Communication method, apparatus, and storage medium

Abstract

A communication method, an apparatus, and a storage medium, relating to the technical field of communications, and used for allowing a first apparatus to obtain channel information by combining a plurality of reference signals. The solution can decrease the number of reference signals issued by a second apparatus side, thereby reducing resource overhead. In the present application, a first apparatus receives a first reference signal and a second reference signal, wherein the first reference signal corresponds to a first port set, the second reference signal corresponds to a second port set, the first port set comprises at least one antenna port, and the second port set comprises at least one antenna port; and the first apparatus sends channel information, wherein the channel information is determined on the basis of the first reference signal sent by means of the first port set and the second reference signal sent by means of the second port set. The first apparatus obtains the channel information by combining a plurality of reference signals, and therefore, the solution can reduce the number of reference signals issued by the second apparatus side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

Description

Communication method, device and storage medium

[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 January 12, 2024, with application number 202410054093.X and application name "A Communication Method, Device and Storage Medium", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

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

[0004] Multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technology, a key wireless communication technology, can be used to meet high-speed transmission requirements. Through channel measurement (or channel estimation), network devices use the channel information obtained during the measurement process to calculate precoding information between the network device and the terminal device. This precoding information then enables MIMO communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0005] Taking the downlink channel measurement process implemented by the network device based on the downlink reference signal as an example, the downlink reference signal sent by the network device may include a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), and the network device may receive feedback of the CSI-RS, so that the network device can obtain channel information based on the feedback of the CSI-RS. Currently, the network device can send CSI-RS separately on different time domain resources, and the terminal device separately feeds back the channel information corresponding to each CSI-RS. As the number of beams increases, the number of CSI-RSs that the network device needs to send also increases, which results in more resources occupied by the reference signal. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The present application provides a communication method, device, and storage medium for enabling a first device to obtain channel information by combining multiple reference signals. This solution can reduce the number of reference signals sent by the second device side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0007] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method. The method is performed by a first apparatus. The first apparatus may be a terminal apparatus or a network apparatus. The terminal apparatus of the present application may be a terminal device or a chip (or chip system) within the terminal device. The network apparatus of the present application may be a network device or a chip (or chip system) within the network device.

[0008] In this method, a first device receives a first reference signal and a second reference signal. The first reference signal corresponds to a first port set, for example, the second device sends the first reference signal through the first port set. The second reference signal corresponds to a second port set, for example, the second device sends the second reference signal through the second port set. The first port set includes at least one antenna port, and the second port set includes at least one antenna port. The first device sends channel information. The channel information is determined based on the reference signals sent by the first port set and the second port set, for example, the channel information is determined based on the first reference signal sent by the first port set and the second reference signal sent by the second port set. It can also be understood that the channel information

[0009] It can be seen that the first device can obtain channel information based on two reference signals. Then, this scheme can enable the second device to send fewer reference signals while the first device can also feedback more channel information. This scheme can thus reduce the number of reference signals sent down by the first device side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0010] To further illustrate the beneficial effects of the present application, a possible example is described below. This example uses the second device including two port sets as an example. In actual applications, the second device may include a greater or lesser number of port sets. The second device transmits a first reference signal through the two port sets, each of which uses beam B#0 to transmit the first reference signal. The second device transmits a second reference signal through the two port sets, each of which uses beam B#1 to transmit the first reference signal. The first reference signal and the second reference signal may be transmitted using frequency division or time division. In a possible implementation of the present application, the first device may not only feedback channel information corresponding to the first reference signal (this channel information may reflect the channel information corresponding to when the two port sets use beam B#0), but may also feedback channel information corresponding to the second reference signal (this channel information may reflect the channel information corresponding to when the two port sets use beam B#1). Furthermore, in a possible implementation of the present application, the first device may feedback channel information corresponding to the first reference signal and the second reference signal. This channel information may feedback channel information corresponding to when one of the two port sets uses beam B#0 and the other port set uses beam B#1. As can be seen, in this solution, the second device does not need to send a new reference signal (the new reference signal is sent via two ports, with one port set using beam B#0 and the other port set using beam B#1). The first device can then feedback the channel information corresponding to the combination of beams B#0 and B#1. Therefore, the solution provided in this application can reduce the number of reference signals sent by the second device, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0011] In this application, a reference signal may correspond to a reference signal resource. In this application, a first device may obtain channel information based on a reference signal. This embodiment can also be understood as: the first device obtains channel information based on a reference signal resource. In this application, the first device may also obtain channel information based on multiple reference signals. This embodiment can also be understood as: the first device obtains channel information based on multiple reference signal resources.

[0012] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first port set belongs to N g1 port set, N g1 Is a positive integer. The first reference signal corresponds to N g1 Port sets can also be understood as: the second device through N g1 The second port set belongs to N g2 port set, N g2 is a positive integer. The second reference signal corresponds to N g2Port sets can also be understood as: the second device through N g2 A set of ports sends the second reference signal. g1 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. N g2 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. In one possible implementation, N g1 is an integer greater than 1, and / or, the N g2 is an integer greater than 1.

[0013] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method. The method is performed by a first device. The first device can be a terminal device or a network device. The terminal device of the present application can be a terminal device or a chip (or chip system) inside the terminal device. The network device of the present application can be a network device or a chip (or chip system) inside the network device.

[0014] In this method, a first device receives a first reference signal and a second reference signal. The first reference signal corresponds to N g1 port set, N g1 is a positive integer, N g1 The port set in the port set includes at least one antenna port. The second reference signal corresponds to N g2 port set, N g2 is a positive integer, N g2 The port set in the port set includes at least one antenna port. The first device sends channel information. The channel information is determined based on the first reference signal sent by the first port set and the second reference signal sent by the second port set. The first port set belongs to N g1 port sets, the second port set belongs to N g2 A set of ports. N g1 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. N g2 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. In one possible implementation, N g1 is an integer greater than 1, and / or, the N g2 is an integer greater than 1.

[0015] It can be seen that the first device can obtain channel information based on two reference signals. Then, this scheme can enable the second device to send fewer reference signals while the first device can also feedback more channel information. This scheme can thus reduce the number of reference signals sent down by the first device side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0016] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the channel information sent by the first device is determined based on first channel information and second channel information, the first channel information being determined based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set, and the second channel information being determined based on the second reference signal corresponding to the second port set. For example, the first device may obtain the first channel information based on the first reference signal and the resources corresponding to the first port set. The first device may obtain the second channel information based on the second reference signal and the resources corresponding to the second port set. The first device determines the channel information based on the first channel information and the second channel information. It can be seen that in this solution, the first device may obtain multiple channel information based on multiple resources respectively, and then merge the channel information corresponding to the multiple resources to obtain new channel information. The new channel information can be understood as channel information obtained across multiple resources. Since the first device can feed back channel information across resources, this solution can reduce the number of reference signals sent by the second device side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0017] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the channel information sent by the first device may be determined based on the first channel information, the second channel information, and a combining coefficient, and the combining coefficient is determined based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set and the second reference signal corresponding to the second port set. For example, the first device may determine the combining coefficient, and based on the combining coefficient, combine the first channel information and the second channel information to obtain the channel information. It can also be understood that the channel information needs to be determined based on the first channel information, the second channel information, and the combining coefficient. The combining coefficient is determined based on the first reference signal and the first port set, the second reference signal, and the second port set. The channel information determined based on this can be more consistent with the actual channel situation across resource combinations (i.e., a combination of resources of different reference signals), thereby improving subsequent communication efficiency.

[0018] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the resources corresponding to the first reference signal and the first port set and the resources corresponding to the second reference signal and the second port set may also correspond to different antenna panels. The first device can obtain channel information based on different reference signals, which can also be understood as the first device obtaining channel information across resources, that is, one channel information is obtained based on multiple resources (or multiple reference signals). This solution can reduce the number of reference signals sent by the network device side while ensuring the amount of channel information, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0019] In one possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the first device may further receive (e.g., may receive from the second device) configuration information. The configuration information includes information indicating that channel information is determined based on the first reference signal and the second reference signal. The first device may send the channel information based on the configuration information. It can be seen that the configuration information may indicate which reference signals' channel information the first device needs to obtain, so that the first device can obtain channel information that better meets the needs of the second device.

[0020] In one possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the first device may further determine configuration information, and the first device may further transmit (e.g., transmit) the configuration information to the second device. The configuration information includes information indicating that channel information is determined based on the first reference signal and the second reference signal. In this way, the first device may transmit the determined channel information with better communication quality to the second device and indicate the reference signal corresponding to the channel information to the second device.

[0021] In one possible implementation of the first and / or second aspects, the configuration information may include at least one of the following: information indicating a first port set, information indicating a first reference signal, information indicating a second port set, and information indicating a second reference signal. This information may indicate the reference signal corresponding to the channel information and the corresponding port set. Based on this implementation, the first apparatus may determine the channel information at the reference signal granularity and the port set granularity, thereby increasing the flexibility of the combination of the reference signal corresponding to the channel information and the port set.

[0022] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the indication information of the first port set includes: at least one of the index of the antenna ports in the first port set, the index of the first port set, the index of the starting antenna port in the first port set, the number of antenna ports included in the first port set, and the index of the ending antenna port in the first port set. The indexes of the antenna ports in the first port set may be continuous or discontinuous. When the antenna ports in the first port set are continuous, the first device may determine the antenna ports in the first port set based on at least two of the index of the starting antenna port in the first port set, the number of antenna ports included in the first port set, and the index of the ending antenna port in the first port set. At least one of the information in the indication information of the first port set may also be pre-set on the first device side, or may be defined by the protocol.

[0023] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the indication information of the second port set includes: an index of the antenna port in the second port set; an index of the second port set, an index of the starting antenna port in the second port set, information about the number of antenna ports included in the second port set, and at least one of an index of an antenna port ending in the second port set. The indexes of the antenna ports in the second port set may be continuous or discontinuous. When the antenna ports in the second port set are continuous, the first device may determine the antenna ports in the second port set based on at least two of the index of the starting antenna port in the second port set, information about the number of antenna ports included in the second port set, and an index of an antenna port ending in the second port set. At least one of the information in the indication information of the second port set may also be pre-set on the first device side, or may be protocol defined.

[0024] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the codebook corresponding to the first port set and the codebook corresponding to the second port set may be the same or different. The codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set and the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set may be the same or different.

[0025] The selection of codebooks and codebook parameters can be relatively flexible. For example, in one possible implementation, the codebook corresponding to the first port set and the codebook corresponding to the second port set are different; and / or the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set and the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are the same.

[0026] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the first device may transmit the channel information in multiple transmission modes. The first device may select a transmission mode corresponding to the channel information to transmit the channel information. The transmission mode may be related to the selection of a codebook and / or codebook parameters.

[0027] In one possible implementation, the transmission method of the channel information is associated with the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information. For example, if the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information is one, the channel information may correspond to the first transmission method. For another example, if the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information is greater than 1, the channel information may correspond to the second transmission method. The number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information may be understood as the number of reference signals or the number of reference signal resources on which the channel information is based. In the embodiment of the present application, the "number of reference signals" may also be replaced with the "number of reference signal resources", and the "spatial relationship corresponding to the reference signal" may also be replaced with the "spatial relationship corresponding to the reference signal resources".

[0028] In another possible implementation, the transmission mode of the channel information is associated with: the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information, and the spatial relationship of the reference signals corresponding to the channel information. For example, the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information is one, and the channel information may correspond to the first transmission mode. For another example, if the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information is greater than 1, but the spatial relationship (or beam) of all reference signals corresponding to the channel information is the same, then the channel information may correspond to the first transmission mode. For another example, if the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information is greater than 1, but the spatial relationship (or beam) of at least two reference signals in the spatial relationship (or beam) of all reference signals corresponding to the channel information is different, then the channel information may correspond to the second transmission mode.

[0029] In the first transmission mode, the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device can be determined based on the number (e.g., the total number) of antenna ports corresponding to the reference signal resources corresponding to the channel information. If the channel information corresponds to multiple port sets, the multiple port sets can adopt the same codebook and codebook parameters. The codebook parameters of a port set may include, for example, at least one of the number of antenna ports in the port set, the non-zero element ratio, the basis selection ratio, and the basis number (e.g., the number of frequency domain basis).

[0030] In the second transmission mode, the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device can be determined based on the number of antenna ports in each port set corresponding to the channel information. For example, the codebook parameters of a port set have a certain relationship with the number of antenna ports in the port set, such as a positive proportional relationship. If the channel information corresponds to multiple port sets, the codebooks corresponding to at least two port sets may be different; and / or the codebook parameters corresponding to at least two port sets may be different. The codebook parameters of a port set may, for example, include at least one of the number of antenna ports in the port set, the non-zero element ratio, the basis selection ratio, and the number of basis (e.g., the number of frequency domain basis). For example, the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the first port set; the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set include: at least one of the number of antenna ports in the first port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the first port set, the basis selection ratio, and the number of basis. The codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the second port set. The codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set include: at least one of the number of antenna ports in the second port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the second port set, the basis selection ratio and the basis number corresponding to the second port set.

[0031] Based on the above solution, the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information can be determined more reasonably.

[0032] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, N g1 The first-level weight W1 corresponding to at least one port set in the port sets is N g2 The first-level weight W1 corresponding to at least one of the port sets may be the same or different. g1 The second-level weight W2 corresponding to at least one port set in the port sets is N g2 The second-level weight W2 corresponding to at least one port set in the port sets may be the same or different.

[0033] For example, multiple first-level weights W1 corresponding to the first port set are the same, multiple second-level weights W2 corresponding to the first port set are the same, at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the second port set, and at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the second port set.

[0034] For another example, multiple first-level weights W1 corresponding to the first port set are the same, at least two second-level weights W2 corresponding to the first port set are different, at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the second port set, and at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the second port set.

[0035] It can be seen from the above content that the first-level weight W1 and / or the second-level weight W2 can be set at the granularity of the port set, or the first-level weight W1 and / or the second-level weight W2 can be set at the granularity of the reference signal, which can improve the flexibility of setting the first-level weight W1 and / or the second-level weight W2.

[0036] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the first port set and the second port set may have no intersection (i.e., the antenna ports in the first port set and the antenna ports in the second port set are completely different), may partially overlap (i.e., the antenna ports in the first port set and the antenna ports in the second port set are partially the same and partially different), or may completely overlap (i.e., the antenna ports in the first port set and the antenna ports in the second port set are completely the same). Based on this implementation, the first device can obtain channel information across resources and across port sets, i.e., the first device can obtain channel information in combination with different reference signals, and these reference signals correspond to different port sets. In this way, the second device can configure spatial relationships for these port sets respectively, thereby making the combination of spatial relationships corresponding to the channel information obtained by the first device more diversified.

[0037] The spatial relationship of the port set can be flexibly set. In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, N g1 The spatial relationships corresponding to at least two port sets in the port sets may be different or the same. g2 The spatial relationships corresponding to at least two port sets in the port sets may be different or the same. g1 The spatial relationship corresponding to at least one port set (for example, all port sets) in the port sets is the same as N g2 The spatial relationships corresponding to at least one port set (eg, all port sets) in the N port sets may be different. g1 The spatial relationship corresponding to at least one port set (for example, all port sets) in the port sets is the same as N g2 The spatial relationships corresponding to at least one of the port sets (e.g., all port sets) can be the same. It can be seen that in the embodiments provided herein, spatial relationships can be set at the granularity of port sets, thereby increasing the flexibility of spatial relationship settings. Furthermore, the second device can configure spatial relationships for these port sets separately, thereby making the combination of spatial relationships corresponding to the channel information obtained by the first device more diverse.

[0038] In a possible implementation of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, the number of port sets used to send reference signals can be flexibly set, and the number of port sets corresponding to two reference signals can be the same or different. g1 The number of antenna ports in at least one of the port sets is equal to N g2 The number of antenna ports in at least one of the port sets may be different or the same. g1 Can be used with N g2 Equal or unequal. g1 Port sets and N g2 For example, if the first port set and the second port set are the same, it can be understood that the antenna ports in the first port set are exactly the same as the antenna ports in the second port set. In this solution, since the number of port sets can be flexibly set, the flexibility of the solution can be further improved.

[0039] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, N g1 The port set includes N g1,1 *N g1,2 port set, N g1,1 Indicates N g1 The number of port sets included in the first dimension. N g1,2 Indicates Ng1 The number of port sets included in the second dimension, N g1,1 is a positive integer, N g1,2 N is a positive integer. g2 The port set includes N g2,1 *N g2,2 port set, N g2,1 Indicates N g2 The number of port sets included in the first dimension, N g2,2 Indicates N g2 The number of port sets included in the second dimension, N g2,1 is a positive integer, N g2,2 N is a positive integer. g1,1 With N g2,1 Equal or unequal, and / or, N g1,2 With N g2,2 Equal or unequal. In this solution, the port set can be divided into two dimensions, thereby improving the flexibility of the solution.

[0040] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method. The method is performed by a second device. The second device can be a network device or a terminal device. The terminal device of the present application can be a terminal device or a chip (or chip system) inside the terminal device. The network device of the present application can be a network device or a chip (or chip system) inside the network device.

[0041] In this method, a second device transmits a first reference signal and a second reference signal. The first reference signal corresponds to a first port set, and the second reference signal corresponds to a second port set. The first port set includes at least one antenna port, and the second port set includes at least one antenna port. The second device receives channel information, where the channel information is determined based on the first reference signal transmitted by the first port set and the second reference signal transmitted by the second port set.

[0042] It can be seen that the first device can obtain channel information based on two reference signals. Then, this scheme can enable the second device to send fewer reference signals while the first device can also feedback more channel information. This scheme can thus reduce the number of reference signals sent down by the first device side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0043] In a possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first port set belongs to N g1 port set, N g1 is a positive integer, the first reference signal corresponds to N g1 The second port set belongs to N g2 port set, N g2 is a positive integer, the second reference signal corresponds to Ng2 For related contents and beneficial effects, please refer to the related description of possible implementation methods of the first aspect above, which will not be repeated here.

[0044] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method. The method is performed by a second device. The second device may be a network device or a terminal device. The terminal device of the present application may be a terminal device or a chip (or chip system) inside the terminal device. The network device of the present application may be a network device or a chip (or chip system) inside the network device.

[0045] In this method, the second device sends a first reference signal and a second reference signal. The first reference signal corresponds to N g1 port set, N g1 is a positive integer, N g1 The port set in the port set includes at least one antenna port. The second reference signal corresponds to N g2 port set, N g2 is a positive integer, N g2 The port set in the port set includes at least one antenna port. The second device receives channel information. The channel information is determined based on the first reference signal sent by the first port set and the second reference signal sent by the second port set. The first port set belongs to N g1 port sets, the second port set belongs to N g2 A set of ports. N g1 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. N g2 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. In one possible implementation, N g1 is an integer greater than 1, and / or, the N g2 is an integer greater than 1.

[0046] It can be seen that the first device can obtain channel information based on two reference signals. Then, this scheme can enable the second device to send fewer reference signals while the first device can also feedback more channel information. This scheme can thus reduce the number of reference signals sent down by the first device side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0047] In a possible implementation of the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect, the channel information is determined based on first channel information and second channel information, where the first channel information is determined based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set, and the second channel information is determined based on the second reference signal corresponding to the second port set. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the related description of the possible implementations of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, and are not repeated here.

[0048] In a possible implementation of the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect, the channel information may be determined based on the first channel information, the second channel information, and a combining coefficient, where the combining coefficient is determined based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set and the second reference signal corresponding to the second port set. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the description of the possible implementations of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, and are not repeated here.

[0049] In one possible implementation of the third and / or fourth aspects, the second apparatus may send or receive configuration information, where the configuration information includes information indicating that channel information is determined based on the first reference signal and the second reference signal. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the description of the possible implementations of the first and / or second aspects, and are not repeated here.

[0050] In a possible implementation of the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect, the configuration information may include at least one of the following: indication information of the first port set, indication information of the first reference signal, indication information of the second port set, and indication information of the second reference signal. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the description of the possible implementations of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, and are not repeated here.

[0051] In a possible implementation of the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect, the indication information of the first port set includes: index information of antenna ports in the first port set, index information of the first port set, index information of the starting antenna port in the first port set, information about the number of antenna ports included in the first port set, and index information of antenna ports ending in the first port set. The indication information of the second port set includes: index information of antenna ports in the second port set, index information of the second port set, index information of the starting antenna port in the second port set, information about the number of antenna ports included in the second port set, and index information of antenna ports ending in the second port set. For related contents and beneficial effects, refer to the relevant description of possible implementations of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, and are not repeated here.

[0052] In a possible implementation of the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect, the channel information is sent using a transmission mode corresponding to the first channel, and the transmission mode is associated with the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information, or the transmission mode is associated with the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information and the spatial relationship between the reference signals. For related content and beneficial effects, refer to the description of the possible implementation modes of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, and are not repeated here.

[0053] In a possible implementation of the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect, the channel information corresponding to the transmission mode satisfies the following: the codebook corresponding to the first port set and / or the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the first port set; the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set include: the number of antenna ports in the first port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the first port set, the basis selection ratio, and at least one of the basis number. The codebook corresponding to the second port set and / or the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the second port set; the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set include: the number of antenna ports in the second port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the second port set, the basis selection ratio, and at least one of the basis number. For related content and beneficial effects, please refer to the relevant description of the possible implementation methods of the first aspect and / or the second aspect above, and will not be repeated here.

[0054] In a possible implementation of the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect, the channel information transmission mode satisfies the following: the codebook corresponding to the first port set and the codebook corresponding to the second port set are different; and / or the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set and the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are the same. For related contents and beneficial effects, refer to the relevant description of the possible implementations of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, and are not repeated here.

[0055] About N g1 port set, N g2 For the introduction of the contents such as the port set, the first port set and the second port set, reference may be made to the description of possible implementation methods of the first aspect and / or the second aspect, which will not be repeated here.

[0056] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be the aforementioned first device or second device. The communication device may include a communication unit and a processing unit to perform any aspect of the above-mentioned first to fourth aspects, or to perform any possible implementation of the first to fourth aspects. The communication unit is used to perform functions related to sending and receiving. The communication unit may be referred to as a transceiver unit. Optionally, the communication unit includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. In one design, the communication device is a communication chip, the processing unit may be one or more processors or processor cores, and the communication unit may be an input / output circuit, an input / output interface, or an antenna port of the communication chip.

[0057] In another design, the communication unit may be a transmitter and a receiver, or the communication unit may be a transmitter and a receiver.

[0058] Optionally, the communication device further includes modules that can be used to execute any one of the first to fourth aspects above, or execute any possible implementation of the first to fourth aspects.

[0059] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be the aforementioned first device or second device. The communication device may include a processor and a memory to perform any aspect of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects, or to perform any possible implementation of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects. Optionally, it further includes a transceiver, the memory is used to store a computer program or instruction, and the processor is used to call and run the computer program or instruction from the memory. When the processor executes the computer program or instruction in the memory, the communication device performs any aspect of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects, or to perform any possible implementation of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects.

[0060] Optionally, there are one or more processors and one or more memories.

[0061] Optionally, the memory may be integrated with the processor, or the memory may be provided separately from the processor.

[0062] Optionally, the transceiver may include a transmitter (transmitter) and a receiver (receiver).

[0063] In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be the aforementioned first device or second device. The communication device may include a processor to execute any one of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects, or any possible implementation of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects. For example, the processor executes any one of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects, or any possible implementation of the aforementioned first to fourth aspects, through a logic circuit or by executing a computer program or instruction in a memory. The processor is coupled to the memory. Optionally, the communication device also includes a memory. Optionally, the communication device also includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

[0064] In one implementation, when the communication device is the first device or the second device, the communication interface may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0065] In another implementation, when the communication device is a chip or a chip system, the communication interface may be an input / output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin, or related circuits on the chip or chip system. The processor may also be embodied as a processing circuit or a logic circuit.

[0066] In an eighth aspect, a system is provided, which includes the above-mentioned first device and / or second device.

[0067] In the ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions), which, when executed, enables the computer to execute any one of the above-mentioned first to fourth aspects, or any possible implementation of the first to fourth aspects.

[0068] In the tenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions). When the computer program is run on a computer, the computer executes any one of the above-mentioned first to fourth aspects, or executes any possible implementation of the first to fourth aspects.

[0069] In an eleventh aspect, a processing device is provided, comprising: an interface circuit and a processing circuit. The interface circuit may include an input circuit and an output circuit. The processing circuit is configured to receive signals via the input circuit and transmit signals via the output circuit, thereby implementing any of the first to fourth aspects, or any possible implementation of the first to fourth aspects.

[0070] In a specific implementation, the processing device may be a chip, the input circuit may be an input pin, the output circuit may be an output pin, and the processing circuit may be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, or various logic circuits. The input signal received by the input circuit may be, for example, but not limited to, received and input by a receiver, and the signal output by the output circuit may be, for example, but not limited to, output to and transmitted by a transmitter. The input circuit and the output circuit may be the same circuit, which functions as an input circuit and an output circuit at different times. This application does not limit the specific implementation of the processor and various circuits.

[0071] In one implementation, when the communication device is the first device or the second device, the interface circuit may be a radio frequency processing chip in the first device or the second device, and the processing circuit may be a baseband processing chip in the first device or the second device.

[0072] In another implementation, the communication device may be a component of the first device or the second device, such as an integrated circuit product such as a system-on-chip (SoC) or a communication chip. The interface circuit may be an input / output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin, or related circuit on the chip or chip system. The processing circuit may be a logic circuit on the chip. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0073] FIG1A is a schematic diagram of a communication architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0074] FIG1B is a schematic diagram of another communication architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0075] FIG1C is a schematic diagram of another communication architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0076] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a possible architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0077] FIG3 is a possible schematic diagram of a communication system architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0078] FIG4A is a schematic diagram of a possible network device sending a reference signal;

[0079] FIG4B is a schematic diagram of a possible network device sending a reference signal;

[0080] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a possible network device sending a reference signal according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0081] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a possible flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0082] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of a possible flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0083] FIG8A is a schematic diagram of a possible division method of a port set corresponding to a first reference signal provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0084] FIG8B is a schematic structural diagram of several possible antenna panels provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0085] FIG9 is a possible example of a port set and beam (or spatial relationship) provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0086] FIG10 is a schematic diagram of a possible relationship between a reference signal and a port set corresponding to channel information measured by a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0087] FIG11 is a possible schematic diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0088] FIG12 is a possible schematic diagram of a port set on a network device side provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0089] FIG13 is a possible schematic diagram of a port set on a network device side provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0090] FIG14 is a schematic diagram of a possible flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0091] FIG15 is another schematic diagram of a communication device provided by the present application;

[0092] FIG16 is another schematic diagram of the communication device provided in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0093] Some of the terms used in the embodiments of the present application are explained below to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0094] (1) Reference signal (RS)

[0095] Reference signals are also called pilot signals. In communication systems, estimating the uplink or downlink channel is necessary to send and receive data, obtain system synchronization, and provide feedback on channel information. Channel estimation refers to the process of reconstructing or restoring the received signal to compensate for signal distortion caused by channel fading and noise fading. It uses reference signals known in advance by the transmitter and receiver to track the time and frequency domain changes of the channel. These reference signals, also known as reference signals, are distributed across different resource elements (REs) in the two-dimensional time-frequency space within an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol and have known amplitudes and phases.

[0096] At the physical layer, uplink communications may include the transmission of uplink physical channels and uplink signals. Uplink physical channels include the random access channel (PRACH), the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), and the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Uplink signals include the sounding reference signal (SRS), the physical uplink control channel demodulation reference signal (PUCCH-DMRS), the physical uplink shared channel demodulation reference signal (PUSCH-DMRS), the phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), and the positioning reference signal (SRS or SRS for positioning).

[0097] At the physical layer, downlink communications may include the transmission of downlink physical channels and downlink signals. Downlink physical channels include the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the like. Downlink signals include the primary synchronization signal (PSS) / secondary synchronization signal (SSS), the physical downlink control channel demodulation reference signal (PDCCH-DMRS), the physical downlink shared channel demodulation reference signal (PDSCH-DMRS), PTRS, the channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), the cell reference signal (CRS), the tracking reference signal (TRS), and the positioning reference signal (Positioning RS).

[0098] The network device configures one or more reference signal resources for the terminal device, and the reference signal resources are used to carry reference signals. In this application, the terms reference signal and reference signal resource can be used interchangeably. When configuring, each reference signal resource corresponds to a reference signal resource index (index) or a reference signal resource identifier (identifier, id) to distinguish each reference signal resource. In addition, the network device can configure one or more reference signal resource sets for the terminal device, each reference signal resource set includes one or more reference signal resources, and each reference signal resource set corresponds to a reference signal resource set identifier. In a certain reference signal resource set, each reference signal resource corresponds to a reference signal resource indicator (indicator), for example: the reference signal resource indicator is 0, indicating the first reference signal resource in the reference signal resource set, the reference signal resource indicator is 1, indicating the second reference signal resource in the reference signal resource set, and so on. When the network device indicates a reference signal resource in the reference signal resource set, or the terminal device reports the measurement result of a reference signal resource in the reference signal resource set, the reference signal resource indicator can be used to indicate the corresponding reference signal resource. In this application, an identifier can also be referred to as an identifier.

[0099] (2) Resources.

[0100] In the embodiment of the present application, the network device may configure a resource set and / or resources for the terminal device.

[0101] The resource set may include at least one of a channel status information (CSI)-SSB resource set, a CSI interference measurement (CSI-IM) resource set, a non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZP-CSI-RS) resource set, or a zero power channel state information reference signal (ZP-CSI-RS) resource set. SSB is the abbreviation for synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (SSB or SS / PSBCH block).

[0102] In the embodiment of the present application, the reference signal may correspond to a resource, the reference signal may occupy a resource, and a resource may be referred to as a reference signal resource. The resources in the embodiment of the present application may include frequency domain resources and / or time domain resources, etc. The resources may also include CSI-SSB resources, or CSI-IM resources, or NZP-CSI-RS resources, ZP-CSI-RS resources, SRS resources, demodulation reference signal (DMRS) resources, PTRS resources, CRS resources, or at least one of TRS resources. In the embodiment of the present application, the resource is introduced as a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource as an example. The CSI-RS resource is also written as a channel state information reference signal (CSIRS) resource in this article, and the CSIRS resource may also be replaced by other resources. The CSI-RS resource may also be understood as the resource occupied by the CSI-RS, or may be replaced by the resource corresponding to the CSI-RS, or may be replaced by the resource of the CSI-RS.

[0103] (3) Hybrid beamforming (HBF)

[0104] The following will take the network device as an example of a base station, and combine the implementation content shown in Figures 1A to 1C to exemplify the implementation process of the beam. Generally speaking, in higher frequency band communication systems, base stations (and terminals in some frequency bands) usually use large-scale array antennas (for example, from 500 to more than 1000 antenna units) to counteract the path loss caused by the increase in frequency band through higher array gain, thereby improving coverage capabilities. From the perspective of the implementation method of the base station, the same large array, different frequency bands and different array sizes use different array weighting methods (i.e., different beamforming methods), which can be roughly divided into the following three categories according to the implementation scheme of the beamforming.

[0105] One implementation is digital beamforming (DBF), whose basic structure is shown in Figure 1A. Each antenna element or group of antenna elements is directly connected to a digital channel. This structure is typical of low-frequency massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Because each antenna signal is directly converted to the digital domain, and subsequent array weighting is performed in the digital domain, it is called digital beamforming. The digital domain offers the highest degree of freedom for signal processing and can support very complex signal processing methods. Therefore, for the same array size, the DBF architecture offers the best performance. On the other hand, due to the high power consumption and cost of digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), especially at large bandwidths, DBF generally has the highest cost for the same array size.

[0106] Another implementation is analog beamforming (ABF), whose structure is shown in Figure 1B. Each antenna element or group of antenna elements is connected to an analog phase shifter. Multiple antenna elements are then combined in the analog domain and passed through a digital-to-analog / analog-to-digital converter. Compared to DBF, ABF only requires one digital-to-analog / analog-to-digital converter for the entire array, making its greatest advantage in cost and power consumption. ABF also has significant bottlenecks. The phase shifter settings in the analog domain determine the beam direction after beamforming. Since signals are directly combined electronically in the analog domain, digital signal processing weighting cannot be used like DBF. ABF requires pre-configured phase shifter settings (directing the analog beam toward the target terminal) during transmission and reception. This process requires beam scanning during the link establishment phase, which introduces additional latency. Generally, if the analog beam is misaligned due to obstruction or movement, the system link quality will rapidly degrade, even to the point of loss of the terminal. Therefore, ABF's communication reliability is inferior to DBF.

[0107] Another implementation is hybrid beamforming (HBF), whose structure, shown in Figure 1C, is an intermediate form between ABF and DBF. The figure illustrates a three-channel HBF architecture with two analog phase shifters per channel. HBF has a certain number of digital ports to support digital beamforming, and each digital port drives an ABF subarray. Compared to ABF, for the same array size, each digital channel drives a smaller analog subarray (four in Figure 1C and six in Figure 1B), resulting in wider beams, improved reliability, and reduced beam scanning overhead. Generally, the ratio of digital ports to analog phase shifters in HBF varies with frequency and system design requirements. For example, high-frequency bands have a small number of digital ports (4 to 16), with a higher number of analog phase shifters per digital channel (16 to 32), closer to ABF. Low-frequency band systems, on the other hand, have more digital ports (32 to 128) and fewer analog phase shifters per digital channel (e.g., 2 to 10).

[0108] Generally, both HBF and ABF architectures use analog beams. When the beams are aligned with the communication target, signal quality improves. The direction of the analog beam (determined by the beam weight) must be configured before transmission or reception. The process by which the base station selects an analog beam for a particular terminal is called beam training or beam scanning. Beam scanning typically involves the base station sending reference signals using different analog beam weights. The terminal then measures the reference signals and provides feedback to help the base station determine the best beam quality.

[0109] (4) Antenna port.

[0110] The antenna port can be referred to as a port, which can be understood as a virtual transmitting antenna (or antenna group) identified by the receiving end, or a virtual transmitting antenna (or antenna group) that can be distinguished in space. An antenna port can be pre-configured for each virtual antenna, and each virtual antenna can be a weighted combination of multiple physical antennas. One or more antenna ports can correspond to a reference signal. Therefore, each antenna port can be called a reference signal port, such as a CSI-RS port, DMRS, SRS port, etc. In the embodiments provided in the present application, an antenna port can also be used to transmit multiple reference signals. For example, multiple reference signals can be sent through the antenna port in a frequency division or time division manner.

[0111] The term "antenna port" is a logical concept that generally corresponds to a physical antenna. Antenna ports are often associated with reference signals and can be understood as a transceiver interface on the channel through which the reference signal travels. For low-frequency systems, an antenna port may correspond to one or more antenna elements, which jointly transmit reference signals. The receiver can treat them as a whole without distinguishing between the elements. For high-frequency systems, an antenna port may correspond to a beam. Similarly, the receiver only needs to treat the beam as an interface, without distinguishing between individual elements.

[0112] In addition, a port set can refer to a set corresponding to multiple antenna ports. One way is to group multiple digital ports of a network device to form multiple port sets. In another way (for example, under the HBF architecture), a port set can be multiple digital ports corresponding to the same analog beam, also referred to as a port set, or a digital-analog port set. Alternatively, a port set can be a set of digital ports corresponding to multiple analog beams, also referred to as a port set, or a digital-analog port set. Alternatively, multiple digital ports of the same analog beam are divided into multiple subsets, each subset is called a port set, or a digital-analog port set.

[0113] In the protocol, antenna ports are usually represented by antenna port or port, and can also be represented by resources (such as CSI-RS resources, SRS resources, DMRS resources, PTRS resources, CRS resources, TRS resources, SSB resources, etc.) or resource groups. In other words, the identifier of the antenna port in this application can be replaced with the identifier of the above content, for example, the antenna port can be replaced by the identifier of the resource, the identifier of the pilot resource, the identifier of the reference signal resource, etc.

[0114] A port set contains one or more antenna ports, which usually correspond to one resource or multiple resources. The concept of port set can also be replaced by other names, such as resource group, resource set, pilot resource group, pilot resource set, reference signal resource group, reference signal resource set, port group, antenna port group, antenna port set, or antenna port set, etc., which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the port set can also be replaced by "port #A to port #B". Among them, port #A and port #B can be understood as examples of port indexes. The antenna ports indicated by port #A to port #B can be understood as antenna ports indexed from #A to #B, and the indexes of these antenna ports are continuous. In the embodiment of the present application, the port set can also be replaced by the index of each antenna port included in the port set. In this case, the antenna ports included in the port set can be continuous antenna ports or discontinuous antenna ports.

[0115] (5) CSI report.

[0116] In a wireless communication system, information used to describe the channel properties of a communication link reported by a receiving end (such as a terminal device) to a transmitting end (such as a network device). The CSI report may include, for example, but is not limited to, precoding matrix indicator (PMI), rank indicator (RI), channel quality indicator (CQI), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), CSI-RS resource indicator (CSI-RS resource indicator, CRI) and layer indicator (LI), etc. It should be understood that the specific contents of the CSI listed above are only exemplary and should not constitute any limitation to this application. CSI may include one or more of the items listed above, and may also include other information used to characterize CSI in addition to the above-mentioned items, and this application does not limit this.

[0117] (6) Beam.

[0118] The embodiment of beamforming in the new radio (NR) protocol can be a spatial domain filter, also known as a spatial filter, or also known as a spatial domain parameter, spatial parameter, spatial domain setting, spatial setting, or quasi-colocation (QCL) information, QCL assumption, QCL indication, etc. The beamforming can be indicated by the transmission configuration indicator state (TCI-state) parameter or by the spatial relation parameter.

[0119] Therefore, in this application, beam can be replaced by spatial filter, spatial filter, spatial parameter, spatial parameter, spatial setting, spatial setting, QCL information, QCL assumption, QCL indication, TCI-state (downlink TCI-state, uplink TCI-state), spatial relationship, etc. The above terms are also equivalent to each other. Beam can also be replaced by other terms representing beams, which are not limited in this application.

[0120] The beam used to transmit a signal may be referred to as a transmission beam (Tx beam), or may be referred to as a spatial domain transmission filter, a spatial transmission filter, a spatial domain transmission parameter, or a spatial transmission parameter, or a spatial domain transmission setting. The downlink transmit beam may be indicated by a TCI-state.

[0121] In the embodiment of the present application, any two of the downlink beam, CSI-RS, TCI-state, downlink / common TCI state (DL or joint TCI state), SSB, and TRS can be replaced with each other.

[0122] The beam used to receive signals can be called a reception beam (Rx beam), and can also be called a spatial domain reception filter, a spatial reception filter, a spatial domain reception parameter, or a spatial reception parameter, a spatial domain reception setting, or a spatial reception setting. The uplink transmit beam can be indicated by a spatial relationship, an uplink TCI-state, or an SRS resource (indicating the transmit beam using the SRS). Therefore, the uplink beam can also be replaced by an SRS resource.

[0123] In the embodiment of the present application, any two of the downlink beam, CSI-RS, TCI-state, downlink / common TCI state (DL or joint TCI state), SSB, and TRS can be replaced with each other.

[0124] The transmit beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted by the antenna, and the receive beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space of the wireless signal received from the antenna.

[0125] 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. The beamforming technology can specifically be digital beamforming technology, analog beamforming technology, or hybrid digital / analog beamforming technology.

[0126] Beams generally correspond to resources. For example, when performing beam measurement, network equipment uses different resources to measure different beams. The terminal device then provides feedback on the measured resource quality, allowing the network equipment to determine the quality of the corresponding beam. During data transmission, beam information is also indicated by its corresponding resource. For example, the network equipment uses the transmission configuration indicator (TCI) field in the downlink control information (DCI) to indicate to the terminal device the physical downlink sharing channel (PDSCH) beam information.

[0127] Optionally, 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 data channels, control channels, and sounding signals. The one or more antenna ports forming a beam can also be considered an antenna port set.

[0128] In the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified, a beam refers to a transmission beam of the second device. In beam measurement, each beam of the second device corresponds to a resource, so the beam corresponding to the resource can be uniquely identified by the resource index.

[0129] (6.1)TCI-state (used to indicate the downlink beam).

[0130] Network devices can generate different beams pointing in different transmission directions. During downlink data transmission, when a network device uses a specific beam to send data to a terminal device, it must inform the terminal device of the transmit beam information it uses. This allows the terminal device to use the corresponding receive beam to receive the data sent by the network device.

[0131] In the 3GPP R15 / R16 protocol, the network device uses the TCI field in the DCI to indicate to the terminal device the relevant information of the transmission beam it adopts. Specifically, the TCI field size is 3 bits, which can specifically represent 8 different field values ​​(codepoint). Each value of the TCI field corresponds to an index of a TCI-state, and the TCI-state index can uniquely identify a TCI-state. The TCI-state in the embodiment of the present application can also be written as TCI state. The TCI-state includes several parameters, and the relevant information of the transmission beam can be determined by these parameters. The TCI-state is configured by the network device to each terminal device. Each TCI-state includes its own index TCI-state identifier and two QCL information (QCL information, QCL-Info). Each QCL-Info includes a cell field and bwp-Id, which respectively indicate which bwp (Bandwidth part) of which cell (cell) the TCI-state is applied to, that is, different cells or different bwp of the same cell can be configured with different QCL-Info. QCL-Info also includes a referenceSignal (reference signal), which is used to indicate with which reference signal resource a QCL (quasi-co-location) relationship is formed.

[0132] In the R15 / R16 protocols, the word "beam" generally does not appear directly; it is usually replaced by other terms. For example, in data transmission and channel measurement, beams correspond to reference signal resources, with one beam corresponding to one reference signal resource. Therefore, when we say which reference signal resource forms a QCL relationship, we are actually referring to which beam forms a QCL relationship. A QCL relationship means that two reference signal resources (or two antenna ports, where antenna ports and reference signal resources also have a one-to-one correspondence) have certain identical spatial parameters. Which spatial parameters are identical depends on the type of the QCL-Info, i.e., another field of the QCL-Info, qcl-Type. qcl-Type can have four values ​​{typeA, typeB, typeC, typeD}. Taking typeD as an example, typeD indicates that the two reference signal resources have the same spatial reception parameter information, i.e., the two beams have the same receive beam. At most one of the two QCL-Info included in the TCI-state can be TypeD.

[0133] (6.2) Spatial relation (used to indicate uplink beam).

[0134] In the current protocol, the transmit beam for uplink transmission is indicated by spatial relationships, which functions similarly to TCI-state, and is used to inform the terminal device which transmit beam to use for uplink transmission.

[0135] The spatial relationship also needs to be configured through radio resource control (RRC) signaling first. RRC signaling may include the spatial relationship ID, cell ID, target reference signal resource, path loss measurement reference signal, power control parameters, etc. Among them, the target reference signal resource (which may be one of SRS / SSB / CSI-RS) is used to indicate the corresponding uplink beam. If the uplink transmission adopts spatial relationship #1, and the spatial relationship #1 includes a target reference signal resource #2, it means that the transmission beam used for the uplink transmission is the transmission / reception beam of the target reference signal. For example, when the target reference signal resource is the uplink resource SRS, it means that the transmission beam used for the uplink transmission is the transmission beam of the SRS (the transmission beam of the SRS is known). For another example, the target reference signal resource is a downlink resource such as SSB / CSI-RS, which means that the transmission beam used for the uplink transmission is the reception beam of the SSB / CSI-RS (the reception beam of the SSB / CSI-RS is known).

[0136] The network device can configure multiple spatial relationships for the terminal device. Then one of them is activated for the corresponding data transmission through the media access control control element (MAC control element, MAC CE). MAC is the English abbreviation for media access control (MAC) or medium access control (MAC). Uplink transmission includes physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), SRS, physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), etc., all of which require corresponding spatial relationships. The spatial relationship of PUCCH is indicated by MAC CE signaling. The spatial relationship of SRS is also indicated by MAC CE signaling. When PUSCH is transmitted, it will be associated with a specific SRS and use the spatial relationship of the SRS for transmission.

[0137] Figure 2 exemplarily shows an architectural diagram of a communication system 1000 applicable to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the communication system 1000 applied to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (such as 110a and 110b in Figure 2, collectively referred to as 110), and may also include at least one terminal (such as 120a-120j in Figure 2, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay equipment and / or wireless backhaul equipment (not shown in Figure 2). The terminal 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 via a wireless method, and the RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 via a wireless or wired method. The core network devices in the core network 200 and the RAN nodes 110 in the RAN 100 may be independent and distinct physical devices, or they may be a single physical device that integrates the logical functions of the core network devices and the logical functions of the RAN nodes. Terminals and RAN nodes may be connected to each other via wired or wireless means.

[0138] RAN100 may be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a NR system, or a future radio access system defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). RAN100 may also include two or more of the aforementioned different radio access systems. RAN100 may also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0139] The network equipment involved in the embodiments of the present application may be a RAN node. A RAN node, also known as a radio access network device, a RAN entity or an access node, is used to help a terminal access a communication system wirelessly. In one application scenario, a RAN node may be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next generation base station in a sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. A RAN node may be a macro base station (such as 110a in FIG2 ), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in FIG2 ), or a relay node or a donor node.

[0140] In another application scenario, multiple RAN nodes can collaborate to help terminals achieve wireless access, with different RAN nodes implementing portions of the base station's functions. For example, a RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU). The CU implements the base station's radio resource control protocol and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) functions, and can also implement the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) functions; the DU implements the base station's radio link control layer and MAC layer functions, and can also implement some or all of the physical layer functions. For detailed descriptions of each of the above protocol layers, please refer to the relevant technical specifications of 3GPP. The RU can be used to implement the transmission and reception of radio frequency signals. The CU and DU can be two independent RAN nodes, or they can be integrated into the same RAN node, such as in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in radio frequency equipment, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU can be further divided into two types of RAN nodes: CU-control plane and CU-user plane.

[0141] In different systems, RAN nodes may have different names. For example, in an O-RAN system, CU can be called an open CU (O-CU), DU can be called an open DU (O-DU), and RU can be called an open RU (O-RU). CU-control plane (CU-CP) can also be called an open CU-CP (O-CU-CP), and CU-user plane (CU-UP) can also be called an open CU-UP (O-CU-UP). The RAN node in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. For example, the RAN node can be a server loaded with the corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the RAN node. For the convenience of description, the base station is used as an example of a RAN node for description below.

[0142] A terminal is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities that can send signals to a base station or receive signals from a base station. A terminal may also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. Terminals can be widely used in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, etc. A terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver capabilities, wearable device, vehicle, airplane, ship, robot, robotic arm, smart home device, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal.

[0143] Base stations and terminals can be fixed or mobile. They can be deployed on land, indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; on water; or on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminals.

[0144] The roles of base stations and terminals can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 2 can be configured as a mobile base station. To terminals 120j accessing the wireless access network 100 via 120i, terminal 120i is a base station. However, to base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, meaning that communication between 110a and 120i occurs via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, communication between 110a and 120i can also occur via a base station-to-base station interface protocol. In this case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, base stations and terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 2 can be referred to as communication devices with base station functionality, while 120a-120j in Figure 2 can be referred to as communication devices with terminal functionality.

[0145] Communication between base stations and terminals, between base stations, and between terminals can be carried out through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both. Communication can be carried out through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), spectrum above 6 GHz, or spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0146] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station may also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem that includes the base station functions. The control subsystem that includes the base station functions here may be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, smart transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or modem) in the terminal, or by a device that includes the terminal functions.

[0147] In this application, a base station sends downlink signals or downlink information to a terminal, and the downlink information is carried on a downlink channel; the terminal sends uplink signals or uplink information to the base station, and the uplink information is carried on an uplink channel. In order to communicate with the base station, the terminal needs to establish a wireless connection with the cell controlled by the base station. The cell with which the terminal has established a wireless connection is called the serving cell of the terminal. When the terminal communicates with the serving cell, it will also be subject to interference from signals in neighboring cells.

[0148] The communication between the access network device and the terminal device may follow a certain protocol layer structure. Exemplarily, the protocol layer structure may include a control plane protocol layer structure and a user plane protocol layer structure. For example, the control plane protocol layer structure may include at least one of the following: a radio resource control (RRC) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, a MAC layer, or a physical (PHY) layer. For example, the user plane protocol layer structure may include at least one of the following: a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, or a physical layer.

[0149] The access network equipment may include a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). This design may be referred to as CU and DU separation. Multiple DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU. As an example, the interface between the CU and the DU is referred to as the F1 interface. Among them, the control plane (CP) interface may be F1-C, and the user plane (UP) interface may be F1-U. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific names of the interfaces. The CU and the DU may be divided according to the protocol layers of the wireless network: for example, the functions of the PDCP layer and the protocol layers above (such as the RRC layer and the SDAP layer, etc.) are set in the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer (such as the RLC layer, the MAC layer and the PHY layer, etc.) are set in the DU; for another example, the functions of the protocol layers above the PDCP layer are set in the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer are set in the DU, without limitation.

[0150] The above division of the processing functions of CU and DU according to the protocol layer is only an example, and they can also be divided in other ways. For example, the CU or DU can be divided into functions with more protocol layers, and the CU or DU can be divided into partial processing functions with protocol layers. For example, some functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers above the RLC layer are set in the CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer are set in the DU. For another example, the functions of the CU or DU can be divided according to the service type or other system requirements, such as division by delay, and the functions whose processing time needs to meet the delay requirements are set in the DU, and the functions that do not need to meet the delay requirements are set in the CU.

[0151] Optionally, the CU may have one or more functions of the core network.

[0152] Optionally, the radio unit (RU) of the DU can be remotely located. The RU has radio frequency functions. Exemplarily, the DU and RU can be divided at the PHY layer. For example, the DU can implement high-layer functions in the PHY layer, and the RU can implement low-layer functions in the PHY layer. When used for transmission, the functions of the PHY layer may include at least one of the following: adding cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, precoding, resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, or radio frequency transmission functions. When used for reception, the functions of the PHY layer may include at least one of the following: CRC check, channel decoding, rate matching, descrambling, demodulation, layer demapping, channel detection, resource demapping, physical antenna demapping, or radio frequency reception functions. The high-layer functions in the PHY layer may include a portion of the functions of the PHY layer, which is closer to the MAC layer; the low-layer functions in the PHY layer may include another portion of the functions of the PHY layer, such as a portion closer to the radio frequency functions. For example, the high-level functions in the PHY layer may include adding CRC bits, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping, and the low-level functions in the PHY layer may include precoding, resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency transmission functions; or, the high-level functions in the PHY layer may include adding CRC bits, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, and precoding, and the low-level functions in the PHY layer may include resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency transmission functions. For example, the high-level functions in the PHY layer may include CRC checking, channel decoding, rate matching, decoding, demodulation, and layer matching, and the low-level functions in the PHY layer may include channel detection, resource demapping, physical antenna demapping, and radio frequency reception functions; or, the high-level functions in the PHY layer may include CRC checking, channel decoding, rate matching, decoding, demodulation, layer matching, and channel detection, and the low-level functions in the PHY layer may include resource demapping, physical antenna demapping, and radio frequency reception functions.

[0153] Optionally, the functions of the CU can be further divided, and the control plane and the user plane can be separated and implemented through different entities. The separated entities are the control plane CU entity (i.e., CU-CP entity) and the user plane CU entity (i.e., CU-UP entity). The CU-CP entity and the CU-UP entity can be connected to the DU respectively. In the embodiment of the present application, the entity can be understood as a module or a unit, and its existence can be a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module, without limitation.

[0154] Optionally, any one of the above-mentioned CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU can be a software module, a hardware structure, or a software module plus a hardware structure, without limitation. The existence forms of different entities can be the same or different. For example, CU, CU-CP, CU-UP and DU are software modules, and RU is a hardware structure. For the sake of brevity, all possible combinations are no longer listed here. These modules and their execution methods are also within the scope of protection of the embodiments of the present application. For example, when the method of the embodiment of the present application is executed by an access network device, it can be specifically executed by at least one of CU, CU-CP, CU-UP or DU.

[0155] Based on the embodiments shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C and 2, Figure 3 exemplarily shows a possible schematic diagram of a communication system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 3, the communication system includes a network device and one or more terminal devices (in Figure 3, terminal device #1, terminal device #2, terminal device #3 and terminal device #4 are illustrated as examples). The network device can be the network device in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C and 2 or the chip or chip system in the network device, and the terminal device can be the terminal device in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C and 2 or the chip or chip system in the terminal device. As shown in Figure 3, the network device can send a reference signal to the terminal device, the terminal device measures the received reference signal to obtain channel information, and the terminal device sends channel information to the network device, and the information to information can be understood as channel information of the downlink channel. The network device can determine the channel information of the uplink channel based on the information of the downlink channel based on channel reciprocity. Alternatively, the terminal device can send a reference signal to the network device, and the network device measures the received reference signal to obtain channel information, which can be understood as the channel information of the uplink channel. Taking the downlink channel measurement process based on the downlink reference signal as an example, when the network device sends a reference signal (such as CSI-RS), it can send the reference signal based on the beam (beam B#0 and beam B#1 are used as examples in Figure 3). The same reference signal can correspond to multiple port sets, and the beams corresponding to the multiple port sets of the same reference signal can be the same or different. In actual applications, there may be multiple terminal devices that need to measure the reference signal sent by the network device to obtain channel information.

[0156] In the current solution, after receiving a reference signal from a network device, a terminal device can only feedback the channel information corresponding to that reference signal. Different terminal devices may require feedback on channel information corresponding to different beam and port combinations. To meet the needs of different terminal devices, the network device may need to send reference signals corresponding to multiple port and beam combinations. This results in the first device sending too many reference signals, resulting in high resource overhead.

[0157] For ease of understanding, FIG4A and FIG4B exemplarily show a schematic diagram of a possible network device sending a reference signal.

[0158] Referring to Figure 4A , a network device includes port set #0 and port set #1, and the reference signal beams transmitted by the network device may include B#0 and B#1. The network device iterates through each port set beam combination. This means that the first device needs to transmit reference signals corresponding to four combinations, such as CSI-RS#0, CSI-RS#1, CSI-RS#2, and CSI-RS#3 in Figure 4A . For example, the combination form #0 corresponding to CSI-RS#0 shown in Figure 4A is: {port set #0 corresponds to beam B#0, port set #1 corresponds to beam B#0}; the combination form #1 corresponding to CSI-RS#1 is: {port set #0 corresponds to beam B#1, port set #1 corresponds to beam B#1}; the combination form #2 corresponding to CSI-RS#2 is: {port set #0 corresponds to beam B#0, port set #1 corresponds to beam B#1}; the combination form #3 corresponding to CSI-RS#3 is: {port set #0 corresponds to beam B#1, port set #1 corresponds to beam B#0}.

[0159] Each terminal device can feedback the channel information corresponding to each combination form based on the combination form. Please refer to Figure 4B. The network device sends CSI-RS#0, and the terminal device feeds back the channel information #0 obtained by measuring CSI-RS#0. The network device sends CSI-RS#1, and the terminal device feeds back the channel information #1 obtained by measuring CSI-RS#1. The network device sends CSI-RS#2, and the terminal device feeds back the channel information #2 obtained by measuring CSI-RS#2. The network device sends CSI-RS#3, and the terminal device feeds back the channel information #3 obtained by measuring CSI-RS#3.

[0160] Multiple terminal devices may need to obtain channel information corresponding to different port set and beam combinations. To meet the needs of each terminal device, the network device typically needs to traverse all combinations of port combination beams. As can be seen, this solution requires the network device to send a large number of reference signals, resulting in high resource overhead.

[0161] In response to the above situation, the present application provides a solution, in which the first device can send fewer combination forms, and the second device can feedback channel information corresponding to more combination forms. For ease of understanding, Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram of a possible network device sending a reference signal provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, the network device can only send CSI-RS#0 and CSI-RS#1. For related content, please refer to the relevant description of Figure 4A above, which will not be repeated here. After the terminal device receives the CSI-RS#0 corresponding to the combination form #0 and the CSI-RS#1 corresponding to the combination form #1, it not only has the ability to feedback the channel information corresponding to the combination form #0 and the channel information corresponding to the combination form #1, the terminal device also has the ability to feedback the channel information corresponding to the combination form #3 and the combination form #4. For example, the terminal device can feedback the channel information corresponding to the combination form #2 based on the CSI-RS#0 sent by port set #0 and the CSI-RS#1 sent by port set #1. For example, the terminal device can feedback the channel information corresponding to the combination form #3 based on the CSI-RS#0 sent by port set #1 and the CSI-RS#1 sent by port set #0.

[0162] In the above example, the network device can obtain channel information corresponding to combination forms #2 and #3 without sending reference signals corresponding to combination forms #2 and #3. It can be seen that this solution can reduce the number of reference signals sent by the first device, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0163] The above example also applies to the transmission process of uplink reference signals. The difference from the above example is that the terminal device can reduce the number of reference signals sent, and the network device can obtain channel information corresponding to more combinations. The rest of the content is similar to the above example and will not be repeated here.

[0164] Based on the embodiments shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 3, 4A, 4B and 5, Figure 6 exemplarily shows a possible flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. For ease of understanding, Figure 6 is described from the perspective of the interaction between the first device and the second device. The first device and the second device in Figure 6 can be the receiving end and the transmitting end of the reference signal, respectively. For example, when the scheme shown in Figure 6 is applied to the transmission process of the downlink reference signal, the first device can be understood as a terminal device, and the second device can be understood as a network device. For example, when the scheme shown in Figure 6 is applied to the transmission process of the uplink reference signal, the first device can be understood as a network device, and the second device can be understood as a terminal device. The scheme shown in Figure 6 is applied to other communication processes, and the first device and the second device can also be other devices, such as two terminal devices, or two network devices, or two relay devices, etc. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application can be the terminal equipment shown in the aforementioned Figure 2 or a chip inside the terminal equipment. The network device in the embodiment of the present application can be the network equipment in the aforementioned Figure 2 (such as a RAN node, such as a CU or DU) or a chip in the network equipment (such as a chip in a RAN node, such as a chip in a CU or DU).

[0165] The following is an introduction with reference to FIG6 .

[0166] Step 601: The second device sends at least one reference signal.

[0167] Correspondingly, the first device receives at least one reference signal.

[0168] Taking the second device as a network device and the first device as a terminal device as an example, optionally, in the radio access network illustrated in FIG2 , step 601 may be implemented as follows: the CU-CP corresponding to the network device generates at least one reference signal, and transmits at least one reference signal through the DU and the RU. In an O-RAN system, step 601 may be implemented as follows: the O-CU-CP corresponding to the network device generates at least one reference signal, and transmits at least one reference signal through the O-DU and the O-RU.

[0169] The at least one reference signal may include one reference signal, two reference signals, or more reference signals. For ease of understanding, the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the example of at least one reference signal including a first reference signal and a second reference signal.

[0170] The first reference signal can correspond to N g1 A set of ports. N g1 N is a positive integer. g1 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. In one possible implementation, N g1 is an integer greater than 1. For example, N g11, 2, 3 or 4, etc. N g1 The port set in the port set includes at least one antenna port. The first reference signal may correspond to N g1 The port set can also be understood as: the first reference signal is transmitted through N g1 A resource can be understood as a resource corresponding to the first reference signal and the port set, or understood as a resource associated with the first reference signal and the port set, or understood as the second device sending the first reference signal through the port set on the resource.

[0171] The second reference signal can correspond to N g2 A set of ports. N g2 N is a positive integer. g2 It can be equal to 1 or greater than 1. For example, the N g2 is an integer greater than 1. For example, N g2 1, 2, 3 or 4, etc. N g2 The port set in the port set includes at least one antenna port. The second reference signal may correspond to N g2 The port set can also be understood as: the second reference signal is transmitted through N g2 The number of two port sets corresponding to the two reference signals can be equal or different, that is, N g1 With N g2 A resource can be understood as a resource corresponding to the second reference signal and the port set, or understood as a resource associated with the second reference signal and the port set, or understood as the second device sending the second reference signal on the resource through the port set.

[0172] Step 602: The first device sends channel information.

[0173] Correspondingly, the second device receives the channel information.

[0174] Taking the second device as a network device and the first device as a terminal device as an example, optionally, in the radio access network illustrated in FIG2 , step 602 may be implemented as follows: the network device receives channel information via the DU and the RU. In an O-RAN system, step 602 may be implemented as follows: the network device receives channel information via the O-DU and the O-RU.

[0175] In an embodiment of the present application, the first device may feed back one or more channel information to the second device. The channel information sent by the first device may be determined based on a reference signal (or a reference signal resource). Alternatively, the channel information sent by the first device may be determined based on multiple (e.g., two or more) reference signals (or reference signal resources).

[0176] For ease of introduction, in the embodiment of the present application, the channel information fed back by the first device to the second device includes channel information as an example for description. The channel information can be determined based on multiple reference signals, and the multiple reference signals can be two or more. For ease of understanding, the embodiment of the present application is described as an example in which the channel information is determined based on the reference signals sent by the first port set and the second port set. When the channel information is based on more port sets or more reference signals (such as three or four reference signals), the relevant content is similar to the solution for obtaining one channel information based on two reference signals, and will not be repeated.

[0177] For example, the channel information can be based on N g1 At least one port set in the port sets and N g2 The channel information may be determined by a first reference signal sent by the first port set and a second reference signal sent by the second port set. The first port set belongs to N g1 The second port set belongs to N g2 In this example, the first device identifies a first reference signal sent by the second device through the first port set, and identifies a second reference signal sent by the second device through the second port set. By measuring the first reference signal sent by the first port set and the second reference signal sent by the second port set, two pieces of channel information are obtained, and the two pieces of channel information are combined to obtain channel information.

[0178] For example, the channel information can be determined based on first channel information and second channel information, where the first channel information is determined based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set, and the second channel information is determined based on the second reference signal corresponding to the second port set. For example, the first device can obtain the first channel information based on the first reference signal and the resource corresponding to the first port set (which can be understood as the second device sending the first reference signal on this resource through the first port set). The first device can obtain the second channel information based on the second reference signal and the resource corresponding to the second port set (which can be understood as the second device sending the second reference signal on this resource through the second port set). The first device determines the channel information based on the first channel information and the second channel information. As can be seen, in this solution, the first device can obtain multiple channel information based on multiple resources, then merge the channel information corresponding to the multiple resources to obtain new channel information. This new channel information can be understood as channel information obtained across multiple resources. Because the first device can feedback channel information across resources, this solution can reduce the number of reference signals sent by the second device, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0179] In another possible implementation, the channel information can be determined based on the first channel information, the second channel information and the combining coefficient, and the combining coefficient is determined based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set and the second reference signal corresponding to the second port set. In the process of the first device generating channel information, the channel information is determined based on the combining coefficient. The first device can determine the combining coefficient, and based on the combining coefficient, combine the first channel information and the second channel information to obtain the channel information. For example, the combining coefficient is determined based on the first reference signal and the first port set, the second reference signal and the second port set. The channel information determined based on this can be more consistent with the actual channel situation across resource combinations, thereby improving subsequent communication efficiency.

[0180] It can be seen that the first device can obtain channel information based on multiple reference signals. Then, this scheme can enable the second device to send fewer reference signals, and the first device can also feedback more channel information. This scheme can thus reduce the number of reference signals sent down by the first device side, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0181] For example, the reference signal is recorded as #k (for example, it can be recorded as reference signal #k, or as reference signal resource #k), and the port set is recorded as #g (for example, it can be recorded as port set #g). A reference signal can be sent through one or more streams. For any stream corresponding to the reference signal #k sent through port set #g, the precoding matrix (or PMI) corresponding to the stream can be expressed as W(g,k). The following provides several possible implementation methods for determining this parameter through formula (1), formula (2) and formula (3): W(g,k)=W p (g,k)×W1(g,k)×W2(g,k)…Formula (1) W(g,k)=W p (g,k)×W1(g,k)×W2(g,k)×F(g,k)…Formula (2)

[0182] The parameters involved in formula (1) and formula (2) are introduced below. F(g,k) can be some rows (or columns) in the unit matrix (or discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix, or inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) matrix), W1(g,k) is the first-level weight corresponding to the reference signal #k sent by port set #g, W2(g,k) is the second-level weight corresponding to the reference signal #k sent by port set #g, and W p(g,k) can be understood as the corresponding merging coefficient when the channel information corresponding to the reference signal #k sent through the port set #g is merged with other channel information into one channel information. In one implementation, one or more W corresponding to #g and #k p (g,k) is a preset matrix or preset value, for example, W p (g,k)=1.

[0183] In formula (3), the dimension of W(g,k) is P′ CSI-RS (g,k)×N3(g,k); the dimension of W1(g,k) is P′ CSI-RS (g,k)×2L(g,k); The dimension is 2L(g,k)×N3(g,k); The dimension is 2L(g,k)×M(g,k); The dimension is M(g,k)×N3(g,k), which can be the M(g,k) rows in the IDFT matrix of dimension N3(g,k)×N3(g,k), or the DFT matrix of dimension N3(g,k)×N3(g,k) The conjugate of the M(g,k) column in P′ CSI-RS (g, k) is the number of antenna ports corresponding to the channel information corresponding to the reference signal #k sent through the port set #g.

[0184] In one possible implementation, take W1(g,k) as two columns in the oversampled IDFT matrix (ie, L(g,k)=1) as an example:

[0185] Wherein, N1(g,k) is the first dimension of the port set #g corresponding to the reference signal #k, N2(g,k) is the second dimension of the port set #g corresponding to the reference signal #k, O1 and O2 are the expansion factors (or oversampling factors) of the first dimension and the second dimension respectively, l and m correspond to the oversampling basis index of the first dimension and the second dimension respectively, and P′ CSI-RS (g, k) = 2N1(g, k)N2(g, k). It should be understood that a similar approach can be extended to other L(g, k), and 2L(g, k) columns are taken accordingly. The relevant content is not repeated here.

[0186] In an embodiment of the present application, the precoding matrix can be obtained based on objectives such as maximizing capacity or minimizing errors. A relatively simple solution method is to first obtain the ideal precoding, and then obtain the corresponding precoding component matrix based on the structure of any of the above formulas, and finally report the parameters corresponding to these matrices. In one implementation method, the ideal precoding matrix can be obtained by performing singular value decomposition (SVD) on the channel matrix or the covariance matrix of the channel matrix, or by performing eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) on the covariance matrix of the channel matrix. Based on the ideal precoding matrix. It should be understood that the determination method of the precoding matrix listed above is only an example and should not constitute any limitation to this application. For example, the channel coefficient corresponding to the reference signal #k sent by the port set #g is H(g,k). According to H(g,k) H H(g,k) is subjected to singular value decomposition, and the first several eigenvectors (corresponding to the maximum eigenvalue) are taken as precoding.

[0187] The following describes an example in which a first device obtains channel information based on reference signals sent by a first port set and a second port set. It should be understood that a similar approach can be extended to more port sets and more reference signals.

[0188] For example, the combining coefficient in the embodiment of the present application can also be understood as a coherent combining coefficient, or as a weighting coefficient between two groups of channels, or as a weighting coefficient of a precoding matrix between two port sets. l (t) is transmitted through two port sets, which can be expressed as the following formula (4): l (t)=[H0,H1]*W*x l (t)+n(t)……Formula (4)

[0189] In formula (4), H0 represents the channel coefficient corresponding to the first port set, H1 represents the channel coefficient corresponding to the second port set, and n(t) is the noise;

[0190] The W in formula (4) can be understood as the precoding corresponding to the first port set and the second port set, which can also be called joint precoding. The W in formula (4) can be based on the first-level weight W1, the second-level weight W2 and the combining coefficient W corresponding to the first port set. p , and the first-level weight W1, second-level weight W2 and merging coefficient W corresponding to the second port set p At least one of the following is determined.

[0191] In one possible implementation, take W1 as two columns in the oversampled IDFT matrix (ie, L=1) as an example:

[0192] Wherein, N1 is the first dimension of the two port sets (the first port set and the second port set), N2 is the second dimension of the two port sets (the first port set and the second port set), O1 and O2 are the expansion factors (or oversampling factors) of the first dimension and the second dimension respectively, l and m correspond to the oversampling base index of the first dimension and the second dimension respectively, and P′ CSI-RS =2N1N2. It should be understood that a similar approach can be extended to other L, and accordingly 2L columns are taken to form W1. The relevant content is similar and will not be repeated here.

[0193] In a possible implementation, W is determined by any one of Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3.

[0194] Example 1: or,

[0195] In Example 1, it can be considered that the first-level weight W1 of the first port set is the same as the first-level weight W1 of the second port set, and the first-level weight W2 of the first port set is the same as the first-level weight W2 of the second port set. P It can be the combining coefficient corresponding to the first port set and the second port set. The parameters in the formula of W in Example 1 can refer to these definitions.

[0196] In Example 1, the dimension of W is P CSI-RS ×N3, the dimension of W1 is P CSI-RS ×2L (or wideband precoding matrix), The dimension is 2L×N3 (corresponding to W2 in Release 15, which is the precoding matrix of each subband). The dimension is 2L×M (or the compressed matrix), The dimension is M×N3 (it is the M rows in the IDFT matrix of dimension N3×N3, that is, the DFT matrix W of dimension N3×N3 f The conjugate of the M column in ), where P CSI-RS is the number of antenna ports in the port set, is the number of IDFT basis vectors selected, N3 is the number of subbands for PMI feedback (or the number of PMIs). When the first device finally feeds back, it may only need to feed back the port or DFT codebook information related to W1. Related IDFT basis selection information, For more details, please refer to 38.214.

[0197] In the embodiment of the present application Represents the Kronecker product. Unless otherwise specified, the meanings of other positions are the same as here and are not repeated here.

[0198] Example 2:

[0199] In Example 2, for example, the vector corresponding to the combined coefficient is recorded as W p =[α0,α1] T ,in The first device can obtain the combining coefficient (or weighting coefficient) by a conventional method. For example, the singular value decomposition corresponding to [H0, H1] can be: [H0W0, H1W1] = U × Λ × V H , get the first column of the matrix V = [v0, v1], that is, α = v0.

[0200] In Example 2, W′ can be regarded as a precoding matrix corresponding to the first port set, and W″ can be regarded as a precoding matrix corresponding to the second port set. Several possible implementations of W′ and W″ are provided below.

[0201] In the first embodiment of the second example, W′=W1(0,0)×W2(1,0), and W″=W1(1,1)×W2(1,1).

[0202] W1(0,0) is the first-level weight corresponding to the reference signal (e.g., reference signal #0) sent by the second device through the first port set (e.g., port set #0), W2(0,0) is the second-level weight corresponding to the reference signal (e.g., reference signal #0) sent by the second device through the first port set (e.g., port set #0), W1(1,1) is the first-level weight corresponding to the reference signal (e.g., reference signal #1) sent by the second device through the second port set (e.g., port set #1), and W2(1,1) is the second-level weight corresponding to the reference signal (e.g., reference signal #1) sent by the second device through the second port set (e.g., port set #1).

[0203] In the second embodiment of Example 2, W″=W1(1,1)×W2(1,1).

[0204] In the second implementation of Example 2, the formula of W′ can be regarded as the case where the values ​​of g and k in the aforementioned formula (3) are both 0. The meanings of the relevant parameters in the second implementation of Example 2 refer to the aforementioned formula (3) and the relevant description of the first implementation of Example 2, and will not be repeated here.

[0205] In the third embodiment of the second example, W′=W1(0,0)×W2(0,0),

[0206] In the third embodiment of Example 2, the formula of W″ can be regarded as the case where the values ​​of g and k in the aforementioned formula (3) are both 1. The meanings of the relevant parameters in the third embodiment of Example 2 refer to the aforementioned formula (3) and the relevant description of the first embodiment of Example 2, and are not repeated here.

[0207] In the fourth embodiment of Example 2,

[0208] In the third embodiment of Example 2, the formula of W′ can be regarded as the case where the values ​​of g and k in the aforementioned formula (3) are both 0, and the formula of W″ can be regarded as the case where the values ​​of g and k in the aforementioned formula (3) are both 1. The meanings of the relevant parameters in the fourth embodiment of Example 2 refer to the relevant description of the aforementioned formula (3) and are not repeated here.

[0209] Example 3, W = W1 × W2, or

[0210] The relevant parameters of Example 3 can be found in the relevant description of Example 1 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0211] In the implementation provided in Example 3, in one possible implementation, the terminal device may regard the first port set and the second port set as a whole, and then uniformly process the signals received by all antenna ports in the two port sets.

[0212] Based on the embodiments shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 5 and 6, Figure 7 exemplarily shows a possible flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The scheme provided in Figure 7 can be regarded as an extended embodiment of the scheme provided in Figure 6. Figure 7 is introduced by taking the determination of channel information based on a downlink reference signal as an example. In the example of Figure 7, the second device is a network device and the first device is a terminal device as an example for description. In the scheme provided in Figure 7, the network device can also be replaced by the second device, and the terminal device can also be replaced by the first device. For the description of the terminal device and the network device in Figure 7, please refer to the description of Figure 6 above and will not be repeated here.

[0213] The following is an introduction with reference to FIG7 .

[0214] Step 701: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0215] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information.

[0216] Optionally, in the radio access network illustrated in FIG2 , step 701 may be implemented as follows: the CU-CP corresponding to the network device generates configuration information and sends the configuration information through the DU and RU. In an O-RAN system, step 701 may be implemented as follows: the O-CU-CP corresponding to the network device generates configuration information and sends the configuration information through the O-DU and O-RU.

[0217] In the embodiment of the present application, the configuration information may include one or more types of information, such as at least one of: channel information measurement configuration information (information A1), information for indicating a reference signal on which the channel information is based (information A2), and channel information reporting configuration information (information A3). These information may be carried in one piece of information or in different pieces of information, such as information A1 and information A3 carried in one piece of information and information A2 carried in another piece of information. At least one of information A1, information A2, and information A3 may be sent by the network device to the terminal device via RRC signaling or other signaling.

[0218] Information A1: channel information measurement configuration information.

[0219] The channel information measurement configuration information may include resource configuration information. Among them, the resource configuration information is information related to the measurement resources, which can be configured through a three-level structure (resource configuration (resourceConfig)-resource set (resourceSet)-resource (resource)). In other words, the network device can configure one or more resource configurations for the terminal device, each resource configuration includes one or more resource sets, and each resource set may include one or more resources. Each resource configuration / resource set / resource includes its own index. Optionally, the channel information reporting configuration information may also include some other parameters, such as the period of the resource, the signal type corresponding to the resource, etc.

[0220] In a possible implementation manner, the configuration information may further include a g1 port sets and / or N g2 Information about the set of ports (information A1.1). g1 port sets and / or N g2 The information of the port set (information A1.1) may belong to the information in the resource configuration information (this is used as an example in the embodiment of the present application) or may not belong to it.

[0221] Information A1.1, used to indicate N g1 port sets and / or N g2 The information of a port set.

[0222] In an embodiment of the present application, one or more antenna elements may form an antenna port, and thus the antenna port may be understood as a representation of an antenna element (or an antenna element group). In an embodiment of the present application, each reference signal (or a reference signal resource) may correspond to one or more antenna ports (which may be understood as: each reference signal (or a reference signal resource) may be sent through one or more antenna ports). The antenna ports corresponding to a reference signal may be divided into one or more sets. In an embodiment of the present application, all ports corresponding to a reference signal may be referred to as a port set (or a port group), and the port set (or a port group) may be divided into multiple port subsets (or port subgroups), and these port subsets (or port subgroups) may also be referred to as port sets (or port groups). In an embodiment of the present application, a port set (or port group) or a port subset (or port subgroup) may also be referred to as an antenna panel, etc.

[0223] In one possible implementation, a reference signal may correspond to one or more antenna port sets, and an antenna port set may also correspond to one or more reference signals. The antenna port set (one or more antenna sets) corresponding to a reference signal can be understood as: the second apparatus transmits the reference signal through the antenna port set (one or more antenna sets) on the resource of the reference signal. When an antenna port set corresponds to multiple reference signals, the reference signals may occupy the antenna port set through time division or frequency division.

[0224] In the embodiment of the present application, N g1 port sets and N g2 A port set in a port set may include one or more antenna ports. g1 The port sets are port sets used to send the first reference signal, N g2 The port sets are port sets used to send the first reference signal. g1 port sets and N g2 There can be an intersection (also called partial overlap or complete overlap) in the port sets, that is, they have the same antenna ports, or N g1 port sets and N g2 The two reference signals are different, and the antenna port sets corresponding to the two reference signals may not overlap, partially overlap, or completely overlap. The first port set belongs to N g1 The second port set belongs to N g2 For example, the antenna ports in the first port set and the antenna ports in the second port set may partially overlap, have no overlap (also referred to as disjoint sets), or completely overlap.

[0225] For example, if the first port set and the second port set partially overlap or completely overlap, in this case, the first port set and the second port set include at least one identical port. For example, the first port set includes port #01, and the second port set includes port #02, and port #01 and port #02 are the same port. Port #01 and port #02 being the same port can mean that: the physical antennas corresponding to port #01 and port #02 are the same, but the analog weights are different; or, the physical antennas corresponding to port #01 and port #02 are the same, but some of the digital weight components are different; or, the QCL parameters corresponding to port #01 and port #02 are all the same or partially the same.

[0226] The number of antenna ports in the two port sets corresponding to the two reference signals can be the same or different. g1 The number of antenna ports included in at least one of the port sets is equal to N g2 The number of antenna ports included in at least one of the port sets is different. g1 The number of antenna ports included in at least one port set (such as each port set) of the port sets is equal to N g2 The number of antenna ports included in at least one of the port sets is the same. For another example, the number of antenna ports in the two port sets with the same index corresponding to each carrier and each reference signal is the same, for example, reference signal #1 corresponds to port set #1, and reference signal #2 also corresponds to port set #1, and the number of antenna ports in port set #1 corresponding to reference signal #1 is equal to (or unequal to) the number of antenna ports in port set #1 corresponding to reference signal #2. In the embodiment of the present application, the index of the port set can be determined in sequence according to the order of the positions of the antenna ports in each port set, for example, the index of the port set corresponding to antenna ports 0 to (N1N2-1) is port set #1, and the index of the port set corresponding to antenna ports N1N2 to (2N1N2-1) is port set #2. In the embodiment of the present application, the index of the port set can also be determined according to other rules, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. For another example, the number of ports in the port set corresponding to each carrier and each reference signal can be equal.

[0227] In one possible implementation, N g1 The port set includes N g1,1 *N g1,2 The * in the formula in the embodiment of the present application means multiplication. Unless otherwise specified, the meaning of * in other formulas can be referred to the description here and will not be repeated here. g1,1 Indicates N g1 The number of port sets included in the first dimension, Ng1,2 Indicates N g1 The number of port sets included in the second dimension. N g1,1 N is a positive integer. g1,2 is a positive integer. It can also be understood that the first reference signal is divided into N g1,1 port sets (or port subsets or port subgroups), divided into N in the second dimension g1,2 Port sets (or port subsets or port subgroups). Similarly, in one possible implementation, N g2 The port set includes N g2,1 *N g2,2 A set of ports. N g2,1 Indicates N g2 The number of port sets included in the first dimension, N g2,2 Indicates N g2 The number of port sets included in the second dimension, N g2,1 is a positive integer, N g2,2 N is a positive integer. g1,1 With N g1,2 Can be equal or unequal, and / or, N g2,1 With N g2,2 Can be equal or unequal.

[0228] Information A1.1 may include: g1 Information of a port set, and / or for indicating N g2 The information of a port set.

[0229] Among them, it is used to indicate N g1 The information of the port set may include information indicating at least one of the following: g1 The total number of antenna ports in the port set, N g1 The number of antenna ports in at least one port set (or each port set) in the port sets, N g1 The number N of antenna ports in the first dimension in at least one port set (or each port set) of the port sets g1,1 , N g1 The number N of antenna ports in the second dimension in at least one port set (or each port set) of the port sets g1,2 .

[0230] Among them, it is used to indicate N g2 The information of the port set may include information indicating at least one of the following: g2 The total number of antenna ports in the port set, N g2 The number of antenna ports in at least one port set (or each port set) in the port sets, Ng2 The number N of antenna ports in the first dimension in at least one port set (or each port set) of the port sets g2,1 , N g2 The number N of antenna ports in the second dimension in at least one port set (or each port set) of the port sets g2,2 .

[0231] The information A1.1 may also include other information, such as one or more carrier indexes corresponding to the reference signal.

[0232] The following takes the first reference signal as an example to introduce the N corresponding to the first reference signal. g1 A collection of ports.

[0233] N g1,1 and / or N g1,2 The value of N may be indicated by the network device (for example, by a field in the configuration information), or may be determined by the terminal device. g1,1 and / or N g1,2 The value of N g1,1 and / or N g1,2 The value of is predefined. In the embodiments of the present application, "predefined" can be understood as defined by the protocol, or pre-set in a device (such as a terminal device and / or a network device).

[0234] In another possible implementation, the terminal device may obtain a table, which may include one or more groups of N g1,1 and N g1,2 The table may be indicated by the network device, determined by the terminal device, or predefined. Afterwards, the network device may indicate a set of N in the table to the terminal device. g1,1 and N g1,2 The value of N, or the terminal device determines a set of N g1,1 and N g1,2 If the terminal device determines N g1,1 and / or N g1,2 The terminal device may report the value to the network device, for example, it may send information indicating the value to the network device. g1,1 and N g1,2 Several possible examples of the value of. Take the second row in Table 1 as an example, when the value carried by the designated field of the network device is 0 (the designated field is used to indicate a set of N in the table g1,1 and N g1,2 The terminal device can look up the value of N from the table to determine the value of N indicated by the network device. g1,1 is 1, N g1,2The content of other lines is similar and will not be repeated here. g1,1 and N g1,2 The value information can be carried in the configuration information or in other information. The rows and columns of each table involved in the embodiment of the present application (such as Table 1, subsequent Table 2, etc.) can be arbitrarily deformed and combined, and the parameters in the table can also be replaced with other values.

[0235] Table 1N g1,1 and N g1,2 Several possible examples of values ​​for

[0236] FIG8A is a schematic diagram showing a possible division method of the port set corresponding to the first reference signal provided in an embodiment of the present application. In FIG8A , the number of antenna ports included in each port set (a port subset or port subgroup) is 2N1N2 (2N1N2 can also be understood as N 1* N2 product) as an example, in the implementation of this application, the first reference signal corresponds to P CSI-RS The antenna port is used as an example to introduce CSI-RS =N g1,1 *N g1,2 *2*N1*N2. P CSI-RS The antenna ports can be divided into two polarizations, and the number of antenna ports of the two polarizations is equal. As shown in (a) of FIG8A , the first reference signal includes a port set, namely port set #1, N g1 The value of N is 1, g1,1 The value of N is 1, g1,2 The value of is 1, port set #1 includes all antenna ports between antenna port #0 and antenna port (2N1N2-1). As can be seen from (a) in Figure 8A, the port set includes two polarizations, namely polarization #0 and polarization #1. The number of antenna ports included in each polarization is equal, both N1N2. As shown in the figure, polarization #0 includes all antenna ports between antenna port #0 and antenna port (N1N2-1), and polarization #1 includes all antenna ports between antenna port #N1N2 and antenna port (2N1N2-1). The examples provided in (b), (c), and (d) in Figure 8A can refer to the relevant description of (a) in Figure 8A. For example, in (b) in Figure 8A, the first reference signal corresponds to two port sets (i.e., port set #1 and port set #2) as an example, and the first dimension includes two sets (i.e., N g1,1 is 2), and the second dimension includes a set (ie N g1,2For example, in FIG8A (b), the first reference signal corresponds to two port sets (ie, port set #1 and port set #2), and the first dimension includes a set (ie, N g1,1 is 1), and the second dimension includes two sets (i.e. N g1,2 For example, in FIG8A (b), the first reference signal corresponds to four port sets (i.e., port set #1, port set #2, port set #3, and port set #4), and the first dimension includes two sets (i.e., N g1,1 2), and the second dimension includes two sets (i.e. N g1,2 2) is taken as an example for illustration.

[0237] In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna ports included in a port set may be ports with continuous or discontinuous indexes. If the indexes of the antenna ports are continuous, in the embodiment of the present application, they can be expressed by the starting antenna port number and the ending antenna port number of the continuous antenna port numbers in the port set. For example, if the port set includes antenna ports 0 to 3, 0 to 3 can be understood as including 0, 3 and numbers between 0 and 3. This example can be understood as the antenna ports included in the port set are: antenna port with index 0, antenna port with index 1, antenna port with index 2, and antenna port with index 3. If the indexes of the antenna ports are discontinuous, the indexes of the antenna port numbers included in the port set can be listed separately. For example, if the port set includes antenna ports {0, 1, 3}, it can be understood as the antenna ports included in the port set are: antenna port with index 0, antenna port with index 1, and antenna port with index 3. The meanings of the examples of antenna port numbers shown elsewhere in the embodiment of the present application are similar to this. Unless otherwise specified, please refer to the description of the examples here and no further description will be given.

[0238] In one possible embodiment, the first dimension and the second dimension can be understood as two directions. For example, for a planar antenna array, the first dimension can be considered as antenna ports in the horizontal direction, and the second dimension can be considered as antenna ports in the vertical direction; or vice versa. For ease of understanding, Figure 8B exemplarily illustrates the structural schematics of several possible antenna panels provided in embodiments of the present application. As shown in (a) of Figure 8B , the antenna panel included in the network device can be a single panel, which can also be understood as including one port set in the first dimension and one port set in the second dimension. As shown in (b) of Figure 8B , the antenna panel included in the network device can include two panels in the horizontal direction, which can also be understood as including two port sets in the first dimension and one port set in the second dimension. As shown in (c) of Figure 8B , the antenna panel included in the network device can include two panels in the vertical direction, which can also be understood as including one port set in the first dimension and two port sets in the second dimension. As shown in (d) of Figure 8B , the antenna panel included in the network device can include two panels in the vertical and horizontal directions, which can also be understood as including two port sets in the first dimension and two port sets in the second dimension.

[0239] In another possible implementation, the number of antenna ports in at least two port sets used to transmit the first reference signal is different, for example, the number of antenna ports in any two port sets used to transmit the first reference signal is different. For example, the first reference signal corresponds to N g1 port set, the N g1 The number of antenna ports included in each port set in turn can be expressed as: 2N1(1)N2(1), 2N1(2)N2(2), ... 2N1(N g1 )N2(N g1 ). The number of ports corresponding to a reference signal can be expressed as P CSI-RS =∑g=1,2,…,Ng12N1(g)N2(g).

[0240] In the above example, the first reference signal is used as an example to introduce the division of the port set corresponding to the first reference signal. The division of the port set corresponding to the second reference signal can also refer to the division method of the port set of the first reference signal, which is not repeated here.

[0241] In the embodiment of the present application, one reference signal may correspond to one spatial relationship. In the embodiment of the present application, the term "spatial relationship" may also be replaced by "beam", "simulated beam" or "transmit filter". Two reference signals may correspond to two different or the same spatial relationships. For example, N g1 The spatial relationship between at least one port set in the port sets and N g2The spatial relationship corresponding to at least one of the port sets is different (for example, the spatial relationship corresponding to the first port set is different from the spatial relationship corresponding to the second port set); N g1 The spatial relationship between at least one port set in the port sets and N g2 The spatial relationship corresponding to at least one port set in the port sets is the same.

[0242] In another possible implementation, the spatial relationships between at least two port sets corresponding to a reference signal may be the same or different. g1 At least two of the port sets have different spatial relationships. For example, N g1 The spatial relationship corresponding to at least two port sets (for example, each port set) in the port sets is the same; for example, N g2 At least two of the port sets have different spatial relationships. For example, N g2 The spatial relationships corresponding to at least two port sets (for example, each port set) in the port sets are the same.

[0243] In an embodiment of the present application, a port set may correspond to one or more spatial relationships (or called simulated beams). For example, the number of spatial relationships (or beams) associated with the reference signals sent by a port set may be 1, 2, 4, or 8. The following FIG9 exemplifies a possible example of a port set and a beam (or spatial relationship) provided in an embodiment of the present application. For ease of understanding, in FIG9 , a port set corresponds to a spatial relationship, the first reference signal is CSI-RS#0, the second reference signal is CSI-RS#1, the first reference signal corresponds to port set #1 and port set #2, and the second reference signal corresponds to port set #1 and port set #2 as an example. In an embodiment of the present application, the antenna ports in port set #1 and port set #2 may partially overlap, completely overlap, or have no overlap. For related content, please refer to the aforementioned introduction to the first port set and the second port set. In the embodiments of the present application, the case where the antenna ports in port set #1 and port set #2 do not overlap is used as an example. For example, reference can be made to (b) in FIG8A . For example, port set #1 corresponding to CSI-RS #0 may include 0 to (N1N2-1) and 2N1N2 to (3N1N2-1). For example, port set #2 corresponding to CSI-RS #1 may include N1N2 to (2N1N2-1) and 3N1N2 to (4N1N2-1).

[0244] In an embodiment of the present application, a port set (such as at least two port sets, or each port set) corresponding to a reference signal is associated with a spatial relationship (or beam), and the spatial relationships (which can also be described as spatial relationships associated with reference signals) associated with at least two reference signals (such as a first reference signal and a second reference signal) are different. For example, as shown in (a) in Figure 9, the network device sends CSI-RS#0 through port set #0 and port set #1, and the beam of CSI-RS#0 sent through port set #0 and port set #1 is B#0. The network device sends CSI-RS#1 through port set #0 and port set #1, and the beam of CSI-RS#1 sent through port set #0 and port set #1 is B#1. In an embodiment of the present application, two reference signals (such as CSI-RS#0 and CSI-RS#1) can be sent in a time division or frequency division manner.

[0245] In another possible implementation, the spatial relationships associated with the same port set corresponding to at least two reference signals may be different, and the spatial relationships (or beams) associated with two port sets corresponding to one reference signal may be different. For example, as shown in (b) of Figure 9 , the beam of CSI-RS#0 sent by the network device via port set #0 is B#0, the beam of CSI-RS#0 sent by the network device via port set #1 is B#1, the beam of CSI-RS#1 sent by the network device via port set #0 is B#1, and the beam of CSI-RS#1 sent by the network device via port set #1 is B#0.

[0246] In another possible implementation, the spatial relationships associated with the same port set corresponding to at least two reference signals may be the same or different, and the spatial relationships (or beams) associated with two port sets corresponding to one reference signal may be different. For example, as shown in (c) of Figure 9 , the beam of CSI-RS#0 transmitted by the network device via port set #0 and port set #1 is B#0, the beam of CSI-RS#1 transmitted by the network device via port set #0 is B#0, and the beam of CSI-RS#1 transmitted by the network device via port set #1 is B#1.

[0247] Information A2 is used to indicate information of a reference signal on which the channel information is based.

[0248] In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may determine the channel information based on one reference signal (see Implementation A2.1), or may determine the channel information by combining multiple reference signals (see Implementation A2.2).

[0249] In implementation A2.1, the terminal device may determine channel information based on a reference signal.

[0250] In embodiment A2.1, the configuration information (eg, information A2) may further instruct the terminal device to determine the channel information based on a reference signal.

[0251] For example, the configuration information (e.g., information A2) may include information indicating a reference signal. For example, information A2 may include information about the resource of the reference signal, such as a resource identifier and / or resource set identifier of the reference signal. The first apparatus may determine channel information based on the first reference signal transmitted by one or more port sets.

[0252] A reference signal may correspond to one or more port sets, and the first device may determine channel information based on the port set or the port sets corresponding to the reference signal. For example, if the first reference signal is sent via port set #0, port set #1, and port set #2, information A2 may instruct the terminal device to determine channel information based on all or part of the port sets (e.g., port set #0 and port set #2) corresponding to the first reference signal.

[0253] In another possible implementation, the configuration information (e.g., information A2) may include information indicating one or more port sets. The port set indicated by information A2 corresponds to a reference signal. In this case, the first apparatus may determine the channel information based on the reference signal transmitted by the port set indicated by information A2.

[0254] In another possible implementation, the configuration information (e.g., information A2) may include: information indicating a reference signal, and information indicating one or more port sets. The port set indicated by the information A2 corresponds to the reference signal indicated by the information A2. In this case, the first apparatus may determine the channel information based on the reference signal sent by the port set indicated by the information A2. The port set indicated by the information A2 may be part or all of all port sets corresponding to the reference signal.

[0255] In implementation A2.2, the terminal device may determine channel information based on multiple reference signals.

[0256] Configuration information (e.g., information A2) may also instruct the terminal device to determine channel information based on multiple reference signals. For example, information A2 may indicate that channel information is determined based on a first reference signal and a second reference signal. Upon receiving information A2, the terminal device may determine that channel information needs to be determined based on the first reference signal and the second reference signal, for example, determine the channel information, and then feedback the channel information to the network device.

[0257] In one possible implementation, the configuration information (e.g., information A2) may include: indication information of the first reference signal and indication information of the second reference signal. Based on this information, the terminal device may determine the reference signal on which the channel information to be generated is based. In an embodiment of the present application, the indication information of the first reference signal may include information that can indicate the resources of the first reference signal, such as the resource set identifier of the first reference signal and / or the resource identifier of the first reference signal. In an embodiment of the present application, the indication information of the second reference signal may include information that can indicate the resources of the second reference signal, such as the resource set identifier of the second reference signal and / or the resource identifier of the second reference signal. The resource set identifier of the first reference signal is different from the resource set identifier of the second reference signal; and / or, the resource identifier of the first reference signal is different from the resource identifier of the second reference signal.

[0258] For example, the configuration information (such as information A2) includes: {CSI-RS#0; CSI-RS#1}. Then the terminal device #1 needs to obtain the channel information based on the combination of {CSI-RS#0; CSI-RS#1}. That is, the terminal device #1 can determine the channel information corresponding to CSI-RS#0 and CSI-RS#1. In this example, a reference signal may correspond to one or more port sets. The terminal device #1 can determine the channel information corresponding to the CSI-RS#0 sent by all port sets for sending CSI-RS#0, and the CSI-RS#1 sent by all port sets for sending CSI-RS#1. In a possible implementation, a reference signal may correspond to a port set. In this case, the information A2 may include: {CSI-RS#0; CSI-RS#1}, or may not include information on the port sets corresponding to each reference signal. For example, CSI-RS#0 corresponds to port set #0, and CSI-RS#1 corresponds to port set #1. After the terminal device receives information A2, it can determine that it needs to obtain the channel information corresponding to CSI-RS#0 sent through port set #0 and CSI-RS#1 sent through the antenna port of port set #1.

[0259] In another possible implementation, the configuration information (e.g., information A2) may include: information indicating a first port set and information indicating a second port set. One port set may be associated with one reference signal. Based on this information, the terminal device may determine multiple port sets for which channel information needs to be generated, and then obtain channel information corresponding to the multiple reference signals transmitted via the multiple port sets.

[0260] In another possible implementation, the configuration information (e.g., information A2) may include: information indicating that a first reference signal sent through a first port set and a second reference signal sent through a second port set determine channel information. Based on this information, the terminal device can determine the reference signals to be measured and the port sets corresponding to each reference signal. For example, the terminal device can identify the first reference signal sent through the first port set and the second reference signal sent through the second port set, and then perform measurements based on these two signals to obtain channel information.

[0261] In this embodiment, the configuration information (e.g., information A2) may include: indication information of a first port set, indication information of a first reference signal, indication information of a second port set, and indication information of a second reference signal. The indication information of the first port set includes at least one of: an index of an antenna port in the first port set, an index of the first port set, an index of a starting antenna port in the first port set, information about the number of antenna ports included in the first port set, and an index of an ending antenna port in the first port set. The indication information of the second port set may include at least one of: an index of an antenna port in the second port set, an index of the second port set, an index of a starting antenna port in the second port set, information about the number of antenna ports included in the second port set, and an index of an ending antenna port in the second port set.

[0262] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device may configure the combination form of the reference signals to be measured by a terminal device through configuration information, and may also configure the combination form of the reference signals to be measured by multiple terminal devices through one configuration information (or multiple configuration information). In one possible implementation, the network device may configure the combination form of the reference signals to be measured by these terminal devices for multiple terminal devices through configuration information. The reference signals to be measured by different terminal devices may be partially the same, completely the same, or different. In the case where the reference signals measured by two terminal devices are the same, the port sets corresponding to each reference signal to be measured by the two terminal devices may be partially the same, completely the same, or different.

[0263] For example, terminal device #1 needs to obtain channel information based on the combination of {CSI-RS#0, 0~(N1N2-1); CSI-RS#1, N1N2~(2N1N2-1)}; terminal device #2 needs to obtain channel information based on the combination of {CSI-RS#0, N1N2~(2N1N2-1); (CSI-RS#1, 0~(N1N2-1))}; terminal device #3 needs to obtain channel information based on the combination of {CSI-RS#0, 0~(N1N2-1); (CSI-RS#0, N1N2~(2N1N2-1)}. The combination of beams (or spatial relationships) associated with the port sets corresponding to the multiple reference signals that need to be measured by different terminal devices can be the same or different.

[0264] For example, the beam (or spatial relationship) corresponding to the CSI-RS#0 sent by the network device through the port set 0 to (N1N2-1) is B#0, the beam (or spatial relationship) corresponding to the CSI-RS#0 sent by the network device through the port set N1N2 to (2N1N2-1) is B#0, the beam (or spatial relationship) corresponding to the CSI-RS#1 sent by the network device through the port set 0 to (N1N2-1) is B#1, and the beam (or spatial relationship) corresponding to the CSI-RS#1 sent by the network device through the port set N1N2 to (2N1N2-1) is B#1. Based on this, the beam combination form corresponding to the channel information obtained by terminal device #1 is {B#0, 0~(N1N2-1); B#1, N1N2~(2N1N2-1)} (this beam combination form can be understood as the beam of port 0~(N1N2-1) is B#0, and the beam of port N1N2~(2N1N2-1) is B#1. The meanings of other beam combination forms are similar and will not be repeated here), the beam combination form corresponding to the channel information obtained by terminal device #2 is {(B#1, 0~(N1N2-1)); B#0, N1N2~(2N1N2-1)}, and the beam combination form corresponding to the channel information obtained by terminal device #3 is {B#0, 0~(N1N2-1); (B#0, N1N2~(2N1N2-1)}.

[0265] It can be seen that the network device can meet the beam combination requirements of multiple terminal devices by only sending CSI-RS#0 through B#0 and CSI-RS#1 through B#1. This solution does not require the network device to send reference signals separately for each beam combination requirement. For example, in the above example, the network device only needs to send CSI-RS#0 through port set 0 to (2N1N2-1) and beam B#0, and send CSI-RS#1 through port set 0 to (2N1N2-1) and beam B#1 to meet the beam combination requirements of terminal device #1, terminal device #2, and terminal device #3. That is, the network device no longer needs to send CSI-RS#3 (the beam combination of CSI-RS#3 is {B#0, 0 to (N1N2-1); B#1, N1N2 to (2N1N2-1)}, that is, CSI-RS#3 is sent through ports 0 to (2N1N2-1), and the beam of ports 0 to (N1N2-1) is B#0, and the beam of ports N1N2 to (2N1N2-1) is B#1). There is also no need to send CSI-RS#4 (the beam combination of CSI-RS#4 is {(B#1, 0 to (N1N2-1)); B#0, N1N2 to (2N1N2-1)}). It can be seen that in this solution, the network device can meet the beam combining requirements of more terminal devices by sending a smaller number of reference signals, thereby reducing resource overhead.

[0266] In the embodiment of the present application, the reference signal is CSI-RS as an example for introduction, and CSI-RS can also be replaced by the resources of CSI-RS. In order to meet the measurement requirements of the channel information of multiple terminal devices, in the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the network device can reduce the number of reference signals sent, and the terminal device can obtain channel information through a single reference signal or a combination of multiple reference signals according to its own needs, thereby saving resource overhead. For analysis of relevant beneficial effects, please refer to the relevant description of Figure 5 above, which will not be repeated here. The "association" in the embodiment of the present application can also be replaced by other terms, such as corresponding, relevant, and reciprocal.

[0267] For ease of understanding, FIG10 exemplarily shows a schematic diagram of the possible relationship between the reference signal and the port set corresponding to the channel information measured by the terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The reference signal sent by the network device may be, for example, as shown in FIG5 above. As shown in (a) of FIG10 , information A2 may include: {(CSI-RS#0, port set #0; (CSI-RS#1, port set #1}, based on which terminal device #1 may determine the CSI-RS#0 to be sent through the antenna port of port set #0, and the channel information corresponding to the CSI-RS#1 sent through the antenna port of port set #1. As shown in (b) of FIG10 , information A2 may also include: {(CSI-RS#0, port set #1; (CSI-RS#1, port set #0 Based on this information, terminal device #2 can determine CSI-RS #0 to be transmitted through the antenna port of port set #1, as well as the channel information corresponding to CSI-RS #1 transmitted through the antenna port of port set #0. In this example, CSI-RS #0 and CSI-RS #1 can be regarded as indication information of a reference signal (or a reference signal resource). Port set #1 can, for example, include antenna ports indexed from 0 to (N1N2-1), and port set #2 can, for example, include antenna ports indexed from N1N2 to (2N1N2-1).

[0268] In an embodiment of the present application, an example is given in which the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information obtained by the terminal device is two. In actual applications, the terminal device can obtain channel information by combining more than two reference signals, and the number of port sets associated with a reference signal corresponding to the channel information can be one or more, and the number of port sets associated with at least two reference signals corresponding to the channel information can be equal or unequal.

[0269] In one possible implementation, the content of the configuration information sent by the network device may be as shown in the following example 1, in which Example 1 is illustrated by taking the need to measure {(reference signal 1, port set 1); (reference signal 2, port set 2)} as an example, where reference signal 1 may be replaced with reference signal resource 1, and reference signal 2 may be replaced with reference signal resource 2:

[0270] In one possible implementation, the information indicating the port set may include an index of the port set. For example, part of the content in the above example 1 may be replaced with the following content:

[0271] In one possible implementation, the information indicating the port set may include the index of the starting antenna port in the port set and / or the number of antenna ports included in the port set. For example, part of the content in the above example 1 may be replaced with the following content:

[0272] Based on the above example, in one possible example, the index of the antenna port in the port set may include, for example, startPortId1 to (startPortId1+nrofPortsInGroup1-1); or, the index of the antenna port in the port set may include, for example, startPortId1 to (startPortId1+nrofPortsInGroup1 / 2-1) and The two parameters correspond to the number of antenna ports in the two polarization directions. Among them, startPortId1 can be understood as the index of the starting antenna port in the port set, nrofPortsInGroup1 can be understood as the number of antenna ports included in the port set, P CSI-RS It can be understood as the total number of antenna ports corresponding to one reference signal (or one reference signal).

[0273] In another possible implementation, the above-mentioned information A2 may be determined by the terminal device. For example, the terminal device may determine the reference signal associated with the channel information to be obtained, or determine the reference signal and port set associated with the channel information to be obtained. In this implementation, the network device may no longer need to send the above-mentioned information A2. The terminal device may also send the determined information A2 to the network device so that the network device obtains the reference signal and port set corresponding to the channel information. In this solution, since the terminal device can determine the reference signal and port set associated with the channel information by itself, the terminal device can determine the combination form of the reference signal and port set that is beneficial to the terminal device by itself, so that the network device can configure resources for the terminal device based on the channel information corresponding to the combination form, thereby optimizing the communication performance of the terminal device.

[0274] In one implementation, the second device may also determine a method for determining the information A2 based on network configuration information.

[0275] Information A3: channel information reporting configuration information.

[0276] Channel information reporting configuration information refers to information related to measurement result reporting and is configured in the protocol through a ReportConfig. A network device can configure one or more ReportConfigs for a terminal device. Each ReportConfig can include the amount of channel information to be reported and / or the PMI configuration corresponding to the channel information. For example, a PMI configuration can include parameters related to PMI reporting.

[0277] The terminal device may have acquired multiple channel information, and the channel information reported by the terminal device may be part or all of the multiple channel information acquired. In the embodiment of the present application, the configuration information may also indicate the reference signal based on which the channel information to be reported by the terminal device is based. This information is similar to the above-mentioned information A2 (the content indicated by the above-mentioned information A2 can be understood as the reference signal based on which the channel information to be acquired by the terminal device is based), and will not be repeated here. For example, the information for indicating the reference signal based on which the channel information to be reported by the terminal device is based may include: indication information of at least one reference signal, indication information of the port set associated with the reference signal in the at least one reference signal. For example, the information for indicating the reference signal based on which the channel information to be reported by the terminal device is based may include: {CSI-RS#0, 0~(N1N2-1); CSI-RS#1, N1N2~(2N1N2-1)}, and the relevant content refers to the above description and will not be repeated here.

[0278] The reporting configuration may also include reporting indicators, reporting time and period, reporting format and other reporting-related information. In addition, the reporting configuration may also include a resource configuration index, which indicates the measurement configuration used to measure the reported result. Optionally, the channel information reporting configuration information includes codebook configuration information (CodebookConfig).

[0279] Step 702: The network device sends at least one reference signal.

[0280] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives at least one reference signal.

[0281] In one implementation, the at least one reference signal may belong to the same resource set.

[0282] In one implementation, the at least one reference signal may be located in adjacent time slots, or adjacent downlink time slots, or adjacent downlink OFDM symbols.

[0283] The reference signal sent by the network device in step 702 may be understood as a downlink reference signal.

[0284] For example, the network device sends a downlink signal (generally a downlink reference signal) on the resources configured by the resource configuration information, so that the terminal device can measure the downlink signal and determine the quality of each resource (ie, the quality of the beam corresponding to the resource).

[0285] In one implementation, different port sets or different reference signals for the same reference signal can be sent using a time-division approach, that is, on different time domain resources (e.g., time slots or OFDM symbols). This time-division approach facilitates the transmission of multiple reference signals based on different beams within the HBF architecture, enabling channel information measurement.

[0286] In one implementation, different port sets or different reference signals of the same reference signal can be transmitted using a frequency division method, that is, transmitted on different frequency domain resources (i.e., component carriers, resource blocks, or different subcarriers). For example, reference signal #1 is transmitted via a first frequency domain resource, and reference signal #2 is transmitted via a second frequency domain resource. This embodiment enables network devices to scan channel information more quickly.

[0287] The relevant contents of step 702 can be found in the relevant description of the aforementioned step 601 and will not be repeated here.

[0288] Step 703: The terminal device measures the reference signal to obtain channel information.

[0289] For example, the terminal device can measure the reference signal based on the information in the aforementioned configuration information. For example, if the configuration information instructs the terminal device to obtain channel information based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set and the second reference signal corresponding to the second port set, the terminal device receives the first reference signal and the second reference signal, identifies and measures the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set and the reference signal corresponding to the second port set, and then obtains the channel information. For ease of distinction, in the embodiment of the present application, the channel information obtained based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first port set and the reference signal corresponding to the second port set is also referred to as channel information. In the embodiment of the present application, the channel information can be referred to as a channel response.

[0290] In step 703, the terminal device may first obtain X groups of channel information, where X may be a positive integer. The terminal device may then split and combine the X groups of channel information to form M groups of channel information for easy reporting (compression, quantization, and other operations to reduce feedback overhead and improve feedback efficiency).

[0291] M may be a positive integer, and may be less than X, greater than X, or equal to X. Taking the case where a network device sends J reference signals as an example, two possible implementation methods for obtaining M sets of channel information are provided through the following methods 1 and 2, where J may be a positive integer, and X may be greater than J, equal to J, or less than J.

[0292] Method 1: For example, a network device sends J reference signals, and a terminal device can obtain X (in this example, X = J) sets of channel information based on these J reference signals. For example, each reference signal can correspond to a simulated beam, and J reference signals can be used to obtain channel information for J simulated beams.

[0293] Method 2: For example, the network device sends J reference signals, and the terminal device can obtain X (in this example, X is greater than J) groups of channel information according to the J reference signals.

[0294] For example, J reference signals can be used to obtain J channel information (or K channel coefficients or channel responses), and the J channel information can be recorded as A0, A1, ... A j …,A (J-1) , where A j It can be understood as the (j-1)th channel information among the J channel information, the value range of j can be [0, (J-1)], j can be a positive integer, J can be the number of reference signals, A j The dimension is N UE ×P CSI-RS,k , N UE P may be the number of antenna ports used by the terminal device to receive the (j-1)th reference signal, CSI-RS,j It can be understood as the number of antenna ports in each port set corresponding to the (j-1)th reference signal (in this example, when the (j-1)th reference signal corresponds to multiple port sets, the number of antenna ports in each port set in the multiple port sets is equal). Based on J channel information, and information (or as a row vector, ), you can get X channel information This design is applied to the HBF architecture, which allows the terminal device to obtain more channel information even when the network device sends fewer reference signals. For example, the network device can use K groups of orthogonal analog weights to send a reference signal through multiple port sets, thereby obtaining the channel information corresponding to each of the J port sets. On the terminal device side, by weighting the analog port channels (for example, (It can be equivalent to an analog beam), thereby obtaining more than J channel information. In this way, the terminal device can also measure encrypted beam channel information. The solution provided in the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to the architecture of digital beamforming. The relevant content is similar and will not be repeated here.

[0295] In one implementation, A matrix may be formed (e.g., where each row represents a set of coefficients; or where each column represents a set of coefficients). Further, the matrix may be a DFT, a Hadamard matrix, a Walsh matrix, an identity matrix, or any other unitary matrix. In one implementation, the parameters At least one of (wherein x=0, 1, . . . , (J-1)) is obtained according to network device configuration information.

[0296] In a possible implementation, X may also be smaller than the number of reference signals J. In this case, it can also be understood that the terminal device obtains a small amount of channel information according to J reference signals.

[0297] In the embodiment of the present application, the channel information sent by the terminal device to the network device may be obtained by measuring a reference signal sent by a port set, or the same reference signal sent by multiple port sets.

[0298] In another possible implementation, the channel information (e.g., channel information) sent by the terminal device to the network device may be obtained by measuring multiple reference signals. That is, if a piece of channel information comes from two reference signals, the terminal device obtains two pieces of channel information based on the two reference signals, respectively, and then combines the two pieces of channel information into a single piece of channel information based on a combining coefficient.

[0299] For example, the terminal device obtains channel information #1 of the first reference signal sent by the first port set, and the terminal device obtains channel information #2 of the second reference signal sent by the second port set. Channel information #1 and channel information #2 correspond to combining coefficient #1. The terminal device can combine channel information #1 and channel information #2 according to combining coefficient #1 to obtain channel information #3. Channel information #3 can be understood as the channel information corresponding to the first reference signal sent by the first port set and the second reference signal sent by the second port set. Among them, combining coefficient #1 is used to indicate the weighting coefficient between the channel corresponding to the first port set and the channel corresponding to the second port set. The terminal device side can obtain the combining coefficient #1 based on the channel corresponding to the first port set and the channel corresponding to the second port set. Or the combining coefficient #1 is indicated by the network device. This example can also be understood as an example of the terminal device combining X groups of channel information to form M groups of channel information.

[0300] In another possible implementation, the terminal device can send information about combining coefficients corresponding to the channel information to the network device so that the combining coefficient information is aligned on the network device side and the terminal device side, thereby achieving better transmission performance. If the information between the network device side and the terminal device side is not aligned, performance loss may occur.

[0301] Step 704: The terminal device sends channel information to the network device.

[0302] Correspondingly, the network device receives the channel information.

[0303] The relevant contents of step 704 can refer to the relevant description of the aforementioned step 602, and the same parts are referenced to each other and will not be described again.

[0304] The channel information sent by the terminal device can be channel information corresponding to some or all ports of the same reference signal. For example, a network device sends a first reference signal through two port sets. The terminal device can measure the first reference signal sent through the two port sets to obtain channel information and send the channel information to the network device. The terminal device can also measure the first reference signal sent through one of the two port sets to obtain channel information and send the channel information to the network device.

[0305] The channel information sent by the terminal device may also be channel information corresponding to multiple reference signals. For example, the terminal device may send channel information. The terminal device may obtain channel information corresponding to multiple (two or more) reference signals and combine them based on the obtained combining coefficients to obtain channel information corresponding to the multiple reference signals. In this example, the channel information corresponding to a reference signal may be the channel information corresponding to all port sets corresponding to the reference signal, or the channel information corresponding to part of the port sets corresponding to the reference signal.

[0306] The channel information (e.g., channel information) sent by the terminal device may include a beam measurement report, which includes CSI. The CSI may include one or more of the following: an index of one or more resources, a CQI, a reference signal received power (RSRP), a PMI, an RI, a layer indicator (LI), a CRI field, and an SSB resource index (SSBRI).

[0307] In one implementation, the terminal device reports P channel information, where P can be an integer. P can be equal to M or less than M. For details about M, refer to the description of step 703 above and are not repeated here. In this embodiment of the present application, P can be equal to J, less than J, or greater than J. It should be understood that P here can also be represented by a single channel information.

[0308] Furthermore, the terminal device reports information of P weighting parameters, where P can be a positive integer. The P weighting parameters correspond to P channel information, that is, the P weighting parameters correspond to P channel coefficients, and the P channel coefficients correspond to P channel information. Specifically, the information of the P weighting parameters can be an index set {i0,i1,…,i p-1}, where i p =0,1,2,…,(M-1),i pIt may be the index of the channel information corresponding to the (p-1)th channel coefficient among the P channel coefficients in the M (or J) channel information, where p=0, 1, ..., (P-1).

[0309] It should be understood that some terminal devices may support the method of this embodiment, while others may not. In this case, whether the terminal device supports any of the reference signal reception or channel information feedback methods in the above process can be determined based on the capability information reported by the terminal device. The network device can decide whether to configure the above implementation method based on the capability information reported by the terminal device.

[0310] FIG11 exemplarily shows a possible schematic diagram of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG11 , the network device sends configuration information, and then the network device sends various reference signals through a port set. For example, the network device sends CSI-RS#0 through at least one port set #0 (CSI-RS#0 may correspond to one or more port sets. In this example, for ease of understanding, the port set used to send CSI-RS#0 is referred to as port set #0. The relevant content of other reference signals is similar and will not be repeated). The network device sends CSI-RS#1 through at least one port set #1, and the network device sends CSI-RS#(J-1) through at least one port set #J, where J is a positive integer. The terminal device calculates M groups of channel information, and then the terminal device sends P groups of channel information to the network device.

[0311] In a possible implementation, the channel information (eg, channel information, which may be, for example, CRI) sent by the terminal device may include the PMI.

[0312] For example, let's say a reference signal is denoted as #k (e.g., reference signal #k, or reference signal resource #k), and a port set is denoted as #g (e.g., port set #g). A reference signal can be sent via one or more streams. For any stream corresponding to reference signal #k sent via port set #g, the PMI corresponding to that stream can be expressed as W(g,k), where W(g,k) = W p (g,k)×W1(g,k)×W2(g,k)×F(g,k), where F(g,k) can be some rows (or columns) in the unit matrix (or DFT matrix, or IDFT matrix) corresponding to the reference signal #k sent through the port set #g, W1(g,k) is the first-level weight corresponding to the reference signal #k sent by the port set #g, W2(g,k) is the second-level weight corresponding to the reference signal #k sent by the port set #g, and W p(g, k) can be understood as the corresponding merging coefficient when the channel information corresponding to the reference signal #k sent through the port set #g is merged with other channel information into one channel information. In the embodiment of the present application, W1 can also be used to represent the first-level weight, W2 to represent the second-level weight, and W p Represents the merging coefficient.

[0313] In the embodiments of the present application, the first-level weights W1 corresponding to any two pieces of channel information may be the same or different, and the second-level weights W2 corresponding to any two pieces of channel information may be the same or different. The first-level weights and / or second-level weights may be set based on the granularity of the port set, for example, one first-level weight and / or one second-level weight may be corresponding to one port set. The first-level weights and / or second-level weights may also be set based on the granularity of the reference signal, for example, one first-level weight and / or one second-level weight may be corresponding to one reference signal. The first-level weights and / or second-level weights may also be set based on multiple perspectives, such as port sets and reference signals. Several possible examples are listed below.

[0314] In Example 1, for all channel information (e.g., CRI) and each channel information and / or each port set in all port sets, the corresponding first-level weights W1 are the same, and the corresponding second-level weights W2 are the same. For example, for all reference signals and port sets, the values ​​of W1(g, k) corresponding to any two reference signals and port sets are the same, and the values ​​of W2(g, k) corresponding to any two reference signals and port sets are the same. This implementation can reduce resource overhead.

[0315] For example, in one possible implementation, N g1 The first-level weight W1 corresponding to at least one port set (for example, each port set) in the port sets is N g2 At least one port set (for example, each port set) in the port sets has the same first-level weight W1. In another possible implementation, N g1 The second-level weight W2 corresponding to at least one port set in the port sets is N g2 The second-level weight W2 corresponding to at least one port set in the port sets is the same.

[0316] In Example 2, for each port set, the port set can be used to transmit one or more reference signals. Multiple pieces of channel information transmitted by a terminal device can correspond to the same port set. For each port set, the multiple pieces of channel information corresponding to the port set can correspond to the same first-level weight W1 and the same second-level weight W2.

[0317] In Example 2, in another possible implementation, for two port sets, the two port sets can be used to send one or more reference signals. The two port sets can correspond to one or more channel information. When two port sets correspond to two channel information, the two channel information corresponding to the two port sets can correspond to different first-level weights W1 and different second-level weights W2. For example, W1(g,k)=W1(g), W2(g,k)=W2(g), where W1(g) can be understood as the first-level weight corresponding to all channel information corresponding to port set #g, and W2(g) can be understood as the second-level weight corresponding to all channel information corresponding to port set #g.

[0318] For example, multiple first-level weights W1 corresponding to the first port set are the same, multiple second-level weights W2 corresponding to the first port set are the same, at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the second port set, and at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the second port set.

[0319] Example three: For each port set, the port set can be used to send one or more reference signals. The multiple channel information sent by the terminal device can correspond to the same port set. For each port set, the multiple channel information corresponding to the port set can correspond to the same first-level weight W1 and different second-level weights W2. For example, W1(g,k)=W1(k), W1(k) can be understood as the first-level weight corresponding to all channel information corresponding to resource #k of the reference signal.

[0320] In Example 3, in another possible implementation, for two port sets, the two port sets can be used to send one or more reference signals. The two port sets can correspond to one or more channel information. When two port sets correspond to two channel information, the two channel information corresponding to the two port sets can correspond to different first-level weights W1 and different second-level weights W2. For example, W1(g,k)=W1(g), W2(g,k)=W2(g), where W1(g) can be understood as the first-level weight corresponding to all channel information corresponding to port set #g, and W2(g) can be understood as the second-level weight corresponding to all channel information corresponding to port set #g.

[0321] For example, multiple first-level weights W1 corresponding to the first port set are the same, at least two second-level weights W2 corresponding to the first port set are different, at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one first-level weight W1 corresponding to the second port set, and at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the first port set is different from at least one second-level weight W2 corresponding to the second port set.

[0322] In another possible implementation, the channel information in the embodiment of the present application may include multiple transmission modes. In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may first determine the transmission mode corresponding to the channel information before sending the feedback information, and then send the channel information according to the determined transmission mode.

[0323] For example, the channel information transmission method in the embodiment of the present application may include a first transmission method and a second transmission method.

[0324] In the first transmission mode, the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device can be determined based on the number (e.g., the total number) of antenna ports corresponding to the reference signal resources corresponding to the channel information. If the channel information corresponds to multiple port sets, the multiple port sets can adopt the same codebook and codebook parameters. The codebook parameters of a port set may include, for example, at least one of the number of antenna ports in the port set, the non-zero element ratio, the basis selection ratio, and the basis number (e.g., the number of frequency domain basis).

[0325] For example, for different reference signal resources and / or different port sets, the codebook parameters corresponding to these reference signal resources or port sets (e.g., at least one of the non-zero element ratio, the number of bases, and the base selection ratio) can be the same, or it can be understood that the corresponding N3(g, k) can be the same (for relevant content of N3(g, k), refer to the relevant description of the aforementioned formula (3)). In another possible implementation, for different reference signal resources and / or different port sets, the number of antenna ports corresponding to these reference signal resources or port sets can be the same.

[0326] In the second transmission mode, the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device can be determined based on the number of antenna ports in each port set corresponding to the channel information. For example, the codebook parameters of a port set have a certain relationship with the number of antenna ports in the port set, such as a positive proportional relationship. If the channel information corresponds to multiple port sets, the codebooks corresponding to at least two port sets may be different; and / or the codebook parameters corresponding to at least two port sets may be different. The codebook parameters of a port set may, for example, include at least one of the number of antenna ports in the port set, the non-zero element ratio, the basis selection ratio, and the number of basis (e.g., the number of frequency domain basis). For example, the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the first port set; the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set include: at least one of the number of antenna ports in the first port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the first port set, the basis selection ratio, and the number of basis. The codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the second port set. The codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set include: at least one of the number of antenna ports in the second port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the second port set, the basis selection ratio and the basis number corresponding to the second port set.

[0327] In an implementation example, in Release 16 (R16), when the codebook corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device is based on a DFT codebook, the corresponding codebook parameter combination configuration (paramCombination) is as shown in Table 2 below. In Table 2, L is the number of bases selected for each polarization, p is the number of bases selected for each polarization, and v The scale is chosen for each IDFT basis, β is the proportion of non-zero elements, and υ is the rank.

[0328] Table 2

[0329] In another implementation example, in R16, when the codebook corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device is a codebook based on port selection, the corresponding codebook parameter combination configuration is as shown in Table 3. In Table 3, L is the number of bases p selected for each polarization. v The scale is chosen for each IDFT basis, β is the proportion of non-zero elements, and υ is the rank.

[0330] Table 3

[0331] In the example of the present application, the terminal device can flexibly select the first transmission mode and the second transmission mode. In one possible implementation, the terminal device can select the transmission mode based on the content of the channel information. The following two examples introduce two possible selection schemes of the transmission mode. In the embodiment of the present application, the first transmission mode may also be referred to as the first feedback mode, and the second transmission mode may also be referred to as the second feedback mode. The transmission mode corresponding to the channel information in the embodiment of the present application is mainly associated with the selection of the codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information.

[0332] Example 1: If the channel information fed back by the terminal device corresponds to the same reference signal resource, and the channel information is obtained by measuring a reference signal sent through one or more port sets, in this case, the terminal device can adopt the first sending method.

[0333] In a possible implementation, in addition to the cases where the first sending mode is selected as described in Example 1, in other cases, the terminal device may adopt the second sending mode.

[0334] For example, the channel information fed back by the terminal device corresponds to the resources of multiple reference signals (for example, the channel information fed back by the terminal device), that is, the channel information is obtained by measuring multiple reference signals. In this case, the terminal device can adopt a second transmission method. In this embodiment, the channel information corresponds to multiple port sets, and the codebook and codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device can be determined based on the number of antenna ports in each port set. For example, the codebook corresponding to the first port set and the codebook corresponding to the second port set are different; and / or, the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set and the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are the same. In another possible embodiment, the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set and the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set may also be different.

[0335] Figure 12 exemplarily illustrates a possible schematic diagram of a port set on the network device side provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 12, the network device transmits the same reference signal, such as CSI-RS#0, through port set #0 and port set #1. Port set #0 and port set #1 correspond to beam B#0. The terminal device performs measurements based on the CSI-RS#0 transmitted by port set #0 and port set #1 to obtain CRI#0. The terminal device feeds back CRI#0. Since CRI#0 comes from the same reference signal, the transmission mode corresponding to CRI#0 is the first transmission mode. For example, the codebook corresponding to CRI#0 is a DFT codebook, and the dimension of the first-level weight W1 corresponding to CRI#0 can be expressed as 2(Q1+Q2)*2L, where L is the number of bases selected for each polarization, Q1 can be understood as the number of antenna ports in port set #0, and Q2 can be understood as the number of antenna ports in port set #1. In the embodiment of the present application, Q1 can be a positive integer, and Q2 can be a positive integer.

[0336] Example 2: If the channel information fed back by the terminal device corresponds to the resources of the same reference signal, the channel information is obtained by measuring a reference signal sent through multiple port sets, and the spatial relationship of the reference signal resources corresponding to the multiple port sets is the same, in this case, the terminal device can adopt the first sending method.

[0337] In Example 2, in another possible implementation, if the channel information fed back by the terminal device corresponds to multiple reference signal resources of the same analog beam, or multiple reference signal resources with the same spatial relationship, in this case, the terminal device can adopt the first sending method.

[0338] In a possible implementation, in addition to the cases where the first sending mode is selected as described in Example 2, in other cases, the terminal device may adopt the second sending mode.

[0339] For example, the channel information fed back by the terminal device corresponds to the resources of multiple reference signals (for example, the channel information fed back by the terminal device), that is, the channel information is obtained by measuring multiple reference signals. In this case, the terminal device can adopt a second transmission method. In this embodiment, the channel information corresponds to multiple port sets, and the codebook and codebook parameters corresponding to the channel information fed back by the terminal device can be determined based on the number of antenna ports in each port set. For example, the codebook corresponding to the first port set and the codebook corresponding to the second port set are different; and / or, the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set and the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are the same. In another possible embodiment, the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set and the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set may also be different.

[0340] Figure 13 exemplarily shows a possible schematic diagram of the port set on the network device side provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 13, the network device sends CSI-RS#0 through port set #0, and port set #0 corresponds to beam B#0. The network device sends CSI-RS#1 through port set #1, and port set #1 corresponds to beam B#1. The terminal device performs measurement based on the CSI-RS#0 sent by port set #0 and obtains CRI#0. The terminal device performs measurement based on the CSI-RS#1 sent by port set #1 and obtains CRI#1. The terminal device feeds back the channel information corresponding to CRI#0 and CRI#1. Since the channel information corresponding to CRI#0 and CRI#1 comes from two reference signals, the sending mode corresponding to the channel information corresponding to CRI#0 and CRI#1 is the second sending mode. In this case, the codebook corresponding to CRI#0 can be a DFT codebook, and the dimension of the first-level weight W1 corresponding to CRI#0 can be 2Q1*2L1. The codebook corresponding to CRI#1 can be a DFT codebook, and the dimension of the first-level weight W1 corresponding to CRI#1 can be 2Q2*2L2. L1 is the number of bases selected for each polarization corresponding to port set #0, L2 is the number of bases selected for each polarization corresponding to port set #1, Q1 can be understood as the number of antenna ports in port set #0, and Q2 can be understood as the number of antenna ports in port set #1. The two DFT codebooks corresponding to CRI#0 and CRI#1 can be different.

[0341] Based on the solution provided in FIG. 7 , it can be seen that, in the solution provided by the embodiments of the present application, the network device can reduce the number of reference signals, and thus reduce the resources allocated for these reference signals. In this case, the terminal device can also provide feedback on a larger amount of channel information. For example, the terminal device can provide feedback on the channel information corresponding to the resources of multiple reference signals. This solution can further reduce resource overhead.

[0342] The method provided in the embodiment of the present application can avoid configuring too many resource sets and corresponding reporting configurations, support flexible and dynamic measurement methods, and especially realize dynamic shared measurement at a relatively low cost in multi-user scenarios.

[0343] Based on the embodiments shown in Figures 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 5, 6, 7, 8A, 8B, 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13, Figure 14 exemplarily shows a possible flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The scheme provided in Figure 14 can be regarded as an extended embodiment of the scheme provided in Figure 6. The embodiment provided in Figure 14 is similar to the embodiment provided in Figure 7, with the difference that: Figure 7 is introduced as an example of a network device sending a downlink reference signal and a terminal device sending channel information to the network device, while Figure 14 is introduced as an example of a terminal device sending an uplink reference signal and a network device obtaining channel information based on the reference signal. In the example of Figure 14, the second device is a terminal device and the first device is a network device. In the scheme provided in Figure 14, the terminal device can also be replaced by the second device, and the network device can also be replaced by the first device. The description of the terminal device and the network device in Figure 14 can refer to the description of Figure 6 above and will not be repeated.

[0344] The following is an introduction with reference to FIG14 .

[0345] Step 1401: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0346] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information.

[0347] For example, in step 1401, the network device may configure channel information measurement configuration information (information A1) to the terminal device. For example, the network device may configure uplink reference signal resources for the terminal device and may also configure port sets for transmitting uplink reference signals, which may be port sets on the terminal device side. Alternatively, the terminal device may determine the port sets for transmitting these uplink reference signals, such as determining the port sets corresponding to each reference signal.

[0348] Step 1401 can refer to the aforementioned step 701. The difference is that the reference signal resources configured by the configuration information belong to uplink reference signal resources, while the reference signal resources configured by the configuration information in the aforementioned step 701 can be understood as downlink reference signal resources. The relevant content of this step can be referred to the aforementioned description and will not be repeated here.

[0349] Step 1402: The terminal device sends at least one reference signal.

[0350] Correspondingly, the network device receives at least one reference signal.

[0351] In step 1402, the at least one reference signal sent by the terminal device can be understood as an uplink reference signal. The uplink reference signal is similar to the downlink reference signal in step 702. The terminal device can also send an uplink reference signal through one or more port sets. For examples of uplink reference signals, please refer to the relevant description above.

[0352] For step 1402 , reference may be made to the relevant contents of the aforementioned step 702 , for example, the terminal device may time-share various reference signals.

[0353] Step 1403: The network device measures the reference signal to obtain channel information.

[0354] The manner in which the network device acquires channel information in step 1403 may refer to the manner in which the terminal device acquires channel information in step 703. For example, the network device may measure the same reference signal from one or more port sets to obtain channel information. Alternatively, the network device may acquire channel information corresponding to resources of multiple reference signals. For example, the network device may determine channel information based on resources of a first reference signal corresponding to a first port set and resources of a second reference signal corresponding to a second port set. For related details, please refer to the previous description and will not be repeated here.

[0355] In the embodiment of the present application, after the network device obtains the channel information, it may also send the channel information to the terminal device so that the terminal device obtains the uplink channel information.

[0356] Based on the solution provided in FIG. 14 above, it can be seen that in the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device side can also reduce the number of reference signals, thereby reducing the resources allocated for the reference signals, and further reducing the resource overhead.

[0357] The method provided by the embodiments of the present application, such as the solutions provided in Figures 6, 7, and 14, can avoid configuring too many resource sets and corresponding reporting configurations, support flexible and dynamic measurement methods, and especially in multi-user scenarios, achieve dynamic shared measurement at a relatively low cost.

[0358] It is understandable that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the first device and the second device may include hardware structures and / or software modules that perform the corresponding functions. Those skilled in the art should readily appreciate that, in combination with the units and method steps of the various examples described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, this application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in hardware or in a manner driven by computer software depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0359] Based on the same concept, Figures 15 and 16 are schematic diagrams of the structures of possible communication devices provided in the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the first device or the second device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be a terminal device as shown in Figure 2 or Figure 3, or a network device (such as a RAN node) as shown in Figure 2 or Figure 3, or a chip system applied to the terminal device or network device shown in Figure 2 or Figure 3.

[0360] As shown in Figure 15, communication device 1300 includes a processing unit 1310 and a transceiver unit 1320. Communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the first device or the second device in the method embodiments shown in Figures 6, 7, or 14. Transceiver unit 1320 may also be referred to as a communication unit. Transceiver unit 1320 may include a transmitting unit and a receiving unit.

[0361] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the first device or the second device in the method embodiment shown in FIG6 , the transceiver unit 1320 may perform steps 601 and 602 above. When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the first device (e.g., a terminal device) in the method embodiment shown in FIG7 , the processing unit 1310 may perform step 703 above, and the transceiver unit 1320 may perform steps 701, 702, and 704 above. When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the second device (e.g., a network device) in the method embodiment shown in FIG7 , the transceiver unit 1320 may perform steps 701, 702, and 704 above. When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the first device (e.g., a network device) in the method embodiment shown in FIG14 , the processing unit 1310 may perform step 1403 above, and the transceiver unit 1320 may perform steps 1401 and 1402 above. When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the second device (eg, terminal device) in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 14 , the transceiver unit 1320 may perform the above steps 1401 and 1402 .

[0362] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first device in the method embodiment shown in FIG6 , FIG7 or FIG14 , in one possible implementation, the receiving unit is used to receive the first reference signal and the second reference signal, and the sending unit is used to send channel information.

[0363] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figure 14, in one possible implementation, the processing unit 1310 is used to: obtain first channel information based on the first reference signal and the resources corresponding to the first port set; obtain second channel information based on the second reference signal and the resources corresponding to the second port set; and determine channel information based on the first channel information and the second channel information.

[0364] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figure 14, in one possible implementation, the processing unit 1310 is used to: determine a combining coefficient; and combine the first channel information and the second channel information based on the combining coefficient to obtain channel information.

[0365] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , FIG. 7 or FIG. 14 , in one possible implementation, the receiving unit is used to receive configuration information, or the sending unit is used to send configuration information.

[0366] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , FIG. 7 or FIG. 14 , in a possible implementation manner, the sending unit is used to send the channel information based on the configuration information.

[0367] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the first device in the method embodiment shown in Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figure 14, in one possible implementation, the processing unit 1310 is used to: determine the sending mode corresponding to the channel information; and the sending unit is used to send the channel information according to the sending mode.

[0368] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the second device in the method embodiment shown in FIG6 , FIG7 or FIG14 , in one possible implementation, the sending unit is used to send the first reference signal and the second reference signal, and the receiving unit is used to receive channel information.

[0369] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the second device in the method embodiment shown in FIG6 , FIG7 or FIG14 , in one possible implementation, the receiving unit is used to receive configuration information. Alternatively, the sending unit is used to send configuration information.

[0370] For a more detailed description of the processing unit 1310 and the transceiver unit 1320 , please refer to the relevant description in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , FIG. 7 or FIG. 14 .

[0371] As shown in Figure 16, the communication device 1400 includes a processor 1410 and an interface circuit 1420. The processor 1410 and the interface circuit 1420 are coupled to each other. It is understandable that the interface circuit 1420 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. The transceiver includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter can be used to send information, the receiver can be used to receive information, and other functions can be implemented by the processor. The input / output interface is used to input and / or output information. Output can be understood as sending, and input can be understood as receiving. Other functions can be implemented by the processor. Optionally, the communication device 1400 may also include a memory 1430 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1410 or storing input data required by the processor 1410 to execute instructions or storing data generated after the processor 1410 executes instructions.

[0372] When the communication device 1400 is used to implement the method shown in Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figure 14, the processor 1410 is used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned processing unit 1310, and the interface circuit 1420 is used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned transceiver unit 1320.

[0373] When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above-mentioned method embodiment. When the terminal chip receives information from the base station, it can be understood that the information is first received by other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal chip by these modules. When the terminal chip sends information to the base station, it can be understood that the information is first sent to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the base station by these modules.

[0374] When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a base station, the base station chip implements the functions of the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment. When the base station chip receives information from the terminal, it can be understood that the information is first received by other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the base station chip by these modules. When the base station chip sends information to the terminal, it can be understood that the information is sent to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal by these modules.

[0375] In this application, when entity A sends information to entity B, it can be done directly from A to B or indirectly through another entity. Similarly, when entity B receives information from entity A, it can be done directly from entity B or indirectly through another entity. Entities A and B herein can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules within a RAN node or terminal. The sending and receiving of information can be information exchange between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between two RAN nodes, for example, between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between different modules within a device, for example, between a terminal chip and other modules in the terminal, or between a base station chip and other modules within the base station.

[0376] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0377] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions that can be executed by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, registers, hard disks, mobile hard disks, compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also be present in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

[0378] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented using 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. A computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions of the embodiments of the present application are performed. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer program or instructions may be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available media may be magnetic media, such as floppy disks, hard disks, or magnetic tapes; optical media, such as digital video disks; or semiconductor media, such as solid-state drives. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

[0379] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or there is a logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced by each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

[0380] In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In the text description of this application, the character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formula of this application, the character " / " indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in a "division" relationship. "Including at least one of A, B and C" can mean: including A; including B; including C; including A and B; including A and C; including B and C; including A, B and C.

[0381] It is understood that the various numbers involved in the embodiments of this application (such as the numerical numbers "first" and "second", and the letter numbers "A1, A2", "B1, B2", etc.) are only for the convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The order of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applicable to a first device, and the method includes: Receiving a first reference signal and a second reference signal, where the first reference signal corresponds to a first set of ports, the second reference signal corresponds to a second set of ports, the first set of ports includes at least one antenna port, and the second set of ports includes at least one antenna port; Sending channel information, where the channel information is determined based on the first reference signal sent by the first set of ports and the second reference signal sent by the second set of ports.

2. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applicable to a second device, and the method includes: Sending a first reference signal and a second reference signal, where the first reference signal corresponds to a first set of ports, the second reference signal corresponds to a second set of ports, the first set of ports includes at least one antenna port, and the second set of ports includes at least one antenna port; Receiving channel information, where the channel information is determined based on the first reference signal sent by the first set of ports and the second reference signal sent by the second set of ports.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The channel information is determined based on first channel information and second channel information. The first channel information is based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first set of ports, and the second channel information is based on the second reference signal corresponding to the second set of ports.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein The channel information is further determined based on a combining coefficient, where the combining coefficient is determined based on the first reference signal corresponding to the first set of ports and the second reference signal corresponding to the second set of ports.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that: The first port set belongs to N g1 port sets, where N g1 is a positive integer, and the first reference signal also corresponds to the N g1 port sets; The second port set belongs to N g2 port sets, where N g2 is a positive integer, and the second reference signal also corresponds to the N g2 port sets.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, Before sending the channel information, it further includes: Receiving or sending configuration information, where the configuration information includes at least one of the following: Indication information of the first reference signal; Indication information of the first set of ports; Indication information of the second reference signal; Indication information of the second set of ports.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein The indication information of the first set of ports includes at least one of the following: index information of the antenna ports in the first set of ports, index information of the first set of ports, index information of the starting antenna port in the first set of ports, quantity information of the antenna ports included in the first set of ports, and index information of the ending antenna port in the first set of ports; The indication information of the second set of ports includes at least one of the following: index information of the antenna ports in the second set of ports; index information of the second set of ports, index information of the starting antenna port in the second set of ports, quantity information of the antenna ports included in the second set of ports, and index information of the ending antenna port in the second set of ports.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1-7, characterized in that, The sending manner of the channel information is associated with the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information; or, The sending manner of the channel information is associated with: the number of reference signals corresponding to the channel information, and the spatial relationship of the reference signals corresponding to the channel information.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1-8, characterized in that, The codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the first port set; the codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set include at least one of the number of antenna ports in the first port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the first port set, the basis selection ratio corresponding to the first port set, and the number of bases corresponding to the first port set; The codebook and / or codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set are determined based on the number of antenna ports in the second port set; the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set include at least one of the number of antenna ports in the second port set, the non-zero element ratio corresponding to the second port set, the basis selection ratio corresponding to the second port set, and the number of bases corresponding to the second port set.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1-9, characterized in that, The codebook corresponding to the first port set is different from the codebook corresponding to the second port set; and / or, The codebook parameters corresponding to the first port set are the same as the codebook parameters corresponding to the second port set.

11. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

12. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes a processor, and the processor realizes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 through logic circuits or by executing computer programs or instructions.

13. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, Computer programs or instructions are stored in the storage medium, and when the computer programs or instructions are executed by the communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 is realized.

Images