Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

Disclosed in the present application are a communication method and an apparatus. The method comprises: a network device sending configuration information of reference signal resources to a terminal device, the configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponding to M reference signal resources, and M being a positive integer; and sending first indication information to the terminal device, the first indication information being used for indicating the reference signal resource corresponding to each port among N ports, the reference signal resource corresponding to each port among the N ports being that among the M reference signal resources, the corresponding relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources being related to the coherence capability of the terminal device, the coherence capability of the terminal device being one of fully coherent, partially coherent and non-coherent, and N being a positive integer. The method can reduce reference signal resource overheads.

Description

Communication method and apparatus

[0001] The present application claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 202410824136.8, filed on June 24, 2024, with the State Intellectual Property Office of China, and the Chinese patent application No. 202410824136.8 has the title of “Communication method and apparatus”, the whole content of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communication technology, in particular to a communication method and apparatus. BACKGROUND

[0003] Multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) is a core technology of long term evolution (LTE) system and new radio (NR) system. Through configuring multiple antennas at the sending end and / or receiving end, and through reasonable signal processing (such as precoding, etc.), parallel transmission of multiple data streams can be realized, which is also called MIMO spatial multiplexing. MIMO spatial multiplexing can effectively improve the system capacity. The above-mentioned sending end or receiving end can be an nTmR terminal device, where n represents the number of sending radio frequency (RF) chains, and m represents the number of receiving or optional sending antenna ports (for convenience, referred to as antenna ports). That is, the number of sending RF chains configured by the terminal device is n, and the number of antennas configured by the terminal device is m, and n and m are positive integers.

[0004] At present, a network device can configure 2 sounding reference signal (SRS) resources for an nTmR terminal device to perform uplink channel measurement, each of the 2 SRS resources can correspond to one antenna port combination; the terminal device sends SRS to the network device based on the configured SRS resource; the network device determines one SRS resource from the 2 SRS resources based on the SRS; the network device can send an SRS resource indicator (SRI) corresponding to the determined SRS resource to the terminal device; the terminal device sends uplink data by using the antenna port combination associated with n SRS ports in the SRS resource corresponding to the SRI.

[0005] In the above method, the SRS resource and the antenna port combination are one-to-one corresponding, and one antenna port combination is indicated by the index of one SRS resource. When the number of antenna port combinations to be measured is large, the resource overhead of reference signals (such as the above-mentioned SRS) is large. SUMMARY

[0006] The application discloses a communication method and device, which can reduce reference signal resource overhead.

[0007] The application is described below from different aspects. It should be understood that the implementation and advantages of different aspects below can be referred to each other.

[0008] In a first aspect, the application discloses a communication method, which can be executed by a network device or a module (for example, a chip) in the network device. The method can include: sending configuration information of reference signal resources to a terminal device, the configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponding to M reference signal resources, M being a positive integer; sending first indication information to the terminal device, the first indication information being used to indicate reference signal resources corresponding to each port in N ports, the reference signal resources corresponding to each port in the N ports belonging to the M reference signal resources, a corresponding relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources being related to a coherence capability of the terminal device, the coherence capability of the terminal device being one of full coherence, partial coherence and non-coherence, N being a positive integer.

[0009] In the embodiments of the application, the network device indicates the reference signal resources corresponding to each port in the N ports to the terminal device through the first indication information. The N ports can correspond to one or more reference signal resources in the M reference signal resources. The reference signal resources corresponding to different ports in the N ports can be the same or different. Which reference signal resource in the M reference signal resources corresponding to each port in the N ports is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device. The method can correspond to the N ports through multiple reference signal resources when the coherence capability of the terminal device allows, thereby reducing the number of configured reference signal resources and reducing reference signal resource overhead.

[0010] In a possible implementation, each port in the N ports can be associated with one antenna port of the terminal device. The reference signal resources corresponding to the port indicated in the first indication information represent that the antenna port associated with the port is the same as the antenna port associated with the port corresponding to the same port index in the reference signal resources corresponding to the port. That is, the antenna port used for sending the port is the same as the antenna port used for sending the port corresponding to the same port index.

[0011] Exemplarily, each of the M reference signal resources comprises (may also be referred to as supporting or corresponding to) N ports, and the N ports comprised by different reference signal resources are associated with different antenna port combinations, that is, the M reference signal resources correspond to M antenna port combinations; in the embodiment of the present application, the N ports in the first indication information correspond to multiple reference signal resources in the M reference signal resources, that is, through the multiple reference signal resources, it can be indicated which antenna port the port with the same port index in the N ports is associated with. The method can indicate other antenna port combinations in addition to the M antenna port combinations under the condition of limited number of reference signal resources or reference signal resource overhead, thereby increasing the flexibility and integrity of channel measurement; and the number of configured reference signal resources can be reduced to reduce the reference signal resource overhead under the condition of realizing measurement of the same number of antenna ports.

[0012] The corresponding relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can comprise W groups of first corresponding relationships, where one group of first corresponding relationships refers to the corresponding relationship between the N ports and at least one reference signal resource in the M reference signal resources, and W is a positive integer. The meaning of one group of first corresponding relationships is: which reference signal resource in the M reference signal resources each port in the N ports corresponds to; and at least one port in any two groups of first corresponding relationships corresponds to different reference signal resources. It should be understood that the first corresponding relationship not only indicates which reference signal resource the N ports correspond to, but also indicates which reference signal resource each port in the N ports corresponds to.

[0013] It should be understood that the corresponding relationship between the N ports and the reference signal resources indicated by the first indication information is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device. Optionally, the corresponding relationship between the N ports and the reference signal resources indicated by the first indication information is different when the coherence capability of the terminal device is different. Exemplarily, when the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, each port in the N ports corresponds to an index of a reference signal resource, and when the coherence capability of the terminal device is partially coherent and fully coherent, multiple ports in the N ports correspond to an index of a reference signal resource. It should be understood that the port corresponding to the reference signal resource can refer to the port corresponding to the index of the reference signal resource.

[0014] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the M reference signal resources correspond to M indexes one by one, and the first indication information is used to indicate the index corresponding to the reference signal resource corresponding to each port in the N ports.

[0015] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the first indication information is used to indicate N indexes, the N indexes belong to the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N indexes correspond to the N ports one by one.

[0016] wherein the N indexes belong to the M indexes means that each of the N indexes belongs to the M indexes.

[0017] Optionally, the reference signal resources corresponding to different ports of the N ports can be the same or different. That is, the N indexes can have the same index. For example, the N indexes can be indexes corresponding to the same reference signal resource; for another example, the N indexes correspond to N different reference signal resources, respectively.

[0018] In the embodiments of the present application, since the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the signals between the antenna ports are not coherently transmitted, and therefore only a small number of reference signal resources are needed to measure all the antenna ports, and the channel information corresponding to any antenna port combination can be obtained through the combination of channel information of any antenna port, for example, only 2 reference signal resources can measure 8 antenna ports of a 4T8R terminal device, and each of the 2 reference signal resources corresponds to different 4 antenna ports of the 4T8R terminal device; the index of one reference signal resource in the first indication information corresponds to one port, and any antenna port combination can be indicated flexibly through the indexes of the M reference signal resources, thereby reducing the overhead of the reference signal resources.

[0019] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial coherence, the N ports include k port groups, and k is a positive integer greater than 1; the first indication information is used to indicate k indexes, the k indexes belong to the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k indexes correspond to the k port groups one by one.

[0020] Exemplarily, the ports in the N ports can be reference signal ports (such as SRS ports) or PUSCH ports. It should be understood that, in an implementation, the PUSCH and the SRS have an association relationship, that is, the PUSCH ports and the SRS ports of the associated SRS resources correspond one by one. The terminal device (such as a user equipment) should use the same antenna port as the associated SRS port to transmit the PUSCH.

[0021] Optionally, each of the above port groups corresponds to one coherent antenna port group of the terminal device. Wherein, one coherent antenna port group includes a plurality of antennas with coherent transmission capability (or a plurality of antenna ports with coherent transmission capability).

[0022] In the embodiments of the present application, since the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial coherence, the signals between the antenna port groups corresponding to different port groups are not coherently transmitted, and since it is not necessary to ensure the phase consistency of the channel measurement between the coherent antenna port groups, the method only uses a small amount of SRS resources to respectively complete the traversal of the channel measurement under any combination of the antenna ports in each coherent antenna port group, which can reduce the overhead of the reference signal resources.

[0023] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is full coherence, and the first indication information is used to indicate a first index, the first index being one of M indexes, and the reference signal resource corresponding to the first index corresponding to N ports.

[0024] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation, the value of M is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device.

[0025] In the embodiments of the present application, it is considered that the antenna ports in one coherent antenna port group need to be coherently transmitted, and therefore the antenna ports in one coherent antenna port group need to ensure the consistency of the phase, while the phase consistency between the coherent antenna port groups does not need to be ensured. Therefore, the embodiments of the present application determine the value of M by utilizing the differentiated requirements for the phase consistency of the channel measurement under different coherence capabilities, such as when the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the value of M only needs to satisfy that the ports included in the M reference signal resources are associated with all the antenna ports, such as when the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial coherence, the value of M only needs to satisfy that the port groups included in the M reference signal resources are associated with all the possible combinations of the antenna ports in the coherent antenna port group, so as to reduce the overhead of the reference signal resources.

[0026] In the second aspect, the present application discloses a communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device or a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device, and the method can include: receiving configuration information of reference signal resources, the configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponding to M reference signal resources, M being a positive integer; receiving first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate the reference signal resource corresponding to each of N ports, the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports belonging to the M reference signal resources, the correspondence relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources being related to the coherence capability of the terminal device, the coherence capability of the terminal device being one of full coherence, partial coherence and non-coherence, N being a positive integer.

[0027] In combination with the second aspect, in a possible implementation, the M reference signal resources correspond to M indexes one by one, and the first indication information includes the index corresponding to the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports.

[0028] With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation, the coherent capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the first indication information is used to indicate N indexes, the N indexes are from the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N indexes one-to-one correspond to the N ports.

[0029] With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation, the coherent capability of the terminal device is partial-coherent, the N ports include k port groups, k is a positive integer greater than 1, and the first indication information is used to indicate k indexes, the k indexes are from the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k indexes one-to-one correspond to the k port groups.

[0030] With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation, the coherent capability of the terminal device is full-coherent, the first indication information is used to indicate a first index, the first index is one of the M indexes, and the reference signal resource corresponding to the first index corresponds to the N ports.

[0031] With reference to the second aspect, in a possible implementation, the value of M is related to the coherent capability of the terminal device.

[0032] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, which can be a network device or a chip / circuit therein. The communication apparatus is configured to perform the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect. The communication apparatus includes units configured to perform the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0033] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, which can be a terminal device or a chip / circuit therein. The communication apparatus is configured to perform the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect. The communication apparatus includes units configured to perform the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0034] In the third aspect or the fourth aspect, the communication apparatus can include a transceiver unit and a processing unit. For specific description of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the apparatus embodiments shown below. The beneficial effects of the third aspect to the fourth aspect described above can refer to the related description of the first aspect and the second aspect described above, and will not be described here.

[0035] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which can include a processor and an interface circuit, which are connected. The interface circuit is configured to interact (or transceive or input and output) information or data, and the processor is configured to run program instructions, so that the communication device performs the method described in the first aspect, or the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of any of the aspects.

[0036] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a readable storage medium, which stores program instructions, when the program instructions are run on a computer, the computer performs the method described in the first aspect, or the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of any of the aspects.

[0037] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a program product including program instructions, when the program instructions are run, the method described in the first aspect, or the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of any of the aspects is performed.

[0038] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a device, which can be realized in the form of a chip or in the form of equipment, and the device includes a processor. The processor is configured to read and execute program stored in a memory, so as to perform the information interaction method provided in the first aspect, or one or more of the second aspects, or any possible implementation manner of any of the aspects. Optionally, the device further includes a memory, which is connected to the processor through a circuit. Further optionally, the device further includes a communication interface, which is connected to the processor. The communication interface is configured to receive information to be processed, the processor acquires the information from the communication interface, processes the information, and outputs the processing result through the communication interface. The communication interface can be an input and output interface.

[0039] In a possible implementation manner, the processor and the memory described above can be physically independent units, or the memory can be integrated with the processor.

[0040] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes a network device and a terminal device; the network device is configured to perform the method described in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and the terminal device is configured to perform the method described in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

[0041] The technical effects achieved by the above aspects can be referred to each other or the beneficial effects shown in the method embodiments below, which will not be described here. Attached Figure Description

[0042] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the antenna configuration of a 4T8R terminal device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0043] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0044] Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0045] Figure 4A is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0046] Figure 4B is a schematic diagram of a port-antenna mapping provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0047] Figure 5A is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0048] Figure 5B is a schematic diagram of another port and antenna mapping provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0049] Figure 6A is a flowchart illustrating another communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0050] Figure 6B is a schematic diagram of another port-antenna mapping provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0051] Figure 7 is a structural schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0052] Figure 8 is another structural schematic diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0053] Figure 9 is another structural schematic diagram of the communication device provided in the embodiments of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0054] The technical solutions in the embodiments of this application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0055] In the description of this application, the terms "first," "second," etc., are used only to distinguish different objects and do not limit the quantity or order of execution, nor do they imply that they are necessarily different. Furthermore, the terms "comprising" and "having," and any variations thereof, 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 steps or units not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products, or devices.

[0056] In the description of the present application, unless otherwise specified, " / " means "or", for example, A / B can mean A or B. "And / or" in this article is only a description of the relationship between the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B can mean: A alone, A and B exist at the same time, B alone, these three cases. In addition, "at least one item", "one or more items" or similar expressions mean any combination of these items, including any combination of single or multiple items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c, can mean: a, b, c; a and b; a and c; b and c; or a and b and c. Where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0057] In the description of the present application, the words "exemplary" or "for example" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary", "for example" or "for instance" in this application should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of "exemplary", "for example" or "for instance" is intended to present concepts in a concrete manner.

[0058] It can be understood that in the description of the present application, "when", "if" and "if" refer to the corresponding processing of the device under certain objective conditions, not the time limit, and it does not require the device to have a judgment action when it is implemented, nor does it mean that there are other limitations. Among them, the device makes corresponding processing under certain objective conditions, including: meeting the objective condition, that is, being able to make the corresponding processing; or meeting the objective condition and other conditions to make the corresponding processing.

[0059] "Simultaneously" in this application can be understood as at the same time point, also can be understood as in a period of time, also can be understood as in the same cycle, can be understood in combination with the context.

[0060] In this application, the element expressed by the singular is intended to represent "one or more", not "one and only one", unless otherwise specified.

[0061] In addition, the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably in this article.

[0062] It can be understood that in each embodiment of the present application, "A corresponds to B", "A and B correspond", "A corresponds to B" or similar expressions, B is associated with A, and B can be determined according to A. According to A, it does not mean that B is determined only according to A, but also can be determined according to A and / or other information.

[0063] Firstly, some technical terms related to the present application are introduced.

[0064] (1) SRS

[0065] SRS is an uplink reference signal transmitted by a terminal device to a network device. After receiving the SRS, the network device can obtain the uplink (UL) channel information from the terminal device to the network device based on the SRS. If the uplink and downlink channels have reciprocity characteristics, such as the uplink and downlink channels in a time division duplexing (TDD) system having reciprocity characteristics, the network device can also obtain the downlink (DL) channel information from the terminal device to the network device based on the SRS uplink channel measurement. After the network device obtains the UL channel information corresponding to the terminal device, it can perform data transmission resource scheduling or precoding processing on the terminal device based on the channel information.

[0066] (2) SRS resource

[0067] The SRS resource can be one or more of the time domain resource, frequency domain resource, and spatial domain resource for transmitting the SRS. For example, the time domain resource can refer to the time unit / time domain position for transmitting the SRS, and the time unit can be a frame, a subframe, a slot, or a symbol, etc. The frequency domain resource can refer to the frequency domain position for transmitting the SRS, and the spatial domain resource can refer to an antenna port, a beam direction, etc. The time domain resource is, for example but not limited to, one or more OFDM symbols.

[0068] (3) SRS port

[0069] The SRS resource set includes multiple SRS resources, and each SRS resource includes at least one port, or in other words, each SRS resource corresponds to (may also be referred to as supporting or including) at least one SRS port.

[0070] For example, one SRS resource includes {1, 2, 4, 8} ports. The network device can configure the terminal device with an SRS resource set for transmitting SRS, and indicate the SRS resource set to the terminal device through configuration information, so that the terminal device transmits SRS using multiple SRS resources included in the SRS resource set. The configured SRS resource can be a periodic SRS resource or a non-periodic SRS resource.

[0071] In the present application, the SRS port can correspond to the antenna port of the terminal device, and the above-mentioned antenna port can correspond to the physical antenna or virtual antenna of the terminal device.

[0072] (4) Antenna transceiving capability of terminal device

[0073] For a terminal device, such as a user equipment (UE), the number of transmission chains n is usually less than the number of configured antennas m (i.e., the number of transmission antenna ports), i.e., n < m, where n and m are positive integers, due to the volume, power consumption and cost constraints. Such a terminal device is also commonly referred to as an nTmR terminal device.

[0074] In this application, one antenna corresponds to one transmission antenna port (referred to as an antenna port), and the antenna port can also be referred to as a terminal antenna port, which is not limited in this application; the above-mentioned antenna port can be a physical antenna port or a virtual logical antenna port.

[0075] For example, the antenna transceiving capability of an 8R UE (a UE containing 8 antennas) includes: one transmission and eight receptions (1T8R), two transmissions and eight receptions (2T8R), and four transmissions and eight receptions (4T8R). For different antenna transceiving capabilities, a network device (such as a base station) can configure an SRS resource set (which can also be referred to as an SRS resource set for antenna switching) for the UE to obtain downlink channel state information (CSI). The above-mentioned antenna switching can also be referred to as antenna selection, which is not limited in this application.

[0076] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an antenna configuration of a 4T8R terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1, the antenna configuration of the terminal device has m = 8 antennas (i.e., antennas 0 to 7) and n = 4 transmission radio frequency chains (i.e., RF chain0 to RF chain3). Each of the 4 transmission radio frequency chains can be switched between 2 antennas through a switch, so as to transmit through different antennas. For example, the transmission chain 0 (RF chain0) can be switched between the antenna 0 and the antenna 1 through the switch 0. For example, the terminal device can use antennas 0 / 2 / 4 / 6 for 4-antenna transmission, or can use antennas 1 / 3 / 5 / 7 for 4-antenna transmission. As can be seen, each transmission radio frequency chain can be switched between 2 antennas, and there are a total of 24 = 16 antenna port combinations (i.e., antenna combinations) for transmission.

[0077] It should be understood that the nTmR terminal device (such as the 4T8R terminal device described above) has m antenna ports and n transmission radio frequency links, and at least one transmission radio frequency link can be switched between at least two antenna ports through a switch, so that in one implementation, the nTmR terminal device can select n antenna ports from the m antenna ports for transmission, the n antenna ports form an antenna port combination, and the indexes corresponding to the n antenna ports form an antenna port index combination. In different implementations, the nTmR terminal device corresponds to different antenna port combinations formed by different n antenna ports. For the convenience of description, the multiple antenna ports in the terminal device that can be used for one transmission are referred to as an antenna port combination.

[0078] (5) Coherent capability of terminal device

[0079] In uplink transmission, multiple coherent capabilities of terminal devices can be defined for terminal devices equipped with multiple transmission antennas.

[0080] Coherent refers to the relative phase between multiple transmission antennas of the terminal device being stable within a period of time. Specifically, in existing protocols, it is considered that the transmission antennas are coherent when the relative phase between the transmission antennas floats within +-40 degrees within a 20ms time window. Transmission antennas with coherent capability can perform coherent transmission, for example, the network device can obtain UL channel information of multiple transmission antennas through SRS, then determine the amplitude and phase of subsequent UL signals transmitted by multiple transmission antennas (transmission precoding, TPMI) according to the information and instruct the terminal device, and the terminal device transmits UL signals according to the UL precoding.

[0081] The coherent capability of the terminal device includes non-coherent, partial coherent, or fully coherent. When the coherent capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the antennas corresponding to the antenna port combination formed by the multiple antenna ports of the terminal device do not perform coherent transmission; when the coherent capability of the terminal device is partial coherent, part of the antenna ports of the terminal device form a coherent antenna port group, and the antenna ports in the coherent antenna port group can perform coherent transmission; when the coherent capability of the terminal device is fully coherent, all antenna ports of the terminal device can perform coherent transmission. It should be understood that for a terminal device with full coherent capability, partial coherent capability and non-coherent capability can be supported, that is, full coherent transmission, partial coherent transmission and non-coherent transmission can be performed; for a terminal device with partial coherent capability, partial coherent capability and non-coherent capability can be supported, that is, partial coherent transmission and non-coherent transmission can be performed.

[0082] It should be noted that the coherent capability can also be referred to as a coherent sending capability or a coherent transmission capability, and the full coherence can also be referred to as full coherence, which is not limited in the present application.

[0083] (6) Spatial layer: For a MIMO system, multiple parallel data streams can be transmitted in the same time-frequency resource through space division multiplexing, and each data stream can be referred to as a spatial layer. The spatial layer is also referred to as a data stream, or simply referred to as a stream or a layer. For a terminal device, the number of corresponding spatial layers is also referred to as rank. Generally, the number of spatial layers corresponding to a terminal device is not greater than the number of antennas of the terminal device.

[0084] For the above nTmR terminal device, the channel coefficients or channel qualities corresponding to different antennas are not the same, and therefore different antenna port combinations correspond to different transmission performances. In order to obtain the best uplink transmission performance, how to select n optimal antennas from m antennas for signal transmission to best match the propagation environment is a problem to be studied.

[0085] For uplink transmission, when a terminal device is configured with multiple antennas, the terminal device can perform uplink MIMO transmission through the multiple antennas. Or multiple terminal devices simultaneously transmit on the same time-frequency resource to form a virtual MIMO system, that is, uplink multi-user MIMO transmission (UL MU-MIMO). Currently, the NR protocol supports two uplink MIMO transmission modes: codebook-based transmission (codebook) and non-codebook transmission (non-codebook), and the present application is directed to antenna selection in the codebook transmission mode.

[0086] For codebook transmission, uplink channel measurement is mainly performed based on uplink reference signals SRS, and the network device selects a precoding matrix for uplink transmission from a predefined precoding matrix set (also referred to as a codebook) based on the channel measurement result, and indicates the index corresponding to the precoding matrix for uplink data transmission to the terminal device through control signaling. The specific uplink transmission process is as follows:

[0087] Step S1: The network device configures SRS resources for the terminal device, and the function (standard referred to as usage) of the SRS resources is codebook. The network device can configure a maximum of 2 SRS resources, and each SRS resource contains n SRS ports.

[0088] In an implementation manner, the n SRS ports of each SRS resource correspond to the n antenna ports of the terminal device.

[0089] Step S2: The terminal device sends SRS to the network device based on the SRS resources configured by the network device.

[0090] Taking a 4T8R terminal device shown in FIG. 1 as an example, the network device can configure a terminal device with an SRS resource set containing two SRS resources (such as SRS resource 0 and SRS resource 1), and the SRS resource 0 and the SRS resource 1 correspond to four SRS ports respectively, and each SRS port corresponds to different SRS sequences and / or is mapped to different time-frequency resources.

[0091] In an implementation manner, the four SRS ports of each SRS resource in the two SRS resources correspond to four antenna ports of the terminal device, and the two SRS resources correspond to different antenna ports. For example, the SRS resource 0 corresponds to the antenna ports 0, 2, 4 and 6, and the SRS resource 1 corresponds to the antenna ports 1, 3, 5 and 7.

[0092] In an implementation manner, the four SRS ports of each SRS resource in the two SRS resources correspond to four antenna ports of the terminal device, and the two SRS resources correspond to different antenna ports. For example, the SRS resource 0 corresponds to the antenna ports 0, 2, 4 and 6, and the SRS resource 1 corresponds to the antenna ports 1, 3, 5 and 7.

[0093] Taking a 4T8R terminal device as an example, the network device performs channel measurement on the SRS resource 0 and the SRS resource 1, finds that the channel quality of the antenna port corresponding to the SRS resource 0 is better, and then indicates the SRI=0 to the network device, which indicates that the antenna port corresponding to the SRS resource 0 is used for sending in subsequent uplink data transmission. At the same time, the network device selects the best rank and precoding matrix in the pre-defined precoding matrix set shown in the following table 1 to table 4 based on the channel measurement result, and indicates the rank and the TPMI index to the terminal device for subsequent data transmission.

[0094] Step S4: The terminal device encodes and modulates the uplink data based on the MCS indicated by the network device, determines the number of transmission ranks and the corresponding precoding matrix based on the indicated SRI and TPMI, pre-encodes the data with the precoding matrix, and then sends the uplink data.

[0095] Table 1: Precoding matrix set corresponding to the antenna port number 4 and rank=1

[0096] Table 2: Precoding matrix set corresponding to rank = 2 when the number of antenna ports is 4

[0097] Table 3: Precoding matrix set corresponding to rank = 3 when the number of antenna ports is 4, 4 antenna ports

[0098] Table 4: Precoding matrix set corresponding to rank = 4 when the number of antenna ports is 4

[0099] In the above method, since the protocol can only support the configuration of 2 SRS resources at most, the measurement of antenna port combination can only be performed on 2 kinds of antenna port combinations at most. For a terminal device of 4T8R, a total of 2 4 = 16 kinds of antenna combinations can be transmitted. The measurement of only 2 kinds of antenna port combinations in the above method cannot support flexible uplink data antenna selection transmission, and the channel measurement results under all antenna port combinations cannot be obtained, so the theoretically optimal antenna port combination cannot be selected for data transmission. For example, for the 4T8R terminal device shown in FIG. 1, the SRS resource 0 corresponds to the antenna ports 0, 2, 4, and 6, and the SRS resource 1 corresponds to the antenna ports 1, 3, 5, and 7. Then the network device can only select one of the antenna port combinations {0, 2, 4, 6} or {1, 3, 5, 7} for data transmission, while the actual optimal antenna port combination is {0, 3, 4, 7}. Especially for the further improvement of the number of transmission antenna ports and the number of antennas supported by the future terminal device, this will lead to more possibilities of supported transmission antenna port combinations, and the system performance is more sensitive to the selection of different antenna port combinations, thereby seriously affecting the optimal performance of the system.

[0100] In another implementation of the uplink data transmission antenna selection, the terminal device can select the optimal antenna port for data transmission based on downlink channel measurement. For example, the network device can configure a downlink reference signal for the terminal device, and the network device can perform downlink channel estimation based on the downlink reference signal to determine the performance of the channels corresponding to the m antenna ports, and select the best n antenna ports to map to the configured SRS resource and PUSCH data transmission. For example, for the 4T8R terminal device shown in FIG. 1, the network device configures a 4-port SRS resource for the terminal device. The terminal device performs channel measurement based on the downlink reference signal and finds that the antenna port combination {0, 2, 4, 6} has better performance, and thus can send SRS resource and subsequent uplink data transmission through the antenna port combination {0, 2, 4, 6}. When the channel changes and the optimal antenna port combination changes, the terminal device can replace the antenna ports for sending SRS and uplink data. However, this method mainly relies on downlink measurement to determine the uplink channel, but through downlink measurement, the corresponding noise, interference and receiving end algorithm on the network device side of the uplink channel cannot be accurately obtained, and thus the optimal antenna port combination cannot be obtained.

[0101] The number of reference signal resources is not limited in the present application, and at most all antenna port combinations of the terminal device can be measured to determine the optimal antenna port combination.

[0102] In the embodiments of the present application, the network device can configure different numbers of reference signal resources and different SRI indication methods according to different coherence capabilities of the terminal device. The SRI indication method is to send first indication information to the terminal device, and the first indication information is used to indicate the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports. Each of the N ports corresponds to M reference signal resources, and the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device. N is a positive integer. It should be understood that since the antenna ports in a coherent antenna port group need to be coherently transmitted, the phase consistency needs to be ensured, and the phase consistency between the coherent groups does not need to be ensured. The embodiments of the present application take advantage of the differentiated requirements for phase consistency of channel measurement under different coherence capabilities, can minimize the SRS resource overhead, and ensure flexible measurement and indication of antenna port combinations. The specific measurement and indication process can be seen from the specific description of the following embodiments.

[0103] Based on the above, in order to better understand the communication method and related apparatus proposed in the present application, the network architecture applied in the embodiments of the present application is described first.

[0104] Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of a network architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 2, the network architecture can include a network device 201 and a terminal device 202. The terminal device 202 can be connected to the network device 201 in a wireless manner, and can access a core network through the network device 201. The terminal device 202 can be in a fixed position or can be movable.

[0105] In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device 202 can be an nTmR terminal device, which can send uplink data to the network device 201 by using a plurality of antenna port combinations. For example, the terminal device 202 can be a 4T8R terminal device, and the antenna form of the terminal device can refer to that shown in FIG. 1.

[0106] The network device 201 can be an entity for transmitting or receiving signals, and can be a device for communicating with the terminal device 202. The network device 201 can be a base station (BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system or a code division multiple access (CDMA) system, and can also be a base station (NodeB, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, and the like. The embodiments of the present application are not limited. The network device 201 can be a device in a wireless network, such as a radio access network (RAN) node that accesses the terminal device 202 to the wireless network. At present, some examples of the RAN node are: a base station, a next-generation base station gNB, a transmission reception point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a home base station, a baseband unit (BBU), or an access point (AP) in a WiFi system, and the like. In one network structure, the network device 201 can include a centralized unit (CU) node, or a distributed unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

[0107] The terminal device 202 is an entity for receiving or transmitting signals on the user side, such as a UE, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent or a user equipment. The terminal device 202 can also be a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a Pad, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wireless terminal in self driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home, a wearable device (such as a smart watch, a smart bracelet, a pedometer, etc.), a terminal device in a 5G network, or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit this. The terminal device 202 can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld, wearable or vehicle-mounted, can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship, etc.), and can also be deployed in the air (such as on an airplane, a balloon and a satellite, etc.). In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device 202 can be a legacy UE, can also be an RB-level partial frequency hopping (RPFS) UE supporting SRS coverage and capacity enhancement, and can also be other UEs. The present application does not limit the type of terminal device 202. The legacy UE refers to a UE supporting existing mechanisms, for example, a UE supporting release-15 or release-16.

[0108] As an example but not limitation, in embodiments of the present application, the terminal device 202 can also be a wearable device. The wearable device can also be referred to as a wearable smart device, which is a general term for devices that are designed and developed by applying wearable technology to daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. The wearable device is a portable device that can be directly worn on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also has powerful functions through software support and data interaction and cloud interaction. The broad sense of wearable smart devices includes devices with full functions, large sizes, and the ability to realize complete or partial functions without relying on smart phones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, and devices that focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used with other devices such as smart phones, such as various smart wristbands and smart jewelry for monitoring vital signs. In addition, in embodiments of the present application, the terminal device 202 can also be a terminal in an Internet of Things (IoT) system, which is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects through communication technology and network to realize the interconnection of man-machine and the interconnection of things. In embodiments of the present application, the IOT technology can achieve mass connection, deep coverage, and terminal power saving through, for example, narrow band (NB) technology. In addition, in embodiments of the present application, the terminal device 202 can also include smart printers, train detectors, gas station sensors, and the like. The main functions include collecting data (part of the terminal), receiving control information and downlink data from the network device 201, and transmitting electromagnetic waves to transmit uplink data to the network device 201.

[0109] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, a global system for mobile communication (GSM) system, a code division multiple access (CDMA) system, a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, a general packet radio service (GPRS), an LTE system, an LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, an LTE time division duplex (TDD) system, a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) system, an enhanced data rate for GSM evolution (EDGE) system, a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) system. The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to other communication systems, for example, a public land mobile network (PLMN) system, an LTE advanced (LTE-A) system, a 5G system, a new radio (NR) system, a machine to machine (M2M) system, or other future evolved communication systems, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

[0110] In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device 202 or the network device 201 includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit (CPU), a memory management unit (MMU), and a memory (also known as main memory). The operating system can be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes, such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer includes applications such as a browser, an address book, word processing software, and instant messaging software. Moreover, the embodiments of the present application do not particularly limit the specific structure of the execution subject of the method provided by the embodiments of the present application, as long as the execution subject can communicate according to the method provided by the embodiments of the present application by running a program in which the code of the method provided by the embodiments of the present application is recorded. For example, the execution subject of the method provided by the embodiments of the present application can be the terminal device 202 or the network device 201, or a functional module in the terminal device 202 or the network device 201 that can invoke and execute the program.

[0111] It should be noted that the number and types of terminal devices included in the network architecture shown in FIG. 2 are merely examples, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, more or fewer terminal devices that communicate with the network device 201 can also be included, and for the sake of brevity, they are not described one by one in the drawings. In addition, in the network architecture as shown in FIG. 2, although the network device 201 and the terminal device 202 are shown, the application scenario can not be limited to including the network device 201 and the terminal device 202, for example, it can also include a core network node or a device for carrying a virtualized network function, and the like, which is obvious to those skilled in the art, and will not be described here.

[0112] In combination with the above network architecture, a communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application is described below.

[0113] Referring to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application. The functions performed by the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device, and the functions performed by the network device in the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the network device. As shown in FIG. 3, the communication method can include the following steps.

[0114] S301: The network device sends configuration information of reference signal resources to the terminal device, the configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponds to M reference signal resources, and M is a positive integer.

[0115] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information of the reference signal resource sent by the network device.

[0116] In some embodiments, the above-mentioned configuration information of the reference signal resource can be the configuration information of a reference signal resource set, and the configuration information of the reference signal resource set includes the configuration information corresponding to each of the M reference signal resources. That is, the network device sends the terminal device the configuration information of a reference signal resource set, and the configuration information of the reference signal resource set includes the configuration information corresponding to each of the M reference signal resources. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information corresponding to each of the M reference signal resources, and then can determine the M reference signal resources based on the configuration information corresponding to each of the M reference signal resources. The above-mentioned reference signal resource is used to send a reference signal, for example, the above-mentioned reference signal resource can be an SRS resource, which is used to send an SRS.

[0117] Each of the M reference signal resources corresponds to N ports. For example, the above-mentioned reference signal resource can be an SRS resource, and each of the M SRS resources corresponds to N ports. It should be understood that if the above-mentioned terminal device is an nTmR terminal device, then n is equal to N.

[0118] Optionally, the value of M is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device.

[0119] For example, the network device can determine the number M of parameter signal resources based on the coherence capability of the terminal device, and different coherence capabilities can correspond to different numbers of parameter signal resources. Taking an nTmR terminal device as an example, when the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the number M of reference signals is not greater than m / n or the integer part of (m / n); when the coherence capability of the terminal device is partially coherent, assuming that the m antenna ports are divided into k coherent antenna groups (i.e., coherent antenna port groups), k is a positive integer greater than 1, and each transmission radio frequency link corresponds to m / n antennas, then the number M of reference signals is not greater than mk / n; when the coherence capability of the terminal device is fully coherent, assuming that each transmission radio frequency link corresponds to m / n antennas, the number M of reference signals is not greater than (m / n) n .

[0120] S302: The network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, and the first indication information is used to indicate the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports, the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports belongs to the M reference signal resources, the correspondence relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device, the coherence capability of the terminal device is one of fully coherent, partially coherent and non-coherent, and N is a positive integer.

[0121] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives first indication information sent by the network device.

[0122] The ports in the N ports can refer to reference signal ports (such as SRS ports) or PUSCH ports.

[0123] In some embodiments, the terminal device can determine the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports based on the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources and the first indication information. Each of the N ports corresponds to one reference signal resource; the reference signal resources corresponding to different ports in the N ports can be the same or different. It should be noted that the first indication information indicates which reference signal resource corresponds to each of the N ports.

[0124] For example, the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be as shown in Table 5, and the first indication information can be any index value in the first column of Table 5. The second column to the fifth column in the row where the first indication information is located are respectively the indexes of the reference signal resources corresponding to each of the N ports; assuming that the first indication information is the index value 1 in the third row of the first column of Table 5, then the terminal device can determine based on Table 5 that the first indication information is used to indicate that the port p=0 corresponds to the reference signal resource of SRI=0, the port p=1 corresponds to the reference signal resource of SRI=0, the port p=2 corresponds to the reference signal resource of SRI=0, and the port p=3 corresponds to the reference signal resource of SRI=1.

[0125] For another example, the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial coherence, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be as shown in Table 6, and the first indication information can be any index value in the first column of Table 6. The second column to the third column in the row where the first indication information is located are respectively the indexes of the reference signal resources corresponding to the k port groups in the N ports; assuming that the first indication information is 1 in the third row of the first column of Table 6, then the terminal device can determine based on Table 5 that the first indication information is used to indicate that the port group 0 (i.e. the port p=0 and the port p=1) corresponds to the reference signal resource of SRI=0, and the port group 1 (i.e. the port p=2 and the port p=3) corresponds to the reference signal resource of SRI=1.

[0126] For another example, the coherence capability of the terminal device is full coherence, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is shown in Table 7, and the first indication information can be any index value in the first column of Table 7. The second column in the row where the first indication information is located is the index of the reference signal resource corresponding to the N ports. Assuming that the first indication information is 1 in the third row of the first column of Table 7, the terminal device can determine, based on Table 5, that the first indication information indicates that the N ports (such as port p = 0, port p = 1, port p = 2, and port p = 3) correspond to the reference signal resource with SRI = 1.

[0127] Optionally, the terminal device can further determine, based on the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports and the antenna port associated with the N ports in the reference signal resource, the antenna port associated with the port with the same port index in the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports as the port corresponding to the antenna port, to determine the antenna port corresponding to each of the N ports, and transmit the uplink data based on the antenna port corresponding to each of the N ports. The antenna port corresponding to each of the N ports is used to transmit the uplink data corresponding to the port. The terminal device is an nTmR terminal device, and N is equal to n.

[0128] It should be understood that in this application, each of the M reference signal resources includes N ports, and the N ports are respectively associated with N antenna ports of the terminal device. The port refers to a reference signal port (such as an SRS port) or a PUSCH port. The antenna port refers to an antenna of the terminal device, and the antenna port can also be referred to as a transmit antenna port or a terminal antenna port. The application does not limit this.

[0129] For example, the N ports are port p = {0, 1, 2, 3}, the first indication information indicates that port p = 0 corresponds to the first reference signal resource, port p = 1 corresponds to the first reference signal resource, port p = 2 corresponds to the first reference signal resource, and port p = 3 corresponds to the second reference signal resource. Assuming that the antenna ports associated with the N ports in the first reference signal resource and the second reference signal resource include: in the first reference signal resource, port p = 0 is associated with antenna port 0, port p = 1 is associated with antenna port 2, and port p = 2 is associated with antenna port 4; in the second reference signal resource, port p = 3 is associated with antenna port 7. Then, the terminal device can determine that the antenna port corresponding to each of the N ports is: port p = 0 corresponds to antenna port 0, port p = 1 corresponds to antenna port 2, port p = 2 corresponds to antenna port 4, and port p = 3 corresponds to antenna port 7.

[0130] Optionally, the indication granularity of the first indication information is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device.

[0131] Optionally, the indication granularity of the first indication information is different when the coherence capability of the terminal device is different, that is, the first indication information indicates the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports through different granularity. The granularity can refer to the number of ports corresponding to one reference signal resource in the correspondence indicated by the first indication information. For example, the granularity of the first indication information can be granularity 1, granularity 2, or granularity 3, which are three different granularities. The granularity 1 can refer to that one reference signal resource in the first indication information corresponds (that is, indicates) one port. The granularity 2 can refer to that one reference signal resource in the first indication information corresponds (that is, indicates) one port group (for example, two ports). The granularity 3 can refer to that one reference signal resource in the first indication information corresponds (that is, indicates) N ports.

[0132] For example, the specific form of the first indication information can be a numerical value, and the meaning of the indication granularity of the first indication information can also be explained as follows: the granularity can refer to the number of ports corresponding to one reference signal resource or one reference signal resource index in the correspondence indicated by the first indication information. Different granularities refer to different numbers of ports corresponding to one reference signal resource or one reference signal resource index indicated by the first indication information with the same value. That is to say, when the indication granularities of two first indication information are different but the values are the same, the number of ports corresponding to one reference signal resource in the correspondence indicated by the two first indication information is different.

[0133] For example, when the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the first indication information can indicate the reference signal resource corresponding to one port in the N ports through one reference signal resource. For example, the first indication information is used to indicate N reference signal resource indexes, the N reference signal resource indexes correspond to the N ports one by one, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N reference signal resource indexes can be the same or different.

[0134] When the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial-coherent, and the N ports include k port groups, the first indication information can indicate the reference signal resource corresponding to one port group (that is, at least two ports) in the k ports through one reference signal resource. For example, the first indication information is used to indicate k reference signal resource indexes, the k reference signal resource indexes correspond to the k port groups one by one, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k reference signal resource indexes can be the same or different. The k is a positive integer greater than 1 and less than N.

[0135] When the coherence capability of the terminal device is full-coherent, the first indication information can indicate the reference signal resource corresponding to the N ports through one reference signal resource (for convenience, referred to as the first reference signal resource). For example, the first indication information is used to indicate one reference signal resource index, and the one reference signal resource index corresponds to the N ports.

[0136] That is to say, assuming that the M reference signal resources are in one-to-one correspondence with the M indexes, that is, each reference signal resource has a unique corresponding index; then, for example, when the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the first indication information is used to indicate N indexes, the N indexes belong to the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N indexes respectively correspond to the N ports in one-to-one correspondence; when the coherence capability of the terminal device is partially coherent, the N ports include k port groups, and k is a positive integer greater than 1; the first indication information is used to indicate k indexes, the k indexes belong to the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k indexes respectively correspond to the k port groups in one-to-one correspondence; when the coherence capability of the terminal device is fully coherent, the first indication information is used to indicate a first index, the first index is one of the M indexes, and the reference signal resource corresponding to the first index corresponds to the N ports.

[0137] For example, the first indication information can be one indication information (such as one numerical value), such as the indication information being used to indicate the N indexes, or the above-mentioned k indexes, or the above-mentioned first index. For another example, the first indication information can be the index of the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports, the above-mentioned N indexes, or the above-mentioned k indexes, or the above-mentioned first index.

[0138] The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can include W sets of correspondence between the N ports and at least one of the M reference signal resources (referred to as first correspondence for the convenience of description), that is, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources includes W sets of first correspondence, and W is a positive integer. Wherein, the meaning of a set of first correspondence is: which reference signal resource in the M reference signal resources each of the N ports corresponds to; the reference signal resources corresponding to each of the N ports in the W sets of first correspondence are different. For example, there is a set of first correspondence, and the meaning is that the N ports all correspond to the first reference signal resource in the M reference signal resources; for another example, there is a set of first correspondence, and the meaning is that the N ports correspond to the N reference signal resources in the M reference signal resources, and each of the N reference signal resources corresponds to one of the N ports in one-to-one correspondence. It should be understood that the first correspondence not only indicates how many reference signal resources the N ports correspond to, but also indicates which reference signal resource each of the N ports corresponds to.

[0139] For example, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be represented in the form of a table (such as Table 5, Table 6, or Table 7 below), and the first correspondence can be represented by a row in the table. The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can also be represented by other means such as words or arrays; the present application does not limit this.

[0140] Optionally, each of the W groups of first correspondence relations corresponds to an indication information, for example, the indication information can be an index value in Table 5 to Table 7. For example, the first indication information corresponds to the indication information corresponding to one of the W groups of first correspondence relations, that is, the first indication information is used to indicate one of the W groups of first correspondence relations.

[0141] The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device, which means that the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is different when the coherence capability of the terminal device is different. In this application, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be represented or defined by different tables when the coherence capability of the terminal device is different. For example, when the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be as shown in Table 5; for another example, when the coherence capability of the terminal device is partially coherent, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be as shown in Table 6; for another example, when the coherence capability of the terminal device is fully coherent, the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be as shown in Table 7.

[0142] The following exemplary introduces three possible implementations of the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources when the coherence capability of the terminal device is different.

[0143] In the first implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, and each port in the first correspondence relation corresponds to a reference signal resource, that is, a reference signal resource is indicated for each port. Therefore, in each of the W groups of first correspondence relations, the N ports correspond to N reference signal resources, and the N ports and the N reference signal resources correspond one-to-one, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N ports can be the same or different.

[0144] For example, the N ports are port p=0, port p=1, port p=2, and port p=3, SRI=0 is the index of the first reference signal resource, and SRI=1 is the index of the second reference signal resource; assuming that one of the W groups of first correspondence relations is that port p=0 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=1 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=2 corresponds to SRI=0, and port p=3 corresponds to SRI=0, then the meaning of this group of first correspondence relations is that the N ports all correspond to the first reference signal resource; assuming that one of the W groups of first correspondence relations is that port p=0 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=1 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=2 corresponds to SRI=0, and port p=3 corresponds to SRI=1, then the meaning of this group of first correspondence relations is that port p=0, port p=1, and port p=2 all correspond to the first reference signal resource, and port p=3 all corresponds to the second reference signal resource.

[0145] It should be understood that if the first correspondence relationship in the first implementation is embodied in the form of a table, see Table 5, which exemplarily shows 16 groups of first correspondence relationships, wherein the meaning of any one of the 16 rows corresponding to the index values 0 to 15 and the first row is a group of first correspondence relationships, for example, the first correspondence relationship composed of the row with the index value 0 and the first row is: port p = 0 corresponds to SRI = 0, port p = 1 corresponds to SRI = 0, port p = 2 corresponds to SRI = 0, and port p = 3 corresponds to SRI = 0.

[0146] In the second implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial coherence, and it is assumed that the N ports include k port groups, k is a positive integer, and each port group in the first correspondence relationship corresponds to a reference signal resource, that is, a reference signal resource is indicated for each port group. Then, the N ports in each group of the W groups of first correspondence relationships correspond to k reference signal resources, the k port groups and the k reference signal resources correspond to each other in one-to-one correspondence, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k port groups can be the same or different. It should be noted that one port group can correspond to one coherent antenna port group.

[0147] For example, the N ports are port p = 0, port p = 1, port p = 2, and port p = 3, wherein port p = 0 and port p = 1 form a port group (for convenience of description, referred to as Port group 0), port p = 2 and port p = 3 form another port group (for convenience of description, referred to as Port group 1), SRI = 0 is the index of the first reference signal resource, and SRI = 1 is the index of the second reference signal resource; it is assumed that one group of first correspondence relationships in the W groups of first correspondence relationships is: Port group 0 corresponds to SRI = 0, and Port group 1 corresponds to SRI = 1, then the meaning of this group of first correspondence relationships is: the reference signal resource corresponding to the ports (i.e., the above-mentioned port p = 0 and port p = 1) corresponding to Port group 0 is the first reference signal resource, and the reference signal resource corresponding to the ports (i.e., the above-mentioned port p = 2 and port p = 3) corresponding to Port group 0 is the second reference signal resource; it is assumed that one group of first correspondence relationships is: Port group 0 corresponds to SRI = 0, and Port group 1 corresponds to SRI = 0, then the meaning of this group of first correspondence relationships is: the reference signal resource corresponding to the ports (i.e., the above-mentioned port p = 0 and port p = 1) corresponding to Port group 0 is the first reference signal resource, and the reference signal resource corresponding to the ports (i.e., the above-mentioned port p = 2 and port p = 3) corresponding to Port group 0 is the first reference signal resource, that is, port p = 0, port p = 1, port p = 2, and port p = 3 all correspond to the first reference signal resource.

[0148] It should be understood that if the first correspondence relationship in the second implementation is embodied in the form of a table, refer to Table 6, which exemplarily shows 16 groups of first correspondence relationships, wherein the meaning of any one of the 16 rows corresponding to the index values 0 to 15 and the first row is a group of first correspondence relationships. For example, the first correspondence relationship formed by the row corresponding to the index value 1 and the first row is: Port group 0 corresponds to SRI=0, and Port group 1 corresponds to SRI=1.

[0149] In the third implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is full coherence, and the N ports correspond to the same reference signal resource in the first correspondence relationship, that is, the same reference signal resource is indicated for the N ports. Then, the N ports correspond to one reference signal resource in each of the W groups of first correspondence relationships, and the W groups of first correspondence relationships correspond to W reference signal resources. Exemplarily, the correspondence relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources when the coherence capability of the terminal device is full coherence can be shown in the third implementation described above, and if embodied in the form of a table, refer to the related description of Table 7.

[0150] For example, it is assumed that SRI=0 is the index of the first reference signal resource, and SRI=1 is the index of the second reference signal resource; one group of first correspondence relationships in the W groups of first correspondence relationships is that the N ports correspond to SRI=0, and the meaning of this group of first correspondence relationships is that the N ports all correspond to the first reference signal resource; it is assumed that one group of first correspondence relationships is that the N ports correspond to SRI=1, and the meaning of this group of first correspondence relationships is that the N ports all correspond to the second reference signal resource.

[0151] It should be understood that if the first correspondence relationship in the third implementation is embodied in the form of a table, refer to Table 7, which exemplarily shows 16 groups of first correspondence relationships, wherein the meaning of any one of the 16 rows corresponding to the index values 0 to 15 and the first row is a group of first correspondence relationships. For example, the first correspondence relationship formed by the row corresponding to the index value 0 and the first row is: the N ports correspond to SRI=0; for another example, the first correspondence relationship formed by the row corresponding to the index value 1 and the first row is: the N ports correspond to SRI=0.

[0152] It should be understood that the correspondence relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be predefined, for example, the network device and the terminal device store the correspondence relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources.

[0153] In some embodiments, each of the M reference signal resources comprises N ports, and the N ports are respectively associated with N antenna ports of the terminal device. Since the set of first correspondence relationships means that each of the N ports corresponds to which of the M reference signal resources (at least one reference signal resource), the set of first correspondence relationships can be used to indicate that each of the N ports corresponds to an antenna port associated with a port having the same port index in which reference signal resource, that is, can be used to indicate a combination of antenna ports corresponding to the N ports.

[0154] Optionally, the set of first correspondence relationships can correspond to one combination of antenna ports of the terminal device, and the set of first correspondence relationships (i.e., the correspondence relationship between the N ports and at least one of the M reference signal resources) can mean that the antenna port used for uplink data transmission is an antenna port associated with a port having the same port index in the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports, and W is not greater than the total number of all combinations of antenna ports of the terminal device.

[0155] For example, assuming that the N ports are port p=0, port p=1, port p=2, and port p=3, SRI=0 is the index of the first reference signal resource, and SRI=1 is the index of the second reference signal resource. In the first reference signal resource, the antenna port associated with port p=0 is antenna port 0, the antenna port associated with port p=1 is antenna port 2, the antenna port associated with port p=2 is antenna port 4, and the antenna port associated with port p=3 is antenna port 6. In the second reference signal resource, the antenna port associated with port p=0 is antenna port 1, the antenna port associated with port p=1 is antenna port 3, the antenna port associated with port p=2 is antenna port 5, and the antenna port associated with port p=3 is antenna port 7.

[0156] Assuming that one of the W sets of first correspondence relationships is that port p=0 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=1 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=2 corresponds to SRI=0, and port p=3 corresponds to SRI=0, the meaning of this set of first correspondence relationships is that the antenna port used for uplink data transmission is antenna port {0, 2, 4, 6}. Among them, antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=0; antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=1; antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=2; and antenna port 6 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=3.

[0157] Assuming that a set of first correspondence relations in the W sets of first correspondence relations is: port p=0 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=1 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=2 corresponds to SRI=0, and port p=3 corresponds to SRI=1, the meaning of the set of first correspondence relations is: the antenna ports used for uplink data transmission are antenna ports {0, 2, 4, 7}. Among them, antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=0; antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=1; antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=2; and antenna port 7 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=3. Alternatively, the meaning of the above set of second correspondence is: for PUSCH port 0, antenna port 0 associated with port 0 in the first reference signal resource corresponding to SRI=0 is used for transmission; for PUSCH port 1, antenna port 2 associated with port 1 in the first reference signal resource is used for transmission; for PUSCH port 2, antenna port 4 associated with port 2 in the first reference signal resource is used for transmission; and for PUSCH port 3, antenna port 7 associated with port 3 in the second reference signal resource is used for transmission. That is, the antenna ports used for PUSCH transmission are {0, 2, 4, 7}.

[0158] For example, when W is equal to the total number of all antenna port combinations of the terminal device, the meaning of the correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources can be that all antenna port combinations of the terminal device are indicated by the W sets of first correspondence relations, wherein the meaning of a set of first correspondence relations is that the antenna port associated with each of the N ports is indicated by at least one reference signal resource.

[0159] Each set of first correspondence relations described above has each of the N ports corresponding to one of the M reference signal resources; the reference signal resources corresponding to different ports can be the same or different. Understandably, the above method indicates different antenna port combinations through the correspondence between different reference signal resources and the N ports (i.e., the first correspondence relations described above), and can flexibly indicate antenna port combinations.

[0160] Optionally, assuming that the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the first correspondence relationship is used to indicate that the antenna port used for uplink data transmission is the antenna port associated with the same port as the port index of the port in the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports; assuming that the coherence capability of the terminal device is partially coherent, the first correspondence relationship is used to indicate that the antenna port used for uplink data transmission is the antenna port associated with the same k-port group as the port group index of the k-port group in the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the k-port groups; assuming that the coherence capability of the terminal device is fully coherent, the first correspondence relationship is used to indicate that the antenna port used for uplink data transmission is the antenna port associated with the same N port as the port index of the N port in the reference signal resource corresponding to the N port.

[0161] The method embodiments shown in FIG. 3 above include many possible implementation schemes. Some implementation schemes thereof will be described below in conjunction with FIGS. 4A to 6B. It should be noted that related concepts, operations or logical relationships not explained in FIGS. 4A to 6B can be referred to the corresponding description in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3.

[0162] In this application, the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4A to 6B can be a separate embodiment respectively, and the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4A to 6B can not depend on the technical solution of FIG. 3. Some steps in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4A to 6B can also be a separate embodiment.

[0163] The embodiments shown in FIGS. 4A to 6B take the 4T8R terminal device as an example to introduce the communication method provided in this application in detail. The antenna form of the 4T8R terminal device can be exemplarily referred to the related content of FIG. 1 above.

[0164] In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device has different coherent capabilities, and different precoding matrices are used. For example, for a 4T8R terminal device with full coherent capability, the four transmit antenna ports can be coherently transmitted, and any precoding matrix in Tables 1-4 can be used for transmission. For example, for a 4T8R terminal device with partial coherent capability, the four antenna ports are divided into two coherent antenna port groups, where the antenna port 0 and the antenna port 2 correspond to the coherent antenna port group 0, and the antenna port 1 and the antenna port 3 correspond to the coherent antenna port group 1; during uplink data transmission, the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 4-11 in Table 1, or the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 6-13 in Table 2, or the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 1-2 in Table 3, or the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 1-2 in Table 4 can be used for transmission. For example, for a 4T8R terminal device without coherent capability, during uplink data transmission, the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 0-3 in Table 1, or the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 0-5 in Table 2, or the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 0 in Table 3, or the precoding matrix with the precoding matrix index of 0 in Table 4 can be used for transmission.

[0165] In the embodiments of the present application, the network device configures different numbers of SRS resources for the terminal device according to different coherent capabilities of the terminal device; in the downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling uplink data transmission, the SRI is indicated to the terminal device, which is used to determine the antenna port corresponding to the SRS resource corresponding to each port. For example, for different coherent capabilities of the terminal device, the SRS resource configuration and the SRI indication mechanism are shown in the embodiments of FIGS. 4A-6B.

[0166] In the present application, the port corresponding to the SRS resource index (or the port indicated by the SRI) can be referred to as a port, and the port can be a PUSCH port or an SRS port. In addition, the port corresponding to the SRS resource configured by the network device can be an SRS port. In the following embodiments, the port is described for convenience of understanding. It should be understood that in the following embodiments, the port corresponding to the SRS resource index can be a PUSCH port or an SRS port, and the port corresponding to the SRS resource configured by the network device can be an SRS port.

[0167] FIG. 4A is a flow diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0168] For example, in an embodiment of the present application, the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the reference signal resource is an SRS resource, the number of N ports is 4, the PUSCH transmission is associated with the SRS resource, and the number of PUSCH ports is N=4. The index of the reference signal resource is indicated by SRI. The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is described by taking the correspondence between 4 ports and 2 SRS resources (as shown in Table 5) as an example. It should be noted that the above-mentioned ports can be SRS or PUSCH ports.

[0169] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal capability reported by the 4T8R terminal device to the network device is non-coherent capability. The network device configures an SRS resource set for the terminal device, the corresponding function of the SRS resource set is codebook, the maximum number of SRS resources in the SRS resource set is m / n=8 / 4=2, each SRS resource corresponds to 4 ports, and the 4 ports can correspond to different SRS sequences and / or be mapped to different time-frequency resources. In an embodiment of the present application, 2 SRS resources are taken as an example for description. It should be understood that in other embodiments of the present application, the number of SRS resources in the SRS resource set configured by the network device for the terminal device can be 1.

[0170] The functions performed by the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device. The functions performed by the network device in the embodiments of the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the network device.

[0171] As shown in FIG. 4A, the communication method can include some or all of the following steps:

[0172] S401: The network device sends configuration information of an SRS resource set to the terminal device, wherein the SRS resource set includes 2 SRS resources, each SRS resource in the 2 SRS resources corresponds to 4 ports, and the 4 ports are respectively associated with 4 antenna ports of the terminal device.

[0173] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information of the above-mentioned SRS resource set from the network device.

[0174] As shown in FIG. 4B, the terminal device is provided with m=8 antennas (i.e., antenna 0 to antenna 7) and n=4 sending radio frequency chains (i.e., RF chain 0 to RF chain 3); each of the 4 sending radio frequency chains can be switched on 2 antennas through a switch, so as to send through different antennas; the 2 SRS resources are SRS resource 0 and SRS resource 1; for SRS resource 0, 4 ports 0, 1, 2, 3 are respectively associated (also can be called as mapped) with antenna ports 0, 2, 4, 6; for SRS resource 1, 4 ports 0, 1, 2, 3 are respectively associated with antenna ports 1, 3, 5, 7. Optionally, the 2 SRS resources are sent in different time domain units (such as OFDM symbols). It should be understood that antenna 0 to antenna 7 correspond to antenna port 0 to antenna port 7 one by one.

[0175] S402: The terminal device sends SRS to the network device based on the 2 SRS resources.

[0176] S403: The network device determines SRI indication based on the SRS.

[0177] In some embodiments, the network device performs uplink channel measurement according to the SRS sent by the terminal device, that is, performs channel measurement based on SRS resource 0 and SRS resource 1 to obtain uplink channel information under different antenna port combinations.

[0178] Through the above implementation, the network device can complete channel measurement of 8 antenna ports through the 2 SRS resources, and then the network device can select a suitable antenna port combination (such as an antenna port combination corresponding to the best quality of uplink channel information or an antenna port combination corresponding to the maximum uplink channel capacity, etc.) for uplink data transmission; based on the selected antenna port combination, the SRI indication is determined, and the SRI indication is used for the terminal device to determine the selected antenna port combination.

[0179] For example, the terminal device can send SRS corresponding to SRS resource 0 and SRS resource 1 respectively, and the network device can obtain channel information (such as channel vector or channel matrix) of 8 antenna ports based on SRS resource 0 and SRS resource 1; then, the network device can combine the channels corresponding to different antenna ports to obtain corresponding channel information under different antenna port combinations, respectively calculate the channel quality or channel capacity corresponding to different antenna port combinations, and further select the optimal antenna port combination based on a criterion (such as an antenna port combination with the best uplink channel quality or an antenna port combination with the maximum uplink channel capacity).

[0180] S404: The network device sends an SRI indication to the terminal device, the SRI indication is used to indicate four SRS resource indexes, and the four SRS resource indexes correspond to four ports one by one, and the SRS resources corresponding to the four SRS resource indexes belong to the two SRS resources.

[0181] In some embodiments, the network device can send first indication information to the terminal device, wherein the first indication information includes an SRI indication, and the first indication information can be, for example, downlink control information (DCI); the SRI indication is used to indicate the SRS resource index corresponding to each of the four ports, and the SRI indication is used to indicate, for example, the SRS resource index (which can also be referred to as SRI) in the SRS resource set corresponding to each port p (p = 0, 1, 2, 3), and the antenna port associated with the port p in the SRS resource indicated by the SRI indication is used for the transmission of the uplink data (PUSCH) port p.

[0182] The following example introduces, through Table 5, how the SRI indication indicates the SRS resource index in the SRS resource set corresponding to each port p (p = 0, 1, 2, 3). It can be understood that Table 5 is an SRI indication table representing the correspondence between four ports and two SRS resources.

[0183] In Table 5, the first column is the SRI indication; the second to fifth columns are used to indicate the correspondence between the port p and the SRI when different SRI indications are used. The SRI indication in the first indication information can be any index value in the first column of Table 5.

[0184] Taking the index value 1 in the second column of Table 5 as an example, when the SRI indication is 1, the correspondence between the port p and the SRI is: the SRI corresponding to the port p = 0 is 0, the SRI corresponding to the port p = 1 is 0, the SRI corresponding to the port p = 2 is 0, and the SRI corresponding to the port p = 3 is 1. Assuming that the network device determines that the SRI indication in the first indication information is 1 based on Table 5, the SRI indication is used to indicate that the SRI corresponding to the port p = 0 is 0, the SRI corresponding to the port p = 1 is 0, the SRI corresponding to the port p = 2 is 0, and the SRI corresponding to the port p = 3 is 1.

[0185] S405: The terminal device determines the antenna port corresponding to each of the four ports based on the SRI indication and the two SRS resources.

[0186] In the above, the meaning of the antenna port (antenna port 1) corresponding to each port (such as port 0) is that, for the port (such as port 0), the antenna port (antenna port 1) corresponding to the port is used for transmission; or, the antenna port (antenna port 1) is used to transmit the uplink data of the port (such as port 0).

[0187] In some embodiments, after receiving the first indication information, the terminal device can determine, based on the correspondence between the 4 ports and the 2 SRS resources (such as Table 5) and the SRI indication in the second indication relationship, the SRS resource index corresponding to each of the 4 ports; and then determine the antenna port corresponding to each of the 4 ports based on the SRS resource index corresponding to each of the 4 ports and the 2 SRS resources.

[0188] Taking SRI indication 1 as an example, the terminal device can query the correspondence between port p and SRI when SRI indication is 1 based on Table 5, and obtain that port p=0 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=1 corresponds to SRI=0, port p=2 corresponds to SRI=0, and port p=3 corresponds to SRI=1; and then, according to the correspondence that port 0, 1, and 2 in SRS resource 0 corresponding to SRI=0 are respectively associated with antenna ports 0, 2, and 4, and port 3 in SRS resource 0 corresponding to SRI=0 is associated with antenna port 7, determine that antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=0; antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=1; antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=2; and antenna port 7 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=3. That is, the SRI indication sent by the network device is used to indicate index 1 in Table 5, which means that for PUSCH port 0, the antenna port associated with port 0 of SRS resource 0 is used for transmission; for PUSCH port 1, the antenna port associated with port 1 of SRS resource 0 is used for transmission; for PUSCH port 2, the antenna port associated with port 2 of SRS resource 0 is used for transmission; and for PUSCH port 3, the antenna port associated with port 3 of SRS resource 1 is used for transmission, that is, the antenna port used for PUSCH transmission is {0, 2, 4, 7}.

[0189] Table 5: SRI indication table for non-coherent capable terminal device

[0190] It should be understood that Table 5 to Table 7 are examples provided by the present application, and Table 5 to Table 7 can also be deformed, for example, adjusting the position of each row or column in the table, etc. In the present application, different forms can be used for different tables (such as Table 5 to Table 7), or deformation; the specific form of the table, the order of the content in the table, and the number of rows and columns in the table are not limited in the present application.

[0191] S406: The terminal device sends uplink data to the network device based on the antenna port corresponding to each of the 4 ports.

[0192] Taking SRI indication of 1 as an example, after the terminal device determines that the antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of port p = 0, the antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of port p = 1, the antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of port p = 2, and the antenna port 7 is used for uplink data transmission of port p = 3, the terminal device sends uplink data based on the antenna ports {0, 2, 4, 7} corresponding to the above four ports respectively.

[0193] It should be understood that when the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent and the corresponding antennas of the antenna port combination composed of the plurality of antenna ports of the terminal device do not perform coherent transmission, the influence of the phase misalignment between the plurality of antenna ports does not need to be considered when any antenna port combination is formed by the plurality of antenna ports. Therefore, the embodiments of the present application can cover the channel measurement of all antenna ports by configuring the minimum reference signal resource (such as the above two SRS resources) corresponding to all antenna ports (such as the above eight antenna ports) of the terminal device, thereby reducing the overhead of the reference signal resource. Further, the indication method of indicating one port by one reference signal resource is used, so that all antenna port combinations (such as the above 16 antenna port combinations) can be indicated by configuring the minimum reference signal resource (such as the above two SRS resources).

[0194] In the embodiments of the present application, for an nTmR terminal device, if the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the network device configures an SRS resource set (which can also be referred to as an SRS resource group) for the terminal device, which contains m / n SRS resources, and each SRS resource corresponds to n ports. For uplink data PUSCH transmission, the network device sends first indication information (such as the above SRI indication) to the terminal device, and the first indication information is used to indicate n SRI values, wherein the pth SRI value is used to indicate that the port p (p = 0, 1, …, n-1) of the PUSCH corresponds to the antenna port associated with the port p in the SRS resource indicated by the SRI. It should be understood that for a terminal device with non-coherent capability, since there is no need to ensure the phase consistency of the channel measurement between the antennas, the method can complete the traversal of the channel measurement of the m antenna ports by using only m / n SRS resources, thereby minimizing the SRS resource overhead. Further, by indicating the corresponding antenna port for each port, the indication of all antenna port combinations can be flexibly realized to the maximum extent, so that the best antenna port combination can be selected to ensure the best uplink transmission performance.

[0195] FIG. 5A is a flow diagram of another communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application.

[0196] Exemplarily, the embodiment of the present application takes the coherence capability of the terminal device as partial coherence, the reference signal resource as SRS resource, the N ports as 4 ports, and the index of the reference signal resource as SRI indication (which can also be referred to as SRI for short). The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is described by taking the correspondence between 4 ports and 4 SRS resources (such as Table 6) as an example.

[0197] In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal capability reported by the 4T8R terminal device to the network device is partial coherence capability, and the network device configures an SRS resource set for the terminal device. The corresponding function of the SRS resource set is codebook, the SRS resource set can contain a maximum of 4 SRS resources, and each SRS resource is for 4 ports. The 4 ports can correspond to different SRS sequences and / or be mapped to different time-frequency resources. Exemplarily, the embodiment of the present application takes 4 SRS resources as an example for description. It should be understood that in other embodiments of the present application, the network device can configure less than 4 SRS resources in the SRS resource set for the terminal device.

[0198] The functions performed by the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device. The functions performed by the network device in the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the network device.

[0199] As shown in FIG. 5A, the communication method can include the following part or all steps:

[0200] S501: The network device sends configuration information of an SRS resource set to the terminal device, wherein the SRS resource set includes 4 SRS resources, each SRS resource in the 4 SRS resources corresponds to 4 ports, and the 4 ports are respectively associated with 4 antenna ports of the terminal device; and the 4 ports include 2 port groups.

[0201] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information of the above-mentioned SRS resource set from the network device.

[0202] As shown in FIG. 5B, the network device configures four SRS resources for the terminal device, which are SRS resource 0, SRS resource 1, SRS resource 2 and SRS resource 3, wherein each SRS resource corresponds to four ports (i.e., ports 0, 1, 2 and 3); the 4T8R terminal device includes two coherent antenna port groups (referred to as coherent groups), and the antenna ports in the coherent antenna port group can be coherently transmitted. For the configured SRS resources, the port group corresponding to the coherent antenna port group is referred to as a coherent port group. In this embodiment of the present application, the ports 0 and 1 correspond to one coherent antenna port group (referred to as coherent group 0) as an example, and the port group composed of the ports 0 and 1 is a coherent port group, which is referred to as port group 0 (Port group 0) for convenience of description; the ports 2 and 3 correspond to another coherent antenna port group (referred to as coherent group 1) as an example, and the port group composed of the ports 2 and 3 is also a coherent port group, which is referred to as port group 1 (Port group 1) for convenience of description. It should be noted that one port group (i.e., the coherent port group) corresponds to one PUSCH port group. That is, the port group corresponds to the coherent antenna port group, and the PUSCH port group also corresponds to the coherent antenna port group.

[0203] For the SRS resource 0, the four ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with (also referred to as mapped to) the antenna ports 0, 2, 4 and 6; for the SRS resource 1, the four ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with the antenna ports 0, 3, 4 and 7; for the SRS resource 2, the four ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with the antenna ports 1, 2, 5 and 6; and for the SRS resource 3, the four ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with the antenna ports 1, 3, 5 and 7. Optionally, the four SRS resources are transmitted in different time domain units (such as OFDM symbols). It can be understood that the ports corresponding to each SRS resource are the same, and the combinations of the antenna ports corresponding to each SRS resource are different.

[0204] S502: The terminal device transmits the SRS to the network device based on the four SRS resources.

[0205] S503: The network device determines the SRI indication based on the SRS.

[0206] In some embodiments, the network device performs channel measurement based on the SRS to obtain uplink channel information, that is, performs channel measurement based on the SRS resource 0, the SRS resource 1, the SRS resource 2 and the SRS resource 3 to obtain the uplink channel information under different combinations of antenna ports.

[0207] By the above implementation, 2 coherent antenna port groups can be realized by 4 SRS resources. For example, for port group 0, 4 SRS resources are used to measure antenna port combinations {0, 2}, {0, 3}, {1, 2} and {1, 3} respectively. For port group 1, 4 SRS resources are used to measure antenna port combinations {4, 6}, {4, 7}, {5, 6} and {5, 7} respectively. Further, the network device can select a suitable antenna port combination in each port group for uplink data transmission based on the uplink channel information under different antenna port combinations; based on the selected antenna port combination, the SRI indication is determined, and the SRI indication is used to determine the selected antenna port combination by the terminal device.

[0208] S504: The network device sends an SRI indication to the terminal device, and the SRI indication is used to indicate 2 SRS resource indexes, and the 2 SRS resource indexes correspond to each of the 2 port groups one by one, and the SRS resources corresponding to the 4 SRS resource indexes belong to the 4 SRS resources.

[0209] In some embodiments, the network device can send first indication information to the terminal device, wherein the first indication information includes an SRI indication, and the SRI indication is used to indicate the SRS resource index corresponding to each of the 2 port groups. For example, the first indication information can be downlink control information DCI.

[0210] Wherein, for each port group (g = 0, 1), the SRS resource index in the corresponding SRS resource set is indicated respectively, the port group g containing the SRS resource indicated by the SRI indication contains the antenna port associated with the port, and the port is used for uplink data PUSCH port group g containing port transmission.

[0211] Wherein, the SRS resource corresponding to the SRS resource index corresponding to each of the 4 port groups belongs to the 2 SRS resources. For example, the correspondence between the 4 ports and the 4 SRS resources can be represented in the form of an SRI indication table, as shown in Table 6.

[0212] For example, the first column in Table 6 is the SRI indication, and the second to fifth columns are used to indicate the correspondence between different port groups and SRI under different SRI indications. The SRI indication in the first indication information can be any index value in the first column of Table 6.

[0213] Taking the index value 1 in the second column of Table 6 as an example of the SRI indication, when the SRI indication is 1, the correspondence between the port group and the SRI is: the SRI corresponding to port group 0 = 0, and the SRI corresponding to port group 1 = 1. Assuming that the network device determines that the SRI indication in the first indication information is 1 based on Table 6, then the SRI indication is used to indicate that the SRI corresponding to port group 0 = 0, and the SRI corresponding to port group 1 = 2, that is, the SRI corresponding to port p = 0 = 0, the SRI corresponding to port p = 1 = 0, the SRI corresponding to port p = 2 = 1, and the SRI corresponding to port p = 3 = 1.

[0214] Table 6 SRI indication table for partially coherent capable terminal devices

[0215] S505: The terminal device determines the antenna port corresponding to each of the two port groups based on the SRI indication and the four SRS resources.

[0216] Wherein, the meaning of the antenna port (such as antenna port 1 and antenna port 2) corresponding to each of the port groups (such as port group 0, i.e., port 0 and port 1) is that, for the port group (such as port group 0), the antenna port (such as antenna port 1 and antenna port 2) corresponding to the port group is used for transmission; the antenna port (such as antenna port 1 and antenna port 2) is used to transmit the uplink data of the port (such as port group 0).

[0217] In some embodiments, after receiving the first indication information, the terminal device can determine the SRS resource index corresponding to each of the two port groups based on the correspondence between the two port groups and the four SRS resources (such as Table 6) and the SRI indication in the second indication relationship; and then determine the antenna port corresponding to each of the two port groups based on the SRS resource index corresponding to each of the two port groups and the four SRS resources, that is, determine the antenna port corresponding to each of the four ports.

[0218] For example, when the SRI indication is 1, the terminal device can query the correspondence between the port group and the SRI when the SRI indication is 1 based on Table 6 to obtain that the SRI corresponding to the port group 0 is 0 and the SRI corresponding to the port group 1 is 1. Then, the terminal device determines that the antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 0, the antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 1, the antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 2, and the antenna port 7 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 3 according to the correspondence between the antenna port and the port in the SRS resource 0 corresponding to the SRI = 0 (the port 0 and the port 1 in the port group 0 are respectively associated with the antenna port 0 and the antenna port 2) and the correspondence between the antenna port and the port in the SRS resource 1 corresponding to the SRI = 1 (the port 2 and the port 3 in the port group 0 are respectively associated with the antenna port 4 and the antenna port 7). That is, when the SRI indication sent by the network device is used to indicate the index 1 corresponding to the / 6, the antenna port corresponding to the port 0 and the port 1 in the SRS resource 0 is used for transmission for the coherent antenna port group g = 0. The antenna port corresponding to the port 2 and the port 3 in the SRS resource 1 is used for transmission for the coherent antenna port group g = 1. It can be known from FIG. 3 that the antenna port used for PUSCH transmission is {0, 2, 4, 7}.

[0219] S506: The terminal device sends uplink data to the network device based on the antenna port corresponding to each of the two port groups.

[0220] For example, when the SRI indication is 1, the terminal device determines that the antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 0, the antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 1, the antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 2, and the antenna port 7 is used for uplink data transmission of the port p = 3. Then, the terminal device sends the SRS based on the antenna port {0, 2, 4, 7} corresponding to the four ports.

[0221] It should be understood that, when the terminal device has partial coherence, the antenna corresponding to the antenna port combination (for example, the coherent antenna port group) composed of the partial antenna port groups of the terminal device performs coherent transmission, the signal quality corresponding to the coherent antenna port group is not equal to the simple superposition of the signal quality corresponding to the antenna port in the coherent antenna port group, and therefore channel measurement needs to be performed on each coherent antenna port group. Therefore, the embodiments of the present application can cover channel measurement on all coherent antenna port groups by configuring the minimum reference signal resource (for example, the four SRS resources) corresponding to all antenna port combinations composed of all port groups of the terminal device, thereby reducing the overhead of the reference signal resource. Then, the indication method of indicating one port group by one reference signal resource is used, so that all antenna port combinations (for example, the 16 antenna port combinations) can be indicated by configuring the minimum reference signal resource (for example, the four SRS resources).

[0222] In the embodiments of the present application, for an nTmR terminal device, if the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial coherence, the network device configures a SRS resource set for the terminal device, wherein the SRS resource set contains at most mk / n SRS resources, and each SRS resource corresponds to n ports. For uplink data PUSCH transmission, the network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, and the first indication information includes k SRI values, wherein the gth SRI value is used to indicate that the ports included in the gth coherent antenna port group (g=0, 1,..., k-1) correspond to the antenna ports associated with the ports included in the SRS resource indicated by the SRI. It should be understood that, for a terminal device with partial coherence capability, since it is not necessary to ensure the phase consistency of channel measurement between coherent transmission groups, this method only uses a small amount of SRS resources to complete the traversal of channel measurement under any combination of n / k antenna ports in each coherent antenna port group, thereby minimizing the SRS resource overhead. Further, by indicating the corresponding antenna port for each port in each port group, the indication of all antenna port combinations can be flexibly realized to the maximum extent, so that the best antenna port combination can be selected to ensure the best uplink transmission performance.

[0223] FIG. 6A is a flowchart of another communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application.

[0224] For example, the embodiments of the present application take the coherence capability of the terminal device as full coherence, the reference signal resource as SRS resource, the N ports as 4 ports, and the index of the reference signal resource as SRI indication (which can also be referred to as SRI for short). The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is described by taking the correspondence between 4 ports and 16 SRS resources (as shown in Table 7) as an example.

[0225] In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal capability reported by the 4T8R terminal device to the network device is full coherence capability, and then the network device configures a SRS resource set for the terminal device, the SRS resource set corresponds to the function of codebook, and the SRS resource set can contain at most 16 SRS resources. Each SRS resource is for 4 ports, and the 4 ports can correspond to different SRS sequences and / or be mapped to different time-frequency resources. The embodiments of the present application are exemplarily described by taking 16 SRS resources as an example. It should be understood that, in other embodiments of the present application, the SRS resources in the SRS resource set configured by the network device for the terminal device can be less than 16.

[0226] The functions performed by the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal device, and the functions performed by the network device in the embodiments of the present application can also be performed by a module (for example, a chip) in the network device.

[0227] As shown in FIG. 6A, the communication method can include some or all of the following steps:

[0228] S601: The network device sends configuration information of a SRS resource set to the terminal device, where the SRS resource set includes 16 SRS resources, each of the 16 SRS resources corresponds to 4 ports, and the 4 ports are respectively associated with 4 antenna ports of the terminal device.

[0229] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information of the SRS resource set from the network device.

[0230] As shown in FIG. 6B, the 16 SRS resources configured by the network device for the terminal device are SRS resource 0, SRS resource 1, SRS resource 2 to SRS resource 15, where each SRS resource corresponds to 4 ports, and the ports of different SRS resources are associated with different antenna ports.

[0231] For example, for the SRS resource 0, the 4 ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with the antenna ports 0, 2, 4 and 6; for the SRS resource 1, the 4 ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with the antenna ports 0, 2, 4 and 7; for the SRS resource 14, the 4 ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with the antenna ports 0, 3, 5 and 7; and for the SRS resource 15, the 4 ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 are respectively associated with the antenna ports 1, 3, 5 and 7. The 16 SRS resources are sent in different time domain units (such as OFDM symbols).

[0232] The antenna port combination associated with the 16 SRS resources can be 16 antenna port combinations of the terminal device.

[0233] S602: The terminal device sends an SRS to the network device based on the 16 SRS resources.

[0234] S603: The network device determines an SRI indication based on the SRS.

[0235] In some embodiments, the network device performs channel measurement based on the SRS, that is, performs channel measurement based on the SRS resource 0 to the SRS resource 15 to obtain uplink channel information under different antenna port combinations.

[0236] Through the above implementation, channel measurement of any antenna port combination can be realized through the 16 SRS resources. Further, the network device can select an antenna port combination from the 16 antenna port combinations based on the uplink channel information under different antenna port combinations to perform data transmission; and determine the SRI indication based on the selected antenna port combination, where the SRI indication is used for the terminal device to determine the selected antenna port combination.

[0237] S604: The network device sends an SRI indication to the terminal device, and the SRI indication is used to indicate one SRS resource index, the SRS resource index corresponds to four ports, and the SRS resource corresponding to the SRS resource index belongs to the above-mentioned 16 SRS resources.

[0238] In some embodiments, the network device can send first indication information to the terminal device, wherein the first indication information includes an SRI indication, and the SRI indication is used to indicate one SRS resource index (referred to as a first SRS resource index for convenience of description), that is, the first SRS resource index is the SRS resource index corresponding to four ports. Exemplarily, the first indication information can be downlink control information DCI.

[0239] In the embodiments of the present application, one SRS resource (that is, a first SRS resource corresponding to a first SRS resource index, referred to as a first SRS resource for short) corresponds to four ports, and one SRS resource index is used to indicate the antenna ports used for uplink transmission of the four ports, that is, the antenna ports used for uplink transmission of the four ports are the antenna ports associated with the four ports in the first SRS resource.

[0240] The SRI indication is used to indicate the SRS resource index in the corresponding SRS resource set, and the antenna ports associated with the ports of the SRS resource indicated by the SRI indication are used for the transmission of the uplink data PUSCH port. The first SRS resource corresponding to the first SRS resource index belongs to the above-mentioned 16 SRS resources. Exemplarily, the correspondence between the four ports and the 16 SRS resources can be represented in the form of an SRI indication table, such as Table 7.

[0241] Exemplarily, the first column in Table 7 is the SRI indication, and the second column is used to indicate the correspondence between the four ports and the SRI when different SRI indications are used. The SRI indication in the first indication information can be any index value in the first column of Table 7.

[0242] Taking the index value 1 in the second column of Table 7 as an example, when the SRI indication is 1, the correspondence between the four ports and the SRI is: the SRI corresponding to the four ports = 1. Assuming that the network device determines that the SRI indication in the first indication information is 1 based on Table 7, then the SRI indication is used to indicate that the SRI corresponding to the four ports = 1, that is, the SRI corresponding to port p = 0 = 1, the SRI corresponding to port p = 1 = 1, the SRI corresponding to port p = 2 = 1, and the SRI corresponding to port p = 3 = 1.

[0243] Table 7 is an SRI indication table for a terminal device with full coherence capability

[0244] S605: The terminal device determines the antenna ports corresponding to the four ports based on the SRI indication and the 16 SRS resources.

[0245] wherein the meaning of the antenna port (antenna port 1) corresponding to each port (such as port 0) is that, for the port (such as port 0), the antenna port (antenna port 1) corresponding to the port is used for transmission; the antenna port (antenna port 1) is used for transmitting the uplink data of the port (such as port 0).

[0246] In some embodiments, after receiving the first indication information, the terminal device can determine the SRS resource indexes corresponding to the four ports based on the correspondence between the four ports and the 16 SRS resources (such as Table 7) and the SRI indication in the second indication relationship; and then determine the antenna port corresponding to each port group in the four ports based on the SRS resource indexes corresponding to the four ports and the 16 SRS resources.

[0247] Taking SRI indication 1 as an example, the terminal device can query the correspondence between the port group and the SRI when the SRI indication is 1 based on Table 7, and obtain that the four ports correspond to SRI=1; and then, according to the fact that port 0 and 1 in port group 0 in SRS resource 0 corresponding to SRI=0 are respectively associated with antenna ports 0 and 2, and port 0, 1, 2 and 3 in SRS resource 1 corresponding to SRI=1 are respectively associated with antenna ports 0, 2, 4 and 7, it is determined that antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=0; antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=1; antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=2; and antenna port 7 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=3. That is to say, if the index 1 corresponding to Table 7 is indicated in the indication information sent by the network device, it means that the antenna ports corresponding to ports 0-3 corresponding to SRS resource 1 are used for transmission. It can be known from Figure 6B that the antenna ports used for PUSCH transmission are {0, 2, 4, 7}.

[0248] S606: The terminal device sends uplink data to the network device based on the antenna ports corresponding to the four ports respectively.

[0249] Taking SRI indication 1 as an example, after determining that antenna port 0 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=0; antenna port 2 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=1; antenna port 4 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=2; and antenna port 7 is used for uplink data transmission of port p=3, the terminal device sends uplink data based on the four antenna ports {0, 2, 4, 7} corresponding to the four ports respectively.

[0250] Based on the method shown in FIGs. 4A to 6B, the network device can minimize the uplink measurement reference signal overhead according to different coherence capabilities of the terminal device, implement measurement of all antenna port combinations, and thus implement selection of the optimal antenna port combination. Further, the network device can also use the indication information to indicate the rank value and the corresponding precoding matrix index (TPMI) adopted by the selected optimal antenna port combination for uplink data PUSCH transmission.

[0251] It should be understood that the coherence capability of the terminal device is full coherence, the terminal device performs coherent transmission on the antenna corresponding to any antenna port combination composed of antenna ports, and thus channel measurement needs to be performed on each antenna port combination. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application configures one reference signal resource for each antenna port combination to ensure measurement accuracy, and further implements indication of one antenna port combination through one reference signal resource, thereby implementing indication of all antenna port combinations (such as the above-mentioned 16 antenna port combinations).

[0252] In the embodiment of the present application, for an nTmR terminal device, if the coherence capability of the terminal device is full coherence, the network device configures a SRS resource set for the terminal device, wherein the SRS resource set contains a maximum of (m / n) n For uplink data PUSCH transmission, the network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, the first indication information is used to indicate 1 SRI value, and the SRI value is used to indicate the antenna port associated with the port contained in the SRS resource indicated by the SRI in the PUSCH port. It should be understood that for a terminal device with full coherence capability, the method can implement measurement under various antenna port combinations and can implement flexible indication of the optimal antenna port combination by configuring a SRS resource set and implementing indication through SRI, so as to ensure phase consistency of channel measurement between coherent antennas.

[0253] In the present application, as shown in the above-mentioned embodiments of FIGs. 3 to 6B, the overhead of SRI indication can be the same (such as 16 rows in Table 5 to Table 7, only 4 bits are needed for indication) under different coherence capabilities, which can ensure fixed overhead of DCI signaling and avoid increasing blind detection complexity of the terminal device.

[0254] In the present application, as shown in the above-mentioned embodiments of FIGs. 3 to 6B, the above-mentioned first indication information can be contained in DCI, and the DCI can also contain indication information used to indicate the precoding matrix index and the rank value corresponding to PUSCH transmission. The method can dynamically select the best antenna port combination for each PUSCH scheduling, thereby quickly matching the change of the channel and ensuring the best performance.

[0255] The foregoing describes the method provided by the present application in detail. In order to facilitate implementation of the foregoing scheme of the embodiments of the present application, the embodiments of the present application further provide a corresponding device or equipment.

[0256] The present application divides the terminal device and the network device into functional modules according to the foregoing method embodiments. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The foregoing integrated module can be realized in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional module. It should be noted that the division of the modules in the present application is illustrative, and is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, another division manner can be used. The communication device of the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 7 to 9.

[0257] Referring to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 is a structural schematic diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 7, the communication device can include a transceiver unit 10 and a processing unit 20.

[0258] In some embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be the network device shown above or a chip or circuit arranged in the network device. That is, the communication device can be used to perform the steps or functions performed by the network device in the foregoing method embodiments.

[0259] In one design, the transceiver unit 10 is configured to: send configuration information of reference signal resources to a terminal device, the configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponding to M reference signal resources, M being a positive integer; and send first indication information to the terminal device, the first indication information being used to indicate a reference signal resource corresponding to each of N ports, the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports belonging to the M reference signal resources, a correspondence relationship between the N ports and the M reference signal resources being related to a coherence capability of the terminal device, the coherence capability of the terminal device being one of full coherence, partial coherence and non-coherence, N being a positive integer.

[0260] In one possible implementation, the processing unit 20 is configured to determine the configuration information of the reference signal resources and the first indication information.

[0261] For example, the M reference signal resources correspond to M indexes in a one-to-one manner, and the first indication information is used to indicate an index corresponding to a reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports.

[0262] In one possible implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, the first indication information is used to indicate N indexes, the N indexes belonging to the M indexes, and reference signal resources corresponding to the N indexes respectively correspond to the N ports in a one-to-one manner.

[0263] In a possible implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial coherence, the N ports include k port groups, k is a positive integer greater than 1, and the first indication information is used to indicate k indexes, the k indexes belong to the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k indexes one-to-one correspond to the k port groups.

[0264] In a possible implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is full coherence, and the first indication information is used to indicate a first index, the first index being one of the M indexes, and the reference signal resource corresponding to the first index corresponding to the N ports.

[0265] In a possible implementation, the value of M is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device. In the embodiments of the present application, the configuration information of the reference signal resource, the first indication information, and the like can be referred to the description in the method embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 6B, which will not be repeated here.

[0266] It can be understood that the specific description of the transceiver unit 10 and the processing unit 20 shown in the embodiments of the present application is only an example. For the specific functions or steps of the transceiver unit 10 and the processing unit 20, etc., reference can be made to the method embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 6B, which will not be repeated here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiments of the present application are described in the foregoing method embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 6B. For the sake of brevity, they will not be repeated here.

[0267] Referring to FIG. 7, in some embodiments of the present application, the communication apparatus can be the terminal device shown above or a chip or circuit arranged in the terminal device. That is, the communication apparatus can be used to perform the steps or functions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

[0268] In a design, the transceiver unit 10 is configured to: receive configuration information of reference signal resources, the configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponding to M reference signal resources, M being a positive integer; receive first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate a reference signal resource corresponding to each of N ports, the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports belonging to the M reference signal resources, a correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources being related to a coherence capability of a terminal device, the coherence capability of the terminal device being one of full coherence, partial coherence, and non-coherence, and N being a positive integer.

[0269] In a possible implementation, the processing unit 20 is configured to: determine, based on the first indication information, the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports.

[0270] For example, the M reference signal resources one-to-one correspond to M indexes, and the first indication information includes an index corresponding to the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports.

[0271] In a possible implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent, and the first indication information is used to indicate N indexes, the N indexes belong to the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N indexes one-to-one correspond to the N ports.

[0272] In a possible implementation, the coherence capability of the terminal device is partial-coherent, the N ports include k port groups, k is a positive integer greater than 1, and the first indication information is used to indicate k indexes, the k indexes belong to the M indexes, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k indexes one-to-one correspond to the k port groups.

[0273] The coherence capability of the terminal device is full-coherent, and the first indication information is used to indicate a first index, the first index is one of the M indexes, and the reference signal resource corresponding to the first index corresponds to the N ports.

[0274] In a possible implementation, the value of M is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device.

[0275] In the embodiments of the present application, the configuration information of the reference signal resource, the first indication information, and the like can refer to the description in the method embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 6B, and will not be described here.

[0276] It can be understood that the specific description of the transceiver unit 10 and the processing unit 20 shown in the embodiments of the present application is only an example. For the specific functions or executed steps of the transceiver unit 10 and the processing unit 20, reference can be made to the method embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 6B, and will not be described here. In addition, the technical effects of the embodiments of the present application are described in the foregoing method embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 6B. For brevity, they will not be described here.

[0277] The terminal device and the network device of the embodiments of the present application are introduced above, and possible product forms of the terminal device and the network device are introduced below. It should be understood that any form of product that has the functions of the terminal device or the network device described in FIG. 7 falls within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application. It should also be understood that the following introduction is only an example, and the product form of the communication device of the embodiments of the present application is not limited to this.

[0278] In a possible implementation, in the communication apparatus shown in FIG. 7, the processing unit 20 can be one or more processors, and the transceiver unit 10 can be a transceiver, or the transceiver unit 10 can also be a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, the transmitting unit can be a transmitter, and the receiving unit can be a receiver, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are integrated in one device, for example, a transceiver. In the embodiments of the present application, the processor and the transceiver can be coupled, and the connection manner between the processor and the transceiver is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the process of executing the above method, the process of transmitting information in the above method can be understood as the process of outputting the above information by the processor. When the above information is output, the processor outputs the above information to the transceiver, so that the transceiver transmits. After the above information is output by the processor, the above information can also need to be processed further, and then reaches the transceiver. Similarly, the process of receiving information in the above method can be understood as the process of receiving the input above information by the processor. When the processor receives the input information, the transceiver receives the above information and inputs the processor. Further, after the transceiver receives the above information, the above information can need to be processed further, and then inputs the processor.

[0279] Referring to FIG. 8, FIG. 8 is another structural schematic diagram of the communication apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present application. As shown in FIG. 8, the communication apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present application can be used to implement the methods described in the method embodiments, and the descriptions can be referred to the descriptions in the method embodiments. The communication apparatus can be a terminal device, or a network device, or a chip therein. For example, the communication apparatus includes one or more processors 1001 and a transceiver 1002. The communication apparatus can further include a memory 1003. In an implementation, the communication apparatus further includes an input and output apparatus (not shown in FIG. 8).

[0280] The processor 1001 is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, and controlling the whole communication apparatus, executing software programs, and processing data of the software programs. The memory 1003 is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The transceiver 1002 can include a control circuit and an antenna, and the control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals, and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. The input and output apparatus, for example, a touch screen, a display screen, a keyboard, etc., is mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

[0281] When the communication apparatus is powered on, the processor 1001 can read a software program in the memory 1003, interpret and execute instructions of the software program, and process data of the software program. When data needs to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor 1001 outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit after baseband processing of the data to be transmitted, and the radio frequency circuit converts the baseband signal into a radio frequency signal and transmits the radio frequency signal in the form of an electromagnetic wave through an antenna. When data is transmitted to the communication apparatus, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 1001, and the processor 1001 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0282] In another implementation, the radio frequency circuit and the antenna can be arranged independently of the processor that performs baseband processing, for example, in a distributed scenario, the radio frequency circuit and the antenna can be arranged remotely from the communication apparatus.

[0283] The processor 1001, the transceiver 1002, and the memory 1003 can be connected through a communication bus.

[0284] For example, when the communication apparatus is configured to perform the steps or methods or functions performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the transceiver 1002 can be configured to perform steps S301 and S302 in FIG. 3, and the processor 1001 can be configured to perform other processes of the technology described herein.

[0285] For example, when the communication apparatus is configured to perform the steps or methods or functions performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the transceiver 1002 can be configured to perform steps S301 and S302 in FIG. 3, and the processor 1001 can be configured to perform other processes of the technology described herein.

[0286] In any of the above implementation manners, the processor 1001 can include a transceiver for implementing receiving and transmitting functions. For example, the transceiver can be a transceiver circuit, or an interface, or an interface circuit. The transceiver circuit, the interface, or the interface circuit for implementing the receiving and transmitting functions can be separate or integrated together. The above transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit can be used for reading and writing of codes / data, or the above transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit can be used for transmission or transfer of signals.

[0287] In any of the above implementation manners, the processor 1001 can store instructions, which can be a computer program, and the computer program can run on the processor 1001 to enable the communication apparatus to perform the methods described in the above method embodiments. The computer program can be fixed in the processor 1001, and in this case, the processor 1001 can be implemented by hardware.

[0288] In an implementation, the communication apparatus can include circuitry that can implement the functions of transmitting or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments. The processor and transceiver described in the present application can be implemented on an integrated circuit (IC), an analog IC, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), a mixed-signal IC, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a printed circuit board (PCB), an electronic device, etc. The processor and transceiver can also be manufactured using various IC process technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), positive channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

[0289] It can be understood that the communication apparatus shown in the embodiments of the present application can also have more components than those shown in FIG. 8, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this. The methods performed by the processor and transceiver shown above are only examples, and the specific steps performed by the processor and transceiver can refer to the description of the method embodiments above.

[0290] In another possible implementation, the communication apparatus shown in FIG. 8 can also include a processing unit, which can be one or more logic circuits, and the transceiving unit 10 can be an input / output interface, also known as a communication interface, or an interface circuit, or an interface, etc. Alternatively, the transceiving unit 10 can also be a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, the transmitting unit can be an output interface, and the receiving unit can be an input interface. The transmitting unit and the receiving unit are integrated in one unit, such as an input / output interface.

[0291] Referring to FIG. 9, FIG. 9 is another structural schematic diagram of the communication apparatus provided in the embodiments of the present application. As shown in FIG. 9, the communication apparatus shown in FIG. 9 includes a logic circuit 901 and an interface 902. That is, the above-mentioned processing unit can be implemented by the logic circuit 901, and the transceiver unit 10 can be implemented by the interface 902. The logic circuit 901 can be a chip, a processing circuit, an integrated circuit or a system on chip (SoC) chip, and the interface 902 can be a communication interface, an input / output interface, a pin, etc. For example, FIG. 9 is a chip in which the above-mentioned communication apparatus is taken as an example, and the chip includes the logic circuit 901 and the interface 902.

[0292] In the embodiments of the present application, the logic circuit and the interface can also be coupled to each other. The specific connection mode of the logic circuit and the interface is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0293] For example, when the communication apparatus is used to perform the steps or methods or functions performed by the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the interface 902 is configured to receive the configuration information of the reference signal resource and the first indication information, and the logic circuit 901 is configured to determine the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports.

[0294] For example, when the communication apparatus is used to perform the steps or methods or functions performed by the network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the interface 902 is configured to send the configuration information of the reference signal resource and the first indication information, and the logic circuit 901 is configured to determine the configuration information of the reference signal resource and the first indication information.

[0295] In the embodiments of the present application, the description of the first configuration information and the like can refer to the introduction in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3, which will not be repeated here. It can be understood that the specific description of the logic circuit 901 and the interface 902 can also refer to the introduction of the processing unit and the transceiver unit shown in FIG. 7, which will not be repeated here.

[0296] It can be understood that the communication apparatus shown in the embodiments of the present application can implement the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application in the form of hardware, or implement the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application in the form of software, etc., which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0297] For the specific implementation mode of each embodiment shown in FIG. 9, it can also refer to the above-mentioned embodiments, which will not be described here.

[0298] The embodiments of the present application also provide a communication system including a terminal device and a network device, and the terminal device and the network device can be used to perform the method in any one of the preceding method embodiments (FIG. 3 to FIG. 6B).

[0299] In addition, the present application also provides a computer program for implementing the operations and / or processes performed by the communication apparatus (such as the terminal device and the network device) in the method provided by the present application.

[0300] The present application also provides a computer readable storage medium having computer code stored therein, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the operations and / or processes performed by the communication apparatus (such as the terminal device and the network device) in the method provided by the present application.

[0301] The present application also provides a computer program product comprising computer code or a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, causes the operations and / or processes performed by the communication apparatus (such as the terminal device and the network device) in the method provided by the present application to be performed.

[0302] In several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, device and method can be implemented by other means. For example, the above-described device embodiments are only illustrative, for example, the division of the units is only a logical function division, and actual implementation can have another division manner, for example, a plurality of units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection between the displayed or discussed units can be indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and can also be electrical, mechanical or other form of connection.

[0303] The units described as separate components can or can not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units can or can not be physical units, that is, they can be located in one place, or can be distributed on multiple network units. According to actual needs, part or all of the units can be selected to achieve the technical effects of the scheme provided by the embodiments of the present application.

[0304] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit can be physically present separately, or two or more units can be integrated in one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional unit.

[0305] The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software function unit and sold or used as an independent product, can be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present application essentially or say the part that contributes to the prior art, or the whole or part of the technical solutions can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a readable storage medium, including a plurality of instructions to make a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) execute all or part of the steps of the method described in various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned readable storage medium includes: a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and various media that can store program codes.

[0306] The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or replacements within the technical scope disclosed in the present application, which should be covered within the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method includes: The configuration information of reference signal resources is sent to the terminal device. The configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponds to M reference signal resources, where M is a positive integer. Send a first indication message to the terminal device. The first indication message is used to indicate the reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports. The reference signal resource corresponding to each of the N ports belongs to the M reference signal resources. The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device. The coherence capability of the terminal device is one of fully coherent, partially coherent and incoherent. N is a positive integer.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The M reference signal resources correspond one-to-one with the M indices, and the first indication information is used to indicate the index corresponding to the reference signal resource of each of the N ports.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent. The first indication information is used to indicate the N indices, the N indices belong to the M indices, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N indices correspond one-to-one with the N ports.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that, The coherence capability of the terminal device is partially coherent, and the N ports include k port groups, where k is a positive integer greater than 1; The first indication information is used to indicate k indices, the k indices belong to the M indices, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k indices correspond one-to-one with the k port groups.

5. The method according to any one of claims 2-4, characterized in that, The coherence capability of the terminal device is fully coherent. The first indication information is used to indicate the first index, which is one of the M indices. The reference signal resource corresponding to the first index corresponds to the N ports.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, characterized in that, The value of M is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device.

7. A communication method, characterized in that, Applied to a terminal device, the method includes: Receive configuration information of reference signal resources, wherein the configuration information of the reference signal resources corresponds to M reference signal resources, and M is a positive integer; The system receives first indication information, which is used to indicate the reference signal resources corresponding to each of the N ports. The reference signal resources corresponding to each of the N ports belong to the M reference signal resources. The correspondence between the N ports and the M reference signal resources is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device. The coherence capability of the terminal device is one of fully coherent, partially coherent, and incoherent. N is a positive integer.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The M reference signal resources correspond one-to-one with the M indices, and the first indication information includes the index corresponding to the reference signal resource of each of the N ports.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, The coherence capability of the terminal device is non-coherent. The first indication information is used to indicate the N indices, the N indices belong to the M indices, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the N indices correspond one-to-one with the N ports.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that, The coherence capability of the terminal device is partially coherent, and the N ports include k port groups, where k is a positive integer greater than 1; The first indication information is used to indicate k indices, the k indices belong to the M indices, and the reference signal resources corresponding to the k indices correspond one-to-one with the k port groups.

11. The method according to any one of claims 8-10, characterized in that, The coherence capability of the terminal device is fully coherent. The first indication information is used to indicate the first index, which is one of the M indices. The reference signal resource corresponding to the first index corresponds to the N ports.

12. The method according to any one of claims 7-11, characterized in that, The value of M is related to the coherence capability of the terminal device.

13. A communication device, characterized in that, Includes modules or units for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

14. A communication device, characterized in that, The device includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices and transmit them to the processor or to send signals from the processor to other communication devices, and the processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 12 through logic circuits or executing code instructions.

15. A readable storage medium, characterized in that, The device is used to store a program, which is executed by one or more processors, such that a device including the one or more processors performs the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 12.

16. A communication system, characterized in that, include: A network device for performing the method of any one of claims 1 to 6, and a terminal device for performing the method of any one of claims 7 to 12.

Images