Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus. In the method, a base station transmits a plurality of reference signals to a terminal; the terminal determines at least one reference signal identifier, wherein the at least one reference signal identifier corresponds to at least one reference signal among the plurality of reference signals; the terminal determines a first reporting method, wherein the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods, and indication information of the same reference signal identifiers corresponding to different candidate reporting methods is different; the terminal transmits first feedback information to the base station, wherein the first feedback information comprises indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method. In the embodiments of the present application, a plurality of candidate reporting methods are provided, and a terminal device can select one method from among the plurality of candidate reporting methods for reporting, thereby flexibly selecting a CRI reporting method suitable for the current communication situation.

Description

Communication method and device

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on April 3, 2024, with application number 202410408114.3 and application name "A Communication Method and Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0003] The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus. Background Art

[0004] With the development of 5G communication systems, the spectrum used by these systems is gradually evolving toward higher frequency bands. Due to physical transmission characteristics, free-space transmission loss and penetration loss in high-frequency bands are significantly higher than in low-frequency bands. To compensate for these drawbacks, larger antenna arrays are often used in high-frequency bands to combat the attenuation of received signals caused by these losses. Antenna beamforming concentrates energy into a narrow beam, effectively improving network coverage and user experience.

[0005] Narrow beams have a spotlight-like effect, concentrating limited transmission energy in a narrow direction, thereby improving base station coverage. When using narrow beams, the base station requires a larger number of narrow beams to cover the entire space. To select the appropriate beam, the terminal must measure a large number of candidate beams and report the measurement results to the base station.

[0006] To achieve accurate beam selection, the terminal needs to report more beam measurement results to the base station. However, the current reporting method is single and inflexible, and it is impossible to select the appropriate reporting method according to current communication needs. Summary of the Invention

[0007] The present application provides a communication method and apparatus that can provide multiple reporting methods, thereby flexibly selecting a channel state information-reference signal resource indicator (CRI) reporting method that is suitable for the current communication situation.

[0008] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including: determining at least one reference signal identifier; determining a first reporting method, wherein the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods, and the indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to different candidate reporting methods is different; and sending first feedback information to a network device, wherein the first feedback information includes indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method.

[0009] In an embodiment of the present application, a plurality of candidate reporting methods are provided. Each time a terminal device reports a reference signal identifier, it can select a reporting method from a plurality of candidate reporting methods to report the reference signal identifier, so that the terminal device can flexibly select the reporting method of the reference signal identifier according to the current actual communication situation, meet the reporting requirements of the terminal device under different communication conditions, and help the terminal device select a reporting method with less overhead.

[0010] In one possible implementation, the determining of the first reporting method includes: determining the first reporting method based on at least one first information; the at least one first information includes at least one of the following items, or a mathematical expression of at least two of the following items: the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers, wherein the at least one reference signal identifier belongs to the candidate reference signal identifier; the number of the at least one reference signal identifier; the number of at least one reference signal received power RSRP, wherein the at least one RSRP corresponds one-to-one with the at least one reference signal identifier; the number of time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier in the at least one reference signal identifier; the overhead of the first feedback information. Since the above-mentioned first information is related to the overhead of reporting the reference signal identifier, the terminal device determines the first reporting method based on the first information, which enables the terminal device to select a reporting method with lower overhead from the candidate reporting methods as the first reporting method, thereby reducing the overhead of the first feedback information.

[0011] In one possible implementation, determining the first reporting method based on the at least one first information includes determining the first reporting method based on the at least one first information and at least one threshold. The terminal device determining the first reporting method in conjunction with the threshold helps the terminal device quickly select the current reporting method from multiple candidate reporting methods. For example, if the first information is less than the threshold, reporting method 1 is determined to be used; if it is greater than the threshold, reporting method 2 is determined to be used.

[0012] In a possible implementation manner, one or more thresholds of the at least one threshold are predefined or configured.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the at least one first information includes the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers. When the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers is less than or equal to a first threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bitmap, which is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers. And / or, the at least one first information includes the number of the at least one reference signal identifier. When the number of the at least one reference signal identifier is greater than or equal to a second threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bitmap, which is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers. When the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers is greater than the first threshold, using a bitmap to report the reference signal identifiers has a lower overhead, thereby helping to reduce the overhead of the first feedback information. When the number of reported reference signal identifiers is greater than or equal to the second threshold, using a bitmap to report the reference signal identifiers has a lower overhead, thereby helping to reduce the overhead of the first feedback information.

[0014] In one possible implementation, the difference between the maximum RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier and any RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier is less than or equal to a third threshold. In this implementation, the terminal device may determine, based on the third threshold, whether it is necessary to report the reference signal identifier and the corresponding RSRP to the network device. If the difference between the RSRP of a reference signal and the maximum RSRP is greater than the third threshold, then the RSRP is of little significance to the network device for beam management, and the terminal device may choose not to report it, thereby reducing the overhead of the first feedback information.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the first feedback information further includes reporting method indication information for indicating the first reporting method. The terminal device can directly indicate the reporting method used for the first feedback information to the network device through the reporting method indication information. The network device can then quickly determine the reporting method used by the terminal device based on the reporting method indication information, thereby facilitating the network device to quickly parse the first feedback information.

[0016] In a possible implementation manner, the first feedback information further includes a measurement result or a prediction result of a reference signal corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier.

[0017] In one possible implementation, the indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to the different candidate reporting methods includes at least two of the following: a bitmap; a reference signal identifier sequence; indication information of the group identifier of the group in which the reference signal identifier is located and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

[0018] In a possible implementation, the first feedback information includes at least one item of the following information: a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers; at least one first field, each first field including one of the at least one reference signal identifiers; indication information of the group identifier of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

[0019] In one possible implementation, the indication information of the group identifier may include a second bit map or at least one second field, wherein the second bit map is a bit map of the group identifier of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs among multiple candidate group identifiers, and each second field includes the identifier of one of the at least one group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs; and / or, the indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group may include a third bit map or at least one third field, wherein the third bit map is a bit map of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs, and each third field includes the identifier of one of the at least one reference signal identifier in the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs.

[0020] In one possible implementation, determining the first reporting method includes: determining that the feedback overhead corresponding to the first reporting method is less than or equal to the feedback overhead corresponding to the second reporting method, wherein the second reporting method is any reporting method among the at least two candidate reporting methods except the first reporting method, and the feedback overhead includes the overhead of the indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier.

[0021] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including: sending multiple reference signals to a terminal device; receiving first feedback information sent by the terminal device, the first feedback information including indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method, the at least one reference signal identifier corresponds to at least one reference signal among the multiple reference signals, and the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods.

[0022] In one possible implementation, the first reporting method is determined based on at least one first information; the at least one first information includes at least one of the following items, or a mathematical expression of at least two of the following items: the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers, wherein the at least one reference signal identifier belongs to the candidate reference signal identifier; the number of the at least one reference signal identifier; the number of at least one reference signal received power RSRP, wherein the at least one RSRP corresponds one-to-one to the at least one reference signal identifier; the number of time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier in the at least one reference signal identifier; and the overhead of the first feedback information.

[0023] In a possible implementation manner, the first reporting method is determined according to at least one first information and at least one threshold.

[0024] In a possible implementation manner, one or more thresholds of the at least one threshold are predefined or configured.

[0025] In one possible implementation, the at least one first information includes the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers. When the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers is less than or equal to a first threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers. And / or, the at least one first information includes the number of the at least one reference signal identifier. When the number of the at least one reference signal identifier is greater than or equal to a second threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers.

[0026] In a possible implementation, a difference between a maximum RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier and any RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier is less than or equal to a third threshold.

[0027] In a possible implementation manner, the first feedback information further includes reporting method indication information, which is used to indicate the first reporting method.

[0028] In a possible implementation manner, the first feedback information further includes a measurement result or a prediction result of a reference signal corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier.

[0029] In one possible implementation, the indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to the different candidate reporting methods includes at least two of the following: a bitmap; a reference signal identifier sequence; indication information of the group identifier of the group in which the reference signal identifier is located and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the first feedback information includes at least one item of the following information: a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers; at least one first field, each first field including one of the at least one reference signal identifiers; indication information of the group identifier of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

[0031] In one possible implementation, the indication information of the group identifier may include a second bit map or at least one second field, wherein the second bit map is a bit map of the group identifier of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs among multiple candidate group identifiers, and each second field includes the identifier of one of the at least one group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs; and / or, the indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group may include a third bit map or at least one third field, wherein the third bit map is a bit map of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate group identifiers of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs, and each third field includes the identifier of one of the reference signal identifiers in the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs.

[0032] In one possible implementation, the feedback overhead corresponding to the first reporting method is less than the feedback overhead corresponding to the second reporting method, wherein the second reporting method is any reporting method among the at least two candidate reporting methods except the first reporting method, and the feedback overhead includes the feedback overhead of the indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier.

[0033] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising: a processor, the processor being coupled to a memory, the memory being used to store programs or instructions, and when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the device executes a method as in the first aspect and any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0034] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising: a processor, the processor being coupled to a memory, the memory being used to store programs or instructions, and when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the device executes a method as described in the second aspect and any possible implementation method of the second aspect.

[0035] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, comprising: a processor, the processor being coupled to a memory, the memory being used to store instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the processor, the chip implements the methods described in the first to second aspects above and any one of their implementation methods.

[0036] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores instructions. When the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer executes the method described in the first aspect to the second aspect and any one of their implementation methods.

[0037] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method as described in the first aspect to the second aspect and any one of their implementations. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a beam scanning process according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of another communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of an application architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of another application architecture provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0043] FIG6 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0044] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of a beam management process provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0045] FIG8 is a second flow chart of the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0046] FIG9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0047] FIG10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] Beam management involves establishing and maintaining one or more beam pairs between network devices and terminal devices. For example, for downlink transmission, the network selects a transmit beam, and the terminal selects a receive beam. These two beams combine to form a single beam, establishing a downlink wireless connection. For uplink transmission, the terminal selects a transmit beam, and the network selects a receive beam. These beams combine to form a single beam, establishing an uplink wireless connection. The beam pairs used for downlink and uplink transmission can be the same or different.

[0049] Generally speaking, the beam management process can be divided into beam training, beam maintenance, beam failure recovery and other processes.

[0050] The beam scanning phase can be understood as the process of selecting a beam currently suitable for communication from among numerous beams. Beam selection is primarily achieved by measuring reference signals on different beams. Reference signals can include synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) and channel state information-reference signals (CSI-RSs). SSBs are cell broadcast signals and include the primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), physical broadcast channel (PBCH), and demodulation reference signal (DMRS). SSBs are sent periodically according to the cell configuration and can be used for beam management, initial access, time-frequency synchronization, and other purposes. SSBs can be understood as signals sent via wide beams. CSI-RSs are user-level signals, and network equipment can configure one or more sets of CSI-RS resources for a user based on actual communication needs. CSI-RS signals can be used for beam management, channel quality measurement, and other purposes. CSI-RSs can be understood as narrow beam signals.

[0051] In the example shown in Figure 1, in the beam scanning stage, the network device and the terminal device can first perform beam scanning based on the synchronization signal block (SSB) through a wide beam; then the network device sends the CSI-RS through a narrow beam, and the terminal device receives and measures through the wide beam. The terminal device determines the wide beam to be used based on the measurement results, and sends the measurement results to the network side; the network device determines the narrow beam to be used based on the measurement results of the terminal device, and sends a signal to the terminal device through the determined narrow beam. The terminal device determines the narrow beam to be used by the terminal device based on the received signal.

[0052] In some scenarios, due to environmental changes, the established beam pairs may be blocked, and the network equipment and terminal devices do not have enough time to adjust the beams. At this time, beam failure recovery can be used to quickly select and establish another set of beam pairs.

[0053] With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, various industries have begun to explore the introduction of AI technology to achieve performance improvements and better provide services to users. The same is true in the field of communications technology.

[0054] As mentioned above, after completing the beam scanning, the terminal device needs to report the corresponding measurement results (L1-RSRP). In the traditional solution, the reported amount is 4 RSRPs and the CSI-RS resource indicator (CSI-RS resource indicator, CRI) corresponding to each RSRP. That is to say, the terminal device needs to report the RSRP of the reference signal sent through 4 different beams and the identifiers of these 4 beams (the identifier of the beam can also be called the identifier of the reference signal). In the AI-based beam prediction process, considering the needs of AI training and reasoning, the number of RSRPs reported by the terminal device may be increased. For example, the input of the AI ​​model used for beam prediction is 16 RSRPs, and the output is 64 beams (these 64 beams may be all or part of the beams of the network device). Information, then the terminal device needs to report the RSRP corresponding to the reference signal sent through 16 beams and the CRI corresponding to each RSRP.

[0055] Currently, a common RSRP reporting method is differential reporting. That is, the terminal device reports RSRP1 for beam 1, and for beams 2 to 16, reports the difference between the RSRP for each beam and RSRP1. Beam 1 is usually the beam with the maximum (or minimum) RSRP value.

[0056] Regarding the reporting of CRI, there are two common reporting methods. One reporting method is that the terminal device sends the beam identifier (or reference signal identifier) ​​corresponding to each RSRP to the network device. For example, assuming that there are 64 beams from beam 1 to beam 64, the identifier of each beam can be represented by log2(64)=6 bits. If the RSRP corresponding to 16 beams needs to be reported, then 6*16=96 bits are required for the reporting of the CRI part. Another reporting method is a bitmap-based reporting method. For example, assuming that there are 64 beams from beam 1 to beam 64, they can be represented by a bitmap including 64 bits. Each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a beam. Taking bit 1 corresponding to beam 1 as an example, if the RSRP corresponding to beam 1 is reported, the value on bit 1 can be set to "1". If the RSRP corresponding to beam 1 is not reported, the value on bit 1 can be set to "0", and so on for other bits.

[0057] In the case of a total of 64 beams but reporting the RSRP corresponding to 16 beams, the bitmap-based reporting method can save reporting overhead compared to the reporting method of reporting each beam identifier. However, in AI-based beam management, the number of reported RSRPs is not necessarily a fixed 16. For example, if the maximum and minimum values ​​of the multiple RSRPs reported by the terminal device differ too much, or even exceed the differential range, in this case, the RSRP that is too small does not actually help the reasoning of the AI ​​model. In this case, reporting such RSRP is meaningless, and the terminal device can choose not to report it; or, AI model optimization may cause the input and output of the AI ​​model to change, so the number of reported RSRPs will also change. However, the reporting overhead of the bitmap-based reporting method is fixed, and the reporting overhead will not be reduced due to reporting less RSRP.

[0058] Therefore, regardless of which reporting method is used, a single reporting method is not flexible enough and cannot select the appropriate reporting method according to the current communication needs. In view of this, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication method for providing multiple reporting methods, thereby achieving flexible selection of the CRI reporting method suitable for the current communication situation.

[0059] The communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: fifth generation (5G) or new radio (NR) system, long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD) system, wireless local area network (WLAN) system, Internet of Things (IoT) communication system, satellite communication system, future communication system, such as sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system, or a fusion system of multiple systems.

[0060] A network element in a communication system can send signals to or receive signals from another network element. Signals can include information, signaling, or data. A network element can also be replaced by an entity, network entity, device, communication device, communication module, node, communication node, and the like. For example, a communication system can include at least one terminal device and at least one network device. A network device can send downlink signals to a terminal device, and / or a terminal device can send uplink signals to a network device.

[0061] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to the communication method of an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, communication system 100 may include at least one network device 110; communication system 100 may also include at least one terminal device 120. Network device 110 and terminal device 120 may communicate via a wireless link. Communication between the communication devices in the communication system, for example, between network device 110 and terminal device 120, may utilize multi-antenna technology.

[0062] In wireless communication networks, such as mobile communication networks, the services supported by the networks are becoming increasingly diverse, and therefore the demands they need to meet are becoming increasingly diverse. For example, the network needs to be able to support ultra-high speeds, ultra-low latency, and / or ultra-large connections. This makes network planning, network configuration, and / or resource scheduling increasingly complex. In addition, as network functionality becomes increasingly powerful, such as supporting increasingly high spectrum, supporting advanced multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, supporting beamforming, and supporting new technologies such as beam management, network energy conservation has become a hot research topic. These new demands, new scenarios, and new features pose unprecedented challenges to network planning, maintenance, and efficient operations. To meet this challenge, artificial intelligence technology can be introduced into wireless communication networks to achieve network intelligence. To support AI technology in wireless networks, AI nodes may also be introduced into the network.

[0063] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of another communication system applicable to the communication method of an embodiment of the present application. Compared to the communication system 100 shown in Figure 2, the communication system 200 shown in Figure 3 includes, in addition to the network device 110 and the terminal device 120, an AI network element 140. The AI ​​network element 140 is used to perform AI-related operations, such as constructing a training dataset or training an AI model.

[0064] In one possible implementation, the network device 110 may send data related to the training of the AI ​​model to the AI ​​network element 140, which constructs a training data set and trains the AI ​​model. For example, the data related to the training of the AI ​​model may include data reported by the terminal device. The AI ​​network element 140 may send the results of the operations related to the AI ​​model to the network device 110, and forward them to the terminal device through the network device 110. For example, the results of the operations related to the AI ​​model may include at least one of the following: an AI model that has completed training, an evaluation result or a test result of the model, etc. Exemplarily, a portion of the trained AI model may be deployed on the network device 110, and another portion may be deployed on the terminal device 120. Alternatively, the trained AI model may be deployed on the network device 110; or, the trained AI model may be deployed on the terminal device 120.

[0065] It should be understood that FIG3 illustrates only the example of a direct connection between the AI ​​network element 140 and the network device 110. In other scenarios, the AI ​​network element 140 may also be connected to the terminal device 120. Alternatively, the AI ​​network element 140 may be connected to both the network device 110 and the terminal device 120. Alternatively, the AI ​​network element 140 may be connected to the network device 110 through a third-party network element. This embodiment of the present application does not limit the connection relationship between the AI ​​network element 140 and other network elements.

[0066] In addition, the AI ​​network element 140 may also be provided as a module in the network device 110 and / or the terminal device 120 .

[0067] It should be noted that Figures 2 and 3 are simplified schematic diagrams for ease of understanding. For example, the communication system may also include other devices, such as core network devices, wireless relay devices, wireless backhaul devices, etc., which are not shown in Figures 2 and 3. In actual applications, the communication system may include multiple network devices and multiple terminal devices. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of network devices and terminal devices included in the communication system.

[0068] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device.

[0069] The terminal device may be a device that provides voice / data, such as a handheld device or vehicle-mounted device with a wireless connection function. At present, some examples of terminals are: mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, cellular phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication capabilities, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks or future evolved public land mobile communication networks (PLMNs). network, PLMN), etc., which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application. As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be called wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. In a broad sense, wearable smart devices include those that are fully functional, large in size, and can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as those that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0070] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal device can be a terminal device, or a device capable of supporting the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system, which can be installed in the terminal device or used in combination with the terminal device. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices. In the embodiments of the present application, only the terminal device is used as an example for description, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

[0071] The network device in the embodiments of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, and may also be referred to as an access network device or a radio access network device. For example, the network device may be a base station. The network device in the embodiments of the present application may refer to a radio access network (RAN) node (or device) that connects a terminal device to a wireless network. A base station may broadly cover various names as follows, or replace the following names, such as: NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), next generation NodeB (gNB), relay station, access point, transmitting and receiving point (TRP), transmitting point (TP), master station, secondary station, multi-standard radio (motor slide retainer, MSR) node, home base station, network controller, access node, wireless node, access point (AP), transmission node, transceiver node, baseband unit (BBU), remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), remote radio head (RRH), central unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), radio unit (RU), positioning node, etc. A base station may be a macro base station, a micro base station, a relay node, a donor node, or the like, or a combination thereof. The base station may also refer to a communication module, modem or chip that is set in the aforementioned equipment or device. The base station may also be a mobile switching center and a device that performs the base station function in D2D, V2X, and M2M communications, a network side device in a 6G network, a device that performs the base station function in future communication systems, etc. The base station can support networks with the same or different access technologies. Optionally, the RAN node may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an on-board device, etc. For example, the access network device in the vehicle to everything (V2X) technology may be a road side unit (RSU). The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network equipment.

[0072] Base stations can be fixed or mobile. For example, a helicopter or drone can be configured to act as a mobile base station, and one or more cells can move based on the location of the mobile base station. In other examples, a helicopter or drone can be configured to act as a device that communicates with another base station.

[0073] In some deployments, the network devices mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may include a CU, a DU, or both a CU and a DU, or a control plane CU node (central unit-control plane (CU-CP)), a user plane CU node (central unit-user plane (CU-UP)), and a DU node. For example, the network devices may include a gNB-CU-CP, a gNB-CU-UP, and a gNB-DU.

[0074] In some deployments, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist terminals in achieving wireless access, with different RAN nodes implementing portions of the base station's functionality. For example, a RAN node can be a CU, DU, CU-CP, CU-UP, or RU. The CU and DU can be separate or included in the same network element, such as the BBU. The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or radio unit, such as an RRU, AAU, or RRH.

[0075] The RAN node may support one or more types of fronthaul interfaces, with different fronthaul interfaces corresponding to DUs and RUs with different functions. If the fronthaul interface between the DU and the RU is a common public radio interface (CPRI), the DU is configured to implement one or more baseband functions, and the RU is configured to implement one or more radio frequency functions. If the fronthaul interface between the DU and the RU is another type of interface, relative to the CPRI, some of the downlink and / or uplink baseband functions, such as precoding, digital beamforming (BF), or one or more of inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) / cyclic prefix (CP) for downlink, are moved from the DU to the RU for implementation; and for uplink, one or more of digital beamforming (BF), or fast Fourier transform (FFT) / cyclic prefix (CP) removal, are moved from the DU to the RU for implementation. In one possible implementation, the interface may be an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI). In the eCPRI architecture, the division between the DU and RU is different, corresponding to different types (category, Cat) of eCPRI, such as eCPRI Cat A, B, C, D, E, and F.

[0076] In one possible design, the processing unit for implementing baseband functions in the BBU is called a baseband high layer (BBH) unit, and the processing unit for implementing baseband functions in the RRU / AAU / RRH is called a baseband low layer (BBL) unit.

[0077] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, CU may also be called O-CU (Open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, CU-CP may also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be called O-CU-UP, and RU may also be called O-RU. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0078] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the functions of the network device can be a network device; it can also be a device that can support the network device to implement the functions, such as a chip system, a hardware circuit, a software module, or a hardware circuit and a software module. The device can be installed in the network device or used in conjunction with the network device. In the embodiments of the present application, only the device for implementing the functions of the network device is used as an example to illustrate, and does not constitute a limitation on the solutions of the embodiments of the present application.

[0079] The network device and / or terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface; it can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons and satellites in the air. The embodiments of this application do not limit the scenarios in which the network device and the terminal device are located. In addition, the terminal device and the network device can be hardware devices, or they can be software functions running on dedicated hardware, software functions running on general-purpose hardware, such as virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform), or entities including dedicated or general-purpose hardware devices and software functions. This application does not limit the specific forms of the terminal device and the network device.

[0080] The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of AI nodes. For example, when there are multiple AI nodes, the multiple AI nodes can be divided based on function, such as different AI nodes are responsible for different functions.

[0081] AI nodes can be independent devices, or they can be integrated into the same device to implement different functions. They can also be network elements in hardware devices, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (such as a cloud platform). This application does not limit the specific form of the above-mentioned AI nodes.

[0082] An AI node can be an AI network element or an AI module.

[0083] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a possible application framework in a communication system. As shown in Figure 4, network elements in the communication system are connected through interfaces (such as NG interfaces, Xn interfaces) or air interfaces. One or more AI modules (only one is shown in Figure 4) are provided in one or more devices of these network element nodes, such as core network equipment, access network nodes (i.e. the aforementioned network equipment, such as RAN nodes), terminal equipment or OAM. The access network equipment can serve as a separate RAN node or include multiple RAN nodes, for example, including CU and DU. One or more AI modules can also be provided in the CU and / or DU. Optionally, the CU can also be split into CU-CP and CU-UP. One or more AI models can also be provided in the CU-CP and / or CU-UP.

[0084] The AI ​​module is used to implement the corresponding AI function. The AI ​​modules deployed in different network elements may be the same or different. The model of the AI ​​module can implement different functions according to different parameter configurations. The model of the AI ​​module can be configured based on one or more of the following parameters: structural parameters (such as the number of neural network layers, the width of the neural network, the connection relationship between layers, the weight of the neuron, the activation function of the neuron, or at least one of the bias in the activation function), input parameters (such as the type of input parameters and / or the dimension of the input parameters), or output parameters (such as the type of output parameters and / or the dimension of the output parameters). Among them, the bias in the activation function can also be called the bias of the neural network.

[0085] An AI module can have one or more models. A model can infer an output, which includes one or more parameters. The learning, training, or inference processes of different models can be deployed on different nodes or devices, or on the same node or device.

[0086] The network device may be a network device equipped with one or more AI modules. For example, the AI ​​module may be a RAN intelligent controller (RIC) as shown in FIG5 , such as a near-real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC. For example, a near-real-time RIC may be set in a RAN node (e.g., a CU, a DU), while a non-real-time RIC may be set in an OAM, a cloud server, a core network device, or other network devices. The RIC may obtain subsets from multiple terminal devices from a RAN node (e.g., a CU, a CU-CP, a CU-UP, a DU, and / or a RU), reorganize them into a training data set, and perform training based on the training data set. For example, a near-real-time RIC and a non-real-time RIC may also be separately set as a network element, and the network device may be a near-real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC. The non-real-time RIC mainly processes non-real-time information, such as data that is not sensitive to latency, and the latency of the data may be in the order of seconds. The near-real-time RIC mainly processes near-real-time information, such as data that is relatively sensitive to latency, and the latency of the data may be in the order of tens of milliseconds.

[0087] The flow chart of the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application may be shown in FIG6 , including the following steps:

[0088] Step 601: A network device sends multiple reference signals.

[0089] The aforementioned reference signals may include signals such as SSB and CSI-RS. SSB is a cell-level reference signal, which network devices can broadcast to terminal devices within the cell; optionally, network devices can send SSB via a wide beam. CSI-RS is a user-level reference signal, which network devices can send to specific terminal devices via unicast.

[0090] The above-mentioned multiple reference signals are sent through different beams. For example, if the network device has 64 beams, the network device can send reference signals through each of the 64 beams. Optionally, the beams can be further divided into wide beams and narrow beams. When the reference signal is SSB, the network device can send the reference signal through different wide beams; when the reference signal is CSI-RS, the network device can send the reference signal through different narrow beams.

[0091] Since the reference signal and the beam have a one-to-one correspondence, in the embodiment of the present application, the reference signal may also be referred to as a beam, and the reference signal identifier may also be referred to as a beam identifier.

[0092] Optionally, the network device may transmit the aforementioned multiple reference signals at the same time or at multiple times. For example, the network device may transmit reference signals at the same time through 64 beams; or, the network device may transmit reference signals at time 1, time 2, time 3, and time 4 through beams 1 to 16, beams 17 to 32, beams 33 to 48, and beams 49 to 64, respectively.

[0093] Optionally, when the reference signal is a CSI-RS, before executing step 601, the network device may further configure resources for sending the CSI-RS for the terminal device and notify the terminal device of the configuration.

[0094] The terminal device receives multiple reference signals sent by the network device and measures the reference signals to obtain a measurement result of each reference signal, such as reference signal received power (RSRP).

[0095] Optionally, the terminal device may also perform analysis, processing, prediction, etc. based on the received reference signal to obtain a prediction result of the reference signal (such as a predicted RSRP), or a processing result, or an inference result.

[0096] In the embodiment of the present application, the multiple reference signals received by the terminal device (or the multiple reference signals sent by the network device) can be referred to as multiple candidate reference signals. Correspondingly, the identifiers corresponding to the candidate reference signals can be referred to as candidate reference signal identifiers.

[0097] Step 602: The terminal device determines N reference signal identifiers, where the N reference signal identifiers correspond to N reference signals among the multiple reference signals.

[0098] The N reference signals corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device belong to the above-mentioned multiple reference signals (i.e., multiple candidate reference signals). That is, the terminal device determines N reference signals and the reference signal identifiers corresponding to these N reference signals from the received multiple candidate reference signals.

[0099] Wherein, N is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The value of N can be fixed or flexibly determined by the terminal device according to the current communication environment. For example, if the input of the AI ​​model is the RSRP corresponding to X reference signals, then N can be set to X, that is, the terminal device determines to report X reference signal identifiers. For another example, if the input of the AI ​​model is the RSRP corresponding to X reference signals, then the terminal device can determine to report a maximum of X reference signal identifiers; if the terminal device determines that there is a smaller RSRP among the RSRPs of the X reference signals based on the RSRP of the reference signals obtained by measurement or prediction, and there is no great value in processing, analyzing, and predicting the AI ​​model, then the terminal device may also not report the smaller RSRP and the reference signal identifier corresponding to the RSRP that is too small, then the terminal device finally determines that the number of reference signal identifiers N that need to be reported is less than or equal to X.

[0100] In one possible design, the terminal device may determine N reference signal identifiers based on an RSRP threshold. For example, the terminal device measures 64 reference signals sent by the network device and compares the RSRP of the 64 measured reference signals with a minimum RSRP threshold. Information about reference signals below the minimum RSRP threshold does not need to be reported to the network device. In this case, the reference signal identifiers corresponding to reference signals greater than or equal to the minimum RSRP threshold are the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device. For another example, the input of the AI ​​model is the RSRP corresponding to 16 reference signals; the terminal device measures the 64 reference signals sent by the network device to obtain 64 RSRPs. The terminal device can select 16 RSRPs from them according to a preset rule and determine the reference signal identifiers corresponding to these 16 RSRPs; assuming that these 16 RSRPs are RSRP1, RSRP2, ..., RSRP16 from large to small, the terminal device can determine whether the difference between RSRP1 and RSRP2, ..., RSRP16 is less than or equal to the maximum RSRP difference. If the difference between RSRP1 and RSRP13, RSRP14, RSRP15, and RSRP16 is greater than the reference signal with the maximum RSRP difference, then the terminal device does not need to report the information of the reference signals corresponding to RSRP13, RSRP14, RSRP15, and RSRP16. In other words, the terminal device only needs to report the reference signal identifiers corresponding to RSRP1, RSRP2, ..., RSRP12, that is, N=12.

[0101] The process of selecting X (or N) reference signal identifiers from multiple candidate reference signal identifiers by a terminal device is completed according to a preset rule. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the preset rule. For example, the preset rule may include selecting a reference signal identifier corresponding to the larger X (or N) RSRPs; or the preset rule may also include extracting X (or N) reference signal identifiers from the candidate reference signal identifiers according to a preset interval. For example, when selecting 16 reference signal identifiers from 64 candidate reference signal identifiers, reference signal identifier 1, reference signal identifier 5, reference signal identifier 9, ..., reference signal identifier 61 may be selected.

[0102] Step 603: The terminal device determines a first reporting method, where the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods, and different candidate reporting methods correspond to different indication information of the same reference signal identifier.

[0103] In an embodiment of the present application, a plurality of candidate reporting methods are provided for the terminal device. When the terminal device needs to report a reference signal identifier to the network device, it can select the first reporting method currently in use from the plurality of candidate reporting methods, thereby achieving the goal of meeting the reporting requirements while reducing the reporting overhead.

[0104] Step 604: The terminal device sends first feedback information to the network device, where the first feedback information includes indication information of N reference signal identifiers corresponding to the first reporting method.

[0105] As mentioned above, the indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to different reporting methods is different. When the reporting method determined by the terminal device is the first reporting method, the first feedback information includes the indication information of N reference signal identifiers corresponding to the first reporting method; when the reporting method determined by the terminal device is the second reporting method, the first feedback information includes the indication information of N reference signal identifiers corresponding to the second reporting method.

[0106] In one possible implementation, the first feedback information may further include a measurement result or prediction result of the terminal device for the reference signal corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers. For example, the first feedback information sent by the terminal device may include the N reference signal identifiers and the measurement result (such as RSRP) of the reference signal corresponding to each reference signal identifier; or the terminal device may analyze and predict the measured reference signal, and then report the N reference signal identifiers and the prediction result of the reference signal corresponding to each reference signal identifier through the first feedback information.

[0107] In a possible implementation, the first feedback information may further include reporting method indication information for indicating the first reporting method. In an embodiment of the present application, since the reporting method adopted by the terminal device can be flexibly selected from the candidate reporting methods, the terminal device may add reporting method indication information in the first feedback information, so that the network device can quickly determine which reporting method the terminal device adopts based on the reporting method indication information, thereby facilitating the network device to quickly parse the first feedback information. For example, the candidate reporting methods include reporting method 1, reporting method 2, and reporting method 3, and the corresponding indexes are 01, 10, and 11, respectively; if the terminal device currently selects reporting method 1, then the reporting method indication information in the first feedback information may indicate 01; if the terminal device currently selects reporting method 2, then the reporting method indication information in the first feedback information may indicate 10; if the terminal device currently selects reporting method 3, then the reporting method indication information in the first feedback information may indicate 11.

[0108] After receiving the first feedback information, the network device can perform beam management according to the identifiers of the N reference signals indicated by the first feedback information. For example, the network device can perform AI-based beam prediction based on the first feedback information, that is, the network device can input the N reference signal identifiers included in the first feedback information and the measurement results (or prediction results) corresponding to each reference signal identifier into the AI ​​model, and obtain the prediction results of all beams output by the AI ​​model. The network device can select the beam currently communicating data with the terminal device based on the prediction results of the AI ​​model, or the network device can perform the next round of beam scanning based on the prediction results of the AI ​​model.

[0109] For example, the beam management process can be shown in Figure 7. During the first round of beam scanning, the terminal device can report the reference signal identifier and measurement results to the network device according to the above method. The network device can input the received reference signal identifier and measurement results into the AI ​​model and obtain the K beam indexes output by the AI ​​model. The K beams corresponding to these K beam indexes are the K beams with better communication quality predicted by the AI ​​model. The network device can perform a second round of beam scanning with the terminal device for these K beams and determine the optimal beam based on the terminal device's measurement results.

[0110] Optionally, the candidate reporting method in the embodiment of the present application may include two or more of the following methods:

[0111] 1. Reporting method based on bitmap.

[0112] The indication information corresponding to the reference signal identifier for the bitmap-based reporting method may include a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the N reference signal identifiers among the multiple candidate reference signal identifiers. If the first reporting method determined by the terminal device is a bitmap-based reporting method, the first feedback information sent by the terminal device includes the first bitmap.

[0113] The number of bits contained in the first bitmap may be equal to the number of candidate reference signal identifiers, and each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a candidate reference signal identifier. For each bit, when its value is the first value, it can indicate that the candidate reference signal identifier corresponding to the bit is the reported reference signal identifier, that is, the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device include the candidate reference signal identifier, which can also be understood as the terminal device reporting the information of the reference signal corresponding to the candidate reference signal identifier (such as RSRP); when its value is the second value, it can indicate that the candidate reference signal identifier corresponding to the bit does not belong to the above-mentioned N reference signal identifiers, then the terminal device does not report the information of the reference signal corresponding to the candidate reference signal identifier.

[0114] For example, the network device sends reference signals through 64 beams respectively, then the 64 reference signals correspond to 64 candidate reference signal identifiers; accordingly, the first bitmap in the first feedback information sent by the terminal device includes 64 bits, and each bit corresponds to a candidate reference signal identifier; in the first bitmap, there are N bits with values ​​of "1", which correspond to the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device, and the candidate reference signal identifier that does not belong to the N reference signal identifiers corresponds to a value of "0".

[0115] 2. Reporting method based on reference signal identification sequence.

[0116] The indication information of the reference signal identifier corresponding to the reporting method based on the reference signal identifier sequence may include a reference signal identifier sequence, where the reference signal identifier sequence includes each reference signal identifier of the N reference signal identifiers.

[0117] If the first reporting method determined by the terminal device is a reporting method based on a reference signal identifier sequence, the terminal device sends a sequence of N reference signal identifiers to the network device, that is, the first feedback information sent by the terminal device includes N first fields, and each first field includes one reference signal identifier among the N reference signal identifiers.

[0118] For example, the network device sends reference signals through 64 beams respectively, and the reference signal identifier corresponding to each reference signal can be represented by 6 bits. Specifically, reference signal identifier 0, reference signal identifier 1, reference signal identifier 2, ..., reference signal identifier 63 are respectively represented as 000000, 000001, 000010, ..., 111111. If the terminal device determines that 16 reference signal identifiers need to be reported (taking N=16 as an example), then the first feedback information will include 16 first fields, each first field including 6 bits corresponding to a reference signal identifier.

[0119] 3. Reporting method of combined information based on reference signal identifier.

[0120] The indication information of the reference signal identifier corresponding to the reporting method based on the reference signal identifier combination information may include indication information of the group identifier of the group to which each reference signal identifier in the above-mentioned N reference signal identifiers belongs and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

[0121] If the first reporting method determined by the terminal device is a reporting method based on the combined information of the reference signal identifier, then the first feedback information sent by the terminal device includes indication information of the group identifier of the group in which the above-mentioned N reference signal identifiers are located and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

[0122] In one possible design, multiple candidate reference signal identifiers may be divided into multiple groups. In this case, when reporting the determined N reference signal identifiers, the terminal device may report indication information of the group identifier of the group to which each reference signal identifier belongs, as well as indication information of the identifiers within the group.

[0123] For example, 64 reference signal identifiers can be divided into 4 groups, namely set1, set2, set3, and set4, where set1 includes candidate reference signal identifiers 1 to 16, set2 includes candidate reference signal identifiers 17 to 32, set3 includes candidate reference signal identifiers 33 to 48, and set4 also includes candidate reference signal identifiers 49 to 64; assuming that the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device include reference signal identifier A (reference signal identifier 8 in set1) and reference signal identifier B (reference signal identifier 8 in set2), then the first feedback information sent by the terminal device will include indication information of the group identifier of the group to which the reference signal identifier A belongs and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier A in the group to which it belongs, that is, indication information of set1 and indication information of reference signal identifier 8; the first feedback information also includes indication information of the group identifier of the group to which the reference signal identifier B belongs and indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier B in the group to which it belongs, that is, indication information of set2 and indication information of reference signal identifier 8.

[0124] Optionally, the indication information of the above-mentioned group identifier may include a second bitmap or at least one second field.

[0125] Among them, the second bitmap is a bit map of the group identifier of the group to which the above-mentioned N reference signal identifiers belong in multiple candidate group identifiers. For example, 64 reference signal identifiers are divided into 4 groups, that is, including 4 candidate group identifiers, then the second bitmap may include 4 bits, each bit corresponding to a candidate group identifier. For each bit, when its value is the first value, it can be indicated that there is at least one reference signal identifier among the above-mentioned N reference signal identifiers that belongs to the group corresponding to the candidate group identifier corresponding to the bit; when its value is the second value, it can be indicated that there is no reference signal identifier among the above-mentioned N reference signal identifiers that belongs to the group corresponding to the candidate group identifier corresponding to the bit.

[0126] Each second field in at least one second field represents a group identifier of a group. For example, 64 reference signal identifiers can be divided into 4 groups, namely set1, set2, set3, and set4. If the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device belong to set1, set2, and set4, then the indication information of the group identifier may include 3 second fields, including the group identifiers of set1, set2, and set4 respectively. For another example, the i-th reference signal identifier among the N reference signal identifiers belongs to set k, and the i-th second field may represent the group identifier of set k; the j-th reference signal identifier belongs to set l, and the j-th second field may represent the group identifier of set l.

[0127] Optionally, the indication information of the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group may include a third bitmap or at least one third field.

[0128] Among them, the third bitmap is a bitmap of the above-mentioned N reference signal identifiers in multiple candidate reference signal identifiers in their group. For example, 64 reference signal identifiers can be divided into 4 groups, namely set1, set2, set3, and set4, and each group includes 16 candidate reference signal identifiers, then the third bitmap corresponding to each group may include 16 bits, and each bit corresponds to a candidate reference signal identifier in the group. If the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device include reference signal identifier 1, reference signal identifier 2, and reference signal identifier 3 in set1, and reference signal identifier 3, reference signal identifier 4, and reference signal identifier 5 in set3. Then the first feedback information sent by the terminal device may include a second bitmap: 1010, indicating that the reported reference signal identifier belongs to set1 and set3; or, the first feedback information includes 2 second fields, one second field represents the group identifier of set1, and the other second field identifies the group identifier of set3. In addition to the second bitmap or the second field, the first feedback information may also include a third bitmap corresponding to set1 and a third bitmap corresponding to set3, wherein the third bitmap corresponding to set1 may be: 1110000000000000, indicating that the reported reference signal identifier includes reference signal identifier 1, reference signal identifier 2, and reference signal identifier 3 in set1; the third bitmap corresponding to set3 may be 0011100000000000, indicating that the reported reference signal identifier includes reference signal identifier 3, reference signal identifier 4, and reference signal identifier 5 in set3.

[0129] Each third field in at least one of the third fields indicates an identifier of a reference signal identifier among the N reference signal identifiers in its group. For example, the 64 reference signal identifiers can be divided into four groups, namely set1, set2, set3, and set4. If the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device include reference signal identifier 1, reference signal identifier 2, and reference signal identifier 3 in set1, and reference signal identifier 3, reference signal identifier 4, and reference signal identifier 5 in set3, then the first feedback information sent by the terminal device may include a second bitmap: 1010, indicating that the reported reference signal identifier belongs to set1 and set3; or, the first feedback information may include two second fields, one second field indicating the group identifier of set1, and the other second field indicating the group identifier of set3. In addition to the second bitmap or second field, the first feedback information may also include three third fields corresponding to set1 and three third fields corresponding to set3, wherein the three third fields corresponding to set1 indicate reference signal identifier 1, reference signal identifier 2, and reference signal identifier 3, respectively, and the three third fields corresponding to set3 indicate reference signal identifier 3, reference signal identifier 4, and reference signal identifier 5, respectively. Alternatively, the first feedback information includes a second bitmap or a second field corresponding to each reference signal identifier, and a third bitmap or a third field corresponding to each reference signal identifier.

[0130] Tables 1 to 4 exemplarily give the feedback overheads of the three candidate reporting methods mentioned above.

[0131] Table 1

[0132] Table 1 exemplifies the feedback overhead of three candidate reporting methods when the first feedback information includes the RSRPs corresponding to N reference signal identifiers, and when the first feedback information does not include the RSRPs corresponding to N reference signal identifiers. B represents the number of candidate reference signal identifiers. When the first feedback information includes RSRPs, the "total overhead" in Table 1 also takes into account the overhead of reporting the strongest beam identifier, i.e., log2(B).

[0133] Table 2

[0134] Table 3

[0135] Table 4

[0136] Tables 2 to 4 exemplarily show the feedback overhead of the bitmap-based reporting method and the feedback overhead of the reference signal identifier sequence-based reporting method when the number of candidate reference signal identifiers is 16, 32, and 64.

[0137] As can be seen, the feedback overhead of various candidate reporting methods varies in different situations, and not all candidate reporting methods can always maintain the lowest feedback overhead. Therefore, choosing the current reporting method based on the specific situation will help reduce feedback overhead.

[0138] In one possible design, when the terminal device determines the first reporting method in step 503, it may determine the first reporting method based on at least one first information, where the at least one first information may include at least one of the following information, or may include a mathematical expression of at least two of the following information (such as a mathematical calculation based on at least two items (including but not limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations)):

[0139] 1) Number of candidate reference signal identifiers. The number of candidate reference signal identifiers can be understood as the number of reference signal identifiers corresponding to the reference signals sent by the network device through different beams. For example, if the network device has 64 beams and sends a reference signal through each of the 64 beams, the network device will send 64 reference signals, corresponding to 64 candidate reference signal identifiers.

[0140] In the reporting method for reporting the index of each reference signal identifier, the number of bits required for the index of each reference signal identifier is related to the number of candidate reference signal identifiers. For example, if the number of candidate reference signal identifiers is 64, then the index of each reference signal identifier requires at least 6 bits; if the number of candidate reference signal identifiers is 128, then the index of each reference signal identifier requires at least 7 bits.

[0141] In the bitmap-based reporting method, the number of bits required for the indication information of N reference signal identifiers is also related to the number of candidate reference signal identifiers. For example, if the number of candidate reference signal identifiers is 64, then the bitmap requires 64 bits; if the number of candidate reference signal identifiers is 128, then the bitmap requires 128 bits.

[0142] Since the number of candidate reference signal identifiers may affect the overhead of feedback information sent by the terminal device, the terminal device may determine the first reporting mode according to the number of candidate reference signal identifiers.

[0143] 2) The number of N reference signal identifiers. The terminal device can determine the first reporting method based on the number of reference signal identifiers that need to be reported (i.e., the value of N). For example, taking the reporting method of reporting the index of each reference signal identifier as an example, assuming that the index of each reference signal identifier requires 6 bits, if N=16, that is, the terminal device determines that 16 reference signal identifiers need to be reported, then the overhead of the indication information corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers is 6*16=96 bits; if N=10, that is, the terminal device determines that 10 reference signal identifiers need to be reported, then the overhead of the indication information corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers is 6*10=60 bits.

[0144] Since the number of reference signal identifiers that need to be reported may affect the overhead of feedback information sent by the terminal device, the terminal device may determine the first reporting mode according to the number of reference signal identifiers that need to be reported.

[0145] 3) Number of RSRPs N. Since the number of RSRPs of the reference signal that needs to be reported (ie, the value of N) may affect the overhead of the feedback information sent by the terminal device, the terminal device may determine the first reporting mode according to the number of RSRPs that need to be reported.

[0146] 4) The amount of time domain information corresponding to each of the N reference signal identifiers.

[0147] The first feedback information sent by the terminal device may include, in addition to indication information of N reference signal identifiers, time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier. When time domain information is also added to the first feedback information, the amount of time domain information may affect the overhead of the feedback information sent by the terminal device. Therefore, the terminal device may determine the first reporting method based on the amount of time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier.

[0148] For example, the network device sends reference signals through 64 beams at time T1 and sends reference signals through 64 beams at time T2. The terminal device can report the measurement results and reference signal identifiers of the 16 reference signals at time T1 and the measurement results and reference signal identifiers of the 16 reference signals at time T2 in the first feedback information; in this case, the terminal device can also add time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier in the first feedback information, such as indicating that the time domain corresponding to reference signal identifier 1 is T1, the time domain corresponding to reference signal identifier 2 is T1 and T2, and the time domain corresponding to reference signal identifier 3 is T2. It can be understood that the different amounts of time domain information require different overheads.

[0149] For another example, the network device sends reference signals through 64 beams at time T0, and the terminal device measures the 64 reference signals to obtain measured RSRP, and predicts the reference signals that may be sent at time T1 and time T2 based on the measured RSRP, to obtain the predicted RSRP at time T1 and the predicted RSRP at time T2; the terminal device can report the predicted RSRP at time T1 and the reference signal identifier corresponding to each predicted RSRP, and can also report the predicted RSRP at time T2 and the reference signal identifier corresponding to each predicted RSRP. In this case, the terminal device can also add time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier in the first feedback information, such as indicating that the time domain corresponding to reference signal identifier 1 is T1, the time domain corresponding to reference signal identifier 2 is T1 and T2, and the time domain corresponding to reference signal identifier 3 is T2. It can be understood that the different amounts of time domain information require different overheads.

[0150] 5) Overhead of the first feedback information. The overhead of the first feedback information can be understood as the number of bits required for the first feedback information. Since the first feedback information includes indication information corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers of the first reporting method, the overhead of the first feedback information is positively correlated with the overhead of the indication information of the N reference signal identifiers of the first reporting method. That is, the greater the overhead of the indication information of the N reference signal identifiers of the first reporting method, the greater the overhead of the first feedback information, and vice versa.

[0151] As previously described, the at least one first information may include one or more of the above information. Alternatively, when multiple items are included, the at least one first information may be a mathematical formula based on at least two items, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations. For example, the at least one first information may include a ratio of the number of reference signal identifiers to the number of candidate reference signal identifiers.

[0152] Furthermore, when the terminal device determines the first reporting method based on at least one first information, it may also comprehensively determine the first reporting method in combination with at least one threshold.

[0153] In one possible implementation, if at least one first information includes the number of candidate reference signal identifiers, when the number of candidate reference signal identifiers is less than or equal to a first threshold, the first reporting method determined by the terminal device may be a bitmap-based reporting method, then the first feedback information sent by the terminal device may include a first bitmap, and the first bitmap is a bitmap of N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers.

[0154] In another possible implementation, if at least one first information includes the number of N reference signal identifiers, when the value of N is greater than or equal to the second threshold, the first reporting method determined by the terminal device may be a bitmap-based reporting method, then the first feedback information sent by the terminal device may include a first bitmap, and the first bitmap is a bitmap of the N reference signal identifiers determined by the terminal device among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers.

[0155] Optionally, the above thresholds (including but not limited to the above first threshold, second threshold, minimum RSRP threshold, and maximum RSRP difference) can be predefined, such as predefined through a communication protocol; or, they can be configured, such as a network device configuring the above thresholds for a terminal device and sending them to the terminal device.

[0156] In addition, an embodiment of the present application further provides a method for determining a first reporting method, whereby a terminal device may select, based on the feedback overheads of various candidate reporting methods, a candidate reporting method with the lowest feedback overhead as the first reporting method, wherein the feedback overhead includes the overhead of the indication information of the N reference signal identifiers. In other words, the feedback overhead of the first reporting method determined by the terminal device is less than or equal to the feedback overhead of any reporting method among the candidate reporting methods other than the first reporting method.

[0157] In order to more clearly understand the above embodiment of the present application, an example is given below with reference to FIG8. As shown in FIG8, the communication method may include the following steps:

[0158] Step 801: The network device sends a third threshold to the terminal device.

[0159] Among them, the third threshold can be an RSRP-related threshold, such as the minimum RSRP threshold in the aforementioned embodiment (indicating that the RSRP of the reference signal corresponding to the reference signal identifier reported by the terminal device should be greater than or equal to the minimum RSRP threshold) or the maximum RSRP difference (indicating that the difference between the RSRP of the reference signal corresponding to the reference signal identifier reported by the terminal device and the maximum RSRP should be less than or equal to the maximum RSRP difference), etc.

[0160] Step 802: The network device sends a second threshold to the terminal device.

[0161] When the terminal device determines that the number N of reported reference signal identifiers is greater than or equal to the second threshold, the terminal device can adopt a bitmap-based reporting method; when the terminal device determines that the number N of reported reference signal identifiers is less than the second threshold, the terminal device can adopt a reference signal identifier sequence-based reporting method.

[0162] In the example shown in FIG8 , the second threshold and the third threshold are sent to the terminal device via different messages. In other examples, the network device may also send the second threshold and the third threshold to the terminal device via the same message.

[0163] The embodiment of the present application does not limit the order of step 801 and step 802. The network device may first execute step 802 to send the second threshold and then execute step 801 to send the third threshold. Alternatively, the network device may also send the second threshold and the third threshold at the same time.

[0164] Step 803: The network device sends multiple reference signals.

[0165] The network device sends reference signals through different beams. The reference signals correspond to the beams one-to-one. Therefore, the reference signal identifier can also be called the beam identifier.

[0166] Optionally, before sending a reference signal, the network device may also configure resources for the terminal device to transmit the reference signal. For example, when the reference signal is a CSI-RS, since CSI-RS is a user-level signal, the network device may configure CSI-RS resources for the terminal device before transmitting the CSI-RS, so that the terminal device receives the CSI-RS on the corresponding resources.

[0167] Step 804: The terminal device determines N reference signal identifiers to be reported according to the third threshold.

[0168] The terminal device measures the received multiple reference signals to obtain the measured RSRP of each reference signal; alternatively, the terminal device may also make a prediction based on the measurement results to obtain the predicted RSRP of each reference signal at a future time.

[0169] The terminal device may determine the N reference signal identifiers to be reported based on the measured RSRP or the predicted RSRP and the third threshold.

[0170] For example: Assuming that the third threshold is the maximum RSRP difference, the terminal device measures the 64 reference signals sent by the network device and obtains the RSRP of the 64 reference signals; since the input of the AI ​​model is the RSRP of 16 reference signals, the terminal device can select 16 RSRPs from the RSRP of the 64 reference signals (the selection method is not limited in the embodiment of this application). Assuming that the 16 selected RSRPs are RSRP1, RSRP2, ..., RSRP16 from large to small, the terminal device can respectively determine whether the difference between RSRP1 and RSRP2, ..., RSRP16 is less than or equal to the maximum RSRP difference. If it is less than or equal to, the terminal device reports the reference signal identifier of the reference signal corresponding to the RSRP. Otherwise, the terminal device does not report the reference signal identifier of the reference signal corresponding to the RSRP, thereby determining the N reference signal identifiers to be reported.

[0171] Step 805: The terminal device determines whether N is greater than a second threshold.

[0172] If N is greater than the second threshold, the terminal device executes step 806a; if N is less than or equal to the second threshold, the terminal device executes step 806b.

[0173] For example, the second threshold is 10. If the value of N is greater than 10, the terminal device executes step 806a and uses a bitmap-based reporting method to send N reference signal identifiers and the RSRP of the reference signals corresponding to these N reference signal identifiers to the network device; if the value of N is less than or equal to 10, the terminal device executes step 806b and uses a reference signal identifier sequence-based reporting method to send N reference signal identifiers and the RSRP of the reference signals corresponding to these N reference signal identifiers to the network device.

[0174] Step 806a: The terminal device sends first feedback information, where the first feedback information includes a bitmap.

[0175] The bitmap is a bitmap of the N reference signal identifiers among the multiple candidate reference signal identifiers. In addition, the first feedback signal may also include measurement results or prediction results of the reference signals corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers.

[0176] Step 806b: The terminal device sends first feedback information, where the first feedback information includes N first fields, and each first field includes one reference signal identifier among the N reference signal identifiers.

[0177] In addition, the first feedback information may also include measurement results or prediction results of reference signals corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers.

[0178] Step 807: The network device performs beam management according to the first feedback information.

[0179] For example, the network device can input the N received reference signal identifiers and the measurement results or prediction results of the reference signals corresponding to the N reference signal identifiers into the AI ​​model, and the network device can perform beam management based on the analysis results output by the AI ​​model.

[0180] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device includes a processing module 901 and a transceiver module 902. The processing module 901 is used to implement data processing by the communication device. The transceiver module 902 is used to receive content from the communication device to other units or network elements, or to send content from the communication device to other units or network elements. It should be understood that the processing module 901 in the embodiment of the present application can be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component (or, referred to as a processing circuit), and the transceiver module 902 can be implemented by a receiver / transmitter or a receiver / transmitter-related circuit component.

[0181] Exemplarily, the communication device may be a communication device, or may be a chip used in the communication device, or other combined devices, components, etc. having the functions of the above-mentioned communication device.

[0182] When the communication device is a terminal device, the processing module 901 determines at least one reference signal identifier; determines a first reporting method, where the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods, and the indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to different candidate reporting methods is different; and sends first feedback information to the network device through the transceiver module 902, where the first feedback information includes indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method.

[0183] In addition, the above modules can also be used to support other processes executed by the terminal device in the embodiments shown in Figures 6 to 8. The beneficial effects can be referred to the previous description and will not be repeated here.

[0184] When the communication device is a network device, the processing module 901 sends multiple reference signals to the terminal device through the transceiver module 902; receives first feedback information sent by the terminal device through the transceiver module 902, wherein the first feedback information includes indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method, the at least one reference signal identifier corresponds to at least one reference signal among the multiple reference signals, and the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods.

[0185] In addition, the above modules can also be used to support other processes executed by the network devices in the embodiments shown in Figures 6 to 8. The beneficial effects can be referred to the previous description and will not be repeated here.

[0186] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of another communication device provided according to an embodiment of the present application, which includes: a processor 1001, a communication interface 1002, and further includes a memory 1003 and a bus 1004. The processor 1001, the communication interface 1002 and the memory 1003 can be interconnected through the bus 1004; the bus 1004 can be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The above-mentioned bus 1004 can be divided into an address bus, a data bus and a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, only one line is used in Figure 10, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0187] The processor 1001 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), or a combination of a CPU and an NP. The processor may further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The PLD may be a complex programmable logic device (CPLD), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a generic array logic (GAL), or any combination thereof. The memory 1003 may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memories. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory.

[0188] The processor 1001 is used to implement data processing operations of the communication device, and the communication interface 1002 is used to implement receiving operations and sending operations of the communication device.

[0189] When the communication device is a terminal device, the processor 1001 determines at least one reference signal identifier; determines a first reporting method, where the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods, and the indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to different candidate reporting methods is different; and sends first feedback information to the network device through the communication interface 1002, where the first feedback information includes indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method.

[0190] In addition, the above components can also be used to support other processes executed by the terminal device in the embodiments shown in Figures 6 to 8. The beneficial effects can be referred to the previous description and will not be repeated here.

[0191] When the communication device is a network device, the processor 1001 sends multiple reference signals to the terminal device through the communication interface 1002; receives first feedback information sent by the terminal device, where the first feedback information includes indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method, the at least one reference signal identifier corresponds to at least one reference signal among the multiple reference signals, and the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods.

[0192] In addition, the above components can also be used to support other processes executed by the network devices in the embodiments shown in Figures 6 to 8. The beneficial effects can be referred to the previous description and will not be repeated here.

[0193] Based on the same technical concept, an embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer-readable instructions are stored. When the computer-readable instructions are executed on a computer, the method described in any possible implementation method described above is executed.

[0194] An embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the above method embodiment to be executed.

[0195] An embodiment of the present application provides a chip, including: a processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, the memory is used to store instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the processor, the chip implements the method steps executed by any of the above nodes.

[0196] In the description of the embodiments of this application, "and / or" describes the association relationship between associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent three situations: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. The term "plurality" used in this application refers to two or more.

[0197] In addition, it should be understood that, in the description of the present application, words such as "first" and "second" are only used for the purpose of distinguishing the description, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance, nor can they be understood as indicating or implying an order. References to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" described in this specification mean that one or more embodiments of the present application include specific features, structures or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment. Therefore, the statements "in one embodiment", "in some embodiments", "in some other embodiments", "in some other embodiments", etc. that appear in different places in this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, but mean "one or more but not all embodiments", unless otherwise specifically emphasized. The terms "including", "comprising", "having" and their variations all mean "including but not limited to", unless otherwise specifically emphasized.

[0198] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by hardware or by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a register, a hard disk, a mobile hard disk, a CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. Of course, the processor and the storage medium can also exist in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

[0199] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer program or instructions may be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape; an optical medium, such as a digital video disk; or a semiconductor medium, such as a solid-state drive. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

[0200] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or there is a logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced by each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

[0201] It is understood that the various numbers used in the embodiments of this application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The order of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not necessarily imply a specific order of execution; the order of execution of the processes should be determined by their functions and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: determining at least one reference signal identifier; Determining a first reporting method, where the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods, and different candidate reporting methods correspond to different indication information of the same reference signal identifier; First feedback information is sent to the network device, where the first feedback information includes indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Determining the first reporting method includes: Determining a first reporting method according to at least one first information; The at least one first information includes at least one of the following, or a mathematical expression of at least two of the following: a total number of candidate reference signal identifiers, wherein the at least one reference signal identifier belongs to the candidate reference signal identifiers; the number of the at least one reference signal identifier; the number of at least one reference signal received power (RSRP), wherein the at least one RSRP corresponds to the at least one reference signal identifier in a one-to-one manner; The number of time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier in the at least one reference signal identifier; The overhead of the first feedback information.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The determining the first reporting method according to the at least one first information includes: A first reporting method is determined according to at least one first information and at least one threshold.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that One or more thresholds of the at least one threshold are predefined or configured.

5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that: The at least one first information includes a total number of candidate reference signal identifiers. When the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers is less than or equal to a first threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers. And / or, the at least one first information includes the number of the at least one reference signal identifier. When the number of the at least one reference signal identifier is greater than or equal to a second threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bit map, which is a bit map of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that A difference between a maximum RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier and any RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier is less than or equal to a third threshold.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that The first feedback information further includes reporting method indication information, which is used to indicate the first reporting method.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The first feedback information further includes a measurement result or a prediction result of a reference signal corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that The indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to the different candidate reporting methods includes at least two of the following: bitmap; a reference signal identification sequence; The information indicating the group identifier of the group to which the reference signal identifier belongs and the information indicating the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that The first feedback information includes at least one of the following information: a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers; at least one first field, each of the first fields including a reference signal identifier of the at least one reference signal identifier; The at least one reference signal identifier includes group identifier information and identifier information of the reference signal identifier in the group.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that The indication information of the group identifier may include a second bitmap or at least one second field, where the second bitmap is a bitmap of the group identifier of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs among multiple candidate group identifiers, and each second field includes an identifier of one of the at least one groups to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs; And / or, the indication information of the reference signal identifier in the group may include a third bit map or at least one third field, the third bit map being a bit map of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers in the group, and each of the third fields including the identifier of one of the at least one reference signal identifier in the group.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that Determining the first reporting method includes: Determine that the feedback overhead corresponding to the first reporting method is less than or equal to the feedback overhead corresponding to the second reporting method, wherein the second reporting method is any reporting method among the at least two candidate reporting methods except the first reporting method, and the feedback overhead includes the overhead of the indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier.

13. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: sending a plurality of reference signals to a terminal device; Receive first feedback information sent by a terminal device, where the first feedback information includes indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier corresponding to the first reporting method, the at least one reference signal identifier corresponds to at least one reference signal among the multiple reference signals, and the first reporting method is one of at least two candidate reporting methods.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The first reporting method is determined according to at least one first information; The at least one first information includes at least one of the following, or a mathematical expression of at least two of the following: a total number of candidate reference signal identifiers, wherein the at least one reference signal identifier belongs to the candidate reference signal identifiers; the number of the at least one reference signal identifier; the number of at least one reference signal received power (RSRP), wherein the at least one RSRP corresponds to the at least one reference signal identifier in a one-to-one manner; The number of time domain information corresponding to each reference signal identifier in the at least one reference signal identifier; The overhead of the first feedback information.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The first reporting method is determined according to at least one first information and at least one threshold.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that One or more thresholds of the at least one threshold are predefined or configured.

17. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that: The at least one first information includes a total number of candidate reference signal identifiers. When the total number of candidate reference signal identifiers is less than or equal to a first threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers. And / or, the at least one first information includes the number of the at least one reference signal identifier. When the number of the at least one reference signal identifier is greater than or equal to a second threshold, the first feedback information includes a first bit map, which is a bit map of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers.

18. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 17, characterized in that: A difference between a maximum RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier and any RSRP among the at least one RSRP corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier is less than or equal to a third threshold.

19. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 18, characterized in that: The first feedback information further includes reporting method indication information, which is used to indicate the first reporting method.

20. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19, characterized in that: The first feedback information further includes a measurement result or a prediction result of a reference signal corresponding to the at least one reference signal identifier.

21. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 20, characterized in that: The indication information of the same reference signal identifier corresponding to the different candidate reporting methods includes at least two of the following: bitmap; a reference signal identification sequence; The information indicating the group identifier of the group to which the reference signal identifier belongs and the information indicating the identifier of the reference signal identifier in the group.

22. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 20, characterized in that The first feedback information includes at least one of the following information: a first bitmap, where the first bitmap is a bitmap of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate reference signal identifiers; at least one first field, each of the first fields including a reference signal identifier of the at least one reference signal identifier; The at least one reference signal identifier includes group identifier information and identifier information of the reference signal identifier in the group.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The indication information of the group identifier may include a second bitmap or at least one second field, where the second bitmap is a bitmap of the group identifier of the group to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs among multiple candidate group identifiers, and each second field includes an identifier of one of the at least one groups to which the at least one reference signal identifier belongs; And / or, the indication information of the reference signal identifier in the group may include a third bit map or at least one third field, the third bit map being a bit map of the at least one reference signal identifier among multiple candidate group identifiers of the group, and each of the third fields including the identifier of one of the at least one reference signal identifier in the group.

24. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 23, characterized in that The feedback overhead corresponding to the first reporting method is less than the feedback overhead corresponding to the second reporting method, wherein the second reporting method is any reporting method among the at least two candidate reporting methods except the first reporting method, and the feedback overhead includes the feedback overhead of the indication information of the at least one reference signal identifier.

25. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A processor is coupled to a memory, wherein the memory is used to store a program or an instruction, and when the program or the instruction is executed by the processor, the apparatus executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 24.

26. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 24.

27. A computer program product comprising instructions, characterized in that When the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 24.

28. A communication system, characterized in that: The invention comprises an apparatus for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12 and an apparatus for executing the method according to any one of claims 13 to 24.

Images