Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

Disclosed in the present application are a communication method and apparatus. The method can be executed by a terminal apparatus, and the method specifically comprises: determining N channel quality indicators, wherein the N channel quality indicators comprise channel quality indicators corresponding to M beams, M and N both being integers greater than 1; and sending the N channel quality indicators to a network apparatus. In the embodiments of the present application, a terminal apparatus may send channel quality indicators of a plurality of beams to a network apparatus at one time, which eliminates the need to separately send channel quality indicators of different beams, and can thus reduce the transmission overheads of channel quality indicators.

Description

Communication method and device

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on December 27, 2023, with application number 202311832374.5 and application name "A Communication Method and Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

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

[0004] In multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technology, the same user equipment (UE) can be served by a simulated beam. The UE receives a reference signal from the simulated beam to determine channel quality information and transmits this information to the base station. The base station then selects an appropriate downlink transmission method for the UE based on the channel quality information provided by the UE.

[0005] Currently, the transmission overhead of the UE sending channel quality information to the base station is relatively large. Summary of the Invention

[0006] Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for reducing the transmission overhead of feedback channel state information.

[0007] In a first aspect, a first communication method is provided. The method may be performed by a terminal device, the method comprising: determining N channel quality indicators, the N channel quality indicators including channel quality indicators corresponding to M beams, where M and N are both integers greater than 1; and sending the N channel quality indicators to a network device. Alternatively, the method comprises: sending N channel quality indicators to the network device, the N channel quality indicators including channel quality indicators corresponding to M beams, where M and N are both integers greater than 1.

[0008] In the embodiment of the present application, M is an integer greater than 1. That is, the terminal device can send channel quality indicators for multiple beams to the network device at a time, without having to send channel quality indicators for different beams separately. This can reduce the transmission overhead of the channel quality indicators. In addition, the embodiment of the present application also reduces the interaction process between the terminal device and the network device, which is conducive to reducing the power consumption of the terminal device and the network device.

[0009] In an optional embodiment, the N channel quality indications include first wideband channel quality indications corresponding to K beams of the M beams, where the first wideband channel quality indication of one beam is used to indicate the channel quality of the beam over the full bandwidth corresponding to the channel state information report, and K is a positive integer less than or equal to M.

[0010] In an embodiment of the present application, the N channel quality indications include first broadband channel quality indications corresponding to K beams out of M beams, where K is a positive integer less than or equal to M. That is, the terminal device can report the first broadband channel quality indications of some or all of the M beams, so that the network device can clearly understand the broadband channel quality of some or all of the beams.

[0011] In an optional embodiment, the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams include: L second wideband channel quality indicators, where one of the L second wideband channel quality indicators corresponds to one or more beams among the K beams, and L is an integer less than or equal to K; and / or Q first change information, where one of the Q first change information indicates a change in the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to one or more beams among the K beams relative to the second wideband channel quality indicator of a reference beam, and Q is an integer less than or equal to K.

[0012] In an embodiment of the present application, the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the K beams includes L second wideband channel quality indications and / or Q first change information. That is, for the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the K beams, the change amount of the second wideband channel quality indication can be reported without directly reporting the second wideband channel quality indication, which is beneficial to saving signaling overhead.

[0013] In an optional embodiment, a first change information indicates a difference between a second wideband channel quality indicator and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam; or, a first change information indicates a difference interval, and the difference interval includes a difference between a second wideband channel quality indicator and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam.

[0014] In an embodiment of the present application, a first change information indicates a difference interval, and the number of difference intervals is less than the number of second wideband channel quality indications corresponding to K beams. Compared with directly feeding back the second wideband channel quality indication, the number of bits required for feeding back the difference interval is smaller, which can save overhead.

[0015] In an optional embodiment, the method further includes: obtaining first information, where the first information is used to indicate a first number of bits, where the first number of bits is the number of bits occupied by the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to each beam in the K beams; or, obtaining first information, where the first information is used to indicate at least one number of bits, where the at least one number of bits is the number of bits occupied by the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to all or part of the K beams.

[0016] In this embodiment of the present application, the number of bits occupied by the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to each of the K beams may be the same first number of bits, or the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to all or some of the K beams may each occupy at least one number of bits. The UE may obtain the first information and determine the first number of bits or the at least one number of bits based on the first information.

[0017] In an optional implementation manner, obtaining the first information includes: receiving the first information from the network device; or obtaining preconfigured or predefined first information.

[0018] In an optional embodiment, sending the N channel quality indicators to the network device includes: sending beam indices of the K beams and the N channel quality indicators to the network device, where the beam index of one beam corresponds to one channel quality indication.

[0019] In an optional embodiment, the N channel quality indicators include first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams among the M beams, where a first subband channel quality indicator of one beam is used to indicate the channel quality of the beam on a subband in the channel state information reporting bandwidth, and R is a positive integer less than or equal to M.

[0020] In an embodiment of the present application, the N channel quality indications include the first subband channel quality indications corresponding to R beams out of the M beams, where R is a positive integer less than or equal to M. That is, the terminal device can report the first subband channel quality indications of some or all of the M beams, so that the network device can clearly understand the subband channel quality of some or all of the beams.

[0021] In an optional embodiment, the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams include: S second subband channel quality indicators, where one second subband channel quality indicator among the S second subband channel quality indicators corresponds to a subband of one beam in the R beams; and / or P second change information, where one second change information indicates an amount of change of a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam in the R beams relative to a reference channel quality indicator, wherein the reference channel quality indicator is: a first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam, or a first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference beam, or a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband of the first beam, or a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband of the reference beam.

[0022] In this embodiment of the present application, the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams include S second subband channel quality indicators and / or P second change information. That is, for the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams, the change amount of the second subband channel quality indicator can be reported without directly reporting the second subband channel quality indicator, which is beneficial to saving signaling overhead.

[0023] In an optional embodiment, a second change information indicates a difference between a second subband channel quality indication corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indication; or, a second change information indicates a difference interval, and the difference interval includes the difference between a second subband channel quality indication corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indication.

[0024] In the embodiment of the present application, similar to the above, one second change information indicates a difference interval, which can save overhead.

[0025] In an optional embodiment, the reference beam satisfies one or more of the following: the reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam index among the M beams; the reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam receiving power among the M beams; the reference beam is the first beam among the M beams for which the terminal device feeds back a channel quality indication to the network device; or, the reference beam is a beam configured or indicated by the network device.

[0026] In an optional embodiment, the reference subband satisfies one or more of the following: the reference subband is a subband configured or indicated by the network device; or, the reference subband is a subband with the smallest or largest index in the subband corresponding to the second beam, and the second beam is the first beam or the reference beam.

[0027] In an optional embodiment, the method further includes: obtaining second information, where the second information is used to indicate a second number of bits, where the second number of bits is the number of bits occupied by each first sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to each beam in the R beams; or obtaining second information, where the second information is used to indicate at least one number of bits, where the at least one number of bits is the number of bits occupied by all or part of the first sub-band channel quality indications corresponding to all or part of the beams in the R beams.

[0028] In an embodiment of the present application, similar to the above, the number of bits occupied by the first sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to each beam in the K beams may be the same or different, and may indicate the first number of bits or at least one number of bits according to the first information.

[0029] In an optional implementation manner, obtaining the second information includes: receiving the second information from the network device; or obtaining preconfigured or predefined second information.

[0030] In an optional embodiment, sending the N channel quality indicators to the network device includes: sending beam indices of the R beams and the N channel quality indicators to the network device, where the beam index of one beam corresponds to one or more channel quality indicators.

[0031] In a second aspect, a second communication method is provided. The method may be performed by a network device, and the method specifically includes: receiving N channel quality indicators, where the N channel quality indicators include channel quality indicators corresponding to M beams, where M and N are both integers greater than 1; and determining channel qualities of the M beams based on the N channel quality indicators.

[0032] In an optional embodiment, the N channel quality indications include first wideband channel quality indications corresponding to K beams of the M beams, where the first wideband channel quality indication of one beam is used to indicate the channel quality of the beam over the full bandwidth corresponding to the channel state information report, and K is a positive integer less than or equal to M.

[0033] In an optional embodiment, the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams include: L second wideband channel quality indicators, where one of the L second wideband channel quality indicators corresponds to one or more beams among the K beams, and L is an integer less than or equal to K; and / or Q first change information, where one of the Q first change information indicates a change in the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to one or more beams among the K beams relative to the second wideband channel quality indicator of a reference beam, and Q is an integer less than or equal to K.

[0034] In an optional embodiment, a first change information indicates a difference between a second wideband channel quality indicator and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam; or, a first change information indicates a difference interval, and the difference interval includes a difference between a second wideband channel quality indicator and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam.

[0035] In an optional embodiment, the method further includes: sending first information to the terminal device, the first information being used to indicate a first number of bits, the first number of bits being the number of bits occupied by the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to each of the K beams. Alternatively, sending first information to the terminal device, the first information being used to indicate at least one number of bits, the at least one number of bits being the number of bits occupied by the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to all or some of the K beams.

[0036] In an optional embodiment, receiving N channel quality indicators includes: sending beam indices of the K beams and the N channel quality indicators to the network device, where the beam index of one beam corresponds to one channel quality indicator.

[0037] In an optional embodiment, the N channel quality indicators include first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams among the M beams, where a first subband channel quality indicator of one beam is used to indicate the channel quality of the beam on a subband in the channel state information reporting bandwidth, and R is a positive integer less than or equal to M.

[0038] In an optional embodiment, the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams include: S second subband channel quality indicators, where one second subband channel quality indicator among the S second subband channel quality indicators corresponds to a subband of one beam in the R beams; and / or P second change information, where one second change information indicates an amount of change of a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam in the R beams relative to a reference channel quality indicator, wherein the reference channel quality indicator is: a first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam, or a first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference beam, or a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband of the first beam, or a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband of the reference beam.

[0039] In an optional embodiment, a second change information indicates a difference between a second subband channel quality indication corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indication; or, a second change information indicates a difference interval, and the difference interval includes the difference between a second subband channel quality indication corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indication.

[0040] In an optional embodiment, the reference beam satisfies one or more of the following: the reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam index among the M beams; the reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam receiving power among the M beams; the reference beam is the first beam among the M beams for which the terminal device feeds back a channel quality indication to the network device; or, the reference beam is a beam configured or indicated by the network device.

[0041] In an optional embodiment, the reference subband satisfies one or more of the following: the reference subband is a subband configured or indicated by the network device; or, the reference subband is a subband with the smallest or largest index in the subband corresponding to the second beam, and the second beam is the first beam or the reference beam.

[0042] In an optional embodiment, the method further includes: sending second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate a second number of bits, the second number of bits being the number of bits occupied by each first sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to each beam in the R beams; or, sending second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate at least one number of bits, the at least one number of bits being the number of bits occupied by all or part of the first sub-band channel quality indications corresponding to all or part of the R beams.

[0043] In an optional implementation, receiving N channel quality indicators includes: receiving beam indices of the R beams and the N channel quality indicators, where the beam index of one beam corresponds to one or more channel quality indicators.

[0044] In a third aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be a terminal device in the first or second aspect above. The terminal device is, for example, a terminal device, or the terminal device may be included in the terminal device, for example, the terminal device is a chip system (or, chip) or other functional module provided in the terminal device. In an optional implementation, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation, the communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module) and a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module). The transceiver unit can implement a sending function and a receiving function. When the transceiver unit implements the sending function, it may be referred to as a sending unit (sometimes also referred to as a sending module). When the transceiver unit implements the receiving function, it may be referred to as a receiving unit (sometimes also referred to as a receiving module). The sending unit and the receiving unit may be the same functional module, which is called a transceiver unit, and the functional module can implement a sending function and a receiving function; or, the sending unit and the receiving unit may be different functional modules, and the transceiver unit is a general term for these functional modules.

[0045] In an optional implementation, the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is configured to send N channel quality indications to the network device, where the N channel quality indications include channel quality indications corresponding to M beams.

[0046] In an optional embodiment, the communication device also includes a storage unit (sometimes also referred to as a storage module), and the processing unit is used to couple with the storage unit and execute the program or instructions in the storage unit, so as to enable the communication device to perform the functions of the terminal device described in the first aspect or the second aspect above.

[0047] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the network device described in the first or second aspect above. The network device is, for example, a network device, or the network device may be included in the network device, for example, the network device is a chip system (or, chip) or other functional module provided in the network device. In an optional implementation, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation, the communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module) and a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module). For the implementation of the transceiver unit, reference may be made to the introduction of the third aspect.

[0048] In an optional implementation, the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is used for N channel quality indications, where the N channel quality indications include channel quality indications corresponding to M beams.

[0049] In an optional embodiment, the communication device also includes a storage unit (sometimes also referred to as a storage module), and the processing unit is used to couple with the storage unit and execute the program or instructions in the storage unit, enabling the communication device to perform the functions of the network device described in the first aspect or the second aspect above.

[0050] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a terminal device. The communication device includes a communication interface and a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor reads the computer program or instructions, the communication device executes the method performed by the terminal device in each of the above aspects.

[0051] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a network device. The communication device includes a communication interface and a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is configured to store a computer program. The processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor reads the computer program or instructions, the communication device executes the method performed by the network device in each of the above aspects.

[0052] In a seventh aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising a terminal device and a network device, wherein the terminal device is configured to execute the methods described in the aforementioned aspects, and the network device is configured to execute the methods described in the aforementioned aspects. For example, the terminal device may be implemented by the communication device described in the third or fifth aspect, and the network device may be implemented by the communication device described in the fourth or sixth aspect.

[0053] In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program or instruction, which, when executed, enables the method executed by the terminal device or network device in the above aspects to be implemented.

[0054] In a ninth aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided, which, when executed on a computer, enables the methods described in the above aspects to be implemented.

[0055] In a tenth aspect, a chip system is provided, comprising a processor and an interface, wherein the processor is configured to call and execute instructions from the interface so that the chip system implements the methods in the above aspects. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0056] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] FIG2 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of another device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0060] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0061] In the embodiments of the present application, the number of nouns, unless otherwise specified, means "singular noun or plural noun", that is, "one or more". "At least one" means one or more, and "plural" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there may be three relationships. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship. For example, A / B means: A or B. "At least one of the following items" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c means: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0062] The ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish between multiple objects, and are not used to limit the size, content, order, timing, priority or importance of the multiple objects. For example, the first terminal device and the second terminal device can be the same terminal device or different terminal devices, and such names do not indicate the difference in structure, priority or importance of the two terminal devices. In addition, the numbering of the steps in the various embodiments introduced in this application is only for distinguishing different steps, and is not used to limit the order between the steps. For example, S201 may occur before S202, or may occur after S202, or may occur at the same time as S202.

[0063] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities, which can be a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device (such as a mobile phone), a wearable device, a vehicle-mounted device, or a wireless device built into the above devices (for example, a communication module, a modem, or a chip system, etc.). The terminal device is used to connect people, objects, machines, etc., and can be widely used in various scenarios, such as but not limited to the following scenarios: perception scenarios, cellular communication, device-to-device communication (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), machine-to-machine (M2M) / machine type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), industrial control, self-driving, remote medical, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, drones, robots, indoor commercial scenarios (such as mobile phone screen projection, file sharing, mobile phone to VR glasses video transmission) and other scenarios. When the terminal device is applied to V2X, it can also be called a V2X device, for example, a smart car (or intelligent car), a digital car, an unmanned car (or driverless car or pilotless car or automobile), a self-driving car (or autonomous car), an electric vehicle (EV), a pure electric vehicle (or battery EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), a range-extended EV (REEV), a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), a new energy vehicle (new energy vehicle), or a roadside unit (RSU). The terminal device can also be a device used in D2D communication, such as an electricity meter or water meter.

[0064] In addition, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device can also be a terminal device in an IoT system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, thereby realizing an intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and object-to-object interconnection.

[0065] The various terminal devices described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g., placed in or installed in a vehicle), can be considered as vehicle-mounted terminal devices, which are also referred to as on-board units (OBUs). The terminal device of the present application can also be an on-board module, on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip, or on-board unit built into a vehicle as one or more components or units, and the vehicle can implement the method of the present application through the built-in on-board module, on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip, or on-board unit.

[0066] The terminal device may sometimes be referred to as user equipment (UE), terminal, access station, UE station, remote station, wireless communication device, or user equipment, etc.

[0067] In the embodiments of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the terminal device function may be a terminal device, or may be a device capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the terminal device. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the terminal device function is a terminal device as an example to describe the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. In addition, for the convenience of description, the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application is described as a UE.

[0068] The network devices in the embodiments of the present application include, for example, access network devices and / or core network devices. The access network device is a device with wireless transceiver functions, which is used to communicate with the terminal device. The access network devices include but are not limited to base stations (BS), base transceiver stations (BTS), node Bs, evolved node Bs (eNBs), or next generation node Bs (gNodeB / gNBs), transmission reception points (TRPs), base stations subsequently evolved by the third generation partnership project (3GPP), access nodes in wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) systems, wireless relay nodes, wireless backhaul nodes, etc. The base station can be: a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a small station, a relay station, etc. Multiple base stations can support networks with the same access technology, or they can support networks with different access technologies. A base station can include one or more co-sited or non-co-sited transmission and reception points. The access network device may also be a wireless controller, a centralized unit (CU), and / or a distributed unit (DU) in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario. The access network device may also be a server, etc. For example, the network device in the V2X technology may be a road side unit (RSU). The following describes the access network device using a base station as an example. The base station can communicate with the terminal device, or it can communicate with the terminal device through a relay station. The terminal device can communicate with multiple base stations in different access technologies. The core network device is used to implement functions such as mobility management, data processing, session management, policy and billing. The names of the devices that implement the core network functions in systems with different access technologies may be different, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this. Taking the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5 thTaking the 5G generation (5G) system as an example, the core network equipment includes: access and mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), policy control function (PCF) or user plane function (UPF), etc.

[0069] In the CU-DU architecture, the access network equipment may include one or more logical network elements such as the CU, DU, CU-control plane (CP), CU-user plane (UP), or radio unit (RU). The CU and DU may be configured separately or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or radio unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0070] 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 an open (O) CU (O-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. For the sake of convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application are described by taking CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples. Any of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0071] Optionally, in various embodiments of the present application, if the access network device is a distributed architecture, for example, the access network device includes a CU and a DU, or includes a CU-CP, a CU-UP and a DU, then the access network device sends information to the UE, specifically, the DU included in the access network device sends information to the UE; the access network device receives information from the UE, specifically, the DU included in the access network device receives information from the UE.

[0072] In the embodiments of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the network device function may be a network device, or may be a device capable of supporting the network device in implementing the function, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the network device. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the network device as an example.

[0073] Below, some terms or concepts in the embodiments of the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0074] Beam, for example, can be replaced by spatial domain filter, spatial filter, spatial domain parameter, spatial parameter, spatial parameter, spatial domain setting, spatial setting, quasi-colocation (QCL) information, QCL assumption, or QCL indication. The beam can be indicated by a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-state) parameter or by a spatial relation parameter. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present application, "beam" can also be replaced by TCI-state or spatial relation, etc., wherein TCI-state may include downlink (DL) TCI-state and / or uplink (UL) TCI-state. Alternatively, beam can also be replaced by other terms that can represent a beam, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. The various terms used to replace "beam" can also be equivalent to each other.

[0075] The beam used to transmit a signal can be called a transmission beam (Tx beam). The transmission beam can refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted by the antenna. The transmission beam can also be called a spatial domain transmission filter, spatial transmission filter, spatial domain transmission parameter, spatial transmission parameter, spatial domain transmission setting, or spatial transmission setting. The downlink transmission beam can be indicated by the TCI-state.

[0076] The beam used to receive signals can be called a reception beam (Rx beam), and the reception beam can refer to the signal strength distribution of the wireless signal received from the antenna in different directions in space. Among them, the reception beam can also be called a spatial domain reception filter, a spatial reception filter, a spatial domain reception parameter, a spatial reception parameter, a spatial domain reception setting, or a spatial reception setting. The uplink transmit beam can be indicated by a spatial relationship, an uplink TCI-state, or a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource, so the uplink beam can also be replaced by an SRS resource.

[0077] Furthermore, the beam can be a wide beam, a narrow beam, or other types of beams. The beam forming technology can be beamforming technology or other technologies. Beamforming technologies include digital beamforming technology, analog beamforming technology, or hybrid digital / analog beamforming technology.

[0078] A beam generally corresponds to a resource, which includes, for example, the time domain resources and / or frequency domain resources occupied by the signal sent through the beam. For example, when performing beam measurement, the network device measures different beams through different resources (such as reference signal resources), and the UE feeds back the measured channel quality information to the network device, so that the network device can determine the channel quality of the corresponding beam. The beam information used during data transmission can also be indicated by the resource corresponding to the beam. For example, the network device indicates the beam information used to send the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) through the TCI field in the downlink control information (DCI).

[0079] Alternatively, multiple beams with the same or similar communication characteristics can be considered a single beam. A beam can include one or more antenna ports for transmitting one or more of a data channel, a control channel, or a reference signal. The one or more antenna ports forming a beam can also be considered an antenna port set.

[0080] In the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified, a beam may refer to a transmit beam of a network device. In beam measurement, each transmit beam of a network device may correspond to a resource, and thus a resource index may be used to uniquely indicate the beam corresponding to the resource.

[0081] The aforementioned resources may include uplink resources and / or downlink resources. Uplink resources may be used to transmit uplink signals, and downlink resources may be used to transmit downlink signals. Uplink signals, for example, include SRS and / or demodulation reference signals (DMRS). Downlink signals, for example, include one or more of the following: channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), cell specific reference signal (CS-RS), user equipment specific reference signal (US-RS), DMRS, or synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel block (SSB).

[0082] In MIMO, the same UE can be served by an analog beam, and channel quality information can be determined by receiving a reference signal from the analog beam, and the channel quality information can be sent to the base station. The base station can select a suitable downlink transmission mode for the UE based on the channel quality information fed back by the UE. The channel quality information sent by the UE includes, for example, channel state information (CSI), and the base station can select a suitable downlink transmission mode for the UE based on the CSI. For example, the base station can select a suitable modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the UE to reduce the block error ratio (BLER) of downlink data transmission. CSI may include one or more of a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), a CSI reference signal resource indicator (CSI-RS resource indicator, CRI), an SSB resource indicator (SSBRI), a layer indicator (LI), a rank indicator (RI), or a layer 1 reference signal received power (L1-RSRP).

[0083] Typically, CSI is measured by the UE based on the downlink channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from the network equipment. The UE reports one or more CSI parameters such as CQI, PMI, LI, CRI, RI, LI, L1-RSRP, or SSBRI based on the reporting quantity configured by the network equipment.

[0084] Currently, CQI values ​​range from 0 to 15, and these 16 values ​​can be represented using 4 bits. Each value corresponds to a modulation mode, code rate, and efficiency. The protocol provides four CQI tables. The network device uses the high-level parameter CQI table (cqi-Table) in the CSI report configuration (CSI-ReportConfig) to indicate which CQI table the UE uses to determine the CQI. The CQI-Table can indicate table 1, table 2, table 3, or table 4. Among them, when cqi-Table indicates 'table1', 'table2' or 'table4', the UE can determine the CQI according to the criterion of block error rate less than or equal to 0.1. This method is more suitable for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services; or when cqi-Table indicates 'table3', the UE can determine the CQI according to the criterion of block error rate less than or equal to 0.00001. This method is more suitable for ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) services.

[0085] For example, refer to Table 1, which is table 1 as described above.

[0086] Table 1

[0087] In Table 1, the first column is the CQI index, which can be sent by the UE to the network device. The second column is the modulation mode, which determines the modulation order. The modulation mode indicates the number of bits transmitted per modulation symbol. For example, the modulation order corresponding to QPSK is 2, the modulation order corresponding to 16QAM is 4, the modulation order corresponding to 64QAM is 6, the modulation order corresponding to 256QAM is 8, and the modulation order corresponding to 1024QAM is 10. The better the channel quality, the higher the modulation mode can be used to improve the coding efficiency; if the channel quality is poor, a low-order modulation mode can be used. The third column is the code rate, which is the ratio of the number of information bits to the total number of bits. The fourth column is the efficiency, which is the ratio of the number of information bits to the total number of modulation symbols.

[0088] The CQI sent by the UE to the network device can be a wideband CQI or a subband CQI. For example, the network device instructs the UE to report a wideband CQI or a subband CQI through the high-level parameter CQI format indicator (cqi-FormatIndicator) in the CSI-ReportConfig. If the network device instructs to report a wideband CQI, the UE reports a wideband CQI for the entire CSI bandwidth. Alternatively, if the network device instructs to report a subband CQI, the UE will report a subband CQI for certain subbands of the entire CSI bandwidth. The specific subbands' CQIs to be reported can be determined by the high-level parameter CQI reporting bandwidth (csi-ReportingBand) in the CSI-ReportConfig. For example, the number of subbands included in the entire CSI bandwidth is 3, and the csi-ReportingBand occupies 3 bits. These 3 bits can correspond one to one to the 3 subbands. For example, if these 3 bits are "101", it means that the subband CQI of the first subband and the subband CQI of the third subband are reported.

[0089] Typically, wideband CQI is transmitted using 4 bits, while subband CQI is transmitted using 2 bits. Specifically, the subband CQI may be the difference between the subband CQI and the wideband CQI. For example, the subband CQI may satisfy the following relationship: Sub-band Offset level (s) = sub-band CQI index (s) - wideband CQI index (Formula 1)

[0090] In Formula 1, the network device can determine the sub-band offset level (Sub-band Offset level(s)) based on the UE's reported information. In addition, the UE also reports the wideband CQI index, so the network device can determine the sub-band CQI index based on this according to Formula 1. For example, refer to Table 2 for the values ​​of Sub-band Offset level(s).

[0091] Table 2

[0092] The offset level in Table 2 is the Sub-band Offset level(s) in Formula 1. For example, the UE can send a value in the first column of Table 2 to the network device. The network device can determine the Sub-band Offset level(s) corresponding to the value based on Table 2, and thus determine the sub-band CQI index based on Formula 1.

[0093] R17 introduced the use of 4 bits to report subband CQI, that is, to report the index in the CQI table. If this high-level parameter cqi-BitsPerSubband-r17 is configured, the network device can use 4 bits to report subband CQI.

[0094] As mentioned above, the UE can send one or more CSI parameters such as CQI, PMI, LI, CRI, RI, LI, L1-RSRP, or SSBRI to the network device according to the reportQuantity configured by the network device. Currently, the transmission overhead of the terminal device to send CSI parameters is relatively large.

[0095] In view of this, the UE in the embodiment of the present application can send the channel quality indicators of multiple beams to the network device at a time, without having to send the channel quality indicators of different beams separately, thereby reducing the transmission overhead of the channel quality indicators. In addition, the embodiment of the present application also reduces the interaction process between the UE and the network device, which is conducive to reducing the power consumption of the UE and the network device.

[0096] The technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to the fourth generation mobile communication technology (4 th The present invention can be applied to a 4G (4th generation) system, such as a long term evolution (LTE) system, or a 5G system, such as a new radio (NR) system. Alternatively, the present invention can be applied to a sidelink (SL) system in 4G or a 5G SL system, or can be applied to a next generation mobile communication system or other similar communication systems, such as the sixth generation mobile communication technology (6 th The present invention relates to a system for wireless communication (LTE) or a 6G system, and is not specifically limited thereto. For example, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to D2D scenarios, such as NR D2D scenarios, or to V2X scenarios, such as NR V2X scenarios. For example, it can be used in fields such as intelligent driving, assisted driving, or intelligent connected vehicles, or it can also be applied to scenarios such as factory manufacturing.

[0097] Please refer to Figure 1, which is a communication network architecture applicable to the embodiments of the present application. Figure 1 includes UE1, UE2, UE3 and a network device. Among them, the network device can provide services to UE1, UE2 and UE3 through multiple beams, including beam 0 and beam 1. For example, at time 1, UE1 and UE2 have services to be transmitted, and the network device can schedule beam 0 to transmit data to UE1 and UE2. At time 2, UE2 and UE3 have services to be transmitted, and the network device can schedule beam 1 to provide services to UE2 and UE3. It can be seen that both beam 0 and beam 1 can serve UE2. When the network device schedules beam 0 and beam 1 to provide services to UE2, it needs to obtain the channel quality information of UE2 under beam 0 and beam 1 in order to perform real-time scheduling.

[0098] The method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to the communication network architecture shown in Figure 1. For example, the network device mentioned below can be the network device in Figure 1; the UE mentioned below can be any UE in Figure 1.

[0099] An embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. Please refer to Figure 2, which is a flowchart of the method.

[0100] S201: A network device sends first configuration information to a UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the first configuration information from the network device.

[0101] The first configuration information may be used to configure reference signal resources for the UE. For example, the first configuration information may configure one or more of the following: time domain resources for sending reference signals, frequency domain resources for sending reference signals, the period of the reference signal, information indicating that the reference signal is a non-periodic signal, information indicating that the reference signal is a semi-persistent signal, or a resource mapping method for the reference signal. The reference signal may include, for example, one or more of CSI-RS, CS-RS, US-RS, DMRS, or SSB. Optionally, the reference signal resources are used for measuring multi-beam channel quality.

[0102] The first configuration information is included in, for example, higher-layer signaling, such as radio resource control (RRC) signaling or media access control (MAC) control element (CE), and there is no limitation on this.

[0103] Alternatively, the reference signal resources may not be configured by the network device, but may be predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE, and then S201 may not be performed. Therefore, S201 is an optional step.

[0104] S202: The UE sends capability information to the network device, and the network device receives the capability information accordingly.

[0105] For example, the capability information may indicate whether the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams. Optionally, if the capability information indicates that the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams, the capability information may also indicate the maximum number of resources and / or number of beams supported by the UE when reporting channel quality information of multiple beams, where resources and beams may correspond one to one.

[0106] Alternatively, the capability information may also indicate the maximum number of resources and / or beams supported by the UE when reporting multi-beam channel quality information. This number can implicitly indicate whether the UE supports reporting multi-beam channel quality information, so the capability information may no longer need to explicitly indicate whether the UE supports reporting multi-beam channel quality information. For example, if the maximum number of beams supported by the UE when reporting multi-beam channel quality information is 1, it indicates that the UE does not support reporting multi-beam channel quality information; for another example, if the maximum number of beams supported by the UE when reporting multi-beam channel quality information is 4, it indicates that the UE supports reporting multi-beam channel quality information.

[0107] Alternatively, the network device may determine the capability information in other ways, for example, by obtaining the capability information from the UE's registration information. Alternatively, the network device may not need to obtain the UE's capability information, but may instead assume that the UE supports reporting multi-beam channel quality information. Therefore, step S202 is optional.

[0108] In an embodiment of the present application, since the terms resources, reference signals, beams, transmit beams, receive beams, CSI-RS, SSBs, reference signal resources, CSI-RS resources, and SSB resources are interchangeable, the channel quality information of multiple beams may also be referred to as channel quality information of multiple resources, or as channel quality information of multiple reference signals, etc.

[0109] S203: The network device sends second configuration information to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the second configuration information.

[0110] The second configuration information may be used to configure whether to report multi-beam channel quality information. Optionally, if the second configuration information configures reporting multi-beam channel quality information, the second configuration information may also configure the number of resources and / or number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information needs to be reported. The number of resources and / or number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information needs to be reported may be predefined by the protocol, a default value, or determined based on UE capability information.

[0111] Alternatively, the second configuration information may configure the number of resources and / or the number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information is required to be reported. This number may implicitly indicate whether multi-beam channel quality information is to be reported, and the second configuration information may no longer explicitly indicate whether multi-beam channel quality information is to be reported. For example, if the number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information is required to be reported is 1, then multi-beam channel quality information is not to be reported. For another example, if the number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information is required to be reported is 2, then multi-beam channel quality information is to be reported.

[0112] Alternatively, the network device does not need to be configured, and the UE can report the multi-beam channel quality information by default, or the UE can actively report the multi-beam channel quality information when the capability allows. Therefore, S203 is an optional step.

[0113] S204: The network device sends a reference signal, and the UE receives the reference signal accordingly.

[0114] Optionally, the network device transmits the reference signal using the reference signal resources configured in S201. For example, the network device may transmit the reference signal using multiple beams. As another implementation, the network device may transmit multiple reference signals using multiple beams, with the transmitted multiple reference signals corresponding one-to-one to the multiple beams. For an introduction to the reference signal, please refer to S201.

[0115] S205: The UE sends N channel quality indicators to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the N channel quality indicators.

[0116] The UE can receive the reference signal through the receiving beam corresponding to the multiple transmitting beams of the network device. The UE can measure part or all of the received reference signals. For example, the reference signal measured by the UE is sent through multiple beams of the network device. The UE can obtain the measurement results corresponding to the multiple beams. The UE reports the channel quality indications corresponding to M beams in the multiple beams. Optionally, the M beams can be the number of resources and / or the number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information needs to be reported as configured by the second configuration information. For example, the channel quality information of the M beams corresponds to N channel quality indications, and the UE can send the N channel quality indications to the network device. The M beams are part or all of the multiple beams, and M is an integer greater than 1. In addition, N is an integer greater than 1.

[0117] In the embodiments of the present application, the channel quality indicator is, for example, a CSI, or one or more parameters included in the CSI. For details about the parameters included in the CSI, please refer to the previous description. For example, the channel quality indicator may be a CQI, or a combination of a CQI and a PMI, etc., without limitation. The following description primarily uses the CQI as an example.

[0118] The N channel quality indicators can be implemented in different ways. For example, the N channel quality indicators can include a first wideband channel quality indicator and / or a first subband channel quality indicator. The first wideband channel quality indicator of a beam can indicate the channel quality of the beam on the full bandwidth corresponding to the CSI. The first subband channel quality indicator of a beam can indicate the channel quality of the beam on a subband in the full bandwidth corresponding to the CSI. Optionally, the UE can determine the implementation method of the N channel quality indicators based on the configuration of the network device. For example, the network device can configure the UE to report the first wideband channel quality indicator and / or the first subband channel quality indicator; or the UE can independently determine the implementation method of the N channel quality indicators. The following examples introduce various implementation methods of the N channel quality indicators.

[0119] 1. In implementation A, the N channel quality indicators include first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to K beams out of the M beams, where K is an integer less than or equal to M. That is, in implementation A, the UE may report the first wideband channel quality indicators for the K beams.

[0120] In implementation manner A, the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams may be implemented in multiple ways.

[0121] (1) As an optional implementation of the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to K beams, the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams include L second wideband channel quality indicators, or include L second wideband channel quality indicator values, where L is an integer less than or equal to K. One of the L second wideband channel quality indicators may correspond to one or more beams among the K beams.

[0122] A second wideband channel quality indicator reported by the UE may be an index of a wideband channel quality indicator. Optionally, L may be equal to K, and the L second wideband channel quality indicators correspond one-to-one to the K beams, which is equivalent to the UE reporting the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to each of the K beams, so that the reported information is more complete and accurate. The UE may send beam indices of the K beams and the K second wideband channel quality indicators to the network device, for example, the beam indices of the K beams correspond one-to-one to the K second wideband channel quality indicators, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beam and the channel quality indicator. It should be understood that in an embodiment of the present application, the beam index may be replaced by a resource index, a reference signal index, a CSI-RS resource identifier or a CSI reference signal resource indicator (CSI-RS resource indicator, CRI), an SSB index, an SSB resource identifier or an SSB resource indicator (SSBRI), a reference signal resource index, a reference signal resource identifier, and the like. For example, the beam index of a beam may also be replaced by a resource index of a beam, a reference index of a beam, and the like. That is, the beam indexes of the K beams correspond one-to-one to the K second wideband channel quality indicators, or the resource indexes of the K beams, or the reference signal indexes of the K beams, or the CRIs of the K beams, or the SSB indexes of the K beams correspond one-to-one to the K second wideband channel quality indicators. In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the indicator, the identifier, and the index can be interchangeable. For example, the beam index can also be referred to as a beam indicator or a beam identifier.

[0123] Optionally, the UE sends K second wideband channel quality indications to the network device. One sending method is that the UE sends the indexes of K second wideband channel quality indications to the network device. Taking the channel quality indication as CQI as an example, optionally, the network device can configure a CQI table for the UE, and for any one of the K beams, the UE can determine the index of the wideband CQI of the beam according to the CQI table. Alternatively, the network device can configure multiple CQI tables for the UE, for example, respectively configuring a CQI table for each or multiple beams of the K beams, then for one beam among the K beams, the UE can determine the index of the wideband CQI of the beam according to the CQI table corresponding to the beam.

[0124] Optionally, the UE may send indexes of K second wideband channel quality indicators and beam indices of K beams to the network device.

[0125] For example, referring to Table 3, these are the indices of the L second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams, and the beam indices of the K beams, where L = K. Table 3 uses L = K = 4 as an example, and assumes that the channel quality indicator is a CQI. wbCQI1 through wbCQI4 represent the indices of the second wideband CQI corresponding to beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4, respectively; beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4 may refer to the beam indices of beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4, respectively.

[0126] Table 3

[0127] In the above solution, L is equal to K. Alternatively, L may be less than K. In this case, one second wideband channel quality indicator may correspond to multiple beams, i.e., multiple beams report one second wideband channel quality indicator. For example, if a UE reports one second wideband channel quality indicator for some or all of the K beams (e.g., including multiple beams), then only the second wideband channel quality indicator needs to be reported for these multiple beams, which helps save signaling overhead.

[0128] The UE reports a second wideband channel quality indicator for multiple beams. For example, one reporting method includes that the UE can determine multiple second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the multiple beams, and determine one second wideband channel quality indicator among the multiple second wideband channel quality indicators to report, and the reported second wideband channel quality indicator corresponds to multiple beams. For example, the UE determines multiple second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the multiple beams, and selects the minimum value among the multiple second wideband channel quality indicators for reporting, so that each beam can meet the demodulation performance when the network device performs scheduling according to the reported information. For example, the second wideband channel quality indicator wbCQI1 of beam 1 = 10, the second wideband channel quality indicator wbCQI2 of beam 2 = 12, and the second wideband channel quality indicator wbCQI1 of beam 3 = 13. Then, when beams 1, 2, and 3 report a second wideband channel quality, the minimum value wbCQI1 = 10 can be selected for reporting.

[0129] Alternatively, the UE reports a second wideband channel quality indicator for multiple beams. For example, another determination manner includes combining channel measurement information of multiple beams to determine the second wideband channel quality indicator. For example, the terminal receives reference signals sent by multiple beams, jointly estimates the received multiple reference signals, and determines a second wideband channel quality indicator to report.

[0130] The UE may send beam indices of K beams and L second wideband channel quality indicators to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beams and the channel quality indicators.

[0131] Optionally, the UE sends L second wideband channel quality indicators to the network device. One sending manner is that the UE sends indexes of the L second wideband channel quality indicators to the network device.

[0132] For example, referring to Table 4, the indices of the L second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams and the beam indices of the K beams are shown. Table 4 uses K=4 and L=1 as an example, and assumes that the channel quality indicator is a CQI. In Table 4, wbCQI1 represents the index of the CQI corresponding to these four beams; beam1, beam2, beam3, and beam4 may refer to the beam indices of beam1, beam2, beam3, and beam4.

[0133] Table 4

[0134] For another example, referring to Table 5, which shows the indices of the L second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams and the beam indices of the K beams, Table 4 uses K=4 and L=2 as an example, and assumes that the channel quality indicator is a CQI. In Table 4, wbCQI1 represents the index of the second wideband CQI corresponding to beams 1 and 2, and wbCQI2 represents the index of the second wideband CQI corresponding to beams 3 and 4; beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4 may refer to the beam indices of beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4.

[0135] Table 5

[0136] When the UE reports L second broadband channel quality indications, the number of bits occupied by different second broadband channel quality indications in the L second broadband channel quality indications may be the same or different. For example, the UE may obtain first information, and the first information may indicate the number of bits occupied by the L second broadband channel quality indications. The first information may be predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the network device and the UE, or configured by the network device, or determined by the UE. If the first information is determined by the UE, the UE may report the first information to the network device in advance, or the UE may send the first information to the network device when reporting the L second broadband channel quality indications. For example, the UE may put the L second broadband channel quality indications and the first information in one signaling and send it to the network device. Optionally, the first information may be placed before the L second broadband channel quality indications, so that the network device can promptly determine the number of bits occupied by the L second broadband channel quality indications.

[0137] For example, the number of bits occupied by different second broadband channel quality indicators in the L second broadband channel quality indicators is the same, for example, they are all the first number of bits, and the first number of bits is represented by Y, which is a positive integer. For example, Y can be 4, that is, the first number of bits can be 4 bits. In this case, the first information indicates the first number of bits, and the first number of bits can be used as the number of bits occupied by any second broadband channel quality indicator in the second broadband channel quality indicator. Y can be related to the value of the second broadband channel quality indicator. For example, if there are X possible values ​​of the second broadband channel quality indicator, then Y can be equal to in Indicates rounding X upwards.

[0138] If different second wideband channel quality indicators among the L second wideband channel quality indicators occupy different numbers of bits, the first information may indicate at least one bit number, where the at least one bit number is the number of bits occupied by each of the L second wideband channel quality indicators. The L second wideband channel quality indicators may correspond one-to-one to the at least one bit number, or one bit number among the at least one bit number may correspond to multiple second wideband channel quality indicators (i.e., different second wideband channel quality indicators among the multiple second wideband channel quality indicators occupy the same number of bits).

[0139] In another implementation, if the first information is configured by a network device, the network device may configure the same first number of bits occupied by the first wideband channel quality indicator of each beam for M or K beams. Alternatively, the network device may configure at least one bit number, where the at least one bit number is the number of bits occupied by the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the M or K beams. The first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the M or K beams may correspond one-to-one to the at least one bit number. Accordingly, the network device sends the configured first information to the UE.

[0140] (2) As another optional implementation of the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the K beams, the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the K beams includes Q first change information. Among the Q first change information, one first change information may indicate the change amount or difference amount of the second wideband channel quality indicator of one or more beams in the K beams relative to the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam. Q may be an integer less than or equal to K. This method can report the change amount of the second wideband channel quality indicator without directly reporting the second wideband channel quality indicator, which is beneficial to saving signaling overhead.

[0141] In this manner, the UE can determine a reference beam and then determine a change in the second wideband channel quality indicator of one or more of the K beams relative to the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam. Optionally, the reference beam can be configured by a network device, predefined via a protocol, preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or determined by the UE itself.

[0142] Optionally, the reference beam may be determined by any one or more of the following methods:

[0143] The reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest beam index among the M beams (or K beams). For example, if the M beams include beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4, then beam 1 with the smallest beam index can be determined as the reference beam, or beam 4 with the largest beam index can be determined as the reference beam.

[0144] The reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest beam received power corresponding to the M beams (or, K beams). The UE can measure the beam received power corresponding to the M beams, thereby determining the beam with the largest or smallest beam received power as the reference beam. The beam received power can be reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), etc.

[0145] The reference beam is the first beam in the channel quality indication reported by the UE to the network device among the M beams (or K beams). For example, if the UE performs corresponding sorting when reporting the channel quality indication, the beam ranked first by the UE in reporting the channel quality indication can be used as the reference beam. For the network device, the first beam ranked in the received channel quality indication information is regarded as the reference beam;

[0146] The reference beam is the beam corresponding to the maximum or minimum index of the second wideband channel quality indicator among the M beams (or K beams);

[0147] The reference beam is a beam configured or indicated by the network device.

[0148] The method for determining the above-mentioned reference beam can be specified by the protocol, or determined by the network device sending configuration signaling (for example, RRC, MAC control element (MAC CE), DCI signaling, etc.).

[0149] Optionally, different beams among the K beams may correspond to the same reference beam, or different beams may correspond to different reference beams. For example, the K beams include beam 1, beam 2, and beam 3, and the reference beam corresponding to these three beams is beam 1. Alternatively, the K beams include beam 1, beam 2, and beam 3, where the reference beam corresponding to beam 2 is beam 1, and the reference beam corresponding to beam 1 and beam 3 is beam 2.

[0150] The reference beams corresponding to the K beams may or may not belong to the K beams. Taking one of the reference beams as an example, if the reference beam belongs to the K beams, the wideband channel quality indicator reported by the reference beam includes the corresponding second wideband channel quality indicator. For example, if a reference beam belongs to the K beams, and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam does not depend on the determination of other reference beams (that is, the reference beam corresponding to the reference beam is itself), then the reference beam may not correspond to the first change information.

[0151] Optionally, if the reference beam belongs to K beams, the wideband channel quality indicator reported by the reference beam may also include corresponding first change information. For example, if a reference beam belongs to K beams, and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam depends on other reference beams (i.e., the reference beam corresponding to the reference beam is not the reference beam itself), the wideband channel quality indicator reported by the reference beam may also include corresponding first change information.

[0152] Optionally, a first change information indicates the amount of change in the second wideband channel quality indicator of one or more beams among the K beams relative to the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam. For example, one indication method is that the first change information indicates the difference between the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the one or more beams and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam, or indicates the absolute value of the difference. For example, the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference beam is wbCQIn, and the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 1 among the K beams is wbCQIm, then the first change information corresponding to beam 1 may indicate wbCQIm-wbCQIn. Reflecting the amount of change through the difference is more direct, which facilitates the network device to determine the actual wideband channel quality.

[0153] Alternatively, a first change information indicates the amount of change in the second wideband channel quality indicator of one or more beams among the K beams relative to the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam. For example, another indication method is that the first change information indicates a difference interval, and the difference interval includes the difference between the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the one or more beams and the second wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam, or includes the absolute value of the difference. For example, multiple difference intervals can be divided, each difference interval can include one or more values, and the multiple difference intervals can be continuous or discontinuous, and the values ​​included in any difference interval can be continuous or discontinuous. These multiple difference intervals are, for example, predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and network device, or configured by the network device. For example, refer to Table 6, which is an example of a difference interval.

[0154] Table 6

[0155] Table 6 uses four difference intervals as an example. These four difference intervals are (-∞, -6), [-6, 0), [0, 6), and [6, -∞). For example, if the difference between the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 1 among the K beams and the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference beam is 3, the UE determines that the difference belongs to the difference interval [0, 6) corresponding to index 2. In this case, the first change information reported corresponding to beam 1 can indicate index 2.

[0156] Generally speaking, the number of difference intervals is smaller than the number of second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams. Compared with directly feeding back the second wideband channel quality indicators, the number of bits required to feed back the difference intervals is smaller, which can save overhead.

[0157] Optionally, each of the K beams that is not used as a reference beam may correspond to a piece of first change information. It can also be considered that each of the K beams that is not used as a reference beam may correspond one-to-one to the Q pieces of first change information. For example, refer to Table 7, which shows an example of the first change information corresponding to the K beams.

[0158] Table 7

[0159] Table 7 takes K=4 as an example, and takes beam 1 as an example where the reference beam is an example. Furthermore, in the table, wbCQI1 to wbCQI4 are the second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to beams 1 to 4, respectively. It can be seen that for beam 1 as a reference beam, the second wideband channel quality indicator of beam 1 does not depend on the determination of other second wideband channel quality indicators, so the UE reports the second wideband channel quality indicator wbCQI1 corresponding to beam 1; and for beams 2, 3, and 4 that are not used as reference beams, the UE reports the first change information corresponding to these beams respectively. For example, the first change information indication wbCQIm-wbCQIn corresponding to beam 2 is wbCQI2-wbCQI1. For the convenience of description, in the subsequent introduction, the expression wbCQIm-wbCQIn can represent both the difference and the difference interval. wbCQIm and wbCQIn are both the second wideband channel quality indicators of a beam.

[0160] In Table 7, the reference beam corresponding to the K beams is beam 1. As can be seen from the foregoing, different beams in the K beams may also correspond to different reference beams. For example, refer to Table 8, which is an example of the first change information corresponding to the K beams.

[0161] Table 8

[0162] Table 8 takes K=4 as an example. In Table 8, the reference beam corresponding to beam 2 is beam 1, the reference beam corresponding to beam 3 is beam 2, and the reference beam corresponding to beam 4 is beam 3. Furthermore, wbCQI1~wbCQI4 in the table are the second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to beams 1~4 respectively. It can be seen that for beam 1, the second wideband channel quality indicator of beam 1 does not depend on other second wideband channel quality indicators for determination, and the UE reports the second wideband channel quality indicator wbCQI1 corresponding to beam 1; for beam 2, the reference beam corresponding to beam 2 is beam 1, so the UE can report the first change information corresponding to beam 2, and the first change information indicates wbCQI2-wbCQI1. For beam 3, the reference beam corresponding to beam 3 is beam 2, so the UE can report the first change information corresponding to beam 3, and the first change information indicates wbCQI3-wbCQI2; for beam 4, the reference beam corresponding to beam 4 is beam 3, then the UE reports the first change information corresponding to beam 4, and the first change information indicates wbCQI4-wbCQI3.

[0163] In the aforementioned scheme, each of the K beams that is not used as a reference beam can correspond to a first change information. Alternatively, for the beams that are not used as reference beams among the K beams, one or more of the beams can correspond to a first change information, that is, in this case, one first change information can correspond to multiple beams. For example, if the difference (or the absolute value of the difference) between the second broadband channel quality indications corresponding to two beams is less than a first threshold, a first change information can be used to indicate the amount of change in the second broadband channel quality indications corresponding to the two beams. In this way, the reporting overhead can be further reduced. The first threshold can be predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and network device, or configured by the network device. The first threshold is, for example, greater than or equal to 0.

[0164] For example, refer to Table 9, which is an example of the first change information corresponding to K beams.

[0165] Table 9

[0166] Table 9 takes K=4 as an example, and takes beam 1 as an example where the reference beam is used. It can be seen that for beam 1 as a reference beam, the UE reports the second wideband channel quality indicator wbCQI1 corresponding to beam 1; and for beams 2, 3, and 4 that are not used as reference beams, the UE reports the first change information corresponding to these beams respectively. Among them, for example, if the second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to beams 2 and 3 are both wbCQI2, then beams 2 and beam 3 can correspond to the same first change information (the first change information indicates wbCQI2-wbCQI1), and the UE only reports one first change information wbCQI2-wbCQI1 for beams 2 and 3. For beam 4, the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 4 is wbCQI4, and the first change information corresponding to beam 4 reported by the UE is indicated as wbCQI4-wbCQI1.

[0167] In the above Tables 7 to 9, the second wideband channel quality indicator is taken as an example.

[0168] Optionally, the UE reports Q first change information to the network device. One sending method is that the UE sends Q first change information and beam indexes of K beams to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the correspondence between the beams and the first change information.

[0169] When the UE reports Q first change information, the number of bits occupied by different first change information in the Q first change information may be the same, or may be different. For example, the UE may obtain the first information, and the first information may indicate the number of bits occupied by the Q first change information. The first information may be predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the network device and the UE, or configured by the network device, or determined by the UE. If the first information is configured by the UE, the UE may send the first information to the network device in advance, or the UE may send the first information to the network device when reporting the Q first change information. For example, the UE may put the Q first change information and the first information in one signaling and send it to the network device. Optionally, the first information may be placed before the Q first change information, so that the network device can promptly determine the number of bits occupied by the Q first change information.

[0170] For example, the number of bits occupied by different first change information in Q first change information is the same, for example, they are all the first bit number, and the first bit number is represented by Y, where Y is a positive integer. In this case, the first information only needs to indicate the first bit number, and the first bit number can be used as the number of bits occupied by any first change information in the first change information. Y can be related to the number of first change information. For example, the first change information directly indicates the amount of change, rather than the difference interval. Then, for example, if there are X possible values ​​of the first change information, then Y can be equal to in Indicates rounding up X. For another example, if the first change information indicates a difference interval, then X above may be the number of difference intervals.

[0171] Optionally, Y can be a fixed value, or Y can have multiple optional values. For example, Y can be related to the value of K. For example, as the value of K increases, Y can also increase. For example, when K = 2, Y can be 2, that is, each piece of the Q first change information can occupy 2 bits; and when K = 4, Y can be 4, that is, each piece of the Q first change information can occupy 4 bits.

[0172] In addition, Table 6 in the above text is an example of a difference interval. Optionally, the protocol predefines or the network device can configure a difference interval division method (such as Table 6), and the UE always adopts the difference interval division method. Or, optionally, the protocol predefines or the network device can configure multiple difference interval division methods (for example, Table 6 is one of them), and the UE can select one of the difference interval division methods. Optionally, one selection method of the UE is that the UE determines the difference interval division method based on Y. For example, the protocol predefines or the network device configures the total number of bits occupied by Q first change information, for example, Z, and the number of bits occupied by different first change information in the Q first change information is Y, then Y=Z / K, and the UE can select a difference interval division method based on Y.

[0173] If different pieces of the Q first change information occupy different numbers of bits, the first information may indicate at least one bit number, where the at least one bit number is the number of bits occupied by each of the Q pieces of first change information. The Q pieces of first change information may correspond one-to-one to the at least one bit number, or one bit number in the at least one bit number may correspond to multiple pieces of first change information (i.e., different pieces of the first change information occupy the same number of bits).

[0174] Regardless of whether the number of bits occupied by different first change information in the Q first change information is the same or different, as mentioned above, for a reference beam that does not rely on other beams to determine the second wideband channel quality indication, the UE can report the second wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the reference beam. The number of bits occupied by the second wideband channel quality indication may be the same as the number of bits occupied by one first change information in the Q first change information, or may be different from the number of bits occupied by all the Q first change information. Optionally, the number of bits occupied by the second wideband channel quality indication may be predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or configured by the network device, or determined by the UE.

[0175] 2. In implementation B, the N channel quality indicators include first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams out of the M beams, where R is an integer less than or equal to M. That is, in implementation B, the UE can report first subband channel quality indicators for R beams.

[0176] In implementation manner B, the first sub-band channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams can be implemented in multiple ways.

[0177] (1) As an optional implementation of the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams, the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams include S second subband channel quality indicators, or the values ​​of the S second subband channel quality indicators.

[0178] A second subband channel quality indicator reported by the UE may be an index of a subband channel quality indicator. For example, the S second subband channel quality indicators may be part or all of the second subband channel quality indicators of the R beams. Optionally, the beams and / or subbands corresponding to the S second subband channel quality indicators may be configured by the network device. The network device may configure which beams and / or subbands correspond to the second subband channel quality indicators. For example, if the network device is configured to report some of the beams in the R beams, the S second subband channel quality indicators correspond to the subbands of the some beams. If the network device is configured to report some of the subbands in the R beams, the S second subband channel quality indicators correspond to some of the subbands in the R beams. For example, in the case of reporting some of the subbands in the R beams, the network device may also configure the reported some of the subbands in the R beams to be the second subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the same subbands. Alternatively, the network device may independently configure which subbands' second subband channel quality indicators are reported for each of the R beams; or, the network device may independently configure which subbands' second subband channel quality indicators are reported for some of the R beams.

[0179] Among them, the UE can send the beam index of R beams, one or more subband indexes and S second subband channel quality indicators to the network device. For example, the UE can correspond the beam index of R beams, one or more subband indexes and S second subband channel quality indicators one by one and send them to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beam, subband and second subband channel quality indicators. Alternatively, the UE can send one or more of the R beam indexes, one or more subband indexes and S second subband channel quality indicators to the network device. For example, the network device can configure which beams correspond to which subbands' second subband channel quality indicators, and the UE reports the S second subband channel quality indicators in the order configured by the network device, and does not need to report the beam index and subband index corresponding to the second subband channel quality indicator. Alternatively, if the network device configures which subbands' second subband channel quality indicators are to be reported, the terminal device needs to send the beam index of R beams and S second subband channel quality indicators to the network device. For example, when R=3, the network device is configured to report the second subband channel quality indicators of subbands 1, 2, and 4, then the terminal needs to report S=W*R=9 second subband channel quality indicators, where W represents the number of subbands.

[0180] Optionally, the UE sends S second subband channel quality indicators to the network device. One sending method is that the UE sends the indexes of the S second subband channel quality indicators and the beam indexes corresponding to the S second subband channel quality indicators and one or more of the one or more subband indices to the network device. Taking the channel quality indicator as CQI as an example, the network device can optionally configure a subband CQI table for the UE, and the UE can determine the indexes of the S second subband CQIs based on the subband CQI table. The subband CQI table can be as shown in Table 2, and the UE can determine the S second subband CQIs based on Table 2.

[0181] For example, referring to Table 10, S second subband channel quality indicators and corresponding R beam indices and one or more subband indices are shown. Table 10 uses R = 4, the number of subbands is W = 3, and the channel quality indicator is a CQI as an example. In Table 10, S = 12 is used as an example, and subCQI1_1 to subCQI4_3 represent the indices of the 12 CQIs. Beam 1, Beam 2, Beam 3, Beam 4 may refer to the beam indices of beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4; subband 1, subband 2, and subband 3 may refer to the subband indices of subband 1, subband 2, and subband 3.

[0182] Table 10

[0183] Optionally, in the above solution, the S second subband channel quality indicators may be all second subband channel quality indicators of the R beams. In addition, the S second subband channel quality indicators may be some second subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the R beams.

[0184] Furthermore, the UE can determine a second subband channel quality indication in a certain subband for some or all of the R beams (for example, including multiple beams), or can determine a second subband channel quality indication for some or all of the subbands of a beam (for example, including multiple subbands). In this case, only one second subband channel quality indication needs to be reported for these multiple beams or multiple subbands, which is beneficial for saving signaling overhead.

[0185] The UE determines a second subband channel quality indicator for a subband for multiple beams among the R beams. For example, one determination method includes: the UE may respectively determine the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a subband for each of the multiple beams, and determine a second subband channel quality indicator among the multiple second subband channel quality indicators as the second subband channel quality indicator uniformly corresponding to the multiple beams in the subband. Optionally, the second subband channel quality indicator uniformly corresponding to the multiple beams is, for example, the minimum value among the multiple second subband channel quality indicators, so that each subband can support the second subband channel quality indicator. Optionally, the UE may also determine the arithmetic mean or weighted average of the multiple second subband channel quality indicators as the second subband channel quality indicator uniformly corresponding to the multiple beams in the subband; or, the UE may determine the second subband channel quality indicator uniformly corresponding to the multiple beams in the subband based on the multiple second subband channel quality indicators using other algorithms.

[0186] Alternatively, the UE determines a second subband channel quality indicator for multiple subbands of a beam. Similar to the above, one determination method includes that the UE may determine the second subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the multiple subbands of the beam respectively, and determine the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding uniformly to the multiple subbands of the beam based on the multiple second subband channel quality indicators. Optionally, the UE may determine the arithmetic mean or weighted average of the multiple second subband channel quality indicators, and the arithmetic mean or weighted average may be used as the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding uniformly to the multiple subbands of the beam; or, the UE may also determine the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding uniformly to the multiple subbands of the beam based on the multiple second subband channel quality indicators through other algorithms.

[0187] The UE may send beam indices of R beams, indices of one or more subbands, and S channel quality indicators to the network device, so that the network device may clearly understand the relationship between the beams and the channel quality indicators.

[0188] Optionally, the UE sends S second subband channel quality indications to the network device. One sending method is that the UE sends the indexes of the S second subband channel quality indications and the beam indexes corresponding to the S second subband channel quality indications and one or more subband indexes to the network device.

[0189] For example, refer to Table 11, which shows an arrangement of S second subband channel quality indicators and the corresponding beam indices and one or more subband indices for R beams. Table 11 uses R = 4, the number of subbands W = 3, and the channel quality indicator as a CQI as an example. In Table 11, subCQI1_1 represents the index of the second subband CQI corresponding to subband 1 and subband 2 of beam 1, subCQI2_1 represents the index of the second subband CQI corresponding to beams 2 to 4, and subCQI1_3, subCQI2_2 to subCQI4_3 represent the indices of the seven second subband CQIs. Beam 1, Beam 2, Beam 3, and Beam 4 may refer to the beam indices of beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4; subband 1, subband 2, and subband 3 may refer to the subband indices of subband 1, subband 2, and subband 3.

[0190] Table 11

[0191] (2) As another optional implementation of the first subband channel quality indication corresponding to the R beams, the first subband channel quality indication corresponding to the R beams includes P second change information. Among the P second change information, one second change information indicates a change in a second subband channel quality indication corresponding to the first beam among the R beams relative to the reference channel quality indication. The UE uses this method to report the change in the second subband channel quality indication of the beam's subband without directly reporting the second subband channel quality indication, which helps save signaling overhead.

[0192] In this way, the UE can determine the reference channel quality indicator, and then determine the change amount of a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam of the R beams relative to the reference channel quality indicator, and obtain P second change information. Among them, the first beam can be any beam of the R beams. Optionally, the beams and / or subbands corresponding to the P second change information can be configured by the network device. The network device can configure which beams and / or subbands correspond to the second change information. For example, if the network device is configured to report some of the beams in the R beams, the P second change information corresponds to the subbands of the some beams. If the network device is configured to report some of the subbands in the R beams, the P second change information corresponds to some of the subbands in the R beams. Among them, for the case of reporting some of the subbands in the R beams, the network device can configure some of the subbands in the reported R beams to be the same subbands. Alternatively, the network device may further independently configure which subbands to report for each of the R beams; or, the network device may further independently configure which subbands to report for some of the R beams.

[0193] The UE may send beam indices of R beams, one or more subband indices, and P second change information to the network device. For example, the UE may match the beam indices of R beams, one or more subband indices, and P second change information one by one and send them to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beams, subbands, and P second change information. Alternatively, the UE may send one or more of the R beam indices, one or more subband indices, and S second subband channel quality indicators to the network device. For example, the network device may be configured to report the second change information of which beams and which subbands correspond to each other. The UE then reports the P second change information in the order configured by the network device, and does not need to report the beam indices and subband indices corresponding to the P second change information. Alternatively, the network device may be configured to report the second change information of which subbands. The UE then reports the beam indices corresponding to the P second change information in the order configured by the network device.

[0194] The UE may determine the reference channel quality indicator in one or more of the following ways:

[0195] Mode 1: One second change information among the P second change information indicates a change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to a reference channel quality indicator, where the reference channel quality indicator is a first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam.

[0196] Mode 2: One of the P pieces of second change information indicates a change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to a reference channel quality indicator, where the reference channel quality indicator is a first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference beam. The specific method for selecting the reference beam can be determined in a manner similar to that described in Mode A(2) above, and will not be further described here.

[0197] Method three: One second change information among the P second change information indicates a change amount of a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to a reference channel quality indicator, where the reference channel quality indicator is a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband of the first beam.

[0198] Mode 4: One second change information among the P second change information indicates a change amount of a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to a reference channel quality indicator, where the reference channel quality indicator is a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband of the reference beam.

[0199] The second change information indication may be indicated in one or more of the following ways:

[0200] Mode a: The second change information indicates the difference between the second sub-band channel quality indicator and the reference channel quality indicator, or indicates the absolute value of the difference. Reflecting the second change information by the difference facilitates the network device to determine the actual sub-band channel quality.

[0201] Mode b: The second change information indicates a difference interval, and the difference interval includes the difference between the second subband channel quality indication and the reference channel quality indication, or includes the absolute value of the difference. For example, multiple difference intervals can be divided, each difference interval can include one or more values, and these multiple difference intervals can be continuous or discontinuous, and the values ​​included in any difference interval can be continuous or discontinuous. These multiple difference intervals are, for example, predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or configured by the network device. An example of a difference interval is shown in Table 6 above and will not be repeated here. Generally speaking, the number of difference intervals is less than the number of second subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams. Compared with directly feeding back the second subband channel quality indication, the number of bits required to feed back the difference interval is less, which can save overhead.

[0202] The above-mentioned methods 1, 2, 3, 4 and / or methods a and b may be specified by a protocol, or determined by a network device sending configuration signaling (eg, RRC, MAC CE, DCI signaling, etc.).

[0203] Specifically, the UE determines the reference channel quality indicator as the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam through method 1, and determines second change information based on the change in a second subband channel quality indicator of the first beam relative to the first wideband channel quality indicator. That is, the second change information indicates the change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam. When the second change information is indicated through method a, the second change information indicates the difference between the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam, or indicates the absolute value of the difference. For example, if the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam is wbCQI1, and the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to subband 1 of the first beam is subCQI1_1, the second change information corresponding to subband 1 of the first beam may indicate subCQI1_1-wbCQI1. Reflecting the change through the difference facilitates the network device to determine the actual subband channel quality. When the second change information is indicated using mode b, the second change information indicates a difference interval, which includes the difference between a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indicator, or includes the absolute value of the difference. It should be understood that in the subsequent description, the representation of subCQIm_n-wbCQIk can be expressed as either a difference or a difference interval. subCQIm_n is the second channel quality indicator of a subband of a beam, and wbCQIk is the second wideband channel quality indicator of a beam.

[0204] For example, referring to Table 12, taking R = 4 as an example, the number of subbands is W = 3, wbCQI1, wbCQI2, wbCQI3, and wbCQI4 are the second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4, respectively, and subCQI1_1-wbCQI1 to subCQI4_3-wbCQI4 are P second change information. The P second change information can be indicated using the aforementioned method a or method b. One subband of one beam corresponds to one second change information.

[0205] Table 12

[0206] Optionally, the UE can send P second change information to the network device. One sending method is that the UE sends the beam index of R beams, one or more subband indexes and one or more of the P second change information to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beam and the second change information.

[0207] Optionally, the UE may determine the reference channel quality as the first wideband channel quality indicator of the reference beam through method 2, and then determine the change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam of the R beams relative to the reference channel quality indicator. Optionally, the reference beam may be configured by a network device, or predefined through a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or may be determined by the UE itself. The specific method for selecting the reference beam may be determined in a similar manner as in method A(2) above, and will not be repeated here.

[0208] Optionally, a second change information indicates an amount of change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to a first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference beam. When the second change information is indicated using method a, the second change information indicates a difference between the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference beam, or indicates the absolute value of the difference. When the second change information is indicated using method b, the second change information indicates a difference interval, which includes the difference between a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indicator, or includes the absolute value of the difference.

[0209] Referring to Table 13, taking R = 4 as an example, the number of subbands is W = 3, beam 1 is the reference beam, and wbCQI1 is the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 1. It can be seen that for beam 1, which serves as the reference beam, the UE reports the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 1 and also reports the second change information corresponding to each subband of beam 1. For example, the second change information corresponding to subband 1 indicates subCQI1_1-wbCQI1, and the second change information corresponding to subband 2 indicates subCQI1_2-wbCQI1. The UE reports the second change information corresponding to beams 2, 3, and 4.

[0210] Table 13

[0211] Optionally, the UE can send P second change information to the network device. One sending method is that the UE can send the beam index of R beams, one or more subband indexes and one or more of the P second change information to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beam and the second change information.

[0212] Optionally, the UE may determine, through mode 3, that the reference channel quality indicator is a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference subband of the first beam, and then determine a change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam relative to the reference channel quality indicator. The first beam is any one of the R beams. Optionally, the reference subband may be configured by a network device, predefined through a protocol, preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or determined by the UE itself.

[0213] The reference subband is a subband configured or indicated by the network device. For example, the network device may configure or indicate a subband as the reference subband. For example, if the subbands include subband 1, subband 2, and subband 3, the network device may configure or indicate subband 1 as the reference subband for all beams. Alternatively, the network device may configure or indicate multiple subbands as reference subbands. For example, if the subbands include subband 1, subband 2, and subband 3, the network device may configure or indicate that the reference subband for beam 1 is subband 1, the reference subband for beam 2 is subband 2, and the reference subband for beam 3 is subband 3.

[0214] Alternatively, the reference subband is determined by the UE. The reference subband is the subband with the smallest or largest index among the subbands corresponding to the second beam, where the second beam is the reference beam or the first beam. That is, when the beam is the reference beam, the UE may determine the subband with the smallest or largest index among the subbands corresponding to the reference beam as the reference subband. When the beam is a first beam different from the reference beam, the UE may determine the subband with the smallest or largest index among the subbands corresponding to the first beam as the reference subband.

[0215] Optionally, a second change information indicates a change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband. When the second change information is indicated using method a, the second change information indicates a difference between the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference subband, or indicates the absolute value of the difference. When the second change information is indicated using method b, the second change information indicates a difference interval, which includes the difference between a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indicator, or includes the absolute value of the difference.

[0216] Optionally, each subband that is not used as a reference subband among the multiple subbands corresponding to the R beams may correspond to a piece of second change information. It can also be considered that the subbands that are not used as reference subbands among the multiple subbands may correspond one-to-one to the P pieces of second change information. For example, see Table 14, which shows an example of the second change information corresponding to the R beams.

[0217] Table 14

[0218] Table 14 uses R = 4 as an example, with subband 1 being the reference subband. It can be seen that for subband 1, which serves as the reference subband, the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to subband 1 of beams 1 to 4 is independent of other second subband channel quality indicators. Therefore, the UE reports the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to subband 1 of beams 1 to 4, but does not report the second change information corresponding to subband 1. However, for subbands 2 and 3, which are not used as reference subbands, the UE reports the second change information corresponding to these subbands of beams 1 to 4, respectively.

[0219] In Table 14, the reference subbands corresponding to beams 1 to 4 are all subband 1. As mentioned above, the reference subbands corresponding to beams 1 to 4 may also be different. For example, referring to Table 15, there is another example of the second change information corresponding to R beams.

[0220] Table 15

[0221] Table 15 uses R = 4 as an example. In Table 15, the reference subband corresponding to beam 1 is subband 1, the reference subband corresponding to beam 2 is subband 2, the reference subband corresponding to beam 3 is subband 3, and the reference subband corresponding to beam 4 is subband 1. It can be seen that the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 1 is independent of the channel quality indicators of other subbands. The UE reports the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to subband 1 of beam 1 but does not report the second change information. For subband 2 of beam 1, the UE can report the second change information corresponding to subband 2, which indicates subCQI1_2-subCQI1_1. For subband 3 of beam 1, the UE can report the second change information corresponding to subband 3, which indicates subCQI1_3-subCQI1_1. Similarly, the second subband channel quality indicators and second change information corresponding to beams 2, beams 3, and beams 4 can be determined.

[0222] Optionally, the UE may send beam indices of R beams, one or more subband indices, and one or more of P second change information to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beams and the second change information.

[0223] Optionally, the UE can determine that the reference channel quality indicator is a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference subband of the reference beam through mode 4, and then determine the change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam relative to the reference channel quality indicator. The first beam is any beam among the R beams. Optionally, the reference beam and reference subband can be configured by the network device, or predefined through a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or can also be determined by the UE itself. The method for determining the reference beam and reference subband is similar to the above and will not be repeated here.

[0224] Optionally, a second change information indicates an amount of change in a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a first beam among the R beams relative to a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to a reference subband of a reference beam. When the second change information is indicated using method a, the second change information indicates a difference between the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference subband of the reference beam, or indicates the absolute value of the difference. When the second change information is indicated using method b, the second change information indicates a difference interval, which includes the difference between a second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the first beam and the reference channel quality indicator, or includes the absolute value of the difference.

[0225] Optionally, each subband in the R beams that is not used as a reference subband may correspond to a piece of second change information. It can also be considered that the subbands in the multiple subbands that are not used as reference subbands may correspond one-to-one with the P pieces of second change information. For example, see Table 16 for an example of the second change information corresponding to the R beams.

[0226] Table 16

[0227] Table 16 uses R=4 as an example, with beam 1 as the reference beam and subband 1 as the reference subband. It can be seen that for subband 1, which serves as the reference beam, its corresponding second subband channel quality indicator is independent of other second subband channel quality indicators. Therefore, the UE reports the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to subband 1 of beam 1, but does not report the second change information corresponding to subband 1 of beam 1. However, for beams 2, 3, and 4 and subbands 2 and 3, which are not reference beams or reference subbands, the UE reports the second change information corresponding to these beams and subbands, respectively.

[0228] Optionally, the UE may send beam indices of R beams, one or more subband indices, and one or more of P second change information to the network device, so that the network device can clearly understand the relationship between the beams and the second change information.

[0229] When the UE reports P second change information, the number of bits occupied by different second change information in the P second change information may be the same, or may be different. For example, the UE may obtain the second information, and the second information may indicate the number of bits occupied by the P second change information. The second information may be predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the network device and the UE, or configured by the network device, or determined by the UE. If the second information is determined by the UE, the UE may send the second information to the network device in advance, or the UE may send the second information to the network device when reporting the P second change information. For example, the UE may put the Q second change information and the second information in one signaling and send it to the network device. Optionally, the second information may be placed before the P second change information, so that the network device can promptly determine the number of bits occupied by the P second change information.

[0230] In another implementation, if the second information is configured by a network device, the network device may configure the first subband channel quality indicator of each beam for M or R beams to occupy the same number of bits, for example, the second number of bits. Alternatively, the network device may configure at least one bit number, where the at least one bit number is the number of bits occupied by the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the M or K beams. The first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the M or R beams may correspond one-to-one to the at least one bit number. Accordingly, the network device sends the configured second information to the UE.

[0231] Different second change information in the P second change information can occupy the same second number of bits, and the second number of bits is represented by Y, which is a positive integer. For example, Y can be 2, that is, the second number of bits can be 2 bits. In this case, the second information only needs to indicate the second number of bits, and the second number of bits can be used as the number of bits occupied by any second change information in the second change information. Y can be related to the number of second change information. For example, the second change information directly indicates the amount of change, rather than the difference interval. Then, for example, if there are X possible values ​​of the second change information, then Y can be equal to in Indicates rounding up X. For another example, if the second change information indicates a difference interval, then X above may be the number of difference intervals.

[0232] Optionally, Y can be a fixed value, or Y can have multiple optional values. For example, Y can be related to the value of K. For example, as the value of K increases, Y can also increase. For example, when K = 2, Y can be 2, that is, each second change information in the P second change information can occupy 2 bits; and when K = 4, Y can be 4, that is, each second change information in the P second change information can occupy 4 bits.

[0233] In addition, Table 6 in the above text is an example of a difference interval. Optionally, the protocol predefines or the network device can configure a difference interval division method (such as Table 6), and the UE always adopts the difference interval division method. Or, optionally, the protocol predefines or the network device can configure multiple difference interval division methods (for example, Table 6 is one of them), and the UE can select one of the difference interval division methods. Optionally, one selection method of the UE is that the UE determines the difference interval division method based on Y. For example, the protocol predefines or the network device configures the total number of bits occupied by P second change information, for example, Z, and the number of bits occupied by different second change information in the P second change information is Y, then Y=Z / K, and the UE can select a difference interval division method based on Y.

[0234] If different pieces of the P second change information occupy different numbers of bits, the second information may indicate at least one bit number, where the at least one bit number is the number of bits occupied by each of the P pieces of second change information. The P pieces of second change information may correspond one-to-one to the at least one bit number, or one bit number in the at least one bit number may correspond to multiple pieces of second change information (i.e., different pieces of the second change information in the multiple pieces of second change information occupy the same number of bits).

[0235] Regardless of whether the number of bits occupied by different second change information in the P second change information is the same or different, as described above, for a reference beam that does not rely on other beams to determine the second subband channel quality indicator, the UE can report the second subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the reference beam. The number of bits occupied by the second subband channel quality indicator can be the same as the number of bits occupied by one second change information in the P second change information, or can be different from the number of bits occupied by all P second change information. Optionally, the number of bits occupied by the second subband channel quality indicator can be predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and network device, or configured by the network device, or determined by the UE.

[0236] 3. In implementation C, the N channel quality indicators include first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to K beams out of the M beams and first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams out of the M beams, where K is a positive integer less than or equal to M, and R is a positive integer less than or equal to M. That is, in implementation C, the UE can report both the first wideband channel quality indicator and the first subband channel quality indicator for the M beams.

[0237] The network device can indicate to the UE, through one or more signaling, which K out of M beams to report the first wideband channel quality indication, and which R out of M beams to feedback the first sub-band channel quality indication. After receiving the indication from the network device, the UE can respectively determine the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the K beams in the above-mentioned manner A, determine the sub-band channel quality indication of the R beams in the above-mentioned manner B, and send the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the K beams and the first sub-band channel quality indication of the R beams to the network device at one time, which will not be elaborated here.

[0238] The network device can indicate to the UE to report both the first wideband channel quality indication and the first sub-band channel quality indication for all M beams, that is, M = K = R. Among them, the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the K beams can be determined in the manner in the above-mentioned implementation manner A, and the first sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the R beams can be determined in the manner in the above-mentioned implementation manner B, which will not be elaborated here.

[0239] For example, referring to Table 17, taking M = K = R = 4 as an example, the number of sub-bands is W = 3, wbCQI1, wbCQI2, wbCQI3, and wbCQI4 are the first wideband channel quality indications corresponding to Beam 1, Beam 2, Beam 3, and Beam 4 respectively, and subCQI1_1 to subCQI4_3 are the sub-band channel quality indications. Among them, one sub-band of one beam corresponds to one first sub-band channel quality indication.

[0240] Table 17

[0241] The network device can also indicate to the UE to report the first wideband channel quality indication for some of the M beams and the first sub-band channel quality indication for some other beams, that is, K < M, R < M. Among them, the first wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the K beams can be determined in the manner in the above-mentioned implementation manner A, and the first sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the R beams can be determined in the manner in the above-mentioned implementation manner B, which will not be elaborated here.

[0242] For example, referring to Table 18, taking R = 4 as an example, the number of subbands is W = 3. wbCQI1, wbCQI2, and wbCQI3 are the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to beam 1, beam 2, and beam 3, respectively. subCQI2_1 to subCQI4_3 are the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4, respectively. One subband of one beam corresponds to one first subband channel quality indicator. Thus, the network device can instruct the UE to report the first wideband channel quality indicator for beams 1 to 3 and the first wideband channel quality indicator for beams 2 to 4. Then, for beams 2 and 3, the UE reports both the first wideband channel quality indicator and the first subband channel quality indicator.

[0243] Table 18

[0244] Optionally, for the above-mentioned implementation methods A to C, when the UE sends N channel quality indications to the network device, it can be sent in a corresponding order. For example, when the N channel quality indications include first wideband channel quality indications corresponding to K beams out of M beams, the UE can arrange the beam indices and the first wideband channel quality indications of the K beams in a corresponding order and send them to the network device in the order. For another example, when the N channel quality indications include first subband channel quality indications corresponding to R beams out of M beams, the UE can arrange the beam indices and the first subband channel quality indications of the K beams in a corresponding order and send them to the network device in the order.

[0245] In an embodiment of the present application, the UE may select a sorting method from multiple sorting methods to send N channel quality indicators.

[0246] Sorting method 1: Arrange in the order of beam index-first wideband channel quality indicator index, where arrangement can also be understood or replaced by arrangement, sorting, or placement. As shown in Table 19 below, when the first wideband channel quality indicator is the second wideband channel quality indicator, the index of the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam index is arranged after each beam index, and then the beam index of the next beam and its corresponding second wideband channel quality indicator index are arranged, and so on. When the first wideband channel quality indicator is the first change information, the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam index can be replaced by the first change information. Alternatively, when the first wideband channel quality indicator is a mixture of the second wideband channel quality indicator and the first change information, the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam index can be replaced by the first change information or the second wideband channel quality indicator. Optionally, the beam reporting the second wideband channel quality indicator and the corresponding second wideband channel quality indicator are sorted before the beam reporting the first change information and the corresponding first change information.

[0247] See Table 20 below, which shows the result of sorting Table 3 in the above-mentioned implementation A according to sorting mode 1. Alternatively, see Table 21 below, which shows the result of sorting Table 7 according to sorting mode 1 when the first wideband channel quality indicator is a mixture of the second wideband channel quality indicator and the first change information.

[0248] Sorting method 1 can also be applied to reporting of the first subband channel quality indicator. When the UE reports the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams, the first wideband channel quality indicator in sorting method 1 can be replaced with the first subband channel quality indicator. In other words, the order of beam-index of one or more first subband channel quality indicators is arranged. Optionally, the indexes of one or more first subband channel quality indicators can be sorted from large to small or from small to large according to the subband index. For example, Table 22 below shows the result of sorting the S second subband channel quality indicators and the corresponding R beam indices in Table 10 according to sorting method 1.

[0249] Sorting method 2: Arrange in the order of first wideband channel quality indicator index - beam index, as shown in Table 23 below. When the first wideband channel quality indicator is the second wideband channel quality indicator, the index of the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam index is arranged after each beam index, followed by the beam index of the next beam and its corresponding second wideband channel quality indicator index, and so on. When the first wideband channel quality indicator is the first change information, the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam index can be replaced by the first change information.

[0250] The second sorting method can also be applied to the reporting of the first sub-band channel quality indicator. When the UE reports the first sub-band channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams, the first wideband channel quality indicator is replaced by the first sub-band channel quality indicator.

[0251] Sorting method three: first arrange the K beam indices, and then arrange the indexes of the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beam indices, as shown in Table 24 below.

[0252] Sorting method 3 can also be applied to reporting of the first sub-band channel quality indicator. When the UE reports the first sub-band channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams, the first wideband channel quality indicator is replaced by the first sub-band channel quality indicator.

[0253] Sorting method 4: first arrange the indexes of the K wideband channel quality indicators, and then arrange the beam indexes corresponding to the K wideband channel quality indicators, as shown in Table 25 below.

[0254] Sorting method 4 can also be applied to reporting of the first sub-band channel quality indicator. When the UE reports the first sub-band channel quality indicators corresponding to R beams, the first wideband channel quality indicator is replaced by the first sub-band channel quality indicator.

[0255] Optionally, the order of the beams in the above-mentioned sorting methods 1 to 4 can be arranged in order of beam index from small to large or from large to small, the order of the index of the first wideband channel quality indication can be arranged in order of the index of the first wideband channel quality indication from small to large or from large to small, or the order of the index of the first subband channel quality indication can be arranged in order of the index of the first subband channel quality indication from small to large or from large to small.

[0256] In addition, it should be noted that in Tables 19 to 27, beam may refer to the beam index of a beam, for example, beam 1 may refer to the beam index of beam 1, beam 2 may refer to the beam index of beam 2, ..., and beam K may refer to the beam index of beam K. Taking the beam index of beam 1 as beam index 1, the beam index of beam 2 as beam index 2, ..., and the beam index of beam K as beam index K as an example, then referring to Table 19, the UE may arrange the K beam indices and the second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams (or K beam indices) in the order of beam index 1, beam 1 first wideband CQI, beam index 2, beam 2 first wideband CQI, beam index 3, beam 3 first wideband CQI, ..., beam index K, beam K first wideband CQI. The UE may also report the K beam indices and the second wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams (or K beam indices) to the network device in this order.

[0257] Arranging (or arranging) the information corresponding to the beam index after the beam index may mean arranging the information corresponding to the beam index immediately after the beam index. Taking the arrangement of the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to each beam index after the beam index as an example, as shown in Table 19, for beam 1 (or beam index 1), the first wideband CQI of beam 1 (i.e., the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam index 1) is arranged after beam index 1.

[0258] Table 19

[0259] Table 20

[0260] Table 21

[0261] Table 22

[0262] Table 23

[0263] Table 24

[0264] Table 25

[0265] When the N channel quality indicators include both wideband channel quality indicators and subband channel quality indicators, the UE may determine the order according to the following ordering manner.

[0266] Sorting method five: reporting beam index - wideband channel quality indicator - subband channel quality indicator for each beam. That is, for each beam, the wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam (such as the first wideband channel quality indicator) is arranged first after the beam index of the beam, followed by the subband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam (such as the first subband channel quality indicator). The first wideband channel quality indicator may be the second wideband channel quality indicator or the first change information, and the first subband channel quality indicator may be the second subband channel quality indicator or the second change information. As shown in Table 26 below, after each beam index, the index of the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam is arranged, followed by the index of the first subband channel quality indicator of the beam, followed by the beam index of the next beam, the index of the first wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the next beam, and the index of the first subband channel quality indicator of the next beam, and so on. In Table 26, the example of the first wideband channel quality indicator being the second wideband channel quality indicator and the first subband channel quality indicator being the second subband channel quality indicator is used. It is understood that when the first wideband channel quality indicator is the first change information, the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam index can be replaced with the first change information. When the first subband channel quality indicator is the second change information, the second subband channel quality indicator can be replaced with the second change information. Table 26 uses the example of reporting the first subband channel quality indicator of three subbands.

[0267] Optionally, the channel quality indication information of K beams may be arranged in the following manner:

[0268] In order of beam index from small to large or from large to small;

[0269] Arrange the first wideband channel quality indicators in descending order or in descending order according to their indexes;

[0270] In order of beam quality (e.g., RSRP, SINR, RSRQ) from small to large or from large to small.

[0271] That is to say, the channel quality indicators of the K beams can be arranged in order from small to large or from large to small according to the beam index of the beam; or, they can be arranged in order from small to large or from large to small according to the index of the first broadband channel quality indicator corresponding to the K beams; or, they can be arranged in order from small to large or from large to small according to the beam quality of the K beams.

[0272] For example, the channel quality indicators of K beams are arranged in ascending order according to their beam indices, with the beam index of beam 1 being smaller than the beam index of beam 2, the beam index of beam 2 being smaller than the beam index of beam 3, and so on, and the beam index of beam K-1 being smaller than the beam index of beam K. If the UE reports the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to K beams and the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to K beams, the beam index of beam 1 is arranged first, followed by the first wideband channel quality indicator and the first subband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 1. Next, the beam index of beam 2 is arranged, followed by the first wideband channel quality indicator and the first subband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam 2. This continues in this order until the beam index of beam K is arranged, followed by the first wideband channel quality indicator and the first subband channel quality indicator corresponding to beam K.

[0273] Table 26

[0274] Sorting method six: reporting in the form of multiple beam indices - multiple wideband channel quality indicators - multiple subband channel quality indicators. That is, for multiple beams, the beam indices of the multiple beams are first arranged, followed by the wideband channel quality indicators (e.g., first wideband channel quality indicators) of the multiple beams, and then the subband channel quality indicators (e.g., first subband channel quality indicators) of the multiple beams. The first wideband channel quality indicator can be the second wideband channel quality indicator or the first change information, and the first subband channel quality indicator can be the second subband channel quality indicator or the second change information. As shown in Table 27 below, K beam indices are arranged first, followed by the indices of the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams, and then the indices of the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams, and so on. Table 27 uses the example of the first wideband channel quality indicator being the second wideband channel quality indicator and the first subband channel quality indicator being the second subband channel quality indicator as an example. It should be understood that when the first wideband channel quality indicator is the first change information, the second wideband channel quality indicator corresponding to the beam index can be replaced by the first change information. When the first subband channel quality indicator is the second change information, the second subband channel quality indicator can be replaced by the second change information. The indexes of the first wideband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams correspond one-to-one with the positions of the K beam indices; the indexes of the first subband channel quality indicators corresponding to the K beams correspond one-to-one with the positions of the K beam indices. Table 27 uses the reporting of the first subband channel quality indicators for three subbands as an example.

[0275] Optionally, beam indices can be arranged in the following order:

[0276] Arrange in order of beam index from small to large or from large to small;

[0277] Arrange the first wideband channel quality indicators in descending order or in descending order according to their indexes;

[0278] In order of beam quality (e.g., RSRP, SINR, RSRQ) from small to large or from large to small.

[0279] Table 27

[0280] FIG3 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 300 may be the UE or the circuit system of the UE described in the embodiment shown in FIG2 , and is used to implement the method corresponding to the UE in the above method embodiment. Alternatively, the communication device 300 may be the network device or the circuit system of the network device described in the embodiment shown in FIG2 , and is used to implement the method corresponding to the network device in the above method embodiment. For example, one circuit system is a chip system.

[0281] The communication device 300 includes at least one processor 301. Processor 301 can be used for internal processing of the device, implementing certain control processing functions. Optionally, processor 301 includes instructions. Optionally, processor 301 can store data. Optionally, different processors can be independent devices, located in different physical locations, or on different integrated circuits. Optionally, different processors can be integrated into one or more processors, for example, on one or more integrated circuits.

[0282] Optionally, the communication device 300 includes one or more memories 303 for storing instructions. Optionally, data may also be stored in the memories 303. The processor and memory may be provided separately or integrated together.

[0283] Optionally, the communication device 300 includes a communication line 302 and at least one communication interface 304. Since the memory 303, the communication line 302 and the communication interface 304 are all optional, they are indicated by dotted lines in FIG3 .

[0284] Optionally, the communication device 300 may further include a transceiver and / or an antenna. The transceiver may be used to send information to or receive information from other devices. The transceiver may be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, an input / output interface, etc., and is used to implement the transceiver function of the communication device 300 via an antenna. Optionally, the transceiver includes a transmitter and a receiver. For example, the transmitter may be used to generate a radio frequency signal from a baseband signal, and the receiver may be used to convert the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal.

[0285] The processor 301 may include a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present application.

[0286] The communication link 302 may include a pathway for transmitting information between the aforementioned components.

[0287] The communication interface 304 uses any transceiver or other device for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, radio access network (RAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), wired access network, etc.

[0288] The memory 303 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) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, an optical disc storage (including a compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory 303 may exist independently and be connected to the processor 301 via the communication line 302. Alternatively, the memory 303 may be integrated with the processor 301.

[0289] The memory 303 is used to store computer-executable instructions for executing the solution of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 301. The processor 301 is used to execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 303, thereby implementing the steps performed by the UE or network device described in the embodiment shown in Figure 2.

[0290] Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application code, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0291] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 301 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 3 .

[0292] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the communication device 300 may include multiple processors, such as processor 301 and processor 305 in Figure 3. Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. The processor here may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and / or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

[0293] When the device shown in FIG3 is a chip, such as a UE chip or a network device chip, the chip includes a processor 301 (and may also include a processor 305), a communication circuit 302, and a communication interface 304. Optionally, the chip may include a memory 303. Specifically, the communication interface 304 may be an input interface, a pin, or a circuit. The memory 303 may be a register, a cache, or the like. The processor 301 and the processor 305 may be a general-purpose CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of any of the above-described embodiments of the communication method.

[0294] The embodiment of the present application can divide the functional modules of the device according to the above-mentioned method example. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. For example, in the case of dividing each functional module according to each function, Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of a device, and the device 400 can be the UE or network device involved in the above-mentioned various method embodiments, or a chip in the UE or a chip in the network device. The device 400 includes a sending unit 401, a processing unit 402 and a receiving unit 403.

[0295] It should be understood that the device 400 can be used to implement the steps performed by the UE or network device in the communication method of the embodiment of the present application. The relevant features can refer to the embodiment shown in Figure 2 above and will not be repeated here.

[0296] Optionally, the functions / implementation processes of the sending unit 401, the receiving unit 403, and the processing unit 402 in FIG4 may be implemented by the processor 301 in FIG3 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 303. Alternatively, the functions / implementation processes of the processing unit 402 in FIG4 may be implemented by the processor 301 in FIG3 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 303, and the functions / implementation processes of the sending unit 401 and the receiving unit 403 in FIG4 may be implemented by the communication interface 304 in FIG3.

[0297] Optionally, when the device 400 is a chip or a circuit, the functions / implementation processes of the sending unit 401 and the receiving unit 403 can also be implemented through pins or circuits.

[0298] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed, the method performed by the UE or network device in the aforementioned method embodiment is implemented. In this way, the functions described in the above embodiments can be implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be essentially or in other words, the part that contributes or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for enabling a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application. Storage media include various media that can store program codes, such as USB flash drives, mobile hard drives, ROM, RAM, magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0299] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes: computer program code, which, when running on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method executed by the UE or the network device in any of the aforementioned method embodiments.

[0300] An embodiment of the present application further provides a processing device, including a processor and an interface; the processor is used to execute the method executed by the UE or network device involved in any of the above method embodiments.

[0301] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated therein. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a digital versatile disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state disk (SSD)).

[0302] The various illustrative logic units and circuits described in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented or operated by a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, and optionally, the general-purpose processor can also be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller or state machine. The processor can also be implemented by a combination of computing devices, such as a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

[0303] The steps of the methods or algorithms described in the embodiments of the present application can be directly embedded in hardware, software units executed by a processor, or a combination of the two. The software unit can be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, registers, hard disks, removable disks, CD-ROMs, or other storage media in any form known in the art. Exemplarily, the storage medium can be connected to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and can write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium can also be integrated into the processor. The processor and storage medium can be provided in an ASIC, which can be provided in a terminal device. Alternatively, the processor and storage medium can also be provided in different components in the terminal device.

[0304] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, so that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0305] The contents of the various embodiments of this application can refer to each other. If there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their internal logical relationships.

[0306] It is understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the UE and / or the network device may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application. These steps or operations are merely examples. In the embodiments of the present application, other operations or variations of various operations may also be performed. In addition, the various steps may be performed in a different order than those presented in the embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all operations in the embodiments of the present application need to be performed.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method includes: Determining channel quality indications corresponding to M beams, where M is an integer greater than 1; Transmitting the channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams include the wideband channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams; The transmitting the channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams includes: Transmitting the beam indices of the M beams and M wideband channel quality indications, where the M wideband channel quality indications correspond one-to-one to the beam indices of the M beams.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein The wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the beam index is arranged after the beam index of any one of the M beams.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams include M wideband channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams and sub-band channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that, The sub-band channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams include P second variation information. Each beam corresponds to P / M sub-bands. Each of the M beams corresponds to P / M second variation information. The P / M second variation information corresponding to any one of the M beams corresponds one-to-one to the P / M sub-bands of the beam. P is an integer greater than or equal to M; Wherein, the second variation information corresponding to any sub-band indicates the variation amount of the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the sub-band relative to the wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the beam to which the sub-band belongs.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein The transmitting the channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams includes: Transmitting the indices of the M beams, M wideband channel quality indications corresponding one-to-one to the M beams, and the P second variation information. Wherein, after the beam index of each beam, the wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the beam is arranged first, and then the P / M second variation information corresponding to the beam is arranged.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The M beams include K beams. The channel quality indication corresponding to any one of the K beams includes the wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the beam or first variation information. The K beams belong to the M beams, and K is less than or equal to M; Wherein, the first variation information corresponding to any beam indicates the variation amount of the wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the beam relative to the wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam. The variation amount is a difference or a difference interval.

8. The method according to claim 1 or 7, characterized in that, The M beams include R beams. The channel quality indication corresponding to any one of the R beams includes the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to at least one sub-band of the beam or second variation information. The R beams belong to the M beams, and R is less than or equal to M; Wherein, the second variation information corresponding to any one of the sub-bands indicates the variation amount of the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the sub-band relative to a reference channel quality indication. The variation amount is a difference or a difference interval. The reference channel quality indication is: The wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the beam to which the sub-band belongs, or, The wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam, or, The sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the reference sub-band of the beam to which the sub-band belongs, or, The sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the reference sub-band of the reference beam.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, The reference sub-band satisfies one or more of the following: The reference sub-band is the sub-band configured or indicated by the network device; or, The reference sub-band is the sub-band with the smallest or largest index.

10. The method according to any one of claims 7-9, characterized in that, The reference beam satisfies one or more of the following: The reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam index among the M beams; The reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam reception power among the M beams; The reference beam is the first beam to report the channel quality indication among the M beams; or, The reference beam is the beam configured or indicated by the network device.

11. The method according to any one of claims 7-10, characterized in that, After the beam index of any one of the K beams, the wideband channel quality indication or the first change information corresponding to the beam is arranged.

12. The method according to any one of claims 2-11, characterized in that, The number of bits occupied by the wideband channel quality indication or the first change information is the first number of bits.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein The first number of bits is 4.

14. The method according to any one of claims 4-13, characterized in that, The number of bits occupied by the sub-band channel quality indication or the second change information is the second number of bits.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein The second number of bits is 2.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that, The channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams are arranged in ascending or descending order of the beam indices of the beams; or, in ascending or descending order of the indices of the wideband channel quality indications respectively corresponding to the M beams; or, in ascending or descending order of the beam qualities of the M beams.

17. The method according to any one of claims 1-16, characterized in that, After the beam index of the third beam, the channel quality indication of the third beam is arranged. The M beams include the third beam, and the channel quality indication of the third beam includes the wideband channel quality indication and / or the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the third beam.

18. The method according to any one of claims 1-17, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receiving second configuration information, where the second configuration information configures the number of resources and / or the number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information needs to be reported, and M is determined according to the number of resources and / or the number of beams.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein Before receiving the second configuration information, the method further includes: Sending capability information, where the capability information indicates the maximum number of resources and / or the number of beams supported by the terminal device when reporting channel quality information.

20. A communication method, characterized in that, The method includes: Receiving channel quality indications corresponding to M beams, where M is an integer greater than 1; Determining the channel qualities of the M beams according to the channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein The channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams include the wideband channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams; Receiving the channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams includes: Receiving the beam indices of the M beams and M wideband channel quality indications, where the M wideband channel quality indications correspond one-to-one to the beam indices of the M beams.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein After the beam index of any one of the M beams, the wideband channel quality indication corresponding to the beam index is arranged.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein The channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams include the M wideband channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams and the sub-band channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein The sub-band channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams include P pieces of second variation information. Each beam corresponds to P / M sub-bands. Each of the M beams corresponds to P / M pieces of second variation information. The P / M pieces of second variation information corresponding to any one of the M beams are in one-to-one correspondence with the P / M sub-bands of the beam. P is an integer greater than or equal to M. Among them, the second variation information corresponding to any sub-band indicates the variation amount of the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the sub-band relative to the wide-band channel quality indication corresponding to the beam to which the sub-band belongs.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein Receiving the channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams includes: Receiving the indexes of the M beams, M wide-band channel quality indications in one-to-one correspondence with the M beams, and the P pieces of second variation information. Among them, after the beam index of each beam, the wide-band channel quality indication corresponding to the beam is arranged first, and then the P / M pieces of second variation information corresponding to the beam are arranged.

26. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that The M beams include K beams. The channel quality indication corresponding to any one of the K beams includes the wide-band channel quality indication corresponding to the beam or the first variation information. The K beams belong to the M beams, and K is less than or equal to M. Among them, the first variation information corresponding to any beam indicates the variation amount of the wide-band channel quality indication corresponding to the beam relative to the wide-band channel quality indication of the reference beam. The variation amount is a difference value or a difference value interval.

27. The method according to claim 20 or 26, characterized in that The M beams include R beams. The channel quality indication corresponding to any one of the R beams includes the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to at least one sub-band of the beam or the second variation information. The R beams belong to the M beams, and R is less than or equal to M. Among them, the second variation information corresponding to any one of the sub-bands indicates the variation amount of the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the sub-band relative to the reference channel quality indication. The variation amount is a difference value or a difference value interval. The reference channel quality indication is: The wide-band channel quality indication corresponding to the beam to which the sub-band belongs, or, The wide-band channel quality indication of the reference beam, or, The sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the reference sub-band of the beam to which the sub-band belongs, or, The sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the reference sub-band of the reference beam.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein The reference sub-band satisfies one or more of the following: The reference sub-band is the sub-band configured or indicated by the network device; or, The reference sub-band is the sub-band with the smallest or largest index.

29. The method according to any one of claims 26-28, characterized in that, The reference beam satisfies one or more of the following: The reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam index among the M beams; The reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest corresponding beam reception power among the M beams; The reference beam is the first beam to report the channel quality indication among the M beams; or, The reference beam is the beam configured or indicated by the network device.

30. The method according to any one of claims 26 - 29, characterized in that, After the beam index of any one of the K beams, the wide-band channel quality indication corresponding to the beam or the first variation information is arranged.

31. The method according to any one of claims 21-30, characterized in that, The number of bits occupied by the wide-band channel quality indication or the first variation information is the first number of bits.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein The first number of bits is 4.

33. The method according to any one of claims 23 - 32, characterized in that, The number of bits occupied by the sub-band channel quality indication or the second change information is the second number of bits.

34. The method according to claim 33, characterized in that, The second number of bits is 2.

35. The method according to any one of claims 20 - 34, characterized in that, The channel quality indications corresponding to the M beams are arranged in ascending or descending order of the beam indices of the beams; or, arranged in ascending or descending order of the indices of the wideband channel quality indications respectively corresponding to the M beams; or, arranged in ascending or descending order of the beam qualities of the M beams.

36. The method according to any one of claims 20-35, characterized in that, The channel quality indication of the third beam is arranged after the beam index of the third beam. The M beams include the third beam, and the channel quality indication of the third beam includes the wideband channel quality indication and / or the sub-band channel quality indication corresponding to the third beam.

37. The method according to any one of claims 20 - 36, characterized in that, The method further includes: Sending second configuration information, where the second configuration information configures the number of resources and / or the number of beams for which multi-beam channel quality information needs to be reported, and M is determined according to the number of resources and / or the number of beams.

38. The method according to claim 37, wherein Before sending the second configuration information, the method further includes: Receiving capability information, where the capability information indicates the maximum number of resources and / or the number of beams supported by the terminal device when reporting channel quality information.

39. A communication device, characterized in that, The communication device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit. The processing unit is coupled to the transceiver unit to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-19, or execute the method according to any one of claims 20-38.

40. A communication device, characterized in that, The communication device includes a processor and a memory. The memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to execute the computer program stored on the memory, so that the communication device executes the method according to any one of claims 1-19, or so that the communication device executes the method according to any one of claims 20-38.

41. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program. When the computer program runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-19, or the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 20-38.

42. A computer program product, characterized in that, The computer program product includes a computer program. When the computer program runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-19, or the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 20-38.

43. A chip system, characterized in that, The chip system includes: A processor and an interface. The processor is used to call and run instructions from the interface. When the processor executes the instructions, the method according to any one of claims 1-19 is implemented, or the method according to any one of claims 20-38 is implemented.

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