Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

Provided in the embodiments of the present application are a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: receiving first information, which is used for indicating at least one candidate early-data-transmission transport block size (edt-TBS); receiving second information, which is used for indicating a first number of repetitions; determining a target edt-TBS from among the candidate edt-TBS; determining a target number of repetitions on the basis of the target edt-TBS and / or the first number of repetitions; and sending first data on the basis of the target edt-TBS, wherein the first data has been spread by an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target number of repetitions. By using the embodiments of the present application, multi-user multiplexing is implemented in a random access process of EDT, thereby increasing a system capacity.

Description

Communication method and apparatus

[0001] This application claims priority from the Chinese patent application No. 202411000580.4 filed on July 24, 2024, and entitled "Communication method and apparatus", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

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

[0003] In order to reduce the transmission delay of service data and the power consumption of a terminal device, the terminal device can transmit uplink data to a network device in a random access process. For example, in an early data transmission (EDT) based random access process, the terminal device transmits data through a message 3 (Msg3), without the need to transmit data after access, which can improve the data transmission efficiency.

[0004] The transport block (TB) size (TBS) of the data transmitted by EDT can be a TBS selected by the terminal device, and the number of repetitions of the data transmission is determined by the TBS selected by the terminal device. At present, the data is repeatedly transmitted according to the TBS selected by the terminal device, and the time-frequency resource multiplexing rate is low, and the time-frequency resources that can be multiplexed for other terminal devices to use are few. SUMMARY

[0005] Embodiments of the present application disclose a communication method and apparatus, which can realize multi-user multiplexing in an EDT random access process, improve the resource multiplexing rate, and improve the system capacity.

[0006] In a first aspect, the embodiments of the present application disclose a first communication method, which can be applied to a terminal device, or a device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, etc.) in the terminal device, or a device capable of being matched with the terminal device. The following is described taking the terminal device as an example. The method comprises the following steps: a terminal device receives first information sent by a network device, wherein the first information is used for indicating at least one candidate early data transmission (EDT) transport block size (edt-TBS); the terminal device receives second information sent by the network device, wherein the second information is used for indicating a first repetition number; a target edt-TBS is determined from the candidate edt-TBS; a target repetition number is determined according to the target edt-TBS and / or the first repetition number; and first data is sent according to the target edt-TBS, wherein the first data is spread by a corresponding orthogonal sequence of the target repetition number. In this way, data spread by an orthogonal sequence is transmitted in the random access process of EDT, so that multi-user multiplexing can be realized, the resource multiplexing rate is improved, and the system capacity is improved.

[0007] In combination with the first aspect, in some feasible examples, the method further comprises the following steps: a second repetition number is determined according to the target edt-TBS, the candidate edt-TBS and the first repetition number; and the target repetition number is determined according to the second repetition number. In this way, the target repetition number has a certain relationship with the second repetition number, which is beneficial for the network device to determine the target repetition number.

[0008] Optionally, the second repetition number is determined according to the target edt-TBS, a maximum edt-TBS in the candidate edt-TBS and the first repetition number.

[0009] In combination with the first aspect, in some feasible examples, the method further comprises the following steps: the terminal device receives third information sent by the network device, wherein the third information is used for indicating an orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number, and the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number is an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length. In this way, the terminal device and the network device can determine a unique orthogonal sequence length related to the target repetition number, so that the terminal device can perform despreading according to the orthogonal sequence length, and the complexity of the network device for despreading data is reduced.

[0010] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, if the second repetition number is less than or equal to the orthogonal sequence length, the target repetition number is the orthogonal sequence length; and if the second repetition number is greater than the orthogonal sequence length, the target repetition number is an integer multiple of the orthogonal sequence length. In this way, according to the size relationship between the second repetition number and the orthogonal sequence length, the target repetition number can be determined, and the target repetition number is an integer multiple of the orthogonal sequence length, so that the data expanded by the orthogonal sequence meets the requirement of the target repetition number, and the efficiency of data expansion is improved.

[0011] Optionally, the orthogonal sequence length is 2 or 4.

[0012] For example, when the orthogonal sequence length is 2, the configured first repetition number is greater than 1 and less than or equal to 4, if the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is less than or equal to 2, the target repetition number is determined to be 2; and if the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is 3 or 4, the target repetition number is determined to be 4. Regardless of whether the target repetition number is 4 or 2, the orthogonal sequence with the orthogonal sequence length of 2 can be used to implement multi-user multiplexing.

[0013] For another example, when the orthogonal sequence length is 4 and the configured first repetition number is greater than 8, the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is an integer multiple of 4. If the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is 4, the target repetition number is determined to be 4. Regardless of whether the target repetition number is several times of 4, the orthogonal sequence with the orthogonal sequence length of 4 can be used to implement multi-user multiplexing.

[0014] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: receiving, by the terminal device, fourth information sent by the network device, the fourth information being used to indicate a first threshold; and if the first repetition number is less than the first threshold, the terminal device sends second data according to the target edt-TBS, the second data being data that is not expanded by the orthogonal sequence. In this way, in the case where the repetition number configured by the network device is less than the first threshold, multi-user multiplexing is not implemented by using the orthogonal sequence, so that the network device does not need to perform de-spreading on the received data.

[0015] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: receiving, by the terminal device, fourth information sent by the network device, the fourth information being used to indicate a first threshold; and if the first repetition number is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the terminal device sends the first data according to the target edt-TBS. In this way, in the case where the repetition number configured by the network device is greater than or equal to the first threshold, multi-user multiplexing is implemented by using the orthogonal sequence.

[0016] In the above two examples, the terminal device and the network device determine whether to perform data spreading through an orthogonal sequence according to the size of the number of repetitions configured by the network device, which can reduce the complexity of the network device in decoding data.

[0017] In some possible examples, the method further includes: receiving, by the terminal device, fifth information sent by the network device, the fifth information being used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group determining the same target number of repetitions; and if the target edt-TBS belongs to the target edt-TBS group, transmitting, by the terminal device, the first data according to the target edt-TBS. It can be understood that in the case where the target edt-TBS group includes the target edt-TBS, the terminal device can transmit data that has been spread through an orthogonal sequence to the network device according to the target edt-TBS. In this way, in the case of multi-user multiplexing, the target number of repetitions determined by the indicated candidate edt-TBS is the same, so that the network device can determine the target number of repetitions according to the first number of repetitions configured and the target edt-TBS, and then perform despreading according to the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target number of repetitions, which can reduce the complexity of the network device in despreading data.

[0018] In some possible examples, the method further includes: receiving, by the terminal device, fifth information sent by the network device, the fifth information being used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group determining the same target number of repetitions; and if the target edt-TBS does not belong to the target edt-TBS group, transmitting, by the terminal device, second data according to the target edt-TBS, the second data being data that has not been spread through an orthogonal sequence. It can be understood that in the case where the target edt-TBS group does not include the target edt-TBS, it indicates that multi-user multiplexing is not needed, that is, the terminal device can transmit data that has not been spread through an orthogonal sequence to the network device according to the target edt-TBS.

[0019] In some possible examples, the target number of repetitions determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS is equal to the first number of repetitions. In this way, the network device can determine the target number of repetitions according to the first number of repetitions, and then perform despreading according to the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target number of repetitions, which can reduce the complexity of the network device in despreading data.

[0020] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: receiving, by the terminal device, sixth information sent by the network device; and determining, by the terminal device, whether to perform multi-user multiplexing according to the sixth information, wherein the data sent when the multi-user multiplexing is performed is the first data, and the data sent when the multi-user multiplexing is not performed is second data that is not subjected to spreading by the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number. In this way, it can be determined whether the data is transmitted after being subjected to spreading by the orthogonal sequence, which is beneficial to selecting a suitable manner for data transmission, and improves the flexibility of configuration.

[0021] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: determining, by the terminal device, the target repetition number and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number according to the sixth information. In this way, the target repetition number and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number are determined through the configuration information, which improves the flexibility of configuration.

[0022] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a second communication method, which can be applied to a network device, or a device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, etc.) in the network device, or a device capable of matching the network device. The following takes the network device as an example. The method includes: sending, by the network device, first information to a terminal device, the first information being used to indicate at least one candidate edt-TBS; sending, by the network device, second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate a first repetition number; and receiving, by the network device, first data of the terminal device, wherein the first data is subjected to spreading by an orthogonal sequence corresponding to a target repetition number. In this way, the data subjected to spreading by the orthogonal sequence is transmitted in the random access process of EDT, so that multi-user multiplexing can be implemented, the resource multiplexing rate is improved, and the system capacity is improved.

[0023] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: sending, by the network device, third information to the terminal device, the third information being used to indicate a length of an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number, wherein the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number is an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the length of the orthogonal sequence. In this way, the terminal device and the network device can determine a unique length of an orthogonal sequence related to the target repetition number, so that the terminal device performs despreading according to the length of the orthogonal sequence, and the complexity of despreading the data by the network device is reduced.

[0024] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: sending, by the network device, fourth information to the terminal device, where the fourth information is used to indicate the first threshold; and receiving, by the network device, second data of the terminal device if the first repetition number is less than the first threshold, where the second data is data that is not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading. In this way, the network device can determine that the first data is not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading when the first repetition number is less than the first threshold, and the complexity of the network device in decoding data can be reduced.

[0025] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: sending, by the network device, fourth information to the terminal device, where the fourth information is used to indicate the first threshold; and receiving, by the network device, the first data of the terminal device if the first repetition number is greater than or equal to the first threshold. In this way, the network device can determine that the first data is subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading when the configured first repetition number is greater than or equal to the first threshold, and then perform de-spreading on the first data.

[0026] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: sending, by the network device, fifth information to the terminal device, where the fifth information is used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, and any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is subjected to the same target repetition number; and receiving, by the network device, the first data of the terminal device if the target edt-TBS belongs to the target edt-TBS group. In this way, the network device can determine the target repetition number according to the configured target edt-TBS group, and then perform de-spreading according to the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number, and the complexity of the network device in de-spreading data can be reduced.

[0027] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: sending, by the network device, fifth information to the terminal device, where the fifth information is used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, and any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is subjected to the same target repetition number; and receiving, by the network device, second data of the terminal device if the target edt-TBS does not belong to the target edt-TBS group, where the second data is data that is not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading.

[0028] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is equal to the first repetition number. In this way, the network device can determine the target repetition number according to the first repetition number, and then perform de-spreading according to the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number, and the complexity of the network device in de-spreading data can be reduced.

[0029] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the method further includes: sending, by the network device, sixth information to the terminal device, the sixth information being used to indicate whether to perform multi-user multiplexing, wherein the data sent when the multi-user multiplexing is performed is the first data, and the data sent when the multi-user multiplexing is not performed is second data that is not subjected to the orthogonal sequence spreading corresponding to the target repetition number. In this way, it can be determined whether the data is transmitted through the orthogonal sequence spreading, which is beneficial to selecting a suitable manner for data transmission and improves the flexibility of configuration.

[0030] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the sixth information is further used to indicate the target repetition number and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number. In this way, the target repetition number and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number are determined through the configuration information, and the flexibility of configuration is improved.

[0031] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a communication apparatus, including units or modules or means for performing each step of the method in the first aspect, the second aspect, or any implementation of the method.

[0032] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses another communication apparatus, which can be a terminal device or a network device. The communication apparatus can include a processor configured to cause the communication apparatus to perform the method in any of the aspects or possible examples described above by executing instructions in a memory or by a logic circuit.

[0033] In some possible examples, the communication apparatus further includes one or more of a memory or a transceiver configured to transceive data and / or signaling.

[0034] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system including a terminal device and a network device, and when the terminal device and the network device operate in the communication system, the terminal device and the network device are configured to perform the method in any of the aspects or possible examples described above.

[0035] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, and when the instructions are run by a processor, the method in any of the aspects or possible examples described above is performed.

[0036] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product including instructions, and when the instructions are run by a processor, the method in any of the aspects or possible examples described above is performed.

[0037] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor and a memory, the processor being configured to invoke and run instructions stored in the memory, so that a communication device installed with the chip performs the method of any one of the above aspects or possible examples.

[0038] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides another chip comprising an input interface, an output interface and a processing circuit, the input interface, the output interface and the processing circuit being connected through internal connection paths, the processing circuit being configured to perform the method of any one of the above aspects or possible examples. Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory. The input interface, the output interface, the processor and the memory are connected through internal connection paths, and the processor is configured to execute codes in the memory, and when the codes are executed, the processor is configured to perform the method in any one of the above aspects or possible examples.

[0039] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a chip system comprising at least one processor and a communication interface, the communication interface and the at least one processor being connected through a line, and the at least one processor being configured to run computer programs or instructions to perform the method in any one of the above aspects or possible examples.

[0040] It should be understood that the implementation and benefits of the above aspects can be referred to each other. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0041] The following describes the drawings used in the embodiments of the present application.

[0042] FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0043] FIGS. 1B to 1D are schematic diagrams of architectures of an NTN communication system according to embodiments of the present application, respectively;

[0044] FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting data in an EDT-based random access process according to the prior art;

[0045] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a message 2 according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0046] FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0047] FIG. 5 is an interaction diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0048] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0049] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a structure of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] FIG. 8 is a structural schematic diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0051] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, a long term evolution (LTE) communication system, a new radio (NR) communication system, a long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) communication system, a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a vehicle to everything (V2X) communication system, a machine to machine (M2M) communication system, an internet of things (IoT) communication system, a narrow band internet of thing (NB-IoT) communication system, a cognitive communication integrated system, a frequency division duplex (FDD) communication system, a time division duplex (TDD) communication system, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system, a wireless projection communication system, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) communication system, a public land mobile network (PLMN) communication system, a non-public network (NPN) communication system, and a communication system evolved after a 5G communication system (for example, a 6G communication system), or a non-(3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP) communication system, etc., without limitation.

[0052] Exemplarily, refer to FIG. 1A, which is an architectural schematic diagram of a communication system. As shown in FIG. 1A, the communication system can include at least one terminal device and at least one network device. The terminal device can be connected to the network device in a wireless manner or a wired manner, so that the terminal device can perform uplink (UL) communication or downlink (DL) communication with the network device. The terminal device and the terminal device can be connected in a wireless manner or a wired manner, so that the terminal device can perform sidelink (SL) communication with the terminal device.

[0053] The terminal device and the network device, the network device and the network device, and the terminal device and the terminal device can communicate through a licensed spectrum, or can communicate through an unlicensed spectrum, or can communicate through both the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum. The spectrum resource used by the terminal device and the network device is not limited in the present application.

[0054] The terminal device involved in the present application is an entity on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals, which can provide voice and / or data to users. The terminal device can also be referred to as a terminal, a user equipment (UE), an access terminal, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile device, a mobile station, a mobile station (mobile station), a mobile terminal, a mobile client, a mobile unit, a remote station, a remote terminal, a remote unit, a wireless unit, a wireless communication device, a user agent or a user device, etc. Among them, the access terminal can be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal in a future 5G communication system or a terminal in a future evolved PLMN, or a terminal in a future NPN, etc. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip applied to the above-mentioned devices can also be referred to as a terminal device. Hereinafter, it is sometimes referred to as a terminal.

[0055] In FIG. 1A, the network device is exemplified as an access network (AN) device. The access network device can also be referred to as a radio access network (RAN) device, or simply as an access network, which is a node or device that accesses the terminal device to the wireless network. That is, the access network provides access services for the terminal device, so that the terminal device accesses (or accesses) the network. The access network can support wired access and also support wireless access.

[0056] Optionally, the access network is composed of multiple AN / RAN nodes. The AN / RAN node can include, but is not limited to, an access point (AP), an enhanced nodeB (eNB), a home base station (for example, a home evolved NodeB, or a home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), a next-generation base station (NR nodeB, gNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a transmission point (TP), or some other access node, such as a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, and the like. The AN / RAN node can be one or more constituent antenna panels, or can be a network node constituting a gNB or a transmission point, such as a BBU or a distributed unit (DU), or can be a device that undertakes RAN functions in a D2D, V2X, M2M, U2U, or the like communication system, and the like. The AN / RAN node can be a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or can be an open access network (O-RAN or ORAN), or can be an access network in a communication system evolved after the 5G communication system, such as an xNodeB in a 6G communication system, or can be an access network in a PLMN network evolved after the 5G communication system, and the like, without limitation.

[0057] It should be noted that in the network architecture as shown in FIG. 1A, although the access network and the terminal device are shown, the application scenario can not be limited to including the access network and the terminal device, for example, devices for carrying virtualized network functions can also be included, and the like, which are obvious to those skilled in the art, and will not be described one by one here.

[0058] In addition, the number and type of network devices and terminal devices included in the network architecture shown in FIG. 1A are only an example, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, more or fewer terminal devices can be included that communicate with the network devices. For example, more or fewer network devices can be included that communicate with the terminal devices. For the sake of simplicity, they are not described one by one in the drawings.

[0059] Optionally, the communication system can also include network devices not shown in FIG. 1A, such as core network (CN) devices, data network (DN) devices, and the like.

[0060] In different communication systems, the core network device (hereinafter referred to as core network) can correspond to different devices. For example, in a 3G communication system, it can correspond to a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and / or a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN); in a 4G communication system, it can correspond to a mobility management entity (MME) and / or a serving gateway (S-GW); in a 5G communication system, it can correspond to the above-mentioned policy control function (PCF) network element, unified data management (UDM) network element, application function (AF) network element, access and mobility management function (AMF) network element, session management function (SMF) network element, location management function (LMF) network element, user plane function (UPF) network element, etc.

[0061] Among them, the UPF network element is responsible for managing the transmission of user plane data and quality of service (QoS) control, traffic statistics, etc. It can perform user data packet forwarding according to the routing rules of the session management network element, such as sending uplink data to a data network or other user plane network elements, and forwarding downlink data to other user plane network elements or (R) AN network elements.

[0062] The AMF network element is responsible for user access management, security authentication, and mobility management. The LMF network element is responsible for managing and controlling positioning service requests of a target terminal and processing positioning-related information. The SMF network element is responsible for session management and allocating and releasing resources for a session of a terminal device. The UDM network element is responsible for context management of user subscription. For example, subscription information of a terminal device is stored. The PCF network element is responsible for user policy management. Similar to a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) network element in LTE, the PCF network element is mainly responsible for generating policy authorization, quality of service, and charging rules, and delivering corresponding rules to a UPF network element through an SMF network element to complete installation of corresponding policies and rules. The AF network element can be a third-party application control platform or can be a device of an operator. The AF network element is responsible for implementing application management and can provide services for multiple application servers.

[0063] In embodiments of the present application, a data network device can be referred to as a data network for short. The data network is used to provide service to a user. Generally, a client is a terminal, and a server is a data network. The data network provided by the data network can include a private network, such as a local area network. The data network can also include an external network not managed by an operator, such as the Internet. The data network can also include a proprietary network jointly deployed by an operator, such as a network providing an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) service.

[0064] In some embodiments, a network device and a terminal device can also be referred to as a communication apparatus, which can be a general-purpose device or a special-purpose device, and embodiments of the present application do not make specific limitations thereto.

[0065] The present application does not limit the positions of terminal devices and network devices. The terminal devices and network devices can be in a fixed state or in a mobile state. The terminal devices and network devices can be deployed on land or on water, in the air, and the like.

[0066] In embodiments of the present application, a network device deployed in the air can be referred to as a non-terrestrial network device, and a network device deployed on the ground can be referred to as a terrestrial network device. The non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system includes at least one non-terrestrial network device, and the network devices in a terrestrial communication system are all terrestrial network devices. The terrestrial network device is a network device that is stationary or moves at a relatively low speed relative to the non-terrestrial network device. That is, the non-terrestrial network device can be a high-speed mobile network device relative to the terrestrial network device.

[0067] The non-terrestrial network device can include a satellite, a high-altitude platform (HAP), a drone, a hot air balloon, a low earth orbit satellite, a medium earth orbit satellite, a high earth orbit satellite, and the like, which are not limited herein. The satellite mentioned in this application can represent a collection of satellites and other network devices related to satellite communication, therefore, in this application, the two descriptions of "satellite" and "satellite network device" are equivalent.

[0068] In the NTN communication network, the access network device can include the following three deployment modes:

[0069] In the first deployment mode, the non-terrestrial network device can perform the RAN function (access service function), and the ground network device without performing the RAN function can communicate with the core network through the ground station (such as NTN gateway) in the ground network device, which is used to solve the coverage problem of remote areas such as mountainous areas, oceans and other regions.

[0070] In the second deployment mode, the non-terrestrial network device and the ground station in the ground network device can be used as a radio frequency unit, and the access network (such as a base station) in the ground network device except the ground station can perform the RAN function.

[0071] In the third deployment mode, the non-terrestrial network device does not perform the RAN function, and the ground station in the ground network device for forwarding signaling and data of the non-terrestrial network device and other network devices does not perform the RAN function. The RAN function is performed by the access network (such as a base station) in the ground network device except the ground station.

[0072] Please refer to FIGS. 1B-1D, which are respectively an architecture schematic diagram of an NTN communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. In FIGS. 1B-1D, the NTN communication system is exemplified by a 5G communication system. The access network can be a next generation-RAN (NG-RAN), and the core network can be a 5G core network (5G CN). The architecture can be understood as an NTN-based NG-RAN architecture.

[0073] The interface of the wireless link between the terminal device and the access network can be referred to as an air interface, such as the NR Uu interface. The NG interface serves as an interface between the access network and the core network, and is mainly used for interaction of non-access stratum (NAS) signaling and the like of the core network, and user service data. The Xn interface is an interface between access networks, and is mainly used for interaction of signaling such as handover. The N6 interface can be an interface between the core network and the data network.

[0074] It should be noted that the above interfaces are exemplified in the 5G communication system. In different communication systems, different names can exist, for example, in the 4G communication system, the interface between the access network and the access network can be the X2 interface, the interface between the access network and the core network can be the S1 interface, and the like. Of course, in future communications, the names of these interfaces can remain unchanged, or can be replaced by other names, and the present application does not limit this.

[0075] As shown in FIGS. 1B-1D, the NTN system can include at least one terminal device, at least one non-terrestrial network device, and at least one terrestrial network device. Specifically, in FIG. 1B, the non-terrestrial network device is a satellite, and the terrestrial network device includes a ground station, a 5G base station, a 5G user plane processing unit, a 5G control plane processing unit, and a data network device.

[0076] The 5G core network device is composed of multiple functional units, which can be divided into control plane and data plane functional entities, such as the 5G control plane processing unit and the 5G user plane processing unit shown in FIGS. 1B-1D. The 5G control plane processing unit can include the access and mobility management function (AMF) network element and the location management function (LMF) network element in FIGS. 1B-1D, and can also include the PCF network element, the UDM network element, the AF network element, the SMF network element, and the like not shown in the figure. The ground station is used to forward signaling and service data between the satellite (access network device) and the core network device. The functions of the terminal device and various network devices can refer to the foregoing, and will not be repeated here.

[0077] The system architecture shown in FIG. 1B can be referred to as a transparent satellite access architecture (e.g., RAN architecture with transparent satellite). As shown in FIG. 1B, the terminal device accesses the network through the air interface, and the 5G base station is deployed on the ground and connected to the satellite communication ground station on the ground. It can be understood as the second deployment mode described above. In the scenario corresponding to this architecture, the role of the satellite is to perform radio frequency filtering, frequency conversion and amplification. That is, the satellite can realize transparent forwarding and act as a layer 1 relay to regenerate the physical layer signal without other higher protocol layers.

[0078] The satellite shown in FIG. 1C can be referred to as a regenerative satellite without an inter-satellite link (ISL).

[0079] The terminal device accesses the network through the air interface, and the access network device is specifically a 5G base station, which is deployed on the satellite and connected to the core network device through a wireless link. It can be understood as the first deployment mode described above.

[0080] The satellite shown in FIG. 1D can be referred to as a regenerative satellite with an inter-satellite link (ISL). The ISL between two satellites is connected through an Xn interface. The satellite and the satellite can complete signaling interaction and user data transmission between the access network devices and the access network devices. It can be understood as the third deployment mode described above.

[0081] In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device or the network device 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 referred to as a main memory). The operating system can be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through a process, for example, 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 a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module capable of calling and executing a program in a terminal device or a network device.

[0082] In addition, various aspects or features of the present application can be implemented as methods, apparatus, or articles of manufacture using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used in the application is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, or magnetic strips), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), card, stick, or key drive, etc.). The various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include but is not limited to a wireless channel and various other media capable of storing, containing, and / or carrying instructions and / or data.

[0083] In order to facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the definitions of technical terms that can occur in the embodiments of the present application are given below. The terms used in the implementation part of the present application are only used to explain the specific embodiments of the present application, and are not intended to limit the present application.

[0084] (1) Carrier, a piece of continuous frequency domain resource used to carry information. The carrier can be represented by carrier frequency point and carrier bandwidth. The carrier of a cell, as frequency domain resource, together with time resource forms the time-frequency resource of the cell, or can be understood as that the carrier forms the time-frequency resource with the passage of time. The information transmitted between the network device and the terminal device in the cell is carried on the time-frequency resource of the cell.

[0085] Optionally, in the description of the embodiments of the present application, the component carrier (CC) and the carrier are not distinguished, and can be replaced with each other.

[0086] The various embodiments of the present application can be applicable to the single-carrier scenario, that is, one carrier is configured for one terminal device. Or the various embodiments of the present application can also be applicable to the multi-carrier scenario, that is, multiple carriers are configured for one terminal device.

[0087] (2) Time-frequency resource, including time domain resource and frequency domain resource. The time domain resource refers to one or more continuous time domain resource units distributed in the time domain. The time domain resource unit can be simply referred to as time domain unit, and can include superframe, radio frame (referred to as frame), subframe, time slot, sub-slot, symbol, etc., which are not limited here.

[0088] In the embodiments of the present application, the symbol includes but is not limited to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, sparse code multiplexing access (SCMA) symbol, filtered orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (F-OFDM) symbol, and the specific symbol can be determined according to the actual situation, which is not limited here.

[0089] The frequency domain resource refers to one or more continuous resource elements (REs) distributed in the frequency domain. The REs continuous in the frequency domain can be referred to as a resource block (RB). The RE refers to a resource defined by 1 symbol in the time domain and 1 sub-carrier in the frequency domain. The sub-carrier can be understood as the smallest granularity of the frequency domain resource, and one RE can be referred to as one sub-carrier. For example, one RB in the LTE communication system includes 12 sub-carriers, and one RB in the NR communication system also includes 12 sub-carriers. With the evolution of the communication system, the number of sub-carriers included in one RB can be other values. The RB is referred to as a physical resource block (PRB) in the physical layer.

[0090] (3) Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a channel used to carry control signaling sent by the terminal device to the network device, which contains control-related information such as uplink control information (UCI). The PUCCH is divided into two categories. One is a long PUCCH, which occupies 4 to 14 consecutive OFDM symbols and is transmitted in a frequency hopping manner. The demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and the UCI are carried by different symbols, and orthogonal cover code (OCC) spreading can be used in each frequency hopping part to increase the capacity. The other is a short PUCCH, which occupies 1 to 2 OFDM symbols in the frequency domain PRB. The information can be carried by a sequence, or the DMRS and the UCI can occupy different subcarriers and be transmitted in a frequency division manner. In a time slot, the PUCCH can be transmitted at any position.

[0091] (4) Physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a channel used by the terminal device to transmit data and part of the control information. The information in the PUSCH and the PUCCH is sent in units of subframes. A subframe includes at least one time slot, and each time slot includes a plurality of discrete Fourier transformation-spreading OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbols. In the time domain, the DMRS and the PUSCH / PUCCH are transmitted in different DFT-S-OFDM symbols. In the frequency domain, the DMRS and the PUSCH / PUCCH are transmitted in the same resource block.

[0092] (5) Multi-user multiplexing refers to that multiple users transmit data on the same resource, and the data of each user is multiplied by a different orthogonal sequence. Multi-user multiplexing can be implemented by using OCC, which multiplexes the time-frequency resources of terminal devices in the same PRB and has almost no code rate loss for a given number of terminal devices, and is therefore usually used in scenarios of PUSCH to enhance system capacity and increase the transmission rate of terminal devices.

[0093] The basic principle of OCC is to encode user data so that the orthogonal sequences of different users are orthogonal in the code domain, thereby realizing mutual interference between multiple users. Specifically, OCC uses an orthogonal matrix as a coding matrix to multiply user data and the coding matrix to obtain a coded sequence. At the receiving end, by multiplying the transposition of the coding matrix, the interference signals of other users can be eliminated, thereby realizing the decoding of user data.

[0094] In the embodiments of the present application, the orthogonal matrix includes multiple orthogonal sequences, which are orthogonal to each other. The orthogonal sequence is also called a coded sequence or an OCC sequence. Optionally, the orthogonal matrix can include DFT codes, Hadamard codes, etc., wherein the Hadamard code can also be referred to as a Walsh code. By assigning different orthogonal sequences to different terminal devices, the same physical resource (the same time and the same frequency) can be multiplexed by multiple terminal devices, and the data transmitted after multiplexing is orthogonal in the code domain.

[0095] For example, the orthogonal matrix corresponding to the OCC includes the matrix A and the matrix B shown as follows. The orthogonal sequences in the matrix A include W1 assigned to terminal A and W2 assigned to terminal B, and the orthogonal sequences in the matrix B include W3 assigned to terminal C, W4 assigned to terminal D, W5 assigned to terminal E, and W6 assigned to terminal F. Wherein, W1 = {1 1}, W2 = {1 -1}. W3 = {1 1 1 1}, W4 = {1 1 -1 -1}, W5 = {1 -1 1 -1}, and W6 = {1 -1 -1 1}.

[0096] In the embodiments of the present application, the orthogonal sequence length of the orthogonal sequence refers to the number of values in the orthogonal sequence. The value in the orthogonal sequence can also be referred to as an OCC element, and the orthogonal sequence length can also be referred to as an expansion factor L or a spreading factor. The present application does not limit the size of the orthogonal sequence length, for example, an integer multiple of 1, 2, or 4, etc. Exemplarily, the orthogonal sequence length of the matrix A is 2, and the orthogonal sequence length of the matrix B is 4.

[0097] Exemplarily, taking the above matrix A as an example, the orthogonal sequence length is 2, and the orthogonal sequences in the matrix A are W1 and W2 respectively. Assuming that the terminal A transmits a signal s1, the signal s1 is spread into {s1, s1} by using W1. Assuming that the terminal B transmits a signal s2, the signal s2 is spread into {s2, -s2} by using W2. In this way, different terminal devices can use the two orthogonal sequences for data spreading, which can ensure that they transmit in the same time-frequency resource without interfering with each other. In the case of an orthogonal sequence length of 2, the transmitted signal can be understood as being repeatedly transmitted twice. After the network device receives the data spread by the signals s1 and s2, the network device can demodulate the signal s1 according to W1 and demodulate the signal s2 according to W2. In the above data spreading process, the transmitted signal can be repeatedly transmitted twice.

[0098] The application does not limit the type of OCC mode. The OCC mode can be divided into inter-slot OCC (OCC across slots; Inter-repetition OCC), inter-symbol OCC, inter-symbol group OCC, and intra-symbol OCC (OCC within an OFDM symbol).

[0099] (6) Early data transmission (EDT), which can also be referred to as small data transmission, is usually applicable to uplink transmission, so that the terminal device can complete data transmission without performing radio resource control (RRC) state conversion in an idle state or an inactive state. For example, in an EDT-based random access process, the terminal device transmits data through a message 3 (Msg3), and does not need to transmit data after access, which can improve data transmission efficiency.

[0100] Exemplarily, please refer to FIG. 2, which is a flowchart of a method for transmitting data in an EDT-based random access process provided by the prior art. As shown in FIG. 2, the following steps S201 to S204 are included, wherein:

[0101] S201, the terminal device transmits a message 1 to the network device.

[0102] Correspondingly, the network device receives the message 1 of the terminal device.

[0103] The message 1 can also be referred to as Message 1 (Msg1) or Msg1 message. The message 1 can include a preamble.

[0104] The terminal device can randomly select a resource to send the preamble sequence. If multiple terminal devices send the same preamble sequence on the same resource, collision occurs. If multiple terminals send different preamble sequences on the same resource, and the sequences are orthogonal, no collision occurs.

[0105] S202, the network device sends a message 2 to the terminal device.

[0106] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the message 2 sent by the network device.

[0107] The message 2 can also be referred to as Message 2 (Msg2) or Msg2 message. After the network device detects the preamble sequence on a certain time-frequency resource, the network device carries the preamble sequence in the message 2 to indicate that the network device has detected the preamble sequence. The message 2 can also carry a random access response (RAR), and the network device has detected m preamble sequences on the time-frequency resource. The message 2 can carry m RARs (random access responses). Wherein, m is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0108] Exemplarily, please refer to FIG. 3, which is a structure diagram of a message 2 provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 3, the message 2 includes a MAC frame header and a random access response. The message 2 can also include padding bits. The MAC frame header includes a plurality of MAC sub-headers, and the MAC sub-headers include a backoff identifier and a random access preamble identifier.

[0109] When the network device detects m preamble sequences, the MAC frame header in the message 2 includes m random access preamble sequence identifiers (RAPIDs), and the random access response in the message 2 includes m random access responses (such as MAC RAR1, MAC RAR2, …, MAC RARm).

[0110] Optionally, the random access response can include at least one of a timing advanced command, an uplink grant (UL grant), a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), and reserved bits.

[0111] Optionally, the message 2 can comprise uplink grant information. The uplink grant information can comprise first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate a transport block size TBS allowed to be adopted in a message 3 (Msg3, or Msg3 message).

[0112] Optionally, the first indication information can further specifically indicate a maximum TBS allowed to be adopted in the message 3. For example, the first indication information can indicate that a maximum TBS allowed to be adopted in the message 3 is 1000 bits, then the TBS allowed to be adopted in the message 3 cannot exceed 1000 bits.

[0113] It should be noted that the TBS described below refers to a specific numerical size. The unit of the TBS is sometimes omitted, and in the case of omission, the unit is bit by default.

[0114] Optionally, the first indication information can comprise an early data transmission transport block size edt-TBS. The TBS allowed to be adopted in the first indication information corresponding to the edt-TBS can be determined by the edt-TBS configuration and the configuration of the early data transmission small transport block size subset (edt-SmallTBS-Subset).

[0115] Optionally, the edt-TBS configuration and the configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset can be represented by the following table 1.

[0116] Table 1

[0117] Wherein, the edt-TBS configuration can be shown in the first column of table 1 as shown below, used to indicate the maximum TBS allowed. The configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset can be shown in the second column of table 1, used to indicate the TBS allowed. enabled represents that there is a configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset, which can be understood as starting (activating or using) the configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset. not configured represents that there is no configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset. In this way, according to table 1, the TBS allowed to be adopted in the edt-TBS in the first indication information can be determined.

[0118] Exemplarily, without the configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset, the TBS allowed to be adopted by the message 3 can be determined according to the edt-TBS in the first indication information and not configured corresponding to the edt-TBS. For example, the edt-TBS in the first indication information is 504 bit, and the edt-SmallTBS-Subset corresponding to the edt-TBS is not configured, it is determined that the TBS allowed to be adopted by the message 3 is 328 bit, 408 bit and 504 bit, and 504 bit is the largest TBS. With the configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset, the TBS allowed to be adopted by the message 3 is determined according to the edt-TBS in the first indication information and enabled (the configuration of the edt-SmallTBS-Subset) corresponding to the edt-TBS. For example, the edt-TBS in the first indication information is 504, and the edt-SmallTBS-Subset corresponding to the edt-TBS is enabled, it is determined that the TBS allowed to be adopted by the message 3 is 408 bit and 504 bit, and 504 bit is the largest TBS.

[0119] In the embodiments of the present application, the TBS allowed to be adopted by the message 3 can be referred to as a candidate TBS.

[0120] S203, the terminal device determines a target TBS from the candidate TBS.

[0121] Optionally, the step S203 can include: determining the target TBS that can be used to transmit the uplink data from the candidate TBS according to the size of the uplink data.

[0122] Wherein, the terminal device can select the TBS closest to the TBS of the uplink data currently needed to be sent to perform the transmission of the EDT. For example, the uplink data is 400 bit, the edt-TBS in the first indication information is 504 bit, and the edt-SmallTBS-Subset corresponding to the edt-TBS is enabled, 408 bit can be selected as the target TBS from 408 bit and 504 bit for transmitting the uplink data of 400 bit. In this way, the terminal device can transmit the uplink data according to the target TBS.

[0123] S204, the terminal device transmits the message 3 to the network device according to the target TBS.

[0124] Correspondingly, the network device receives the message 3 of the terminal device.

[0125] For the terminal device, after receiving the message 2, it checks whether the message 2 carries the preamble sequence sent by the terminal device before. If the message 2 does not contain the preamble sequence sent by the terminal device before, it is considered that the random access fails, and the terminal device needs to resend the message 1 again; if the message 2 contains the preamble sequence sent by the terminal device before, the terminal device sends the message 3 according to the time-frequency resource indicated by the uplink grant in the random access response corresponding to the preamble sequence. The terminal device carries the identity of the terminal device (such as the cell radio network temporary identity or the terminal device identity from the core network) in the message 3 when sending the message. Therefore, the message 3 carries the identity of the terminal device, which is used to identify the current terminal device requesting access.

[0126] Optionally, after the message 3, further necessary steps can be included, for example, the terminal device receives a contention resolution message (message 4) from the network device, which can be referred to the prior art.

[0127] In the method shown in FIG. 2, the terminal device sends data through the message 3, without the need of sending data after access, which can improve the data transmission efficiency.

[0128] In the embodiments of the present application, the number of repetitions of data transmission configured (indicated) by the network device can be referred to as the first number of repetitions, and the number of repetitions of data transmission determined by the terminal device can be referred to as the second number of repetitions. The second number of repetitions can be the same as or different from the first number of repetitions. The present application does not limit the size of the number of repetitions of data, which can be a positive integer, i.e., an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0129] Optionally, after the terminal device selects the target TBS for the message 3, the terminal device determines the second number of repetitions of data transmission according to the target TBS, the maximum TBS configured by the network device for the message 3, and the first number of repetitions of data transmission configured by the network device. The second number of repetitions is greater than or equal to N and is the smallest integer multiple of a preset value L, and N satisfies the following formula (1),

[0130] wherein, TBS Msg3 target TBS selected by the terminal device, TBS Msg3 ,max represents the maximum TBS allowed by the terminal device. N Rep represents the number of repetitions of data transmission configured by the network device (the first number of repetitions).

[0131] L is in the 3GPP protocol (such as 36.213), when the subcarrier spacing Δf is 15 kHz, the number of subcarriers I sc is greater than 11, and the number of repetitions N RepL is equal to 4 if the repetition number for Msg3 is larger than or equal to 8, otherwise L is equal to 1. For details, refer to the protocol: the repetition number for Msg3 is the smallest integer multiple of L value that is equal to or larger than where TBS Msg3 is the selected TBS for Msg3,and TBS Msg3 ,max is given by higher layer parameter ed-TBS;ifΔf=15kHz and,I sc >11and,N Rep ≥8,then L=4is used in clause 16.5.1.2,otherwise L=1.

[0132] At present, the time-frequency resource multiplexing rate is low when the terminal device selects the TBS to repeatedly transmit data, and there are few time-frequency resources that can be multiplexed for other terminal devices.

[0133] Based on this, the embodiment of the application provides a communication method, which realizes multi-user multiplexing in the random access process of EDT, can improve the resource multiplexing rate, and improve the system capacity.

[0134] The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application will be described in detail below. The communication device involved in the communication method can include a terminal device and a network device. The system architecture can refer to the description of FIG. 1A to FIG. 1D, which will not be repeated here. The functions performed by the terminal device in the application or can be performed by the device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, or a means, etc.) in the terminal device. The functions performed by the network device in the application or can be performed by the device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, or a means, etc.) in the network device. The following is an example of a terminal device or a network device.

[0135] Optionally, the communication method is applicable to an uplink communication scenario.

[0136] Optionally, the communication method is applicable to a communication scenario of NTN, that is, the network device in the communication system includes a non-terrestrial network device.

[0137] Optionally, the communication method is applicable to a coverage enhancement scenario, in which coverage enhancement techniques such as repetition transmission, transmit block (TB) processing over multiple slots (TBoMS), DMRS bundling, and the like can be used.

[0138] Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method includes steps S401 to S405, and the like.

[0139] S401, the network device sends first information to the terminal device, and the first information is used to indicate at least one candidate edt-TBS.

[0140] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information of the network device.

[0141] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information can be sent by the network device to the terminal device in the form of unicast, or can be sent by the network device in the form of broadcast, or can be sent by the network device in the form of multicast or groupcast to the specified terminal, which is not limited herein. The first information can be system information, or can be configuration information, and the like.

[0142] Exemplarily, the first information can be a system message block (SIB), radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control-control element (MAC CE) signaling, downlink control information (DCI), and the like.

[0143] The first information can be the aforementioned message 2 or the first indication information or the edt-TBS configuration, or information obtained by combining the edt-TBS configuration and the edt-SmallTBS-Subset configuration, which is not described herein again. The candidate edt-TBS refers to a TBS allowed to be used in message 3 in the EDT-based random access process, and can be the aforementioned candidate TBS.

[0144] Optionally, the first information includes each edt-TBS in a candidate edt-TBS group, and the edt-TBS in the candidate edt-TBS group can be referred to as a candidate edt-TBS.

[0145] The candidate edt-TBS group can be the TBS corresponding to at least one row in the third column of Table 1. For example, the first information includes the target edt-TBS group corresponding to the third row in the third column, so that the candidate edt-TBS includes 408 bits and 504 bits can be determined.

[0146] Optionally, the first information includes the maximum edt-TBS.

[0147] The maximum edt-TBS can be the edt-TBS in the first column of Table 1. For example, the first information includes the edt-TBS corresponding to the third row in the first column, and the maximum edt-TBS is 504 bits, so that the candidate edt-TBS includes 408 bits and 504 bits can be determined according to Table 1. In this way, at least one candidate edt-TBS can be determined by the maximum edt-TBS and the edt-TBS in the edt-TBS group corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS.

[0148] Optionally, the first information includes an index value corresponding to the candidate edt-TBS group and / or an index value corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS.

[0149] The index value corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS can be the maximum edt-TBS. When the candidate edt-TBS group corresponds to only one row of TBS in Table 1, the index value corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS can be the index value corresponding to the candidate edt-TBS group. When the candidate edt-TBS group corresponds to at least two rows of TBS in Table 1, the index value corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS can be the maximum edt-TBS in these rows. The index value corresponding to the candidate edt-TBS group can also be called the group identifier or group number of the candidate edt-TBS group. The candidate edt-TBS group can correspond to one or more index values, and the multiple index values can include the index values corresponding to the edt-TBS in the candidate edt-TBS group.

[0150] The index value corresponding to the candidate edt-TBS group and the index value corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS can be numbered according to the number of rows in Table 1, or can be the number corresponding to the number of rows. It can be understood that the index value can be used to find the corresponding target edt-TBS group or maximum edt-TBS, which can improve the efficiency of finding and save signaling.

[0151] The mapping relationship between the index value corresponding to the candidate edt-TBS group and / or the index value corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS and the candidate edt-TBS can refer to Table 2 below. For example, when the index value is 2, the candidate edt-TBS indicated by the first information includes 408 bits and 504 bits can be determined.

[0152] Table 2

[0153] S402. The network device sends a second message to the terminal device, the second message being used to indicate the first repetition number.

[0154] Accordingly, the terminal device receives the second information from the network device.

[0155] In this embodiment, the second information can be sent by the network device to the terminal device via unicast, broadcast, or multicast to a designated terminal; no limitation is made here. The second information can be system information or configuration information, etc.

[0156] For example, the second information can be SIB, RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, DCI, etc.

[0157] S403, The terminal device determines the target edt-TBS from the candidate edt-TBS.

[0158] Here, the target edt-TBS refers to the TBS used by message 3 in the random access process based on EDT, which can be the aforementioned target TBS. Step S403 can be referred to the description of step S203, and will not be repeated here.

[0159] S404. The terminal device determines the target number of repetitions based on the target edt-TBS and / or the first repetition count.

[0160] In other words, the terminal device can determine the target number of repetitions for data transmission based on the target EDT-TBS, or based on the first repetition of data transmission, or based on both the target EDT-TBS and the first repetition of data transmission. The specific method for determining the target number of repetitions will be described later.

[0161] S405. The terminal device sends the first data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS. The first data is expanded by an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the number of repetitions of the target.

[0162] Accordingly, the network device receives the first data from the terminal device.

[0163] In the embodiments of this application, the terminal device sends first data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, or it can be described as the terminal device sending first data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS (and the target repetition count), or it can be described as the terminal device sending first data to the network device according to the transport block corresponding to the target edt-TBS.

[0164] Optionally, after step S405, the network device can further include: blindly detecting the data to obtain a target repetition number; and performing despreading (decoding) on the first data according to the target repetition number.

[0165] The method of blind detection is not limited in the present application, and can be referred to the description in the prior art. It can be understood that the orthogonal sequence in the orthogonal sequence spreading of the first data corresponds to the target repetition number. Therefore, the network device determines the orthogonal sequence according to the target repetition number obtained by blind detection, so that the first data can be despread according to the orthogonal sequence.

[0166] In the embodiment of the present application, the target repetition number can be the second repetition number determined by the formula (1) described above. For example, when the second repetition number is 2, the target repetition number can be 2. The target repetition number can also be a value determined according to the second repetition number. For example, when the second repetition number is 3, the target repetition number can be 4.

[0167] Optionally, the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number can be an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number. The method can further include: determining, by the terminal device, the orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0168] The orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number can be equal to the target repetition number. For example, when the target repetition number is 2, the orthogonal sequence length can be 2, and data spreading and repeated transmission can be achieved by using one 2-long orthogonal sequence; when the target repetition number is 4, the orthogonal sequence length can be 4, and data spreading and repeated transmission can be achieved by using one 4-long orthogonal sequence. In this way, the orthogonal sequence length is equal to the target repetition number, and data spreading and repeated transmission can be achieved by using one orthogonal sequence.

[0169] The orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number can also be a value determined according to the target repetition number. For example, when the target repetition number is 4, the orthogonal sequence length can be half of 4, i.e. 2, so that data spreading and repeated transmission can be achieved by using two 2-long orthogonal sequences, such as an orthogonal sequence with a length of 2 spreading and repeating data according to the first two times and the last two times, respectively; when the target repetition number is 8, the orthogonal sequence length can be half of 8, i.e. 4, so that data spreading and repeated transmission can be achieved by using two 4-long orthogonal sequences, such as an orthogonal sequence with a length of 4 spreading and repeating data according to the first four times and the last four times, respectively. In this way, the target repetition number is an integer multiple of the orthogonal sequence length, and the integer multiple is greater than 1, so that data spreading can be performed using an orthogonal sequence corresponding to a smaller orthogonal sequence length, which can reduce the complexity of data spreading and is conducive to reducing the complexity of data despreading.

[0170] It can be understood that in the method shown in FIG. 4, the terminal device determines the target edt-TBS from the candidate edt-TBS indicated by the network device. The target repetition number is determined according to the target edt-TBS and / or the first repetition number configured by the network device, and the first data is transmitted according to the target edt-TBS, and the first data is spread by the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number. In this way, the data spread by the orthogonal sequence is transmitted in the random access process of the EDT, so that multi-user multiplexing can be realized, the resource multiplexing rate is improved, and the system capacity is improved.

[0171] In some feasible examples, the network device can further send third information to the terminal device.

[0172] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third information of the terminal device, and determines the length of the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number according to the third information.

[0173] In the embodiments of the present application, the third information can be sent by the network device to the terminal device in the form of unicast, or can be sent by the network device in the form of broadcast, or can be sent by the network device in the form of multicast or groupcast to the specified terminal, which is not limited here. The third information can be system information, or can be configuration information, etc.

[0174] For example, the third information can be SIB, RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, DCI, etc.

[0175] In the embodiments of the present application, the third information is used to indicate the length of the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0176] Optionally, the third information can include at least one of the following: the length of the orthogonal sequence, the length index, the orthogonal sequence, and the sequence index.

[0177] It can be understood that when the third information includes the length of the orthogonal sequence, the third information directly indicates the length of the orthogonal sequence. There is a mapping relationship between the length index and the length of the orthogonal sequence, which can be described by a table. When the third information includes the length index, the third information implicitly indicates the length of the orthogonal sequence, and the length of the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the length index can be determined according to the mapping relationship between the length index and the length of the orthogonal sequence.

[0178] For example, please refer to Table 3, which describes the mapping relationship between the length index and the length of the orthogonal sequence.

[0179] Table 3

[0180] It can be seen that when the length index is 0, the orthogonal sequence length is determined as 2. When the length index is 1, the orthogonal sequence length is determined as 4. By indicating the orthogonal sequence length through the length index, the value corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length can be expressed in a binary value with a shorter character length or in a scientific notation, thereby saving signaling overhead.

[0181] The orthogonal sequence includes at least two values (or OCC elements). The number of values in the orthogonal sequence is equal to the orthogonal sequence length. Therefore, when the third information includes the orthogonal sequence, the third information implicitly indicates the orthogonal sequence length, and the orthogonal sequence length can be determined according to the number of values in the orthogonal sequence. There is a mapping relationship between the sequence index and the orthogonal sequence (and / or the orthogonal sequence index). The mapping relationship can be described by a table. When the third information includes the sequence index, the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the sequence index can be determined according to the mapping relationship between the sequence index and the orthogonal sequence, and the orthogonal sequence length can be determined based on the number of values in the orthogonal sequence; or the orthogonal sequence length can be determined according to the mapping relationship between the sequence index and the orthogonal sequence index.

[0182] Exemplarily, Table 4 describes the mapping relationship between the sequence index and the orthogonal sequence and the orthogonal sequence length.

[0183] Table 4

[0184] It can be seen that when the sequence index is 0, the orthogonal sequence is determined as [1, -1] and the orthogonal sequence length is 2. When the sequence index is 1, the orthogonal sequence is determined as [1, 1] and the orthogonal sequence length is 2. When the sequence index is 2, the orthogonal sequence is determined as [1, 1, 1, 1] and the orthogonal sequence length is 4. When the sequence index is 3, the orthogonal sequence is determined as [1, -1, -1, 1] and the orthogonal sequence length is 4. By indicating the orthogonal sequence length through the sequence index, the value corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length can be expressed in a binary value with a shorter character length or in a scientific notation, thereby saving signaling overhead.

[0185] It should be noted that the above Table 3 and Table 4 are only examples. In practice, other forms of tables can also be used.

[0186] Optionally, the third information can include the number of subcarriers related to the orthogonal sequence length.

[0187] That is, there is a mapping relationship between the number of subcarriers and the orthogonal sequence length. For example, when the number of subcarriers is greater than 11, the orthogonal sequence length is 4; in other cases, the orthogonal sequence length is 2. The mapping relationship can also be described by a table, etc., which is not limited herein.

[0188] It can be understood that the orthogonal sequence length is determined according to the third information, and the orthogonal sequence length is related to the target repetition number, and the orthogonal sequence length is unified, which is beneficial to reducing the complexity of data despreading.

[0189] However, the TBS of the data transmitted by the EDT can be a TBS selected by the terminal device itself, and the repetition number is determined by the selected TBS. Therefore, the network device does not know the TBS selected by the terminal device, and further does not know the repetition number of the data, nor the orthogonal sequence adopted, which increases the complexity of decoding and easily leads to the network device being unable to decode.

[0190] Further, please refer to FIG. 5, which is an interaction schematic diagram of another communication method provided by the present application. The method includes steps such as S501 to S505, wherein:

[0191] S501, the network device sends first information to the terminal device, and the first information is used to indicate at least one candidate edt-TBS.

[0192] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information of the network device.

[0193] S502, the network device sends second information to the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate a first repetition number.

[0194] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second information of the network device.

[0195] S503, the terminal device determines a target edt-TBS from the candidate edt-TBS.

[0196] Wherein, steps S501 to S503 can refer to the description of steps S401 to S403, which will not be repeated here.

[0197] S504, the terminal device determines a second repetition number according to the target edt-TBS, the candidate edt-TBS and the first repetition number.

[0198] Optionally, the terminal device determines a target repetition number according to the target edt-TBS, the maximum edt-TBS in the candidate edt-TBS and the first repetition number. Specifically, it can refer to the description of the foregoing formula (1), which will not be repeated here.

[0199] S505, the terminal device determines a target repetition number according to the second repetition number.

[0200] It can be understood that the candidate edt-TBS and the first repetition number are information configured by the network device, and the target edt-TBS is a target edt-TBS determined by the terminal device from the candidate edt-TBS, that is, the network device knows the candidate edt-TBS and the first repetition number, and does not know the target edt-TBS. According to the target edt-TBS, the candidate edt-TBS and the first repetition number, the second repetition number is determined, which can be understood as determining the second repetition number according to the target edt-TBS. The target repetition number is determined according to the second repetition number, so that the target repetition number has a certain relationship with the second repetition number, which is beneficial to the network device to determine the target repetition number.

[0201] In the embodiments of the present application, the second repetition number can be referred to as the foregoing, which will not be described here. The target repetition number can be the second repetition number or a value determined by the second repetition number. The orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number can be the target repetition number or a value corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0202] S506, the network device sends third information to the terminal device.

[0203] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third information of the terminal device.

[0204] S507, the terminal device determines the orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number according to the third information.

[0205] Wherein, the third information can be referred to as the foregoing, which will not be described here.

[0206] It should be noted that step S506 in FIG. 5 is after step S505. In fact, step S506 can be sent before S505, or even before step S501. The determination of the orthogonal sequence length can be determined after the determination of the target repetition number, or can be directly determined according to the third information.

[0207] Optionally, if the second repetition number is less than or equal to the orthogonal sequence length, the target repetition number is the orthogonal sequence length; if the second repetition number is greater than the orthogonal sequence length, the target repetition number is an integer multiple of the orthogonal sequence length.

[0208] Wherein, the integer multiple can be greater than 1.

[0209] It can be understood that, in the case that the second repetition number is greater than the length of the orthogonal sequence, the second repetition number is large, a larger target repetition number can be selected, for example, the target repetition number is twice the length of the orthogonal sequence, which can improve the data repetition rate. In the case that the second repetition number is less than or equal to the length of the orthogonal sequence, the second repetition number is small, and the target repetition number can be the length of the orthogonal sequence, thereby avoiding that the multi-user multiplexing cannot be realized due to the small second repetition number. In this way, the target repetition number is determined according to the size of the second repetition number and the length of the orthogonal sequence, and the target repetition number is an integer multiple of the length of the orthogonal sequence.

[0210] The present application does not limit the length of the orthogonal sequence, and the length of the orthogonal sequence can be 2 or 4.

[0211] For example, in the case that the length of the orthogonal sequence is 2, and the configured first repetition number is greater than 1 and less than or equal to 4, if the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is less than or equal to 2, the target repetition number is determined to be 2; if the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is 3 or 4, the target repetition number is determined to be 4. Regardless of whether the target repetition number is 4 or 2, the orthogonal sequence with the length of 2 can be used to realize multi-user multiplexing. For example, in the case that the target repetition number is 2, the orthogonal sequence with the length of 2 is used for data spreading and twice repetition; in the case that the target repetition number is 4, the orthogonal sequence with the length of 2 is used for data spreading and repetition according to the first 2 times and the last 2 times, respectively.

[0212] For another example, in the case that the length of the orthogonal sequence is 4, and the configured first repetition number is greater than 8, the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is an integer multiple of 4. If the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device is 4, the target repetition number is determined to be 4. Regardless of whether the target repetition number is several times of 4, the orthogonal sequence with the length of 4 can be used to realize multi-user multiplexing. For example, in the case that the target repetition number is 4, the orthogonal sequence with the length of 4 is used for data spreading and 4 times repetition; in the case that the target repetition number is 8, the orthogonal sequence with the length of 4 is used for data spreading and repetition according to the first 4 times and the last 4 times, respectively.

[0213] It can be understood that, in the case that the first repetition number is relatively large, a larger length of the orthogonal sequence can be used; in the case that the first repetition number is relatively small, a relatively small length of the orthogonal sequence can be used. For example, in the case that the first repetition number is less than 8, the length of the orthogonal sequence is 2; in the case that the first repetition number is greater than or equal to 8, the length of the orthogonal sequence is 4, and the like. In this way, the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the length of the orthogonal sequence close to the repetition number can be used for data spreading and repeated transmission, which is beneficial to reducing the complexity of data despreading.

[0214] It should be noted that the above method of determining the target repetition number and the orthogonal sequence length is only an example. In practice, it can also be determined by other methods. For example, when the first repetition number is less than a threshold A, the target repetition number is determined according to the second repetition number. When the first repetition number is greater than or equal to the threshold A, the target repetition number is determined as the second repetition number. The threshold A can be 8. In this way, the target repetition number can be taken as the second repetition number when the first repetition number is relatively large. When the first repetition number is relatively small, the value corresponding to the target repetition number is taken as the second repetition number. That is, the target repetition number is determined in combination with the first repetition number known by the network device, which is beneficial to the network device to determine the target repetition number.

[0215] Optionally, determining the target repetition number according to the second repetition number can include: if the second repetition number is less than or equal to a threshold B, the target repetition number is the threshold B; and if the second repetition number is greater than the threshold B and less than or equal to a threshold C, the target repetition number is the threshold C.

[0216] That is, a larger orthogonal sequence length is used when the second repetition number is relatively large, and a relatively small orthogonal sequence length is used when the second repetition number is relatively small. The threshold B can be 2, and the threshold C can be 4. For example, when the second repetition number is 2, the orthogonal sequence length is 2; when the second repetition number is 8, the orthogonal sequence length is 4, and so on. In this way, the data can be expanded and repeatedly transmitted using the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length close to the repetition number, which is beneficial to reducing the complexity of data despreading.

[0217] In order to realize multi-user multiplexing, the repetition number is the value corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length, that is, the first repetition number can be an integer multiple of 1, 2 and 4, the second repetition number calculated by the terminal device can be an integer multiple of 1, 2, 3 and 4, and the target repetition number can be an integer multiple of 2 or 4. When the second repetition number is 1 or 2, the orthogonal sequence length can be determined as 2. When the second repetition number is 3 or 4, the orthogonal sequence length can be determined as 2 or 4. When the second repetition number is Q times of 4 (Q is an integer greater than 1), the orthogonal sequence length can be determined as Q times of 4.

[0218] S508, the terminal device sends first data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, and the first data is expanded through an orthogonal sequence corresponding to an orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0219] Correspondingly, the network device receives the first data of the terminal device.

[0220] It can be understood that in the method shown in FIG. 5, the terminal device transmits the first data determined according to the target edt-TBS in the candidate edt-TBS indicated by the network device, and the first data is spread by the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition number. In this way, the orthogonal sequence length of the orthogonal sequence for realizing multi-user multiplexing in the random access process of EDT is related to the target repetition number, and the terminal device and the network device can obtain a unique orthogonal sequence length related to the target repetition number, so as to perform despreading according to the orthogonal sequence length, thereby reducing the complexity of the network device in despreading data.

[0221] It should be noted that the methods shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 both use orthogonal sequences for data spreading and repeated transmission. In fact, data spreading and repeated transmission can also be performed without using orthogonal sequences.

[0222] In the first feasible example, the method can further include: the terminal device receiving fourth information of the network device; if the first repetition number is less than a first threshold, the terminal device transmitting second data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, the second data being data not spread by the orthogonal sequence; and if the first repetition number is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the terminal device performing step S405 or step S508.

[0223] Correspondingly, the network device transmits the fourth information to the terminal device. The network device receives the second data of the terminal device.

[0224] In the embodiments of the present application, the fourth information can be transmitted by the network device to the terminal device in the form of unicast, or can be transmitted by the network device in the form of broadcast, or can be transmitted by the network device in the form of multicast or groupcast to a specified terminal, which is not limited herein. The fourth information can be system information, or can be configuration information, etc.

[0225] Exemplarily, the fourth information can be SIB, RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, DCI, etc.

[0226] In the embodiments of the present application, the fourth information is used to indicate the first threshold. The present application does not limit the size of the first threshold. For example, the first threshold is 4, assuming that the first repetition number is 4, the first data subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading is transmitted according to the target edt-TBS, and the orthogonal sequence length of the orthogonal sequence can be 2. Assuming that the first repetition number is 8, the first data subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading is transmitted according to the target edt-TBS, and the orthogonal sequence length of the orthogonal sequence can be 4. Assuming that the first repetition number is 1, the second data not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading is transmitted according to the target edt-TBS, and the second data has no data subjected to repeated transmission. Assuming that the first repetition number is 2, the second data not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading is transmitted according to the target edt-TBS, and the second data can include two same data, that is, the repetition number can be 2; or the second data has no data subjected to repeated transmission.

[0227] In this way, the terminal device can implement multi-user multiplexing through the orthogonal sequence when the network device configures the first repetition number of data transmission to be greater than or equal to the first threshold. When the network device configures the first repetition number of data transmission to be less than the first threshold, multi-user multiplexing can not be implemented through the orthogonal sequence, so that the network device does not need to perform despreading on the received data. In this method, the terminal device and the network device determine whether to perform data spreading through the orthogonal sequence according to the first repetition number of data transmission configured by the network device, which can reduce the complexity of decoding data by the network device.

[0228] It should be noted that in the above examples, when the first repetition number is equal to the first threshold, the terminal device performs step S405 or step S508. Actually, when the first repetition number is equal to the first threshold, the terminal device can transmit the second data not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading to the network device according to the target edt-TBS. For example, the first threshold is 2, assuming that the first repetition number is 8, the first repetition number is greater than the first threshold, and the first data subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading is transmitted according to the target edt-TBS, and the orthogonal sequence length of the orthogonal sequence can be 4. Assuming that the first repetition number is 1 or 2, the second data not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading is transmitted according to the target edt-TBS.

[0229] In the embodiments of the present application, the target repetition numbers determined according to the candidate edt-TBSs in the first information can be the same or different. If different, the terminal device and the network device determine the target repetition number according to a preset rule of the target repetition number. For example, the target repetition number determined in step S505. If the same, the terminal device and the network device can determine the target repetition number according to the first information.

[0230] In a second possible example, the method can further include: receiving, by the terminal device, fifth information of the network device; if the target edt-TBS belongs to the target edt-TBS group, performing, by the terminal device, step S405 or step S508; and if the target edt-TBS does not belong to the target edt-TBS group, transmitting, by the terminal device, second data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, the second data being data that is not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading.

[0231] In the embodiments of the present application, the fifth information can be transmitted by the network device to the terminal device in the form of unicast, or can be transmitted by the network device in the form of broadcast, or can be transmitted by the network device in the form of multicast or groupcast to a specified terminal, which is not limited herein. The fifth information can be system information, or can be configuration information, etc. Exemplarily, the fifth information is SIB, RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, DCI, etc.

[0232] In the embodiments of the present application, the fifth information is used to indicate the target edt-TBS group, and the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is the same. The fifth information can include an index value corresponding to the target edt-TBS group and / or the maximum edt-TBS (or an index value corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS) in the target edt-TBS group, which can refer to the description of the candidate edt-TBS group, and will not be repeated herein.

[0233] The target edt-TBS group can belong to the candidate edt-TBS group. That is, the candidate edt-TBS group includes the target edt-TBS group. In this way, the target repetition number determined by the target edt-TBS selected from the candidate edt-TBS group is the same as the target repetition number determined by other edt-TBS in the candidate edt-TBS group.

[0234] Exemplarily, the target edt-TBS group can include the allowed TBS corresponding to the index value 2 in Table 2, i.e., the repetition numbers of 408bit and 504bit calculated according to formula (1) are the same.

[0235] It can be understood that, in a case that the target edt-TBS is included in the target edt-TBS group, it can be considered that multi-user multiplexing needs to be performed, that is, the terminal device can transmit data subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, that is, step S405 or step S508 is performed. In a case that the target edt-TBS is not included in the target edt-TBS group, it indicates that multi-user multiplexing does not need to be performed, that is, the terminal device transmits second data not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading to the network device according to the target edt-TBS. In this way, in a case that multi-user multiplexing is performed, the terminal device determines that the target repetition number determined in the target edt-TBS group indicated by the network device and the target edt-TBS are the same, so that the network device can determine the target repetition number according to the configured target edt-TBS group, and then perform despreading according to the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number, which can reduce the complexity of data despreading of the network device.

[0236] Further, the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is equal to the first repetition number.

[0237] Exemplarily, please refer to Table 5 shown below, which can be understood as TBS in some rows in column 3 of Table 1.

[0238] Table 5

[0239] It can be seen that the quotient between any TBS in each row in Table 5 and the maximum TBS is greater than 0.5. In this way, in a case that the first repetition number is multiplied, since the calculated second repetition number is a positive integer greater than the calculated value, the target repetition number determined by selecting any TBS in each row in Table 3 as the target edt-TBS is equal to the first repetition number. Therefore, the network device can determine the target repetition number according to the first repetition number, so as to perform despreading according to the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number, which can reduce the complexity of data despreading of the network device.

[0240] In a third feasible example, the target edt-TBS includes a first edt-TBS group and a second edt-TBS group, the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the first edt-TBS group is the same, and the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the second edt-TBS group is the same.

[0241] The target repetition number determined by the edt-TBS in the first edt-TBS group and the target repetition number determined by the edt-TBS in the second edt-TBS group can be the same or different. The case of being the same conforms to the description of the target edt-TBS group in the first possible example. The different example can refer to Table 6 shown below, which can be understood as the TBS grouping for the TBS in part of the rows in column 3 of Table 1.

[0242] Table 6

[0243] As shown in Table 6, the target repetition number determined by the edt-TBS in the first edt-TBS group is the same, and the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the second edt-TBS group is the same. For example, assuming that the first repetition number is 4, the product of the quotient between any edt-TBS in the second edt-TBS group corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS of 680 bits and 680 bits and the first repetition number is obtained. The second repetition number can be 3 or 4, and the target repetition number can be 4.

[0244] It should be noted that in this example, the first edt-TBS group and the second edt-TBS group include at least one edt-TBS. In fact, as shown in Table 6, one of the first edt-TBS group and the second edt-TBS group can not include an edt-TBS. For example, the first edt-TBS group corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS of 504 bits or 584 bits does not include an edt-TBS. The number of edt-TBSs in the first edt-TBS group in Table 6 is 1, and in fact, it can also include 2 or more.

[0245] The above two examples are only possible implementation manners. In fact, it can also be implemented by other implementation manners. For example, the first information is used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, and the target edt-TBS group includes at least one candidate edt-TBS. The target edt-TBS group can be understood as the candidate edt-TBS group described in step S401, but the target repetition number determined by any candidate edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is the same or equal to the first repetition number. In this way, the fifth information can not be sent separately, and signaling can be saved.

[0246] In the fourth possible example, the method can further include: the terminal device receiving sixth information of the network device; and the terminal device determining whether to send the first data according to the sixth information.

[0247] Correspondingly, the network device sends the sixth information to the terminal device.

[0248] In the embodiments of the present application, the sixth information can be sent to the terminal device in the form of unicast by the network device, or can be sent in the form of broadcast by the network device, or can be sent in the form of multicast or groupcast to the specified terminal by the network device, which is not limited herein. The sixth information can be system information, or can be configuration information, etc.

[0249] Exemplarily, the sixth information can be SIB, RRC signaling, MAC CE signaling, DCI, etc.

[0250] Specifically, the sixth information can be the configuration of OCC. The configuration of OCC can be used to indicate an orthogonal sequence, for example, the configuration of OCC includes at least one of the orthogonal sequence length, the orthogonal sequence, or the index value of the orthogonal sequence, etc. The configuration of OCC can also be used to indicate a time-frequency resource, for example, the configuration of OCC includes at least one of the number of symbols, the number of slots, the number of PRBs, the OCC mode, etc. The OCC mode can be at least one of inter-slot OCC, inter-symbol OCC, inter-symbol group OCC, and intra-symbol OCC, etc. The present application does not limit the OCC mode and the configuration content of OCC.

[0251] In the embodiments of the present application, the sixth information is used to indicate whether to perform multi-user multiplexing, wherein the data sent when performing multi-user multiplexing is the first data, and the data sent when not performing multi-user multiplexing is the second data which is not subjected to the orthogonal sequence expansion corresponding to the target repetition number. That is, the sixth information is used to indicate whether the data transmitted according to the target edt-TBS is subjected to the orthogonal sequence expansion corresponding to the target repetition number. In the case of determining to perform multi-user multiplexing, the data is subjected to OCC expansion using the orthogonal sequence, and the first data subjected to OCC expansion is transmitted. In the case of determining not to perform multi-user multiplexing, the data is not subjected to OCC expansion using the orthogonal sequence, and the second data not subjected to OCC expansion is transmitted. In this way, it can be determined whether the data is transmitted subjected to the orthogonal sequence expansion, which is beneficial to selecting a suitable way to transmit data, and improves the flexibility of configuration.

[0252] The present application does not limit the method of determining whether to perform multi-user multiplexing by the sixth information. The sixth information can be used to indicate that when the first repetition number and the second repetition number (target repetition number) are the same, multi-user multiplexing is performed; and when the first repetition number and the second repetition number (target repetition number) are different, multi-user multiplexing is not performed.

[0253] Optionally, the sixth information is used to indicate the edt-TBS for performing multi-user multiplexing and / or the index value corresponding to the edt-TBS.

[0254] Exemplarily, referring to Table 2, if the index value included in the sixth information is 2, the edt-TBSs in the candidate edt-TBS group corresponding to the maximum edt-TBS can all be multiplexed in a multi-user manner when the edt-TBSs are taken as target edt-TBSs.

[0255] Further, the sixth information is further used to indicate the target repetition number and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number and / or the length of the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0256] Specifically, the sixth information includes the length of the orthogonal sequence, the orthogonal sequence, or the index value of the orthogonal sequence. In this way, when it is determined that the multi-user multiplexing is performed, the orthogonal sequence and / or the length of the orthogonal sequence determined according to the sixth information can also be used to determine the target repetition number according to the length of the orthogonal sequence and / or the orthogonal sequence determined according to the sixth information.

[0257] Further, the target repetition number and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number of the data when the multi-user multiplexing is determined in combination with the first information and the sixth information, facilitates to select an appropriate manner to perform the multi-user multiplexing, and improves the flexibility of configuration.

[0258] It should be noted that the above four examples are used to indicate whether the multi-user multiplexing is performed. In fact, it can also be implemented in other manners. Exemplarily, the combination of the first feasible example and the third feasible example, or the combination of the first feasible example and the fourth feasible example, the combination of the third feasible example and the fourth feasible example, and the like.

[0259] The above describes the method of the embodiments of the present application in detail, and the apparatus of the embodiments of the present application is provided below.

[0260] Please refer to FIG. 6, which is a structural schematic diagram of a communication apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present application. The communication apparatus can include a transceiver unit 601 and a processing unit 602. The transceiver unit 601 can be an apparatus with input (reception) or output (transmission) of signals, used for signal transmission with other devices or other devices in the device. The processing unit 602 can be an apparatus with processing function, which can include one or more processors, used for executing instructions (or codes or programs), such as processing of communication protocols and communication data.

[0261] The communication apparatus can be a terminal device, or an apparatus (such as a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, etc.) in the terminal device, or an apparatus that can be matched with the terminal device. The communication apparatus can also be a network device, or an apparatus (such as a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, etc.) in the network device, or an apparatus that can be matched with the network device. Hereinafter, the terminal device and the network device are exemplified.

[0262] In a first embodiment, the communication apparatus is a terminal device, wherein:

[0263] The transceiver 601 is configured to receive first information, the first information being used for indicating at least one candidate edt-TBS;

[0264] The transceiver 601 is further configured to receive second information, the second information being used for indicating a first repetition number;

[0265] The processing unit 602 is configured to determine a target edt-TBS from the candidate edt-TBSs;

[0266] The processing unit 602 is further configured to determine a target repetition number according to the target edt-TBS and / or the first repetition number;

[0267] The transceiver 601 is further configured to transmit first data according to the target edt-TBS, wherein the first data is spread by an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0268] In some possible examples, the processing unit 602 is further configured to determine a second repetition number according to the target edt-TBS, the candidate edt-TBSs and the first repetition number; and determine the target repetition number according to the second repetition number.

[0269] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to receive third information; and the processing unit 602 is further configured to determine a length of an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number according to the third information, wherein the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number is an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the length of the orthogonal sequence.

[0270] In some possible examples, if the second repetition number is less than or equal to the length of the orthogonal sequence, the target repetition number is the length of the orthogonal sequence; and if the second repetition number is greater than the length of the orthogonal sequence, the target repetition number is an integer multiple of the length of the orthogonal sequence.

[0271] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to receive fourth information; and the processing unit 602 is further configured to transmit second data according to the target edt-TBS if the first repetition number is less than a first threshold, wherein the second data is data that is not spread by an orthogonal sequence.

[0272] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to receive fourth information; and the processing unit 602 is further configured to transmit the first data according to the target edt-TBS if the first repetition number is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

[0273] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to receive fifth information, where the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is the same; and the processing unit 602 is further configured to, if the target edt-TBS belongs to the target edt-TBS group, transmit the first data according to the target edt-TBS.

[0274] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to receive fifth information, where the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is the same; and the processing unit 602 is further configured to, if the target edt-TBS does not belong to the target edt-TBS group, transmit second data according to the target edt-TBS, where the second data is data that is not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading.

[0275] In some possible examples, the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is equal to the first repetition number.

[0276] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to receive sixth information; and the processing unit 602 is further configured to determine, according to the sixth information, whether to perform multi-user multiplexing, where data transmitted when multi-user multiplexing is performed is the first data, and data transmitted when multi-user multiplexing is not performed is second data that is not subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0277] In some possible examples, the processing unit 602 is further configured to determine, according to the sixth information, the target repetition number and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0278] In a first embodiment, the communication apparatus is a network device, where:

[0279] The transceiver 601 is configured to transmit first information, where the first information is used to indicate at least one candidate edt-TBS.

[0280] The transceiver 601 is further configured to transmit second information, where the second information is used to indicate a first repetition number.

[0281] The transceiver 601 is further configured to receive first data, where the first data is subjected to orthogonal sequence spreading corresponding to a target repetition number.

[0282] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to transmit third information, where the third information is used to indicate a length of an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number; and the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number is an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the length of the orthogonal sequence.

[0283] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to send fourth information, where the fourth information is used to indicate a first threshold value; and receive the second data if the first repetition number is less than the first threshold value, where the second data is data without orthogonal sequence spreading.

[0284] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to send fourth information, where the fourth information is used to indicate a first threshold value; and receive the first data if the first repetition number is greater than or equal to the first threshold value.

[0285] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to send fifth information, where the fifth information is used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, and a target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is the same; and receive the first data if the target edt-TBS belongs to the target edt-TBS group.

[0286] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to send fifth information, where the fifth information is used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, and a target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is the same; and receive the second data if the target edt-TBS does not belong to the target edt-TBS group, where the second data is data without orthogonal sequence spreading.

[0287] In some possible examples, the target repetition number determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group is equal to the first repetition number.

[0288] In some possible examples, the transceiver 601 is further configured to send sixth information, where the sixth information is used to indicate whether to perform multi-user multiplexing, and data sent when multi-user multiplexing is performed is the first data, and data sent when multi-user multiplexing is not performed is second data without orthogonal sequence spreading corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0289] In some possible examples, the sixth information is further used to indicate the target repetition number and / or an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition number.

[0290] The implementation of the transceiver 601 and the processing unit 602 described above can refer to the related description of the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5, which will not be repeated here.

[0291] Referring to FIG. 7, FIG. 7 is a structural schematic diagram of another communication apparatus provided by the embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 7, the communication apparatus can include a processor 111 and a storage medium 112. The processor 111 can also be referred to as a processing unit, and can implement certain control functions. The storage medium 112 can also be referred to as a storage unit or a memory. The storage medium 112 has instructions 114 stored thereon. The instructions 114 can be run on the processor 111, so that the communication apparatus performs any of the methods described in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5 of the embodiment of the present application.

[0292] Optionally, the processor 111 can include instructions 113, which can be run on the processor 111, so that the communication apparatus performs any of the methods described in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5 of the embodiment of the present application.

[0293] The communication apparatus can be a terminal device or a network device, and is used to implement the methods described in the method embodiments. However, the scope of the apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto. The communication apparatus can be a stand-alone device or can be a part of a larger device. For example, the communication apparatus can be:

[0294] (1) a stand-alone integrated circuit (IC), or a chip, or a chip system or a subsystem;

[0295] (2) a set of one or more ICs, which can optionally include a storage component for storing data and / or instructions;

[0296] (3) an ASIC, such as a modem;

[0297] (4) a module that can be embedded in other devices.

[0298] Referring to FIG. 8, FIG. 8 is a structural schematic diagram of a terminal device provided by the embodiment of the present application. For ease of illustration, FIG. 8 only shows the main components of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 8, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input / output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, and controlling the entire terminal device, executing software programs, and processing data of the software programs. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for conversion between baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing of the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. The input / output device, such as 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.

[0299] When the terminal device is powered on, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, parse and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent, and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit processes the baseband signal to obtain a radio frequency signal, and transmits the radio frequency signal in the form of an electromagnetic wave through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal device, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna. The radio frequency signal is further converted into a baseband signal, and the baseband signal is output to the processor. The processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0300] For ease of illustration, FIG. 8 only shows one memory and one processor. In an actual terminal device, there can be multiple processors and memories. The memory can also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0301] In one embodiment, the antenna is configured to perform the operations performed by the transceiver 601 in the above embodiments. The processor is configured to perform the operations performed by the processing unit 602 in the above embodiments.

[0302] The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable storage medium, which stores a computer program. The program is executed by a processor to implement the related processes in the communication method provided by the above method embodiments.

[0303] The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product for storing a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer (or a processor), the computer is caused to execute one or more steps in any of the above communication methods. The constituent modules of the above-mentioned devices, if realized in the form of software function units and sold or used as independent products, can be stored in a computer readable storage medium.

[0304] The embodiments of the present application provide a chip, which includes a processor configured to call and run instructions stored in a memory, so that a communication device installed with the chip executes any of the above methods.

[0305] The embodiments of the present application also provide another chip, which includes an input interface, an output interface, and a processing circuit. The input interface, the output interface, and the circuit are connected through internal connection paths. The processing circuit is configured to execute any of the above methods. Optionally, the chip further includes a memory. The input interface, the output interface, the processor, and the memory are connected through internal connection paths. The processor is configured to execute the code in the memory. When the code is executed, the processor is configured to execute any of the above methods.

[0306] The embodiments of the present application further provide a chip system, comprising at least one processor and a communication interface, the communication interface and the at least one processor are interconnected through a line, and the at least one processor is used to run a computer program or instruction to execute any method described above. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0307] The embodiments of the present application further provide a communication system, which comprises a terminal device and a network device, and the specific description can refer to the method shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5.

[0308] It should be understood that the memory mentioned in the embodiments of the present application can be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or can include both volatile and non-volatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory can be a hard disk (HDD), a solid-state drive (SSD), a ROM, a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically EPROM (EEPROM) or a flash memory. The volatile memory can be a RAM used as an external cache. The memory can be any other medium capable of carrying or storing desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and capable of being accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory in the embodiments of the present application can also be a circuit or other any device capable of realizing a storage function, used for storing program instructions and / or data.

[0309] It should also be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application can be a central processing unit (CPU), and can also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gates or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or the processor or can be any conventional processor, etc.

[0310] It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, a discrete hardware component, the memory (storage module) is integrated in the processor.

[0311] It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to include, but not be limited to, the and any other suitable type of memory.

[0312] Those skilled in the art can realize that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in combination with the embodiments provided herein can be realized in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether the functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the present application.

[0313] In several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, device and method can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic, and the division of 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 units shown or discussed can be indirect coupling or communication connection through some interface, device or unit, and can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0314] The units described as separate components can or can not be physically separate, and the components shown as units can or can not be physical units, that is, they can be located in one place, or can be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the embodiment scheme.

[0315] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated in one processing unit, or can be physically present as each unit, or two or more units can be integrated in one unit.

[0316] The steps in the method embodiments of the present application can be adjusted, combined and deleted according to actual needs. The steps of each embodiment can be partially executed (for example, the terminal device can not execute the steps executed by the terminal device in the above embodiments). The execution order of different steps can be changed. The embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments, and different steps of different embodiments in the present application can be combined.

[0317] The modules / units in the device embodiments of the present application can be combined, divided and deleted according to actual needs.

[0318] Reference to“an embodiment” herein means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of the phrase“in an embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are they necessarily mutually exclusive of other embodiments.

[0319] In this application, a communication protocol or specification, such as a 3GPP communication protocol, can be referred to.

[0320] The terms“first”,“second”,“third”,“fourth” and the like in the embodiments of the application, if any, are used to distinguish similar objects, and do not necessarily indicate a specific order or sequence.

[0321] In the embodiments of the application, “comprising” can be a containing relationship or an equal relationship. For example, A includes B, which can be that A contains B and other contents, or A and B are the same content.

[0322] In the description of the application, unless otherwise specified, “ / ” represents that the objects associated before and after are in an“or” relationship, for example, A / B can represent A or B; “and / or” in the application is only a description of the association relationship of the associated objects, which means that there can be three kinds of relationships, for example, A and / or B, which can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In addition, in the description of the application, unless otherwise specified, “multiple” means two or more than two. “At least one of the following” or the like means any combination of the items, including single item or any combination of multiple items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0323] In the description of the application, the words“exemplary” or“for example” are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design scheme described as“exemplary”,“for example” or“for instance” in the application should not be construed as more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or design schemes. Rather, the use of“exemplary”,“for example” or“for instance” is intended to present relevant concepts in a concrete manner.

[0324] It should be understood that in the embodiments of the application, information C used for the determination of information D includes that information D is determined based on information C only, and also includes that information D is determined based on information C and other information. In addition, information C used for the determination of information D can also be in the case of indirect determination, such as the case that information D is determined based on information E, and information E is determined based on information C.

[0325] In the description of the present application, "when", "if" and "provided that" each indicate that the device will make corresponding processing under certain objective conditions, and are not limited in time, and do not require the device to have a judgment action when implemented, nor mean that there are other limitations.

[0326] It should be understood that the size of the sequence number of each process described above in various embodiments of the present application does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined according to its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, include: The terminal device receives first information sent by the network device, the first information being used to indicate the transport block size (edt-TBS) of at least one candidate early data transmission; The terminal device receives second information sent by the network device, the second information being used to indicate the first number of repetitions; The terminal device determines the target edt-TBS from the candidate edt-TBS; The terminal device determines the target number of repetitions based on the target edt-TBS and / or the first number of repetitions; The terminal device sends first data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, wherein the first data is expanded by an orthogonal sequence corresponding to the number of repetitions of the target.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, Also includes: Based on the target edt-TBS, the candidate edt-TBS, and the first number of repetitions, determine the second number of repetitions; The target number of repetitions is determined based on the second number of repetitions.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, Also includes: The terminal device receives a third message; The terminal device determines the orthogonal sequence length corresponding to the target repetition count based on the third message, wherein the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target repetition count is the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the orthogonal sequence length.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, If the second number of repetitions is less than or equal to the length of the orthogonal sequence, the target number of repetitions is the length of the orthogonal sequence. If the second number of repetitions is greater than the length of the orthogonal sequence, the target number of repetitions is an integer multiple of the length of the orthogonal sequence.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, Also includes: The terminal device receives fourth information, which is used to indicate the first threshold. If the first repetition count is less than the first threshold, the terminal device sends second data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, wherein the second data is data that has not undergone orthogonal sequence expansion.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, Also includes: The terminal device receives fourth information, which is used to indicate the first threshold. If the first repetition count is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the terminal device sends the first data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, Also includes: The terminal device receives fifth information, which is used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, wherein any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group determines the target repetition number the same; If the target edt-TBS belongs to the target edt-TBS group, the terminal device sends the first data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, Also includes: The terminal device receives fifth information, which is used to indicate a target edt-TBS group, wherein any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group determines the target repetition number the same; If the target edt-TBS does not belong to the target edt-TBS group, the terminal device sends second data to the network device according to the target edt-TBS, and the second data is data that has not undergone orthogonal sequence expansion.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that, The number of times the target is repeated is equal to the first number of times the target is repeated, as determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, Also includes: The terminal device receives the sixth information; The terminal device determines whether to perform multi-user multiplexing based on the sixth information. When multi-user multiplexing is performed, the data sent is the first data. When multi-user multiplexing is not performed, the data sent is the second data that has not undergone orthogonal sequence expansion corresponding to the target number of repetitions.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that, Also includes: The terminal device determines the target number of repetitions and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target number of repetitions based on the sixth information.

12. A communication method, characterized in that, include: The network device sends first information to the terminal device, the first information being used to indicate the transport block size (edt-TBS) of at least one candidate early data transmission; The network device sends second information to the terminal device, the second information being used to indicate the first number of repetitions; The network device receives first data from the terminal device, wherein the first data is expanded using an orthogonal sequence corresponding to a target number of repetitions.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that, Also includes: The network device sends third information to the terminal device, the third information being used to indicate the length of the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target number of repetitions, wherein the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target number of repetitions is the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the length of the orthogonal sequence.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that, Also includes: The network device sends fourth information to the terminal device, the fourth information being used to indicate the first threshold. If the first repetition count is less than the first threshold, the network device receives the second data from the terminal device, wherein the second data is data that has not undergone orthogonal sequence expansion.

15. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that, Also includes: The network device sends fourth information to the terminal device, the fourth information being used to indicate the first threshold. If the first number of repetitions is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the network device receives the first data from the terminal device.

16. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that, Also includes: Send a fifth message, which is used to indicate the target edt-TBS group, wherein any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group determines the target repetition number the same; If the target edt-TBS belongs to the target edt-TBS group, the network device receives the first data from the terminal device.

17. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that, Also includes: Send a fifth message, which is used to indicate the target edt-TBS group, wherein any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group determines the target repetition number the same; If the target edt-TBS does not belong to the target edt-TBS group, the network device receives the second data from the terminal device, wherein the second data is data that has not undergone orthogonal sequence expansion.

18. The method according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that, The number of times the target is repeated is equal to the first number of times the target is repeated, as determined by any edt-TBS in the target edt-TBS group.

19. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 18, characterized in that, Also includes: A sixth message is sent, which indicates whether multi-user multiplexing is performed. When multi-user multiplexing is performed, the data sent is the first data. When multi-user multiplexing is not performed, the data sent is the second data that has not undergone orthogonal sequence expansion corresponding to the target number of repetitions.

20. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that, The sixth piece of information is also used to indicate the target number of repetitions and / or the orthogonal sequence corresponding to the target number of repetitions.

21. A communication device, characterized in that, include: Includes units for performing the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 20.

22. A communication device, characterized in that, The communication device includes a processor and a storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20 to be performed.

23. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20 to be performed.

24. A computer program product, characterized in that, The computer program product includes instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the method according to any one of claims 1 to 20 to be performed.

25. A chip, characterized in that, Includes a processor for retrieving and executing instructions stored in a memory, causing a communication device with a chip mounted to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 20.

26. A communication system, characterized in that, The communication system includes a terminal device and a network device, wherein the terminal device is used to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, and the network device is used to perform the method according to any one of claims 12 to 20.

Images