Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

Disclosed in the present application are a communication method and apparatus, which are used for reducing signaling overheads for feeding back channel state information. In the method, a terminal apparatus sends first information, which indicates channel quality of L beams and channel quality of P beams, wherein both L and P are positive integers. The first information comprises L pieces of channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one of the L beams, and the first information further comprises N pieces of channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one or more of the P beams, wherein N is a positive integer less than or equal to P. It should be understood that channel quality information of individual beams may be fed back, or one piece of channel quality information shared by some beams may also be fed back. Since the precision of fed-back channel quality information for individual beams is higher than that of fed-back channel quality information shared by some beams, signaling overheads required for feed back channel state information are reduced, and the requirement for high precision of channel quality information for some beams can be ensured.

Description

Communication method and apparatus

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 202411162901.0, filed on August 22, 2024, and entitled “A communication method and apparatus”, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and apparatus. BACKGROUND

[0004] In multiple input and multiple output (MIMO), a same user equipment (UE) can be served by multiple beams. For example, the UE can receive reference signals from different beams, the UE can determine channel state information (CSI) of each beam according to the reference signals, and can send the channel state information to a base station. The base station can determine modulation and coding scheme (MCS), receiving beam or transmitting beam, etc. corresponding to the UE according to the channel state information from the UE.

[0005] At present, the signaling overhead of the UE feeding back the channel state information is large. SUMMARY

[0006] Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for reducing the transmission overhead of feeding back channel state information.

[0007] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be performed by a terminal device. The terminal device can be a terminal apparatus, or a device (e.g., a module, a communication module, a circuit or a chip responsible for communication function (e.g., a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system on chip (SoC) chip or a system in package (SIP) chip containing a modem core), a chip system or a processor) of a terminal apparatus (e.g., responsible for communication function), or a logic node, a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of a terminal apparatus. The method can include: sending first information, the first information indicating channel quality of L beams and channel quality of P beams, L and P are positive integers. The first information includes L channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one of the L beams, and the first information also includes N channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one or more of the P beams, N is a positive integer less than or equal to P.

[0008] In the embodiments of the present application, for the L beams, the corresponding channel quality information is fed back respectively, and for one or more of the P beams, one channel quality information can be fed back. It can be understood that part of the beams independently feed back the channel quality information, and part of the beams can share one channel quality information. Since the accuracy of the independently fed back channel quality information is relatively higher than that of the shared feedback, thereby, the signaling overhead required for channel state information feedback is reduced, and the high accuracy requirement for the channel quality information of part of the beams can be ensured.

[0009] In a possible implementation, the information amount of at least one of the N channel quality information is less than the information amount of any one of the L channel quality information.

[0010] In this embodiment, the information quantity of at least one of the N pieces of channel quality information is less than the information quantity of any one of the L pieces of channel quality information, i.e., the information quantity required for feeding back the channel quality information of at least one of the P beams is less than the information quantity required for feeding back the channel quality information of any one of the L beams. In other words, the channel quality information of at least one beam can be fed back in a manner with less information quantity, reducing the signaling overhead required for feeding back the channel quality information. In addition, since the information quantity to some extent represents the accuracy of the channel quality information feedback, the L beams can be fed back in a relatively larger information quantity, improving the feedback accuracy of the channel quality information of the L beams. Alternatively, it can be understood that part of the beams to be reported can feed back the channel quality information in a manner with higher accuracy, for example, the feedback accuracy of the channel quality information of beams with high priority (or high importance) is higher; while another part of the beams can feed back the channel quality information in a manner with relatively lower accuracy, for example, the feedback accuracy of the channel quality information of beams with low priority (or low importance) is relatively lower. In this way, both the feedback overhead of the channel quality information and the high accuracy requirement for the channel quality information of part of the beams can be ensured.

[0011] In a possible implementation, one of the N pieces of channel quality information indicates the channel quality of multiple beams of the P beams; or, one of the N pieces of channel quality information indicates the change amount of the channel quality of one or more beams of the P beams relative to the channel quality of a reference beam. That is, for one beam, the change amount of the channel quality of the beam relative to the channel quality of a reference beam can be reported, instead of directly reporting the channel quality of the beam, which is beneficial to saving signaling overhead.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the reference beam can have various implementation manners. In a first implementation manner, the reference beam is the first beam of the L beams. In a second implementation manner, the reference beam is the second beam of the P beams. In a third implementation manner, the reference beam is the beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in the L beams and / or the P beams. In a fourth implementation manner, the reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest index in the L beams and / or the P beams. In a fifth implementation manner, the reference beam is the beam with the same ranking as the beam corresponding to the reference beam in the L beams. In a sixth implementation manner, the reference beam is the beam belonging to the same interval as the beam corresponding to the reference beam in the rank indication of the P beams.

[0013] In a possible implementation, one of the N pieces of channel quality information indicates a change amount of channel quality of one or more of the P beams relative to channel quality of the reference beam, and the method further includes: receiving or sending third information. The third information indicates one or more of the following: a first number of bits, the first number of bits being a number of bits occupied by the one piece of channel quality information for indicating the change amount; a second number of bits, the second number of bits being a total number of bits occupied by the L pieces of channel quality information and / or the N pieces of channel quality information for indicating the change amount; a first correspondence relationship, the first correspondence relationship being a correspondence relationship between the number of bits occupied by the one piece of channel quality information for indicating the change amount and the number of beams corresponding to the one piece of channel quality information for indicating the change amount; or a third number of bits, the third number of bits including the number of bits occupied by the one piece of channel quality information for indicating the change amount. Through the implementation, the terminal device can receive the third information, so that the terminal device determines the number of bits occupied by each piece of channel quality information for indicating the change amount according to the third information, and generates or sends the channel quality information by using the corresponding number of bits. Alternatively, the terminal device can send the third information, so that the network device can determine the number of bits occupied by each piece of channel quality information for indicating the change amount according to the third information, and correctly receives or decodes the channel quality information.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: sending or receiving fourth information. The fourth information indicates one or more of the following: a first number, the first number being a sum of L and P; a second number, the second number being a number of beam groups to which the L beams and the P beams belong; a first beam group, the first beam group including the L beams; a second beam group, the second beam group including the P beams; a grouping manner corresponding to the first beam group and the second beam group; channel quality information of the beams reported in groups, or channel quality information of the beams not reported in groups; or a reporting strategy of the L pieces of channel quality information and / or the N pieces of channel quality information. In the implementation, the fourth information indicates information related to reporting of the channel quality information, so that, after receiving the fourth information, the terminal device can accurately generate or send the channel quality information according to the fourth information, or the terminal device sends the fourth information, so that the network device can correctly receive or decode the channel quality information according to the fourth information.

[0015] In a possible implementation, one of the L pieces of channel quality information includes a channel quality indicator and / or a rank indicator; and / or one of the N pieces of channel quality information includes a channel quality indicator and / or a rank indicator.

[0016] In a possible implementation, the reporting strategy includes a reporting strategy of rank indication and / or a reporting strategy of channel quality indication. The reporting strategy of rank indication includes any of the following: reporting one rank indication corresponding to the L beams and the P beams; or reporting L rank indications of the L beams, and reporting one rank indication corresponding to the P beams. The reporting strategy of channel quality indication includes any of the following: reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams, and reporting one channel quality indication corresponding to the P beams; or reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams, and reporting channel quality indications of a part of the P beams and channel quality indications of at least two beams included in another part of the P beams, that is, the relationship between the beams in the other part of the P beams and the channel quality indications is a many-to-one relationship, or a plurality of beams share one reported channel quality indication; or reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams, and reporting a change amount of channel quality indications of a part of the P beams and channel quality indications of another part of the P beams relative to a channel quality indication of a reference beam; or reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams, and reporting a change amount of channel quality indications of the P beams relative to a channel quality indication of a reference beam.

[0017] In a possible implementation, one of the L channel quality information includes a channel quality indication, and one of the N channel quality information includes a channel quality indication. The first information further includes a first rank indication corresponding to the L beams and the P beams. In this implementation, the terminal device can report only one rank indication corresponding to a plurality of beams, which can greatly reduce the signaling overhead.

[0018] In a possible implementation, the first channel quality information of the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information corresponds to the first beam, where the first channel quality information indicates a wideband channel quality of the first beam and / or a subband channel quality.

[0019] In a possible implementation, the first channel quality information indicates a wideband channel quality of the first beam, where the first channel quality information includes: a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam, or a change amount of the wideband channel quality indication of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam. That is, for one beam, a change amount of a wideband channel quality indication of the beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam can be reported, instead of directly reporting the wideband channel quality indication of the beam, which is beneficial to save the signaling overhead.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the first channel quality information indicates a channel quality of a subband of the first beam, and the first channel quality information comprises any one of: a subband channel quality indication of a first subband of the first beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indication of a reference subband of the first beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indication of a reference subband of a reference beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of a first reference beam, the wideband channel quality information of the first reference beam indicating a variation of a wideband channel quality indication of the first reference beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a second reference beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of the first beam, the wideband channel quality information of the first beam indicating a variation of a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam; or a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of a first reference subband of a first reference beam, the wideband channel quality information of the first reference subband indicating a variation of a subband channel quality indication of the first reference subband relative to a subband channel quality indication of a second reference subband of a second reference beam.

[0021] That is, for a beam, the beam can report a variation of a subband channel quality indication of the beam relative to a subband channel quality indication of a reference beam, instead of directly reporting the subband channel quality indication of the beam, which is beneficial for saving signaling overhead.

[0022] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises: receiving or sending fifth information. The fifth information indicates one or more of: the beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the corresponding wideband channel quality is to be reported; the beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the corresponding subband channel quality is to be reported; a number of the beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the corresponding wideband channel quality is to be reported; or a number of the beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the corresponding subband channel quality is to be reported. That is, when performing mixed reporting of wideband channel quality and subband channel quality, the fifth information can indicate which beams report the wideband (and / or subband) channel quality, or the beams that report the wideband (and / or subband) channel quality, so that the terminal device accurately generates or sends the channel quality information, or so that the network device correctly receives or decodes the channel quality information according to the fourth information.

[0023] In a possible implementation, the first information further includes: indexes of the L beams, one of which corresponds to one of the L channel quality information; and / or indexes of the P beams, one of the N channel quality information corresponds to one or more of the indexes of the P beams. The L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information are sorted according to the indexes of the corresponding beams.

[0024] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be performed by a network device. The network device can be a network equipment, or a device (e.g., a module, a communication module, a circuit or a chip responsible for communication function (such as a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system on chip (SoC) chip or a system in package (SIP) chip containing a modem core), a chip system or a processor) of the network equipment, or a logic node, a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the network equipment function. The method can include: receiving first information, the first information indicating channel quality of L beams and further indicating channel quality of P beams, L and P are positive integers; wherein the first information includes L channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one of the L beams, and the first information further includes N channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one or more of the P beams, the average information amount of the L channel quality information is greater than the average information amount of the N channel quality information, and N is a positive integer less than or equal to P. Determining the channel quality of the L beams and the P beams according to the first information.

[0025] In a possible implementation, the information amount of at least one of the N channel quality information is less than the information amount of any one of the L channel quality information.

[0026] In a possible implementation, one of the N channel quality information indicates channel quality of multiple beams of the P beams; or, one of the N channel quality information indicates a change amount of channel quality of one or more of the P beams relative to channel quality of a reference beam.

[0027] In a possible implementation, the reference beam is a first beam in the L beams; or, the reference beam is a second beam in the P beams; or, the reference beam is a beam with the best or worst channel quality in the L beams and / or the P beams; or, the reference beam is a beam with the largest or smallest index in the L beams and / or the P beams; or, the reference beam is a beam in the L beams that has the same rank indication as a beam corresponding to the reference beam; or, the reference beam is a beam in the P beams that belongs to the same interval as a beam corresponding to the reference beam.

[0028] In a possible implementation, one of the N pieces of channel quality information indicates a change amount of channel quality of one or more beams in the P beams relative to channel quality of the reference beam; and the method further includes: sending or receiving third information. The third information indicates one or more of the following: a first number of bits, the first number of bits being a number of bits occupied by one piece of channel quality information used to indicate the change amount; a second number of bits, the second number of bits being a total number of bits occupied by the N pieces of channel quality information used to indicate the change amount; a first correspondence relationship, the first correspondence relationship being a correspondence relationship between the number of bits occupied by one piece of channel quality information used to indicate the change amount and a number of beams corresponding to the channel quality information used to indicate the change amount; or, a third number of bits, the third number of bits including numbers of bits respectively occupied by the channel quality information used to indicate the change amount.

[0029] In a possible implementation, fourth information is received or sent. The fourth information indicates one or more of the following: a first number, the first number being a sum of L and P; a second number, the second number being a number of beam groups to which the L beams and the P beams belong; a first beam group, the first beam group including the L beams; a second beam group, the second beam group including the P beams; a grouping manner corresponding to the first beam group and the second beam group; channel quality information of a beam reported in a grouped manner, or channel quality information of a beam reported in an ungrouped manner; or, a reporting strategy of the L pieces of channel quality information and / or the N pieces of channel quality information.

[0030] In a possible implementation, one piece of channel quality information of the L pieces of channel quality information includes a channel quality indicator and / or a rank indicator; and / or, one piece of channel quality information of the N pieces of channel quality information includes a channel quality indicator and / or a rank indicator.

[0031] In a possible implementation, the reporting strategy includes a reporting strategy of rank indication and / or a reporting strategy of channel quality indication. The reporting strategy of rank indication includes any one of the following: reporting one rank indication corresponding to the L beams and the P beams; or reporting L rank indications of the L beams, and reporting one rank indication corresponding to the P beams. The reporting strategy of channel quality indication includes any one of the following: reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams respectively, and reporting one channel quality indication corresponding to the P beams; or reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams respectively, and reporting channel quality indications of a part of the P beams respectively, and channel quality indications of at least two beams included in another part of the P beams, that is, a relationship between the beams in the another part of the P beams and the channel quality indications is a many-to-one relationship, or a plurality of beams share one reported channel quality indication; or reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams respectively, and reporting a change amount of channel quality indications of a part of the P beams and channel quality indications of another part of the P beams relative to a channel quality indication of a reference beam; or reporting L channel quality indications of the L beams respectively, and reporting a change amount of channel quality indications of the P beams relative to a channel quality indication of a reference beam.

[0032] In a possible implementation, one of the L channel quality information includes a channel quality indication, and one of the N channel quality information includes a channel quality indication; wherein the first information further includes a first rank indication corresponding to the L beams and the P beams.

[0033] In a possible implementation, the first channel quality information of the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information corresponds to the first beam, wherein the first channel quality information indicates a wideband channel quality and / or a subband channel quality of the first beam.

[0034] In a possible implementation, the first channel quality information indicates a wideband channel quality of the first beam. The first channel quality information includes: a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam, or a change amount of a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam.

[0035] In a possible implementation, the first channel quality information indicates a channel quality of a subband of the first beam. The first channel quality information includes any one of: a subband channel quality indication of a first subband of the first beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indication of a reference subband of the first beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indication of a reference subband of a reference beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of a first reference beam, the wideband channel quality information of the first reference beam indicating a variation of a wideband channel quality indication of the first reference beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a second reference beam; a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of the first beam, the wideband channel quality information of the first beam indicating a variation of a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam; or a variation of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to channel quality information of a first reference subband of a first reference beam, the channel quality information of the first reference subband indicating a variation of a subband channel quality indication of the first reference subband relative to a subband channel quality indication of a second reference subband of a second reference beam.

[0036] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving or sending fifth information. The fifth information indicates one or more of: the L beams and / or the P beams, from which a corresponding wideband channel quality is to be reported; the L beams and / or the P beams, from which a corresponding subband channel quality is to be reported; a number of the L beams and / or the P beams, from which a corresponding wideband channel quality is to be reported; or a number of the L beams and / or the P beams, from which a corresponding subband channel quality is to be reported.

[0037] In a possible implementation, the first information further includes: indices of the L beams, one index corresponding to one of the L channel quality information; and / or indices of the P beams, one of the N channel quality information corresponding to one or more of the indices of the P beams. The L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information are sorted according to the indices of the corresponding beams.

[0038] The technical effects brought by the second aspect or the various possible implementations can be referred to the introduction of the technical effects of the first aspect or the corresponding implementation.

[0039] In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided. The communication apparatus can be the terminal apparatus in the first aspect or the second aspect. The terminal apparatus can be, for example, a terminal device, or the terminal apparatus can be included in a terminal device, e.g., the terminal apparatus is a chip system (or, a chip) or other function module arranged in a terminal device. In an optional implementation, the communication apparatus includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation, the communication apparatus includes a processing unit (also referred to as a processing module) and a transceiver unit (also referred to as a transceiver module). The transceiver unit can implement a transmitting function and a receiving function. When the transceiver unit implements the transmitting function, it can be referred to as a transmitting unit (also referred to as a transmitting module). When the transceiver unit implements the receiving function, it can be referred to as a receiving unit (also referred to as a receiving module). The transmitting unit and the receiving unit can be the same function module, which is referred to as a transceiver unit and can implement the transmitting function and the receiving function. Alternatively, the transmitting unit and the receiving unit can be different function modules, and the transceiver unit refers to these function modules in general.

[0040] In an optional implementation, the transceiver unit (or, the transmitting unit) is configured to transmit first information. The first information indicates the channel quality of the L beams and the channel quality of the P beams, where L and P are positive integers. The first information includes L pieces of channel quality information, one piece of which corresponds to one of the L beams. The first information also includes N pieces of channel quality information, one piece of which corresponds to one or more of the P beams, where N is a positive integer less than or equal to P.

[0041] In an optional implementation, the communication apparatus further includes a storage unit (also referred to as a storage module). The processing unit is coupled to the storage unit and executes programs or instructions in the storage unit, so that the communication apparatus can perform the functions of the terminal apparatus in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0042] In a fourth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided. The communication apparatus can be the network apparatus in the first aspect or the second aspect. The network apparatus can be, for example, a network device, or the network apparatus can be included in a network device, e.g., the network apparatus is a chip system (or, a chip) or other function module arranged in a network device. In an optional implementation, the communication apparatus includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation, the communication apparatus includes a processing unit (also referred to as a processing module) and a transceiver unit (also referred to as a transceiver module). The implementation of the transceiver unit can be referred to the description in the third aspect.

[0043] In an optional implementation, the transceiver (or the receiver) is configured to receive first information, the first information indicating channel quality of the L beams and further indicating channel quality of the P beams, L and P being positive integers; wherein the first information comprises L pieces of channel quality information, one piece of channel quality information corresponding to one of the L beams, and the first information further comprises N pieces of channel quality information, one piece of channel quality information corresponding to one or more of the P beams, an average information amount of the L pieces of channel quality information being greater than an average information amount of the N pieces of channel quality information, N being a positive integer less than or equal to P. The processing unit is configured to determine the channel quality of the L beams and the P beams according to the first information.

[0044] In an optional implementation, the communication apparatus further comprises a storage unit (also referred to as a storage module), and the processing unit is configured to be coupled to the storage unit and execute programs or instructions in the storage unit, so as to enable the communication apparatus to perform the functions of the network apparatus described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0045] In a fifth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which comprises one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to execute the computer programs or instructions, which, when executed, cause the communication apparatus to implement the method in any possible design or implementation manner of the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0046] In a possible design, the communication apparatus can further comprise an interface circuit, and the processor is configured to communicate with other apparatuses or components via the interface circuit.

[0047] In a possible design, the communication apparatus can further comprise a memory. The memory is configured to store part or all of the computer programs or instructions necessary for implementing the functions related to the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0048] The communication apparatus can be a terminal, a communication module in the terminal, or a chip responsible for communication functions such as a modem chip (also referred to as a baseband chip) or an SoC or SIP chip comprising a modem module.

[0049] In a sixth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which comprises one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to execute the computer programs or instructions, which, when executed, cause the communication apparatus to implement the method in any possible design or implementation manner of the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0050] In a possible design, the communication apparatus can further comprise an interface circuit, and the processor is configured to communicate with other apparatuses or components via the interface circuit.

[0051] In a possible design, the communication apparatus can further include a memory. The memory can be configured to store part or all of the computer program or instructions necessary for implementing the functions of the above-described first aspect or second aspect.

[0052] The communication apparatus described above can be a network device, or a communication module in a network device, or a chip responsible for communication functions in a network device, such as a modem chip (also referred to as a baseband chip) or a SoC or SIP chip including a modem module.

[0053] In a seventh aspect, a communication system is provided, including a network device, wherein the network device is configured to perform the method performed by the network device in any one of the above-described first aspect to second aspect. For example, the network device can be implemented by the communication apparatus in the fourth aspect or sixth aspect.

[0054] Optionally, the communication system further includes a terminal device, wherein the terminal device is configured to perform the method performed by the terminal device in any one of the above-described first aspect to second aspect. For example, the terminal device can be implemented by the communication apparatus in the third aspect or fifth aspect.

[0055] In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, configured to store computer programs or instructions, which, when executed, cause the method performed by the terminal device or network device in the above aspects to be implemented.

[0056] In a ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided, including instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the method described in the above aspects to be implemented.

[0057] In a tenth aspect, a chip system is provided, including a processor and an interface, the processor being configured to call and execute instructions from the interface, so that the chip system implements the method in the above aspects.

[0058] For the technical effects brought by the third aspect to tenth aspect and various optional implementations thereof, reference can be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the first aspect or corresponding implementation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0059] FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of an ORAN system architecture according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0061] FIG. 1C is a diagram of network element function division and protocol layer structure of an ORAN device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0062] FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of beamforming according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0063] FIG. 3 is a comparison example diagram of CQI feedback overhead of single beam and multi-beam according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0065] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0066] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0067] In order to make the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0068] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi or WiFi) system, a 4th generation (4G) mobile communication system (such as a long term evolution (LTE) system), a 5th generation (5G) mobile communication system (such as a new radio (NR) system), or a future communication system. The method provided by the embodiments of the present application can be applied to a terrestrial network communication system or a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system. The NTN communication system may, for example, be a satellite communication system, or may include a drone, a high altitude platform station (HAPS), and other aerial access network devices, and the present application does not limit this.

[0069] The present application will present various aspects, embodiments or features around a system that can include a plurality of devices, components, modules, etc. It should be understood and appreciated that each system can include additional devices, components, modules, etc., and / or can not include all of the devices, components, modules, etc. discussed in conjunction with the drawings. In addition, combinations of these solutions can also be used.

[0070] FIG. 1A illustrates a schematic diagram of a communication system provided by embodiments of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1A, the communication system 10 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network (CN) 200. Optionally, the communication system 10 can also include an Internet 300.

[0071] The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in FIG. 1A, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in FIG. 1A, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 can also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG. 1A), etc. The terminals 120 are connected to the RAN nodes 110 in a wireless manner. The RAN nodes 110 are connected to the core network 200 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network devices in the core network 200 and the RAN nodes 110 in the RAN 100 can be different physical devices respectively, or can be the same physical device integrated with the logical functions of the core network and the logical functions of the radio access network.

[0072] The RAN 100 can be a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) related cellular system, such as a 4G, 5G mobile communication system, or a future evolution system. The RAN 100 can also be an ORAN, a cloud radio access network (CRAN), or a WiFi system. The RAN 100 can also be a communication system integrating two or more of the above systems.

[0073] The RAN nodes 110, which can also be referred to as RAN entities or access nodes, etc., form part of the communication system to help terminals to access wirelessly. The RAN nodes 110 in the communication system 10 can be nodes of the same type or nodes of different types. In some scenarios, the roles of the RAN nodes 110 and the terminals 120 are relative, e.g., the network element 120i in FIG. 1A can be a helicopter or a drone, which can be configured as a mobile base station. For a terminal 120j accessing the RAN 100 through the network element 120i, the network element 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, the network element 120i is a terminal. The RAN nodes 110 and the terminals 120 are sometimes referred to as communication apparatuses, e.g., the network elements 110a and 110b in FIG. 1A can be understood as communication apparatuses with base station functions, and the network elements 120a-120j can be understood as communication apparatuses with terminal functions.

[0074] The RAN node can also be referred to as an access network device. Hereinafter, the access network device is used for description unless otherwise specified.

[0075] The access network device can be a device or module with corresponding communication functions located at the network side of the communication system described above. The access network device usually has a communication module, circuit or chip for performing corresponding communication functions. The access network device also has programs or instructions and corresponding programs or instructions configured to perform corresponding communication functions.

[0076] The access network device includes, but is not limited to, a base station (base transceiver station (BTS), Node B, evolved Node B (eNodeB) / eNB, or the next generation Node B (gNodeB) / gNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a base station of subsequent evolution of the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), an access node in a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, etc. The base station can be a macro base station (such as 110a in FIG. 1A), a micro base station, a pico base station, a small station, a relay station, or an indoor station (such as 110b in FIG. 1A), etc. Multiple base stations can support a network of the same access technology or a network of different access technologies. The base station can include one or more co-sited or non-co-sited transmission reception points. The access network device can also be a wireless controller, a centralized unit (CU), and / or a distributed unit (DU) in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario. The access network device can also be a server, etc. For example, the network device in the V2X technology can be a road side unit (RSU). Hereinafter, the access network device is described by taking the base station as an example. The base station can communicate with the terminal or communicate with the terminal through the relay station. The terminal can communicate with multiple base stations in different access technologies.

[0077] In another possible scenario, a terminal accesses a wireless network through multiple access network devices. For example, the access network devices can be central units (CU), distributed units (DU), CU-control plane (CU-CP), CU-user plane (CU-UP), radio units (RU), etc.

[0078] In different systems, the CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU can also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an ORAN system, the CU can also be referred to as an open CU (O-CU), the DU can also be referred to as an open DU (O-DU), the CU-CP can also be referred to as an open CU-CP (O-CU-CP), the CU-UP can also be referred to as an open CU-UP (O-CU-UP), and the RU can also be referred to as an open RU (O-RU). Any of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0079] Optionally, in each of the embodiments of the application, if the access network device is a distributed architecture, for example, the access network device includes a CU and a DU, or includes a CU-CP, a CU-UP and a DU, the access network device sends information to the terminal, and specifically, the DU included in the access network device can send information to the terminal; the access network device receives information from the terminal, and specifically, the DU included in the access network device can receive information from the terminal.

[0080] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device can be a network device, or a device capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, such as a module, a circuit, a chip (such as a modem chip, or a SoC chip or a SIP chip containing a modem core), a chip system or a processor, or a logic node, a logic module or software for implementing all or part of the function of the access network device, and the device can be installed in the network device. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device is taken as an example to describe the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application.

[0081] A terminal can be a device or module with corresponding communication functions for accessing the above-mentioned communication system, and can be a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device (such as a mobile phone), a wearable device, a vehicle-mounted device, or a wireless device (such as a communication module, a modem, or a chip system, etc.) built into the above-mentioned device. The terminal is used to connect people, things, machines, etc., and can be widely used in various scenarios, such as but not limited to the following scenarios: sensing scenarios, cellular communication, device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-to-machine / machine-type communications (M2M / MTC), internet of things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), industrial control, self-driving, remote medical, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, unmanned aerial vehicle, robot, indoor commercial scenario (such as mobile phone screen projection, file sharing, mobile phone video transmission to VR glasses), etc. The terminal device in the above-mentioned scenarios can also be called a V2X device when the terminal is applied to V2X, such as a smart car, a digital car, an unmanned car, a self-driving car, a pure EV, a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), a range extended EV (REEV), a plug-in HEV (PHEV), a new energy vehicle, a road site unit (RSU), etc. The terminal can also be a device in D2D communication, such as a water meter, a power meter, etc.

[0082] In addition, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal can also be a device in an IoT system. IoT is an important part of future information technology development. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, so as to realize the intelligent network of man-machine interconnection and object-object interconnection.

[0083] As introduced above, various terminals can be considered as vehicle-mounted terminals if they are located on a vehicle (for example, placed in or installed in a vehicle), which are also called on-board units (OBU). The terminal of the present application can also be an on-board module, on-board module group, on-board component, on-board chip or on-board unit built in a vehicle as one or more components or units, and the vehicle can implement the method of the present application through the built-in on-board module, on-board module group, on-board component, on-board chip or on-board unit.

[0084] The terminal can also be called a terminal device, user equipment (UE), access station, UE station, remote station, wireless communication device, user device, mobile station, mobile terminal, wireless terminal device, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote station, user terminal device, user agent or user equipment, etc. The terminal is usually provided with a communication module, circuit or chip for executing corresponding communication functions. The terminal can also be configured with programs or instructions for executing corresponding communication functions.

[0085] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal can be a terminal device, or a device capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, such as a module, a circuit, a chip (such as a modem chip, or a SoC chip or a SIP chip containing a modem core), a chip system or a processor, or a logic node, a logic module or software for implementing all or part of the terminal function, which can be installed in the terminal device. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device is taken as an example to describe the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. In addition, for the convenience of description, the terminal device is taken as an example to illustrate the embodiments of the present application.

[0086] In this application, the core network device refers to a device in the core network that provides service support for the terminal. For example, in the case of CN 200 as the core network in the future communication system, or the 5G core network, or the evolved 5G core network, some examples of core network devices are: access and mobility management function (AMF) entity, session management function (SMF) entity, user plane function (UPF) entity, policy control function (PCF) entity, etc., which are not listed one by one here. Among them, the AMF entity can be responsible for access management and mobility management of the terminal; the SMF entity can be responsible for session management, such as session establishment of the user, etc.; the UPF entity can be a functional entity of the user plane, mainly responsible for connecting external networks. For another example, in the case of CN 200 as the 4G core network, some examples of core network devices are: mobility management entity (MME) entity, home subscriber server (HSS) entity, serving gateway (S-GW) entity, policy and charging rules function (PCRF) entity, public data network gateway (PDN gateway, P-GW) entity, etc., which are not listed one by one here. It should be noted that the entity in this application can also be referred to as a network element or a functional entity, for example, the AMF entity can also be referred to as an AMF network element or an AMF functional entity, for another example, the SMF entity can also be referred to as an SMF network element or an SMF functional entity, etc. The above core network devices can work independently, or can be combined together to realize certain control functions, such as: AMF, SMF and PCF can be combined together as a core network device.

[0087] FIG. 1B illustrates an example of an architecture of an ORAN system according to some embodiments. The ORAN system according to some embodiments can include other components than those shown in FIG. 1B. As shown in FIG. 1B, an access network device can communicate with a CN through a backhaul and communicate with a terminal through an air interface. For example, a BBU in the access network device communicates with a core network through a backhaul, and a RU in the access network device communicates with at least one terminal through an air interface. The BBU communicates with at least one RU through a fronthaul, and the BBU and the RU can or can not be co-located. The BBU includes at least one CU and at least one DU, which can communicate through at least one midhaul.

[0088] FIG. 1C illustrates an example of a network element function division and protocol layer structure of an ORAN device according to some embodiments.

[0089] In some possible implementations, the CU is a logical node that carries a radio resource control (RRC) layer, a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, and other control functions of the access network device. The CU can be connected to a network node such as a core network through some interfaces (e.g., an E2 interface, etc.). Optionally, the CU can have part of the functions of the core network. The CU (e.g., the PDCP layer and higher layers of the CU) is connected to the DU (e.g., the radio link control (RLC) layer and lower layers of the DU) through some interfaces (e.g., an F1 interface, etc.). For example, the F1 interface can provide control plane (C-Plane) and user plane (U-Plane) functions (e.g., interface management, system information management, UE context management, RRC message transmission, etc.). The F1AP is an application protocol of the F1 interface, which defines signaling procedures of the F1 in some examples. The F1 interface supports the F1 control plane (F1-C) and the F1 user plane (F1-U).

[0090] In some examples, a CU can include a CU-CP and a CU-UP. Wherein the CU-CP is a logical node carrying a control plane part of PDCP (PDCP-C) layer of RRC layer and packet data convergence protocol layer, used to implement the control plane function of the CU. The CU-CP can interact with a network element in the core network for implementing the control plane function. The network element in the core network for implementing the control plane function can be an access and mobility function network element, such as AMF in the 5G system. The CU-UP is a logical node carrying a user plane part of PDCP (PDCP-U) layer of SDAP layer and packet data convergence protocol layer, used to implement the user plane function of the CU. The CU-UP can interact with a network element in the core network for implementing the user plane function. The network element in the core network for implementing the user plane function is, for example, the UPF in the 5G system.

[0091] In some possible implementations, a DU is a logical node carrying an RLC layer, a medium access control (MAC) layer, a higher physical (Higher PHY) layer and other functions. In some examples, a DU can control at least one RU. The DU is connected to the RU through some interfaces (for example, a front-haul interface). In some examples, the Higher PHY layer includes part of physical layer (PHY) processing, such as forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding, scrambling, modulation and demodulation, and other processing functions.

[0092] The above configuration of the CU and the DU is only an example, and the functions of the CU and / or the DU can be configured as needed. For example, the CU or the DU can be configured to have more functions of protocol layers, or the CU or the DU can be configured to have partial processing functions of protocol layers. For example, part of the functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers above the RLC layer are arranged in the CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer are arranged in the DU. For another example, the functions of the CU or the DU can be divided according to the type of service or other system requirements, for example, according to delay. The functions that need to meet the requirement of shorter delay in processing time are arranged in the DU, and the functions that do not need to meet the requirement of shorter delay are arranged in the CU.

[0093] In some possible implementations, the RU is a logical node that hosts lower physical (Lower PHY) layer and radio frequency (RF) processing. In some examples, the RU can be a 3GPP TRP or RRH or other similar functional entity. In some examples, the Low-PHY includes portions of PHY processing such as fast Fourier transform (FFT), inverse fast Fourier transformation (IFFT), digital beamforming and filtering, and other processing functions. The RU communicates with one or more terminals over a wireless link.

[0094] The DU and the RU can or can not be co-located. The DU and the RU exchange control plane and user plane information over a fronthaul link via lower-layer split-control, user and synchronization (LLS-CUS or LLS-C / U / S) interfaces. The LLS-CUS can include a lower-layer split-control plane (LLS-C) interface and a lower-layer split-user plane (LLS-U) interface that provide control plane (C-Plane) and user plane (U-Plane), respectively. In some examples, the control plane refers to real-time control between the DU and the RU. The DU and the RU exchange management information over a lower-layer split management (LLS-M) interface of the fronthaul link. The management plane (M-Plane) refers to non-real-time management operations between the DU and the RU.

[0095] The DU and the RU can cooperate to collectively implement the functionality of the PHY layer. One DU can be connected to one or more RUs. The functionalities that the DU and the RU have can be configured in multiple ways according to design. For example, the DU is configured to implement baseband functionality and the RU is configured to implement mid- RF functionality. As another example, the DU is configured to implement high-layer functionality in the PHY layer and the RU is configured to implement low-layer functionality in the PHY layer or to implement the low-layer functionality and RF functionality. The high-layer functionality in the PHY layer can include a portion of the functionality of the PHY layer that is closer to the MAC layer, and the low-layer functionality in the PHY layer can include another portion of the functionality of the PHY layer that is closer to the mid-RF side.

[0096] The communication system and service scenarios described in the embodiments of the present application are used to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application. Those skilled in the art can know that, with the evolution of network architecture and the appearance of new service scenarios, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0097] The related terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are explained below. It should be noted that these explanations are to make the embodiments of the present application easier to understand, and should not be regarded as a limitation on the scope of protection required by the present application.

[0098] 1. Reference signal (RS):

[0099] The reference signal is also called pilot signal. In a communication system, it is necessary to transmit and receive data, obtain system synchronization and feedback channel information, and estimate the uplink channel or downlink channel. Channel estimation refers to the process of reconstructing or restoring the received signal to compensate for signal distortion caused by channel fading and noise. It uses the reference signal known by the transmitter and the receiver to determine the time domain and frequency domain variations of the channel. The above reference signal is also called reference signal, which is distributed in one or more resource elements (REs) in the time-frequency two-dimensional space within the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, and has a known amplitude and phase.

[0100] 2. Beam:

[0101] A mobile communication system (for example, a 5G mobile communication system) can use high frequency communication, that is, use high frequency signals to transmit data. One of the main problems of high frequency communication is that the signal energy decreases sharply with the transmission distance, resulting in a short signal transmission distance. In order to overcome this problem, high frequency communication uses analog beam technology, which concentrates signal energy in a small angle range by weighting processing of antenna arrays, forms a signal similar to a light beam (called analog beam, simply referred to as beam), and thus improves the transmission distance. Both the access network device and the terminal can use beams for transmission.

[0102] A beam can be referred to as a spatial domain filter, a spatial filter, a spatial domain parameter, a spatial parameter, a spatial domain setting, a spatial setting, quasi-colocation (QCL) information, a QCL assumption, or a QCL indication, and the like in a protocol (for example, an NR protocol). A beam can be indicated by a transmission configuration indicator state (TCI-state) parameter or a spatial relation parameter. Therefore, in the embodiments of the present application, the “beam” can also be replaced by a TCI-state or a spatial relation, and the like. The TCI-state can include a downlink (DL) TCI-state and / or an uplink (UL) TCI-state. Alternatively, the beam can also be replaced by other terms capable of representing a beam, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited. The various terms used to replace “beam” can also be equivalent to each other.

[0103] A beam for transmitting a signal can be referred to as a transmission beam (Tx beam). The transmission beam can refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted by an antenna. The transmission beam can also be referred to as a spatial domain transmission filter, a spatial transmission filter, a spatial domain transmission parameter, a spatial transmission parameter, a spatial domain transmission setting, or a spatial transmission setting. The downlink transmission beam can be indicated by a TCI-state.

[0104] A beam for receiving a signal can be referred to as a reception beam (Rx beam), which can refer to a signal strength distribution of a received wireless signal from an antenna in different directions in space. The reception beam can also be referred to as a spatial domain reception filter, a spatial reception filter, a spatial domain reception parameter, a spatial reception parameter, a spatial domain reception setting, or a spatial reception setting. An uplink transmission beam can be indicated by a spatial relationship, an uplink TCI-state, or a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource, and thus the uplink beam can also be replaced by an SRS resource.

[0105] In addition, a beam can be a wide beam, or a narrow beam, or another type of beam. Techniques for forming a beam can be beamforming techniques or other techniques. Beamforming techniques include digital beamforming techniques, analog beamforming techniques, or hybrid digital / analog beamforming techniques, etc.

[0106] A beam generally corresponds to a resource, for example, including a time domain resource and / or a frequency domain resource occupied by a signal transmitted through the beam. For example, when performing beam measurement, a network device measures different beams through different resources (for example, reference signal resources), and a UE feeds back measured channel quality information to the network device, so that the network device can determine the channel quality of the corresponding beam. Beam information used in data transmission can also be indicated by the resource corresponding to the beam. For example, a network device indicates beam information for transmitting a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) through a TCI (transmission configuration indication) field in downlink control information (DCI).

[0107] Optionally, multiple beams with the same or similar communication characteristics can be considered as one beam. One beam can include one or more antenna ports for transmitting one or more of a data channel, a control channel, or a reference signal. One or more antenna ports forming one beam can also be regarded as one antenna port set.

[0108] In the embodiments of the present application, if no special description is made, the beam can refer to a transmitting beam of the network device. In the beam measurement, each transmitting beam of the network device can correspond to a resource, and therefore the beam corresponding to the resource can also be uniquely indicated by the index of the resource.

[0109] The aforementioned resource can include an uplink resource and / or a downlink resource. The uplink resource can be used to transmit an uplink signal, and the downlink resource can be used to transmit a downlink signal. The uplink signal includes, for example, an SRS and / or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS). The downlink signal includes, for example, one or more of the following: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a cell-specific reference signal (CS-RS), a user equipment-specific reference signal (US-RS), a DMRS, or a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (SS / PBCH block). The SS / PBCH block can be referred to as a synchronization signal block (SSB) for short.

[0110] 3. Antenna port:

[0111] The antenna port can be referred to as a port. The antenna port is a logical concept, and one antenna port is generally associated with one physical antenna. Each antenna port represents a channel model, which can be derived through a reference signal on the antenna port. Therefore, the antenna port is usually associated with a reference signal, and its meaning can be understood as a transceiving interface on the channel experienced by the reference signal. For low frequencies, one antenna port can correspond to one or more antenna elements, and these elements jointly transmit the reference signal, and the receiving end can treat them as a whole without distinguishing these elements. For high-frequency systems, an antenna port can correspond to a beam, and similarly, the receiving end only needs to regard this beam as an interface without distinguishing each element.

[0112] In the protocol, the antenna port is usually represented by antenna port, or port, and can also be represented by a resource (such as a CSI-RS resource, an SRS resource, a DMRS resource, a phase-tracking reference signal (PTRS) resource, a cell reference signal (CRS) resource, a tracking reference signal (TRS) resource, or an SSB resource) or a resource group. That is, the identification of the antenna port in this application can be replaced by the identification of the above content, such as the identification of the resource, the identification of the pilot resource, the identification of the reference signal resource, etc.

[0113] 4. Beamforming (BF):

[0114] Beamforming is also known as beamforming. Beam refers to the radiation pattern of electromagnetic waves of an antenna system, and beamforming, as the name implies, is a process of forming a beam. In a multi-antenna system, beamforming refers to a process of forming a directional electromagnetic wave radiation pattern by adjusting the amplitude or phase of the signal on the radio frequency link. Since the radio frequency link is divided into digital radio frequency link and analog radio frequency link, beamforming can also be divided into digital beamforming and analog beamforming.

[0115] The following will take the access network device as a base station as an example, and describe beamforming in combination with the content shown in FIG. 2. Generally, in a communication system at a high frequency band, a base station (and a terminal at a part of the frequency band) usually uses a large-scale array antenna (for example, from 500 to 1000 or more antenna units) to counteract the path loss caused by the increase of the frequency band through a high array gain, and to improve the coverage capability. From the implementation of the base station, the same is a large array, and the array weighting manner (that is, the beamforming manner) used by different arrays of different frequency bands is different. The beamforming manner can include the following three types:

[0116] One way is digital beamforming (DBF). FIG. 2(a) shows a possible example of a DBF structure. In which, the DBF technology has one or more digital ports (or digital channels or digital processing channels), each digital port is connected to one or a group of antenna units, and the phase (or amplitude and phase) of the signal is adjusted in the digital domain through each digital port, so that the radiation signal of the signal radiated through the antenna has directionality.

[0117] Another way is analog beamforming (ABF). Figure 2(b) shows a possible example of an ABF structure. The ABF technology has one or more phase shifters, each connected to one or a group of antenna units, and by adjusting the phase of each antenna unit corresponding to the phase shifter, the radiation signal of the signal radiated through the antenna array has directivity. A plurality of antenna units can correspond to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) / analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The phase shifter setting in the analog domain determines the beam direction after beamforming. Since the signal is directly combined in the analog domain, it cannot be weighted like DBF using digital signal processing, and ABF needs to pre-configure the phase shifter setting (i.e., point the analog beam to the target terminal) when transmitting and receiving. This process needs to be completed through beam scanning in the link establishment stage. Generally, once the analog beam is blocked or moved to cause misalignment, the link quality of the system will decrease rapidly or even be interrupted.

[0118] Another way is hybrid beamforming (HBF). HBF technology is a combination of ABF technology and DBF technology. Figure 2(c) shows a possible example of an HBF structure. HBF has one or more digital ports on the one hand, supporting digital beamforming. Each digital port corresponds to an ABF subarray, and each ABF subarray has one or more phase shifters, supporting analog beamforming. Figure 2(c) shows a 3-way digital port, each digital port corresponding to an HBF structure with 2 phase shifters.

[0119] For example, the number of digital ports currently supported by the protocol can be: 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128.

[0120] Generally, there can be analog beams in both ABF architecture and HBF architecture, and when the analog beams are aligned with the communication target, the signal quality will be improved. The direction of the analog beam (determined by the beam weight) needs to be configured before transmission and reception. For a certain terminal, the process of selecting the analog beam by the base station is called beam training or beam scanning. Beam scanning is usually achieved by the base station sending reference signals using different analog beam weights, and the terminal measures the reference signals respectively and feeds back the measurement results to help the base station determine which beam has the best quality. In addition, in order to send data to the terminal, the base station needs to perform precoding on the digital port and select the appropriate coding and modulation order. The role of precoding is to make the antenna (or beam) and the channel more matched to ensure that the signal quality is better and the interference is smaller when the transmitted data reaches the terminal side. The setting of MCS needs to be determined according to the channel quality and channel response. A common method is to send reference signals by the base station, and the terminal determines the channel according to the reference signals and then feeds back the corresponding CSI. The CSI can include the precoding matrix indicator (PMI), the rank indicator (RI) and the channel quality indicator (CQI), and this process is called CSI feedback. Among them, CQI can be used to select the most effective MCS and the size of the transport block (TB), etc. RI is the rank of the channel, which can be used to select the number of layers of transmission. Another way is to measure and obtain the uplink channel information through the uplink reference signal, and then further obtain the downlink channel information based on the channel reciprocity.

[0121] As mentioned earlier, both ABF architecture and HBF architecture have digital ports and analog phase shifter arrays. Therefore, multiple analog beams can be selected during communication, which means that each analog beam needs to feed back the corresponding channel state information, such as CQI, RI, etc. At present, when feeding back channel state information, it is usually reported according to a single beam, that is, the network device sends reference signals based on a specific analog beam, and the terminal feeds back the channel state information of the analog beam. If the network device wants to obtain the channel state information of multiple analog beams, the terminal needs to feed back multiple times respectively, which has a large feedback overhead. However, even if the terminal can feed back the channel state information of multiple analog beams at a time, feeding back the channel state information of multiple analog beams at a time still requires a large feedback overhead.

[0122] For example, referring to FIG. 3, a comparison example diagram of CQI feedback overhead of single beam and multi-beam is shown. It can be seen that if 1 CQI of a single analog beam (i.e., wideband CQI) needs 4 bits (bit), then 1 CQI of 4 analog beams needs 16 bits. If 9 sub-band CQI of a single analog beam needs 22 (i.e., 4+9*2=22) bits, then 9 sub-band CQI of 4 analog beams needs 88 bits. If 18 sub-band CQI of a single analog beam needs 40 (i.e., 18*2+4=40) bits, then 18 sub-band CQI of 4 analog beams needs 160 bits. Similarly, if 1 RI value of a single analog beam needs 3 bits, then RI of 4 analog beams needs 12 bits. It can be seen that although the CQI or RI of multiple analog beams is fed back at a time, the feedback overhead of the CQI and RI of multiple analog beams is still large.

[0123] In view of this, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method for reducing the feedback overhead of channel quality information (or channel state information) and improving the flexibility of channel quality information feedback.

[0124] The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be applied to the communication network architecture shown in FIGS. 1A-1C. For example, the network device referred to hereinafter can be the network device (such as an access network device) shown in any one of FIGS. 1A-1C; the UE referred to hereinafter can be a terminal, which can be, for example, the terminal shown in any one of FIGS. 1A-1C.

[0125] Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a flow diagram corresponding to the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application. In the flow, the feedback of channel state information (or channel quality information) of a downlink channel is described as an example. The method of the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to the feedback of channel state information (or channel quality information) of an uplink channel, in which case the UE sends a reference signal to the base station, and the base station performs measurement and feeds back the channel state information (or channel quality information) to the UE.

[0126] S401, the network device sends first configuration information to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the first configuration information from the network device.

[0127] The first configuration information can be used to configure the UE with reference signal resources, for example, the first configuration information can configure one or more of the following: time domain resources for transmitting the reference signal, frequency domain resources for transmitting the reference signal, a periodicity of the reference signal, information that the reference signal is an aperiodic signal, information that the reference signal is a semi-persistent signal, or a resource mapping manner of the reference signal. The reference signal can include one or more of a CSI-RS, a CS-RS, a US-RS, a DMRS, or an SSB, for example. Optionally, the reference signal resources are used for measuring channel quality of multiple beams.

[0128] The first configuration information is included in high layer signaling, for example, radio resource control (RRC) signaling or medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), for example, without limitation.

[0129] Alternatively, the reference signal resources can also not be configured by the network device, but can be predefined by a protocol or preconfigured in the UE, and thus S401 can also not be performed. Therefore, S401 is an optional step.

[0130] S402, the UE sends capability information to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the capability information.

[0131] In a possible implementation, the capability information can indicate whether the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams. The channel quality information can be CSI, or the channel quality information can be CQI and / or RI, or the channel quality information can also be other information. For example, the capability information can indicate whether the UE supports reporting CQI of multiple beams. For another example, the capability information can indicate whether the UE supports reporting RI of multiple beams. For yet another example, the capability information can indicate whether the UE supports reporting CQI and RI of multiple beams simultaneously.

[0132] Optionally, if the capability information indicates that the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams, the capability information can also indicate whether to support reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in groups. For example, the capability information can indicate whether the UE supports reporting CQI of multiple beams in groups. For another example, the capability information can indicate whether the UE supports reporting RI of multiple beams in groups. For yet another example, the capability information can indicate whether the UE supports reporting CQI and RI of multiple beams in groups simultaneously.

[0133] Optionally, if the capability information indicates that the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in a group, the capability information can further indicate group related information. The group related information can be, for example, a maximum number of groups supported by the UE when reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in a group, a maximum number of resources included in each group, and / or a maximum number of beams, etc.

[0134] Optionally, if the capability information indicates that the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams, the capability information can further indicate a maximum number of resources and / or a maximum number of beams supported by the UE when reporting channel quality information of multiple beams, wherein the resources and the beams can be in one-to-one correspondence.

[0135] In another possible implementation, the capability information can also indicate group related information of the UE when reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in a group, and the group related information can implicitly indicate whether the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in a group. Therefore, the capability information can not need to explicitly indicate whether the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in a group. For example, if the maximum number of groups supported by the UE is 1, it indicates that the UE does not support reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in a group. For another example, if the maximum number of groups supported by the UE is 2, it indicates that the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams in a group.

[0136] Optionally, the capability information can also indicate a maximum number of resources and / or a maximum number of beams supported by the UE when reporting channel quality information of multiple beams, and the number can implicitly indicate whether the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams. Therefore, the capability information can not need to explicitly indicate whether the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams. For example, if the maximum number of beams supported by the UE when reporting channel quality information of multiple beams is 1, it indicates that the UE does not support reporting channel quality information of multiple beams. For another example, if the maximum number of beams supported by the UE when reporting channel quality information of multiple beams is 4, it indicates that the UE supports reporting channel quality information of multiple beams.

[0137] Alternatively, the network device can determine the capability information in other manners, for example, the network device can obtain the capability information through registration information of the UE, etc. Alternatively, the network device can not need to know the capability information of the UE, but can default that the UE can support reporting channel quality information of multiple beams. Therefore, S402 is an optional step.

[0138] In the embodiments of the present application, since the terms of resource, reference signal, beam, transmission beam, reception beam, CSI-RS, and SSB can be replaced with each other, the channel quality information of multiple beams can also be referred to as channel quality information of multiple resources, or channel quality information of multiple reference signals.

[0139] S403. The network device sends the second configuration information to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the second configuration information.

[0140] The second configuration information can be used to configure related information when the UE reports the channel quality information of the multiple beams.

[0141] In a possible implementation, the second configuration information can be used to configure whether to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams.

[0142] Optionally, if the second configuration information configures to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams, the second configuration information can further configure whether to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams in groups. Optionally, if the second configuration information configures to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams in groups, the second configuration information can further configure grouping related information.

[0143] Optionally, if the second configuration information configures to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams, the second configuration information can further configure the number of resources and / or the number of beams for which the channel quality information of the multiple beams needs to be reported. The number of resources and / or the number of beams for which the channel quality information of the multiple beams needs to be reported can be predefined by a protocol, or be a default value, or be determined according to the capability information of the UE.

[0144] In another possible implementation, the second configuration information can configure the grouping related information when the channel quality information of the multiple beams is reported in groups, and whether to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams in groups can be implicitly indicated by the grouping related information. Therefore, the second configuration information can not need to explicitly indicate whether to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams in groups. For example, the number of groups for reporting the channel quality information of the multiple beams is 1, which indicates that the channel quality information of the multiple beams is not reported. For another example, the number of groups for reporting the channel quality information of the multiple beams is 2, which indicates that the channel quality information of the multiple beams is reported in groups.

[0145] Optionally, the second configuration information can further configure the number of resources and / or the number of beams for which the channel quality information of the multiple beams needs to be reported, and whether to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams can be implicitly indicated by the number. Therefore, the second configuration information can not need to explicitly indicate whether to report the channel quality information of the multiple beams. For example, the number of beams for which the channel quality information of the multiple beams needs to be reported is 1, which indicates that the channel quality information of the multiple beams is not reported. For another example, the number of beams for which the channel quality information of the multiple beams needs to be reported is 2, which indicates that the channel quality information of the multiple beams is reported.

[0146] Alternatively, the network device can not need to configure, and the UE can report the channel quality information of the multiple beams in groups by default, or the UE can actively report the channel quality information of the multiple beams in groups when the capability allows. Therefore, S403 is an optional step.

[0147] The specific information configured for the second configuration information will be described in the subsequent description, and will not be described here.

[0148] S404, the network device sends the reference signal. Correspondingly, the UE receives the reference signal.

[0149] Optionally, the network device sends the reference signal through the reference signal resource configured in S401. For example, the network device can send the reference signal through multiple beams. As an implementation manner, the network device can send K reference signals through K beams, and the K reference signals sent correspond to the K beams one by one. Correspondingly, the UE can receive the K reference signals to obtain K channel quality information. As another implementation manner, the network device can send K reference signals, and the UE can obtain more than K channel quality information according to the K reference signals.

[0150] The reference signal can be introduced with reference to S401.

[0151] S405, the UE sends the first information. Correspondingly, the network device receives the first information.

[0152] S406, the network device determines the channel quality of the L beams and the P beams according to the first information.

[0153] The UE can receive the reference signal through the receiving beams corresponding to the multiple sending beams of the network device. The UE can measure part or all of the received reference signals. For example, the UE measures the reference signals sent through the multiple beams of the network device, and can obtain the measurement results corresponding to the multiple beams. Then, the UE can report (or feed back) the channel quality information according to the measurement results, that is, the UE sends the first information, or the UE sends the first information to the network device, or the UE generates the first information according to the measurement results, and then the UE sends the first information. Subsequently, the network device can determine the channel quality of the L beams and the P beams according to the first information, so as to select the beams with higher quality and the sending manner when the network device sends data to the UE. S406 is an optional step, that is, S406 can be executed or not executed.

[0154] The first information can indicate the channel quality of the L beams and the channel quality of the P beams, and L and P are both positive integers. The first information includes L channel quality information, and one of the channel quality information corresponds to one of the L beams. The first information also includes N channel quality information, and one of the channel quality information corresponds to one or more of the P beams, and N is a positive integer less than or equal to P.

[0155] Optionally, the information quantity of at least one of the N pieces of channel quality information is less than that of any one of the L pieces of channel quality information, that is, part of the beams in the beams to be reported have a smaller information quantity, which can reduce the overhead of reporting the channel quality information. In addition, since the information quantity determines the accuracy of the channel quality information to some extent, the larger the information quantity, the higher the accuracy of the channel quality information, that is, the accuracy of the channel quality information of the L beams is higher, and the accuracy of the channel quality information of the P beams is relatively lower. Therefore, the channel quality information of different beams can be reported with different accuracies to meet the demand for channel quality information in different scenarios or services, and the flexibility of reporting the channel quality information is higher. In the embodiments of the present application, the information quantity can be replaced by the number of bits or the transmission overhead.

[0156] Optionally, N is less than P, that is, at least two beams of the P beams report one piece of channel quality information. In this case, it can be understood that the information quantity of the channel quality information of one or more beams of the at least two beams is zero, or the information quantity of the channel quality information of each beam of the at least two beams can be the average information quantity, that is, the ratio of the information quantity of the channel quality information of the at least two beams to the number of beams. Therefore, compared with the information quantity of the channel quality information of any one of the L beams, there is always at least one beam in the P beams whose channel quality information has a smaller information quantity.

[0157] Optionally, N is equal to P, that is, the P beams respectively report corresponding channel quality information. In this case, the channel quality information of at least one beam of the P beams can be reported in a manner with a smaller information quantity, for example, the change of the channel quality of a beam relative to the channel quality of a reference beam. Therefore, compared with the information quantity of the channel quality information of any one of the L beams, there is always at least one beam in the P beams whose channel quality information has a smaller information quantity.

[0158] Optionally, the first information can be CSI, or the first information is included in the CSI. Optionally, the first information can be included in a measurement report (MR) and transmitted. Optionally, the first information can be included in an RRC message, DCI or MAC-CE and transmitted, which is not limited.

[0159] In the embodiments of the present application, the channel quality information is, for example, CSI, or one or more parameters included in the CSI. The parameters included in the CSI can refer to the foregoing description. For example, the channel quality information can be CQI, layer indicator (LI), RI, PMI, or CQI and RI, and the like, without limitation. In the following description, the channel quality information is mainly taken as an example of CQI and / or RI.

[0160] Optionally, the UE can report the channel quality information in groups. For example, the L beams are a first beam group, and the P beams are a second beam group. The beam group can also be referred to as a beam set, and the like, without specific limitation. The L beams included in the first beam group correspond to the L channel quality information one by one, which can be understood as the first beam group being an independent reporting group, that is, the corresponding channel quality information is independently reported for each beam of the first beam group. The P beams included in the second beam group report N channel quality information, and one channel quality information corresponds to one or more beams, which can be understood as the second beam group being a shared reporting group or an optional reporting group. The shared reporting group means that part or all of the P beams in the second beam group can share the reporting of the channel quality information. The shared reporting of the channel quality information can be understood as reporting one channel quality information for multiple beams, and the channel quality information can represent the channel quality of the multiple beams. The optional reporting group means that one or more beams in the P beams in the second beam group can be selectively reported, that is, the corresponding channel quality information can be reported or not reported.

[0161] As a possible implementation manner, the beam groups can be divided according to the priority (or importance) of the beams. For example, the first beam group is a high-priority beam group, and the L beams included in the first beam group are all high-priority beams. The second beam group includes other beams except the high-priority beams, which are referred to as low-priority beams here. The high-priority beam can be understood as a beam that must report the channel quality information, and the low-priority beam can be understood as a beam that can optionally report the channel quality information. Alternatively, the high-priority beam can be understood as a beam that independently reports the channel quality information, and the low-priority beam can be understood as a beam that shares the reporting of the channel quality information. Alternatively, the high-priority beam can be understood as a beam that needs to report the channel quality information with high accuracy, and the low-priority beam can be understood as a beam that can report the channel quality information with low accuracy.

[0162] As another possible implementation, the beam groups can be divided according to a certain parameter of the beams. Optionally, the parameter can be the rank, the RI, or other possible parameters, which are not limited. For example, beams with the same value or in the same interval of the rank or the RI of the channel can be divided into a group. For example, the value range of the rank or the RI of the channel is 1-8, beams with the value of 1-4 of the rank or the RI of the channel can be divided into a first beam group, and beams with the value of 5-8 of the rank or the RI of the channel can be divided into a second beam group, or beams with the value of 5-8 of the rank of the channel can be divided into a first beam group, and beams with the value of 1-4 of the rank of the channel can be divided into a second beam group.

[0163] As another possible implementation, the beam groups can be divided according to the strength of the channel quality of the beams. Optionally, beams with stronger channel quality are divided into a first beam group, and beams with relatively weaker channel quality are divided into a second beam group.

[0164] The above examples several possible ways of dividing the beam groups, in addition to the above-mentioned ways, other ways can also be used for division, which are not limited. In the following, the grouping reporting mode is mainly taken as an example for introduction.

[0165] The information amount of at least one channel quality information in the N channel quality information is less than the information amount of any one channel quality information in the L channel quality information, which can be understood as the information amount of the channel quality information of at least one beam in the second beam group is less than the information amount of the channel quality information of any one beam in the first beam group. Optionally, the information amount of the channel quality information of each beam in the first beam group is the same. Optionally, the minimum value of the information amount of the channel quality information in the first beam group is greater than or equal to the maximum value of the information amount of the channel quality information in the second beam group. Optionally, the information amount of the channel quality information of at least one beam in the second beam group is less than the information amount of the channel quality information of any one beam in the first beam group, which can also be understood as the average information amount corresponding to the second beam group is less than the average information amount corresponding to the first beam group, and the average information amount corresponding to a beam group is the ratio of the total information amount of the channel quality information of the beam group to the number of beams. As a possible case, when the number of beams included in the first beam group and the second beam group is equal, i.e., L=P, the total information amount of the channel quality information of the first beam group is greater than the total information amount of the channel quality information of the second beam group.

[0166] The UE can report the channel quality information according to the reported fourth information. Optionally, the fourth information can be configured by the network device, and the network device sends the fourth information to the UE. Accordingly, the UE receives the fourth information, and the UE can report the channel quality information according to the fourth information. For example, the fourth information can be included in the first configuration information or the second configuration information, or part of the fourth information is included in the first configuration information and another part of the fourth information is included in the second configuration information. Optionally, the fourth information can be predefined by a protocol or preconfigured in the UE. Optionally, the fourth information can be determined by the UE, and the UE sends the fourth information to the network device. Accordingly, the network device receives the fourth information, and the network device can receive or decode the channel quality information reported by the UE according to the fourth information. Alternatively, the fourth information can be a combination of the above-mentioned optional manners, for example, part of the fourth information is configured by the network device, part of the fourth information is predefined by a protocol, and another part of the fourth information is determined by the UE.

[0167] As a possible implementation, the fourth information can indicate one or more of the following:

[0168] (1) A first quantity M, the first quantity M is a sum of L and P. The first quantity M is a total number of beams for which the UE needs to report channel quality information. For example, the channel quality information is CQI, and the first quantity M can be a total number of beams for which the UE needs to report CQI. For another example, the channel quality information is RI, and the first quantity M can be a total number of beams for which the UE needs to report RI. For another example, the channel quality information can be CQI and RI, and the first quantity M can include a first sub-quantity M1 and a second sub-quantity M2, M1 is a total number of beams for which the UE needs to report CQI, and M2 is a total number of beams for which the UE needs to report RI. M1 and M2 can be the same or different. If M1 and M2 are the same, the first quantity M can also include only one value, which can represent both the total number of beams for which the UE needs to report CQI and the total number of beams for which the UE needs to report RI.

[0169] Optionally, the first quantity M can be predefined by a protocol or preconfigured in the UE, or the first quantity M can be configured by the network device, or the first quantity M can be determined by the UE, for example, the UE determines the first quantity M according to its own capability.

[0170] (2) a second quantity, the second quantity being a quantity of beam groups to which the L beams and the P beams belong. For example, the L beams are a first beam group, the P beams are a second beam group, the first beam group can be one or more, the second beam group can be one or more, the second quantity being a quantity of the first beam group and / or a quantity of the second beam group, or the second quantity being a sum of the quantities of the first beam group and the second beam group. If the second quantity is greater than 2, i.e., the quantity of the first beam group or the quantity of the second beam group is greater than 1, taking the second beam group as an example, the reporting manners of different second beam groups can be different. For example, one second beam group reports by sharing the channel quality information, and another second beam group reports by reporting a change amount of the channel quality information. The specific reporting manners will be introduced later, and will not be described herein. Alternatively, the reporting precisions of different second beam groups can be different. For example, the information quantity of the channel quality information of the beams in one second beam group is greater than the information quantity of the channel quality information of the beams in another second beam group.

[0171] Optionally, the second quantity can be predefined by a protocol, preconfigured in the UE, configured by the network device, or determined by the UE.

[0172] (3) a first beam group, the first beam group including the L beams. That is, the fourth information can indicate the beams specifically included in the first beam group. For example, the fourth information can indicate the indices of the beams included in the first beam group. It should be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, the indices of the beams can be replaced by resource indices, reference signal indices, CSI-RS resource indicators (CRIs), SSB indices, and the like.

[0173] Optionally, the first beam group can be predefined by a protocol, preconfigured in the UE, configured by the network device, or determined by the UE.

[0174] (4) a second beam group, the second beam group including the P beams. That is, the fourth information can indicate the beams specifically included in the second beam group. For example, the fourth information can indicate the indices of the beams included in the second beam group, and the like.

[0175] Optionally, the first beam group can be predefined by a protocol, preconfigured in the UE, configured by the network device, or determined by the UE.

[0176] As an example, the network device can configure high priority beams, channel quality information of which must be reported, and other beams can be reported selectively. For example, the network device configures 8 beams (or resources) in total, corresponding to CRI#0~7, 4 of which report channel quality information, corresponding to CRI#0, 2, 4, 6, the number of high priority beams is 2, corresponding to CRI#0, 2, and the beams that the UE can select are CRI#4, 6, so they can be divided into two groups, CRI#0, 2 is the first beam group, and CRI#4, 6 is the second beam group. If the grouping is configured by the network device, the UE does not need to report the specific grouping, and if the grouping is decided by the UE, the UE needs to report the index of the grouping to the network device, so that the network device determines the specific grouping.

[0177] (5) The grouping mode corresponding to the first beam group and the second beam group. The grouping mode can be one of the above-mentioned grouping modes, or can be pre-defined by a protocol, pre-configured in the UE, configured by the network device, or decided by the UE.

[0178] (6) Whether to report the channel quality information of the grouped beams or the channel quality information of the ungrouped beams. If it is indicated to report the channel quality information of the grouped beams, the UE will report the channel quality information in the grouping mode, and the network device will also analyze or process the channel quality information reported by the UE in the grouping mode accordingly.

[0179] Optionally, whether to report the channel quality information of the grouped beams or the channel quality information of the ungrouped beams can also be pre-defined by a protocol, pre-configured in the UE, configured by the network device, or decided by the UE.

[0180] (7) The reporting strategy of the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information. That is, the fourth information can also indicate to select one of a plurality of reporting strategies to report the channel quality information. The reporting strategy indicates how to report the channel quality information of each beam of the channel quality information to be reported.

[0181] Optionally, the reporting strategy can also be pre-defined by a protocol, pre-configured in the UE, configured by the network device, or decided by the UE. Specific reporting strategies will be described below and will not be described here.

[0182] In a possible implementation, one channel quality information can indicate the channel quality of the corresponding beam. It can be understood that the channel quality of the beam can be represented by one or more parameters of the beam, so one channel quality information can directly indicate the value of one or more parameters of the corresponding beam. For example, the parameters can include CQI and / or RI, and one channel quality information can be the index of CQI and / or the index of RI, etc.

[0183] Taking CQI as an example, optionally, the network device can configure a CQI table for the UE, and the UE can determine the index of the CQI of any beam according to the CQI table. Alternatively, the network device can configure multiple CQI tables for the UE, for example, configure a CQI table for each or multiple beams, and then the UE can determine the index of the wideband CQI of each beam according to the CQI table corresponding to the beam.

[0184] For example, the index of CQI takes a value of 0-15, which can be represented by 4 bits, and each value corresponds to a modulation mode, a code rate and an efficiency. Four CQI tables are provided in the protocol, and the network device indicates which CQI table is used by the UE to calculate CQI through the high-level parameter cqi-Table in CSI-ReportConfig, which takes a value of table1, table2, table3 or table4. When cqi-Table is configured as 'table1', 'table2' and 'table4', the UE determines CQI according to the criterion that the block error rate should not exceed 0.1, which is suitable for eMBB service; when cqi-Table is configured as 'table3', the UE determines CQI according to the criterion that the block error rate should not exceed 0.00001, which is suitable for URLLC service.

[0185] For example, refer to Table 1, which is table1 as described above.

[0186] Table 1

[0187] In Table 1, the first column is the CQI index, which can be sent by the UE to the network device. The second column is the modulation mode, which determines the modulation order and represents the number of bits transmitted per 1 modulation symbol. For example, the modulation order corresponding to QPSK is 2, the modulation order corresponding to 16QAM is 4, the modulation order corresponding to 64QAM is 6, the modulation order corresponding to 256QAM is 8, and the modulation order corresponding to 1024QAM is 10. The better the channel quality, the higher the order of modulation mode can be used to improve the coding efficiency; if the channel quality is poor, a low-order modulation mode can be used. The third column is the code rate, which is the ratio of the number of information bits to the total number of bits. The fourth column is the efficiency, which is the ratio of the number of information bits to the total number of modulation symbols.

[0188] Optionally, the channel quality information of each beam in the first beam group including L beams can directly indicate the channel quality of the corresponding beam.

[0189] Optionally, the channel quality information of part or all of the P beams included in the second beam group can directly indicate the channel quality of the corresponding beam. Optionally, one of the N channel quality information indicates the channel quality of multiple beams in the P beams, i.e., one channel quality information can be reported for multiple beams included in the P beams of the second beam group, and the channel quality information can indicate the channel quality of the multiple beams.

[0190] In another possible implementation, one channel quality information can indicate the change amount of the channel quality of the corresponding beam relative to the channel quality of the reference beam. The change amount can also be referred to as a differential amount, differential information, or change information, etc. It can be understood that the channel quality of a beam can be represented by one or more parameters of the beam, and then one channel quality information can indicate the change amount of the value of one or more parameters of the corresponding beam relative to the value of the parameter of the reference beam. For example, the parameters can include CQI and / or RI, and one channel quality information can be the change amount of the index of the CQI of the corresponding beam relative to the index of the CQI of the reference beam, and / or the change amount of the index of the RI of the corresponding beam relative to the index of the RI of the reference beam, etc. In this way, the change amount of the value of one or more parameters can be reported, and it is not necessary to directly report the value of a certain parameter, which is beneficial to saving signaling overhead.

[0191] Optionally, the channel quality information of part or all of the P beams included in the second beam group can indicate the change amount of the channel quality of the corresponding beam relative to the channel quality of the reference beam. Optionally, one of the N channel quality information can indicate the change amount of the channel quality of one or more beams in the P beams relative to the channel quality of the reference beam.

[0192] If one channel quality information indicates the change amount of the channel quality of the corresponding beam relative to the channel quality of the reference beam, one indication manner is that the channel quality information indicates the difference value of the channel quality of the corresponding beam and the channel quality of the reference beam, or indicates the absolute value of the difference value. Taking the parameter CQI as an example, the CQI corresponding to the reference beam is wbCQIn, and the CQI corresponding to beam 1 in the P beams is wbCQIm, and then the channel quality information corresponding to beam 1 can indicate wbCQIm-wbCQIn. The change amount is directly embodied by the difference value, which is beneficial to the network device to determine the actual wideband channel quality.

[0193] Alternatively, another indication manner is that the channel quality information indicates a difference interval, which includes a difference between the channel quality corresponding to the one or more beams and the channel quality of the reference beam, or includes an absolute value of the difference. For example, a plurality of difference intervals can be divided, each of which can include one or more values, and the plurality of difference intervals can be continuous or discontinuous, and the values included in any of the difference intervals can be continuous or discontinuous. The plurality of difference intervals are predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or configured by the network device. For example, refer to Table 2 for an example of the difference interval.

[0194] Table 2

[0195] Table 2 takes an example of dividing 4 difference intervals, which are (-∞, -6), [-6, 0), [0, 6), [6, ∞) respectively. For example, the difference between the channel quality (for example, CQI) corresponding to beam 1 of P beams and the channel quality of the reference beam is 3, the UE determines that the difference belongs to the difference interval corresponding to index 2 [0, 6), and then the channel quality information corresponding to beam 1 reported by the UE can indicate index 2.

[0196] Refer to Table 3 for another example of the difference interval.

[0197] Table 3

[0198] Table 3 takes an example of dividing 4 difference intervals, which are (-∞, -3), [-3, 0), [0, 3), [3, ∞) respectively. For example, the difference between the channel quality corresponding to beam 2 of P beams and the channel quality of the reference beam is -2, the UE determines that the difference belongs to the difference interval corresponding to index 1 [-3, 0), and then the channel quality information corresponding to beam 2 reported by the UE can indicate index 1.

[0199] Refer to Table 4 for another example of the difference interval.

[0200] Table 4

[0201] Table 4 takes an example of dividing 8 difference intervals, which are (-∞, -9), [-9, -6), [-6, -3), [-3, 0), [-3, 0), [0, 3), [3, 6), [6, 9) [9, ∞) respectively. For example, the difference between the channel quality corresponding to beam 3 of P beams and the channel quality of the reference beam is 8, the UE determines that the difference belongs to the difference interval corresponding to index 6 [6, 9), and then the channel quality information corresponding to beam 3 reported by the UE can indicate index 6.

[0202] When the difference interval in Table 2 and Table 3 is used, 2 bits can be used for feedback, and when the difference interval in Table 4 is used, 3 bits can be used for feedback. Alternatively, more bits or more detailed difference interval division manners can also be used, and no limitation is made.

[0203] It should be understood that the new table contents obtained by reasonable deformation, supplement or deletion of the contents in Table 2 to Table 4 are within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0204] Generally, the number of difference intervals is less than the number of values of the required feedback parameters, and compared with directly feeding back the values of the parameters, the number of bits required for feeding back the difference intervals is less, which can save the overhead.

[0205] If the channel quality information of part or all of the P beams included in the second beam group can indicate the change amount of the channel quality of the corresponding beam relative to the channel quality of the reference beam, in this way, the UE can determine the reference beam, and then determine the change amount of the channel quality of one or more beams in the P beams relative to the channel quality of the reference beam. Alternatively, the reference beam can be configured by the network device, or predefined by the protocol, or preconfigured in the UE and the network device, or can also be determined by the UE itself.

[0206] Alternatively, the reference beam can be determined in any one or more of the following ways:

[0207] A1, the reference beam is the first beam in the L beams, that is, one or more beams in the second beam group take the first beam in the first beam group as the reference beam. The first beam can be any beam in the L beams. Alternatively, the first beam can be the beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in the L beams. For example, the first beam is the beam with the largest or smallest index of CQI, or the beam with the largest or smallest index of RI. Alternatively, the first beam can be the beam with the largest or smallest index in the L beams. Alternatively, the first beam is the beam in the L beams which has the same interval as the RI of one or more beams in the P beams. If there are multiple beams in the L beams which have the same interval as the RI of one or more beams in the P beams, the first beam can be any one of the multiple beams. For example, the index of RI is 1-8, 1-4 belongs to one interval, 5-8 belongs to another interval, the RI of beam 1 in the L beams belongs to 1-4, and the RI of beam 2 in the P beams also belongs to 1-4, then beam 1 can be used as the reference beam of beam 2.

[0208] In the mode A2, the reference beam is the second beam in the P beams, i.e., one or more beams in the second beam group take the second beam in the second beam group as the reference beam. The second beam can be any beam in the P beams. Optionally, the second beam can be the beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in the P beams. For example, the second beam is the beam with the largest or smallest index of CQI, or the beam with the largest or smallest index of RI. Optionally, the second beam can be the beam with the largest or smallest index of beam in the P beams. Optionally, the second beam is the beam in the P beams which belongs to the same interval of RI as one or more beams in the P beams.

[0209] In the mode A3, the reference beam is the beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in the L beams and / or the P beams. That is, the reference beam of one or more beams in the second beam group is the beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in the first beam group, or the reference beam of one or more beams in the second beam group is the beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in the second beam group, or the reference beam of one or more beams in the second beam group is the beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in all beams.

[0210] In the mode A4, the reference beam is the beam with the largest or smallest index of beam in the L beams and / or the P beams. That is, the reference beam of one or more beams in the second beam group is the beam with the largest or smallest index of beam in the first beam group, or the reference beam of one or more beams in the second beam group is the beam with the largest or smallest index of beam in the second beam group, or the reference beam of one or more beams in the second beam group is the beam with the largest or smallest index of beam in all beams.

[0211] In the mode A5, the reference beam is the beam with the same order of the corresponding beam in the L beams. For example, the first beam group includes beam 1 (first beam) and beam 2 (second beam), and the second beam group includes beam 3 (first beam) and beam 4 (second beam). The beam 3 in the second beam group takes the beam 1 in the first beam group as the reference beam, and the beam 4 in the second beam group takes the beam 2 in the first beam group as the reference beam. It should be understood that in this mode, the number of beams in the first beam group is greater than or equal to the number of beams in the second beam group.

[0212] A6, the reference beam is the same interval of the RI of the corresponding beam of the reference beam among the P beams, that is, for one or more beams among the P beams, the interval of the RI of the beam should be the same as the interval of the RI of the reference beam of the beam. Because if the reported channel quality information includes CQI, the CQI can be reported according to the transport block (TB). The TB can also be understood as a code word (CW). The UE can obtain the rank of the channel by measuring the CSI-RS. When the UE feeds back the rank of the channel as 1-4, the UE only needs to feed back one CQI value; when the UE feeds back the rank of the channel as 5-8, the UE needs to feed back CQI according to the TB, feeds back one CQI for the first TB, and feeds back one CQI for the second TB. Therefore, the reference beam can be selected in combination with the interval of the RI.

[0213] Optionally, for the P beams in the second beam group, different beams can correspond to the same reference beam, or the reference beams corresponding to different beams can also be different. For example, the P beams include beam 1, beam 2 and beam 3, the reference beams corresponding to beam 2 and beam 3 are both beam 1; or the P beams include beam 1, beam 2 and beam 3, wherein the reference beam corresponding to beam 2 is beam 1, and the reference beam corresponding to beam 3 is beam 2.

[0214] If the reported channel quality information indicates the change amount, the UE needs to determine the number of bits occupied by each channel quality information indicating the change amount. For example, the UE can determine the number of bits occupied by each channel quality information indicating the change amount according to the third information. The third information can be configured by the network device, that is, the network device sends the third information, and correspondingly, the UE receives the third information. Alternatively, the third information can be pre-defined by the protocol or pre-configured in the UE, or the third information can also be decided by the UE itself, that is, the UE can decide the number of bits occupied by the change amount corresponding to each beam by itself, and in this way, the UE needs to inform the network device of the number of bits occupied by each channel quality information indicating the change amount, that is, the UE sends the third information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the third information, so that the network device correctly receives or decodes the channel quality information. For example, the UE can send the first information and the third information to the network device in one signaling. Optionally, the second information can be placed before the first information, so that the network device can timely determine the number of bits occupied by the channel quality information indicating the change amount.

[0215] The third information can indicate one or more of the following:

[0216] (1) a first number of bits, the first number of bits is a number of bits occupied by the channel quality information indicating the variation. That is, the number of bits occupied by each of the channel quality information indicating the variation can be the same, or the number of bits occupied by the channel quality information indicating the variation is fixed. Alternatively, the variation indicated by the channel quality information can be a variation corresponding to each wideband of each beam, or a variation corresponding to each subband. Alternatively, the variation can be a variation corresponding to CQI, or a variation corresponding to RI. That is, when the variation is reported (or differentially reported), the same number of bits can be used for each beam or each subband. In this case, the second information indicates the first number of bits, and the first number of bits can be used as the number of bits occupied by any of the channel quality information indicating the variation.

[0217] For example, taking the reporting of the variation of CQI as an example, the differential CQI (i.e., the variation of CQI) between beams or subbands is reported by Y bits. Y can be related to the number of differential CQI. For example, the differential CQI directly indicates the variation, and does not indicate the difference interval. For example, the differential CQI has X possible values, and Y can be equal to wherein represents the ceiling of X. For another example, the differential CQI indicates the difference interval, and one value of the differential CQI corresponds to one difference interval. For example, referring to Tables 2-4 described above, X can be the number of difference intervals. Y is determined by the number of values of the differential CQI. When the number of difference intervals is X, Y can be equal to wherein represents the ceiling of X. If the difference between the absolute CQI and the reference CQI is in the corresponding difference interval, the corresponding differential CQI value is reported. As shown in Table 2, the differential CQI values are 0, 1, 2, and 3 (i.e., can be represented by 2 bits), and when the difference between the absolute CQI and the reference CQI is 1, the differential CQI value is reported as 2, and the corresponding bit is represented as 10.

[0218] In addition, Tables 2-4 in the foregoing are examples of difference intervals. Alternatively, the protocol can predefine or the network device can configure a difference interval division manner (for example, any one of Tables 2-4), and the UE always uses the difference interval division manner. Alternatively, the protocol can predefine or the network device can configure multiple difference interval division manners (for example, Tables 2-4 or other tables), and the UE can select one of the difference interval division manners.

[0219] (2) the second number of bits, the second number of bits being a total number of bits occupied by the channel quality information used for indicating the variation amount. For example, the second number of bits is a total number of bits occupied by the channel quality information used for indicating the variation amount in the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information. The second number of bits can be protocol-defined or network-configured, or decided by the UE, and if decided by the UE, the UE needs to send the second number of bits to the network device. For example, the second number of bits is S, the reported beams are M (or L, P), and the number of bits occupied by the channel quality information of each beam is S / M, which must be an integer. The number of bits occupied by the channel quality information of each beam can be referred to as the quantization number of bits. That is, the quantization number of bits is related to the total number of bits and the number of beams.

[0220] Optionally, continuing to take the differential CQI as an example, the protocol can predefine or the network device can configure a differential interval division manner, that is, there is a table of differential CQI value and differential interval mapping relationship (for example, any one of tables 2-4), and the UE always adopts this differential interval division manner. Alternatively, optionally, the protocol can predefine or the network device can configure multiple differential interval division manners, that is, there are multiple tables of differential CQI value and differential interval mapping relationship (for example, tables 2-4 or other tables), and the UE can select one of the differential interval division manners. For example, the UE determines one of the differential interval division manners according to the configured total number of bits S and the reported beams M. Optionally, different beams or subbands can select different differential interval division manners. It should be understood that this manner can also be used for differential reporting of subbands to determine the number of reported subbands, and the quantization number of bits per subband is the ratio of the total number of bits to the number of subbands.

[0221] (3) the first correspondence relationship, the first correspondence relationship being a correspondence relationship between a number of bits occupied by one channel quality information used for indicating the variation amount and a number of beams corresponding to the channel quality information used for indicating the variation amount. That is, the quantization number of bits can be related to the number of beams. For example, when the number of beams is greater, the quantization number of bits can also be greater. For example, when the number of beams is 2, the quantization number of bits can be 2, that is, the number of bits occupied by one channel quality information used for indicating the variation amount can be 2 bits, for example, the channel quality information indicates the differential CQI, and if only the wideband differential CQI is reported, the number of bits occupied by the differential CQI of one beam is 2 bits; and when the number of beams is 4, the quantization number of bits can be 4, that is, the number of bits occupied by one channel quality information used for indicating the variation amount can be 4 bits, for example, the channel quality information indicates the differential CQI, and if only the wideband differential CQI is reported, the number of bits occupied by the differential CQI of one beam is 4 bits.

[0222] It should be understood that the method can also be used for differential reporting of subbands, i.e. the number of quantization bits can be related to the number of subbands. Alternatively, the more the number of subbands, the greater the number of quantization bits. For example, when the number of subbands is 2, the number of quantization bits can be 2, i.e. the number of bits occupied by the channel quality information for indicating the change amount can occupy 2 bits. When the channel quality information indicates differential CQI, if the differential CQI of the subband is reported, the differential CQI of each subband occupies 2 bits, and the number of subbands is 2, then the reporting of the differential CQI of the subband of one beam needs to occupy 4 bits. For another example, when the number of subbands is 3, the number of quantization bits can be 3, i.e. the number of bits occupied by the channel quality information for indicating the change amount can occupy 3 bits. When the channel quality information indicates differential CQI, if the differential CQI of the subband is reported, the differential CQI of each subband occupies 3 bits, then the reporting of the differential CQI of the subband of one beam needs to occupy 9 bits.

[0223] (4) The third number of bits, the third number of bits includes the number of bits occupied by the channel quality information for indicating the change amount respectively. If the number of channel quality information for indicating the change amount is multiple, the third number of bits can indicate at least one number of bits, the at least one number of bits is the number of bits occupied by the multiple channel quality information for indicating the change amount respectively. Alternatively, the number of bits occupied by the multiple channel quality information for indicating the change amount respectively can correspond to the at least one number of bits one by one. Alternatively, the third number of bits can be pre-defined by the protocol or pre-configured in the UE, or configured by the network device, i.e. the network device can send the relevant information of the number of quantization bits per beam or per subband to the UE, or the UE can also make a decision by itself, then the UE needs to send the relevant information of the number of quantization bits per beam or per subband to the network device. Alternatively, the UE can report the relevant information of the number of quantization bits per beam or per subband together when reporting the channel quality information, i.e. the channel quality information and the relevant information can be sent together in the same signaling. Alternatively, the UE can place the relevant information before the channel quality information. Alternatively, the UE can also send the relevant information through other signaling, i.e. use the signaling different from the signaling for reporting the channel quality information to send the relevant information. Alternatively, the third number of bits can be the number of quantization bits per beam and / or the number of quantization bits of the corresponding subband per beam. Alternatively, the number of quantization bits of part of the special beams and / or the number of quantization bits of the subbands can be greater than that of other beams, or the number of quantization bits of the reference beam and / or the number of quantization bits of the subband can be greater than that of other beams, wherein the specific values can be pre-defined by the protocol or pre-configured in the UE, or configured by the network device, or the UE can also make a decision by itself.

[0224] In the embodiments of the present application, the channel quality information can include CQI and / or RI, or the parameters reported by the UE to represent the channel quality can be CQI and / or RI. That is, one of the L channel quality information includes CQI and / or RI; and / or, one of the N channel quality information includes CQI and / or RI.

[0225] Optionally, the network device can configure the number M of beams for which the UE needs to report channel quality information, M can also be understood as the number of sets of CQI that the UE needs to report, or the number of sets of RI that the UE needs to report, etc. If the network device does not configure M, the UE can decide the number M by itself.

[0226] Optionally, the network device can configure a high-priority beam, and the UE decides the reporting strategy for reporting channel quality information by itself. The channel quality information (such as CQI) corresponding to the high-priority beam is reported independently, and the channel quality information of other beams except the high-priority beam is reported in a shared manner. Alternatively, the channel quality information corresponding to the high-priority beam must be reported, and the channel quality information of other beams except the high-priority beam can be reported. If the network device does not configure the high-priority beam, the UE can decide the beams to be reported and the reporting strategy to be used when reporting by itself.

[0227] Optionally, if the UE reports RI, the RI can be reported in any one of the following reporting strategies (or reporting manners):

[0228] Reporting strategy B1: the UE reports one RI, that is, the RI of all beams to be reported is the same.

[0229] For example, the first information includes a first RI, the first RI corresponds to L beams and P beams, or all beams of the first beam group and the second beam group share the reporting of the first RI.

[0230] In this reporting strategy, the UE determines the first RI. One determination manner is that the UE measures (or calculates) one RI as the first RI for all beams. Another determination manner is that the UE measures the corresponding RI for all beams respectively, and then selects one of the RIs of all beams as the first RI.

[0231] Reporting strategy B2: the UE reports L RIs, one of which corresponds to one of the L beams, and the UE also reports one RI, which corresponds to the P beams. That is, the RI of each beam in the first beam group is reported independently, and the second beam group shares the reporting of one RI. Optionally, the determination manner of the one RI corresponding to the second beam group can refer to the determination manner in reporting strategy 1, and will not be described in detail.

[0232] The reporting strategy for reporting the RI by the UE can be predefined by a protocol, preconfigured in the UE, configured to the UE by a network device, or decided by the UE itself.

[0233] If the UE reports the CQI, a plurality of reporting strategies can be adopted. The following examples introduce various reporting strategies for the CQI. The following reporting strategies and the implementation manners under each reporting strategy can be configured by a network device, or decided by the UE itself, or predefined by a protocol, or preconfigured in the UE.

[0234] Reporting strategy C1: all beams report a wideband CQI. The wideband CQI of one beam indicates the channel quality of the beam on the full bandwidth corresponding to the CSI.

[0235] In this reporting strategy, the UE reports a wideband CQI for each beam, and the wideband CQI corresponding to each beam indicates a CQI index in a CQI table. Optionally, all beams correspond to respective CQI tables, or all beams correspond to one CQI table, or part of the beams correspond to the same CQI table and the other part of the beams correspond to respective CQI tables. Optionally, the wideband CQI of each beam adopts the same number of bits.

[0236] The first channel quality information is included in the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information, and the first channel quality information corresponds to the first beam, which can be one of the beams to be reported. If the reporting strategy B1 is adopted, the first channel quality information indicates the channel quality of the wideband of the first beam.

[0237] Optionally, the first channel quality information indicates the channel quality of the wideband of the first beam, and a plurality of implementation manners can be adopted. In one implementation manner, the first channel quality information is the wideband CQI (i.e., absolute index) of the first beam. For example, the first channel quality information can be the index of the wideband CQI of the first beam. In another implementation manner, the first channel quality information is the variation (i.e., differential CQI) of the wideband CQI of the first beam relative to the wideband CQI of a reference beam. The selection of the reference beam can be referred to the foregoing description and will not be described in detail.

[0238] The following examples introduce several possible implementation manners of the reporting strategy B1. The following examples take the first beam group (i.e., L beams) including beam 1 and beam 2 and the second beam group (i.e., P beams) including beam 3 and beam 4 as examples.

[0239] Implementation manner C1-1: the wideband CQI of each of the L beams included in the first beam group is independently reported, and part or all of the P beams included in the second beam group share one wideband CQI.

[0240] In this implementation, for the multiple beams in the second beam group sharing the reporting, the UE determines the wideband CQI of the multiple beams. One determination manner is that the UE measures (or calculates) one wideband CQI for the multiple beams as the shared wideband CQI. Another determination manner is that the UE measures the corresponding wideband CQI for all beams respectively, and then selects one of the wideband CQIs of all beams as the shared wideband CQI.

[0241] As shown in Table 5 below, M=4, and the beams to be reported are CRI#0, 2, 4, and 6. The first beam group (high-priority beam group) includes beam 1 (i.e., CRI#0) and beam 2 (i.e., CRI#2), and the second beam group includes beam 3 (i.e., CRI#4) and beam 4 (i.e., CRI#6). Beam 1 and beam 2 report their respective wideband CQIs, and beam 3 and beam 4 report one wideband CQI together.

[0242] Table 5

[0243] Since only one CQI needs to be reported for beam 3 and beam 4 in the second beam group, it can be understood that the information amount of the CQI reported by beam 3 or beam 4 is 0 or less than the information amount of one wideband CQI, or it can also be understood that the information amount of beam 3 or beam 4 is half of one wideband CQI. Therefore, the information amount of the CQI reported by beam 3 or beam 4 is less than the information amount of any beam in the first beam group, thereby reducing the signaling overhead required for CQI reporting. In addition, since each beam in the first beam group is independently reported, the accuracy of the CQI of each beam in the first beam group can be improved.

[0244] In implementation C1-2, the wideband CQI of each of the L beams included in the first beam group is independently reported, one reference beam (corresponding to the aforementioned manner A2) is selected from the P beams included in the second beam group, the wideband CQI of the reference beam is independently reported, and the change amount between the wideband CQI of each of the remaining beams and the wideband CQI of the reference beam is reported.

[0245] As shown in Table 6 below, beam 1 and beam 2 report their respective wideband CQIs, beam 3 is a reference beam, beam 3 independently reports the wideband CQI, and beam 4 reports the change amount of the wideband CQI of beam 4 relative to the wideband CQI of beam 3.

[0246] Table 6

[0247] The beam 4 in the second beam group uses the reporting change amount mode. Since the reporting change amount usually occupies fewer bits, that is, the information amount of the CQI reporting of the beam 4 is less than that of any beam in the first beam group, the signaling overhead required by the CQI reporting is reduced. In addition, since each beam in the first beam group is independently reported, the accuracy of the CQI of each beam in the first beam group can be improved.

[0248] In implementation C1-3, the wideband CQI of each of the L beams included in the first beam group is independently reported, one reference beam is selected from the L beams included in the first beam group (corresponding to the aforementioned mode A1), and part or all of the P beams in the second beam group report the change amount between the wideband CQI of each beam and the wideband CQI of the reference beam.

[0249] As shown in Table 7 below, the beams 1 and 2 report the wideband CQI of each beam, the beam 1 is the reference beam, and the beams 3 and 4 report the change amount of the wideband CQI of each beam relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1.

[0250] Table 7

[0251] The beams 3 and 4 in the second beam group use the reporting change amount mode. Since the reporting change amount usually occupies fewer bits, that is, the information amount of the CQI reporting of the beams 3 and 4 is less than that of any beam in the first beam group, the signaling overhead required by the CQI reporting is reduced. In addition, since each beam in the first beam group is independently reported, the accuracy of the CQI of each beam in the first beam group can be improved.

[0252] In implementation C1-4, the wideband CQI of each of the L beams included in the first beam group is independently reported, one reference beam is selected from all the beams as the beam with the strongest channel quality (such as the largest CQI) or the weakest channel quality (corresponding to the aforementioned mode A3), or the beam with the largest index (such as the largest CRI) or the smallest index (corresponding to the aforementioned mode A4), and part or all of the P beams in the second beam group report the change amount between the wideband CQI of each beam and the wideband CQI of the reference beam.

[0253] Taking the beam with the largest CQI as the reference beam as an example, if the CQI of the beam 1 is the largest, as shown in Table 7 above, the beam 1 is the reference beam, and the beams 3 and 4 report the change amount of the wideband CQI of each beam relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1.

[0254] In the implementation C1-5, the L beams in the first beam group each report a wideband CQI independently, and the P beams in the second beam group each take a beam in the first beam group with the same rank as a reference beam (corresponding to the aforementioned mode A5), and each of the P beams in the second beam group reports a wideband CQI and a change amount of the wideband CQI relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam.

[0255] As shown in Table 8 below, each of the beam 1 and the beam 2 reports a wideband CQI, the beam 3 takes the beam 1 as a reference beam, the beam 4 takes the beam 2 as a reference beam, and each of the beam 3 and the beam 4 reports a wideband CQI and a change amount of the wideband CQI relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam.

[0256] Table 8

[0257] In the second beam group, the beam 3 and the beam 4 each report a change amount, thereby reducing the signaling overhead required for reporting CQI. In addition, since each of the beams in the first beam group reports a CQI independently, the accuracy of the CQI of each of the beams in the first beam group can be improved.

[0258] In the reporting strategy C2, each of the beams reports a wideband CQI and a subband CQI. The subband CQI of a beam can indicate the channel quality of a subband of the beam in the full bandwidth corresponding to the CSI.

[0259] Optionally, in the reporting strategy, the UE reports a subband CQI of each of the beams, and a wideband CQI of each of the beams can be reported or not reported.

[0260] The first channel quality information is included in the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information, and the first channel quality information corresponds to the first beam. The first beam can be one of the beams that need to be reported. If the reporting strategy B2 is adopted, the first channel quality information indicates the channel quality of a subband of the first beam, or indicates the channel quality of a wideband and the channel quality of a subband of the first beam.

[0261] Optionally, the first channel quality information indicates the channel quality of a wideband of the first beam. The implementation can be referred to the description in the foregoing part, and will not be described herein.

[0262] Optionally, the first channel quality information indicates the channel quality of a subband of the first beam. A plurality of implementation modes can be adopted. For example, the first subband of the first beam is any one of the subbands of the first beam in the full bandwidth corresponding to the CSI. Several possible implementation modes are listed as follows:

[0263] Manner D1: The first channel quality information comprises subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam. That is, the channel quality of the first subband can be directly indicated by the subband CQI of the first subband, or the UE directly reports the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam.

[0264] Manner D2: The first channel quality information comprises the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the wideband CQI of the first beam. That is, the UE reports the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the wideband CQI of the first beam.

[0265] Manner D3: The first channel quality information comprises the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband of the first beam. In this manner, the UE determines the reference subband from the subbands corresponding to the first beam, and reports the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband of the first beam. Optionally, the reference subband can be any subband in the subbands corresponding to the first beam. Optionally, the reference subband can be the subband with the strongest (e.g., the largest subband CQI) or weakest channel quality. Optionally, the reference subband can be the subband with the highest ranking in the subbands corresponding to the first beam.

[0266] Manner D4: The first channel quality information comprises the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam. The reference beam refers to the reference beam of the first beam, that is, the UE reports the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam.

[0267] Manner D5: The first channel quality information comprises the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband of the reference beam. In this manner, the UE determines the reference beam of the first beam, and determines the reference subband from the subbands corresponding to the reference beam, and then reports the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband of the reference beam. The reference subband of the reference beam can refer to the description of the reference subband of the first beam, and will not be described in detail.

[0268] Manner D6: The first channel quality information comprises the variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the wideband channel quality information of the first reference beam, and the wideband channel quality information of the first reference beam indicates the variation of the wideband CQI of the first reference beam relative to the wideband CQI of the second reference beam.

[0269] Manner D7: The first channel quality information includes a variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the channel quality information of the wideband of the first beam, and the channel quality information of the wideband of the first beam indicates a variation of the wideband CQI of the first beam relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam.

[0270] In manners D6 and D7, the channel quality information of the wideband of the first reference beam is a variation, and the first channel quality information includes a variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the variation.

[0271] Manner D8: The first channel quality information includes a variation of the subband CQI of the first subband of the first beam relative to the channel quality information of the first reference subband of the first reference beam, wherein the channel quality information of the first reference subband indicates a variation of the subband CQI of the first reference subband relative to the subband CQI of the second reference subband of the second reference beam.

[0272] In combination with the above-mentioned manners of wideband channel quality and subband channel quality respectively, the following examples introduce several possible implementation manners of reporting strategy C2. The following continues to use the above-mentioned example of the first beam group and the second beam group.

[0273] Implementation manner C2-1: The L beams included in the first beam group each independently report the wideband CQI, and for each beam of the L beams, the subband CQI of the beam and the variation relative to the wideband CQI of the beam are reported, and part or all of the P beams in the second beam group share the reporting of a group of CQIs, and the group of CQIs includes the wideband CQI and the variation of the subband CQI relative to the wideband CQI (i.e., corresponding to the above-mentioned manner D2).

[0274] As shown in Table 9, the wideband CQI of each of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported independently, and the subband CQI of each of the subbands of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of each of the subbands relative to the wideband CQI of the same beam is reported. For example, the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband 1 of the beam 1 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported, the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband 2 of the beam 1 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband 3 of the beam 1 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported. For the beam 3 and the beam 4, one wideband CQI is reported, and the change amount of the CQI of each of the subbands of the beam 3 and the beam 4 relative to the wideband CQI is reported. As shown in Table 9, for the beam 3 and the beam 4, the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported, the change amount of the subband CQI (i.e., subCQI3_1) of the subband 1 relative to the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported, the change amount of the subband CQI (i.e., subCQI3_2) of the subband 2 relative to the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI (i.e., subCQI3_3) of the subband 3 relative to the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported.

[0275] Table 9

[0276] As shown in Table 9, the wideband CQI of each of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported independently, and the subband CQI of each of the subbands of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of each of the subbands relative to the wideband CQI of the same beam is reported. For example, the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband 1 of the beam 1 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported, the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband 2 of the beam 1 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband 3 of the beam 1 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported. For the beam 3 and the beam 4, one wideband CQI is reported, and the change amount of the CQI of each of the subbands of the beam 3 and the beam 4 relative to the wideband CQI is reported. As shown in Table 9, for the beam 3 and the beam 4, the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported, the change amount of the subband CQI (i.e., subCQI3_1) of the subband 1 relative to the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported, the change amount of the subband CQI (i.e., subCQI3_2) of the subband 2 relative to the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI (i.e., subCQI3_3) of the subband 3 relative to the wideband CQI wbCQI3 is reported.

[0277] In implementation C2-2, the wideband CQI of each of the L beams included in the first beam group is reported independently, and the subband CQI of each of the subbands of each of the L beams is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of each of the subbands relative to the wideband CQI of the same beam is reported. A reference beam is determined from the P beams included in the second beam group, the wideband CQI of the reference beam is reported independently, the wideband CQI of each of the remaining beams is reported relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam, and the subband CQI of each of the subbands of each of the P beams is reported relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam (i.e., corresponding to the above-mentioned manner D4).

[0278] As shown in Table 10, the wideband CQI of each of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported independently, and the subband CQI of the subband of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI relative to the wideband CQI of the same beam is reported. The beam 3 in the second beam group is selected as a reference beam, the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband of the beam 3 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported. For the beam 4, the wideband CQI is optional, that is, the wideband CQI can be reported or not reported. If the wideband CQI of the beam 4 is reported, the change amount of the wideband CQI of the beam 4 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported. For the subband of the beam 4, the change amount of the subband CQI of the beam 4 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported.

[0279] Table 10

[0280] In the second beam group, the beam 4 reports the change amount, and the number of bits occupied by the report of the change amount is usually smaller, that is, the amount of information of the CQI of the beam 4 is smaller than that of any beam in the first beam group, thereby reducing the signaling overhead required for CQI reporting. In addition, each beam in the first beam group is independently reported, and the accuracy of the CQI of each beam in the first beam group can be improved.

[0281] In an implementation C2-3, the wideband CQI of each of the L beams included in the first beam group is independently reported, and the subband CQI of the subband of each of the L beams is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI relative to the wideband CQI of the beam is reported. A reference beam is determined from the P beams included in the second beam group, the wideband CQI of the reference beam is independently reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI relative to the wideband CQI is reported for the subband of the reference beam. For the remaining beams (i.e., non-reference beams) in the P beams, the change amount of the wideband CQI of the beam relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband relative to the channel quality information of the reference subband of the reference beam (i.e., corresponding to the mode D8 described above) is reported. Similarly, for the subband of one of the remaining beams, the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband relative to the channel quality information of the wideband of the beam (i.e., the difference between the wideband CQI of the beam and the wideband CQI of the reference beam) can also be reported (corresponding to the mode D7 described above).

[0282] As shown in Table 11, the wideband CQI of each of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported independently, and the subband CQI of each of the subbands of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of each of the subbands relative to the wideband CQI of the same beam is reported. The beam 3 in the second beam group is selected as a reference beam, the subband 1 of the beam 3 is selected as a reference subband, the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of each of the subbands of the beam 3 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported. The wideband CQI of the beam 4 is optional, that is, the wideband CQI of the beam 4 can be reported or not reported, and if the wideband CQI of the beam 4 is reported, the change amount of the wideband CQI of the beam 4 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported. For the subbands of the beam 4, the change amount of the subband CQI of the beam 4 relative to the channel quality information of the subband 1 of the beam 3 (that is, the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband 1 of the beam 3 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 3) is reported.

[0283] Table 11

[0284] In implementation mode C2-4, the wideband CQI of each of the L beams included in the first beam group is reported independently, the subband CQI of each of the subbands of each of the L beams is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI relative to the wideband CQI of the beam is reported. A reference beam is determined from the L beams included in the first beam group, for each of the P beams included in the second beam group, the change amount of the wideband CQI of the beam relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of the subband of the beam relative to the wideband CQI of the reference beam is reported (corresponding to the above-mentioned mode D4).

[0285] As shown in Table 12, the wideband CQI of each of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported independently, and the subband CQI of each of the subbands of the beam 1 and the beam 2 is reported, and the change amount of the subband CQI of each of the subbands relative to the wideband CQI of the same beam is reported. The beam 1 in the first beam group is selected as a reference beam, and the reporting modes of the beam 3 and the beam 4 are consistent, for example, the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is optional, that is, the wideband CQI of the beam 3 can be reported or not reported, if the wideband CQI of the beam 3 is reported, the change amount of the wideband CQI of the beam 3 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported, and for each of the subbands of the beam 3, the change amount of each of the subband CQI of the beam 3 relative to the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is reported.

[0286] Table 12

[0287] Implementation C2-5, wideband CQI of all beams is optional. For L beams included in the first beam group, if wideband CQI is reported, wideband CQI of each of the L beams is reported independently. For P beams included in the second beam group, if wideband CQI is reported, it can be reported in a manner of change amount in part or in whole. For each of the L beams, one of the subbands is selected as a reference subband (e.g. the first subband), and the subband CQI of the reference subband is reported independently, and the subband CQI of the rest of the subbands is reported in a change amount relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband. For the subbands in the P beams, multiple implementation manners can be adopted, two of which are exemplified as follows:

[0288] Implementation C2-5-1, for the subbands in the P beams, a shared reporting manner can be adopted, that is, for one subband, part or all of the P beams only report one value. For the reference subband, part or all of the P beams report the subband CQI of the reference subband, and for the rest of the subbands other than the reference subband, part or all of the P beams report the subband CQI of the subband in a change amount relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband.

[0289] As shown in Table 13, wideband CQI of each of beam 1 and beam 2 is optional. Taking beam 1 as an example, if wideband CQI is reported, the wideband CQI of beam 1 is directly reported. Wideband CQI of each of beam 3 and beam 4 is optional, and if wideband CQI is reported, one wideband CQI can be reported for beam 3 and beam 4 in common, or the wideband CQI of beam 3 and / or beam 4 in a change amount relative to the wideband CQI of a reference beam. For the subbands of beam 1 and beam 2, subband 1 is taken as a reference subband, and taking beam 1 as an example, the subband CQI of subband 1 of beam 1 is reported, and the subband CQI of the rest of the subbands of beam 1 in a change amount relative to the subband CQI of subband 1 of beam 1 is reported. For the subbands of beam 3 and beam 4, a shared reporting manner is adopted, as shown in Table 13, subband 1 is also taken as a reference subband, and for beam 3 and beam 4, the subband CQI of subband 1 is reported in common, and the subband CQI of the rest of the subbands in a change amount relative to the subband CQI of subband 1 is reported in common.

[0290] Table 13

[0291] Implementation manner C2-5-2, for subbands of part or all of the P beams, a manner of reporting a variation (or differential reporting). For example, one implementation manner of the implementation manner C2-5-2 is to determine a reference beam from the P beams, to determine a reference subband from subbands of the reference beam, to report a corresponding subband CQI for the reference subband of the reference beam, and to report a variation of a corresponding subband CQI for the remaining subbands of the reference beam relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband of the reference beam. For subbands of the remaining beams of the P beams other than the reference beam, a variation of a subband CQI of each subband of each beam relative to the subband CQI of the reference subband of the reference beam is reported.

[0292] As shown in Table 14, the wideband CQI of each of the beam 1 and the beam 2 can be optionally reported. Taking the beam 1 as an example, if the wideband CQI is reported, the wideband CQI of the beam 1 is directly reported. The wideband CQI of each of the beam 3 and the beam 4 can be optionally reported. If the wideband CQI is reported, one wideband CQI can be reported for the beam 3 and the beam 4, or a variation of the wideband CQI of the beam 3 and / or the beam 4 relative to the wideband CQI of a reference beam can be reported. For subbands of the beam 1 and the beam 2, the subband 1 is taken as a reference subband. Taking the beam 1 as an example, the subband CQI of the subband 1 of the beam 1 is reported, and a variation of the subband CQI of the remaining subbands of the beam 1 relative to the subband CQI of the subband 1 of the beam 1 is reported. For subbands of the beam 3 and the beam 4, the beam 3 is taken as a reference beam, the subband 1 of the beam 3 is taken as a reference subband, the subband 1 of the beam 3 directly reports a corresponding subband CQI, the subband 2 and the subband 3 of the beam 3 respectively report a differential of a corresponding subband CQI relative to the subband CQI of the subband 1 of the beam 3, and the subbands 1-3 of the beam 4 respectively report a differential of a corresponding subband CQI relative to the subband CQI of the subband 1 of the beam 3.

[0293] Table 14

[0294] It should be understood that the implementation manner of the wideband CQI and the implementation manner of the subband CQI can also be combined to obtain a new implementation manner, which is not listed here. In addition, new table contents obtained by reasonable deformation, supplement or deletion of the contents in Table 6-Table 14 also belong to the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0295] The reporting strategy C3 is a mixed reporting of the wideband CQI and the subband CQI, that is, a part of beams only report the wideband CQI, a part of beams only report the subband CQI, and another part of beams report the wideband CQI and the subband CQI. It should be understood that the wideband CQI and the subband CQI referred to herein are not limited to directly reporting the wideband CQI or reporting the variation, that is, reporting the subband CQI can refer to directly reporting the subband CQI (that is, reporting the index of the CQI), or can refer to reporting the variation.

[0296] In the reporting strategy, the UE determines the beams for reporting wideband CQI, the first information only containing the wideband CQI of the beams, and determines the beams for reporting subband CQI, the first information only containing the subband CQI of the beams, in addition, the UE also determines the beams for reporting wideband CQI and subband CQI, the first information containing the wideband CQI and the subband CQI of the beams.

[0297] In a possible implementation, the UE can receive fifth information, which can be sent by the network device, and the UE can determine the relevant information when reporting wideband CQI and subband CQI in combination according to the fifth information. The fifth information indicates one or more of the following:

[0298] (1) The beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the channel quality of the corresponding wideband is to be reported. That is, the fifth information can indicate which beams the wideband CQI needs to be reported. For example, the fifth information indicates the index (such as CRI) of the beams for which the wideband CQI needs to be reported.

[0299] (2) The beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the channel quality of the corresponding subband is to be reported. That is, the fifth information can indicate which beams the subband CQI needs to be reported. For example, the fifth information indicates the index (such as CRI) of the beams for which the subband CQI needs to be reported.

[0300] (3) The number of beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the channel quality of the corresponding wideband is to be reported. That is, the fifth information can indicate the number of beams for which the wideband CQI needs to be reported. If only the number of beams for which the wideband CQI needs to be reported is indicated, and the specific beams are not indicated, the UE can determine the beams for which the wideband CQI needs to be reported by itself.

[0301] (4) The number of beams in the L beams and / or the P beams for which the channel quality of the corresponding subband is to be reported. That is, the fifth information can indicate the number of beams for which the subband CQI needs to be reported. If only the number of beams for which the subband CQI needs to be reported is indicated, and the specific beams are not indicated, the UE can determine the beams for which the subband CQI needs to be reported by itself.

[0302] In a possible implementation, the UE determines the relevant information when reporting wideband CQI and subband CQI in combination by itself, and sends the fifth information, for example, sends the fifth information to the network device. The fifth information can include one or more of the above.

[0303] Alternatively, one or more of the above fifth information can also be predefined by a protocol or preconfigured into the UE, which is not limited in particular.

[0304] It should be understood that when the wideband CQI and the subband CQI are reported in a mixed manner, the reporting of the wideband CQI and the subband CQI can also be implemented in the manner of the reporting strategies C1 and C2 described above. For details, refer to the foregoing description.

[0305] If the UE reports the CQI and the RI simultaneously, the multiple reporting strategies of the CQI and the multiple reporting strategies of the RI can be combined. The following are some possible implementation manners:

[0306] Implementation manner E1: The wideband CQI of the beams in the first beam group is reported independently, the wideband CQI of the beams in the second beam group is reported in a shared manner, and the RI of all the beams is the same (i.e., one RI is reported for all the beams), which is a combination of the reporting strategy B1 and the reporting strategy C1.

[0307] The total number of beams that need to be reported M can be configured by the network device, can be decided by the UE itself, or can be predefined by a protocol or preconfigured in the UE.

[0308] Implementation manner E2: The wideband CQI and the RI of the beams in the first beam group are reported independently, and the wideband CQI and the RI of the beams in the second beam group are reported in a shared manner, which is a combination of the reporting strategy B2 and the reporting strategy C1.

[0309] Optionally, when the CQI and the RI are reported simultaneously, the value range of the RI also needs to be considered. When the value of the RI is 1-4, the UE only needs to feed back one CQI value; when the rank of the channel fed back by the UE is 5-8, the UE needs to feed back the CQI according to the TB, feeds back one CQI for the first TB, and feeds back one CQI for the second TB. Therefore, when the beam groups are divided or the CQI is reported, the value range of the RI also needs to be considered.

[0310] In one case, if the RIs of all the beams are the same or belong to the same value range, for example, belong to the range of 1-4 or 5-8, only one CQI corresponding to one TB needs to be fed back.

[0311] Another case is that if the beams belonging to two value ranges need to be reported, the CQI of the beams with different value ranges needs to be reported respectively, and various implementation manners can be used in the reporting. In one implementation manner, the beam groups are divided according to the value range of the RI, one beam group corresponds to the first interval (such as 1-4), and each beam of the beam group only needs to report one CQI, and another beam group corresponds to the second interval (such as 5-8), and each beam of the beam group needs to feed back one CQI for the first TB and one CQI for the second TB. In another implementation manner, for the beam with the RI value in the second interval, the CQI of the first TB is reported similarly to the beam with the RI value in the first interval, and the CQI corresponding to the second TB is reported separately, or the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the second TB relative to the CQI corresponding to the first TB of the beam is reported, or the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the second TB relative to the CQI of the reference beam is reported.

[0312] Optionally, when the reference beam is selected for the beams of the second beam group, the RI of the beam of the second beam group and the reference beam needs to be consistent. In one case, if the RI of a beam and the corresponding reference beam belongs to the same interval, the number of CQIs corresponding to the beam and the corresponding reference beam is also consistent. For example, the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the first TB of the beam relative to the CQI of the first TB of the reference beam can be reported, and the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the second TB of the beam relative to the CQI of the second TB of the reference beam can be reported. Or, the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the first TB of the beam relative to the CQI of the first TB of the reference beam can be reported, and the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the second TB of the beam relative to the CQI of the first TB of the reference beam can be reported. Or, the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the second TB of the beam relative to the CQI of the first TB of the reference beam can be reported, and the change amount of the CQI corresponding to the second TB of the beam relative to the CQI of the first TB of the reference beam can be reported.

[0313] Optionally, for the various reporting strategies and implementation manners described above, the channel quality information (such as CQI and / or RI) can be sent in the corresponding order when the UE sends the first information to the network device. For example, the first information can also include the index of the L beams and the index of the P beams, and the UE can arrange the index of the L beams and the L channel quality information, and the index of the P beams and the N channel quality information in the corresponding order, and send them to the network device in the order. Wherein, one index in the index of the L beams corresponds to one channel quality information in the L channel quality information, and / or one channel quality information in the N channel quality information corresponds to one or more indexes in the index of the P beams. Optionally, the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information can be sorted according to the index of the corresponding beam.

[0314] Optionally, when the channel quality information includes CQI, the UE can sort the indexes of the L beams and the L CQIs (which can be absolute indexes of CQI or differential CQI) according to the indexes of the beams, and can sort the indexes of the P beams and the N CQIs (which can be absolute indexes of CQI or differential CQI) according to the indexes of the beams. Optionally, the L beams can be sorted first, or the P beams can be sorted first. Optionally, if the CQI includes wideband CQI, the UE can sort the indexes of the L beams and the wideband CQIs according to the indexes of the beams, and can sort the indexes of the P beams and the wideband CQIs according to the indexes of the beams. Optionally, if the CQI includes subband CQI, the UE can sort the indexes of the L beams and the subband CQIs according to the indexes of the beams, and can sort the indexes of the P beams and the subband CQIs according to the indexes of the beams. If the CQI includes both wideband CQI and subband CQI, the UE can sort the wideband CQIs first, or can sort the subband CQIs first, or can sort the wideband CQI and the subband CQI of each beam together.

[0315] Optionally, when the channel quality information includes RI, and the RI is reported according to the aforementioned reporting strategy B2, the UE can sort the indexes of the L beams and the L RIs according to the indexes of the beams, and can sort the indexes of the P beams and the corresponding one or more RIs according to the indexes of the beams.

[0316] Optionally, when the channel quality information includes CQI and RI, the CQI and the RI can be placed separately, i.e., the CQI and the RI can be sorted separately, or the CQI and the RI of one beam can be placed together. The following examples several possible sorting methods using CQI as an example, the sorting method of RI can refer to CQI, and will not be described in detail. In the embodiments of the present application, the UE can select one sorting method from the multiple sorting methods to send the CQI of the L beams and the P beams.

[0317] The first sorting manner is to arrange the beams and the corresponding CQIs in the order of beam index-CQI index. That is, to arrange the beams and the corresponding CQIs in the order of a beam index-a CQI. It should be understood that the CQI herein is the value of the CQI in the above tables, which can be the absolute index of the CQI (referred to as CQI index) or the variation of the CQI. As shown in Table 15 below, when the CQI is the absolute index of the CQI, the CQI index corresponding to the index of each beam is arranged after the index of the beam, and then the index of the next beam and the corresponding CQI index are arranged, and so on. When the CQI is the differential CQI (i.e., the variation), the CQI index corresponding to the beam index can be replaced by the differential CQI. Alternatively, when the CQI is a mixture of the CQI index and the differential CQI, the CQI corresponding to the beam index can be replaced by the differential CQI or the CQI index. Optionally, the beams and the corresponding CQI indexes reporting the CQI are arranged in front of the beams and the corresponding differential CQIs reporting the differential CQI. Optionally, the beams and the corresponding CQIs of the first beam group are arranged in front of the beams and the corresponding CQIs of the first beam group.

[0318] Table 15

[0319] It should be understood that the first sorting manner can be applied to the reporting of the wideband CQI or the subband CQI. When the UE reports the wideband CQI, the CQI in the first sorting manner can be replaced by the wideband CQI. That is, to arrange the beams and the corresponding wideband CQIs in the order of beam-a wideband CQI. Optionally, one or more wideband CQIs can be sorted in the order of the beam index from large to small or from small to large. If multiple beams share a wideband CQI, optionally, the indexes of the multiple beams can be arranged together, and the wideband CQI shared by the multiple beams can be placed at the end, as shown in Table 16 below, which is the result of sorting Table 3 in the above implementation manner A according to the manner. Optionally, one of the multiple beams and the wideband CQI shared by the multiple beams are placed together, and the remaining beams can be filled with an indicator or without any data, as shown in Table 17 below, which is the result of sorting Table 3 in the above implementation manner A according to the manner, wherein the "*" indicates the filled indicator, which indicates that the beam 4 shares the reporting with the beam 3, or indicates that the wideband CQI of the beam 4 is the wideband CQI in front, or indicates that the wideband CQI of the beam 4 refers back to the wideband CQI of the beam 3. Alternatively, as shown in Table 18 below, when the wideband CQI is a mixture of the CQI index and the differential CQI, Table 4 is sorted according to the first sorting manner.

[0320] Table 16

[0321] Table 17

[0322] Table 18

[0323] When the UE reports subband CQI, the CQI in the first ordering manner can be replaced by subband CQI. That is, the beam-subband CQI indexes are arranged in order. Optionally, the one or more subband CQIs can be arranged in descending or ascending order according to the subband indexes. For example, Table 19 is the result of sorting Table 11 according to the first ordering manner, and Table 19 takes the example of placing the indexes of beams sharing the report together.

[0324] Table 19

[0325] The second ordering manner arranges the CQI-beam indexes in order, which exchanges the positions of the beam indexes and the CQIs in the first ordering manner, and thus is not described in detail.

[0326] The third ordering manner arranges the beam indexes first, and then arranges the CQIs corresponding to the beam indexes. Optionally, the beam indexes of all beams can be arranged, and then the CQIs are arranged. Optionally, the beam indexes and the CQIs of the first beam group can be arranged before the beam indexes and the CQIs of the second beam group, as shown in Table 20, which is the result of sorting Table 4 according to the third ordering manner. If there is a case of sharing the report of CQI, the processing can be performed according to the manner in the first ordering manner.

[0327] Table 20

[0328] It should be understood that the first ordering manner can be applied to the reporting of wideband CQI or subband CQI. When the UE reports wideband CQI, the CQI in the first ordering manner can be replaced by wideband CQI. When the UE reports subband CQI, the CQI in the first ordering manner can be replaced by subband CQI.

[0329] The fourth ordering manner arranges the CQIs first, and then arranges the beam indexes corresponding to the CQIs, which exchanges the positions of the beam indexes and the CQIs in the third ordering manner, and thus is not described in detail.

[0330] Optionally, in the first to fourth ordering manners described above, the beams can be arranged in order from small to large or from large to small according to the beam indexes, the CQIs can be arranged in order from small to large or from large to small according to the indexes of the corresponding beams, or the CQIs can be arranged in order from small to large or from large to small according to the indexes of the CQIs.

[0331] When the CQI in the first information includes both wideband CQI and subband CQI, the UE can determine the ordering according to the following ordering manner.

[0332] The fifth sorting manner is: reporting beam index-wideband CQI-subband CQI for each beam. As shown in Table 21, after arranging the beam index, the wideband CQI corresponding to the beam is arranged, then the subband CQI of the beam is arranged, then the index of the next beam and the subband CQI corresponding to the next beam are arranged, and so on. If there is a shared reporting CQI, the manner in the first sorting manner can be used.

[0333] Optionally, the beam indexes can be sorted in ascending or descending order, the wideband CQIs can be sorted in ascending or descending order, or the beam quality (for example, RSRP, SINR, or RSRQ) can be sorted in ascending or descending order.

[0334] Table 21

[0335] The sixth sorting manner is: reporting in the manner of multiple beam indexes-multiple wideband CQIs-multiple subband CQIs. As shown in Table 22, the M beam indexes are arranged first, then the wideband CQIs corresponding to the M beams are arranged, then the subband CQIs corresponding to the M beams are arranged, and so on. Optionally, the beam indexes, wideband CQIs, and subband CQIs of the first beam group can be arranged before the beam indexes, wideband CQIs, and subband CQIs of the second beam group. If there is a shared reporting CQI, the manner in the first sorting manner can be used.

[0336] Optionally, the beam indexes can be sorted in ascending or descending order, the wideband CQIs can be sorted in ascending or descending order, or the beam quality (for example, RSRP, SINR, or RSRQ) can be sorted in ascending or descending order.

[0337] Table 22

[0338] It should be understood that the new table contents obtained by reasonable deformation, supplement, or deletion of the contents in Tables 15-22 are within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0339] FIG. 5 shows a structural diagram of a communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus 500 can be a terminal or circuitry of the terminal in the embodiments shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, for implementing the method corresponding to the UE in the above-mentioned method embodiments. Alternatively, the communication apparatus 500 can be a network device or circuitry of the network device in the embodiments shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, for implementing the method corresponding to the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiments. For example, one kind of circuitry is a chip system.

[0340] The communication apparatus 500 includes at least one processor 501. The processor 501 can be used for internal processing of the apparatus, to implement certain control processing functions. Optionally, the processor 501 includes instructions. Optionally, the processor 501 can store data. Optionally, different processors can be independent devices, can be located in different physical locations, and can be located on different integrated circuits. Alternatively, different processors can be integrated in one or more processors, for example, integrated on one or more integrated circuits.

[0341] Optionally, the communication apparatus 500 includes one or more memories 503 for storing instructions. Optionally, the memory 503 can also store data. The processor and the memory can be separately provided, or integrated together.

[0342] Optionally, the communication apparatus 500 includes a communication line 502 and at least one communication interface 504. Since the memory 503, the communication line 502 and the communication interface 504 are all optional, they are all shown in dashed lines in FIG. 5.

[0343] Optionally, the communication apparatus 500 can also include a transceiver and / or an antenna. The transceiver can be used to send information to other apparatuses or receive information from other apparatuses. The transceiver can be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, an input / output interface, etc., for realizing the transceiving function of the communication apparatus 500 through the antenna. Optionally, the transceiver includes a transmitter and a receiver. For example, the transmitter can be used to generate a radio frequency signal from a baseband signal, and the receiver can be used to convert a radio frequency signal into a baseband signal.

[0344] The processor 501 can include a general central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of programs of the present application.

[0345] The communication line 502 can include a path for transmitting information between the components.

[0346] The communication interface 504 can be used to communicate with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, radio access network (RAN), wireless local area networks (WLAN), wired access network, etc., using any transceiver-like mechanism.

[0347] The memory 503 can be a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, a magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium capable of carrying or storing desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited to this. The memory 503 can exist independently, and be connected to the processor 501 through the communication line 502. Alternatively, the memory 503 can be integrated with the processor 501.

[0348] The memory 503 is configured to store computer-executed instructions for implementing the solutions of the present application, and the processor 501 is configured to control the execution. The processor 501 is configured to execute the computer-executed instructions stored in the memory 503, so as to implement the steps performed by the UE or the network device in the embodiments shown in FIG. 4.

[0349] Optionally, the computer-executed instructions in the embodiments of the present application can also be referred to as application program codes, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard.

[0350] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 501 can include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 5.

[0351] In a specific implementation, as an example, the communication apparatus 500 can include multiple processors, such as the processor 501 and the processor 505 in FIG. 5. Each of the processors can be a single-CPU processor or a multi-CPU processor. The processor herein can refer to one or more devices, circuits, and / or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

[0352] When the apparatus shown in FIG. 5 is a chip, such as a chip of a UE or a chip of a network device, the chip includes the processor 501 (and can also include the processor 505), the communication line 502, and the communication interface 504, and optionally includes the memory 503. Specifically, the communication interface 504 can be an input interface, a pin, or a circuit, etc. The memory 503 can be a register, a cache, etc. The processor 501 and the processor 505 can be a general-purpose CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling execution of a program for controlling the communication method of any of the above embodiments.

[0353] The embodiments of the present application can divide the functions of the apparatus according to the above method examples, for example, each function module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of a software function module. It should be noted that the division of the modules in the embodiments of the present application is illustrative, and is only a logical function division. When each function module is divided according to each function, for example, FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus 600, which can be a UE or a network device involved in the above method embodiments, or a chip in the UE or a chip in the network device. The apparatus 600 includes a sending unit 601, a processing unit 602, and a receiving unit 603.

[0354] It should be understood that the apparatus 600 can be used to implement the steps performed by the UE or the network device in the communication method of the embodiments of the present application, and the related features can refer to the above embodiment shown in FIG. 4, which will not be described here.

[0355] Optionally, the functions / implementation processes of the sending unit 601, the receiving unit 603, and the processing unit 602 in FIG. 6 can be implemented by the processor 501 in FIG. 5 invoking computer execution instructions stored in the memory 503. Alternatively, the functions / implementation processes of the processing unit 602 in FIG. 6 can be implemented by the processor 501 in FIG. 5 invoking computer execution instructions stored in the memory 503, and the functions / implementation processes of the sending unit 601 and the receiving unit 603 in FIG. 6 can be implemented by the communication interface 504 in FIG. 5.

[0356] Optionally, when the apparatus 600 is a chip or a circuit, the functions / implementation procedures of the sending unit 601 and the receiving unit 603 can also be implemented by means of pins or circuits, etc.

[0357] The application further provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instructions, and when the computer program or instructions are executed, the method executed by the UE or the network device in the foregoing method embodiments is implemented. Thus, the functions described in the foregoing embodiments can be implemented in the form of software function units and sold or used as independent products. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the application can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence or in the part that contributes to the application or part of the technical solutions. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes a plurality of instructions for causing a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the application. The storage medium includes a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and various media that can store program codes.

[0358] The application further provides a computer program product, which includes computer program codes, and when the computer program codes are executed on a computer, the computer executes the method executed by the UE or the network device in any of the foregoing method embodiments.

[0359] The embodiments of the application further provide a processing apparatus, which includes a processor and an interface; the processor is used to execute the method executed by the UE or the network device related to any of the foregoing method embodiments.

[0360] In the embodiments described above, all or some of the embodiments can be implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, all or some of the embodiments can be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded into and executed by a computer, all or some of the procedures or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed. The computer can be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from a website, a computer, a server or a data center to another website, computer, server or data center through a wired (for example, coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (for example, infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) manner. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. integrated with one or more available media sets. The available media can be a magnetic medium (for example, floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (for example, DVD), or a semiconductor medium (for example, solid state disk (SSD)) and the like.

[0361] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithms described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented or performed by a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the described functions. The general purpose processor can be a microprocessor, optionally, the general purpose processor can also be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor can also be implemented by a combination of computing devices, such as a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other similar configuration.

[0362] The steps of methods or algorithms described in the embodiments of the present application can be directly embedded in hardware, a software unit executed by a processor, or a combination of the two. The software unit can be stored in a RAM, a flash memory, a ROM, an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an EEPROM, a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium in the art. The storage medium can be connected to the processor, so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium can also be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC, which can be located in the terminal device. Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium can also be located in different components of the terminal device.

[0363] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device to cause a series of operations to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing device to generate a computer implemented process, so that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable data processing device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more flows in the flowchart and / or one or more blocks in the block diagram.

[0364] The contents of various embodiments of the present application can be mutually referred to, and the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be mutually referred to if there is no special description and logical conflict. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationship.

[0365] It can be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, the UE and / or the network device can perform part or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application, and these steps or operations are only examples, and other operations or variations of various operations can also be performed in the embodiments of the present application. In addition, each step can be performed in a different order from the order presented in the embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all operations in the embodiments of the present application are performed.

Claims

1. A communication method characterized by comprising: The method comprises: sending first information, the first information indicating channel quality of L beams and channel quality of P beams, L and P are positive integers; wherein the first information comprises L channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one of the L beams, and the first information further comprises N channel quality information, one of which corresponds to one or more of the P beams, N being a positive integer less than or equal to P.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The information amount of at least one of the N channel quality information is less than the information amount of any one of the L channel quality information.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein, one of the N channel quality information indicates channel quality of multiple beams of the P beams; or, one of the N channel quality information indicates a change amount of channel quality of one or more of the P beams relative to channel quality of a reference beam.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, the reference beam is a first beam of the L beams; or, the reference beam is a second beam of the P beams; or, the reference beam is a beam with the strongest or weakest channel quality in the L beams and / or the P beams; or, the reference beam is a beam with the largest or smallest index in the L beams and / or the P beams; or, the reference beam is a beam with the same rank indication interval as a beam corresponding to the reference beam in the P beams; or, the reference beam is a beam with the same order as a beam corresponding to the reference beam in the L beams.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that, one of the N channel quality information indicates a change amount of channel quality of one or more of the P beams relative to channel quality of a reference beam; the method further comprises: receiving or sending third information, the third information indicating one or more of: a first number of bits, the first number of bits being a number of bits occupied by a channel quality information used to indicate the change amount; a second number of bits, the second number of bits being a total number of bits occupied by channel quality information used to indicate the change amount in the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information; a first correspondence relationship, the first correspondence relationship being a correspondence relationship between a number of bits occupied by a channel quality information used to indicate the change amount and a number of beams corresponding to the channel quality information used to indicate the change amount; or, a third number of bits, the third number of bits including numbers of bits respectively occupied by channel quality information used to indicate the change amount.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, The method further comprises: sending or receiving fourth information; wherein the fourth information indicates one or more of: a first number, the first number being a sum of L and P; a second number, the second number being a number of beam groups to which the L beams and the P beams belong; a first beam group, the first beam group comprising the L beams; a second beam group, the second beam group comprising the P beams; The first beam group and the second beam group correspond to a grouping manner; Channel quality information of the grouped beams is reported, or channel quality information of the beams is not grouped and reported; or A reporting strategy of the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6, wherein One of the L channel quality information comprises a channel quality indicator and / or a rank indicator; and / or One of the N channel quality information comprises a channel quality indicator and / or a rank indicator.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, One of the L channel quality information comprises a channel quality indicator, and one of the N channel quality information comprises a channel quality indicator; The first information further comprises a first rank indicator, and the first rank indicator corresponds to the L beams and the P beams.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that, First channel quality information in the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information corresponds to a first beam, and the first channel quality information indicates a wideband channel quality of the first beam and / or a subband channel quality of the first beam.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein, The first channel quality information indicates the wideband channel quality of the first beam, and the first channel quality information comprises: A wideband channel quality indicator of the first beam, or A change amount of the wideband channel quality indicator of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indicator of a reference beam.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that, The first channel quality information indicates the subband channel quality of the first beam, and the first channel quality information comprises any of the following: A subband channel quality indicator of a first subband of the first beam; A change amount of the subband channel quality indicator of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indicator of the first beam; A change amount of the subband channel quality indicator of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indicator of a reference subband of the first beam; A change amount of the subband channel quality indicator of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indicator of a reference beam; A change amount of the subband channel quality indicator of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indicator of a reference subband of a reference beam; A change amount of the subband channel quality indicator of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of a first reference beam, and the wideband channel quality information of the first reference beam indicates a change amount of a wideband channel quality indicator of the first reference beam relative to a wideband channel quality indicator of a second reference beam; A change amount of the subband channel quality indicator of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of the first beam, and the wideband channel quality information of the first beam indicates a change amount of a wideband channel quality indicator of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indicator of a reference beam; or, a change amount of a subband channel quality indication of a first subband of the first beam relative to channel quality information of a first reference subband of a first reference beam, wherein the channel quality information of the first reference subband indicates a change amount of a subband channel quality indication of the first reference subband relative to a subband channel quality indication of a second reference subband of a second reference beam.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 11, characterized in that, The method further includes: receiving or sending fifth information; wherein the fifth information indicates one or more of: a beam of the L beams and / or the P beams to be reported with channel quality of a corresponding wideband; a beam of the L beams and / or the P beams to be reported with channel quality of a corresponding subband; a number of beams of the L beams and / or the P beams to be reported with channel quality of a corresponding wideband; or a number of beams of the L beams and / or the P beams to be reported with channel quality of a corresponding subband.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that, The first information further includes: indices of the L beams, one of which corresponds to one of the L channel quality information; and / or, indices of the P beams, one of the N channel quality information corresponding to one or more of the indices of the P beams; wherein the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information are sorted according to indices of corresponding beams.

14. A communication method, comprising: The method includes: receiving first information, the first information indicating channel quality of L beams and further indicating channel quality of P beams, the L and P being positive integers; wherein the first information includes L channel quality information, one of which corresponding to one of the L beams, and further includes N channel quality information, one of which corresponding to one or more of the P beams, an average information amount of the L channel quality information being greater than an average information amount of the N channel quality information, the N being a positive integer less than or equal to P; determining channel quality of the L beams and the P beams according to the first information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, an information amount of at least one of the N channel quality information is less than an information amount of any one of the L channel quality information.

16. The method of claim 14 or 15, wherein: one of the N channel quality information indicates channel quality of multiple beams of the P beams; or one of the N channel quality information indicates a change amount of channel quality of one or more of the P beams relative to channel quality of a reference beam.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein: the reference beam is a first beam of the L beams; or the reference beam is a second beam of the P beams; or the reference beam is a beam with strongest or weakest channel quality among the L beams and / or the P beams; or the reference beam is a beam with largest or smallest index among the L beams and / or the P beams; or The reference beam is a beam in the L beams that has the same rank indication interval as the beam corresponding to the reference beam in the P beams. The reference beam is a beam in the L beams that has the same rank indication interval as the beam corresponding to the reference beam in the P beams.

18. The method of claim 16 or 17, wherein, One of the N channel quality information indicates the change amount of the channel quality of one or more beams in the P beams relative to the channel quality of the reference beam; the method further comprises: sending or receiving third information, the third information indicating one or more of: a first number of bits, the first number of bits being the number of bits occupied by one channel quality information for indicating the change amount; a second number of bits, the second number of bits being the total number of bits occupied by the channel quality information for indicating the change amount in the N channel quality information; a first correspondence relationship between the number of bits occupied by one channel quality information for indicating the change amount and the number of beams corresponding to the channel quality information for indicating the change amount; or a third number of bits, the third number of bits including the number of bits respectively occupied by the channel quality information for indicating the change amount.

19. The method of any one of claims 14-18, wherein, The method further comprises: receiving or sending fourth information; wherein the fourth information indicates one or more of: a first number, the first number being the sum of L and P; a second number, the second number being the number of beam groups to which the L beams and the P beams belong; a first beam group, the first beam group including the L beams; a second beam group, the second beam group including the P beams; a grouping manner corresponding to the first beam group and the second beam group; reporting the channel quality information of the beams in groups or not reporting the channel quality information of the beams in groups; or a reporting strategy of the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information.

20. The method of any of claims 14-19, wherein: one of the L channel quality information includes a channel quality indication and / or a rank indication; and / or one of the N channel quality information includes a channel quality indication and / or a rank indication.

21. The method of any one of claims 14-19, wherein, One of the L channel quality information includes a channel quality indication, and one of the N channel quality information includes a channel quality indication; The first information further includes a first rank indication, and the first rank indication corresponds to the L beams and the P beams.

22. The method of any one of claims 14-21, wherein, The first channel quality information in the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information corresponds to a first beam, wherein the first channel quality information indicates the channel quality of a wideband of the first beam and / or the channel quality of a subband.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein, The first channel quality information indicates the channel quality of a wideband of the first beam, wherein the first channel quality information includes: a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam, or a change amount of the wideband channel quality indication of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam.

24. The method of claim 22 or 23, wherein, The first channel quality information indicates a channel quality of a subband of the first beam, wherein the first channel quality information comprises any one of: a subband channel quality indication of a first subband of the first beam; a change amount of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam; a change amount of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indication of a reference subband of the first beam; a change amount of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam; a change amount of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to a subband channel quality indication of a reference subband of a reference beam; a change amount of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of a first reference beam, the wideband channel quality information of the first reference beam indicating a change amount of a wideband channel quality indication of the first reference beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a second reference beam; a change amount of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to wideband channel quality information of the first beam, the wideband channel quality information of the first beam indicating a change amount of a wideband channel quality indication of the first beam relative to a wideband channel quality indication of a reference beam; or a change amount of the subband channel quality indication of the first subband of the first beam relative to channel quality information of a first reference subband of a first reference beam, wherein the channel quality information of the first reference subband indicates a change amount of a subband channel quality indication of the first reference subband relative to a subband channel quality indication of a second reference subband of a second reference beam.

25. The method of any one of claims 22-24, wherein, The method further comprises: receiving or transmitting fifth information; wherein the fifth information indicates one or more of: a beam of the L beams and / or the P beams for which a corresponding wideband channel quality is to be reported; a beam of the L beams and / or the P beams for which a corresponding subband channel quality is to be reported; a number of beams of the L beams and / or the P beams for which a corresponding wideband channel quality is to be reported; or a number of beams of the L beams and / or the P beams for which a corresponding subband channel quality is to be reported.

26. The method of any one of claims 14-25, wherein, The first information further comprises: indices of the L beams, one index of which corresponds to one of the L channel quality information; and / or indices of the P beams, one of the N channel quality information corresponding to one or more of the indices of the P beams; wherein the L channel quality information and / or the N channel quality information are sorted according to the indices of the corresponding beams.

27. A communications device, characterized by The communication apparatus comprises a processing unit and a transceiver unit, the processing unit being coupled with the transceiver unit to perform the method of any one of claims 1-13, or to perform the method of any one of claims 14-26.

28. A communications device, characterized by The communication device comprises a processor and a memory, the memory being configured to store a computer program, the processor being configured to execute the computer program stored on the memory, so that the communication device performs the method according to any one of claims 1-13, or so that the communication device performs the method according to any one of claims 14-26.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer readable storage medium is configured to store a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-13, or causes the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 14-26.

30. A computer program product, characterised in that, The computer program product comprises a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-13, or causes the computer to perform the method according to any one of claims 14-26.

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