Wireless communication method and related apparatus

Abstract

Provided are a wireless communication method and related apparatus. The method includes: transmitting a first type of sequence using first antenna ports; transmitting a second type of sequence using second antenna ports; where the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; where the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are used for measuring a channel with a first bandwidth, a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence. The introduction of the second type of sequence with a length smaller than that of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence is decreased, thus channel estimation overhead is reduced. Further, irregular positions for antenna selection may be implemented by means of interleaving in antenna domain and antenna selections are respectively provided for the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, which may provide better channel estimation performance compared to regular positions for antenna selection.

Description

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD AND RELATED APPARATUSTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a wireless communication method and related apparatus.BACKGROUND

[0002] In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, a receiving device, for example, a network device or a terminal, can perform channel estimation based on reference signals, and then restore data signals transmitted through data channels based on the channel estimation. Therefore, reference signal allocation is essential for MIMO systems.

[0003] The amount of resources in time and frequency required for the channel estimation is called channel estimation overhead (or simply overhead). The overhead is measured in Resource Elements (REs). There is a tradeoff between accuracy and overhead of the channel estimation. Too high overhead will yield good channel estimation, but few REs will be left for data transmission, thus the capacity will be low. Too small overhead will leave a lot of REs for data transmission, but the channel estimation will be poor, thus again leading to low capacity.

[0004] This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present application. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present application.SUMMARY

[0005] In a first aspect, a wireless communication method is provided by the present disclosure, and the method comprises: transmitting a first type of sequence using first antenna ports; transmitting a second type of sequence using second antenna ports; wherein the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; wherein the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are used for measuring a channel with a first bandwidth, a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

[0006] A length of a sequence refers to a total number of resource elements occupied by the sequence on a certain symbol, since the length of the second type of sequence is smaller than the length of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the second type of sequence is less than a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence. Therefore, when a channel with a first bandwidth is measured based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, since the introduction of the second type of sequence with a length smaller than that of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence is decreased. The first type of sequence and the second type ofsequence correspond to reference signals of the same type, and the reference signals are used for channel estimation, hence, channel estimation overhead is reduced, and more resources can be used for data transmission. Further, irregular positions for antenna selection may be implemented by means of interleaving in antenna domain and antenna selections are respectively provided for the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, which may provide better channel estimation performance compared to regular positions for antenna selection.

[0007] The wireless communication method may be applied to a first network element, and the first network element may be a terminal device, a communications module in a terminal, or a circuit or a chip (for example, a modem (Modem) chip, also referred to as a baseband (baseband) chip, or a system on chip (System on Chip) including a modem core) that is responsible for a communication function and that is in a terminal; SoC chip or system in package (SIP) chip.

[0008] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

[0009] When the number of the third antenna ports varies, the parameters) of the first interleaving may vary accordingly. When choosing the parameter(s) of the first interleaving, the number of the third antenna ports needs to be taken into account.

[0010] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the first interleaving comprises appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

[0011] The first interleaving based on the third antenna ports for obtaining the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports can be implemented by QPP interleaver. It should be noted that, other interleaver(s) or other manner(s) that can implement the same or similar function as QPP interleaver is also possible, which is not limited here. The main advantage of QPP interleaver is that it shows performance close to complicated random numbers generator, but has much lower computational complexity and is easily described with simple formula.

[0012] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further comprises: receiving first information, wherein the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

[0013] The first information may be received by the first network element from a second network element, and the first network element can perform the first interleaving based on the first information.

[0014] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

[0015] The first interleaving based on the third antenna ports for obtaining the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports can be implemented according to a correspondence between the number of the third antenna ports and the parameter(s) of the first interleaving, e.g., a table stored with the correspondence, specific implementations for the interleaving are not limited here, then an index in the table can be used for locating the parameter(s) of the first interleaving. In this way, signaling can be saved.

[0016] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DC1), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0017] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the first type of sequence comprises N1 first sequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence comprises N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, wherein N 1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

[0018] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, at least one of the N 1 first sequences is transmitted over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, wherein the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

[0019] In addition to the first interleaving in antenna domain, the second interleaving may be performed inestimation overhead can be reduced, and more resource elements can be left for other uses.|0027] Each of the sixth frequency resource units may refer to a block before interleaving, where a block may include M resource groups, that is, M may indicate a block size. A resource group may include one or more resource elements, where one resource element in a block may be used for reference signal transmission. Reference signals of the second type can be transmitted on M antenna ports at the same time, thus, the total time for channel estimation is reduced.

[0028] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs comprised in the third frequency resource.

[0029] A parameter of the fourth interleaving may be a length of a base sequence for generating a corresponding mapping sequence which will be used for mapping the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence, and the length of the base sequence may be associated with the block size M and the total number of REs included in the third frequency resource.

[0030] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, wherein n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

[0031] There are M second sequences in each group (this group may also be referred to as a sequence group), and a sequence group may be transmitted on the same time unit. Correspondingly, there are M antenna ports in each antenna group, a specific second sequence among M second sequences in a sequence group may correspond to a specific antenna port in an antenna group. Regarding how to determine frequency resources for each second sequence in a sequence group, it is associated with the interleaving rule and the offset for each antenna port.

[0032] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P? =(P, - 1)*M + F„; wherein P° is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; wherein i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

[0033] By the above formula, the determination of frequency resources for each second sequence in a sequence group can be better illustrated.

[0034] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further comprises: receiving second information, wherein the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

[0035] The second information may be received by the first network element from a second network element, and the first network element can determine the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit based on the second information.

[0036] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the second information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0037] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

[0038] In a second aspect, a wireless communication method is provided by the present disclosure, and themethod comprises: receiving a first type of sequence and a second type of sequence; obtaining a measuring result of a channel with a first bandwidth based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence; wherein the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are transmitted using first antenna ports and second antenna ports respectively, the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; wherein a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

[0039] A length of a sequence refers to a total number of resource elements occupied by the sequence on a certain symbol, since the length of the second type of sequence is smaller than the length of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the second type of sequence is less than a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence. Therefore, when a channel with a first bandwidth is measured based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, since the introduction of the second type of sequence with a length smaller than that of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence is decreased. The first type of sequence and the second type of sequence correspond to reference signals of the same type, and the reference signals are used for channel estimation, hence, channel estimation overhead is reduced, and more resources can be used for data transmission. Further, irregular positions for antenna selection may be implemented by means of interleaving in antenna domain and antenna selections are respectively provided for the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, which may provide better channel estimation performance compared to regular positions for antenna selection.

[0040] The wireless communication method may be applied to a second network element, and the second network element may be a network device, or a component (for example, a circuit, a chip, or a chip system) in a network device.

[0041] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

[0042] When the number of the third antenna ports varies, the parameters) of the first interleaving may vary accordingly. When choosing the parameter(s) of the first interleaving, the number of the third antenna ports needs to be taken into account.

[0043] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the first interleaving comprises appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

[0044] The first interleaving based on the third antenna ports for obtaining the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports can be implemented by QPP interleaver. It should be noted that, other interleaver(s) or other manner(s) that can implement the same or similar function as QPP interleaver is also possible, which is not limited here. The main advantage of QPP interleaver is that it shows performance close to complicated random numbers generator, but has much lower computational complexity and is easily described with simple formula.

[0045] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further comprises: transmitting first information, wherein the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

[0046] The first information may be transmitted from the second network element to the first network element, such that the first network element can perform the first interleaving based on the first information.

[0047] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the first information indicates a correspondencebetween the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

[0048] The first interleaving based on the third antenna ports for obtaining the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports can be implemented according to a correspondence between the number of the third antenna ports and the parameters) of the first interleaving, e.g., a table stored with the correspondence, specific implementations for the interleaving are not limited here, then an index in the table can be used for locating the parameter(s) of the first interleaving. In this way, signaling can be saved.

[0049] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0050] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the first type of sequence comprises N 1 first sequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence comprises N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, wherein N1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

[0051] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, at least one of the N 1 first sequences is received over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, wherein the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

[0052] In addition to the first interleaving in antenna domain, the second interleaving may be performed in frequency domain, thus two-dimensional (2D) interleaving for channel estimation sequences can be implemented, computational complexity can be reduced compared to one-dimensional (ID) interleaving for channel estimation sequences, while channel estimation accuracy can be improved and time overhead can be reduced compared to ID interleaving for channel estimation sequences or 2D processing (a combination of channel estimation sequences with different lengths) without interleaving.

[0053] The interleaving in frequency domain can be performed for the first type of sequence. The first frequency resource units are determined based on the second interleaving of the second frequency resource units, the second interleaving ensures random-like properties of the first frequency resource units required for compressed sensing (CS) algorithms, in other words, reference signals carried on the first frequency resource can be allocated in such a quasi-random manner that it makes CS algorithms more suitable for estimating a channel over the first frequency resource, thus less resource elements are used for the channel estimation, i.e., channel estimation overhead can be reduced, and more resource elements can be left for other uses.

[0054] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, at least one of the N2 second sequences is received over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, wherein the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.

[0055] In addition to the first interleaving in antenna domain, the third interleaving may be performed in frequency domain, thus two-dimensional (2D) interleaving for channel estimation sequences can be implemented, computational complexity can be reduced compared to one-dimensional (ID) interleaving for channel estimation sequences, while channel estimation accuracy can be improved and time overhead can be reduced compared to ID interleaving for channel estimation sequences or 2D processing (a combination of channel estimation sequences with different lengths) without interleaving.

[0056] The interleaving in frequency domain can be performed on subcarrier level for the second type of sequence. The third frequency resource units are determined based on the third interleaving of the fourth frequency resource units, the third interleaving ensures random-like properties of the third frequency resource units required for compressed sensing (CS) algorithms, in other words, reference signals carried on the second frequency resource can be allocated in such a quasi-random manner that it makes CS algorithms more suitable for estimating a channel over the second frequency resource, thus less resource elements are used for the channel estimation, i.e., channelestimation overhead can be reduced, and more resource elements can be left for other uses.

[0057] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the N2 second sequences comprise K groups of second sequences with each group comprising M second sequences, wherein M is an integer greater than 1 and smaller than N2; wherein each of M second sequences in a respective group is received over fifth frequency resource units in a third frequency resource of a third time unit, wherein the fifth frequency resource units are determined based on fourth interleaving of sixth frequency resource units, and each of the sixth frequency resource units comprises M resource groups, and the sixth frequency resource units belong to the third frequency resource of the third time unit.

[0058] The interleaving in frequency domain can be performed on block level for the second type of sequence, where a block may include multiple subcarriers or resource elements.

[0059] The fifth frequency resource units are determined based on the fourth interleaving of the sixth frequency resource units, the fourth interleaving ensures random-like properties of the fifth frequency resource units required for compressed sensing (CS) algorithms, in other words, reference signals carried on the third frequency resource can be allocated in such a quasi-random manner that it makes CS algorithms more suitable for estimating a channel over the third frequency resource, thus less resource elements are used for the channel estimation, i.e., channel estimation overhead can be reduced, and more resource elements can be left for other uses.

[0060] Each of the sixth frequency resource units may refer to a block before interleaving, where a block may include M resource groups, that is, M may indicate a block size. A resource group may include one or more resource elements, where one resource element in a block may be used for reference signal transmission. M second sequences can be received at the same time, thus, the total time for channel estimation is reduced.

[0061] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs comprised in the third frequency resource.

[0062] A parameter of the fourth interleaving may be a length of a base sequence for generating a corresponding mapping sequence which will be used for mapping the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence, and the length of the base sequence may be associated with the block size M and the total number of REs included in the third frequency resource.

[0063] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, wherein n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

[0064] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P? =(Pi - 1)*M + Fn; wherein P" is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; wherein i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

[0065] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further comprises: transmitting second information, wherein the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

[0066] The second information may be transmitted from the second network element to the first network element, such that the first network element can determine the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit based on the second information.

[0067] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the second information is carried in at least one ofMAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0068] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

[0069] In a third aspect, a wireless communication apparatus is provided by the present disclosure, and the apparatus comprises various modules configured to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0070] In a fourth aspect, a wireless communication apparatus is provided by the present disclosure, and the apparatus comprises various modules configured to execute the wireless communication method according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0071] In a fifth aspect, a wireless communication apparatus is provided by the present disclosure, and the apparatus comprises at least one processor, where the at least one processor is configured to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0072] In a possible implementation of the fifth aspect, the above apparatus may further comprise a memory, and the memory stores instructions that cause the at least one processor to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0073] In a sixth aspect, a wireless communication apparatus is provided by the present disclosure, and the apparatus is configured to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0074] In a seventh aspect, a first network element is provided by the present disclosure, and the first network element comprises processing circuitry for executing the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0075] In an eighth aspect, a second network element is provided by the present disclosure, and the second network element comprises processing circuitry for executing the wireless communication method according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0076] In a ninth aspect, a wireless communication system is provided by the present disclosure, and the wireless communication system comprises the first network element according to the seventh aspect and the second network element according to the eighth aspect.

[0077] In a tenth aspect, a chip is provided by the present disclosure, and the chip comprises an input / output (I / O) interface and a processor, where the processor is configured to call and run computer execution instructions stored in a memory, to enable a device installing with the chip to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0078] In an eleventh aspect, a computer-readable medium is provided by the present disclosure, and the computer-readable medium comprises storing computer execution instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0079] In a twelfth aspect, a computer program product is provided by the present disclosure, and the computerprogram product comprises computer execution instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0080] In a thirteenth aspect, a computer program is provided by the present disclosure, and the computer program comprises computer execution instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the wireless communication method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or according to the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0081] A wireless communication method and related apparatus are provided by the present disclosure. A first network element transmits a first type of sequence and a second type of sequence to a second network element using first antenna ports and second antenna ports respectively. A length of a sequence refers to a total number of resource elements occupied by the sequence on a certain symbol, since the length of the second type of sequence is smaller than the length of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the second type of sequence is less than a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence. Therefore, when a channel with a first bandwidth is measured based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, since the introduction of the second type of sequence with a length smaller than that of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence is decreased. The first type of sequence and the second type of sequence correspond to reference signals of the same type, and the reference signals are used for channel estimation, hence, channel estimation overhead is reduced, and more resources can be used for data transmission. Further, irregular positions for antenna selection may be implemented by means of interleaving in antenna domain and antenna selections are respectively provided for the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, which may provide better channel estimation performance compared to regular positions for antenna selection.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0082] The accompanying drawings are used to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure, constitute a part of the specification, and are used to explain the present disclosure together with the following specific embodiments, but should not be construed as limiting the present disclosure.

[0083] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a communication system according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0084] FIG. 2 is another schematic illustration of a communication system according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0085] FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of basic component structure of a communication system according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0086] FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a device in a communication system according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0087] FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of comb-like structure in frequency domain for type-1 reference signals according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0088] FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of different structures for type-2 reference signals according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0089] FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of channel reconstruction based on measurements with type-1 and type- 2 reference signals according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0090] FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of sampling the signal in frequency domain and convolution in delay domain according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0107] In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying figures, which form part of the present disclosure, and which show, by way of illustration, specific aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure or specific aspects in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be used. It is understood that embodiments of the present disclosure may be used in other aspects and include structural or logical changes not depicted in the figures. The following detailed description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

[0108] To assist in understanding the present disclosure, examples of wireless communication systems and devices are described below.

[0109] Example communication systems and devices

[0110] Referring to FIG. 1, as an illustrative example without limitation, a simplified schematic illustration of a communication system is provided. The communication system 100 includes a radio access network 120. The radio access network 120 may be a future generation radio access network, or a legacy (e.g., 5G, 4G, 3G or 2G) radio access network. One or more communication electric device (ED) 110a- 11 Oj (generically referred to as 110) may be interconnected to one another or connected to one or more network nodes (170a, 170b, generically referred to as 170) in the radio access network 120. A core network 130 may be a part of the communication system and may be dependent or independent of the radio access technology used in the communication system 100. Also, the communication system 100 includes a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 140, the internet 150, and other networks 160.

[0111] FIG. 2 illustrates an example communication system 100. In general, the communication system 100 enables multiple wireless or wired elements to communicate data and other content. The purpose of the communication system 100 may be to provide content, such as voice, data, video, and / or text, via broadcast, multicast and unicast, etc. The communication system 100 may operate by sharing resources, such as carrier spectrum bandwidth, between its constituent elements. The communication system 100 may include a terrestrial communication system and / or a non-terrestrial communication system. The communication system 100 may provide a wide range of communication services and applications (such as earth monitoring, remote sensing, passive sensing and positioning, navigation and tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility, etc.). The communication system 100 may provide a high degree of availability and robustness through a joint operation of the terrestrial communication system and the non-terrestrial communication system. For example, integrating a non-terrestrial communication system (or components thereof) into a terrestrial communication system can result in what may be considered a heterogeneous network including multiple layers. Compared to conventional communication networks, the heterogeneous network may achieve better overall performance through efficient multi-link joint operation, more flexible functionality sharing, and faster physical layer link switching between terrestrial networks and non-terrestrial networks.

[0112] The terrestrial communication system and the non-terrestrial communication system could be considered sub-systems of the communication system. In the example shown, the communication system 100 includes electronic devices (ED) HOa-llOd (generically referred to as ED 110), radio access networks (RANs) 120a-120b, nonterrestrial communication network 120c, a core network 130, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 140, the internet 150, and other networks 160. The RANs 120a- 120b include respective base stations (BSs) 170a- 170b, which may be generically referred to as terrestrial transmit and receive points (T-TRPs) 170a-170b. The non-terrestrial communication network 120c includes an access node 120c, which may be generically referred to as a non-terrestrial transmit and receive point (NT-TRP) 172.

[0113] Any ED 110 may be alternatively or additionally configured to interface, access, or communicate with any other T-TRP 170a-170b and NT-TRP 172, the internet 150, the core network 130, the PSTN 140, the other networks 160, or any combination of the preceding. In some examples, ED 110a may communicate an uplink and / or downlink transmission over an interface 190a with T-TRP 170a. In some examples, the EDs 110a, 110b, 110c and 1 lOd may also communicate directly with one another via one or more sidelink air interfaces 190b. In some examples, ED HOd may communicate an uplink and / or downlink transmission over an interface 190c with NT-TRP 172.

[0114] The air interfaces 190a and 190b may use similar communication technology, such as any suitable radio access technology. For example, the communication system 100 may implement one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), or single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) in the air interfaces 190a and 190b. The air interfaces 190a and 190b may utilize other higher dimension signal spaces, which may involve a combination of orthogonal and / or non-orthogonal dimensions.

[0115] The air interface 190c can enable conununication between the ED HOd and one or multiple NT-TRPs 172 via a wireless link or simply a link. In some examples, the link is a dedicated connection for unicast transmission, a connection for broadcast transmission, or a connection between a group of EDs and one or multiple NT-TRPs for multicast transmission.

[0116] The RANs 120a and 120b are in communication with the core network 130 to provide the EDs 110a 110b, and 110c with various services such as voice, data, and other services. The RANs 120a and 120b and / or the core network 130 may be in direct or indirect communication with one or more other RANs (not shown), which may or may not be directly served by core network 130, and may or may not employ the same radio access technology as RAN 120a, RAN 120b or both. The core network 130 may also serve as a gateway access between (i) the RANs 120a and 120b or EDs 110a l l0b, and 110c or both, and (ii) other networks (such as the PSTN 140, the internet 150, and the other networks 160). In addition, some or all of the EDs 110a 110b, and 110c may include functionality for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links using different wireless technologies and / or protocols. Instead of wireless communication (or in addition thereto), the EDs 110a 110b, and 110c may communicate via wired communication channels to a service provider or switch (not shown), and to the internet 150. PSTN 140 may include circuit switched telephone networks for providing plain old telephone service (POTS). Internet 150 may include a network of computers and subnets (intranets) or both, and incorporate protocols, such as Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP). EDs 110a 110b, and 110c may be multimode devices capable of operation according to multiple radio access technologies, and incorporate multiple transceivers necessary to support such.

[0117] Basic component structure

[0118] FIG. 3 illustrates another example of an ED 110 and a base station 170a, 170b and / or 170c. The ED 110 is used to connect persons, objects, machines, etc. The ED 110 may be widely used in various scenarios, for example, cellular communications, device-to-device (D2D), vehicle to everything (V2X), peer-to-peer (P2P), machine-to- machine (M2M), machine-type communications (MTC), internet of things (IOT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), industrial control, self-driving, remote medical, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, drones, robots, remote sensing, passive sensing, positioning, navigation and tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility, etc.

[0119] Each ED 110 represents any suitable end user device for wireless operation and may include such devices (or may be referred to) as a user equipment / device (UE), a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a cellular telephone, a station (STA), a machine type communication (MTC) device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, a computer, a tablet, a wireless sensor, a consumer electronics device, a smart book, a vehicle, a car, a truck, a bus, a train, or an loT device, an industrial device, or apparatus (e.g. communication module, modem, or chip) in the forgoing devices, among other possibilities. Future generation EDs 110 may be referred to using other terms. The base station 170a and 170b is a T-TRP and will hereafter be referred to as T-TRP 170. Also shown in FIG. 3, a NT-TRP will hereafter be referred to as NT-TRP 172. Each ED 110 connected to T-TRP 170 and / or NT-TRP 172 can be dynamically or semi-statically tumed-on (i.e., established, activated, or enabled), turned-off (i.e., released, deactivated, or disabled) and / or configured in response to one of more of: connection availability and connection necessity.

[0120] The ED 110 includes a transmitter 201 and a receiver 203 coupled to one or more antennas 204. Only one antenna 204 is illustrated. One, some, or all ofthe antennas may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 201 and the receiver 203 may be integrated, e.g. as a transceiver. The transceiver is configured to modulate data or other content for transmission by at least one antenna 204 or network interface controller (NIC). The transceiver is also configured to demodulate data or other content received by the at least one antenna 204. Each transceiver includes any suitable structure for generating signals for wireless or wired transmission and / or processing signals receivedwirelessly or by wire. Each antenna 204 includes any suitable structure for transmitting and / or receiving wireless or wired signals.

[0121] The ED 110 includes at least one memory 208. The memory 208 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the ED 110. For example, the memory 208 could store software instructions or modules configured to implement some or all of the functionality and / or embodiments described herein and that are executed by the processing unit(s) 210. Each memory 208 includes any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile storage and retrieval device(s). Any suitable type of memory may be used, such as random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), hard disk, optical disc, subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory stick, secure digital (SD) memory card, on-processor cache, and the like.

[0122] The ED 110 may further include one or more input / output devices (not shown) or interfaces (such as a wired interface to the internet 150 in FIG. 1). The input / output devices permit interaction with a user or other devices in the network. Each input / output device includes any suitable structure for providing information to or receiving information from a user, such as a speaker, microphone, keypad, keyboard, display, or touch screen, including network interface communications.

[0123] The ED 110 further includes a processor 210 for performing operations including those related to preparing a transmission for uplink transmission to the NT-TRP 172 and / or T-TRP 170, those related to processing downlink transmissions received from the NT-TRP 172 and / or T-TRP 170, and those related to processing sidelink transmission to and from another ED 110. Processing operations related to preparing a transmission for uplink transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulating, transmit beamforming, and generating symbols for transmission. Processing operations related to processing downlink transmissions may include operations such as receive beamforming, demodulating and decoding received symbols. Depending upon the embodiment, a downlink transmission may be received by the receiver 203, possibly using receive beamforming, and the processor 210 may extract signaling from the downlink transmission (e.g. by detecting and / or decoding the signaling). An example of signaling may be a reference signal transmitted by NT-TRP 172 and / or T-TRP 170. In some embodiments, the processor 276 implements the transmit beamforming and / or receive beamforming based on the indication of beam direction, e.g. beam angle information (BAI), received from T-TRP 170. In some embodiments, the processor 210 may perform operations relating to network access (e.g. initial access) and / or downlink synchronization, such as operations relating to detecting a synchronization sequence, decoding and obtaining the system information, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 210 may perform channel estimation, e.g. using a reference signal received from the NT-TRP 172 and / or T-TRP 170.

[0124] Although not illustrated, the processor 210 may form part of the transmitter 201 and / or receiver 203. Although not illustrated, the memory 208 may form part of the processor 210.

[0125] The processor 210, and the processing components of the transmitter 201 and receiver 203 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors that are configured to execute instructions stored in a memory (e.g. in memory 208). Alternatively, some or all of the processor 210, and the processing components of the transmitter 201 and receiver 203 may be implemented using dedicated circuitry, such as a programmed field- programmable gate array (FPGA), a graphical processing unit (GPU), or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

[0126] The T-TRP 170 may be known by other names in some implementations, such as a base station, a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a network node, a network device, a device on the network side, a transmit / receive node, a Node B, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a Home eNodeB, a next Generation NodeB (gNB), a transmission point (TP), a site controller, an access point (AP), or a wireless router, a relay station, a remote radio head, a terrestrial node, a terrestrial network device, or a terrestrial base station, base band unit (BBU), remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), remote radio head (RRH), central unit (CU), distribute unit (DU),positioning node, among other possibilities. The T-TRP 170 may be macro BSs, pico BSs, relay node, donor node, or the like, or combinations thereof. The T-TRP 170 may refer to the forging devices or apparatus (e.g. communication module, modem, or chip) in the forgoing devices.

[0127] In some embodiments, the parts of the T-TRP 170 may be distributed. For example, some of the modules of the T-TRP 170 may be located remote from the equipment housing the antennas of the T-TRP 170, and may be coupled to the equipment housing the antennas over a communication link (not shown) sometimes known as front haul, such as common public radio interface (CPRI). Therefore, in some embodiments, the term T-TRP 170 may also refer to modules on the network side that perform processing operations, such as determining the location of the ED 110, resource allocation (scheduling), message generation, and encoding / decoding, and that are not necessarily part of the equipment housing the antennas of the T-TRP 170. The modules may also be coupled to other T-TRPs. In some embodiments, the T-TRP 170 may actually be a plurality of T-TRPs that are operating together to serve the ED 110, e.g. through coordinated multipoint transmissions.

[0128] The T-TRP 170 includes at least one transmitter 252 and at least one receiver 254 coupled to one or more antennas 256. Only one antenna 256 is illustrated. One, some, or all of the antennas may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 252 and the receiver 254 may be integrated as a transceiver. The T-TRP 170 further includes a processor 260 for performing operations including those related to: preparing a transmission for downlink transmission to the ED 110, processing an uplink transmission received from the ED 110, preparing a transmission for backhaul transmission to NT-TRP 172, and processing a transmission received over backhaul from the NT-TRP 172. Processing operations related to preparing a transmission for downlink or backhaul transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulating, preceding (e.g. MIMO preceding), transmit beamforming, and generating symbols for transmission. Processing operations related to processing received transmissions in the uplink or over backhaul may include operations such as receive beamforming, and demodulating and decoding received symbols. The processor 260 may also perform operations relating to network access (e.g. initial access) and / or downlink synchronization, such as generating the content of synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), generating the system information, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 260 also generates the indication of beam direction, e.g. BAI, which may be scheduled for transmission by scheduler 253. The processor 260 performs other network-side processing operations described herein, such as determining the location of the ED 110, determining where to deploy NT-TRP 172, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 260 may generate signaling, e.g. to configure one or more parameters of the ED 110 and / or one or more parameters of the NT-TRP 172. Any signaling generated by the processor 260 is sent by the transmitter 252. Note that “signaling”, as used herein, may alternatively be called control signaling. Dynamic signaling may be transmitted in a control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and static or semi-static higher layer signaling may be included in a packet transmitted in a data channel, e.g. in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

[0129] A scheduler 253 may be coupled to the processor 260. The scheduler 253 may be included within or operated separately from the T-TRP 170, which may schedule uplink, downlink, and / or backhaul transmissions, including issuing scheduling grants and / or configuring scheduling-free (“configured grant”) resources. The T-TRP 170 further includes a memory 258 for storing information and data. The memory 258 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the T-TRP 170. For example, the memory 258 could store software instructions or modules configured to implement some or all of the functionality and / or embodiments described herein and that are executed by the processor 260.

[0130] Although not illustrated, the processor 260 may form part of the transmitter 252 and / or receiver 254. Also, although not illustrated, the processor 260 may implement the scheduler 253. Although not illustrated, the memory 258 may form part of the processor 260.

[0131] The processor 260, the scheduler 253, and the processing components of the transmitter 252 and receiver254 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors that are configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, e.g. in memory 258. Alternatively, some or all of the processor 260, the scheduler 253, and the processing components of the transmitter 252 and receiver 254 may be implemented using dedicated circuitry, such as a FPGA, a GPU, or an ASIC.

[0132] Although the NT-TRP 172 is illustrated as a drone only as an example, the NT-TRP 172 may be implemented in any suitable non-terrestrial form, it should be noted that the NT-TRP 172 may be removed in some cases. Also, the NT-TRP 172 may be known by other names in some implementations, such as a non-terrestrial node, a non-terrestrial network device, or a non-terrestrial base station. The NT-TRP 172 includes a transmitter 272 and a receiver 274 coupled to one or more antennas 280. Only one antenna 280 is illustrated. One, some, or all of the antennas may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 272 and the receiver 274 may be integrated as a transceiver. The NT-TRP 172 further includes a processor 276 for performing operations including those related to: preparing a transmission for downlink transmission to the ED 110, processing an uplink transmission received from the ED 110, preparing a transmission for backhaul transmission to T-TRP 170, and processing a transmission received over backhaul from the T-TRP 170. Processing operations related to preparing a transmission for downlink or backhaul transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulating, precoding (e.g. MIMO precoding), transmit beamforming, and generating symbols for transmission. Processing operations related to processing received transmissions in the uplink or over backhaul may include operations such as receive beamforming, and demodulating and decoding received symbols. In some embodiments, the processor 276 implements the transmit beamforming and / or receive beamforming based on beam direction information (e.g. BAI) received from T-TRP 170. In some embodiments, the processor 276 may generate signaling, e.g. to configure one or more parameters of the ED 110. In some embodiments, the NT-TRP 172 implements physical layer processing, but does not implement higher layer functions such as functions at the medium access control (MAC) or radio link control (RLC) layer. As this is only an example, more generally, the NT-TRP 172 may implement higher layer functions in addition to physical layer processing.

[0133] The NT-TRP 172 further includes a memory 278 for storing information and data. Although not illustrated, the processor 276 may form part of the transmitter 272 and / or receiver 274. Although not illustrated, the memory 278 may form part of the processor 276.

[0134] The processor 276 and the processing components of the transmitter 272 and receiver 274 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors that are configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, e.g. in memory 278. Alternatively, some or all of the processor 276 and the processing components of the transmitter 272 and receiver 274 may be implemented using dedicated circuitry, such as a programmed FPGA, a GPU, or an ASIC. In some embodiments, the NT-TRP 172 may actually be a plurality of NT-TRPs that are operating together to serve the ED 110, e.g. through coordinated multipoint transmissions.

[0135] The T-TRP 170, the NT-TRP 172, and / or the ED 110 may include other components, but these have been omitted for the sake of clarity.

[0136] Basic module structure

[0137] One or more steps of the embodiment methods provided herein may be performed by corresponding units or modules, according to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 illustrates units or modules in a device, such as in ED 110, in T-TRP 170, or in NT-TRP 172. For example, a signal may be transmitted by a transmitting unit or a transmitting module. A signal may be received by a receiving unit or a receiving module. A signal may be processed by a processing unit or a processing module. Other steps may be performed by an artificial intelligence (Al) or machine learning (ML) module, which can be chosen or removed according to actual requirements. The respective units or modules may be implemented using hardware, one or more components or devices that execute software, or a combination thereof. For instance, one or more of the units or modules may be an integrated circuit, such as a programmed FPGA, a GPU,or an ASIC. It will be appreciated that where the modules are implemented using software for execution by a processor for example, they may be retrieved by a processor, in whole or part as needed, individually or together for processing, in single or multiple instances, and that the modules themselves may include instructions for further deployment and instantiation. It should be noted that, the modules shown in FIG. 4 are only illustrative and should not be construed as limitations to the embodiments of the present disclosure, more or less modules may be included in the device, which is not limited here. For example, the transmitting module and the receiving module may be replaced with one transceiving module. For another example, the ML module can be included or excluded from the device, depending on actual needs.

[0138] Additional details regarding the EDs 110, T-TRP 170, and NT-TRP 172 are known to those of skill in the art. As such, these details are omitted here.

[0139] Example concepts of some terms

[0140] Slab: submatrix of a three-dimensional tensor.Fiber: one-dimensional array, formed as continuous part of a three-dimensional tensor along one dimension.Tensor Fusion: the process of combing two partially observed tensors into one full tensor.Hopping, jumping hopping: the process of shifting frequency resource allocation inside several adjacent time-domain intervals (e.g., symbols).Sparse: occupying small amount of given resource, being non-zero only in limited number of locations. Antenna port: generalization of antenna, may include a group of antennas.Resource Block (RB): a group of 12 continuous Resource Elements along subcarrier (frequency) domain.Resource Element (RE): one subcarrier-one time domain symbol resource atom, in terms of resource allocation, the smallest possible piece of resource.Capacity: the maximum amount of data system is able to transmit per second.Ultra Massive MIMO (UM-MIMO): multiantenna multifrequency wireless communication systems with extremely large number of antennas and frequency channels (subcarriers).Tensor Completion: the process of recovering the entire tensor (multidimensional cube) of data based on partially measured samples.Pilot: a reference signal in frequency domain.Wideband: spanning over all or almost all available subcarriers.Narrowband: spanning over a few subcarriers of all available ones.Symbol: the smallest resource in time domain.Delay spread: the difference between the time of arrivals of the earliest and the latest beams.Downlink: the channel from BS to UE.Uplink: the channel from UE to BS.Resource Unit: one or multiple continuous REs (subcarriers).Scheduler: a software and hardware part of BS which distributes frequency and time resources between users and antennas / ports.[0141} The above describes possible scenarios or generalized description of the examples of the present disclosure, the motivation and technical concepts of the present disclosure are illustrated in the following.|0142] In a possible channel estimation solution, two types of reference signals may be defined, that is, reference signals of type- 1 and type-2 (or referred to as type- 1 and type-2 reference signals), where a length of reference signals of type- 1 is larger than a length of reference signals of type-2.|0143] In a specific example, reference signals of type-1 may be wideband SRSs (sounding reference signals) from 5G standard, they are located in frequency domain in a comb-like structure, as shown in FIG. 5. Parametercomb determines the spacing in frequency domain between subcarriers used for reference signals. For example, comb =1 means continuous allocation and comb =2 means that every second subcarrier is used for reference signal transmission. The pattern can be also shifted in frequency domain by offset subcarriers, as FIG. 5 shows. Moreover, the channel for several antennas can be estimated on the same subcarriers if the sequences transmitted from each antenna are cyclically shifted. The number of antennas multiplexed on the same frequencies in such a way is determined by parameter csh.

[0144] Reference signals of type-2 perform multiple narrow-band measurements within the specified total bandwidth. Reference signals of type-2 can be implemented in different ways. One of the ways is to implement them in the same way as reference signals of type-1, but with much larger comb value (for example, comb=24, see (a) of FIG. 6). Another way is to implement reference signals of type-2 as multiple narrow-band measurements. Small comb value can be used inside one or more of these narrow-band measurements, as (b) of FIG. 6 demonstrates. Finally, reference signals of type-2 can also be implemented as narrow-band reference signals with frequency hopping, with hop position depending on the antenna / port number, as (c) of FIG. 6 depicts.

[0145] As shown in FIG. 7, the measurements with type-1 and type-2 reference signals are then combined as slabs (slices) of three-dimensional channel tensor. Next, the entire channel tensor is recovered with slab sampled tensor completion algorithms. Reference signals of type-1 and type-2 are transmitted to perform channel estimation for a given bandwidth, compared to only using reference signals of type-1, channel estimation overhead may be reduced. Normally, as shown in FIG. 7, the above channel estimation solution may take regular positions of slabs, i.e., slabs along both frequency domain and TX antenna domain are chosen with a regular step.

[0146] The comb value in the above reference signal design may be bounded by the delay spread. To be more specific, as FIG. 8 demonstrates, the channel estimation solution is based on the theoretical fact that sampling some signal in frequency domain is equivalent to convolution of IDFT (Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform) of this signal with IDFT of sampling mask. Baseline solution suffers from aliasing effect: the maximum comb parameter (comb value) is limited by the delay spread in the considered scenario. As shown in FIG. 9, if the comb value is further increased, the copies of channel impulse response overlap due to aliasing effect, which distorts the channel estimation.

[0147] To fight aliasing effect and further reduce the number of estimates, the samples can be chosen in an irregular manner, for example, uniformly random. In such case the IDFT of sampling pattern has only one peak and close to zero self-interference elsewhere, as FIG. 10 demonstrates. This interference can be partially compensated with iterative Compressed Sensing algorithms.

[0148] Similar to one-dimensional (ID) case, aliasing effect happens when the 2D matrix is sampled regularly, as FIG. 11 demonstrates. The sampling pattern consists of columns with period 4 in subcarrier domain and rows with period 2 in TX (Transmitter) antenna domain. The IDFT of this sampling pattern repeats 4 times along delay domain and 2 times along angle domain. Thus, the period along each dimension controls the maximum delay (or angle) spread that can be estimated without aliasing effect.

[0149] Similar to ID case, aliasing effect can be mitigated and the number of columns and rows for sampling can be reduced if irregular sampling is used. FIG. 12 shows an example of such pattern, the sampling columns and rows are taken randomly. As a result, the IDFT of sampling pattern does not have periodic peaks (no aliasing effect), but self-interference appears, especially noticeable along the angle of departure domain.

[0150] Therefore, based on the above observation, if antennas / antenna ports for transmitting type-1 reference signals and antennas / antenna ports for transmitting type-2 reference signals take a regular pattern, i.e., positions of slabs along TX-antenna domain are regular, then such regular slab sampling may be not the appropriate strategy. It can be seen that analysis on positions of slabs may be beneficial for improving the channel estimation performance.

[0151] As depicted in FIG. 12, irregular sampling may be adopted for both the antenna domain and the frequency domain. The irregular sampling only in frequency domain is designed for one-dimensional compressed sensingalgorithms in frequency domain. It means that such algorithm would be executed for every TX-RX (Transmitter- Receiver) antenna pair, which may result in high computational complexity. While the proposed irregular sampling both in frequency domain and antenna domain is designed for joint antenna-frequency algorithms, which may have lower computational complexity due to multidimensional signal processing.

[0152] In view of this, in order to achieve good channel estimation performance with limited overhead, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a reference signal sequence design involving interleaving in antenna domain. Besides, on the basis of the interleaving in the antenna domain, it may be beneficial to further generate a quasi-random sampling pattern in the frequency domain. For example, as FIG. 13 shows, the quasi-random sampling pattern may be obtained based on an interleaver, the interleaver determines a one-to-one correspondence between reference signals in black blocks on the left part of FIG. 13 before interleaving and reference signals in black blocks on the right part of FIG. 13 after interleaving.

[0153] An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a wireless communication method, as shown in FIG.14, the method includes: step 1402, transmitting a first type of sequence using first antenna ports; and step 1404, transmitting a second type of sequence using second antenna ports; where the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; where the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are used for measuring a channel with a first bandwidth, a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

[0154] The method can be implemented by a first network element, and the first network element may be a terminal device (e.g., UE or any possible implementations of the ED 110 with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3), or may also be a part of the terminal device (e.g., implemented as a module which can be integrated into a device), which is not limited here. It should be noted that in a case where the first network element is implemented as a module, the transmitting operation may also be an outputting operation, it is not necessary to transmit but just to output the first type of sequence, the second type of sequence and a correspondence between a sequence and an antenna port to a certain device with a transmission function, the specific details with regard to the transmitting operation performed by the first network element throughout the document also apply for the outputting operation.

[0155] The first type of sequence and the second type of sequence can be received by a second network element from a first network element. The second network element may be a network device (e.g., BS or any possible implementations of the T-TRP 170 with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3), or may also be a part of the network device (e.g., implemented as a module which can be integrated into a device), which is not limited here. It should be noted that in a case where the second network element is implemented as a module, the receiving operation may also be an inputting operation, it is not necessary to receive but just to input the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence from a certain device with a receiving function, the specific details with regard to the receiving operation performed by the second network element throughout the document also apply for the inputting operation.

[0156] It should be noted that, in scenarios where UE and BS communicate with each other, the first network element may be UE, and the second network element may be BS.

[0157] Here, a sequence corresponds to a reference signal of a certain type, and transmitting the sequence means transmitting the reference signal, and the reference signal is used for measuring a channel with a given bandwidth, for example, obtaining channel state information of the channel. A length of a sequence refers to a total number of resource elements occupied by the sequence on a certain symbol, and sequences with different lengths are supported. Since the length of the second type of sequence (which may include multiple type-2 sequences) is smaller than thelength of the first sequence (which may include multiple type-1 sequences), a total number of resource elements occupied by each type-2 sequence is less than a total number of resource elements occupied by each type-1 sequence. For example, if the sequence is transmitted in a comb-like structure, the sequence occupies multiple REs on a symbol, and adjacent REs are spaced apart by a comb value, then the length of the sequence may be the number of REs on the symbol.

[0158] A type of a reference signal corresponding to a type-1 sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to a type-2 sequence, e.g., both type-1 sequence and type-2 sequence may be generated using Zadoff- Chu sequence. Type-1 and type-2 sequences correspond to reference signals of the same type, and the reference signals are used for channel estimation, hence, channel estimation overhead is reduced, and more resources can be used for data transmission. A first network element (e.g., UE) can transmit reference signals corresponding to type- 1 and type-2 sequences over corresponding antenna ports to perform channel estimation.

[0159] The type of the reference signal is not limited in the present disclosure, in a possible implementation, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

[0160] Regarding specific antenna port allocation, in a possible implementation, the first type of sequence includes multiple first sequences, and the second type of sequence includes multiple second sequences. UE may obtain a first one-to-one correspondence between the first sequences and the first antenna ports, and a second one- to-one correspondence between the second sequences and the second antenna ports. It should be noted that, the first correspondence and the second correspondence may be predefined for UE or indicated by BS via indication information, and the indication information may be carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), radio resource control (RRC).

[0161] The third antenna ports may refer to antenna ports for transmitting reference signals to perform channel estimation of a given bandwidth, where the transmitted reference signals may include type-1 reference signals and type-2 reference signals. Hence, the number of the third antenna ports can be equal to a sum of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports.

[0162] Type-1 sequence can be transmitted using / over / on the first antenna ports (associated with the first antenna ports), and type-2 sequence can be transmitted using / over / on the second antenna ports (associated with the second antenna ports). The first antenna ports for transmitting type-1 sequence may be determined based on first interleaving, and / or, the second antenna ports for transmitting type-2 sequence may be determined based on first interleaving. The first interleaving serves to select the antenna ports for transmitting type- 1 / type-2 sequence in a quasi-random manner, so the antenna ports for transmitting type-1 and type-2 sequences are no longer regularly distributed among the whole antenna ports, instead, such permutation through the first interleaving with respect to antenna ports enables quasi-random sampling in antenna domain.

[0163] In a possible implementation, at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with the number of the third antenna ports. When the number of the third antenna ports varies, the parameter(s) of the first interleaving (or referred to as the first interleaving parameter(s)) may vary accordingly. When choosing the first interleaving’s parameter(s), the number of the third antenna ports needs to be taken into account.

[0164] In a possible implementation, the number of the third antenna ports and the number of the first antenna ports are predefined, and the first interleaving may be performed based on the number of the third antenna ports and the number of the first antenna ports. Then after determining the first antenna ports, the rest of the third antenna ports is taken as the second antenna ports. For example, there are 32 antenna ports as the third antenna ports and the number of the first antenna ports is 8, these 32 antenna ports (whose indices may be 1, 2, ...32) may correspond toa 32 length input sequence, each element in the input sequence corresponds to an antenna port, so the first interleaving may take the 32 length input sequence with 8 ones and 24 zeroes as its input, and then give a 32 length output sequence in which the 8 ones are quasi-randomly distributed, then the antenna ports whose indices correspond to the positions of 8 ones may be determined as the first antenna ports, and the rest of the antenna ports is taken as the second antenna ports. E.g., the 32 length input sequence may be 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, ...0, which corresponds to 32 indices of the 32 antenna ports one by one, and the 32 length output sequence may be 1, 0, 1 , 0, 0, 1, 0, 1 , 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0..., so the first antenna ports would be antenna ports whose indices correspond to the ones in the 32 length output sequence, which are antenna ports with indices 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 15, 16, 21.

[0165] In another possible implementation, the number of the third antenna ports and the number of the second antenna ports are predefined, and the first interleaving may be performed based on the number of the third antenna ports and the number of the second antenna ports. Then after determining the second antenna ports, the rest of the third antenna ports is taken as the first antenna ports. For example, there are 32 antenna ports as the third antenna ports and the number of the second antenna ports is 24, these 32 antenna ports may correspond to a 32 length input sequence, each element in the input sequence corresponds to an antenna port, so the first interleaving may take the 32 length input sequence with 24 ones and 8 zeroes as its input, and then give a 32 length output sequence in which the 24 ones are quasi-randomly distributed, then the antenna ports whose indices correspond to the positions of 24 ones may be determined as the second antenna ports, and the rest of the antenna ports is taken as the first antenna ports.

[0166] In a possible implementation, the first interleaving includes appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver. It should be noted that, other interleaver(s) (such as PN-sequence based interleaver) or other manner(s) that can implement the same or similar fiinction as QPP interleaver is also possible, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure. The main advantage of QPP interleaver is that it shows performance close to complicated random numbers generator, but has much lower computational complexity and is easily described with simple formula.

[0167] In a possible implementation, the parameters) for the first interleaving may be received by UE from the BS, and in this case, the wireless communication method may include: receiving first information, where the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of first interleaving; transmitting a first type of sequence using first antenna ports; transmitting a second type of sequence using second antenna ports; and where the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on the first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; where the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are used for measuring a channel with a first bandwidth, a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

[0168] Regarding the description for transmitting the first and the second types of sequences, reference may be made to the foregoing description, which will not be repeated here. In a possible implementation, the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and the number of the third antenna ports. As mentioned before, when the number of the third antenna ports varies, the parameter(s) of the first interleaving (or referred to as the first interleaving parameter(s)) may vary accordingly. When choosing the first interleaving parameter(s), the number of the third antenna ports needs to be taken into account. For example, the first interleaving based on the third antenna ports for obtaining the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports can be implemented according to a correspondence between the number of the third antenna ports and the first

[0188] The fifth frequency resource units are frequency resource units after interleaving, they may correspond to a fifth sampling pattern for a channel over the third frequency resource, and the fifth frequency resource units are obtained from sixth frequency resource units, these sixth frequency resource units are frequency resource units before interleaving which may correspond to a sixth sampling pattern for the channel over the third frequency resource, and the sixth sampling pattern is distinct from the fifth sampling pattern. For example, the third frequency resource may include frequency resource units, and a sampling pattern of the frequency resource units in the third frequency resource may refer to a pattern with positions of reference signals for channel estimation being 1 and other positions being 0, since the transmission of the reference signals on the fifth frequency resource units would be like sampling of the channel over the third frequency resource.

[0189] The fifth frequency resource units and the sixth frequency resource units are both within or both belong to the third frequency resource, they will not be existing simultaneously, the sixth frequency resource units are mentioned simply for the purpose of describing the interleaving, the obtained fifth frequency resource units will be later used for transmitting or receiving reference signals.

[0190] The interleaving from the sixth frequency resource units to the fifth frequency resource units ensures that the fifth sampling pattern is a quasi-random sampling pattern, so that reference signals used for channel estimation can be put according to this quasi-random sampling pattern, randomization of positions of the reference signals are implemented, thus CS algorithms can be used for recovering CIR of the channel over the third frequency resource, thereby reducing the channel estimation overhead.

[0191] In a possible implementation, the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs included in the third frequency resource. A parameter of the fourth interleaving may be a length of a base sequence for generating a corresponding mapping sequence, and the corresponding mapping sequence will be used for mapping the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence, and the length of the base sequence may be associated with the block size M and the total number of REs included in the third frequency resource. In an example, the length of the base sequence may equal to a division value of the total number of REs included in the third frequency resource and the block size M.

[0192] In a possible implementation, for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, where n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M. There are M second sequences in each group (this group may also be referred to as a sequence group), and a sequence group may be transmitted on the same time unit. Correspondingly, there are M antenna ports in each antenna group, a specific second sequence among M second sequences in a sequence group may correspond to a specific antenna port in an antenna group. Regarding how to determine frequency resources for each second sequence in a sequence group, it is associated with the interleaving rule and the offset for each antenna port. For example, an antenna group which includes second antenna ports with indices 2, 3, 4, 5 for transmitting second sequences, and the sequence group corresponding to the antenna group would be second sequences for the antenna ports with indices 2, 3, 4, 5.

[0193] To better illustrate the determination of frequency resources for each second sequence in a sequence group, in a possible implementation, the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P? =(Pi - 1)*M + Fn; where P” is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; where i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.channel estimation sequences, while channel estimation accuracy can be improved and time overhead can be reduced compared to ID interleaving for channel estimation sequences or 2D processing (a combination of channel estimation sequences with different lengths) without interleaving.

[0199] With the wireless communication method provided by the present disclosure, the introduction of the second type of sequence with a length smaller than that of the first type of sequence, a total number of resource elements occupied by the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence is decreased. The first type of sequence and the second type of sequence correspond to reference signals of the same type, and the reference signals are used for channel estimation, hence, channel estimation overhead is reduced, and more resources can be used for data transmission. Further, irregular positions for antenna selection may be implemented by means of interleaving in antenna domain and antenna selections are respectively provided for the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, which may provide better channel estimation performance compared to regular positions for antenna selection.

[0200] In the above, the wireless communication method of the present disclosure is described from the perspective of a first network element. In the following, a wireless communication method of the present disclosure will be described from the perspective of a second network element in combination with FIG. 16. FIG. 16 shows a schematic flowchart of another wireless communication method according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The method can be implemented by a second network element. As shown in FIG. 16, the method may include: step 1602, receiving a first type of sequence and a second type of sequence; step 1604, obtaining a measuring result of a channel with a first bandwidth based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence; where the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are transmitted using first antenna ports and second antenna ports respectively, the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; where a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

[0201] The second network element may be a network device (e.g., BS or any possible implementations of the T-TRP 170 with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3), or may also be a part of the network device (e.g., implemented as a module which can be integrated into a device), which is not limited here. It should be noted that in a case where the second network element is implemented as a module, the receiving operation may also be an inputting operation, it is not necessary to receive but just to input the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence from a certain device with a receiving function, the specific details with regard to the receiving operation performed by the second network element throughout the document also apply for the inputting operation.

[0202] For the above step, reference may be made to the forgoing relevant description, which will not be repeated here.

[0203] For step 1602, reference may be made to the forgoing relevant description at the first network element side, which will not be repeated here. Regarding the implementation of step 1604, the second network element may perform tensor completion based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence, to obtain the channel measuring result, reference may be made to relevant description in related art.

[0204] In a possible implementation, at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

[0205] In a possible implementation, the first interleaving includes appliance of a quadratic permutationpolynomial (QPP) interleaver.

[0206] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: transmitting first information, where the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

[0207] In a possible implementation, the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

[0208] In a possible implementation, the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0209] In a possible implementation, the first type of sequence includes N1 first sequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence includes N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, where N1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

[0210] In a possible implementation, at least one of the N1 first sequences is received over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, where the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

[0211] In a possible implementation, at least one of the N2 second sequences is received over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, where the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.

[0212] In a possible implementation, the N2 second sequences include K groups of second sequences with each group including M second sequences, where M is an integer greater than 1 and smaller than N2; where each of M second sequences in a respective group is received over fifth frequency resource units in a third frequency resource of a third time unit, where the fifth frequency resource units are determined based on fourth interleaving of sixth frequency resource units, and each of the sixth frequency resource units includes M resource groups, and the sixth frequency resource units belong to the third frequency resource of the third time unit.

[0213] In a possible implementation, the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs included in the third frequency resource.

[0214] In a possible implementation, for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, where n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

[0215] In a possible implementation, the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P" =(Pi - 1)*M + F„; where P” is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; where i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

[0216] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: transmitting second information, where the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

[0217] In a possible implementation, the second information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0218] In a possible implementation, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and

[0236] It should also be noted that, it is not necessary to use interleaving both for TX antenna and frequency domains at the same time. For example, only frequency slabs (type-2 reference signals) can be interleaved and TX antennas can be taken without interleaving using regular comb, for example, antennas 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29 can use type-1 reference signals in 32-antenna configuration and frequencies can be interleaved for type-2 reference signals. Also, it is possible to use interleaving only in antenna domain and use regular type-2 reference signals in frequency domain. Also, type-2 reference signals can be implemented using frequency hopping in related art. The proposed reference signal sequence design can be applied to channel estimation in Wi-Fi or to speed up the process of 1RMI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanning, which is not limited in the present disclosure.

[0237] Next, embodiments of products related to the wireless communication methods will be described.

[0238] FIG. 22 shows a block diagram of a wireless communication apparatus according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 22, the wireless communication apparatus 2200 may include: a first transmitting module 2202, configured to transmit a first type of sequence using first antenna ports; a second transmitting module 2204, configured to transmit a second type of sequence using second antenna ports; where the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; where the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are used for measuring a channel with a first bandwidth, a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

[0239] In a possible implementation, at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

[0240] In a possible implementation, the first interleaving comprises appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

[0241] In a possible implementation, the apparatus further includes a first receiving module, configured to receive first information, where the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

[0242] In a possible implementation, the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

[0243] In a possible implementation, the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0244] In a possible implementation, the first type of sequence includes N1 first sequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence includes N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, where N 1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

[0245] In a possible implementation, at least one of the N1 first sequences is transmitted over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, where the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

[0246] In a possible implementation, at least one of the N2 second sequences is transmitted over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, where the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.a receiving module 2302, configured to receive a first type of sequence and a second type of sequence; an obtaining module 2304, configured to obtain a measuring result of a channel with a first bandwidth based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence;where the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are transmitted using first antenna ports and second antenna ports respectively, the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; where a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

[0257] In a possible implementation, at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

[0258] In a possible implementation, the first interleaving includes appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

[0259] In a possible implementation, the apparatus further includes a first transmitting module, configured to transmit first information, where the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

[0260] In a possible implementation, the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

[0261] In a possible implementation, the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0262] In a possible implementation, the first type of sequence includes N1 first sequences corresponding to N 1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence includes N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, where N1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

[0263] In a possible implementation, at least one of the N1 first sequences is received over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, where the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

[0264] In a possible implementation, at least one of the N2 second sequences is received over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, where the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.

[0265] In a possible implementation, the N2 second sequences include K groups of second sequences with each group including M second sequences, where M is an integer greater than 1 and smaller than N2; where each of M second sequences in a respective group is received over fifth frequency resource units in a third frequency resource of a third time unit, where the fifth frequency resource units are determined based on fourth interleaving of sixth frequency resource units, and each of the sixth frequency resource units includes M resource groups, and the sixth frequency resource units belong to the third frequency resource of the third time unit.

[0266] In a possible implementation, the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs included in the third frequency resource.

[0267] In a possible implementation, for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, where n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

[0268] In a possible implementation, the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula: P” =(Pi - 1 )*M + Fn; where P" is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixthfrequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; where i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

[0269] In a possible implementation, the apparatus further includes a second transmitting module, configured to transmit second information, where the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

[0270] In a possible implementation, the second information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

[0271] In a possible implementation, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

[0272] It should be noted that, the first transmitting module and the second transmitting module are only illustrative for their functions, in practice, the functions of the first transmitting module and the second transmitting module may be implemented by one transmitting module, which is not limited here. It should also be noted that, the functions of the transmitting modules and the receiving module may also be implemented by a transceiving module.

[0273] The wireless communication apparatus may be applied to the second network element as described in the above method embodiments or may be the second network element as described in the above method embodiments. It should be understood by a person skilled in the art that, the relevant description ofthe above modules in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be understood with reference to the relevant description of the wireless communication method in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0274] FIG. 24 is a schematic structural diagram of a wireless communication apparatus according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the apparatus may be a second network element or a first network element. As shown in FIG. 24, the wireless communication apparatus 2400 includes a processor 2402, an interface 2404 for communicating with other devices, and a memory 2406. The memory 2406 may be stored with computer execution instructions, and the processor 2402 executes computer execution instructions stored in the memory 2406 to enable the apparatus to execute any of the above wireless communication methods.

[0275] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a first network element including processing circuitry for executing any of the above wireless communication methods. It should be understood that the first network element can execute the steps performed by the first network element in the above method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0276] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a second network element including processing circuitry for executing any of the above wireless communication methods. It should be understood that the second network element can execute the steps performed by the second network element in the above method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0277] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a wireless communication apparatus which includes a processor and a memory. The memory is storing instructions that cause the processor to perform any of the above wireless communication methods.

[0278] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a wireless communication system, including a second network element and a first network element. The second network element is configured to execute the steps executed by the second network element in any of the above wireless communication methods, and the first network element is configured to execute the steps executed by the first network element in any ofthe above wireless communication methods.

[0279] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a chip, including an input / output (I / O) interface and a processor, where the processor is configured to call and run computer execution instructions storedin a memory, to enable a device installing with the chip to execute any of the above wireless communication methods.

[0280] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable medium storing computer execution instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute any of the above wireless communication methods.

[0281] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program product including computer execution instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute any of the above wireless communication methods.

[0282] In some aspects of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program including computer execution instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute any of the above wireless communication methods.

[0283] Although the present disclosure describes methods and processes with steps in a certain order, one or more steps of the methods and processes may be omitted or altered as appropriate. One or more steps may take place in an order other than that in which they are described, as appropriate.

[0284] Note that the expression “at least one of A or B”, as used herein, is interchangeable with the expression “A and / or B”. It refers to a list in which you may select A or B or both A and B. Similarly, “at least one of A, B, or C”, as used herein, is interchangeable with “A and / or B and / or C” or “A, B, and / or C”. It refers to a list in which you may select: A or B or C, or both A and B, or both A and C, or both B and C, or all of A, B and C. The same principle applies for longer lists having a same format.

[0285] Although the present disclosure is described, at least in part, in terms of methods, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the present disclosure is also directed to the various components for performing at least some of the aspects and features of the described methods, be it by way of hardware components, software or any combination of the two. Accordingly, the technical solution of the present disclosure may be embodied in the form of a software product. A suitable software product may be stored in a pre-recorded storage device or other similar non-volatile or non-transitory computer readable medium, including DVDs, CD-ROMs, USB flash disk, a removable hard disk, or other storage media, for example. The software product includes instructions tangibly stored thereon that enable a processing device (e.g., a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute examples of the methods disclosed herein. The machine-executable instructions may be in the form of code sequences, configuration information, or other data, which, when executed, cause a machine (e.g., a processor or other processing device) to perform steps in a method according to examples of the present disclosure.

[0286] The present disclosure may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the subject matter of the claims. The described example embodiments are to be considered in all respects as being only illustrative and not restrictive. Selected features from one or more of the above-described embodiments may be combined to create alternative embodiments not explicitly described, features suitable for such combinations being understood within the scope of this disclosure.

[0287] All values and sub-ranges within disclosed ranges are also disclosed. Also, although the systems, devices and processes disclosed and shown herein may include a specific number of elements / components, the systems, devices and assemblies could be modified to include additional or fewer of such elements / components. For example, although any of the elements / components disclosed may be referenced as being singular, the embodiments disclosed herein could be modified to include a plurality of such elements / components. The subject matter described herein intends to cover and embrace all suitable changes in technology.

[0288] Although embodiments have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those of skill in the art will appreciate that variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. CLAIMS1. A wireless communication method, comprising: transmitting a first type of sequence using first antenna ports; transmitting a second type of sequence using second antenna ports; wherein the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; wherein the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are used for measuring a channel with a first bandwidth, a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first interleaving comprises appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: receiving first information, wherein the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first type of sequence comprises N1 first sequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence comprises N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, wherein N1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the N1 first sequences is transmitted over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, wherein the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein at least one of the N2 second sequences is transmitted over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, wherein the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.

10. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the N2 second sequences comprise K groups of second sequences with each group comprising M second sequences, wherein M is an integer greater than 1 and smaller than N2; wherein each of M second sequences in a respective group is transmitted over fifth frequency resource units in a third frequency resource of a third time unit, wherein the fifth frequency resource units are determined based on fourth interleaving of sixth frequency resource units, and each of the sixth frequency resource units comprises M resource groups, and the sixth frequency resource units belong to the third frequency resource of the third time unit.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs comprised in the third frequency resource.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, wherein n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P” =(P, - 1)*M + Fn; wherein P" is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fn is the offset for the n-th antenna port; wherein i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, fiirther comprising: receiving second information, wherein the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the second information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

16. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

17. A wireless communication method, comprising: receiving a first type of sequence and a second type of sequence; obtaining a measuring result of a channel with a first bandwidth based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence; wherein the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are transmitted using first antenna ports and second antenna ports respectively, the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; wherein a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

19. The method according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the first interleaving comprises appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

20. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 19, further comprising: transmitting first information, wherein the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

22. The method according to claim 20 or 21, wherein the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

23. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 22, wherein the first type of sequence comprises N1 firstsequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence comprises N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, wherein N1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein at least one of the N1 first sequences is received over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, wherein the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

25. The method according to claim 23 or 24, wherein at least one of the N2 second sequences is received over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, wherein the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.

26. The method according to claim 23 or 24, wherein the N2 second sequences comprise K groups of second sequences with each group comprising M second sequences, wherein M is an integer greater than 1 and smaller than N2; wherein each of M second sequences in a respective group is received over fifth frequency resource units in a third frequency resource of a third time unit, wherein the fifth frequency resource units are determined based on fourth interleaving of sixth frequency resource units, and each of the sixth frequency resource units comprises M resource groups, and the sixth frequency resource units belong to the third frequency resource of the third time unit.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs comprised in the third frequency resource.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, wherein n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P" =(Pi - 1)*M + Fn; wherein P” is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; wherein i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

30. The method according to claim 28 or 29, further comprising: transmitting second information, wherein the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein the second information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

32. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 31, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

33. A wireless communication apparatus, comprising: a first transmitting module, configured to transmit a first type of sequence using first antenna ports; a second transmitting module, configured to transmit a second type of sequence using second antenna ports;wherein the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; wherein the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are used for measuring a channel with a first bandwidth, a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

34. The apparatus according to claim 33, wherein at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

35. The apparatus according to claim 33 or 34, wherein the first interleaving comprises appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

36. The apparatus according to any one of claims 33 to 35, further comprising: a first receiving module, configured to receive first information, wherein the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

37. The apparatus according to claim 36, wherein the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

38. The apparatus according to claim 36 or 37, wherein the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

39. The apparatus according to any one of claims 33 to 38, wherein the first type of sequence comprises N1 first sequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence comprises N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, wherein N1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

40. The apparatus according to claim 39, wherein at least one of the N1 first sequences is transmitted over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, wherein the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resource units belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

41. The apparatus according to claim 39 or 40, wherein at least one of the N2 second sequences is transmitted over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, wherein the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.

42. The apparatus according to claim 39 or 40, wherein the N2 second sequences comprise K groups of second sequences with each group comprising M second sequences, wherein M is an integer greater than 1 and smaller than N2; wherein each of M second sequences in a respective group is transmitted over fifth frequency resource units in a third frequency resource of a third time unit, wherein the fifth frequency resource units are determined based on fourth interleaving of sixth frequency resource units, and each of the sixth frequency resource units comprises M resource groups, and the sixth frequency resource units belong to the third frequency resource of the third time unit.

43. The apparatus according to claim 42, wherein the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs comprised in the third frequency resource.

44. The apparatus according to claim 43 , wherein for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, wherein n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

45. The apparatus according to claim 44, wherein the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P“ =(Pi - 1)*M + Fn; wherein P" is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and P, is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; wherein i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

46. The apparatus according to claim 44 or 45, further comprising: a second receiving module, configured to receive second information, wherein the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

47. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the second information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

48. The apparatus according to any one of claims 33 to 47, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

49. A wireless communication apparatus, comprising: a receiving module, configured to receive a first type of sequence and a second type of sequence; an obtaining module, configured to obtain a measuring result of a channel with a first bandwidth based on the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence; wherein the first type of sequence and the second type of sequence are transmitted using first antenna ports and second antenna ports respectively, the first antenna ports or the second antenna ports are determined based on first interleaving of third antenna ports, and the third antenna ports consist of the first antenna ports and the second antenna ports; wherein a length of the first type of sequence is larger than a length of the second type of sequence, and a type of a reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence is the same as a type of a reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence.

50. The apparatus according to claim 49, wherein at least one parameter of the first interleaving is associated with a number of the third antenna ports.

51. The apparatus according to claim 49 or 50, wherein the first interleaving comprises appliance of a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleaver.

52. The apparatus according to any one of claims 49 to 51, further comprising: a first transmitting module, configured to transmit first information, wherein the first information is used for determining at least one parameter of the first interleaving.

53. The apparatus according to claim 52, wherein the first information indicates a correspondence between the at least one parameter of the first interleaving and a number of the third antenna ports.

54. The apparatus according to claim 52 or 53, wherein the first information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

55. The apparatus according to any one of claims 49 to 54, wherein the first type of sequence comprises N1 first sequences corresponding to N1 first antenna ports respectively, and the second type of sequence comprises N2 second sequences corresponding to N2 second antenna ports respectively, wherein N1 and N2 are integers greater than 1.

56. The apparatus according to claim 55, wherein at least one of the N1 first sequences is received over first frequency resource units in a first frequency resource of a first time unit, wherein the first frequency resource units are determined based on second interleaving of second frequency resource units, and the second frequency resourceunits belong to the first frequency resource of the first time unit.

57. The apparatus according to claim 55 or 56, wherein at least one of the N2 second sequences is received over third frequency resource units in a second frequency resource of a second time unit, wherein the third frequency resource units are determined based on third interleaving of fourth frequency resource units, and the fourth frequency resource units belong to the second frequency resource of the second time unit.

58. The apparatus according to claim 55 or 56, wherein the N2 second sequences comprise K groups of second sequences with each group comprising M second sequences, wherein M is an integer greater than 1 and smaller than N2; wherein each of M second sequences in a respective group is received over fifth frequency resource units in a third frequency resource of a third time unit, wherein the fifth frequency resource units are determined based on fourth interleaving of sixth frequency resource units, and each of the sixth frequency resource units comprises M resource groups, and the sixth frequency resource units belong to the third frequency resource of the third time unit.

59. The apparatus according to claim 58, wherein the fourth interleaving is based on M and a total number of REs comprised in the third frequency resource.

60. The apparatus according to claim 59, wherein for an n-th second sequence in the respective group, a position of a respective fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence is determined based on the fourth interleaving and an offset for an n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence, wherein n is an integer greater than 0, and smaller than or equal to M.

61. The apparatus according to claim 60, wherein the position of the respective fifth frequency resource unit is calculated based on the following formula:P” =(Pi - 1)*M + F„; wherein P° is a position of an i-th fifth frequency resource unit for carrying the n-th second sequence corresponding to the n-th antenna port, and Pi is a position of an i-th sixth frequency resource unit after the fourth interleaving, and Fnis the offset for the n-th antenna port; wherein i is an integer in an interval (0, L], and L is a total number of the sixth frequency resource units.

62. The apparatus according to claim 60 or 61, further comprising: a second transmitting module, configured to transmit second information, wherein the second information indicates the offset for the n-th antenna port corresponding to the n-th second sequence.

63. The apparatus according to claim 62, wherein the second information is carried in at least one of MAC control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or radio resource control (RRC).

64. The apparatus according to any one of claims 49 to 63, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are sounding reference signals (SRSs); or, wherein both of the reference signal corresponding to the first type of sequence and the reference signal corresponding to the second type of sequence are demodulation reference signals (DMRS).

65. A computer-readable medium storing computer execution instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16 or the method according to any one of claims 17 to 32.

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