Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: receiving first information on a first carrier, and sending or receiving Q1 pieces of data in a first time unit, wherein the first information is used for scheduling the Q1 pieces of data in the first time unit, the first information comprises first indication information, the first indication information indicates N HARQ processes, and the N HARQ processes are associated with the Q1 pieces of data, N being an integer greater than or equal to 2, and Q1 being an integer greater than or equal to N.

Description

A communication method and apparatus

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202411595966.4, filed on November 8, 2024, entitled "A Communication Method and Apparatus", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] This application relates to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a communication method and apparatus. Background Technology

[0003] During air interface transmission, bit errors or packet loss may occur. The robustness of air interface transmission can be improved by using the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) mechanism. The HARQ mechanism employs a stop-and-wait protocol, where the sender pauses and waits for feedback from the receiver after each transmission. To improve transmission efficiency, HARQ uses multiple stop-and-wait processes in parallel. Specifically, while one HARQ process is waiting for acknowledgment, the sender can use another HARQ process to continue sending information; similarly, while the receiver is processing information received by one HARQ process, it can use another HARQ process to continue receiving information. However, under low latency constraints, transmission opportunities may conflict between multiple data items to be transmitted on the terminal device. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This application provides a communication method and apparatus that can reduce transmission conflicts of multiple data and improve transmission performance.

[0005] Firstly, a communication method is provided. This method can be applied to the terminal side, such as a terminal device or a communication module within a terminal device, or a circuit or chip within the terminal device responsible for communication functions (such as a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system-on-chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core, or a system-in-package (SIP) chip). For ease of description, the application of this method to a terminal device will be used as an example.

[0006] In this method, the terminal device receives first information on the first carrier. The first information is used to schedule Q1 data in the first time unit. The first information includes first indication information, which indicates N HARQ processes. The N HARQ processes are associated with Q1 data, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N. The terminal device transmits or receives Q1 data on the first carrier and in the first time unit.

[0007] Using the above method, for the first carrier, the terminal device can receive or transmit multiple data in the first time unit, reducing transmission conflicts between multiple data, enabling the transmission of as much data as possible under low latency constraints, improving throughput, and ensuring transmission performance. In other words, transmitting multiple data in the first time unit can reduce transmission latency and improve transmission efficiency.

[0008] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, a time unit is the smallest unit used for transmitting data in the time domain, such as a time slot, a symbol, or a micro-time slot.

[0009] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, the data includes at least one of a transmission block (TB), a sub-transmission block, a code block, a code block group, a code block set, a code block cluster, or other independent transmission entities, and the first time unit includes a first time slot, a first micro-time slot, or a first symbol.

[0010] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, the Q1 data items include first data and second data. The transmission corresponding to the first data is the initial transmission, and the transmission corresponding to the second data is a retransmission; alternatively, the transmissions corresponding to both the first and second data are initial transmissions, or both the transmissions corresponding to the first and second data are retransmissions.

[0011] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, the N HARQ processes include a first HARQ process and a second HARQ process, with the first data associated with the first HARQ process and the second data associated with the second HARQ process.

[0012] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, the N HARQ processes include a first HARQ process and a second HARQ process, and the Q1 data also include a third data. The first data is associated with the first HARQ process, the second data is associated with the second HARQ process, and the third data is associated with either the first HARQ process or the second HARQ process.

[0013] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, before receiving the first information on the first carrier, the method further includes: sending second information, the second information indicating the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device in a time unit, or indicating the maximum number of concurrent HARQ processes supported by the terminal device in a transmission time interval (TTI), or indicating the number of HARQ processes simultaneously scheduled or activated by the terminal device in a time unit, or indicating the number of data simultaneously scheduled by the terminal device in a time unit, etc. (For example, in a time unit, one piece of data corresponds to one HARQ process, so the maximum number of data simultaneously scheduled by the terminal device in a time unit can be understood as the maximum number of HARQ processes simultaneously scheduled by the terminal device in a time unit.)

[0014] By using the above method, the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit (e.g., a transmission time interval TTI) is reported, enabling the network device to effectively schedule the number of data to be transmitted in the first time unit and ensure transmission performance.

[0015] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, N HARQ processes are located within M HARQ processes, and MN HARQ processes are associated with Q2 data. M represents the number of HARQ processes corresponding to the data to be transmitted by the terminal device, and the data to be transmitted consists of Q data, where Q = Q1 + Q2, Q2 is an integer greater than or equal to MN, and M is an integer greater than or equal to N.

[0016] Optionally, if M=N, then Q=Q1 and Q2=0, which means that the Q data to be transmitted by the terminal device can be transmitted on the first carrier and within the first time unit.

[0017] Optionally, if M > N, it means that the terminal device has Q data to be transmitted, and selects Q1 data from the Q data, that is, the terminal device transmits Q1 data on the first carrier within the first time unit.

[0018] In one implementation, the transmission priority of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data, or in other words, the priority of N HARQ processes is higher than that of MN HARQ processes. In this case, the terminal device can prioritize the transmission of the higher-priority Q1 data to ensure user experience.

[0019] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some implementations, the Q1 data points are determined from the Q data points based on the first rule.

[0020] The first rule includes at least one of the following:

[0021] The remaining packet delay budget (PDB) for Q1 data is less than the remaining PDB for Q2 data;

[0022] All transmissions corresponding to Q1 data are retransmissions, and all transmissions corresponding to Q2 data are initial transmissions.

[0023] Both Q1 and Q2 data transmissions are retransmissions, and the number of retransmissions for Q1 data is higher than the number of retransmissions for Q2 data.

[0024] The channel interference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than that of Q2 data.

[0025] The channel interference is less than the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data.

[0026] The channel busy rate (CBR) is greater than or equal to the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than that of Q2 data.

[0027] The channel busy rate (CBR) is less than the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data.

[0028] Understandably, in uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, the remaining PDB of Q1 data is less than that of Q2 data. Since the remaining PDB of Q1 data is relatively small, it indicates a higher latency urgency for that Q1 data. Therefore, network devices or terminal devices can prioritize scheduling Q1 data. In other words, a higher latency urgency for Q1 data can be understood as a higher priority for the N HARQ processes corresponding to Q1 data than for the MN processes corresponding to Q2 data; or, the transmission priority of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data. Therefore, to ensure service effectiveness, or to guarantee user satisfaction or experience, Q1 data can be transmitted first.

[0029] Understandably, for uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, under different service conditions, retransmitted data has a higher transmission priority than initial (or new) data. For example, in uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, assuming that the transmission corresponding to data for service 1 is a retransmission and the transmission corresponding to data for service 2 is an initial transmission, the network device can schedule the data for service 1 first. For the same service, since the PDB corresponding to the data for service 1 and service 2 is the same, regardless of whether the data for service 1 and service 2 is a retransmission or an initial transmission, only when the data of the packet is transmitted correctly can the packet be decoded correctly. Therefore, under the same service conditions, the transmission priority of retransmission and initial transmission is almost the same.

[0030] Understandably, in uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, when both service 1 and service 2 data transmissions involve retransmissions, the more retransmissions, the higher the priority of the HARQ process corresponding to that retransmitted data. It's also understandable that different services have different reliability requirements; for example, service 1 requires 99% reliability, while service 2 requires 90% reliability. Therefore, in the event of transmission conflicts, to meet the reliability requirements of the services, network devices or terminal devices should prioritize scheduling data from services with higher reliability, such as service 1 data.

[0031] Understandably, for uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, the time unit for network device scheduling (e.g., the first time unit, such as time slot 1) determines the channel interference level. When the detected channel interference is greater than or equal to a certain threshold, indicating high channel interference, it means the current channel is congested or the channel conditions are poor. In this case, the network device or terminal device can prioritize scheduling services with lower reliability to avoid data packet transmission. Conversely, when the channel interference is less than a certain threshold, indicating low channel interference, it means the current channel conditions are good. In this case, the network device or terminal device can prioritize scheduling services with higher reliability to improve data packet transmission performance.

[0032] Understandably, in sidelink (SL) scenarios, when the channel busy rate is greater than or equal to a certain threshold, meaning the channel is busy at a high level, it indicates that the current channel is congested or the channel conditions are poor. In this case, network devices or terminal devices can prioritize services with lower reliability to avoid data packet transmission. Conversely, when the channel busy rate is less than a certain threshold, meaning the channel is busy at a high level, it indicates that the current channel is good. In this case, terminal devices or network devices can prioritize services with higher reliability to improve data packet transmission performance.

[0033] Using the above method, network devices or terminal devices can prioritize scheduling Q1 data with high latency urgency, or prioritize scheduling Q1 data with high service reliability, or prioritize scheduling retransmitted Q1 data, according to the first rule. This allows the terminal device to receive or send Q1 data on the first carrier and in the first time unit. This not only avoids transmission conflicts of multiple data and improves transmission throughput, but also reduces transmission latency, improves transmission efficiency, and ensures transmission performance.

[0034] Secondly, a communication method is provided. This method can be applied to the network side, such as network devices, modules (e.g., circuits, chips, or chip systems) within network devices, or logical nodes, logical modules, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the network devices. For ease of description, the application of this method to a network device will be used as an example.

[0035] In this method, the network device transmits first information on a first carrier. The first information is used to schedule Q1 data in a first time unit. The first information includes first indication information, which indicates N HARQ processes. The N HARQ processes are associated with Q1 data, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N. On the first carrier, Q1 data are received or transmitted in the first time unit.

[0036] Using the above method, for the first carrier, the network device can receive or transmit multiple data in the first time unit, reducing transmission conflicts between multiple data, enabling the transmission of as much data as possible under low latency constraints, improving throughput, and ensuring transmission performance. In other words, transmitting multiple data in the first time unit can reduce transmission latency and improve transmission efficiency.

[0037] In conjunction with the second aspect, in some implementations, the Q1 data items include first data and second data. The transmission corresponding to the first data is the initial transmission, and the transmission corresponding to the second data is a retransmission; alternatively, the transmissions corresponding to both the first and second data are initial transmissions, or both the transmissions corresponding to the first and second data are retransmissions.

[0038] In conjunction with the second aspect, in some implementations, the N HARQ processes include a first HARQ process and a second HARQ process, with the first data associated with the first HARQ process and the second data associated with the second HARQ process.

[0039] In conjunction with the second aspect, in some implementations, before transmitting the first information on the first carrier, the method further includes: receiving second information, the second information indicating the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit.

[0040] In conjunction with the second aspect, in some implementations, N HARQ processes are located within M HARQ processes, and MN HARQ processes are associated with Q2 data. M represents the number of HARQ processes corresponding to the data to be transmitted by the terminal device, and the data to be transmitted consists of Q data, where Q = Q1 + Q2, Q2 is an integer greater than or equal to MN, and M is an integer greater than or equal to N.

[0041] Optionally, the transmission priority of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data.

[0042] In conjunction with the second aspect, in some implementations, the Q1 data points are determined from the Q data points based on the first rule.

[0043] The first rule includes at least one of the following:

[0044] The remaining PDB of Q1 data is less than the remaining PDB of Q2 data;

[0045] All transmissions corresponding to Q1 data are retransmissions, and all transmissions corresponding to Q2 data are initial transmissions.

[0046] Both Q1 and Q2 data transmissions are retransmissions, and the number of retransmissions for Q1 data is higher than the number of retransmissions for Q2 data.

[0047] The channel interference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than that of Q2 data.

[0048] The channel interference is less than the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data.

[0049] CBR is greater than or equal to the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than that of Q2 data.

[0050] The CBR is less than the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data.

[0051] In conjunction with the second aspect, in some implementations, the time unit is the smallest unit used for data transmission in the time domain.

[0052] In conjunction with the second aspect, in some implementations, the data includes at least one of a transport block TB, a sub-transport block, a code block, a code block group, a code block set, or a code block cluster, and the first time unit includes a first time slot, a first micro-time slot, or a first symbol.

[0053] The beneficial effects of some implementation methods of the second aspect mentioned above can be referred to the relevant descriptions in the first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0054] Thirdly, a communication device is provided. This communication device has the functions described in the first aspect above. For example, the communication device includes modules, units, or means corresponding to the operations involved in the first aspect. These modules, units, or means can be implemented through software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0055] In one possible design, the communication device includes: a communication unit for receiving first information on a first carrier, the first information being used to schedule Q1 data points on a first time unit, the first information including first indication information indicating N HARQ processes associated with Q1 data points, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N; the communication unit is also used to transmit or receive Q1 data points on the first carrier and on the first time unit.

[0056] The communication unit can perform the receiving and transmitting processes described in the first aspect above, and the processing unit can perform other processes described in the first aspect above besides receiving and transmitting.

[0057] The aforementioned communication device may be a terminal device, a communication module in a terminal device, or a chip in a terminal device that is responsible for communication functions, such as a modem chip (also known as a baseband chip) or a SoC or SIP chip that contains a modem module.

[0058] Fourthly, a communication device is provided. This communication device has the functions described in the second aspect above. For example, the communication device includes modules, units, or means corresponding to the operations involved in the second aspect above. These modules, units, or means can be implemented through software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0059] In one possible design, the communication device includes: a communication unit for transmitting first information on a first carrier, the first information being used to schedule Q1 data points on a first time unit, the first information including first indication information indicating N HARQ processes associated with Q1 data points, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N; the communication unit is also configured to receive or transmit Q1 data points on the first carrier and on the first time unit.

[0060] The communication unit can perform the receiving and transmitting processes described in the second aspect above, and the processing unit can perform other processes described in the second aspect above besides receiving and transmitting.

[0061] The aforementioned communication device may be a network device, or a module (such as a circuit, chip, or chip system) within a network device, or a logical node, logical module, or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of a network device.

[0062] Fifthly, a communication device is provided, comprising an interface circuit and one or more processors. The one or more processors are coupled to a memory. The memory stores part or all of a computer program or instructions necessary for implementing the functions involved in either the first or second aspect described above. The one or more processors are executable to carry out the computer program or instructions, which, when executed, cause the communication device to implement the methods in any possible design or implementation of the first or second aspect described above. The interface circuit is used to implement communication functions within the communication device and / or communication functions between the communication device and other devices or components.

[0063] In one possible design, the processor is used to communicate with other devices or components through the interface circuit.

[0064] In one possible design, the communication device may also include the memory.

[0065] The aforementioned communication device may be a terminal device, a communication module in a terminal device, or a chip in a terminal device that is responsible for communication functions, such as a modem chip (also known as a baseband chip) or a SoC or SIP chip that contains a modem module.

[0066] The aforementioned communication device may be a network device, or a module (such as a circuit, chip, or chip system) within a network device, or a logical node, logical module, or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of a network device.

[0067] In a sixth aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes the communication means of the third and / or fourth aspects.

[0068] In a seventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. This computer-readable storage medium stores computer program code or instructions, which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the method in any of the possible implementations of the first or second aspect to be implemented.

[0069] Eighthly, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes computer program code or instructions that, when read and executed by a computer, cause the method in any of the possible implementations of the first or second aspect to be implemented.

[0070] Ninthly, a computer program is provided. When the computer program is run, it causes the method in any of the possible implementations of the first or second aspect to be implemented.

[0071] It should be understood that the beneficial effects of the third to ninth aspects mentioned above can be referred to the first or second aspects mentioned above and any possible implementation thereof, which will not be elaborated here. Attached Figure Description

[0072] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to this application;

[0073] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of data transmission using the stop-and-wait protocol;

[0074] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of data transmission via the HARQ process;

[0075] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of data transmission using the new data indicator (NDI) flip mechanism;

[0076] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of transmission conflicts between multiple data to be transmitted by the terminal device;

[0077] Figure 6 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0078] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of transmitting multiple data within the remaining transmission time provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0079] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of Q1 data scheduled on carrier 1 according to an embodiment of this application;

[0080] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of the association between Q1 data items scheduled on carrier 1 and N HARQ processes provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0081] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of selecting Q1 data from Q data for transmission according to an embodiment of this application;

[0082] Figure 11 is a possible exemplary block diagram of the communication device involved in the embodiments of this application;

[0083] Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0084] The technical solutions in this application will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0085] Before introducing the scheme of this application, the following points should be noted.

[0086] (1) In this application, unless otherwise specified or logically conflicting, the terms and / or descriptions of different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced by each other. The technical features of different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationship.

[0087] (2) In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more than one" means two or more. "And / or" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, or B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In the textual description of this application, the character " / " generally indicates that the related objects before and after are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, and c can mean: a, or, b, or, c, or, a and b, or, a and c, or, b and c, or, a, b, and c. Where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0088] (3) In this application, "first," "second," and "#1," "#2" are merely for descriptive convenience and are used to distinguish objects, and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. For example, they are used to distinguish different messages, rather than to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that such described objects can be interchanged where appropriate so as to describe solutions other than those in the embodiments of this application.

[0089] (4) In this application, "instruction" can include direct instruction, indirect instruction, explicit instruction, implicit instruction, etc. When describing an instruction information as indicating A, it can be understood as the instruction information carrying A, carrying the identifier of A, carrying B which is associated with A, carrying the identifier of B which is associated with A, etc. In other words, if the receiving side of an instruction information can determine A based on the instruction information, it can be described as the instruction information indicating A, and the specific method of determination is not limited. When it is understood that the instruction information carries A, "instruction" can be replaced with "includes". In this case, a statement such as "send / receive instruction information, the instruction information indicates A" can be replaced with "send / receive A".

[0090] In this application, the information indicated by the instruction information is called the information to be instructed. In specific implementations, there are many ways to indicate the information to be instructed, such as, but not limited to, directly indicating the information to be instructed, such as the information to be instructed itself or its index. It can also indirectly indicate the information to be instructed by indicating other information, where there is a relationship between the other information and the information to be instructed. It can also indicate only a part of the information to be instructed, while the other parts are known or pre-agreed upon. For example, the instruction of specific information can be achieved by using a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol-defined) arrangement of various pieces of information, thereby reducing instruction overhead to some extent. Furthermore, the information to be instructed can be sent as a whole or divided into multiple sub-information pieces, and the sending period and / or timing of these sub-information pieces can be the same or different.

[0091] (5) In this application, "predefined" may refer to a standard protocol predefined, or it may refer to a pre-agreed or pre-negotiated agreement between devices. "Pre-configuration" can be achieved by pre-storing corresponding codes, tables, or other means that can be used to indicate relevant information in the device, and this application does not limit the implementation method. "Protocol" may refer to a standard protocol in the field of communication, such as fourth-generation (4G) protocols. th Generation 4G network, fifth generation (5G) network th This application does not limit the scope to network protocols such as 5G (generation, 5G), New Radio (NR), 5.5G, and related protocols applied in future communication networks.

[0092] (6) In this application, “message”, “information”, “signal” or “information element (IE)” can be used interchangeably. There are no restrictions on the name of the message or information, as long as it can achieve the corresponding function.

[0093] "Sending information to XX (device)" can be understood as the destination of the information being that device. This can include sending information to that device directly or indirectly. "Receiving information from XX (device), or receiving information from XX (device)" can be understood as the source of the information being that device. This can include receiving information from that device directly or indirectly. Information may undergo necessary processing between the source and destination, such as format changes, but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in this application can be interpreted similarly, and will not be elaborated further here.

[0094] "Communication" can also be described as data transmission, information transmission, data processing, etc. "Transmission" includes sending and / or receiving. "Transmission" can be described as output. "Sending" can also be understood as the output of a chip interface, and "receiving" can be understood as the input of a chip interface. In other words, "sending" or "receiving" can occur between devices, for example, between network devices and terminal devices via an air interface. "Sending" or "receiving" can also occur within a device, for example, between components, modules, chips, software modules, or hardware modules within a device via a bus, wiring, or interface.

[0095] For example, "sending information" can be understood as one device sending information to another device, or it can also be understood as one logical module within a device sending information to another logical module. For instance, "a network device sending information" can be understood as a network device sending information to another device (such as a terminal device), or it can be understood as logical module 1 within the network device sending information to logical module 2 within the network device. Similarly, "receiving information" can be understood as one device receiving information from another device, or it can also be understood as one logical module within a device receiving information from another logical module. For instance, "a network device receiving information" can be understood as a network device receiving information from another device (such as a terminal device), or it can be understood as logical module 1 within the network device receiving information from logical module 2 within the network device.

[0096] (7) In this application, the words “exemplary,” “for example,” etc., are used to indicate examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as an “example” in this application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or designs. Specifically, the use of the word “example” is intended to present the concept in a concrete manner. In the embodiments of this application, “of,” “corresponding, relevant,” “corresponding,” and “associate” may sometimes be used interchangeably, and it should be noted that their intended meanings are consistent unless their distinctions are emphasized.

[0097] (8) In this application, the configuration can be signaling configuration, such as radio resource control (RRC) messages, downlink control information (DCI), or system information block (SIB). Optionally, the signaling configuration can be provided to the terminal device by pre-configured signaling configuration, or configured to the terminal device through pre-configuration. Here, pre-configuration means defining or configuring the values ​​of corresponding parameters in advance in a protocol manner, and storing them in the terminal device during communication. The pre-configured messages can be modified or updated when the terminal device is connected to the network.

[0098] (9) In this application, when comparing A and B, the description "when A is greater than or equal to B, execute method A; when A is less than or equal to B, execute method B" can be implemented as "when A is greater than or equal to B, execute method A; when A is less than B, execute method B"; or it can be "when A is greater than B, execute method A; or when A is less than or equal to B, execute method B". This application does not limit this. For ease of description, the implementation methods provided in this application are all illustrated using "when A is greater than or equal to B, execute method A; or when A is less than B, execute method B" as an example. In other words, "<" means less than, "≤" means less than or equal to, and "<" and "≤" can be interchanged without limitation. Similarly, ">" means greater than, "≥" means greater than or equal to, and ">" and "≥" can be interchanged without limitation. The examples provided in this application are merely examples and do not constitute a limitation on this application.

[0099] (10) In this application, a HARQ process can be associated with one or more data, or a data can be associated with one HARQ process. For example, taking downlink transmission as an example, a network device schedules multiple data within a TTI through DCI, which can be called a transmission, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, which can be associated with one or more data, etc.

[0100] The following describes the communication system to which this application applies.

[0101] The technical solutions of this application embodiment can be applied to various communication systems, such as: LTE systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (TDD) systems, 5G or NR systems and future communication systems, vehicle-to-other devices (V2X), where V2X can include vehicle to network (V2N), vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to infrastructure (V2I), vehicle to pedestrian (V2P), long term evolution-vehicle (LTE-V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), long term evolution-machine (LTE-M) communication, machine to machine (M2M), etc.

[0102] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 1, the communication system 10 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network (CN) 200. RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (110a and 110b in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal device (120a-120j in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 120). RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in Figure 1). Terminal device 120 is wirelessly connected to RAN node 110. RAN node 110 is wirelessly or wired connected to CN 200. The core network device in CN 200 and RAN node 110 in RAN 100 can be different physical devices, or they can be the same physical device integrating core network logical functions and radio access network logical functions.

[0103] RAN 100 can be a 3GPP-related cellular system, such as a 4th generation (4G) mobile communication system, a 5G mobile communication system, or a future-oriented evolution system. RAN 100 can also be an open access network (O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), or a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system. RAN 100 can also be a communication system that integrates two or more of the above systems.

[0104] RAN node 110, sometimes referred to as network equipment, RAN entity, or access node, constitutes part of the communication system and assists terminal equipment in achieving wireless access. Multiple RAN nodes 110 in this communication system can be of the same type or different types. In some scenarios, the roles of RAN node 110 and terminal equipment 120 are relative. For example, network element 120i in Figure 1 can be a helicopter or drone, which can be configured as a mobile base station. For terminal equipment 120j accessing RAN 100 through network element 120i, network element 120i is a base station; however, for base station 110a, network element 120i is a terminal equipment. RAN node 110 and terminal equipment 120 are sometimes both referred to as communication devices. For example, network elements 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be understood as communication devices with base station functions, and network elements 120a-120j can be understood as communication devices with terminal equipment functions.

[0105] In one possible scenario, the RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), an access point (AP), a transmission reception point (TRP), a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system. The RAN node can be a macro base station (as shown in Figure 1, 110a), a micro base station or indoor station (as shown in Figure 1, 110b), a relay node or donor node, or a radio controller in a CRAN scenario. Optionally, the RAN node can also be a server, wearable device, vehicle, or in-vehicle equipment. For example, network equipment in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can be a roadside unit (RSU). All or part of the functions of the RAN node in this application can also be implemented through software functions running on hardware, or through virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). The RAN node can also be equipped with communication modules, circuits, or chips that perform corresponding communication functions. The RAN node can also be configured with program instructions for performing corresponding communication functions and corresponding program instructions. The RAN node in this application can also be a logical node, logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the RAN node.

[0106] In another possible scenario, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist terminal devices in achieving wireless access, with different RAN nodes each implementing a portion of the base station's functions. For example, RAN nodes can be central units (CUs), distributed units (DUs), CU-control plane (CPs), CU-user plane (UPs), or radio units (RUs), etc. CUs and DUs can be set up separately or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). RUs can be included in radio frequency equipment or radio frequency units, such as remote radio units (RRUs), active antenna units (AAUs), or remote radio heads (RRHs).

[0107] In different systems, CU (including open CU-CP (O-CU-CP) and open CU-UP (O-CU-UP), DU, or RU may have different names, but those skilled in the art will understand their meaning. For example, in an ORAN system, CU can also be called an open central unit (O-CU), DU can also be called an open distributed unit (O-DU), and RU can also be called an open radio unit (O-RU). For ease of description, this application uses CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU, and RU as examples. Any of the units among CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU, and RU in this application can be implemented through software modules, hardware modules, or a combination of software and hardware modules.

[0108] Terminal device 120 can be a device or module that accesses the aforementioned communication system and has corresponding communication functions. Terminal device can also be called terminal equipment, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal device, etc. Terminal device can be widely used in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), V2X communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearables, smart transportation, smart cities, etc. Terminal device can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, wearable device, vehicle, drone, helicopter, airplane, ship, robot, robotic arm, smart home device, transportation vehicle with wireless communication function, communication module, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the device form of the terminal device. Terminal device typically contains a communication module, circuit, or chip that performs the corresponding communication function. The terminal device can also be configured with program instructions for performing the corresponding communication function.

[0109] RAN 100 and terminal device 120 can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on water; and they can also be deployed in the air on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the scenarios in which RAN 100 and terminal device 120 are located.

[0110] CN 200 can be a 5G core network or an evolved 5G core network. Taking a 5G core network as an example, CN 200 includes access and mobility management (AMF) network elements responsible for mobility management and access management services; session management (SMF) network elements responsible for session management; user plane (UPF) network elements responsible for user plane packet routing and forwarding and quality of service (QoS) control; and policy control (PCF) network elements. These core network elements can operate independently or be combined to implement certain control functions; for example, AMF, SMF, and PCF can be combined into a single core network device.

[0111] It should be understood that the above naming is defined solely for the purpose of distinguishing different functions and should not constitute any limitation on this application. This application does not preclude the possibility of using other naming conventions in 5G networks and other future networks. For example, in future networks, some or all of the above-mentioned network elements may use the terminology from 5G, or they may use other names, etc.

[0112] It is understood that Figure 1 is merely an example provided for ease of understanding and does not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of this application. The communication method provided in the embodiments of this application may also involve network elements not shown in Figure 1, and of course, the communication method provided in the embodiments of this application may also include only some of the network elements shown in Figure 1.

[0113] To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of this application, the terms and concepts involved in this application will be briefly explained.

[0114] 1. Retransmission mechanism:

[0115] Retransmission refers to the process of retransmitting data after a transmission failure. Currently, there are three main retransmission mechanisms.

[0116] (1) Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer Retransmission: The HARQ mechanism of the MAC layer is a commonly used retransmission mechanism. This HARQ mechanism means that after receiving information, the receiving end immediately feeds back the result of whether the information transmission was successful or failed to the sending end, thus achieving fast retransmission. To reduce feedback overhead, HARQ feedback does not include cyclic redundancy check (CRC) verification. Therefore, the reliability of HARQ feedback is low, and consequently, MAC layer retransmissions are sometimes considered lossy retransmissions.

[0117] (2) Radio Link Control (RLC) Layer Retransmission: The Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) mechanism of the RLC layer can supplement the MAC layer retransmission. This ARQ mechanism means that the receiver uses CRC checksums to determine if the received data is correct and feeds back the result to the transmitter. If an error is received, the transmitter retransmits the data after receiving the feedback until the receiver receives it correctly. Compared to the HARQ mechanism, the RLC layer retransmission feedback status report has a lower transmission frequency, so the overhead required to achieve a lower feedback error rate is relatively small. Furthermore, RLC layer retransmission feedback is sent via PDSCH, and the corresponding feedback is protected by CRC, thus achieving very high feedback reliability.

[0118] RLC layer data retransmission typically uses an acknowledgment mode. In acknowledgment mode, when the receiver receives an erroneous protocol data unit (PDU), it notifies the sender to retransmit via a status report. The status report can be sent proactively by the receiver or requested by the sender. For example, if the sender's transmit buffer runs out of space due to unacknowledged PDUs, the sender can request the receiver to send a status report.

[0119] (3) Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer retransmission: mainly used in scenarios where terminal devices hand over cells across base stations. Since the relevant configurations and caches of lower-layer protocols (RLC layer and MAC layer) are cleared during the handover process, but not of the PDCP layer, the PDCP layer retransmission function can ensure as much as possible that data is not lost due to the terminal device handover.

[0120] 2. Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process:

[0121] The process of the transmitter sending a transport block (TB) to the receiver for the first time is called initial transmission, and the process of sending the transport block to the receiver again is called retransmission. HARQ is a retransmission mechanism that combines forward error correction (FEC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ). FEC is an error control method where the signal is pre-encoded according to a certain algorithm before being sent to the transmission channel, adding redundant codes containing the signal's characteristics. The receiver decodes the received signal according to the corresponding algorithm to identify and correct errors generated during transmission. ARQ refers to the receiver using CRC checksums to determine the correctness of the received data and feeding back the result to the transmitter. If a reception error occurs, the transmitter will retransmit the data after receiving the feedback information until the receiver receives it correctly.

[0122] The HARQ mechanism first uses the FEC algorithm to encode the channel, adding redundant information with error detection and correction capabilities to the transmitted information. The receiving end decodes the received signal using the corresponding reverse algorithm. If an error is detected, it attempts to correct it to the best of its ability. If the error is corrected, the data transmission is successful. If it cannot be corrected, the ARQ mechanism is used to immediately notify the sending end to retransmit. If the reception error persists, a retransmission is requested again until the reception is successful.

[0123] As an example, the HARQ process can use a stop-and-wait protocol to send data. The stop-and-wait protocol means that after the sender sends a data block (TB), it waits for an acknowledgment; the receiver can reply with ACK or NACK using 1 bit of information; the receiver then sends the next TB after receiving the ACK. Here, ACK indicates that the TB was successfully received and successfully decoded; NACK indicates that the TB was not successfully received, and / or, the TB was not successfully decoded.

[0124] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of data transmission using the stop-and-wait protocol. As shown in Figure 2, the sending end sends the first TB, the receiving end receives the first TB, and reports the reception status of the first TB back to the sending end; the sending end receives the reception status of the first TB, and if the reception status of the first TB indicates that the first TB was successfully received, the sending end sends the second TB; otherwise, the sending end continues to send the first TB; and so on.

[0125] In other words, the stop-and-wait protocol has the following two characteristics:

[0126] The receiving end sends feedback information to the sending end. Regardless of whether the reception was successful or not, feedback on the reception status needs to be sent to the sending end.

[0127] • The sending end continues sending messages after receiving confirmation from the receiving end. No new message is sent until the previous message has been confirmed.

[0128] Stop-and-wait protocols require the sender to pause and wait for feedback from the receiver after each message transmission, resulting in low throughput. Therefore, HARQ employs multiple stop-and-wait processes (i.e., HARQ processes) in parallel. Specifically, while one HARQ process is waiting for acknowledgment, the sender can use another HARQ process to continue sending messages; similarly, while the receiver is processing messages received by one HARQ process, it can use another HARQ process to continue receiving messages. Multiple HARQ processes processing in parallel form a HARQ entity, with one HARQ entity corresponding to each uplink or downlink carrier. As an example, a single HARQ entity supports a maximum of 16 HARQ processes.

[0129] Figure 3 illustrates data transmission through multiple HARQ processes. As shown in Figure 3, the sending end sends TB 1 through HARQ process 0, and after sending TB 1, the sending end can send TB 2 through HARQ process 1; and after sending TB 2, the sending end can send TB 3 through HARQ process 2; and so on. Furthermore, after receiving a TB, the receiving end can report the reception status of the TB to the sending end, allowing the sending end to determine whether to retransmit the TB or send a new TB through the HARQ process containing that TB based on the reception status. As shown in Figure 3, taking TB 1 as an example, the receiving end feeds back the reception status of TB 1 to the sending end through HARQ process 0. If the receiving end sends back NACK to the sending end, it means that TB 1 was not successfully received. Based on the feedback from the receiving end, the sending end continues to retransmit TB 1 through HARQ process 0. Assuming that the receiving end successfully receives the retransmitted TB 1, the receiving end sends ACK to the sending end. Based on the feedback from the receiving end, the sending end determines that TB 1 was successfully received, so the sending end sends a new TB (such as TB 6) through HARQ process 0; and so on.

[0130] Considering the possibility of multiple HARQ processes operating in parallel, these processes can be numbered, such as each HARQ process corresponding to a HARQ process number. This allows the receiving end to determine which HARQ process a received data transfer (TB) belongs to. The HARQ process number can also be called a HARQ process identifier (ID). A single HARQ process number can be used to specify a single HARQ process. For example, a network device can use 4 or 5 bits in the DCI to indicate the HARQ process number to the terminal device, allowing the terminal device to determine which HARQ process the current uplink or downlink transmission belongs to. Detailed descriptions of the fields included in the DCI information and their meanings can be found in existing descriptions and will not be repeated here.

[0131] 3. New data indicates NDI:

[0132] After the receiving end determines which HARQ process the received TB belongs to, it can determine whether the TB is initial transmission or retransmission based on the NDI. This NDI can be carried in the DCI. Specifically, each HARQ process can store an NDI value, which can be 0 or 1. The sending end uses the NDI value's flip to indicate whether the current transmission is initial or retransmission. If the NDI value sent this time is opposite to the previously sent NDI value (i.e., NDI flips), it indicates that the data being sent is initial transmission; if the NDI value sent this time is the same as the previously sent NDI value (i.e., NDI does not flip), it indicates that the data being sent is retransmission. For example, suppose a new HARQ process 0 has an initial NDI value of 0. When the sending end transmits a new TB0 to the receiving end in process 0, it sends an NDI value of 0 to the receiving end via the DCI information.

[0133] Figure 4 illustrates the data transmission using the NDI flipping mechanism. As shown in Figure 4, assuming the initial NDI value is 0 in a certain HARQ process, when the sender transmits a new TB 1 to the receiver in this HARQ process, the NDI value sent to the receiver is 0. If TB 1 is successfully received, the receiver sends an ACK. After receiving the ACK, the sender sends a new TB (such as TB 2) to the receiver in HARQ process 0, flipping the NDI value to 1 before sending it to the receiver. The receiver, based on the NDI value of 1, determines that this transmission is the initial transmission. If TB 2 is not successfully received, the receiver sends a NACK. After receiving the NACK, the sender determines that TB 2 needs to be retransmitted. When the sender retransmits TB 2, the NDI value sent to the receiver remains unchanged at 1. The receiver, based on the NDI value of 1, determines that this transmission is a retransmission; and so on.

[0134] As an example, the sending end and receiving end in the above example can respectively correspond to the network device and terminal device in the embodiments below, without limitation.

[0135] 4. Downlink HARQ transmission and uplink HARQ transmission:

[0136] During downlink transmission, the network device sends data to the terminal device, and the terminal device can send HARQ feedback to the network device to indicate whether the data was successfully received. Specifically, if the terminal device successfully receives the data, it sends an ACK to the network device; if the terminal device fails to receive the data, it sends a NACK to the network device. The network device determines whether to retransmit the data based on the ACK or NACK.

[0137] During uplink transmission, the terminal device sends data to the network device, and the network device does not need to send ACK or NACK feedback to the terminal device. Specifically, after the network device schedules uplink transmission through DCI, the terminal device sends data to the network device based on DCI; if the network device successfully receives the data, the network device directly schedules the new data transmission; the terminal device sends the new data after receiving the new transmission instruction, and retransmits the data if it receives the retransmission instruction.

[0138] 5. Time-domain unit and frequency-domain unit:

[0139] Data or information can be carried using time-frequency resources.

[0140] In the time domain, time-domain resources can include one or more time-domain units (or time units). A time-domain unit can be a radio frame (RF), a subframe, a slot, a mini-slot, a partial slot, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, or a collection of time-domain resources. One or more time units can be continuous or discrete in the time domain.

[0141] In the frequency domain, frequency domain resources can include one or more frequency domain units. A frequency domain unit can be a resource element (RE), a resource block (RB), a set of resource blocks (RBs), a subchannel, a resource pool, bandwidth, a bandwidth part (BWP), a carrier, a channel, or interlaced RBs, etc.

[0142] The above description of the terminology is for ease of understanding only and does not limit the scope of protection of the embodiments of this application.

[0143] During air interface transmission, the HARQ mechanism can improve the robustness of air interface transmission. To improve transmission efficiency, HARQ employs multiple stop-and-wait processes to process in parallel. Specifically, while one HARQ process is waiting for an acknowledgment, the sender can use another HARQ process to continue sending information, and similarly, while the receiver is processing information received by one HARQ process, it can use another HARQ process to continue receiving information.

[0144] Figure 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of transmission conflicts between multiple data packets to be transmitted by a terminal device. As shown in Figure 5, the horizontal axis represents the time domain (e.g., time slots), and the vertical axis represents the frequency domain. Taking downlink transmission as an example, suppose there is a service to be transmitted with a data packet size of 2Mb and a PDB of 15ms. For an edge user, when using a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of 5 and a rank of 2 (which can be understood as a transport layer of 2) and a scheduling bandwidth of 100MHz, 98Kb can be transmitted in each TTI, requiring 21 downlink time slots. Considering the 4:1 TDD time slot ratio, only 24 DL time slots are available within the 15ms PDB, making it difficult to guarantee the effective transmission of this service within the PDB. As shown in Figure 5, the transmission queue contains multiple data items to be transmitted (e.g., 5 TB). The transmission types include retransmission and newtransmission (e.g., 3 retransmissions and 2 initial transmissions). Assuming a user schedules one transmission per time slot, transmitting one data item (e.g., 1 TB) at a time, the remaining transmission slots (e.g., 3 time slots) can schedule a portion of the data items to be transmitted (e.g., 3 TB). For a single user, even if the schedulable resources are sufficient, the limitation on transmission slots will still prevent the service from being completed within the effective PDB. That is, under low-latency constraints, there are transmission conflicts between multiple data items to be transmitted.

[0145] To address the aforementioned technical problems, this application provides a communication method and a communication device that enable a terminal device to transmit multiple data on a first carrier and a first time unit, thereby reducing transmission conflicts of multiple data and improving transmission performance.

[0146] The communication method and communication device provided in this application will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is understood that the technical solution of this application is applicable to uplink, downlink, and sidelink transmission scenarios. In the downlink transmission scenario, the executing entities are the network side and the terminal side; in the uplink transmission scenario, the executing entities are the terminal side and the network side; in the sidelink transmission scenario, the executing entities are the first terminal side and the second terminal side. For ease of description, Figure 6 is used as an example of the downlink transmission scenario, that is, the network device and the terminal device are used as examples of the executing entities in this interactive illustration. However, this application does not limit the executing entities in the interactive illustration. For example, the method executed by the network device in this application can also be implemented by a module (e.g., circuit, chip, or chip system) in the network device, or a logical node, logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the network functions; the method executed by the terminal device in this application can also be implemented by a communication module in the terminal device or a circuit or chip (such as a modem chip (also known as a baseband chip), or a SoC chip containing a modem core, or a SIP chip) in the terminal device responsible for communication functions.

[0147] Figure 6 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method provided in an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 6, the method 600 includes the following steps.

[0148] S610, the network device sends the first information to the terminal device on the first carrier;

[0149] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information from the network device on the first carrier.

[0150] The first information is used to schedule Q1 data in the first time unit. The first information includes first indication information, which indicates N HARQ processes. The N HARQ processes are associated with Q1 data, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N.

[0151] For example, the first information can be at least one of the following signaling: DCI, medium access control-control element (MAC CE), or RRC signaling. For instance, when the first information is DCI, the first indication information can be a HARQ processing number, also known as a HARQ process indication field, used to indicate N HARQ processes corresponding to Q1 data. Wherein, if the first indication information occupies 4 bits, a maximum of 16 HARQ processes can be indicated; if the first indication information occupies 5 bits, a maximum of 32 HARQ processes can be indicated, without limitation.

[0152] Understandably, each piece of data corresponds to one HARQ process. Multiple pieces of data can correspond to the same HARQ process, in which case it can be understood that there exists only one HARQ process. Alternatively, multiple pieces of data can correspond to different HARQ processes, in which case it can be understood that there exist multiple HARQ processes. For example, each piece of data may correspond to a different HARQ process, or at least two pieces of data may correspond to the same HARQ process. That is, one HARQ process can correspond to one or more pieces of data, without any limitation.

[0153] In this context, N HARQ processes are associated with Q1 data items. This can be replaced with the statement that the Q1 data items are managed by N HARQ processes, or that N HARQ processes are used to transmit the Q1 data items. For example, if N = Q1 = 2, including HARQ process 1 and HARQ process 2, and data 1 and data 2, where HARQ process 1 corresponds to data 1 and HARQ process 2 corresponds to data 2, then the terminal device can use HARQ process 1 to send or receive data 1, and use HARQ process 2 to send or receive data 2. As another example, if N = 2 and Q1 = 3, including HARQ process 1 and HARQ process 2, data 1, data 2, and data 3, where HARQ process 1 corresponds to data 1 and data 2, and HARQ process 2 corresponds to data 3, then the terminal device can use HARQ process 1 to send or receive data 1 and data 2, and use HARQ process 2 to send or receive data 3. This is not a limitation.

[0154] Understandably, the time unit in this application refers to the smallest unit used for data transmission in the time domain. Optionally, "data" in this application may be replaced by a data packet, a data block, a transmission unit, a transmission block (TB), a code block group (CBG), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a PDSCH, a sub-transmission block, a code block, a code block group, a code block set, a code block cluster, or other granularity of transmission medium, etc., without limitation. For consistency, the following description uses data.

[0155] Exemplarily, the data in the embodiments of this application can be one or more TBs, for example, a single data point can be a TB, or the data can also be one or more sub-TBs (or code block groups, CBGs) contained in a TB, for example, a single data point can be a sub-TB or a CBG; or the data can also be one or more code blocks (CBs) contained in a CBG, for example, a single data point can be a CB. This application does not limit its representation. Exemplarily, the first time unit can be a specific time unit, for example, the first time unit can include a first time slot (e.g., one slot), or a first micro-time slot (e.g., one mini-slot), or a first symbol (e.g., one symbol), etc.

[0156] In one implementation, the Q1 data items include first data and second data. The transmission corresponding to the first data is the initial transmission, and the transmission corresponding to the second data is a retransmission; alternatively, the transmissions corresponding to both the first and second data are initial transmissions, or both the transmissions corresponding to the first and second data are retransmissions.

[0157] In one implementation, the transmission type of the Q1 data scheduled by the network device can be all initial transmissions (or new transmissions, e.g., a new transmission), or all retransmissions (e.g., retransmission), or both initial transmissions and retransmissions, without limitation.

[0158] The technical solution of this application can be applied to single-carrier scenarios, such as the first carrier; or it can also be applied to multi-carrier scenarios (such as carrier aggregation (CA) scenarios). When applied to multi-carrier scenarios, the multiple carriers include the first carrier. It is understood that network devices can schedule multiple data (e.g., Q1 data) on the first carrier, and correspondingly, terminal devices can transmit multiple data on the first carrier.

[0159] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device transmitting multiple data within the remaining transmission time according to an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 7, the horizontal axis represents the time domain (e.g., time slot), and the vertical axis represents the frequency domain. Taking downlink transmission as an example, assuming that the network device schedules less than 4 transport layers (e.g., 2 transport layers, i.e., rank 2), and assuming that the scheduling granularity of time domain resources is 1 slot, each slot can schedule 2 data, where the first time unit is 1 time slot (e.g., slot 2), then within the remaining transmission time (e.g., 3 time slots, including slots 2 to 4), the network device can schedule two data in slot 2 (e.g., 1 retransmission (e.g., data #1) and 1 initial transmission (e.g., data #2)), and indicate the HARQ process IDs corresponding to these two data (e.g., HARQ process #1 and HARQ process #2); similarly, the network device can schedule data in slots... In slot 3, two data packets are scheduled (e.g., one initial transmission (e.g., data #3) and one retransmission (e.g., data #4)), along with the corresponding HARQ process IDs (e.g., HARQ process #3 and HARQ process #4). Similarly, in slot 4, the network device can schedule two data packets (e.g., one retransmission (e.g., data #5) and one initial transmission (e.g., data #6)), along with the corresponding HARQ process IDs (e.g., HARQ process #5 and HARQ process #6). This means that six data packets (e.g., data #1 to data #6) can be scheduled within the remaining transmission opportunities. This demonstrates that the terminal device can transmit multiple independent data packets in a single time slot. This is because in most transmission scenarios, some code blocks within a TB may be corrupted. In such cases, it is unnecessary to retransmit the entire TB. Therefore, for the user, there are sufficient resources to concurrently run multiple retransmission HARQ processes. This method increases transmission opportunities, improves transmission throughput, reduces transmission latency, and ensures transmission performance.

[0160] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of Q1 data items scheduled on carrier 1 according to an embodiment of this application. Taking downlink transmission as an example, as shown in Figure 8(a), carrier 1 (e.g., the first carrier) includes g RBs, such as RBj to RBj+g, where g RBs correspond to multiple transmission units, such as TB1 to TBQ1. That is, the network device can schedule multiple TBs on g RBs, and therefore the network device can schedule multiple data items on multiple carriers. As shown in Figure 8(b), carrier 1 (e.g., the first carrier) includes g RBs, such as RBj to RBj+g, where g RBs correspond to one TB. That is, the network device can schedule one TB on g RBs, and this one TB includes multiple transmission units, such as transmission unit 1 to transmission unit Q1, where Q1 is greater than g. Therefore, the network device can schedule multiple data items on multiple carriers. As shown in Figure 8(c), carrier 1 (e.g., the first carrier) includes g RBs, such as RBj to RBj+g, where one TB can be scheduled on each RB, and each TB can include multiple transmission units. For example, a network device can schedule TB Q1 on RB j, which includes K transmission units, such as transmission unit 1 to transmission unit K; as another example, a network device can schedule TB 1 on RB j+g, which includes K transmission units, such as transmission unit 1 to transmission unit K. Therefore, a network device can schedule multiple data on a single carrier.

[0161] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating the association between Q1 data items scheduled on carrier 1 and N HARQ processes provided in the embodiments of this application. Taking downlink transmission as an example, as shown in Figure 9(a), carrier 1 (e.g., the first carrier) includes g RBs, such as RBj to RBj+g, where the g RBs correspond to multiple transmission units, such as TB1 to TBQ1. That is, the network device can schedule multiple TBs on the g RBs, and each transmission unit corresponds to one HARQ process. Any two HARQ processes are different. As shown in Figure 9(b), carrier 1 (e.g., the first carrier) includes g RBs, such as RBj to RBj+g, where the g RBs correspond to one TB, and one TB corresponds to one HARQ process. That is, the network device can schedule one TB on the g RBs, and this one TB includes multiple transmission units, such as transmission unit 1 to transmission unit Q1. That is, one HARQ process is used to send or receive transmission unit 1 to transmission unit Q1. As shown in Figure 9(c), carrier 1 (e.g., the first carrier) includes g RBs, such as RBj to RBj+g. Each RB can schedule one TB, and each TB can include multiple transmission units, such as transmission unit 1 to transmission unit K. Each TB is associated with a HARQ process. For example, a network device can schedule TB Q1 on RBj, which corresponds to HARQ process 1; another example is that a network device can schedule TB 1 on RBj+g, which corresponds to HARQ process N. Optionally, N = Q1, which can be understood as each TB being associated with a different HARQ process, or N less than Q1, which can be understood as at least two identical HARQ processes, or in other words, at least one HARQ process is used to transmit at least two data items.

[0162] It is understandable that Figures 7 to 9 above are merely examples for ease of understanding, and other solutions are not excluded.

[0163] For a single terminal device, the maximum number of concurrent HARQ processes it can support within a single time unit (e.g., a time slot) is finite; in other words, the maximum number of HARQ processes that can be scheduled simultaneously within a single time unit is finite, or the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled simultaneously within a single time unit is finite. For example, in a downlink transmission scenario, the maximum number of HARQ processes a terminal device can support within a single TTI ranges from {2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 16}; another example is that in a downlink transmission scenario, the maximum number of HARQ processes a terminal device can support within a single TTI is 16. For a single-carrier scenario (e.g., the first carrier), one TB, or one HARQ process, can be scheduled within one time slot. Therefore, the number of concurrent HARQ processes scheduled within a single TTI is also finite.

[0164] Optionally, before performing step S610, the method may further include: the terminal device reporting its own capability information.

[0165] In one implementation, before the network device sends the first information to the terminal device on the first carrier, the terminal device may send second information to the network device. This second information indicates the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit, or the maximum number of concurrent HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a TTI, or the number of HARQ processes simultaneously scheduled or activated by the terminal device within a time unit, or the number of data simultaneously scheduled by the terminal device within a time unit (e.g., if one data point corresponds to one HARQ process in a time unit, then the maximum number of data simultaneously scheduled by the terminal device within a time unit can be understood as the maximum number of HARQ processes simultaneously scheduled by the terminal device within a time unit). For example, if the second information indicates that the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit is X, then X is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and X is greater than or equal to N.

[0166] For example, if N=2 and X=2, the second information indicates that the terminal device supports a maximum of 2 HARQ processes within the first time unit. The network device can schedule 2 HARQ processes on the first carrier within the first time unit based on this second information, and these 2 HARQ processes can be associated with multiple data sets. For example, if N=2 and X=3, the second information indicates that the terminal device supports a maximum of 3 HARQ processes within the first time unit. The network device can schedule 2 HARQ processes on the first carrier within the first time unit based on this second information, and these 2 HARQ processes can be associated with multiple data sets; this is not limited.

[0167] Understandably, the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by a terminal device can be 16 or 32. For a detailed explanation of the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by a terminal device, please refer to the relevant description in standard 38.214, which will not be explained here.

[0168] For example, the second information can be UCI signaling. For instance, the terminal device can report the maximum number of HARQ processes it supports within the same time unit (e.g., the first TTI) via UCI (e.g., 2). If the terminal device supports multiple maximum HARQ processes within the same time unit, it means that these multiple HARQ processes (e.g., HARQ process #1 and HARQ process #2) can be sent in parallel within the same time unit, that is, multiple data can be sent concurrently within the same time unit.

[0169] In one implementation, the aforementioned N HARQ processes are located within or belong to M HARQ processes, where M represents the number of HARQ processes corresponding to the data to be transmitted by the terminal device. The M HARQ processes are associated with Q data items, where Q data items can be understood as the number of data items to be transmitted by the terminal device, Q = Q1 + Q2. In addition to the N HARQ processes, the M HARQ processes also include MN HARQ processes, which are associated with Q2 data items, where Q2 is an integer greater than or equal to MN, and M is an integer greater than or equal to N.

[0170] For example, if M = N, then Q = Q1 and Q2 = 0, indicating that the Q data items to be transmitted by the terminal device can all be transmitted on the first carrier within the first time unit. As another example, if M > N, it means that the terminal device has Q data items to be transmitted and selects Q1 data items from these Q data items, meaning the terminal device transmits Q1 data items on the first carrier within the first time unit.

[0171] Optionally, if the transmission priority of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data, or in other words, the priority of N HARQ processes is higher than that of MN HARQ processes, then the terminal device can preferentially select the higher-priority Q1 data for transmission. Therefore, the network device can schedule Q1 data from Q data, or in other words, the network device can schedule N HARQ processes from M HARQ processes. That is, under low-latency constraints, the network device can preferentially schedule the higher-priority Q1 data to ensure a better user experience.

[0172] For example, taking downstream transmission as an example, if X is less than or equal to M, it means that the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device in the first time unit is less than or equal to the number of HARQ processes associated with the data to be transmitted by the current terminal device. For example, if M=4, X=2, and Q1=2, it means that the network device can select 2 HARQ processes from 4 HARQ processes to transmit, and then schedule these 2 HARQ processes on the first carrier in the first time unit. These 2 HARQ processes can be associated with multiple data, and it is understandable that the transmission priority of the multiple data associated with these 2 HARQ processes is higher.

[0173] In one implementation, Q1 data points are determined from Q data points based on a first rule. For example, a network device or terminal device determines Q1 data points from Q data points according to the first rule and schedules Q1 data points within a first time unit on a first carrier.

[0174] The first rule includes at least one of the following: the remaining PDB of Q1 data is less than the remaining PDB of Q2 data; all transmissions corresponding to Q1 data are retransmissions and all transmissions corresponding to Q2 data are initial transmissions; all transmissions corresponding to Q1 data and Q2 data are retransmissions and the number of retransmissions of Q1 data is higher than the number of retransmissions of Q2 data; channel interference is greater than or equal to a first threshold and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than the transmission reliability of Q2 data; channel interference is less than the first threshold and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than the transmission reliability of Q2 data; channel busy rate is greater than or equal to a second threshold and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than the transmission reliability of Q2 data; channel busy rate is less than the second threshold and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than the transmission reliability of Q2 data. Specific interpretations are as follows.

[0175] (1) The remaining data packet delay budget (PDB) for Q1 data is less than the remaining PDB for Q2 data;

[0176] Understandably, in uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, the remaining PDB of Q1 data is less than that of Q2 data. Since the remaining PDB of Q1 data is relatively small, it indicates a higher latency urgency for that Q1 data. Therefore, network devices or terminal devices can prioritize scheduling Q1 data. In other words, a higher latency urgency for Q1 data can be understood as a higher priority for the N HARQ processes corresponding to Q1 data than for the MN processes corresponding to Q2 data; or, the transmission priority of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data. Therefore, to ensure service effectiveness, or to guarantee user satisfaction or experience, Q1 data can be transmitted first.

[0177] (2) All transmissions corresponding to Q1 data are retransmissions, and all transmissions corresponding to Q2 data are initial transmissions;

[0178] Understandably, for uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, under different service conditions, retransmitted data has a higher transmission priority than initial (or new) data. For example, suppose that the transmission corresponding to data for service 1 is a retransmission, and the transmission corresponding to data for service 2 is an initial transmission. Network devices or terminal devices can schedule data for service 1 first. For the same service, since the PDB corresponding to data for service 1 and data for service 2 is the same, regardless of whether the data for service 1 and service 2 is a retransmission or an initial transmission, only when the data of the packet is transmitted correctly can the packet be decoded correctly. Therefore, under the same service conditions, the transmission priority of retransmission and initial transmission is almost the same.

[0179] (3) The transmissions corresponding to Q1 data and Q2 data are both retransmissions, and the number of retransmissions of Q1 data is higher than the number of retransmissions of Q2 data.

[0180] Understandably, in uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, when both service 1 and service 2 data transmissions involve retransmissions, the more retransmissions, the higher the priority of the HARQ process corresponding to that retransmitted data. It's also understandable that different services have different reliability requirements; for example, service 1 requires 99% reliability, while service 2 requires 90% reliability. Therefore, in the event of transmission conflicts, to meet the reliability requirements of the services, network devices or terminal devices should prioritize scheduling data from services with higher reliability, such as service 1 data.

[0181] (4) The channel interference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than that of Q2 data.

[0182] (5) The channel interference is less than the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data.

[0183] Understandably, for uplink, downlink, or sidelink scenarios, and for the time unit of network device scheduling (e.g., the first time unit, such as time slot 1), when the detected channel interference is greater than or equal to a certain threshold, that is, when the channel interference level is high, it indicates that the current channel is relatively congested or the channel conditions are poor. At this time, network devices or terminal devices can prioritize scheduling services with lower reliability to avoid data packet transmission. Conversely, when the channel interference is less than a certain threshold, that is, when the channel interference level is low, it indicates that the current channel conditions are good. At this time, network devices or terminal devices can prioritize scheduling services with higher reliability to improve data packet transmission performance.

[0184] Here, channel interference can be understood as determined by the network device based on prior information, or by the network device based on the channel interference level of historical channels, or by the network device based on the channel interference level within a second time unit, where the second time unit is located before the first time unit. This application does not limit the specific form of the interference level; for example, it can be determined by at least one of the following: a channel quality indicator (CQI), a reference signal received power (RSRP), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or channel noise.

[0185] (6) CBR is greater than or equal to the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is lower than that of Q2 data;

[0186] (7) CBR is less than the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data is higher than that of Q2 data.

[0187] Understandably, in a sidelink SL scenario, when the channel busy rate is greater than or equal to a certain threshold, meaning the channel is busy at a high level, it indicates that the current channel is congested or the channel conditions are poor. In this case, the terminal device can prioritize services with lower reliability to avoid data packet transmission failure. Conversely, when the channel busy rate is less than a certain threshold, meaning the channel is busy at a high level, it indicates that the current channel is good. In this case, the terminal device can prioritize services with higher reliability to improve data packet transmission performance.

[0188] The specific examples of the first rule mentioned above are provided for ease of understanding only, and other solutions are not excluded. Optionally, the Q1 data items can also be determined from the Q data items based at least on the first rule. That is, the network device can schedule Q1 data items that satisfy the first rule. However, the technical solution of this application does not exclude other solutions. For example, the network device can also schedule Q1' data items that simultaneously satisfy the first and second rules, where Q1' is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to Q1. The second rule is not specifically limited.

[0189] Figure 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating the selection of Q1 data points from Q data points for transmission according to an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 10, taking downstream transmission as an example, assuming the terminal device has Q data points to be transmitted, such as data #1, data #2, ..., data #Q, where Q = 4, then for the first time unit on the first carrier, considering the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within one TTI, for example, X = Q1 = 2, the network device can selectively schedule Q1 data points from the Q data points for transmission according to a first rule to ensure transmission performance. It is understandable that compared to the two unscheduled data points, the two data points scheduled by the network device have higher latency urgency and / or higher service reliability, which not only avoids transmission conflicts of multiple data points and improves transmission throughput, but also reduces transmission latency, improves transmission efficiency, and ensures transmission performance.

[0190] S620, the terminal device sends or receives Q1 data in the first time unit.

[0191] Correspondingly, on the first carrier, the network device receives or transmits Q1 data in the first time unit.

[0192] Among them, Q1 data points are associated with N HARQ processes, or in other words, Q1 data points are managed by N HARQ processes.

[0193] It should be noted that the technical solution of this application is applicable to uplink, downlink and sidelink communication scenarios, as illustrated in the following examples.

[0194] Example 1: In an uplink communication scenario, the terminal device sends Q1 data to the network device on the first carrier and in the first time unit. Correspondingly, the network receives Q1 data from the terminal device in the first time unit.

[0195] Example 2: In a downlink communication scenario, the terminal device receives Q1 data from the network device on the first carrier and in the first time unit. Correspondingly, the network device sends Q1 data to the terminal device on the first resource.

[0196] Example 3: In a side-link communication scenario, a terminal device sends Q1 data to other terminal devices on the first carrier and in the first time unit. Correspondingly, other terminal devices receive Q1 data from the terminal device in the first time unit.

[0197] Based on the above scheme, the network device can prioritize scheduling Q1 data with high latency urgency, or prioritize scheduling Q1 data with high service reliability, or prioritize scheduling retransmitted Q1 data according to the first rule. This allows the terminal device to receive or send Q1 data on the first carrier and in the first time unit. This enables the transmission of multiple concurrent HARQ processes for initial transmission and retransmission under low latency constraints, which is equivalent to increasing transmission opportunities. It is friendly to latency-sensitive services, can avoid transmission conflicts of multiple data, improve transmission throughput, reduce transmission latency, and ensure the transmission performance of high-priority services.

[0198] As mentioned above, the network device involved in this embodiment can be an ORAN architecture. The following is a brief introduction to the application of the communication method shown in Figure 6 above under the ORAN architecture.

[0199] Under the ORAN architecture, the RIC can directly control both gNB-CU and gNB-DU. The "network device" in the communication method steps shown in Figure 6 above needs to be expanded to "CU" and "DU". For specific implementation methods, please refer to the relevant descriptions above. For the sake of brevity, it will not be explained here.

[0200] Optionally, in various embodiments of this application, if the network device is a CU-DU separated architecture, the network device receiving a message from the terminal device includes: the DU of the network device receiving information #z1 from the terminal device; and the DU of the network device sending information #z2 to the CU of the network device based on information #z1. Here, information #z2 is related to information #z1; for example, information #z1 and information #z2 are the same, or information #z2 is obtained by the DU of the network device processing information #z1 (e.g., deleting, filtering, mapping, modifying, or adding auxiliary information). For example, message #z1 can be second information.

[0201] The communication method embodiment of this application has been described in detail above with reference to Figures 1 to 10. The communication device embodiment of this application will now be described in detail with reference to Figures 11 and 12. It should be understood that the description of the device embodiment corresponds to the description of the method embodiment; therefore, any parts not described in detail can be referred to the preceding method embodiment.

[0202] Figure 11 is a possible exemplary block diagram of the communication device involved in the embodiments of this application. As shown in Figure 11, the communication device 1000 may include modules or units for implementing the method embodiments described above. In one possible design, the communication device 1000 includes a communication unit 1003. Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further include a storage unit 1001 and / or a processing unit 1002 for storing device program code and / or data. The communication unit 1003 may also be referred to as a communication interface, transceiver unit, or interface unit.

[0203] The communication device 1000 can be a terminal device side device in the above embodiments, such as a terminal device or a communication module in a terminal device, or a circuit or chip in a terminal device that is responsible for communication functions.

[0204] For example, in one embodiment, the communication unit 1003 is used to receive first information on a first carrier, the first information being used to schedule Q1 data on a first time unit, the first information including first indication information, the first indication information indicating N HARQ processes, the N HARQ processes being associated with Q1 data, N being an integer greater than or equal to 2, and Q1 being an integer greater than or equal to N; the communication unit 1003 is also used to send or receive Q1 data on the first carrier and on the first time unit.

[0205] In one possible design, Q1 data includes first data and second data; wherein the transmission corresponding to the first data is the initial transmission and the transmission corresponding to the second data is the retransmission; or, the transmissions corresponding to both the first data and the second data are both initial transmissions; or, the transmissions corresponding to both the first data and the second data are both retransmissions.

[0206] In one possible design, the N HARQ processes include a first HARQ process and a second HARQ process, with first data associated with the first HARQ process and second data associated with the second HARQ process.

[0207] In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is also used to send a second message indicating the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit.

[0208] In one possible design, N HARQ processes are located within M HARQ processes. The MN HARQ processes are associated with Q2 data points, where M represents the number of HARQ processes corresponding to the data to be transmitted by the terminal device. The data to be transmitted consists of Q data points, where Q = Q1 + Q2, Q2 is an integer greater than or equal to MN, and M is an integer greater than or equal to N.

[0209] In one possible design, Q1 data points are determined from Q data points based on a first rule; wherein the first rule includes at least one of the following: the remaining PDB of Q1 data points is less than the remaining PDB of Q2 data points; all transmissions corresponding to Q1 data points are retransmissions, and all transmissions corresponding to Q2 data points are initial transmissions; all transmissions corresponding to both Q1 and Q2 data points are retransmissions, and the number of retransmissions for Q1 data points is higher than the number of retransmissions for Q2 data points; channel interference is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is lower than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points; channel interference is less than the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is higher than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points; CBR is greater than or equal to a second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is lower than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points; or, CBR is less than the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is higher than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points.

[0210] In one possible design, the time unit is the smallest unit in the time domain used for transmitting data.

[0211] In one possible design, the data includes at least one of TB, subtransmission block, code block, code block group, code block set, or code block cluster, and the first time unit includes a first time slot, a first microtime slot, or a first symbol.

[0212] In one possible design, when the communication device 1000 is a terminal or a communication module within a terminal, the function of the processing unit 1002 can be implemented by one or more processors. Specifically, the processor may include a modem chip, or a system-on-a-chip (SoC) chip or a SIP chip containing a modem core. The function of the communication unit 1003 can be implemented by transceiver circuitry.

[0213] In one possible design, when the communication device 1000 is a circuit or chip in a terminal responsible for communication functions, such as a modem chip or a system-on-a-chip (SoC) or SIP chip containing a modem core, the function of the processing unit 1002 can be implemented by a circuit system in the aforementioned chip that includes one or more processors or processor cores. The function of the communication unit 1003 can be implemented by the interface circuitry or data transceiver circuitry on the aforementioned chip.

[0214] The communication device 1000 can be a network-side device in the above embodiments, such as a network device, or a module (e.g., a circuit, a chip, or a chip system) in a network device, or a logical node or logical module that can implement all or part of the functions of the network device.

[0215] For example, in one embodiment, the communication unit 1003 is used to transmit first information on a first carrier. The first information is used to schedule Q1 data on a first time unit. The first information includes first indication information, which indicates N HARQ processes. The N HARQ processes are associated with Q1 data, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2 and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N. The communication unit 1003 is also used to receive or transmit Q1 data on the first carrier and on the first time unit.

[0216] In one possible design, Q1 data includes first data and second data; wherein the transmission corresponding to the first data is the initial transmission and the transmission corresponding to the second data is the retransmission; or, the transmissions corresponding to both the first data and the second data are both initial transmissions; or, the transmissions corresponding to both the first data and the second data are both retransmissions.

[0217] In one possible design, the N HARQ processes include a first HARQ process and a second HARQ process, with first data associated with the first HARQ process and second data associated with the second HARQ process.

[0218] In one possible design, the communication unit 1003 is also used to receive second information, which indicates the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit.

[0219] In one possible design, N HARQ processes are located within M HARQ processes. The MN HARQ processes are associated with Q2 data points, where M represents the number of HARQ processes corresponding to the data to be transmitted by the terminal device. The data to be transmitted consists of Q data points, where Q = Q1 + Q2, Q2 is an integer greater than or equal to MN, and M is an integer greater than or equal to N.

[0220] In one possible design, Q1 data points are determined from Q data points based on a first rule; wherein the first rule includes at least one of the following: the remaining PDB of Q1 data points is less than the remaining PDB of Q2 data points; all transmissions corresponding to Q1 data points are retransmissions, and all transmissions corresponding to Q2 data points are initial transmissions; all transmissions corresponding to both Q1 and Q2 data points are retransmissions, and the number of retransmissions for Q1 data points is higher than the number of retransmissions for Q2 data points; channel interference is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is lower than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points; channel interference is less than the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is higher than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points; CBR is greater than or equal to a second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is lower than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points; or, CBR is less than the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of Q1 data points is higher than the transmission reliability of Q2 data points.

[0221] In one possible design, the time unit is the smallest unit in the time domain used for transmitting data.

[0222] In one possible design, the data includes at least one of TB, subtransmission block, code block, code block group, code block set, or code block cluster, and the first time unit includes a first time slot, a first microtime slot, or a first symbol.

[0223] In one possible design, when the communication device 1000 is a network device or a communication module within a network device, the function of the processing unit 1002 can be implemented by one or more processors. Specifically, the processor may include a chip. The function of the communication unit 1003 can be implemented by a transceiver circuit.

[0224] In one possible design, when the communication device 1000 is a circuit or chip in a network device responsible for communication functions, the function of the processing unit 1002 can be implemented by a circuit system in the chip that includes one or more processors or processor cores. The function of the communication unit 1003 can be implemented by an interface circuit or data transceiver circuit on the chip.

[0225] It is understandable that the division of units in the above-mentioned device is merely a logical functional division. One function can correspond to one functional unit, or two or more functions can be integrated into one functional unit. In actual implementation, all or some units can be integrated into one physical entity, or they can be distributed across different physical entities. Furthermore, the above-mentioned functional units can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both.

[0226] In one example, the functional unit in any of the above devices may be one or more integrated circuits configured to implement the above methods, such as: one or more application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs, or one or more central processing units (CPUs), one or more microprocessor units (MPUs), one or more microcontroller units (MCUs), one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), or one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or a combination of at least two of these integrated circuit forms.

[0227] In one example, storage unit 1001 may include random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory or electrically erasable programmable memory and / or registers, etc.

[0228] Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal device 2000 provided in an embodiment of this application. The terminal device 2000 corresponds to the terminal device shown in Figure 1 and is used to implement the operation of the terminal device in the above embodiments. As shown in Figure 12(a), the terminal device 2000 includes: one or more antennas 2010, a radio frequency processing system 2020, and a processor system 2030.

[0229] In the downlink or sidelink direction, the RF processing system 2020 receives RF signals through the antenna 2010 and sends the RF-processed signals to the processor system 2030 for further processing. In the uplink or sidelink direction, the processor system 2030 processes the information from the terminal device side and sends it to the RF processing system 2020, which then processes the signal and transmits it through the antenna 2010.

[0230] In one example, the radio frequency (RF) processing system 2020 serves as the communication interface for external communication of the terminal device and may include a radio frequency front end (RFFE) 2021 and an RF transceiver 2022. The RFFE 2021 is primarily used for one or more processing operations, such as shaping, passband selection, or gain adjustment, on the RF signals received by the antenna or those to be transmitted through the antenna. It may include one or more components such as RF switches, duplexers, filters, power amplifiers, antenna tuning, and low-noise amplifiers. The RFFE 2021 can be a circuit system composed of multiple discrete components or integrated into one or more chips. The RF transceiver 2022 processes the RF signals received by the RFFE into baseband / IF signals for further processing by the processor system 2030, and processes the baseband / IF signals provided by the processor system 2030 into RF signals for transmission to the RFFE 2021. The baseband / IF signals transmitted between the RF transceiver 2022 and the processor system 2030 can be digital or analog signals. An RF transceiver 2022 can be implemented by one or more chips, which are commonly referred to as RF chips.

[0231] In one example, the processor system 2030 may include one or more processors for processing signals and executing one or more communication protocols. Optionally, the processor system 2030 may also include a memory 2036. In one example, the one or more processors include at least one baseband processor 2031 (also known as a modem processor). The memory 2036 is used to store data and / or computer program instructions. Optionally, the processor system 2030 may also include one or more application processors 2032 for implementing processing of the terminal device's operating system and application layer. Optionally, the processor system 2030 may also include one or more of a voice subsystem 2033, a multimedia subsystem 2034, or an interface circuit 2035. The voice subsystem 2033 is used to process voice signals, the multimedia subsystem 2034 is used to handle multimedia-related operations, such as video encoding / decoding, image processing, etc., and the interface circuit 2035 is used to enable communication with other terminal device components, such as a display 2040, an input device 2050, a memory 2060, etc. The above-mentioned components in the processor system 2030 can communicate with each other via a bus or communication interface circuit.

[0232] In one example, the processor system 2030 can be packaged as a single processor chip, such as a SoC chip or a SIP chip. In another example, the processor system 2030 can be a system composed of multiple chips; for example, the baseband processor 2031 can be packaged as a single chip, or packaged with part or all of the circuitry of the radio frequency processing system into a single chip.

[0233] In one example, memory 2036 can be on-chip memory, i.e., located on the processor system 2030 chip. In another example, memory 2060 can be off-chip memory, i.e. located outside the processor system 2030 chip.

[0234] In one example, as shown in FIG12(b), the baseband processor 2031 in the terminal device 2000 provided in this application embodiment may include one or more processor cores 20311 and interface circuits 20314. The one or more processor cores 20311 are used to process signals and execute one or more communication protocols. Optionally, the baseband processor 2031 may also include a memory 20312, which is used to store at least a portion of the corresponding computer program instructions and / or data. In one example, the one or more processor cores 20311 implement the relevant operations in the above method embodiments by executing the computer program instructions stored in the memory 20312. In this application, the memory 20312 is used to store corresponding computer program instructions and / or data. This can mean that the memory 20312 stores all corresponding computer program instructions and / or data for execution by the processor core 20311; or it can mean that the memory 20312 stores a portion of the corresponding computer program instructions and / or data, including the computer program instructions and / or data currently required to be executed by the processor core 20311. The memory 20312 can store different portions of computer program instructions and / or data multiple times for execution by the processor core 20311 to implement the relevant operations in the above method embodiments. The interface circuit 20314 serves as a communication interface for communication with other components, such as transmitting signals with the radio frequency processing system 2020, communicating with other subsystems and related components of the processor system 2030 via a bus, such as transmitting data control signals with the application processor 2032, and transmitting data or computer program instructions with the memory 2036 or memory 2060. Optionally, in order to reduce the load on the processor core, a baseband signal processing circuit 20313 can be set to perform at least some baseband signal processing, including one or more of signal demodulation, modulation, encoding or decoding.

[0235] In one example, the communication device provided in this application may be a terminal device 2000, including a communication module comprising a processor system 2030 and a radio frequency system 2020, or a baseband processor 2031.

[0236] The processor, processor system, application processor, baseband processor, processor circuit or processor core mentioned above can be collectively referred to as a processor. The processor may include one or more of the following: CPU, DSP, MPU, MCU, GPU, FPGA, ASIC, artificial intelligence (AI) processor or neural network processing unit (NPU).

[0237] The aforementioned memory may include one or more of the following storage media: random access memory (RAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), phase-change memory (PCM), resistive random access memory (ReRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), cache, register, read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), hard disk, etc. In one example, computer program instructions for executing the above embodiments may be stored on non-volatile memory, such as at least a portion of the aforementioned memory 2060 (e.g., one or more of ROM, flash memory, EPROM, or hard disk). When the terminal device is running, the corresponding computer program instructions may be partially or wholly loaded onto a memory with a faster transfer speed than the processor, such as at least a portion of memory 2036 and / or memory 20312 (e.g., one or more of RAM, SRAM, DRAM, PCM, RERAM, MRAM, FRAM, cache, or register), for the processor to execute in order to implement the steps in the above method embodiments.

[0238] In one example, the RF transceiver 2022 and the RF front-end 2021 can also be packaged in a single chip. In another example, the RF transceiver 2022, the RF front-end 2021, and the baseband processor 2031 can also be packaged in a single chip.

[0239] This application also provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions for implementing the methods executed by a communication device (e.g., a terminal device-side device and / or a network-side device) in the above-described method embodiments.

[0240] This application also provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the methods described above as being performed by a communication device (e.g., a terminal device-side device and / or a network-side device).

[0241] This application also provides a communication system, which includes the terminal device-side device and / or network-side device described in the above embodiments.

[0242] Optionally, the communication system may also include the terminal device-side device and / or network-side device described in the above embodiments.

[0243] The explanations and beneficial effects of the relevant contents in any of the devices provided above can be found in the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and will not be repeated here.

[0244] In the various embodiments of this application, the order of the above-mentioned processes does not imply the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of this application.

[0245] This application will present various aspects, embodiments, or features relating to systems that may include multiple devices, components, modules, etc. It should be understood and appreciated that individual systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc., and / or may not include all the devices, components, modules, etc. discussed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Furthermore, combinations of these approaches are also possible.

[0246] In this application, examples may reference each other without logical contradiction. For example, methods and / or terms between method embodiments may reference each other, functions and / or terms between device embodiments may reference each other, and functions and / or terms between device examples and method examples may reference each other.

[0247] In this application, any embodiments may be combined or combined with each other without conflict, and the combined or combined technical solutions are also within the scope of this application.

[0248] It should be understood that the above embodiments are mainly illustrated using devices in existing network architectures as examples, and the specific form of the devices is not limited in the embodiments of this application. For example, any device that can achieve the same function in the future is applicable to the embodiments of this application.

[0249] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the units and algorithm steps of the various examples described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are implemented in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0250] Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can be referred to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be described again here.

[0251] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, apparatuses, and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative; for instance, the division of units is only a logical functional division, and in actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed. Furthermore, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some interfaces; the indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatuses or units may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

[0252] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected to achieve the purpose of this implementation scheme according to actual needs.

[0253] In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of this application can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit.

[0254] If the aforementioned functions are implemented as software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to existing solutions, or a portion of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, external hard drives, ROM, RAM, magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0255] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of this application, but the scope of protection of this application is not limited thereto. Any variations or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the scope of the technology disclosed in this application should be included within the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of this application should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, Chips used in or in terminal devices include: First information is received on a first carrier. The first information is used to schedule Q1 data on a first time unit. The first information includes first indication information, which indicates N Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) processes. The N HARQ processes are associated with the Q1 data. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N. On the first carrier, the Q1 data are transmitted or received on the first time unit.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The Q1 data includes the first data and the second data; Wherein, the transmission corresponding to the first data is the initial transmission, and the transmission corresponding to the second data is the retransmission; or... Both the first data and the second data transmissions are initial transmissions; or, Both the first data and the second data are retransmissions.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The N HARQ processes include a first HARQ process and a second HARQ process, the first data is associated with the first HARQ process, and the second data is associated with the second HARQ process.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, Before receiving the first information on the first carrier, the method further includes: Send a second message indicating the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, The N HARQ processes are located within M HARQ processes. The MN HARQ processes are associated with Q2 data. M represents the number of HARQ processes corresponding to the data to be transmitted by the terminal device. The data to be transmitted consists of Q data, where Q = Q1 + Q2, Q2 is an integer greater than or equal to MN, and M is an integer greater than or equal to N.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that, The Q1 data points are determined from the Q data points based on the first rule; The first rule includes at least one of the following: The remaining data packet delay budget (PDB) for the Q1 data is less than the remaining PDB for the Q2 data; The transmissions corresponding to the Q1 data are all retransmissions, and the transmissions corresponding to the Q2 data are all initial transmissions. The transmissions corresponding to the Q1 data and the Q2 data are all retransmissions, and the number of retransmissions of the Q1 data is higher than the number of retransmissions of the Q2 data. The channel interference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is lower than that of the Q2 data; The channel interference is less than the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is higher than that of the Q2 data; The channel busy rate (CBR) is greater than or equal to the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is lower than the transmission reliability of the Q2 data; or, The channel busy rate (CBR) is less than the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is higher than that of the Q2 data.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, A time unit is the smallest unit used for transmitting data in the time domain.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that, The data includes at least one of a transport block (TB), a sub-transport block, a code block, a code block group, a code block set, or a code block cluster, and the first time unit includes a first time slot, a first micro-time slot, or a first symbol.

9. A communication method, characterized in that, Chips used in or within network devices, including: First information is transmitted on a first carrier. The first information is used to schedule Q1 data on a first time unit. The first information includes first indication information, which indicates N Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) processes. The N HARQ processes are associated with the Q1 data. N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and Q1 is an integer greater than or equal to N. On the first carrier, the Q1 data are received or transmitted on the first time unit.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, The Q1 data includes the first data and the second data; Wherein, the transmission corresponding to the first data is the initial transmission, and the transmission corresponding to the second data is the retransmission; or... Both the first data and the second data transmissions are initial transmissions; or, Both the first data and the second data are retransmissions.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that, The N HARQ processes include a first HARQ process and a second HARQ process, the first data is associated with the first HARQ process, and the second data is associated with the second HARQ process.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 11, characterized in that, Before transmitting the first information on the first carrier, the method further includes: Receive second information, which indicates the maximum number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device within a time unit.

13. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that, The N HARQ processes are located within M HARQ processes. The MN HARQ processes are associated with Q2 data. M represents the number of HARQ processes corresponding to the data to be transmitted by the terminal device. The data to be transmitted consists of Q data, where Q = Q1 + Q2, Q2 is an integer greater than or equal to MN, and M is an integer greater than or equal to N.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that, The Q1 data points are determined from the Q data points based on the first rule; The first rule includes at least one of the following: The remaining data packet delay budget (PDB) for the Q1 data is less than the remaining PDB for the Q2 data; The transmissions corresponding to the Q1 data are all retransmissions, and the transmissions corresponding to the Q2 data are all initial transmissions. The transmissions corresponding to the Q1 data and the Q2 data are all retransmissions, and the number of retransmissions of the Q1 data is higher than the number of retransmissions of the Q2 data. The channel interference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is lower than that of the Q2 data; The channel interference is less than the first threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is higher than that of the Q2 data; The channel busy rate (CBR) is greater than or equal to the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is lower than the transmission reliability of the Q2 data; or, The channel busy rate (CBR) is less than the second threshold, and the transmission reliability of the Q1 data is higher than that of the Q2 data.

15. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 14, characterized in that, A time unit is the smallest unit used for transmitting data in the time domain.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that, The data includes at least one of a transport block (TB), a sub-transport block, a code block, a code block group, a code block set, or a code block cluster, and the first time unit includes a first time slot, a first micro-time slot, or a first symbol.

17. A communication device, characterized in that, Includes modules or units for implementing the method as described in any one of claims 1-8.

18. The communication device according to claim 17, characterized in that, The communication device includes any one of the following: a terminal device or a chip.

19. A communication device, characterized in that, Includes modules or units for implementing the method as described in any one of claims 9-16.

20. The communication device according to claim 19, characterized in that, The communication device includes any one of the following: network equipment, chip, central unit (CU), or distributed unit (DU).

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

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

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