Communication method and communication apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and a communication apparatus, capable of reflecting spatial domain information, in a terminal device, of a channel between a plurality of network devices and the terminal device. The method comprises: a terminal device receives reference signals from a plurality of network devices, wherein the plurality of network devices include a first network device, and the first network device is a network device that establishes a radio resource control (RRC) protocol connection with the terminal device; the terminal device sends first information to the first network device, wherein the first information is obtained on the basis of measurement results of the reference signals of the plurality of network devices, and the first information indicates spatial domain information, in the terminal device, of a channel between the plurality of network devices and the terminal device.

Description

Communication method and communication device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on March 21, 2024, with application number 202410345030.X and application name “A Communication Method and Communication Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a communication method and a communication device. Background Art

[0003] In terrestrial cellular mobile communication systems, multi-base station collaboration can significantly improve the data rate performance of cell-edge users. This technology, also known as coordinated multi-point (CoMP), involves joint transmission. In Joint Transmission (JT), multiple base stations are allowed to transmit useful signals to terminal devices. Two transmission modes are used: coherent JT (CJT) and non-coherent JT (NCJT). In CJT, multiple base stations transmit the same useful signal to terminal devices, achieving optimal system performance. However, this requires ideal backhaul between base stations, making system implementation more challenging. In NCJT, multiple base stations transmit different useful signals to terminal devices, allowing for non-ideal backhaul between base stations. This reduces system implementation complexity but results in a certain performance loss compared to CJT. In satellite communications, ideal backhaul between satellites is difficult to ensure due to the long distances between satellites, making CJT more challenging to implement. Compared to CJT, NCJT relaxes the requirement for ideal backhaul between satellites, making it easier to implement in practical systems.

[0004] The transmission rate of multi-satellite NCJT depends on the channel from the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port of each satellite in the selected service satellite set to the terminal device. The channel from one DMRS port of the satellite to the terminal device can be derived through the channels from multiple CSI-RS ports of the satellite to the terminal device, that is, the channel matrix. Specifically, the satellite sends a CSI-RS to the terminal device, and the terminal device estimates the channel information of the multiple CSI-RS ports of the satellite based on the received CSI-RS, and feeds it back to the satellite in the form of a precoding matrix indicator (PMI). However, the PMI is for the directional information of the channel between the satellite and the terminal device observed from the perspective of multiple CSI-RS ports on the satellite side, and cannot reflect the directional information of the channel between the satellite and the terminal device observed from the perspective of multiple antennas on the terminal side. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and a communication device that can reflect the spatial information of channels between multiple network devices and terminal devices in the terminal device.

[0006] To achieve the above objectives, this application adopts the following technical solutions:

[0007] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided. The method is applicable to a terminal device side and can be executed, for example, by the terminal device, or by a component of the terminal device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the terminal device, or by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the terminal device functions. Taking the method as an example where the method can be executed by the terminal device, the method includes: the terminal device receiving reference signals from multiple network devices, the multiple network devices including a first network device, the first network device being a network device that establishes a Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol connection with the terminal device; and the terminal device sending first information to the first network device, wherein the first information is obtained based on measurement results of the reference signals of the multiple network devices, and the first information indicates spatial information of channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device.

[0008] In a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, a terminal device receives reference signals from multiple network devices and sends first information to a first network device, wherein the first information is obtained based on measurement results of the reference signals of the multiple network devices, and the first information indicates spatial information of channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device. The terminal device can obtain the first information through the measurement results of the reference signals of the multiple network devices and feed back the first information to the first network device, so that the first network device obtains the spatial information of the channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device.

[0009] In this embodiment of the present application, the spatial information includes directional information of a first vector, where the dimension of the first vector is equal to the number of antennas of the terminal device. This solution allows the terminal device to send first information reflecting the directional information of the first vector to the first network device, allowing the first network device to obtain spatial information of the channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device at the terminal device.

[0010] Optionally, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application further includes: the terminal device determining the first information based on the channel information and oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the multiple network devices. This solution enables the terminal device to determine the first information based on the channel information and oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the multiple network devices.

[0011] Optionally, the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the terminal device receiving first configuration information from the first network device, the first configuration information including an oversampling factor. In this solution, the first network device configures the oversampling factor for the terminal device, so that the terminal device determines the first information based on the oversampling factor in the first configuration information.

[0012] In the embodiment of the present application, the field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in the report configuration message.

[0013] In one possible implementation, a terminal device sends first information to a first network device, including: in response to first indication information from the first network device, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device; wherein the first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information. In this solution, the terminal device reports the first information to the first network device under the instruction of the first network device, so that the terminal device reports the first information to the first network device based on the first indication information. This can reduce signaling overhead and resource waste caused by unnecessary information reporting by the terminal device, and can also achieve more flexible control of the first network device.

[0014] In an embodiment of the present application, the reporting type of the first information includes at least one of the following: periodic reporting, non-periodic reporting, or semi-persistent reporting.

[0015] In another possible implementation, sending the first information to the first network device includes: when the first condition is met, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device, and the first condition includes: the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold; and / or, when the second condition is met, the terminal device stops sending the first information to the first network device, and the second condition includes: the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold. The first gain is the gain of the non-coherent joint transmission NCJT of multiple network devices determined by the terminal device compared to the transmission of a single network device. In this solution, the terminal device actively sends the first information to the first network device when the first condition is met, or the terminal device actively stops sending the first information to the first network device when the second condition is met, which can save the overhead of indication signaling.

[0016] The communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application also includes: the terminal device sends second information to the first network device, and the second information includes at least one of the following: the reference signal receiving power of multiple network devices, or the channel quality indication CQI of multiple network devices.

[0017] In an embodiment of the present application, the reference signal includes at least one of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a demodulation reference signal DMRS, or a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

[0018] The communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the terminal device sending third information to the first network device, where the third information indicates an offset of the first information. This solution enables the terminal device to report the offset of the first information to the first network device, and the terminal device reporting the offset of the first information can save signaling overhead.

[0019] In one possible implementation, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device includes: in response to second instruction information from the first network device, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device; wherein the second instruction information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the third information. In this solution, the terminal device sends the third information to the first network device in accordance with the instruction of the second instruction information, which can reduce the signaling overhead and resource waste caused by unnecessary information reporting by the terminal device and also achieve more flexible control of the first network device.

[0020] In another possible implementation, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device includes: if a first condition is met, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device; and / or if a second condition is met, the terminal device ceasing to send the third information to the first network device. In this solution, the terminal device proactively sends the third information to the first network device if the first condition is met, or proactively ceasing to send the third information to the first network device if the second condition is met, thereby saving the overhead of the indication information.

[0021] The communication method provided in this embodiment of the present application further includes: the terminal device receiving third indication information from the first network device, where the third indication information is used to indicate multiple network devices corresponding to reference signals measured by the terminal device. This solution can cause the terminal device to measure the reference signals of the multiple network devices indicated by the third indication information in accordance with the indication of the third indication information.

[0022] In the second aspect, a communication method is provided, which is applicable to the first network device side. For example, it can be executed by the first network device, or by a component of the first network device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the first network device, or by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the first network device. Taking the method that can be executed by the first network device as an example, the method includes: the first network device receives first information, the first information indicates the spatial information of the channel between multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device, the multiple network devices are used to send reference signals, the multiple network devices include the first network device, the first network device is a network device that establishes a radio resource control protocol RRC connection with the terminal device, wherein the first information is obtained based on the measurement results of the reference signals of the multiple network devices; the first network device determines, from the multiple network devices based on the first information, a set of network devices that provide non-coherent joint transmission (NCJT) services for the terminal device.

[0023] The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is that a first network device receives first information from a terminal device indicating the airspace information of channels between multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device, so that the first network device can determine the set of network devices that provide NCJT services to the terminal device based on the first information, thereby improving the performance of NCJT.

[0024] In this embodiment of the present application, the spatial information includes directional information of a first vector, where the dimension of the first vector is equal to the number of antennas of the terminal device. This solution allows the first network device to obtain first information reflecting the directional information of the first vector, thereby allowing the first network device to obtain spatial information of the channels between multiple network devices and the terminal device at the terminal device.

[0025] The communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: a first network device sending first configuration information to a terminal device, the first configuration information including an oversampling factor. In this solution, the first network device configures the oversampling factor for the terminal device, so that the terminal device determines the first information based on the oversampling factor in the first configuration information.

[0026] In the embodiment of the present application, the field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in the report configuration message.

[0027] The communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: a first network device sending first instruction information to a terminal device, the first instruction information being used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information. In this solution, the first network device instructs the terminal device to report the first information to the first network device, so that the terminal device reports the first information to the first network device based on the first instruction information. This can reduce signaling overhead and resource waste caused by unnecessary information reporting by the terminal device, and can also achieve more flexible control of the first network device.

[0028] In an embodiment of the present application, the reporting type of the first information includes at least one of the following: periodic reporting, non-periodic reporting, or semi-persistent reporting.

[0029] The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application also includes: the first network device receives second information from the terminal device, and the second information includes at least one of the following: the reference signal receiving power of multiple network devices, or the channel quality indication CQI of multiple network devices.

[0030] In an embodiment of the present application, the reference signal includes at least one of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a demodulation reference signal DMRS, or a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

[0031] The communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the first network device receiving third information from the terminal device, where the third information indicates an offset of the first information. This solution allows the first network device to obtain the offset of the first information, and the terminal device to report the offset of the first information, thereby saving signaling overhead.

[0032] The communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the first network device sending second instruction information to the terminal device, where the second instruction information is used to instruct the terminal device to report third information. This solution allows the first network device to instruct the terminal device to send the third information, reduces signaling overhead and resource waste caused by unnecessary information reporting by the terminal device, and enables more flexible control of the first network device.

[0033] The communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the first network device sending third indication information to the terminal device, where the third indication information is used to indicate multiple network devices corresponding to the reference signal measured by the terminal device. This solution allows the first network device to indicate to the terminal device the multiple network devices for which the terminal device is to measure the reference signal.

[0034] In a third aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods described above. The communication device may be the terminal device described in the first aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip; or the communication device may be the first network device described in the second aspect, or a device included in the first network device, such as a chip.

[0035] The communication device includes modules, units, or means corresponding to the above-mentioned methods. The modules, units, or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above-mentioned functions.

[0036] In some possible designs, the communication device may include a processing module and a communication module. The communication module may include an output module (or a sending module) and an input module (or a receiving module), respectively configured to implement the output (or sending) and input (or receiving) functions of any of the above aspects and any possible designs thereof. The processing module may be configured to implement the processing functions of any of the above aspects and any possible designs thereof.

[0037] Optionally, the communication device further includes a storage module for storing program instructions and data.

[0038] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: at least one processor configured to execute a computer program or instruction, or to cause the communication device to perform any of the methods described above through logic circuitry. The communication device may be the terminal device described in the first aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip; or the communication device may be the first network device described in the second aspect, or a device included in the first network device, such as a chip.

[0039] In some possible designs, the communication device further includes a memory for storing computer instructions and / or configuration files of logic circuits. Optionally, the memory is integrated with the processor, or the memory is independent of the processor.

[0040] In one possible design, the communication device further includes a communication interface for inputting and / or outputting signals.

[0041] In some possible designs, the communication interface is an interface circuit for reading and writing computer instructions. For example, the interface circuit is used to receive computer execution instructions (computer execution instructions are stored in a memory, may be read directly from the memory, or may pass through other devices) and transmit them to the processor.

[0042] In some possible designs, the communication interface is used to communicate with modules outside the communication device.

[0043] In some possible designs, the communication device may be a chip system. When the communication device is a chip system, the chip system may include a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0044] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a logic circuit and an interface circuit; the interface circuit is configured to input and / or output information; and the logic circuit is configured to execute the method of any of the above aspects, processing the input information and / or generating output information. The communication device may be the terminal device described in the first aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip; or the communication device may be the first network device described in the second aspect, or a device included in the first network device, such as a chip.

[0045] It can be understood that when the communication device provided in any one of the third to fifth aspects is a chip, the above-mentioned sending action / function can be understood as output information, and the above-mentioned receiving action / function can be understood as input information.

[0046] In a sixth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a processor, the method of any of the above aspects is executed.

[0047] In a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided, which, when executed by a processor, enables the method of any of the above aspects to be executed.

[0048] In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes a module / unit for executing the method of the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0049] In a ninth aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising the terminal device described in the first aspect and the first network device described in the second aspect. The terminal device and the first network device can be implemented as the communication apparatus provided in any one of the third to fifth aspects.

[0050] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design method in the third to ninth aspects can refer to the technical effects brought about by different design methods in the above-mentioned first or second aspects, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0051] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a communication device 200 provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of an example of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device provided with a uniform planar antenna array according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] FIG5 shows all possible vectors in the vector codebook provided by the embodiment of the present application. Schematic diagram of the arrangement in the beam domain;

[0056] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0057] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, " / " indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship, for example, A / B can represent A or B; "and / or" in this application is merely a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist, for example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural.

[0058] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "plurality" means two or more than two. "At least one of the following items" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b and / or c can be represented by: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, or abc, where a, b, c can be single or plural.

[0059] In addition, to facilitate the clear description of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first" and "second" are used to distinguish between identical or similar items with substantially the same functions and effects. Those skilled in the art will understand that the words "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity or execution order, and the words "first" and "second" do not necessarily mean different.

[0060] In the embodiments of this application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in the embodiments of this application should not be construed as being preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete manner to facilitate understanding.

[0061] It will be understood that the “embodiment” mentioned throughout the specification means that the specific features, structures or characteristics related to the embodiment are included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, the various embodiments throughout the specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, these specific features, structures or characteristics can be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner. It will be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence number of each process does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiment of the present application.

[0062] It can be understood that in this application, "when" and "if" both mean that corresponding processing will be taken under certain objective circumstances, and do not limit the time, nor do they require any judgment action when implementing, nor do they mean that there are other limitations.

[0063] It is understood that some optional features in the embodiments of the present application may, in certain scenarios, be implemented independently of other features, such as the solution on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding effects. They may also be combined with other features in certain scenarios as needed. Accordingly, the devices provided in the embodiments of the present application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which will not be described in detail here.

[0064] In this application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can refer to each other. In the various embodiments of this application, unless otherwise specified and there is no logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other, and the technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments based on their inherent logical relationships. The following description of the embodiments of this application does not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of this application.

[0065] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1 , the communication system includes a terminal device and multiple network devices. The multiple network devices include a first network device, which is a network device that establishes an RRC connection with the terminal device. It should be noted that Figure 1 uses three network devices as an example.

[0066] In an embodiment of the present application, a plurality of network devices are configured to send a reference signal to a terminal device. The terminal device is configured to send first information to a first network device. The first network device is configured to receive the first information from the terminal device.

[0067] In an embodiment of the present application, the first information is obtained based on measurement results of reference signals of multiple network devices, and the first information indicates spatial domain information of channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device.

[0068] Optionally, the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to the fourth generation mobile communication technology (4G) system, the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) system, the non-terrestrial network (NTN) system, vehicle to everything (V2X), long-term evolution - vehicle network (LTE-vehicle, LTE-V), vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle network, machine type communication (MTC), Internet of things (IoT), long-term evolution - machine to machine (LTE-machine to machine, LTE-M), machine to machine (M2M), Internet of Things, or future mobile communication systems such as future mobile communication technologies, etc., and the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

[0069] When the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is applied to an NTN system, the NTN system includes satellites, terminal devices, and gateways (GWs). The link between the satellite and the terminal device is called a user link, and the link between the satellite and the GW is called a feeder link. Satellites operate in two modes: transparent and regenerative. When the satellite operates in transparent mode, it only has the function of signal forwarding, and the GW has the functions of a network device or part of the functions of a network device. In this case, the GW can be considered a network device. When the satellite operates in regenerative mode, the satellite has the ability to process digital signals and has the functions of a network device or part of the functions of a network device. In this case, the satellite can be considered a network device. In the embodiments of the present application, multiple satellites can collaborate to provide services to terminal devices in overlapping coverage areas. The first network device can be a master satellite, and the other network devices other than the first network device can be other satellites in the NTN system.

[0070] Optionally, the terminal device involved in the present application can be a user equipment (UE), access terminal, terminal unit, user station, terminal station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, user terminal terminal equipment, TE), mobile device, wireless communication device, terminal agent, tablet computer (pad), handheld device with wireless communication function, computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, vehicle-mounted device, vehicle-mounted transceiver unit, wearable device, or terminal device in a 4G network, or a 5G network, or a public land mobile network (PLMN) evolved after 5G. The access terminal can be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a drone, a robot, a smart point of sale (POS) machine, a customer-premises equipment (CPE) or a wearable device, virtual reality (VR) The terminal may be a wireless terminal in an IoT environment, such as a terminal device for virtual reality (VR), a terminal device for augmented reality (AR), a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self-driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical care, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, or a wireless terminal in a smart home. Alternatively, the terminal may be a terminal with communication capabilities in the IoT, such as a terminal in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) (e.g., a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) device), a terminal in device-to-device (D2D) communication, or a terminal in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. The terminal may be mobile or fixed.

[0071] Optionally, the network devices involved in the present application (including multiple network devices including the first network device) include evolved base stations (NodeB or eNB or e-NodeB, evolutionary Node B) in a long term evolution (LTE) system or an enhanced LTE (LTE-advanced, LTE-A) system, such as traditional macro base stations eNB and micro base stations eNB in ​​heterogeneous network scenarios. Alternatively, it may include a next generation node B (gNB) in a new radio (NR) system. Alternatively, it may include a base station in a future 6G system. Alternatively, it may include a transmission reception point (TRP), a home base station (for example, a home evolved NodeB, or a home Node B, HNB), a base band unit (BBU), a base band pool (BBU pool), or a wireless fidelity (WiFi) access point (AP), etc. Alternatively, it may include a base station in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), that is, it may be deployed on an aircraft or satellite. In the NTN, the network device or access device may serve as a layer 1 (L1) relay, or as a base station, or as an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node. Alternatively, the network device in the embodiments of the present application may be a device that implements base station functions in the IoT, such as a device that implements base station functions in drone communications, V2X, D2D, or M2M.

[0072] In some possible scenarios, the network device (including multiple network devices including the first network device) in the embodiment of the present application may also be a module or unit that can implement some functions of the base station. For example, the network device may be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and DU may be set separately or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0073] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, the first network device may be a network device or a module of a network device in an open radio access network (open RAN, ORAN) system. In the ORAN system, CU may also be referred to as open (open, O)-CU, DU may also be referred to as O-DU, CU-CP may also be referred to as O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be referred to as O-CU-UP, and RU may also be referred to as O-RU. Any of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0074] Optionally, the base station in the embodiment of the present application may include various forms of base stations, such as: macro base stations, micro base stations (also called small stations), relay stations, access points, home base stations, transmission and receiving points (TRP), transmitting points (TP), mobile switching centers, etc., and the embodiments of the present application do not make specific limitations on this.

[0075] It should be noted that the communication system described in the embodiment of the present application is intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application. Ordinary technicians in this field can know that with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0076] Optionally, the relevant functions of the network devices (including multiple network devices including the first network device) and terminal devices involved in this application can be implemented by one device, or by multiple devices together, or by one or more functional modules within a device, or by one or more chips, or by a system on chip (SOC) or a chip system. The chip system can be composed of chips, or can include chips and other discrete devices. The embodiments of this application do not specifically limit this.

[0077] It is understandable that the above functions can be network elements in hardware devices, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or a combination of hardware and software, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform).

[0078] For example, the relevant functions of the satellite or terminal device involved in this application can be implemented by the communication device 200 in Figure 2. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device 200 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 200 includes one or more processors 211. The processor 211 can be a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor. For example, it can be a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor can be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit can be used to control the communication device (such as a network device, terminal device, or chip), execute software programs, and process software program data.

[0079] Optionally, in one design, the processor 211 may include a program 213 (sometimes also referred to as code or instructions), which may be executed on the processor 211 so that the communication device 200 performs the method described in the following embodiments.

[0080] Optionally, the communication device 200 may include one or more memories 212 on which a program 214 (sometimes also referred to as code or instructions) is stored. The program 214 can be run on the processor 211, so that the communication device 200 executes the method described in the following method embodiment.

[0081] Optionally, the processor 211 and / or the memory 212 may include artificial intelligence (AI) modules 217 and 218, which are used to implement AI-related functions. The AI ​​module may be implemented through software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, the AI ​​module may include a RAN intelligent controller (RIC) module. For example, the AI ​​module may be a near real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC.

[0082] Optionally, data may be stored in the processor 211 and / or the memory 212. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or integrated together.

[0083] Optionally, the communication device 200 may further include a transceiver 215 and / or an antenna 216. The processor 211, sometimes also referred to as a processing unit, controls the communication device. The transceiver 215, sometimes also referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiver circuit, or transceiver, is configured to implement the transceiver functions of the communication device via the antenna 216.

[0084] Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the processor 211 is a central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a network processor (NP), a digital signal processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable logic device (PLD), or any combination thereof. The processor 211 may also be other devices with processing functions, such as circuits, devices, or software modules, without limitation.

[0085] Optionally, in an embodiment of the present application, the memory 212 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and / or instructions, or a random access memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and / or instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compressed optical discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, etc., without limitation.

[0086] Although not shown, as an optional implementation, the communication device 200 further includes an output device and an input device. For example, the input device is a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, or a joystick, and the output device is a display screen, a speaker, or the like.

[0087] It should be noted that the communication device 200 may be a desktop computer, a portable computer, a network server, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wireless terminal, an embedded device, a chip system, or a device having a structure similar to that shown in FIG2 . Furthermore, the structure shown in FIG2 does not limit the communication device. In addition to the components shown in FIG2 , the communication device may include more or fewer components than shown, or combine certain components, or arrange the components differently.

[0088] In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system can be composed of chips, or can include chips and other discrete devices.

[0089] The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application will be described below in conjunction with the communication system shown in FIG1 above.

[0090] It should be noted that in the following embodiments of the present application, the message names, parameter names, or information names between network elements are only examples. In other embodiments, they may also be other names, and the method provided in the present application does not make specific limitations on this.

[0091] It is understood that in the embodiments of the present application, each network element may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application. These steps or operations are merely examples, and the embodiments of the present application may also perform other operations or variations of various operations. In addition, the steps may be performed in a different order than those presented in the embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all operations in the embodiments of the present application need to be performed.

[0092] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of an example of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method is illustrated by taking the interaction between a network device (including a plurality of network devices including a first network device) and a terminal device as an example. Of course, the subject that executes the network device action in the method can also be a device / module of the network device, such as a chip, processor, or processing unit in the network device; the subject that executes the terminal device action in the method can also be a device / module in the terminal device, such as a chip, processor, or processing unit in the terminal device, etc., and the embodiment of the present application does not make specific limitations on this. Exemplarily, as shown in Figure 3, method 300 includes:

[0093] S310: Multiple network devices send reference signals to a terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the reference signals from the multiple network devices.

[0094] In an embodiment of the present application, the multiple network devices include a first network device, which is a network device that establishes an RRC connection with the terminal device.

[0095] In an embodiment of the present application, the reference signal may be a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block (synchronization signal / PBCH block, SSB), or the reference signal may be a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or the reference signal may be a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), or the reference signal may be other reference signals, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0096] S320: The terminal device sends first information to the first network device. Correspondingly, the first network device receives the first information from the terminal device.

[0097] In an embodiment of the present application, the first information is obtained based on the measurement results of the reference signals of multiple network devices, and the first information indicates the spatial information of the channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device. The spatial information may include the directional information of the first vector, and the dimension of the first vector is equal to the number of antennas of the terminal device. This scheme can enable the terminal device to send the first information reflecting the directional information of the first vector to the first network device, so that the first network device obtains the spatial information of the channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device. Exemplarily, the first vector is a vector composed of the channels between a DMRS port of any one of the multiple network devices and the multiple antennas of the terminal device. For example, if the number of antennas of the terminal device is 4, the first vector is a 4-dimensional vector.

[0098] Optionally, the terminal device involved in the embodiment of the present application may be a multi-antenna terminal device, or a terminal device configured with multiple antennas, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. The multi-antenna can be understood as including at least two antennas.

[0099] Optionally, the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the terminal device determines the first information based on the channel information and oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the multiple network devices. This solution enables the terminal device to determine the first information based on the channel information and oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the multiple network devices. Exemplarily, the channel information can be the channel vectors corresponding to each of the multiple network devices estimated by the terminal device, or the channel information can also be other information, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Exemplarily, the oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the multiple network devices can be the same or different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0100] Exemplarily, the following describes in detail how the terminal device determines the first information based on the channel information and oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the multiple network devices.

[0101] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device configured with a uniform planar antenna array according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4, the terminal device is configured with a uniform planar antenna array (UPA). Assuming that the terminal device UPA is placed in the xoy plane, the angle of arrival (AOA) of the terminal device can be expressed as a two-dimensional array (θ, φ), where θ is the elevation angle and φ is the azimuth angle.

[0102] For a specific AOA, i.e. a two-dimensional array (θ, φ), the array response vector of the terminal device is defined as: d(cosθcosφ, cosθsinφ)

[0103] The dimension of d(cosθcosφ, cosθsinφ) is the number of antennas of the terminal device.

[0104] Assume that the number of antennas of the UPA of the terminal device along the x-axis and y-axis is M respectively. x and M y , the antenna spacing along the x-axis and y-axis is u x and u y , the carrier wavelength is λ, then the array response vector d(cosθcosφ, cosθsinφ) can be expressed as:

[0105] in, represents the Kronecker product, then the array response vector can be specifically expressed as:

[0106] Construct the following vector codebook, which includes all possible vectors

[0107] Then, for a network device i among the multiple network devices, the first information corresponding to the network device i can be determined as:

[0108] Among them, h i represents the channel vector of network device i, is the first information of network device i represented by a two-dimensional array, O x Indicates the horizontal oversampling multiple, O y Indicates the oversampling multiple in the vertical direction, express When taking the minimum value The value of express When taking the maximum value The value of , Re represents the real part, and “‖” represents the norm.

[0109] FIG5 shows all possible vectors in the vector codebook provided by the embodiment of the present application. Schematic diagram of the beam domain arrangement. As shown in Figure 5, the horizontal oversampling factor is 2, the vertical oversampling factor is 3, the number of antennas in the horizontal direction of the terminal device is 3, and the number of antennas in the vertical direction of the terminal device is 2. The circles filled with different grid patterns form a set of orthogonal basis vectors.

[0110] Optionally, the first information may include an index (such as the above The corresponding relationship of the index is pre-agreed upon by the first network device and the terminal device, and the first vectors corresponding to the plurality of network devices can be calculated through the index.

[0111] Optionally, the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the first network device sending first configuration information to the terminal device. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first configuration information from the first network device. The first configuration information includes an oversampling factor, and the first configuration information may also include other parameters, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application. In this solution, the first network device configures the oversampling factor for the terminal device, so that the terminal device determines the first information based on the oversampling factor in the first configuration information.

[0112] Alternatively, the oversampling multiple is pre-configured, and the first network device does not need to send the first configuration information to the terminal device, which can save signaling overhead. This embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0113] Optionally, the field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in the report configuration message (report quantity), or the field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in other messages, or the field carrying the first configuration information is a field reused from an existing message. This embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0114] In one possible implementation, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device, including: in response to the first indication information from the first network device, the terminal device reports the first information to the first network device. The first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information. Exemplarily, the first indication information can be carried in an RRC message, or a media access control-control element (MAC-CE), or downlink control information (DCI), which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. In this solution, the terminal device reports the first information to the first network device under the instruction of the first network device, so that the terminal device reports the first information to the first network device according to the first indication information, which can reduce the signaling overhead and resource waste caused by unnecessary information reporting of the terminal device, and can also achieve more flexible regulation of the first network device.

[0115] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device reporting the first information to the first network device can be replaced by the terminal device sending the first information to the first network device, or the terminal device outputting the first information to the first network device, or other alternative descriptions, which are not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0116] In this implementation, the reporting type of the first information may be periodic, non-periodic, semi-persistent, or other reporting types, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. Optionally, the first indication information is also used to indicate the reporting type of the first information, wherein when the first indication information indicates the reporting type of the first information, the first indication information may include the reporting period of the first information, etc., and this solution is more flexible. Alternatively, the reporting type of the first information is predefined, and this solution can save signaling overhead. For example, the reporting type of the first information is periodic, that is, it can be understood that after the terminal device receives the first indication information, the first information can be periodically reported to the first network device, and the indication of the first indication information is no longer needed. For another example, the reporting type of the first information is non-periodic, that is, it can be understood that the terminal device reports the first information once each time it receives the first indication information. For another example, the reporting type of the first information can be semi-persistent, that is, it can be understood that after the terminal device receives the first indication information, it starts to periodically report the first information to the first network device. The terminal device receives the indication information to stop reporting the first information and stops reporting the first information to the first network device, that is, the terminal device periodically reports the first information within a period of time.

[0117] In another possible implementation, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device, including: when the first condition is met, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device, and the first condition includes: the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold; and / or, when the second condition is met, the terminal device stops sending the first information to the first network device, and the second condition includes: the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold. The first gain is the gain of the NCJT of multiple network devices determined by the terminal device compared to the transmission of a single network device. In this solution, the terminal device actively sends the first information to the first network device when the first condition is met, or the terminal device actively stops sending the first information to the first network device when the second condition is met, which can save the overhead of the indication information.

[0118] In an embodiment of the present application, if a first condition is met, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device. The first condition includes: the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, which can be replaced by: if / if the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device, or, it can be replaced by: when the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device. If a second condition is met, the terminal device stops sending the first information to the first network device. The second condition includes: the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold value, which can be replaced by: if / if the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold value, the terminal device stops sending the first information to the first network device, or, it can be replaced by: when the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold value, the terminal device stops sending the first information to the first network device.

[0119] In the embodiment of the present application, the first threshold and the second threshold may be equal or unequal. The first threshold and the second threshold may be predefined or indicated by the first network device to the terminal device, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0120] Alternatively, the first condition may be that the first gain is greater than or equal to the sum of the first threshold and the first margin, and the second condition may be that the first gain is less than or equal to the difference between the second threshold and the second margin. Alternatively, the first condition may be that the first gain is greater than or equal to the difference between the first threshold and the first margin, and the second condition may be that the first gain is greater than or equal to the sum of the second threshold and the second margin. The first margin and the second margin are greater than or equal to 0, and the first margin and the second margin may be predefined or indicated by the first network device to the terminal device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0121] The following describes the method for determining the first gain. Assume h i is the first vector from a DMRS port of network device i to the terminal device, i is a positive integer from 1 to N, and the matrix composed of the first vectors of N network devices is H = [h1,h2,…,h N], if only the first network device provides services to the terminal device, the transmission rate that can be achieved by a single network device is R1 = log2(1+ρ·‖h1‖ 2 ), where ρ is the signal-to-noise ratio of the first network device. If N network devices cooperate to provide services to the terminal device (when the terminal device uses a linear receiver), the NCJT rate of multiple network devices achieved is The first gain can be expressed as: G ms =R ms / R1.

[0122] Among them, h i It can be directly obtained from the first vector from one DMRS port of network device i to the terminal device, or it can be obtained by derivation from the channel matrix from multiple CSI-RS ports of network device i to the terminal device. This embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0123] Optionally, the first condition may be that the timer has not timed out, and the second condition may be that the timer has timed out. That is, if the timer has not timed out, the terminal device sends the first information to the first network device, and if the timer times out, the terminal device stops sending the first information to the first network device. Alternatively, the terminal device may periodically and proactively send the first information to the first network device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0124] Optionally, the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the terminal device sending second information to the first network device, where the second information includes at least one of the following: reference signal received power of multiple network devices, or channel quality indicator (CQI) of multiple network devices. That is, the terminal device measures the reference signals of multiple network devices, and in addition to obtaining the first information, can also obtain the second information and send the second information to the first network device.

[0125] Optionally, the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application further includes: the first network device sending third indication information to the terminal device. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the third indication information from the first network device. The third indication information is used to indicate multiple network devices corresponding to the reference signals measured by the terminal device. This solution can enable the terminal device to measure the reference signals of the multiple network devices indicated by the third indication information in accordance with the third indication information. For example, the first network device can configure configuration information for the reference signals of multiple network devices, causing the terminal device to measure the reference signals of the multiple network devices, and then transmit information obtained from measuring the reference signals of the multiple network devices, such as first information and second information, to the first network device. Exemplarily, the multiple network devices are N network devices, and the terminal device can transmit first information corresponding to the N network devices obtained by measuring the reference signals of the N network devices to the first network device. The terminal device can also transmit first information corresponding to reference signals of fewer than N network devices obtained by measuring the reference signals of the N network devices to the first network device. N is a positive integer greater than 1. For example, the terminal device measures the reference signals of 10 network devices and transmits first information corresponding to the reference signals of 5 of the network devices to the first network device, although this embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

[0126] Alternatively, as a possible implementation method, the first network device does not send the third indication information to the terminal device, and the terminal device measures the reference signals of the surrounding (for example, neighboring) network devices, obtains the first information and / or the second information and sends it to the first network device.

[0127] S330, the first network device determines a set of network devices that provide NCJT services to the terminal device based on the first information.

[0128] In an embodiment of the present application, after the first network device determines the set of network devices that provide NCJT services to the terminal device, it can notify the terminal device through RRC, or through MAC-CE, or DCI, or other indication information.

[0129] The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application is a terminal device with NJCT capability, that is, after the first network device establishes an RRC connection with the terminal device, the first network device inquires whether the terminal device has NJCT capability, and the terminal device replies that the first network device has NJCT capability. In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also send the antenna array parameters of the terminal device to the first network device, such as the number of antennas in the horizontal direction and / or the number of antennas in the vertical direction, etc., which are not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0130] Optionally, the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application also includes: the terminal device sends third information to the first network device. Correspondingly, the first network device receives the third information from the terminal device. In the embodiment of the present application, the third information indicates the offset of the first information. This scheme can enable the terminal device to report the offset of the first information to the first network device, and reporting the offset can save signaling overhead. In the embodiment of the present application, the offset of the first information indicated by the third information is an offset relative to the first information, the first information can be replaced by an initial value, and the third information can be replaced by an offset value relative to the initial value, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Among them, the first information can be obtained by the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application, or the first information can also be obtained by other means, for example, pre-defining the initial first information, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0131] In an embodiment of the present application, the second indication information can be carried in an RRC message, or MAC-CE, or DCI, or other indication messages, and this embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0132] In one possible implementation, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device includes: in response to the second indication information, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device. In this solution, the terminal device sends the third information to the first network device based on the second indication information, which is more flexible. This step can be referred to the description of the terminal device sending the first information to the first network device in response to the first indication information, and is not further described here.

[0133] In another possible implementation, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device includes: upon satisfying a first condition, the terminal device sending the third information to the first network device, or upon satisfying a second condition, the terminal device ceasing to send the third information to the first network device. In this solution, the terminal device proactively sends the third information to the first network device upon satisfying the first condition, or proactively ceasing to send the third information to the first network device upon satisfying the second condition, thereby saving the overhead of indication information.

[0134] In an embodiment of the present application, if a first condition is met, the terminal device sends the third information to the first network device. The first condition includes: the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, which can be replaced by: if / if the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the terminal device sends the third information to the first network device, or, it can be replaced by: when the first gain is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the terminal device sends the third information to the first network device. If a second condition is met, the terminal device stops sending the third information to the first network device. The second condition includes: the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold value, which can be replaced by: if / if the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold value, the terminal device stops sending the third information to the first network device, or, it can be replaced by: when the first gain is less than or equal to the second threshold value, the terminal device stops sending the third information to the first network device.

[0135] In the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application, a terminal device receives reference signals from multiple network devices, and sends first information indicating the airspace information of the channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device to a first network device. The first network device receives the first information indicating the airspace information of the channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device from the terminal device, which enables the first network device to determine the set of network devices that provide NCJT services to the terminal device based on the first information, thereby improving the performance of NCJT. Among them, the terminal device can report the first information to the first network device according to the instruction of the first network device, which is more flexible; the terminal device can also spontaneously report the first information to the first network device, which can save the overhead of the indication information. Furthermore, after the first network device obtains the first information, the terminal device can report the offset of the first information to the first network device, which can save the overhead of signaling.

[0136] The above mainly introduces the solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application from the perspective of the interaction between network devices and terminal devices. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present application also provide a communication device, which is used to implement the various methods described above. The communication device can be the terminal device in the above method embodiments, or a device including the above terminal device, or a component that can be used for the terminal device; or the communication device can be the network device in the above method embodiments, or a device including the above network device, or a component that can be used for the network device; it is understood that in order to implement the above functions, the communication device includes the corresponding hardware structure and / or software modules for performing each function. It should be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that, in combination with the various exemplary units and algorithm steps described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented in hardware or in a computer software-driven hardware manner depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professionals and technicians can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0137] In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device can be divided into functional modules according to the above method embodiment. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be understood that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical functional division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods.

[0138] For example, FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Taking the communication device as a satellite in the above method embodiment (which may be a chip of a terminal device, a module of a terminal device, or an internal device of the terminal device) as an example, the terminal device includes a transceiver module 610 and a processing module 620. The transceiver module 610, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is used to implement transceiver functions, and may be, for example, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

[0139] In the embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is configured to receive reference signals from a plurality of network devices, wherein the plurality of network devices include a first network device, which is a network device that establishes a radio resource control protocol RRC connection with the communication device.

[0140] In an embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further used to send first information to the first network device, wherein the first information is obtained by the processing module 620 based on the measurement results of the reference signals of multiple network devices, and the first information indicates the spatial domain information of the channels between the multiple network devices and the communication device in the communication device.

[0141] In the embodiment of the present application, the spatial domain information includes direction information of a first vector, and the dimension of the first vector is equal to the number of antennas of the communication device.

[0142] Optionally, the processing module 620 is further configured to determine the first information according to channel information and oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the plurality of network devices.

[0143] Optionally, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to receive first configuration information from a first network device, where the first configuration information includes an oversampling multiple.

[0144] In the embodiment of the present application, the field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in the report configuration message.

[0145] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module 610 sends the first information to the first network device, including: in response to the first indication information from the first network device, the transceiver module 610 sends the first information to the first network device; wherein the first indication information is used to instruct the communication device to report the first information.

[0146] In an embodiment of the present application, the reporting type of the first information includes at least one of the following: periodic reporting, non-periodic reporting, or semi-persistent reporting.

[0147] In another possible implementation, sending the first information to the first network device includes: if a first condition is met, the transceiver module 610 sends the first information to the first network device, where the first condition includes: a first gain is greater than or equal to a first threshold; and / or if a second condition is met, the transceiver module 610 stops sending the first information to the first network device, where the second condition includes: the first gain is less than or equal to a second threshold. The first gain is a gain determined by the processing module 620 for non-coherent joint transmission (NCJT) of multiple network devices compared to transmission by a single network device.

[0148] In the embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to send second information to the first network device, where the second information includes at least one of the following: reference signal received powers of multiple network devices, or channel quality indicators (CQIs) of multiple network devices.

[0149] In an embodiment of the present application, the reference signal includes at least one of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a demodulation reference signal DMRS, or a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

[0150] In the embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to send third information to the first network device, where the third information indicates an offset of the first information.

[0151] In one possible implementation, the transceiver module 610 sends the third information to the first network device, including: in response to the second indication information from the first network device, the transceiver module 610 sends the third information to the first network device; wherein the second indication information is used to instruct the communication device to report the third information.

[0152] In another possible implementation, the transceiver module 610 sends the third information to the first network device, including: when the first condition is met, the transceiver module 610 sends the third information to the first network device; and / or, when the second condition is met, the transceiver module 610 stops sending the third information to the first network device.

[0153] In the embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to receive third indication information from the first network device, where the third indication information is configured to indicate a plurality of network devices corresponding to the reference signal measured by the communication apparatus.

[0154] Alternatively, taking the communication device as the first network device in the above method embodiment (which may be a chip of the first network device, a module of the first network device, or an internal device of the first network device) as an example, the first network device includes a transceiver module 610 and a processing module 620. The transceiver module 610, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is used to implement transceiver functions, and may be, for example, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

[0155] In an embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is configured to receive first information. The first information indicates spatial information of channels between multiple network devices and a terminal device in the terminal device, the multiple network devices being configured to send reference signals, the multiple network devices including the communication device, the communication device being a network device establishing a Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol connection with the terminal device, wherein the first information is obtained based on measurement results of the reference signals of the multiple network devices.

[0156] In an embodiment of the present application, the processing module 620 is used to determine a set of network devices that provide non-coherent joint transmission (NCJT) services to the terminal device from a plurality of network devices based on the first information.

[0157] In an embodiment of the present application, the spatial domain information includes directional information of a first vector, and the dimension of the first vector is equal to the number of antennas of the terminal device.

[0158] In an embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to send first configuration information to the terminal device, where the first configuration information includes an oversampling multiple.

[0159] In the embodiment of the present application, the field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in the report configuration message.

[0160] In the embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further used to send first indication information to the terminal device, and the first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information.

[0161] In an embodiment of the present application, the reporting type of the first information includes at least one of the following: periodic reporting, non-periodic reporting, or semi-persistent reporting.

[0162] In an embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to receive second information from a terminal device, where the second information includes at least one of the following: reference signal received powers of multiple network devices, or channel quality indicators (CQIs) of multiple network devices.

[0163] In an embodiment of the present application, the reference signal includes at least one of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a demodulation reference signal DMRS, or a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

[0164] In the embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further used to send second indication information to the terminal device, and the second indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report third information.

[0165] In the embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further configured to receive third information from the terminal device, where the third information indicates an offset of the first information.

[0166] In an embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 610 is further used to send third indication information to the terminal device, where the third indication information is used to indicate multiple network devices corresponding to the reference signal measured by the terminal device.

[0167] All relevant contents of each step involved in the above method embodiment can be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module and will not be repeated here. Optionally, the communication device may further include a storage module 630, which may be used to store instructions and / or data, and the processing module 620 may read the instructions and / or data in the storage module 630.

[0168] In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be presented in the form of various functional modules divided in an integrated manner. The "module" here can refer to a specific ASIC, circuit, processor and memory that executes one or more software or firmware programs, integrated logic circuit, and / or other devices that can provide the above functions. In a simple embodiment, those skilled in the art can imagine that the communication device can take the form of the communication device 200 shown in Figure 2.

[0169] For example, the processor 211 in the communication device 200 shown in FIG. 2 may call computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 212 to enable the communication device to execute the communication method in the above method embodiment.

[0170] Specifically, the functions / implementation processes of the transceiver module 610 and the processing module 620 in FIG6 can be implemented by the processor 211 in the communication device 200 shown in FIG2 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 212. Alternatively, the functions / implementation processes of the processing module 620 in FIG6 can be implemented by the processor 211 in the communication device 200 shown in FIG2 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 212.

[0171] Since the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application (which may be a chip of a communication device, or a module of a communication device, or a device inside a communication device) can execute the above-mentioned communication method, the technical effects that can be obtained can be referred to the above-mentioned method embodiment and will not be repeated here.

[0172] It should be understood that one or more of the above modules or units can be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of the two. When any of the above modules or units is implemented in software, the software exists in the form of computer program instructions and is stored in a memory, and a processor can be used to execute the program instructions and implement the above method flow. The processor can be built into an SoC (system on chip) or an ASIC, or it can be an independent semiconductor chip. In addition to the core used to execute software instructions to perform calculations or processing within the processor, it can further include necessary hardware accelerators, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), PLDs (programmable logic devices), or logic circuits that implement dedicated logic operations.

[0173] When the above modules or units are implemented in hardware, the hardware can be any one or any combination of a CPU, a microprocessor, a digital signal processing (DSP) chip, a microcontroller unit (MCU), an artificial intelligence processor, an ASIC, a SoC, an FPGA, a PLD, a dedicated digital circuit, a hardware accelerator or a non-integrated discrete device, which can run the necessary software or not rely on the software to execute the above method flow.

[0174] Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device (for example, the communication device may be a chip or a chip system), which includes a processor for implementing the method in any of the above method embodiments. In one possible design, the communication device also includes a memory. The memory is used to store necessary program instructions and data, and the processor can call the program code stored in the memory to instruct the communication device to execute the method in any of the above method embodiments. Of course, the memory may not be in the communication device. When the communication device is a chip system, it may be composed of a chip, or it may include a chip and other discrete devices, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0175] Optionally, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is run on a communication device, the communication device can execute the method described in any of the above method embodiments or any of its implementation methods.

[0176] Optionally, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which includes the network device and satellite described in the above method embodiment.

[0177] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are generated. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more media integrated therein. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state disk (SSD)).

[0178] Although the present application is described herein in conjunction with various embodiments, in the process of implementing the claimed application, those skilled in the art may understand and implement other variations of the disclosed embodiments by reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "a" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit may implement several functions listed in the claims. Certain measures are recorded in different dependent claims, but this does not mean that these measures cannot be combined to produce good results.

[0179] Although the present application has been described with reference to specific features and embodiments thereof, it is apparent that various modifications and combinations may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present application. Accordingly, this specification and the drawings are merely illustrative of the present application as defined by the appended claims and are deemed to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the present application. Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various modifications and variations to the present application without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to the terminal device side, including: Receiving reference signals from a plurality of network devices, the plurality of network devices including a first network device, where the first network device is a network device that establishes a radio resource control protocol RRC connection with the terminal device; First information is sent to the first network device, wherein the first information is obtained based on measurement results of reference signals of the multiple network devices, and the first information indicates spatial information of channels between the multiple network devices and the terminal device in the terminal device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The spatial domain information includes direction information of a first vector, and the dimension of the first vector is equal to the number of antennas of the terminal device.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first information is determined according to the channel information and oversampling multiples corresponding to each of the plurality of network devices.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The method further comprises: First configuration information is received from the first network device, where the first configuration information includes the oversampling multiple.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in the report configuration message.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The sending the first information to the first network device includes: In response to first indication information from the first network device, sending the first information to the first network device; The first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The reporting type of the first information includes at least one of the following: periodic reporting, non-periodic reporting, or semi-persistent reporting.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The sending the first information to the first network device includes: Sending the first information to the first network device when a first condition is met, the first condition including: a first gain being greater than or equal to a first threshold; and / or stopping sending the first information to the first network device when a second condition is met, the second condition including: the first gain being less than or equal to a second threshold; Among them, the first gain is the gain of the non-coherent joint transmission NCJT of the multiple network devices determined by the terminal device compared with the transmission of a single network device.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that The method further comprises: Second information is sent to the first network device, where the second information includes at least one of the following: reference signal received powers of the multiple network devices, or channel quality indicators (CQIs) of the multiple network devices.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that The reference signal includes at least one of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a demodulation reference signal DMRS, or a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: Send third information to the first network device, where the third information indicates an offset of the first information.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that Sending third information to the first network device includes: In response to the second indication information from the first network device, sending the third information to the first network device; The second indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the third information.

13. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The sending third information to the first network device includes: If the first condition is met, the third information is sent to the first network device; and / or if the second condition is met, the third information is stopped from being sent to the first network device.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive third indication information from the first network device, where the third indication information is used to indicate the multiple network devices corresponding to the reference signal measured by the terminal device.

15. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a first network device, comprising: receiving first information, where the first information indicates spatial information of channels between a plurality of network devices and a terminal device in the terminal device, the plurality of network devices being used to send reference signals, the plurality of network devices including the first network device, the first network device being a network device establishing a radio resource control protocol RRC connection with the terminal device, wherein the first information is obtained based on measurement results of reference signals of the plurality of network devices; A set of network devices that provide non-coherent joint transmission (NCJT) services for the terminal device is determined from the multiple network devices based on the first information.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that The spatial domain information includes direction information of a first vector, and the dimension of the first vector is equal to the number of antennas of the terminal device.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that The method further comprises: First configuration information is sent to the terminal device, where the first configuration information includes an oversampling multiple.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that The field carrying the first configuration information is a newly added field in the report configuration message.

19. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 18, characterized in that The method further comprises: Send first indication information, where the first indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the first information.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein The reporting type of the first information includes at least one of the following: periodic reporting, non-periodic reporting, or semi-persistent reporting.

21. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 20, characterized in that The method further comprises: Second information is received from a terminal device, where the second information includes at least one of the following: reference signal received powers of the multiple network devices, or channel quality indications (CQIs) of the multiple network devices.

22. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 21, characterized in that The reference signal includes at least one of the following: a synchronization signal block SSB, a demodulation reference signal DMRS, or a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS.

23. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 22, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive third information from the terminal device, where the third information indicates an offset of the first information.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein The method further comprises: Send second indication information, where the second indication information is used to instruct the terminal device to report the third information.

25. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 24, characterized in that The method further comprises: Send third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate the multiple network devices corresponding to the reference signal measured by the terminal device.

26. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device comprises a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, or comprises a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 15 to 25.

27. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device includes a processor; the processor is configured to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14, or to cause the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 15 to 25.

28. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The computer-readable storage medium comprises instructions, which, when executed, enable the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14 to be implemented, or enable the method according to any one of claims 15 to 25 to be implemented.

29. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises instructions which, when executed, cause the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14 to be implemented, or cause the method according to any one of claims 15 to 25 to be implemented.

30. A communication system, characterized in that: The communication system includes the communication device according to claim 26 and claim 27.

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