Communication method and related apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and a related apparatus. In the method, during uplink transmission between a first communication apparatus and a third communication apparatus, the first communication apparatus can transmit an uplink signal on an uplink between the first communication apparatus and the third communication apparatus on the basis of a downlink signal on a downlink of a second communication apparatus that satisfies a first condition. Thus, when the first communication apparatus does not receive a downlink signal from the third communication apparatus (for example, the third communication apparatus does not transmit a downlink signal), the first communication apparatus can also transmit an uplink signal on an uplink of the third communication apparatus by means of detection of a downlink signal on a downlink of another communication apparatus, which reduces detection of the downlink signal of the third communication apparatus by the first communication apparatus, thereby reducing complexity and power consumption of the first communication apparatus.

Description

A communication method and related apparatus

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202411949588.5, filed on December 25, 2024, entitled "A Communication Method and Related Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] This application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and related apparatus. Background Technology

[0003] Wireless communication can be a transmission communication between two or more communication nodes that does not propagate through conductors or cables. These communication nodes generally include network devices and terminal devices.

[0004] In communication systems, the demand for wireless data traffic is growing rapidly. To meet this increasing demand, the network capacity and transmission rate of wireless communication systems can be improved by deploying massive MIMO antennas and transceiver modules that support high-frequency signals. Consequently, the power consumption of communication equipment equipped with these transceiver modules will increase.

[0005] Therefore, how to reduce the power consumption of communication equipment is a technical problem that urgently needs to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0006] This application provides a communication method and related apparatus for reducing the power consumption of communication devices.

[0007] This application provides a communication method applied to a first communication device. For example, the first communication device may be a communication equipment (such as a terminal device), or it may be a component of a communication equipment (such as a processor, circuit, chip, or chip system responsible for communication functions), or it may be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the communication equipment. The following description uses a first communication device as an example. In this method, the first communication device receives a downlink signal from a second communication device. If the downlink signal satisfies a first condition and the timing advance (TA) corresponding to a first resource satisfies a second condition, the first communication device sends a first signal to detect the validity of the first resource. The first resource is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and a third communication device.

[0008] Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can receive downlink signals from the second communication device, and when the downlink signal satisfies a first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies a second condition, the first communication device sends a first signal to detect the validity of the first resource. In other words, during uplink transmission between the first and third communication devices, the first communication device can send an uplink signal on the uplink between the first and third communication devices based on the downlink signal of the second communication device that satisfies the first condition. Thus, even if the first communication device does not receive a downlink signal from the third communication device (e.g., the third communication device does not send a downlink signal), the first communication device can still send an uplink signal on the uplink of the third communication device by means of detecting the downlink signal of the downlink of other communication devices, reducing the first communication device's detection of the downlink signal of the third communication device and reducing the complexity and power consumption of the first communication device.

[0009] Furthermore, in the above scheme, the first signal sent by the first communication device is used to detect the validity of the first resource. Subsequently, if the first communication device determines that the first resource is valid, it can perform uplink transmission through the first resource, so that the first communication device can perform uplink transmission (e.g., initial transmission) on a reliable link, thereby improving the reliability of uplink transmission and thus improving communication performance.

[0010] Furthermore, in the above scheme, the third communication device can achieve uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device without sending downlink signals, so that the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0011] Furthermore, in the above scheme, during the uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device, the first communication device can send a first signal on the uplink between the first communication device and the third communication device based on the condition that the TA corresponding to the first resource meets the second condition. This allows for the use of available TA resources to detect the validity of uplink resources, thereby improving the uplink transmission success rate, avoiding retransmissions or reducing the number of retransmissions, and further reducing the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0012] Optionally, the second and third communication devices can be network devices. For example, the second and third communication devices can be different transmission and reception points (TRPs), which can be deployed on the same physical device or on different physical devices.

[0013] Optionally, the first signal is used to detect the validity of the first resource. This can be understood as the first signal being used to detect the validity of the link's transmission parameters, where the first resource is a transmission resource used to transmit on the link using those transmission parameters. For example, the transmission parameters can be understood as the link parameters of the first resource. Optionally, the transmission parameters of the first signal are associated with the transmission parameters of the first resource. For example, the TA value of the first resource can be used to send the first signal.

[0014] For example, the transmission parameters described above may include one or more of the following parameters: TA (Transmission Aspect Ratio), period of time-domain resources, open-loop power control related parameters, waveform, redundancy version sequence, repetition count, frequency hopping mode, resource allocation type, number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, DMRS related parameters, modulation and coding scheme table, resource block group (RBG) size, time-domain resources, frequency-domain resources, or modulation and coding scheme (MCS). For example, the transmission parameters described above may include at least TA.

[0015] Optionally, the first signal involved in this application satisfies at least one of the following: the first signal is an uplink wake-up signal (UL-WUS); or, the bandwidth occupied by the first signal is lower than a threshold; or, the modulation method of the first signal includes on-off keying (OOK); or, the first signal is a signal of a physical random access channel (PRACH). In this way, the first signal can be received using a low-power receiver. For example, the first signal can be used as a wake-up signal for detecting resource availability, and the power consumption at both ends of the signal transmission and reception can be reduced through a low-power transmission and reception process.

[0016] Optionally, the downlink signal involved in this application may be a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (SSB or S-SS / PSBCH block), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or other signals defined by the future network.

[0017] As an example, a downlink signal satisfying the first condition can be understood as having good signal reception quality and / or good link quality of the downlink transmitting the downlink signal. For example, a downlink signal satisfying the first condition includes at least one of the following: the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the downlink signal is greater than or equal to a threshold, or the difference between the RSRP of the downlink signal and the RSRP of historically received downlink signals is less than or equal to a threshold. Optionally, the threshold involved in this application can be configured by the network device or pre-configured by a protocol or standard.

[0018] As an example, the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfying the second condition can be understood as the TA corresponding to the first resource being valid, and / or the TA corresponding to the first resource not yet being invalid. For example, the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfying the second condition includes at least one of the following: the timing advance timer (TAT) corresponding to the first resource is active, the TAT corresponding to the first resource has not expired, or the difference between the RSRP of the downlink signal and the RSRP of the historically received downlink signal is less than or equal to a threshold.

[0019] Optionally, the uplink transmission involved in this application can be an uplink scheduling-free transmission. For example, the first resource is used for uplink scheduling-free transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device. In this way, scheduling-free resources can be reserved for uplink transmission, reducing the signaling overhead of scheduling.

[0020] For example, uplink transmission can be used to transmit uplink data and / or uplink signaling, etc. The uplink transmission involved in this application includes, but is not limited to, transmission based on random access (RA), transmission based on configured grant (CG) resources in 5th generation (5G) new radio (NR) systems, transmission based on preconfigured uplink resources (PUR) in long term evolution (LTE) systems, transmission based on semi-persistent scheduling resources in LTE systems, transmission based on semi-static channel state information (SP-CSI), small data transmission (SDT), or other transmissions defined by future networks to avoid dynamic granting.

[0021] For example, the uplink information sent by the first communication device (e.g., uplink information sent by the first resource based on the first resource or the second resource, as described below) can be uplink data and / or uplink signaling transmitted using uplink unlicensed resources. This uplink information can be carried on a data channel (such as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)), a control channel (such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)), or a physical random access channel (PRACH), etc. The channels or signals transmitted in unlicensed transmission are related to the unlicensed transmission scenario or the technology used in the unlicensed transmission. For example, unlicensed transmission based on two-step random access can transmit PRACH and / or PUSCH. Similarly, unlicensed transmission based on PUR, SPS, or CG can transmit PUSCH.

[0022] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving first information for configuring the first signal.

[0023] Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can also receive first information for configuring the first signal, so that the first communication device can perform validity detection based on the specified first signal to improve the success rate of subsequent uplink transmission.

[0024] Optionally, the first information may come from a second communication device, or the first information may come from a third communication device (for example, the third communication device sends the first information when it has downlink transmission capability).

[0025] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the first information includes at least one of the following:

[0026] The first indication information indicates the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time of the first resource; or,

[0027] The second indication information indicates the signal type of the first signal; or,

[0028] The third indication information indicates the time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources carrying the first signal; or,

[0029] The fourth indication information indicates the number of repetitions and / or retransmissions of the first signal; or,

[0030] The fifth indication information indicates that the response information to the first signal includes second information, which is used to indicate whether the first resource is valid; or,

[0031] The sixth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes TA information determined based on the first signal; or,

[0032] The seventh indication information indicates the type of information in response to the first signal; or,

[0033] The eighth instruction information indicates the resource allocation for the response information of the first signal; or,

[0034] The ninth indication information indicates a timer for receiving (or detecting) the response information of the first signal. For example, the timer indicated by the ninth indication information can be understood as a detection window or a reception window. The first communication device can start the timer at the time unit of sending the first signal or at the next adjacent time unit. If the timer expires and it is determined that no response information for the first signal has been received, the first communication device can retransmit the first signal. Optionally, the timer indicated by the ninth indication information can be pre-configured.

[0035] Based on the above scheme, the first information can be included by including at least one of the above to improve the flexibility of the scheme implementation.

[0036] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the first signal is further used to detect the validity of N resources, where N is a positive integer; wherein the N resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the N communication devices respectively.

[0037] Based on the above scheme, in addition to detecting the validity of the first resource, the first signal can also be used to detect the validity of N resources. In this way, the validity of multiple resources can be detected using the same first signal, which can improve the success rate of receiving the first signal, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of the first signal, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0038] Optionally, the N communication devices include the second communication device. In this way, the first communication device may send a first signal to the second communication device that sends downlink signals. For example, if the downlink signal meets a first condition, the first communication device can determine that the downlink quality between the first communication device and the second communication device is good. Therefore, the first communication device can also send the first signal through the uplink with the second communication device to improve the success rate of receiving the first signal, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of the first signal, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0039] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving third information, the third information being used to configure K signals, the K signals being used to detect the validity of K resources, where K is a positive integer; wherein the K resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the K communication devices; and the first communication device sending the K signals when the broadcast signal satisfies a first condition. For example, the first communication device sends the K signals when the broadcast signal satisfies the first condition and the TAs corresponding to the K resources satisfy a second condition.

[0040] Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can also send K signals to detect the validity of K resources. This can improve the success rate of receiving signals used for resource detection, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of signals used for resource detection, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0041] Optionally, the K communication devices include the second communication device. In this way, the first communication device may send a first signal to the second communication device that sends downlink signals. For example, if the downlink signal meets a first condition, the first communication device can determine that the downlink quality between the first communication device and the second communication device is good. Therefore, the first communication device can also send an uplink signal (which is one of the K signals) through the uplink with the second communication device to improve the success rate of uplink signal reception, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of uplink signal retransmissions, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0042] Optionally, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different time-domain resources; and / or, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different frequency-domain resources and on the same time-domain resource.

[0043] Optionally, any one of the K signals involved in this application satisfies at least one of the following: the signal is an uplink wake-up signal (UL-WUS); or, the bandwidth occupied by the signal is lower than a threshold; or, the modulation scheme of the signal includes On-Off Keying (OOK); or, the first signal is a signal of the Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). In this way, any one of the K signals can be used for reception by a low-power receiver. For example, any one signal can be used as a wake-up signal for detecting resource availability, thereby reducing the power consumption at both ends of the signal transmission and reception process through a lower power consumption transmission and reception process.

[0044] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes: the first communication device receiving second information, the second information indicating that the first resource is valid; and the first communication device sending uplink information on the first resource based on the second information.

[0045] Based on the above scheme, after the first communication device sends a first signal for detecting the validity of the first resource, the first communication device can receive second information indicating that the first resource is valid, so that the first communication device can determine that the first resource is valid, that is, the uplink corresponding to the first resource can be used for subsequent uplink transmission, so as to obtain more uplink transmission opportunities and improve uplink capacity.

[0046] Similarly, the first communication device can receive indication information indicating whether one or more of N resources are valid. And / or, the first communication device can receive indication information indicating whether one or more of K resources are valid.

[0047] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, if the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid, the method further includes: the first communication device determining not to transmit uplink information on the first resource; and / or, the first communication device transmitting uplink information based on a second resource used for uplink transmission (e.g., random access transmission) between the first communication device and the third communication device.

[0048] Based on the above scheme, when the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid, the first communication device can determine that the uplink corresponding to the first resource may not be used for subsequent uplink transmission. Accordingly, the first communication device can stop sending uplink information on the first resource to save power consumption.

[0049] And / or, if the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid, the first communication device may send uplink information based on the second resource to achieve uplink transmission.

[0050] Optionally, the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid if at least one of the following conditions is met: the first communication device receives fourth information, the fourth information indicating that the first resource is invalid; or, the first communication device determines within a first time range that it has not received second information, the second information indicating that the first resource is valid; wherein the second information indicates that the first resource is valid.

[0051] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission within the second time frame.

[0052] Based on the above scheme, within the second time range, the third communication device is only used for uplink transmission, that is, the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0053] Optionally, at least one of the start time, end time, and duration of the second time range can be pre-configured or configured by the network device. For example, the start time may be the activation time of the third communication device. For example, the duration may be infinity.

[0054] Optionally, "the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission" can be understood as meaning that the communication method between the third communication device and the terminal device is only uplink. The communication method between the third communication device and other network devices (such as other access network devices or other core network devices) is not limited; for example, the third communication device can communicate with other network devices via wired or wireless means.

[0055] Optionally, the fact that the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission can be understood as the third communication device having one or more of the following characteristics:

[0056] It only has uplink receiving capability, without configuring downlink transmission reference signal, downlink control channel, downlink data channel, downlink bandwidth, downlink frame structure, or downlink time slot. It can also have uplink carrier only, uplink carrier available but downlink carrier unavailable, downlink carrier unavailable, carrier being uplink carrier, only including uplink carrier, carrier including uplink carrier but not including downlink carrier, uplink transmission activated (or enabled, enabled, activated, etc.), and downlink transmission deactivated (or turned off, hibernated, silent, prohibited, disabled, etc.).

[0057] As an example implementation, the third communication device lacks downlink transmission capability or is not configured with downlink transmission-related information. This downlink transmission-related information may include at least one of the following: downlink reference signal related information, downlink control channel transmission related information, downlink data channel transmission related information, downlink frame structure related information, downlink time slot related information, or downlink bandwidth related information. The absence of downlink reference signal related information can be replaced with the absence of downlink reference signal configuration. Similarly, the absence of downlink control channel transmission related information can be replaced with the absence of downlink control channel transmission. The absence of downlink data channel transmission related information can also be replaced with the absence of downlink data channel transmission. The absence of downlink frame structure related information can be replaced with parameters related to downlink frame structure configuration. The absence of downlink time slot related information can also be replaced with parameters related to downlink time slot configuration. Finally, the absence of downlink bandwidth related information can be replaced with the absence of downlink bandwidth configuration.

[0058] As another implementation example, the third communication device has uplink transmission capability; and / or, the third communication device configures uplink transmission-related information. Uplink transmission-related information may include at least one of the following: uplink reference signal information, uplink control channel transmission information, uplink data channel transmission information, uplink frame structure-related information, uplink timeslot-related information, or uplink bandwidth-related information. The information configuring the uplink reference signal can also be replaced with configuring the uplink reference signal. The information configuring the uplink control channel transmission can also be replaced with configuring uplink control channel transmission. The information configuring the uplink data channel transmission can also be replaced with configuring uplink data channel transmission. The information configuring the uplink frame structure can also be replaced with configuring uplink frame structure-related parameters. The information configuring the uplink timeslot-related information can also be replaced with configuring uplink timeslot-related parameters. The information configuring the uplink bandwidth-related information can also be replaced with configuring uplink bandwidth. Thus, the terminal device can send information, such as a preamble, to the third communication device.

[0059] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the first communication device sends a first signal, comprising: the first communication device sending the first signal within the second time range.

[0060] Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can send a first signal based on the first resource of the third communication device within a second time range during which the third communication device is only used for uplink transmission, so that the first communication device can achieve uplink coverage enhancement based on the third communication device and improve uplink transmission performance.

[0061] A second aspect of this application provides a communication method applied to a second communication device. For example, the second communication device may be a communication equipment (such as a network device), or it may be a component of the communication equipment (e.g., a processor, circuit, chip, or chip system responsible for communication functions). Alternatively, the second communication device may be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the communication equipment's functions. The following description uses a second communication device as an example. In this method, the second communication device sends a downlink signal associated with a first signal. The first signal is used to detect the validity of a first resource, which is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and a third communication device. The second communication device receives fifth information, which is used to determine the validity of transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource (e.g., the transmission parameters may include a transfer condition (TA); optionally, the transmission parameters may also include power control parameters, path loss, etc.). The fifth information is associated with the first signal.

[0062] Based on the above scheme, after the second communication device sends a downlink signal, for the first communication device, if the downlink signal satisfies the first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies the second condition, the first communication device sends a first signal to detect the validity of the first resource. In other words, during the uplink transmission between the first and third communication devices, the first communication device can send an uplink signal on the uplink between the first and third communication devices based on the downlink signal of the second communication device that satisfies the first condition. Thus, even if the first communication device does not receive a downlink signal from the third communication device (e.g., the third communication device does not send a downlink signal), the first communication device can still send an uplink signal on the uplink of the third communication device by means of detecting the downlink signal of the downlink of other communication devices, reducing the first communication device's detection of the downlink signal of the third communication device, and reducing the complexity and power consumption of the first communication device.

[0063] Furthermore, in the above scheme, the first signal sent by the first communication device is used to detect the validity of the first resource. Subsequently, if the first communication device determines that the first resource is valid, it can perform uplink transmission through the first resource, so that the first communication device can perform uplink transmission (e.g., initial transmission) on a reliable link, thereby improving the reliability of uplink transmission and thus improving communication performance.

[0064] Furthermore, in the above scheme, the third communication device can achieve uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device without sending downlink signals, so that the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0065] Furthermore, in the above scheme, during the uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device, the first communication device can send a first signal on the uplink between the first communication device and the third communication device based on the condition that the TA corresponding to the first resource meets the second condition. This allows for the use of available TA resources to detect the validity of uplink resources, thereby improving the uplink transmission success rate, avoiding retransmissions or reducing the number of retransmissions, and further reducing the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0066] Optionally, the fifth information is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource (for example, the transmission parameters may include TA; optionally, the transmission parameters may also include power control parameters, path loss, etc.) are valid. It can be understood that the fifth information is used to determine that the transmission parameters of the uplink are valid, and the first resource is the transmission resource on the link.

[0067] In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second communication device sending first information for configuring the first signal.

[0068] Based on the above scheme, the second communication device can also send first information for configuring the first signal, so that the first communication device can perform validity detection based on the specified first signal, thereby improving the success rate of subsequent uplink transmission.

[0069] In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the first information includes at least one of the following:

[0070] The first indication information indicates the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time of the first resource; or,

[0071] The second indication information indicates the signal type of the first signal; or,

[0072] The third indication information indicates the time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources carrying the first signal; or,

[0073] The fourth indication information indicates the number of repetitions and / or retransmissions of the first signal; or,

[0074] The fifth indication information indicates that the response information to the first signal includes second information, which is used to indicate whether the first resource is valid; or,

[0075] The sixth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes TA information determined based on the first signal; or,

[0076] The seventh indication information indicates the type of information in response to the first signal; or,

[0077] The eighth instruction information indicates the resource allocation for the response information of the first signal; or,

[0078] The ninth instruction information is a timer that indicates the response information for receiving (or detecting) the first signal.

[0079] Based on the above scheme, the first information can be included by including at least one of the above to improve the flexibility of the scheme implementation.

[0080] In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the first signal is further used to detect the validity of N resources, where N is a positive integer; wherein the N resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the N communication devices respectively.

[0081] Based on the above scheme, in addition to detecting the validity of the first resource, the first signal can also be used to detect the validity of N resources. In this way, the validity of multiple resources can be detected using the same first signal, which can improve the success rate of receiving the first signal, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of the first signal, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0082] Optionally, the N communication devices include the second communication device. In this way, the first communication device may send a first signal to the second communication device that sends downlink signals. For example, if the downlink signal meets a first condition, the first communication device can determine that the downlink quality between the first communication device and the second communication device is good. Therefore, the first communication device can also send the first signal through the uplink with the second communication device to improve the success rate of receiving the first signal, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of the first signal, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0083] In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second communication device sending third information, the third information being used to configure K signals, the K signals being used to detect the validity of K resources, where K is a positive integer; wherein the K resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the K communication devices.

[0084] Based on the above scheme, the second communication device can also send third information for configuring K signals, so that the first communication device can send K signals according to the third information to detect the validity of K resources. This can improve the success rate of receiving signals used for resource detection, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of signals used for resource detection, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0085] Optionally, the K communication devices include the second communication device. In this way, the first communication device may send a first signal to the second communication device that sends downlink signals. For example, if the downlink signal meets a first condition, the first communication device can determine that the downlink quality between the first communication device and the second communication device is good. Therefore, the first communication device can also send an uplink signal (which is one of the K signals) through the uplink with the second communication device to improve the success rate of uplink signal reception, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of uplink signal retransmissions, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0086] Optionally, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different time-domain resources; and / or, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different frequency-domain resources and on the same time-domain resource.

[0087] In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the method further includes: the second communication device sending second information based on the fifth information, the second information being used to indicate that the first resource is valid.

[0088] Based on the above scheme, after receiving the fifth information, the second communication device can send the second information based on the fifth information. That is, the first communication device can receive the second information indicating that the first resource is valid, so that the first communication device can determine that the first resource is valid, that is, the uplink corresponding to the first resource can be used for subsequent uplink transmission, so as to obtain more uplink transmission opportunities and improve uplink capacity.

[0089] Similarly, the second communication device can send indication information indicating whether one or more of the N resources are valid. And / or, the second communication device can send indication information indicating whether one or more of the K resources are valid.

[0090] In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission within the second time frame.

[0091] Based on the above scheme, within the second time range, the third communication device is only used for uplink transmission, that is, the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0092] A third aspect of this application provides a communication method applied to a third communication device. For example, the third communication device may be a communication equipment (such as a terminal device or network device), or it may be a component of a communication equipment (such as a processor, circuit, chip, or chip system responsible for communication functions), or it may be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the communication equipment. The following description uses a third communication device as an example. In this method, the third communication device receives a first signal used to detect the validity of a first resource; wherein the first resource is used for uplink transmission between the first and third communication devices; the third communication device sends fifth information based on the first signal, the fifth information used to determine the validity of the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource (e.g., the transmission parameters may include TA; optionally, the transmission parameters may also include power control parameters, path loss, etc.).

[0093] Based on the above scheme, after the second communication device sends a downlink signal, for the first communication device, if the downlink signal satisfies the first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies the second condition, the first communication device sends a first signal to detect the validity of the first resource. In other words, during the uplink transmission between the first and third communication devices, the first communication device can send an uplink signal on the uplink between the first and third communication devices based on the downlink signal of the second communication device that satisfies the first condition. Thus, even if the first communication device does not receive a downlink signal from the third communication device (e.g., the third communication device does not send a downlink signal), the first communication device can still send an uplink signal on the uplink of the third communication device by means of detecting the downlink signal of the downlink of other communication devices, reducing the first communication device's detection of the downlink signal of the third communication device, and reducing the complexity and power consumption of the first communication device.

[0094] Furthermore, in the above scheme, the first signal sent by the first communication device is used to detect the validity of the first resource. Subsequently, if the first communication device determines that the first resource is valid, it can perform uplink transmission through the first resource, so that the first communication device can perform uplink transmission (e.g., initial transmission) on a reliable link, thereby improving the reliability of uplink transmission and thus improving communication performance.

[0095] Furthermore, in the above scheme, the third communication device can achieve uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device without sending downlink signals, so that the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0096] Furthermore, in the above scheme, during the uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device, the first communication device can send a first signal on the uplink between the first communication device and the third communication device based on the condition that the TA corresponding to the first resource meets the second condition. This allows for the use of available TA resources to detect the validity of uplink resources, thereby improving the uplink transmission success rate, avoiding retransmissions or reducing the number of retransmissions, and further reducing the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0097] In one possible implementation of the third aspect, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission within the second time frame.

[0098] Based on the above scheme, within the second time range, the third communication device is only used for uplink transmission, that is, the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0099] A fourth aspect of this application provides a communication device that performs the functions described in the first aspect. 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 in software, hardware, or a combination of both. For instance, the device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit. The transceiver unit receives a downlink signal from a second communication device. When the processing unit determines that the downlink signal satisfies a first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies a second condition, the transceiver unit further transmits a first signal to detect the validity of the first resource. The first resource is used for uplink transmission between a first communication device and a third communication device.

[0100] In the fourth aspect of this application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to perform the steps executed in various possible implementations of the first aspect and achieve the corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

[0101] A fifth aspect of this application provides a communication device that performs 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. These modules, units, or means can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. For instance, the device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit. The processing unit determines or generates a downlink signal. The transceiver unit transmits the downlink signal, which is associated with a first signal. The first signal is used to detect the validity of a first resource, which is used for uplink transmission between a first communication device and a third communication device. The transceiver unit also receives fifth information, which determines that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource (e.g., the transmission parameters may include a transfer signal (TA); optionally, the transmission parameters may also include power control parameters, path loss, etc.) are valid. The fifth information is associated with the first signal.

[0102] In the fifth aspect of this application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to perform the steps executed in various possible implementations of the second aspect and achieve the corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the second aspect, which will not be repeated here.

[0103] A sixth aspect of this application provides a communication device that performs the functions described in the third aspect above. For example, the communication device includes modules, units, or means corresponding to the operations involved in the third aspect. These modules, units, or means can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. For instance, the device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit. The transceiver unit receives a first signal used to detect the validity of a first resource. The first resource is used for uplink transmission between a first communication device and a third communication device. The processing unit sends fifth information based on the first signal, which determines the validity of transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource (e.g., the transmission parameters may include a transfer frequency (TA); optionally, the transmission parameters may also include power control parameters, path loss, etc.).

[0104] In the sixth aspect of this application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to perform the steps executed in various possible implementations of the third aspect and achieve the corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the third aspect, which will not be repeated here.

[0105] A seventh aspect of this application provides a communication device including at least one processor for executing computer programs or instructions to enable the device to implement any one of the first to third aspects and any possible implementation thereof.

[0106] Optionally, the at least one processor is coupled to a memory for storing computer programs or instructions.

[0107] Optionally, the communication device includes the memory. Optionally, the memory is integrated with at least one processor.

[0108] The eighth aspect of this application provides a communication device including at least one logic circuit and an input / output interface; the logic circuit is used to perform the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first to third aspects.

[0109] In one possible implementation, the communication device is a chip or chip system.

[0110] A ninth aspect of this application provides a communication system including the first and second communication devices described above. Optionally, the communication system further includes the third communication device described above.

[0111] The tenth aspect of this application provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing one or more computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor, perform a method as described in any possible implementation of any of the first to third aspects above.

[0112] The eleventh aspect of this application provides a computer program product (or computer program) in which, when the computer program in the computer program product is executed by the processor, the processor executes any possible implementation of any of the first to third aspects of the method described above.

[0113] The twelfth aspect of this application provides a chip or chip system including at least one processor for supporting a communication device in implementing any possible implementation of any of the first to third aspects described above. For example, the chip may be a baseband chip, a modem chip, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core, a system-in-package (SIP) chip, or a communication module, etc.

[0114] In one possible design, the chip or chip system may further include a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The chip system may consist of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices. Optionally, the chip system may also include interface circuitry that provides program instructions and / or data to the at least one processor.

[0115] The technical effects of any of the design methods in aspects four through twelfth can be found in the technical effects of the different design methods in aspects one through three above, and will not be repeated here. Attached Figure Description

[0116] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the communication system provided in this application;

[0117] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the communication system provided in this application;

[0118] Figures 3 to 5 are some schematic diagrams of the communication method provided in this application;

[0119] Figures 6 to 9 are some schematic diagrams of the communication device provided in this application. Detailed Implementation

[0120] First, some terms used in the embodiments of this application will be explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0121] (1) Configuration and Pre-configuration: In this application, both configuration and pre-configuration are used. Configuration refers to the process by which network devices such as base stations or servers send configuration information or parameter values ​​to the terminal via messages or signaling, so that the terminal can determine the communication parameters or resources for transmission based on these values ​​or information. Pre-configuration is similar to configuration. It can be a method by which network devices such as base stations or servers send parameter information or values ​​to the terminal via a communication link or carrier; it can also be a method by defining the corresponding parameters or parameter values ​​in a standard, or by setting the relevant parameters or values ​​in the terminal device in advance. This application does not limit this method. Furthermore, these values ​​and parameters can be changed or updated.

[0122] (2) In this application, “for indicating” can include both direct and indirect indication. When describing an indication information as indicating A, it can be understood that the indication information carries A, directly indicates A, or indirectly indicates A.

[0123] In this application, the information indicated by the instruction information is called the information to be instructed. In specific implementation, there are many ways to instruct the information to be instructed. For example, it can be implemented through direct instruction, such as through the information to be instructed itself or its index. It can also be implemented indirectly by instructing other information, where there is a relationship between the other information and the information to be instructed. Alternatively, only a part of the information to be instructed can be indicated, 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.

[0124] The information to be instructed can be sent as a whole or divided into multiple sub-information messages, and the sending period and / or timing of these sub-information messages can be the same or different. This application does not limit the specific sending method. The sending period and / or timing of these sub-information messages can be predefined, for example, according to a protocol, or configured by the transmitting device by sending configuration information to the receiving device. This configuration information can include, for example, but not limited to, one or a combination of at least two of radio resource control (RRC) signaling, media access control (MAC) layer signaling, and physical layer signaling. MAC layer signaling includes, for example, a MAC control element (CE); physical layer signaling includes, for example, downlink control information (DCI).

[0125] (3) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of this application can be used interchangeably. "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. 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" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of this application are used to distinguish multiple objects and are not used to limit the order, sequence, priority or importance of multiple objects.

[0126] (4) In the embodiments of this application, "send" and "receive" indicate the direction of signal transmission. For example, "send information to device X" can be understood as the destination of the information being device X, which may include sending directly through the air interface or sending indirectly through the air interface by other units or modules. "Receive information from device Y" can be understood as the source of the information being device Y, which may include receiving directly from device Y through the air interface or receiving indirectly from device Y through the air interface by other units or modules. "Send" can also be understood as the "output" of the chip interface, and "receive" can also be understood as the "input" of the chip interface.

[0127] For example, consider the communication process between entity A and entity B. In this application, entity A sends information to entity B, either directly or indirectly through other entities. Similarly, entity B receives information from entity A, either directly or indirectly through other entities. Entities A and B can be radio access network (RAN) nodes or terminals, or modules within RAN nodes or terminals. The sending and receiving of information can be an interaction between a RAN node and a terminal, such as between a base station and a terminal; it can also be an interaction between two RAN nodes, such as between a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU); or it can be an interaction between different modules within a device, such as between a terminal chip and other modules of the terminal, or between a base station chip and other modules of the base station.

[0128] (5) Grant-based (GB) transmission, also known as uplink transmission based on dynamic grant. GB transmission can refer to the technology by which terminal devices dynamically grant, dynamically schedule, or dynamically configure resources based on downlink control information (DCI) issued by network devices, and then perform uplink transmission based on the dynamically granted, dynamically scheduled, or dynamically configured resources.

[0129] (6) Unlicensed transmission, also known as grant-free (GF) transmission. GF transmission refers to the technology by which terminal devices transmit uplink data without requiring network equipment to issue DCI for dynamic authorization, scheduling, or resource configuration. Unlicensed transmission includes one or more of the following: transmission based on random access (RA), transmission based on configured grant (CG) resources in 5th generation (5G) new radio systems, transmission based on preconfigured uplink resource (PUR) in long term evolution (LTE) systems, transmission based on semi-persistent scheduling resources in LTE systems, transmission based on semi-static channel state information (SP-CSI), small data transmission (SDT), or other technologies that transmit data without dynamic authorization. Among them, RA includes two-step random access (2-step RA) and four-step random access (4-step RA).

[0130] As an example, when a terminal device performs unlicensed transmission, it can transmit one or more of the following: data channels (such as PUSCH), control channels (such as the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)), physical random access channels (PRACH), or physical layer signals (such as reference signals). The channels or signals transmitted in unlicensed transmission are related to the scenario of unlicensed transmission or the technology used. For example, unlicensed transmission based on two-step random access can transmit PRACH and / or PUSCH. As another example, unlicensed transmission based on PUR, SPS, or CG can transmit PUSCH.

[0131] As an example, unlicensed resources refer to resources agreed upon in the protocol or configured by the network device for terminal devices for unlicensed transmission. Exemplarily, unlicensed resources may include one or more of the following resources: time-domain resources, frequency-domain resources, spatial-domain resources, beam-domain resources, code-domain resources, sequence resources, and power-domain resources. Among these, code-domain resources may include a signature for non-orthogonal multiple access. Sequence resources (also known as pilot resources) may include one or more of the following: demodulation reference signal (DMRS) sequences, preamble sequences, or sequences used by other reference signals (RS).

[0132] As an example, unlicensed resources can be configured in one or more of the following ways: radio resource control (RRC) signaling, media access control (MAC) control element (CE), or DCI. DCI configuration of unlicensed resources can include semi-static or static configuration. Furthermore, when configuring unlicensed resources, protocols or network devices can also agree on or configure transmission parameters for unlicensed transmission. These transmission parameters can include one or more of the following: time-domain resource period, open-loop power control parameters, waveform, redundancy version sequence, repetition count, frequency hopping mode, resource allocation type, number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, DMRS parameters, modulation and coding scheme table, resource block group (RBG) size, time-domain resources, frequency-domain resources, or modulation and coding scheme (MCS). It is understood that unlicensed resources can be periodic.

[0133] (7) GF blind detection reception differs from dynamic scheduling. Because network devices in the GF mechanism may not know whether data has been sent by a terminal device on the currently configured GF resource, the network device must first determine whether a target signal exists on the GF resource. In this determination process, the network device assumes that a terminal device is sending a signal under a certain transmission configuration on the GF resource, and then detects the received signal according to each transmission configuration. If any of the detected configurations meets a preset condition, the network device considers that a terminal device has used that configuration to send data on the GF resource, and performs subsequent data reception processing according to that configuration; if no configuration meets the preset condition, it is assumed that no terminal device has sent data, and the processing flow is interrupted.

[0134] (8) Small Data Transmission (SDT). With the development of mobile internet applications, intermittent small data transmissions, characterized by large data arrival intervals and low data volume per transmission, are increasingly common on smartphones. These include instant messages from some instant messaging applications, heartbeat packets generated by email clients and other apps, and notifications pushed by various application servers. In the field of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the periodic location information from smartwatches, the periodic reading reports from smart meters and water meters, and the periodic or event-triggered reports from sensors such as temperature and pressure also exhibit the characteristics of intermittent small data transmission.

[0135] In the 3G era, the Cell Forward Access Channel (Cell_FACH) state enables terminal devices to transmit small data in a connectionless manner. In this state, the terminal device is not controlled by the network. Cell_FACH is a customized state for small data transmission.

[0136] However, in the 4G era, without the introduction of a similar Cell_FACH state, LTE systems could only support connection-based data transmission. This meant that when any data was to be transmitted, the terminal device had to undergo a series of signaling procedures to enter the Radio Resource Control (RRC_CONNECTED) state, establishing a radio link (RL) between the terminal device and the cell before data transmission could begin under network scheduling. When no further data was to be transmitted, the RL was released, and the terminal device returned to the connection suspend state or the Radio Resource Control (RRC_IDLE) state. This frequent RL establishment and release process not only incurred significant control signaling overhead but also introduced user plane data transmission delays, making network resource utilization highly redundant and inefficient, and particularly uneconomical for intermittent small data transmissions.

[0137] In the 5G era, 5G system design aims to efficiently and flexibly support intermittent small data transmissions, reducing overall signaling overhead through efficient signaling mechanisms. The 5G standard introduced Radio Resource Control (RRC_INACTIVE) in Release 15, which can reduce latency and save terminal power to some extent. However, in Releases 15 / 16, RRC_INACTIVE does not support data transmission. When data transmission is needed, regardless of the packet size or transmission frequency, the terminal device must revert to the RRC_CONNECTED state and then subsequently enter the RRC_INACTIVE state. This operation leads to unnecessary power consumption and signaling overhead. To more efficiently support small data transmission, Release 17 introduced a small data transmission mechanism in the RRC_INACTIVE state, namely SDT. SDT reuses and enhances the RRC_INACTIVE state already supported in R15 / R16, and the basic technologies for configuring authorization of 4-step random access channel (RACH) / 2-step RACH and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) Type 1. In scenarios where RL establishment and release operations are not required, terminal devices can directly initiate small data transmissions in the RRC_INACTIVE state.

[0138] In the NR protocol, considering that SDT was originally designed for small data, a terminal in the RRC_INACTIVE state must meet certain conditions when initiating an SDT procedure, including at least one of the following:

[0139] 1) The amount of uplink data waiting to be transmitted on all radio bearers with SDT enabled must not exceed a data volume threshold, i.e., the data to be transmitted is “small data”.

[0140] 2) The cell signal meets the condition that the RSRP measured by the terminal device is higher than a threshold configured by the network device;

[0141] 3) SDT transmission has available and effective resources.

[0142] If the above conditions are met, the terminal device selects SDT resources according to the network device configuration and initiates the SDT process using configured grant small data transmission (CG-SDT) resources, 2-step RA-SDT resources, or 4-step RA-SDT resources.

[0143] For example, initiating an SDT procedure using CG-SDT resources: Considering the design of 5G supporting multiple SSB beams within a cell, to enable the terminal to select the SSB beam with better signal when initiating the CG-SDT procedure, an association is established between the CG-SDT resource and the SSB. This is configured via RRC signaling to associate the CG-SDT resource with a group of SSBs. The network device also configures an SSB-RSRP threshold for beam selection for the terminal. When initiating the CG-SDT procedure and subsequently using CG-SDT resources for uplink transmission, the terminal selects an SSB beam with a measured RSRP higher than this threshold and selects the CG-SDT resource associated with that SSB beam, then sends the first uplink message of the SDT on the PUSCH channel.

[0144] For example, using 2-step RA-SDT resources to initiate the SDT procedure: The terminal uses the 2-step RACH procedure and sends the first uplink message of the SDT in MsgA. After initiating 2-step RA-SDT, if the terminal receives a random access backoff indication in MsgB, or if MsgA is repeatedly sent more than a certain number of times, the terminal can back off from 2-step RA-SDT to 4-step RA-SDT.

[0145] For example, using 4-step RA-SDT resources to initiate the SDT process: The terminal uses the 4-step RACH process to send the first uplink message of SDT in Msg3.

[0146] Optionally, in addition to RRC signaling (such as an RRC ResumeRequest message), the first uplink message of the SDT may also include terminal application data, depending on the amount of data that can be transmitted. The purpose of the RRC signaling is to provide the network device with necessary information such as the terminal's identifier, enabling the network device to configure the terminal's SDT process.

[0147] Optionally, for CG-SDT, when using Type 1 configuration licensed resources for the initial PUSCH transmission and subsequent uplink transmissions, the terminal needs to determine whether the configuration licensed resources are valid to ensure successful data transmission. 5G R17 employs a mechanism combining a timer and an RSRP change threshold for verification. A timer for maintaining time alignment is introduced at the MAC layer. When the terminal receives configuration instructions for this timer from the network device via RRC signaling, the timer is started. Before the timer expires, the terminal considers the uplink transmission of CG-SDT to be time-aligned with the network device and the configuration licensed resources to be valid. When the terminal receives a Timing Advance (TA) adjustment instruction from the network device via the MAC layer, the timer is restarted. If this timer expires, the terminal considers the configuration licensed resources invalid and releases them. Furthermore, the terminal also performs time alignment verification based on RSRP. That is, compared to the previous uplink transmission, if the terminal measures a change in the RSRP value exceeding the RSRP change threshold set by the network device, the configuration licensed resources are also invalid.

[0148] Optionally, the SDT process will continue after it is initiated. The SDT process will terminate when the network device notifies the terminal to stop the SDT process via RRC signaling (such as an RRC Release message), or when the network device controls the terminal to switch to the RRC_IDLE or RRC_CONNECTED state via RRC signaling. Additionally, the SDT process will also terminate when the terminal reselects to another cell or detects a failure in the SDT transmission process.

[0149] Optionally, during the SDT process, the network device can switch the terminal from the SDT process to a non-SDT process. For example, if the amount of data transmitted increases, the network device can use RRC signaling to switch the terminal to the RRC_CONNECTED state, so that the terminal can transmit data in the RRC_CONNECTED state.

[0150] As can be seen from the above analysis, the terminal in the RRC_INACTIVE state can remain in the RRC_INACTIVE state from the initiation of the SDT process to the termination of the SDT transmission. This avoids the repeated switching between the RRC_INACTIVE state and the RRC_CONNECTED state in R15 / R16, and also reduces the air interface signaling overhead for intermittent small data transmission.

[0151] (9) Transmission and reception point (TRP) is an important concept in communication networks (such as NR networks), especially in massive MIMO and beamforming technologies. A TRP can be understood as a physical entity responsible for the transmission and reception of wireless signals. For example, a TRP is an antenna array consisting of one or more antenna elements, available for network use, located in a specific geographical location within a specific area; one TRP corresponds to one coverage area.

[0152] Typically, a TRP can contain multiple antenna ports for implementing multi-antenna technologies such as MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) and beamforming. A TRP can be fixed or mobile (e.g., a TRP mounted on a drone or vehicle). The TRP is responsible for converting signals from baseband to radio frequency (RF) signals (transmit) and from RF to baseband (receive), and can also manage and allocate wireless resources, including spectrum resources and time slot resources.

[0153] Alternatively, a TRP is typically uniquely identified by a Transmitter Receiver Point Identifier (TRP ID). The TRP ID is an integer used to uniquely identify a TRP within an access network (e.g., a next-generation radio access network) node. For example, the TRP ID typically ranges from 1 to 65535.

[0154] Optionally, network devices (e.g., location management function (LMF) or central unit (CU)) may request TRP information. This information includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following:

[0155] TRP ID: A unique identifier for the TRP, Position Reference Signal (PRS) configuration, SSB configuration, Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), Cell Global Identifier (CGI) (e.g., CGI for NR), Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (ARFCN) (e.g., NR ARFCN for NR), System Frame Number (SFN), Initial Time, Spatial Direction Information (e.g., spatial direction information of the TRP), Geographic Coordinates (e.g., geographic coordinates of the TRP), TRP Type (e.g., type of TRP, including fixed or mobile), or, Beam Antenna Information (e.g., beam antenna information of the TRP).

[0156] (10) Distributed Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (Massive MIMO). Among them, a distributed Massive MIMO cell can refer to a cell that combines m consecutively covered nT nR TRPs operated by radio frequency modules operating on the same frequency band into one cell, with the aim of eliminating interference between TRPs and improving the peak rate of the cell.

[0157] (11) Antenna Port: This can be simply called a port. It can be understood as the transmitting antenna that is identified by the receiving end, or a transmitting antenna that can be distinguished in space. An antenna port can be pre-configured for each virtual antenna. Each virtual antenna can be a weighted combination of multiple physical antennas. Each antenna port can correspond to a reference signal. Therefore, each antenna port can be called a port of a reference signal, such as a CSI-RS port, demodulation reference signal (DMRS), SRS port, etc.

[0158] In this context, an antenna port is a logical concept, and there is generally no direct correspondence between an antenna port and a physical antenna. An antenna port is typically associated with a reference signal, and its meaning can be understood as a transmit / receive interface on the channel through which the reference signal passes. For low frequencies, an antenna port may correspond to one or more antenna elements that jointly transmit the reference signal; the receiver can treat them as a whole without distinguishing between individual elements. For high-frequency systems, an antenna port may correspond to a beam; similarly, the receiver only needs to treat this beam as an interface and does not need to distinguish between individual elements.

[0159] Optionally, in the following implementation, the communication ports (including receiving ports and / or transmitting ports) between the first communication device and other communication devices may be the same or different. For example, the first communication device may include one or more communication ports for communication with the second communication device, and the first communication device may include one or more communication ports for communication with the third communication device, which may be the same or different.

[0160] Furthermore, a port group can refer to a collection of multiple antenna ports. One approach is to group multiple digital ports of a network device to form multiple port groups. Another approach (especially in hybrid digital-analog beamforming architectures) is that a port group can be multiple digital ports corresponding to the same analog beam, also simply called a port group or digital-analog port group. Alternatively, a port group can be a collection of digital ports corresponding to multiple analog beams, also simply called a port group or digital-analog port group. Or, multiple digital ports of the same analog beam can be divided into multiple subsets, each subset being called a port group or digital-analog port group.

[0161] (12) Wake-up signal (WUS): This can be divided into uplink (UL) WUS (UL WUS) and downlink (DL) WUS (DL WUS). DL WUS is a signal used to wake up a terminal, allowing it to resume signal reception from sleep mode. Terminals in a network typically enter sleep mode to conserve battery life. Therefore, DL WUS can be used to wake up a terminal when it needs to receive signals. DL WUS is a short message, a special signal format, or a special signal waveform, usually sent by a base station in the network. When a terminal receives a DL WUS, it resumes from sleep mode and begins receiving signals. In NR, WUS is very short, typically only a few milliseconds, allowing devices to wake up quickly and begin receiving signals while conserving battery life. The counterpart to DL WUS is the UL WUS signal, which is used to wake up a base station from sleep mode. When a terminal has a signal to send to a base station, it sends a UL WUS signal to wake up the target base station.

[0162] (13) Low-power (LP) WUS (LP-WUS): To further reduce device power consumption, two receiver modules can be introduced. One main receiver is responsible for receiving regular signals, and the other is a low-power wake-up signal receiver (LP WUS receiver, LP WUS). The main receiver remains in a dormant state, and the device uses the low-power module to monitor the low-power wake-up signal. If the LP-WUS signal is detected, the main receiver is woken up. Both modules can be deployed on the base station side or the terminal side. When deployed on the base station side, it belongs to uplink (UL) LP-WUS (UL LP-WUS). In this case, the main communication receiving module receives the regular uplink signals / uplink channels sent by the UE, such as PRACH, PUCCH, PUSCH, etc., and the LP-WUR receives the low-power signal LP-WUS sent by the terminal. When deployed on the terminal side, it belongs to downlink (DL) LP-WUS (DL LP-WUS). In this case, the main communication receiving module receives the regular uplink signals / uplink channels sent by the base station, such as synchronization signal block (SSB), channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), etc., and the LP-WUR receives the low-power signal LP-WUS sent by the base station. LP-WUS includes a variety of selectable waveforms, such as low-power signals based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation signals, and on-off keying (OOK) modulation signals. These signals can significantly reduce the receiving power consumption of LP-WUS, making it significantly lower than the power consumption of the main communication receiver module.

[0163] Please refer to Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the communication system 1000 used in the embodiments of this application. As shown in Figure 1, the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include an Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (110a and 110b in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 110), and may also include at least one terminal (120a-120j in Figure 1, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in Figure 1). The terminal 120 is wirelessly connected to the RAN node 110, and the RAN node 110 is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the core network 200. The core network equipment in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 can be independent and different physical devices, or they can be the same physical device integrating the logical functions of the core network equipment and the logical functions of the RAN node. Terminals can be connected to each other, as can RAN nodes, via wired or wireless means.

[0164] RAN100 can be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, or a future radio access system as defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). RAN100 can also include two or more of the above-mentioned different radio access systems. RAN100 can also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0165] RAN nodes, also known as radio access network devices, RAN entities, or access nodes, are used to help terminals access communication systems wirelessly. In one application scenario, an RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next-generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5G mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. RAN nodes can be macro base stations (as shown in Figure 1, 110a), micro base stations or indoor stations (as shown in Figure 1, 110b), and can also be relay nodes or donor nodes.

[0166] In another application scenario, multiple RAN nodes can collaborate to help terminals achieve wireless access, with different RAN nodes implementing different functions of the base station. For example, a RAN node can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU). Here, the CU performs the functions of the base station's Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and can also perform the functions of the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP). The DU performs the functions of the base station's Radio Link Control (RANC) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers, and can also perform some or all of the physical layer functions. For specific descriptions of these protocol layers, refer to the relevant 3GPP technical specifications. The RU can be used to implement radio frequency signal transmission and reception. The CU and DU can be two independent RAN nodes or integrated into the same RAN node, such as within a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in radio frequency equipment, such as in a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU can be further divided into two types of RAN nodes: CU-control plane and CU-user plane.

[0167] In different systems, RAN nodes may have different names. For example, in an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN, or ORAN) system, a CU can also be called an O-CU (open CU), a DU can also be called an O-DU, a CU-CP can also be called an O-CU-CP, a CU-UP can also be called an O-CU-UP, and a RU can also be called an 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 modules and hardware modules.

[0168] Communication between access network devices and terminal devices follows a specific protocol layer structure. This protocol layer may include a control plane protocol layer and a user plane protocol layer. The control plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: radio resource control (RRC) layer, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, radio link control (RLC) layer, media access control (MAC) layer, or physical (PHY) layer, etc. The user plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, or physical layer, etc.

[0169] The correspondence between network elements and their achievable protocol layer functions in the ORAN system can be found in Table 1 below.

[0170] Table 1

[0171] For ease of description, the following text uses a base station as an example of a RAN node.

[0172] A terminal is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities, capable of sending signals to or receiving signals from a base station. Terminals can also be called terminal equipment, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. Terminals can be widely used in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grids, smart furniture, smart offices, smart wearables, smart transportation, smart cities, etc. Terminals can be mobile phones, tablets, computers with wireless transceiver capabilities, wearable devices, vehicles, airplanes, ships, robots, robotic arms, smart home devices, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology or device form used in the terminal.

[0173] Base stations and terminals can be fixed or mobile. They can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on water; and they can be deployed on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of the base stations and terminals.

[0174] For example, a base station can be deployed entirely on a satellite, or only some of its functions can be deployed on a satellite. For instance, the radio frequency unit (RU) of a base station can be deployed on a satellite, while other parts are deployed on the ground. Another example is that the RU and DU of a base station can be deployed on a satellite, while the CU is deployed on the ground. Similarly, core network equipment can also be deployed on satellites. For example, some core network user plane elements can be deployed on satellites to support direct interaction between terminals via satellite, eliminating the need for ground-based communication. Some core network control plane elements can also be deployed on satellites. For example, deploying mobility management and session management elements on satellites can support emergency disaster relief services in situations where there is no terrestrial network. For example, network equipment may be deployed on non-terrestrial platforms, including but not limited to low-Earth orbit satellites, medium-Earth orbit satellites, high-Earth orbit satellites, high-altitude platforms, and high-altitude platforms such as drones.

[0175] The roles of base stations and terminals can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 1 can be configured as a mobile base station. For terminals 120j that access the wireless access network 100 through 120i, terminal 120i is a base station; however, for base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, meaning that 110a and 120i communicate via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate via a base station-to-base station interface protocol. In this case, relative to 110a, 120i is also a base station. Therefore, both base stations and terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be called communication devices with base station functions, and 120a-120j in Figure 1 can be called communication devices with terminal functions.

[0176] In the embodiments of this application, the functions of the base station can be executed by modules (such as chips) within the base station, or by a control subsystem that includes base station functions. This control subsystem, including base station functions, can be a control center in the aforementioned application scenarios such as smart grids, industrial control, intelligent transportation, and smart cities. Similarly, the functions of the terminal can be executed by modules (such as chips or modems) within the terminal, or by a device that includes terminal functions.

[0177] In a communication system (such as the system shown in Figure 1), during the signal transmission and reception process of network devices, the network device used to transmit downlink signals and the network device used to receive uplink signals are the same network device; for example, this same network device can be the same transmission reception point (TRP). In this case, the uplink and downlink can be considered reciprocal. Therefore, the terminal device can obtain the downlink channel quality information through the downlink signal measurement results of a network device, and determine the validity of the uplink of that network device based on the downlink channel quality information. However, in a communication system, a network device may be unable to transmit downlink signals for various reasons, such as the network device not being configured with downlink resources or the network device lacking devices for downlink transmission. In this case, how the terminal device determines the validity of the uplink of the network device is a technical problem that urgently needs to be solved. This technical problem will be described below with some examples.

[0178] To improve peak cell rates and edge coverage, distributed Massive MIMO can be introduced, which merges m consecutive coverage TRPs (Transmission Points) operating on the same frequency band into a single cell. TRPs can communicate with each other, facilitating the elimination of interference. Generally, TRPs are symmetrical, meaning they possess both uplink and downlink links, allowing them to obtain complete uplink and downlink channel information within their coverage area. However, in future networks, asymmetric TRPs may emerge, where a TRP may only have an uplink or only a downlink. For example, a TRP with only an uplink can be called a UL-Only TRP. As the name suggests, this TRP only has an uplink, and its radio channel only supports reception, not transmission. Such TRPs are often used at cell edges to improve uplink coverage. Another possibility is that, due to network energy conservation, network equipment may disable the downlink transmission function of some TRPs, making these TRPs asymmetric TRPs with only uplink links.

[0179] The introduction of asymmetric TRPs significantly changes the network architecture, potentially leading to a situation where the number of available uplinks for terminal devices exceeds the number of available downlinks. For ease of description later, a TRP with downlinks can be called an anchor TRP, and a TRP with only uplinks can be called a UL-only TRP.

[0180] As shown in the example in Figure 2, the network device containing the transmitting module capable of sending downlink signals may connect to one or more receiving modules that are solely for receiving uplink signals via wired or wireless connections. These receiving modules can be referred to as uplink-only (UL Only) modules or UL Only nodes (nodes 1 and 2 in Figure 2). It is understood that in Figure 2, the network device can be an Anchor TRP, and nodes 1 and 2 can be UL-only TRPs.

[0181] In Figure 2, for downlink transmission, terminal device 1, terminal device 2 and terminal device 3 can all receive downlink signals through the network device in Figure 2.

[0182] In Figure 2, for uplink transmission, the uplink signal sent by terminal device 1 can be transmitted through node 1, the uplink signal sent by terminal device 2 can be transmitted through the network device (assuming that the network device in Figure 2 has an uplink), and the uplink signal sent by terminal device 3 can be transmitted through node 2.

[0183] Optionally, in Figure 2, Node 1 and Node 2 can connect to the network device in various ways and send the received uplink signals to the network device for further processing. For example, Node 1 can connect to the network device via a wired or wireless connection. Alternatively, Node 1 can connect to the network device via a switch (or a router, remote radio head (RRH), etc.).

[0184] Furthermore, UL Only nodes may lack downlink resources or the network equipment may not have devices for downlink transmission, meaning these UL Only nodes only have uplink receiving capabilities and do not actively transmit any signals. Therefore, uplink capacity can be increased without increasing network interference. Moreover, since no transmit radio frequency link is required, the cost of UL Only nodes is also significantly reduced.

[0185] Generally, since different TRPs may be located in different places, the terminal device can have independent link parameters to each TRP, including one or more of path loss, TA, and power control factor. Under the symmetric TRP assumption, each TRP can obtain its downlink reference measurements, such as SSB measurements and CSI-RS measurements. Taking a TDD system as an example, the characteristic of the dissimilarity between uplink and downlink channels can be utilized to infer the uplink quality based on the downlink measurement results. For example, in CG-SDT transmission, the terminal device can infer the uplink quality from the SSB measurements and select the CG resource associated with the SSB that meets the conditions for transmission. Suppose that SSB1 is associated with TRP1 and SSB2 is associated with TRP2, and the channel quality indicated by the measurement of SSB2 is better than that indicated by the measurement of SSB1, then the terminal device will select the CG resource of SSB2 for transmission, that is, the terminal device will choose to communicate uplink with TRP2.

[0186] Optionally, for simplicity, TA will also be included in the definition of CG resources below. For example, even if two CG resources use the same time-frequency resources and the same modulation and coding parameters, they are still considered two different CG resources if their associated TA values ​​are different. Furthermore, the two TAs mentioned above may appear as two separate tags. That is, if two CG resources belong to different tags, then these two resources can be called two different CG resources.

[0187] However, in scenarios involving UL-only TRPs (such as the scenario shown in Figure 2), since the UL-only TRP may not have a downlink (e.g., only the Anchor TRP has a downlink), the SSB can obtain the downlink status from the terminal device to the Anchor TRP, but cannot obtain the downlink status between the terminal device and the UL-only TRP. Therefore, in this case, only an initial uplink communication link can be established with the Anchor TRP. Subsequently, the terminal device obtains communication resources dedicated to the UL-only TRP from the Anchor TRP and establishes an uplink with the UL-only TRP through the Anchor TRP. Taking Figure 2 as an example, in this case, node 2 is close to terminal device 3, and its TA value and path loss are both lower than those of the Anchor TRP.

[0188] Furthermore, when the terminal device is in RRC_CONNECTED state, the network device can maintain the two links of the terminal device separately, for example, using the SRS of the dedicated TRP for measurement and maintenance. That is, the terminal device can maintain two TA values, TA1 and TA2, and their corresponding power control parameters. However, when the terminal device enters the RRC_INACTIVE state, the frequency of the above maintenance will be significantly reduced or even canceled. Therefore, link parameters relying on uplink channel measurements become unreliable. At this point, it is necessary to rely on downlink measurements, such as SSB measurements, and use the difference between uplink and downlink channels to infer the reliability of the uplink parameters. This is feasible for the uplink where the Anchor TRP is located, because the Anchor TRP is a symmetrical TRP. However, it is not feasible for UL-only TRPs.

[0189] Taking Figure 2 as an example, suppose terminal device 3 moves from its current location. It's possible that terminal device 3 has left the coverage area of ​​the UL-only TRP (i.e., node 2), and the uplink has failed. However, if the distance, angle, and other parameters from the terminal device 3's position before and after its movement to the AnchorTRP (i.e., the network device) are the same or similar, the SSB measurement result of the AnchorTRP may not change significantly. Since the transmission path of the AnchorTRP's SSB is very different from the transmission path of the UL-only TRP's uplink signal, relying on the SSB measurement result to determine the validity of the UL-only TRP's uplink poses a risk if the terminal device initiates CG-SDT transmission. For example, when the terminal device selects the link parameters associated with the UL-only TRP for transmission, inaccurate TA values ​​may lead to transmission failure.

[0190] To solve the above problem, there are two possible solutions.

[0191] Method ①: The terminal device randomly selects a resource of a TRP for uplink transmission.

[0192] For example, taking uplink transmission as SDT as an example. To prevent TA failure, the current CG-SDT scheme introduces a timer configuration authorization small data transmission time alignment timer (cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer). When the terminal device enters the RRC_INACTIVE state from RRC_CONNECTED, it can activate cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer and start timing. Thereafter, the terminal device only starts CG-SDT when cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer is active and other CG-SDT startup conditions are met (e.g., SSB measurement conditions are met). The terminal device cannot start CG-SDT if cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer fails.

[0193] In method ①, in scenarios involving both Anchor TRPs and UL-only TRPs, the terminal device can maintain two TA values ​​for these two TRPs, assuming timers (e.g., two cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimers) are configured for each TA. When the terminal device enters the RRC_INACTIVE state, it can activate both cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimers. Therefore, when the terminal device wants to perform CG-SDT transmission, it can select the CG resource associated with the TA where the cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer is still active for CG-SDT transmission.

[0194] However, in method ①, when both TAs corresponding to cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer are valid, the terminal device still needs to make a selection. If a random selection method is used, the terminal device may still mistakenly select a link that is actually invalidated by the UL-only TRP for transmission. This will cause CG-SDT transmission failure and may also lead to unnecessary retransmission of CG-SDT by the terminal device, resulting in increased power consumption of the terminal device.

[0195] Method 2: The terminal device uses the uplink resources of Anchor TRP for uplink transmission by default. For example, the uplink resources of UL-only TRP are unavailable by default for the terminal device.

[0196] In method ②, in scenarios involving both Anchor TRPs and UL-only TRPs, since the downlink signals (e.g., SSB) received by the terminal device only reflect the downlink quality of the Anchor TRP, the network device can designate the CG resource where the DL-TRP resides to be responsible for CG-SDT transmission. For example, even if the TA associated cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer of the UL-only TRP is not invalid, the terminal device only considers the validity of the TA associated cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer of the Anchor TRP, and only starts CG-SDT transmission when the TAG associated cg-SDT-TimeAlignmentTimer is valid. This ensures that the terminal device always transmits on an uplink with valid link parameters.

[0197] However, some problems still exist in method ②. For example, the terminal device may be far from the Anchor TRP, resulting in large path loss and poor transmission performance. Taking Figure 2 above as an example, if the terminal device 3 moves, but its position before and after the move is still within the UL-Only TRP coverage, then method ② will cause the terminal device to lose the benefits of near-point transmission, affecting uplink transmission performance.

[0198] To address the aforementioned problems, this application provides a communication method and related apparatus, which will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0199] Please refer to Figure 3, which is a schematic diagram of an implementation of the communication method provided in this application. The method includes the following steps. In Figure 3, the method is illustrated by taking a first communication device and other communication devices (such as a second communication device and a third communication device) as the execution subjects of the interaction, but this application does not limit the execution subjects of the interaction. For example, the communication device can be a communication device (such as a terminal device or a network device), or a chip, baseband chip, modem chip, SoC chip (such as an SoC chip containing a modem core), SIP chip, communication module, chip system, processor, logic module, or software in the communication device. As an example, the first communication device can be a terminal device, and the second and third communication devices can be network devices (for example, the second and third communication devices can be TRPs; as in the previous example, the second communication device can be an Anchor TRP with downlink transmission, and the third communication device can be a UL-Only TRP with uplink transmission). Optionally, the above-mentioned network device can be an access network device or an ORAN device (including at least one of O-CU, O-DU, and O-RU).

[0200] S301. The second communication device sends a downlink signal, and the first communication device receives the downlink signal accordingly.

[0201] Optionally, the downlink signal involved in this application may be a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (SSB or S-SS / PSBCH block), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), or other signals defined by the future network.

[0202] S302. When the downlink signal satisfies the first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies the second condition, the first communication device sends a first signal, which is used to detect the validity of the first resource; wherein the first resource is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device.

[0203] Optionally, the first signal involved in this application satisfies at least one of the following: the first signal is an uplink wake-up signal (UL-WUS); or, the bandwidth occupied by the first signal is lower than a threshold; or, the modulation method of the first signal includes on-off keying (OOK); or, the first signal is a signal of a physical random access channel (PRACH). In this way, the first signal can be received using a low-power receiver. For example, the first signal can be used as a wake-up signal for detecting resource availability, and the power consumption at both ends of the signal transmission and reception can be reduced through a low-power transmission and reception process.

[0204] Optionally, the first signal is used to detect the validity of the first resource. This can be understood as the first signal being used to detect the validity of the link's transmission parameters, where the first resource is a transmission resource used to transmit on the link using those transmission parameters. For example, the transmission parameters can be understood as the link parameters of the first resource. Optionally, the transmission parameters of the first signal are associated with the transmission parameters of the first resource. For example, the TA value of the first resource can be used to send the first signal.

[0205] For example, the transmission parameters involved in this application may include one or more of the following parameters: TA, period of time-domain resources, open-loop power control related parameters, waveform, redundancy version sequence, repetition count, frequency hopping mode, resource allocation type, number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, DMRS related parameters, modulation and coding scheme table, resource block group (RBG) size, time-domain resources, frequency-domain resources, or modulation and coding scheme (MCS). For example, the above transmission parameters include at least TA.

[0206] As an example, a downlink signal satisfying the first condition can be understood as having good signal reception quality and / or good link quality of the downlink transmitting the downlink signal. For example, a downlink signal satisfying the first condition includes at least one of the following: the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the downlink signal is greater than or equal to a threshold, or the difference between the RSRP of the downlink signal and the RSRP of historically received downlink signals is less than or equal to a threshold. Optionally, the threshold involved in this application can be configured by the network device or pre-configured by a protocol or standard.

[0207] As an example, the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfying the second condition can be understood as the TA corresponding to the first resource being valid, and / or the TA corresponding to the first resource not yet being invalid. For example, the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfying the second condition includes at least one of the following: the timing advance timer (TAT) corresponding to the first resource is active, the TAT corresponding to the first resource has not expired, or the difference between the RSRP of the downlink signal and the RSRP of the historically received downlink signal is less than or equal to a threshold.

[0208] Optionally, the uplink transmission involved in this application can be an uplink scheduling-free transmission. For example, the first resource is used for uplink scheduling-free transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device. In this way, scheduling-free resources can be reserved for uplink transmission, reducing the signaling overhead of scheduling.

[0209] For example, uplink transmission can be used to transmit uplink data and / or uplink signaling, etc. The uplink transmission involved in this application includes, but is not limited to, transmission based on random access (RA), transmission based on configured grant (CG) resources in 5th generation (5G) new radio (NR) systems, transmission based on preconfigured uplink resources (PUR) in long term evolution (LTE) systems, transmission based on semi-persistent scheduling resources in LTE systems, transmission based on semi-static channel state information (SP-CSI), small data transmission (SDT), or other transmissions defined by future networks to avoid dynamic granting.

[0210] For example, the uplink information sent by the first communication device (e.g., uplink information sent by the first resource based on the first resource or the second resource, as described below) can be uplink data and / or uplink signaling transmitted using uplink unlicensed resources. This uplink information can be carried on a data channel (such as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)), a control channel (such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)), or a physical random access channel (PRACH), etc. The channels or signals transmitted in unlicensed transmission are related to the unlicensed transmission scenario or the technology used in the unlicensed transmission. For example, unlicensed transmission based on two-step random access can transmit PRACH and / or PUSCH. Similarly, unlicensed transmission based on PUR, SPS, or CG can transmit PUSCH.

[0211] Based on the scheme shown in Figure 3, the first communication device can receive a downlink signal from the second communication device in step S301. Furthermore, if the downlink signal satisfies a first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies a second condition, the first communication device sends a first signal in step S302 to detect the validity of the first resource. In other words, during uplink transmission between the first and third communication devices, the first communication device can send an uplink signal on the uplink between the first and third communication devices based on the downlink signal from the downlink of the second communication device that satisfies the first condition. Therefore, even if the first communication device does not receive a downlink signal from the third communication device (e.g., the third communication device does not send a downlink signal), it can still send an uplink signal on the uplink of the third communication device by detecting the downlink signal from the downlink of other communication devices. This reduces the first communication device's need to detect the downlink signal from the third communication device, thereby reducing the complexity and power consumption of the first communication device.

[0212] Furthermore, in the scheme shown in Figure 3, the first signal sent by the first communication device in step S302 is used to detect the validity of the first resource. Subsequently, the first communication device can perform uplink transmission through the first resource if the first resource is determined to be valid, so that the first communication device can perform uplink transmission (e.g., initial transmission) on a reliable link, thereby improving the reliability of uplink transmission and thus improving communication performance.

[0213] Furthermore, in the scheme shown in Figure 3, the third communication device can achieve uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device without sending downlink signals, so that the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0214] Furthermore, in the scheme shown in Figure 3, during the uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device, the first communication device can send a first signal on the uplink between the first communication device and the third communication device based on the condition that the TA corresponding to the first resource meets the second condition. This allows for the use of available TA resources to detect the validity of uplink resources, thereby improving the uplink transmission success rate, avoiding retransmissions or reducing the number of retransmissions, and further reducing the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0215] In one possible implementation of the method shown in Figure 3, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission within the second time period. In other words, within the second time period, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission, meaning that the third communication device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module (or does not need to configure downlink resources or downlink transmission devices), thereby reducing the power consumption of the third communication device.

[0216] Optionally, at least one of the start time, end time, and duration of the second time range can be pre-configured or configured by the network device. For example, the start time may be the activation time of the third communication device. For example, the duration may be infinity.

[0217] Optionally, "the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission" can be understood as meaning that the communication between the third communication device and the terminal device (e.g., the first communication device) is only uplink-based. The communication method between the third communication device and other network devices (e.g., other access network devices or other core network devices, such as the second communication device) is not limited; for example, the third communication device can communicate with other network devices via wired or wireless means.

[0218] Optionally, the fact that the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission can be understood as the third communication device having one or more of the following characteristics:

[0219] It only has uplink receiving capability, without configuring downlink transmission reference signal, downlink control channel, downlink data channel, downlink bandwidth, downlink frame structure, or downlink time slot. It can also have uplink carrier only, uplink carrier available but downlink carrier unavailable, downlink carrier unavailable, carrier being uplink carrier, only including uplink carrier, carrier including uplink carrier but not including downlink carrier, uplink transmission activated (or enabled, enabled, activated, etc.), and downlink transmission deactivated (or turned off, hibernated, silent, prohibited, disabled, etc.).

[0220] As an example implementation, the third communication device lacks downlink transmission capability or is not configured with downlink transmission-related information. This downlink transmission-related information may include at least one of the following: downlink reference signal related information, downlink control channel transmission related information, downlink data channel transmission related information, downlink frame structure related information, downlink time slot related information, or downlink bandwidth related information. The absence of downlink reference signal related information can be replaced with the absence of downlink reference signal configuration. Similarly, the absence of downlink control channel transmission related information can be replaced with the absence of downlink control channel transmission. The absence of downlink data channel transmission related information can also be replaced with the absence of downlink data channel transmission. The absence of downlink frame structure related information can be replaced with parameters related to downlink frame structure configuration. The absence of downlink time slot related information can also be replaced with parameters related to downlink time slot configuration. Finally, the absence of downlink bandwidth related information can be replaced with the absence of downlink bandwidth configuration.

[0221] As another implementation example, the third communication device has uplink transmission capability; and / or, the third communication device configures uplink transmission-related information. Uplink transmission-related information may include at least one of the following: uplink reference signal information, uplink control channel transmission information, uplink data channel transmission information, uplink frame structure-related information, uplink timeslot-related information, or uplink bandwidth-related information. The information configuring the uplink reference signal can also be replaced with configuring the uplink reference signal. The information configuring the uplink control channel transmission can also be replaced with configuring uplink control channel transmission. The information configuring the uplink data channel transmission can also be replaced with configuring uplink data channel transmission. The information configuring the uplink frame structure can also be replaced with configuring uplink frame structure-related parameters. The information configuring the uplink timeslot-related information can also be replaced with configuring uplink timeslot-related parameters. The information configuring the uplink bandwidth-related information can also be replaced with configuring uplink bandwidth. Thus, the terminal device can send information, such as a preamble, to the third communication device.

[0222] In one possible implementation of the method shown in Figure 3, in step S302, the first communication device sends a first signal, including: the first communication device sends the first signal within the second time range. In other words, the first communication device can send the first signal based on the first resources of the third communication device within the second time range that the third communication device only uses for uplink transmission, so that the first communication device can achieve uplink coverage enhancement based on the third communication device and improve uplink transmission performance.

[0223] In one possible implementation of the method shown in Figure 3, the first signal sent by the first communication device in step S302 may be successfully transmitted (e.g., the third communication device successfully receives the first signal) or may fail to be transmitted (e.g., the link between the first and third communication devices may be unavailable, or there may be significant transmission interference, which could lead to transmission failure). If the first signal is successfully transmitted, the third communication device can process it. As mentioned above, the third communication device can respond to the successfully received first signal. The subsequent response process of the third communication device will be illustrated below with reference to Figure 4.

[0224] As shown in the example in Figure 4, compared to the scheme shown in Figure 3, the process after step S302 includes the following steps:

[0225] S303. The third communication device sends fifth information, and correspondingly, the second communication device receives the fifth information. The fifth information is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource (for example, the transmission parameters may include TA; optionally, the transmission parameters may also include power control parameters, path loss, etc.) are valid, that is, the second communication device can determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid based on the fifth information.

[0226] Optionally, the fifth information is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid. This can be understood as the fifth information determining that the uplink transmission parameters are valid, and the first resource is the transmission resource on that link. That is, the second communication device can determine that the uplink between the first and third communication devices is valid based on this fifth information.

[0227] As an example, in step S303, the third communication device can forward the received first signal to the second communication device. For instance, the first signal received by the third communication device in step S302 and the fifth information sent by the second communication device in step S303 may be the same. In this way, the processing complexity of the third communication device can be reduced. Optionally, in this case, the third communication device may not have the processing capabilities of higher layers (e.g., MAC layer, RRC layer, or other protocol layers). Therefore, the third communication device can forward the first signal to the second communication device so that the second communication device can perform subsequent processing on the first signal.

[0228] As another example, in step S303, the third communication device can process the received first signal and then send the fifth information to the second communication device. For example, the first signal received by the third communication device in step S302 and the fifth information sent by the second communication device in step S303 may be different. The fifth information sent by the second communication device in step S303 may be indication information, which indicates at least one of the following: the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource (e.g., the transmission parameters may include TA; optionally, the transmission parameters may also include power control parameters, path loss, etc.) are valid; the uplink between the first and third communication devices is valid; or, the third communication device has successfully received the second information. In this way, the transmission overhead between the second and third communication devices can be reduced. Optionally, in this case, the third communication device may have higher-level (e.g., MAC layer, RRC layer, or other protocol layer) processing capabilities, for example, the fifth information may be higher-level signaling / information. Alternatively, the third communication device may not have higher-level (e.g., MAC layer, RRC layer, or other protocol layer) processing capabilities, for example, the fifth information may be lower-level (e.g., physical layer) signaling / information.

[0229] Optionally, if the second communication device has high-level processing capabilities, after receiving the first signal or the fifth information from the third communication device, the second communication device can process the first signal or the fifth information locally, and generate or determine the second information involved in step S304 based on the processing result.

[0230] Optionally, if the second communication device does not have high-level processing capabilities, after receiving the first signal or the fifth information from the third communication device, the second communication device may send the first signal or the fifth information to other communication devices that have high-level processing capabilities, so that the other communication devices process the first signal or the fifth information and instruct the second communication device to generate or determine the second information involved in step S304 based on the processing result.

[0231] Optionally, if the second communication device does not have high-level processing capabilities, the third communication device sends the first signal or the fifth information to other communication devices that have high-level processing capabilities. The other communication device processes the first signal or the fifth information and instructs the second communication device to generate or determine the second information involved in step S304 based on the processing result.

[0232] S304. The second communication device sends second information, and correspondingly, the first communication device can receive the second information. The second information is used to determine that the transmission parameters of the first resource are valid; that is, the first communication device can determine that the first resource is valid based on the second information.

[0233] Therefore, after the first communication device sends a first signal to detect the validity of the first resource, the first communication device can receive second information indicating that the first resource is valid, so that the first communication device can determine that the first resource is valid, that is, the uplink corresponding to the first resource can be used for subsequent uplink transmission, so as to obtain more uplink transmission opportunities and improve uplink capacity.

[0234] In one possible implementation, the method shown in Figure 4 may also include:

[0235] S300. The second communication device sends first information, and correspondingly, the first communication device receives the first information, which is used to configure the first signal. Thus, the first communication device can also receive first information for configuring the first signal, enabling the first communication device to perform validity detection based on the specified first signal, thereby improving the success rate of subsequent uplink transmissions.

[0236] Optionally, the first information may originate from a second communication device, or from a third communication device (e.g., the third communication device sends the first information when it has downlink transmission capability), or from other network devices. That is, step S300 is an optional step.

[0237] In one possible implementation, the first signal is further used to detect the validity of N resources, where N is a positive integer; wherein the N resources are respectively used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and N other communication devices. Thus, in addition to detecting the validity of the first resource, the first signal can also be used to detect the validity of N resources. In this way, the validity of multiple resources can be detected using the same first signal, which can improve the success rate of receiving the first signal, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of the first signal, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0238] Optionally, the N communication devices include the second communication device. In this way, the first communication device may send a first signal to the second communication device that sends downlink signals. For example, if the downlink signal meets a first condition, the first communication device can determine that the downlink quality between the first communication device and the second communication device is good. Therefore, the first communication device can also send the first signal through the uplink with the second communication device to improve the success rate of receiving the first signal, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of the first signal, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0239] Optionally, the first communication device can receive indication information indicating whether one or more of the N resources are valid. This indication information can refer to the implementation process of the second information in step S304 above. For example, the second information can be used to indicate whether the first resource is valid, and also to indicate whether the N resources are valid. For instance, the second information includes the resource index of the resource with valid TA, and / or the resource index of the resource with invalid TA. As another example, the second information includes a bitmap, the bit information contained in which is used to indicate the resources with valid TA and / or the resources with invalid TA. For example, the bitmap can contain N+1 bits, the values ​​of which are used to indicate whether the first resource and the corresponding TAs of the N resources are valid, respectively. A value of 1 indicates validity and a value of 0 indicates invalidity, or a value of 0 indicates validity and a value of 1 indicates invalidity.

[0240] Optionally, the number of resource indexes indicated by the second information, the number of bits contained in the bitmap, and other information can be configured through the first information or other information described later.

[0241] In one possible implementation, as shown in Figure 5, the method shown in Figure 3 further includes:

[0242] Step A. The second communication device sends third information, and correspondingly, the first communication device receives the third information. The third information is used to configure K signals, which are used to detect the validity of K resources, where K is a positive integer; wherein, the K resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the K communication devices.

[0243] Step B. The first communication device sends K signals.

[0244] Step C. One or more communication devices send one or more pieces of information, which are used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to one or more second resources are valid. For example, the one or more communication devices are the K communication devices, and the one or more pieces of information are information from the K communication devices, which can refer to the implementation process of the fifth piece of information above. Optionally, in step C, the interaction process between any of the one or more communication devices and the second communication device can refer to the interaction process between the third communication device and the second communication device above.

[0245] For example, in step B, if the broadcast signal satisfies the first condition, the first communication device sends the K signals. Similarly, if the broadcast signal satisfies the first condition and the TAs corresponding to the K resources satisfy the second condition, the first communication device sends the K signals.

[0246] Therefore, the first communication device can also send K signals to detect the validity of K resources, which can improve the success rate of receiving the signals used for resource detection, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of retransmissions of the signals used for resource detection, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0247] Optionally, the K communication devices include the second communication device. In this way, the first communication device may send a first signal to the second communication device that sends downlink signals. For example, if the downlink signal meets a first condition, the first communication device can determine that the downlink quality between the first communication device and the second communication device is good. Therefore, the first communication device can also send an uplink signal (which is one of the K signals) through the uplink with the second communication device to improve the success rate of uplink signal reception, reduce uplink transmission latency, avoid or reduce the number of uplink signal retransmissions, and further reduce the power consumption of the first communication device.

[0248] Optionally, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different time-domain resources; and / or, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different frequency-domain resources and on the same time-domain resource.

[0249] Optionally, any one of the K signals involved in this application satisfies at least one of the following: the signal is an uplink wake-up signal (UL-WUS); or, the bandwidth occupied by the signal is lower than a threshold; or, the modulation scheme of the signal includes On-Off Keying (OOK); or, the first signal is a signal of the Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). In this way, any one of the K signals can be used for reception by a low-power receiver. For example, any one signal can be used as a wake-up signal for detecting resource availability, thereby reducing the power consumption at both ends of the signal transmission and reception process through a lower power consumption transmission and reception process.

[0250] Optionally, the first communication device can receive indication information indicating whether one or more of the K resources are valid. This indication information can refer to the implementation process of the second information in step S304 above. For example, the second information can be used to indicate whether the first resource is valid, and also to indicate whether the K resources are valid. For instance, the second information includes the resource index of the resource with valid TA, and / or the resource index of the resource with invalid TA. Alternatively, the second information includes a bitmap, the bit information contained in which is used to indicate the resources with valid TA and / or the resources with invalid TA. For example, the bitmap can contain K+1 bits, the values ​​of which are used to indicate whether the first resource and the corresponding TA of the K resources are valid, respectively. A value of 1 indicates validity and a value of 0 indicates invalidity, or a value of 0 indicates validity and a value of 1 indicates invalidity.

[0251] Optionally, the number of resource indexes indicated by the second information, the number of bits contained in the bitmap, and other information can be configured through the first information or other information described later.

[0252] In one possible implementation, the first information includes at least one of the following first to eighth indication information.

[0253] The first indication information indicates the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time (or sending time) of the first resource.

[0254] For example, the first signal can be a physical layer signal, and correspondingly, the triggering time of the first signal can indicate the time when the first communication device triggers the generation of the first signal in the physical layer. Since the first signal is used to detect the validity of the first resource, the first communication device can perform an initial transmission on the first resource if it determines that the first resource is valid. The uplink signal transmitted on the first resource may be obtained through some signal processing procedures (such as encoding, rate matching, modulation, resource mapping, etc.), and these signal processing procedures may have some processing delays. Therefore, by using the minimum time interval indicated by the first indication information, the first communication device can perform signal processing within the time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the transmission time of the most recent resource (such as the first resource). If the time interval is less than or equal to the maximum duration, the first communication device can determine that uplink information can be transmitted on the most recent resource and perform transmission processing; if the time interval is greater than the maximum duration, the first communication device can determine that uplink information cannot be transmitted on the most recent resource, and the first communication device can choose not to perform transmission processing to reduce unnecessary overhead and save power.

[0255] Similarly, the first indication information may also indicate the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time (or sending time) of the other resource, which may be one or more of the aforementioned N or K resources.

[0256] The second indication information indicates the signal type of the first signal.

[0257] For example, the second indication information may indicate at least one of the following: the signal modulation type of the first signal is OOK, the first signal is a PRACH signal, the first signal is a UL-WUS signal, or the first signal is a WUS signal.

[0258] The third indication information indicates the time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources carrying the first signal.

[0259] For example, the third indication information may indicate at least one of the time-domain resource configuration, frequency-domain resource configuration, modulation and coding parameters, or spatial-domain resource configuration (e.g., port configuration) of the first signal.

[0260] The fourth indication information indicates the number of repetitions and / or retransmissions of the first signal.

[0261] For example, based on the fourth indication information, the first communication device can repeatedly transmit the first signal once or multiple times. For instance, to ensure coverage, the first communication device is allowed to repeatedly transmit the signal once or multiple times to improve the uplink transmission performance of the first signal.

[0262] For example, based on the fourth indication information, the first communication device can retransmit the first signal once or multiple times. For instance, if the first signal fails to be received successfully due to transmission interference or other reasons, the first communication device is allowed to retransmit once or multiple times to improve the uplink transmission performance of the first signal.

[0263] The fifth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes second information, which is used to indicate whether the first resource is valid.

[0264] The sixth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes TA information determined based on the first signal.

[0265] The seventh indication information indicates the type of information that indicates the response information of the first signal.

[0266] The eighth instruction information indicates the resource allocation for the response information of the first signal; or,

[0267] The ninth instruction information is a timer that indicates the response information for receiving (or detecting) the first signal.

[0268] For example, the timer indicated by the ninth indication information can be understood as a detection window or a receiving window, etc. The first communication device can start the timer in the time unit of sending the first signal or in the next time unit adjacent to the time unit of sending the first signal. If the timer expires and it is determined that no response information for the first signal has been received, the first communication device can retransmit the first signal. Optionally, the timer indicated by the ninth indication information can be pre-configured.

[0269] Through the aforementioned fifth to eighth instruction information, the first communication device can receive and / or identify the response information of the first signal. If the response information of the first signal is successfully received and / or successfully identified, the first communication device can determine one or more currently valid resources based on the response information of the first signal, and subsequently perform uplink transmission on the one or more resources.

[0270] In one possible implementation, if the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid, the method further includes: the first communication device determining not to send uplink information on the first resource; and / or, the first communication device sending uplink information based on a second resource, the second resource being used for uplink transmission (e.g., random access transmission) between the first communication device and the third communication device.

[0271] Therefore, when the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid, the first communication device can determine that the uplink corresponding to the first resource may not be used for subsequent uplink transmission. Accordingly, the first communication device can stop sending uplink information on the first resource to save power consumption.

[0272] And / or, if the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid, the first communication device may send uplink information based on the second resource to achieve uplink transmission.

[0273] Optionally, the first communication device determines that the first resource is invalid if at least one of the following conditions is met: the first communication device receives fourth information, the fourth information indicating that the first resource is invalid; or, the first communication device determines within a first time range that it has not received second information, the second information indicating that the first resource is valid; wherein the second information indicates that the first resource is valid.

[0274] Optionally, if the first communication device determines that a resource has failed (e.g., one or more of the first resource, N resources, or K resources have failed), the first communication device may suspend or clear the failed resource to save cache overhead and further reduce power consumption.

[0275] Please refer to Figure 6. This application embodiment provides a communication device 600, which can realize the functions of the second communication device or the first communication device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments. In this application embodiment, the communication device 600 can be the first communication device (or the second communication device), or it can be an integrated circuit or component inside the first communication device (or the second communication device), such as a chip.

[0276] It should be noted that the transceiver unit 602 may include a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, which are used to perform transmitting and receiving respectively.

[0277] In one possible implementation, when the device 600 is used to execute the method performed by the first communication device in the aforementioned embodiments, the transceiver unit 602 is used to receive a downlink signal from the second communication device; when the processing unit 601 determines that the downlink signal satisfies a first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies a second condition, the transceiver unit 602 is further used to send a first signal, which is used to detect the validity of the first resource; wherein, the first resource is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device.

[0278] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to receive first information, which is used to configure the first signal.

[0279] Optionally, the first information includes at least one of the following:

[0280] The first indication information indicates the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time of the first resource; or,

[0281] The second indication information indicates the signal type of the first signal; or,

[0282] The third indication information indicates the time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources carrying the first signal; or,

[0283] The fourth indication information indicates the number of repetitions and / or retransmissions of the first signal; or,

[0284] The fifth indication information indicates that the response information to the first signal includes second information, which is used to indicate whether the first resource is valid; or,

[0285] The sixth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes TA information determined based on the first signal; or,

[0286] The seventh indication information indicates the type of information in response to the first signal; or,

[0287] The eighth instruction information indicates the resource allocation for the response information of the first signal; or,

[0288] The ninth instruction information is a timer that indicates the response information received from the first signal.

[0289] Optionally, the first signal is further used to detect the validity of N resources, where N is a positive integer; wherein the N resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the N communication devices respectively.

[0290] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to receive third information, which is used to configure K signals and to detect the validity of K resources, where K is a positive integer; wherein the K resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the K communication devices; and if the broadcast signal satisfies the first condition, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to send the K signals.

[0291] Optionally, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different time-domain resources; and / or, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different frequency-domain resources and on the same time-domain resource.

[0292] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to receive second information, which indicates that the first resource is valid; the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to send uplink information on the first resource based on the second information.

[0293] Optionally, if the first resource is determined to be invalid, the method further includes: the processing unit 601 is further configured to determine not to send uplink information on the first resource; and / or, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to send uplink information based on a second resource, the second resource being used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device.

[0294] Optionally, the processing unit 601 determines that the first resource is invalid if at least one of the following conditions is met: receiving fourth information, the fourth information indicating that the first resource is invalid; or determining within a first time range that no second information has been received, the second information indicating that the first resource is valid; wherein the second information indicates that the first resource is valid.

[0295] Optionally, within the second time frame, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission.

[0296] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 transmits a first signal, including: within the second time range, the transceiver unit 602 transmits the first signal.

[0297] Optionally, the first condition indicates that the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the downlink signal is greater than or equal to a threshold, and / or that the difference between the RSRP of the downlink signal and the RSRP of historically received downlink signals is less than or equal to a threshold.

[0298] Optionally, the second condition indicates that the timing advance timer (TAT) corresponding to the first resource is active, and / or that the TAT corresponding to the first resource has not yet timed out.

[0299] In one possible implementation, when the device 600 is used to execute the method performed by the second communication device in the foregoing embodiments, the processing unit 601 is used to determine or generate a downlink signal; the transceiver unit 602 is used to send the downlink signal, which is associated with a first signal, which is used to detect the validity of the first resource, which is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device; the transceiver unit 602 is also used to receive fifth information, which is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid; wherein, the fifth information is associated with the first signal.

[0300] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is also used to transmit first information, which is used to configure the first signal.

[0301] Optionally, the first information includes at least one of the following:

[0302] The first indication information indicates the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time of the first resource; or,

[0303] The second indication information indicates the signal type of the first signal; or,

[0304] The third indication information indicates the time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources carrying the first signal; or,

[0305] The fourth indication information indicates the number of repetitions and / or retransmissions of the first signal; or,

[0306] The fifth indication information indicates that the response information to the first signal includes second information, which is used to indicate whether the first resource is valid; or,

[0307] The sixth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes TA information determined based on the first signal; or,

[0308] The seventh indication information indicates the type of information in response to the first signal; or,

[0309] The eighth instruction information indicates the resource allocation for the response information of the first signal; or,

[0310] The ninth instruction information is a timer that indicates the response information received from the first signal.

[0311] Optionally, the first signal is also used to detect the validity of N resources, where N is a positive integer;

[0312] The N resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the N other communication devices.

[0313] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to send third information, which is used to configure K signals and to detect the validity of K resources, where K is a positive integer; wherein the K resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the K communication devices.

[0314] Optionally, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different time-domain resources; and / or, among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different frequency-domain resources and on the same time-domain resource.

[0315] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to send second information based on the fifth information, the second information being used to indicate that the first resource is valid.

[0316] Optionally, within the second time frame, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission.

[0317] In one possible implementation, when the device 600 is used to execute the method performed by the third communication device in the foregoing embodiments, the transceiver unit 602 is used to receive a first signal, which is used to detect the validity of a first resource; wherein the first resource is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device; the processing unit 601 is used to send fifth information based on the first signal, which is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid.

[0318] Optionally, within the second time frame, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission.

[0319] Optionally, the first signal satisfies at least one of the following:

[0320] The first signal is the uplink wake-up signal UL-WUS; or,

[0321] The bandwidth occupied by the first signal is below the threshold; or,

[0322] The modulation method of the first signal includes on / off keying (OOK); or,

[0323] The first signal is the signal of the random access channel.

[0324] Optionally, the uplink transmission includes uplink unscheduled transmission.

[0325] It should be noted that the information execution process of the unit of the above-mentioned communication device 600 can be specifically described in the method embodiments shown above in this application, and will not be repeated here.

[0326] Please refer to Figure 7, which is another schematic structural diagram of the communication device 700 provided in this application. The communication device 700 includes a logic circuit 701 and an input / output interface 702. The communication device 700 can be a chip or an integrated circuit.

[0327] In Figure 6, the transceiver unit 602 can be a communication interface, which can be the input / output interface 702 in Figure 7, and the input / output interface 702 can include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication interface can also be a transceiver circuit, which can include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0328] Optionally, the input / output interface 702 is used to receive a downlink signal from the second communication device; when the logic circuit 701 determines that the downlink signal satisfies the first condition and the TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies the second condition, the input / output interface 702 is also used to send a first signal to detect the validity of the first resource; wherein the first resource is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device.

[0329] Optionally, logic circuit 701 is used to determine or generate a downlink signal; input / output interface 702 is used to send the downlink signal, which is associated with a first signal, which is used to detect the validity of the first resource, which is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device; input / output interface 702 is also used to receive fifth information, which is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid; wherein, the fifth information is associated with the first signal.

[0330] Optionally, the input / output interface 702 is used to receive a first signal, which is used to detect the validity of a first resource; wherein the first resource is used for uplink transmission between a first communication device and a third communication device; the logic circuit 701 is used to send fifth information based on the first signal, which is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid.

[0331] The logic circuit 701 and the input / output interface 702 can also perform other steps performed by the first or second communication device in any embodiment and achieve corresponding beneficial effects, which will not be elaborated here.

[0332] In one possible implementation, the processing unit 601 shown in FIG6 can be the logic circuit 701 in FIG7.

[0333] Optionally, the logic circuit 701 can be a processing device, the functions of which can be partially or entirely implemented in software.

[0334] Optionally, the processing apparatus may include a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the memory to perform the corresponding processing and / or steps in any of the method embodiments.

[0335] Optionally, the processing device may consist of only a processor. A memory for storing computer programs is located outside the processing device, and the processor is connected to the memory via circuitry / wires to read and execute the computer programs stored in the memory. The memory and processor may be integrated together or physically independent of each other.

[0336] Optionally, the processing device may be one or more chips, or one or more integrated circuits. For example, the processing device may be one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), system-on-chips (SoCs), central processing units (CPUs), network processors (NPs), digital signal processors (DSPs), microcontroller units (MCUs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or other integrated chips, or any combination of the above chips or processors.

[0337] Please refer to Figure 8, which shows the communication device 800 involved in the above embodiments provided in the embodiments of this application. Specifically, the communication device 800 can be the communication device as a terminal device in the above embodiments. The communication device shown in Figure 8 is implemented through a terminal device (or a component in the terminal device).

[0338] The present invention is a possible logical structure diagram of the communication device 800, which may include, but is not limited to, at least one processor 801 and a communication port 802.

[0339] In Figure 6, the transceiver unit 602 can be a communication interface, which can be the communication port 802 in Figure 8. The communication port 802 can include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication port 802 can also be a transceiver circuit, which can include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0340] Further optionally, the device may also include at least one of a memory 803 and a bus 804. In the embodiments of this application, the at least one processor 801 is used to control the operation of the communication device 800.

[0341] Furthermore, the processor 801 can be a central processing unit, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field-programmable gate array, or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the disclosure of this application. The processor can also be a combination that implements computing functions, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, etc. 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 repeated here.

[0342] It should be noted that the communication device 800 shown in Figure 8 can be used to implement the steps implemented by the terminal device in the aforementioned method embodiments and achieve the corresponding technical effects of the terminal device. The specific implementation of the communication device shown in Figure 9 can be referred to the description in the aforementioned method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0343] Please refer to Figure 9, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device 900 involved in the above embodiments provided in the embodiments of this application. Specifically, the communication device 900 can be a communication device as a network device in the above embodiments. The communication device shown in Figure 9 is implemented through a network device (or a component in a network device). The structure of the communication device can refer to the structure shown in Figure 9.

[0344] The communication device 900 includes at least one processor 911 and at least one network interface 914. Optionally, the communication device further includes at least one memory 912, at least one transceiver 913, and one or more antennas 915. The processor 911, memory 912, transceiver 913, and network interface 914 are connected, for example, via a bus. In this embodiment, the connection may include various interfaces, transmission lines, or buses, etc., and this embodiment is not limited thereto. The antenna 915 is connected to the transceiver 913. The network interface 914 enables the communication device to communicate with other communication devices through a communication link. For example, the network interface 914 may include a network interface between the communication device and core network equipment, such as an S1 interface, or a network interface between the communication device and other communication devices (e.g., other network devices or core network equipment), such as an X2 or Xn interface.

[0345] In Figure 6, the transceiver unit 602 can be a communication interface, which can be the network interface 914 in Figure 9. The network interface 914 can include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the network interface 914 can also be a transceiver circuit, which can include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0346] The processor 911 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process data from these programs, for example, to support the actions described in the embodiments of the communication device. The communication device may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit (CPU). The baseband processor is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, while the CPU is primarily used to control the entire terminal device, execute software programs, and process data from these programs. The processor 911 in Figure 9 can integrate the functions of both a baseband processor and a CPU. Those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and CPU can also be independent processors interconnected via technologies such as buses. Those skilled in the art will understand that a terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to adapt to different network standards, and multiple CPUs to enhance its processing capabilities. The various components of the terminal device can be connected via various buses. The baseband processor can also be described as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The CPU can also be described as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing communication protocols and communication data can be built into the processor or stored in memory as a software program, which is then executed by the processor to implement the baseband processing function.

[0347] The memory is primarily used to store software programs and data. The memory 912 can exist independently or be connected to the processor 911. Optionally, the memory 912 can be integrated with the processor 911, for example, integrated into a single chip. The memory 912 can store program code that executes the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, and its execution is controlled by the processor 911. The various types of computer program code being executed can also be considered as drivers for the processor 911.

[0348] Figure 9 shows only one memory and one processor. In actual terminal devices, there may be multiple processors and multiple memories. Memory can also be called storage medium or storage device, etc. Memory can be a storage element on the same chip as the processor, i.e., an on-chip storage element, or it can be a separate storage element; this application does not limit this.

[0349] Transceiver 913 can be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency (RF) signals between a communication device and a terminal. Transceiver 913 can be connected to antenna 915. Transceiver 913 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, one or more antennas 915 can receive RF signals. The receiver Rx of transceiver 913 receives the RF signals from the antennas, converts the RF signals into digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency (IF) signals, and provides the digital baseband signals or IF signals to processor 911 so that processor 911 can perform further processing on the digital baseband signals or IF signals, such as demodulation and decoding. Furthermore, the transmitter Tx in transceiver 913 is also used to receive modulated digital baseband signals or IF signals from processor 911, convert the modulated digital baseband signals or IF signals into RF signals, and transmit the RF signals through one or more antennas 915. Specifically, the receiver Rx can selectively perform one or more stages of downmixing and analog-to-digital conversion on the radio frequency signal to obtain a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The order of these downmixing and IF conversion processes is adjustable. The transmitter Tx can selectively perform one or more stages of upmixing and digital-to-analog conversion on the modulated digital baseband signal or digital IF signal to obtain a radio frequency signal. The order of these upmixing and IF conversion processes is also adjustable. The digital baseband signal and the digital IF signal can be collectively referred to as digital signals.

[0350] The transceiver 913 can also be called a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Optionally, the device in the transceiver unit that performs the receiving function can be regarded as the receiving unit, and the device in the transceiver unit that performs the transmitting function can be regarded as the transmitting unit. That is, the transceiver unit includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit can also be called a receiver, input port, receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit can be called a transmitter, transmitter, or transmitting circuit, etc.

[0351] It should be noted that the communication device 900 shown in Figure 9 can be used to implement the steps implemented by the network device in the aforementioned method embodiments and achieve the corresponding technical effects of the network device. The specific implementation of the communication device 900 shown in Figure 9 can be referred to the description in the aforementioned method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0352] This application also provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing one or more computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor performs the method described in the possible implementations of the first or second communication device in the foregoing embodiments.

[0353] This application also provides a computer program product (or computer program) that, when executed by a processor, executes the method described above for the possible implementation of the first or second communication device.

[0354] This application also provides a chip system including at least one processor for supporting a communication device in implementing the functions involved in the possible implementations of the communication device described above. Optionally, the chip system further includes an interface circuit that provides program instructions and / or data to the at least one processor. In one possible design, the chip system may also include a memory for storing the program instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The chip system may be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices, wherein the communication device may specifically be the first communication device or the second communication device in the aforementioned method embodiments.

[0355] This application also provides a communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device in any of the above embodiments.

[0356] 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 an indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatuses or units through some interfaces, and may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

[0357] 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 embodiment according to actual needs.

[0358] Furthermore, 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. The integrated unit can be implemented in hardware or as a software functional unit. If the integrated unit is implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it 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, or all or part 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, portable hard drives, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, include: Receive downlink signals, the downlink signals being derived from a second communication device; When the downlink signal satisfies the first condition and the timing advance TA corresponding to the first resource satisfies the second condition, a first signal is sent. The first signal is used to detect the validity of the first resource. The first resource is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive first information, which is used to configure the first signal.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, The first information includes at least one of the following: The first indication information indicates the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time of the first resource; or, The second indication information indicates the signal type of the first signal; or, The third indication information indicates the time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources carrying the first signal; or, The fourth indication information indicates the number of repetitions and / or retransmissions of the first signal; or, The fifth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes second information, which is used to indicate whether the first resource is valid; or, The sixth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes TA information determined based on the first signal; or, The seventh indication information indicates the type of information in response to the first signal; or, The eighth indication information indicates the resource allocation for the response information of the first signal; or, The ninth indication information is a timer that indicates the response information received from the first signal.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that, The first signal is also used to detect the validity of N resources, where N is a positive integer; The N resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the N other communication devices.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive third information, the third information being used to configure K signals, the K signals being used to detect the validity of K resources, where K is a positive integer; wherein, the K resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the K communication devices; If the broadcast signal satisfies the first condition, the K signals are transmitted.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that, Of the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different time-domain resources; and / or, Among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different frequency domain resources and the same time domain resource.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receive second information, which indicates that the first resource is valid; Based on the second information, send uplink information on the first resource.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, If the first resource is determined to be invalid, the method further includes: Determine not to send uplink information on the first resource; and / or, Uplink information is sent based on a second resource, which is used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, The first resource is determined to be invalid if at least one of the following conditions is met: Receive a fourth message, which indicates that the first resource has failed; or, Within a first time frame, it is determined that no second information has been received, the second information being used to indicate that the first resource is valid; wherein, the second information is used to indicate that the first resource is valid.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that, Within the second time frame, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that, Sending the first signal includes: Within the second time range, the first signal is sent.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that, The first condition indicates that the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the downlink signal is greater than or equal to a threshold, and / or the difference between the RSRP of the downlink signal and the RSRP of a historically received downlink signal is less than or equal to a threshold.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that, The second condition indicates that the timing advance timer (TAT) corresponding to the first resource is active, and / or that the TAT corresponding to the first resource has not yet timed out.

14. A communication method, characterized in that, include: Send a downlink signal, the downlink signal being associated with a first signal, the first signal being used to detect the validity of the first resource, the first resource being used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the third communication device; Receive fifth information, which is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid; wherein, the fifth information is associated with the first signal.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send first information, which is used to configure the first signal.

16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that, The first information includes at least one of the following: The first indication information indicates the minimum time interval between the triggering time of the first signal and the initial transmission time of the first resource; or, The second indication information indicates the signal type of the first signal; or, The third indication information indicates the time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources carrying the first signal; or, The fourth indication information indicates the number of repetitions and / or retransmissions of the first signal; or, The fifth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes second information, which is used to indicate whether the first resource is valid; or, The sixth indication information indicates that the response information of the first signal includes TA information determined based on the first signal; or, The seventh indication information indicates the type of information in response to the first signal; or, The eighth indication information indicates the resource allocation for the response information of the first signal; or, The ninth indication information is a timer that indicates the response information received from the first signal.

17. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that, The first signal is also used to detect the validity of N resources, where N is a positive integer; The N resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the N other communication devices.

18. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 17, characterized in that, The method further includes: Send a third message, which is used to configure K signals, which are used to detect the validity of K resources, where K is a positive integer; wherein the K resources are used for uplink transmission between the first communication device and the K communication devices.

19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that, Of the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different time-domain resources; and / or, Among the K signals and the first signal, at least two signals are carried on different frequency domain resources and the same time domain resource.

20. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 19, characterized in that, The method further includes: Based on the fifth information, a second information is sent, which indicates that the first resource is valid.

21. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 20, characterized in that, Within the second time frame, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission.

22. A communication method, characterized in that, include: Receive a first signal, the first signal being used to detect the validity of a first resource; wherein the first resource is used for uplink transmission between a first communication device and a third communication device; Based on the first signal, a fifth message is sent, which is used to determine that the transmission parameters corresponding to the first resource are valid.

23. The method according to claim 22, characterized in that, Within the second time frame, the third communication device is used only for uplink transmission.

24. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 23, characterized in that, The first signal satisfies at least one of the following: The first signal is the uplink wake-up signal UL-WUS; or, The bandwidth occupied by the first signal is less than the threshold; or, The modulation method of the first signal includes on / off keying (OOK); or, The first signal is a signal from the random access channel.

25. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 24, characterized in that, The uplink transmission includes uplink scheduling-free transmission.

26. A communication device, characterized in that, Includes a module for performing the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 25.

27. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes at least one processor, said at least one processor being used to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 25.

28. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes at least one processor, said at least one processor being configured to execute a computer program or instructions causing the communication device to perform the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 25.

29. The communication device according to claim 28, characterized in that, The communication device further includes a memory for storing the computer program or instructions.

30. A readable storage medium, characterized in that, The storage medium stores a computer program or instructions, which, when executed by a communication device, implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 25.

31. A computer program product, characterized in that, It includes a computer program or instructions that, when executed by a computer, implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 25.

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