein the first set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the second set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the second beam, and the third set of beam information is used to indicate the reference beam direction. Exemplarily, the first beam is a mainlobe beam, and the first set of beam information includes identification information of the first beam and the RSRP or SNR of a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the mainlobe beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0015] In one possible implementation, before sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end, the method further includes: sending first information to the transmitting end or receiving first information from the transmitting end, the first information being used to indicate the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and beams reported by the receiving end for beam measurement; the sending of the beam measurement result to the transmitting end includes: based on the first information, sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end, the first group of beam information including information for identifying the first beam, such as an identity (ID) of the first beam. Optionally, the second group of beam information includes information for identifying the second beam, and the third group of beam information includes information for identifying the reference beam direction. Optionally, the mapping relationship includes two or more of the following: identification information of the first beam, identification information of the second beam, or identification information of the mirror beam corresponding to the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0016] In this implementation, sending the first information to the transmitting end enables the transmitting end to determine the mapping relationship between two or more sets of beam information and the beams reported by the receiving end for beam measurement. Receiving the first information from the transmitting end can obtain the mapping relationship between the two or more sets of beam information and the beams reported by the receiving end for beam measurement, and then perform beam measurement reporting according to the mapping relationship.

[0017] In one possible implementation, before sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end, the method also includes: receiving second information from the transmitting end, the second information being used to indicate information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end based on the first information includes: sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end based on the first information and the second information.

[0018] In this implementation, the beam measurement result is sent to the transmitting end based on the first information and the second information; it can not only report the information that the transmitting end instructs the receiving end to report, but also enable the transmitting end to distinguish the beams corresponding to different groups of beam information.

[0019] In one possible implementation, before sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end, the method also includes: receiving third information from the transmitting end, the third information being used to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end includes: based on the third information, sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end, two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information and the third group of beam information belong to the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement.

[0020] In this implementation, the beam measurement result is sent to the transmitting end based on the third information; it can not only report the information that the transmitting end instructs the receiving end to report, but also enable the transmitting end to distinguish the beams corresponding to different groups of beam information.

[0021] In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information. The reference beam information is used to indicate any one of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, or the reference beam direction. When the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the phase information is used by the transmitter to determine the direction of the second beam and the reference beam direction. The phase information is obtained based on the relative position / relative direction relationship between the transmitter and the RIS. Exemplarily, the reference beam information includes information indicating the direction of the first beam and the RSRP or SNR of a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the first beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0022] In this implementation, the beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information, so that the transmitting end can obtain the required beam information based on the reference beam information and phase information, which can save signaling overhead.

[0023] In one possible implementation, before sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end, the method also includes: receiving second information from the transmitting end, the second information being used to indicate information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end includes: sending the beam measurement result to the transmitting end based on the second information.

[0024] In this implementation, based on the second information, the beam measurement result is sent to the transmitting end; the information that the transmitting end instructs the receiving end to report for beam measurement can be reported.

[0025] In one possible implementation, before determining the first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the method further includes: determining the reference beam direction based on fourth information, and the fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the transmitting end and the RIS.

[0026] In this implementation, a reference beam direction is determined based on the fourth information, so that a first beam is subsequently determined based on the reference beam direction and measurement results of multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0027] In one possible implementation, the fourth information includes at least one of a relative position and a relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS, or the fourth information includes at least one of an azimuth angle of the RIS, a panel orientation of the RIS, and an altitude of the RIS, and a panel pitch angle of the RIS and a distance between the RIS and the transmitting end.

[0028] In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving the fourth information from the sending end or the RIS.

[0029] In this implementation, the fourth information is received from the transmitter or the RIS, so that the reference beam direction can be accurately determined.

[0030] In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: sending seventh information to the sending end, where the seventh information is used to trigger the sending end to send the fourth information.

[0031] In one possible implementation, the sending of the seventh information to the transmitting end includes: sending the seventh information to the transmitting end or the RIS based on the receiving performance or mobility status of the receiving end; or sending the seventh information to the transmitting end or the RIS when the receiving end determines that beam scanning is required.

[0032] In this implementation, sending the seventh information can trigger the sending end to send the fourth information.

[0033] In one possible implementation, before determining the first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the method further includes: receiving fifth information from the transmitting end or the RIS, where the fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0034] In this implementation, the reference beam direction may be obtained by receiving the fifth information from the transmitter or the RIS.

[0035] In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: sending eighth information to the sending end, where the eighth information is used to trigger the sending end to send the fifth information.

[0036] In one possible implementation, determining the first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals includes: determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, and the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0037] In this implementation, the first beam can be accurately determined.

[0038] In one possible implementation, determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, and the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals includes: determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals, and the relative positional relationship between the receiving end and the RIS.

[0039] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving sixth information from the transmitting end, where the sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0040] In a possible implementation, the sixth information is further used to indicate a mode in which the receiving end performs beam measurement.

[0041] In one possible implementation, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiving end is the order of codewords in a scanning codebook adopted by the receiving end, and one codeword in the scanning codebook corresponds to one beam measurement reference signal among the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0042] In one possible implementation, the determination of the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, and the order in which the transmitter sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals includes: determining the angular region to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction; and determining, as the first beam, the beam in the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals that is within the angular region and has a first performance indicator greater than or equal to a target threshold. In the present application, the first performance indicator can be RSRP, SNR, or other indicators for measuring beam quality, and the target threshold can be set according to actual needs and is not limited here.

[0043] In one possible implementation, determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, and the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals includes: determining the angular area to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction; and determining, among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, the beam that is located within the angular area and has the best first performance indicator as the first beam.

[0044] In one possible implementation, determining the first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals includes: determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple measurement reference signals, and the relative positional relationship between the receiving end and the RIS.

[0045] In one possible implementation, determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple measurement reference signals, and the relative position relationship between the receiving end and the RIS includes: determining the angular area to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction and the relative position relationship; and determining, among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, a beam that is located within the angular area and has a first performance indicator greater than or equal to a target threshold as the first beam.

[0046] In one possible implementation, determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple measurement reference signals, and the relative position relationship between the receiving end and the RIS includes: determining the angular region to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction and the relative position relationship; and determining, among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, the beam that is located within the angular region and has the best first performance indicator as the first beam.

[0047] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another beam measurement method, which includes: sending multiple beam measurement reference signals to a receiving end through a RIS; receiving beam measurement results from the receiving end, wherein the beam measurement results are used to determine two or more of the direction of a first beam, the direction of a second beam, and a reference beam direction corresponding to the multiple beam measurement reference signals, and the reference beam direction is determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS.

[0048] In an embodiment of the present application, a beam measurement result is received from a receiving end, and based on the beam measurement result, the directions of multiple beams corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals can be obtained, thereby better performing scheduling and interference management, thereby improving the interference management and scheduling performance of the base station.

[0049] In a possible implementation, one of the first beam and the second beam is a main lobe beam, and the other is a side lobe beam.

[0050] In one possible implementation, the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS is equal to the angle between the incident beam direction of the transmit beam of the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS; or, the difference between the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS and the angle between the incident beam direction of the transmit beam of the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS is less than or equal to a second preset value; or, the reference beam direction and the incident beam direction of the transmit beam of the transmitting end are symmetrical with respect to the normal direction of the RIS.

[0051] In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes two or more of a first set of beam information, a second set of beam information, and a third set of beam information, wherein the first set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the second set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the second beam, and the third set of beam information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0052] In one possible implementation, the first beam is a mainlobe beam, and the beam measurement result includes a first set of beam information associated with the first beam, the first set of beam information including a result obtained by measuring a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the first beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals. Exemplarily, the first set of beam information includes the RSRP or SNR of the beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the first beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals. Optionally, the second beam is a sidelobe beam, and the beam measurement result also includes a second set of beam information associated with the second beam, the second set of beam information including a result obtained by measuring a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the second beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals. Optionally, the reference beam direction is the direction of a mirror beam, and the beam measurement result also includes a third set of beam information associated with the mirror beam, the third set of beam information including a result obtained by measuring a beam measurement reference signal corresponding to the mirror beam among the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0053] In one possible implementation, before receiving the beam measurement result from the receiving end, the method further includes: sending first information to the receiving end or receiving first information from the receiving end, wherein the first information is used to indicate a mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and beams reported by the receiving end for beam measurement. Optionally, the mapping relationship includes two or more of the following: identification information of the first beam, identification information of the second beam, or identification information of mirror beams corresponding to the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0054] In this implementation, sending the first information to the receiving end enables the receiving end to determine the mapping relationship between two or more sets of beam information and beams required to be reported for beam measurement. Receiving the first information from the receiving end can obtain the mapping relationship between the two or more sets of beam information and beams required to be reported by the transmitting end for beam measurement, and then perform beam measurement reporting according to this mapping relationship.

[0055] In a possible implementation, before receiving the beam measurement result from the receiving end, the method further includes: sending second information to the receiving end, where the second information is used to indicate information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement.

[0056] In one possible implementation, before receiving the beam measurement results from the receiving end, the method also includes: sending third information to the receiving end, the third information being used to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement, and two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information, and the third group of beam information belong to the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement.

[0057] In this implementation, third information is sent to the receiving end to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report when performing beam measurement.

[0058] In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information. The reference beam information is used to indicate any one of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, or the direction of the reference beam. When the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the phase information is used by the transmitting end to determine the direction of the second beam and the reference beam direction. The phase information is obtained based on the relative position / relative direction relationship between the transmitting end and the RIS.

[0059] In this implementation, the beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information. The transmitting end obtains the required beam information based on the reference beam information and phase information, which can save signaling overhead.

[0060] In a possible implementation, before receiving the beam measurement result from the receiving end, the method further includes: sending second information to the receiving end, where the second information is used to indicate information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement.

[0061] In one possible implementation, the method further includes: sending fourth information to the receiving end, where the fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS. Exemplarily, information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS is periodically sent to the receiving end.

[0062] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving seventh information from the receiving end; and the sending of fourth information to the receiving end includes: sending the fourth information to the receiving end in response to the seventh information.

[0063] In a possible implementation manner, sending the fourth information to the receiving end includes: sending the fourth information to the receiving end when configuration information of the RIS changes or the RIS serving the receiving end is switched to the RIS.

[0064] In this implementation, the receiving end can timely update the relative position and / or relative direction of the transmitting end and the RIS, thereby accurately determining the reference beam direction.

[0065] In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: sending fifth information to the receiving end, where the fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0066] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving eighth information from the receiving end; and sending the fifth information to the receiving end includes: sending the fifth information to the receiving end in response to the eighth information.

[0067] In a possible implementation manner, the sending the fifth information to the receiving end includes: sending the fifth information to the receiving end when configuration information of the RIS changes or the RIS serving the receiving end is switched to the RIS.

[0068] In this implementation, the receiving end can update the reference beam direction in a timely manner.

[0069] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: sending sixth information to the receiving end, where the sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0070] In a possible implementation, the sixth information is further used to indicate a mode in which the receiving end performs beam measurement.

[0071] In one possible implementation, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiving end is the order of codewords in a scanning codebook adopted by the receiving end, and one codeword in the scanning codebook corresponds to one beam measurement reference signal among the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0072] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device having the function of implementing the behavior in the method embodiment of the first aspect above. The communication device can be a network device, or a component of a network device (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device. Alternatively, the communication device can be a terminal device, or a component of a terminal device (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device. The functions of the communication device can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations, and the hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions. In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a transceiver module and a processing module, wherein: the transceiver module is used to receive multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by a transmitting end through an RIS; the processing module is used to determine a first beam based on a reference beam direction and measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, wherein the reference beam direction is determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS; the transceiver module is further used to send a beam measurement result to the transmitting end, wherein the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0073] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is also used to send first information to the transmitting end or receive first information from the transmitting end, wherein the first information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beam reported by the receiving end for beam measurement; the processing module is also used to control the transceiver module to send the beam measurement result to the transmitting end based on the first information, wherein the first group of beam information includes information for identifying the first beam.

[0074] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is also used to receive second information from the transmitting end, and the second information is used to indicate the information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; the processing module is also used to control the transceiver module to send the beam measurement result to the transmitting end based on the first information and the second information.

[0075] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is further used to receive third information from the transmitting end, and the third information is used to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; the processing module is also used to control the transceiver module to send the beam measurement results to the transmitting end based on the third information, and two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information and the third group of beam information belong to the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement.

[0076] In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information. The reference beam information is used to indicate any one of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, or the direction of the reference beam. When the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the phase information is used by the transmitting end to determine the direction of the second beam and the reference beam direction. The phase information is obtained based on the relative position / relative direction relationship between the transmitting end and the RIS.

[0077] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is further used to receive second information from the transmitting end, where the second information is used to indicate information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; the processing module is further used to control the transceiver module to send the beam measurement result to the transmitting end based on the second information.

[0078] In a possible implementation, the processing module is further configured to determine the reference beam direction based on fourth information, where the fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS.

[0079] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to receive the fourth information from the transmitting end or the RIS.

[0080] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to send seventh information to the sending end, where the seventh information is configured to trigger the sending end to send the fourth information.

[0081] In one possible implementation, the processing module is further configured to control the transceiver module to send the seventh information to the transmitting end or the RIS based on the receiving performance or mobility status of the receiving end; or, when the receiving end determines that beam scanning is required, control the transceiver module to send the seventh information to the transmitting end or the RIS.

[0082] In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive fifth information from the transmitting end or the RIS, where the fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0083] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to send eighth information to the sending end, where the eighth information is configured to trigger the sending end to send the fifth information.

[0084] In one possible implementation, the processing module is specifically used to determine the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals, and the relative position relationship between the receiving end and the RIS.

[0085] In one possible implementation, the processing module is specifically used to determine the angular area to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction; and determine the beam among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, which is located in the angular area and has a first performance indicator greater than or equal to the target threshold, as the first beam.

[0086] In one possible implementation, the processing module is specifically used to determine the angular area to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction; and determine the beam, among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, that is located within the angular area and has the best first performance indicator as the first beam.

[0087] In one possible implementation, the processing module is specifically used to determine the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple measurement reference signals, and the relative position relationship between the receiving end and the RIS.

[0088] In one possible implementation, the processing module is specifically used to determine the angular area to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction and the relative position relationship; and determine the beam among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, which is located in the angular area and has a first performance indicator greater than or equal to the target threshold, as the first beam.

[0089] In one possible implementation, the processing module is specifically used to determine the angular area to which the first beam belongs based on the reference beam direction and the relative position relationship; and determine the beam, among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, that is located within the angular area and has the best first performance indicator as the first beam.

[0090] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further used to receive sixth information from the transmitting end, where the sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0091] For possible implementations of the communication device of the third aspect, reference may be made to various possible implementations of the first aspect.

[0092] For the technical effects brought about by various possible implementations of the third aspect, reference may be made to the introduction to the technical effects of the first aspect or various possible implementations of the first aspect.

[0093] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device having the function of implementing the behavior in the method embodiment of the second aspect above. The communication device can be a network device, or a component of a network device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device. Alternatively, the communication device can be a terminal device, or a component of a terminal device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system), or a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device. The functions of the communication device can be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions. In one possible implementation, the communication device includes a transceiver module and a processing module, wherein: the transceiver module is configured to send multiple beam measurement reference signals to a receiving end via a RIS; and receive beam measurement results from the receiving end, wherein the beam measurement results are used to determine two or more of the directions of a first beam, a second beam, and a reference beam direction corresponding to the multiple beam measurement reference signals, wherein the reference beam direction is determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS. The transceiver module for sending multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiving end through the RIS can be replaced by: the transceiver module for sending multiple beam measurement reference signals to the RIS so that the receiving end receives the multiple beam measurement reference signals reflected or transmitted by the RIS.

[0094] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is also used to send first information to the receiving end or receive first information from the receiving end, and the first information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beam reported by the receiving end for beam measurement.

[0095] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further used to send second information to the receiving end, where the second information is used to indicate information that needs to be reported by the receiving end for beam measurement.

[0096] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module is also used to send third information to the receiving end, and the third information is used to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that need to be reported by the receiving end for beam measurement. Two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information, and the third group of beam information belong to the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that need to be reported by the receiving end for beam measurement.

[0097] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to send fourth information to the receiving end, where the fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS.

[0098] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to receive seventh information from the receiving end; and the processing module is further configured to control the transceiver module to send the fourth information to the receiving end in response to the seventh information.

[0099] In a possible implementation, the processing module is further configured to control the transceiver module to send the fourth information to the receiving end when configuration information of the RIS changes or the RIS serving the receiving end is switched to the RIS.

[0100] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to send fifth information to the receiving end, where the fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0101] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to receive eighth information from the receiving end; and the processing module is further configured to control the transceiver module to send the fifth information to the receiving end in response to the eighth information.

[0102] In a possible implementation, the processing module is further configured to control the transceiver module to send the fifth information to the receiving end when configuration information of the RIS changes or the RIS serving the receiving end is switched to the RIS.

[0103] In a possible implementation, the transceiver module is further configured to send sixth information to the receiving end, where the sixth information is configured to indicate an order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0104] Possible implementations of the communication device of the fourth aspect may refer to the various possible implementations of the second aspect.

[0105] For the technical effects brought about by various possible implementations of the fourth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction to the technical effects of the second aspect or various possible implementations of the second aspect.

[0106] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication device, which includes one or more processors, and the one or more processors are used to process data and / or signaling so that the method of the first aspect or the second aspect mentioned above is implemented.

[0107] Optionally, the communication device further includes a memory storing a program or instruction. When the program or instruction is executed by the processor, the communication device performs the method described in the first or second aspect. Exemplarily, the communication device may be a chip, the processor may be a processing unit in the chip, and the memory may be a random access memory or cache in the chip.

[0108] In the embodiment of the present application, during the execution of the above method, the process of sending information (or signals) in the above method can be understood as the process of outputting information based on the instructions of the processor. When outputting information, the processor outputs the information to the transceiver so that it can be transmitted by the transceiver. After being output by the processor, the information may undergo other processing before reaching the transceiver. Similarly, when the processor receives input information, the transceiver receives the information and inputs it into the processor. Furthermore, after the transceiver receives the information, the information may undergo other processing before being input into the processor.

[0109] For operations such as sending and / or receiving involved in the processor, unless otherwise specified, or unless they conflict with their actual functions or internal logic in the relevant descriptions, they can be generally understood as instructions output based on the processor.

[0110] During implementation, the processor may be a processor specifically configured to execute these methods, or may be a processor that executes computer instructions in a memory to execute these methods, such as a general-purpose processor. For example, the processor may also be configured to execute a program stored in a memory. When the program is executed, the communication device performs the method described in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0111] In a possible implementation, the memory is located outside the communication device. In a possible implementation, the memory is located inside the communication device.

[0112] In a possible implementation, the processor and the memory may also be integrated into one device, that is, the processor and the memory may also be integrated together.

[0113] In a possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver, and the transceiver is used to receive signals or send signals.

[0114] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides another communication device, which includes a processing circuit and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to obtain data or output data; the processing circuit is used to execute the method shown in the first aspect or the second aspect above.

[0115] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program. The computer program includes program instructions, which, when executed, enable the computer to execute the method shown in the first aspect or the second aspect above.

[0116] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program, and the computer program includes program instructions. When the program instructions are executed, the computer executes the method shown in the first aspect or the second aspect above.

[0117] In the ninth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a communication interface and a processor; the communication interface is used for transmitting and receiving signals of the chip; the processor is used for executing computer program instructions so that a communication device including the chip performs the method shown in the first aspect or the second aspect above.

[0118] In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication system, comprising the communication device described in the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect, and the communication device described in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect. Optionally, the communication system further comprises the RIS described in the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0119] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of three beam directions corresponding to three lobes in a 1-bit RIS antenna pattern provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0120] FIG2 is a schematic diagram comparing a 1-bit RIS beam measurement example and a multi-bit RIS beam measurement example provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0121] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present application may be applied;

[0122] FIG4 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0123] FIG5 is a flow chart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0124] FIG6 is a flow chart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0125] FIG7 is a flow chart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0126] FIG8 is a flow chart of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0127] FIG9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 900 provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0128] FIG10 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal device;

[0129] FIG11 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a base station structure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0130] The terms "first" and "second" in the specification, claims and drawings of the present application are only used to distinguish different objects, rather than to describe a specific order. It will be understood that the various digital numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the sequence number of each of the above processes does not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally also includes steps or units that are not listed, or optionally also includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

[0131] The "embodiment" mentioned in this document means that the specific features, structures or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearance of this phrase in various places in the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor is it an independent or alternative embodiment that is mutually exclusive with other embodiments. It can be understood explicitly and implicitly by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments. In this application, the naming of messages is only used to distinguish different messages and should not be understood as a limitation. In other words, the name of any message in this application can be replaced with other names, and this application is not limited.

[0132] The terms used in the following embodiments of the present application are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the present application. As used in the specification of the present application and the appended claims, the singular expressions "one", "a kind of", "said", "above", "the" and "this" are intended to also include plural expressions, unless there is a clear contrary indication in the context. It should also be understood that the term "and / or" used in the present application refers to and includes any or all possible combinations of one or more listed items. For example, "A and / or B" can mean: only A exists, only B exists, and A and B exist at the same time, where A and B can be singular or plural. The term "multiple" used in the present application refers to two or more. In the textual description of the present application, the character " / " generally indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0133] It is understood that in each embodiment of the present application, "A corresponds to B" means that there is a corresponding relationship between A and B, and B can be determined according to A. However, it should also be understood that determining (or generating) B according to (or based on) A does not mean that B is determined (or generated) only according to (or based on) A, and B can also be determined (or generated) according to (or based on) A and / or other information.

[0134] It should be understood that, in this application, indication includes direct indication (also known as explicit indication) and implicit indication. Direct indication of information A refers to including information A; implicit indication of information A refers to indicating information A through the correspondence between information A and information B and the direct indication of information B. The correspondence between information A and information B can be predefined, pre-stored, pre-burned, or pre-configured.

[0135] It should be understood that, in this application, information C is used to determine information D, which includes both information D being determined solely based on information C and information D being determined based on information C and other information. Furthermore, information C can also be used to determine information D indirectly, for example, where information D is determined based on information E, and information E is determined based on information C.

[0136] In addition, in each embodiment of the present application, "network element A sends information A to network element B" can be understood as the destination end of the information A or the intermediate network element in the transmission path between the destination end and the network element B, which may include directly or indirectly sending information to network element B. "Network element B receives information A from network element A" can be understood as the source end of the information A or the intermediate network element in the transmission path between the source end and the network element A, which may include directly or indirectly receiving information from network element A. The information may be processed as necessary between the source end and the destination end of the information transmission, such as format changes, but the destination end can understand the valid information from the source end. Similar expressions in this application can be understood similarly and will not be elaborated here.

[0137] To facilitate understanding of the solutions of the present application, the following first introduces the terms and technical solutions involved in the embodiments of the present application.

[0138] Multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO): MIMO technology leverages spatial resources to achieve array gain, multiplexing gain, diversity gain, and interference cancellation gain in space without increasing system bandwidth, exponentially increasing the capacity and spectral efficiency of communication systems. Since its introduction, it has been favored by wireless communication researchers as one of the most typical and effective solutions to overcome non-ideal characteristics such as channel fading and inter-symbol interference caused by the complexity and diversity of communication environments. For example, in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, the transmitter and receiver use multiple antennas to support up to eight layers of transmission.

[0139] Multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) scheduling: Array antennas are widely used in communication systems that use beamforming technology for signal transmission. Since the array antenna on the network device side (such as a base station) usually has multiple antenna ports, the network device has the ability to communicate with multiple terminal devices at the same time. In order to make full use of resources, the network device can use different antenna ports to allocate the same time-frequency resources or address code resources to different terminal devices, that is, to perform MU-MIMO scheduling. During MU-MIMO scheduling, the network device can use the directional beam formed by the array antenna to suppress the sidelobe radiation of the beam, so as to reduce interference between different terminal devices.

[0140] Beam: A beam can correspond to instantaneous or statistical channel characteristics during signal transmission, such as delay spread, Doppler spread, Doppler shift, average delay, average gain, spatial receive parameters, and spatial transport parameters. Spatial receive parameters or spatial transport parameters can include one or more of the following: angle of arrival (AOA), average AOA, AOA spread, angle of departure (AOD), average AOD, AOD spread, receive antenna spatial correlation parameter, transmit antenna spatial correlation parameter, transmit beam, receive beam, and resource identifier. A beam can be called a spatial domain filter, a spatial filter, a spatial domain parameter, a spatial parameter, a spatial parameter, a spatial domain setting, a spatial setting, quasi-colocation (QCL) information, a QCL assumption, or a QCL indication, etc. A beam can be indicated by a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state parameter, or by a spatial relation parameter. Therefore, in this application, a beam can be replaced with a transmission direction, a transmission resource, a spatial domain filter, a spatial filter, a spatial domain parameter, a spatial parameter, a spatial setting, a spatial setting, QCL information, a QCL assumption, a QCL indication, a TCI state (including an uplink TCI state, a downlink TCI state), or a spatial relationship, etc. A beam can also be replaced with other terms representing a beam, which are not limited in this application.

[0141] In this application, a beam used to transmit a signal may be referred to as a transmission beam (Tx beam), a spatial domain transmission filter, a spatial transmission filter, a spatial domain transmission parameter, a spatial transmission parameter, a spatial domain transmission setting, or a spatial transmission setting. In this application, a beam used to receive a signal may be referred to as a reception beam (Rx beam), a spatial domain reception filter, a spatial reception filter, a spatial domain reception parameter or a spatial reception parameter, a spatial domain reception setting, or a spatial reception setting. An uplink transmit beam may be indicated by any one of a spatial relationship, an uplink TCI state, and a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource (indicating a transmit beam using the SRS). The uplink beam can also be replaced by SRS resources.

[0142] A transmit beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space after a signal is transmitted by an antenna, and a receive beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space of a wireless signal received from an antenna. In addition, a beam may be a wide beam, a narrow beam, or other types of beams. The technology for forming a beam may be a beamforming technology or other technologies. The beamforming technology may specifically be a digital beamforming technology, an analog beamforming technology, a hybrid digital beamforming technology, or a hybrid analog beamforming technology. A beam generally corresponds to a resource. For example, when performing beam measurement, a network device measures different beams using different resources, and the terminal device feeds back the measured resource quality, so that the network device knows the quality of the corresponding beam. When data is transmitted, beam information may also be indicated by its corresponding resource. For example, the network device indicates the beam information of the terminal device through the TCI field in the downlink control information (DCI). Optionally, multiple beams with the same or similar communication characteristics are regarded as one beam. A beam may include one or more antenna ports for transmitting data channels, control channels, and sounding signals, etc. The one or more antenna ports forming a beam may also be regarded as an antenna port set.

[0143] Beams can be indicated / characterized by reference signals. This means that the QCL relationship between reference signals can represent different or identical beams. Furthermore, in a multi-antenna system, beams can also be represented by antenna weights or codebooks applied to antenna ports. This means that beams can also be represented by codebooks.

[0144] Reconfigurable intelligent metasurface (RIS): A RIS is an artificial two-dimensional material with subwavelength dimensions, typically composed of metal, dielectric, and tunable elements. It can be represented as an equivalent RLC circuit. An RLC circuit is a circuit structure consisting of resistance (R), inductance (L), and capacitance (C). RIS generates the desired electromagnetic behavior of each electromagnetic unit by controlling the bias voltage of varactor diodes, PIN switches, diodes, micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switches, liquid crystals, graphene, and other materials. Specifically, a RIS is a smart panel consisting of multiple arrays (called elements), each of which is a low-cost passive reflector. By flexibly configuring the amplitude and phase of each element, wireless channel fading can be controlled and a desired directional beam can be formed. RIS can be mounted on large surfaces (such as indoor walls or ceilings, outdoor buildings, or signs) to reflect radio frequency (RF) energy around obstacles and create a virtual line-of-sight path between the communication source and target. Compared to the transmitter and receiver in existing wireless networks, the advantages of RIS can be summarized as follows: 1) Enhanced Spectral Efficiency: RIS provides a new degree of flexibility. Through intelligent array control, it can further improve the communication quality of wireless links, enhance the useful signal strength at the receiver, and reduce the intensity of channel interference. This provides a starting point for the realization of future intelligent networks. 2) Reduced Energy Consumption and Equipment Complexity: Because RIS can only passively reflect received signals, meaning that no transmitting and receiving units or data encoding and decoding are required on the RIS side, the actual hardware complexity of RIS can be significantly reduced compared to existing base stations and terminals, thereby reducing the system energy consumption of wireless networks. 3) Ease of Deployment: Because RIS consists only of passive electromagnetic reflection components, it can be easily deployed on various building surfaces, indoor walls, platforms, roadside billboards, highway signs, car windows, and other devices. It can be removed and redeployed at any time according to network needs. 4) Compatibility: RIS can be considered a supplementary device to existing networks, thus having no impact on existing protocols and requiring no modifications to existing equipment, ensuring compatibility. 5) Full-duplex: Compared with relay devices that operate in half-duplex mode, RIS only performs passive reflection and can therefore operate in full-duplex mode, thereby improving spectrum efficiency.

[0145] Reference Signal: During the demodulation process at the receiving end of a communication system, coherent demodulation offers improved performance, with a roughly 3dB advantage, compared to incoherent demodulation. Therefore, coherent demodulation is widely adopted in communication systems. However, in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, each carrier is modulated with suppressed carriers. Therefore, coherent demodulation at the receiving end requires a reference signal. Reference signals, also known as pilot signals or reference signals (RS), are distributed across different resource elements (REs) in the two-dimensional space of time and frequency within an OFDM symbol and have known amplitude and phase. Similarly, in a MIMO system, each transmit antenna (virtual or physical) has an independent data channel. Based on the known RS signals, the receiver performs channel estimation for each transmit antenna and uses this information to reconstruct the transmitted data. Channel estimation refers to the process of reconstructing the received signal to compensate for channel fading and noise. It uses RS signals, known to both the transmitter and receiver, to track channel variations in both the time and frequency domains. For example, to achieve channel quality measurement and data demodulation in high-order multi-antenna systems, the Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) system defines multiple pilot signals: cell-specific reference signals (CRS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), and channel state information-reference signals (CSI-RS). DMRS is used for demodulation of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). CSI-RS is used for channel information measurement and reporting of information such as channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and rank indicator (RI).

[0146] RIS channel estimation: Since the RIS is generally considered a passive reflector, and in RIS-MIMO systems, the number of RIS elements is typically large (in the thousands), directly estimating the RIS channel matrix requires a number of pilot signals on the order of the number of RIS elements, resulting in an overhead bottleneck. Since the RIS lacks an active radio frequency (RF) chain for transmission and reception, it cannot transmit, receive, or process signals. This makes it impossible to obtain channel state information (CSI) using traditional channel estimation methods in RIS-assisted communication systems. Furthermore, the dramatic increase in channel dimensionality with the increasing number of reflectors further complicates CSI acquisition. The base station (BS)-user equipment (UE) channel (i.e., the channel between the BS and the UE) can be estimated using a variety of mature techniques and will not be further explored in this article. In RIS-assisted communication systems, only the BS-RIS-UE concatenated channel, i.e., the BS-RIS channel and the RIS-UE channel, needs to be estimated. RIS channel estimation has been extensively researched in the industry. For example, the uplink cascade channel and the downlink cascade channel can be estimated based on the uplink or downlink transmission reference signal, and then operations such as precoding, modulation order, and rank number setting can be performed.

[0147] RIS precoding / beamforming: Similar to the function of precoding technology in traditional MU-MIMO systems, precoding can achieve rational utilization of channel state information, that is, improve reception performance by preprocessing the transmitted signal. Specifically, by regulating the phase, amplitude and other information of each electromagnetic unit of RIS, the beam can be adjusted to transmit in a specific direction, thereby reducing the transmission power of the required signal, improving spectrum efficiency, expanding coverage and weakening interference at the same time. In traditional multi-antenna cellular networks, beamforming design mainly includes precoding and equalization matrix design of multi-antenna transceivers to achieve directional signal transmission, and the introduction of RIS will make the system's beamforming design more complex. Based on the programmable characteristics of RIS, RIS can be used as an external analog precoder to design the corresponding phase shift matrix, that is, RIS uses analog beamforming to reflect and control the signal from the transmitter.

[0148] Main lobe (main lob) beam, side lobe (side) beam, mirror beam: The main lobe beam (or main lobe) refers to a beam that the transmitter can use to send signals to the receiver. In other words, the main lobe beam refers to a beam that the transmitter needs to know during the beam measurement process to send information and / or signals to the receiver. The side lobe beam (or side lobe) refers to another beam that the transmitter can use to send signals to the receiver. In this application, compared with sending signals to the receiver through the main lobe beam (the resource corresponding to the main lobe beam), the signal received by the receiver has a higher SNR and a higher throughput. It is better for the transmitter to use the main lobe beam to send signals to the receiver than to use the side lobe beam to send signals to the receiver. In this application, the side lobe can be replaced by a grating lobe or a side lobe. The main lobe beam can be the beam that the receiver should feed back to the transmitter during the beam measurement. The direction of the mirror beam (also referred to as the mirror beam direction, reference beam direction, etc.) refers to the beam direction determined based on the relative position and / or relative orientation between the transmitter and the RIS when beam measurement is performed using a 1-bit RIS. In other words, the direction of the mirror beam is determined by the relative position and / or relative orientation between the transmitter and the RIS. The reference beam direction is used below to represent the direction of the mirror beam.

[0149] The angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS is equal to the angle between the incident beam direction of the transmitting beam at the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS. The normal of the RIS refers to a straight line perpendicular to the plane where the RIS is located. The normal direction of the RIS refers to the relative direction of the normal of the RIS in the coordinate system agreed upon by the system. It should be pointed out that the normal direction of the RIS is a relative concept, which is determined by the definition method of the coordinate system agreed upon by the system. For example, if the system defines the BS panel plane (i.e., the panel plane of the base station) as the X and Y axes of the rectangular coordinate system, and the BS panel normal (i.e., the normal of the panel plane of the base station) as the Z axis, then the normal direction of the RIS is defined as a multi-dimensional vector (θ ) formed by the angle between the RIS panel normal and the edge and normal of the BS panel. h ,,θ v ). The incident beam direction of the transmitting end's transmitting beam refers to the relative direction of the transmitting end's transmitting beam direction in the coordinate system agreed upon by the system. It should be pointed out that the incident beam direction is also a relative concept, which is determined by the definition method of the coordinate system agreed upon by the system. For example, if the system defines the BS panel plane as the X and Y axes of the rectangular coordinate system and the BS panel normal as the Z axis, then the incident beam direction is defined as the multidimensional vector (α) formed by the angle between the transmitting end's transmitting beam and the edge and normal of the BS panel. h ,α v). Alternatively, the difference between the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS and the angle between the incident beam direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS is less than or equal to a second preset value. The second preset value can be set according to actual needs. For example, the value range of the second preset value is 0-5 degrees. Alternatively, the reference beam direction and the incident direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitting end are symmetrical with respect to the normal direction of the RIS. The reference beam direction can be determined based on the incident direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS. The incident direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS can be determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS, and then the reference beam direction can be determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS. In the scenario where beam measurement is performed using a 1-bit RIS, the phase rotation angle of the direction of the main lobe beam relative to the reference beam direction and the phase rotation angle of the direction of a side lobe beam relative to the direction of the mirror beam are opposite to each other. In other words, the direction of the main lobe beam and the direction of a side lobe beam are symmetrical to the reference beam direction.

[0150] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of three beam directions corresponding to three lobes in a 1-bit RIS antenna pattern provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1, the beam indicated by identity (ID) 2 is a side lobe; the beam indicated by ID 3 is a mirror beam, and the beam indicated by ID 1 is a target beam (i.e., the main lobe). The direction indicated by the arrow perpendicular to the plane where the RIS is located is the normal direction of the RIS, and the center line of the transmitting beam of the transmitter represents the incident direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitter. The direction of the main lobe beam and the direction of the side lobe beam are symmetrical with respect to the direction of the mirror beam, and the reference beam direction and the incident direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitter are symmetrical with respect to the normal direction of the RIS. It should be noted that in the present application, the main lobe is not the beam corresponding to the signal with the highest power among the multiple signals received by the receiving end. The direction of the main lobe and the direction of the side lobe are determined based on the direction of the mirror beam. Furthermore, the determination of the main lobe and the side lobe also depends on the relative position relationship of the receiving end itself with respect to the RIS. That is, in the present application, the receiving end can determine (or distinguish) the main lobe and the side lobe based on the relative position of the receiving end itself with respect to the RIS and the direction of the mirror beam.

[0151] RIS Structure: RIS primarily consists of a metamaterial surface and a control module. The metamaterial surface is composed of a large number of subwavelength arrays (referred to as antenna elements or RIS units), typically constructed from artificial two-dimensional materials such as metals, dielectrics, or tunable elements. The control module is programmable, allowing dynamic adjustment of the physical properties of the electromagnetic elements within the metamaterial surface, such as capacitive reactance, impedance, or inductive reactance. This in turn alters the RIS's radiation characteristics, enabling non-specular reflection, negative refraction, wave absorption, beamforming, and polarization conversion, enabling dynamic control of electromagnetic waves. The tunable elements within the RIS arrays vary, with diodes and micro-electromechanical systems being the most commonly used. RIS based on PIN diodes (i.e., PIN diodes as the tunable elements within the arrays) modulate the phase of the incident electromagnetic wave by controlling the on / off state of the PIN diodes and changing the direction of the current. Different combinations of PIN diodes produce different electromagnetic phase responses. By modulating the surface impedance of the RIS using a bias voltage, the propagation of electromagnetic surface waves is controlled (or, in other words, by controlling the reflection coefficient of the metamaterial, effective manipulation of electromagnetic waves is achieved), thereby achieving direct modulation of electromagnetic waves. The RIS unit in a 1-bit RIS only requires two switchable states (generally with a 180° phase difference) to achieve beamforming of electromagnetic waves. In principle, a multi-bit RIS can be achieved by superimposing multiple PIN transistors or by modulating the surface impedance of a resonant circuit using multi-level voltage. The RIS units in a multi-bit RIS achieve beamforming of electromagnetic waves through multiple switchable states.

[0152] Academia and industry have already conducted some research on implementing multi-bit RIS using multiple PIN diodes stacked together, as well as varactor diodes with multi-level bias voltages. Meanwhile, more research is underway on 1-bit RIS. Currently, multi-bit RIS faces challenges in both academia and industry, including complexity and extremely high latency. Stacking multiple PIN diodes exponentially increases the design complexity of the control circuitry. Due to the long switching time of a single varactor diode, coupled with the challenges of applying voltage in parallel or serially across a large array, the RIS's response time to the beam can reach tens or even hundreds of microseconds. Solutions based on varactor diodes with multi-level bias voltages suffer from extremely high latency, impacting transmission efficiency. Given the challenges of multi-bit RIS research, 1-bit RIS is expected to remain a more common implementation for the foreseeable future. In actual beam measurement, throughput is reduced by approximately 5% using 1-bit RIS compared to using multi-bit RIS.

[0153] The applicant's research found that the reason why the throughput is reduced when beam measurement is performed using 1-bit RIS compared to beam measurement using multi-bit RIS is that 1-bit RIS itself has a very serious grating lobe problem (or side lobe problem). The grating lobe problem refers to the problem that in the existing scheme for beam measurement using 1-bit RIS, the beam with the highest received power reported by the receiving end (such as UE) is not the optimal beam. The applicant found that in the existing scheme for beam measurement using 1-bit RIS, the power of the main lobe beam and the side lobe beam corresponding to the beam measurement reference signal are very similar. The grating lobe problem is caused by the receiving end's inability to correctly distinguish between the main lobe beam (optimal beam) and the side lobe beam (non-optimal beam) corresponding to the beam measurement reference signal. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram comparing a 1-bit RIS beam measurement example and a multi-bit RIS beam measurement example provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, when the transmitter and the receiver use 1-bit RIS beam measurement, the transmitter selects the sidelobe beam (i.e., grating lobe beam) as the optimal beam multiple times. When the transmitter and the receiver use multi-bit RIS beam measurement, the transmitter selects the mainlobe beam as the optimal beam. In order to solve the grating lobe problem existing in the existing scheme of beam measurement through 1-bit RIS, the present application provides a technical solution that can ensure that the transmitter selects the optimal beam. In addition, in the existing process of beam measurement and beam information feedback through 1-bit RIS, the receiver only reports the beam information corresponding to the beam with the highest receiving power, that is, it will not report the beam information corresponding to other beams. The applicant found that the receiver reporting the beam information corresponding to the sidelobe beam and / or mirror beam to the transmitter can achieve better interference management and MU-MIMO scheduling for the auxiliary transmitter (such as a base station). In other words, the applicant discovered that the existing scheme for beam measurement and beam information feedback through 1-bit RIS ignored the sidelobe beam and mirror beam, which would have a significant impact on system performance, and thus proposed a technical solution in which the receiving end reports at least two corresponding beam information among the sidelobe beam, mainlobe beam, and mirror beam to the transmitting end.

[0154] The main idea of ​​the technical solution provided by this application is as follows: during beam measurement and beam information feedback using 1-bit RIS, at least two of the mainlobe beam, sidelobe beam, and mirror beam are fed back simultaneously; this not only eliminates the erroneous feedback of sidelobe beams replacing the mainlobe beam (i.e., solves the grating lobe problem), but also fully utilizes the characteristics of the sidelobe and mirror beams corresponding to 1-bit RIS, and improves the interference management and MU-MIMO scheduling performance of the base station. The following first introduces the communication system to which the technical solution of this application is applicable.

[0155] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system applicable to embodiments of the present application. As shown in Figure 3, the communication system includes a network device 110, a terminal device 120, and a RIS 130. A communication system applicable to embodiments of the present application includes one or more terminal devices and multiple RISs. Terminal device 120 is used as an example of a terminal device in the communication system, and RIS 130 is used as an example of a RIS in the communication system. Figure 3 is merely a schematic diagram, and embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of network devices, terminal devices, and RISs included in the communication system. Terminal device 120 can access and communicate with network device 110. The terminal device can be connected to network device 110 wirelessly, and network device 110 can be connected to the core network wirelessly or by wired means. The core network device and network device 110 can be independent, distinct physical devices, or the core network device's functions and the logical functions of network device 110 can be integrated into the same physical device. Alternatively, a single physical device can integrate some of the core network device's functions and some of the network device 110's functions. Terminal devices and network devices can be connected to each other via wired or wireless means. FIG3 is only a schematic diagram. The communication system may further include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in FIG3 .

[0156] Figure 3 is merely an example of a communication system to which embodiments of the present application can be applied. Embodiments of the present application can also be applied to other communication systems including network devices, terminal devices, and RIS. In other words, embodiments of the present application can be applied to any communication system in which a transmitter sends a beam measurement reference signal to a receiver via a RIS for beam scanning. Embodiments of the present application can be applied to scenarios supporting communication enhancement based on the RIS.

[0157] In the embodiments of the present application, terminal equipment may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, subscriber unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station (MS), remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device.

[0158] The terminal device may be a device that provides wireless communication functions, such as a handheld device or a vehicle-mounted device with a wireless connection function. At present, some examples of terminal devices are: mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, cellular phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks or future evolved public land mobile communication networks (PLMNs). Terminal equipment in a land mobile network (PLMN), etc., is not limited to this in the embodiments of the present application.

[0159] As an example but not a limitation, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a mobile terminal (mobile termination, MT) in an integrated access & backhaul (IAB) node.

[0160] As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be called wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include those that are fully functional, large in size, and can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as those that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0161] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal device can be a terminal device, or a device capable of supporting the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system, which can be installed in the terminal device or used in combination with the terminal device. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices. In the embodiments of the present application, only the terminal device is used as an example for description, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

[0162] The network device in the embodiments of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, and may also be referred to as an access network device or a radio access network device. For example, the network device may be a base station. The network device in the embodiments of the present application may refer to a radio access network (RAN) node (or device) that connects a terminal device to a wireless network. The term "base station" may broadly cover the following names or be replaced with the following names, such as RAN node, NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), next generation NodeB (gNB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home NodeB, HNB), baseband unit (BBU), wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, relay station, transmitting and receiving point (TRP), IAB node, transmitting point (TP), master station, auxiliary station, multi-standard radio (motor slide retainer, MSR) node, network controller, access node, wireless node, access point (AP), transmission node, transceiver node, remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), remote radio head (RRH), central unit (CNU), etc. unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), radio unit (RU), positioning node, one or a group of (including multiple antenna panels) antenna panels of a base station in a 5G system, etc.

[0163] An IAB node integrates a mobile termination (MT) and a distributed unit (DU). An IAB node may include an MT, a DU, and a central unit (CU). A central unit may be referred to as a central unit. An IAB node may include one CU and one or more DUs. When an IAB node includes a CU, the IAB node is an IAB donor node, and the CU in the IAB donor node accesses the core network through a next-generation application protocol (NG) interface. When an IAB node faces its parent node, it can be considered a terminal, in which case the IAB node plays the role of an MT. When an IAB node faces its child node (the child node may be a terminal or the MT of another IAB node), the IAB node can be considered a network device. An IAB node can establish a backhaul connection with at least one parent node of the IAB node through the MT part. The DU part of an IAB node can provide access services to the MT part of a terminal or another IAB node.

[0164] The base station can be a macro base station, a micro base station, a relay node, a donor node or the like, or a combination thereof. The base station can also refer to a communication module, a modem or a chip used to be set in the aforementioned device or apparatus. The base station can also be a mobile switching center and a device that performs the base station function in device to device (D2D), vehicle to everything (V2X), and machine to machine (M2M) communications, a network side device in a 6G network, and a device that performs the base station function in future communication systems. The base station can support networks with the same or different access technologies. Optionally, the RAN node can also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an on-board device, etc. For example, the access network device in the V2X technology can be a road side unit (RSU). The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network equipment.

[0165] Base stations can be fixed or mobile. For example, a helicopter or drone can be configured to act as a mobile base station, and one or more cells can move based on the location of the mobile base station. In other examples, a helicopter or drone can be configured to act as a device that communicates with another base station.

[0166] In some deployments, the network devices mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may include a CU, a DU, or both a CU and a DU, or a control plane CU node (central unit-control plane (CU-CP)), a user plane CU node (central unit-user plane (CU-UP)), and a DU node. For example, the network devices may include a gNB-CU-CP, a gNB-CU-UP, and a gNB-DU.

[0167] In some deployments, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist terminals in achieving wireless access, with different RAN nodes implementing portions of the base station's functionality. For example, a RAN node can be a CU, DU, CU-CP, CU-UP, or RU. The CU and DU can be separate or included in the same network element, such as the BBU. The RU can be included in radio frequency equipment, such as the RRU, AAU, or RRH.

[0168] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an open radio access network (ORAN) system, CU may also be referred to as O-CU (open CU), DU may also be referred to as O-DU, CU-CP may also be referred to as O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be referred to as O-CU-UP, and RU may also be referred to as O-RU. Any of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0169] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the functions of the network device can be a network device; it can also be a device that can support the network device to implement the functions, such as a chip system, a hardware circuit, a software module, or a hardware circuit and a software module. The device can be installed in the network device or used in conjunction with the network device. In the embodiments of the present application, only the device for implementing the functions of the network device is used as an example to illustrate, and does not constitute a limitation on the solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

[0170] The network device and / or terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface; it can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons and satellites in the air. The embodiments of this application do not limit the scenarios in which the network device and the terminal device are located. In addition, the terminal device and the network device can be hardware devices, or they can be software functions running on dedicated hardware, software functions running on general-purpose hardware, such as virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform), or entities including dedicated or general-purpose hardware devices and software functions. This application does not limit the specific forms of the terminal device and the network device.

[0171] In one possible implementation, the RIS may only need to passively reflect received signals. This means that no transmitting or receiving units are required on the RIS side, and no data encoding or decoding is required. In other words, the RIS may only include passively reflecting electromagnetic components. In one possible implementation, the RIS may be capable of both transmitting and receiving signals or information. For example, the RIS may be capable of transmitting its topology configuration information based on signals from a base station or terminal device. In other words, the RIS may not only passively reflect received signals, but also actively transmit signals or information. The present application does not limit the structure of the RIS; the RIS may be replaced with other relay devices capable of reflecting and / or transmitting signals, or with other devices capable of beamforming signals.

[0172] It should be noted that the network architecture described in the embodiment of the present application is to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiment of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiment of the present application. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiment of the present application are equally applicable to similar technical problems. In the following embodiments, the technical solutions provided in the embodiment of the present application are described by taking the device for implementing the functions of the network device as a network device and the network device as a base station as an example.

[0173] It is understood that this application does not specifically limit the specific structure of the execution subject of the method provided in the embodiment of the application. As long as it is possible to communicate according to the method provided in the embodiment of the application by running a program that records the code of the method provided in the embodiment of the application. The method provided in the embodiment of the application can be applied to communication between a sending end and a receiving end. The interaction between the sending end and the receiving end is used as an example for explanation below.

[0174] FIG4 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG4 , the method includes:

[0175] 401. A transmitting end sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to a receiving end via a RIS.

[0176] Correspondingly, the receiving end receives multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by the transmitting end via the RIS. The transmitting end sending multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiving end via the RIS may be: the transmitting end sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to the RIS, and the multiple beam measurement reference signals are transmitted to the receiving end via the transmission and / or transmission of the RIS. In one possible implementation, the transmitting end is a base station, the receiving end is a UE, and the beam measurement reference signal is a CSI-RS. In this implementation, the beam measurement reference signal may also be other downlink reference signals, such as CRS, DMRS, etc. In one possible implementation, the transmitting end is a UE, the receiving end is a base station, and the beam measurement reference signal is an SRS. In this implementation, the beam measurement reference signal may also be other uplink reference signals, such as DMRS. In this application, the control right of the RIS may be in the base station or in the UE. The following description takes the control right of the RIS in the base station as an example.

[0177] In one possible implementation, the transmitter sequentially sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiver via the RIS using different transmit beams, where each beam measurement reference signal corresponds to a beam, different beam measurement reference signals correspond to different beams, and different beams have different directions. Exemplarily, the transmitter transmits different beam measurement reference signals with the same transmit power, the weights acting on the transmitter's antenna or the codebook acting on the transmitter's antenna port represent the beam, and the weights on the transmitter's antenna or the codebooks on the transmitter's antenna port corresponding to different beam measurement reference signals are different.

[0178] An example of step 401 is as follows: During the beam measurement process, the transmitter sequentially transmits multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiver via different transmit beams via the RIS in a certain order. The order in which the transmitter transmits the multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiver is the order of codewords in a scanning codebook used by the transmitter, where each codeword in the scanning codebook corresponds to one of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, each codeword corresponds to one beam, and each beam measurement reference signal corresponds to one beam. The scanning codebook used by the transmitter is the same as the scanning codebook used by the receiver. In one possible implementation, the transmitter and receiver may pre-agree on or pre-define the beam corresponding to each codeword in the scanning codebook. Another example of step 401 is as follows: During the beam measurement process, the transmitter sequentially transmits multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiver via different transmit beams via the RIS in a beam order pre-agreed with the receiver, where each beam corresponds to a beam measurement reference signal, and each beam measurement reference signal corresponds to a codeword in the scanning codebook. For example, the beam order pre-agreed upon by the transmitter and the receiver is beam #1-beam #2-beam #3…-beam #K. The transmitter sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to the receiver through different transmission beams via RIS in accordance with the beam order pre-agreed upon with the receiver: the transmitter first uses beam #1 to send beam measurement reference signal #1, then uses beam #2 to send beam measurement reference signal #2, then uses beam #3 to send beam measurement reference signal #3, and so on. Finally, beam #K is used to send beam measurement reference signal #K, where K is an integer greater than 1, and each beam measurement reference signal corresponds to a codeword in the scanning codebook used by the transmitter.

[0179] 402. The receiving end determines a first beam based on a reference beam direction and measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0180] The reference beam direction is determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitter and the RIS. The reference beam direction may be a beam direction determined based on the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitter and the RIS in a scenario where beam measurement is performed using a 1-bit RIS, i.e., the direction of the mirror beam. The first beam may be the optimal beam (i.e., the main lobe beam) that the transmitter can use to send a signal to the receiver. Alternatively, the first beam may be a beam that, when the transmitter sends a signal to the receiver at a constant transmission power, causes the RSRP or SNR of the signal received by the receiver to exceed a preset threshold. The preset threshold may be set according to actual needs and is not limited here. An example of step 402 is: based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, determining the information of the first beam (i.e., the main lobe beam) and the information of the side lobe beam, i.e., distinguishing the first beam from the side lobe beam.

[0181] In one possible implementation, before executing step 402, the receiving end determines the reference beam direction based on fourth information. The fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS. The fourth information may include at least one of the relative position and relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS, or information used by the transmitting end to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS, such as the azimuth angle of the RIS, the panel orientation of the RIS, the height of the RIS, the panel pitch angle of the RIS, the distance between the RIS and the transmitting end, the position information of the transmitting end, and the direction angle of the transmitting end. In one possible implementation, before determining the reference beam direction based on the fourth information, the receiving end receives the fourth information from the transmitting end or the RIS. In one possible implementation, the transmitting end (e.g., a base station) obtains the relative position of the receiving end (e.g., a UE) and the RIS through sensing, positioning, information exchange, or the like.

[0182] In a possible implementation, before executing step 402, the receiving end receives fifth information from the transmitting end or the RIS, where the fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0183] In a possible implementation, the receiving end determines the first beam based on the measurement results of the above-mentioned multiple beam measurement reference signals, the above-mentioned reference beam directions, and the order in which the above-mentioned transmitting end sends the above-mentioned multiple beam measurement reference signals. In the present application, one measurement reference signal corresponds to one measurement beam (transmitting beam), and the order in which the transmitting end sends the above-mentioned multiple measurement reference signals may be the order in which the transmitting end uses multiple measurement beams to successively send multiple measurement reference signals, each measurement beam corresponding to a resource, a weight acting on the antenna of the transmitting end, or a codeword acting on the antenna port of the transmitting end. The order in which the transmitting end sends the above-mentioned multiple measurement reference signals may be understood as the order in which the transmitting end sends the measurement beams, for example, beam #1, beam #2, beam #3, ..., beam K are used to send measurement reference signals in sequence, where K is an integer greater than 0. The order in which the transmitting end sends the above-mentioned multiple measurement reference signals may involve the beam order in the horizontal dimension and the vertical dimension. An example of determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the reference beam directions, and the order in which the transmitter transmits the multiple measurement reference signals is as follows: the receiver sequentially receives the measurement reference signals sent by the transmitter using beam #1, beam #2, beam #3, ..., beam K, and performs beam measurement, such as RSRP calculation, on each beam, thereby obtaining RSRP #1, RSRP #2, RSRP #3, ..., RSRP #K. Based on the reference beam direction, for example, β represents the angle corresponding to the reference beam direction in the coordinate system agreed upon by the system, the receiver calculates the angular region to which the first beam belongs. The angular region can be defined as >β or <β. Based on the order of the measurement reference signals and the calculation results of the RSRP of each measurement reference signal, the receiver identifies at least two beams corresponding to the largest RSRP or the larger RSRP within a certain threshold range. Furthermore, based on the angular region to which the first beam belongs, the receiver ultimately determines the first beam, i.e., the beam with the largest RSRP within the angular region to which the first beam belongs.

[0184] In one possible implementation, the receiving end first determines s beams within the angle region among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals, where s is an integer greater than 0; any beam among the s beams whose first performance indicator is greater than or equal to a target threshold is determined as a first beam, where the first performance indicator is RSRP, SNR, SINR, etc., and the order in which the measurement reference signals associated with the first beam are sent is used to identify the first beam. In one possible implementation, the receiving end first determines s beams within the angle region among the multiple beams associated with the multiple measurement reference signals; the beam with the largest first performance indicator among the s beams is determined as the first beam, where the first performance indicator is RSRP, SNR, or SINR, and the order in which the measurement reference signals associated with the first beam are sent is used to identify the first beam. For example, the receiving end determines the beam with the highest RSRP among the s beams as the first beam. The measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals may include the first performance indicator of each beam associated with the multiple measurement reference signals. Based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the receiver can obtain a first performance indicator for each beam associated with the multiple measurement reference signals. It should be noted that RSRP is only one example of a beam measurement result, and other indicators can also be used to measure beam quality, such as SNR, signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc. Based on the reference beam direction, for example, β represents the angle corresponding to the reference beam direction in the system's agreed coordinate system. The receiver calculates the angular region to which the first beam belongs as follows: The receiver can determine whether its angular region is >β or <β based on its feedback of historical beam information. The angular region strongly depends on the receiver's relative position to the RIS. Considering that the actual system beam measurement period is much less than or equal to the actual movement time per unit distance, the angular region in this example can be determined based on historical information. The receiver can also additionally consider the changing pattern of RSRP, SNR, or decoding characteristics based on the historical information. For example, when RSRP, SNR, or decoding characteristics suddenly change, the angular region based on historical information may switch.

[0185] A possible implementation of step 402 is as follows: based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the reference beam directions, the order in which the transmitter sends the multiple measurement reference signals, and the relative positional relationship between the receiver and the RIS, the first beam is determined. An example of determining the first beam based on the measurement results of the multiple measurement reference signals, the reference beam directions, the order in which the transmitter sends the multiple measurement reference signals, and the relative positional relationship between the receiver and the RIS is as follows: the receiver sequentially receives the measurement reference signals sent by the transmitter using beam #1, beam #2, beam #3, ..., beam K, and performs beam measurements, such as RSRP calculation, on each of the beams, thereby obtaining RSRP #1, RSRP #2, RSRP #3, ..., RSRP #K; based on the reference beam directions and the relative positional relationship between the receiver and the RIS, the first beam is determined. The relative positional relationship between the ISs is shown in FIG. For example, β represents the angle corresponding to the reference beam direction in the coordinate system agreed upon by the system. The receiving end calculates the angular region to which the first beam belongs, which can be defined as two regions > β or < β. Based on the order of measuring the reference signals and the calculation results of the RSRP of each measured reference signal, the receiving end identifies at least two beams corresponding to the largest RSRP or a larger RSRP within a certain threshold range. Furthermore, based on the angular region to which the first beam belongs, the receiving end ultimately determines the first beam, i.e., the beam with the largest RSRP within the angular region to which the first beam belongs.

[0186] Based on the reference beam direction and the relative position relationship between the receiving end and the above-mentioned RIS, for example, β represents the angle corresponding to the reference beam direction in the coordinate system agreed upon by the system. The example of the receiving end calculating the angle area to which the first beam belongs is as follows: First, the receiving end can determine whether its angle area is one of the two areas > β or < β based on its feedback historical beam information. The angle area strongly depends on the relative position of the receiving end relative to the RIS. Considering that the actual system beam measurement period is much less than or equal to the actual movement time per unit distance, the angle area in this example can be determined based on historical information; the receiving end can also determine based on historical information. The historical information is determined by additionally considering the changing patterns of RSRP, SNR, or decoding characteristics. For example, when RSRP, SNR, or decoding characteristics suddenly change, the angle region based on the historical information may switch. Secondly, if the receiving end can obtain its specific position information through other means, it can determine the angle region based on its relative position information with respect to the RIS in the relative coordinate system and the angle corresponding to the reference beam direction in the coordinate system agreed upon by the system. That is, the relative position vector angle and the first beam vector angle are compared. For example, when the relative position vector angle is greater than the first beam vector angle, the angle region is > β, and vice versa.

[0187] In one possible implementation, the transmitting end and the receiving end exchange information on the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals. An example of the transmitting end and the receiving end exchanging information on the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals is as follows: the transmitting end sends a first message to the receiving end, the first message is used to indicate the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals, for example, the first message is used to indicate that the multiple beam measurement reference signals are to be sent sequentially according to the order of the codewords in the scan codebook; after receiving the first message, the receiving end sends a second message to the transmitting end, the second message is used to indicate that the receiving end has successfully received the first message. Another example of the transmitting end and the receiving end exchanging information on the order in which the transmitting end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals is as follows: the receiving end sends a third message to the transmitting end, the third message is used to request the transmitting end to send the multiple beam measurement reference signals sequentially according to the order of the codewords in the scan codebook; after receiving the third message, the transmitting end sends a fourth message to the receiving end, the fourth message is used to indicate that the transmitting end agrees to send the multiple beam measurement reference signals sequentially according to the order of the codewords in the scan codebook. In one possible implementation, the transmitter and the receiver pre-agreed on the order in which the transmitter transmits the multiple beam measurement reference signals. For example, the transmitter is required to transmit the multiple beam measurement reference signals sequentially according to the order in which the codewords in the codebook are scanned. The transmitter and the receiver may also interact or agree on the order in which the transmitter transmits the multiple beam measurement reference signals via different beams through other means, which is not limited in this application.

[0188] 403. The receiving end sends a beam measurement result to the transmitting end, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0189] Correspondingly, the transmitting end receives the beam measurement result from the receiving end. The angle between the direction of the first beam and the direction of the reference beam is equal to the angle between the direction of the second beam and the direction of the reference beam, or the difference between the angle between the direction of the first beam and the direction of the reference beam and the angle between the direction of the second beam and the direction of the reference beam is less than or equal to a first preset value, or the direction of the first beam and the direction of the second beam are symmetrical with respect to the reference beam direction. For example, the first preset value ranges from 0 to 5 degrees. In one possible implementation, before executing step 403, the receiving end further performs the following operation: determining the second beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals. In one possible implementation, step 402 is replaced by: the receiving end determines the first beam and the second beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals. The way the receiving end determines the second beam based on the reference beam direction is similar to the way it determines the first beam and will not be repeated here. In one possible implementation, one of the first beam and the second beam is a main lobe beam, and the other is a side lobe beam. For example, the first beam is a main lobe beam, and the second beam is a side lobe beam. In a scenario where beam measurement is performed using a 1-bit RIS, the phase rotation angle of the main lobe beam (i.e., the first beam) relative to the mirror beam and the phase rotation angle of a side lobe beam (i.e., the second beam) relative to the mirror beam are reciprocal. For example, after measuring the RSRP corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals, the receiving end determines, based on the reference beam direction and the relative position of the receiver itself relative to the RIS, which of the two or more beam measurement reference signals with the largest RSRP among the multiple beam measurement reference signals corresponds to the main lobe beam and which corresponds to the side lobe beam, i.e., the second beam.

[0190] Steps 401 to 403 may be a beam measurement process. After the transmitting end and the receiving end complete the beam measurement, the uplink cascade channel and the downlink cascade channel may be estimated based on the uplink or downlink transmission reference signal, and then operations such as precoding, modulation order, and rank number setting may be performed. In one possible implementation, after the transmitting end and the receiving end complete the beam measurement, the base station or UE may adjust the beam to transmit in a specific direction by regulating the phase, amplitude, and other information of each electromagnetic unit of the RIS, thereby achieving beamforming. Since achieving beamforming by regulating the phase, amplitude, and other information of each electromagnetic unit of the RIS is a common technical means in this field, it will not be described in detail here.

[0191] In an embodiment of the present application, a beam measurement result is sent to the transmitting end, and the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, rather than only carrying the beam information corresponding to the beam with the highest power. The receiving end can determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam based on the beam measurement result, that is, the receiving end can distinguish multiple beams corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals (for example, including main lobe beams and side lobe beams) based on the beam measurement result, thereby avoiding the problem of using side lobe beams corresponding to multiple beam measurement reference signals as main lobe beams, that is, avoiding the beam selection mismatch problem, thereby avoiding the impact of erroneous feedback of beams corresponding to side lobes on performance. In addition, the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, so that the receiving end can better perform scheduling and interference management based on two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, thereby improving the interference management and scheduling performance of the base station.

[0192] FIG5 is a flow chart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method flow in FIG5 is a possible implementation of the method described in FIG4. The base station in FIG5 is an example of the transmitting end in FIG4, and the UE in FIG5 is an example of the receiving end in FIG4. As shown in FIG5, the method includes:

[0193] 501. The UE sends seventh information to the base station.

[0194] Accordingly, the base station receives seventh information from the UE. The seventh information is used to trigger the base station to send, to the UE, information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the base station and the RIS. In other words, the seventh information is used to trigger the base station to send, to the UE, fourth information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the base station and the RIS.

[0195] In one possible implementation, the UE sends the seventh information to the base station based on its own reception performance or mobility status. Exemplarily, the UE sends the seventh information to the base station when the SNR of the signal received by the UE from the base station is lower than a first threshold. The first threshold can be set according to actual needs and is not limited here. Exemplarily, the UE sends the seventh information to the base station when its own moving speed exceeds a second threshold. The second threshold can be set according to actual needs and is not limited here.

[0196] In one possible implementation, when the UE determines that beam scanning is required, the UE sends the seventh information to the base station. In this implementation, when the UE determines that beam scanning is required, the UE sends the seventh information to the base station, which can promptly trigger the base station to send the fourth information.

[0197] 502. In response to the seventh information, the base station sends fourth information to the UE.

[0198] Accordingly, the UE receives fourth information from the base station. The fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the above-mentioned base station and the above-mentioned RIS. In one possible implementation, the base station may send the fourth information to the UE by sending identification information of the RIS. The UE and the base station may pre-store topology configuration information of multiple RISs (for example, the topology configuration information of each RIS includes the azimuth angle of the RIS, the panel orientation of the RIS, the height of the RIS, the panel pitch angle of the RIS, the distance between the RIS and the base station, etc.). Based on the identification information of the RIS, the UE can know which RIS configuration information is used to determine the reference beam direction, that is, the direction of the mirror beam. Based on the identification information of the RIS, the UE can also know which RIS the base station will use to send the beam measurement reference signal to it.

[0199] 503. The UE determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0200] In one possible implementation, the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS is equal to the angle between the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS. In other words, the reference beam direction and the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam are symmetrical with respect to the normal direction of the RIS. In one possible implementation, the difference between the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS and the angle between the direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS is less than or equal to a second preset value. Theoretically, the difference between the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS and the angle between the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS is equal to 0, i.e., the two angles are equal. In actual applications, certain factors may cause the difference between the two angles to be not 0, but a real number approximately 0, i.e., the second preset value (greater than 0). The second preset value can be the maximum value of the difference between the two angles, i.e., the maximum allowable error. In one possible implementation, the reference beam direction includes a horizontal azimuth direction and a vertical elevation direction. The horizontal azimuth direction includes the height of the RIS and the pitch / tilt angle of the RIS; the vertical elevation direction includes the azimuth and orientation of the RIS. This application describes a method for determining the reference beam direction using the example of the reference beam direction and the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam being symmetric relative to the normal direction of the RIS. The receiving end may also determine the reference beam direction using other methods, which are not limited here.

[0201] Since the reference beam direction and the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam are symmetrical with respect to the normal direction of the RIS, the reference beam direction can be determined based on the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS. That is, after obtaining the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS, the reference beam direction can be determined based on the direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS. An example of determining the reference beam direction based on the incident direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS is as follows: In the coordinate system predefined by the system, assuming that the incident beam direction of the base station's transmit beam is (α h ,α v ), the two-dimensional variables correspond to the horizontal and vertical directions of the beam relative to the coordinate system, assuming that the normal direction of the RIS is (θ h ,θ v ); Since the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS is equal to the angle between the beam direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS, the reference beam direction can be defined as (2θ h -α h ,2θ v -α v ).

[0202] In one possible implementation, the fourth information includes the relative direction between the base station and the RIS. An example of determining the first direction based on the fourth information is as follows: within a coordinate system predefined by the system, the relative direction between the base station and the RIS is Δ1, then the reference beam direction can be 2Δ1 or -Δ1.

[0203] In one possible implementation, the fourth information includes the relative position between the base station and the RIS. An example of determining the first direction based on the fourth information is as follows: in a coordinate system predefined by the system, assuming that the relative position of the base station is (0, 0, 0) and the relative position of the RIS is (x2, y2, z2); the incident beam direction of the base station's transmit beam is (α h ,α v ), the two-dimensional variables correspond to the horizontal and vertical directions of the beam relative to the coordinate system, and the normal direction of the RIS can be obtained as (tan -1 (y2 / x2),tan -1 (z2 / x2)), which is defined as (θ h ,θ v ); Since the angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS is equal to the angle between the beam direction of the base station's transmit beam and the normal direction of the RIS, the reference beam direction can be defined as (2θ h -α h ,2θ v -α v ). The fourth information may also include the incident beam direction of the base station's transmission beam (α h ,α v ).

[0204] In one possible implementation, the fourth information includes at least one of the azimuth angle of the RIS, the panel orientation of the RIS, the height of the RIS, the panel pitch angle of the RIS, or the distance between the RIS and the base station. An example of determining the reference beam direction based on the fourth information is as follows: first, based on the fourth information, the relative position between the base station and the RIS is determined; and then, based on the relative position between the base station and the RIS, the reference beam direction is determined. Exemplarily, the relative position relationship between the base station and the RIS satisfies the following formula:

[0205] Among them, the position coordinates of RIS are (x rk ,y rk , z rk ), the location coordinates of the base station are (x bi ,y bi , z bi ), The θ represents the elevation angle of the RIS array center relative to the base station antenna array center. bs-i represents the direction angle of the base station, θ ris-k represents the azimuth angle of RIS relative to the normal direction of the base station's antenna array, r k Represents the distance between the base station and the RIS. Based on formula (1), formula (2) and formula (3), it can be known that based on the direction angle of the base station, the position coordinates of the base station, the pitch angle of the array center of the RIS relative to the center of the antenna array of the base station, the azimuth angle of the RIS relative to the normal direction of the antenna array of the base station, and the distance between the base station and the RIS, the receiving end can determine the position coordinates of the RIS. The receiving end can also obtain the position coordinates of the RIS in other ways, which are not limited in this application. The receiving end can determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the sending end and the RIS based on the position coordinates of the sending end and the position coordinates of the RIS. An example of how the receiving end can determine the relative direction of the sending end and the RIS based on the position coordinates of the sending end and the position coordinates of the RIS is as follows: Taking the coordinates of the sending end as (0,0,0) as an example, further assuming that the position coordinates of the RIS are (x r ,y r , z r ), the relative direction between the transmitter and the RIS is expressed in the coordinate system predefined by the system. The direction is the incident direction of the transmitter relative to the RIS panel, which is a two-dimensional Δ, expressed as Δ = (tan -1 (y r / x r ),tan -1 (z r / x r )). Furthermore, based on the incident direction and the normal direction of the RIS, the reference beam direction and other information can be further obtained, and the process is the same as above.

[0206] 501'. The base station sends fourth information to the UE.

[0207] Accordingly, the UE receives the fourth information from the base station. In one possible implementation, the base station sends the fourth information to the UE when the configuration information of the RIS changes or the RIS serving the UE is switched to the RIS. In this implementation, the UE can promptly update the relative position and / or relative direction of the base station and the RIS, thereby accurately determining the reference beam direction. In one possible implementation, the base station periodically sends information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the base station and the RIS, such as the fourth information, to the UE. In this implementation, the base station can periodically update the information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the base station and the RIS.

[0208] 502'. The UE determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0209] Step 502' may refer to step 503. Steps 501 to 503 are optional. For example, steps 501 to 503 may be replaced by steps 501' to 502'.

[0210] 501". The base station sends fifth information to the UE.

[0211] The fifth information is used to indicate a reference beam direction. In one possible implementation, before the base station sends the fifth information to the UE, it receives the eighth information from the UE; in response to the eighth information, the base station sends the fifth information to the UE. The eighth information is used to trigger the base station to send the fifth information to the UE. Exemplarily, the eighth information is used to request the UE to perform beam measurement with reference to the reference beam direction.

[0212] Steps 501 to 503, step 501' to 502', and step 501" are three parallel ways for the UE to obtain the above-mentioned reference beam direction. The method flow in Figure 5 may include any one of steps 501 to 503, steps 501' to 502', and step 501". The UE can also obtain the above-mentioned reference beam direction required for reference for beam measurement through interaction with the base station, which is not limited in this application.

[0213] 504. The base station sends sixth information to the UE.

[0214] Accordingly, the UE receives sixth information from the base station. The sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the base station transmits the multiple beam measurement reference signals. In one possible implementation, the order in which the base station transmits the multiple beam measurement reference signals may be the order of codewords in a scanning codebook agreed upon by the base station and the UE, where each codeword corresponds to a beam measurement reference signal. Step 504 is optional.

[0215] Step 504 can be replaced by: the base station and the UE exchange information on the order in which the base station sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals. An example of the order in which the base station sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals is as follows: the base station sends a first message to the UE, the first message is used to indicate the order in which the base station sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals, for example, the first message is used to indicate that the multiple beam measurement reference signals are to be sent sequentially according to the order of the codewords in the scan codebook; after receiving the first message, the UE sends a second message to the base station, the second message is used to indicate that the UE has successfully received the first message. Another example of the order in which the base station and the UE exchange information on the order in which the base station sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals is as follows: the UE sends a third message to the base station, the third message is used to request the base station to send the multiple beam measurement reference signals sequentially according to the order of the codewords in the scan codebook; after receiving the third message, the base station sends a fourth message to the UE, the fourth message is used to indicate that the base station agrees to send the multiple beam measurement reference signals sequentially according to the order of the codewords in the scan codebook. In one possible implementation, the base station and the UE pre-agree on the order in which the base station sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals, for example, agreeing that the base station sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals in sequence according to the order of scanning codewords in the codebook. The base station and the UE may also interact or agree on the order in which the base station sends multiple beam measurement reference signals through different beams in other ways, which is not limited in this application.

[0216] 505. The base station sends second information to the UE.

[0217] Correspondingly, the UE receives the second information from the base station. The second information is used to indicate the information that the above-mentioned UE needs to report for beam measurement. The second information can be information used to indicate a reporting mode. The reporting mode refers to the mode in which the UE reports the beam information obtained by performing beam measurement. Different reporting modes indicated by the second information require different information to be reported by the UE for beam measurement. In one possible implementation, the reporting mode of the beam information (or beam measurement results) obtained by the UE for beam measurement is defined based on the multi-user spatial division requirement or interference suppression requirement of the base station. In other words, in a scenario where the base station has a multi-user spatial division requirement or an interference suppression requirement, the base station sends the second information to the UE, i.e., indicates the reporting mode of the UE. Exemplarily, the reporting modes of the beam information obtained by the UE through beam measurement include mode 1 and mode 2. If the second information is used to instruct the UE to use mode 1 to report the beam information obtained through beam measurement, that is, the second information is used to instruct the UE to report the information of the main lobe beam, the UE reports the information of the main lobe beam, such as the index of the main lobe beam, the angle vector of the main lobe beam, the index of the codeword corresponding to the main lobe beam, the RSRP corresponding to the main lobe beam, etc.; if the second information is used to instruct the UE to use mode 2 to report the beam information obtained through beam measurement, that is, the second information is used to instruct the UE to report at least two items of information among the main lobe beam, the side lobe beam and the mirror beam, the UE reports at least two items of information among the main lobe beam, the side lobe beam and the mirror beam. In one possible implementation, the reporting mode can be implemented using 1-2 bits based on the beam information to be reported. For example, 0 represents mode 1, and 1 represents mode 2. For another example, 00 represents mode 1, and 11 represents mode 2. In one possible implementation, if the second information is used to indicate mode 1, the UE reports the information of the main lobe beam; if the second information is used to indicate mode 2, the UE reports the information of at least two of the main lobe beam, the side lobe beam and the mirror beam. In one possible implementation, if the second information is used to indicate mode 2, the base station and the UE may first exchange the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information reported by the UE for beam measurement and the beam, such as exchanging the identifier of each beam. In one possible implementation, if the second information is used to indicate mode 2, the base station and the UE may first exchange the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement, such as the order of multiple groups of beam information is the information of the main lobe beam, the information of the mirror beam, and the information of the side lobe beam.

[0218] The UE processing procedures corresponding to different reporting modes are different: if the second information is used to indicate mode 1, the UE determines the main lobe beam / grating lobe beam / mirror beam + reports the information of the main lobe beam (i.e., the main lobe beam information); if the second information is used to indicate mode 2, the UE determines the main lobe beam / grating lobe beam / mirror beam + reports multiple groups of beam information according to the order of reporting beams, such as the main lobe beam information and the side lobe beam information. Step 505 is optional. The above-mentioned reporting mode indicates and the order of multiple groups of beam information in the reported beam measurement results can be carried in different channels in a dynamic, semi-static or other signaling manner using periodic / non-periodic signaling, which is not limited in this application. In one possible implementation, the base station and the UE pre-configure the UE to use mode 2 to report the beam information obtained by beam measurement.

[0219] 506. The base station sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to the UE via RIS.

[0220] Step 506 may refer to step 401. Accordingly, the UE receives multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by the base station via the RIS.

[0221] 507. The UE performs beam measurement based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0222] In one possible implementation, the UE calculates RSRP, SNR, and other information for each beam measurement reference signal based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals. The UE performs beam measurement based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals using conventional techniques in the art and is not further described here.

[0223] 508. The base station sends first information to the UE, where the first information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the UE for beam measurement.

[0224] In one possible implementation, the first information is used to indicate identification information of the main lobe beam, identification information of the side lobe beam, and identification information of the mirror beam. In one possible implementation, the first information is used to indicate identification information of the main lobe beam information, identification information of the side lobe beam information, and identification information of the mirror beam information. Step 508 is optional. The base station and the UE may pre-agree (or negotiate) on the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the UE for beam measurement. The base station and the UE may exchange the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the UE for beam measurement before executing the method flow in Figure 5. Step 508 can be replaced by: the UE sends the first information to the base station, and the first information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the UE for beam measurement. The above mapping relationship may include the identifier of the main lobe beam, the reference signal resource corresponding to the main lobe beam, the category (classification) of the main lobe beam, the identifier of the side lobe beam, the reference signal resource corresponding to the side lobe beam, the category of the side lobe beam, the identifier of the mirror beam, the reference signal resource corresponding to the mirror beam, and the category of the mirror beam. This embodiment of the application only limits step 508 to before step 510, and does not limit the order of step 508 and other steps.

[0225] Step 508 may also be replaced by an operation between the base station and the UE to exchange mapping relationships between two or more sets of beam information reported by the UE for beam measurement and beams. An example of the mapping relationship between two or more sets of beam information reported by the UE for beam measurement and beams is shown in Table 1.

[0226] Table 1

[0227] 508'. The base station sends third information to the UE, where the third information is used to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement.

[0228] Correspondingly, the UE receives the third information from the base station. Step 508' can be replaced by: the UE sends the third information to the base station, and the third information is used to indicate the order of the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement. The method flow in Figure 5 includes one of step 508 and step 508'. Exemplarily, the third information is used to indicate that the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement are, in order, information of the first beam (a group of beam information), information of the second beam (a group of beam information), and information of the mirror beam (a group of beam information). Exemplarily, the third information is used to indicate that the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement are, in order, information of the first beam (a group of beam information), and information of the mirror beam (a group of beam information). Step 508' is optional. The base station and the UE can pre-agree (or negotiate) the order of the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement. The embodiment of the present application only limits step 508 ′ to being before step 510 , and does not limit the order of step 508 ′ and other steps.

[0229] 509. The UE determines a first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0230] Step 509 may refer to step 402 .

[0231] 510. Based on the first information and the second information, the UE sends a beam measurement result to the base station, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0232] Accordingly, the base station receives the beam measurement result from the UE. In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes two or more of a first set of beam information, a second set of beam information, and a third set of beam information, where the first set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the second set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the second beam, and the third set of beam information is used to indicate the reference beam direction. Exemplarily, the first set of beam information is information about the first beam (e.g., the main lobe beam), and includes one or more of the following: identification information, index, angle vector, index of the codeword corresponding to the first beam, and RSRP corresponding to the first beam; the second set of beam information is information about the second beam (e.g., the side lobe beam), and includes one or more of the following: identification information, index, angle vector, index of the codeword corresponding to the second beam, and RSRP corresponding to the second beam; the third set of beam information is information about the mirror beam, and includes identification information, index, angle vector, index of the codeword corresponding to the mirror beam, and RSRP corresponding to the mirror beam, and the direction of the mirror beam is the reference beam direction. The identification information of a beam is information used to identify the beam, that is, to identify the class of the beam. For example, beams can be divided into three categories: main lobe beams, side lobe beams, and mirror beams. In one possible implementation, the index of the first beam is the order of beam measurement reference signals corresponding to the first beam among multiple beam measurement reference signals successively received by the UE. For example, if the UE successively receives beam measurement reference signal #1, beam measurement reference signal #2, beam measurement reference signal #3, ..., beam measurement reference signal #P in chronological order, where P is an integer greater than 3, and if the first beam corresponds to beam measurement reference signal #3, the index of the first beam is 3. Because the sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the base station transmits the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the UE can determine the indices of the mainlobe beam, sidelobe beam, and mirror beam based on this order.

[0233] Step 510 is optional. Since step 505 is optional, step 510 can be replaced by: based on the first information, the UE sends a beam measurement result to the base station, and the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam. Since both steps 505 and 508 are optional, step 510 can be replaced by: based on the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the UE for beam measurement, the UE sends the beam measurement result to the base station.

[0234] 510'. Based on the third information, the UE sends a beam measurement result to the base station, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0235] Correspondingly, the base station receives the beam measurement result from the UE. In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information, and the third group of beam information, the first group of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the second group of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the second beam, and the third group of beam information is used to indicate the reference beam direction. Two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information, and the third group of beam information belong to the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement. Exemplarily, the first group of beam information is the information of the first beam (for example, the main lobe beam), and the first group of beam information includes one or more of the index of the first beam, the angle vector, the index of the codeword corresponding to the first beam, the RSRP corresponding to the first beam, etc.; the second group of beam information is the information of the second beam (for example, the sidelobe beam), and the second group of beam information includes one or more of the index of the second beam, the angle vector, the index of the codeword corresponding to the second beam, the RSRP corresponding to the second beam, etc.; the third group of beam information is the information of the mirror beam, and the third group of beam information includes the index of the mirror beam, the angle vector, the index of the codeword corresponding to the mirror beam, the RSRP corresponding to the mirror beam, etc., and the direction of the mirror beam is the above-mentioned reference beam direction. Exemplarily, the third information is used to indicate that the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement are, in order, information of the first beam (a group of beam information), information of the second beam (a group of beam information), and information of the mirror beam (a group of beam information); the multiple groups of beam information in the above beam measurement results are, in order, the first group of beam information (i.e., information of the first beam), the second group of beam information (i.e., information of the second beam), and the third group of beam information (i.e., information of the mirror beam).

[0236] The method flow in FIG. 5 includes steps 508 and 510 or steps 508 ′ and 510 ′.

[0237] 511. The base station performs interference management based on the beam measurement result from the UE and performs downlink data transmission.

[0238] In one possible implementation, the base station performs interference management and MU-MIMO scheduling based on beam measurements from the UE. Sidelobes can be used by the base station for scheduling and interference management. For example, the base station can schedule other users to avoid the direction of sidelobe beams and mirror beams, and the base station can design precoding functions such as zero forcing to account for sidelobes and mirror beams.

[0239] In this embodiment of the present application, the UE sends beam measurement results to the base station. These beam measurement results are used to determine two or more of the directions of the first beam, the second beam, and the reference beam, rather than simply carrying beam information corresponding to the highest-power beam. This allows the base station to effectively avoid grating lobe issues. Furthermore, the base station can better perform scheduling and interference management based on two or more of the directions of the first beam, the second beam, and the reference beam, thereby improving the interference management and scheduling performance of the base station.

[0240] FIG6 is a flow chart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method flow in FIG6 is a possible implementation of the method described in FIG4. The base station in FIG5 is an example of the receiving end in FIG4, and the UE in FIG6 is an example of the transmitting end in FIG4. As shown in FIG6, the method includes:

[0241] 601. The base station sends seventh information to the UE.

[0242] Accordingly, the UE receives seventh information from the base station. The seventh information is used to trigger the UE to send information to the base station for determining the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS. In other words, the seventh information is used to trigger the UE to send fourth information to the base station, and the fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS.

[0243] In one possible implementation, upon determining that beam scanning is required, the base station transmits the seventh information to the UE. In this implementation, upon determining that beam scanning is required, the base station transmits the seventh information to the UE, thereby promptly triggering the UE to transmit the fourth information. In the method flow of Figure 6 , control of the RIS can reside in either the UE or the base station.

[0244] 602. In response to the seventh information, the UE sends fourth information to the base station.

[0245] Accordingly, the base station receives fourth information from the UE. The fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS. In one possible implementation, the UE may send the fourth information to the base station by sending identification information of the RIS. The base station and the UE may pre-store topology configuration information of multiple RISs (for example, the topology configuration information of each RIS includes the azimuth angle of the RIS, the panel orientation of the RIS, the height of the RIS, the panel pitch angle of the RIS, the distance between the RIS and the UE, etc.). Based on the identification information of the RIS, the base station can determine which RIS configuration information is used to determine the reference beam direction, that is, the direction of the mirror beam. Based on the identification information of the RIS, the base station can also determine which RIS the UE will use to send a beam measurement reference signal to it.

[0246] 603. The base station determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0247] For step 603 , please refer to step 503 in FIG. 5 .

[0248] 601'. The UE sends fourth information to the base station.

[0249] Accordingly, the base station receives the fourth information from the UE. In one possible implementation, the UE sends the fourth information to the base station when the configuration information of the RIS changes or the RIS serving the UE switches to the RIS. In this implementation, the base station can promptly update the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS, thereby accurately determining the reference beam direction. In one possible implementation, the UE periodically sends information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS, such as the fourth information, to the base station. In this implementation, the UE can periodically update the information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS.

[0250] 602': The base station determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0251] Step 602' may refer to step 503. Steps 601 to 603 are optional. For example, steps 601 to 603 may be replaced by steps 601' to 602'.

[0252] 601". The UE sends fifth information to the base station.

[0253] The fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction. In one possible implementation, before the UE sends the fifth information to the base station, it receives the eighth information from the base station; in response to the eighth information, the UE sends the fifth information to the base station. The eighth information is used to trigger the UE to send the fifth information to the base station. Exemplarily, the eighth information is used to request the base station to perform beam measurement with reference to the reference beam direction.

[0254] Steps 601 to 603, steps 601' to 602', and step 601" are three parallel ways for the base station to know the reference beam direction. The method flow in Figure 6 may include any one of steps 601 to 603, steps 601' to 602', and step 601".

[0255] 604. The UE sends sixth information to the base station.

[0256] Correspondingly, the base station receives sixth information from the UE. The sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the UE sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals. Step 604 is optional. Step 604 can refer to step 504 in Figure 5.

[0257] 605. The UE sends second information to the base station.

[0258] Correspondingly, the base station receives second information from the UE. The second information is used to indicate information that needs to be reported by the base station for beam measurement.

[0259] Step 605 is optional. For step 605, please refer to step 505 in FIG5 .

[0260] 606. The UE sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to the base station via the RIS.

[0261] Step 606 may refer to step 401. Accordingly, the base station receives multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by the UE via the RIS. The beam measurement reference signals may be SRSs.

[0262] 607. The base station performs beam measurement based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0263] In one possible implementation, the base station calculates RSRP, SNR, and other information for each beam measurement reference signal based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals. The base station performs beam measurement based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals using conventional techniques in the art and will not be described in detail here.

[0264] 608. The UE sends first information to the base station, where the first information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the base station for beam measurement.

[0265] In one possible implementation, the first information is used to indicate the identifier of the main lobe beam, the identifier of the side lobe beam, and the identifier of the mirror beam. Step 608 is optional. The base station and the UE may pre-agree (or negotiate) the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the UE for beam measurement. In one possible implementation, the UE and the base station may exchange the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the base station for beam measurement before executing the method flow in Figure 6. Step 608 can be replaced by: the base station sends the first information to the UE, and the first information is used to indicate the mapping relationship between two or more groups of beam information and the beams reported by the base station for beam measurement.

[0266] Step 608 may also be replaced by an operation in which the UE and the base station exchange mappings between two or more sets of beam information reported by the base station for beam measurement and the beams. An example of the mapping between two or more sets of beam information reported by the base station for beam measurement and the beams is shown in Table 1 above. As shown in Table 1, the mainlobe beam is identified as 1, the sidelobe beam is identified as 3, and the mirror beam is identified as 2.

[0267] 608'. The UE sends third information to the base station, where the third information is used to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the base station needs to report for beam measurement.

[0268] Correspondingly, the base station receives the third information from the UE. Step 608' can be replaced by: the base station sends the third information to the UE, and the third information is used to indicate the order of multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the base station needs to report for beam measurement. The method flow in Figure 6 includes one of step 608 and step 608'. Exemplarily, the third information is used to indicate that the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the base station needs to report for beam measurement are, in order, information of the first beam (a group of beam information), information of the second beam (a group of beam information), and information of the mirror beam (a group of beam information). Exemplarily, the third information is used to indicate that the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the base station needs to report for beam measurement are, in order, information of the first beam (a group of beam information), information of the mirror beam (a group of beam information).

[0269] 609. The base station determines a first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0270] Step 609 may refer to step 402 .

[0271] 610. Based on the first information and the second information, the base station sends a beam measurement result to the UE, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0272] Accordingly, the UE receives the beam measurement result from the base station. Step 610 is optional. Since step 605 is optional, step 610 can be replaced by: based on the first information, the base station sends the beam measurement result to the UE, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0273] 610'. Based on the third information, the base station sends a beam measurement result to the UE, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0274] Correspondingly, the UE receives the beam measurement result from the base station. In one possible implementation, the beam measurement result includes two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information, and the third group of beam information, the first group of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the second group of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the second beam, and the third group of beam information is used to indicate the reference beam direction. Two or more of the first group of beam information, the second group of beam information, and the third group of beam information belong to multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that need to be reported by the base station for beam measurement. Exemplarily, the first group of beam information is the information of the first beam (for example, the main lobe beam), and the first group of beam information includes one or more of the index of the first beam, the angle vector, the index of the codeword corresponding to the first beam, the RSRP corresponding to the first beam, etc.; the second group of beam information is the information of the second beam (for example, the sidelobe beam), and the second group of beam information includes one or more of the index of the second beam, the angle vector, the index of the codeword corresponding to the second beam, the RSRP corresponding to the second beam, etc.; the third group of beam information is the information of the mirror beam, and the third group of beam information includes the index of the mirror beam, the angle vector, the index of the codeword corresponding to the mirror beam, the RSRP corresponding to the mirror beam, etc., and the direction of the mirror beam is the above-mentioned reference beam direction. Exemplarily, the third information is used to indicate that the multiple groups of beam information in the beam measurement results that the UE needs to report for beam measurement are, in order, information of the first beam (a group of beam information), information of the second beam (a group of beam information), and information of the mirror beam (a group of beam information); the multiple groups of beam information in the above beam measurement results are, in order, the first group of beam information (i.e., information of the first beam), the second group of beam information (i.e., information of the second beam), and the third group of beam information (i.e., information of the mirror beam).

[0275] The method flow in FIG. 6 includes steps 608 and 610 or steps 608 ′ and 610 ′.

[0276] 611. The UE performs uplink data transmission based on the beam measurement result from the base station.

[0277] In one possible implementation, the UE performs interference management based on beam measurement results from the base station.

[0278] In an embodiment of the present application, the base station sends a beam measurement result to the UE, and the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, rather than only carrying the beam information corresponding to the beam with the highest power; this can enable the UE to effectively avoid the grating lobe problem.

[0279] FIG7 is a flow chart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method flow in FIG7 is a possible implementation of the method described in FIG4. The base station in FIG7 is an example of the transmitting end in FIG4, and the UE in FIG7 is an example of the receiving end in FIG4. As shown in FIG7, the method includes:

[0280] 701. The UE sends seventh information to the base station.

[0281] Accordingly, the base station receives seventh information from the UE. The seventh information is used to trigger the base station to send, to the UE, information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the base station and the RIS. In other words, the seventh information is used to trigger the base station to send, to the UE, fourth information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction between the base station and the RIS.

[0282] 702. In response to the seventh information, the base station sends fourth information to the UE.

[0283] Correspondingly, the UE receives fourth information from the base station. The fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the base station and the RIS.

[0284] 703. The UE determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0285] 701'. The base station sends fourth information to the UE.

[0286] Accordingly, the UE receives the fourth information from the base station. In one possible implementation, the base station sends the fourth information to the UE when the configuration information of the RIS changes or the RIS serving the UE is switched to the RIS. In this implementation, the UE can promptly update the relative position and / or relative direction of the base station and the RIS, thereby accurately determining the reference beam direction. In one possible implementation, the base station periodically sends information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the base station and the RIS, such as the fourth information, to the UE. In this implementation, the base station can periodically update the information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the base station and the RIS.

[0287] 702'. The UE determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0288] Step 702' may refer to step 703. Steps 701 to 703 are optional. For example, steps 701 to 703 may be replaced by steps 701' to 702'.

[0289] 701". The base station sends fifth information to the UE.

[0290] The fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0291] 704. The base station sends sixth information to the UE.

[0292] Correspondingly, the UE receives sixth information from the base station. The sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the base station sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0293] 705. The base station sends second information to the UE.

[0294] Correspondingly, the UE receives second information from the base station. The second information is used to indicate information that the UE needs to report when performing beam measurement.

[0295] 706. The base station sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to the UE via RIS.

[0296] Step 706 may refer to step 401. Accordingly, the UE receives multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by the base station via the RIS.

[0297] 707. The UE performs beam measurement based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0298] Steps 701 to 707 may refer to steps 501 to 505 in FIG. 5 , and are not described again here.

[0299] 708. The UE determines a first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0300] Step 708 may refer to step 402 .

[0301] 709. Based on the second information, the UE sends a beam measurement result to the base station, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0302] Accordingly, the base station receives the beam measurement results from the UE. Step 705 is optional, and step 709 can be replaced by: Based on the information that the UE needs to report for beam measurement, the UE sends the beam measurement results to the base station. The base station and UE can pre-configure or exchange the information that the UE needs to report for beam measurement.

[0303] In one possible implementation, the second information is used to instruct the UE to report reference beam information and phase information, and the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the above-mentioned first beam, the direction of the above-mentioned second beam or any one of the above-mentioned reference beam directions, for example, the reference beam information is used to indicate the main lobe beam or the direction of the main lobe beam, and the phase information is used to indicate the phase rotation angle between the direction of the first beam and the direction of the reference beam. In one possible implementation, the base station and the UE predefine the reference beam information to indicate the category of the beam, for example, the predefine reference beam information to indicate the direction or index of the first beam (i.e., the main lobe beam). In one possible implementation, the base station and the UE exchange reference beam information to indicate the category of the beam, for example, the reference beam information reported by the UE exchanged between the base station and the UE before step 710 is used to indicate the direction or index of the first beam (i.e., the main lobe beam). The beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information. The reference beam information is used to indicate any one of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, or the direction of the reference beam. When the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the phase information is used by the transmitter to determine the direction of the second beam and the direction of the reference beam. The phase information is obtained based on the relative position / relative direction relationship between the base station and the RIS. Exemplarily, the phase information represents a phase rotation angle, for example, the phase rotation angle is a two-dimensional variable The phase rotation angle can be defined as the angle between the RIS normal and the BS normal, and its quantization accuracy can be adjusted and indicated. The base station can determine the direction of other beams, that is, reconstruct other beams, based on the beam indicated by the reference beam information and the phase rotation angle indicated by the phase information. For example, the base station can determine the direction of the sidelobe beam and the direction of the mirror beam based on the direction of the mainlobe beam indicated by the reference beam information and the phase rotation angle indicated by the phase information. For another example, the base station can determine the direction of the mainlobe beam and the direction of the sidelobe beam based on the direction of the mirror beam indicated by the reference beam information and the phase rotation angle indicated by the phase information. Exemplarily, the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the mainlobe beam The direction of the main lobe beam +2D variables Get the direction of the mirror beam ((θ0+θ m ), ), the direction of the main lobe beam +2*two-dimensional variables Get the direction of the sidelobe beam ((θ0+2θ m ), ).

[0304] 710. The base station performs interference management based on the beam measurement result from the UE and performs downlink data transmission.

[0305] In one possible implementation, the base station performs interference management and MU-MIMO scheduling based on beam measurement results from the UE. Sidelobes can be used for BS scheduling and interference management. For example, the BS can schedule other users to avoid the direction of sidelobe beams and mirror beams, and the BS can design precoding functions such as zero forcing to take sidelobes and mirror beams into account. In one possible implementation, the base station can determine the direction of the sidelobe beam and the mirror beam based on the direction of the mainlobe beam indicated by the reference beam information and the phase rotation angle indicated by the phase information.

[0306] In this embodiment of the present application, the UE sends beam measurement results to the base station. These beam measurement results are used to determine two or more of the directions of the first beam, the second beam, and the reference beam, rather than simply carrying beam information corresponding to the highest-power beam. This allows the base station to effectively avoid grating lobe issues. Furthermore, the base station can better perform scheduling and interference management based on two or more of the directions of the first beam, the second beam, and the reference beam, thereby improving the interference management and scheduling performance of the base station.

[0307] FIG8 is a flow chart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method flow in FIG8 is a possible implementation of the method described in FIG4. The base station in FIG8 is an example of the receiving end in FIG4, and the UE in FIG8 is an example of the transmitting end in FIG4. As shown in FIG8, the method includes:

[0308] 801. The base station sends seventh information to the UE.

[0309] Correspondingly, the UE receives seventh information from the base station. The seventh information is used to trigger the UE to send information used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS to the base station.

[0310] 802. In response to the seventh information, the UE sends fourth information to the base station.

[0311] Correspondingly, the base station receives fourth information from the UE. The fourth information is used to determine the relative position and / or relative direction of the UE and the RIS.

[0312] 803. The base station determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0313] 801'. The UE sends fourth information to the base station.

[0314] Correspondingly, the base station receives the fourth information from the UE.

[0315] 802': The base station determines a reference beam direction based on the fourth information.

[0316] Step 802' may refer to step 503. Steps 801 to 803 are optional. For example, steps 801 to 803 may be replaced by steps 801' to 802'.

[0317] 801". The UE sends fifth information to the base station.

[0318] The fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

[0319] 804. The UE sends sixth information to the base station.

[0320] Correspondingly, the base station receives sixth information from the UE. The sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the UE sends multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0321] 805. The UE sends second information to the base station.

[0322] Correspondingly, the base station receives second information from the UE. The second information is used to indicate information that needs to be reported by the base station for beam measurement.

[0323] 806. The UE sends multiple beam measurement reference signals to the base station via the RIS.

[0324] Step 806 may refer to step 401. Accordingly, the base station receives multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by the UE via the RIS. The beam measurement reference signals may be SRSs.

[0325] 807. The base station performs beam measurement based on the received multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0326] Steps 801 to 807 may refer to steps 601 to 605 in FIG. 6 , and are not described again here.

[0327] 808. The base station determines a first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

[0328] Step 808 may refer to step 402 .

[0329] 809. Based on the second information, the base station sends a beam measurement result to the UE, where the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam.

[0330] Accordingly, the UE receives the beam measurement results from the base station. Step 805 is optional, and step 809 can be replaced by: Based on the information that the UE needs to report for beam measurement, the UE sends the beam measurement results to the base station. The base station and UE can pre-configure or exchange the information that the UE needs to report for beam measurement.

[0331] In one possible implementation, the second information is used to instruct the base station to report reference beam information and phase information, and the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the above-mentioned first beam, the direction of the above-mentioned second beam or any one of the above-mentioned reference beam directions, for example, the reference beam information is used to indicate the main lobe beam or the direction of the main lobe beam, and the phase information is used to indicate the phase rotation angle between the direction of the first beam and the direction of the reference beam. In one possible implementation, the base station and the UE predefine the reference beam information to indicate the category of the beam, for example, the predefine reference beam information to indicate the direction or index of the first beam (i.e., the main lobe beam). In one possible implementation, the base station and the UE exchange reference beam information to indicate the category of the beam, for example, the reference beam information reported by the base station before step 810 is exchanged between the base station and the UE to indicate the direction or index of the first beam (i.e., the main lobe beam). The beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information. The reference beam information is used to indicate any one of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, or the direction of the reference beam. When the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the phase information is used by the transmitter to determine the direction of the second beam and the direction of the reference beam. The phase information is obtained based on the relative position / relative direction relationship between the base station and the RIS. Exemplarily, the phase information represents a phase rotation angle, for example, the phase rotation angle is a two-dimensional variable The phase rotation angle can be defined as the angle between the RIS normal and the BS normal, and its quantization accuracy can be adjusted and indicated. Based on the beam indicated by the reference beam information and the phase rotation angle indicated by the phase information, the UE can determine the direction of other beams, that is, reconstruct other beams. For example, based on the direction of the main lobe beam indicated by the reference beam information and the phase rotation angle indicated by the phase information, the UE can determine the direction of the side lobe beam and the direction of the mirror beam. For another example, based on the direction of the mirror beam indicated by the reference beam information and the phase rotation angle indicated by the phase information, the UE can determine the direction of the main lobe beam and the direction of the side lobe beam. Exemplarily, the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the main lobe beam. The direction of the main lobe beam +2D variables Get the direction of the mirror beam ((θ0+θ m ), ), the direction of the main lobe beam +2*two-dimensional variables Get the direction of the sidelobe beam ((θ0+2θ m ), ).

[0332] 810. The UE performs uplink data transmission based on the beam measurement result from the base station.

[0333] In one possible implementation, the UE performs interference management based on the beam measurement result from the base station. Step 810 may refer to step 610 in FIG6 .

[0334] In an embodiment of the present application, the base station sends a beam measurement result to the UE, and the beam measurement result is used to determine two or more of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, and the direction of the reference beam, rather than only carrying the beam information corresponding to the beam with the highest power; this can enable the UE to effectively avoid the grating lobe problem.

[0335] The following describes the structure of a communication device that can implement the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The following only briefly describes the communication device. For details on the implementation of the solution, please refer to the description of the method embodiment above, which will not be repeated below.

[0336] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device 900 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 900 can implement the functions or steps implemented by the transmitting end in each of the above-mentioned method embodiments, and can also implement the functions or steps implemented by the receiving end in each of the above-mentioned method embodiments. The communication device may include a processing module 910 and a transceiver module 920. In one possible implementation, it may also include a storage unit, which can be used to store instructions (code or program) and / or data. The processing module 910 and the transceiver module 920 can be coupled to the storage unit. For example, the processing module 910 can read the instructions (code or program) and / or data in the storage unit to implement the corresponding method. The above-mentioned units can be set independently or partially or fully integrated. For example, the transceiver module 920 may include a transmitting module and a receiving module. The transmitting module can be a transmitter, and the receiving module can be a receiver. The entity corresponding to the transceiver module 920 can be a transceiver circuit, such as a transceiver or a communication interface.

[0337] In some possible implementations, the communication device 900 can implement the corresponding behaviors and functions of the transmitting end in the above-described method embodiments. For example, the communication device 900 can be a transmitting end, or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used in the transmitting end. The transceiver module 920 can, for example, be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the transmitting end in the embodiment of FIG. 4 . The processing module 910 can, for example, be used to perform all operations performed by the transmitting end in the embodiment of FIG. 4 , except for the transmitting and receiving operations.

[0338] In some possible implementations, the communication device 900 can implement the corresponding behaviors and functions of the receiving end in the above-described method embodiments. For example, the communication device 900 can be a receiving end, or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used in the receiving end. The transceiver module 920 can, for example, be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the receiving end in the embodiment of FIG. 4 . The processing module 910 can, for example, be used to perform all operations performed by the receiving end in the embodiment of FIG. 4 , except for the transceiver operations.

[0339] In some possible implementations, the communication device 900 can implement the corresponding behaviors and functions of the base station in the above-described method embodiments. For example, the communication device 900 can be a base station, or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used in a base station. The transceiver module 920 can, for example, be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the base station in the embodiments of Figures 5 to 8. The processing module 910 can, for example, be used to perform all operations performed by the base station in the embodiments of Figures 5 to 8 except for the transmitting and receiving operations.

[0340] In some possible implementations, the communication device 900 can implement the corresponding behaviors and functions of the UE in the above-described method embodiments. For example, the communication device 900 can be a UE, or a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) used in the UE. The transceiver module 920 can, for example, be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the UE in the embodiments of Figures 5 to 8. The processing module 910 can, for example, be used to perform all operations performed by the UE in the embodiments of Figures 5 to 8 except for the transmitting and receiving operations.

[0341] The present application further provides an apparatus 1000, which may be a terminal device, a processor in the terminal device, or a chip. The apparatus 1000 may be used to execute the operations executed by the UE in the above method embodiment.

[0342] When apparatus 1000 is a terminal device, FIG10 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the terminal device structure. As shown in FIG10 , the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The memory can store computer program code, and the transceiver includes a transmitter 1031, a receiver 1032, a radio frequency circuit (not shown), an antenna 1033, and input / output devices (not shown).

[0343] The processor is mainly used to process communication protocols and communication data; control terminal devices, execute software programs and process software program data, etc.

[0344] Memory is mainly used to store software programs and data.

[0345] Radio frequency circuits are mainly used for conversion between baseband signals and radio frequency signals and for processing radio frequency signals.

[0346] Antennas are mainly used to send and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves.

[0347] The input and output device may include a touch screen, a display screen, or a keyboard. The input and output device is mainly used to receive data input by the user and output data to the user. It should be noted that some types of terminal devices may not have input and output devices.

[0348] When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs the baseband signal to the RF circuit. The RF circuit then performs RF processing on the baseband signal and transmits the RF signal to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal device, the RF circuit receives the RF signal through the antenna. The RF circuit converts the RF signal into a baseband signal and outputs the baseband signal to the processor. The processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data. For ease of explanation, Figure 10 shows only one memory, processor, and transceiver. In actual terminal device products, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be set independently of the processor or integrated with the processor, and this embodiment of the application does not limit this.

[0349] In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and radio frequency circuit with transceiver functions can be regarded as the transceiver module of the terminal device, and the processor with processing function can be regarded as the processing module of the terminal device.

[0350] As shown in FIG10 , the terminal device includes a processor 1010, a memory 1020, and a transceiver 1030. The processor 1010 may also be referred to as a processing unit, a processing board, a processing module, or a processing device. The transceiver 1030 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver, or a transceiver device.

[0351] Optionally, the device in transceiver 1030 that implements the receiving function is considered a receiving module, and the device in transceiver 1030 that implements the transmitting function is considered a transmitting module. That is, transceiver 1030 includes a receiver and a transmitter. A transceiver may also be sometimes referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver module, or a transceiver circuit. A receiver may also be sometimes referred to as a receiver, a receiving module, or a receiving circuit. A transmitter may also be sometimes referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting module, or a transmitting circuit.

[0352] The processor 1010 is configured to execute the processing actions of the UE in the embodiments shown in Figures 5 to 8. The transceiver 1030 is configured to execute the transceiver actions of the UE in the embodiments shown in Figures 5 to 8.

[0353] It should be understood that FIG10 is merely an example and not a limitation, and the terminal device including the transceiver module and the processing module may not rely on the structure shown in FIG10 .

[0354] When the apparatus 1000 is a chip, the chip includes a processor, a memory, and a transceiver. The transceiver may be an input / output circuit or a communication interface. The processor may be a processing module, a microprocessor, or an integrated circuit integrated on the chip. In the above method embodiments, the UE's transmission operation may be understood as the chip's output, and the UE's reception operation may be understood as the chip's input.

[0355] The present application further provides an apparatus 1100, which may be a network device or a chip. The apparatus 1100 may be used to perform the operations performed by the base station in the embodiments shown in FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 .

[0356] When the apparatus 1100 is a network device, for example, a base station, FIG11 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a base station structure. The base station includes parts 1110, 1120, and 1130.

[0357] Part 1110 is mainly used for baseband processing, base station control, etc.; Part 1110 is usually the control center of the base station, which can usually be called a processor, and is used to control the base station to perform the processing operations of the base station in the above method embodiment.

[0358] Part 1120 is mainly used to store computer program code and data.

[0359] Part 1130 is primarily used for receiving and transmitting RF signals and converting RF signals to baseband signals. Part 1130 can generally be referred to as a transceiver module, transceiver, transceiver circuit, or transceiver. The transceiver module in part 1130, which can also be referred to as a transceiver or transceiver, includes an antenna 1133 and a RF circuit (not shown in the figure), where the RF circuit is primarily used for RF processing. Optionally, the device used to implement the receiving function in part 1130 can be considered a receiver, and the device used to implement the transmitting function can be considered a transmitter, that is, part 1130 includes a receiver 1132 and a transmitter 1131. A receiver can also be referred to as a receiving module, a receiver, or a receiving circuit, and a transmitter can be referred to as a transmitting module, a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit.

[0360] Sections 1110 and 1120 may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories. The processor is used to read and execute programs in the memory to implement baseband processing functions and control the base station. If multiple boards are present, the boards may be interconnected to enhance processing capabilities. As an optional implementation, multiple boards may share one or more processors, multiple boards may share one or more memories, or multiple boards may simultaneously share one or more processors.

[0361] For example, in one implementation, the transceiver module in section 1130 is used to execute the transceiver-related processes performed by the base station in the embodiments shown in Figures 5 to 8. The processor in section 1110 is used to execute the processing-related processes performed by the base station in the embodiments shown in Figures 5 to 8.

[0362] It should be understood that FIG11 is merely an example and not a limitation, and the network device including the processor, memory, and transceiver may not rely on the structure shown in FIG11 .

[0363] When device 1100 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver, a memory, and a processor. The transceiver may be an input / output circuit or a communication interface; the processor may be a processor, microprocessor, or integrated circuit integrated on the chip. The base station's transmission operations in the above method embodiments can be understood as chip outputs, and the base station's reception operations in the above method embodiments can be understood as chip inputs.

[0364] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed on a computer, the computer executes the method of the above embodiment.

[0365] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes instructions or a computer program. When the instructions or the computer program are run on a computer, the method in the above embodiment is executed.

[0366] The present application also provides a communication system, comprising the above-mentioned transmitting end, RIS and the above-mentioned receiving end.

[0367] The present application also provides a chip, which includes: a communication interface and a processor; the communication interface is used for sending and receiving signals of the above-mentioned chip; the processor is used to execute computer program instructions so that the communication device including the above-mentioned chip executes the method in the above-mentioned embodiment.

[0368] An embodiment of the present application further provides a chip device, including a processor, configured to call a computer program or computer instruction stored in the memory so that the processor executes the method provided in the embodiments shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 8 .

[0369] In one possible implementation, the input of the chip device corresponds to the receiving operation in any one of the embodiments shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 8 , and the output of the chip device corresponds to the sending operation in any one of the embodiments shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 8 .

[0370] Optionally, the processor is coupled to the memory via an interface.

[0371] Optionally, the chip device further includes a memory, in which computer programs or computer instructions are stored.

[0372] The processor mentioned in any of the above may be a general-purpose central processing unit, a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the method provided in any of the embodiments shown in Figures 4 to 8. The memory mentioned in any of the above may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM), etc.

[0373] Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the sake of convenience and brevity of description, the explanation of the relevant contents and beneficial effects of any of the above-mentioned devices can refer to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and will not be repeated here.

[0374] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0375] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of these units may be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0376] In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into a single processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit. The aforementioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional units.

[0377] If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the part that essentially contributes to the technical solution of the present application or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including a number of instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0378] As described above, the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present application, rather than to limit them. Although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the above embodiments, or make equivalent replacements for some of the technical features therein. However, these modifications or replacements do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A beam measurement method, characterized in that, Including: Receiving multiple beam measurement reference signals sent by a transmitting end through a configurable intelligent reflecting surface (RIS); Determining a first beam based on a reference beam direction and measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, where the reference beam direction is determined based on a relative position and / or relative direction between the transmitting end and the RIS; Sending beam measurement results, where the beam measurement results are used to determine two or more of a direction of the first beam, a direction of a second beam, and the reference beam direction, an included angle between the direction of the first beam and the reference beam direction is equal to an included angle between the direction of the second beam and the reference beam direction, or a difference between the included angle between the direction of the first beam and the reference beam direction and the included angle between the direction of the second beam and the reference beam direction is less than or equal to a first preset value.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein An included angle between the reference beam direction and a normal direction of the RIS is equal to an included angle between an incident direction of a transmitting beam of the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS, or a difference between the included angle between the reference beam direction and the normal direction of the RIS and the included angle between the incident direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitting end and the normal direction of the RIS is less than or equal to a preset value, or the reference beam direction and the incident direction of the transmitting beam of the transmitting end are symmetric with respect to the normal direction of the RIS.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The beam measurement results include two or more of a first set of beam information, a second set of beam information, and a third set of beam information, where the first set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the second set of beam information is used to indicate the direction of the second beam, and the third set of beam information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Before sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end, the method further includes: Sending a first information to the transmitting end or receiving the first information from the transmitting end, where the first information is used to indicate a mapping relationship between two or more sets of beam information for which a receiving end performs beam measurement reporting and beams; The sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end includes: Based on the first information, sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end, where the first set of beam information includes information for identifying the first beam.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein Before sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end, the method further includes: Receiving a second information from the transmitting end, where the second information is used to indicate information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; The sending the beam measurement results based on the first information includes: Based on the first information and the second information, sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end.

6. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Before sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end, the method further includes: Receiving a third information from the transmitting end, where the third information is used to indicate a sequence of multiple sets of beam information in the beam measurement results that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; The sending the beam measurement results to the transmitting end includes: Based on the third information, send the beam measurement result to the sending end, where two or more of the first set of beam information, the second set of beam information, and the third set of beam information belong to multiple sets of beam information in the beam measurement result that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The beam measurement result includes reference beam information and phase information. The reference beam information is used to indicate any one of the direction of the first beam, the direction of the second beam, or the reference beam direction. When the reference beam information is used to indicate the direction of the first beam, the phase information is used by the sending end to determine the direction of the second beam and the reference beam direction, and the phase information is obtained based on the relative position / relative direction relationship between the sending end and the RIS.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, Before sending the beam measurement result to the sending end, the method further includes: Receiving second information from the sending end, where the second information is used to indicate the information that the receiving end needs to report for beam measurement; The sending the beam measurement result to the sending end includes: Based on the second information, send the beam measurement result to the sending end.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that, Before determining the first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the method further includes: Based on the fourth information, determine the reference beam direction, where the fourth information is used for determining the relative position and / or relative direction between the sending end and the RIS.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein The fourth information includes at least one of the relative position and relative direction between the sending end and the RIS, or the fourth information includes at least one of the azimuth angle of the RIS, the panel orientation of the RIS, the height of the RIS, the panel pitch angle of the RIS, and the distance between the RIS and the sending end.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receiving the fourth information from the sending end or the RIS.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that, Before determining the first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the method further includes: Receiving fifth information from the sending end or the RIS, where the fifth information is used to indicate the reference beam direction.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that, The determining the first beam based on the reference beam direction and the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals includes: Based on the measurement results of the multiple beam measurement reference signals, the reference beam direction, and the order in which the sending end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals, determine the first beam.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein The method further includes: Receiving sixth information from the sending end, where the sixth information is used to indicate the order in which the sending end sends the multiple beam measurement reference signals.

15. A communication device, characterized in that, Includes a module for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

16. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, where the computer program includes program instructions, and when the program instructions are executed by a processor, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14 is executed.

17. A communication device, characterized in that, Comprising a processor, which is configured to cause the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14 when executing instructions.

18. A chip, characterized in that, Comprising: A communication interface for signal transceiver of the chip; A processor for executing computer program instructions to cause a communication device including the chip to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

19. A computer program product, characterized in that, When the computer program product runs on a computer, it causes the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

Images