Transmission method, apparatus, terminal and network side device

Abstract

The present application belongs to the technical field of communications. Disclosed are a transmission method, an apparatus, a terminal and a network side device. The transmission method in the embodiments of the present application comprises: a terminal transmits a target media access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) to a network side device, the target MAC PDU comprising padding information, the size of the padding information being less than the size of a target padding buffer status report (BSR), and the padding information comprising a first identifier field, wherein when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with said uplink data, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value, or when the terminal does not have said uplink data, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, the second value being different from the first value.

Description

Transmission methods, devices, terminals and network-side equipment

[0001] Cross-references to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202410682789.7, filed in China on May 29, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This application belongs to the field of communication technology, specifically relating to a transmission method, apparatus, terminal, and network-side equipment. Background Technology

[0004] In related technologies, when a terminal sends uplink data, if an uplink Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) requires padding, and the padding content is longer than or equal to 2 bytes, the terminal can send a Buffer Status Report (BSR). The BSR (including the MAC CE plus the corresponding MAC sub-header) requires at least 2 bytes of space in the MAC PDU to fully utilize uplink resources for information transmission. However, if the padding content is shorter than 2 bytes, it cannot carry the padding BSR; in this case, the terminal can only send padding bits. However, since padding bits cannot transmit useful information to the network, sending padding bits by the terminal will waste uplink resources. Summary of the Invention

[0005] This application provides a transmission method, apparatus, terminal, and network-side device that can solve the problem of wasting uplink resources when the terminal sends padding bits.

[0006] Firstly, a transmission method is provided, executed by a terminal, the method comprising:

[0007] The terminal sends a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to the network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of the target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field.

[0008] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0009] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0010] Secondly, a transmission method is provided, executed by a network-side device, the method comprising:

[0011] The network-side device receives a target MAC PDU sent by the terminal. The target MAC PDU includes padding information. The size of the padding information is smaller than the size of the target padding BSR. The padding information includes a first identifier field.

[0012] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0013] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0014] Thirdly, a transmission device is provided, comprising:

[0015] The sending module is used to send a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to a network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field.

[0016] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0017] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0018] Fourthly, a transmission device is provided, comprising:

[0019] A receiving module is used to receive a target MAC PDU sent by a terminal. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target padding BSR. The padding information includes a first identifier field.

[0020] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0021] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0022] Fifthly, a transmission device is provided, the device being configured to perform the steps of the method described in the first aspect, or to implement the steps of the method described in the second aspect.

[0023] In a sixth aspect, a terminal is provided, the terminal including a processor and a memory, the memory storing a program or instructions executable on the processor, the program or instructions, when executed by the processor, implementing the steps of the method as described in the first aspect.

[0024] Seventhly, a terminal is provided, including a processor and a communication interface, wherein,

[0025] A communication interface is used to send a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to a network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field.

[0026] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0027] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0028] Eighthly, a network-side device is provided, the network-side device including a processor and a memory, the memory storing a program or instructions executable on the processor, the program or instructions, when executed by the processor, implementing the steps of the method as described in the second aspect.

[0029] Ninthly, a network-side device is provided, including a processor and a communication interface, wherein,

[0030] A communication interface is used to receive a target MAC PDU sent by a terminal. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target padding BSR. The padding information includes a first identifier field.

[0031] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0032] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0033] In a tenth aspect, a readable storage medium is provided, on which a program or instructions are stored, which, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the method described in the first aspect, or implement the steps of the method described in the second aspect.

[0034] Eleventhly, a wireless communication system is provided, comprising: a terminal and a network-side device, wherein the terminal can be used to perform the steps of the method as described in the first aspect, and the network-side device can be used to perform the steps of the method as described in the second aspect.

[0035] In a twelfth aspect, a chip is provided, the chip including a processor and a communication interface coupled to the processor, the processor being configured to run programs or instructions to implement the method as described in the first aspect, or to implement the method as described in the second aspect.

[0036] In a thirteenth aspect, a computer program / program product is provided, which is stored in a storage medium and is executed by at least one processor to implement the method as described in the first aspect, or to implement the method as described in the second aspect.

[0037] In this embodiment, the terminal sends a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to the network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identifier field. When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value. Alternatively, when the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value. Thus, when the remaining available bearer space of the target MAC PDU cannot accommodate the target padding BSR, the terminal can transmit information related to the uplink data to be transmitted to the network-side device through the padding information, thereby improving the utilization rate of uplink resources. Attached Figure Description

[0038] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system applicable to an embodiment of this application;

[0039] Figure 2 is an example diagram of an uplink MAC PDU in related technologies;

[0040] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the generation of a MAC PDU in a related technology;

[0041] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a MAC sub-header in related technologies;

[0042] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a short BSR or short truncated BSR MAC CE in the related technology;

[0043] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a long BSR or long truncated BSR MAC CE in the related technology;

[0044] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of another MAC subheader in related technologies;

[0045] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of a DSR MAC CE in the related technology;

[0046] Figure 9 is a flowchart of one of the transmission methods provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0047] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of a MAC sub-header provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0048] Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of another MAC sub-header provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0049] Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of another MAC sub-header provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0050] Figure 13 is a second flowchart of a transmission method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0051] Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of one of the structures of a transmission device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0052] Figure 15 is a second schematic diagram of the structure of a transmission device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0053] Figure 16 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0054] Figure 17 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0055] Figure 18 is one of the structural schematic diagrams of a network-side device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0056] Figure 19 is a second schematic diagram of the structure of a network-side device provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0057] The technical solutions of the embodiments of this application will be clearly described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, of the embodiments of this application. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of this application are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0058] The terms "first," "second," etc., used in this application are used to distinguish similar objects and not to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that such terms can be used interchangeably where appropriate so that embodiments of this application can be implemented in orders other than those illustrated or described herein, and the objects distinguished by "first" and "second" are generally of the same class, not limited in number; for example, the first object can be one or more. Furthermore, "or" in this application indicates at least one of the connected objects. For example, the scope of protection for "A or B" covers at least three scenarios: Scenario 1: including A but not B; Scenario 2: including B but not A; Scenario 3: including both A and B. In addition, the terms "A and / or B," "at least one of A and B," and "at least one of A or B" also cover at least the above three scenarios. The character " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0059] The term "instruction" in this application can be either a direct instruction (or explicit instruction) or an indirect instruction (or implicit instruction). A direct instruction can be understood as one in which the sender explicitly informs the receiver of specific information, the operation to be performed, or the requested result, etc., in the instruction sent. An indirect instruction can be understood as one in which the receiver determines the corresponding information based on the instruction sent by the sender, or makes a judgment and determines the operation to be performed or the requested result, etc., based on the judgment result.

[0060] It is worth noting that the technologies described in this application are not limited to Long Term Evolution (LTE) / LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems, but can also be used in other wireless communication systems, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single-carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), or other systems. The terms "system" and "network" in this application are often used interchangeably, and the described technologies can be used with the systems and radio technologies mentioned above, as well as with other systems and radio technologies. The following description describes New Radio (NR) systems for illustrative purposes, and the term NR is used in most of the following description; however, these technologies can also be applied to systems other than NR systems, such as 6th generation (6G) radio systems. th Generation 6G communication system.

[0061] Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a wireless communication system applicable to an embodiment of this application. The wireless communication system includes a terminal 11 and a network-side device 12. The terminal 11 can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, laptop computer, notebook computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld computer, netbook, ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), mobile internet device (MID), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) device, robot, wearable device, flight vehicle, vehicle user equipment (VUE), shipboard equipment, pedestrian user equipment (PUE), smart home (home devices with wireless communication capabilities, such as refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, or furniture), game console, personal computer (PC), ATM, or self-service machine, etc. Wearable devices include: smartwatches, smart bracelets, smart headphones, smart glasses, smart jewelry (smart bracelets, smart chains, smart rings, smart necklaces, smart anklets, smart anklets, etc.), smart wristbands, smart clothing, etc. Among these, in-vehicle devices can also be referred to as in-vehicle terminals, in-vehicle controllers, in-vehicle modules, in-vehicle components, in-vehicle chips, or in-vehicle units, etc. It should be noted that the specific type of terminal 11 is not limited in this application embodiment. For example, terminal 11 can be a terminal in a broad sense, including handheld devices, or network-side relay nodes (e.g., used for relay nodes to report cached information to the donor base station). Network-side equipment 12 can include access network equipment or core network equipment, wherein access network equipment can also be referred to as Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment, radio access network functions, or radio access network units. Access network equipment can include base stations, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access points (AS), or Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) nodes, etc.The term "base station" can be referred to as Node B (NB), Evolved Node B (eNB), Next Generation Node B (gNB), New Radio Node B (NR Node B), Access Point, Relay Base Station (RBS), Serving Base Station (SBS), Base Transceiver Station (BTS), Radio Base Station, Radio Transceiver, Basic Service Set (BSS), Extended Service Set (ESS), Home Node B (HNB), Home Evolved Node B, Transmit / Receive Point (TRP), or any other suitable term in the relevant field, as long as the same technical effect is achieved. The term "base station" is not limited to any specific technical terminology. It should be noted that this application embodiment only uses a base station in an NR system as an example for description and does not limit the specific type of base station.

[0062] Core network equipment, also known as core network nodes, core network functions, or core network elements, includes, but is not limited to, at least one of the following: Mobility Management Entity (MME), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), User Plane Function (UPF), Policy Control Function (PCF), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), Edge Application Server Discovery Function (EASDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Unified Data Repository (UDR), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Centralized network configuration (CNC), Network Repository Function (NRF), Network Exposure Function (NEF), Local NEF (or L-NEF), and Binding Support. The core network functions include: BSF (Block Network Function), Application Function (AF), Location Management Function (LMF), Gateway Mobile Location Centre (GMLC), and Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF). It should be noted that this application embodiment only uses core network equipment in the NR system as an example and does not limit the specific type of core network equipment. If the name of the core network equipment mentioned in this application embodiment changes in subsequent protocol versions (e.g., 6G), it will still be within the scope of protection of this application.

[0063] Optionally, the core network equipment can be implemented by one or more functional modules in a single device, or by multiple devices working together; this application does not specifically limit this. It is understood that the aforementioned functional modules can be network elements in hardware devices, software functional modules running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functional modules instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform).

[0064] For ease of understanding, the following explains some aspects of the embodiments of this application:

[0065] 1. Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) and MAC SubPDU

[0066] In NR, a MAC PDU can include one or more MAC subPDUs. Each MAC subPDU consists of a MAC subheader and an optional load portion corresponding to the subheader (the optional load portion means that for some MAC subheaders, there is no corresponding load portion, or in some cases, there is no corresponding load portion). In a MAC PDU, the MAC subheader and its corresponding load portion (if any) are placed immediately in front of the corresponding MAC SDU, MAC CE, or padding.

[0067] The payload portion of a MAC subPDU can be higher-level data (also known as a MAC Service Data Unit (SDU)), a MAC Control Element (CE), or bits used for padding, as shown in Figure 2.

[0068] In Figure 2, MAC SDU is a higher-level PDU delivered from the higher layer to the MAC layer; MAC CE is the control signaling of the MAC layer. A MAC SDU or MAC CE and a MAC subheader constitute a MAC subPDU; the length of the MAC CE can be 0, in which case a MAC subPDU contains only the MAC subheader.

[0069] 2. Padding bits in NR MAC PDU

[0070] Upper-layer data (such as Internet Protocol (IP) layer data) needs to be encapsulated by the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), Radio Link Control (RLC), and MAC layer, filled into a MAC PDU, and then submitted to the physical layer for transmission. For an upper-layer data packet, assuming its corresponding SDAP header length is A bytes, PDCP header length is B bytes, RLC header length is C bytes, and MAC subheader length is D bytes, then if upper-layer data of length X bytes is to be transmitted, it needs to occupy at least X+A+B+C+D bytes in the MAC PDU. X bytes can be the size of a complete upper-layer data packet, or it can be the size of a portion of the data in a segmented upper-layer data packet (i.e., a segment).

[0071] The User Equipment (UE, i.e., the terminal) determines the size of the MAC PDU carried by the Uplink (UL) grant based on the Uplink (UL) grant. If the remaining capacity of the MAC PDU (the capacity not yet allocated to carry MAC subPDUs) is less than or equal to A+B+C+D bytes, then it cannot carry arbitrary upper-layer data (such as 1 byte of upper-layer data). In this case, padding bits are needed to fill the remaining capacity of the MAC PDU, as shown in Figure 3.

[0072] As shown in Figure 3, after loading two MAC subPDUs, the "remaining capacity" of the MAC PDU is insufficient to carry any payload from upper layers (such as the IP layer). At this point, the remaining capacity of the MAC PDU can only be used to place padding bits that do not convey valid information.

[0073] Depending on the remaining capacity, a single MAC PDU may contain:

[0074] Excluding padding bits (i.e., remaining capacity is 0 bytes); or

[0075] It contains padding bits of length M bytes (with remaining capacity of M bytes), where M is a positive integer.

[0076] If padding is required, the padding bits are always placed after all valid data (higher-level data or MAC CE) of a MAC PDU.

[0077] 3. Padding the subPDU (MAC subPDU with padding)

[0078] The padded subPDU consists of two parts: a padded MAC subheader and an optional padded payload. The content of the padded subPDU is the padded bits.

[0079] The MAC subheader format used to populate the subPDU is shown in Figure 4.

[0080] The meanings of each field (the fields in the MAC subheader or MAC CE can also be described as fields) are as follows:

[0081] [Amended according to Rule 26, June 25, 2025] LCID: The Logical Channel ID field identifies the logical channel number of the corresponding MAC SDU or the type or padding of the corresponding MAC CE. For DL-SCH and UL-SCH, the same LCID value may indicate different meanings. Each MAC subheader has one LCID field. In NR, the LCID field is 6 bits long.

[0082] R field: Reserved bit. Set to 0.

[0083] In NR, the Logical Channel Identity (LCID) value of the MAC subheader corresponding to the uplink padding subPDU is 63. When the receiver recognizes that the LCID field in a MAC subheader is 63, the receiver determines that from the beginning of that MAC subheader to the end of the MAC PDU, it consists of padding bits.

[0084] The second part of the padding subPDU is the padding payload. In a MAC PDU, if the remaining capacity to be padded is greater than 1 byte, the padding subPDU includes a MAC header and a padding payload; if the remaining capacity to be padded is only 1 byte, the padding subPDU only includes a MAC header and no padding payload. Therefore, the padding subPDU consists of two parts: a MAC header and an optional padding payload.

[0085] If padding is required, the padding subPDU is always placed at the end of a MAC PDU; that is, the padding bits are placed from the start of the MAC sub-header of the padding subPDU to the last bit of the MAC PDU (therefore, the padding MAC sub-header does not need to indicate the length of the padding payload, and the receiver can determine the position and length of the padding bits based on the start position of the padding MAC sub-header and the total length of the MAC PDU).

[0086] 4. NR Buffer Status Reporting (BSR)

[0087] When a UE interacts with the network (such as a base station), in order to assist the network in uplink scheduling, the UE needs to notify the network of the amount of uplink data waiting to be transmitted in the UE's buffer / buffer status. After obtaining the buffer status, the network can allocate uplink resources of appropriate size to the UE. The process of reporting the buffer status is called BSR (Buffer Status Reporting).

[0088] At any given time, a UE may have uplink data from multiple services awaiting transmission, with varying Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. To allow the network to implement different scheduling strategies for data with different QoS requirements, the UE can map uplink data to different Logical Channels (LCHs) based on network configuration. Different LCHs correspond to the same or different scheduling priorities (the priority of a logical channel is configured by the Network Controller). The network can configure the UE to associate one or more logical channels with similar QoS requirements into the same Logical Channel Group (LCG). In NR, a UE supports a maximum of 16 logical channels and 8 logical channel groups. Based on the BSR procedure, the UE reports the buffer size (BS) value for each LCG. The purpose of the UE reporting BS by logical channel group (rather than by logical channel) is to reduce the signaling overhead of BS reporting.

[0089] The UE performs BS reporting at the logical channel group (LCG) level. This involves summing the uplink data to be transmitted across all logical channels within each LCG, and mapping the result (BS value) to a BS index value using a protocol-defined mapping table (which indicates the correspondence between BS values ​​and their indexes). During a single BSR (Browser Response Scheduler) process, the UE reports the BS index values ​​for one or more LCGs. In NR (Normative Response), the BS index value has two lengths: 5 bits or 8 bits.

[0090] Table 1 provides an example of the mapping relationship between BS index values ​​and BS values: According to this example, when the BS value is 50 bytes, the corresponding BS index value is 6.

[0091] Table 1: Mapping relationship between 5-bit BS index value and BS (unit: byte)

[0092] Currently, NR supports the following types of BSRs based on different triggering methods: Regular BSR, Periodic BSR, and Padding BSR.

[0093] For an LCH, if it belongs to an LCG, when it has uplink data to be transmitted that can be sent by a MAC entity (i.e., the data to be transmitted by a MAC entity belonging to this LCH starts to appear from nothing), a regular BSR is triggered if any of the following conditions are met:

[0094] The priority of the LCH is higher than that of any LCH belonging to any LCG and having uplink data waiting to be transmitted.

[0095] or

[0096] Before the uplink data to be transmitted arrives, any LCH belonging to the LCG does not contain any uplink data to be transmitted.

[0097] The mapping relationship between LCH and LCG is configured by the network (NW). If the NW does not configure the LCG to which an LCH belongs, the UE will not include the BS information of that LCH in the BSR report; the LCH will also not trigger the transmission of a normal BSR.

[0098] Periodic BSR: Triggered when the periodic BSR sending timer times out.

[0099] Padding BSR: If a MAC PDU has remaining capacity after accommodating all transmittable data, it can use the remaining capacity to send a padding BSR (if the remaining capacity can accommodate the shortest padding BSR).

[0100] An LCH can belong to at most one LCG. The BSR MAC CE format of NR Rel-15 is shown in Figures 5 and 6.

[0101] LCHs with similar scheduling priorities can be associated with an LCG; if an LCH is not associated with any LCG, the UE cannot report the BS information of that LCH.

[0102] The Short BSR MAC CE is used to report the BS index value of a single LCG (as shown in Figure 5). Because its length is fixed at 1 byte, its corresponding MAC subheader format is shown in Figure 4 (excluding the length indicator field). In NR, the LCID value corresponding to the Short BSR is 61. When the UE has only one LCG with data in its buffer, the UE uses the Short BSR MAC CE to send the BSR to the NW.

[0103] The Long BSR MAC CE is used to report the BS index values ​​of N LCGs (as shown in Figure 6), where N>=0. When N=0, the length of the Long BSR MAC CE is 1 byte, meaning it only contains the 8 LCGi fields of the first byte. In NR, the LCID value corresponding to the Long BSR is 62.

[0104] The specific explanations for each domain are as follows:

[0105] [Amended according to Rule 26, June 25, 2025] LCG ID: The Logical Channel Group ID field identifies the logical channel group whose reported buffer status / buffered data amount is being reported. For short BSR and short truncated BSR formats, this field is 3 bits long;

[0106] [Amended according to Rule 26, June 25, 2025] Buffer Size: The buffer size field indicates the total amount of data to be transmitted on all logical channels of the logical channel group after the MAC PDU is constructed (i.e., after the logical channel priority determination process, which may result in the buffer size field being zero), based on the data volume calculation process in TS 38.322 and 38.323. The data volume is expressed in bytes. The size of the RLC header and MAC subheader is not considered in the buffer size calculation process. The length of this field is 5 bits for short BSR format and short truncated BSR format. The length of this field is 8 bits for long BSR format and long truncated BSR format. For long BSR format and long truncated BSR format, the buffer size fields of each LCG carried by the MAC CE are included in the MAC CE in ascending order of i in LCGi. For long truncated BSR format, the number of buffer size fields included will be maximized, but will not exceed the number of padding bits.

[0107] [Amended according to Rule 26, June 25, 2025] LCGi: For long BSR format, this field indicates that the buffer size field of logical channel group i is carried by the MAC CE; setting the LCGi field to 1 indicates that the BS index value of logical channel group i is reported / carried, and setting the LCGi field to 0 indicates that the BS index value of logical channel group i is not reported / carried. For long truncated BSR format, this field indicates whether logical channel group i has data to be transmitted. Setting the LCGi field to 1 indicates that logical channel group i has data to be transmitted. Setting the LCGi field to 0 indicates that logical channel group i has no data to be transmitted.

[0108] Additionally, setting the LCGi field to 0 indicates that the Buffer Size field of that LCG is not included.

[0109] The MAC subheader corresponding to a long BSR or a long truncated BSR MAC CE contains a length indicator field that indicates the length of the MAC CE, as shown in Figure 7.

[0110] in:

[0111] LCID field: Same meaning as in Figure 4.

[0112] [Amended according to Rule 26 25.06.2025] F: Format field. The "Format" field indicates the size of the "Length" field. In addition to the subheaders corresponding to the fixed-size MAC CE, padding, and MAC SDU containing UL CCCH, each MAC subheader has a format field. The format field is 1 bit in size. A value of 0 indicates that the length field in the MAC subheader is 8 bits in size, and a value of 1 indicates that the length field in the MAC subheader is 16 bits in size.

[0113] [Amended according to Rule 26 25.06.2025] L: Length field, indicating the length of the MAC SDU or variable-length MAC CE; specifically, the length field indicates the length of the corresponding MAC SDU or variable-size MAC CE in bytes. Except for the subheaders corresponding to the fixed-size MAC CE, padding, and MAC SDU containing UL CCCH, each MAC subheader has a length field, the size of which is indicated by the format field.

[0114] It is evident that the position of the LCID field is fixed in each MAC sub-header. Therefore, the receiving end can first determine the position of the LCID field in the MAC sub-header to obtain the value of the LCID field, and then determine the format of the MAC sub-header and the length of the corresponding payload (if any) based on the value of the LCID field and / or the value of the L field.

[0115] 5. Fill in the BSR

[0116] If the uplink MAC PDU requires padding, some or all of the padding bits can be replaced with a padding BSR to facilitate subsequent scheduling by the NW. The padding bits correspond to the padding MAC subheader and optional padding payload (if the padding length is greater than 1 byte). A MAC PDU carries at most one padding BSR MAC CE.

[0117] Based on the above long BSR or short BSR formats, we know that: for short BSR MAC CE, the total length of its header and short BSR MAC CE is 2 bytes; for long BSR MAC CE, the total length of its header and MAC CE is at least 3 bytes (2-byte MAC header + 1-byte long BSR MAC CE).

[0118] Therefore, when a MAC PDU needs to be filled, the required fill size falls into three categories:

[0119] (1) When it is greater than or equal to "Long BSR MAC CE plus the size of the corresponding subheader":

[0120] UE reports Long BSR;

[0121] At this time, the UE uses the format shown in Figure 6 to indicate the identifiers of all LCGs with data to be transmitted and their corresponding BS indexes; in the MAC subheader corresponding to Long BSR MAC CE, the LCID value is 61.

[0122] (2) When it equals "Short BSR MAC CE plus the size of the corresponding subheader":

[0123] If the UE has one LCG with data to be transmitted or no LCG with data to be transmitted, the UE reports a short BSR.

[0124] If the UE has more than one LCG with data to be transmitted, the UE reports a short truncated BSR; the MAC CE carries the identifier of the LCG to which the highest priority LCH with data to be transmitted belongs and the BS index value of that LCG.

[0125] It should be noted that the MAC CE format of the Short BSR and Short Truncated BSR is the same (as shown in Figure 5). The difference lies in the LCID value in the MAC subheader corresponding to the MAC CE (the LCID of the Short Truncated BSR is 59, and the LCID of the Short BSR is 61). Thus, when the receiving end receives the Short BSR, it can determine that the UE has only one LCG with data to be transmitted, and the identifier and BS index value of this LCG are indicated by the MAC CE. When the receiving end receives the Short Truncated BSR, it can determine that the UE has more than one LCG with data to be transmitted. Among these, the identifier of the LCG to which the highest priority LCH with data to be transmitted belongs, and the BS index of the amount of data to be transmitted for that LCG, are indicated by the MAC CE (information on other LCGs with data to be transmitted is not carried because there is no space in the MAC PDU).

[0126] (3) Greater than "Short BSR MAC CE plus the size of the corresponding subheader" and less than "Long BSR MAC CE plus the size of the corresponding subheader":

[0127] If the UE has one LCG with data to be transmitted or no LCG with data to be transmitted, the UE reports a short BSR.

[0128] [Revised according to Rule 26, June 2025] If a UE has X LCGs with data to be transmitted (X>1), the UE reports a long Truncated BSR. Assuming the size to be filled is sufficient for the BS index of a MAC CE carrying up to Y LCGs (X>Y), for the X LCGs with data to be transmitted, Y LCGs are selected in descending order of priority of the highest priority LCH contained in each LCG (regardless of whether the LCH has data to be transmitted), and their corresponding BS index values ​​are reported sequentially. Based on the aforementioned mechanism, if multiple LCGs have the same highest priority LCH, the LCGs whose BS index values ​​are to be reported are selected in ascending order of LCG ID and reported sequentially (i.e., the preset rule).

[0129] It should be noted that the MAC CE format of Long BSR and Long Truncated BSR is the same (as shown in Figure 6). The difference lies in the LCID value in the MAC subheader corresponding to the MAC CE (LCID is 60 for Long Truncated BSR and 62 for Long BSR). Thus, after receiving the Long BSR, the receiving end can determine the identifiers of all LCGs with data to be transmitted by the UE, as well as their respective BS indices. The identifiers and BS indices of the LCGs are indicated by the MAC CE. Similarly, upon receiving the Long Truncated BSR, the receiving end can determine the identifiers of all LCGs with data to be transmitted by the UE, as well as the BS index values ​​of some LCGs. The identifiers and BS indices of the LCGs are indicated by the MAC CE. Specifically, the receiving end determines the identifier of the LCG corresponding to each BS index value carried in the MAC CE according to the aforementioned preset rules.

[0130] 6. NR Delay Status Report (DSR)

[0131] In Release 18, delay status reporting was introduced, which can be used to report the delay information of the UE's uplink data to be transmitted, including the remaining time budget of delay-critical data and the amount of data in delay-critical data.

[0132] The base station can configure a remaining delay threshold for LCG or LCH. When there are data packets in the LCG or LCH that have not yet been transmitted in any MAC PDU, and the remaining delay budget of the data packets is lower than the remaining delay threshold, it is determined that the DSR of the LCG or LCH is triggered. Data packets with a remaining delay budget lower than the remaining delay threshold are called delay-urgent data.

[0133] When a DSR is reported, the DSR includes the remaining latency budget value of the packet with the shortest remaining latency budget and a value greater than 0, as well as the amount of latency-urgent data for that LCG or LCH.

[0134] The MAC CE format of the DSR is shown in Figure 8:

[0135] [Amended according to Rule 26, June 25, 2025] LCGi: This field indicates whether the MAC CE carries the delay information (i.e., remaining time and buffer size fields) corresponding to logical channel group i. Setting the LCGi field to 1 indicates that the delay information of logical channel group i is carried. Setting the LCGi field to 0 indicates that the delay information of logical channel group i is not carried;

[0136] [Amended according to Rule 26, 25.06.2025] Remaining Time: This field indicates the shortest remaining time value in the running PDCP discardTimer (described by Clause 7.3 of TS 38.323) for each PDCP SDU that has not yet been transmitted in any MAC PDU among all buffered PDCP SDUs in an LCG, up to the first symbol of the PUSCH carrying the first transmission of this DSR MAC CE. The length of this field is 6 bits. The value r of this field indicates that the shortest remaining time is in the range of (r, r+1) milliseconds;

[0137] [Revised according to Rule 26, June 25, 2025] BT: This field exists if the corresponding LCG is configured with additionalBSR-TableAllowed; otherwise, it is retained. BT takes 0 or 1, using different mapping tables to determine the actual amount of cached data and the BS index.

[0138] [Amended according to Rule 26, June 25, 2025] Buffer Size: The Buffer Size field is calculated according to the data volume specified in Clause 5.5 of TS 38.322 and Clause 5.6 of TS 38.323, and is used by the associated RLC entity and PDCP entity respectively to indicate the amount of latency-critical uplink data for an LCG after the MAC PDU is constructed. If the corresponding LCG is configured with additionalBSR-TableAllowed, and the amount of latency-critical uplink data for the LCG is within the Buffer Size range specified in the first mapping table of the protocol, the MAC entity should use the BS index corresponding to the Buffer Size specified in the first mapping table to set the value of this field; otherwise, the MAC entity should use the BS index corresponding to the Buffer Size specified in the second mapping table of the protocol to set the value of this field. The amount of data represented by this field is in bytes. The length of this field is 8 bits.

[0139] 7. Logical Channel Priority (LCP) parameter of LCH

[0140] For a Logical Channel (LCH), the base station can configure one or more LCP parameters using the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol. When the UE generates a MAC PDU for an uplink transmission license, it determines whether data from the LCH can be placed into the MAC PDU and how much LCH data can be placed into the MAC PDU for transmission based on these pre-configured LCP parameters. Below are some LCP parameters from the NR MAC (3GPP TS 38.321v18.0) protocol:

[0141] Priority: The resource allocation priority of the logical channel; a larger value indicates a lower priority.

[0142] Prioritized Bit Rate: The bit rate that is prioritized for transmission on the logical channel;

[0143] Token Bucket Window Length (bucketSizeDuration): The length of the window used to indicate the amount of data that can be transmitted as the priority transmission bit rate increases.

[0144] The following description, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, details the transmission method, apparatus, and related equipment provided in this application through some embodiments and application scenarios.

[0145] Referring to Figure 9, which is a flowchart of a transmission method provided in an embodiment of this application, the transmission method includes the following steps:

[0146] Step 101: The terminal sends a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to the network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information. The size of the padding information is smaller than the size of the target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field.

[0147] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0148] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0149] The target MAC PDU can also be described as an uplink MAC PDU. The padding information can be used to fill the remaining available space of the target MAC PDU when the remaining available space cannot accommodate the target padding BSR. The target padding BSR can be the shortest possible padding BSR; for example, it can be a short BSR or a short truncated BSR (or described as a BSR carried by a Short BSR MAC CE format). Carrying the target padding BSR in the target MAC PDU requires at least 2 bytes (or, as can be stated, the target padding BSR size is at least 2 bytes). Furthermore, the size of the target padding BSR can refer to the size occupied by the target padding BSR carried in the MAC PDU (including the MAC CE and the corresponding MAC subheader).

[0150] In addition, the uplink data to be transmitted can also be described as data to be transmitted, or uplink data to be transmitted, or cached data, etc.

[0151] In addition, the filling information can also be described as filling content.

[0152] In the embodiments of this application, the cache may refer to the terminal's transmit or uplink cache.

[0153] Additionally, the size of the padding information can be 1 byte or greater. The padding information can be placed at the end of the target MAC PDU; for example, the padding information can be placed in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

[0154] In one embodiment, the size of the padding information can be understood as the size of the space occupied by the padding information, or the number of bits occupied by the padding information.

[0155] In one implementation, when the number of remaining padding bits in the target MAC PDU is less than the target padding BSR, padding information including a first identifier field is set in the target MAC PDU.

[0156] The first identifier field can also be described as the first identifier. The first identifier field can be the LCID field, or it can be a field other than the LCID field. For example, the first identifier field can be a newly introduced identifier field in the 6G cellular communication system. For example, the purpose of the first identifier field is the same as that of the LCID field in the NR system, identifying the logical channel number of the corresponding MAC SDU or the type or padding of the corresponding MAC CE.

[0157] Furthermore, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, which can be understood or replaced as follows: the value of the first identifier field is determined by the uplink data to be transmitted of the terminal; or, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted of the terminal; or, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the identifier of the BSR or the filling BSR; or, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the highest priority LCH among the LCHs corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted of the terminal; or, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the target LCH, which is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted of the terminal belongs; and so on.

[0158] Additionally, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field can be a first value. This first value can be a value agreed upon in the protocol. Using this first value as the value of the first identifier field can indicate that the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted. For example, this first value can be a newly defined value, such as using an NR reserved (without defined purpose) LCID value, or a dedicated LCID value defined in 6G.

[0159] Additionally, if the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field can be a second value. This second value can be a value agreed upon in the protocol. Using this second value as the value of the first identifier field indicates that the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted. For example, the second value can be a newly defined value, such as using an NR reserved (without defined purpose) LCID value, or a dedicated LCID value defined in 6G; or, the second value can be the LCID value used to fill a MAC subPDU.

[0160] In one implementation, when the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the LCID value of the MAC sub-PDU. For example, when the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the first identifier field can be the LCID field of the MAC sub-PDU. This first value is different from the LCID value of the MAC sub-PDU.

[0161] It should be noted that the network-side device can determine whether the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted or not based on the value of the first identifier field.

[0162] A padded MAC subPDU can also be described as a padded subPDU, or a MAC subPDU with padding. A padded MAC subPDU consists of a padded MAC header and an optional padded payload. The content of the padded MAC subPDU is the padding bits.

[0163] Additionally, the statement that the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted can also be described as the terminal having uplink data to transmit, or the terminal's buffer not being empty. The statement that the terminal does not have uplink data to transmit can also be described as the terminal having no uplink data to transmit, or the terminal's transmit or uplink buffer being empty.

[0164] In one embodiment, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or, when the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, the second value being different from the first value, including at least one of the following:

[0165] When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value;

[0166] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0167] In one embodiment, the terminal sends a target MAC PDU to the network-side device. This can be understood or replaced as the terminal generating a target MAC PDU and sending the target MAC PDU to the network-side device.

[0168] In one implementation, the size of the padding information is 1 byte. The terminal sends the target MAC PDU to the network-side device. This can be understood or replaced as follows: when there is only 1 byte of available bearer space remaining in the target MAC PDU (or described as a UL grant), if the terminal has uplink data to transmit, the terminal uses the remaining 1 byte of available bearer space to transmit the following information: a first identification field (such as an LCID field); wherein the value of the first identification field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal, or the value of the first identification field is a first value.

[0169] It should be noted that the target padding BSR can be the smallest in length (i.e., 2 bytes) in existing technologies or the second smallest or third smallest padding BSR supported by future cellular communication technologies. Padding information can be a new type of padding BSR, which is shorter than the target padding BSR, and is used to pad the MAC PDU.

[0170] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to transmit, the first identifier field can be set to the identifier of the logical channel with data to transmit; or, set to the identifier information to fill the BSR, such as filling the LCID corresponding to the BSR; or set to the first value.

[0171] Optionally, if there are multiple logical channels with data to be transmitted, the first identifier field is set to the identifier of the logical channel with the highest priority.

[0172] Optionally, if a logical channel with data to be transmitted contains data that will time out (also known as time-urgent data), the first identifier field is set to the identifier of the logical channel containing the data that will time out; if multiple logical channels contain data that will time out, the first identifier field is set to the identifier of the logical channel containing the earliest data that will time out.

[0173] Optionally, the terminal can use the remaining space or bits in the target MAC PDU after filling the first identifier field to report transmission or uplink buffer information. For example, the terminal can use the remaining space or bits after filling the first identifier field to report one or more of the following:

[0174] The amount of data to be transmitted corresponding to the logical channel (or all logical channels in the logical channel group to which the logical channel belongs) identified by the value of the first identifier field is reported.

[0175] The information related to the timeout time of the earliest timeout data in the logical channel (or all logical channels in the logical channel group to which the logical channel belongs) identified by the value of the first identifier field is reported (e.g., remaining time).

[0176] The amount of data in the logical channel (or all logical channels in the logical channel group to which the first identifier field belongs) whose remaining time before the timeout is lower than a preset time threshold.

[0177] The reported value of the first identifier field indicates that the logical channel (or all logical channels in the logical channel group to which the logical channel belongs) contains buffered data, and also indicates one of the following: the buffered data contains only time-delay urgent data; the buffered data does not contain time-delay urgent data (i.e., it only contains non-time-delay urgent data); the buffered data contains both time-delay urgent data and non-time-delay urgent data.

[0178] The total amount of data to be transmitted in the reporting terminal's cache;

[0179] The earliest information related to the timeout time of the timeout data will be stored in the cache of the reporting terminal.

[0180] The amount of data in the reporting terminal's cache whose remaining time before the timeout is less than a threshold;

[0181] The reporting terminal contains cached data and indicates one of the following: the cached data contains only time-sensitive urgent data; the cached data does not contain time-sensitive urgent data (i.e., it only contains non-time-sensitive urgent data); or the cache contains both time-sensitive urgent data and non-time-sensitive urgent data.

[0182] In one implementation, if the terminal has no uplink data to transmit (i.e., the buffer is empty), the terminal can use the remaining 1 byte of available bearer space to transmit padding bits.

[0183] In this embodiment, when there is only 1 byte of padding space in the MAC PDU, the terminal uses the last byte of the MAC PDU to send the MAC sub-header, carrying a first identification field (such as an LCID field). When the terminal has no uplink data to transmit, the first identification field can take the second value; when the terminal has uplink data to transmit, the first identification field can take the first value or the first identification field value belongs to a preset value set, where the second value is different from the first value, and the preset value set does not include the second value. The preset value set is specified by the protocol or configured by the network for the terminal.

[0184] It should be noted that, according to the existing mechanisms of LTE and NR, if an uplink MAC PDU needs padding, and the length of the padding content is greater than or equal to 2 bytes, the terminal can send a padding BSR (sending a padding BSR requires at least 2 bytes of space in the MAC PDU) to fully utilize uplink resources for information transmission. However, if the length of the padding content is only 1 byte, it cannot carry a padding BSR; therefore, only padding bits can be sent. Since padding bits cannot transmit useful terminal information to the network, sending padding bits will waste uplink resources. When the length of the padding content is insufficient to send a padding BSR, this embodiment of the application sends padding information, enabling the terminal to send coarse buffered data information to the network to fully utilize air interface resources for transmitting useful information.

[0185] In this embodiment, the terminal sends a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to the network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identifier field. When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value. Alternatively, when the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value. Thus, when the remaining available bearer space of the target MAC PDU cannot accommodate the target padding BSR, the terminal can transmit information related to the uplink data to be transmitted to the network-side device through the padding information, thereby improving the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0186] Optionally, the padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

[0187] In this embodiment, the size of the padding information is 1 byte, and the padding information is set in the last 1 byte of the target MAC PDU. Thus, when there is only 1 byte of available space left in the target MAC PDU, the terminal can use the remaining 1 byte of space that cannot carry the target padding BSR to transmit information associated with the uplink data to be transmitted to the network-side device, thereby improving the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0188] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a first MAC sub-header, and the first identifier field is the Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) in the first MAC sub-header.

[0189] In one implementation, an LCID value that should not appear according to existing technology can be transmitted in the remaining space of the MAC PDU (such as the target MAC PDU) to change the original meaning of the LCID value. In a MAC PDU: the same value of the type field (such as LCID) in the MAC sub-header has two different meanings: one applies to the MAC sub-header located in the last byte of the MAC PDU; the other applies to the MAC sub-header located in a byte other than the last byte of the MAC PDU. The LCID located in the last byte of the MAC PDU is padding information used to indicate whether the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted; the LCID located in a byte other than the last byte of the MAC PDU has the meaning of LCID in existing technology.

[0190] In this embodiment, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the terminal fills the first MAC subheader with the available bearer space of the BSR that cannot carry the target, and transmits the information associated with the uplink data to be transmitted to the network-side device through the LCID in the first MAC subheader, which can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0191] Optionally, if the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a padding MAC sub-PDU, the padding MAC sub-PDU includes a second MAC sub-header, and the first identification field is the LCID in the second MAC sub-header.

[0192] The second MAC subheader can also be described as a padding MAC subheader.

[0193] The filling information includes filling MAC sub-PDUs, which can be understood as filling MAC sub-PDUs; or, the filling information includes filling MAC sub-PDUs, and the filling information also includes other information besides filling MAC sub-PDUs.

[0194] It should be noted that the network-side device can determine whether the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted or not by using the LCID value in the filling information.

[0195] In this embodiment, when the terminal has no uplink data to be transmitted, the terminal fills the second MAC subheader with the available bearer space of the BSR that cannot carry the target, and reports that the terminal has no uplink data to be transmitted through the LCID in the second MAC subheader, which can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0196] Optionally, before the terminal sends the target MAC PDU to the network-side device, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the method further includes at least one of the following:

[0197] The terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0198] The terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the BSR or the identifier that fills the BSR.

[0199] The process of determining the value of the first identifier field based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal may include: the terminal determining the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0200] The LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal can be the LCH configured with its respective LCG.

[0201] In one embodiment, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal. This may include: the terminal determining a target LCH based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted belongs, and the terminal determining the value of the first identifier field based on the target LCH; or, the terminal determining the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0202] In one embodiment, when there is only one LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal, the terminal can determine the value of the identifier of the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted as the value of the first identifier field; when there are at least two LCHs corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal, the terminal can determine the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0203] In one implementation, the value of the first identifier field may belong to a preset value set, and the terminal can determine the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the LCH with data to be transmitted.

[0204] In one implementation, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field can be a BSR or the LCID value of the BSR padding. For example, it can be a BSR or the LCID value corresponding to the BSR padding as defined in the protocol. In NR, the value of the BSR or the LCID of the BSR padding is 59, 60, 61, or 62. For example, the value of the first identifier field can be 59, 60, 61, or 62. The terminal can indicate information associated with the uplink data to be transmitted by setting the value of the first identifier field to a BSR or the LCID value of the BSR padding. For example, the terminal can indicate the presence of uplink data to be transmitted by setting the value of the first identifier field to a BSR or the LCID value of the BSR padding. For example, the terminal can determine one of the BSR or the LCID value of the BSR padding as the value of the first identifier field according to the protocol.

[0205] Optionally, in this embodiment, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal. Thus, the network-side device can obtain relevant information about the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal through the value of the first identifier field, which facilitates uplink transmission scheduling by the network-side device. Compared with sending padding bits, this can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0206] In this embodiment, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier value of the BSR or the filling BSR, so that the network-side device can obtain relevant information about the identifier of the BSR or the filling BSR through the value of the first identifier field, which facilitates the network-side device to perform uplink transmission scheduling. Compared with sending filling bits, it can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0207] In one implementation, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal, including:

[0208] When the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes at least two LCHs, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0209] The terminal can determine the value of the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs as the value of the first identifier field.

[0210] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0211] Wherein, if the number of the highest priority LCHs among the at least two LCHs is greater than 1, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs as the value of the first identifier field; or, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs as the value of the first identifier field; or, the terminal selects an LCH from the highest priority LCHs according to the rules agreed upon in the protocol, and determines the value of the identifier of the selected LCH as the value of the first identifier field; etc., this embodiment does not limit this.

[0212] In one implementation, if a terminal has multiple LCHs with data to be transmitted, the terminal selects the value of the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the LCHs with data to be transmitted as the value of the first identifier field.

[0213] It should be noted that network-side devices may set multiple priority values ​​for a terminal's LCH, but at any given time, for a given LCH, the terminal will only use one of the configured priority values. In this embodiment, taking LCH1 as an example, the priority of LCH1 refers to the priority value of LCH1 currently being used by the terminal.

[0214] In this embodiment, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal. Thus, the network-side device can obtain the relevant information of the highest priority LCH of the terminal through the value of the first identifier field, which facilitates the network-side device to perform uplink transmission scheduling. Compared with sending padding bits, it can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0215] In one implementation, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal, including:

[0216] The terminal determines the target LCH based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted in the terminal belongs, wherein the timeout data is the data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold;

[0217] The terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the target LCH.

[0218] Optionally, when there is uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

[0219] The timeout data can be data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold and the remaining time is greater than 0. The target LCH can be the LCH to which the timeout data belongs in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0220] The target LCH can be an LCH configured with its own LCG.

[0221] Additionally, if there is only one target LCH, the terminal can determine the value of the target LCH's identifier as the value of the first identifier field; or, if the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH with the shortest remaining time to which the timeout data belongs as the value of the first identifier field; or, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0222] The process of the terminal determining the value of the first identifier field based on the target LCH may include the terminal determining the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the target LCH.

[0223] The timeout data can be time-delay emergency data (or described as emergency data).

[0224] In one implementation, if there are multiple LCHs with data to be transmitted, the terminal selects the LCH with the shortest remaining time containing urgent delay data as the value of the first identifier field.

[0225] In this embodiment, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. Thus, the network-side device can obtain the relevant information of the LCH to which the timed-out data in the uplink data to be transmitted of the terminal belongs through the value of the first identifier field, which facilitates the network-side device to perform uplink transmission scheduling. Compared with sending padding bits, it can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0226] Optionally, the target LCH is the LCH of the timed-out data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that has not been transmitted in any MAC PDU.

[0227] In this embodiment, the target LCH is the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal belongs that has not been transmitted in any MAC PDU. Thus, the network-side device can obtain the relevant information of the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal belongs that has not been transmitted in any MAC PDU through the value of the first identifier field. This facilitates uplink transmission scheduling by the network-side device and can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources compared to sending padding bits.

[0228] In one implementation, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the target LCH, including:

[0229] When the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data belongs with the shortest remaining time among the at least two LCHs as the value of the first identifier field, or the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0230] Optionally, when the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data with the shortest remaining time belongs among the at least two LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0231] In one embodiment, when the number of the highest priority LCHs among the at least two LCHs is greater than 1, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs as the value of the first identifier field; or, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs as the value of the first identifier field; or, the terminal selects an LCH from the highest priority LCHs according to the rules agreed upon in the protocol, and determines the value of the identifier of the selected LCH as the value of the first identifier field; etc., this embodiment does not limit this.

[0232] In this embodiment, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH to which the timed-out data belongs among the at least two LCHs with the shortest remaining time as the value of the first identifier field. Thus, the network-side device can obtain the identifier of the LCH to which the timed-out data belongs through the value of the first identifier field, which facilitates uplink transmission scheduling by the network-side device. Compared with sending padding bits, it can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0233] In this embodiment, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the highest priority LCH among the at least two LCHs. Thus, the network-side device can obtain the identifier of the highest priority LCH among the LCHs to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal belongs through the value of the first identifier field. This facilitates uplink transmission scheduling by the network-side device and can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources compared to sending padding bits.

[0234] In one implementation, the terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the identifier of the highest-priority LCH among the at least two LCHs, including:

[0235] If the number of the highest priority LCHs among the at least two LCHs is greater than 1, the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs as the value of the first identifier field, or the terminal determines the value of the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs as the value of the first identifier field.

[0236] Optionally, if the number of the highest priority LCHs is greater than 1, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs.

[0237] The LCH with the largest identifier can refer to the LCH with the largest LCID value. The LCH with the smallest identifier can refer to the LCH with the smallest LCID value. The identifier value of an LCH can refer to the LCID value of that LCH.

[0238] In one implementation, if there are more than one LCH with the highest priority among the LCHs with data to be transmitted, the terminal selects the maximum or minimum value of the identifier of the highest priority LCH as the value of the first identifier field.

[0239] Optionally, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the filling information includes a target MAC sub-PDU, the target MAC sub-PDU includes the first identifier field, and the target MAC sub-PDU also includes at least one of first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information or the second indication information being used to indicate relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0240] The filling information includes the target MAC sub-PDU, which can be understood as the filling information being the target MAC sub-PDU; or, the filling information includes the target MAC sub-PDU, and the filling information also includes other information besides the target MAC sub-PDU.

[0241] Where the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information may include a target MAC sub-PDU, which may be the last MAC sub-PDU of the target MAC PDU. The target MAC sub-PDU may include a first MAC sub-header, which may include a first identification field, and may also include at least one of first indication information and second indication information.

[0242] In one implementation, taking a 1-byte padding information as an example, the terminal can use bits outside the first identifier field in the last byte of the target MAC PDU to transmit first indication information or second indication information. The first indication information or second indication information is used to indicate cached data information. The cached data information includes one or more of the following: the total amount of uplink data to be transmitted cached by the terminal; the amount of uplink data to be transmitted cached in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field reported by the terminal; the remaining time of the uplink urgent data of the terminal; the remaining time of the uplink urgent data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field reported by the terminal; the cached data of the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field reported by the terminal contains only latency urgent data, or the cached data of the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field reported by the terminal does not contain latency urgent data (i.e., only contains non-latency urgent data), or the cached data of the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field reported by the terminal contains both latency urgent data and non-latency urgent data; the cached data of the terminal contains only latency urgent data, or the cached data of the terminal does not contain latency urgent data (i.e., only contains non-latency urgent data), or the cached data of the terminal contains both latency urgent data and non-latency urgent data.

[0243] In this embodiment, when the remaining available bearer space of the target MAC PDU cannot carry the target filling BSR, the terminal also transmits the relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted to the network-side device through at least one of the first indication information and the second indication information, which can further improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0244] Optionally, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0245] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0246] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the logical channel group (LCG) to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0247] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0248] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0249] The amount of data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field that associates timeout data;

[0250] The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0251] The LCH corresponding to the first identifier field contains uplink data to be transmitted;

[0252] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal;

[0253] The remaining time information of the earliest data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that will time out;

[0254] The amount of data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that includes timeout data;

[0255] The terminal has uplink data to be transmitted;

[0256] The timeout data refers to the data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold.

[0257] The timeout data can be time-sensitive urgent data. The data other than the timeout data can be non-time-sensitive urgent data.

[0258] Additionally, the amount of data associated with timeout data may include the total amount of delay-critical uplink data obtained based on the calculation rules specified in the protocol. For example, the amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field may include the total amount of delay-critical uplink data of the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field, obtained based on the calculation rules specified in the protocol. The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs may include the total amount of delay-critical uplink data of the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs, obtained based on the calculation rules specified in the protocol. The amount of data associated with timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal may include the total amount of delay-critical uplink data of the terminal, obtained based on the calculation rules specified in the protocol. This application embodiment does not limit the specific calculation method for the amount of data associated with timeout data.

[0259] In one implementation, the amount of data associated with the timeout data may include the total amount of the initially transmitted timeout data and the retransmitted timeout data. Because timeout data, if it falls under the category of data that cannot be discarded according to the protocol, needs to be transmitted to the network side before the timeout data. Therefore, the resources that the network side needs to schedule must satisfy the requirement of transmitting the sum of the timeout and timeout data amounts to ensure that the timeout data does not time out.

[0260] In this embodiment, the network-side device can obtain the first indication information by carrying the first indication information through the target MAC sub-PDU, which facilitates the network-side device to perform uplink transmission scheduling. Compared with sending padding bits, it can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0261] Optionally, the second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0262] The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0263] The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0264] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0265] The timeout data can be time-sensitive urgent data. The data other than the timeout data can be non-time-sensitive urgent data.

[0266] In one embodiment, the target MAC sub-PDU may include first indication information and second indication information. When the first indication information indicates that there is uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field, the second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0267] The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0268] The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0269] In one embodiment, the target MAC sub-PDU may include first indication information and second indication information. When the first indication information indicates that the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the second indication information is used to indicate any one of the following:

[0270] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out;

[0271] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out;

[0272] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as other data besides the data that will time out.

[0273] In this embodiment, the network-side device can obtain the second indication information by carrying the target MAC sub-PDU, which facilitates the network-side device to perform uplink transmission scheduling. Compared with sending padding bits, it can improve the utilization rate of uplink resources.

[0274] Optionally, the existence of uplink data to be transmitted refers to the existence of uplink data to be transmitted belonging to an LCH configured with an LCG; or

[0275] The existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that after the target MAC PDU is generated, there is uplink data to be transmitted.

[0276] In one implementation, the existence of uplink data to be transmitted after generating the target MAC PDU may mean that, in addition to the target MAC PDU, there is uplink data to be transmitted after generating the target MAC PDU.

[0277] Optionally, before the terminal sends the target MAC PDU to the network-side device, the method further includes:

[0278] The terminal receives a third indication message sent by the network-side device, the third indication message being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

[0279] Wherein, the instruction to allow the terminal to fill the target MAC PDU with the padding information may be to instruct the terminal to enable the target feature, under which the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the padding information.

[0280] In this embodiment, the terminal receives a third indication information sent by the network-side device. The third indication information is used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information, so that the terminal can use the newly added type of MAC PDU (i.e., the target MAC PDU) through the indication of the network-side device, thereby improving the flexibility of the terminal in using the newly added type of MAC PDU.

[0281] The following examples further illustrate the transmission method:

[0282] Example 1:

[0283] The UE uses the identifier of the LCH in the first MAC subheader of the target MAC PDU (optionally carrying the size information of the data to be transmitted).

[0284] If the target MAC PDU has only 1 byte of available space remaining after mapping / carrying higher-layer data and MAC CE; and if the UE still has M LCHs with data to be transmitted (M>=1), then the UE sends the first MAC sub-header as shown in Figure 10 (the 6-bit LCID field is only an example). The LCID field in the first MAC sub-header indicates the identifier of the highest priority logical channel LCH with data to be transmitted by the UE:

[0285] If the UE has N logical channels with the highest priority for data transmission (i.e., the logical channels of the N LCHs have equal priority), then the UE indicates the identifier of one of the LCHs in the LCID field of the first MAC subheader; for example, the UE can choose the minimum or maximum value of the identifier among the N LCHs; or randomly select the identifier of one LCH.

[0286] Optionally, the LCH indicated by the LCID field in the first MAC subheader is configured to belong to the LCG;

[0287] Optionally, the terminal may introduce a BS field (if the BS field is not introduced, the corresponding bit is an R field, reserved for other subsequent uses) to indicate information about the data to be transmitted.

[0288] For example, the BS domain can indicate:

[0289] The first MAC subheading carries the LCH corresponding to the LCID, or the data volume information (such as the BS index value of the data volume information) of all LCHs in the logical channel group to which the LCH corresponding to the LCID carried in the first MAC subheading belongs; or

[0290] The total amount of data to be transmitted by the UE (such as the BS index value of the data to be transmitted); or

[0291] The number of LCHs or LCGs with data pending transmission for the UE, etc.

[0292] In the first MAC subheader within the last byte of the target MAC PDU, the LCID carries an identifier for the LCH, which is impossible in existing mechanisms. Therefore, it is used here to indicate new information: an identifier for the LCH with data pending transmission.

[0293] Example 2:

[0294] The UE uses the first MAC subheader in the target MAC PDU to report the LCH identifier (optionally carrying the pending emergency data buffer or delay information).

[0295] If only 1 byte of space remains in the target MAC PDU for padding, and the UE has M LCHs with data to be transmitted (M>=1), the UE sends the first MAC subheader. The LCID field in the first MAC subheader indicates the identifier of the logical channel for which the UE has data to transmit and which will have the earliest data timeout. Optionally, the LCH indicated by the LCID field belongs to a pre-configured set, such as the NW configured with a set of LCHs for DS reporting enabled; or, optionally, the LCH indicated by the LCID field belongs to an LCG.

[0296] In one implementation, if the UE has N logical channels with data to be transmitted, the UE indicates the identifier of the LCH that will time out earliest in the LCID field of the first MAC subheader.

[0297] Optionally, the time remaining time of a packet associated with a data packet in the LCH indicated by the LCID field is lower than a preset threshold value.

[0298] Optionally, as shown in Figure 11, the BS field is introduced to indicate information about the data to be transmitted.

[0299] For example, the BS domain can indicate:

[0300] The LCH corresponding to the LCID carried in the first MAC subheading, or the amount of urgent data to be transmitted in all LCHs of the logical channel group to which the LCH corresponding to the LCID carried in the first MAC subheading belongs (e.g., the amount of data with a remaining time lower than a preset threshold); or

[0301] The total amount of urgent data to be transmitted across all LCHs in the UE (e.g., the amount of data with a remaining time below a preset threshold); or

[0302] The number of LCHs or LCGs with urgent data pending transmission in the UE, etc.

[0303] Optionally, as shown in Figure 11, the DS field is introduced to indicate information about the data to be transmitted.

[0304] For example, the DS field can indicate the remaining time information of urgent data to be transmitted in all LCHs in the logical channel group to which the LCH corresponding to the LCID carried in the first MAC subheading belongs (e.g., the minimum remaining time of all PDUs).

[0305] Example 3:

[0306] The UE uses the first MAC subheader in the target MAC PDU to report the LCID value corresponding to the MAC CE related to the BSR.

[0307] The first MAC subheader is carried in the last byte of the target MAC PDU. Optionally, the LCID field in the first MAC subheader carries the LCID value corresponding to a BSR-related MAC CE, which is impossible in the existing mechanism (the LCID in the MAC subheader carried in the last byte of the final MAC PDU will not have the following four values). In the existing mechanism, the LCID values ​​corresponding to various BSR formats are as follows:

[0308] Therefore, the first MAC sub-header can be carried in the last byte of the target MAC PDU, and the LCID field value can be set to one of 59 to 62 (i.e., the LCID value used for other purposes is reused) to represent a new meaning: for example, indicating that the UE has uplink data to be transmitted.

[0309] Example 4:

[0310] The LCID field in the first MAC subheader indicates a dedicated LCID value (i.e., an LCID value specified by the protocol for this purpose) to indicate that the UE has uplink data to transmit. This method can also be described as the UE reporting a Padding Scheduling Request.

[0311] Example 5:

[0312] The UE uses the padding MAC subheader (i.e. the second MAC subheader) to report that there is no uplink data to be transmitted.

[0313] When there is data to be transmitted, the UE can use the last byte of padding space to transmit the uplink data information using the methods in Examples 1 to 4. Therefore, the UE will only use the last byte to send the padding MAC sub-header when there is no uplink data to be transmitted.

[0314] Therefore, sending the padding MAC subheader using the last byte of the target MAC PDU can be used to indicate that the UE has no uplink data to transmit.

[0315] The difference from existing technologies is that, in existing mechanisms, even if the UE has uplink data to transmit, it will still send a padding MAC header when only 1 byte remains in the target MAC PDU. Therefore, in existing mechanisms, the NW (network) cannot determine whether the UE has uplink data to transmit upon receiving the last byte of the padding MAC header; however, in this embodiment, the NW can determine that the UE has no uplink data to transmit upon receiving the last byte of the padding MAC header.

[0316] Example 6:

[0317] The UE uses the first MAC subheader of the target MAC PDU to report the LCH identifier (optionally carrying the data characteristics information to be transmitted).

[0318] The UE fills in the LCID field based on the mechanism of Example 1 or Example 2. As shown in Figure 12, the UE reports one or more of the remaining bits of the first MAC subheader the cached data information contained in the LCH (or all logical channels in the logical channel group to which the LCH indicated by the LCID belongs) of the first MAC subheader, which is one of the following: A. The cached data contains only time-urgent data; B. The cached data does not contain time-urgent data (i.e., it only contains non-time-urgent data); C. The cache contains both time-urgent data and non-time-urgent data.

[0319] or,

[0320] The UE fills in the LCID field based on the mechanism of Example 3 or Example 4. The UE reports one or more of the remaining bits of the first MAC subheader that the cached data information contained in the UE is one of the following: A. The cached data contains only time-urgent data; B. The cached data does not contain time-urgent data (i.e., it only contains non-time-urgent data); C. The cache contains both time-urgent data and non-time-urgent data.

[0321] The protocol can specify that the cached data information includes one or more of A, B, and C above. When there are N types of cached data information, if the UE can only report one of M types (N>M) (e.g., only 1 bit is used for reporting information; therefore, only two types of cached data information can be reported), the NW can configure the M types of information that the UE can report based on signaling. Specifically, the N types of information can be merged to obtain M types; or M types can be selected from the N types of information for the UE to report.

[0322] For example:

[0323] Assuming that only 1 bit in the MAC CE is used to report cached data, then the UE can indicate one of two types of information to the NW.

[0324] The three types of information, A, B and C, can be combined, for example, into: (1) the cached data contains time-delay urgent data (it may contain non-time-delay urgent data or may not contain non-time-delay urgent data); (2) the cached data does not contain time-delay urgent data (i.e. it only contains non-time-delay urgent data); in this way, the UE can use 1 bit to indicate one of the above two types of information.

[0325] Information A and C can be merged into one item, either as specified in the protocol or by NW through RRC configuration.

[0326] Alternatively, the protocol specifies (or the NW configures via RRC) that two of the three information types A, B, and C are used to report cached data information. For example, if the LCID indicates that there is time-delayed urgent data in the LCH or LCG, then the UE only needs to use additional bits to report whether there is non-time-delayed urgent data in the LCH or LCG. That is, the cached data information to be reported does not include: B. The cached data does not contain time-delayed urgent data (i.e., it only contains non-time-delayed urgent data).

[0327] In this embodiment of the application, when the length of the padding content is insufficient to send the padding BSR, the UE can send coarse cached data information to the network through the padding information, so as to make full use of air interface resources to transmit useful information.

[0328] Referring to Figure 13, which is a flowchart of a transmission method provided in an embodiment of this application, the transmission method includes the following steps:

[0329] Step 201: The network-side device receives the target MAC PDU sent by the terminal. The target MAC PDU includes padding information. The size of the padding information is smaller than the size of the target padding BSR. The padding information includes a first identifier field.

[0330] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0331] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0332] Optionally, the padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

[0333] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a first MAC sub-header, and the first identifier field is the LCID in the first MAC sub-header.

[0334] Optionally, if the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a padding MAC sub-PDU, the padding MAC sub-PDU includes a second MAC sub-header, and the first identification field is the LCID in the second MAC sub-header.

[0335] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal; or, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the BSR or the identifier filling the BSR.

[0336] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0337] Optionally, when there is uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

[0338] Optionally, when the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data with the shortest remaining time belongs among the at least two LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0339] Optionally, if the number of the highest priority LCHs is greater than 1, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs.

[0340] Optionally, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the filling information includes a target MAC sub-PDU, the target MAC sub-PDU includes the first identifier field, and the target MAC sub-PDU also includes at least one of first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information or the second indication information being used to indicate relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0341] Optionally, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0342] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0343] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the logical channel group (LCG) to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0344] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0345] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0346] The amount of data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field that associates timeout data;

[0347] The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0348] The LCH corresponding to the first identifier field contains uplink data to be transmitted;

[0349] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal;

[0350] The remaining time information of the earliest data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that will time out;

[0351] The amount of data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that includes timeout data;

[0352] The terminal has uplink data to be transmitted;

[0353] The timeout data refers to the data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold.

[0354] Optionally, the second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0355] The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0356] The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0357] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0358] Optionally, the existence of uplink data to be transmitted refers to the existence of uplink data to be transmitted belonging to an LCH configured with an LCG; or

[0359] The existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that after the target MAC PDU is generated, there is uplink data to be transmitted.

[0360] Optionally, before the network-side device receives the target MAC PDU sent by the terminal, the method further includes:

[0361] The network-side device sends a third indication message to the terminal, the third indication message being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

[0362] It should be noted that this embodiment is an implementation of the network-side device corresponding to the embodiment shown in FIG9. For the specific implementation, please refer to the relevant description of the embodiment shown in FIG9. To avoid repeated description, this embodiment will not be repeated.

[0363] The transmission method provided in this application can be executed by a transmission device. This application uses an example of a transmission device executing the transmission method to illustrate the information transmission apparatus provided in this application.

[0364] This application provides a transmission device. As an example, the transmission device may be a communication device or a component within a communication device, such as a chip. The communication device may be a terminal, a network-side device, or a server, etc. Exemplarily, the terminal may include, but is not limited to, the type of terminal 11 listed above, and the network-side device may include, but is not limited to, the type of network-side device 12 listed above. This application does not impose specific limitations.

[0365] The transmission device includes a receiving module, a transmitting module, and a processing module. These modules can be implemented in software or hardware. When implemented in hardware, the processing module can be implemented by a processor. For example, the processor can include general-purpose processors, special-purpose processors, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), microprocessor, Digital Signal Processor (DSP), Artificial Intelligence (AI) processor, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Network Processor (NP), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, gate circuits, transistors, discrete hardware components, etc. The receiving and transmitting modules can be implemented by a communication interface, which can include one or more of the following: transceiver, pins, circuits, bus, radio frequency unit, etc.

[0366] Specifically, referring to Figure 14, when the transmission device is a terminal or a component within a terminal, the transmission device 300 includes:

[0367] The sending module 301 is used to send a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to a network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field.

[0368] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0369] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0370] Optionally, the padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

[0371] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a first MAC sub-header, and the first identifier field is the Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) in the first MAC sub-header.

[0372] Optionally, if the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a padding MAC sub-PDU, the padding MAC sub-PDU includes a second MAC sub-header, and the first identification field is the LCID in the second MAC sub-header.

[0373] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the device further includes a processing module for at least one of the following:

[0374] The value of the first identifier field is determined based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0375] The value of the first identifier field is determined based on the identifier of the BSR or the identifier that fills the BSR.

[0376] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0377] Optionally, when there is uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

[0378] Optionally, the target LCH is the LCH of the timed-out data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that has not been transmitted in any MAC PDU.

[0379] Optionally, when the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data with the shortest remaining time belongs among the at least two LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0380] Optionally, if the number of the highest priority LCHs is greater than 1, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs.

[0381] Optionally, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the filling information includes a target MAC sub-PDU, the target MAC sub-PDU includes the first identifier field, and the target MAC sub-PDU also includes at least one of first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information or the second indication information being used to indicate relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0382] Optionally, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0383] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0384] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the logical channel group (LCG) to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0385] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0386] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0387] The amount of data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field that associates timeout data;

[0388] The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0389] The LCH corresponding to the first identifier field contains uplink data to be transmitted;

[0390] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal;

[0391] The remaining time information of the earliest data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that will time out;

[0392] The amount of data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that includes timeout data;

[0393] The terminal has uplink data to be transmitted;

[0394] The timeout data refers to the data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold.

[0395] Optionally, the second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0396] The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0397] The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0398] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0399] Optionally, the existence of uplink data to be transmitted refers to the existence of uplink data to be transmitted belonging to an LCH configured with an LCG; or

[0400] The existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that after the target MAC PDU is generated, there is uplink data to be transmitted.

[0401] Optionally, the device further includes:

[0402] The receiving module is configured to receive third indication information sent by the network-side device, the third indication information being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

[0403] Referring to Figure 15, when the transmission device is a network-side device or a component within a network-side device, the transmission device 400 includes:

[0404] The receiving module 401 is used to receive a target MAC PDU sent by the terminal. The target MAC PDU includes padding information. The size of the padding information is smaller than the size of the target padding BSR. The padding information includes a first identifier field.

[0405] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0406] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0407] Optionally, the padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

[0408] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a first MAC sub-header, and the first identifier field is the LCID in the first MAC sub-header.

[0409] Optionally, if the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a padding MAC sub-PDU, the padding MAC sub-PDU includes a second MAC sub-header, and the first identification field is the LCID in the second MAC sub-header.

[0410] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal; or, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the BSR or the identifier filling the BSR.

[0411] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0412] Optionally, when there is uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

[0413] Optionally, when the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data with the shortest remaining time belongs among the at least two LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0414] Optionally, if the number of the highest priority LCHs is greater than 1, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs.

[0415] Optionally, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the filling information includes a target MAC sub-PDU, the target MAC sub-PDU includes the first identifier field, and the target MAC sub-PDU also includes at least one of first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information or the second indication information being used to indicate relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0416] Optionally, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0417] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0418] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the logical channel group (LCG) to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0419] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0420] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0421] The amount of data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field that associates timeout data;

[0422] The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0423] The LCH corresponding to the first identifier field contains uplink data to be transmitted;

[0424] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal;

[0425] The remaining time information of the earliest data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that will time out;

[0426] The amount of data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that includes timeout data;

[0427] The terminal has uplink data to be transmitted;

[0428] The timeout data refers to the data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold.

[0429] Optionally, the second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0430] The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0431] The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0432] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0433] Optionally, the existence of uplink data to be transmitted refers to the existence of uplink data to be transmitted belonging to an LCH configured with an LCG; or

[0434] The existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that after the target MAC PDU is generated, there is uplink data to be transmitted.

[0435] Optionally, the device further includes:

[0436] The sending module is used to send third indication information to the terminal, the third indication information being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

[0437] The transmission device provided in this application embodiment can implement the various processes implemented in the method embodiments of FIG9 and FIG13 and achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, it will not be described again here.

[0438] As shown in Figure 16, this application embodiment also provides a communication device 500, including a processor 501 and a memory 502. The memory 502 stores programs or instructions that can run on the processor 501. For example, when the communication device 500 is a terminal, the program or instructions executed by the processor 501 implement the various steps of the above-described transmission method embodiment and achieve the same technical effect. When the communication device 500 is a network-side device, the program or instructions executed by the processor 501 implement the various steps of the above-described transmission method embodiment and achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, further details are omitted here.

[0439] This application also provides a terminal, including a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is coupled to the processor, and the processor is used to run programs or instructions to implement the steps in the method embodiment shown in FIG9. This terminal embodiment corresponds to the above-described terminal-side method embodiment, and all implementation processes and methods of the above-described method embodiments can be applied to this terminal embodiment and can achieve the same technical effect. The terminal may be the transmission device shown in FIG14. Specifically, FIG17 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of a terminal implementing an embodiment of this application.

[0440] The terminal 600 includes, but is not limited to, at least some of the following components: radio frequency unit 601, network module 602, audio output unit 603, input unit 604, sensor 605, display unit 606, user input unit 607, interface unit 608, memory 609, and processor 610.

[0441] Those skilled in the art will understand that terminal 600 may also include a power supply (such as a battery) for powering various components. The power supply can be logically connected to processor 610 through a power management system, thereby enabling functions such as charging, discharging, and power consumption management through the power management system. The terminal structure shown in Figure 17 does not constitute a limitation on the terminal. The terminal may include more or fewer components than shown, or combine certain components, or have different component arrangements, which will not be elaborated here.

[0442] It should be understood that, in this embodiment, the input unit 604 may include a graphics processor 6041 and a microphone 6042. The graphics processor 6041 processes image data of still images or videos obtained by an image capture device (such as a camera) in video capture mode or image capture mode. The display unit 606 may include a display panel 6061, which may be configured in the form of a liquid crystal display, an organic light-emitting diode, or the like. The user input unit 607 includes at least one of a touch panel 6071 and other input devices 6072. The touch panel 6071 is also called a touch screen. The touch panel 6071 may include two parts: a touch detection device and a touch controller. Other input devices 6072 may include, but are not limited to, a physical keyboard, function keys (such as volume control buttons, power buttons, etc.), a trackball, a mouse, and a joystick, which will not be described in detail here.

[0443] In this embodiment, after receiving downlink data from the network-side device, the radio frequency unit 601 can transmit it to the processor 610 for processing; in addition, the radio frequency unit 601 can send uplink data to the network-side device. Typically, the radio frequency unit 601 includes, but is not limited to, antennas, amplifiers, transceivers, couplers, low-noise amplifiers, duplexers, etc.

[0444] The memory 609 can be used to store software programs or instructions, as well as various data. The memory 609 may primarily include a first storage area for storing programs or instructions and a second storage area for storing data. The first storage area may store the operating system, application programs or instructions required for at least one function (such as sound playback, image playback, etc.). Furthermore, the memory 609 may include volatile memory or non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDRSDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DRRAM). The memory 609 in this embodiment includes, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0445] Processor 610 may include one or more processing units; optionally, processor 610 integrates an application processor and a modem processor, wherein the application processor mainly handles operations involving the operating system, user interface, and applications, and the modem processor mainly handles wireless communication signals, such as a baseband processor. It is understood that the aforementioned modem processor may also not be integrated into processor 610.

[0446] The radio frequency unit 601 is used for:

[0447] Send a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to the network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of the target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field.

[0448] Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or

[0449] When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

[0450] Optionally, the padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

[0451] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a first MAC sub-header, and the first identifier field is the Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) in the first MAC sub-header.

[0452] Optionally, if the terminal does not have uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a padding MAC sub-PDU, the padding MAC sub-PDU includes a second MAC sub-header, and the first identification field is the LCID in the second MAC sub-header.

[0453] Optionally, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the processor 610 is used for at least one of the following:

[0454] The value of the first identifier field is determined based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0455] The value of the first identifier field is determined based on the identifier of the BSR or the identifier that fills the BSR.

[0456] Optionally, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0457] Optionally, when there is uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

[0458] Optionally, the target LCH is the LCH of the timed-out data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that has not been transmitted in any MAC PDU.

[0459] Optionally, when the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data with the shortest remaining time belongs among the at least two LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

[0460] Optionally, if the number of the highest priority LCHs is greater than 1, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs.

[0461] Optionally, when the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the filling information includes a target MAC sub-PDU, the target MAC sub-PDU includes the first identifier field, and the target MAC sub-PDU also includes at least one of first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information or the second indication information being used to indicate relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

[0462] Optionally, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0463] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0464] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the logical channel group (LCG) to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0465] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field;

[0466] The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0467] The amount of data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field that associates timeout data;

[0468] The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0469] The LCH corresponding to the first identifier field contains uplink data to be transmitted;

[0470] The amount of uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal;

[0471] The remaining time information of the earliest data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that will time out;

[0472] The amount of data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that includes timeout data;

[0473] The terminal has uplink data to be transmitted;

[0474] The timeout data refers to the data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold.

[0475] Optionally, the second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following:

[0476] The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0477] The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs;

[0478] The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

[0479] Optionally, the existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that there is uplink data to be transmitted belonging to an LCH configured with an LCG; or the existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that after the target MAC PDU is generated, there is uplink data to be transmitted.

[0480] Optionally, the radio frequency unit 601 is further configured to:

[0481] The terminal receives a third indication message sent by the network-side device, the third indication message being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

[0482] It is understood that the implementation process of each implementation method mentioned in this embodiment can refer to the relevant description in Figure 9 of the method embodiment and achieve the same or corresponding technical effects. To avoid repetition, it will not be described again here.

[0483] This application also provides a network-side device, including a processor and a communication interface. The communication interface is coupled to the processor, and the processor is used to run programs or instructions to implement the steps of the method embodiment shown in FIG13. This network-side device embodiment corresponds to the above-described network-side device method embodiment. All implementation processes and methods of the above-described method embodiments can be applied to this network-side device embodiment and can achieve the same technical effect.

[0484] Specifically, this application embodiment also provides a network-side device, which can be the transmission device shown in FIG15. As shown in FIG18, the network-side device 700 includes: an antenna 701, a radio frequency device 702, a baseband device 703, a processor 704, and a memory 705. The antenna 701 is connected to the radio frequency device 702. In the uplink direction, the radio frequency device 702 receives information through the antenna 701 and sends the received information to the baseband device 703 for processing. In the downlink direction, the baseband device 703 processes the information to be transmitted and sends it to the radio frequency device 702. The radio frequency device 702 processes the received information and transmits it through the antenna 701.

[0485] The method executed by the network-side device in the above embodiments can be implemented in the baseband device 703, which includes a baseband processor.

[0486] The baseband device 703 may include at least one baseband board, on which multiple chips are disposed, as shown in FIG18. One of the chips is, for example, a baseband processor, which is connected to the memory 705 via a bus interface to call the program in the memory 705 and execute the network device operation shown in the above method embodiment.

[0487] The network-side device may also include a network interface 706, such as a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI).

[0488] Specifically, the network-side device 700 in this application embodiment further includes: instructions or programs stored in memory 705 and executable on processor 704. Processor 704 calls the instructions or programs in memory 705 to execute the methods executed by each module shown in FIG15 and achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, it will not be described in detail here.

[0489] Specifically, this application also provides a network-side device. As shown in FIG19, the network-side device 800 includes a processor 801, a network interface 802, and a memory 803. The network-side device may be the transmission device shown in FIG15. The network interface 802 is, for example, a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI).

[0490] Specifically, the network-side device 800 in this application embodiment further includes: instructions or programs stored in memory 803 and executable on processor 801. Processor 801 calls the instructions or programs in memory 803 to execute the methods executed by each module shown in FIG15 and achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, it will not be described in detail here.

[0491] This application also provides a readable storage medium storing a program or instructions. When the program or instructions are executed by a processor, they implement the various processes of the above-described transmission method embodiments and achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, they will not be described again here.

[0492] The processor mentioned above is the processor in the terminal or network-side device described in the above embodiments. The readable storage medium includes computer-readable storage media, such as computer read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk, or optical disk. In some examples, the readable storage medium may be a non-transient readable storage medium.

[0493] This application embodiment also provides a chip, which includes a processor and a communication interface. The communication interface is coupled to the processor. The processor is used to run programs or instructions to implement the various processes of the above-described transmission method embodiments and can achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, it will not be described again here.

[0494] It should be understood that the chip mentioned in the embodiments of this application may also be referred to as a system-on-a-chip, system chip, chip system, or system-on-a-chip, etc.

[0495] This application also provides a computer program / program product, which is stored in a storage medium and executed by at least one processor to implement the various processes of the above-described transmission method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effect. To avoid repetition, it will not be described again here.

[0496] This application also provides a wireless communication system, including: a terminal and a network-side device, wherein the terminal can be used to execute the steps of the transmission method applied to the terminal as described above, and the network-side device can be used to execute the steps of the transmission method applied to the network-side device as described above.

[0497] It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprising," "including," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes that element. Furthermore, it should be noted that the scope of the methods and apparatuses in the embodiments of this application is not limited to performing functions in the order shown or discussed, but may also include performing functions substantially simultaneously or in the reverse order, depending on the functions involved. For example, the described methods may be performed in a different order than described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Additionally, features described with reference to certain examples may be combined in other examples.

[0498] From the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the methods of the above embodiments can be implemented by means of computer software products plus necessary general-purpose hardware platforms, and of course, they can also be implemented by hardware. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM, RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc.) and includes several instructions to cause the terminal or network-side device to execute the methods described in the various embodiments of this application.

[0499] The embodiments of this application have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, this application is not limited to the specific embodiments described above. The specific embodiments described above are merely illustrative and not restrictive. Those skilled in the art can make many other implementations under the guidance of this application without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims. All of these implementations are within the protection scope of this application.

Claims

1. A transmission method, comprising: The terminal sends a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to the network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of the target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field. Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a first MAC sub-header, and the first identifier field is the Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) in the first MAC sub-header.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein, When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the padding information includes a padding MAC sub-PDU, the padding MAC sub-PDU includes a second MAC sub-header, and the first identification field is the LCID in the second MAC sub-header.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein, Before the terminal sends the target MAC PDU to the network-side device, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the method further includes at least one of the following: The terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal. The terminal determines the value of the first identifier field based on the BSR or the identifier that fills the BSR.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1-6, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein, The target LCH is the LCH of the timed-out data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that has not been transmitted in any MAC PDU.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein, When the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data with the shortest remaining time belongs among the at least two LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

10. The method according to claim 6 or 9, wherein, If the number of the highest priority LCHs is greater than 1, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1-10, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the filling information includes a target MAC sub-PDU, the target MAC sub-PDU includes the first identifier field, and the target MAC sub-PDU also includes at least one of first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information or the second indication information being used to indicate relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein, The first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field; The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the logical channel group (LCG) to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field; The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The amount of data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field that associates timeout data; The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The LCH corresponding to the first identifier field contains uplink data to be transmitted; The amount of uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal; The remaining time information of the earliest data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that will time out; The amount of data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that includes timeout data; The terminal has uplink data to be transmitted; The timeout data refers to the data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein, The second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out. The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1-13, wherein, The existence of uplink data to be transmitted refers to the existence of uplink data belonging to an LCH configured with an LCG to be transmitted; or The existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that after the target MAC PDU is generated, there is uplink data to be transmitted.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1-14, wherein, Before the terminal sends the target MAC PDU to the network-side device, the method further includes: The terminal receives a third indication message sent by the network-side device, the third indication message being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

16. A transmission method, comprising: The network-side device receives a target MAC PDU sent by the terminal. The target MAC PDU includes padding information. The size of the padding information is smaller than the size of the target padding BSR. The padding information includes a first identifier field. Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein, The padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

18. The method according to claim 16 or 17, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the padding information includes a first MAC sub-header, and the first identifier field is the LCID in the first MAC sub-header.

19. The method according to any one of claims 16-18, wherein, When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the padding information includes a padding MAC sub-PDU, the padding MAC sub-PDU includes a second MAC sub-header, and the first identification field is the LCID in the second MAC sub-header.

20. The method according to any one of claims 16-19, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal; or, the value of the first identifier field is determined based on the BSR or the identifier filling the BSR.

21. The method according to any one of claims 16-20, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

22. The method according to any one of claims 16-21, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein, When the target LCH includes at least two LCHs, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH to which the timeout data with the shortest remaining time belongs among the at least two LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the highest priority among the at least two LCHs.

24. The method according to claim 21 or 23, wherein, If the number of the highest priority LCHs is greater than 1, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the largest identifier among the highest priority LCHs, or the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the LCH with the smallest identifier among the highest priority LCHs.

25. The method according to any one of claims 16-24, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the filling information includes a target MAC sub-PDU, the target MAC sub-PDU includes the first identifier field, and the target MAC sub-PDU also includes at least one of first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information or the second indication information being used to indicate relevant information of the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein, The first indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field; The amount of uplink data to be transmitted in the logical channel group (LCG) to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field; The remaining time information of the earliest uplink data to be transmitted that will time out in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The amount of data in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field that associates timeout data; The amount of data associated with timeout data in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The LCH corresponding to the first identifier field contains uplink data to be transmitted; The amount of uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal; The remaining time information of the earliest data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that will time out; The amount of data in the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal that includes timeout data; The terminal has uplink data to be transmitted; The timeout data refers to the data where the remaining time at the timeout point is less than a preset threshold.

27. The method according to claim 25 or 26, wherein, The second indication information is used to indicate at least one of the following: The uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out. The uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted in the first LCH includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out; wherein, the first LCH is the LCH in the LCG to which the LCH corresponding to the first identifier field belongs; The uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal does not include data that will time out; or, the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal includes data that will time out, as well as data other than the data that will time out.

28. The method according to any one of claims 16-27, wherein, The existence of uplink data to be transmitted refers to the existence of uplink data belonging to an LCH configured with an LCG to be transmitted; or The existence of uplink data to be transmitted means that after the target MAC PDU is generated, there is uplink data to be transmitted.

29. The method according to any one of claims 16-28, wherein, Before the network-side device receives the target MAC PDU sent by the terminal, the method further includes: The network-side device sends a third indication message to the terminal, the third indication message being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

30. A transmission device, comprising: The sending module is used to send a target Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to a network-side device. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target Padding Buffer Status Report (BSR). The padding information includes a first identification field. Where, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

31. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein, The padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

32. The apparatus according to claim 30 or 31, further comprising a processing module for at least one of the following: The value of the first identifier field is determined based on the logical channel (LCH) corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal. The value of the first identifier field is determined based on the identifier of the BSR or the identifier that fills the BSR.

33. The apparatus according to any one of claims 30-32, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the identifier of the highest priority LCH in the LCH corresponding to the uplink data to be transmitted by the terminal.

34. The apparatus according to any one of claims 30-33, wherein, When the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is the value of the identifier of the target LCH. The target LCH is determined based on the LCH to which the timeout data in the uplink data to be transmitted belongs. The timeout data is data whose remaining time at the timeout moment is less than a preset threshold.

35. A transmission device, comprising: A receiving module is used to receive a target MAC PDU sent by a terminal. The target MAC PDU includes padding information, the size of which is smaller than the size of a target padding BSR. The padding information includes a first identifier field. Wherein, if the terminal has uplink data to be transmitted, the value of the first identifier field is associated with the uplink data to be transmitted, or the value of the first identifier field is a first value; or When there is no uplink data to be transmitted at the terminal, the value of the first identifier field is a second value, which is different from the first value.

36. The apparatus according to claim 35, wherein, The padding information is 1 byte in size and is set in the last byte of the target MAC PDU.

37. The apparatus according to claim 35 or 36, further comprising: The sending module is used to send third indication information to the terminal, the third indication information being used to indicate that the terminal is allowed to fill the target MAC PDU with the filling information.

38. A terminal comprising a processor and a memory, the memory storing a program or instructions executable on the processor, the program or instructions, when executed by the processor, implementing the steps of the transmission method as claimed in any one of claims 1-15.

39. A network-side device, comprising a processor and a memory, the memory storing a program or instructions executable on the processor, the program or instructions, when executed by the processor, implementing the steps of the transmission method as described in any one of claims 16-29.

40. A readable storage medium storing a program or instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the steps of the transmission method as claimed in any one of claims 1-15, or implement the steps of the transmission method as claimed in any one of claims 16-29.

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