Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

Provided in the embodiments of the present application are a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal device obtaining target phase information from a network device, wherein the target phase information is phase element information of a rotation matrix corresponding to a first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix comprises at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix is a diagonal matrix, an element on a main diagonal line of each first matrix corresponds to at least one piece of first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponds to one piece of second phase element information; and then, on the basis of the first precoding matrix, the terminal device processing data to be sent, wherein the first precoding matrix is determined on the basis of the target phase information. By means of the method, not only can the indication or transmission of a high-precision first precoding matrix be implemented, the overheads generated by the indication or transmission can also be effectively reduced.

Description

A communication method and apparatus

[0001] Cross-references to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202410807520.7, filed on June 20, 2024, entitled "A Communication Method and Apparatus", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and apparatus. Background Technology

[0004] Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is a core technology of Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems and 5th generation (5G) New Radio (NR). By configuring multiple antennas at the transmitting and / or receiving ends and employing appropriate signal processing (such as precoding), parallel transmission of multiple data streams can be achieved. This is also known as MIMO spatial multiplexing, thereby effectively improving signal transmission performance and system capacity with minimal time-frequency resource overhead.

[0005] Based on the above, during uplink data transmission, the terminal device can precode one or more data streams based on the precoding matrix indicated by the network device. Since the precoding matrix is ​​predefined and its elements need to be quantized, the quantization accuracy directly affects the compatibility between the precoding matrix and the channel; therefore, higher quantization accuracy generally results in better transmission performance. As terminal device capabilities evolve, they will be able to configure more antennas and support more data streams, thus requiring higher precoding accuracy. System performance will become more sensitive to precoding accuracy. However, higher precoding accuracy also increases the bit overhead required for the network device to indicate the precoding matrix to the terminal device.

[0006] Therefore, how to indicate high-precision precoding matrices with relatively low overhead is one of the problems that urgently needs to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0007] This application proposes a communication method and apparatus that can indicate a high-precision precoding matrix with minimal overhead.

[0008] In a first aspect, this application provides a communication method that can be applied to a terminal device, or a component of the terminal device (e.g., a processor, chip, or chip system), or a logical node, logical module, or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the terminal device, or a device compatible with the terminal device. Taking the application of this method to a terminal device as an example, the method includes: the terminal device obtaining target phase information from a network device; the target phase information is phase element information of a rotation matrix corresponding to a first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix including at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix being a diagonal matrix, each element on the main diagonal of the first matrix corresponding to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponding to one second phase element information; then the terminal device processes the data to be transmitted based on the first precoding matrix, wherein the first precoding matrix is ​​determined based on the target phase information.

[0009] In this application, the terminal device obtains target phase information sent by the network device. The target phase information is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix. The rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix. The first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, and the elements on the main diagonal of each first matrix correspond to at least one first phase element information. Each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information. In this way, the terminal device can obtain the first precoding matrix based on the target phase information, and then process the data to be sent based on the first precoding matrix. Typically, when directly quantizing the information of each element in the first precoding matrix, each element in the first precoding matrix is ​​a complex value (including phase and amplitude values). Therefore, when the network device sends or indicates the first precoding matrix to the terminal device, the phase and amplitude values ​​corresponding to each element in the first precoding matrix need to be transmitted or indicated by a corresponding number of bits. However, in the present application, the number of phase elements in the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix is ​​less than the number of elements in the first precoding matrix. Moreover, each phase element of the rotation matrix is ​​different from each complex value element in the first precoding matrix. Each phase element of the rotation matrix corresponds to only one quantized value. In this way, by sending or indicating the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix to the terminal device, the network device can not only achieve high-precision indication or transmission of the first precoding matrix, but also effectively reduce the overhead generated by indication or transmission.

[0010] In the embodiments of this application, the terminal device may also obtain the target phase information through other means. For example, the target phase information may be predefined, already stored locally on the terminal device, or provided by a third party. Alternatively, the terminal device may obtain intermediate information through network devices or other means, and directly or indirectly obtain the target phase information based on the intermediate information. This application does not specifically limit the means or methods by which the terminal device obtains the target phase information.

[0011] In one possible implementation, the target phase information includes first phase information, which is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the first rank. The terminal device obtaining the target phase information may include: the terminal device receiving first information from the network device, the first information indicating the first phase information. Through this implementation, the terminal device can effectively obtain the first target phase information.

[0012] In the embodiments of this application, the value of the first rank can represent the number of transport spatial layers (also known as the first spatial layer number) or the number of transport streams. The value of the first rank can be preset, such as predefined, or the value of the first rank can be preconfigured by the network device; this application does not limit this.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the target phase information further includes second phase information, which is partial phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the second rank. The second phase information and the first phase information are used to determine the first precoding matrix, where the value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The method may further include: the terminal device obtaining the second phase information. Through this implementation, the terminal device can obtain not only the first phase information in the target phase information but also the second phase information, thereby effectively determining the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix based on the first and second phase information, and thus the terminal device can effectively determine the first precoding matrix.

[0014] In this embodiment, the value of the second rank can refer to the rank value (i.e., the number of transport streams or the number of transport layers) that the network device actually schedules for the terminal device. The value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the second rank condition can be called the target phase information. The phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the first rank condition is called the first phase information. The phase element information other than the first phase information in the target phase information (the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the second rank condition) can be called the second phase information.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the terminal device obtains the second phase information in the following ways:

[0016] Method 1: The terminal device receives second information from the network device, which is used to indicate the second phase information.

[0017] Method 2: The first information can also be used to indicate the second phase information. That is, the first information can be used to indicate both the first and second phase information. For example, different fields or the same fields in the first information can be used to indicate the first and second phase information.

[0018] In one possible implementation, the first information mentioned above can be carried in the physical downlink shared channel information or in downlink control information (such as DCI). The second information mentioned above can be downlink control information, which can also be used to indicate the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device or the rank of the first precoding matrix. Through this implementation, the network device can use a two-level indication method (such as first and second information with indication functions) to indicate the target phase information to the terminal device. This not only makes the indication more flexible but also avoids the potential waste of bit resources caused by directly indicating the target phase information to the terminal device all at once. For example, if the terminal device already has first phase information, sending or indicating target phase information containing first phase information to the terminal device would generate unnecessary indication overhead. Furthermore, through two-level indication, the dynamic range of the indication information overhead in each level can be effectively controlled, avoiding large differences between the maximum and minimum overhead of the indication information under different scenarios or configurations (such as different rank values). This is more beneficial for the design of the indication information and avoids the waste of overhead caused by designing signaling based on the maximum overhead.

[0019] In some embodiments of this application, the first information may be sent by the network device to the terminal device at a set period. This set period may be predefined or agreed upon or negotiated between the network device and the terminal device, and this application does not limit it. In addition, compared with the sending period of the second information, the sending period of the first information (i.e., the aforementioned set period) may be a longer period. This can avoid the network device sending the first information multiple times in a short period of time, thereby minimizing the overhead caused by transmission or indication.

[0020] In one possible implementation, the first precoding matrix can conform to the following formula:

[0021] V represents the first precoding matrix, and D... i Let D be the first matrix. i The elements on the main diagonal correspond to Ni first phase element information; G j,i For the second matrix, G j,iFor each second phase element, N represents the number of transmitting antenna ports of the terminal device, L represents the number of transmission layers or transmission streams of the physical channel, and I... N,L Let N be the matrix consisting of the first L columns of the identity matrix of dimension N; where N is an integer greater than 1, L is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is a positive integer less than or equal to L, and j is an integer greater than i and less than or equal to N.

[0022] Based on the above formula, the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix in this embodiment may include D (a matrix D containing i that can take integer values ​​from 1 to L). i G (a matrix containing integers i that can take any number of integers from 1 to L, and j that can take any number of integers from i+1 to N) and G (a matrix containing integers G). j,i The target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G (i.e., the phase element with a value that is not zero).

[0023] Secondly, this application provides a communication method that can be applied to a network device, or a component of the network device (e.g., a processor, chip, or chip system), or a logical node, logical module, or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the network device, or a device compatible with the network device. Taking the application of this method to a network device as an example, the method includes: the network device determining target phase information, the target phase information being associated with a first precoding matrix, the target phase information being phase element information of a rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix including at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix being a diagonal matrix, each element on the main diagonal of the first matrix corresponding to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponding to one second phase element information; the network device sending the target phase information to a terminal device.

[0024] In this application, the network device obtains target phase information based on a first precoding matrix; the target phase information is the phase element information of a rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, the elements on the main diagonal of each first matrix correspond to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information; the network device sends the target phase information to the terminal device. When directly quantizing the information of each element in the first precoding matrix, each element in the first precoding matrix is ​​usually a complex value (including phase and amplitude values). Therefore, when the network device sends or indicates the first precoding matrix to the terminal device, the phase and amplitude values ​​corresponding to each element in the first precoding matrix need to be transmitted or indicated by a corresponding number of bits. However, in the present application, the number of phase elements of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix is ​​less than the number of elements in the first precoding matrix. Moreover, each phase element of the rotation matrix is ​​different from each complex value element in the first precoding matrix. Each phase element of the rotation matrix corresponds to only one quantized value. In this way, by sending or indicating the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix to the terminal device, the network device can not only achieve high-precision indication or transmission of the first precoding matrix, but also effectively reduce the overhead generated by indication or transmission.

[0025] In one possible implementation, the target phase information includes first phase information, which is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the first rank. The network device sends the target phase information to the terminal device, including sending first information to the terminal device, whereby the first information indicates the first phase information. This implementation allows the terminal device to effectively obtain the first phase information.

[0026] In the embodiments of this application, the value of the first rank can represent the number of transport spatial layers (also known as the first spatial layer number) or the number of transport streams. The value of the first rank can be preset, such as predefined, or the value of the first rank can be preconfigured by the network device; this application does not limit this.

[0027] In one possible implementation, the target phase information further includes second phase information, which is partial phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the second rank. The second phase information and the first phase information are used to determine the first precoding matrix, and the value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The method may also include: the network device sending the second phase information to the terminal device.

[0028] In this embodiment, the value of the second rank can refer to the rank value (i.e., the number of streams or the number of layers transmitted) that the network device actually schedules for the terminal device. The value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the condition of the second rank can be called the target phase information. The phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the condition of the first rank is called the first phase information. The phase element information other than the first phase information in the target phase information (the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the condition of the second rank) can be called the second phase information.

[0029] In one possible implementation, the network device sends the second phase information to the terminal device, including the following methods:

[0030] Method 1: The network device sends a second message to the terminal device, which is used to indicate the second phase information.

[0031] Method 2: The first information can also be used to indicate the second phase information. That is, the first information can be used to indicate both the first and second phase information. For example, different fields or the same fields in the first information can indicate the first and second phase information.

[0032] In one possible implementation, the first information mentioned above can be carried in the physical downlink shared channel information or in downlink control information (such as DCI). The second information mentioned above can be downlink control information, which can also be used to indicate the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device or the rank of the first precoding matrix. Through this implementation, the network device indicates the target phase information to the terminal device through a two-level indication method (such as first and second information with indication functions). This not only makes the indication more flexible but also avoids the potential waste of bit resources caused by directly indicating the target phase information to the terminal device all at once. For example, if the terminal device already has first phase information, sending or indicating target phase information containing first phase information to the terminal device would generate unnecessary indication overhead. Furthermore, through two-level indication, the dynamic range of the indication information overhead in each level can be effectively controlled, avoiding large differences between the maximum and minimum overhead of the indication information under different scenarios or configurations (such as different rank values). This is more conducive to the design of the indication information and avoids the waste of overhead caused by designing signaling based on the maximum overhead.

[0033] In some embodiments of this application, the first information may be sent by the network device to the terminal device at a set period. This set period may be predefined or agreed upon or negotiated between the network device and the terminal device, and this application does not limit this. In addition, compared with the sending period of the second information, the sending period of the first information (i.e., the aforementioned set period) may be a longer period. This can avoid the network device sending the first information multiple times in a short period of time, thereby reducing the overhead of transmission or indication.

[0034] In one possible implementation, the first precoding matrix can conform to the following formula:

[0035] V represents the first precoding matrix, and D... i Let D be the first matrix. i The elements on the main diagonal correspond to Ni first phase element information; G j,i For the second matrix, G j,i For each second phase element, N represents the number of transmitting antenna ports of the terminal device, L represents the number of transmission layers or transmission streams of the physical channel, and I... N,L Let N be the matrix consisting of the first L columns of the identity matrix of dimension N; where N is an integer greater than 1, L is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is a positive integer less than or equal to L, and j is an integer greater than i and less than or equal to N.

[0036] Based on the above formula, the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix in this embodiment may include D (a matrix D containing i that can take integer values ​​from 1 to L). i G (a matrix containing integers i that can take any number of integers from 1 to L, and j that can take any number of integers from i+1 to N) and G (a matrix containing integers G). j,i The target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G (i.e., the phase element with a value that is not zero).

[0037] Thirdly, this application also provides a communication device, which is a terminal device or a chip corresponding to a terminal device. This communication device has the functions of implementing the first aspect and any of the possible embodiments described above. The communication device can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0038] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor configured to support the communication device in performing corresponding functions of the terminal device described above. The communication device may also include a memory coupled to the processor, which stores necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. Optionally, the communication device further includes interface circuitry for supporting communication between the communication device and other communication devices, such as the transmission and reception of data or signals. Exemplarily, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface.

[0039] In one possible design, the communication device includes corresponding functional modules, each used to implement the steps in the above method. The functions can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

[0040] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit, and optionally, a storage unit may also be included.

[0041] The communication unit is used to obtain target phase information; the target phase information is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, the elements on the main diagonal of each first matrix correspond to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information;

[0042] The processing unit is used to process the data to be transmitted based on the first precoding matrix; the first precoding matrix is ​​determined based on the target phase information.

[0043] In one possible design, the target phase information includes first phase information, which is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the first rank; when the communication unit obtains the target phase information, it can specifically be used to: receive first information from the network device, which is used to indicate the first phase information.

[0044] In one possible design, the target phase information further includes second phase information, which is partial phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the second rank. The second phase information and the first phase information are used to determine the first precoding matrix, and the value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The communication unit can also be used to obtain the second phase information.

[0045] In one possible design, when the communication unit obtains the second phase information, it may specifically be used to: receive second information from the network device, the second information being used to indicate the second phase information; or the first information may also be used to indicate the second phase information.

[0046] In one possible design, the first information is carried in physical downlink shared channel information or downlink control information.

[0047] In one possible design, the second information is downlink control information, which is also used to indicate the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device or the rank of the first precoding matrix.

[0048] In one possible design, the first precoding matrix conforms to the following formula:

[0049] Where V represents the first precoding matrix, and D i For the first matrix, the D i The elements on the main diagonal correspond to Ni first phase element information; the G j,i For the second matrix, the G j,i Corresponding to a second phase element information, N represents the number of transmitting antenna ports of the terminal device, L represents the number of transmission layers or transmission streams of the physical channel, and I N,L Let L be the matrix consisting of the first L columns of the identity matrix of dimension N; N is an integer greater than 1, L is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is a positive integer less than or equal to L, and j is an integer greater than i and less than or equal to N.

[0050] In one possible design, the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix includes D and G, and the target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G.

[0051] Fourthly, this application also provides a communication device, which is a network device or a chip corresponding to a network device. This communication device has the functions to implement the second aspect described above and any of the possible embodiments therein. The communication device can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0052] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processor configured to support the communication device in performing corresponding functions of the network device described above. The communication device may also include a memory coupled to the processor, which stores necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. Optionally, the communication device further includes interface circuitry for supporting communication between the communication device and other communication devices, such as the transmission and reception of data or signals. Exemplarily, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, or other type of communication interface.

[0053] In one possible design, the communication device includes corresponding functional modules, each used to implement the steps in the above method. The functions can be implemented in hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

[0054] In one possible design, the communication device includes a processing unit and a communication unit, and optionally, a storage unit may also be included.

[0055] The processing unit is used to determine target phase information, which is associated with a first precoding matrix. The target phase information is the phase element information of a rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix. The rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix. The first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, and each element on the main diagonal of the first matrix corresponds to at least one first phase element information. Each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information.

[0056] The communication unit is used to transmit the target phase information.

[0057] In one possible design, the target phase information includes first phase information, which is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the first rank; when the communication unit sends the target phase information, it can specifically be used to: send the first information to the terminal device, whereby the first information is used to indicate the first phase information.

[0058] In one possible design, the target phase information further includes second phase information, which is partial phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the second rank. The second phase information and the first phase information are used to determine the first precoding matrix, and the value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The communication unit can also be used to send the second phase information to the terminal device.

[0059] In one possible design, when the communication unit sends the second phase information to the terminal device, it may specifically be used to: send second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate the second phase information; or the first information may also be used to indicate the second phase information.

[0060] In one possible design, the first information is carried in physical downlink shared channel information or downlink control information.

[0061] In one possible design, the second information is downlink control information, which is also used to indicate the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device or the rank of the first precoding matrix.

[0062] In one possible design, the first precoding matrix conforms to the following formula:

[0063] Where V represents the first precoding matrix, and D i For the first matrix, the D i The elements on the main diagonal correspond to Ni first phase element information; the G j,i For the second matrix, the G j,i Corresponding to a second phase element information, N represents the number of transmitting antenna ports of the terminal device, L represents the number of transmission layers or transmission streams of the physical channel, and I N,L Let L be the matrix consisting of the first L columns of the identity matrix of dimension N; N is an integer greater than 1, L is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is a positive integer less than or equal to L, and j is an integer greater than i and less than or equal to N.

[0064] In one possible design, the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix includes D and G, and the target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G.

[0065] Fifthly, a communication device is provided, including a processor and an interface circuit. The interface circuit is configured to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor, or to send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device. The processor is configured to implement the methods described in the first aspect and any of the possible implementations thereof through logic circuits or execution code instructions.

[0066] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, including a processor and an interface circuit. The interface circuit is configured to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor, or to send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device. The processor is configured to implement the methods of the second aspect and any of the possible embodiments described above through logic circuits or execution code instructions.

[0067] In a seventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided that stores a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement the methods of any one of the first and second aspects and any possible implementation thereof.

[0068] Eighthly, a computer program product storing instructions is provided, which, when executed by a processor, implement the methods of the first and second aspects above, and any possible implementation thereof.

[0069] A ninth aspect provides a chip system including a processor and potentially a memory for implementing the methods of the first and second aspects described above, and any possible embodiments thereof. The chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices.

[0070] In a tenth aspect, a communication system is provided, the communication system comprising the terminal equipment described in the first aspect and the network equipment described in the second aspect.

[0071] It should be noted that the technical effects that can be achieved by any of the third to tenth aspects or any of the third to tenth aspects can be referred to the description of the technical effects that can be achieved by any of the first and second aspects or any of the first and second aspects, which will not be repeated here. Attached Figure Description

[0072] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0073] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0074] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a base station (gNB) provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0075] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of communication between a network device and a terminal device according to an embodiment of this application;

[0076] Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0077] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a precoding matrix being rotated to obtain an identity matrix according to an embodiment of this application;

[0078] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of an indication under different rank values ​​provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0079] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0080] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0081] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of a chip device structure provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0082] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of this application clearer, the embodiments of this application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0083] The names and related technical features involved in the embodiments of this application will be explained below. It should be noted that these explanations are for the purpose of making the embodiments of this application easier to understand, and should not be regarded as a limitation on the scope of protection claimed by this application.

[0084] 1) Spatial layer:

[0085] For Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems, multiple parallel data streams can be transmitted within the same time-frequency resources using spatial multiplexing. Each data stream can be called a spatial layer. A spatial layer can also be called a data stream, or simply a stream or layer. The number of spatial layers corresponding to a terminal device can also be called its rank. Typically, the number of spatial layers corresponding to a terminal device is no greater than the number of antennas in the terminal device.

[0086] 2) Sounding reference signal (SRS):

[0087] SRS is an uplink reference signal sent by a terminal device to a network device. Upon receiving the SRS signal, the network device can obtain the uplink (UL) channel information from the terminal device to the network device. If the uplink and downlink channels exhibit reciprocity (such as in a TDD system), the downlink (DL) channel information from the network device to the terminal device can also be obtained based on the uplink channel information using SRS. After obtaining the UL channel information corresponding to the terminal device, the network device can perform data transmission resource scheduling or precoding processing on the terminal device based on this channel information.

[0088] SRS resources are used to instruct terminal devices on the time, frequency, and spatial domains for transmitting SRS. Network devices can utilize SRS to obtain uplink channel information and manage uplink beams, including beam training and beam switching.

[0089] 3) Antenna port:

[0090] An antenna port, also simply called a port, can be understood as an antenna that is recognized by a receiving or transmitting device, or an antenna that can be distinguished in space. Each virtual antenna can be configured with one antenna port, and each virtual antenna can be a weighted combination of multiple physical antennas. Each antenna port can correspond to a reference signal port.

[0091] 4) SRS port:

[0092] The virtual antenna port in an SRS resource represents the transmitting SRS. Typically, an SRS resource includes one or more SRS ports.

[0093] Each SRS port can correspond to a specific time-frequency code resource. Ideally, the SRS ports are orthogonal.

[0094] Furthermore, different SRS ports within a single SRS resource can occupy the exact same symbols, multiplexing them through frequency division (using different subcarriers) or code division (using different ZC sequences or different cyclic shifts of the same sequence). A correspondence exists between the reference signal resource and the reference signal; for the specific implementation of this correspondence, existing implementations can be referenced. In some possible scenarios, the reference signal resource and the reference signal can be equivalent.

[0095] 5) Channel State Information (CSI):

[0096] In wireless communication systems, Channel Identity (CSI) is information used to report the characteristics or attributes of the wireless channel. Downlink CSI is measured by the terminal equipment (measurement object such as CSI-RS) and fed back to the base station through CSI reports.

[0097] The uplink radio channel CSI is obtained by the base station through measurement (measurement object such as SRS). The base station can apply this information to different scenarios such as uplink scheduling and MIMO.

[0098] Typically, for downlink channel state information (CSI) measurement and feedback, the CSI fed back to the network device after measurement using downlink reference signals may include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following: precoding matrix indication (PMI), rank indicator (RI), channel quality indicator (CQI), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), and layer indicator (LI). For uplink channel CSI, the network device can obtain uplink channel matrix and channel quality information based on uplink reference signals (such as SRS), thereby further determining the precoding matrix, number of spatial layers (rank), and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) or CQI used for uplink data transmission.

[0099] It should be noted that in this application, "sending information / data to A" and "sending information / data" simply indicate the direction of information / data transmission, with A being the destination. It does not limit "sending information / data to A" to necessarily being a transmission over the air interface. "Sending information / data to A" includes both direct and indirect transmission to A. Therefore, "sending information / data to A" can also be understood as the processing unit's communication interface "outputting information / data destined for A." Similarly, "sending information / data" can also be understood as "outputting information / data."

[0100] Similarly, "receiving information / data from A" and "receiving information / data" simply indicate the direction of information / data transmission. "From A" means that the source of the information / data is A, including receiving information / data directly from A and receiving information / data indirectly from A. Therefore, "receiving information / data from A" can also be understood as the processing unit's communication interface "inputting information / data from A". Likewise, "receiving information / data" can also be understood as "inputting information / data".

[0101] In the embodiments of this application, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "more than one" refers to two or more. "And / or" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: A alone, A and B simultaneously, or B alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can represent: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0102] Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of this application are used to distinguish multiple objects and are not used to limit the size, content, order, timing, priority, or importance of multiple objects. For example, "first phase information" and "second phase information" are only used to distinguish different phase information and do not indicate that the size, priority, or importance of these two phase information are different.

[0103] It should be noted that, in this application, the terms "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate that something is being described as an example, illustration, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in this application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or design solutions. Specifically, the use of terms such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete manner.

[0104] The terms "comprising" and "having," and any variations thereof, used in the following description of embodiments of this application are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but may optionally include other steps or units not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products, or devices. Furthermore, the term "for indicating" used in the description of embodiments of this application can include both direct and indirect indication. When describing an indication message for indicating A, it may include whether the indication message directly indicates A or indirectly indicates A, but does not necessarily mean that the indication message carries A.

[0105] The preceding text introduced some of the terms used in the embodiments of this application. The following text introduces the technical background of the embodiments of this application.

[0106] Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is a core technology of LTE systems and 5G NR. By configuring multiple antennas at the transmitting and / or receiving ends and through reasonable signal processing (such as precoding), parallel transmission of multiple data streams can be achieved, also known as MIMO spatial multiplexing. This effectively improves signal transmission performance and system capacity with minimal time and frequency resource overhead.

[0107] For uplink transmission, when a terminal device is configured with multiple transmit radio frequency channels, it can perform uplink MIMO transmission using multiple antennas. Alternatively, multiple terminal devices can transmit simultaneously on the same time-frequency resources, forming a virtual MIMO system, i.e., uplink multi-user MIMO transmission (UL MU-MIMO). Currently, the NR protocol supports both codebook-based and non-codebook-based uplink MIMO transmission modes.

[0108] For codebook-based transmission, uplink channel measurement is mainly performed based on the uplink reference signal (SRS) to enable network devices to obtain channel measurement results. Based on the channel measurement results, the network devices select the uplink transmission precoding matrix (i.e., the precoding matrix used for uplink data transmission) from a predefined set of precoding matrices (also known as the codebook) and use control signaling to indicate the index corresponding to the precoding matrix used for uplink data transmission to the terminal devices.

[0109] Taking a base station as an example, the specific uplink transmission process for network equipment includes the following steps:

[0110] Step 1: The base station configures SRS resources for the terminal equipment. SRS resources are used for codebook-based transmission (or usage).

[0111] A base station can be configured with a maximum of 2 SRS resources, and each SRS resource contains n ports. In one implementation, the n ports of each SRS resource correspond to the n antenna ports of the terminal device; n is a positive integer.

[0112] Step 2: The terminal device sends SRS to the base station based on the configured SRS resources.

[0113] Step 3: The base station performs uplink channel measurement based on the SRS signal sent by the terminal device and obtains the uplink channel measurement results.

[0114] Step 4: Based on the uplink channel measurement results, the base station performs resource scheduling for terminal equipment and determines the precoding matrix to be used for uplink transmission.

[0115] In addition, when the base station performs resource scheduling for terminal equipment, it also determines information such as the SRS resources corresponding to the uplink transmission, the number of spatial layers (i.e., the number of transport layers (rank)) and MCS for the uplink transmission.

[0116] Step 5: The base station notifies the terminal equipment of the transmit precoding matrix indicator (TPMI) used for uplink transmission.

[0117] In addition, the base station will also notify the terminal device of the resource allocation of the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the SRS resource indicator corresponding to the uplink transmission, the number of transport layers (rank), and the MCS.

[0118] For example, a base station configures two SRS resources (SRS resource 0 and SRS resource 1) for a terminal device. By performing channel measurements on SRS resource 0 and SRS resource 1, the base station finds that the channel quality of the antenna port corresponding to SRS resource 0 is better. Therefore, the base station indicates to the terminal device that SRI = 0, meaning that in subsequent uplink data transmission, the terminal antenna port corresponding to SRS resource 0 will be used for transmission. Simultaneously, based on the channel measurement results, the network device selects the optimal rank and precoding matrix from a predefined set of precoding matrices and indices of the rank and precoding matrices to indicate these to the terminal device for subsequent data transmission.

[0119] In one implementation, the network device can indicate the rank of the transport stream and the corresponding TPMI to the terminal device via downlink control information (DCI). Specifically, the DCI signaling includes fields for precoding information and the number of layers, which are used to indicate the rank value and the corresponding TPMI index value during PUSCH transmission.

[0120] Current precoding matrices are primarily designed based on the quantization of DFT basis vectors, meaning that a precoding matrix can be represented by a combination of a single DFT vector and a small number of phase quantization values. However, current precoding matrices have the following drawbacks:

[0121] (1) The current quantization of the precoding matrix is ​​based on the discrete fourier transform (DFT) basis vectors. However, the DFT basis vectors are only suitable for uniform antenna arrays. In practical applications, the terminal devices are limited by size and cost, so the multiple antennas of the terminal devices are often irregularly arranged. Therefore, the DFT basis vectors are not suitable for the actual antenna shape of the terminal devices, which will lead to quantization loss.

[0122] (2) Current precoding matrix quantization only uses a small number of phase quantization values ​​to characterize the precoding matrix, resulting in a coarse quantization that can significantly impact transmission performance. For example, for future terminal devices with more antennas, current precoding matrix quantization may not meet their transmission performance requirements.

[0123] As mentioned above, the current precoding matrix is ​​predefined, and its elements need to be quantized. The quantization precision directly affects the compatibility between the precoding matrix and the channel; generally, higher quantization precision results in better transmission performance. With the evolution of future terminal device capabilities, these devices will be able to configure more antennas and support more data streams, thus placing higher demands on precoding precision and making system performance more sensitive to it. Consequently, when network devices indicate the precoding matrix to terminal devices, the quantization precision of the precoding matrix will also increase, thereby increasing the bit overhead required for indication.

[0124] Therefore, embodiments of this application provide a communication method and apparatus that can indicate high-precision precoding matrices with minimal overhead. The method and apparatus are based on the same inventive concept. Since the methods and apparatus solve problems based on similar principles, implementations of the apparatus and method can be mutually referenced, and repeated details will not be elaborated further.

[0125] The technical solutions provided in this application can be applied to various communication systems, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5G communication systems, LTE / 5G hybrid architectures, 5G NR systems, and new communication systems emerging in future communication development. The 5G communication system described in this application can include at least one of non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) 5G communication systems. The communication system can also be a public land mobile network (PLMN), a device-to-device (D2D) network, a machine-to-machine (M2M) network, or other networks. Furthermore, the technical solutions of this application embodiment can be applied to, but are not limited to, the following scenarios: homogeneous network and heterogeneous network scenarios, multi-point cooperative transmission, frequency division duplexing (FDD), time division duplexing (TDD) systems, low-frequency scenarios (such as sub 6GHz), high-frequency scenarios (such as above 6GHz), single-transmission point (single-TRP) or multi-transmission point (multi-TRP) scenarios and any of the scenarios derived therefrom, NR downlink transmission and uplink transmission scenarios.

[0126] Figure 1 illustrates a possible, non-limiting communication system architecture applicable to embodiments of this application. As shown in Figure 1, the communication system 1000 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network (CN) 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include an Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one network device (110a and 110b in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal device (120a-120j in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in Figure 1). The terminal device 120 is wirelessly connected to the network device 110. The network device 110 is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the core network 200. The core network device in the core network 200 and the network device 110 in the RAN 100 may be different physical devices, or they may be the same physical device integrating core network logical functions and radio access network logical functions.

[0127] RAN 100 can be a cellular system related to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as a 4th generation (4G), 5th generation (5G) mobile communication system, or an evolutionary system beyond 5G or a future mobile communication system. RAN 100 can also be an open RAN (O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), or a WiFi system. RAN 100 can also be a communication system that integrates two or more of the above systems.

[0128] It is understood that Figure 1 only shows one possible communication system architecture that can be applied to the embodiments of this application, and other devices may also be included in the communication system architecture in other possible scenarios.

[0129] Network device 110 is an entity on the network side used for transmitting or receiving signals. In this embodiment, the network device can be a device in a wireless network. Network device 110 helps terminal devices achieve wireless access, such as connecting a terminal to a radio access network (RAN) node in a wireless network. Multiple network devices 110 in the communication system 1000 can be nodes of the same type or different types. In some scenarios, the roles of network device 110 and terminal device 120 are relative. For example, network element 120i in Figure 1 can be a helicopter or drone, which can be configured as a mobile base station. For terminal devices 120j accessing RAN 100 through network element 120i, network element 120i is a base station; but for base station 110a, network element 120i is a terminal device. Network device 110 and terminal device 120 are sometimes referred to as communication devices. For example, network elements 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be understood as communication devices with base station functions, and network elements 120a-120j can be understood as communication devices with terminal device functions.

[0130] In one possible scenario, network equipment can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmitting and receiving point (TRP), a transmitting point (TP), a next-generation NodeB (gNB), a base station in a future mobile communication system, a future base station in a future mobile communication system, an access point (AP) in a satellite or WiFi system, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, or network equipment in a mobile switching center non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system, i.e., it can be deployed on a high-altitude platform or satellite, etc. Network equipment can be a macro base station (as shown in Figure 1, 110a), a micro base station or indoor station (as shown in Figure 1, 110b), a relay node or donor node, or a wireless controller in a CRAN scenario. Network equipment can also function as a base station in device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, drone communication, and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Optionally, network equipment can also be servers, wearable devices, vehicles, or in-vehicle equipment. For example, the access network equipment in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can be a roadside unit (RSU). Network equipment can cover one or more cells.

[0131] In another possible scenario, multiple network devices collaborate to assist terminal devices in achieving wireless access, with each network device performing a portion of the base station's functions. For example, network devices can be central units (CUs), distributed units (DUs), CU-control plane (CPs), CU-user plane (UPs), or radio units (RUs). CUs and DUs can be separate entities or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). RUs can be included in radio equipment or radio units, such as remote radio units (RRUs), active antenna units (AAUs), or remote radio heads (RRHs). It is understood that network devices can be CU nodes, DU nodes, or devices comprising both CU and DU nodes. Furthermore, CUs can be classified as network devices in the access network (RAN) or the core network (CN), without limitation.

[0132] For example, the structure of the network device in this application embodiment can be as shown in Figure 2. Specifically, the wireless access network device can be divided into a CU and at least one DU. The CU can be used to manage or control at least one DU, or it can be said that the CU is connected to at least one DU. This structure can separate the protocol layers of the wireless access network device in the communication system, with some protocol layers centrally controlled by the CU, and the remaining part or all of the protocol layer functions distributed in the DU, which is centrally controlled by the CU. Taking the wireless access network device as a gNB as an example, the protocol layers of the gNB include the radio resource control (RRC) layer, the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, the radio link control (RLC) layer, the media access control (MAC) sublayer, and the physical layer. For example, the CU can be used to implement the functions of the RRC layer, SDAP layer, and PDCP layer, and the DU can be used to implement the functions of the RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer. This application embodiment does not specifically limit the protocol stacks included in the CU and DU.

[0133] For example, the CU in this embodiment can be further divided into one control plane (CU-CP) network element and multiple user plane (CU-UP) network elements. The CU-CP can be used for control plane management, and the CU-UP can be used for user plane data transmission. The interface between the CU-CP and CU-UP can be an E1 port. The interface between the CU-CP and DU can be an F1-C port for control plane signaling transmission. The interface between the CU-UP and DU can be an F1-U port for user plane data transmission. CU-UPs can be connected to each other via an Xn-U port for user plane data transmission. For example, taking a gNB as an example, the structure of the gNB can be as shown in Figure 3.

[0134] For example, communication between a network device and a terminal device (UE) can be as shown in Figure 4. The network device and the UE can exchange RRC signaling through the RRC module. The network device and the UE can exchange Media Access Control (MAC) CE signaling through the MAC module. The network device and the UE can exchange uplink / downlink control signaling, such as Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) / Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and uplink / downlink data signaling, such as Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) / Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), through the PHY.

[0135] Terminal equipment 120, also known as terminal, user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), etc., is a device used to provide voice or data connectivity to users, and can also be an Internet of Things (IoT) device. For example, terminal equipment includes handheld devices with wireless connectivity, vehicle-mounted devices, etc. Currently, terminal devices can include: mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MIDs), wearable devices (such as smartwatches, smart bracelets, pedometers, etc.), in-vehicle equipment (such as cars, bicycles, electric vehicles, airplanes, ships, trains, high-speed trains, etc.), satellite terminals, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, smart point-of-sale (POS) machines, customer-premises equipment (CPE), wireless terminals in industrial control, smart home devices (such as refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners, electricity meters, etc.), smart robots, robotic arms, workshop equipment, wireless terminals in autonomous driving, wireless terminals in telemedicine, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, or wireless terminals in smart homes, and flying equipment (such as smart robots, hot air balloons, drones, airplanes), etc. Terminal devices can also be other devices with terminal functions; for example, a terminal device can also be a device that performs terminal functions in D2D communication. The terminal device can also be a terminal device that appears in the future evolution of PLMN, etc., and the embodiments of this application are not limited to this.

[0136] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the terminal device can also be a terminal device in an IoT system. IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and its main technical feature is connecting objects to networks through communication technology, thereby realizing an intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and machine-to-machine interconnection. In this embodiment, IoT technology can achieve massive connectivity, deep coverage, and low terminal power consumption through technologies such as narrowband (NB). The terminal device can also include sensors such as smart printers, train detectors, and gas station sensors, whose main functions include collecting data (for some terminal devices), receiving control information and downlink data from network devices, and transmitting uplink data to network devices by sending electromagnetic waves.

[0137] The communication system architecture or network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application. As those skilled in the art will know, with the evolution of communication system or network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application can also be applied to similar technical problems.

[0138] The technical solution of this application is described below with reference to specific embodiments.

[0139] This application provides a communication method, which can be applied to, but is not limited to, the communication system shown in Figure 1. The method of this application is described from the perspectives of both a network device and a terminal device; however, this should not be understood as limiting the application, as improvements can be made on either side of the network device or the terminal device. The method can be executed by the network device and the terminal device; or by components (modules, chips, etc.) corresponding to the network device and the terminal device; or by a device corresponding to and matched with the network device and the terminal device. It is understood that this application does not specifically limit the specific structure of the executing entities or the number of each executing entity, as long as communication can be performed by running a program that records the code of the method provided in this application. The following description uses the interaction between a network device and a terminal device as an example; in this application, the terminal device may include multiple antenna ports. The order of steps in the following processes is merely illustrative; in actual applications, the execution order of steps in each process can be adjusted, and all or some steps can be executed.

[0140] Referring to Figure 5, the communication method provided in this embodiment may specifically include:

[0141] S501: The network device determines the target phase information, which is associated with the first precoding matrix.

[0142] For example, the network device may be a base station in the communication system shown in Figure 1.

[0143] In the above, the target phase information is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix. The rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix. The first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix. The elements on the main diagonal of each first matrix correspond to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information.

[0144] In one possible implementation, the first precoding matrix conforms to the following formula:

[0145] Where V represents the first precoding matrix, and D i Let D be the first matrix. i The elements on the main diagonal correspond to Ni first phase element information; G j,i For the second matrix, G j,i For each second phase element, N represents the number of transmitting antenna ports of the terminal device, L represents the number of transmission layers or transmission streams of the physical channel, and I... N,L Let N be the matrix consisting of the first L columns of the identity matrix of dimension N; where N is an integer greater than 1, L is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is a positive integer less than or equal to L, and j is an integer greater than i and less than or equal to N.

[0146] Based on Formula 1 above, the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix may include D (D contains a matrix where i takes integer values ​​from 1 to L). i G (G contains matrices where i takes all integers from 1 to L, and j takes all integers from i+1 to N) and G (G contains matrices where i takes all integers from 1 to L, and j takes all integers from i+1 to N). j,i If the target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G (i.e., the phase element with a value that is not zero), then the target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G.

[0147] In one possible implementation, the network device configures an uplink reference signal (SRS) for the terminal device. For a terminal device with N transmit antenna ports, the configured SRS resources include N ports, and the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device is L. Subsequently, the network device performs channel measurements based on the SRS resources transmitted by the terminal device, and can estimate the uplink channel matrix H. The network device then determines the first precoding matrix used for uplink transmission based on this uplink channel matrix H. Further, based on the first precoding matrix, the network device obtains the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G, i.e., the target phase information, through the transformation of Equation 1 above.

[0148] S502: The network device sends target phase information to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the target phase information accordingly.

[0149] In one possible implementation, the target phase information includes first phase information, which is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the first rank. Then, the network device sending the target phase information to the terminal device may include: the network device sending first information to the terminal device, the first information indicating the first phase information. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first information and thus obtains the first phase information.

[0150] In the above, the value of the first rank can represent the number of transmission space layers (also known as the first spatial layer number) or the number of transmission streams. The value of the first rank can be preset, such as predefined, or the value of the first rank can be preconfigured by the network device; this application does not limit this.

[0151] In one possible implementation, the target phase information further includes second phase information, which is partial phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the second rank. The second phase information and the first phase information are used to determine the first precoding matrix, and the value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The method may also include: the network device sending the second phase information to the terminal device.

[0152] In this embodiment, the value of the second rank can refer to the rank value (i.e., the number of transport streams or the number of transport layers) that the network device actually schedules for the terminal device. The value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the second rank condition can be called the target phase information. The phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the first rank condition is called the first phase information. The phase element information other than the first phase information in the target phase information (the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix under the second rank condition) can be called the second phase information.

[0153] For example, based on Formula 1 above, the first phase information can be D (i.e., matrices D1, ..., D2). L ) and G (i.e. G) 2,1 G 3,2 , ..., G N,N-1 The second phase information can be a part of the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G, and the second phase information can be another part of the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G.

[0154] In one possible implementation, the network device sends the second phase information to the terminal device, which may include the following methods:

[0155] Method 1: The network device sends a second message to the terminal device, which is used to indicate the second phase information; accordingly, after receiving the second message, the terminal device can obtain the second phase information.

[0156] Method 2: The first information can also be used to indicate the second phase information. That is, the first information is used to indicate the first phase information and the second phase information; accordingly, after receiving the first information, the terminal device can obtain the first phase information and the second phase information.

[0157] In one possible implementation, the first information described above can be carried in physical downlink shared channel information or in downlink control information (such as DCI). The second information described above can be downlink control information (such as DCI), which can also be used to indicate the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device or the rank of the first precoding matrix.

[0158] In this embodiment, the network device can indicate target phase information to the terminal device through a two-level indication method (such as first information and second information with indication function). This not only makes the indication more flexible but also avoids the potential waste of bit resources caused by directly indicating the target phase information to the terminal device all at once. For example, if the terminal device already has first phase information, sending or indicating target phase information containing the first phase information to the terminal device would generate unnecessary indication overhead. Furthermore, through two-level indication, the dynamic range of the indication information overhead in each level can be effectively controlled, avoiding large differences between the maximum and minimum overhead of the indication information under different scenarios or configurations (such as different rank values). This is more conducive to the design of the indication information and avoids the waste of overhead caused by designing signaling based on the maximum overhead.

[0159] The specific implementation of the two-level indication method proposed in this application embodiment is not limited to the above-mentioned first and second information with indication functions, and can also be implemented in other forms, which are not limited.

[0160] In some embodiments of this application, the first information may be sent by the network device to the terminal device at a set period. This set period may be predefined or agreed upon or negotiated between the network device and the terminal device, and this application does not limit this. In addition, compared with the sending period of the second information, the sending period of the first information (i.e., the aforementioned set period) may be a longer period. This can avoid the network device sending the first information multiple times in a short period of time, thereby minimizing the overhead of transmission or indication.

[0161] In the embodiments of this application, the terminal device can obtain partial or complete information of the target phase information from the network device. The terminal device can also obtain the target phase information through other means, such as the target phase information being predefined, stored locally on the terminal device, or provided by a third party. Alternatively, the terminal device can obtain intermediate information through the network device or other means, and can directly or indirectly obtain the target phase information based on the intermediate information. This application does not specifically limit the means or methods by which the terminal device obtains the target phase information.

[0162] S503: The terminal device processes the data to be transmitted based on the first precoding matrix, which is determined based on the target phase information.

[0163] For example, based on Formula 1 above, the terminal device can determine D and G based on the target phase information, and further, can determine V (i.e., the first precoding matrix).

[0164] In this embodiment, the process by which the terminal device processes the data to be transmitted (or the signal to be transmitted) based on the first precoding matrix can be implemented with reference to the existing precoding process, and will not be described in detail here.

[0165] In summary, this application provides a communication method, which includes: a terminal device obtaining target phase information; the target phase information being phase element information of a rotation matrix corresponding to a first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix including at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix being a diagonal matrix, each element on the main diagonal of the first matrix corresponding to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponding to one second phase element information; and then the terminal device processing data to be transmitted based on the first precoding matrix, the first precoding matrix being determined based on the target phase information. Typically, when directly quantizing the information of each element in the first precoding matrix, each element in the first precoding matrix is ​​a complex value (including phase and amplitude values). Therefore, when the network device sends or indicates the first precoding matrix to the terminal device, the phase and amplitude values ​​corresponding to each element in the first precoding matrix need to be transmitted or indicated by a corresponding number of bits. However, in the method of this application, the number of phase elements of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix is ​​less than the number of elements in the first precoding matrix, and each phase element of the rotation matrix is ​​different from each complex value element in the first precoding matrix. Each phase element of the rotation matrix corresponds to only one quantized value. In this way, by sending or indicating the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix to the terminal device, the network device can not only achieve high-precision indication or transmission of the first precoding matrix, but also effectively reduce the overhead generated by indication or transmission.

[0166] Based on the communication method described in Figure 5 above, several specific implementation methods will be introduced in detail below.

[0167] Implementation Method 1: In Implementation Method 1, the formula for characterizing the precoding matrix defined in the above embodiments of this application (i.e., Formula 1 that the first precoding matrix in S501 of the scheme described in Figure 5 conforms to) will be described in detail.

[0168] The basic principle of a formula (or characterization expression) for representing a precoding matrix proposed in the embodiments of this application is introduced below.

[0169] Typically, when the uplink transmission rank is L, the calculated precoding matrix is ​​a matrix composed of the L eigenvectors corresponding to the L strongest eigenvalues ​​of the channel matrix H. That is, the precoding matrix can be represented as V = [V1, V2, ..., V...]. L ].

[0170] The precoding matrix V is a matrix composed of eigenvectors. Therefore, the precoding matrix V is a unitary matrix, meaning that each column vector in the precoding matrix V is orthogonal to each other and the magnitude of each column vector is 1.

[0171] For example, taking a transmit antenna with N=2 ports and rank=2 as an example, the corresponding precoding matrix can be represented as follows: As shown in Figure 6, the two column vectors of the precoding matrix V are indicated by bold lines. Each vector has a length (magnitude) of 1, and the two vectors are orthogonal (i.e., the angle between them is 90°). Rotating the two column vectors in the precoding matrix V by an angle θ allows them to be positioned on two different coordinate axes, thus yielding an identity matrix.

[0172] Based on the above, given the rotation angle θ, the two column vectors corresponding to the precoding matrix V can be recovered from the unit vectors on the coordinate axes, i.e., from the identity matrix. Two unit column vectors in the network can be used to recover two column vectors in the precoding matrix V, thus obtaining the precoding matrix V. Therefore, the network device can notify or indicate the rotation angle θ to the terminal device, enabling the terminal device to obtain the precoding matrix V.

[0173] As can be seen from the above examples, compared to network devices instructing or notifying terminal devices of the precoding matrix... In this embodiment of the application, the overhead of the network device notifying or instructing the terminal device on the rotation angle θ is lower due to the four complex elements (i.e., x1, y1, x2, y2).

[0174] Based on the above principles, for a precoding matrix with N transmit antenna ports and a transmission rank value of L, this application proposes a method for quantizing the precoding matrix, namely Formula 1 in the scheme shown in Figure 5:

[0175] Where V represents a precoding matrix of dimension N*L; I N,L I represents the submatrix formed by cutting off the first L columns of an identity matrix of dimension N. N,L It can conform to the following representation:

[0176] D i A diagonal matrix can be represented in the following form:

[0177] In this system, the first i-1 elements on the main diagonal are 1, the last element on the main diagonal is 1, and the middle Ni elements on the main diagonal are non-1 values ​​(i.e., ...). ).

[0178] G j,i For a rotation matrix, it can conform to the following representation:

[0179] The element in the i-th row and i-th column and the j-th row and j-th column is cos(θ). j,i The element in the i-th row and j-th column is sin(θ). j,i The element in the j-th row and i-th column is -sin(θ). j,i The other elements on the main diagonal are 1.

[0180] In the above, (i.e., an example of the first phase element in the scheme described in Figure 5 above) and θ (i.e., an example of the second phase element in the scheme described in Figure 5 above) can characterize different types of phase elements.

[0181] For example, taking a precoding matrix with N=4 transmit antenna ports and L=2 transmission rank as an example, the matrix has a dimension of 4*2. The above quantification formula can be expressed as: V = D1G 2,1 G 3,1 G 4,1 D2G 3,2 G 4,2 I 4,2 .

[0182] The matrix D1 can be represented as follows:

[0183] matrix

[0184] Matrix D2 can be represented as follows:

[0185] matrix

[0186] Matrix G 2,1 It can be represented as follows:

[0187] matrix

[0188] Matrix G 3,1 It can be represented as follows:

[0189] Matrix G 4,1 It can be represented as follows:

[0190] Matrix G 3,2 It can be represented as follows:

[0191] Matrix G 4,2 It can be represented as follows:

[0192] Matrix I 4,2 It can be represented as follows:

[0193] matrix

[0194] Based on the above principles, it can be equivalently passed through matrices D1 and G. 2,1 G 3,1 G 4,1 D2, G 3,2 G 4,2 The 4x2 precoding matrix V is rotated to orthogonal coordinate axes in a 4-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system. Therefore, the network device can indicate the phase of the aforementioned matrices to the terminal device. and θ 2,1 θ 3,1 θ 4,1 θ 3,2 θ 4,2 A total of 10 phase quantization values ​​are generated (example of target phase information in the scheme described in Figure 5). Assuming that each of these 10 phases is quantized using 3 bits, a total of 30 bits are required for indication.

[0195] However, if the precoding matrix V is directly quantized, the precoding matrix has 8 elements (each element is a complex value), i.e., v 11 v 21 v 31 v 41 v 21 v 22 v 32 v 42 Assuming that the amplitude and phase of each of these 8 elements are quantized using 3 bits each, a total of 48 bits are required for indication. Therefore, compared to directly quantizing the elements in the precoding matrix V, the quantization precoding matrix method provided in the above embodiments of this application can effectively reduce the bit overhead generated by indicating the precoding matrix.

[0196] Referring to the above example, for the number of transmit antenna ports N=4, Table 1 shows the indication overhead corresponding to the quantization precoding matrix method and the direct quantization precoding matrix method of this application embodiment under different rank values. As shown in Table 1, for each rank value, the indication overhead generated by the quantization precoding matrix method of this application embodiment is lower than that generated by the direct quantization precoding matrix method. Moreover, as the rank value increases, the ratio (i.e., the overhead ratio) of the indication overhead corresponding to the method of this application embodiment to the indication overhead generated by the direct quantization precoding matrix method becomes smaller and smaller.

[0197] Table 1

[0198] Table 1 above is just an example, where the symbol "*" is a multiplication sign.

[0199] In Implementation Method 1, this application proposes a method for quantizing precoding matrices (as shown in Formula 1 of the scheme in Figure 5 above), which can effectively indicate high-precision precoding matrices with low overhead.

[0200] Implementation Method 2: In Implementation Method 2, based on the scheme described in Figure 5 above, a detailed description is given of how the network device indicates the target phase information (the target phase information is used to determine the first precoding matrix) to the terminal device through a two-level indication method (e.g., through two indication messages).

[0201] The following explains the rationale behind the two-level indication method proposed in this application's embodiments for indicating target phase information:

[0202] The quantization precoding matrix method proposed in this application (i.e., Formula 1 in the scheme shown in Figure 5 above) includes the following features:

[0203] Feature 1: As the rank value increases, the network device needs to indicate more phases to the terminal device, the compression ratio of the precoding matrix quantization is higher (the overhead ratio is lower), and compared with the number of phases indicated when the rank value is L-1, the number of additional phases that need to be indicated when the rank value is L gradually decreases.

[0204] For example, for the number of transmit antenna ports N=8, Table 2 shows the number of phases required to be quantized by the quantization method in this embodiment of the application under different rank values. Referring to Table 2, taking N=8 as an example, compared with the number of phases required to be quantized corresponding to rank=1, rank=2 requires an additional 12 phases to be indicated, and compared with the number of phases required to be quantized corresponding to rank=6, rank=7 requires an additional 2 phases to be indicated.

[0205] Table 2

[0206] Feature 2: As the rank value increases, the phase information that needs to be indicated when the rank value is large includes the phase information that needs to be indicated when the rank value is small.

[0207] For example, taking the number of transmitting antenna ports N=4 as an example, when rank=2, using the quantization method described in Implementation Method 1 above, the phase that needs to be indicated is: and θ 2,1 θ 3,1 θ 4,1 θ3,2 θ 4,2 For the number of transmit antenna ports N=4 and rank=3, using the quantization method described in Implementation Method 1, it can be seen that the phase information to be indicated for rank=3 includes not only the 10 phases corresponding to rank=2, but also 2 phases, i.e. and θ 4,3 .

[0208] In one implementation, when a network device indicates the corresponding precoding matrix to a terminal device, the network device can do so by sending dynamic control signaling (e.g., DCI) to the terminal device. However, the overhead of indicating the phase information corresponding to different rank values ​​through control signaling (e.g., DCI) is a fixed number of bits (the number of indication bits is fixed and finite).

[0209] Based on the above characteristics, it can be seen that as the rank value increases, the number of additional phases that need to be indicated gradually decreases. Moreover, when indicating via control signaling, it is limited by the fixed number of bits required by the control signaling. Therefore, this application proposes to indicate the number of phases that need to be indicated through a two-level indication method, as detailed below:

[0210] In one implementation, the network device can send a first indication information and a second indication information (i.e., an example of a two-level indication method) to the terminal device; the first indication information is used to indicate the phase information required for the precoding matrix quantization when the rank value is a preset value (i.e., the preset rank value), that is, the phase element information obtained by the above formula (an example of the first phase information in the scheme described in Figure 5); the second indication information is used to indicate additional phase information other than the phase information corresponding to the preset rank value when the rank value is the rank value corresponding to the uplink data transmission (PUSCH) (an example of the second phase information in the scheme described in Figure 5).

[0211] Therefore, the first indication information can be used to indicate a fixed or preset number of phase information under a preset rank value. Subsequently, based on the actual scheduling rank value, additional phase information that needs to be indicated can be determined and dynamically indicated through the second indication information, thereby reducing the overhead of dynamic signaling.

[0212] In this embodiment of the application, the preset rank value may be different for the number of transmit antenna ports of different terminal devices.

[0213] For example, Table 3 shows the corresponding preset rank values ​​for the number of transmit antenna ports of the terminal device N=4 and N=8.

[0214] Table 3

[0215] Table 3 above is just an example. In actual applications, the preset rank value can be set in advance or configured by the network device, and there is no limitation on this.

[0216] Example 1: The following describes how a network device indicates the quantized phase information corresponding to the precoding matrix to a terminal device using two indication messages when the number of antenna ports N=4 and the preset rank value is 1:

[0217] Referring to Figure 7(1), for the terminal device with N=4 transmit antenna ports and a preset rank value of 1, the network device sends a first indication information to the terminal device. This first indication information indicates the phase information that needs to be quantized corresponding to the precoding matrix when the preset rank value is 1. According to Formula 1 above, the first indication information indicates... and θ 2,1 θ 3,1 θ 4,1 A total of 6 phase information quantization values ​​are obtained. After receiving the first instruction information, the terminal device can obtain these 6 phase information values.

[0218] Furthermore, the network device can send a second indication information, such as DCI, to the terminal device. The DCI can be used to schedule uplink data transmission (PUSCH). The DCI can include a precoding indication field and a scheduling rank value. The precoding indication field is used to indicate the quantized value of additional phase information that needs to be indicated under the scheduling rank value, besides the precoding matrix phase information indicated by the first indication information.

[0219] If the rank value actually scheduled by the network device for the terminal device is 2, then the precoded indication field in this DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) contains... and θ 3,2 θ 4,2 A total of 4 phase information quantization values ​​are obtained. After receiving the DCI information, the terminal device can combine the quantization values ​​of the 6 phase information indicated by the first indication information to obtain the 10 phase information required when the rank value is 2, and then obtain the corresponding precoding matrix according to the above formula 1.

[0220] If the network device actually schedules a rank of 3 for the terminal device, then the precoding indication field in the DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) contains quantized values ​​of 6 phase information. After receiving the DCI, the terminal device, combining the quantized values ​​of the 6 phase information indicated by the first indication information, can obtain the 12 phase information required when the rank is 3, and then obtain the corresponding precoding matrix according to Formula 1 above.

[0221] If the network device actually schedules a rank of 4 for the terminal device, then the precoding indication field in the DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) contains quantized values ​​of 6 phase information. After receiving the DCI, the terminal device, combining the quantized values ​​of the 6 phase information indicated by the first indication information, can obtain the 12 phase information required when the rank is 4, and then obtain the corresponding precoding matrix according to Formula 1 above.

[0222] As described above, for a terminal device with N=4 transmit antenna ports, and with the network device scheduling different rank values ​​for the terminal device, the first indication information indicates 6 phase information values, and the DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) can indicate the quantized values ​​of a maximum of 6 phase information values. Assuming that the quantization of each phase information occupies 3 bits, the first indication information requires 18 bits of indication overhead, and the precoded indication field in the DCI information also requires 18 bits of indication overhead.

[0223] Therefore, in Example 1 above, the phase information that needs to be indicated under the rank value is split into two parts with the same bit overhead, and then the indication is implemented through two indication information with fixed indication overhead. This avoids directly indicating the phase information that needs to be indicated under the actual scheduling rank value, thus avoiding the waste of indication information overhead. It also avoids the need for the terminal device to perform multiple blind checks on the indication information due to changes in the indication information overhead under different rank values, which would lead to increased complexity and power consumption.

[0224] Example 2: The following describes how a network device indicates the quantized phase information corresponding to the precoding matrix to a terminal device using two indication messages when the number of antenna ports N=8 and the preset rank value is 1:

[0225] Referring to Figure 7(2), for the terminal device with N=8 transmit antenna ports and a preset rank value of 3, the network device sends a first indication information to the terminal device. The first indication information indicates the phase information that needs to be quantized for the precoding matrix when the preset rank value is 3. According to the above quantization formula, the quantization values ​​of the 36 phase information indicated by the first indication information can be determined (these 36 phase information are not listed here).

[0226] Furthermore, the network device can send a second indication information, such as DCI, to the terminal device. The DCI can be used to schedule uplink data transmission (PUSCH). The DCI can include a precoding indication field and a scheduling rank value. The precoding indication field is used to indicate the quantized value of additional phase information that needs to be indicated under the scheduling rank value, besides the precoding matrix phase information indicated by the first indication information.

[0227] If the rank value actually scheduled by the network device for the terminal device is 2, then the precoded indication field in this DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) does not contain any additional phase information.

[0228] If the network device actually schedules a rank of 4 for the terminal device, then the precoding indication field in the DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) contains quantized values ​​of 8 phase information. After receiving the DCI, the terminal device, combined with the quantized values ​​of the 36 phase information indicated by the aforementioned first indication information, can obtain the quantized values ​​of the 44 phase information required when the rank is 4, and then obtain the corresponding precoding matrix according to Formula 1 above.

[0229] If the network device actually schedules a rank of 6 for the terminal device, then the precoding indication field in the DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) contains 18 quantized values ​​of phase information. After receiving the DCI, the terminal device, combined with the 36 quantized values ​​of phase information indicated by the aforementioned first indication information, can obtain the 54 quantized values ​​of phase information required when the rank is 6, and then obtain the corresponding precoding matrix according to Formula 1 above.

[0230] As described above, the first indication information contains 36 phase information values, and the precoded indication field in the DCI (i.e., an example of the second indication information) can indicate the quantization values ​​of up to 20 phase information values. Assuming that each phase information is quantized using 3 bits, the first indication information requires 108 bits of indication overhead, and the precoded indication field in the DCI information also requires 60 bits of indication overhead.

[0231] Therefore, in Example 2 above, similarly, the phase information to be indicated under the rank value is split into two parts with different bit overheads, and indicated by two separate indication messages. The first indication message has a relatively higher bit overhead, while the second indication message has a relatively lower bit overhead. Given this, the first indication message with higher bit overhead can be transmitted over a longer period in the PUSCH, while the second indication message with lower bit overhead can be dynamically transmitted via DCI. This minimizes the indication overhead even when DCI has a fixed overhead.

[0232] In the second implementation method, the phase information that needs to be quantized corresponding to the precoding matrix proposed in this application embodiment is indicated to the terminal device through a two-level indication method (e.g., two indication information). This can effectively avoid the waste of overhead caused by always indicating the maximum overhead under the maximum rank value (the actual scheduled rank value). It can also avoid the terminal device needing to blindly detect the indication information multiple times due to the change in the overhead of the indication information under different rank values, which would lead to an increase in implementation complexity and power consumption.

[0233] In the embodiments provided above, the methods provided by the embodiments of this application have been described from the perspective of interaction between various devices. To implement the functions of the methods provided in the embodiments or implementations of this application, the terminal device or network device may include hardware structures and / or software modules, implementing the above functions in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or a combination of hardware structures and software modules. Whether a particular function is executed in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or a combination of hardware structures and software modules depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0234] The module division in this embodiment is illustrative and represents only one logical functional division; in actual implementation, other division methods may be used. Furthermore, the functional modules in the various embodiments or implementations of this application can be integrated into a single processor, exist as separate physical entities, or be integrated into a single module. The integrated modules described above can be implemented in hardware or as software functional modules.

[0235] Similar to the above concept, as shown in FIG8, this application embodiment also provides a communication device 800 for implementing the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method. For example, the communication device 800 can be a software module or a chip system. In this application embodiment, the chip system can be composed of chips or can include chips and other discrete devices. The communication device 800 may include: a communication unit 801 and a processing unit 802.

[0236] In this embodiment, the communication unit 801, also referred to as the transceiver unit, may include a sending unit and / or a receiving unit, respectively used to execute the sending and receiving steps of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments. The processing unit 802 may be used to read instructions and / or data from the storage module so that the communication device 800 implements the aforementioned method embodiments.

[0237] Optionally, the communication device 800 may further include a storage unit 803, which is equivalent to a storage module and can be used to store instructions and / or data.

[0238] The communication device provided in the embodiments of this application will be described in detail below with reference to Figures 8 and 9. It should be understood that the description of the device embodiments corresponds to the description of the method embodiments. Therefore, the contents not described in detail can be implemented as shown in Figure 5 above, and will not be repeated here for the sake of brevity.

[0239] The communication unit 801 can also be called a transceiver, transceiver, or transceiver device. The processing unit can also be called a processor, processing board, processing module, or processing device. Optionally, the device in the communication unit 801 used to implement the receiving function can be considered a receiving unit, and the device in the communication unit 801 used to implement the transmitting function can be considered a transmitting unit; that is, the communication unit 801 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The communication unit can sometimes also be called a transceiver, transceiver circuit, or transceiver unit. The receiving unit can sometimes be called a receiver, receiver, or receiving circuit. The transmitting unit can sometimes be called a transmitter, transmitter, or transmitting circuit.

[0240] When the communication device 800 executes the terminal device in the process shown in Figure 5 of the above embodiment:

[0241] The communication unit 801 is used to obtain target phase information; the target phase information is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, the elements on the main diagonal of each first matrix correspond to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information;

[0242] The processing unit 802 is used to process the data to be transmitted based on the first precoding matrix; the first precoding matrix is ​​determined based on the target phase information.

[0243] When the communication device 800 executes the network device in the process shown in Figure 5 of the above embodiment:

[0244] The processing unit 802 is used to determine target phase information, which is associated with a first precoding matrix. The target phase information is the phase element information of a rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix. The rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix. The first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, and each element on the main diagonal of the first matrix corresponds to at least one first phase element information. Each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information.

[0245] The communication unit 801 is used to transmit the target phase information.

[0246] The above are just examples. Processing unit 802 and communication unit 801 can also perform other functions. For a more detailed description, please refer to the relevant description in the method embodiment shown in Figure 5. It will not be repeated here.

[0247] Figure 9 shows a communication device 900 provided in an embodiment of this application. The communication device shown in Figure 9 can be a hardware circuit implementation of the communication device shown in Figure 8. This communication device 900 can be applied to the flowcharts shown above to perform the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments. For ease of explanation, Figure 9 only shows the main components of the communication device.

[0248] As shown in Figure 9, the communication device 900 includes a communication interface 901 and a processor 902. The communication interface 901 and the processor 902 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the communication interface 901 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface, or an interface circuit such as a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the communication device 900 may further include a memory 903 for storing instructions executed by the processor 902, or storing input data required by the processor 902 to execute instructions, or storing data generated after the processor 902 executes instructions.

[0249] When the communication device 900 is used to implement the method shown in FIG5, the communication interface 901 is used to implement the function of the communication unit 801, and the processor 902 is used to implement the function of the processing unit 802.

[0250] This embodiment does not limit the specific connection medium between the communication interface 901, processor 902, and memory 903. In Figure 9, the memory 903, processor 902, and communication interface 901 are connected via a communication bus 904, which is represented by a thick line. The connection methods between other components are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. The communication bus 904 can be divided into address bus, data bus, control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is used in Figure 9, but this does not indicate that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0251] When the aforementioned communication device is a chip, Figure 10 shows a simplified schematic diagram of the chip's device structure. The chip 1000 includes an interface circuit 1001 and one or more processors 1002. Optionally, the chip 1000 may also include a bus. Wherein:

[0252] The processor 1002 may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, each step of the method for determining the service node information described above can be completed by the integrated logic circuitry in the hardware of the processor 1002 or by instructions in software form. The processor 1002 may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, or discrete hardware components. It can implement or execute the methods and steps disclosed in the embodiments of this application. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0253] The interface circuit 1001 can be used to send or receive data, instructions or information. The processor 1002 can use the data, instructions or other information received by the interface circuit 1001 to process the data, instructions or other information, and can send the processed information out through the interface circuit 1001.

[0254] Optionally, chip 1000 also includes memory 1003, which may include read-only memory and random access memory, and provides operation instructions and data to the processor. A portion of memory 1003 may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM).

[0255] Optionally, the memory stores executable software modules or data structures, and the processor can execute corresponding operations by calling the operation instructions stored in the memory (which may be stored in the operating system).

[0256] Optionally, the chip can be used in the terminal device or network device involved in the embodiments of this application. Optionally, the interface circuit 1001 can be used to output the execution result of the processor 1002. For the communication methods provided by one or more embodiments of this application, please refer to the foregoing embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0257] It should be noted that the functions of the interface circuit 1001 and the processor 1002 can be implemented through hardware design, software design, or a combination of hardware and software; no restrictions are imposed here.

[0258] This application also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions for implementing the methods executed by a terminal device or a network device in the above method embodiments.

[0259] For example, when the computer program is executed by a computer, it enables the computer to implement the methods executed by the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments.

[0260] This application also provides a computer program product containing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to implement the method executed by a terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments.

[0261] This application embodiment also provides a chip, including a processor, for calling computer programs or computer instructions stored in the memory, so that the processor executes the communication method of the implementation shown in FIG5 above.

[0262] In one possible implementation, the input of the chip corresponds to the receiving operation in the implementation shown in Figure 5 above, and the output of the chip corresponds to the sending operation in the implementation shown in Figure 5 above.

[0263] Optionally, the processor is coupled to the memory via an interface.

[0264] Optionally, the chip also includes a memory that stores computer programs or computer instructions.

[0265] The processor mentioned above can be a general-purpose central processing unit, a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits used to control the execution of a program through a communication method for the implementation shown in Figure 5. The memory mentioned above can be read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices capable of storing static information and instructions, such as random access memory (RAM).

[0266] It should be noted that, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the explanations and beneficial effects of the relevant content in any of the communication devices provided above can be referred to the corresponding service node information determination method embodiments provided above, and will not be repeated here.

[0267] In this application, the communication devices may further include a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on top of the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer may include hardware such as a central processing unit (CPU), a memory management unit (MMU), and memory (also known as main memory). The operating system layer may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes, such as Linux, Unix, Android, iOS, or Windows. The application layer may include applications such as browsers, address books, word processing software, and instant messaging software.

[0268] The module division in this embodiment is illustrative and represents only one logical functional division. In actual implementation, other division methods may be used. Furthermore, the functional modules in each embodiment of this application can be integrated into a single processor, exist as separate physical entities, or be integrated into a single module. The integrated modules described above can be implemented in hardware or as software functional modules.

[0269] Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that the embodiments of this application can be implemented in hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, the above functions can be stored in a computer-readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include computer storage media and communication media, wherein communication media include any medium that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media can be any available medium accessible to a computer. For example, but not limited to, computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, magnetic disk storage media, or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium capable of carrying or storing desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and accessible to a computer. Furthermore, any connection can suitably be a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of the medium. As used in embodiments of this application, disks and discs include compact discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital video discs (DVDs), floppy disks, and Blu-ray discs, wherein disks typically magnetically copy data, while discs optically copy data using lasers. The combinations above should also be included within the scope of protection for computer-readable media.

[0270] In summary, the above descriptions are merely embodiments of this application and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of this application. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made based on the disclosure of this application should be included within the scope of protection of this application.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a terminal device or a chip of the terminal device, including: Obtain target phase information; the target phase information is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix, the rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix, the first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, the elements on the main diagonal of each first matrix correspond to at least one first phase element information, and each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information; The data to be transmitted is processed based on the first precoding matrix; the first precoding matrix is ​​determined based on the target phase information.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The target phase information includes first phase information, which is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the first rank; The step of obtaining target phase information includes: receiving first information from a network device, wherein the first information is used to indicate the first phase information.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The target phase information also includes second phase information, which is a partial phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the second rank. The second phase information and the first phase information are used to determine the first precoding matrix, and the value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The method further includes: obtaining the second phase information.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Obtaining the second phase information includes: Receive second information from the network device, the second information being used to indicate the second phase information; or The first information is also used to indicate the second phase information.

5. The method according to claim 2 or 4, characterized in that, The first information is carried in physical downlink shared channel information or downlink control information.

6. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that, The second information is downlink control information, which is also used to indicate the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device or the rank of the first precoding matrix.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, The first precoding matrix conforms to the following formula: Where V represents the first precoding matrix, and D i For the first matrix, the D i The elements on the main diagonal correspond to Ni first phase element information; the G j,i For the second matrix, the G j,i For each of the second phase element information, N represents the number of transmitting antenna ports of the terminal device, L represents the number of transmission layers or transmission streams of the physical channel, and I N,L Let L be the matrix consisting of the first L columns of the identity matrix of dimension N; N is an integer greater than 1, L is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is a positive integer less than or equal to L, and j is an integer greater than i and less than or equal to N.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix includes D and G, and the target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G.

9. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a network device or a chip of the network device, including: Determine the target phase information; the target phase information is associated with the first precoding matrix, and the target phase information is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix. The rotation matrix includes at least one first matrix and at least one second matrix. The first matrix is ​​a diagonal matrix, and the elements on the main diagonal of each first matrix correspond to at least one first phase element information. Each second matrix corresponds to one second phase element information. Send the target phase information.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The target phase information includes first phase information, which is the phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the first rank; Sending the target phase information includes: sending the first information to the terminal device, wherein the first information is used to indicate the first phase information.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that, The target phase information also includes second phase information, which is a partial phase element information of the rotation matrix corresponding to the value of the second rank. The second phase information and the first phase information are used to determine the first precoding matrix, and the value of the second rank is greater than the value of the first rank. The method further includes sending the second phase information to the terminal device.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that, Sending the second phase information to the terminal device includes: Send a second message to the terminal device, the second message being used to indicate the second phase information; or The first information is also used to indicate the second phase information.

13. The method according to claim 10 or 12, characterized in that, The first information is carried in physical downlink shared channel information or downlink control information.

14. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that, The second information is downlink control information, which is also used to indicate the number of transport streams scheduled by the network device for the terminal device or the rank of the first precoding matrix.

15. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 14, characterized in that, The first precoding matrix conforms to the following formula: Where V represents the first precoding matrix, and D i For the first matrix, the D i The elements on the main diagonal correspond to Ni first phase element information; the G j,i For the second matrix, the G j,i For each of the second phase element information, N represents the number of transmitting antenna ports of the terminal device, L represents the number of transmission layers or transmission streams of the physical channel, and I N,L Let L be the matrix consisting of the first L columns of the identity matrix of dimension N; N is an integer greater than 1, L is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is a positive integer less than or equal to L, and j is an integer greater than i and less than or equal to N.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that, The rotation matrix corresponding to the first precoding matrix includes D and G, and the target phase information is the non-zero phase element information corresponding to the elements in D and G.

17. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes units or modules for performing the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8, or units or modules for performing the method as described in any one of claims 9 to 16.

18. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes a processor and a memory, the memory being used to store program instructions, the processor causing the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8 to be performed when executing the program instructions, or the processor causing the method as described in any one of claims 9 to 16 to be performed when executing the program instructions.

19. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer-readable program or instructions that, when executed on a communication device, cause the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8 to be performed, or cause the method as described in any one of claims 9 to 16 to be performed.

20. A computer program product, characterized in that, The computer program product includes a computer program or instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8, or cause the computer to perform the method as described in any one of claims 9 to 16.

21. A chip, characterized in that, The chip is configured to read and execute computer programs or instructions in a memory to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 8, or to implement the method as described in any one of claims 9 to 16.

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